"INTERFAITH GROUP" IS AGAINST PRESENTING FACTS AT 9-11 MEMORIAL MUSEUM

While the museum already has some questionable MO, politically correct cretins are still causing more than enough problems with getting facts out to the public. Case in point: a documentary short being screened there:

An interfaith advisory group of clergy members in New York is raising concerns over a documentary that will be shown at the National September 11 Memorial Museum when it opens next month, arguing the film is offensive to Muslims.

The film, “The Rise of Al Qaeda” refers to the 9/11 terrorists as Islamists and uses the term jihad, which has panel members worried the film will leave museum visitors with a prejudiced view of Islam, The New York Times reported.

They're always opposed to anybody with common sense looking down in justified offense at their repulsive religion.

“The screening of this film in its present state would greatly offend our local Muslim believers as well as any foreign Muslim visitor to the museum,” Sheik Mostafa Elazabawy, the imam of Masjid Manhattan and member of the interfaith group, wrote in a letter to the museum’s director.

“Unsophisticated visitors who do not understand the difference between Al Qaeda and Muslims may come away with a prejudiced view of Islam, leading to antagonism and even confrontation toward Muslim believers near the site.”

Look who's talking, a man with a complete lack of sophistication himself. And what difference is there between Islam and the Koran?

According to The New York Times, the seven-minute film explains the historical roots of the attacks and the ideology of the terrorists. The film, which has been showed to several groups, features images of terrorist training camps other attacks.

Exactly. How can the museum explain the hows and whys of jihadism if they don't say anything about the motivating factors? I'm sure there's more than a modicum of 9-11 Families who'd agree that the public must know what led to the tragedy. And a writer for North Jersey feels this way too. That "interfaith" panel should be told to take a hike.

Update: more from Jonathan Tobin at Commentary.

FAKE BUT ACCURATE PHOTOSHOP

CAIR CONDUCTS LAWFARE AGAINST MICHIGAN CITIZENS OPPOSED TO BUILDING MUSLIM CENTER

Big Government reports that the Hamas backer has been conducting lawfare against private citizens simply because of their opposition to setting up a Muslim cultural center in Pittsfield. This is getting disgusting already, and the Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for opposing a law in Congress that could've prevented these kind of frivolous acts.

ANOTHER ALLEGED RABBI WHO CARES MORE ABOUT MODESTY THAN SAFETY AND CIVILITY

I read this piece on The Forward about a rabbi who's got a problem with Zumba classes, to the point he risks crediting jihadists:

Wallerstein is certainly not an anomaly. There is another, particularly intriguing, rabbi — let’s call him the Ladies Rabbi — Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi. This popular Sephardi rabbi travels from town to town, lecturing about anything that strikes his fancy (mostly women) and debating Christian ministers. His website is called Divine Information, clearly a sign that his is the word of God, and he purports to merge and make sense of the Torah and science and many other things besides.

In one of his most popular and fascinating speeches, Rabbi Mizrachi — in one fell swoop — manages to spew anti-Muslim invective while praising devout Muslim men who “don’t let” their wives dress as provocatively as Jewish men let their wives.

“Even the Muslim murderers,” he cries (around 27 minutes in), “who blow themselves up with suicide vests and kill babies don’t allow their women to go out dressed the way our women do. If she shows one inch of her body (pointing at his wrists) they’ll kill her in the village. We should cry from embarrassment, cry from embarrassment! If Muhammad and Mustafa the murderers from Hezbollah don’t let their wives dress like this — what they’re better than us?”

Much like the Satmar rabbi who studied Causative Holistic Medicine at the Institute of Blame Women the Ladies Rabbi, Yosef Mizrachi, believes that tumors and cancerous cells are direct results of sin.

“Today, the number one cancer by women is breast cancer,” he explains (at around 49). “Second cancer for women, womb cancer. Third, brain cancer. The three parts that women make sins with men — the breast, the womb and the head — cancer goes over there.”

So cancer is the result of would-be sins, not lack of proper health care like vitamin D and exercise? But more offensive is his trivialization of the misogynist, murderous MO conducted by Islamofascists. This enforces my wonderings even more, that a lot of the modern obsession kooky rabbis have with "modesty" to the point where women are considered the root cause of all evil in this world, stems from Muslim influence, which is naturally horrific. Why should anyone consider the customs of murderous creatures worth taking a cue from? His disastrous arguments bring to mind this rabbi from Efrat, who said Islam is a "moral" religion. Ugh.

I don't know if the Forward writer Frimet Goldberger is implying she has a negative opinion of any anti-Islam stance Mizrachi supposedly has, but if he's going to suggest murderers are more moral than us, then he's thrown away any point he was allegedly making about the Religion of Peace. The rabbi she speaks of is nothing more than a pure embarrassment with a forked tongue. Such backwards bozos do a terrible disservice to Judaism.

