Josh Stanton at One Free Korea details how the WFP panders, lies and obfuscates in its quest to deliver food directly into the hands of some of the most odious people in the world. The Norks are part of the original Axis of Evil, and Pudgy, like Daddy, stays in power in part because pandering westerners enable him to do so. Recommended.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Commies
For two bloody months, an armed jihadist serial killer ran loose across the country. At least four innocent men died this spring and summer as acts of "vengeance" on behalf of aggrieved Muslims, the self-confessed murderer has now proclaimed. Have you heard about this horror? Probably not.
The usual suspects who decry hate crimes and gun violence haven't uttered a peep. Why? Like O.J.'s glove: If the narrative don't fit, you must acquit. The admitted killer will be cast as just another "lone wolf" whose familiar grievances and bloodthirsty Islamic invocations mean nothing.
I say: Enough with the whitewashing. Meet Ali Muhammad Brown. His homicidal Islamic terror spree took him from coast to coast. The 29-year-old career thug admitted to killing Leroy Henderson in Seattle in April; Ahmed Said and Dwone Anderson-Young in Seattle on June 1; and college student Brendan Tevlin, 19, in Essex County, New Jersey, on June 25. Tevlin was gunned down in his family Jeep on his way home from a friend's house. Ballistics and other evidence linked all the victims to Muhammad Brown. Police apprehended him last month hiding in an encampment near the Watchung Mountains of West Orange, New Jersey.
While he was on the run, he disguised himself in a Muslim keffiyeh. He carried a notebook with jihadist scribblings and advice on evading detection. I obtained the latest charging documents filed in Washington state, which detail the defiant domestic terrorist's motives. Mr. Brown "just doing his small part for jihad."
#1
Does anyone ever get charged with a hate crime? And if a person were charged with a hate crime and the death penalty was on the table, what difference would a hate crime charge make anyway? Their not going to keelhaul, kill his family, cousins, aunts, uncles, dog, stone him, dismember/cut off his head--it's still the just the usual death penalty--that is one appeal after another for 20 years or so.
Long piece by Bret Stephens at Commentary catalogs Champ's epic foreign policy failures in depth. Worth the review.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Excellent article. My personal favorite paragraph below:
Should any of this have come as a surprise? Probably not: With Obama, there was always more than a whiff of the overconfident dilettante, so sure of his powers that he could remain supremely comfortable with his own ignorance. His express-elevator ascent from Illinois state senator to U.S. president in the space of just four years didn’t allow much time for maturation or reflection, either. Obama really is, as Bill Clinton is supposed to have said of him, “an amateur.” When it comes to the execution of policy, it shows.
#2
When a nation is ruled (not governed or served, but RULED) by a coalition of public employee and welfare thugs who would destroy the nation to maintain the illusion of a never-ending gravy train plus self-superior NPR listening pseudointellectuals who have convinced themselves they are a more highly evolved life form, an Obama presidency and the accompanying level of real world incompetence is the ultimate result.
Obama and his policies are the symptom, not the cause.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
08/31/2014 6:27 Comments ||
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#3
.....pseudointellectuals who have convinced themselves they are a more highly evolved life form,...no mo uro.
I see you've had at least some exposure to our national Intelligence Community.
#6
That was a surprisingly critical article. He couldn't have made his bias any clearer even without the mandatory slams at Rick Perry and Sarah Palin.
Trying to damn Obama as "too professorial, rational and prudent" was hilarious. This, the author, is a man torn by the realization that his worldview is a chimera and not a unicorn, grasping at straws to construct a new view that doesn't require the open admission "I've been an ass".
[Breitbart] Filmmaker and author of "America: Imagine a World without Her," Dinesh D'Souza said that recent rise of ISIS and aggression by Russia prove his point that a world without American influence is dangerous. "When I came up with the subtitle for the book and the film, which is 'America: Imagine a World without Her' I truly meant it as a hypothetical ... let's imagine, let's envision what the world might look like if American influence begins to be diminished, begins to be subtracted. Well, gee, we don't actually have to imagine because that's what the Champ is doing" he stated.
