[American Center for Democracy] In recent days an Al-Jazeera news anchor wondered live on camera why the Arab armies cant be as humanitarian as the Israeli armytrying its best to avoid civilian casualties. As far as we know he was not fired.
Youssef Zeidan, a prominent Egyptian scholar and author, declared in a televised interview that Muslim anti-Semitism and anti-Israel attitudes were attributable to indoctrination, ignorance and stupidity.
Twenty-five Egyptian Islamic scholarssome from Al-Azhar University, the closest thing Sunni Islam has to an authoritative theological think tankrecently issued a statement that Islam needed to restore ijtihad, the investigation of Islamic dogma, in the light of changes in the objective situation within which it functions.
All this could be downplayed as unrepresentative and unlikely to have any substantial effect on Muslim thought or practice. But public pronouncements by al-Sisi of Egypt, one of the two most powerful current Sunni Arab figures (the other being King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia), cannot be ignored. His statement that Islam must exit its 800-year stagnation and join the modern world is nothing short of revolutionary.
The writer asks, is this the beginning of a true Sunni Reformation?
#2
wondered live on camera why the Arab armies cant be as humanitarian as the Israeli armytrying its best to avoid civilian casualties.
Youssef, you should check with the Arab armies/Islamic world on that one and see how you are received.
[Dhaka Tribune] BNP chairperson the loathesome Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... and her colleagues must be fed up with the whole "knowledge donation" campaign going on for them. Newspaper articles, editorials, post-editorials, commentaries, talk shows, civil society-led seminars and meetings -- all are telling them what went wrong, what the BNP should have done, what they could have avoided.
While most of these discussions feel that BNP was history in Bangladesh, a few still believe that after some cleaning up, planning, and an inclusive election, the BNP has a fair chance of coming back.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2014 00:00 ||
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[Breitbart] Former mobile home resident Wendy Davis has surprised Texans with a hodgepodge of seemingly desperate social issue stances, but the Davis campaign seems now ready to change husbands directions on Davis's signature issue: abortion. The Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate told the Dallas Morning News she supports bans on abortions after 20 weeks.
If you like your late term infant, you can keep your late term infant.
As always, check the fine print: she supports the usual 'exemptions' that pretty much allow abortion whenever and however...
#2
Well, she's pretty much totaled her campaign at this point, so she'll try the Bill Clinton approach. This item was, BTW, the same thing she got media for 'filibustering' in the state senate. Current likelihood of becoming governor: only if appointed by Obama under marshal law.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/13/2014 7:18 Comments ||
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#3
apparently she doesn't like the Moloch Abortion Barbie nicnym
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2014 7:54 Comments ||
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#4
She must be desperate. She has been posing with firearms lately and touting the open carry option in Texas. Probably trying to shift attention away from abortion. What #1 said. The other strategy is to blame your opponent for what you are doing.
#5
In the unlikely event that she does get elected, she can always revert to her old position of abortion on demand up to the fetus's 21st birthday.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/13/2014 8:38 Comments ||
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#6
..another fine example of the qualified "Mobius Strip" of "Progressive" electioneering that 51% of the American electorate couldn't figure out even if public schools and parents did their jobs..
#1
I know for a fact that patriotic Springfieldian Ned Flanders told his sons, "ALWAYS REMEMBER, BOYZ, UNITARIANS ARE THE ENEMY"!
Turning the Office of the Presidency + Executuve Branch into an all-encompassing Office of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Amerika [CPUS], replete wid Politburo + Central Comittee, ...etc???
The OWG Globies desire for the post-2015 US National or Federal-level Govt. as we know it to be akin to what the weaker State-Local Govts are today - the Power + $$$, etc. will be at the OWG NAU-level + higher, no longer at the National or Federal level.
Besides of course a "borderless", "anti-sovereign" Amerika.
IFF THE OWG GLOBALISTS INTEND A HIGHER GOP-DEM TWO-PARTY ESTABLISHMENT, THEY AREN'T SAYING IT.
