Random Thoughts for December, 2015. By Robert A. Hall
Must Read: Part II: Sorry Rodney…By Tom Kratman
Excerpt: But, no, we still can’t just all get along. One of the things sympathetic and sensitive Westerners tend to resort to, when the discussion of Islam and Moslems comes up, is something on the order of, “There are a billion and a half Moslems1 on the planet; they don’t all think alike,” or its similar meme, “There are many Islams.”2 Both of these are, in some sense, true, but neither is especially meaningful. To take the latter, for example, there are, indeed, four major schools of religious jurisprudence in Sunni Islam, plus a distinct division into Sunni and Shia, which has three major schools of its own, to which may be added the allegedly inward looking group we call Sufis.3 ... For example, of the seven schools of Shia and Sunni, how many actually say slavery is illegal? Answer: None. Some will say it’s outdated or regrettable or isn’t properly followed in lands where Islam doesn’t hold full sway. But illegal? None. Individuals, too, can say it’s immoral and should be illegal, though they tend to do injustice to the Quran when they try to claim that it supports their beliefs. Ah, but what about the injunction to free a slave? That’s for the benefit to the soul of the manumitter. Note: if you don’t have slaves to manumit, you lose that benefit to your soul, hence, clearly, there must be slaves lest the benefit be lost. (Tom Kratman is a retired USA LtCol, an occasional contributor to this blog, and an outstand author of military science fiction, including the A Desert Called Peace series. http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Called-Peace-Carrera-Book-ebook/dp/B00B5HJOFY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426715332&sr=8-1&keywords=Peace+Kratman ~Bob)
Worth Reading : Four Shocking Truths about ISIS . By Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D.
Excerpt: If you think you’ve heard all the worst horrors about the Islamic State, think again. There are other shocking truths that few outside of their controlled territories know about, some of which will have major consequences for American investors and the entire world.( Martin Weiss is a financial commentator and investment advisor (as was his father, J. Irving Weiss.... collectively, investment experience dating back to the Great Depression). But sometimes (frequently, actually) finance and politics intersect, and Martin has written a revealing look at the Islamic State based on personal contact with an Internet friend who is trapped in Mosul : --Nick)
Interesting: Failure to stop Paris
Excerpt: To carry out the attacks that left 130 people dead in Paris this month, the killers relied on a cunning awareness of the weaknesses at the heart of the European security services charged with stopping them. Poor information-sharing among intelligence agencies, a threadbare system for tracking suspects across open borders and an unmanageably long list of homegrown extremists to monitor all gave the Paris plotters an opening to carry out the deadliest attack on French soil in more than half a century.
ISIS equips 'lone wolves' in U.S.
Excerpt: Against a backdrop of heightened security and of resistance to a potential massive influx of Muslim refugees into the United States , ISIS has issued guidance in a little-noticed manual for the so-called “lone wolves” who have become a major concern of U.S. law-enforcement officials. (As I've pointed out before, having enemies is one thing, but having fanatic, smart enemies with money behind them and a lot of success in converting vulnerable minds into bloodthirsty, suicidal murderers is a really bad thing. Now these bastards are putting out training literature for individual would-be killers on our shores already, how great is that? But hey, as long as they aren't burning fuels and adding to the CO2 output, they aren't really that important. --Del )
Carson says Syrian refugees don't want to come to US
Sad Prediction