And "when American leadership subsides, this [the current state of foreign affairs] is kind of what we have to learn to expect."
D'Souza also criticized the media for failing to hold the Champ accountable for his foreign policy failures, declaring "in this country the media, the mainline media has not been holding the Champ accountable, the guy has actually been on a six year honeymoon, adding that "there is a desperate desire on the part of many in the media that this first African-American president not fail."
#1
D'Souza also criticized the media for failing to hold the Champ accountable for his foreign policy failures, declaring "in this country the media, the mainline media has not been holding the Champ accountable
There was no vetting by the MSM ever. So what we ended up with was a guy who couldn't run a one-person parade successfully.
#2
Note to D'Souza, the media is the enemy. They created the monster. They also bury and obstruct the truth. They are not the 'Free Press'. That is the technology of the times for the free flow of information. The media is an institution that lusts for power to impose its cultural will upon the population (not to be confused with the culture of the country which it loathes).
Hussain Abdul-Hussain and Lee Smith write a great piece in the Weekly Standard to explain how the ISIS is different from other terror groups in the Middle East, and why failing to understand that means disaster for us.
In short: ISIS is tribal and has tribal concerns: land, power, connections, wealth. Their ideology is Salafist and their heritage is Sunni, but they're not interested in terror for terror's sake. Terror is a tool, one that they understand well and are happy to use. As is said in the article, "ISIS is not a classic insurgency, nor a non-state actor. Rather, it's a state-building organization.”
ISIS is building a caliphate. It has taken advantage of the power vacuum in Iraq and Syria. It is following a millennia-old rule book on the acquisition and leveraging of power in the region. It rigorously follows its ideology. It uses its understanding of tribal relations. But what they want is something that in the end is very rational for someone in the Middle East: a homeland in which Allah (their version) rules all the faithful through a caliph.
Highly recommended.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/31/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
and why failing to understand that means disaster for us
I hope someone has the intelligence to tell Obean the truth, and I hope Obean can summon the wisdom to figure it out and act against his muslim faith.
#4
As is already happening, the president will be led by events and by others. Some right things will happen because France and Britain will take the lead and demand America participate, or because genocide is said in harsh whispers.
A lot of Islamic terror groups can promise you a nice time in heaven. But only ISIS gives you opportunity to establish an Islamic paradise on earth and, as a bonus, in the Arab heartland.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/31/2014 10:21 Comments ||
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#9
I hope someone has the intelligence to tell Obean the truth
Telling Obama the truth is a career ending move. In fact, if you show an inclination towards truth-telling, your job application has already been weeded out.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/31/2014 12:18 Comments ||
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#10
I think Obama knows the truth and whatever non-PC-ified segments of the intelligence community has been telling him the truth.
The problem is he doesn't care. Or worse he wants to exploit it for his own advantage. Never let a crisis go to waste and all that.
#11
#3 There is no changing this man or his followers.
I am coming to believe that O, those around him, and those who voted for him are much like the National Socialist leader of yore, the sycophants around him, and those who voted for him--rabid ideologues with agenda in which they are unwavering. The Democrats of today are not the Democrats of your parents and grandparents.
[PJMedia] Soon after an open-ended Israel-Hamas ceasefire came into effect at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, some still-living Hamas leaders rose out of the bunkers where they had been hiding out for weeks and led some Gazans in "victory celebrations."
...Some of the figures from the seven weeks of war--so far, if the ceasefire holds--include:
On the side of Hamas and Gaza: about 2000 dead (about half of them fighters including members of the top Hamas command), a few hundred thousand people displaced or homeless, about 11,000 homes, schools, and mosques destroyed, 32 attack tunnels costing millions of dollars and years of labor destroyed, and about 2500 mostly shorter-range rockets remaining out of what had been 10,000.
On Israel's side: 70 dead (64 of them soldiers), some mild, passing economic damage, vastly smaller totals of property damage, and vastly smaller numbers of Gaza-area Israelis leaving their homes temporarily or, in some cases, moving to other parts of the country.
