80 PERCENT OF FRENCH PUBLIC WANTS TOUGHER LAWS AGAINST ISLAMIC VEILS

Ansamed reports:

PARIS, MARCH 25 - The Islamic veil is still very much a national controversy, data from a front-page BVA survey in Le Parisien newspaper showed on Monday.

More than 80% of respondents favor toughening the country's 2004 law, which bans religious dress and insignia in schools, nurseries, and anywhere that involves the care and education of children. Another 83% is in favor of extending the ban to the private sector, and 16% is against.

Socialists, intellectuals, politicians and humanitarian NGOs signed an online petition launched by Marianne weekly, calling on the government to enact a new, tougher law in defense of secularism, one that will explain with ''pedagogy and clarity'' where and when the principle of secularism is to be applied.

Prominent signatories include philosophers Elisabeth Badinter, Alain Finkielkraut and Jean-Pierre Le Goff, Socialist Party secretary Harlem Desir, and several former ministers. For influential think tank Institut Montaigne, the existing law does not need reforming. The debate flared when France's highest court on March 19 vacated the dismissal of a woman from a Chateloup-les-Vignes private nursery school for refusing to remove her Islamic veil in the workplace. School authorities cited the principle of secularism and the school's ''philosophical, political and sectarian neutrality'', but the Supreme Court replied that since secularism does not apply in the private sector, the dismissal ''constitutes in this case an act of discrimination on grounds of religion''. Interior Minister Manuel Valls hotly criticized the ruling, which he said ''brings secularism into question''. Since 2004, French law bans ostentatious wear of all ''religious insignia'' in public schools. A law banning women from wearing the full-body Islamic veil (burqa and niqab) in all public places, including the street, was enacted in 2011. Women defying the ban risk fines of 150 euros.

It's not just the enforcement in itself, it's also having the right kind of police on duty to deal with it. If there's other Muslims around who might "aid their comrade" by causing violence, then they need more recruits to handle it.

It's amazing to see that even members of the Socialist party are willing to get behind the demand for better protection of private businesses.

A MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IN NATURAL GAS DEVELOPMENT

Israel's natural gas discoveries off the coast are now being developed for business:

Natural gas from the Tamar field off Israel's Mediterranean shores began flowing on Saturday, the head of a partner in the field said in a statement.

Israel, once energy poor, is expected to become a gas exporter by the end of the decade, with the Tamar field holding enough reserves to meet the country's gas needs for decades.

The gas discovery in 2009 led to an exploration frenzy in the Levant Basin - shared between Israel, Cyprus and Lebanon - and the uncovering of a second bigger find, Leviathan, which prompted Israel to set up a natural gas wealth fund.

"Today (we begin) independence in Israeli natural gas. It is an enormous achievement for the Israeli economy and the start of a new era," said billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, the controlling shareholder in Delek Group, one of the partners in Tamar.

The gas should lead to a reduction in production costs for state utility Israel Electric Corp as well as a decline in the price of electricity, the Water and Energy Ministry said last week.

It may not be immediately, but in a couple years, the business of natural gas development should help bring down prices tremendously and make the country more prosperous too.

EIFFEL TOWER EVACUATED FOLLOWING BOMB THREATS

There was a threat made by phone from the suburbs of Paris that led to an emergency evacuation:

Around 1400 visitors to the Eiffel Tower were rushed out of the world-famous monument after an anonymous phone call threatening an attack on Saturday night, police said.

The tower was reopened after around two and a half hours after police searches failed to find any suspicious objects.

The call came from the Paris suburbs and threatened an attack at 9:30 pm (2030 GMT), police said. Police anti-terrorism officers were investigating.

Bomb alerts targeting monuments and public places happen frequently in Paris, but all alerts are "treated very seriously," police said.

Security has been stepped up across France amid concerns about threats to the country over its military campaign against Islamists in its former colony Mali.

Even if the call was a hoax, the authorities did the right thing to clear the area, because thanks to all the Islamists they let into the country in past decades, the danger of terrorism is very real.

HERE'S A NEW SYMBOL USING RED "EQUALITY" IMAGE

OFFERED WITHOUT COMMENT:

OKAY, I'LL COMMENT:

• SAYING "3 = 4" CAN NEVER MAKE IT SO.

• THE MOST REPRESSIVE IDEOLOGIES ON EARTH ARE NEITHER CONSERVATIVE OR JUDEO-CHRISTIAN.

I WILL HAVE RESPECT FOR THE LIB'N LEFTIE FOLKS FIGHTING FOR "MARRIAGE EQUALITY" WHEN THEY FIGHT SHARIA, AND GLOBAL JIHAD AS HARD AS THEY FIGHT NORMATIVE TRADITIONS OF THE WEST.

BTW: THE CURRENT, NORMATIVE, TRADITIONAL DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE DOESN'T PROHIBIT GAYS FROM MARRYING; THEY JUST CAN'T MARRY A PERSON OF THE SAME GENDER REGARDLESS OF THEIR "SEXUAL ORIENTATION".

AND GAYS EVERYWHERE IN THE USA CAN HAVE CIVIL UNIONS - AN INSTITUTION THAT CLINTON AND OBAMA SUPPORTED UNTIL RECENTLY.

PEOPLE WHO STILL FEEL AS OBAMA AND CLIN TON DID LAST YEAR ARE NOT NEANDERTHALS NOW ANYMORE THAN OBAMA AND CLINTON WERE LAST YEAR.

BRRRRRRR!: COLDEST BRITISH EASTER EVAH!

Coldest Easter Sunday on record, Met Office confirms 

Easter Sunday has been confirmed as the coldest Easter day on record, with the lowest temperature recorded as -12.5C in Braemar, in the Scottish Highlands. 

The previous coldest Easter day since modern records began in 1960 was Easter Monday in 1986, which dipped to -9.8C, the Met Office said. Average temperatures for this time of year are between 10C and 13C. The prolonged cold spell covering the UK could last until mid-April, forecasters say. Easter Monday is expected to remain very cold.

IOW: AGW = TFBS.

AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN SLAMS NETANYAHU'S APOLOGY TO ERDOGAN

Avigdor Lieberman has written an op-ed where he takes issue with the Israeli prime minister's embarrassing apology to the Turkish premier, and he also says that:

If it is detrimental to the Israeli people’s basic sense of righteousness and morality, such an apology, no matter how much it seems to be in the country’s immediate political interest, inflicts long-term damage outweighing the short-term benefits.

The soldiers who risked their lives on behalf of the State of Israel on the Mavi Marmara deserve better.

The army is surely the one who suffered the biggest insult from Netanyahu's irresponsible apology, which he apparently did without even consulting the IDF before doing it.

PLO'S THOUGHT CONTROL ON FACEBOOK

A man in the PLO's regime has been jailed just for approving of a post critical of them:

A Palestinian man who clicked “Like” on a Facebook status criticizing a Palestinian Authority official has been sentenced to six months in prison.

Anas Ismail, 29, of Salfit, near Nablus, was found guilty of “libel and slander.”

Ismail is the second Palestinian to be imprisoned for Facebook activities in the past few days.

He was sentenced to prison on the same day another PA court in Bethlehem sentenced Palestinian journalist to one year in prison for sharing a photo on Facebook that compared PA President Mahmoud Abbas to a villain and the spy of French colonial authorities in a Syrian drama.

Why would anyone want to compare Abbas to a spy for French authorities? Obvioulsy, because of insanity and the impression that their best cronies aren't good enough for them.

This is one of the most telling examples of Orwellian thought control being conducted by the PLO, yet the MSM considers Israel the "oppressor", not the Islamists.

Update: Jonathan Tobin has more.

MUSLIM ANTI-SEMITISM IN HOLLAND

Barry Rubin's written about the growing anti-semitism marketed by Muslims in the Netherlands, and how even the MSM in that country is only contributing similarly to the problem with their own anti-Israelism.

BLACK SLAVERY IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES TODAY

Dr. Charles Jacobs notes how enslavement of blacks in Muslim countries continues unaddressed even as Israel Apartheid Week is fully condoned by anti-Israel campus dwellers:

Meanwhile, however, in Sudan and Mauritania, racist Arab societies enslave blacks. Today. Most of the slaves are African Muslims. Yet there is no Arab Apartheid Week on American campuses. Why not?

One might think American student activists would be upset about Mauritania, the West African country with the largest population of black slaves in the world – estimates range from 100,000 to more than a half-million. In Mauritania, slaves are used for labor, sex and breeding. The wholly owned property of their masters, they are passed down through generations, given as wedding gifts or exchanged for camels, trucks, guns or money.

