DEDICATED TO EXPOSING DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA AND TO PROMOTING UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS - WITH SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY. NO ADS. NO TIP-JAR. JUST THE TRUTH.
WHERE IS ADMIRAL GAOUETTE?
Here’s a Navy Times story from November 4.
Also: Navy Denies Admiral Removed Over Libya.
I don’t know what happened here, but it seems to be another of those things in which the press isn’t interested in doing any digging. Posted at 10:37 pm by Glenn ReynoldsHere's some more:
“Bank runs in Europe? The EU made them a little bit more likely this weekend, and as Cypriots stampede for the shrinking number of ATMs still handing out cash on the island, Italians, Greeks and Spaniards are also beginning to wonder if, with interest rates effectively at zero and confused politicians running Europe’s bank systems, the mattress might just be the safest place for their money after all.”THE SAD THING IS THAT BECAUSE THE CENTRAL BANKS THINK THAT PRINTING MONEY IS THE ANSWER, THE PAPER MONEY IN THE MATTRESS WON'T BE WORTH VERY MUCH EITHER.
ENEMEDIA IN AN UPROAR OVER PAMELA GELLER'S STATEMENT ON SUHAIL KHAN'S STEALTH JIHAD
Breitbart's "Uninvited" event was standing room only. And I was overwhelmed by the rush of applause and folks who stood up when I walked into the room for the event. It was mindblowing. Pamela Hall was there so we should have video later.USE THE LINK - NOW!
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To the militant atheists and postmodernists, the people who actually believe in God - (people like me) - are morons and they are dangerous morons if they dare seek high public office.BECAUSE THE WORST GENOCIDE IN HISTORY WAS COMMITTED BY ISLAMISTS AND ATHEISTS AND SOCIALISTS, NOT JUDEO-CHRISTIANS...
We are to be confronted on so-called news shows - like Hardball - as if we were a Torquemada or a Bin Laden.
But where would we be without Judeo-Christian believers? Where would Western civilization be, What would our nation be?
There would be no Declaration Of Independence without believers. We are endowed by our CREATOR with inalienable rights; (these rights are not the gift of aristocrats or the government or politicians!).
YES: Natural Law is the foundation of our founding - as the Judeo-Christian God is the very foundation of Western Civilization.
What would our civilization - our CULTURE - look like and sound like without God?No Sistine Chapel.
No Beethoven's Ninth.
No Bach.
No Psalms.
No Agnus Dei.
No Pieta.
No Gospel.
No Magdelene.
No David.
No Western Civilization.
YEAH YEAH YEAH: the knee-jerk left-wing postmodernists always retaliate to this by harking back to Europe's religious wars - as if they were the worst wars in history.
THEY WEREN'T. NOT BY A LONG-SHOT.
Socialism killed more in the last century - the 20th C - than Judeo-Christianity killed over religion in the previous 20 COMBINED! Western religion killed a few million in the religious wars. Socialism 150 million.
And Islam killed more than socialism - (granted, they had 14 centuries and killed about 270 million for their ideology, their martial creed; that's more than all the West's wars combined; YES: Islam is the world's most deadly ideology).
So when you hear the militant atheists and postmodernists rant and rave about the ills of Judeo-Christianity... tell them to shut up and consider what life would be without Judeo-Christian Civilization.
And remind them that without a belief in God, our future might easily become as devoid of higher value as our pre-Judeo-Christian past. That was a world without personal liberty and without democracy; it was a world instead filled with pagan despotism, human sacrifice, and utter debauchery.
SO WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN REALLY? WHAT DOES IT PROVE?
It may not prove the existence of God.
SO WHAT: FOR OUR SMALL MINDS - MINDS WHICH CAN ONLY SEE HINTS OF THE INFINITE AND ONLY FLEETING GLIMPSES OF THE ETERNAL - ACCEPTING GOD'S EXISTENCE REQUIRES A LEAP FAITH.
Does it prove anything, then?
Yes: It proves the value of the belief in God.
So... I say to my atheist friends: come, take that leap.
Be not afraid.
We're here on the other side of the divide, and we'll catch you. ALL OF YOU.