The question has been asked a bunch recently, can we be sure we won't have a Paris-style attack here in the US someday? And the answers from those in charge seem to run along the lines that our security is better than Europe and it's really much less likely here. But the tragic truth is that there absolutely will be more incidents of sick minds imbued with the jihadist mania contriving to hurt and kill Americans here. The list of attempts that the FBI has shortstopped in the last ten years or so is something over 50 now, and the list of actual physical attacks from after 9-11 to just recently is up over a dozen, including big ones like the Boston Marathon and smaller ones like one individual with a knife trying to slash people. There are something like 3 million Muslims in the USA , legally, and we don't know how many have slipped in across the Mexican border. That sooner or later some others, however few, will decide to go jihadi is guaranteed, the only questions are how many, how well organized, how effective. If we're lucky, it'll stay mostly long wolf crazies that won't be able to do massive damage, but if run lucks out and the planners in ISIS or Tehran or elsewhere get the right crew in here with the money and access to the weapons, it could be a Paris or Mumbai thing. I hope not, I pray hard not, but there is just no way to totally prevent any such possibility. Basically, as long as the jihadist nutcases are out there, with money and access to the Net and other forms of recruitment, and fundamentalist thought continues to affect so many in Islam, the war against the West will not stop. In the very long run, if the caliphate is smashed to dust and enough in the world of Islam decide this push to violence is not really a good thing, it may all die down and we can go back to a world where civilized principles dominate. I wish I thought that could happen soon, but I am afraid we have more than a few years ahead of us with this awful mess continuing in the Middle East and across so much more of the world. Meantime, we have to live life and make the most of it, and pray for some real leadership to come forth in the future to benefit us all. --Del. The Next Terrorist Attack http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2009/09/essay-next-terrorist-attack-on-america.html
Includes my 1998 column predicting 9/11. ~Bob
Obama's preferred future for your town. ~Bob
Excerpt: A total of 21,748 people had been given deportation orders by the Migration Agency at the end of October – the largest number in history, the Aftonbladet tabloid reported on Friday. Of those, 14,140 are registered by police as 'departed' or 'wanted'. Some are believed to still be at unknown locations in Sweden while others are thought to have left the country. (What could go wrong? ~Bob)
Note to Feminists: Kerala: Sunni leader says 'women only fit to deliver children'; calls gender equality 'un-Islamic'
Obama's preferred future for women in America . ~Bob
Excerpt: “It was an isolated incident and it was handled very well. It wasn’t anti-Semitic. The guy was on drugs and ice.” Yes, of course. Watch the video. Nothing anti-Semitic about this at all. The denial continues, as the frog suns himself in the warming water.
Jews not "ordinary citizens"? French Ambassador to US Outrages Jewish Expats Over Post-Paris-Attack Message
Excerpt: After expressing solidarity with the people of France and praising the United States and President Obama for “being on our side in the fight against extremism and terrorism,” Araud wrote: “These are the foundations of our model of society that the terrorists seek to destroy: Yesterday journalists and Jews; now ordinary citizens whose only crime was to enjoy life on a Friday night in Paris.”
Not remembering 9/11 is offensive to the families and loved ones of the almost 3,000 people murdered by Muslim terrorists. And to all Americans. Do we count? ~Bob
Woman Who Was Raised Muslim Explains Mohammed's History
Muslims Against ISIS
Worth Hearing: Woman on German Train Speaks Arabic. Syrian Refugees Have No Idea…
ISLAMISTS SHOOT RUSSIAN PILOTS IN PARACHUTES AFTER SHOOTING DOWN PLANE
Discussion of Muslim invasion of Europe from Ukrainian point of view
Watch this video of Iranian F-14 Tomcats escorting a Russian Tu-95 bomber during air strike in Syria
Islamic State Plans To Flood Europe With Heroin. Could Make £33 Billion As Oil Revenues Hit By Air Strikes
Hilarious: Hillary Supporters Endorse SHARIA LAW in AMERICA
The U.S.
James F. Jeffrey, a former ambassador to Iraq, Turkey and Albania, and deputy national security adviser, is a fellow at the Washington Institute.