THE "LIVING CONSTITUTION", "EVOLVING POSITIONS", AND PROGRESSIVISM

1 - "THE LIVING CONSTITUTION":

LEFTISTS ARGUE THAT WE HAVE A LIVING CONSTITUTION SO THAT THEY CAN CHANGE ANYTHING THEY DON'T LIKE BY JUDICIAL FIAT.

(WHEN IT COMES TO DECISION THEY LIKE, THEY OF COURSE ARGUE THAT IT IS "ESTABLISHED LAW" ESSENTIALLY IRREVERSIBLY WRITTEN IN STONE.)

2 - EVOLUTION:

LEFTISTS HAVE FREQUENTLY TAKEN MODERATE OR CENTRIST OR EVEN CONSERVATIVE POSITIONS ON VARIOUS ISSUES BEFORE AN ELECTION ONLY TO TOE THE LEFTIST PARTY LINE AFTER THE ELECTION - AND EXCUSE IT BY SAYING THEIR POSITION "EVOLVED".

SOMETIMES THEIR POSITIONS "EVOLVE" JUST BEFORE AN ELECTION IF THE "EVOLUTION" CAN GAIN THEM A KEY SEGMENT OF THE ELECTORATE.

3 - PROGRESSIVISM:

LEFTISTS LIKE TO BE CALLED "PROGRESSIVES" AS IF WHAT THEY SUPPORTED WAS PROGRESS.

BUT SUPPORTING BIGGER GOVERNMENT AND MORE TAXES AND MORE REGULATIONS REDUCES LIBERTY AND PROSPERITY AN THAT ACTUALLY IS REGRESSIVE.

IT IS ALSO ACTUALLY REGRESSIVE TO SEEK TO DEMOLISH THE TRADITIONAL INSTITUTIONS WHICH HAVE SERVED HUMANITY SO WELL: THE FAMILY, THE CHURCH AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS AND MORES OF JUDEO-CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION.

THESE THREE ASPECTS OF LEFTISM ARE REALLY SOPHISTICATED AMORAL RHETORICAL TRICKS INTENDED TO MAKE IT APPEAR THAT THE LEFT HAS A STABLE, CONSISTENT MORALLY CENTERED CORE AND A RIGHT O THE MORAL HIGH GROUND.

IN FACT, BASED ON THIS SIMPLE INSPECTION THEY ARE NOW SHOWN TO BE HYPOCRITICAL AND AMORAL.

THE ONLY TRUE CORE VALUE THE LEFT HAS IS THIS:

SERVE THE MACHINE.

IF YOU SERVE THE MACHINE, THEN THE MACHINE WILL REWARD YOU WITH GOODIES.

LIKE THE CARTOON SAID:

"VOTE FOR ME AND I WILL TAKE STUFF FROM THE PEOPLE WHO DIDN'T VOTE FOR ME AND GIVE IT TO YOU."

AND IF DOLING OUT THE GOODIES TO SEGMENTS OF THE MACHINE VIOLATES A PREVIOUSLY ARTICULATED PRINCIPLE: SO WHAT; "IT'S FOR THE COMMON GOOD!"

THIS AMOUNTS TO LOOTING, LYING AN LIBERTINAGE.

IT REDUCES LIBERTY AND PROSPERITY AND ALWAYS LEADS TO SERFDOM.

DON'T LET ANYONE YOU KNOW BE DUPED.

THE DEMOCRAT'S ULTIMATE JUSTIFICATION FOR ALL THEIR "PROGRESSIVE" POLICIES

DISAGREE???????

THEN, YOU'RE A RACIST!

Obama has been saying "I WON!" - (his euphemism for "UP YOURS!") - since January 2009 - just days after his inaugural; ABC:

Among some of the things Republicans requested: tax deductions for some small businesses, making unemployment benefits tax free and a provision that would let businesses losing money carry the losses over to pay fewer taxes in a different fiscal year. 

Mr. Obama did voice opinion on some differences on the issue of whether the lowest individual tax rates should be cut from 15 percent to 10 percent and from 10 percent to 5 percent. 

As the president, he had told Kyl after the Arizonan raised objections to the notion of a tax credit for people who don’t pay income taxes, Obama told Cantor this morning that "on some of these issues we’re just going to have ideological differences." 

The president added, "I won. So I think on that one, I trump you."

THIS NOVEMBER, WE CAN WIN THE SENATE AND SAY "UP YOURS!" TO OBAMA AND REID AND PELOSI AND ALL THE OTHER ENEMY-APPEASING, OVER-TAXING AND OVER-SPEND BIG GOVERNMENT LIBERALS.

