Cass Sunstein defends new regulations with ‘lives saved and illnesses avoided’ mythology
Phil Boehmke:
During the first 100 days of our nation’s downward spiral into oblivion (commonly known as the Obama administration) the Democrat controlled congress rammed a massive party loyalty rewards program (commonly known as the stimulus bill or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) down the throats of the hard-working American taxpayers. The $787 billion dollar fiasco didn’t stimulate the economy in any measurable sense however a clever new accounting trick (jobs saved or created) was developed to prove the success of Mr. Obama’s first major assault on America.
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The Soros-supported Center for American Progress blames rich Jews for stoking Islamophobia
Ed Lasky
The Obama-allied Center for American Progress has released a report that blames Islamophobia in America on a small group of Jews and Israel supporters in America, whose views are being backed by millions of dollars. This “network”, according to the news release, have “have worked hard to push narratives that Obama might be a Muslim, that mosques are incubators of radicalization, and that “radical Islam” has infiltrated all aspects of American society — including the conservative movement.
Who are the figures mentioned as the promoters of prejudice? Most of them are prominent Jews and supporters of Israel, such as David Horowitz, Daniel Pipes and Steven Emerson (the founder of the Investigative Project on Terrorism). The eight foundations mentioned as funding this effort include are almost exclusively ones founded and funded by Jewish donors, and lest readers not be aware of this fact, the Center for American Progress lists not only the other beneficiaries of the charities and foundations (most of them having Jewish or Israel in the title) but also goes to the trouble of naming the individuals behind these charities — not just the donors but also those who serve on the boards.
Why include this additional information except to highlight that Jewish people are behind this effort to “defame” Muslims? By “outing” the people involved, the report puts endangers them. Furthermore, this “report” relies on the conspiracy and age-old anti-Semitic trope that Jews fan prejudice towards others and promotes divisions for their own nefarious purposes (to support Israel in this case). This mindset is straight out of Mein Kampf.
The report also stokes the view that rich Jews operate behind the scenes and use their wealth to control the media and government policy (politicians are also mentioned as being ensnared in this web).
[...]
The scorpions sting – again
By SARAH HONIG:
Conventional wisdom contends that neither Gaza nor Cairo harbors much interest in fanning terrorist flames and disrupting the uneasy truce that has precariously prevailed since Operation Cast Lead. Egypt, an unsteady step away from uncontainable internal chaos, prodigiously presents Cairo’s caretaker military junta with other preoccupations. Simultaneously Hamas surely doesn’t relish another punishment of the magnitude inflicted upon it in 2008.
This makes ample sense – on our wavelength. Cerebral processes in the Arab realm, however, don’t necessarily conform to our rationale. They practically never do.
Israelis shocked by last week’s roadside massacre outside Eilat and by the ensuing rocket barrages from Hamastan fall prey to excessively non-Levantine logical assumptions. They fail to understand that our concepts of levelheadedness don’t apply in neighboring latifundia.
Nobody has any business being the least bit taken aback. Porous borders that allow African economic migrants to infiltrate illegally, and drugs to be smuggled routinely, also invite enemy attacks. The Egyptians were never motivated to guard the frontier and are far less so now, as the repeated explosions on the gas pipeline to Israel attest.
Neither the Egyptians nor the Gazans have changed. They only occasionally resort to expedient chatter in the Western idiom, which suffices to make them sound trustworthy – as trustworthy as the scorpion in the fable attributed to old Aesop.
[...]
Peter Ackroyd on History: My epic search for our turbulent roots
Peter Ackroyd on History: My epic search for our turbulent roots
Scandalous. One of the major causes of breast cancer is funded by a breast cancer charity?? How convenient. Invest in the future, eh BCF?
Breast Cancer Foundation Gave More Than $500K to Planned Parenthood Last Year
Depraved but not deprived
By MARK STEYN:
Unlike many of my comrades in the punditry game, I don’t do a lot of TV. But I’m currently promoting my latest doom-mongering bestseller so I’m spending more time than usual on the telly circuit. This week I was on the BBC’s current-affairs flagship “Newsnight.” My moment in the spotlight followed a report on the recent riots in English cities, in the course of which an undercover reporter interviewed various rioters from Manchester who’d had a grand old time setting their city ablaze and expressed no remorse over it. There then followed a studio discussion, along the usual lines. The host introduced a security guard who’d fought for Queen and country in Afghanistan and Bosnia and asked whether he sympathized with his neighbors. He did. When you live in an “impoverished society,” he said, “people do what they have to do to survive.”
