VANDALISM IN SHUAFAT WILL TAKE MONTHS TO REPAIR

Israel National News showed some pictures of the damage done to the light rail stations in Shuafat, and a most interesting revelation is made:

Pictures from one of the destroyed stations with its torched ticket machines reveal Arab "price tag" vandalism, with the words "price tag" and "death to Israel, death to the Jews" scrawled in Hebrew on it in red paint. (There are those who claim past "price tag" vandalism was mostly staged by Arabs to incite against right-wing Jews.)

I'd say this is another clue that the strange "price tag" attacks that faded from the news a few months ago really were the work of Muslim vandals.

As noted the destructive riots broke out after the murder of an Arab youth, Mohammed Abu Khder.

Israeli leaders - including Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu - rushed to condemn the murder, giving life to claims that it was an act of Jewish "revenge" after the abduction and murder of Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Sha'ar and Eyal Yifrah, despite the lack of evidence supporting the claim.

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, as well as some in the international media, have since repeated those claims as fact, and Abbas's Fatah has since called for a violent "revolution."

However, great doubt was cast on the "revenge" theory after a Channel Two report noted Abu Khder's parents gave conflicting testimony to police over an alleged attempted kidnapping of their younger son the day before the murder. Mohammed's mother claimed that "settlers" had attempted to snatch the boy, while the father insisted the assailants were in fact Arabs.

A top-ranking retired police official told Arutz Sheva on Wednesday that the Abu Khder family is known to the police as a "problematic" family with severe internal conflicts, saying "I have no doubt that as time passes it will be clarified that the murder was criminal and nothing more."

It could've been deliberately committed for the sake of stirring blood libels, and the family went right along with it. In that case, they're as guilty as the rest of the inciters.

LEV TAHOR LEADING TO FRICTION WITH GUATEMALAN TOWNSFOLK

Much of Lev Tahor's cultists have been fleeing from Canada to Guatemala as they realize they're no longer welcome in the prior country. But if their actions in the next are any suggestion, they're running the gauntlet of hurting the Jewish community's image in central America too, and the worst part is that they likely don't care:

MONTREAL — Following reports of anti-Jewish sentiment in the rural Guatemalan village where members of the ultra-orthodox sect Lev Tahor have settled, Jewish leaders in the Central American country are reaching out to their Canadian counterparts for help.

Just back from a trip to Guatemala, David Ouellette of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ Quebec office said the recent arrival from Canada of more than 100 Lev Tahor members is testing the longstanding good relations between Guatemala’s small Jewish community and its Christian majority.

“I think there is grounds for concern. There is tension in the village,” Mr. Ouellette said in an interview Thursday, referring to San Juan la Laguna, where the Lev Tahor members have settled.

Representatives of Guatemala’s Jewish community, which Mr. Ouellette said numbers just 800 people, contacted the CIJA last month following reports in the local press that the arrival of Lev Tahor families had sparked anti-Semitism. [...]

Mr. Ouellette travelled to San Juan la Laguna, speaking to locals and to the mayor, to get an idea of how los hombres de negro — the men in black, as the locals refer to Lev Tahor — are perceived. People he spoke to repeated the teachings of their priest that “He who curses the people of Israel will be cursed himself.”

But there were also signs that the Lev Tahor customs were a source of irritation. Lev Tahor men turn their back to local women when doing business in town and the group’s women rarely leave their homes. One local mechanic was forced out of his place of business when a Lev Tahor arrival offered the landlord a much higher rent, Mr. Ouellette said.

He said the tension has caught the mainstream Jewish community off guard. “They have really harmonious relations with different religious leaderships, so they’re just not accustomed to being the centre of any negative attention,” he said.

In fact, Mr. Ouellette said it is common to see the Star of David adorning businesses in the country, such as the Jerusalem tortilla shop he passed on his way to San Juan la Laguna. Guatemala has long enjoyed warm relations with Israel, dating back to the 1940s when Guatemala’s ambassador to the United Nations was instrumental in pushing for recognition of the Jewish state.

“This is a country where people tend to have an idealistic perception of the Jewish people, and then the only Jewish people they actually meet are the members of a bizarre cult,” he said.

He advised the country’s Jewish leaders to draw a clear line between their community and Lev Tahor: “I told them it was very important for them, as we did here in Canada, to explain to non-Jews that this is a cult, that these people are not representative of any normative current of Judaism.”

And he's right, a line must be drawn in the sand, and all Jews in Guatemala who don't want the general image tarnished by these creepy cultists should be the first to protest their offensive presence in the country. The cult is taking advantage of terrible laws there that allow for marriage at 14, IIRC, and that too is something that must be raised in discussions on how to deal with the problem.

TWO TEENAGERS ARRESTED FOR PLANNING TO JOIN SYRIA/IRAQ JIHAD

First, we have news of a Colorado woman who was arrested before she could take flight to the middle east:

A suburban teenager who practiced shooting, sought military training and hoped to join violent jihad against Americans was arrested on the jetway as she tried to board a plane on a one-way trip to the Middle East, court documents show.

Shannon Conley, 19, was arrested in April at Denver International Airport by federal investigators who said they repeatedly warned that her actions were illegal. Court documents detailing the case against the teen were unsealed this week, and paint a picture of a self-isolated woman who fell in love with a Tunisian man online, converted to Islam after reading about it on the Internet and became obsessed with religious war.

FBI agents said Conley, a certified nurse's aid, sought and practiced military tactics so she could fight on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which recently seized portions of Iraq. She also showed them a book detailing guerrilla warfare tactics and said she could carry out jihad in America.