IN FACT, IT'S NOVEMBER OR NEVER,

IN OTHER WORDS:

WE MUST VOTE LIKE OUR NATION AND A FUTURE OF LIBERTY AND PROSPERITY DEPENDED ON IT

IT DOES!

BRUNEI DELAYS IMPLEMENTATION OF FULL SHARIA, OR DO THEY?

According to the BBC, the nightmare has been delayed for now:

Brunei has postponed the introduction of tough Islamic criminal punishments that were due to begin on Tuesday.

Brunei said in October that it would introduce Sharia punishments including death by stoning for adulterers and the severing of limbs for theft.

Assistant Director of the Islamic Legal Unit Jauyah Zaini said the delay was "due to unavoidable circumstances".

No new date was given but an official told local media that the law would begin "in the very near future".

Brunei already adheres to a stronger form of Islamic law than neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia, banning the sale and consumption of alcohol.

This is why we can't be optimistic the worst was averted. They could easily implement some of the sickest elements under the table while nobody notices.

THE MAP THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING WRONG IN AMERICA

SOVIET SWEDEN

The New American (via Pamela Geller) spoke about the new hate-speech laws Sweden's implementing that make it illegal to criticize Islam and homosexuality (and come to think of it, make it illegal for the latter to criticize the former):

...Sweden’s new law adds another layer of hate-speech prohibition to the social ostracism. As Fria Tider reported (translated electronically from Swedish and then edited for grammar and word usage) in a piece entitled “New Law Makes it Easier to Prosecute Those Who Offend Immigrants or Those in Power,” “The crime of ‘insult’ will be prosecuted — but only for giving offense to immigrants, LGBTQ persons or authorities ... [under a] common insult to the public prosecution.” The law has been pushed by Swedish parliamentarian Andreas Norlén, who said, during what Fria Tider described as “an unchallenged debate on the issue in parliament,” “I do not think it takes very many prosecutions before a signal is transmitted in the community that the Internet is not a lawless country — the sheriff is back in town.”

Wrong. Stormtrooper is more like it. According to LifeSiteNews:

“Chapter 15, Section 8 of Sweden’s criminal code prohibits the expression of ‘disrespect’ towards favoured minority groups. The law carries a penalty of up to four years of imprisonment. It requires no evidence of incitement to violence and lacks any objective standard for identifying ‘disrespect.’”

This was why even Pope John Paul II once refrained from criticism on homosexuality, abortion and divorce, because under these horrific Orwellian laws, he could easily be arrested too. This sounds even worse than Britain's own laws that allow for arresting people they don't agree with. And only Muslims are free to criticize what they dislike, while attacking Jews is allowed too. Sweden is clearly one of the most hopeless countries around.

This is all the more reason not to buy Swedish products, like furniture from Ikea, and vehicles from Volvo and Saab. The latter is no longer sold in the USA anyway, even after being revived nearly 2 years ago. Nobody should do business with their government, that's for sure. A country that's obsessed with outdoing the nazis and communists is no place to invest valuble money in.

IF IT'S NOT "RACIST" TO OPPOSE HOMOSEXUALITY, WHY IS IT "RACIST" TO OPPOSE ISLAM?

A writer for the Daily Beast (via Yahoo) had the audacity to acknowledge that homosexuality and race are different things, and opposing homosexual practice doesn't make you a "racist". Well that's great they're willing to admit that.

But if it's not racist to oppose homosexuality, why do quite a few leftists think it is to oppose Islamic practice? This article doesn't get into that and has no explicit mention of Islam. It only says, "all three of the Abrahamic faith traditions condemn homosexual love, and all of them have theologies that see marriage as intrinsically heterosexual". But that's as far as it goes, and fails to mention the double-standard in Islam that condones male-on-male child molestation.

In other words, what we have here is a leftist who fell back on cowardice and wouldn't clearly mention Islam's own homophobia, if it matters, so truly, he hasn't accomplished anything. And again, nobody on the left's ever been honest enough to admit that opposition to Islam can only be considered an anti-religious position, not some ridiculous claim of racism.

HERE'S A MAP SHOWING WHERE THE DEMOCRATS COMMIT THE MOST VOTER FRAUD

THERE'S MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD IN THE USA.

ALWAYS HAS BEEN.

THAT'S HOW JFK GOT ELECTED - THEN (1960) IT WAS ENGINEERED BY THE CHICAGO MACHINE, WHO ALSO STOLE TO LAST TWO ELECTIONS FOR OBAMA.

WIKI/1960:

 the Chicago Tribune wrote that "the election of November 8 was characterized by such gross and palpable fraud as to justify the conclusion that [Nixon] was deprived of victory."^[34] 

HOW BAD IS IT?