Added to all that is the fact that the ceasefire deal reached on Tuesday is the same one Hamas could have had in early July before most of the destruction was wreaked, and that it grants none of Hamas's major demands: an airport, a seaport, and prisoner releases. Instead Israel agreed to reopen Gaza border crossings--something it would have done in any case, since it does not want to deny Gazans basic goods and cause severe crises--and to a slight expansion of the fishing zone off Gaza's coast.
A hands-down win for Israel, then?
Not if you ask a lot of Israelis--particularly right-wing cabinet ministers and other right-wing critics of the government, and embittered residents of the Gaza-bordering towns and villages.
Why, then, did Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon not order the IDF to simply eliminate Hamas, which no one doubts it is capable of doing?
#2
Why, then, did Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon not order the IDF to simply eliminate Hamas, which no one doubts it is capable of doing?
because
1. What would replace hamas?
2. Eliminating Hamas would require reoccupying Gaza which would cost hundreds of IDF lives and create a manor financial burden.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/31/2014 8:40 Comments ||
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#3
Israel did a pretty good job of crimping Hamas terrorist style at a minimum cost. In another article, it was estimated it would take 20 years to rebuild Gaza. (It was not said whether this meant the tunnels or something other.)
#4
thanks for that it's a question i've been wondering, why they didn't just crush hamas
christopher hitchens once said, it could be solved if they just partitioned Gazoo.
half for the jews half for the muslims (correct me if i'm wrong he might have added the west bank to that).
he said the problem was on one side, militant religious jews who believe that land is divinely gifted to them.
on the other side are militant muslims who also believe it was divinely gifted but to them instead.
and then from the US some apocalyptic christians to the rescue who hope that if the jews and muslims keep fighting then sooner or later we'll have armageddon and bring on the end of days
so really if we could just sensibly partition, build a wall and separate the god botherers it could be solved?
#5
anon1. Partitioning would not do any good as the Paleos and the Muslims are dedicated to destroying the Jews (and it looks like the rest of us too according to their interpretation of the Koran). We are all Kafirs/infidels in the eyes of Mo.
#11
I suspect Israeli resupply (read USA) issues had something to do with not bringing Hamas to unconditional surrender. That and Hamas' inability conceptually to accept such a condition of affairs, making systematic annihilation of Hamas leadership the alternative to Hamas' unconditional surrender. Still, the resupply issue must have weighed heavily. The threat to deny was made publicly by the Crack Head occupying the White House.
#12
Dear Chris Hitchens had a blind spot when it came to religion overall, rabid atheist that he was (I seem to recall that he came of Jewish parentage, but I'm not certain enough to make the claim). Certainly his understand of the Christian Zionist reasoning sounds completely off based on what I've learnt here at Rantburg, though it is a common assumption.
I think TopRev is right about the threat to resupply being a huge concern. Even yet, according to the Times of Israel this morning, while Hellfire missile shipments have been approved, there is no indication when they will actually be shipped.
#13
Christians don't support our Jewish brethren because we all want to see the End of Days. It's because we are Christians, Christ was a Jew, and we hold shared values
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/31/2014 19:07 Comments ||
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#5
Gottlieb and others have done extensive studies on genetics and behavior. Appears to be a certain level of acceptance within the scientific community. Elsewhere the discussion can range from simple doubt to anger and claims of racism.
A meme (/ˈmiːm/ meem)[1] is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."[2] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures.[3]
The word meme is a shortening (modeled on gene) of mimeme (from Ancient Greek μίμημα Greek pronunciation: [míːmɛːma] mīmēma, "imitated thing", from μιμεῖσθαι mimeisthai, "to imitate", from μῖμος mimos "mime")[4] and it was coined by the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976)[1][5] as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases, fashion, and the technology of building arches.[6]
Proponents theorize that memes may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution. Memes do this through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance, each of which influence a meme's reproductive success. Memes spread through the behavior that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. Memes that replicate most effectively enjoy more success, and some may replicate effectively even when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.[7]
A field of study called memetics[8] arose in the 1990s to explore the concepts and transmission of memes in terms of an evolutionary model. Criticism from a variety of fronts has challenged the notion that academic study can examine memes empirically. However, developments in neuroimaging may make empirical study possible.[9] Some commentators in the social sciences question the idea that one can meaningfully categorize culture in terms of discrete units, and are especially critical of the biological nature of the theory's underpinnings.[10] Others have argued that this use of the term is the result of a misunderstanding of the original proposal.[11]
Dawkins's own position is somewhat ambiguous: he obviously welcomed N. K. Humphrey's suggestion that "memes should be considered as living structures, not just metaphorically"[12] and wanted to regard memes as "physically residing in the brain".[13] Later, he argued that his original intentions, presumably before his approval of Humphrey's opinion, had been simpler.[14] At the New Directors' Showcase 2013 in Cannes, Dawkins's opinion on memetics was deliberately ambiguous.[15]
Head to Wikipedia for the long form definition.