Yes... all of you.
You see... we've the strength of angels - the angels of our better nature.
"Persepolis," described by Time magazine as a memoir of girl growing up in Iran who has "an obsession with becoming God's new prophet," has been banned in Iran, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates because some Muslims consider it blasphemous.It's a facinating question if the board wanted to take it out for the same reasons the UAE and Satrapi's own Iran did - because it's against their oppressive Islamofacist regimes. Chicago's already notorious for the political correctness that plagues almost every neighborhood, and this is another bad step they're making. The real world is unfortunately full of harsh realities, and while I could understand if a fictional movie full of violence isn't something responsible parents and teachers would want to show younger children, a book/graphic novel about real life is something entirely different, and they have every right to know about the horrors Satrapi's native country is being devoured by. It makes no difference even if they're trying to just keep it out of 7th grade classes; that's still censorship, and suppression of vital info.
In a letter to principals, the schools CEO said that the move to remove the book from its seventh-grade curriculum came after "It was brought to our attention that it contains graphic language and images that are not appropriate for general use" for that age group.
While saying "We are not banning this book from our schools," Byrd-Bennett instructed principals: "If your seventh-grade teachers have not yet taught this book, please ask them not to do so and to remove any copies of the book from their classrooms."
While "Persepolis" "may be appropriate" for junior and senior students, Byrd-Bennett said that CPS is reconsidering whether the book, because of "powerful images of torture," should be used in the curriculum of eighth through 10th grades. [...]
The controversy was sparked by reports of an email sent Thursday in which the Lane Tech principal told school staff members that he was informed by one of the CPS' Network Instructional Support Leaders group that all ISLs were given a deadline of Friday to make sure the book was not in the library, that it had not been checked out by a student or teacher, that it was not used in "any classrooms" and "to collect the autobiographic graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi from all classrooms and the Library."
"I was not provided a reason for the collection of 'Persepolis,'" Dignam's message concluded. [...]
A film version of "Persepolis," released in 2007, was banned in Iran, a move that the author told an interviewer in 2010 was probably because "it is too Western, and it is un-Islamic and maybe anti-revolutionary.”
In her statement Friday, the author said she visited a Chicago school in 2004 "and loved seeing the kids there, so full of passion and questions. I felt close to them and they felt close to me."
"But when I hear that they want to ban my book — in America — I just don't understand. I cannot accept it. Why? America is the largest democracy in the world!...Shame on them," said Satrapi.
“These are not photos of torture. It’s a drawing and it’s one frame. I don’t think American kids of seventh grade have not seen any signs of violence. Seventh graders have brains and they see all kinds of things on cinema and the Internet. It’s a black and white drawing and I’m not showing something extremely horrible. That’s a false argument. They have to give a better explanation.”What they really have to explain is if they're succumbing to dhimmitude, which I assume is the real reason. Again, it makes little difference if it's just the 7th grade they're trying to remove the book from, it's still an attempt to suppress the student's right to knowledge about a foreign country consumed by a bleak religious mindset.
A debate hosted by the Islamic Education and Research Academy ignited fire after attendees were required to separate by gender, with single women forced into seats in the very back rows.And how! Here's the UK Telegraph report:
The group has since been banned from holding any events on Britain’s leading University College-London campus, The Telegraph reports.
Panel participants said they were shocked by the segregation when they looked into the audience, and one — Professor Lawrence Krauss, a prominent physicist and atheist who served on President Obama’s science committee in 2008 — threatened to walk out unless the seating arrangement mandate was relaxed, and men and women could sit together, The Telegraph says.
He also suggested that Brits were cowed to comply with Islam standards.
The professor, a leading physicist and prominent atheist, threatened to walk out unless organisers agreed to let men and women sit together, which was eventually agreed - but was then astonished to find himself being accused of intolerance by angry members of the audience.You can say that again. David Aaronovich says that pandering to this kind of religious insanity can only end up harming us:
He said there had been no such problems when he recently took part in a similar debate in Australia. [...]
He said: "People are not only afraid to offend, but afraid to offend a vocal and aggressive group of people.