Surely, life is not so good in a Palestinian Arab refugee camp– no matter who is to blame, but it’s undeniably a whole lot worse for Mauritanian slaves. According to a Human Rights Watch/Africa report, routine punishments for slaves in Mauritania – for the slightest fault – include beatings, denial of food and prolonged exposure to the sun, with hands and feet tied together. More serious infringement of the master’s rule (in American slave-owning parlance, “getting uppity”) can lead to prolonged tortures known as “the camel treatment,” in which the slave’s body is slowly torn apart; the“insect treatment,” in which tiny desert insects are inserted and sealed into the ear canal until the slave is driven mad; and“burning coals,” a torture not fit to describe in a family newspaper.

The cases that the rights groups focus upon are not determined by the nature, extent or degree of suffering by the victims, but rather by the identity of those thought to be the oppressors.

Perhaps the reason for silence on campuses about these things is that the story of black slaves and their Arab masters remains unknown there. It would, of course, be a sensitive topic: slavery has existed in Mauritania since the 12th century, when Arab tribes from the Arabian Peninsula invaded and conquered North Africa. Raiders then stormed African villages to the south, pillaging, enslaving and converting the indigenous peoples to Islam.

While the Koran forbids the enslavement of fellow Muslims, just as in the West, in North Africa racism trumped religious doctrine. The descendants of those Arab invaders are today’s slave owners. The descendants of those captured as slaves in jihad raids are in human bondage today. These are, then, black Muslim slaves – who, for racist reasons, aren’t allowed to touch the Koran with their black hands, who can’t marry without their owners’ permission, and whose children belong to the master.

Not all blacks in Mauritania are slaves. But all are oppressed by Arab colonialism. Arab Berbers (or “White Africans”) constitute less than a third of Mauritania’s population of 3.5 million people, but they control the government and military, as well as the education and the court systems.

An important reminder that Arabs, whatever their religions, are as white as can be, regardless of whether they're lighter or darker complected. Yet they're apparently allowed to maintain slavemongering by the leftarded crowd simply because of their Religion of Peace. I have a hard time believing that the subject is literally unknown to the left. Their belief system is the problem.

BRITONS FAVOR BANNING SHECHITA...

But not halal ritual? Almost half of those polled dislike Kosher methods:

About 45 percent of 1,900 Britons polled favored banning shechitah (Jewish ritual slaughter) and 38 percent said they favored banning nonmedical circumcision.

In the poll, which was conducted last week by the YouGov polling agency for The Jewish Chronicle of London, 45 percent of respondents backed banning ritual slaughter, known as shechitah. Another 28 percent said they were undecided and 27 percent opposed such a ban.

When asked about “male circumcision for religious reasons," 38 percent supported a ban, 35 percent opposed a ban and 27 percent were undecided, The Jewish Chronicle reported this week.

Among 18-24 year-olds, 41 percent would ban both nonmedical circumcision in underage boys and ritual slaughter of animals for food.

Presumably, they have no such opinions on Islamic halal methods, nor are they concerned about Muslim ideas for how circumcision should be managed. What a sad case of a country.

DAVID STOCKMAN'S NEW BOOK LOOKS FASCINATING

WASH POST REVIEW HERE.

EXCERPT:

Over the past 40 years, the United States has become a strange fantasy land where many politicians think deficits don’t matter, regulators are closely entwined with their charges, and the Federal Reserve manages the economy through high-stakes, high-risk experimentation. The financial turmoil of the past few years is just a glimpse of what lies at the end of the road we’re on, Stockman warns. 

In showing us where it leads, he takes the long way, ambling past the wreckage of fiscal and market calamities dating back a century, pausing to praise the gleaming fiscal conservatism of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, then arriving at the ever-more-dire failures of the last generation. 

The country began veering badly off course, Stockman argues, in August 1971. That was when Nixon decided to scrap the international financial arrangement that anchored the dollar’s value to gold and thus other currencies in the decades after World War II. “In an act that cascaded down through the decades, Richard Nixon caused the United States to default on its . . . obligations . . . and thereby inaugurated an era of global trade imbalance, currency pegging and manipulation, massive debt creation, and financial speculation that had no historic antecedents,” Stockman writes. “It became the era of bubble finance.” 

First came the bubble in global oil and commodity prices in the 1970s, then the bubble in U.S. stocks in the 1980s, the Tokyo bubble of the late 1980s, the Asian bubbles of the 1990s, the tech bubble at the millennium and finally the housing finance bubble that imploded so catastrophically in 2007 and 2008. 

Discrete events, the bubbles shared a genesis: They were often inflated by central-bank-created “easy” money — an abundance of low-interest-rate loans and other credit — that had been created to stoke economies, spawn jobs or spur exports. When share prices, or land and housing values, soared unsustainably and then crashed, the central banks reverted to what they knew and doused the smoldering ruins with a flood of yet more cheap cash. That in turn softened the earth for the emergence of the next asset bubble. 

Making things worse was a pattern of chronically shortsighted political decision-making and craven tax policies that distorted sound business practices and encouraged self-destructive behavior by the private sector. 

RTWT.

I DISAGREE WITH MUCH STOCKMAN HAS HAD TO SAY OVER THE YEARS - AND I DISAGREE WITH THE REVIEWER ON A LOT TOO - BUT IT'S  GOOD READ.

Atlanta's Ex-Schools Chief Indicted in HUGE Testing Scandal

NYTIMES: Ms. Parks admitted to Mr. Hyde that she was one of seven teachers — nicknamed “the chosen” — who sat in a locked windowless room every afternoon during the week of state testing, raising students’ scores by erasing wrong answers and making them right. She then agreed to wear a hidden electronic wire to school, and for weeks she secretly recorded the conversations of her fellow teachers for Mr. Hyde. 

In the two and a half years since, the state’s investigation reached from Ms. Parks’s third-grade classroom all the way to the district superintendent at the time, Beverly L. Hall, who was one of 35 Atlanta educators indicted Friday by a Fulton County grand jury. 

Dr. Hall, who retired in 2011, was charged with racketeering, theft, influencing witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements. Prosecutors recommended a $7.5 million bond for her; she could face up to 45 years in prison. 

During the decade she led the district of 52,000 children, many of them poor and African-American, Atlanta students often outperformed wealthier suburban districts on state tests. 

Those test scores brought her fame — in 2009, the American Association of School Administrators named her superintendent of the year and Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, hosted her at the White House. 

And fortune — she earned more than $500,000 in performance bonuses while superintendent.

TYPICAL GOVERNMENT TEACHER: She robbed the government and she robbed the kids.

MORE MUSLIMS KILLING MUSLIMS IN MOSQUES

Car bombs hit five Shiite mosques in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk just after prayers on Friday, killing 19 worshippers and injuring another 130. 

Ten years after the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq is still grappling with political turmoil and Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda, who are stepping up attacks on Shiite targets and security forces.

VIOLENCE IS UP IN IRAQ BECAUSE OBAMA "FAILED" TO GET A TROOP AGREEMENT.

IOW: OBAMA LOST IRAQ.

AND NOTE THAT THESE MOSQUES WERE ATTACKED BY OTHER MUSLIMS.

NOT JEWS.

NOT ISRAELIS.

NOT NEOCONS OR RETHHUGLICANS.

BUT THERE'S NOT A PEEP OUT OF THE UN OR THE ARAB MEDIA OR THEIR COMRADES IN OUR MSM.

TO LEFTISTS, ONLY WHEN ISRAELIS ATTACK IS IT DETESTABLE.

MORE PROOF THAT AGW = TFBS

POWER LINE: 

While climateers continue to beat the drum that each year is among the hottest since Satan opened his first furnace at Hades Hostel for Hapless Heathens, there has been an embarrassed silence, if not outright denial (heh), that temperatures have flattened out over the last 15 years.  Now even the leading climateers can’t maintain a straight face over this any more, as The Economist notes in its lede:

OVER the past 15 years air temperatures at the Earth’s surface have been flat while greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to soar. The world added roughly 100 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010. That is about a quarter of all the CO₂ put there by humanity since 1750. And yet, as James Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, observes, “the five-year mean global temperature has been flat for a decade.” . . .The mismatch between rising greenhouse-gas emissions and not-rising temperatures is among the biggest puzzles in climate science just now. . .  The IPCC’s estimates of climate sensitivity are based partly on GCMs [Global Circulation Models]. Because these reflect scientists’ understanding of how the climate works, and that understanding has not changed much, the models have not changed either and do not reflect the recent hiatus in rising temperatures.  (Emphasis added.)

IOW: AGW = TFBS. 

