Wednesday, December 31, 2008

SOME PROOF THAT THE ECONOMY HAS BOTTOMED OUT AND IS HEADING UP...

CNNMONEY: BONDS ARE STEADY: Bonds hold tight in thin trading
With little money going in or out of Treasurys to close the year, bonds make very small movements despite two dour economic reports.Treasurys were little changed Tuesday, even after more dour reports on housing and consumer confidence.

Bonds have traded in a close range for the past two weeks, with very subtle changes brought on by ultra-thin trading heading into the last days of the year.

"With year-end trading, a lot of people are staying on the sidelines," said Peter Cardillo, chief market strategist at Avalon Partners.

"Bonds have been strong, so it will take a lot in the market to change them significantly," he added.

THE FLIGHT HAS PANICKED ENDED...

CNNMONEY: Jobless claims down sharply

Filings ease in Christmas week to below the 500,000 level, backing away from 26-year high.

The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, according to a government report released Wednesday, as a year filled with layoffs and income cuts draws to a close.

The Labor Department said initial filings for state jobless benefits fell to 492,000 for the week ended Dec. 27, a decline of 94,000 from the 26-year high of 586,000 claims a week earlier.

BLOOMBERG:Libor at Four-Year Low as Central Banks Offer Cash, Cut Rates

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of borrowing in dollars in London for three months dropped for the third day, ending 2008 at the lowest level in more than four years as policy makers provide cash and lower interest rates.

The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, for such loans fell one basis point to 143 basis points, the least since June 8, 2004, according to British Bankers’ Association data. Singapore’s comparable rate for U.S. funds slipped one basis point today to 1.44 percent, the lowest level since June 2004. The Libor-OIS spread, a measure of cash scarcity, narrowed.

“There’s no reason for the easing in rates not to continue,” said David Keeble, head of fixed-income strategy in London at Calyon, the investment-banking unit of Credit Agricole SA. “The banking sector is more stable and cash is coming into the system.”
  • I PREDICT: THINGS ARE GONNA GET BETTER FASTER THAN MOST PEOPLE THINK.
  • APRIL-MAY THINGS ARE OKAY.
  • UNLESS OBAMA BLOWS IT WITH A TAX INCREASE...

IDIOTIC LIBERAL MORAL RELATVISM ON DIPLAY: MCARDLE CAN'T DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE IDF AND HAMAS

MEG IS AN IDIOT:
Megan McArdle:

The problem with Israel-Palestine blogging — Everyone engaged in it is interested in proving that one side is righter than the other. Since no action in the region has occurred without plausible provocation for 4,000 years or so, this requires constantly shifting the metrics by which you measure whichever side you happen to favor.
FWIW: MCARDLE IS A FAVORITE OF GLENN REYNOLDS. SHE HAS GUEST-POSTED ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS.

THE BLOGGERS LISTED ABOVE DEMOLISH HER BS. CHECK'EM OUT!

MCARDLE'S INABILITY TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN HAMAS' AGGRESSION AND THE IDF'S REPRISALS IS A PRECURSOR FOR OUTRIGHT ANTI-ZIONISM. AND SHE'S JUST THE TIP OF THE ANTISEMITIC LIBERAL ICEBERG.

YES: ANTISEMITIC: WHEN YOU HOLD ISRAEL TO DIFFERENT STANDARDS THAN YOU DO ANY & ALL OTHER COUNTRIES THEN YOU ARE BEING ANTISEMITIC.

A CARETAKER SENATOR FOR NEW YORK: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOP THE NYTIMES, AP AND NY'S DEMOCRATIC PARTY BY A FEW WEEKS!

AP/NYTIMES TODAY:NY Democratic Advisers Talk Up 'Caretaker' Senator
Filed at 3:32 p.m. ET

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Sen. Bill Clinton? Sen. Mario Cuomo? Don't completely rule it out.

The former president and the former New York governor are among several boldface names being touted as possible ''caretakers'' for New York's Senate seat -- people who would serve until the 2010 elections but wouldn't be interested in running to keep the job. As the process of picking Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's replacement gets messier, the option may become increasingly attractive to Gov. David Paterson, who has sole authority to name a successor.

A spokesman for Bill Clinton, Matt McKenna, said Wednesday that the former chief executive isn't interested in the job and plans to continue the work of his foundation. Cuomo declined through a spokesman to discuss the Senate seat.

A big name could have an immediate impact for New York in the Senate while letting the large field of hopefuls duke it out in 2010, according to three Democratic Party advisers in New York and Washington who are close to the discussion with Paterson's inner circle on this issue.
I BLOGGED THIS TWICE OVER THE LAST FEW WEEKS, HERE:

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

NY GOVERNOR SHOULD APPOINT MARIO CUOMO TO REPLACE HILLARY ON CONDITION THAT HE PROMISES HE WON'T SEEK TO RETAIN SEAT IN THE NEXT ELECTION
  • THIS WOULD BE A FAIR REPLACEMENT FOR NEW YORKERS,
  • AND IT WOULD MAXIMIZE THE CHANCE THAT ALL PERSONS WHO MIGHT RUN FOR THIS SEAT WILL RUN FOR IT BECAUSE IT WILL BE AN OPEN SEAT.
  • THIS IS SIMILAR TO HOW BIDEN AND DELAWARE ARE HANDLING IT - THOUGH JOE WANTS IT THAT WASY SO HE CAN BEQUETHE HIS SEAT TO A SON.

Permalink - Posted by Reliapundit @ 6:57 PM
AND HERE:

Saturday, December 20, 2008

NY GOVERNOR SHOULD APPOINT MARIO OR FERRARO TO FINISH HILLARY'S SENATE TERM
FERRARO CAME OUT AGAINST "PRINCESS" CAROLINE.
  • GOOD.
  • BUT GERALDINE WOULD BE EVEN BETTER.
  • SHE COULD ACCEPT AND PROMISE NOT TO SEEK REELECTION, LEAVING THE SEAT OPEN TO A FAIR PRIMARY CONTEST BETWEEN CAROLINE AND ANDREW CUOMO - SHOULD HE DECIDE TO RUN FOR THE SENATE AND NOT THE GOVERNORSHIP.
MORE HERE.
Permalink - Posted by Reliapundit @ 5:58 PM -
REGULAR READERS KNOW WE DO THIS ALL THE TIME.

SPREAD THE WORD. BLOGROLL US. BOOKMARK US.

RUBIN: IS GAZA WAR STILL THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND?

Barry Rubin at the GLORIA Center writes about why Israel is taking on the Hamas in Gaza now, and making clear that it doesn't and shouldn't have anything to do with the upcoming election.

UPDATE: YUP, ANOTHER SCOOP: WE POSTED A LINK TO THIS A HALF-DAY BEFORE INSTAPUNDIT.

REGULAR READERS KNOW THAT WE DO THIS ALL THE TIME. SPREAD THE WORD. BOOKMARK US. BLOGROLL US.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!



New Year Cheer

At the sound of the tolling midnight bell,
A brand new year will begin.
Let's raise our hopes in a confident toast
To the promise it ushers in.

May your battles be few, your pleasures many,
Your wishes and dreams fulfilled.
May your confidence stand in the face of loss
And give you the strength to rebuild.

May peace of heart fill all your days.
May serenity grace your soul.
May tranquil moments bless your life
and keep your spirit whole.