"Conley believed she, as a Muslim, needed to marry young and be confrontational in her support of Islam," a U.S. anti-terrorism agent wrote in an arrest affidavit. "Special Agent Khomssi admonished Conley twice in the conversation that travel with intent to wage jihad may be illegal and result in her arrest."

It's awful that this woman chose to trash her life for the sake of violence.

Next, a Muslim father got his son to come back from Syria to France, but unfortunately, he won't be honest about jihad:

Abderakaz Cherif, from Nice on the French Riviera, told RFI how his two sons, aged 16 and 23, ended up in Syria as part of an al-Qaeda brigade fighting in Syria.

After six months of searching, he finally got a response from his youngest son on social media.

Cherif told RFI that he managed to convince his son that the war in Syria had nothing to do with religion, and that he should get out as soon as he could.

“From the moment he left I knew that I would not be able to survive this life without my son,” he told RFI’s David Thompson. “I had to get him home safely.”

“People use religion to persuade youngsters to fight,” he explained on RFI. “I did the same thing. I told him repeatedly that what was going on in Syria had nothing to do with him and absolutely nothing to do with Islam.”

“Islam is a religion of peace,” he added. “The fighters in Syria are devils who are tearing each other apart. I believe this is the message that made him decide to come home.”

Yes, keep telling us it's a religion of peace without offering any verses from the Koran to back up your defense. It's pathetic how the man cannot comprehend the verses in his religious books that led to his son believing it's perfectly justified to trash your life for the sake of violence. For now, what matters is whether the son could pose danger back in Europe, and that's why he'll need serious psychological aid.

CONGRESS NEEDS TO TAKE ACTION FOR SHUTTING DOWN ALL FUNDING TO THE PLO

Caroline Glick says that Congress should take more serious action in order to stop the funding of the PLO on America's tax dollars:

Obama’s silence during the 18 days the teens were missing, and his hostile and duplicitous statement after their mutilated bodies were found makes clear that he remains committed to continuing this contribution.

In acting in this way, Obama stands in opposition to the will of the American people, who do not wish to contribute to the destruction of Israel. Consequently, the time has come for the people’s representatives in Congress to take action to remedy this unacceptable state of affairs.

To some extent, Congress already has stepped in. Last week the House of Representatives Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, which is responsible for allocating aid to the PA, did not include aid to the PA in the appropriations bill for 2015. The sub-committee’s counterpart in the Senate took a similar, if less forceful step.

Yet despite these actions, both the House and Senate bills assume that the aid will be restored and so they include stipulations for what Obama must do to waive Congressional limits on aid.

This is very problematic. By assuming that aid will be allocated, US lawmakers take for granted that US law will be broken, and indeed, they green-light such unlawful and repugnant actions.

Immediately after the boys were taken, Reps. Michele Bachmann and Trent Franks co-authored a House resolution defining the PA as a foreign terrorist organization.

As Rep. Franks said on June 12, “All US assistance to the Palestinian Authority should have been be suspended years ago, but openly joining a terrorist organization that kills women and children simply because they are Jewish should convince even the Obama administration to wake up and defund this madness.”

Obviously, the Obama administration remains unconvinced – and undaunted by the resolution, despite the fact that it now enjoys more than a score of co-sponsors, including two Democrats.

Well that's why an impeachment bill should be brought up, because Obama's refusal to listen to the public that doesn't want its tax money being misused is only a show of contempt for the public. Glick's right that all Congress members who really oppose funding the PLO have to take a more serious stance now and do whatever they can to end funding to the PLO once and for all.

SATMAR LEADER BLAMES PARENTS OF MURDERED STUDENTS FOR THEIR DEATHS, LEADING TO OUTRAGE

Vos Iz Neias reported that Aaron Teitelbaum, the son of Joel Teitelbaum, the founder of the awful Haredi Satmar sect, blamed the parents - not the jihadists - for what happened to the yeshiva students. What follows is disgusting:

Kiryas Joel, NY - Just one day after the burial of the three murdered teenage boys, the parents of three boys became the subject of criticism from an unexpected source: the Satmar Rebbe.

The Satmar Rebbe’s words came tonight with no prior warning at the yeshiva in Kiryas Joel, with Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum blaming the parents of the slain teens for their deaths, saying that the boys died because they lived in the Israeli settlements, places that are inhabited by “predatory animals.”

So "settlers" are predators, but not Islamofascists who commit wanton, violent destruction? That man knows no shame. His speech continues:

“But with all the pain and devastation that is part of this terrible incident, we have to examine the circumstances from a wider perspective and with wisdom with eyes that are open to true daas Torah.

During the funerals, the parents eulogized their sons, but I think it would have been preferable if they had done teshuva, if they had said viduy with tears, in the nusach that is used on Yom Kippur, to repent for their decision to live and learn Torah in a place of barbaric murderers.

Who gave them a heter to live in a place like that, where they were living among known murderers? Is there no place in Israel to live and to learn other than in a place of tremendous danger?

Who gave them permission for themselves and for their children to live and to learn Torah in the midst of the lion’s den? To put their lives at risk, and the lives of their families at risk? It is all because of the yetzer hara [bad spirit] and the desire for Jews to inhabit the entire State of Israel. It is Zionism for the mehadrin min hamehadrin.”

Placing the blame for the deaths of the three teens squarely on the shoulders of their parents the Rebbe continued, “it is incumbent upon us to say that these parents are guilty. They caused the deaths of their sons and they must do teshuva for their actions.”