"There is a segment of the Islamic community that is very vocal about this."
The professor said: "I think the notion that these cultural norms should be carried out within a broader society that not only doesn't share them but that is free and open is a very serious problem."
This is what psychoanalysts call "violent innocence". I recall it from the days when South African apartheid was still a matter of debate for some people. It is hard to recall them now, but you could discover apologists for "separate development" on any letters page and in even some editorials. It's natural. White and blacks prefer to live separately. This big country for the whites, and these lovely little Bantustans for the childlike blacks. And you always find someone suitably black to say yes indeed, that was what they wanted, thank you very much.Food for thought, but there's one problem with his citation of Orthodox synagogues: he doesn't differentiate properly between them and Haredis, who in recent times have taken gender separation to extremes, all stuff that I took to blogging about, and simpler Orthodox, who only see this as important during prayer time - outside of that, nobody believes in gender separation; they just don't think the sexes should mix during prayer time/religious gatherings. This doesn't mean his argument doesn't have legitimate points, but if he'd just research more, he'd find that modern Orthodox are hardly like what he's suggesting.
And it never means separate but equal. It always means the white or the man is the boss. That's why in orthodox synagogues the women (including the grandmas) are upstairs and the men (including the adolescents) are in the stalls. That's why at UCL the women-only area was towards the back. That's why at other Islamic events held in British colleges the men ask questions directly and the women have to write them down on a piece of paper.
That's why, hilariously, on its own website iERA lists its speakers for debates, showing photos of the men and blank shapes standing in for the faces of the women. And doesn't anyone who thinks about it for more than a nanosecond realise that the obedient "modesty" of some women - even if voluntary - is used by the big beards as a way of coercing others to conform?
People in Cyprus have reacted with shock to news of a one-off levy of up to 10% on savings as part of a 10bn-euro (£8.7bn; $13bn) bailout agreed in Brussels.
Savers could be seen queuing at cash machines amid resentment at the charge.
The deal reached with euro partners and the IMF marks a radical departure from previous international aid packages. President Nicos Anastasiades defended it as a "painful" step, taken to avoid a disorderly bankruptcy. The Cypriot leader, who was elected last month on a promise to tackle the country's debt crisis, will address the nation on Sunday.
- Depositors with under 100,000 euros deposited must pay 6.75%
- Those with more than 100,000 in their accounts must pay 9.9%
- Depositors will be compensated with the equivalent amount in shares in their banks
- The levy is a one-off measure
Lenders are said to be gambling that the risk of a bigger banking crisis elsewhere in the eurozone has receded.
While Cyprus may be one of the eurozone's tiniest economies - its third-smallest - there could be serious repercussions for other financially over-stretched economies, such as those of Spain and Italy, Robert Peston writes. The point of the levy is as a caution to lenders to banks that they should take care where they place their funds, and avoid banks that overstretch themselves - as Cypriot banks did, he adds. Cyprus is the fifth country after Greece, the Republic of Ireland, Portugal and Spain to turn to the eurozone for financial help during the region's debt crisis.ALL THE POLITICIANS CAN DO IS TAKE MONEY AWAY FROM PEOPLE WHO EARN IT.
IDF special forces arrested ten Palestinian men overnight Friday on suspicion of hurling rocks at an Israeli vehicle and being behind an attack that led the car to veer off the road, hit a truck, and leave a three-year-old girl fighting for life. Three members of her family are moderately injured.It was a form of terrorist attack. If anything, it was Islamic jihad. I hope the youngest victim will be okay. Nevertheless, the perpetrators must be given severe jail terms and even hard labor for the damage they caused.
The suspects were arrested after "accurate intelligence that was quickly assembled" reached the army, the IDF said. Duvdevan undercover soldiers took part in the arrest operation.
Eights suspects were arrested in the village of Haras, and two in the village of Harath, southeast of Kalkiliya.
The arrest operation was led by the commander of the Efraim Regional Brigade, Col. Ran Kahana. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the Israel Police also took part. The suspects have been taken for questioning.