- Author Unknown

In spite of all the national and world events going on apace, it behooves us to pause, remember that a new year is upon us, and recall how much beauty still abounds:

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS EVERYONE: ON 12/13/08 PREDICTED THE IDF ACTION AGAINST HAMAS IN GAZA

I WROTE THIS ON DECEMBER 13TH 2008:
[JPOST:] "An Iranian Red Crescent vessel due to set sail for Gaza this week carries a "hidden agenda," providing cover for an attempt by Teheran's al-Quds Force to spread its influence and possibly ferrying intelligence agents, an American expert warned on Saturday.

Iran's Red Crescent Society announced on its Web site last week plans to dispatch the ship with 1,000 tons of humanitarian aid.

The Iranian Red Crescent ship sailing to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip is an example of Teheran's effort to gain political influence through social aid programs, subvert societies with intelligence agents acting as charitable officials, and encourage the Sunni Muslim street to believe that the Iranian regime is on their side, despite its Shi'ite face," Prof. Raymond Tanter, president of the Washington-based Iran Policy Committee, told The Jerusalem Post.
  • PERHAPS THE HIDDEN AGENDA IS A WMD - AND A MEANS OF DETONATING IT NEAR TEL AVIV?
  • ER, UM... I MEAN... I'M SUSPICIOUS BECAUSE THERE'S NOTHING PARTICULARLY "HUMANITARIAN" ABOUT THE IRANIAN REGIME. AND GAZA IS PRETTY CLOSE TO ISRAEL - LAST TIME I CHECKED A MAP, AND THE IRANIANS WANT TO WIPE ISRAEL OFF THE MAP.
  • I SUSPECT THIS SHIP'S APPROACH TO GAZA IS A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO ISRAEL.
  • WE'LL SEE IF AND WHAT THE IDF OR THE SIXTH FLEET DOES .... IN ABOUT A WEEK...
I WAS EXACTLY RIGHT.

NO OTHER BLOGGER PREDICTED THIS.

REGULAR READERS KNOW THIS AIN'T THE FIRST TIME I HAVE DONE THIS.

SPREAD THE WORD. BLOGROLL US. BOOKMARK US.

LEDEEN HAS MORE ON THE CENTRALITY OF IRAN IN THE GAZA HERE.

BBC: MORE PHONY LEFT-WING VICTIMS FOUND: 4 OF PINOCHET'S SUPPOSED "DISAPPEARED" LOCATED

BBC: Pinochet-era 'disappeared' found
Three people listed as "disappeared" in Chile during General Augusto Pinochet's military rule have been found or died in other circumstances, it has emerged. Their names surfaced as investigators looked into a previous non-victim who has lived in Argentina for 35 years.

Gen Pinochet's supporters have long said reports of the missing, officially put at more than 1,183, are false.

President Michelle Bachelet, who was detained in the 1970s, said these cases must not cast doubt on Chile's missing.

"Speaking as a woman who herself suffered this pain and as president of the nation, I am not going to accept that the suffering of families who are still awaiting truth and justice be taken advantage of nor much less played with," said President Bachelet.

She said she hoped all political forces would oppose any attempt to manipulate or score points over a subject that Chilean society had confronted with "responsibility and maturity".

The cases have given ammunition to supporters of the late Gen Pinochet who have long argued that cases of the "disappeared" are ficititious, says the BBC's Gideon Long in Santiago.

They have also embarrassed the state which has handed out thousands of dollars in compensation to the victims' families, he adds.
RTWT.
  • PINOCHET WAS WORSE THAN FRANCO BUT BETTER THAN ALLENDE AND A MARXIST CHILE.
  • FRANCO AND PINOCHET SAVED THEIR NATIONS WORSE HARM.
  • THE "DISAPPEARED" WAS A MASTERPIECE OF LEFTIST PROPAGANDA, AS PHONY AS AL DURA AND JENINGRAD. AND AGW.

BRILLIANT SATIRE FROM VDH: WHAT "PROGRESSIVES" MIGHT ASK ISRAEL TO DO TO "EVEN THE PLAYING FIELD" AND MAKE THEIR COUNTER-ATTACK "PROPORTIONATE"...

PURE GENIUS:

Some Moderate Proposals [Victor Davis Hanson]


1) Request that 50% of Israel's air-to-ground missiles be duds to ensure greater proportionality.

2) Allow Hamas another 1,000 free rocket launches to see if they can catch up with the body count.

3) Have Israeli soldiers congregate in border barracks so that Hamas's random rockets have a better chance of killing military personnel, to ensure it can claim at least a few military targets.

4) Redefine "holocaust" to refer to deaths of terrorists in numbers under 400 to give greater credence to Hamas's current claims.

5) In the interest of fairness, allow Hamas to establish both the date that war is supposed to begin and the date when it must end.

6) Send Israeli military advisers to Hamas to improve the accuracy of their missiles.

7) Take down the barriers to return to Hamas a fair chance of getting suicide bombers back inside Israel.

The Sense of Proportion [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Over at my Washington Post discussion group, I respond to claims that Israeli military action has been excessive:

The traditional just-war standard is that military action should be "proportionate" in that it causes fewer harms than it seeks to prevent. That's a sane and sound moral standard. It does not mean that military means must inflict only as much pain as the enemy has inflicted.

My comment can be taken as an implicit response, as well, to supporters of Israel who have suggested that the just-war tradition should be at least partially abandoned. These supporters err, I think, in agreeing with many of their foes on what proportionality means.

ABC'S "TOP VIRAL VIDEOS OF 2008" MISSES THE REAL #1

VIDEO OF ABC'S TOP FIVE LIST IS HERE.

BUT THEY LEFT OFF THE REAL NUMBER ONE:



MCCAIN LOST, BUT THE HERO WHO MADE THIS VIDEO DID NOT.

WAS THE TIMING OF ISRAEL'S HAMAS-GAZA COUNTER-ATTACK DETERMINED BY THE IMMINENT ARRIVAL OF THAT IRANIAN "HUMANITARIAN" AID SHIP?

JUST ASKING...

WE POSTED ON THIS LAST WEEK:
COINCIDENCE OR PLAN OF ATTACK: HAMAS TRUCE WILL END JUST BEFORE ARRIVAL OF IRANIAN SHIP
HAARETZ: MESHAL WON'T RENEW "TRUCE" WITH ISRAEL, SO IT WILL EXPIRE ON 12/19.

A FEW DAYS LATER AN IRANIAN SHIP - WITH 1000 TONS OF "HUMANITARIAN" AID - WILL ATTEMPT TO MAKE PORT IN GAZA.

GUESS: HAMAS WILL TRY A MAJOR ATTACK ON THE FIRST NIGHT OF HANUKKAH.

Permalink - Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:50 PM
AND HERE:
IRANIAN SHIP HEADED FOR GAZA - WITH "HIDDEN AGENDA"... OR A WMD!?
JPOST:
An Iranian Red Crescent vessel due to set sail for Gaza this week carries a "hidden agenda," providing cover for an attempt by Teheran's al-Quds Force to spread its influence and possibly ferrying intelligence agents, an American expert warned on Saturday.

Iran's Red Crescent Society announced on its Web site last week plans to dispatch the ship with 1,000 tons of humanitarian aid.

