Is Friedman right? Do he and his friends on the Israel-bashing Left own the future? Are their efforts to convince young Americans to reject Israel working?
It turns out the answer is no. Also, Israeli academics caught proselytizing for the Left in their classrooms instead of teaching the subject (somebody made it a research project!), given a few months to shape up or have the entire department shut down.
#1
FTA: As he put it, “The real test is what would happen if Bibi tried to speak at, let’s say, the University of Wisconsin. My guess is that many students would boycott him and many Jewish students would stay away.”
Embedded in this statement are two key points. First, Friedman assesses that the prevailing view on US college campuses are his own radical views. And he is convinced that college students share his views.
A third embedded key point: Friedman seems to think that the prevailing view on the U. Wisc. campus matters to the US as a whole.
#2
"Also, Israeli academics caught proselytizing for the Left in their classrooms instead of teaching the subject (somebody made it a research project!), given a few months to shape up or have the entire department shut down)."
Can't we do something so completely rational here in the U.S.? Love it!
#1
Ironically, the "35 million Americans that have strong antisemitic opinions", are likely mostly Democrats, and Abe Foxman of the ADL has done his level best to turn the ADL into a wing of the Democrat party.
#1
This has gone way beyond acceptable. Local police armories are packed with an insane amount of military weaponry.
When someone asked why a Sheriff needed a .30 caliber, belt fed machine gun, he insisted it was necessary for him to have an anti-aircraft capability. (And this was before 9-11.)
Just north of Phoenix is a major manufacturer of "police explosives", many of which are concussion explosives. However, they had to expand their product line to include M67 fragmentation grenades, because that is what police departments were ordering.
Where on God's green acre would a police department need a frag grenade, much less a case of them?
FYI, the number of SWAT raids in the US has reached 50,000 a year. This crap has to stop.
#2
State funded National Guard is not subject to Posse Comitatus. If a state believes it needs military capability, it already has its resources at hand. There is no valid argument for much of the militarization of local police. Some of this is empire building by the local law enforcement institutions. More cost effect that such material be centralized, trained, and equipped at the state level and then task forced out as mission and law justify.
#3
True about the guard. Title 32 vs Title 10. Police forces have NO need for this degree and amount of military gear, unless they are gearing up to suppress large swaths of the populace. And if that's the case, laying down a police state, then they will find out the difference between police and soldiers from a lot of us who are still sworn to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Just a reminder, blowing apart unsuspecting people in their homes is a far cry from taking on a large number of trained riflemen who will kill scores of them from far away -- and there are even some who would take out "the enemy" at the police's homes and their families if it comes to that. Boys in blue, you're on notice. Stay away from repression and unconstitutional acts, or you may awaken a nightmare for the nation that will end up with far more of you dead than citizens coerced. Not a threat, just a supposition based on Oath Keepers stuff I have read, and the general turn of attitude against the police in even the most conservative places where I lived and worked.
#4
the general turn of attitude against the police in even the most conservative places where I lived and worked
This will become increasingly important when juries start discounting or ignoring police testimony. The OJ trial was just a taste of that.
#8
"Gearing up to supporess large swaths of the Populace" > THE QUESTION THAT NEEDS O BE ANSWERED BY OUR LOCAL + NATIONAL LEADERS IS THE SAME AS TIMES LAST, I.E. "WHY"???
#9
Do you folks really think the cops should be out there in a riot,bank robbery or barricaded armed suspect wearing no body armour, a soft hat, carrying a 6 shot 38 and a 12 gauge shotgun.
It aint Mayberry anymore people, it is fricken dangerous out there. I buried 6 close friends. A bunch more including me had to retire early due to injuries. Yeah there some weird stuff out there nobody needs a machinegun or frags. But the public can buy most of what the cops have, AR-15s, pepper spray, ballistac helmets, armoured up cars, auto pistols. None of it is secert. Hell there are not enough cops to control the population anyway.
I saw the same trend years ago, but after a few bad experiences I concluded we need the stuff. Police need to under civilain control just like the military - but no your cops are not out of control. But its up to you the citizen to be involved, tell them what you want, you foot the bill - they work for you.
Posted by: retired LEO ||
12/21/2011 20:13 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Yes, it's gotten dangerous but the wholesale equipping of departments leads to SWAT and assault teams being used to do somethings that are inappropriate for the circumstances. I'm sure you can cite instances that one can justify their use but at the same time ignore the volume of instances that they weren't. An allied problem here is the unwillingness of the system to hammer miscreants that create such circumstances, weapons escalation, to grow in the first place.
#11
P2 yeah there were times I rolled my eyes back thinking what in the hell are they doing - why dont we just knock on the door or use the PA and call em out. Yep that stuff happens. But thats the stuff that makes the news, the good stuff never gets reported. As for miscreants I finshed my career as a Supervisor and did 3 investigations that lead to termination. Ya dont wander too far off the Plantation. The vast majority of cops are good people that care about thier community.
Posted by: retired LEO ||
12/21/2011 21:03 Comments ||
Top||
#12
I don't question their provisioning nor their swat tactics in questionable circumstances. I do question the number of "justified" no-knock invasions that have hit wrong addresses and ended with the deaths of innocent homeowners and LEO agents. Agents who act on weak or incorrect information with a no-knock have to be held accountable when it goes wrong or there's no justifiable actionable evidence
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2011 21:14 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Do not get me wrong, I have no problem with local Police having an AR-15 in the trunk and a shotgun on the dashboard. I just feel the heavy artillery is getting more common than should be needed. SWAT is for that, National Guard is for that, and yes, if they are isolated I also understand the need for arms in a local department. But AT-4's do concern me no matter who has them.