BAD. REAL BAD.

IN MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA, THERE ARE 44,000 VOTERS WHO VOTE IN BOTH STATES.

ENOUGH TO WIN AN OTHERWISE CLOSE ELECTION.

155,000 NC VOTERS ARE ALSO REGISTERED IN OTHER STATES, AND OVER TEN THOUSAND DEAD PEOPLE ARE STILL ON THE ROLLS.

IN IOWA AND COLORADO - KEY STATES THAT CAN DETERMINE THE NATIONAL OUTCOME IN AN OTHERWISE CLOSE ELECTION - THERE ARE MORE REGISTERED VOTERS THAN PEOPLE OVER 18.

EVERY STATE IS NOT STOLEN.

THE STATES THAT ARE STOLEN DON'T HAVE MASSIVE FRAUD IN EVERY COUNTY.

I ESTIMATE THAT THE FRAUD IS CENTERED IN KEY COUNTIES IN KEY STATES.

LIKE IN PHILLY TO STEAL PA.
IN DETROIT TO STEAL MA.
IN DENVER TO STEAL CO.
IN CLEVELAND TO STEAL OH.
MILWAUKEE TO STEAL WI.

AND SO ON.

TAKE A LOOK AT THIS MAP:

THE COUNTIES THAT ARE SOLID BLUE ISLANDS FLOATING IN A SEA OF RED ARE THE COUNTIES WHERE MOST OF THE FRAUD OCCURS.

THAT'S WHERE WE MOST NEED VOTER ID AND VERY LIMITED EARLY VOTING AND VERY REGULATED ABSENTEE BALLOTS.

BASICALLY EVERY DENSELY POPULATED COUNTY IN AN OTHERWISE RED STATE.

MORE HERE.

NOBODY SHOULD BE FOOLED BY ERDOGAN'S AMBIGUOUS CONDOLENCES TO ARMENIAN FAMILIES

The Turkish dictator supposedly condemns the genocide committed by the Ottoman Muslims during WW1, but remains very unclear in a statement he released:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered what the government said were unprecedented condolences on Wednesday to the grandchildren of Armenians killed in World War One by Ottoman soldiers.

In a statement issued on the eve of the 99th anniversary of the deeply contested deaths, Erdogan unexpectedly described the events of 1915 as "inhumane", using more conciliatory language than has often been the case for Turkish leaders.

A Turkish government official said it was the first time a Turkish prime minister had offered such explicit condolences, but it was not immediately clear if it would be enough to bring about a thaw in relations between Ankara and its neighbor.

The answer is no, it's not enough. Definitely not if he doesn't admit his religion was a driving force in the evil of the time. And judging from the following:

Although striking a conciliatory tone, Erdogan re-iterated a longheld Turkish position that the deaths of millions of people during the violence of the period should be remembered "without discriminating as to religion or ethnicity".

Turkey is a Muslim state, while Armenia is Christian.

"Using the events of 1915 as an excuse for hostility against Turkey and turning this issue into a matter of political conflict is inadmissible," he added.

I'd say Erdogan is falling back on the same old tactics. Who's using excuses here other than him? He's as filthy as he was before, and nobody should take his word at face value.

FORMER ZIONIST CENTER IN HAIFA COULD BECOME MUSLIM PROPAGANDA CENTER

The municipality in Haifa allowed the sale of a building once identified with Zionism to Muslim propagandists identified with a fugitive:

Once a symbol of "the red city," the Chen movie theater in Haifa's Hadar Hacarmel neighborhood will soon become an Arab culture center dedicated to telling the Palestinian narrative.

The Arab Culture Association recently purchased the building from the Maccabi Haifa soccer club board of trustees for four million shekels ($1.15 million). According to the plans given to the Haifa District Construction and Planning committee, the group seeks to convert the structure, which has been abandoned for years, into a modern office building that will include a cultural center.

A senior committee official confirmed the report to Israel Hayom, and said the group had already provided design models of the intended structure.

"[The building] is an old sports arena that was built in the late 1960s and served as a place for social and sporting events for Maccabi Haifa," a senior official representative from Maccabi Haifa's board of trustees said, confirming the purchase. [...]

Among the founders of the Arab Culture Association is former Haifa resident and Balad MK Azmi Bishara, who fled Israel after being sought by authorities for allegedly contacting Hezbollah agents during the 2006 Second Lebanon War and helping the terrorist group acquire targets in Haifa for their rockets. Bishara's sister Rawda served as the group's director and led part of the efforts to purchase the abandoned theater with the help of her brother, who rallied businessmen from Qatar and other Arab nations for support.

