Sunday, July 27, 2014
Israel Uses This 5,000-Acre Fake City To Train For Urban Combat
Via III Percent Patriots
As warfare transitions from large national militaries clashing in open spaces to small units of soldiers and guerrillas fighting in congested, urban settings, Israel has created the ultimate modern combat training center.
Located at the Tze'elim Army Base in the Negev Desert, just east of the Gaza Strip, the 7.4-square-mile facility has been used by many of the world's most powerful militaries as a training ground, including the U.S. Marines and U.N. security forces.
Nicknamed "Baladia," which is Arabic for "city," the training center's urban mock-up spans more than a half square-mile. The facility was built in 2005 with the help of the U.S. military, at a total cost of $45 million.
Vice News correspondent Alex Miller got to experience the training Israeli soldiers go through at Baladia up-close, and produced a documentary highlighting the venture.
As warfare transitions from large national militaries clashing in open spaces to small units of soldiers and guerrillas fighting in congested, urban settings, Israel has created the ultimate modern combat training center.
Located at the Tze'elim Army Base in the Negev Desert, just east of the Gaza Strip, the 7.4-square-mile facility has been used by many of the world's most powerful militaries as a training ground, including the U.S. Marines and U.N. security forces.
Nicknamed "Baladia," which is Arabic for "city," the training center's urban mock-up spans more than a half square-mile. The facility was built in 2005 with the help of the U.S. military, at a total cost of $45 million.
Vice News correspondent Alex Miller got to experience the training Israeli soldiers go through at Baladia up-close, and produced a documentary highlighting the venture.
More @ Business Insider
Children crossing border: 'Obama will take care of us': “What needs to be done is 100-percent detention and 100-percent removal,”
In an exclusive interview with WND and Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, a 13-year Border Patrol veteran revealed many in the recent surge of illegal immigrants, including unaccompanied minors, are coming prepared to game the U.S. immigration system, even repeating the mantra, “Obama will take care of us.”
“I don’t usually get into the political part of it,” explained Chris Cabrera, now a vice president in the National Border Patrol Council Local 3307, “but I find it odd that their whole thing is, ‘We are going to get amnesty when we get here. Where is my permiso? Where is my permission to go north so I can get my medical care and my schooling and all that? President Obama is going to take care of us and make sure we’re all OK.’
“Whether it’s the adults or the young kids, one thing we consistently hear is, ‘Obama will take care of us,’” he explained.
He also suggested the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors illegally entering the United States appear to have been coached on what to say when they cross the border.
“The ‘magic words’ are something along the lines of ‘asylum,’ or ‘political asylum’ or to say ‘fighting in my home country,’” Cabrera said. “They know these words … because we can’t send them home because it’s too dangerous back there.”
The only way to stop the flow of illegal immigration and child smuggling across the border, he says, is to eliminate the entitlement mentality with a return to strict, border enforcement.
More @ WND
The Elephant in the Room or What is Being Left Out of the Confederate Flag Debate
There
are very few human symbols that find absolute approval or, in the alternative, disapproval. Symbols are called that
because they represent something far larger than themselves. An unknown symbol
is an oxymoron. At present, the symbol that is seemingly most under attack in
this country is the Confederate battle flag albeit other flags that represented that short-lived, tragic nation, the
Confederate States of America are also under assault—especially those which contain the battle flag in their star field.
But
the battle flag in particular is under attack by the politically correct
because they say that it is a symbol of “racism”—a Trotskyite term invented to
sew discord between the races in the United States. Because of the power of
political correctness these days, the claim of racism is far stronger than any
claim that the flag represented a standard for treason. That claim together
with the claim of the flag being “racist” are untrue. The battle flag
represented neither racism nor treason, but a struggle by the People of the
South for independence from a tyrannous central government, a struggle that was
little different from that waged eighty-five years earlier against the British
Empire. From that struggle came the American flag against which a claim might
be made regarding the institution of slavery. For no flag of the Confederate
States of America ever flew over a slave ship but the Stars and Stripes most
certainly did.
It is not my intention to go over once more this debate about the battle flag.
