Monday, December 19, 2011

“Second Period of Islamic Power"

For the 30 years since "The McLaughlin Group" began to run on network television, the Christmas and New Year's shows have been devoted to the conferring of annual awards.

The first award on the Christmas show is "Biggest Winner."

This year, clearly, one of the world's big winner was — Islam.

For this was the year when what Catholic apologist Hilaire Belloc predicted in 1938 would be the "second period of Islamic power" became manifest to all mankind.

From Morocco to Pakistan, a great awakening is occurring. And perhaps the most dramatic example of Islam rising again came in Egypt, with the fall of the 60-year-old military dictatorship.

With the ouster of Hosni Mubarak after weeks of demonstrations in Tahrir Square, the West hailed the coming of democracy.

But democracy delivered a rude shock. In the first round of voting, over 60 percent of all Egyptians cast their ballots for either the Muslim Brotherhood or the radical Islamist Nour Party of the Salafis. In the second round last week, 75 percent voted Islamist.

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In Defense of Bullying

I was the shortest child in every grade, cursed with crooked teeth, thick glasses, and a permanent frown. Yet despite (or because of) my “Wednesday Addams” mien, I was never bullied.

Except for once. My first week of high school, some older girls stomped around the cafeteria at lunchtime, picking out Grade Niners for mild hazing.

Three approached me. Their leader proffered an egg, trembling on a tablespoon.

“Walk this from here to there,” she told me, nodding toward the far wall.

I swatted the props out of her hand. The egg smacked on the floor.

“Clean that up,” I snapped flatly.

No one bothered me again for four years.

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New York Times stacks deck so Holder can play race card

“A Partisan Lightning Rod Is Undeterred,” Charlie Savage of The New York Times writes in a December 17 page one exclusive political ad for Attorney General Eric Holder.

The tone is set. Any Fast and Furious investigation is a partisan power grab. Savage, one of the leading apologists (some assessments are more scathing) for the administration on the Fast and Furious story, makes full use of the amplifier and loudspeaker that are at his disposal. In just one “report,” the über “Authorized Journalist” can reach more readers than a year’s worth of investigative effort by lowly bloggers.

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And reach them he does, with a meme familiar to those who disagree with the administration on policy and actions: Smear anyone challenging them as a racist.

But Mr. Holder contended that many of his other critics — not only elected Republicans but also a broader universe of conservative commentators and bloggers — were instead playing “Washington gotcha” games, portraying them as frequently “conflating things, conveniently leaving some stuff out, construing things to make it seem not quite what it was” to paint him and other department figures in the worst possible light.

Of that group of critics, Mr. Holder said he believed that a few — the “more extreme segment” — were motivated by animus against Mr. Obama and that he served as a stand-in for him. “This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him,” he said, “both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.”

Yeah, right. Walked guns have nothing to do with it. Dead law enforcement personnel and dead Mexicans have nothing to do with it--nor do their mourning families. Veteran agents coming forward and risking retaliation and ruin or worse have nothing to do with it. Institutionalized lies and stonewalling have nothing to do with it.

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Santa's sleigh and a 104 Starfighter OOPS!

Via The Feral Irishman



Update

Brock:

On your Santa OOPs segment. That is not a 105 Thunderchief. It is a 104 Starfighter.

105 has swept wings and the Starfighter has straight. Also the Thunderchief does not have Tip Tanks where the Starfighter did.

Also the Thud (pilots name for the Thunderchief) also has the look of the Wings ripping from the Fuselage where the Intake is for the engines. Not bulging out like the Starfighter has and your picture does (Rudolph being sucked into the engine.).

Thought you would like to know. I love the picture. Capt Scrooge did a beautiful job.


Kirk

Barack Obama Slammed By Jackie Mason for Belittling Hannukah (Audio)

Via Tom Stedham

On Monday, radio-host Aaron Klein referred to Mason as the Ultimate Jew, then the 75-year-old comedian ripped into Obama for taking the Jewish holiday too lightly.

“I don’t even think he knew that he was talking about something that’s Jewish. It could have been Muslim, it could have been all together a religion he never even heard of. He doesn’t know, he doesn’t care. He’s strictly in there to take a picture, and the picture could have been about anything,” Mason said.

Mason said the White-House Hanukkah celebration was a public-relations ploy designed to boost the president’s support among Jews. In September, Gallup reported that Obama’s disapproval rating in that demographic had risen eight percentage points to 40 percent in a four-month period.