He implies the boys weren't observant - presumably saying they're not true Torah Jews because they weren't Haredi by his standards, and then proceeds to rub salt into the parents' injuries by blaming them - NOT the jihadists who committed the barbarism. This is utterly abominable, and has rightfully drawn condemnations from many other Jewish sources:

Satmar is known for its anti-Zionist ideology and refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel.

According to Samuel Heilman, a professor of sociology at Queens College, there are probably 100,000 followers of the Satmar hassidic tradition today.

Teitelbaum’s remarks sparked much criticism.

The 18 days between the June 12 kidnapping and the discovery of the teens’ bodies on Monday was perceived as a time of increased unity between Jews in Israel, with ultra-Orthodox, secular and national-religious groups getting behind the social media campaign #bringbackourboys.

Eulogizing Eyal Yifrah in his hometown of Elad on Tuesday, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said that all of Israel was united in mourning and that in their deaths, the three yeshiva students “command us to continue in the unity and love of Israel that they bequeathed us.”

Jewish groups from across the political and religious spectrum united in condemning Teitelbaum on Thursday, with much of the grief over the death of the teens being transformed into rage directed at the Satmar sect.

“Whatever one’s political views, the Satmar Rebbe’s words blaming the murder of the kidnapped youth on their parents for living where they do is reprehensible,” World Zionist Organization vice chairman Dr. David Breakstone said.

“None of the responsibility for this heinous act of terrorism should be shifted from the shoulders of the its bestial perpetrators.

Would he also blame the death of the dozens who were killed during the intifada in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on their decision, or that of their parents, to fulfill the Zionist dream? Or the death of the schoolchildren in Toulouse [murdered by an Islamist in 2012] for not having fulfilled the commandment to dwell in the Land of Israel? This is not the moment to debate the wisdom of Israel’s settlement policy, but rather to denounce in every possible forum the use of violence as a means of resolving conflict,” Breakstone said.

Such statements are “beyond the pale” and indicate that Satmar “has placed itself outside of Klal Yisrael,” said Rabbi Andrew Sacks, the director of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly in Israel, using a Hebrew phrase referring to the Jewish collective body. “Our tradition teaches us that why such tragedy befalls one person and not another may only be known to God. How very audacious and smug of Rabbi Teitelbaum to appropriate this power to himself.

This is a time for words of comfort and not words of blame.”

Several prominent European ultra-Orthodox Rabbis also censured Teitelbaum.

“I did not think that my heart could break anymore after the discovery of the bodies of our three boys. But after hearing the words of this great rabbi, my heart is now even more broken,” Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich said.

“In general, even if you believe that ideologically he’s right, which I definitely do not, it’s tasteless and it’s even worse [to say] that during the shiva [mourning period] when people have an open wound,” Ukrainian Chief Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich said.

Would Teitelbaum have blamed the Jews killed during the Holocaust “when the same anti-Zionists said don’t go to Israel, and therefore they stayed in Europe and were killed?” he asked.

The grand rabbi’s “ill-advised” comments “caused additional pain to the mourners of the three young martyrs, who are already suffering so greatly, simply for fulfilling the mitzva of settling the Land of Israel,” said Robert Levi, chairman of the board of the National Council of Young Israel, a modern-Orthodox national synagogue network in the US.

David Ha’ivri, a former spokesman for the settlement movement, said that Teitelbaum “should not be considered a rabbi” and called on his followers to bar him from any leadership positions and prevent him from speaking publicly.

Both Uri Regev, a reform rabbi who heads the Hiddush religious equality NGO in Jerusalem, and Dr. Efraim Zuroff, a Nazi-hunter and director of the Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, echoed Ha’ivri’s comments.

“If you despise us so much, why don’t you just get out of our lives?” Regev asked, while Zuroff said that if anyone must repent, it is the Satmar movement.

“The ‘rebbe’ should resign and do the entire Jewish world a great kindness,” Zuroff said.

Such words bring disgrace to god, ultra-Orthodox Rabbi and MK Dov Lipman said, adding that Satmar can “choose the path of hatred and bringing disgrace to God while the rest of the Jewish people choose unity, love and bringing sanctity and glory to God’s name.”

“There is nothing new in the position of Satmar that the State of Israel poses a danger to the spiritual well-being and to the security of the Jewish people.

What deserves attention is the fact that the Satmar Rebbe implies that living within the boundaries of the Green Line is safe. This subtle change might signal that one day they will recognize the Jewish state as well, but it might take them another 60 years,” Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, head of the Conference of European Rabbis, quipped.

It's not safe to just live within the green line, and the terrorist attacks over the years have proven this. Also, when Teitelbaum attacks Zionism, he's attacking the right to live in Tel Aviv as much as anywhere else in Israel. Unfortunately, if the following says anything:

The Satmar community is proud of the grand rabbi and his statements, Yosef Leib Yaakov, an Israeli representative of the sect, told The Jerusalem Post.

While critics have condemned the rabbi for the content and timing of his remarks, Yaakov countered that it was important to say such things now, while the issue of the teens’ deaths and security issues related to the territories are in the public consciousness.

That spokesman is disgusting too. He doesn't recognize that what Teitelbaum said was obscene and desecrates the memory of the victims while demonizing their families as monsters. Something Teitelbaum happens to be himself. Not all Satmar members may condone him, but then, that's why they should prove it by clearing out of that cesspool called Kiryas Joel once and for all, and getting jobs and better education for themselves.

NHS DENYING LIFE-SAVING CARE TO THE ELDERLY

WHEN THE GOVERNMENT PAYS YOU YOUR PENSION AND BUYS YOU YOUR HEALTHCARE, THEN THEY HAVE A HUGE CONFLICT OF INTEREST.