REMINDER: THE IDEA THAT FASCISM IS "RIGHT-WING" AND COMMUNISM "LEFT-WING" IS COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA

PBS: Are Communism and Fascism totally different things, completely opposed to one another? 

RICHARD PIPES' ANSWER:  

Well, the notion that Communism and fascism are diametrically opposed is something that was fostered by the Communist party, by the Communist International.  

In the 1920s, basically the International defined fascism as any anti-communist movement. If you were anti-communist, it doesn’t matter what platform, you were automatically fascist.  

So that even the western democracies were called fascist.  

This is a meaningless term.  

I use the term Fascism concretely, to apply only to the Italian fascist party and the Nazi to the Nazi party.  

Later these two movements had a great deal in common.  

They were one-party states which gave the workers considerable input into the running of the state, that used socialist slogans without giving them really socialist rights. I mean, the same thing was true in the Soviet Union. They bannered about socialist slogans but they came nowhere near fulfilling socialist programs.  

And they felt a great deal of empathy for each other, all these fascists and communists, because they had a common enemy. The common enemy was liberal, democratic, capitalist state. They hated it, all of it, equally.  

And they had a great deal of admiration for each other. 

You know, Hitler, at the height of the war which his troops were waging with the Russians in 1942-1943, spoke freely to his associates about how after having triumphed over Stalin he will make Stalin his governor over Russia.  

And Mao Zedong, when he was criticized for killing so many of his associates during the Cultural Revolution is quoted as saying, “Look at Hitler. The more cruelty, the more revolutionist zeal.” They greatly admired each other and hated equally well the Roosevelt’s and the Churchill’s and the other democratic leaders in West.

LIKE STALIN'S "WAR" AGAINST TROTSKY, HITLER'S WAR ON STALIN WAS INTERNECINE.

THE IDEOLOGY DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED TO COMMUNISM IS ANARCHISM, NOT FASCISM.

FASCISM IS A FORM OF SOCIALISM AS IS COMMUNISM.

IF YOU BELIEVE IN LIMITED GOVERNMENT AND BELIEVE THAT LIBERTY IS A HUMAN RIGHT, THEN YOU ARE NOT A FASCIST.

YOU ARE REALLY NOT EVEN A CONSERVATIVE.

IF YOU SUPPORT OBAMACARE AND DEMOLISHING THE 2ND AMENDMENT, THEN YOU ARE THE FASCIST.

THANKS TO OBAMA'S POLICIES OF RETREAT AND APPEASEMENT, TALIBAN TAKING OVER KARACHI, PAKISTAN

NYTIMES - KARACHI, Pakistan — This seaside metropolis is no stranger to gangland violence, driven for years by a motley collection of armed groups who battle over money, turf and votes. But there is a new gang in town. Hundreds of miles from their homeland in the mountainous northwest, Pakistani Taliban fighters have started to flex their muscles more forcefully in parts of this vast city, and they are openly taking ground.

THANKS TO OBAMA - AND HIS RETREAT FROM AFGHANISTAN (AND IRAQ), THE TALIBAN MAY GET ITS HANDS NUKES BEFORE IRAN...

THERE IS NO PLACE ON EARTH THAT OBAMA HASN'T LEFT THE ISLAMISTS ON GREATER COMMAND.

UNDER OBAMA, THE ISLAMISTS MADE HUGE GAINS IN LIBYA, SYRIA, EGYPT, IRAQ, AND AFGHANISTAN, (AND THEY EVEN SOLIDIFIED THEIR HOLDS IN PHILIPPINES, AND THAILAND) - AND, OBAMA APPEASED ERDOGAN AND THE AKP IN TURKEY.

(ONLY MALI SEEMS LESS ISLAMIST - AND THAT IS DUE TO FRENCH INTERVENTION.)

SUCH CONSISTENCY CAN HARDLY BE THE RESULT OF ONLY INCOMPETENCE OR ACCIDENT.

IT MUST BE BY DESIGN.

CADBURY PASTRY PANDERS TO MUSLIMS

The Cadbury pastry company is making halal products, all for the sake of multiculturalism:

As Cadbury ramps up its inventory for Easter, a little-known fact has come to light about its candies — many are sharia-compliant.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, halal certification has become a big business as sharia law continues to extend throughout Australian culture.

Cadbury’s halal certification includes 71 products which are halal, ranging from Cadbury mini eggs to Caramello Koalas to Red Tulip chocolates. The website also states: ”We do not have any kosher-certified products.”

I guess it's either kosher or halal, since it can't be both at the same time. That's definitely sharia-compliant. All concerned Australians should avoid Cadbury if this is how blatant they're going to act. Another unfortunate revelation is that Nestle is also kowtowing to this as they helped sponsor a halal forum in Malaysia last year.

NATION OF ISLAM PRISON INMATES WANT THEIR OWN SERVICES

So many things are ludicrous about this article:

Commonwealth Court has refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a state prison inmate who claims that prisoners who belong to the Nation of Islam are being denied their religious rights behind bars.

Kevin Mobley, who is serving a life term for murder in the state prison at Fayette, contends in his suit that instead of allowing Nation of Islam members their own religious services, state prison officials require them to worship with other Muslim groups that are hostile to their beliefs. [...]

Mobley, who is acting as his own lawyer, is trying to pursue the suit as a class action that would cover all prisoners who are adherents of the Nation of Islam, an Islamic sect founded in Detroit, Mich., in 1930 with a stated aim of improving the lot of African-Americans.

Just what did they do anyway? Nothing but make them a potential danger, and possibly turning them to socialism, the very ideology that hurt many blacks to start with. Malcolm X only made things worse for blacks after he took up such a poor example.

In his suit, Mobley contends that instead of allowing Nation of Islam inmates their own worship services, they are being lumped in with Sunni Muslims.

That is a hostile mix, he claims, because Sunnis believe the tenets of the Nation of Islam to be blasphemy and that Nation of Islam members aren't true Muslims. He seeks a court order requiring prison officials to allow separate services and religious materials for inmates who follow the Nation of Islam.

Sure, many Muslim sects can be hostile to one another, but that doesn't mean any of them deserve the privileges at all, and they don't. No matter what Muslim sects are in jail, there's the danger of jihad recruitment among all of them, and the influence alone is dangerous. This is exactly why some lawmakers have taken issue with allowing this kind of religious prayer to go on in jails.

THIS SHORT POST EXPOSES OBAMACARE FOR WHAT IT IS

A CRAP SANDWICH.

QUESTIONS ABOUT INTERCOURSE, SEX, EROTICISM - AND LOVE

A WIDE MAN RECENTLY MENTIONED THIS LINE OF REASONING TO ME:

IF SEX IS FOR PROCREATION, THEN ISN'T IT A MISNOMER TO CALL HOMO-EROTIC INTERCOURSE SEX?

DOESN'T IT ONLY SIMULATE ACTUAL SEX?

THEREFORE, ISN'T THE TERM "HOMOSEXUALITY" ENTIRELY INACCURATE AND DOESN'T USING IT PERPETUATE A DELUSION?

AFTER ALL, IT IS POSSIBLE FOR INDIVIDUALS TO BE EROTICALLY STIMULATED BY INANIMATE OBJECTS - SUCH AS SHOES, OR VIOLENCE, AND EVEN BESTIALITY.

SINCE THESE EROTIC ACTS CANNOT LEAD TO PROCREATION AND ARE NOT IN ANY WAY REPRODUCTIVE - AND SINCE THE TWO SEXES EXIST FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROCREATING - THESE ACTS DON'T SEEM TO BE ACTUALLY SEXUAL. 

SEXUAL REPRODUCTION IS NOT THE ONLY WAY ALL LIVING ORGANISMS REPRODUCE, BUT IT IS THE WAY HUMANS REPRODUCE.

STIMULATION THE BRAIN'S EROTIC CENTERS ISN'T NECESSARILY SEXUAL.

LOOK AT IT THIS WAY: 

IF A MAD SCIENTIST IMPLANTED ELECTRODES INTO A THE EROTIC CENTER OF A PATIENT'S BRAIN AND STIMULATED IT, WOULD HE BE HAVING SEX WITH THE PATIENT?

I THINK NOT.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

I DON'T THINK THIS IS MERELY A MATTER OF SEMANTICS.

AS PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS SAID, WORDS MATTER. WORDS COUNT. WORDS HAVE CONSEQUENCES.

CONFERRING HOMO-EROTIC ACTS WHICH SIMULATE SEX THE STATUS OF SEX - BASED ON THE FACT THAT THE ACT LEADS TO ORGASM - MAY VERY WELL BE A ROOT CAUSE OF OUR SOCIETY'S CURRENT DILEMMA REGARDING "GAY MARRIAGE".