Here I am, totally burned out on sending Americans overseas to fight in the Middle East only to see their lives wasted, the suffering of the wounded (some in body, some in mind), all go for naught because we didn't finish the job, because we forced them to fight with insane restrictions that put them a much higher risk, because our "leaders" blew it completely. So I am generally against this being the world's policeman, we should let the rest of the world take care of itself as much as possible. Yet the consummate evil that is ISIS , the joyful practioner of barbarism not seen for centuries, the gleeful seekers of death and destruction for everything other than the darkest view of Islam, screams out for destruction, simply in the cause of civilization and the most basic human decency. And the damn sad truth is that without the USA 's superb military taking the lead, not just in the air but on the ground, ISIS will continue to survive, attract disciples, promote more horror everywhere. I have no doubt that one reinforced Marine Division, with full supporting arms, and turned loose with actual battle orders, NOT the ROE crap inflicted on them in Afghanistan, and some ancillary troops from other Western nations and at least a few of the Middle East Muslim nations, could go in and turn ISIS into a bad memory in maybe a month. Yes, we'd lose people, there is no victory without price, but without the ROE nonsense and full use of resources, casualties would be minimal. (Full use means you catch fire from a building, you call in air or arty and presto! no building, regardless of who might be in it besides the shooters. Collateral damage is just a part of war's tragedy.) If at the end, a whole lot of the area is smoking ruin complete with a sad total of dead civilians, but ISIS is gone, totally gone, and all the world knows it and who led the cleansing, that will be worth it all. So... I have to agree completely with Ambassador Jeffrey. But it won't happen until after January 2017. Hopefully we won't have seen too many more atrocities by then. --Del
The Nuclear Option: Happy Thanksgiving! President Obama Lectures Americans on Why We Must Take Muslim Missionaries
Excerpt:....Seriously, Mr. Obama, whose side are you on? Yes, you are America ’s first son-of-a-Muslim president. But that doesn’t mean you have to automatically be on their side.
With All Eyes on ISIS, Iran 'Drills' Israel
Excerpt: “Paramilitary forces from Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard have held a war game simulating the capture of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque from Israeli control,” the Associated Press reports. …thousands of members of the Basij, the paramilitary unit of the Guard, participated in Friday’s exercise outside the holy city of Qom in central Iran . The symbolic operations were backed up by Guard helicopters, drones and Tucano planes that bombed hypothetical enemy positions before ground troops captured the replica of the mosque set up at the top of a mountain….
Excerpt: Americans have heard a lot of nonsense in the past week about the role of religion in our refugee policy – from both sides. Senator Ted Cruz has been derided, mostly justly, for saying that no Muslim refugees – but only Christians – should be admitted to this country from the killing fields of Syria and Iraq .
Dane geld: Migrant crisis: Turkey
Excerpt: Turkey Turkey 's accession to the European Union will also be revived.
Hundreds involved in mass brawl at Berlin
Kurdish fighters say US special forces have been fighting Isis for months
Our ally: Sharia Saudi Arabia
He offended them. Where the Mizzou and Yale protesters would take America to insure their feelings were not hurt. ~Bob
Well, she violated Shari'a Law: Mizzou prof arrested for violently grabbing girl for not wearing hijab
Worth Reading : ‘No more baby parts,’ suspect in attack at Colo.