That is at this point irrelevant. What I do
intend is to point out something that is so
large in this debate that people cannot see it. For the “elephant in the room”
in the battle flag debate is not the flag or the reasons that the flag is both
condemned and upheld, but the means by
which the debate is resolved. From the onset of the so-called “civil rights
movement,” Southern heritage—including the battle flag—went from being an
honored piece of American history to an example of bigotry and violence. The
flag hadn’t changed neither had its place in history. What had changed was
history itself. What before had been a fairly honest interpretation of the
ante-bellum period and the War that ended it, became an effort by academia and
the heritage establishment to turn the people and the States of the South into
villains whose only desire was the preservation of slavery and the destruction
of that glorious Union of the Founders! But it is not my intention to go into
this debate either. It, too, has been well covered and only the ignorant can
claim to be unaware of the facts that have been brought forward to counter this
unjust and mendacious claim.
No,
there is something else that must be brought forward here, something that
nobody seems to feel the need to demand from those concerned before the flag
poles are emptied and the monuments ploughed under. Most people in this country
today identify the United States as a “democracy.” We aren’t—or at least we’re
not supposed to be. We are a
representative republic—or, as noted, we are supposed to be one such. Of course, we are not. We are, alas, a
democracy, a form of government that is one step removed from tyranny. Benjamin
Franklin defined a democracy as two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have
for lunch! Of course, in this country we have believed in the will of the
majority prevailing, but only so long
as that will did not trample on the rights of the minority. In other words, the
wolfish majority cannot vote to eat the
sheepish minority! But, still, the will of the majority is supposed to
prevail. And that’s what makes this particular “elephant” so difficult to
explain. For the consignment of Confederate symbols, including the battle flag!—never seems to come to a vote to
determine the will of the majority! Indeed, flags that have been censored,
removed and otherwise consigned to oblivion along with monuments, heroes, icons
and even music(!) attributable to the CSA have found themselves excised from
the culture at the behest of a very small minority of people who demand their
extinction because they supposedly, “offend” this “sensitive” minority.
Furthermore, all efforts to address these concerns have met with rejection on the
part of the chronically offended. History means nothing. Facts mean nothing.
The rights of the majority of their fellow citizens mean nothing. All that
matters is that small minority (white and black) who are “personally offended”
by a symbol and a heritage about which they either know or care nothing is carried
out and the hell with everybody else!
One
cannot imagine anything less American
than a small coterie of ideologues and race-mongers who inflict their agenda
upon their fellow citizens virtually unopposed. It is also interesting to note
that when these matters have been brought to the people in various referendums,
the flags have remained! Equally interesting is the fact that the votes to
retain them cross racial lines! Thus,
those who reject a referendum with the claim it tramples on the rights of a
particular race are proven wrong. On the other hand, removing them absent the
opportunity for the people to speak certainly does trample on the rights of the majority!
Supporters
of the battle flag and other Confederate symbols, heroes and history have
brought the facts forward. Those of good will and objectivity can learn those
facts if they so desire. Those who are neither, will not be swayed by them
anyway. Therefore to continue to debate this matter as if it were one of
ignorance is futile. We must look not at what
is being done, but who is doing it and
how it is being done! We must put a stop to a small coterie of ideologues
with an agenda from robbing the people of a voice in their own culture. At this
point in time, the removal of any Southern symbol from a place of honor should
be determined democratically—that is by a
vote of ALL of those involved
and not just a chosen few. If the symbol is publicly displayed, any attempt to
remove it should be on the ballot. If it is privately displayed, all those who are part of the
institution involved should have a voice in the decision. The time has come to
stop the destruction of a culture at the hands of an elite few. Yes, the lamb
does not wish to be eaten, but the wolves don’t wish to be rendered voiceless
either.
Lady Val Protopapas
Huntington Station, New York.
Lady Val Protopapas
Huntington Station, New York.
GRAPHIC VIDEO: Islamic State Beheads 50 And Puts Their Heads On Poles
As much as I despise running this “jihad porn,” people must know what it is we are dealing with. Beheading is Islamic ritual slaughter.
Obama was warned of this group well over a year ago. He told David Remick of the New Yorker that they were the JV team against the LA Lakers. Well, the JV team has taken over whole swaths of Syria (the Levant) and Iraq, and they have stated more than once that they are coming for Obama.
The enemedia dishonestly downplays the threat of jihad — just as they describe the violent pro-terror riots across the world as “clashes.”