Following Rawda's death, Iyyad Barghouti was elected director and confirmed to Israel Hayom that part of the funds for the acquisition arrived from Qatar, businessmen in Arab states and donations from the European Union. "We will build a cultural center to preserve the Palestinian legacy so that Arab youth in Haifa will know how we lived here before 1948," Barghouti said. "We have the full right to represent our narrative as the Palestinian minority and the right-wing groups trying to stop this initiative will not deter us."

Members of Likud and right-wing organizations in the city said the municipality could have blocked the purchase by placing the building on a list of structures designated for preservation in the city.

Clearly, their leftist bent got the better of them, and now, if there's no resistance, it'll become a center for living lies. Fortunately, if this news says anything:

The Israeli “National Vision” (Chazon Leumi) group said that it would work to prevent the establishment of the Arab center in the building. “It's clear that the establishment of this center will not be a positive thing for coexistence,” the organization said. “Anyone can see that such a center will very quickly be converted into a propaganda mill against the rights of the Jewish people to its state, and will be an Azmi Bishara-type center for radical anti-Israel action and hate.

“We call on Zionist residents of Haifa and northern Israel, and to the Haifa municipality, to enhance the Zionist narrative, not the enemy's narrative,” the group said. “We will begin a major campaign against this in the coming days.”

The sale certainly should not be allowed if a war criminal's group is behind this.

NOT HEAVEN FOR BLOOMBERG, BUT THE EIGHTH CIRCLE OF HELL

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is sure that he is going to heaven for his efforts to undermine your God-given, Constitutionally protected right to self-defense:

"I am telling you, if there is a God, when I get to heaven I'm not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in," he told reporter Jeremy Peters. "I have earned my place in heaven. It's not even close."

But Bloomberg believes that although you should live in a gun-free zone, he should be protected by armed bodyguards wherever he goes:

Bloomberg’s new security team will comprise a current lieutenant and several detectives, all with more than 20 years on the force. They will file for retirement immediately after mayor-elect Bill de Blasio is sworn in on Jan. 1, sources said.

With public salaries of at least $120,000 each, they’ll all get pensions that amount to at least half that much — on top of their pay to keep working for Bloomberg, sources said.

“They’re all getting six-figure salaries,” one source said.

While Bloomberg’s security detail has 17 members, not all will be riding his gravy-train run.

The unidentified lieutenant who heads the team will land the biggest windfall and “is getting paid a lot more than the detectives,” a source said.

The NYPD provides Bloomberg with ’round-the-clock protection that includes a driver, bodyguard and advance man who secures the mayor’s destination whenever the mayor is out and about.

Bloomberg thinks that he deserves to be protected by firearms, but you don't.

In plain English, he is  a hypocrite.

And Dante found out, as described in his immortal Divina Commedia, that hypocrites are consigned to the Eighth Circle of Hell.

As the eighth of nine circles, Malebolge is one of the worst places in hell to be. In it, sinners guilty of "simple" fraud are punished (that is, fraud that is committed without particularly malicious intent, whereas Malicious or "compound" fraud — fraud that goes against bond of love, blood, honor, or the bond of hospitality — would be punished in the ninth circle). Sinners of this category include counterfeiters, hypocrites, grafters, seducers, sorcerers and simonists. [bold/red added]

And:

Political corruption (fifth ditch), the crime for which Dante himself was falsely charged when he was forced into exile, links back to similar abuses within the church (simony) and points ahead to the sin of hypocrisy. The longest single episode of the Inferno, launched when Virgil confidently believes the promise of the devils guarding the fifth ditch, concludes when the travelers make a narrow escape into the sixth ditch and Virgil learns from a hypocrite that he has been duped (Inf. 23.133-48). Dante adorns the hypocrites in religious garb--hooded cloaks similar to the elegant ones worn by the Benedictine monks at Cluny (in France)--in accordance with the biblical condemnation of false piety: just as Jesus compares hypocritical scribes and Pharisees to tombs that appear clean and beautiful on the outside while containing bones of the dead (Matthew 23:27), so the bright golden cloaks of Dante's hypocrites conceal heavy lead on the inside (Inf. 23.64-6). 

As Rabbi David Bendory asked the then-Mayor in an open letter:

Mr. Mayor, your citizen disarmament is an act of hypocrisy. Unlike nearly all the rest of us, everywhere you go you are surrounded by official armed guards, police escorts, and your highly trained personal private bodyguards. (See adjacent photo). Mr. Mayor, is your life worth more than the lives of your fellow citizens? Or are we mere “subjects” in your eyes?

Bloomberg is an evil hypocrite.  That's really all there is to it.