Aaron Lynch described seven general patterns of meme transmission, or "thought contagion":[23]
Quantity of parenthood: an idea that influences the number of children one has. Children respond particularly receptively to the ideas of their parents, and thus ideas that directly or indirectly encourage a higher birthrate will replicate themselves at a higher rate than those that discourage higher birthrates. Efficiency of parenthood: an idea that increases the proportion of children who will adopt ideas of their parents. Cultural separatism exemplifies one practice in which one can expect a higher rate of meme-replication—because the meme for separation creates a barrier from exposure to competing ideas. Proselytic: ideas generally passed to others beyond one's own children. Ideas that encourage the proselytism of a meme, as seen in many religious or political movements, can replicate memes horizontally through a given generation, spreading more rapidly than parent-to-child meme-transmissions do. Preservational: ideas that influence those that hold them to continue to hold them for a long time. Ideas that encourage longevity in their hosts, or leave their hosts particularly resistant to abandoning or replacing these ideas, enhance the preservability of memes and afford protection from the competition or proselytism of other memes. Adversative: ideas that influence those that hold them to attack or sabotage competing ideas and/or those that hold them. Adversative replication can give an advantage in meme transmission when the meme itself encourages aggression against other memes. Cognitive: ideas perceived as cogent by most in the population who encounter them. Cognitively transmitted memes depend heavily on a cluster of other ideas and cognitive traits already widely held in the population, and thus usually spread more passively than other forms of meme transmission. Memes spread in cognitive transmission do not count as self-replicating. Motivational: ideas that people adopt because they perceive some self-interest in adopting them. Strictly speaking, motivationally transmitted memes do not self-propagate, but this mode of transmission often occurs in association with memes self-replicated in the efficiency parental, proselytic and preservational modes.
[Pensacola News Journal] As most of you are probably aware, the former commander of the Blue Angels from 2009 to 2012, Capt. McWherter, is in hot water with the Navy. He is accused of condoning an inappropriate command climate in the Ready Room. He has been found guilty and removed from his command.
Apparently the guys, and one lady, engaged in what most would regard as sophomoric locker-room humor. The Diamond called the Solos gay, and the Solos returned the favor. This inter-team competitiveness was used by the team to increase morale, and tighten performance edge. It may not be politically correct, but it's certainly not indicative of homophobia as claimed by one sullen soul!
The accuser, a Machiavellian young lady who maintained a log of all the jokes and comments during her two years on the team, never filed a concurrent complaint, and participated herself in some of the childish acts (by bringing some pornographically carved pumpkins into the Ready Room around Halloween 2012). For some unexplained reason, she waited over a year to file an accusation that the jesting offended her. In the present defensive atmosphere from the inexcusably high number of serious military gender issues, the resulting inquiry magnified the good-humored banter into pornography, homophobia and gender discrimination.
A head had to roll -- and Boss McWherter became a victim of the politically correct pendulum swing.
#1
The accuser, a Machiavellian young lady who maintained a log of all the jokes
You'd think this young lady would have something better to do with her time. If one looks at something to be pissed off about, he/she can easily find it just about anywhere he/she looks. Sounds like this woman was on a one-woman PC crusade. She needs to take a few deep breaths (for a couple of years) rather than keep score on everyone else. If she looked at herself, I am certain there are many things about her that piss-off other people. Relax honey (sarc).
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.