They are dishonest and dangerous.
More with video @ Pamela Geller
North Carolina mayor walks to Washington to bring focus to ObamaCare's effect on rural hospitals
A North Carolina mayor on Sunday was just a few miles away from finishing his 273-mile walk to Washington to draw attention to the closing of his small town’s local hospital and the plights of other rural facilities caught in financial bind created largely by ObamaCare, a changing economy and less federal funding.
“We’re almost there,” Belhaven Mayor Adam O’Neal, a Republican, said as he reached northern Virginia ahead of an approaching thunderstorm. “We’re going to make it.”
The mayor and others argue that an increasing number of small, rural hospitals have been shuttered since ObamaCare was signed into law in 2012.
More @ Fox
Illegal Immigration – George Will Positions Himself As The Face of The Disconnect In The Conversation
Via Susan
Earlier in the day George Will shared his opinion on the illegal alien crisis now reaching a community near you. Like Glenn Beck, Dana Loesch, Bill O’Reilly and a host of ridiculously naïve “conservative” pundits, George Will advances the false narrative of “Unaccompanied Children” and generalizes the illegal swarm by claiming they are 8-year-olds with ‘teddy bears’.
Earlier in the day George Will shared his opinion on the illegal alien crisis now reaching a community near you. Like Glenn Beck, Dana Loesch, Bill O’Reilly and a host of ridiculously naïve “conservative” pundits, George Will advances the false narrative of “Unaccompanied Children” and generalizes the illegal swarm by claiming they are 8-year-olds with ‘teddy bears’.
More @ The Conservative Treehouse
Actor David Duchovny Appears in Ultra-Nationalist Russian Beer Ad
Via Susan
US actor David Duchovny has stirred up a storm of debate in Russia by appearing in an ultra-patriotic beer ad in which he fantasises about being Russian.
The "X-Files" and "Californication" star appears in a glossy ad for a Russian beer brand that is inspired by his eastern European origins.
More @ Breitbart
Cultural Genocide in Lexington, Virginia--what else is new?
Via Billy
Cultural genocide against white Christians has almost become so commonplace that most folks don't even notice it anymore and it's just as bad in the South, if not worse, than in many other places. The cultural genocide promoters are beginning to feel at this point, with the leftist political slant so obvious now in Washington, that they have it within their grasp to completely eradicate Confederate and Southern culture if they just push a little harder, just get rid of a few more Confederate statues, change the names of a few more streets from Stonewall Jackson Blvd. to Malcolm X Avenue, and get rid of any Confederate flags or symbols in any and all institutions of learning, then they can erase all memory of Confederate and Southern history--all except for the slavery issue.
That one has to be kept alive because the hope for some sort of future reparations is still down the road. All they have to do is to promote a little more white guilt and the silver will start to flow--right into their pockets. You have to realize that if there are ever any reparations paid they will not go to ordinary black folks, they will be paid to the race-baiters and those who know how to deal the race card off the bottom of the deck. That's really what it's all about for them--fleecing whitey!
Cultural genocide against white Christians has almost become so commonplace that most folks don't even notice it anymore and it's just as bad in the South, if not worse, than in many other places. The cultural genocide promoters are beginning to feel at this point, with the leftist political slant so obvious now in Washington, that they have it within their grasp to completely eradicate Confederate and Southern culture if they just push a little harder, just get rid of a few more Confederate statues, change the names of a few more streets from Stonewall Jackson Blvd. to Malcolm X Avenue, and get rid of any Confederate flags or symbols in any and all institutions of learning, then they can erase all memory of Confederate and Southern history--all except for the slavery issue.
That one has to be kept alive because the hope for some sort of future reparations is still down the road. All they have to do is to promote a little more white guilt and the silver will start to flow--right into their pockets. You have to realize that if there are ever any reparations paid they will not go to ordinary black folks, they will be paid to the race-baiters and those who know how to deal the race card off the bottom of the deck. That's really what it's all about for them--fleecing whitey!
More @ The Copperhead
Washington and Lee Capitulates: Takes Down Confederate Flags, Locks out Sons Of Confederate Vets
Via Billy
On April 17, Breitbart News reported a group a black students calling themselves "The Committee" placed several demands on Washington and Lee University, including calls for the university to remove all Confederate flags from campus, "acknowledge" Robert E. Lee's "dishonorable side," and end neo-Confederate marches across campus to the Lee Chapel.