“A bunch of advisors, most of whom are Jewish anyways – because he has more Jews in his cabinet than Netanyahu. He’s jammed up with Jews all around him – and they told him, if you wanna get them back, Hanukkah is a good idea,” Mason told Klein and his audience Monday. “You don’t have to go any place. We’ll put down the tchotchke and you’ll see a candle, you’ll light it from this side, and that’s enough information for him to accumulate without a teleprompter. So he did it in 10 minutes.”

Klein ended the interview with: “Well, he’s definitely getting 100 percent of the Muslim Brotherhood vote.”

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Actress Confronts Sean Penn Over His Support for Chavez: ‘You Are a Communist A**Hole!’

Via pumabydesign

Cuban-born, Venezuelan-raised actress Maria Conchita Alonso and actor Sean Penn had a contentious exchange at Los Angeles International airport recently, in which Alonso called Penn a “communist a**hole“ and Penn called Alonso a ”pig.”

Over a year and a half after Alonso penned an open letter to Penn asking him why he supports socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the two met up serendipitously (or not so) at LAX while both were waiting to claim lost luggage.

Alonso, who starred alongside Penn in the 1988 film “Colors,” described the exchange to Steve Malzberg on WMAL.

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........if the police illegally stop you, detain you, and beat you, you aren’t permitted to resist.

Via Ontoliberty

Apropos of the post below, here’s a ruling from the D.C. Court of Appeals demonstrating just how powerless citizens are when accosted by police officers—even when the cops themselves are clearly in the wrong. What’s most troubling about the ruling is its mundanity. The law is established here. There’s really nothing to debate. It’s just a matter of the government rattling off the appropriate precedents.

The appellant is Terrance Crossland, who is asking the court to overturn his conviction on two counts of assaulting a police officer. Last April, Crossland and his cousin were approached by two D.C. Metro officers on patrol “to gather information about a rash of recent shootings and drug sales in the area.” Crossland was mowing his grass while smoking a cigarette. The police acknowledge that neither Crossland nor is cousin were doing anything unlawful. The two men were told to turn around, put their hands against a fence, and submit to a search. By both accounts, Crossland initially complied, then said,

LANGUAGE

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Islamists win 70 percent of the vote in second round of Egypt elections

The Muslim Brotherhood party secured 39 percent of the vote, while the Salafi Al Nour party won 31 percent of the vote in the second stage of Egypt’s landmark post-Mubarak elections, according to unofficial results published on the website of Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper on Sunday.

The unofficial results for the second stage of elections for the lower house of the Egyptian parliament also showed that the secular, liberal Wafd party won 22 percent of the vote.
Islamist parties won some 70 percent of the total vote, a similar result to the first stage of elections, which took place on November 28.

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AP Poll: Obamacare support hits record low of 29%

During the health care fight, President Obama and top Democrats argued that once people found out what was in their law, it would continue to gain support. But as we approach the two year anniversary, a new AP poll finds support for Obama's signature legislative accomplishment has hit 29 percent, with 49 percent opposing it. That's the lowest level of support since the AP began polling the issue as it was moving through Congress in Sept. 2009.

Especially troubling for Democrats heading into an election year, is that the passion is also on the side of the opponents of the law. Just 13 percent consider themselves strong supporters, compared to 33 percent who say they "strongly oppose" the law.

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Gentlemen, war has been declared & Paul Supporters – Let’s Discuss the Coming Paul Bashing Amongst Ourselves

Conservative Heritage Times
Verbatim Post

Patroon

The latest weekend Public Policy Poll for Iowa was just released and for the first time Ron Paul now leads in Iowa over Mitt Romney with Newt Gingrich sliding into third place and the other candidates bunched together at 10 percent of the vote. I know for a lot of Paulians this is the moment they’ve been waiting four years for.

But Paul supporters should remember the old saying be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. By taking first with two weeks to go before the caucus means the media “blackout” of Paul will be lifted. Unfortunately it also means the attacks and smears are going to come at him fast and furious now. If you wanted Paul to be taken seriously as a candidate well you’ve got your wish but also means he’s going to be in for serious scrutiny and serious assaults from all sides of the political spectrum.

Tim Carney basically relayed the warning in the Washington Examiner. today. If Paul wins Iowa it’s all out war against him. Not just by the Republican establishment but by the establishment Right, Left, Center you name it. Why? Because Paul is a threat to the existing political order. If Paul wins the GOP nomination, a political realignment of the parties will take place not seen really since 1964-1972 Goldwater-McGovern period changed wholesale the make-up of the Republican and Democratic parties. Indeed, I guarantee you the Kristols, Limbaughs, Morris and O’Reilly will be supporting Obama rather than Paul which is no far fetched than watching union leader George Meany support Nixon. Many Paul supporters (including your truly) would like to see this happen but there are powers out there who making their living off the current system and do not wish to see upheaval and will do anything to stop it, fair or unfair. Make no mistake what this comes down to…all out political warfare. I hate to use the phrase because no one is getting shot at unlike real war but as of right now I can’t think of anything stronger and Paul supporters need to realize what they are entering into. It certainly test their faith in the system if there’s any left at all.