"The Iranian Red Crescent ship sailing to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip is an example of Teheran's effort to gain political influence through social aid programs, subvert societies with intelligence agents acting as charitable officials, and encourage the Sunni Muslim street to believe that the Iranian regime is on their side, despite its Shi'ite face," Prof. Raymond Tanter, president of the Washington-based Iran Policy Committee, told The Jerusalem Post.
  • PERHAPS THE HIDDEN AGENDA IS A WMD - AND A MEANS OF DETONATING IT NEAR TEL AVIV?
  • ER, UM... I MEAN... I'M SUSPICIOUS BECAUSE THERE'S NOTHING PARTICULARLY "HUMANITARIAN" ABOUT THE IRANIAN REGIME. AND GAZA IS PRETTY CLOSE TO ISRAEL - LAST TIME I CHECKED A MAP, AND THE IRANIANS WANT TO WIPE ISRAEL OFF THE MAP.
  • I SUSPECT THIS SHIP'S APPROACH TO GAZA IS A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO ISRAEL.
  • WE'LL SEE IF AND WHAT THE IDF OR THE SIXTH FLEET DOES .... IN ABOUT A WEEK...
STAY TUNED...

Permalink - Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:31 PM
MY GUESS IS IT WAS A FACTOR. BECAUSE IRAN IS A MAJOR FACTOR IN DESTABLIZING THE REGION, ESPECAILLY BY AIDING HAMAS - AND HIZBALLAH.

BTW:

A 48 HOUR CEASE-FIRE WOULD BE A GREAT THING FOR THE IDF:

IT WILL ENCOURAGE MANY HAMASTANI JIHADO-TERRORISTS TO STICK THEIR COWARDLY HEADS UP OUT OF THE GROUND WHEREUPON FATAH AGENTS CAN TARGET THEM AND HELP THE IDF KILL THEM.

THE RETURN OF EBOLA?

Excerpt from this article in the BBC News:
Eleven people have now died in an outbreak of Ebola in central Democratic Republic of Congo, say aid workers.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said one woman died on Sunday, while another man succumbed in Mweka on Christmas Day.

MSF is treating 24 other suspected Ebola cases at isolation units in the villages of Kaluamba and Kampungu.

It is monitoring 102 people who may have had contact with the virus. The latest outbreak in Western Kasai province emerged in late November.

[...]

It is the first Ebola outbreak in Africa since February and the fourth in DR Congo since 1976....
And in the Philippines:
The USDA's Plum Island Animal Disease Laboratory has isolated an atypical porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus from swine samples collected from pigs from four farms north of Manila. The pigs exhibited clinical signs similar to those observed in cases of Porcine High Fever Disease in China and Vietnam....

The Plum Island researchers also isolated the Reston-Ebola virus from 6 of the 28 swine samples tested.
This marks the first time the Ebola virus has been isolated from swine.

[...]

The Reston-Ebola strain is different from other Ebola subtypes, which are all potentially fatal to humans. The Reston-Ebola strain is of Asian origin and can be aerosol transmitted unlike the Zaire and Uganda strains. Also, the Reston strain has not caused illness in humans who come in contact with infected animals....
So far. But the potential for jumping species always exists.

Mubarak: We'll open Gaza crossing only if PA takes control

Egypt has drawn a line in the sand. They will only extend a hand to help Palestinians, if they get rid of Hamas. 

That's pretty much the same demand Israel is making. 

From Haaretz:

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Tuesday that his government will not fully open its crossing into the Gaza Strip unless Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority is in control of the border post. 

The speech Tuesday from Mubarak came despite criticism of Egypt in the Arab world over its refusal over the past year to open the Rafah crossing, which has helped complete an Israeli blockade of the territory. 

Since Israel's offensive in Gaza began Saturday, Egypt has allowed some wounded to cross from Gaza for treatment and some humanitarian supplies to enter the territory. 

But Egypt resists dealing with the Islamic militant Hamas because it opposes the militant group's 2007 takeover of the Gaza Strip and insists Abbas is the legitimate Palestinian leader. 

When Sharon gave Gaza to the Palestinians he set up a situation where the Palestinians would then be forced to govern themselves. They chose Hamas as their government.

In doing so, they have made enemies of former allies. The Palestinians are now marginalized and delegitimized like never before.

And, you can thank Sharon for this, because it was his strategy that got us here.

Discussion continues at "Punditarian"

JR has posted a reply to my previous comments at Dissecting Leftism. Reliapundit thinks the topic is not appropriate for TAB, so I have re-posted my first comment to my blog, Punditarian, and I have just posted another comment there, as well. See you there!

Monday, December 29, 2008

STILL NO MENTION OF GHEIT'S CONDEMNATION OF HAMAS IN THE NYTIMES... IS THIS WHY: SULZBERGER LOOKING FOR ARAB MONEY TO SAVE HIS ASS???

STILL NO MENTION OF GHEIT'S CONDEMNATION OF HAMAS IN THE NYTIMES; HE BLAMED HAMAS FOR BRINGING ON THE CURRENT SITUATION.

WHY WOULD THE NYTIMES NOT PRINT THIS?
  • TO SPARE THEIR PROGRESSIVE/LEFTIST/ANTI-ZIONIST READERS!?!?!
  • MAYBE.
  • OR.... PERHAPS PINCH DOESN'T WANT TO ALIENATE AN ARAB EMIR WHO MIGHT INFUSE THE NYTIMES WITH MONEY AND SAVE HIS POSTMODERN LEFTIST ASS?
THAT'S MY GUESS.

I THINK PINCH WOULD RATHER SELL TO A WAHHABIST THAN RUPERT!

WHAT WOULD THE LEFT DO IF THEY FOUND OUT THAT SODOMY CAUSED GLOBAL WARMING

OR ABORTIONS???

JUST ASKING.

'CAUSE IT SURE DOES SEEM AWFULLY CONVENIENT HOW POLICIES THE LEFT PROPOSES TO MITIGATE AGW ARE SO DANG SIMILAR TO POLICIES THEY'VE ALWAYS SUPPORTED...
  • LIKE SOME GENIUS OUT THERE RECENTLY OBSERVED:
  • IT'S CURIOUS HOW EVERYTHING THE POSTMODERN LEFT HAS ALWAYS DISLIKED (INDUSTRIALIZATION, TRADE, SO-CALLED "SUBURBAN SPRAWL", CONSUMERISM, ANTI-CHOICE LAWS, ETC) WOULD BE IMPROVED BY THEIR CLIMATE CHANGE POLICIES.
  • AND IT'S CURIOUS THAT CLIMATE CHANGE ALWAYS SEEMS TO BE GOOD FOR BAD THINGS - (LIKE ENCOURAGING THE GROWTH OF POISON IVY).
SERIOUS COMMENTARY FROM WALTER WILLIAMS HERE.

PHOTO OF FLYING SAUCER FLYING OVER SATURN?


FLYING SAUCER FLYING OVER THE SATURN?


SCROLL DOWN















NOPE:






YAMAKA FLYING OFF OF POPE'S HEAD!

Twisted German approach to antisemitism

They have decided that it is really "Islamophobia" that is the problem and ignore the antisemitism that they are supposed to be studying
"At a time when Jew haters in the Islamic world have become more assertive than ever, Berlin's Center for Research on Anti-Semitism is concentrating on a different group: the "new enemies of Islam." Who exactly belongs to this category is not clear from the center's latest publication, the "Yearbook for Research on Anti-Semitism." But the potential danger is supposedly known: "The fury of the new enemies of Islam is similar to the older rage of anti-Semites against the Jews," writes Prof. Wolfgang Benz, the institute's director...