BY DENYING CARE TO THE ELDERLY ON PENSIONS, THEY EARN A DOUBLE-BENEFIT:

SAVING THE MEDICAL EXPENSE, AND -

BY HASTENING THEIR DEMISE -

SAVING THE PENSION PAYOUT.

THEY ARE DOING THIS IN THE UK -

WHERE SOCIALIZED HEALTHCARE WAS INVENTED 70 YEARS AGO.

IF THE BRITISH - WHO ARE NOTORIOUSLY BRILLIANT BUREAUCRATS -

CAN GET SOCIALIZED HEALTHCARE TO WORK WELL AFTER  70 YEARS,

THEN NOBODY CAN.

KEEP CALM!? KEEP CALM!?!?!?! KEEP CALM MY ASS!

MUSLIMS START RIOT TO TAKE ATTENTION AWAY FROM MURDER OF YESHIVA STUDENTS

As if things weren't bad enough now, a riot broke out in the Beit Hanina/Shuafat neighborhood over the death of an Arab child who may have actually been murdered by his own, but the Islamists are accusing Jews of committing the crime as revenge for the deaths of the yeshiva students. A Jerusalem councilman's explained the real picture:

Jerusalem Councilman Aryeh King, who is responsible for security in Jerusalem, stated to Arutz Sheva on Wednesday that he is not surprised at the chaos continuing in Arab neighborhoods.

"We visited Shuafat this morning, and what we have long feared has been realized," King said. "We have virtually no control, it's just the collapse of a containment policy. We had neighborhoods this morning that looked like Jabaliya and Shechem."

King stated that the problem is lack of a police presence.

"We have called for years to properly establish a police station there, which in practice never happened," King said. "The policy was that police would only go there when there was an incident; in practice, this does not work."

King also said that the murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khder - which experts and recent reports increasingly say was the result of family tensions, not nationalism - was planned specifically to incite unrest.

That's what I'd guessed too. It was most likely an inside job. Unfortunately:

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA), US and international media continue to claim that the murder was nationalistically-motivated, despite little to no evidence of that fact and very little evidence available about the murder at all.

They have no interest in the real picture. I have no doubts they were hoping something like this would happen too.

CBR'S CARLA HOFFMAN LIVES IN A BUBBLE ERA

CBR's Carla Hoffman wrote a gushing take on the Muslim Ms. Marvel series, trying to convince us this is worth the trees that were cut down to make the paper for printing it on. She begins with:

Ms. Marvel #5 is the most important comic of the current era. Wait, I got ahead of myself.

No, she's way behind. Fawning over a religious propaganda product at the flick of a switch, all without proving she's done any research of the Koran and Hadith. What makes this the most important book of this era, but not a graphic novel like The Forgotten Man, based on the writings of Amity Shlaes? Or maybe she's just too cowardly to admit it's got some worth to it?

Comics have distinct eras that you can recognize simply by flipping through an issue. Whether it’s the artwork, subject matter, costume design or the overall presentation, fans can get an idea of when the book came out, and who its intended audience is. It’s one of the reasons I have a hard time recommending older first issues to new readers; X-Men #1 is going to seem weird to someone who has never read any X-Men, whether it’s due to the silted language and design of the original or the ’90s posing and over-lettered pages of the Claremont/Lee version. It can seem really dated for new readers, and can completely color a generation of fans’ expectations of what comics should “really be like.” This is my only explanation for the extreme Jim Lee-ness of the New 52 costume designs.

In that case, what's her explanation for the pathetic artwork in Ms. Marvel? Or the forced denial that honor murders and stonings of adulterers do happen under Islam? Or the fact that in a very short time, this too will be old as a rusty Edsel? I think her argument she can't recommend older books to newer readers is laughable; history can give something to learn from, yet she acts like age is a problem. In that case, I guess early Garfield comic strips pose one too?

Funny why she brings up the early 90s X-Men books, because that's when the series began rolling downhill story-wise, though Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza were the ones who really took it there with few redeeming features. Why should she cite those but not some of the better stuff from older times like Bronze Age Avengers, or New Teen Titans, or even Mike Baron's Nexus and Badger?

With this is mind, trying to peg the overall theme of the current era of comics is still a little tricky. Do we use the movies as an example of how future generations will view the medium? Will Civil War and Identity Crisis, with their adult themes, be how the early 2000s are remembered? Do we have Brian Michael Bendis to thank for the voice of this modern era?

As a matter of fact, we do, though Joe Quesada and Dan DiDio are guilty too for hiring such terrible writers. In fact, they precipitated the path to comics stuffed with leftism like this current item. As for Civil War and Identity Crisis, I'm afraid they will be how the early to mid-2000s are remembered, and in a very bad way, mainly because those miniseries aren't "adult" so much as they're obnoxious fanfiction with political metaphors stuffed inside.

This brings me back to my cause this week: I would like Ms. Marvel #5 to be the bar by which the current era is measured. This comic does so much right, and is so absolutely inspiring, that I want to see followers, imitators and an entire generation of fans who will expect this level of quality in their comics in the days to come. Did I get ahead of myself again? Let me catch you up.

Again, no, she did not get ahead, only way behind. There's so much untold, and so much taqqiya in the book, that anyone who wants this to represent gold standards would only beclown themselves as she does herself.

WARNING: I’ll be discussing Ms. Marvel #5, so grab your copy (buy three more!) and read along!