By July 9, the Confederate flags had been removed from Lee Chapel and during July 25-27 the Chapel and onsite Museum were closed so that the Sons of Confederate Veterans could not access them during their marches and meetings on campus.
More @ Breitbart
If Lewis Grizzard Were President
Via Bernhard
“Right
is where I am on the political spectrum. The only good liberal is one
who has been thrown out of office or is up in Alaska somewhere trying to
save the whales and isn’t around to get on my very last nerve. In no
particular order, then:
Welfare:
I’m against it. I explain how to take care of people who are truly
needy somewhere else in this book, but I can’t remember where.
Immigration: America first, with apologies to one of my heroes, Pat Buchanan.
Trade
Barriers: Tell the Japs if they try to sell one more Toyota, we’re
cranking up the Enola Gay again. We need to continue to trade with
England, however, because I own a Jaguar and might need some parts.
Defense: Stay strong, I don’t trust anybody.
Quotas: No, but I do wonder why there aren’t more black hockey players and so few Jewish country-music singers.
The
Environment: Put a tent over Los Angeles so whatever it is they breathe
out there doesn’t spread to the rest of the country. Close New Jersey.
Protect the water. Mover the ozone layer over Chicago so the people who
live there can warm up for once in their lives.
Capital Punishment: I’m for it. Not a single person ever executed for murder committed another one.
All-Female Golf Clubs: The holes would be too short for a long hitter like me, so go right ahead ladies.
I’d
make whining against the law , too . . . I’d make members of Congress
pay for everything in cash and travel on Amtrak. Coach. I’m very angry
at Congress and probably would become even angrier if I were President
and had to deal with it.
I
would put any television evangelist who isn’t already in jail behind
bars if he cried while begging for donations. I would put an immediate
cap on television talk shows, like Donahue, Geraldo, and Oprah Winfrey.
I
don’t own a single fur anything, however, and if animals were protected
against becoming coats and hats, it would save men a lot of money
because their wives wouldn’t ask for such expensive clothing. I’ve never
owned anything from lizards, but I do remember a story from that great
American Jerry Clower, the storyteller.
Jerry
said he was on a talk show in California and was wearing his lizard
boots. One of the show’s producers saw his boots and began to lecture
him about the fact a little animal had to die for him to have those
boots.
Jerry
replied: “No ma’am. The lizard they used to make these boots had done
been run over by a Greyhound bus and the bootmaker found him in the
road.”
He also added, “Some people are educated way beyond their intelligence level,” which says a helluva lot.”
(I Haven’t Understood Anything Since 1962, Lewis Grizzard, Villard, 1992, excerpts, pp. 263-265; 277-278)
Study: Embargo wouldn't hurt Russia
An arms embargo against Russia would be little more than symbolic because Russia is largely self-sufficient in supplying its armed forces, a report argued Sunday.
European Union countries exported $583 million of military equipment to Russia last year, less than 1 percent of the nation's $68 billion defense budget, according to a study by IHS Jane's, which provides analysis on the defense industry and security issues. The bulk of that was a $521 million payment to France, which is building two Mistral class warships for Russia.
The propriety of arms sales to Russia was questioned last week as the U.S. and EU debated tougher sanctions against President Vladimir Putin's government because of its support for Ukrainian rebels, who are believed to have fired the missile that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing all 298 people on board.
Many of the existing arms deals are the product of a brief period between 2010 and 2012, when Russia sought Western help in modernizing its military, said Guy Anderson, a senior principal analyst for aerospace, defense and security at IHS Jane's. Putin reversed that strategy in 2012, when he decided that Russia should be self-sufficient once more and ordered the military to stop buying Western materiel.
"Russia's reason for doing this was security," Anderson said. "You could probably argue they saw something like this coming."
More @ Townhall
Driving the Most Powerful American Muscle Car Ever: the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat
When the Chrysler Group announced that the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat would have at least 600 horsepower and at least 575lb-ft of torque, I was excited at the news. When the news broke that the Hellcat would actually produce 707 horsepower and 650lb-ft of torque, I was a little bit blown away. When I found out that I would be among the first people in America outside of the Chrysler Group staff to drive the most powerful American muscle car ever, I was on cloud 9. I am the proud owner of several Chrysler Group products including a 1972 Dodge Demon 340 so to get the invite to experience the Mopar muscle car that set the new standard for high performance, it was the most excited that I’ve ever been for a media drive event.