[DAWN] AS he squatted under a TTP banner and toted his Kalashnikov, his face looked familiar, though his beard had grown much thicker and was perhaps dyed in henna, hiding the grey. After a long disappearance, Mast Gul resurfaced last week in North Wazoo with another myrmidon commander claiming responsibility for a terrorist attack on a hotel in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. that killed several Shias.
That takes me down memory lane more than 18 years ago when the burly young primitive had returned to a hero's welcome after leading a bloody, two-month siege of Charar Sharif, a 14th-century shrine in India-held Kashmire. The fighting killed several Indian soldiers and ended in the destruction of the historical holy place.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
The article makes it sound like there is some smooth demarcation between jihad and terrorism. I thought jihad was the justification for terrorism.
#4
Welcome, let's play Jihad or Terror!
Our contestant: a pious vest-wearer.
Will he take home the goat?
Audience, you will vote --
But beware, Allah punishes error!
#2
It is interesting and somewhat optimistic. After 9/11, I was hoping for Hiroshima, Nagasaki moments over the Islamic world. That has tempered slightly with time.
"The fiscal uncertainty and continued budget austerity... require that we make tough and far-sighted choices now in order to achieve a ready and modern force in the future," she said. I'll believe you're serious when you propose canceling the F-35...
"The strategic environment, the fiscal environment, the political and bureaucratic realities of the defense enterprise -- point to the conclusion that the military must get smaller over the next five to 10 years," Fox said. "It is not an ideal course of action. It contains real risks -- as a smaller force, no matter how ready or technologically advanced, can go to fewer places and do fewer things. But given current realities, it is the only plausible way to generate the military's technological superiority for the next generation -- to avoid the prospect of a `hollow force' in the future."
Fox also addressed the Pentagon's renewed focus in Asia. But she emphasized that the so-called pivot is not all about China. Threats are growing "not just from advanced military powers, but from the proliferation of more advanced, precise anti-ship munitions around the globe," Fox said. I'm curious as to the depth of knowledge the young Ms. Fox has with regard to naval munitions, or any other defense systems or strategies for that matter.
#2
I'm with Beso. Cancel F35, the littoral combat ship, and the land combat system. You could also go through the pentagon and fire every third person at random. (It would at least encourage some of them to be out in the field.)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/13/2014 7:31 Comments ||
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#3
IMHO downsizing usually means fewer combat forces and less trading for those left.
#4
Ed, this clown wants to downsize the Armed Forces all while the Obama administration spends trillions on Obamacares, Solyndras and stimulusses. How about downsizing Obama and his clique instead?
#6
How about we cut some 'entitlements' instead? Say a 30% across-the-board, require proof of legal residence or citizenship for welfare, SS, Medicaid, Obumblecare, etc...
#7
Dr. Steve: They're working on cancelling the F-35. They're gonna slow-walk it, try to keep the production as low and price as high as possible and let _you_ slit its throat as if it's a bad airframe. It's their passive-aggressive way of being on both sides of the issue: they get the weak US they want and they get YOU to take the blame for it.
#8
Problem is, if the F35 is dropped, what do we have that can perform its functions in a hostile environment against non trivial opposition (EW, ECM, ECCM, SAMs, RF weapons, etc).
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/13/2014 20:40 Comments ||
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#12
But, but, the F-18 and F-15 aren't stealthy
Can't speak for the Eagle, Ramblin Man, but way back in 92 when I was @ Pax River we had some (cough, cough) unique Lawn Darts that needed 'enhancements' for ATC purposes....Also some really special Tomcats.
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.
[Breitbart] 
In other shoe and slipper related news: 
[DAWN] AS he squatted under a TTP banner and toted his Kalashnikov, his face looked familiar, though his beard had grown much thicker and was perhaps dyed in henna, hiding the grey. After a long disappearance, Mast Gul resurfaced last week in North 
[US Naval Institute] Morning Keynote: Ms. Christine Fox, Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense 