For those of you who might have passed this by or have been living under a rock for the past few months, Ms. Marvel is about Kamala Khan, a New Jersey teenager. Due to the “Infinity,” event, she’s been super-powered by the Terrigen Mists and given shapeshifting abilities. Inspired to do good by her favorite hero, Captain Marvel, she helps friends and fights bad guys but is still looking for direction in her life. There are family hijinks and even some culture shock.

Representations of other cultures and nationalities in mainstream American superhero comics typically have been a little awkward and shallow (see Chris Claremont’s fondness for peppering dialogue with expressions like “Unglaublich” or “Begorrah”). Different ethnicities have been so easily, and so regularly, fumbled that we’ve become accustomed to it. But in Ms. Marvel, the portrayal feels less like culture shock and more like a cultural comparison as Kamala’s problems and lifestyle don’t exactly revolve around her heritage, but rather who she is and becomes spins off from it. Her family is a lot like mine — they just have a different motivation. Not fitting in is the root of Kamala’s teen woes, but being Muslim is merely a new flower on this common problem. She’s inspired not by representation but by success. Nothing is pigeonholed, so everything is relatable to one extent or another. Kamala’s problems could be yours.

But they're not. They're just examples of victimology and taqqiya. As a result, how can this book be any better than some of the older efforts she speaks of, yet the only one she actually uses is Claremont's X-Men, which is actually much too easy? The irony is that there are some things in the book that could irk Muslims too, and already, some did voice disapproval, but Hoffman doesn't seem very concerned.

Ms. Marvel #5 completes Kamala’s origin and first story arc. Previously, a friend’s brother got caught up in some crimes, and Kamala sets off her to rescue him but, surprisingly, fails. It’s a big deal. When people talk about “grit” in their comics, I think they’re trying to talk about honesty; it’s not the darker coloring and style that makes gritty comics, it’s washing off the cartoon gloss with some reality sandpaper to make the story seem more realistic to the reader. The idea that a teenager who just got superpowers can’t run in an save a friend from other teenagers in a basement is pretty realistic. Kamala goes home and gets yelled at by her mother, but also receives a pep talk from her father that is some of the most beautiful writing between father and daughter I’ve read in a long time. This is also a big deal, as pep talks from father figures are a more male hero trope than female; most girls have to go it alone or defy their parents and break from the norm and become someone society doesn’t expect them to be. Kamala’s father tells her that she’s perfect just the way she is and doesn’t have to pretend to be someone else to be loved by her family.

Umm, how is a book that won't be honest and transparent about Islam "honest"? Please, do tell us about it. And how curious she thinks it's realistic to be such a failure in a sci-fi world. It sounds more to me like Wilson is insulting the lead character, even if she later manages to save the friend (though I'm not sure what from). I'm also wondering if the mother's depiction as a yeller while the father is depicted sympathetically is also deliberate? Besides, there have been some examples in past history of female leads conversing with their parents for ideas how to work things out.

I believe Hoffman is praising this book deliberately - that is, she's not being altruistic - and besides, this is the same person who claimed Warner Huston knew nothing about superhero comics.

That spurs Kamala into a training montage with her best friend to learn about her powers so she can try again. Hard work pays off as she ponders some philosophy to psych herself up for her second try. The idea that good isn’t something you are, it’s something you do and that the place where you are right now was circled on a map for you (which I think should be attributed to Hāfez rather than Rumi, but I could be wrong) are poetically inspiring to both Kamala and the reader. It’s less a selfish motivation (I’m going to be the best) and more a reflection of destiny.

Look who's talking about selfishness. Maybe she should look at much of the modern Marvel contributor's list for a change, and even herself. Anyone could write a story like she describes and do it without stuffing Islamism into the tale.

It’s a destiny that still takes hard work, but one that pays off, because with a little more grounding and dedication, Kamala not only saves her friend’s brother, but gains a confidence we can believe in. We saw her fail, and we were with her as she picked herself up; now, with her success, we know she’s capable of whatever she sets her mind to. Is Kamala perfect? Heck no. As she says herself, “This is Jersey City. We talk loud, we walk fast and we don’t take any disrespect.” She has her faults, but you know. Don’t mess. The first five issue complete her first journey, and we readers can see the long road ahead.

I wonder if Hoffman recognizes she's got faults, like favoratism and failure to prove her ability to do some research? Ditto the writer of the book she's fawning over, and the editors. A better query would be: is Hoffman perfect? Not with the way she's going about this.

This book is important. I want it to be the blueprint for future heroic orgins to work from. I want fans who clamor for realized female characters in comics to hold up this issue and support the work being done here. The artwork is magical; some of the manga-like stylings can take getting used to, but for such an imaginative setting and style I can’t see any other artist in Adrian Alphona’s place. G. Willow Wilson’s writing is so heartfelt, it’s difficult not to fall in love with such a unique and personable character as Kamala Khan.

Keep going and stay classy. From some of her past interviews, Wilson sounds like a very ill-informed, disrespectful person, unwilling to be transparent about her ideology, and as for Hoffman, she sounds little different from most of the other charlatans working for CBR. What's so "realized" about this book that isn't so realized about most other books with female leads? And the artwork is dismal and childish. Pseudo-manga art is one of the things that brought down mainstream superhero comics, as artists went out of their way to mimic manga where it doesn't belong.

In another decade or so, it would do my heart good to think this is the kind of story that came out of the 2010s and is the standard the era is judged by.

