Pretty amusing take on British leftists protesting Israel by internet writing rock star, Daniel Greenfield.
I haven't seen this many angry aging leftists in Keffiyahs since Trader Joe's raised the price of its white wine. These people are genuinely angry. They have authentic Made in China scarves and they're having flashbacks to the 70s. A lot of them keep muttering things about Thatcher, even though she's long dead. They're also really angry about "Cheap Jewish Settlements".
Why do those cheap Jewish bastards have to make their settlements so cheap? They're undercutting the working classes, say the white wine and pot Socialists.
#3
Seriously, Kids this is what happens to you after you have over experimented with drugs. You burn out and start babbling nonsense. Sorry there is no way back from burn out.
[WorldAffairsJournal] Shortly after the Arab Spring broke out at the tail end of 2010, two narratives took hold in the West. Optimists hailed a region-wide birth of democracy, as though the Middle East and North Africa were following the path blazed in Eastern Europe during the anti-communist revolutions of 1989. Pessimists fretted that the Arab world was following Iran's example in 1979 and replacing secular tyrants with even more repressive Islamist regimes.
Both narratives turned out to be wrong, and not just because their adherents had the wrong narrative. Any narrative superimposed over this series of events was doomed to be wrong.
The Arab Spring isn't one thing. Many countries in the Middle East and North Africa are experiencing wrenching change, but unlike in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, each affected country is moving in different and sometimes opposing directions. Each has its own history, its own narrative.*
#3
The problem with nationality vs tribalism in the middle east is that the root allegiance in the area is tribal, but western legalism only recognizes lines painted on the map. Which isn't even their map, it was drawn to accommodate commercial interests; it's curiously the same problem we're having on our southern border, in reverse.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/16/2014 7:33 Comments ||
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#4
The definitive book on the subject is "The Arab Mind", TW.
An excerpt:
"It's better to be over-prepared," smirked Jim Porter of the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Illinois in response to questions about wildly disproportionate use of force. Dutifully regurgitating pre-digested soundbites Porter insisted that the most important consideration for the raiders is to be prepared for what they "reasonably expect might happen." And since their indoctrination describes the public as an undifferentiated mass of menace, and their role as subduing any potential resistance, rather than protecting property rights, their default setting is "overkill."
This obsession with "force protection" — or, as it is commonly called, "officer safety" — is the primary driver behind the 124 SWAT raids that occur, on average, every day in the United States. These are not "paramilitary" raids; they are fully realized military operations carried out with financial support from Washington and material assistance from the Pentagon. The only significant difference between counter-insurgency operations overseas and the ones conducted domestically is the fact that military personnel operate under more restrictive rules of engagement than police officers.
The SWAT concept itself could be considered a domestic variant of the "Counter-terror teams" assembled by the CIA as part of the murderous "Phoenix Program" in Vietnam. Amid mounting — and overdue, but welcome -- public antipathy toward police militarization, the Homeland Security apparatus has ramped up its longstanding campaign to collect information on activists and commentators who promote "anti-police" attitudes — another homefront adaptation of counter-insurgency methods.
#4
Had an escapee this morning during transport from the local funny farm to somewhere else. Handcuffed.
You would have thought an airliner went down based upon the number of uniformed police and the helicopters (yes, plural), but the turnout was merited owing to the public safety concern.
[DAWN] THERE is little doubt about the deal that ended retired General Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... 's rule of more than eight years. But what is, perhaps, not known are the back-room negotiations that made it possible. There were many actors in the game that manoeuvred Musharraf's departure. Surely the exit was to be dignified under the bargain brokered by the military leadership and Washington and tacitly approved by all major political parties.
Undoubtedly, it was Asif Ali Zardari who shrewdly manoeuvred the endgame; yet a deal could not have been secured without the other two key players — the military leadership and Washington — being on board. The PML-N leadership may not have been involved in the negotiations, but it was certainly in the loop. There was no opposition to a safe passage agreement from any political party.
Although Musharraf's fate seemed to have been sealed by the outcome of the 2008 elections, there was no indication of him stepping down. His confidence stemmed from his delusion of unwavering loyalty from the military leadership and the support of his friend in the White House.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] THE 2014 global attitudes project of the Washington-based Pew Research Centre has been widely cited to show that a majority of people in Pakistain do not look upon the Taliban favourably. According to Pew's finding, 59pc of those questioned felt negatively vis-a-vis the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP).
Last year, when a similar survey was held this number was slightly lower, with 56pc expressing disapproval of the snuffies who have no qualms about blowing up people, including women and kiddies, in brutal acts of terrorism. Yet 66pc said they were concerned about religious extremism. It seems many of the respondents did not regard the TTP to be myrmidons, which speaks volumes for public perceptions in Pakistain.
Although one can feel relieved that most Paks are moderate in their approach, this is not so reassuring considering that other Mohammedan countries have as many as 80pc of their population, as in Tunisia, and 75pc (Egypt) showing concern at religious extremism. What is more worrying is that 33pc of the population in Pakistain does not feel strongly enough about the matter and replied indifferently with a 'don't know'.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] It is difficult to decide whether Mohammad Zubair, who lives at home despite being placed in the fourth schedule of Anti Terrorism Act (ATA) and has to report to the Rawalpindi police, is lucky or ill fated, as he is no longer officially accused of any crime.
However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... he continues to live with the fear that one day he may be called in and tried for charges that were levelled against him two years ago, verbally.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[SultanKnish] In our modern age, things no longer exist to perform their function. Washing machines aren't designed to clean clothes, but to save water and energy. Food isn't there to be eaten, but not eaten. And armies aren't there to win wars, but to be moral. And the truly moral army never fights a war. When it must fight a war, then it fights it as proportionately as possible, slowing down when it's winning so that the enemy has a chance to catch up and inflict a completely proportional number of casualties on them.
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.
Pervez 