IT MAY VERY WELL BE THAT THOSE WHO WANT HOMO-ORIENTED PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO MARRY SEE HOMO-EROTIC ACTS - (WITHIN A STABLE, LEGALLY RECOGNIZED RELATIONSHIP FORMALIZED BY A GOVERNMENT LICENSE) - AS EQUAL TO SEXUAL ACTS BY MARRIED PEOPLE AND THEY THINK IT'S UNFAIR THAT THE GOVERNMENT "DISCRIMINATES" AGAINST ONE AND VALIDATES THE OTHER.

I THINK THAT MOST PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE "GAY MARRIAGE" ARE COMFORTABLE WITH GAY UNIONS WHICH ARE EQUIVALENT TO MARRIAGE IN MOST REGARDS - BUT NOT WITH REGARD TO ADOPTION.

SO IT'S NOT ABOUT PREVENTING GAYS FROM BEING ABLE TO LIVE OPENLY OR FROM BEING ABLE TO SHARE IN OWNERSHIP OF MATERIAL PROPERTY, ETC.

I THINK IT DOESN'T HAVE TO DO WITH "LOVE".

WE CAN ALL LOVE EACH OTHER.

I THINK IT MIGHT VERY WELL BE ROOTED IN WHAT WE THINK SEX REALLY IS.

NEW NAME FOR ECO-NUTSIES: "natural climate change deniers"

LUVVIT:

"... natural climate change deniers..." 

THE PEOPLE WHO BLAME MAN-MADE CO2 FOR NON-EXISTENT WARMING AND ALSO FOR CLIMATE CHANGE THAT'S WELL-WITHIN HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL RANGES ARE THE FOLKS WHO ARE ACTUALLY DENYING REALITY.

DIRECTOR OF UN-ISRAELI MOVIE GETS ASSAULTED BY MUSLIMS

Yariv Horowitz, the director of "Rock the Casbah", a film hostile to the IDF, got attacked at a film festival despite his positions:

Israel screen director Yariv Horowitz was beaten unconscious Thursday by a group of Arab youths as he exited the screening of his film, "Rock the Casbah," at the Aubagne film festival in France. He received treatment and eventually went back to the film competition and received the Jury's Special Prize for Best Film.

In addition, Assaf Amdursky won a prize for the film's soundtrack.

The film takes place in 1989, at the height of the "First Intifada" in Gaza. An IDF unit is attacked by local Arabs, and one of the soldiers is killed when an Arab throws a washing machine on him from the roof of a building. The soldiers are then stationed on the same roof and come into contact with the family of the murderer. The film describes the soldiers' stint and the difficulties and dilemmas they face.

According to reports from Aubagne, it is not clear if the attackers knew that he was Israeli. However, these reports themselves could be biased.

A review of the film in Variety says that "in contrast with classic Israeli war films, the script refuses to idealize the Israeli Defense Forces or demonize the rock-throwing Palestinians. It focuses instead on the soldiers’ human needs and desires (some good food, sleep, a toilet) and their fears. Likewise, the Palestinian family, albeit sketchily drawn, is depicted as both human and humane."

According to a review in Screendaily "Not really interested in creating a plot with actual human relations and character development, the script is put together like a collage of TV reports, meandering from one predictable incident to the next until it suddenly reaches its climactic conclusion in which it suggests that given the right circumstances, even the most dedicated peacenik is bound to pull the trigger."

The director may not have deserved to be subjected to aggravated assault as he was, but neither did he deserve to win a prize for such a grimy film. Yet it's predictable for film festivals like these to reward the most negative movies today.

HAREDI WEEKLY CENSORS IMAGES OF FEMALE HOLOCAUST VICTIMS

If there was ever a time this "haaradat nashim" (exclusion of women) concept in the Haredi press could become truly offensive, it'd have to be in this case, where history's importance is insulted by horrific political correctness and sheer irresponsibility:

One of the most famous pictures marking the atrocities of the Holocaust, was published in the haredi newspaper Bakehila (literally meaning -- in the community), with the faces of all the women censored.

The picture, featuring a Jewish boy in holding his hands up in submission, depicts the surrender of Jews after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, some 70 years ago.

Most of the Jews in the picture were eventually sent on to extermination camps, including the women, among them Matylda Lamet Goldfinger, whose infant daughter was killed a short while after the picture was taken.

The picture, published in the holiday supplement of the newspaper, accompanied an interview with Aryeh Simonson, who said he was the boy in the photo, after years of investigation into the boy’s identity.

In the interview, Simonson discussed the moments of horror he endured before, during and after the picture was taken, in the face of the horrors inflicted by the Nazis.

'No reason to publish entire photo'

Referring to the censorship of women's faces, the editor of the Bakehila weekly, Avraham Dov Greenbaum told Ynet, “The article focused on the subject of the photo, and thus there was no reason to publish the entire photo. We wanted to emphasize the story of the helpless boy. At the same time, we respect the memory of the Holocaust victims, and… also respect our readers, bringing them only what they need and want to see.”

That's a violation of the 10 Commandments, specifically, Thou Shalt Not Lie. If they blot out the faces of the female victims, they're not even respecting the male ones. If I were in Simonson's position, this would be another moment of horror for me. Goldfinger is as much a subject of the photo as Simonson, so Greedbaum is talking out of both sides of his mouth. As for "respect" for readers, it would only be those whose heads are prejudiced. "What they need" sounds very much like the NY Times slogan "all the news that's fit to print".

Daily newspapers in the haredi sector work under the direction of "spiritual commission," an ancient tradition that does not allow the publication of photos of women.

Ynet isn't completely honest and clear either - the mindset leading to this dishonest censorship only dates back to the 19th century. Seldom have I read about something so offensive, especially if we consider that Haredi women were just as much victims during the Holocaust as anyone else in the Jewish community.

AMERICAN PASTOR TORTURED IN IRANIAN PRISON

Pastor Saeed Abedini has been victim of Islamofascism in Iran:

We have just obtained a new letter from imprisoned American Pastor Saeed Abedini written to his wife, Naghmeh, and his family in Iran. In it, as in his previous two letters written inside the brutal Evin Prison, he documents the results of the continued abuse and torture he endures.

This letter, likely written weeks ago, was received by his family just yesterday. Written on the margins of scraps of newspaper, it is only the third letter Abedini has been able to get to his family in the past nearly 180 days of imprisonment and underscores the difficulty of getting any information from Iran about his condition.

Abedini writes that he cannot even recognize himself after all the beatings and torture he has endured: “My hair was shaven, under my eyes were swollen three times what they should have been, my face was swollen, and my beard had grown.”

After multiple beatings in interrogations at the hands of the radical Islamic regime, Abedini wrote that the nurse who was supposed to treat injured inmates told him “‘in our religion we are not suppose to touch you, you are unclean ... Christians are unclean!’” He explained, “they would not give me the pain medication that they would give other prisoners because I was unclean.”

This further confirms the fact that until this week, Abedini had not received any medical treatment. Because of the immense pressure from the international outcry of hundreds of thousands who have demanded his release, Iranian officials have promised him medical treatment, but this new letter sheds light on how difficult it will be to ensure that Iran keeps its word.

The worst part is if the Obama administration remains silent on the poor man's plight. Here is a petition to sign calling for his Saeed's release.

LAIKI BANK OF CYPRUS CLOSED - BILLIONS LOST... BUT ON WHAT????

HERE'S A CLUE - FROM THE BANK'S WEBSITE:

Loans for the Utilisation of Renewable Energy Sources Colour it Green 

Thanks to the hundreds of hours of sunshine we enjoy in Cyprus every year, the generation of electricity via photovoltaic panels is an extremely effective way of harnessing the power of the sun and taking full advantage of this abundant and valuable energy source.As part of its Colour-it-Green range of products, Laiki Bank has designed a special loan scheme for the purchase and installation of photovoltaic equipment, enabling you to buy and install the system you want so as to start producing your own electricity. The loan also provides finance for the purchase of other equipment designed to utilise renewable energy sources, such as solar thermal and small wind systems.The loan is available to private individuals who are permanent residents of Cyprus. It is also offered to legal entities engaged in economic activity within the Republic of Cyprus. Whether you are interested in installing a small photovoltaic system at your home or business premises or are considering investing in a much larger system installed on a plot of land – a “photovoltaic park” –  Laiki Bank can help support you.

NO WONDER THE LAIKI BANK WENT BELLY-UP: THE BANK MADE CRAPPY - IDIOTIC - LEFT-WING INSPIRED, SOCIALISTIC LOANS FOR CRAP NO ONE ON EARTH REALLY NEEDS.