If the era is to be judged by books like this, it won't be for good reasons. No, it'll be judged for bad ones, like pushing propaganda under the guise of "storytelling", something Hoffman fails to recognize. How come this book is to be considered a "good" standard, but not something like The Forgotten Man? Hoffman fails to explain clearly why Ms. Marvel Muslim makes for the greatest tales of this generation, but not stories that avoid injecting ideologies and obvious leftist politics for the sake of it. I think there's a case to be made that so-called reviewing on sites like CBR is not the standard we'd want comics criticism and opinion-making to be judged by, in this or any other era.

Update: wow, Dan Slott must hate me so much, he linked to this post. He must be so scared, he's shaking in his boots! But, all he's done is prove his educational upbringing is very poor, while doing me an honor by using the "bigotry accusation" cliche.

FARAGE SPEAKS AT THE "POLITBURO" OF THE EU

EUROPEAN COURT UPHOLDS FRENCH BAN ON NIQABS

A good ruling was made by the Human Rights Court:

The European Court of Human Rights upheld France's 2010 ban on full-face veils in public on Tuesday but acknowledged the law could appear excessive and feed stereotypes.

Judges at the Strasbourg-based court, by 15 to 2, said the ban did not violate religious freedom and aimed to ensure "respect for the minimum set of values of an open democratic society" which included openness to social interaction.

In their ruling, which cannot be appealed, the judges "accepted that the barrier raised against others by a veil concealing the face in public could undermine the notion of 'living together'" that France defended in its argument, the court said in a statement.

It was the first time the court has ruled on niqab and burqa veils, which have stoked controversy in several European states although few women wear them. A French Muslim woman filed the suit for discrimination and breach of religious freedom

She only did it because she's clearly one of those who lacks self-esteem, while others are forced, and even intimidated into supporting it.

Authorities said the full-faced veil is a security risk, preventing the accurate identification of individuals, and the law made violators liable to pay a fine of 150 euros ($216) or attend lessons in French citizenship.

Indeed it can pose security risks, because you wouldn't know if there's a man or woman underneath, and, it could be used to hide weapons. So I'm glad they upheld it, even though they stupidly said it could feed stereotypes.

FUNERAL HELD FOR MURDERED YESHIVA STUDENTS

A funeral was held in the memory of the 3 students who were murdered.

A writer for the JTA tells how our worst fears were realized in this tragedy. Here's also a condolence from Camera.

In the aftermath of this horror, it's been decided that the house of another jihadist murderer will be demolished:

The army can raze the home of a Palestinian indicted in the Passover eve murder of a senior police officer, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled.

The family of Ziad Awad on Tuesday morning was given 12 hours to remove its possessions from the West Bank residence in Idhna Village, near Hebron, before the demolition order takes effect. Awad has been charged in the April 14 murder of Police Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrachi.

[...] Awad allegedly fired at civilian vehicles traveling near Hebron, killing Mizrachi, critically injuring his wife and wounding a child traveling in a second car. The shooter fled the scene.

Awad and his son, Izz Eddin Hassan Ziad Awad, 18, were arrested last month.

The teen admitted under questioning that his father ​had shared with him his intentions to execute a terror attack against Israelis on Passover.

Awad, who was released in the 2011 Shalit prisoner exchange, is a Hamas operative who has been jailed previously for the murder of Palestinians who were believed to be cooperating with Israeli security forces. Awad told his son, according to the IDF, that “according to the Islamic religion, those who kill Jews go to heaven.” The son led police to the weapon used in the attack.

The two terrorists throughly deserve to lose their house, and the only one they should have is prison.

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF OBAMA WAS FOUND IN BED WITH A DEAD GIRL OR A LIVE BOY?

NOTHING.

FOX AND CRUZ AND LEVIN AND RUSH WOULD RAISE A STINK, BUT IN THE END - WITH THE BROADCAST MEDIA AND THE NYTIMES IGNORING IT, OBAMA WOULD JUST GO DOWN A FEW MORE POINTS IN THE POLLS.

AND SIMPLY TAKE EXECUTIVE ACTION TO SEIZE EXCESS PROFITS OR OFFICIATE AT A GAY WEDDING OR SOMETHING TO SHORE UP HIS BASE.

JUST SAYING...

OBAMA COULD BE FOUND IN BED WITH A DEAD GOAT AND THE LEFT WOULD CALL YOU A RACIST IF YOU MENTION IT!

SIGH...

I MEAN IF DROPPING  NBPP CASE AND FAST'N FURIOUS AND THE IRS SCANDAL AND THE VA SCANDAL AND THE OUSTER OF MUBARAK AND THE OUSTER OF KADDAFY AND THE RED-LINE IN SYRIA AND BENGHAZI AND HIS OBAMACARE LIES HAVEN'T SUNK HIM YET, THEN WHAT WILL!?!?!

SIGH.

I SHUDDER TO THINK WHAT OBAMA WILL HAVE TO BE CAUGHT DOING TO MAKE MOST PEOPLE SEE THAT HE IS UNFIT FOR OFFICE AND SHOULD BE IMPEACHED AND REMOVED.

MINNEAPOLIS PROVIDES SHARIA-COMPLIANT LOANS

The National Journal says Minneapolis is one of the leading providers of sharia-compliancy, all at the expense of taxpayers:

Since 2006, Minneapolis has loaned more than $1 million to Muslim business owners through a program that complies with sharia law, which prohibits Muslims from paying or earning interest in a financial transaction. The program, which is operated in partnership with the African Development Center, makes Minneapolis the only city in the country to offer Islamic financing at a time when states are trying to ban sharia from the courts. "Minneapolis is a very welcoming city," says Kristin Guild, the city's business development manager. "Because [Somali immigrants] wear headscarves, they are visible as entrepreneurs and people see that they are setting up businesses in our town and creating jobs."