A bit of discernment is required.
I also believe that reformation of mission in National Guard may be needed in many states at this point. It should be set up to tactically protect the state. Put munitions with those trained to use them, and if heavy munitions are needed, than reform the Guard to where and what mission is needed the most.
I also agree that things are getting quite dangerous but there are ways to counter that without making LEO's have to learn too many tactics and weapon systems on top of the very burdensome training they already receive.
I noted too much op-tempo with Military Police and all of the systems they had to manage (myself included).
I may have not written my last comment too well. Mission enhancement is not arming more, it is merely defining what and with whom that mission belongs with.
I will not step on this activity, I just want eyes on it to make sure... we are not getting missions confused. That is all.
[Dawn] A LARGE gathering of supporters organised by right-wing parties and prominent figures at the Minar-i-Pakistain, Lahore on Sunday has raised some interesting questions. To the extent that Sunday`s rally was an expression of political speech the gathering was within the confines of a democratic set-up, as was a separate rally held by the Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar also on Sunday. And given that other parties have been holding rallies of late, Sunday`s rallies could be seen as a rightful way for right-wing parties to assert their own political credentials. However, a woman is only as old as she admits... it is also necessary to remember that while the right wing in Pakistain may be exercising rights granted by the constitution and democratic principles, the parties of the far right do not have much interest in democracy as it is supposed to be practised in Pakistain. In fact, the Jamaatud Dawa, the `moderate` face of the Lashkar-i-Taiba, which headlined Sunday`s rally in Lahore does not even believe in electoral democracy, arguing that it is against the tenets of Islam.
While it isn`t clear yet if the latest right-wing alliance -- an umbrella group of 30-odd conservative and radical entities resurfacing in the wake of the Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... killings as the `Pakistain Defence Council` -- has been encouraged by the security establishment or is a self-initiative, the climate in which it has arisen is a dangerous one. With the more mainstream and secular parties fighting among themselves and the state continuing its ambivalent policy towards the West, the ultra-conservative elements in society can cash in on the growing anti-US sentiment in the country. While recalibrating Pakistain`s national security and foreign policies is necessary, if the PDC`s ideas were to be followed Pakistain would find itself more isolated than ever in the international community, and perhaps even on the warpath with neighbours and international powers. The anti-US, anti-India vitriol that marked the PDC rally was not just hyperbole or bombast; given the cast of characters involved, there can be little doubt that if they were in charge of Pakistain, some catastrophic decisions would be made.
In truth, however, the PDC may be less a cause than a symptom of what ails Pakistain. For two decades, from the 1980s, the Pak state explicitly supported a certain kind of worldview. Then, in the wake of 9/11, it may have cut many of its ties to jihadi groups and ended its explicit support for jihad but it did nothing to provide a counter-narrative. So the narrative of Pakistain as the bastion of Islam fighting against an unjust and unfair world has continued, and it has grown into an ever greater threat to the country itself.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
#1
DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [US-NATO?] DRONES STILL FLYING OVER FATA: SAYS FAZLUR [JUI-F CHIef Maulana F. Rehman].
IIUC, essens FAZLUR, etal. are scoring points agz the current Pak Govt. by arguing post-11/26 Islamabad is NOT SERIOUS about stopping US Drone flights over sovereign Pak territory nor changing the tersm of its relations wid the wily, murderously drone-happy + anti-Pak USA???
and
* SAME > [Pakistan] SNIPERS [+ ground Police-Security ]TO BE DEPLOYED AT CHRISTIAN CHURCHES FOR CHRISTMAS, in and around Lahore where the bulk of Pakistan's tiny Christian community resides.
[Dawn] AS reported in the media, the wife of Qari Shahid, Bloody Karachi ameer of the so-called Punjabi Taliban, has made some very disturbing revelations. The qari, a former activist of a student party and journalist-turned-militant, was killed in a recent shootout with the police in the metropolis while his widow remains in jug. As per the woman`s reported confession, the couple actively helped plan, facilitate and carry out major acts of terrorism in the city. The couple, along with their infant son, had toured the PAF museum -- located next to the PNS Mehran base -- before the naval facility was stormed by bully boyz in May in an apparent reconnaissance mission. The woman also claimed to have personally passed on a bomb bully boyz planted at the University of Bloody Karachi, which injured students offering prayers on campus. Among her other claimed exploits, she cooked for bully boyz who wanted to target Abdullah Shah Ghazi`s shrine but were killed in a police encounter in the Seaview locality last month, and planted one of the two bombs that went kaboom! at the shrine in October last year killing several devotees of the saint.
These revelations show the extent to which religious bully boyz have infiltrated society. Even if half of her statements are true it is cause for grave concern. These claims show that bully boyz have blended into the city`s fabric with considerable ease and plan their activities under a comfortable cloak of anonymity. It is this unsettling reality the intelligence apparatus must wake up to. There is indeed a fine line between running a police state and gathering solid intelligence to prevent acts of terrorism. The security apparatus needs to demarcate this line and keep its eyes and ears open to neutralise the various terrorist cells that appear to be active in the city and that are in all probability planning to wreak further havoc.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
"My name is Qari Shahid, and I'm a Jihadoholic".
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Mohmand
[Dawn] AS reported in the media, the wife of Qari Shahid, 