AND NO SANE INVESTOR - INVESTING HER OWN HARD-EARNED MONEY - WOULD MAKE.

OF COURSE, THE POLITICALLY CONNECTED BUSINESSMEN/CO2-CHARLATANS WHO MADE THE SOLAR CRAP "EARNED" MILLIONS.

BTW: THIS TYPE OF SOLAR-BASED BANK CRISIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED HERE EXCEPT OUR BANKS DIDN'T MAKE A LOT OF THESE IDIOTIC, CRAPPY CO2PHOBIC LOANS.

OBAMA DID - WITH TAXPAYER MONEY, AND HE LOST MORE THAT THE LAIKI BANK!

SAUDIS GETTING SPECIAL TRAVEL BENEFITS

Steve Emerson reports that the country that produced many of the 9-11 hijackers are getting benefits that can enable them to bypass US customs much more easily:

Saudi Arabia, the nation which produced 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks, is about to become one of a handful of countries whose travelers can bypass normal passport controls at major U.S. airports. Sources tell the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) that this will mark the first time that the Saudi government will have a direct role in vetting who is eligible for getting fast-tracked for entry into the United States.

An agreement to accept Saudi Arabian applicants into the Global Entry trusted traveler program drew little notice when it was announced in January. Now, some officials question why the country merits such a benefit – which is similar to a theme park “fast pass” to avoid long lines – when other allies like Germany and France are not yet included. A program for Israeli travelers was reached last May but has not been implemented.

Travelers approved for the program can skip the normal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) lines starting next year and enter the country after providing their passports and fingerprints at a kiosk. Only Canada, Mexico, South Korea and the Netherlands currently enjoy the benefit, although pilot programs could expand it to a handful of others.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the agreement in January after meeting with Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. It “marks another major step forward in our partnership,” Napolitano said at the time. “By enhancing collaboration with the Government of Saudi Arabia, we reaffirm our commitment to more effectively secure our two countries against evolving threats while facilitating legitimate trade and travel.”

Details about how the plan will work with the Saudis have not been released. Nayef’s ministry, however, will be responsible for screening which applicants will be considered when the pilot program begins next year. It’s not known whether the Saudi ministry will share its raw intelligence about applicants with its American counterparts. What is known, based on information provided by a Homeland Security source, is that each individual who makes it into the program will have been vetted by both the CPB and by the Saudi Interior Ministry against various databases.

The Department of Homeland Security declined to make anyone available to answer questions about Saudi Arabia’s inclusion in the Global Entry program after repeated requests throughout last week, and after indicating someone would provide more details.

That is cause for concern, given lingering questions about possible Saudi support for some of the 9/11 hijackers and given the Ministry of Interior (MOI)’s inconsistent record on sharing its intelligence on suspected terrorists and terror financiers. Additionally, recent studies by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified significant problems in the way DHS components use computer systems and process intelligence for posting watch list lookouts and overseas screening of foreign nationals.

12 years later, and now weaknesses in policy and security are surfacing again. Heritage Foundation member Jim Phillips says in the article that he wouldn't trust the Saudis to cooperate and provide honest details, and we shouldn't trust them either.

Update: here's more on the case at Michelle Malkin.

NETUREI KARTA MEMBER PETITIONS COURT AGAINST REMEMBERANCE DAY SIREN

One of the vile Neturei Karta extremists who vandalized Yad Vashem with graffiti last year is now filing a motion in court against the special siren sounded on Holocaust Remembrance Day and Memorial Day for soldiers/terror victims, and denigrating their memories in the process:

An ultra-Orthodox man petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice to limit the nationwide siren on Remembrance Day so that it sounds only at memorial sites and army bases, calling the siren a “classic characteristic of a dictatorship.”

Elhanan Ostrowitz, who filed the petition, made headlines last year when he was arrested for vandalizing the Yad Vashem and Ammunition Hill memorials with anti-Zionist graffiti. Six months ago he was found guilty of a number of crimes, including trespassing and vandalism.

The siren which sounds for a minute across Israel on Remembrance Day forces people “to stand at collective attention,” in a manner only found in dictatorships, Ostrowitz wrote in his petition. Because of its nature, the siren should only be sounded on army bases and at memorials, so as not to force everyone to hear it, he elaborated.

Ostrowitz said he, “like many of Israel’s citizens,” felt the siren stopped people from freely expressing their opinions and beliefs, and also caused unnecessary panic among the public. The law demanding “all work and traffic be stopped” during the siren is undemocratic, as it hurts the individual’s freedoms of expression, occupation and other basic rights, he claimed.

Most of the people who stand at attention do so “out of fear and against their personal belief,” Ostrowitz argued. Such actions “define dictatorships… [and] Israel is the only place in the Western world, or maybe the entire world, where a siren is sounded in the entire public sphere,” he stated.

The level of insanity these creepy men are full of is as staggering as it's shocking. If he doesn't want to honor and respect the memory of victims of obscene crimes - which include many Haredis too - he doesn't have to, though I think it's a safe bet he won't find a very comfy place in the next world. But to suggest nobody else should remember or learn about these things is offensive and repellent in the extreme, just like his gang's own revolting mindset. If America, France and Greece have a similar concept to remember their own fallen, the sad part is that publicly or privately, he'd denigrate them as well.

Even if the petition is thrown out, the man's abominable behavior is inexcusable. It's time for people like him to be shown the door from this country, and send them to someplace where they can isolate themselves all they want with their vulgar way of thinking.

ISRAELI NAVY OFFICIAL WHO TOOK PART IN RAID ON FLOTILLA DEFENDS THE EFFORT

A soldier who was part of the raid on the flotilla from Turkey makes clear their actions were justified (Hat tip: Jihad Watch):

"I don’t think we've done anything wrong," said N., a Navy combatant who was involved in the raid on the Mavi Marmara in 2010. "We did the right thing. I'm not ashamed of it and we have nothing to apologize for."

"This apology doesn't imply anything," N., who sustained injuries in the raid, added. "It's meant to promote reconciliation. On a personal level there's no need for apologies, but on a national perspective… it seems like the right thing to do."

A former combat soldier with the Navy told Ynet he was ambivalent about the apology. "On the one hand, there's something very unfair in this – when you're in battle, you fight. And we did nothing wrong. But on the other hand, maybe it's time to end this saga."

As for the decision to compensate the families of the Turkish citizens who were killed in the raid, many Navy soldiers were outraged, saying that IDF soldiers who sustained injuries in the incident have yet to be compensated.

Former Navy commander Eliezer Marom, who was the commanding officer of the 2010 raid told Ynet he was against the Israeli apology. "We must back IDF soldiers. If you start apologizing for combat errors, where will it end? An IDF soldier must be backed.

"I ask myself how this may affect the soldiers," Marom added, "that's what bothers me."

"I might be joining politics soon," the former commander admitted, noting that he was aware of "the prime minister's right to make such a decision – to sacrifice support for the soldiers in order to advance national interests that mean nothing."

Whoever he is, he might make a good addition based on this assessment of the situation.

CHRISTIAN ARAB GIRL WINS MUSIC CONTEST

The winner of The Voice singing contest is Lina Makhoul, a 19-year-old Christian Arab woman from Acre:

For those who believe Israel is a state that practices racism against its minorities, the choice should have been obvious. Of course the Jew would win! Those racist Israelis would never vote for an Arab!

How wrong such sentiments are, as proved on Saturday night, when Israelis voted overwhelmingly for Mahoul, who in turn played to her audience by performing a touching rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."

During her final performance, Mahoul's family and friends could be seen happily enjoying the moment surrounded by Jews. Again, not really a picture of apartheid.

I fully appreciate her victory, though I must admit, based on the offensive discrimination that was leveled against Ophir ben-Shetreet, I would also be happy if she were the winner. And she'd be deserving too. I hope she'll be able to try again and find better luck next time. For now, I congratulate Makhoul for her own win.

FLORIDA LEGISLATION REVIVES BILL AGAINST SHARIA

The Florida senate's managed to pass in a panel a previously unsuccessful bill that can help prevent US judges from resorting to sharia:

After it failed last year, lawmakers on Thursday revived a bill that would ban Shariah, or Islamic, law and other foreign laws from Florida courts.

Republican Sen. Alan Hays, who sponsored the bill, said his measure was a "preemptive gesture." There are no reported cases in which a Florida court applied foreign law.

But they ignore any and all of the cases elsewhere in the US that did.