Minnesota is home to the country's largest Somali community, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim. An estimated 32,000 people of Somali ancestry live in the state, and about one-third of them live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, according to the latest census figures.

In the past 10 years, North African immigrants have opened teashops, pharmacies, and child-care centers in southwest Minneapolis storefronts that were once boarded up. But many of these entrepreneurs struggled to grow their businesses because Islamic law forbids Muslims from earning or paying interest, known as riba. So they couldn't take out loans or participate in the city's low-interest financing program for small businesses.

"We had to be creative to meet the demand," says Nasibu Sareva, executive director of the nonprofit African Development Center, which brought the idea of creating an Islamic financing program to the city in early 2006. City leaders were unaware of the sharia restriction, but agreed to the plan. Less than a year later, the city's community and economic development department launched the sharia-compliant Alternative Financing Program.

"Be creative"? All they're doing is being dhimmis. Sure, I'll bet they're opening prominent businesses alright...at the expense of everybody else in the city. I don't buy what the National Journal is saying at face value.

Minneapolis business development staffers point out that their program is open to anyone, even non-Muslims. Immigrants from Morocco, Ethiopia, and other North African countries have brought commerce back to long-neglected neighborhoods, like Lake Street in Lyndale. Once a commercial corridor in the early 1900s, shops on Lake Street began closing as consumers moved to the suburbs.

"Neglected"? Soon, those neighborhoods could become neglected in a different sense: they could become no-go zones for non-Muslims. There's plenty the magazine isn't saying, and that will do harm to Minnesota in the long run.

NYU AND GUGGENHEIM ARE SELLING OUT TO SHARIA

The New York Post tells how the NY University and Guggenheim Museum are selling out to the UAE at all costs, all because money drives their motives:

Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, has been buzzing with construction activity for the past few years. Two prestigious western institutions, New York University and the Guggenheim Museum, have decided to open branches in the country — and were immediately embroiled in controversy.

Immigrant construction workers at the NYU site were working 11- to 12-hour days, seven days a week, it was revealed. Many of them have not been reimbursed recruitment fees, costing up to a year’s wages, and live in terrible conditions. The ones who were brave enough to protest the abuses were met with beatings and imprisonment.

Similarly, laborers of the Guggenheim Museum were forced to pay for their contracts, live in substandard housing, and had their passports taken so they couldn’t leave the work site. Last year, 40 of them were hospitalized after their employers cracked down on a strike.

Both institutions claimed to be shocked, with NYU issuing a “Statement of Labor Values,” to which all participants in the construction of NYU-Abu Dhabi were contractually obligated to abide.

But the deplorable labor conditions is just one piece of a larger question: Why are these organizations there in the first place?

They explain further in the article: money:

Of course, money is the primary motive for this ignorance.

NYU received $50 million from Abu Dhabi for signing up. And 2008 article by New York Magazine entitled The Emir of NYU reported that “NYU president John Sexton has been promised a blank check to duplicate his university on a desert island in Abu Dhabi, leaving both campuses flush with petrodollars.”

This blank check is being used to expand the NYU campus in New York City by 6 million square feet by 2031. This NYU 2031 plan is hotly protested by 11 community groups with petitions and lawsuits. What these protesters have not done is link the funding of NYU 2031 to the blank check by the UAE government, who denies their women, laborers, and everyone else equal treatment or due process under the law.

Someone needs to lobby Congress to create a bill that can effectively bar these institutions from doing business with countries that uphold slavery of this kind. And nobody who cares about civilized values should invest in the university and museum who sold out to the UAE.

UH-OH: EUROPEAN COMMISSION HAS TO BAIL OUT BULGARIA'S BANKS AFTER A BANK RUN!

BBC:

The European Commission has approved a request from Bulgaria to provide funding for some of the country's biggest banks. Commission extended a credit line of 3.3bn levs ($2.3bn; £1.4bn) to help banks that Bulgarian authorities believe have been victims of a plot to undermine the banking system. Five people were arrested over the weekend in connection with the plot. In the past week, there have been runs on two of Bulgaria's big banks.

THINGS IN EUROPE ARE GETTING WORSE...

IF BULGARIA'S BANKING WOES DIDN'T REPRESENT A THREAT TO EUROPE AS A WHOLE, THEN THEY WOULD NOT HAVE INTERVENED.

IT'S TIME BRITAIN SAVED EUROPE ONCE AGAIN BY BEING THE FIRST COUNTRY BRAVE ENOUGH TO SAY "ENOUGH!" AND WITHDRAW FROM THE EU.

STAY TUNED...

CLINTON WAS IMPEACHED FOR CRIMES WHICH WERE NOT AS BAD AS OBAMA'S

CLINTON COMMITTED PERJURY.

HE WAS IMPEACHED FOR IT, BUT NOT REMOVED  FROM OFFICE.

HE WAS ALSO DISBARRED.

(FUNNY THING, THAT: HE WAS DEEMED UNFIT TO BE A LAWYER BY THE COURTS, BUT NOT UNFIT TO BE POTUS BY THE DEMOCRAT MAJORITY IN THE US SENATE?!?!?!?!)

CLINTON LIED ABOUT EXTRA-MARITAL SEX WITH AN INTERN.

THIS LIE REVEALED THE SKANKINESS OF HIS CHARACTER, BUT AT  LEAST CLINTON DID NOT MISUSE PRESIDENTIAL POWERS TO ABUSE THE PUBLIC OF OUR RIGHTS.