It is certainly necessary to oppose the demonization of Muslims and discrimination against them, which often have racist motivations. The Berlin center, whose research covers prejudices in general, is right to address this issue. The problem lies in the way it is being done. The Berlin center adopts the neologism "Islamophobia" without any reservation. This term is misleading because it mixes two different phenomena -- unjust hatred against Muslims and necessary criticism of political Islam -- and condemns both equally....

In taking up the fashionable vocabulary of Islamophobia and equating hostility to Muslims with hostility to Jews, the center also risks undermining the most important current task in dealing with anti-Semitism: studying and fighting hostility to Jews in the Islamic world, where anti-Semitism has reached an unprecedented level. For example, one of the authors in the latest Yearbook, Jochen Mueller, proposes a "revision of politics and history teaching" in German schools. Because the Holocaust has no "central meaning for migrants from the Arabic-Muslim world," one should consider whether "the colonial period and its consequences" would not be a better subject for "appropriate 'Holocaust education'" among Muslim students in Germany. This is a remarkable idea given the degree of Holocaust denial among many young Muslims.

Another article in the Yearbook, "Hostility to Islam on the World Wide Web," goes even further. Instead of criticizing anti-Semitism among Muslims, the author criticizes those who accuse Muslims of anti-Semitism.... Here, attempts to fight "hostility to Islam" threaten to turn into tolerance of anti-Semitic attitudes.

While the Berlin center concentrates on world-wide "anti-Islamic resentments," its Yearbook says not a word about the anti-Semitism of the Iranian mullahs. Thus, it hardly does justice to the demands for contemporary research on anti-Semitism. Never before has the elimination of the Jewish state been so loudly propagated. Never before has an influential power made Holocaust denial the center of its foreign policy, as Iran has today. Never before has a U.N. forum been misused for an anti-Semitic speech, as it was on Sept. 23 by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier criticized the speech as "blatantly anti-Semitic."

Source

Germans want to stop study of the Holocaust? How surprising! (NOT). I suspect however that it takes a German mind to turn these supposed friends of Jews into friends of the enemies of the Jews.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Biology and the Jews

My recent meditations about the fate of the Jews were of course put on the net with some trepidation. Almost any discussion of the topic at all is likely to elicit immediate shrieks of racism -- particularly if a gentile is making the comment and the comments are not wholly laudatory. I am therefore delighted to see that a reasonably polite "Reply" to my comments has appeared below on this blog which addresses my arguments rather than simply abusing me.

I offer a reply to his comments on Dissecting Leftism

Posted by John Ray.

WHAT WILL OBAMA SAY WHEN HE THINKS THE TIME IS RIGHT?

The Jerusalem Post/AP Wire report that for now, Barack Obama is just "monitoring" the Gaza/Hamas situation:
A top adviser to Barack Obama said the US president-elect is monitoring Israel's intense air offensive again Gaza rocket squads and Hamas members but declined comment on the fresh Mideast crisis, deferring to the Bush administration.

David Axelrod said Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, was in contact with US President George W. Bush and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice but that comment from him was not appropriate. More than 290 Palestinians have died in the first two days of the air campaign.

"President Bush speaks for the United States until Jan. 20 and we're going to honor that," Axelrod said Sunday.

Axelrod, a top presidential campaign official who is moving into Obama's White House inner circle, acknowledged that the United States has had a "special relationship" with Israel, calling it an "important bond, an important relationship."

Obama is "going to work closely with the Israelis. They're a great ally of ours, the most important ally in the region," Axelrod said. "And that is a fundamental principle from which he'll work. But he will do so in a way that will promote the cause of peace, and work closely with the Israelis and the Palestinians on that."
I think they've just spoken already, and implied what many predict - classic moral equivalence. Plus, what they say about being allies, I'm sorry, but I doubt he considers Israel that.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

ODDLY ENOUGH: NYTIMES DOESN'T COVER THE FACT THAT EGYPT'S FOREIGN MINISTER BLAMES HAMAS

GEE... I WONDER WHY?
  • COULD IT BE THEY ARE PROGRESSIVES FOR HAMAS?
  • COULD IT BE THEY WANT TO KEEP THEIR DWINDLING BASE LEFT-WING READERS IN THE DARK - AND MAKE ISRAEL SEEM AS BAD AS POSSIBLE?
  • YES. AND YES.
PINCH SULZBERGER'S RAG IS SOUNDING MORE AND MORE LIKE BAGHDAD BOB.

The Jews Will Survive, but Will Europe?

Our esteemed co-blogger JR, an incisive and iconoclastic thinker, recently wondered here if the Jews will survive. He linked to two longer essays on one of his other blogs, Dissecting Leftism, here and here. There was some controversy in the comments, and I don't wish to turn this blog into an internecine circular firing squad, but I think that JR's observations deserve a little further airing out. If Reliapundit, our host, permits.

In his second posting, JR boiled down his main point in raising the question of Jewish survival to this:
My point is that Jews should be cultivating their allies NOW -- while such allies (American fundamentalist Christians) are available. Fundamentalist Christians are strong people in the face of the hostility of the world and have therefore remained supportive of Israel despite the scornful attitude that many Jews seem to have towards them -- but changing churches is an American tradition and church doctrines themselves have undergone a lot of changes even in my lifetime.
That certainly seems like a useful and unobjectionable observation.

Some of the points he used to support that conclusion, however, are subject to varying interpretations, and survival is something I think that many if not most Jews are very sensitive about. After all, how many members of any other group can honestly say that there are hundreds of millions of people who are instructed to solve the world's problems by killing them off?

In his first posting, JR began by challenging the Jewish view that they have succeeded by surviving a hostile world, wondering if the small number of Jews in the world didn't in fact suggest the opposite. He wrote:

Their small numbers reveal Jews as a biological failure. Reproduction is the prime imperative in biology and reproductive fitness has to be judged by reproductive success. I have always admired the wisdom of Gideon but from a biological viewpoint, strength is in numbers. So the roughly 10 million Jews in the world today is not impressive.
Perhaps JR is not impressed. But that number of 10 million (it may be 15 million, but why quibble?) certainly compares well with the number of Danes, Swedes, Finns, and Norwegians in the world, and is well in excess of the number of Latvians, Lithuanians, and Estonians. Not to mention the Navajos, Dakotas, Cherokees, and Zunis. Does Jewish reproductive success really look so bad when compared with other small nations?

Because of course when compared with the Hittites, Jebusites, Amalekites, Midianites, Moabites, Ugarites, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Scythians, Thracians, Medians, not to mention the Goths, Vandals, Alans, Avars, and other nations of the ancient world, the Jews have been fantastically successful; all of those nations are extinct. (And the cultural identities of ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, and ancient Rome are also more or less completely vanished.)

JR's confusion is revealed in his next comparison:
By contrast, there are around one billion Christians in the world. So why have Christians flown so far ahead of Jews in reproductive success? Originally, there were a lot more Jews than Christians.
The problem is that he is comparing the number of members of a nation, with the number of adherents of a religion. How many Christians today are the direct biological descendants of the Christians who were alive in the first century? Not many, I'd say. The vast majority of today's Christians are the descendants of proselytes. The success of Christian proselytism is indeed impressive, although it pales in comparison with the success of the Muslims and the socialists. But to expect the Jews, who are a nation, and not a proselytizing religion, to compete in numbers with doctrines who set themselves the goal of mastering the world does not seem to me to be a fair test.