Excerpt: The gunman suspected of storming a Planned Parenthood clinic and killing a police officer and two others used the phrase “no more baby parts’’ to explain his actions, according to a law enforcement official, a comment likely to further inflame the heated rhetoric surrounding abortion. (If the shooter was anti-abortion, his obscene murders were a huge gift to Planed Parenthood and the "pro-choice" movement at a time when they have been under fire. Also another gift to the anti-gun people. And a huge gift to Obama, taking attention away from his multiple failures in the Middle East and the increasing reach through "refugees" of the "Contained" ISIS . I wonder if John Kerry will say there is a "rationale" behind these murders as he did of the Charlie Hebdo and Jewish Bakery murders in Paris ? ~Bob)
Must Read: The On-Again, Off-Again Arguments about ‘Dangerous Rhetoric’ Leading to Violence.. By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt
Morning Jolt is a free e-newsletter that is worth your time to subscribe to: Let me get this straight. In the eyes of the Left . . . criticism of Planned Parenthood means something like the shooting in Colorado “was bound to happen“ . . . but chants where people describe police as “pigs” and call for them to be “fried like bacon” don’t lead to attacks on police . . . when an event by Pamela Geller is targeted by an Islamist shooter, it is “not really about free speech; it [is] an exercise in bigotry and hatred” and the attempt to kill her means she has “achieved her provocative goal” . . . while at the same time, investigators contend we may never know what motivated a 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez to kill four Marines and a sailor in an attack on Chattanooga’s U.S. Naval and Marine Reserve Center last July . . . a shooting by a diagnosed schizophrenic, who believed that grammar was part of a vast, government-directed mind control effort, is characterized by the Southern Poverty law Center as having views that are the “hallmark of the far right and the militia movement” . . . while the shooter who opened fire in the lobby of the Family Research Council in downtown Washington in 2012, who planned to target the Traditional Values Coalition next, does not spur any need for a broader discussion or societal lessons about the demonization of political opponents . . . a California killer, who was treated by multiple therapists and already had police checking on him after posting disturbing YouTube videos, is a reflection of “sexist society” . . . but there’s little reason to ask whether the Oregon shooter’s decision to target Christians reflects a broader, societal hostility to Christians, or whether it reflects his personal allegiance to demons . . . when white supremacist Dylann Roof commits an act of mass murder in an African-American church, Salon declares, “White America is complicit” and the Washington Post runs a column declaring, “99 percent of southern whites will never go into a church, sit down with people and then massacre them. But that 99 percent is responsible for the one who does” . . . but the Roanoke shooter’s endless sense of grievance and perceptions of racism and homophobia in all of his coworkers represents him and him alone . . .Do I have all that right? And does that make sense to anyone? Wouldn’t Occam’s Razor suggest that those already driven by a desire or compulsion to kill other people are going to do so, and will merely latch on to whatever “reason,” justification, or excuse is at hand or is most convenient? Isn’t it ridiculous to expect sane people to watch what they say and restrict what thoughts they express in order to prevent a rampage by someone with an inherently illogical, literally unreasonable, not-sane thinking process? Isn’t “don’t say what you think, because it might set off a crazy person” the most insidious form of censorship, because none of us can really know what prompts a crazy person to go on a violent rampage?
Just saw this--on my reading list. ~Bob
They're calling it two corps there, but it's really one not particularly large corps. --Tom Kratman, LtCol , USA
VAST MAJORITY: FEDERAL GOVT. ACTUALLY CAUSING NATION'S TROUBLES. 8 in 10 Americans: Washington
http://www.wnd.com/2015/11/vast-majority-federal-govt-actually-causing-nations-troubles/?cat_orig=us
They are opposed to Big Government in principle, but God help you if you try to cut a program they benefit from! ~Bob
Open Borders Policies Reveal Obama More Interested In Power Than Protecting Americans
Excerpts: Jim Simpson, author of “Red-Green Axis: Refugees, Immigration and the Agenda to Erase America,” has no confidence in the screening or border security policies of the Obama administration. To Simpson, a host of open border policies — including the Refugee Resettlement Program — provide a fertile ground for terrorists to enter the United States . In this 25-minute video interview, he says, “This president and this administration have little if any concern for the welfare of American citizens..... The White House is monitoring “pockets of resistance” for their “New Americans Program” being led out of the Obama White House.
#OnlyBlackLivesMatter: Homeless vet dies months after gas station attack caught on video
Excerpt: homeless veteran has died nearly eight months after surveillance video showed him being brutally beaten by a group of people at a Philadelphia gas station. Robert Barnes, 51, was beaten into a coma during the vicious April 7 attack at a Sunoco gas station in the city’s Olney section. (Guess what color the assailants were? --Barb)
Worth Hearing: Milton Friedman - Greed
30 years ago. ~Bob
The Great Divider: US President undermines Catholic schools after Vatican Prefect praised them
Excerpt: The US President has made an alarming call for an end to Catholic education in Northern Ireland in spite of the fact that Archbishop Gerhard Müller told Scots that Catholic education was 'a critical component of the Church.’ President Barack Obama (above), repeated the oft disproved claim that Catholic education increases division in front of an audience of 2000 young people, including many Catholics, at Belfast ’s Waterfront hall when he arrived in the country this morning. (No surprise. He hates home schooling too--all children must be indoctrinated by the state! ~Bob)
Obama Cuts Defeated! The A-10 Warthog Lives!