The IDF said it took a grave view of rock throwing attacks, and vowed to continue to act overtly and covertly to secure the residents of the area.
A senior army source told The Jerusalem Post, “We will, through intelligence and operational steps, seek to capture the attackers.”
Among those lightly wounded on the bus by glass shattered by rocks was the wife of former Likud MK Yehiel Hazon.
But the Magen David Adom medics who raced to the scene near the Barkan settlement, not far from Ariel, around 6:25 p.m. focused on the mother, 32, and her daughters, aged two, four and six.
It took 25 minutes to pull the family out of the car, medic Muawia Kabha said.
The youngest girl was not breathing and was resuscitated with a mouth-to-mouth procedure, he said. Medics were able to revive her, but she was unconscious and in critical condition, he said.
The mother was also in moderate condition but was conscious, Kabha said. The two girls in the back seat were moderately wounded, because they were not in the part of the vehicle trapped under the truck, he said.
“It was an awful scene. It looked like a terrorist attack,” he added.
The mother, the toddler and the six-year-old were moved to Schneider Hospital after being taken to the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva, while the four-year-old was sent to Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer. As of press time, the toddler was in surgery.
Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said police had received a number of calls about stone-throwing on the road at that time.
Bayit Yehudi chairman MK Naftali Bennett reacted Thursday evening to the rock terror attack that has left a baby struggling for her life in hospital, alongside her wounded mother and two sisters.Everyone must pray for the life and safety of this innocent child.
"Rocks kill," he wrote on his Facebook page.
"A three-year-old toddler is currently in critical condition because of a rock terror attack.
"A mother and her three daughters (3, 4 and 5) were driving on the Trans-Samaria Highway a short time ago. A terrorist threw a rock at a truck, causing the truck to veer and hit the vehicle of the mother and her daughters.
"The baby girl, as we said, is in critical condition. And the mother and the two other girls are in moderate condition.
"Some people take rock throwing lightly, and prevent action against them. Rock throwers are trying to murder and they need to be treated accordingly.
"Let us pray for the life of the baby girl."
Adina Bar-Shalom, the eldest daughter of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, said on Tuesday that the lack of English and Mathematics education in haredi schools was a serious obstacle in increasing the numbers of haredim in higher education.I think it's pretty clear why they haven't - they're so stuck on welfare they simply cannot wake up and smell the coffee. Aryeh Deri acts vindictive and so do the UTJ leaders, and just at a time when Iran is a problem. Instead of being united, they do their darndest to divide. If they want to set a good impression, they'd do well to join these committees even as opposition members to help better the state of society.
Bar-Shalom established the Haredi College in Jerusalem, the first academic college for haredi men and women in Israel, where students can study for degrees in numerous fields such as computer science, medical science, psychology, social work and others. [...]
The overwhelming majority of haredi educational institutions teaching grade nine and above do not include any secular education in their curriculum at all, focusing instead on religious studies. Girls generally continue with a general education throughout their time in elementary and high school.
There are approximately 7,000 haredi students enrolled in higher education programs, representing a dramatic increase over the last decade but a small percentage of the number of college aged haredi youth.
According to a recent study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies, haredi employment for men has fallen from close to 88% in 1979 to 48% in 2011. The rate of employment for haredi women is approximately 61%, according to the Bank of Israel, with the national average for women standing at 66%.
The new Knesset caucus was established by Yesh Atid MK Dov Lipman, who, together with MK Erel Margalit (Labor), chairs the group.
Lipman said he founded the caucus because of the large high number of requests he received from haredim during the election campaign asking for assistance in matters of employment.
“The time has come for us as the country’s lawmakers along with the government ministers to do more to assist haredim to enter the work force and sustain their families,” said Lipman. “There is a gap between the haredi political leadership and the haredi street, and it is here where we can make a real difference.”
In the previous Knesset, Yoel Hasson, a former MK for Kadima, established a similar caucus in 2012 along with several other MKs, including David Azoulai of Shas. As of yet, Lipman’s caucus does not include any haredi MK members, although he maintains he personally invited all haredi MKs to join.