OBAMA HAS ABUSED HIS PRESIDENTIAL POWERS IN WAYS THAT HAVE NOT ONLY MADE US LESS FREE, BUT MADE US LESS SECURE, AND MATERIALLY LESS WELL OFF.

CLINTON'S IMPEACHMENT WAS DESERVED.

OBAMA DESERVE IMPEACHMENT 1000x MORE.

JUST SAYING.

ISIS DECLARATION OF CALIPHATE SPELLS MORE PERIL FOR EUROPE

The UK Mirror says that the announcement of a new caliphate by ISIS terrorist group will mean more danger in Europe too:

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the most extremist and violent jihadist group in the Middle East – too extreme even for Al-Qaeda – officially declared the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate on Sunday.

The Caliphate has been the end goal for these jihadists for many years and this formal declaration will be seen as the logical and natural outcome of their struggle.

It will also add weight to their legitimacy and prestige for many extremists across the world.

They will be able to pull more radicalised youth to their ranks who will believe this is now the time to live out their dream of having an Islamic State in the heart of the Middle East.

Up to to 3,000 Western jihadists have already gone to Syria and Iraq to fight and that number will probably now increase.

And those who survive to return to Europe again are bound to continue their violence on the European continent proper. That's exactly why Europe now faces serious disaster.

TRAGEDY: 3 STUDENTS FOUND MURDERED

It's just as I - and many other people, to be sure - had feared: the kidnapped yeshiva students were found dead:

Police have found the dead bodies of the three Israeli teenagers kidnapped by Hamas activists three weeks ago.

This evening Israeli authorities confirmed reports that the human remains found earlier this evening near Hebron were indeed the bodies of the abducted teenagers.

The security cabinet convened an emergency meeting as the IDF boosted its military presence around Hebron.

The yeshivah students - Israeli Eyal Yifrach, 19, Israeli Gilad Shaar, 16 and Israeli-American Naftali Frenkel, 16 – were last seen near Hebron on June 12.

Today, Israeli officers were dismissed after an investigative body found a “serious failure of conduct” on the night three teenagers were kidnapped by Hamas activists.

The investigative committee, which released its report today, found that operators monitoring the police emergency hotline had mishandled a phone call on the night of the kidnapping (June 12).

I'd say the police now have a lot to answer for. And the Hamas definitely must be made to pay a very heavy price for their sadistic act. This is what happens when faustian pacts are made with terrorists, and now, the authorities are going to have to prove themselves capable of taking down the jihadists maiming this country and its citizens, including the PLO.

Here's more on the topic at USA Today.

Update: PM appropriately calls the murderers "human animals", and says that Hamas will pay for their repulsive crime.

RETALIATING FOR DESTROYED SDEROT FACTORY

The Hamas fired a rocket from Gaza that totaled a Sderot factory, and the IDF has responded:

Retaliating for a rocket barrage on southern Israel that destroyed a Sderot factory, Israeli airstrikes hit what Israel’s military called “terror activity sites.”

At least 12 rockets fired from Gaza struck Israel over the weekend, including two that set the factory on fire. Several people were evacuated from the factory, including two who required hospital treatment for burns.

In response to the six rockets that struck Israel on Saturday night, the Israel Air Force bombed three of what the Israel Defense Forces identified as terror activity sites and three concealed rocket launchers in the southern Gaza Strip; a weapon manufacturing site in northern Gaza; and a terror activity site and weapons manufacturing site in central Gaza early Sunday morning.

The Air Force also struck other Gaza targets on Saturday morning and afternoon, according to the IDF.

This is one of the Hamas' most vile attacks yet, and they deserve serious punishment for their savagery.

UH-OH: CENTRAL BANKERS WARN OF GLOBAL BUBBLES

NYTIMES; An organization representing the world’s main central banks warned on Sunday that dangerous new asset bubbles were forming even before the global economy has finished recovering from the last round of financial excess. 

Investors, desperate to earn returns when official interest rates are at or near record lows, have been driving up the prices of stocks and other assets with little regard for risk, the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, said in its annual report published on Sunday. 

Recovery from the financial crisis that began in 2007 could take several more years, Jaime Caruana, the general manager of the B.I.S., said at the organization’s annual meeting in Basel on Sunday. The recovery could be especially slow in Europe, he said, because debt levels remain high.

“During the boom, resources were misallocated on a huge scale,” Mr. Caruana said, according to a text of his speech, “and it will take time to move them to new and more productive uses.”

I'VE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR YEARS.

THE STOCK MARKET IS ONLY UP SINCE 2008 BECAUSE OF CENTRAL BANKS PRINTING MONEY.

THE REAL ECONOMY SUCKS.

AND HIGHER TAXES AND MORE REGULATIONS WON'T FIX IT.

WE CAN FIX THE USA ECONOMY IN THREE EASY STEPS:

1 - IMMEDIATELY ELIMINATE GASOLINE TAXES AND ALL ENERGY TAXES AND ALL ENERGY SUBSIDIES - AND OPEN ALL FEDERAL LANDS TO ENERGY EXPLOITATION, AND OPEN THE KEYSTONE PIPELINE.

2 - CUT THE USA CORPORATE TAX RATE IN HALF TO INCREASE INVESTMENT IN THE USA AND REPATRIATE PROFITS.

3 - END ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION TO REDUCE THE OVERSUPPLY OF LABOR: FIX THE BORDERS AND SEND ILLEGALS HOME.

UNFORTUNATELY FOR THE USA AND THE WEST, IF REDUCING SOCIALISM IS THE COST OF GROWTH, THEN THE LEFTISTS WOULD RATHER RUIN THE ECONOMY THAN FIX IT.