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS:

BLOOMIE'S HYPOCRISY DOESN'T STOP THERE: 

HE IS A CO2PHOBIC CLIMATE ALARMIST WHO FLIES IN HIS OWN JET AND HIS OWN HELICOPTER.

FREQUENTLY, TOO - AS IN EVERY WEEK HE WAS MAYOR.

AND HE VIOLATED CHOPPER NOISE CURTAILMENT CURFEW LAWS ALL THE TIME, TOO.

THE OBAMACARE MONSTROSITY

FOR YEARS THEY TOLD US THERE WERE 45 MILLION UNINSURED - AND THAT OBAMACARE WOULD INSURE THEM ALL.

BUT NOW THEY'RE BRAGGING THEY SIGNED UP 8 MILLION - EVEN THOUGH MOST ARE PEOPLE WHO HAD INSURANCE BEFORE AND ONLY LOST IT BECAUSE OF OBAMACARE.

FOR YEARS THEY TOLD US IT WOULD LOWER COSTS AN AVERAGE OF $2500/FAMILY.

BUT NOW - ACCORDING TO MOST ANECDOTAL STORIES AND THE MAYO CLINIC AND THE CLEVELAND CLINIC - IT TURNS OUT IT WILL RAISES COSTS AND REDUCE SERVICE.

BOTTOM LINE:

FOR YEARS THEY TOLD US LIES.
BUT NOW WE NOW THE TRUTH: OBAMACARE IS A MONSTROSITY.

WE CAN FIX IT THIS NOVEMBER.
IN FACT, IT'S NOVEMBER OR NEVER,

VOTE GOP OR STFU.

WHY WOULD MAHMOUD ABBAS DISMANTLE THE PLO?

The PLO autocrat's been threatening to dismantle the PLO if he doesn't get his way in pseudo-negotiations. But seriously, why would he do that? Naftali Bennett's been giving him a well-deserved mocking:

Bayit Yehudi leader and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett played down Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas's threats that he would dissolve the Palestinian Authority if peace talks with Israel broke down, saying Tuesday that this was the seventh time that the Palestinian leader had made these threats.

"We hear again and again the recycling of the same threat , that if we don't advance (with the peace process) and if we don't give him everything that he wants he will Ov vey for us! dissolve the PA," Bennett said at The Ramle Conference.

"I suggest to Abu Mazen: If you're going to shoot, then shoot, don't talk. The state of Israel is stronger than Abu Mazen's threats," Bennett said.

[...] On Sunday, Bennett made similar statements about Abbas's dissolution threats.

“If he wants to go, we won’t stop him,” the minister said. “The Jewish people do not negotiate with a gun held against their temple.”

Yet why would Abbas dismantle the PLO and shove off? It's nothing more than a meaningless, comedic threat coming from a jihadist who has no intention of ceasing his evil ways till the day he dies. Still, if he really wants to heave-ho, Abbas can do just that and we won't miss him one bit.

Update: Jonathan Tobin says Abbas's bluff shouldn't scare Israel.

BASEBALL AND ECONOMICS

A new term has emerged as the defining jargon of contemporary Economic-Socio-Political discourse. Inequality.  Not the legal inequality that concerned great thinkers of the Enlightenment and the American Revolution.  Economic inequality  plain and simple - as in some people have more money than others. Once this jargon becomes the accepted vernacular, and inequality becomes the perspective from which we look at the economy and society, it follows that the role of the Government is to equalize these differences. Then the debate becomes a discussion as to what degree the Government should redistribute wealth, not if the government should.

Recently I came across Thomas Piketty, a highly touted french economist who has done some supposedly groundbreaking statistical analysis of the accumulation of wealth over the past 200 hundred years in Great Britain and the United States.  If I understand it correctly, his point is that it is natural for wealth to accumulate ( i.e the Rich get richer...) in Capitalist systems, and therein lies the inherent weakness of Capitalism.  In fact, according to Piketty, Capitalism would have collapsed - for reasons that are even more fundamental then those Marx posited - except both World Wars interrupted the destructive process of wealth accumulation.  Piketty's prescription for "saving Capitalism" is to tax wealth to the point of nonexistence.

Given that there are 3 kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics - or 3 kinds of witnesses: liars, damned liars, and experts - I will not use this space to look at the historic statistical record.  That is beside the point. The concept that economic inequality is wrong, and the ideal society is one with little or no income inequality is where the discussion has run off the tracks.  But some people will not look at how we can create more jobs and more wealth when they will not accept that economic inequality is the natural result of  free economic interaction.  And those who are fixated on increasing inequality are no more likely to accept another perspective than those who were taught to see everything thru the lens of Class Warfare.