Just ask Pat Buchanan. Look at the political tremors he set off after he won the New Hampshire primary in 1996 and look at that went to trying to stop him. It’s the same thing. However, it’s not the same year. The establishment is much weaker than they were in 1996. The internet, online journalism and social media far more advanced as a political tool. Paul’s forces do have the resources to fight back effectively unlike a Buchanan hit from all sides, backstabbed by Rush Limbaugh and William Buckley and others on the Right who were happy to indulge him only when he wasn’t a serious threat to win the GOP nomination. If Paul can develop a broad coalition in the primaries and caucuses, then there’s nothing said establishment can do to stop him. But they will go on such a vicious assault to try and keep their own troops in line. But if they do they should remember they may win but it will be the equivalent of a victory parade in through the ruins of a nuclear holocaust as the Paulians will rip away their support for any candidate left standings who goes overboard in slamming them.

I will admit I’m not overly concerned who ultimately wins the White House since we’ve been living with socialism since 1933, what’s another four years? I think an Obama-Paul showdown would be a wonderful contest of philosophies and I’m under no illusion who would win out. But as Goldwater and McGovern proved in their landslide defeats, it doesn’t matter. These two men did more to influence U.S. politics in defeat than many Presidents do in victory and Paul can get control of the GOP, it will finally mean politics in this country can structured not on culture wars or national security or such, but between centralists and decentralists. Once that’s happens the decentralists, with the full backing of a major political party behind them, won’t have vote for the lesser of two evils anymore.

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Paul Supporters – Let’s Discuss the Coming Paul Bashing Amongst Ourselves

I will start with a disclaimer: I am a huge Ron Paul supporter. I supported him in 2008 from the start. I have supported him all this campaign season. I even have documented evidence for anyone who doubts my Paul supporting bona fides that I was calling for him to run for President even before he announced in 2007 and almost no one knew who he was. As a paleoconservative and not a libertarian, I have some issues with Ron Paul and I have never hesitated to make those clear, but he is clearly the best candidate of them all and is so right (and so alone in being right) on so many issues that I can forgive him on the issues where I believe he is wrong.

That said, I have never believed that Ron Paul could win the nomination nor be elected President. I have always considered his campaigns to be message campaigns, although this year he has clearly done a better job of running a “real” campaign, as his presence in Iowa attests. While I don’t think it helps to pour water on people’s enthusiasm, and I think the candidate always needs to maintain the pretense that he is in it to win it, I do think it is important to temper expectations. When I read or hear people say Ron Paul is the only Republican who can beat Obama, I cringe a little.

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The Rise of Ron Paul Proves That The Establishment Media is Not All Powerful

The Excavator
Verbatim Post

"Not long ago, if you wanted to seize political power in a country," wrote Italian philosopher and novelist Umberto Eco in his 1967 essay, Towards a Semiological Guerrilla Warfare, "you had merely to control the army and the police. Today it is only in the most backward countries that fascist generals, in carrying out a coup d'etat, still use tanks. If a country has reached a high level of industrialization the whole scene changes. The day after the fall of Khrushchev, the editors of Pravda, Izvestiia, the heads of the radio and television were replaced; the army wasn't called out. Today a country belongs to the person who controls communications."

In 2011, "the person who controls communications" can be a blogger with a million readers, a multinational CEO with newspapers in several countries, or an online news anchor with a million dollar studio.

Believe it or not, but bloggers and online journalists can change the world. We are not laboring in vain. We are helping to establish a much-needed political dialogue between the West and the East which can lead to a genuine and just peace in the future.

Peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved without dialogue and debate.

Online civil society has a great and historic responsibility to use the power of a free press to create understanding and peace, because the establishment media has used its power to create misunderstanding and war.

There isn't a "dialogue among civilizations" in the establishment media because the internationalist pundit class doesn't respect the rights of countries like Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Israel, America, Canada, England, Australia, France, Germany; basically every country.

Online news anchor Alex Jones is doing important humanitarian work by hosting people like Pakistani General Hamid Gul and American counter-terrorism specialist Steve Pieczenik and simply talking about civilization-threatening issues like the war on terror, 9/11, the U.S.-Pakistan conflict, and World War III.