His bill is aimed at divorce and child custody cases and does not mention Shariah, or Islamic law, specifically. The Senate's Governmental Oversight and Accountability committee cleared the bill (SB 58) by a party-line vote of 6-3.

A bill last year passed the House but never was called for a vote before the Senate.

[...] Several Muslims also spoke against the bill, including Moazzam Adnan Raja, a marketing director from Longwood. Raja soon choked up and cried.
"Show some compassion, show us love," he told senators. "We don't want to be called second-class citizens. We want to be accepted."

Well just look at all those cry-babies failing to act like adults. Especially when they happen to be male. All they deserve is serious disapproval and disappointment in their pathetic attitude.

EUROPEAN CENSORSHIP OF FREE SPEECH HAS BECOME HORRIFIC

Lars Hedegaard had some very sad things to tell The Heritage Foundation:

At yesterday’s debut showing of Silent Conquest: The End of Freedom of Expression in the West at The Heritage Foundation, one of the most shocking moments was a comment by Lars Hedegaard, a Danish historian and chairman of the Danish Free Press Society.

Hedegaard was asked: Could the screening of this movie and the free intellectual discussion of the advance of Islamic Sharia law in the West have taken place at a European—say British—think tank? “No, I don’t think so” was his chilling answer.

The subjects of Islam and Sharia have simply become taboo in many European countries. Free speech advocates, among them moderate Muslim voices, are deeply concerned.

As shown in Silent Conquest, throughout Europe, in Canada, and even in the United States, judicial systems in countries with large Muslim minorities are under pressure to adopt Sharia free speech restrictions. As a result, in many places, including Denmark, it is now a crime to say anything negative about Islam or the prophet Mohammed, regardless of whether such statements are factual or not. The concept that even offensive speech is protected—so fundamental to the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment—is collapsing.

Yes, and it's very grave. The MSM is complicit in all this, and I feel compelled to blame US and even Israeli politicians who do nothing to help countries facing serious danger from Islamofascism. They could do this by speaking out against harmful policies publicly, paying solidarity visits to communities in peril helping recommend what they can do on their part, and calling for foreign governments to amend laws to something that would both protect free speech and enforce better security and self-defense rights. But they're not doing that, and it makes me feel disgusted.

MUSLIM GANG RAPES IN EUROPE UNDERREPORTED BY THE MSM

Digital Journal (via Jihad Watch) tells how long-running political correctness in Europe has led to Muslim rapes being underreported and concealed:

High profile-gang rapes in India have been in the headlines since December. The phenomenon is growing across Europe too, but tends to be under reported due to the high incidence of Muslim perpetrators which makes it politically incorrect to mention.

In December 2011 a Swedish mother-of-two was subjected to a brutal gang-rape by 12 Afghan immigrants in a refugee camp in Mariannelund. Reports stated "The rape was oral, anal and vaginal sometimes with three rapists inside her at the same time while everybody was cheering and clapping. The gruesome rape marathon lasted for 7 hours. 11 suspect may have been involved taking turns while drinking and getting high on drugs. The asylum seekers were cheering and clapping their hands during the rape marathon while calling the victim "whore" and "slut".

According to Vimmerby Tidning "The woman went into shock while the rapes were still underway, and has since been in a heavily traumatised state. She is now subject to nightmares and panic attacks, and lives in a psychiatric clinic. She is bound to a wheelchair due to damages to her abdomen, and suffers from faecal incontinence."

The main perpetrator Rafi Bahaduri, 25, had already committed four other rapes in Sweden. The case is not unique. There is a growing trend of gang-rapes perpetrated against white women by Muslim rapists.

And yet European governments fail to do anything to boost security or mete out proper justice for its citizenry.

PAMELA GELLER'S HEATED ARGUMENT WITH ISLAMISTS ON CNN

Via Mediaite, here's Geller's debate on CNN with a Muslim activist named Linda Sarsour about the AFDI's ads against jihad on San Francisco buses, yet the latter won't even condemn the homophobic statements made by Ahmedinejad. Geller said:

Geller noted that nobody is actually condemning the homophobic statements in the ads and instead they are attacking her. “My calling attention to this makes me homophobic? No, not calling attention to the plight of gays under the Sharia is killing people. So of course attack me,” she said.

“Where is the condemnation of the actual statements that these high profile Muslims are making?” Geller asked.

Only the left is allowed to be homophobic.

NETUREI KARTA ASKED OBAMA TO SAVE THEM FROM "THE ZIONISTS"

When Obama was here, the horrific Neturei Karta sect had something to ask him that should rightfully offend everybody else:

...they planned to cry out from afar and beg Obama to help them fight the Zionists' "iniquities" in general and the IDF draft in particular.

A pashkevil advertisement they published read like this:

"As the welcoming ceremony draws near, Orthodox Jewry wishes to honor His Excellency the President, and to beseech him to exert his influence to help Orthodox Jewry of the Holy Land and thus to save hundreds of thousands of Jews subjugated under the evils and iniquities of Zionism, which is uprooting religion in general, and forcing enlistment in the army in particular (the military being utterly at variance with authentic religion, justice, uprightness, and humanitarian ethics, which have ever been our liberation from the regime of atheistic Zionism."

Once again, we're being told by these freaks that Zionism is "atheist", among other illogic, and they shame the face of Orthodox Jewry with their isolationist hostility to the Jewish state. Those who live here are obviously just interested in the welfare they could exploit until now. If they don't like this country, they should prepare to move elsewhere.

Here's more on The Jewish Press.

GERALDO IS ARAFAT'S APOLOGIST

Via Mediaite and Hot Air, we see the disgusting sight of cruddy news anchor turned (un)aspiring politician Geraldo Rivera defending the indefensible: the PLO's late dictator. And this man, pay careful attention, intends to run for senator in the tri-state area on a Republican ticket.

Anyone who votes for such an atrocious man has got to be out of their minds. I never found him very interesting as a talk show host or a news anchor, and he'd make just as bad - possible worse - a politician.

VERY STUPID OF BIBI: HE APOLOGIZED TO ERDOGAN FOR MAVI MARMARA DEATHS

In what was apparently a gesture for Obama's sake, Netanyahu called up Turkish premier Erdogan to apologize for the 9 deaths on the flotilla a few years ago:

In a dramatic development that occurred just as US President Barack Obama was leaving the country, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke with Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan for the first time since the Israeli prime minister took power in 2009.

Netanyahu voiced regret for the loss of life in the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, apologizing for any mistakes that led to the death of nine Turkish activists. Breaking a three-year deadlock, the two agreed to normalize relations.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed an apology to the Turkish people for any error that may have led to the loss of life, and agreed to complete the agreement for compensation," the statement said.

The conversation was facilitated by US President Barack Obama, taking place during Obama's prolonged meeting with Netanyahu on Friday afternoon. [...]

Erdogan had told Denmark’s Politiken newspaper that he would not take back his comments from several weeks ago that Zionism was a crime against humanity. He did, however, try to explain them as a misunderstanding.“My several statements openly condemning anti-Semitism clearly display my position on this issue. In this context, I stand behind my remarks in Vienna,” said Erdogan in the interview, which was published Wednesday.

What statements condemning hatred did he make? I don't think he's ever made any.

As Ben Shapiro reminds:

[...] The Marmara passengers resisted by beating Israeli troops with iron bars and knives. Nine activists were killed in the ensuing chaos. Even the United Nations found that the blockade by Israel was legal. Turkish attempts to break the Israeli blockade were clearly in violation of international law.

But President Obama, seeking to inject himself into a dispute on behalf of Islamists everywhere, told Netanyahu to call up Erdogan. Netanyahu reportedly told Erdogan that the State of Israel regretted the loss of life and that any loss of life was unintentional. Meanwhile, Erdogan said that he “valued centuries-long strong friendship and cooperation between the Turkish and Jewish nations.” He did not say that he valued friendship with the Jewish state.

What Netanyahu's done - all for Obama's sake - is extremely irresponsible and will not avail Israel's relations with Turkey for long. All it does is encourage Erdogan and company to think they can exploit Israel as they please. This is a very grave error on Netanyahu's part, something he could have avoided, and sadly, he didn't.

Update: Avigdor Lieberman's slammed Netanyahu for his act of dhimmitude:

In response, Lieberman said in a statement, “Anyone who saw the photos taken on the Mavi Marmara understands beyond any doubt that IDF soldiers acted in self-defense against the activists of the IHH organization, which is recognized as a terrorist organization in Europe.

"Such an apology harms IDF soldiers' motivation and their willingness to go out on future missions, and strengthens the radical elements in the region,” said the former Foreign Minister.