The test of history, of survival in the face of unrelenting suppression and intermittently murderous persecution over 2,000 years, would seem to indicate that the survival of the Jews is a good bet.

But why so much concern with the survival of this admittedly tiny nation? Why not similar articles on the demographic threats facing the Tutsi and the Hutu, the Aymara and the Chechen? Why do the Jews so exercise such fascination?

The answer to that, I think, lies in the abrogation by both the Christians and the Muslims of key aspects of the Jewish tradition. The Christians acknowledge their origin within that Jewish tradition, although they have through most of their history claimed to have superseded it, by replacing the Jews with the Church. The Muslims absurdly claim that their religion antedates the Jewish tradition, and that the Jewish tradition is an illegitimate version of Islam. But both of these religions are, in a sense, profoundly embarrassed by the persistent survival of the Jews, living exemplars that neither Christianity nor Islam is all-encompassing. In parts of the world untouched by Christianity or Islam, the Jews are not such a preoccupation. To the Indian, the Chinese, or the Japanese, the Jewish nation is just another one of the many tiny barbarian cultures in the world, and does not excite much general interest.

There may be another reason. The pseudonymous columnist, "Spengler," who publishes at the online Asia Times, has written many columns over the past few years on the demographic catastrophe that is overtaking Europe. Many European nationalities are no longer reproducing in numbers sufficient to maintain their populations. Their fertility rates have fallen below the critical number that ensures survival. In 100 years, there may be no Italians, no Spaniards, no Germans, and no Russians. In 50 years, the populations of many European nations will have been reduced 15% to 50% to a geriatric remnant. They will have been replaced by Afro-Arab populations that are moving into Europe in numbers more significant than the great Voelkerwanderung of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.

According to "Spengler," it was the European nationalities' self-consciousness of their impending doom that moved them to adopt Christianity, and which colors their reactions to the Jews. He notes that half of the world's known languages are going extinct and observes:
Just as every individual must reckon with his eventual death, the peoples of the world foresee their eventual extinction, be it however distant in time. Indeed, the love of the peoples for their own nationhood is sweet and pregnant with the presentiment of death. Love is only surpassing sweet when it is directed toward a mortal object, and the secret of this ultimate sweetness only is defined by the bitterness of death. Thus the peoples of the world foresee a time when their land with its rivers and mountains still lies under heaven as it does today, but other people dwell there; when their language is entombed in books, and their laws and customs have lost their living power.

A sick cat or dog will crawl into a hole to die. The members of sick cultures do not do anything quite so dramatic, but they cease to have children, dull their senses with alcohol and drugs, become despondent, and too frequently do away with themselves. This is not due to an inborn death-drive, contrary to the odious Freud, but rather a symptom of a culture's mortal illness.

That is why pagans become Christians. That is, individuals embrace Christianity when their pre-Christian culture no longer can transmit their memory as well as their genes to future generations. Christianity, in that sense, succeeds precisely where "natural law" fails. Self-confident and secure pagans do not seek life eternal through belief in Jesus Christ, for they are quite happy to believe in themselves. It is when they have reason to cease to believe in themselves, when the depredations of the empires, or the great tide of globalization, overrun their defenses and expose their mortal fragility.
In another column, "Spengler" notes that the Jewish tradition may be the only traditional culture in the world that expresses a sincere liking for life:
The better one gets to know the Jews, the more peculiar they appear. "Remember us unto life, O King who delights in life," they pray on the solemn occasion of their New Year, which this year fell on September 13. Unfeigned and spontaneous delight in life is uniquely Jewish; the standard Jewish toast states, "To life!" while the most characteristic Jewish gibe admonishes, "Get a life!" We are not dealing here with so-called lust for life that involves a pile of broken dishes and a hangover the next morning. Instead, the Jews evince a liking for life as such. That is not only unusual; it is almost unnatural.

Life as such is not that likable. As Mephistopheles taunted Faust in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's tragedy, life in its totality was fit only for a god, too hard a cracker for ordinary humans to digest. That seems to be the prevalent opinion across epochs and cultures. Socrates told us to despise life and instead to view death as the highest good. Buddhism teaches us to regard it as an illusion to inure ourselves from its attendant pain. From the Spartans to the Vikings, the martial cultures of the pagan world showed contempt for life, for they often fought to the death. Pagans aspired to a glorious death; I can think of not a single instance in the history of the Jews, whose wars of antiquity were frequent and ferocious, of the mention of a "glorious death". The very notion is repulsive to Jewish sensibilities.
He admits that the Chinese also have a life-affirming culture:
Professor David Layman of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, observes that the Jewish outlook is not quite unique. In correspondence with this writer, he notes, "There is one prima facie exception: China. The stereotypical vision of popular religion (the 'folk' customs and traditions that underlay all Chinese practice) is summarized as 'prosperity, progeny, and longevity': wealth, descendants, and long life. But I am not sure that exception carries the full weight of the Jewish formula. In my reading of Chinese religious development, the primal Chinese formula is no different from the Deuteronomic dictum in 30:19: 'This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.'"

Professor Layman adds, "However, at that point [the] Chinese and the Jewish traditions diverge. Deuteronomy 30:20 continues, 'and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.' What intervenes, of course, is the supernatural event of the Covenant.
But why are the Jews so content with life? According to "Spengler," because their survival as a people, as a nation, is not in doubt:
It's easy for the Jews to talk about delighting in life. They are quite sure that they are eternal, while other peoples tremble at the prospect impending extinction. It is not their individual lives that the Jews find so pleasant, but rather the notion of a covenantal life that proceeds uninterrupted through the generations. Mephistopheles is right: life as such, the run-of-the-mill business of being born, having children, growing old and dying, is not an attractive proposition. The desire of all nations is eternal life, to be exalted above this muddy vesture of decay. A people that clearly foresees its own end will crawl into a hole and die like a sick animal, as we observe so tragically among aboriginal populations forced into communication with the modern world.

What makes the Jews different is their unique belief that the Covenant gives them eternal life, a belief grounded, to be sure, by thousands of years of history, and survival against all odds against the depredations of the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Alexandrine and Roman empires, not to mention more recent unpleasantness. It is not changing the baby's diapers or changing grandma's bedpan to which the Jews refer when they speak of delight in life, but rather the idealized, perpetual life of a kinship community.
Perhaps JR should worry more about the survival of the Russians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Spaniards, and Italians than about the survival of the Jews.

FACT: PREVIOUS ARAB-ISRAELI NEGOTIATED AGREEMENTS PROVE THAT THE ANTI-HAMAS COUNTER-ATTACK IS NOT DISPROPORTIONATE

BBC:
Palestinians describe Israel's actions as disproportionate. One Israeli civilian was killed by rocket fire on Saturday while medical sources in Gaza say they expect the death toll there to reach 250.
SARKOZY AND OTHERS AROUND THE WORLD AGREE WITH GAZANS.

THEY ARE ALL WRONG.

