One proposal for US retaliation to punish Russia for its Ukraine actions is to send more US fighters into Poland. One proposal, fortunately rejected at least for now, was to send in nuclear weapons for the US fighters based there. One hopes that this was never taken seriously by anyone in command of those weapons. Younger readers will not recall, but when Khrushchev proposed much the same thing -- nuclear weapons into Cuba -- the result was that I was out in my back yard in Seattle filling bags with dirt to line the fallout shelter in the basement of my house in the Green Lake district. I cannot think that Putin would find the prospect of US nukes just across his border than Kennedy did when the Russians were sending them to Cuba.
Secretary Kerry continues to bluster about what Russia can and cannot do, as if that were up to us. That is not diplomacy as I understand it. Loud public threats are seldom effective between great powers, and are often not very useful when delivered from a great power to a client state. No one seems to see any similarity between Crimea and Texas.
#2
Strategies within strategies. Isolate Russia in the international community by allowing the Russians to come off as be bad boys on the block. Nice resource areas there in Siberia populated mostly by ethnic Asians you have there neighbor.
[DAWN] I DON'T understand why the Taliban are killing and maiming thousands in their quest to impose their version of the Sharia on us when the Council of Islamic Ideology is doing their job without firing a shot.
In a spate of rulings, the venerable Council has done more to push Pakistain back to the sixth century than all the TTP jacket wallahs put together. Just recently, it decreed that there should be no minimum age for girls to get married as long as they waited until the onset of puberty before being handed over to their husbands.
This means that a girl of, say, eight can be bound in matrimony to a man four or five times her age, and be forced into his bed at around 13. The point here is that she has obviously no say in the matter as a child cannot make such an important decision.
Physical maturity is not so much an issue as is the ability to choose her life partner for herself. A child bride is clearly unable to exercise this right granted to her in Islam.
In another retrograde ruling, the CII has challenged the current law requiring the first wife to give written permission before her husband can take another spouse.
This law has been continuously flouted in spirit as the senior wife is often coerced into giving her written agreement to bigamy. Nevertheless, this Ayub-era provision in the Family Laws Ordinance did provide a theoretical safeguard to women, and was a progressive, pro-women piece of legislation.
A few months ago, the CII ruled that DNA tests could not be used as primary evidence to convict rapists.
Apparently, the learned holy men of the Council continue to insist on the scriptural requirement of four male witnesses to the act. As the vast majority of rapes take place away from prying eyes, it is small wonder that rapists are seldom tried, leave alone convicted.
When public outcry against the increasing tendency to accuse members of religious minorities of blasphemy resulted in a proposal to give false accusers the death penalty, some learned members of the CII opposed it tooth and nail.
One can only hope that this new respect for human life will also be reflected in greater compassion among our learned Learned Elders of Islam for those unjustly accused of blasphemy, and who thus face the death penalty.
Then the CII has opposed the Women's Protection Act of 2006. This progressive legislation had sought to protect women from the horrors of the Zia-era Zina Ordinance under which they could be -- and were -- accused of fornication when they had actually been raped.
We all recall the dreadful case of the young blind woman who became pregnant after being raped in the Zia period, and was actually found guilty of fornication as she could not identify her rapists.
The Domestic Violence Bill, passed by the National Assembly, has been shelved in the Senate, partly due to criticism by the learned Council. All these religious interventions and opinions reinforce the impression that the CII is an anti-woman body of poorly educated men with little knowledge of anything but the literal rendering of the scriptures.
Consider their ruling on underage marriage as an example. By reducing the legal age of marriage from 16 years, where it is currently, to around 13, they are effectively increasing the child-bearing years of women.
The world over, the trend is for women to marry later, thus lowering the birth rate. Pakistain, with its high population growth rate, hardly needs more children.
This, of course, is quite apart from the cruelty inherent in depriving young women of the right to choose their husbands, or, indeed, the right to pursue an education and a career. Who gave these holy mans the authority to snatch away the right to choose given to women by Islam?
Bigamy was permitted in a period when perpetual warfare created many widows, and so it made sense to permit four marriages as a means of providing single women protection and shelter. But surely, this is scarcely the situation today. To insist on a return to a medieval era shows just where the CII stands on the issue of women's rights.
In world rankings, Pakistain is rated at just about the bottom in terms of how difficult it is to be a woman. Half our population is denied the most fundamental facilities and rights. In the same family, girls are at a disadvantage when it comes to food, medicines and education, with boys being given preference.
Given all the discrimination women face in a very brutal, male-dominated society, should we not do away with a body that makes their lives even more miserable?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Islamic nations are again learning that the jihad is a volatile instrument of war that can easily backfire on those who preach it; that "holy war" is hardly limited to fighting and subjugating "infidels"--whether the West in general, Israel in particular, or the millions of non-Mohammedan minorities under Islam--but can also be used to fight "apostates," that is, Mohammedans accused of not being Islamic enough
However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... since the Egyptian June 30 Revolution saw the ousting and subsequent banning of the Moslem Brüderbund, and ever since the Brotherhood's supporters--chief among them Qaradawi, through his Al Jazeera program--have been inciting violence in the region, especially in Egypt and Syria, the jihad is spinning out of control; and the Gulf monarchs know that, if not contained and directed, it can easily reach them.