That is why I would like to shift this discussion to Baseball. Here we have a sport - a world unto its own - that also has long statistical history studied, perhaps as much if not more, than the economy. Inequality is rampant in Baseball. This is reflected in the wide range of Batting Averages, Earned Run Averages, Fielding Percentages, Win/Loss records - AND SALARIES!  

Would Baseball be a better sport if the Baseball Kommisar ruled that these inequalities are bad?  In the ideal Baseball League, everybody will hit .230.  All Pitchers will have a 3.75 ERA.  Fielders will have the right to appeal Errors to the Error Review Board.  And of course Stealing a base will be illegal.  All teams would finish at .500 and all players would be paid the same, give or take small adjustments for the size of their family...   I can see no benefit of this kind of interference - except for the fact that this system would have prevented the inordinate dominance of the New York Yankees! - it would ruin Baseball.

People who would do the same to the economy will only make matters worse.

Until we identify the real problems that face us we will never succeed in overcoming them.

PLAYBALL!

GRAPHIC: HOW THE OBAMACARE FIASCO BECAME LAW

THE WORST LEGISLATION EVER PASSED - AND THE COSTLIEST.

WE CAN FIX THINGS THIS NOVEMBER.

IN FACT, IT'S NOVEMBER OR NEVER.

IS THE US MILITARY SOCIALIST?

Over at the Daily Beast, Jacob Siegel has published a provocative piece, in which he argues that the American Armed Forces are a model socialist system - implying that those who support our Armed Forces and a militarily strong America should get on the bandwagon and admit that socialism would give us all a better life:

The U.S. military is a socialist paradise. Imagine a testing ground where every signature liberal program of the past century has been applied, from racial integration to single-payer health care—then add personal honor, strict hierarchy, and more guns. Like all socialist paradises, the military has been responsible for its share of bloodshed, but it has developed one of the only working models of collective living and social welfare that this country has ever known.

He points out that members of the military work in a generally meritocratic environment, and that they - and their dependents - are beneficiaries of free medical care, a retirement program, and a lifestyle of communal living. Several conservative commentators have risen to the bait. Jonah Goldberg writes at the Corner:

Anyway, what I find interesting about the piece — again, assuming there’s any good faith to it — is what he leaves out. For starters, in this socialist paradise, members forfeit many of their constitutional rights. Or to put it more accurately, their rights are curbed and limited in ways they are not for civilians. They don’t have the same rights of speech, assembly, movement etc. Siegel is right that the military is one of the most meritocratic institutions in American life and it has often been ahead of the curve on many issues, such as desegregation. But it also discriminates — understandably — against the disabled and the elderly. You can’t sign up to be a frontline soldier or a Marine if you can’t pass certain physical or age requirements. And, for the time being at least, women still have to meet certain physical requirements for certain jobs. Oh, and then there’s the fact that you also have to follow orders from your superiors, mostly without question. That alone, one would think, would do away with the whole “paradise” part of the equation. 

Maybe I’m wrong, but I didn’t get the sense that the urine-recycling Bolsheviks of the Occupy Wall Street crowd were yearning for the right to be told to go on a ten-hour hike in the rain “before dawn.” 

Indeed, the whole concept of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” runs counter to the whole military ethos.

I think that Goldberg is right as far as he goes, but I think he is missing a larger and more important point: The essence of socialism, in any form, is the militarization of the economic life of society.

The militarization of civilian economic life was transparently obvious during the early years of "War Communism" in the Soviet Union, but as Hayek convincingly demonstrates in The Road to Serfdom, eliminating a free market for labor and materials necessarily requires an economic system that ultimately rests on coercion. Under socialism, everyone in society is an economic "soldier," who is required to work at the tasks set for him or her by the bureaucratic "officers" who are in command. The "broad masses of the people" are obliged to live in the housing provided for them by the State, to wear the clothing provided for them by the State, and to be entertained by the entertainment provided by the State.

 In a free society, the members of the military tolerate the discipline required in the Armed Forces because of the role which they fulfill, and because for the limited mission of defending our land, our lives, and our Liberty, a military organization is required.

The results of militarizing an entire society on the socialist model, however, have been disastrous wherever the attempt has been made.

Yes - Siegel is partially right - the US Armed Forces do have many of the aspects of socialist systems. But that is because socialist economies follow a military model, not because the military is modeled on socialism.

2 GIRLS FROM BOSNIAN MUSLIM FAMILY IN AUSTRIA JOINED SYRIAN JIHAD

The UK Mail (via Winds of Jihad) wrote about two Austrian teens who joined the Syrian jihad:

Interpol is searching for two Austrian teenage girls who they believe were tricked into going to Syria to fight for Islamist rebels.

Samra Kesinovic, 16, and Sabina Selimovic, 15, vanished from their homes in Vienna on April 10.