More @ Racing Junk
“Rape Hot Spot”
Via Nancy
The 2.5m by 1.3m home-made billboard which is at the corner of Greenside Road and Aitken street in Edenvale, was erected by a heartsore man who said he put up the sign in response to the rape of his fiancé.
Similar to the official “Crime hot spot” or “High jack hot spot” signs in various areas across the country, the “Rape Hot Spot” billboard serves as warning of the danger lurking in the area.
“My fiancé was raped there last week Wednesday,” lamented the man who erected the billboard. The man’s name has been withheld to protect the identity of his fiance.
He told The Citizen yesterday his fiancé was walking home when she was attacked at 22:30 by two men who assaulted, robbed and raped her.
He said when they opened a case of rape he was informed that there has been two other incidents of rape on the corner of Greenside and Aitken roads.
“We had to do something. I own a printing company so we decided to take matters into our own hands and warn people,” he said.
The 2.5m by 1.3m home-made billboard which is at the corner of Greenside Road and Aitken street in Edenvale, was erected by a heartsore man who said he put up the sign in response to the rape of his fiancé.
Similar to the official “Crime hot spot” or “High jack hot spot” signs in various areas across the country, the “Rape Hot Spot” billboard serves as warning of the danger lurking in the area.
“My fiancé was raped there last week Wednesday,” lamented the man who erected the billboard. The man’s name has been withheld to protect the identity of his fiance.
He told The Citizen yesterday his fiancé was walking home when she was attacked at 22:30 by two men who assaulted, robbed and raped her.
He said when they opened a case of rape he was informed that there has been two other incidents of rape on the corner of Greenside and Aitken roads.
“We had to do something. I own a printing company so we decided to take matters into our own hands and warn people,” he said.
More @ The Citizen
Michael Behenna: Free On The Plains
Via Susan
A handful of “old-timers” sit in a downtown cafe tucked between vacant buildings as old as they are and gossip over a pot of coffee.
With just shy of 1,000 residents, it seems everybody knows everybody in Medford and everybody loves to know everybody’s business.
On this day, the caffeine-fueled dialogue among the regulars at Make Your Mark Coffeehouse and Deli on Cherokee Street is about the quiet, young stranger that’s come to town.
“He was a soldier,” one man offers.
“He was just released from prison,” another chimes in.
“I think he’s here to help for harvest,” a third ventures, before offering the tidbit everyone seems most interested in.
A handful of “old-timers” sit in a downtown cafe tucked between vacant buildings as old as they are and gossip over a pot of coffee.
With just shy of 1,000 residents, it seems everybody knows everybody in Medford and everybody loves to know everybody’s business.
On this day, the caffeine-fueled dialogue among the regulars at Make Your Mark Coffeehouse and Deli on Cherokee Street is about the quiet, young stranger that’s come to town.
“He was a soldier,” one man offers.
“He was just released from prison,” another chimes in.
“I think he’s here to help for harvest,” a third ventures, before offering the tidbit everyone seems most interested in.
D.C. Gun Ban Ruled Unconstitutional
Via Susan
Justice never sleeps…. not even on a Saturday afternoon, when this opinion was just handed down.
Justice never sleeps…. not even on a Saturday afternoon, when this opinion was just handed down.
In light of Heller, McDonald, and their progeny, there is no longer any basis on which this Court can conclude that the District of Columbia’s total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home is constitutional under any level of scrutiny. Therefore, the Court finds that the District of Columbia’s complete ban on the carrying of handguns in public is unconstitutional. Accordingly, the Court grants Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and enjoins Defendants from enforcing the home limitations of D.C. Code § 7-2502.02(a)(4) and enforcing D.C. Code § 22-4504(a) unless and until such time as the District of Columbia adopts a licensing mechanism consistent with constitutional standards enabling people to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms.4 Furthermore, this injunction prohibits the District from completely banning the carrying of handguns in public for self-defense by otherwise qualified non-residents based solely on the fact that they are not residents of the District.
More @ Reality Based Litigation