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Inhofe lays long list of nation’s ills at Obama’s feet
By RANDY KREHBIEL:
President Barack Obama alone is to blame for the nation’s budget deficit – and just about everything else, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe told the Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday.
“We now have a president, and I don’t mean this disrespectfully, who is destroying these very institutions that made America great,” Inhofe, R-Okla., said.
Inhofe went on to say the Obama administration has “disarmed America,” is solely responsible for the federal budget deficit, mostly responsible for the nation’s dependence on imported oil and suffocating business with regulations.
[...]
Troubled by Growth of Christianity, Iranian Regime Destroys Bibles
By Patrick Goodenough:
A Shi’ite cleric affiliated with the Iranian regime has warned about the “danger” of Christianity spreading in the Islamic republic. This come amid reports of an anti-Christianity propaganda campaign and the seizure of thousands of Bibles.
According to Mohabat News, an independent Iranian Christian news agency, Ayatollah Hadi Jahangosha expressed concern about “the spread of Christianity among our youth,” citing the availability of Christian satellite television programs, books and objects.
“Everyone in society should feel responsibility in this matter and play his or her role in spreading of pure Islam and fight false and distorted cultures,” Mohabat quoted him as saying during a presentation on Mahdism – the belief in the so-called “hidden” or 12th imam, prophesied to emerge at a time of future chaos.
[...]
Jews, the Temple Mount, and ‘Missing’ Police Protocol
by Maayana Miskin:
For years, activists have claimed that police are discriminating against Jews on the Temple Mount, the holiest site on earth according to Jewish tradition. Now, one police commander is arguing that police protocols regarding the Temple Mount are not discriminatory, but rather, do not exist at all.
The latest development began with a lawsuit filed by Rabbi Yehudah Glick, who heads the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation in Jerusalem. Glick appealed over a police order barring him from the Temple Mount, arguing that the order, which prevented him from continuing his work as a tour guide on the Mount, violated his right to freedom of occupation.
Police argued that Glick had been banned for good reason, after violating the rules for proper conduct in the area. However, when the judge asked to see the rules in question, police failed to produce them.
Superintendent Avi Biton of the Jerusalem Police then told the court that police would be unable to produce the rules because there are no official rules.
[...]
The Bernanke Rally?
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard:
Bravo Bernanke for telling the screaming markets to go to bed without their supper.
There can be no justification for QE3 at a time when core inflation is creeping up to 2pc.
Nor when the M2 money supply is growing at 10pc, or M1 growing at 20pc, or credit is at last returning from the dead and turning positive again. Credit has accelerated to an 8pc annual compound growth rate over the last three months. And remember, Bernanke is a “creditist”. Lending is his lodestar.
Quite why markets seemed so assured that he would intervene to prop up Wall Street is beyond me.
[...]
Official Palestinian Authority Daily Cartoon: All of Israel is “Palestine” and there can be no compromise
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik:
The Palestinian Authority is telling its people that peace with Israel is not a goal. Instead, the PA says that all of Israel is “Palestine,” and that no compromise is acceptable because this principle is “the only red line.” This message was expressed by the regular cartoonist, Muhammad Sabaaneh, in the official PA daily.
Published this week, his cartoon displayed a map of all of Israel (excluding the Golan Heights) and the PA areas, with the following text written across the map:
[...]
Jerusalem: Capital of ‘Palestine’?
by David Meir-Levi:
Throughout all of history, Jerusalem has been the capital of only one nation: Israel. From the time of Kings David and Solomon, late 11th – 10th centuries BCE, to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE, almost 1,100 years, Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish nation.
From the onset of Islamic rule in 638 CE to its end 1917, except for Crusader rule from 1099 to 1187, Jerusalem was never the capital of any Muslim state, nor even a provincial capital, until late Ottoman times (19th c. CE) when it became a special provincial religious site (vilayet) separate from its larger provincial area [sanjak].
Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Qur’an. “The Night Journey,” in chapter 17:1, recounts Mohammed’s magical flight on the back of the winged horse, el-Buraq, and his landing in “al-Aqsa” (literally, the faraway mosque), which is interpreted by later Muslim scholars to be the Temple Mount in Jerusalem; but Jerusalem is not mentioned in the text. The Temple Mount, however, is acknowledged in Muslim tradition to date back to Solomonic times.
[...]
THINK PROGRESS WITCH-HUNT
by David Horowitz:
Think Progress — an organization created by George Soros and the Clintons — has joined the Muslim Brotherhood, the Hamas-spinoff CAIR and assorted Marxist groups in issuing a report on “Islamophobia,” which is a smear category designed to silence critics of Islamic terror, Islamic misogyny and Islamic hatred of Jews, gays, Christians, Hindus and other “infidels.” The report claims that seven foundations contributed $42 million to sponsor the leaders of the Islamophobia movement. Robert Spencer and I are prominent among the targeted villains.
Later today, Robert and I are going to respond. Along with our statement we will post a new pamphlet we have written called “Islamophobia: Thought Crime of the Totalitarian Future” which documents the creation of the term “Islamophobia” by the Muslim Brotherhood as a weapon designed to silence its critics.
In the meantime, let me deconstruct one of the numerous lies which this “report” retails, which is the matter of the $42 million. $42 million is the kind of figure that progressive fascists like George Soros give out in a single year to organizations like Think Progress. The $42 million mentioned in the report is the total given by the seven foundations it smears over a decade for many many causes unrelated to criticism of Islamic terror, misogyny and Jew-hatred.
[...]
Glenn Beck’s revealing visit
By CAROLINE B. GLICK:
American media superstar Glenn Beck’s visit to Israel this week was a revealing and remarkable event. It revealed what it takes to be a friend of Israel. And it revealed the causes of Israel’s difficulty in telling its enemies from its friends.
Many world leaders, opinion-shapers and other notables protest enduring friendship with Israel. From Washington to London, Paris to Spain, policy- makers and other luminaries preface all their remarks to Jewish audiences with such statements. Once their declarations are complete – and often without taking a breath – they proceed to denounce Israel’s policies and to deny its basic rights.
US President Barack Obama exemplifies this practice. Obama always begins his statements on Israel by proclaiming his enduring friendship for Israel. Then he tells us to deny Jewish property rights, accept indefensible borders, or desist from defending ourselves from aggression.
The Israeli Left habitually embraces self-proclaimed friends such as Obama. Often leftist leaders encourage such friends to harm Israel in the name of helping it.
[...]
August in Israel
By Nan Hayworth:
As the Arab Spring continues to roil, this week I returned from an intense and profoundly moving trip to Israel with a congressional delegation hosted by the American Israel Education Foundation. The compression of space and time there is palpable: I stood mere yards from the security fence that separates the families of Kibbutz Misgav Am from the terrorists of Hezbollah and walked on 2,000-year-old paving stones next to the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. The existential frame in Israel is different from that to which I, as an American, am accustomed, and it is essential to understanding Israel’s importance to us and to the world.
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Pulling the Plug
By Carrie K. Hutchens:
It is mind blogging how some people are so ready to suggest the plug should be pulled on others. What if the pluggee doesn’t want the plug pulled? Pull it anyway?
There you go. One more down. Who else can we get rid of?
The thought brings to mind a picture of an eager face with a vile grin and some drool running down the chin for good measure. “Oh look, that little old lady in Aisle 4 doesn’t have quality of life. I wouldn’t want to live that way, walking with a limp. Let’s get her. Boy, this legal murder is empowering. Look at me! I have power over life and death. Why didn’t we start doing this before now? Oh, good another one back by the frozen foods. Such a good day for plug pulling.”
Think it can’t ever happen?
[...]
What pundits should be talking about when it comes to Palin
By Jedediah:
While some pundits are busy calling Sarah Palin thin-skinned, claiming that there is “no space for her” in the 2012 race and incessantly speculating about her potential announcement date, some of us are sitting by laughing, sufficiently amused by typical establishment tactics that have grown tired, old and frankly a little boring.