But the first hint their parents received as to where the girls might have gone was a spate of social media posts claiming they had gone to fight a 'holy war'.

But the parents say that they don’t believe the messages are being written by the girls. Authorities suspect they have been tricked into leaving the country.

Samra and Sabina come from Bosnian refugee families who settled in Austria after the ethnic wars of the 1990s, and were born in the country.

If the parents are Muslims, they may not be telling the truth about what happened to their daughters. More than likely the parents tricked them into doing so.

More on the issue at Answering Muslims (via The Examiner).

ZIVOTOVSKY CASE REVIEWED ANEW

The suit filed by the couple who want their son's passport to have Israel listed on it has come to the Supreme Court again:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to weigh the constitutionality of a law that was designed to allow American citizens born in Jerusalem - the historic holy city claimed by Israelis and Palestinians - to have Israel listed as their birthplace on passports.

Leave it to Reuters to run morally equivalent propaganda again. The sole reason it's important to the alleged palestinians is because it's important to Jews.

The case concerns a long-standing U.S. foreign policy that the president - and not Congress - has sole authority to state who controls Jerusalem. Seeking to remain neutral on the hotly contested issue, the U.S. State Department allows passports to name Jerusalem as a place of birth, but no country name is included.

[...] In 2003, Ari and Naomi Zivotofsky, the parents of U.S. citizen Menachem Zivotofsky, who was born in Jerusalem in 2002, filed a lawsuit seeking to enforce the law. They would like their son's passport to say he was born in Israel.

How much longer is the State Department going to refuse to respect the request of anyone who wants their passport to state Israel on it and not bind themselves to petty biases?

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS PREVAILS AT MEMORIAL FOR BOSTON JIHAD VICTIMS

Pamela Geller describes how the higher echelons memorialized the tragedy in Boston a year ago:

The first-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon jihad bombing was marked by a notable and predictable absence. All the observances, commemorations and coverage studiously avoided mentioning why the attack happened in the first place: There was no mention of jihad. In all of the pomp, tribute, memorials and wall-to-wall coverage of this terrible anniversary, everyone from President Obama on down had a lot to say. A lot of nothing. A lot of meaningless rhetoric and feel-good nonsense.

Three people were murdered and more than 250 were wounded, many maimed for life – and on the first anniversary, the New York Times ran sympathy propaganda commiserating not with the victims, but with the jihad filth Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. An article headlined, “Marathon Bombing Suspect Waits in Isolation,” began this way: “He cannot mingle, speak or pray with other prisoners. His only visitors are his legal team, a mental health consultant and his immediate family, who apparently have seen him only rarely.” This holy warrior should have been sentenced to death by a military tribunal.

This is moral inversion. Sick and depraved, the New York Times has sunk to an altogether new low. Is it any wonder that its circulation is in the tank and sinking fast? These creeps deserve to go out of business.

The restrictions on the movements of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are designated for those who pose the greatest threat to others. But the New York Times pooh-poohs that, because “there is little of substance to suggest that Mr. Tsarnaev, 20, and his brother Tamerlan were anything but isolated, homegrown terrorists.” So what? What difference does it make if they were waging jihad alone or with a group? They blew up the Boston Marathon, targeting thousands of families. They are part of the global jihad.

The New York Times has really gone over to the dark side. And it is not alone.

You can read more about the dhimmis at the link, but this is the new reality in the USA, and unless realists are willing to stand up, it's not going to improve.

THE ULTIMATE ULTIMATUM FOR CONGRESS: EITHER VOTE TO MAKE CONGRESS A "GUN FREE ZONE" OR VOTE FOR TERM LIMITS

JUST SAYING...

IF THEY THINK GUN FREE ZONES ARE CRAZY FOR THEM, THEN WHY DO THEY THINK THEY'RE OKAY FOR THE REST OF US?!?!?!

INCUMBENCY IS THE PROBLEM:

TOO MANY DANG CONGRESSMEN ARE TOO DANG COMFORTABLE.

INSTEAD OF BEING REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE, THEY'VE BECOME PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS WHO ARE TOO COZY WITH SPECIAL INTERESTS, WITH TOO GREAT A SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT, AND TOO LITTLE CONNECTION TO THE REAL ISSUES MOST PEOPLE FACE EVERYDAY.

TERM LIMITS WOULD GUARANTEE THAT WE'D HAVING OPEN ELECTIONS EVERY THIRD TERM, AND THAT WOULD REDUCE THE POWER OF INCUMBENCY.

REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM'S WORDS OF WISDOM

Via WCBM Radio, Rev. Graham makes clear we should be worried about sharia, and says what at least one Australian politician said: that those Muslims who seek to impose sharia upon the country should go elsewhere. Well said.