PROOF:
  • WHEN HAMAS OR HIZBALLAH OR FATAH NEGOTIATED PRISONER EXCHANGES WITH ISRAEL THE RATIO OF ARAB-TO-ISRAELI PERSONS HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN ABOUT A 250-500-TO-ONE RATIO:
    TOL(2008): Five Hezbollah prisoners were set free for the remains of the two soldiers, the most notorious among them Samir Qantar, who spent almost 30 years in an Israeli prison for the killing of an Israeli father and his young daughter. Israel also returned the bodies of nearly 200 Palestinian and Lebanese militants that had been killed in clashes over the past decades.
  • OR THIS (2004): In exchange for the bodies of three Israeli soldiers, missing since October 2000, and one Israeli businessman, abducted in October 2000 under questionable circumstances, Israel released more than 430 Arab prisoners on January 29, 2004.
  • OR THIS: Hamas militants involved in seizing an Israeli soldier who they have held captive for 10 months said over the weekend that they had sent Israeli officials, through Egyptian mediators, a list of Palestinian prisoners they would demand released in exchange.

    Palestinian officials have hailed the development as a concrete sign of progress in the case of the kidnapped soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, but Israeli officials cautioned that a deal could still be a long way off.

    Reports in the Israeli press quoted unidentified Israeli government officials as saying that they had received the list and would be reviewing in coming days, but a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would not confirm the reports.

    A spokesman for Hamas, Fawzi Barhoum, said that the list was the sign of progress in the release of Shalit, who was captured by Hamas and two other militant groups in a raid into Israel last June.

    "The names have been presented to the Egyptian mediators, who in turn have presented it to the Israeli side," Barhoum said Sunday. "There is a clear progress in the fact a list of names has been presented."

    The list of approximately 450 names, according to the Israeli media, included Marwan Barghouti, a grassroots Fatah leader and former head of the Tanzim, a militant group. Barghouti was sentenced in 2002 to five life sentences for his role in the death of four Israelis and a foreigner.
  • THIS PROVES THAT ARABS FEEL THAT ONE ISRAELI SOLDIER - OR SOLDIERS CORPSE - WAS WORTH 250-500 LIVING ARABS.
  • BASED ON THIS REALITY, ISRAEL'S COUNTER-STRIKE AGAINST HAMAS CANNOT POSSIBLY BE CONSIDERED DISPROPORTIONATE - IN ANY NUMERICAL SENSE.
IN FACT, HE COUNTER-STRIKE IS VERY RESTRAINED:
  • HAMAS WANTS TO ANNIHILATE ISRAEL AND ISRAELIS - THIS IS WHY THEY ATTACK ISRAEL; THIS IS THEIR ONLY GOAL.
  • IN RESPONSE; ISRAEL LAUNCHES PRECISION AIR-STRIKEs MEANt TO TOPPLE ONLY THE HAMAS REGIME, AND NOT ANNIHILATE THE GAZANS.
  • IF ISRAEL WANTED TO KILL ONE MILLION GAZANS THEY COULD; THE FACT THEY HAVEN'T - AND DON'T/WON'T PROVES THEIR RESTRAINT.
ALSO, THOUGH A SURPRISE, ISRAEL IMPLORED AND WARNED HAMAS FOR MONTHS.

DESPITE THESE WARNINGS, HAMAS REFUSED TO CURTAIL THEIR ATTACKS ON ISRAEL'S SOVEREIGNTY.

THEY ARE GETTING WHAT THEY HAVE LONG DESERVED.

EVEN ABBAS AND THE EGYPTIAN F.M. AGREE - HAMAS GOT WHAT THEY DESERVED:

VIDEO VIA GATEWAY.

Obama may have committed environmental crime by pouring grandmother's ashes into the sea

A ceremony arranged for his grandmother, whom he lost during the election process, may end up causing quite a headache for Barack Obama. In a ceremony held in Hawaii, Obama, teary-eyed, poured his grandmother's ashes into the sea from the sand-lined shore.

Environmentalists were quick to stand up against the move. The reason behind the contention was the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources Protection Law, which prohibits ashes from being dropped into the ocean. According to the regulation in place, ashes must be poured at a distance of at least three nautical miles. It has not yet been determined whether Obama will receive a fine for his actions.

Source


Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

America can't win with its critics

"Retail Sales Plummet," read the Christmas headline in the Wall Street Journal. "Sales plunged across most categories on shrinking consumer spending."

Hey, that's great news, isn't it? After all, everyone knows Americans consume too much. What was it that then Senator Obama said on the subject? "We can't just keep driving our SUVs, eating whatever we want, keeping our homes at 72 degrees at all times regardless of whether we live in the tundra or the desert and keep consuming 25 percent of the world's resources with just 4 percent of the world's population, and expect the rest of the world to say you just go ahead, we'll be fine."

And boy, we took the great man's words to heart. SUV sales have nosedived, and 72 is no longer your home's thermostat setting but its current value expressed as a percentage of what you paid for it. If I understand then Senator Obama's logic, in a just world Americans would be 4 percent of the population and consume a fair and reasonable 4 percent of the world's resources. And in these last few months we've made an excellent start toward that blessed utopia: Americans are driving smaller cars, buying smaller homes, giving smaller Christmas presents.

And yet, strangely, President-Elect Obama doesn't seem terribly happy about the Obamafication of the American economy. He's proposing some 5.7 bazillion dollar "stimulus" package or whatever it is now to "stimulate" it back into its bad old ways.

And how does the rest of the world, of whose tender sensibilities then Senator Obama was so mindful, feel about the collapse of American consumer excess? They're aghast, they're terrified, they're on a one-way express elevator down to Sub-Basement Level 37 of the abyss with no hope of putting on the brakes unless the global economy can restore aggregate demand. What does all that mumbo-jumbo about "aggregate demand" mean? Well, that's a fancy term for you - yes, you, Joe Lardbutt, the bloated disgusting embodiment of American excess, driving around in your Chevy Behemoth, getting two blocks to the gallon as you shear the roof off the drive-thru lane to pick up your $7.93 decaf gingersnap-mocha-pepperoni-zebra mussel frappuccino, which makes for a wonderful cool refreshing thirst-quencher after you've been working up a sweat watching the plasma TV in your rec room all morning with the thermostat set to 87. The message from the European political class couldn't be more straightforward: If you crass, vulgar Americans don't ramp up the demand, we're kaput. Unless you get back to previous levels of planet-devastating consumption, the planet is screwed.

"Much of the load will fall on the US," wrote Martin Wolf in the Financial Times, "largely because the Europeans, Japanese and even the Chinese are too inert, too complacent, or too weak." The European Union has 500 million people, compared with America's 300 million. Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain are advanced economies whose combined population adds up to that of the United States. Many EU members have enjoyed for decades the enlightened progressive policies Americans won't be getting until January 20th. Why then are they so "inert" that their economic fortunes depend on the despised moronic Yanks?

More here

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Saturday, December 27, 2008

London: Muslims Promoting Event With Photograph Of New York In Flames

The End Of Time

That's their name for the event, not ours.

That's Islam - Islam is Jihad - Jihad is Islam.

From the Telegraph:
A Muslim group has provoked outrage after inviting an extremist linked to the 9/11 hijackers to speak at a conference which is being promoted with a picture of New York in flames.

The End of Time event at the East London Mosque, which is being publicised on internet sites including Facebook, will feature a videotaped lecture from Anwar al-Awlaki, who is banned from entering the United States after allegedly acting as a spiritual adviser to three of the September 11 terrorists.