Mark Levin addressed the pontification by pundits about a potential Palin announcement on September 3: “They’re throwing that out there because they want to create the impression that if she doesn’t announce by the third, that she’s incompetent or it’s impossible for her to win. And you have to keep in mind all these people you see on TV who are operatives or consultants, they’re working for other candidates behind the scenes. Maybe they’re not on their payroll, but they’re trying to promote them … I also believe that Rove and Dick Morris and some of the others are throwing that out there as a setup to attack her when she doesn’t.”
I couldn’t agree more.
[...]
A still-open nuclear file
By Emanuele Ottolenghi:
Syria’s violations would be grave enough if al-Kibar reflected a Syrian attempt to build nuclear weapons for itself. They would be graver if Syria did it to share plutonium with Iran.
[...]
Islam Is Not Part of Our Civilization
Bill Warner:
Obama said at the latest White House Iftar dinner:
Like so many faiths, Islam has always been part of our American family, and Muslim Americans have long contributed to the strength and character of our country, in all walks of life.
These words have no basis in fact. Islam is not part of our civilization because its foundational principles are opposite to ours. Our civilization is built on the foundation of critical thought (how we think) and the Golden Rule (ethics). Islam is built on submission (authoritative thought) and ethical dualism.
Let’s compare the principles, of these different thought systems, starting with authoritative thought and critical thought. Critical thought (also: analytic thought, scientific thought) is the necessary reasoning or intellectual basis for our culture of democracy. Critical thought is objective–no matter who does the work, they get the same results. It is fact-based, uses cause and effect, and is intellectual, not emotional. Critical thought’s tie into morals is that you don’t lie or cheat about data.
Let’s look at some authoritative reasoning. Authoritative reasoning is based on expert opinion and asserts it truth by power. It is so, because the Establishment says it is so.
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The right kind of friend for Israel
By MICHAEL D. EVANS:
The liberal-leftist media in Israel has stooped to a new low in demonizing Glenn Beck before his “Restoring Courage” rallies.
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Will Canada betray Israel?
Many of you know that on September 20 the palestinians will petition the UN Security Council to vote to recommend recognition of Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem as the new, never before existing ‘State of Palestine’. Many believe that the U.S. will veto this motion. I believe the U.S. will abstain. I hope I’m wrong.
Canada is not a permanent member of the Security Council, although by rights she should be and France should not be. Even so, as I understand it, after the Council votes, the motion, if passed, would then be voted on by the General Assembly. It is either in that order or the reverse order. In any event, Canada MUST veto this motion. Canada must not abstain or vote for it. Should Canada abstain or vote to pass the motion then the wrath of God will fall upon our nation. If the U.S. fails to veto the motion in the Security Council then palestine will be recognized but even so, Canada must not be a party to this abomination or we invite God’s judgement.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has publicly stood with Israel but Canada is on record as supporting a palestinian state through negotiated settlement with Israel. As a result, PM Harper could plausibly vote any of three ways. It is imperative he vote against this motion. He will be under enormous international and domestic pressure to vote in favour of recognizing a palestinian state. Please write to PM Harper and to your MP and encourage them to NOT vote [or abstain] in favour of recognizing a palestinian state.
Europe needs a revolution
He is out to lunch on the arab’s democracy revolutions but he’s right about everything else.
Obama Executive Order Creates ‘Office of Diversity and Inclusion’
by Buck Sexton:
In yet another expansion of government through Executive Order, the Obama administration has created an Office of Diversity and Inclusion to boost minority participation in the federal work force.
Judicial Watch reported on this new government office Wednesday, and stated that the Obama administration’s goal is to:
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Huge spike driven through heart of warmist pseudo-science
CERN: ‘Climate models will need to be substantially revised’
China announces support for Palestinian UN statehood bid
Haaretz:
China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that Wu Sike, its special envoy on the Middle East, told Palestinian leaders in a meeting in Ramallah that Beijing and the Chinese people have always supported the Palestinian cause.
The Foreign Ministry statement said Wu expressed understanding, respect and support for the Palestinians’ bid for statehood.
Earlier in the week, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs also expressed support for an independent Palestinian state, saying that she hopes a meeting of European Union foreign ministers on September 2 in Poland will bring progress toward its recognition.
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