"Worse still is the fact that the apology also affects Israel’s uncompromising struggle for righteousness, morality and for the morality of its soldiers," Lieberman said, adding that he appreciates the good relations that existed for many years between the Jewish people and the Turkish people, but the current leadership in Turkey under Erdogan is solely responsible for the deterioration of relations between the two countries.

“Erdogan’s tirades against Israel whenever possible, starting with the attack on President Peres in 2009 at the Davos conference and until his statement a few weeks ago that Zionism is racism and a crime against humanity, along with his refusal to apologize for this statement, violate the dignity and status of Israel in the region and the entire world,” concluded Lieberman.

Netanyahu has only resulted in serious embarrassment. Is it any wonder the Likud didn't do very well in the last election?

Update 2: one of Bayit Yehudi's MKs has responded too:

"And yet, Israel does not have the privilege to apologize for its soldiers actions, when they acted in accordance with the principles of the IDF's ethical code and its definition of 'the purity of arms.' The apology amounts to a knife-stab in the back of the IDF's combat soldiers and commanders. It sends a grave message to our soldiers, 'we don't have your backs.' As a soldier and commander in all sectors of warfare I can testify that government backing is critical for the soldier at the front."

The apology to Turkey will cause more damage than good, the new MK said. "What is more, it constitutes a dangerous precedent that will encourage anti-Zionist organizations to continue [operating] the mechanism of delegitimizing Israel in general and the IDF in particular."

Netanyahu has done a grave disservice to the army. I think I know where his next apology should go to.

NOAA RAINFALL DATA "WILDLY WRONG"

IF THEY CAN'T MEASURE RAINFALL - AND THIS STUDY PROVES THEY CANNOT - THEN HOW CAN ANYONE BELIEVE THEIR OTHER ANALYSES?

WE SHOULDN'T.

AND REMEMBER: EPA BASES A LOT OF THEIR REG'S ON NOAA.

AND NOTE THIS:

THE CO2PHOBIC CROWD ERRORS NEVER EVER GO IN THE DIRECTION OF MAKING CO2 SEEM LESS THREATENING. 

• PLEASE RECALL THEIR "POLAR BEARS ARE VANISHING!" DATA 
• AND THE RECENT "GREENLAND IS MELTING!" DATA 
• AND THEIR "HOCKEY STICK" 
• AND THE RECENT MARCOTT REPORT 
• AND ALL OF HANNSEN'S PREDICTIONS 

HAVE ALL BEEN PROVEN TO BE TRUMPED-UP, PHONY, LIE-FILLED, DISTORTIONS AND TOTALLY, COMPLETELY WILDLY INACCURATE BULLSH*T.

WHICH MEANS THEIR ERRORS AREN'T RANDOM - IF THEY WERE RANDOM THEN ONCE IN A WHILE THEY MIGHT SHOW CO2 MIGHT BE LESS OF THREAT. 

THIS PROVES THAT THEY ARE BIASED AND DELIBERATELY TWISTING THE DATA FOR POLITICAL REASONS.

IOW: THE CO2PHOBIC ALARMIST CAMP SHOULD NOT BE TRUSTED.

• BECAUSE THEIR POLICIES HAVE RAISED THE COST OF ENERGY GLOBALLY...

• ... AND REDUCED THE AMOUNT OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT GLOBALLY,

• THE CLIMATE CHANGE COMPLEX -

• COMPRISED OF LEFT-WING ACADEMICS, REGULATION-LOVING BUREAUCRATS AND LIBERAL POLITICIANS WHO FAVOR SOCIALISTIC POLICIES -

• IS THE SECOND GREATEST THREAT TO WESTERN CIVILIZATION - RIGHT AFTER GLOBAL JIHAD.

THOUGH THEY PROBABLY THINK OF THEMSELVES AS DO-GOODERS AND THOUGH THEY PROBABLY SEE THEIR DELIBERATE LIES AS ULTIMATELY FORGIVABLE (BECAUSE THEY SERVE "THE COMMON GOOD"), THE CLIMATE CHANGE COMPLEX IS ACTUALLY A REGRESSIVE FORCE:

THE POLICES OF THE CO2PHOBIC CLIMATE CHANGE COMPLEX HAVE PREVENTED THE THIRD WORLD FROM DEVELOPING INDUSTRIALLY AND THIS IS KEEPING POOR PEOPLE POOR.

IF WE WANT TO END GLOBAL POVERTY, THEN WE HAVE TO DEMOLISH THE CLIMATE CHANGE COMPLEX.

TWO POPES MEET FOR FIRST TIME EVER!

REAL STORY HERE.

GREAT: SENATE ENDS 4 YEARS OF DERELICTION OF DUTY BY PASSING A BUDGET - $1TRILLION IN NEW TAXES

Senate passes first budget in four years 

Plan calls for nearly $1 trillion in new taxes over the next decade and only modest reductions in government spending, setting the stage for talks with the GOP-controlled House.

A TRILLION IN NEW TAXES HERE. A TRILLION A NEW TAXES THERE. PRETTY SOON, YOU'RE TALKING REAL TAXES.

TODAY'S EDUCATION SYSTEM AND MARXISM

From Conservative Hideout 2.0:

How the State Standards are Indoctrinating our Youth with Marxist Views on the Great Depression

For many long years conservatives have failed badly in teaching the lessons of the Great Depression, instead deferring to the liberals and accepting their ‘lessons’ as the reality of the situation. The damage from years and years of learning the wrong lessons from the Great Depression is that today our nation is replicating the same sorts of policies that led to and lengthened the Depression and it is questionable whether or not there are enough around still educated in different lessons to implement different policies that will lead our nation to greater success and liberty and prosperity.

In 2004, the State of Michigan adopted a revised set of social studies standards- the high school’s standards are called the High School Content Expectations. These HSCE’s are intended to establish what every high school student that graduates from Michigan should know by the time they graduate...

A specific example of material included in this indoctrination program:

...7.1.3 covers “The New Deal,” and according to the state guidelines which all teachers follow which all students learn, students are to take away from this time period several lessons. First, students are supposed to learn that the federal government has a responsibility to protect the environment and should do so by violating the Constitution (TVA) and taking control over formally private business activities- yet this is a judgement and not a history lesson and should not be pushed in public schools. Second, students are supposed to learn that the national government is supposed to be meeting challenges of unemployment by creating jobs, as if a political system designed to protect people’s liberty and property can exist in a nation where the government takes wealth from one group and redistributes it to another and creates businesses in competition to private companies. Students are supposed to learn how the Supreme Court then was wrong in striking down these unconstitutional attempts to twist our nation from a republic into a fascist dictatorship, and that opponents of the New Deal were just heartless and evil businessman who wanted to continue making a buck like the Marxists teach. Finally, students are to learn the consequences of the New Deal, which are listed as “promoting workers’ rights, development of Social Security program, and banking and financial regulation, conservation practices, crop subsidies”- all good consequences and not a single bad consequence listed. Nowhere is it mentioned that the Great Depression was in reality several recessions, all caused by these policies, and that our nation didn’t recover from the Depression until FDR died and many of his policies were rejected and repealed in the 1950′s....

Much more HERE.

Find out what is being taught in our nation's classrooms.  No wonder the parasites are proliferating!

UKIP POISED TO BREAK THROUGH

The UK Independence Party will be "actively targeting" Labour supporters in upcoming local elections in England and Wales, its leader says. 

Nigel Farage will tell activists at their spring conference later that the party has an appeal beyond disaffected Conservative voters.
He is expected to focus on what he sees as the impact of immigration in working-class communities. 

He is also due to voice his criticism of recent press regulation changes.

I THINK WITH THE EURO COLLAPSING AND IMMIGRATION PROBLEMS EXPLODING AND THE ANTI-LIBERTARIANISM OF THE 3 MAJOR PARTIES.... THE UKIP NOW HAS A CHANCE TO WIN BIG.

FINGERS CROSSED...

HMMM: ITALY'S THREE MAIN PARTIES REFUSE TO COMPROMISE AND FORM A GOVERNMENT ...

.... AND NOT A RETHUGLICAN OR TEA PARTIER OR NEOCON IN SIGHT.

I THINK THIS PROVES THAT BLAMING INTRANSIGENCE ON THE RIGHT-WING, (WHICH IS WHAT THE LEFT IS CONSTANTLY  SAYING), IS BS - EVERYWHERE.

I THINK WE'VE ACTUALLY REACHED A POINT WHERE COMPROMISE IS NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE WE ARE AT SUCH A  CRITICAL FORK IN THE ROAD:

THE LEFT WANTS TO "DOUBLE-DOWN" ON THE SOCIALISTIC POLICIES WHICH HAVE DRIVEN CYPRUS AND ITALY AND SPAIN AND PORTUGAL AND IRELAND AND OTHER EU "NATIONS" TO THE BRINK.