For if jihadis are fighting fellow Mohammedans in Egypt and Syria--under the accusation that they are not "true" Mohammedans--what is to stop them from targeting the Gulf monarchies in the same context?
This is the great irony of Islam--one of the many balancing acts Mohammedan nations and leaders must live with. As Mohammedans, they must of course agree to the Islamic duty of jihad against enemies, real or imagined, and help promote it. In this sense, jihad can be a powerful and useful weapon. Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , for example, is not only a chief disseminator and supporter of the Salafi ideology most associated with jihad, but was forged in large measure by articulating and calling for holy war in the 19th-20th centuries, including against Turks and fellow Arab tribes (both Mohammedan).
The Saudi argument was, ironically, the same as the current argument made by the jihadi forces the Saudis are now trying to neutralize--that the Turks and Arab tribes were not "Islamic" enough.
Yet now it is the Moslem Brüderbund and its many allies who are accusing the Saudis of not being Islamic enough..
[Jihad Watch] Klingon director John Brennan is at it again--equivocating over the nature of jihad by evoking paradigms familiar to the West.
Last Tuesday, "during an event at the Council of Foreign Relations, Brennan was asked about the 'war of ideas' surrounding Islam, which the questioner said many Americans tend to equate with violence."
The Klingon chief responded by saying that al-Qaeda's ideology is "a perverse and very corrupt interpretation of the Crayon"; that "al-Qaeda has hijacked" Islam; that "they have really distorted the teachings of Mo."
Even so, "that ideology, that agenda of al-Qaeda," confirmed Brennan, "has gained resonance and following at the Agency, in Washington and many parts of the world." Agreement might certainly be found among the Richard Reid, Nidal Hasan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev crowd. No comments yet from Libyan Ambassador Christopher Stevens or his staff.
#1
What did the 'reestablishment' of the Caliphate have to do with "Injustices, Economics, and Ignorance"? They long for the submission of the world to their Word.
#3
I thought Senator Feinstein's recent row up with the agency was interesting. Evidently it's all gone away. Little more on it this week. She must have gotten her lollypop.
#4
Of course, Islamicism has NOTHING to do with it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/15/2014 13:15 Comments ||
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#5
Perhaps Brennan bought into "it's a small precentage, maybe only 10% are militant". Too bad that's 120M raving lunatics, never mind the definition of 'ignorant islamists' approaches a Billion.
Posted by: Boss Lover of the Welsh8020 ||
03/15/2014 13:50 Comments ||
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#6
Just come out and say it* John.
*None of it would be happening if it wasn't for evil Zionist entity etc.
#7
*None of it would be happening if it wasn't for evil Zionist entity
Sure, that's the cause du jour, but if the Juices all disappeared tomorrow, the Muslims would be back at each other's throats after a day of candy and gun sex Not to mention the ongoing Jihad vs Everyone.
#11
look at the teachings at saudi funded mosques worldwide to see what the problem is ie hatred of other religions something i was not taught as a youngster in my Roman Catholic days.
Posted by: Paul D ||
03/15/2014 16:57 Comments ||
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#12
The CIA has become politically subservient to the "Beltway" powers and the current regime (by extension). Thats the problem - they are more political and that prevents them from being capable of proper reporting (bias kills that), and effective practice covert operations (protecting the power structure undermines that).
This is an aberrant thought process that affects the leadership once they start believing their own bullshit, and are tucked comfortably inside their political bubble.
Theres a reason why only one out every thousand Americans can name all five rights guaranteed by the First Amendment And the poison been spreading around the world
#1
Sometime ago, George Will said "The Three Rs are now Racism, Recycling and Reproduction."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/15/2014 8:06 Comments ||
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#2
..Stockholm Syndrome explains why most of the students who manage to graduate from a curricula parrot what they need to in order to get "good" grades. Parroting leads to internalization of the belief, and the cycle continues.
My empirical experience of late is that the elective "courses" available from our centralized education system, with rare exception, is a foundry of useless and cancerous groupthink..
#3
American educational system has been spinning out of control for decades - education is old school it isn't hip to be aware and a critical thinker, nah, you got to feel not think, accept the injustice mime of race, surrender yourself to gaia religion.
Look at the red dot and repeat after me
I am a servant, a follower of gaia, we are all brothers and sisters and I feel your pain.
#6
Too much of the professional educational establishment is caught up in their own lies. They claimed to be the 'professionals' and the only way to achieve knowledge and skills was through their tutelage. They thus acquired an inordinate amount of local and state tax revenues. However, as we all are witnesses to, they've fallen short on delivery of the quality they promised (you can keep your...). Some how back in the 60s, before tests and standards were dumb downed (as in yesterday's High School graduate diploma is today's BA), many kids did better. One of the key factors is the home. If the 'parents' don't give a care about education, then the kid generally won't succeed in the attainment of knowledge and skills. Given that there's nothing the 'professionals' can really do about reversing that big influence, they instead go for the soft and politically correct agenda over the basics. They've got to justify getting all those resources generated by all those people paying taxes, coerced by the power of government. Got to keep the game going. Throw in the dues-donation dependency between the unions and one political party, what's surprising? It's a racket. Farming the rubes.
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.