WATCH: Black Grassroots Activist Calls Out Democrats, Mayor Rahm Emanuel
Fate of ObamaCare co-ops uncertain after half collapse
#WhiteLivesDon'tMatter: 91yr. Old Man: Killed In Detroit
Strength Expert Exposes Politically Incorrect Truth Regarding Women in Combat…
http://louderwithcrowder.com/strength-expert-exposes-politically-incorrect-truth-regarding-women-in-combat/
http://louderwithcrowder.com/strength-expert-exposes-politically-incorrect-truth-regarding-women-in-combat/
None of the women advocating for it plan to go themselves or send their daughters. ~Bob
William J. H. Boetcker. The Ten "Can Nots" and the seven "National Crimes
NY Democratic Bill Will Require Gun Owners to Carry Million Dollar Liability Insurance
These antigun people just don't stop for anything. That the places with the most Draconian gun laws have the highest murder and violent crime rates, like Washington DC Del. If you can restrict the Second Amendment this way, you can restrict the first, requiring all reporters, pundits and media outlets to carry huge insurance coverage. ~Bob
“America has forgotten about us”: Former allies in Vietnam
Excerpt: If there are ANY real refugees that this nation owes something to, it's the terribly persecuted tribes of the mountains of Viet Nam and Laos . In Laos the hunting of them became a form of genocide, in Viet Nam the persecution of them, the taking of their lands, the forced settlements with government control, the brutal suppression of their religion has been a neverending atrocity. And they don't get the kind of expedited help from us that they badly need and which we owe them. But it's not a priority for this Administration at all. And here's something strange, this is an article in Salon magazine, a very seriously Progressive publication. But the plight of the Montagnards is so dire that even there it's recognized. Why not in Congress and the White House? --Del
Christmas is cancelled: Italians outraged over school decision to ban festivities
Worth Reading Wesleyan University
Excerpt: Mr. President, this past Thursday, Chris Harper Mercer entered a classroom at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg , Oregon Washington D.C. Middle East and you have lectured us about the Crusades. Christians have been killed in Charleston and you have preached to us about the National Rifle Association. Christians have now been singled out and murdered in Oregon and mum’s the word. Why? What would you have said, Mr. President, had the victims been Muslims? What would you have said had they been targeted because they were transgender, gay, or wearing a hoodie? Would you have condemned it? Would you have called for hate-crimes legislation? Would you have confronted the ideology that led to the crime? Would you have lectured us about phobias and bigotry? Dietrich Bonheoffer once said “Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. Silence in the face of evil is evil itself.” Well, Mr. President, your silence speaks volumes.