Holding a conversation with someone, even someone who is considered an "enemy," means that you respect their God-given rights and their opinions.

We are at a critical point in history in which people from the East and the West must come together and talk to each other around a common fire of truth and understanding.

Conversations can change the world. Dutch-American psychoanalyst Joost A. M. Meerloo wrote in his essay, "Conversation and Communication":
"If there is no free conversation human aggression accumulates. A man who listens only to his radio, or is caught by the hypnotism of the movies must discharge his aggression somewhere else. But the civilizing sublimation of conversation does not reach him, so he cannot get rid of his aggression.

People have learned to be silent listeners. Dictatorship asks only for silent citizens. If man cannot redeem himself of his everyday tensions through words, the archaic primitive demands within him grow more and more awake. The world falls prey to his accumulated obsessions, and in the end collective madness breaks through. Let us talk now, so that we do not become mad animals!" (This essay is featured in the 1967 book "The Human Dialogue: Perspectives on Communication," edited by Floyd M. Watson and Ashley Montagu).
The Internet Revolution has changed politics forever because dictatorships can no longer contain populations within a rigid ideology and a limited point of view.

Rigid political ideologies are defunct. The Almighty State, which depends on deceptions, acts of terrorism, and psychological operations, is collapsing around the world. It collapsed in Russia. And it will collapse in Iran, Israel, England, and the United States. The Mullahs in Iran will find this out the hard way, and so will the Bankers and National Security Priests in America and the West.

Bloggers and online news anchors are undermining the power of anti-democratic elites from America to the Middle East by opening up the worldwide debate about the 9/11 attacks and the global war on terror. They are giving free speech a chance.

In America, silencing patriots like Ron Paul is a lot harder than it was in 1988, when he first ran for President, because of the Internet Revolution. Dr. Paul's rise would not have been possible without blogs, alternative news sites, message boards, YouTube, online fundraising drives, and online news anchors like Alex Jones who spread the word.

The editors of The Daily Bell have written consistently about the transformative power of the Internet and how it will change national and global politics. In November, they wrote:
The power elite virtually controlled the flow of information in the 20th century and in the 21st they've lost this ability. They have lost their information monopoly thanks to the Internet. This is a devastating blow.
The response by dictatorships to the Internet has been the same: Kill it, before it destroys us.

Dictatorships in Washington, Beijing, Tehran, Tel Aviv, and London are losing credibility with their people and their solutions are tyranny at home and war abroad.

They're scared because they know the game is up. Slavery and death is all they know, and all they can offer.

As the liberating power of the Internet continues to manifest itself, citizens around the world will be offered new narratives of history, and alternative futures.

The world is wide open. We are entering a period of flux in which these dark dictatorships will either evolve or collapse. So far, it appears they will all go the way of the Soviet Union.

People of Shambhala

Gates of Vienna
Verbatim Post

Muslim persecution of Christians and Jews often fails to mobilize liberal-minded folks, who might otherwise be expected to oppose the intolerant, totalitarian, and misogynistic tendencies displayed by Islam. They seem to hesitate at the idea of making common cause with Christian and Jewish believers.

A new website called People of Shambhala provides a politically correct way for progressives to conceptualize the destructive and illiberal behavior of Muslims. It highlights the oppression of Hindus, Buddhists, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, and other religious groups that are acceptable to people who shy away from any stance that resembles “Islamophobia”.

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Dien Bien Phu



LINK

"They were waiting in the trenches
The most recent attack Vietnamese.
In the dirt they have dug trenches themselves.
Dien Bien Phu.

Throughout months of fighting
Under a hail of splinters
They thought that they hold on.
Dien Bien Phu.

Command post, "Gabrielle"
Fell this morning.
"Isabel," still holds.
They fight in close quarters.

Next to the commander of the 18 year old boys
Die for France with the song:
Against the Vietnamese people against the enemy,
Wherever the fight goes.

In the trenches can be heard only
Victory cries Vietnamese.
They stayed until the end.
Dien Bien Phu.

Now all the spit
at Dien Bien Phu.

But we, we are still proud of you.
Dien Bien Phu. "

"Gabriel" and "Isabelle" - the name of the fortifications. And, sorry, I translate poetry only in prose, the poetic gift God has not given.

French text:

JEAN-PAX MéFRET
Diên-Biên-Phû.


Ils attendaient dans la cuvette
Le tout dernier assaut des Viets.
Dans la boue, ils creusaient leurs trous.
Diên-Biên-Phû.