The British Labor party suspended politician Lord Nazir Ahmed over allegations that he blamed a road accident that he caused on a Jewish conspiracy.Sadly, he probably won't be the last. For all we know, there'll likely be more coming in during the next election in 2-3 years.
Ahmed, 55, was jailed for causing a deadly road accident while texting behind the wheel. Earlier Thursday the Times of London cited him as saying that his prison sentence was a result of pressure applied on the court by Jews “who own newspapers and television channels.”
Following publication of these remarks, a Labor spokesman said: "The Labor party deplores and does not tolerate any sort of antisemitism.
"Following reports in the Times today we are suspending Lord Ahmed pending an investigation."
The Board of Deputies of British Jews condemned Ahmed’s comments saying he had recalled the worse anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
“We are appalled by Lord Ahmed's alleged comments which recall the worst Jewish conspiracy theories. However outlandish and incredible his allegations, there will always be gullible or malicious individuals or groups that will accept what he has said and add to the growth of anti-Semitic discourse,” said Board chief executive Jon Benjamin.
“We note that Lord Ahmed has now been suspended from the Labor Party pending a full investigation. If he is found to have indeed made the reported comments, he should be expelled from the Labor Party, as such views should have no space in responsible political discourse,” he added.
Ahmed became one of the first Muslim peers in the UK after former British prime minister Tony Blair appointed him in 1998.
The ultra-orthodox parties are natural allies of Mr Netanyahu. “We wanted a broader more stable coalition and we didn’t hide that at any stage of the negotiations, unfortunately our partners wanted differently,” Zeev Elkin of Mr Netanyahu's Likud Party told Israel radio. “Under the difficult near impossible conditions, we had no other option and more or less had to conduct coalition talks under extortion, there is no other expression to describe it, under these conditions I think we obtained the maximum.”Oh, they're natural allies alright! Shas betrayed Netanyahu more than twice years before, to say nothing of the Zionist camp in Israel, and would not back him for prime minister because he wanted to cut back on the welfare payments given to the Haredi community. And Aryeh Deri said:
Arieh Deri – the leader of the ultra-orthodox Shas party, told Israel’s Army radio that, “our first mission is to topple this government.”Tsk tsk tsk. They contradict themselves almost immediately.
With the signing of a coalition agreement set for Thursday night, Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid wrote to Facebook fans Thursday, “Well, this is probably the end, or actually, the beginning...”What can I say? He might make a pretty good choice for the role.
Lapid, who fought hard to wrest control of the Education portfolio from Likud, added an apology for “the long silence,” writing that “every word would have had too many interpretations and spins.
“After we sign the final document (probably tonight) I’ll update and explain, but it was important to tell the Facebook community of Yesh Atid (There’s a Future) I am still here and will continue to be here, because our dialogue is part of the new politics where elected officials do not close the door and leave the day after receiving their position. Thank you for all the support, and thank you for caring,” Lapid wrote.
Lapid has won the post of Finance Minister. The party’s Number Two, MK Rabbi Shai Piron, will take the Education Ministry portfolio – ending a week-long battle with the Likud over the post.
Following an announcement that Ariel University students will not be invited to hear US President Barack Obama speak during his trip to Israel, Bayit Yehudi MK Yoni Chetboun condemned the exclusion of West Bank institution.Does he intend to visit the PLO's headquarters even as he snubs the Knesset? I don't see what the point is of his coming to visit here if he's going to shun a segment of society, which is a very poor example for a politician.
Obama is scheduled to make a speech in Jerusalem on March 21 as a part of his Middle East visit. The president's advisers said he will not be speaking at the Knesset because he does not intend to address politics.
Chetboun said that Obama's decision was "puzzling" and inconsistent. On the one hand the president announces his intentions are not political, he said, "but in the same breath he makes a political decision, boycotting Ariel University."
MK Chetboun added that "if the president invites students of all Israeli universities, he should also invite representatives from Ariel University, which is recognized by the Israeli government as legitimate academic institution."
Shai Gill, Chairman of Ariel University's student council said that the students were "shocked by the discrimination."
Gill added that this decision has provoked hostility among students and promised their presence in the vicinity of the event.