THE RIGHT WANTS TO STOP AND REVERSE COURSE.

THE FAILURE TO CHANGE COURSE - OR EVEN SLOW THE SOCIALISTIC PROGRAMS DOWN A LITTLE- WILL LEAD US ALL OVER THE BRINK.

AND SOONER THAN YOU THINK!

SIGH.

AND I DO MEAN US ALL - AS IN THE EU AND THE USA AND JAPAN AND CHINA AND INDIA.... NO COUNTRY WILL BE UNTOUCHED.

THE GLOBAL NATURE OF THIS IMPENDING CATASTROPHE SHOULD BE ENOUGH TO CONVINCE THE STATISTS/SOCIALIST/LEFTISTS THAT IT HAS ABSOFREAKIN NOTHING TO DO WITH THE "BUSH TAX CUTS" OR BUSH'S "2 UNFUNDED WARS" OR "GOP DEREGULATION".

IT'S THE SOCIALISM, STUPID!

SIGH.

IF SOCIALISM WORKED THEN THE USSR AND RED CHINA AND ZIMBABWE AND NORTH KOREA AND CUBA WOULD BE WONDERFUL PLACES TO LIVE INSTEAD OF SH*T TO BE FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET OF HISTORY.

SO... WHY THEN HAS SOCIALISM PERSISTED?

SIMPLE:

DEMAGOGUERY:

POLITICIANS PROMISE THE MASSES THEY CAN KEEP THEIR STATE-DISTRIBUTED GOODIES, AND EVEN GET MORE GOODIES,  BECAUSE THEY WILL MAKE THE OTHER GUY PAY.

AND - SINCE MOST PEOPLE ARE NOW ON ONE TYPE OF DOLE OR ANOTHER - MOST PEOPLE BELIEVE THEM.

SIGH.

OOOOOOOPS!: CLIMATE ALARMISTS FORCED TO ADMIT THEIR "GREENLAND IS MELTING!" INTERPRETATION OF THE RAW DATA WAS ALL WRONG!

WUWT:

Greenland ice melt overestimated due to satellite data algorithm issue
This is an interesting admission: 

The melt extent algorithm used by Greenland Ice Sheet Today has been overestimating the melt extent, and as a result, daily images posted on this site in February and March may have indicated melt where none occurred. 

This makes you wonder what other kinds of issues remain undetected in the satellite data.NSIDC has had to issue corrections in the past, when it was pointed out that their data and reality didn’t match. –  

From NSIDC:  

An early spring re-calibration for melt detection 

The algorithm for the Greenland Ice Sheet Today daily melt extent has been revised to account for unusually warm winter snow layers and residual meltwater deep in the snow. Meltwater from last summer’s intense melt season did not completely re-freeze through at least mid December.  

The adjusted algorithm shows greatly reduced melt extent for early 2013. This much lower extent is more consistent with available weather and climate records.

IOW: AGW = TFBS.

TFBS = TOTAL EFFIN BULLSH*T.

OBAMA COMES AND GOES WITHOUT PLEASING ANYONE

The part that's sad but rather predictable was when he himself called for 2-state solutions. It's interesting that Jonathan Tobin says both the left and right could be wrong about Obama's speech. But honestly, I think it can be said that the conservative side is right to be let down that he would condone such a thing.

It should be noted that in Ramallah, the Muslim crowds called for RPGs while he was here, so we know who the real side is that's uninterested in peace.

BRRRRRRR!: HEAVY SPRING SNOW IN THE UK!

MORE PROOF THAT ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING - AKA "CLIMATE CHANGE" - IS BULL:

Heavy snow is causing disruption to transport and schools across the UK, with heavy rainfall bringing flooding to the south-west of England. 

Rescue teams are searching for a woman at a house which partially collapsed after a landslip in Looe, Cornwall. There are 14 flood warnings in the South West, with Met Office warnings for snow covering much of the UK. More than 1,000 schools around the UK are closed and 37,500 properties in Northern Ireland are without power. 

BBC forecasters said the snow would cause travel disruption across northern parts of the UK on Friday, with some 20cm-40cm (8in-16in) falling in places. Atrocious conditions can be expected on high ground, they said. 

Roads in northern parts of Wales, the Midlands into the Pennines, southern Scotland and Northern Ireland would be the worst affected, while gale force winds would blow snow and drifts across trans-Pennine routes, they added.

IOW: AGW = TFBS!

THE ALARMISTS WILL TELL YOU THIS "ABERRATION" IS ALSO A RESULT OF MAN-MADE CO2.

ALL THIS RATIONALIZATION REALLY PROVES IS THAT THERE FAITH IN AGW IS NOT SUSCEPTIBLE TO REALITY BECAUSE IT'S UNFALSIFIABLE.

HOW ISLAMIC TERROR IS ORGANISED...

It has long been the practice of  "insurgent,  or revolutionary"   political organisations to be comprised of political and military units.  This was true, for example,  of the IRA and Sinn Fein. 

Nowhere is this organisational structure more prevalent than among Islamic Terror organisations.  The benefit of this kind of organisation is that it permits the poltical wing access to money and media exposure, and allows it  to position itself,  thru lies and spin, as it deems fit, all the while remaining legally isolated from the crimes commited by its military wing.  It even affords the political wing the opportunity to deny any ability to exert command and control over the military wing.  For example Hamas has the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.  The PLO has the al-Aqsa brigades.  

The Muslim Brotherhood,   "who disseminated Hitler's Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion widely in Arab translation... "created a military wing called the secret apparatus".

Does anyone know the current name of the military wing of Muslim Brotherhood?  Today, the Muslim Bortherhood is a transnational political organisation..and one of it's military wings is the transnational terror group al Qaeda.

GUN CONTROL THE ANSWER?

Sadly,3 persons are reported killed by gunfire at the Quantico Marine base. I suppose the only way to protect the marines is to take away their weapons - no?

MAN WHO OPENED FIRE AT DARK KNIGHT RISES SCREENING CONVERTS TO ISLAM

I don't expect any of the comics news sites to pick up on this, but the ogre who committed 12 murders at the Colorado screening for Christopher Nolan's 3rd Batman movie has converted to Islam. From the UK Daily Mail (via Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs):

James Holmes, the gunman behind the Dark Knight massacre in Colorado last July, has reportedly turned Muslim and prays five times a day.

The killer showed off a lengthy, thick beard during a court appearance earlier this month, and a prison source has claimed it is a symbol of his new-found faith.

The source said Holmes has turned to Islam as a way of justifying his horrific murder spree in an Aurora, Colorado cinema on July 20 which left 12 people dead and 58 people wounded.

'He has brainwashed himself into believing he was on his own personal jihad and that his victims were infidels,' a prison source told the National Enquirer.

He now prays five times a day, sticks to a strict Muslim diet and spends hours each day studying the Qur'an [...]

They say the Muslim inmates at the prison where he's kept are "upset" about it, but then, can they possibly explain verses like Sura 9:5, which says, "slay the polytheists wherever you find them"? Hence, their defenses sound more like taqqiya (deception). I looked at a few comics sites like CBR, but so far, they haven't said anything about this, and we can't expect them to.

WHO'S BETTER FUNDED, THE ALARMISTS OR THE SKEPTICS/"DENIERS"?

THE ALARMISTS GET WAY MORE FUNDING.

(WELL, YOU DON'T THINK ALL THOSE ALARMIST PROFESSORS ARE WORKING FOR FREE, DO YOU!?!? THEY AL GET HUGE SALARIES AND TONS OF GRANTS. THE SKEPTICS GET RELATIVELY LITTLE FUNDING FROM THE CLIMATE GRANTORS.)

FOLLOW THE MONEY.

THE ALARMIST'S MONEY COMES FROM STATISTS  - AND COINCIDENTALLY... ALARMISM STRENGTHENS THE STATE.

THE ALARMIST-STATIST COMPLEX IS MORE THREATENING TO OUR WAY OF LIFE THAN THE CONGRESSIONAL-MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX IKE WARNED US ABOUT IN HIS FAREWELL SPEECH.

THE ONLY COMPLEX MORE THREATENING TO OUR WAY OF LIFE IS THE GOVERNMENT UNION-POLITICIAN COMPLEX.

HMMM: THESE PHOTOS ADD TO THE THEORY THAT OBAMA HATES JUDEO-CHRISTIANITY AND LOVES ISLAM AND ARAFAT

FROM HOFT.