Depuis des mois dans la bataille,
Sous un orage gris de feraille,
Ils pensaient qu'ils tiendraient le coup.
Diên-Biên-Phû.

Le PC Gabrielle
Est tombé ce matin,
Isabelle tient encore,
On se bat au corps à corps.

Près du commandement, des gosses de dix-huit ans
Pour la France, tombent en chantant:
Contre les Viets, contre l'ennemi,
Partout où le combat fait signe.

On entend plus, sur la cuvette,
Que le cri de victoire des Viets.
Ils avaient tenu jusqu'au bout.
Diên-Biên-Phû.

Aujourd'hui tout le monde s'en fout
De Diên-Biên-Phû.

Mais nous, nous restons fiers de vous.
Diên-Biên-Phû.

‘60 Minutes’ Edits Out Obama‘s Claim That He’s the Fourth Best President

President Barack Obama sat for an extensive interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” last week, though it appears the portion of the interview actually broadcast on TV left out a statement where Obama essentially declared himself the fourth best president in terms of his accomplishments.

The statement was only made available online as part of the full interview on “60 Minutes Overtime.”

According to a transcript posted on the “60 Minutes” website, Obama said he would hold his accomplishments so far as president against those of Lyndon B. Johnson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

“I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president — with the possible exceptions of Johnson, F.D.R., and Lincoln — just in terms of what we’ve gotten done in modern history,” Obama told CBS’s Steve Kroft.

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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu: Illegal Immigration 'a National Calamity'

Via Peter

November 11, 2011

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the infiltration of the migrants into Israel is a "national calamity in all fields -- the economy, state security," Israel Radio reports.

Saying that Israel has no obligation to advance illegal immigration into its borders, he explained that "if we do not act to stop the flood, we'll be washed away with it."


Netanyahu announced on Sunday that he will travel to
Africa in an attempt to coordinate with state leaders the return of illegal African immigrants in Israel to their native countries.

Netanyahu’s trip comes as his Cabinet approves a $160 million program designed to stanch the flow of illegal African migrants into Israel.

The plan calls for speeding up construction to complete within the coming year a border fence with Egypt. The fence is also meant to keep out Islamist militants.

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Gingrich Collapses in Iowa as Ron Paul Surges to the Front

Conservative Byte
Verbatim Post

A new poll from Public Policy Polling shows that Ron Paul has taken the lead in the Iowa caucus race, while Newt Gingrich’s support is fading fast. A different Gallup poll shows Gringrich still holding the lead, but slipping, while The New York Times has Paul in the lead as well.

Gingrich has seen his numbers in the PPP poll drop from 27 percent to 14 percent in just three weeks, while his favorability rating is now split at 46 percent for to 47 percent against, the worst of any candidate not named Jon Huntsman. That’s quite a fall for someone who looked to be running away with the state and taking charge on the national level.

Mitt Romney has also seen his numbers tick up slightly (to 20%), putting him just behind Paul (23%) for second place. The poll measured voters who are planning to vote in the Republican caucus.

Perhaps the most telling secondary question was, “Do you think Newt Gingrich has strong principles?” Only 36 percent say that he does, but for Paul that number was 73 percent.

The bad news for Paul, however, is that when asked for their second choice for President, only 9% said they would vote for him after their preferred candidate. That means if supporters of any of the second-tier candidates sense defeat and decided to abandon their choice at the last minute, those votes are more likely to go to Romney. Even if Romney doesn’t win, the stronger than expected showing could be the snowball that starts a primary avalanche for him.

Insurance Claim Delays Deliver Massive Profits To Industry By Shorting Customers

Roundabout via Cousin Colby

Unlike many other businesses, the insurance industry is bound by law to act in good faith with its customers. Because of their protective role in the lives of ordinary citizens, insurers have long operated as semi-public trusts. But since the mid-1990s, a new profit-hungry model, combined with weak regulation, has upended that ancient social contract.

"Claims has been converted into a money-making process," said Russ Roberts, a New Mexico-based management consultant and former business professor at Northwestern University who has studied the insurance industry's evolution from a service business to a profit-driven machine.

The change started when consulting giant McKinsey & Company sold Allstate and other leading insurance companies on a new system to boost the bottom line: Rather than adjusting claims the traditional way, which gave claims managers wide latitude to serve customers, insurers embraced a computer-driven method that produced purposefully low offers to claimants.

Those who took the low-ball offers received prompt service, while those who didn't had their claims delayed and potentially were reduced to bringing expensive lawsuits to fight for their benefits.