Mr Awlaki, who lives in Yemen, has been described as "an al-Qaeda supporter" by the US Department of Homeland Security, which has accused him in recent months of using video lectures to "encourage terrorist attacks".

He is due to deliver a video lecture at the mosque in Whitechapel on New Year's Day. Speeches will have titles such as The sound of the trumpet – the real terror starts.

Other speakers will include Suhaib Hasan, who advocates implementing sharia in Britain, and Khalid Yasin, who has described the beliefs of Christians and Jews as "filth".

The publicity material for the all-day event appears to be a clear reference to the attacks on New York, and features meteors raining down on Manhattan, setting fire to the city and shattering the Statue of Liberty.

It has already drawn comparisons with the "Magnificent 19" poster, which praised the September 11 hijackers and was used to publicise a 2003 event organised by Al-Muhajiroun, whose leader Omar Bakri Mohammed was later banned from Britain.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: "I would be extremely concerned if the East London Mosque, which has said it is committed to peace, diversity and interfaith dialogue, is giving a platform to such individuals."

In October, Charles Allen, America's undersecretary of homeland security for intelligence and analysis, described Mr Awlaki as "an al-Qaeda supporter, and former spiritual leader to three of the September 11 hijackers".

He claimed the cleric "targets US Muslims with radical online lectures encouraging terrorist attacks from his new home in Yemen".

A trial in New Jersey this month heard that three men accused of plotting to attack a US Army base had watched one of Mr Awlaki's internet sermons, Constants of jihad, the day before they agreed details of the alleged plot.

An informant told the hearing that the message the three men had taken from the video was that: "The time is now."

On his website, Mr Awlaki says: "We will implement the rule of Allah on earth by the tip of the sword whether the masses like it or not".

Robin Simcox, of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: "That these extremist speakers are being given a platform by such an allegedly mainstream mosque, in one of the most Muslim-populous areas in the country, should be cause for serious concern."

A spokesman for the mosque said: "We didn't organise this event, they are just using our facilities."

Right.

We ought to do to that Mosque what the IDF is doing to Gaza today.

SURPRISE COUNTER-STRIKE ON HAMAS: OVER 50 KEY HAMAS TARGETS HIT MULTIPLE TIMES IN UNDER 4 MINUTES

THAT'S WHAT I JUST HEARD ON FOX.

HERE'S HOW THEY PLANNED IT: Disinformation, secrecy, deception: How the Gaza offensive came about
Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces "Cast Lead" operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, which began Saturday morning.

The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike.

Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. According to the sources, Barak maintained that although the lull would allow Hamas to prepare for a showdown with Israel, the Israeli army needed time to prepare, as well.
Advertisement
Barak gave orders to carry out a comprehensive intelligence-gathering drive which sought to map out Hamas' security infrastructure, along with that of other militant organizations operating in the Strip.

This intelligence-gathering effort brought back information about permanent bases, weapon silos, training camps, the homes of senior officials and coordinates for other facilities.

The plan of action that was implemented in Operation Cast Lead remained only a blueprint until a month ago, when tensions soared after the IDF carried out an incursion into Gaza during the ceasefire to take out a tunnel which the army said was intended to facilitate an attack by Palestinian militants on IDF troops.

On November 19, following dozens of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds which exploded on Israeli soil, the plan was brought for Barak's final approval. Last Thursday, on December 18, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the defense minister met at IDF headquarters in central Tel Aviv to approve the operation.
RTWT.

IDF KILLS SENIOR HAMAS LEADRSHIP; 200 HAMAS DEAD; HAMAS INFRASTRUCTURE DESTROYED

200 HAMAS DEAD.

SENIOR COMMANDERS DEAD.

HAMAS SOWED THE WIND.

NOW, THEY ARE REAPING THE WHIRLWIND.


HAMAS SHOULD BE VERY HAPPY:

THEY GOT 14,400 VIRGINS - AND COUNTING!

THEY SAID THEY DID NOT FEAR THIS COUNTER-ATTACK,

BUT NOW THEY RUN AROUND LIKE THE PSYCHOPATHIC COWARDLY CHICKENSHITS THEY REALLY ARE.

ISRAEL GAVE THEM GAZA WITHOUT ANY PRECONDITIONS AND IN RETURN GOT NON-STOP ROCKET ATTACKS.

HAMAS PROMPTLY DESTROYED MUCH DECENT INFRASTRUCTURE LEFT BEHIND - LIKE THE FAMOUS GREENHOUSES - AND ESTABLISHED A ISLAMOFASCIST DICTATORSHIP.

THIS SAYS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ISLAM AND HAMAS - AN ISLAMIC PARTY.

Joel Stein mystified: why are conservatives are patriotic?

Joel Stein, the predictably liberal Los Angeles Times columnist, can't comprehend why conservatives believe in American exceptionalism.

I still think conservatives love America for the same tribalistic reasons people love whatever groups they belong to. These are the people who are sure Christianity is the only right religion, that America is the best country, that the Republicans have the only good candidates, that gays have cooties.

I wish I felt such certainty. Sure, it makes life less interesting and nuanced, and absolute conviction can lead to dangerous extremism, but I suspect it makes people happier. I'll never experience the joy of Hannity-level patriotism. I'm the type who always wonders if some other idea or place or system is better and I'm missing out.

Yes, perhaps Nazi Germany in the thirties would have been a better place for a guy named Stein to live.

Or did Joel Stein somehow forget that it was America's blood, sweat and treasure that defeated the twin scourges of Nazism and Militaristic Shintoism?

Or perhaps the Soviet Union, which murdered upwards of 90 million individuals, would have been a cool place to live: say, a gulag in Siberia.

Or did Joel Stein somehow miss the news that Ronald Reagan's strategy of peace through strength -- ("We win. They lose.") -- led to the economic meltdown of the Soviet bloc and the liberation of millions?

Maybe Stein would have preferred living under the Taliban, in their tolerant and forgiving culture, or in Saddam Hussein's Baathist Iraq, which had an unfortunate propensity to gas and rape its opponents?

Or were Joel Stein's newspapers swiped by the neighbor those days, so that he missed the news of George W. Bush's incredible risk-tasking to liberate fifty million Muslims from the despotic regimes of Bin Laden and Hussein?

Forget the fact that more people try to get into America than any other country. Forget, too, the opportunities afforded entrepeneurs by America's incredible innovation engine linking academia, venture capital and industry; and which has launched companies like Microsoft, Intel, Google and eBay out of whole cloth.

Were it not for America, Stein would -- today -- be living under Nazism, Communism or some other totalitarian regime.

Or, better put, not living.

Does that help you understand American exceptionalism, Mr. Stein, you ignorant pissant? Tribalism? Tribalism has nothing to do with it, you pathetic ignoramus. Were it not for America, were it not for Americans, the world be a far darker place, with hundreds of millions living behind barbed wire, in concentration camps, in death camps awaiting their smoky fate.

Stein, you are an intellectual midget and a bumbling doctrinaire liberal hack. Frankly, I'm surprised you can rub enough neurons together to keep breathing without having to concentrate.

If I were a meaner-spirited person, I'd slit the tires on your home. Instead I'll just mock your astute choice of profession: liberal hack #117 for the dying Los Angeles Times.