‘This Is Not a Day Care’: Read College
Finally, a college run by adults, who have no trouble explaining the harsh side of reality to children who want to live in Never-Never Land Del
Student protesters more akin to Puritans. By Niall Ferguson, Boston
There Is No Bigger Threat to Millennials Than Liberalism. BY TYLER O'NEIL
The writer makes some great points about the reality that face the students and recent graduates. The section about how "vindictive protectiveness" works and the kind of damage it does to young minds is really outstanding. Now if we could only get this message out to a lot of people, especially young ones. --Del
Mizzou Is What Happens When We Allow Too Much Privacy
| 2016 State Business Tax Climate Index Ranks and Component Tax Ranks | ||||||
| Overall Rank | Corporate Tax Rank | Individual Income | Sales Tax Rank | Unemployment Insurance Tax Rank | Property Tax Rank | |
| Tax Rank | ||||||
| Wyoming | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 30 | 36 |
| South Dakota | 2 | 1 | 1 | 34 | 40 | 22 |
| Alaska | 3 | 30 | 1 | 5 | 21 | 21 |
| Florida | 4 | 17 | 1 | 17 | 3 | 20 |
| Nevada | 5 | 4 | 1 | 39 | 42 | 7 |
| Montana | 6 | 23 | 20 | 3 | 18 | 9 |
| New Hampshire | 7 | 48 | 9 | 2 | 44 | 43 |
| Indiana | 8 | 20 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 5 |
| Utah | 9 | 5 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 2 |
| Texas | 10 | 41 | 6 | 37 | 15 | 34 |
| Oregon | 11 | 37 | 31 | 4 | 27 | 10 |
| Washington | 12 | 28 | 6 | 45 | 23 | 24 |
| Michigan | 13 | 11 | 15 | 7 | 48 | 26 |
| Delaware | 14 | 50 | 33 | 1 | 4 | 15 |
| North Carolina | 15 | 7 | 14 | 31 | 11 | 32 |
| Tennessee | 16 | 18 | 8 | 46 | 25 | 37 |
| Missouri | 17 | 3 | 28 | 23 | 12 | 8 |
| Colorado | 18 | 15 | 16 | 44 | 33 | 12 |
| Idaho | 19 | 24 | 23 | 20 | 45 | 4 |
| Mississippi | 20 | 13 | 21 | 28 | 8 | 35 |
| West Virginia | 21 | 21 | 25 | 21 | 22 | 16 |
| Kansas | 22 | 40 | 18 | 32 | 10 | 19 |
| Illinois | 23 | 36 | 10 | 33 | 39 | 45 |
| Arizona | 24 | 22 | 19 | 49 | 9 | 6 |
| Massachusetts | 25 | 39 | 13 | 18 | 47 | 46 |
| North Dakota | 26 | 14 | 35 | 22 | 16 | 3 |
| Nebraska | 27 | 31 | 24 | 26 | 2 | 39 |
| Kentucky | 28 | 29 | 30 | 9 | 46 | 23 |
| Alabama | 29 | 25 | 22 | 41 | 26 | 17 |
| Virginia | 30 | 6 | 39 | 6 | 38 | 29 |
| Hawaii | 31 | 10 | 37 | 14 | 24 | 14 |
| Pennsylvania | 32 | 47 | 17 | 25 | 50 | 38 |
| Oklahoma | 33 | 8 | 40 | 38 | 1 | 18 |
| Maine | 34 | 45 | 26 | 10 | 41 | 41 |
| New Mexico | 35 | 27 | 34 | 48 | 7 | 1 |
| South Carolina | 36 | 16 | 41 | 19 | 35 | 25 |
| Louisiana | 37 | 38 | 27 | 50 | 5 | 28 |
| Arkansas | 38 | 42 | 29 | 43 | 43 | 27 |
| Georgia | 39 | 9 | 42 | 35 | 37 | 31 |
| Iowa | 40 | 49 | 32 | 24 | 34 | 40 |
| Maryland | 41 | 19 | 45 | 8 | 28 | 42 |
| Ohio | 42 | 26 | 47 | 30 | 6 | 11 |
| District of Columbia | 42 | 36 | 34 | 40 | 27 | 39 |
| Wisconsin | 43 | 32 | 43 | 13 | 36 | 33 |
| Connecticut | 44 | 33 | 36 | 29 | 20 | 49 |
| Rhode Island | 45 | 34 | 38 | 27 | 49 | 44 |
| Vermont | 46 | 44 | 44 | 15 | 17 | 48 |
| Minnesota | 47 | 46 | 46 | 36 | 29 | 30 |
| California | 48 | 35 | 50 | 40 | 13 | 13 |
| New York | 49 | 12 | 49 | 42 | 32 | 47 |
| New Jersey | 50 | 43 | 48 | 47 | 31 | 50 |
| Note: A rank of 1 is best, 50 is worst. Rankings do not average to the total. States without a tax rank equally as 1. DC’s score and rank do not affect other states. The report shows tax systems as of July 1, 2015 (the beginning of Fiscal Year 2016). | ||||||