MORE UK NANNY-STATE IDIOCY

From Fox News:
Study: Toilet Seat Injuries to Little Boys Appear to Be on the Rise

[...]

There's evidence that crush injuries due to falling toilet seats may be on the rise, Dr. Joe Philip of Leighton Hospital in Crewe and colleagues warn in a letter in BJU (British Journal of Urology) International.

While he and his colleagues typically see just one or two such cases a year, if any, Philip told Reuters Health, they treated four different two- to four-year-old boys with penile crush injuries in the past several months.

[...]

Philip and his colleagues offer the following tips to help families of young boys prevent these injuries from happening....
Go HERE to read what is now advised to prevent these injuries.

For pity's sake, is this what the nanny state is coming to: not allowing little boys to pee on their own and installing special toilet seats, or, more idiotic yet, leaving the toilet seat up all the time?

IDF COUNTER-ATTACKS AGAINST HAMAS IN GAZA

NYTIMES:
GAZA CITY — The Israeli Air Force on Saturday launched a massive attack on Hamas targets throughout Gaza in retaliation for the recent heavy rocket fire from the area, hitting mostly security headquarters, training compounds and weapons storage facilities, the Israeli military and witnesses said.
ROUND UP:

Why the U.S. needs a space-based missile defense against an electro-magnetic pulse attack

America will no more heed this warning than Britain heeded Churchill's warnings about Hitler, of course

Consider Iran. For the past decade, Iran -- with the assistance of Russia, China and North Korea -- has been developing missile technology. Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani announced in 2004 their ability to mass produce the Shahab-3 missile capable of carrying a lethal payload to Israel or -- if launched from a ship -- to an American city. The current controversy over Iran's nuclear production is really about whether it is capable of producing nuclear warheads. This possibility is made more urgent by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement in 2005: "Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved."

Mr. Ahmadinejad takes seriously, even if the average Iranian does not, radical Islam's goal of converting, subjugating or destroying the infidel peoples -- first and foremost the citizens of the U.S. and Israel. Even after 9/11, we appear not to take that threat seriously. We should. Think about this scenario: An ordinary-looking freighter ship heading toward New York or Los Angeles launches a missile from its hull or from a canister lowered into the sea. It hits a densely populated area. A million people are incinerated. The ship is then sunk. No one claims responsibility. There is no firm evidence as to who sponsored the attack, and thus no one against whom to launch a counterstrike.

But as terrible as that scenario sounds, there is one that is worse. Let us say the freighter ship launches a nuclear-armed Shahab-3 missile off the coast of the U.S. and the missile explodes 300 miles over Chicago. The nuclear detonation in space creates an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Gamma rays from the explosion, through the Compton Effect, generate three classes of disruptive electromagnetic pulses, which permanently destroy consumer electronics, the electronics in some automobiles and, most importantly, the hundreds of large transformers that distribute power throughout the U.S. All of our lights, refrigerators, water-pumping stations, TVs and radios stop running. We have no communication and no ability to provide food and water to 300 million Americans.

This is what is referred to as an EMP attack, and such an attack would effectively throw America back technologically into the early 19th century. It would require the Iranians to be able to produce a warhead as sophisticated as we expect the Russians or the Chinese to possess. But that is certainly attainable. Common sense would suggest that, absent food and water, the number of people who could die of deprivation and as a result of social breakdown might run well into the millions. Let us be clear. A successful EMP attack on the U.S. would have a dramatic effect on the country, to say the least. Even one that only affected part of the country would cripple the economy for years. Dropping nuclear weapons on or retaliating against whoever caused the attack would not help. And an EMP attack is not far-fetched.

Twice in the last eight years, in the Caspian Sea, the Iranians have tested their ability to launch ballistic missiles in a way to set off an EMP. The congressionally mandated EMP Commission, with some of America's finest scientists, has released its findings and issued two separate reports, the most recent in April, describing the devastating effects of such an attack on the U.S.

The only solution to this problem is a robust, multilayered missile-defense system. The most effective layer in this system is in space, using space-based interceptors that destroy an enemy warhead in its ascent phase when it is easily identifiable, slower, and has not yet deployed decoys. We know it can work from tests conducted in the early 1990s. We have the technology. What we lack is the political will to make it a reality.

An EMP attack is not one from which America could recover as we did after Pearl Harbor. Such an attack might mean the end of the United States and most likely the Free World. It is of the highest priority to have a president and policy makers not merely acknowledge the problem, but also make comprehensive missile defense a reality as soon as possible.

More here

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Theodore Roosevelt Was No Conservative

There's a reason he left the GOP to lead the Progressive Party

The fact that conservative politicians such as John McCain and writers like William Kristol and Karl Rove are attracted to our 26th president is strange because, if we want to understand where in the American political tradition the idea of unlimited, redistributive government came from, we need look no further than to Roosevelt and others who shared his outlook.

Progressives of both parties, including Roosevelt, were the original big-government liberals. They understood full well that the greatest obstacle to their schemes of social justice and equality of material condition was the U.S. Constitution as it was originally written and understood: as creating a national government of limited, enumerated powers that was dedicated to securing the individual natural rights of its citizens, especially liberty of contract and private property.

It was the Republican TR, who insisted in his 1910 speech on the "New Nationalism" that there was a "general right of the community to regulate" the earning of income and use of private property "to whatever degree the public welfare may require it." He was at one here with Democrat Woodrow Wilson, who had in 1885 condemned Americans' respect for their Constitution as "blind worship," and suggested that his countrymen dedicate themselves to the Declaration of Independence by leaving out its "preface" -- i.e., the part of it that establishes the protection of equal natural rights as the permanent task of government....

In his New Nationalism speech he noted how, in aiming to use state power to bring about economic equality, the government should permit a man to earn and keep his property "only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community." The government itself of course would determine what represented a benefit to the community, and whether society would be better off if an individual's wealth was transferred to somebody else. We can see the triumph of this outlook in progressive income taxation, which TR trumpeted in his speech (along with progressive estate taxes). We may also see this theory in action when a government seizes private property through eminent domain, transferring it to others in order to generate higher tax revenues -- a practice blessed by the Supreme Court in its notorious Kelo v. New London decision of 2005.

Some conservatives today are misled by the battle between TR and Wilson in the 1912 presidential election. But Wilson implemented most of TR's program once he took office in 1913, including a progressive income tax and the establishment of several regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission. Others are misled by TR's crusade against an activist judiciary. But unlike our courts today, the judiciary during the Progressive era properly struck down legislation that violated our bedrock rights to liberty of contract and private property. TR hated the judiciary precisely for standing up for the Constitution; this is certainly no reason for conservatives today to latch on to his antijudicial rhetoric.

More here

I think that another reason why TR is sometimes identified as a conservative is his warlike foreign policy. America built lots of battleships and took over several countries (Cuba, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii) under his influence. But that is in fact not conservative at all. American conservatism is traditionally isolationist. It was Democrats who dragged America into most of its wars -- from WWI to Serbia. Conservatives go to war only when attacked, as in the response by GWB to the 9/11 events. Which is also why FDR pushed Japan into war. He knew that Americans up to that point wanted no part of WWII. TR also had generally realistic views about race -- with his warning about Japan being particularly prescient -- and that certainly separates him from modern-day Leftists. But that did not at all separate him from the Leftists of his day

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here