Boker tov, Boulder!

Shabbat Shalom

Am checking out early, as we've got family coming to visit. Good Shabbes, everyone.

Carl in Jerusalem:

This year, 2012, will be the most important year in Israel's history. The world will never be the same again. With revolutions erupting across the Middle East, elections in the United States of America and the European economy in turmoil, NOW IS THE TIME to stand with Israel. Make a resolution to support The Land of Israel.com and join us in spreading the truth and beauty of Israel with the world. The world needs to know the truth now more than ever before.

"The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, until the year's end." Deuteronomy 11:12. The eyes of the world are focused on Israel - as what will happen in Jerusalem, will ultimately happen to the rest of the world.

 

  

 

That urgent feeling of NOW seems ubiquitous. CJHS puts it this way: Never Again is Now.

B'sorot tovot ... May we hear good news. 

Menorah Smashed -- in Plainview, New York, U.S.A.

Every morning that I woke up and our outdoor menorah was not smashed and no brick had been thrown through the glass door, I was grateful for where I live and for the people who surround me. These days, you cannot take anything for granted.

 

Your Jewish News:

Nassau County police are investigating the destruction of a holiday decoration in Plainview.

Mangled remains are all that's left of a broken menorah that had been given to Burton Radish and his wife as a special holiday gift 10 years ago. It has a lot of sentimental value, but on Monday night, vandals smashed it to pieces.

"Someone had pulled it out of the ground and really impaled it in the ground," Radish said. "They did a job on it."

The gold painted PVC pipes are all that remain of the Hanukkah decoration, traditionally called a Hanukkiah. For Radish, the crime could not have come at a worst time. He had just finished sitting shiva after the passing of his wife Roslee. The Hanukkiah was given to the couple from the synagogue where she served as past president before she got sick. The pair was married for 47 years, and now, his personal pain has this added insult.

"It's still a trial and tribulation to get over this loss, and to have this happen to is like a double blow," he said.

Radish's daughter first noticed the destruction and carried many pieces back into the yard. Now the destroyed pieces sit near the shrubs. Radish hopes it can be repaired or replaced, but can't understand why this happened.

"Whoever did this was in a rage for the Hanukkiah and what it represents, Judaism," he said. "Or may have been just drunken kids. I don't know."

Anyone with information is asked to call police.

"The opportunity is ours if we can grasp it..."

Rick Richman quotes Margaret Thatcher in his review of The Iron Lady (the movie, starring Meryl Streep) -- at PJ Media:

.... [T]hough important, [material prosperity] is not the main issue. The main issues are moral. …The economic success of the Western world is a product of its moral philosophy and practice. The economic results are better because the moral philosophy is superior. It is superior because it starts with the individual, with his uniqueness, his responsibility, and his capacity to choose. … We have a ready audience … ready to examine our arguments on their merits. The opportunity is ours if we can grasp it instead of meeting the Socialists half-way.

 

You will want to read The Iron Lady, The Grocer's Daughter, The Candidate of Character in its entirety, whether you care to see the film or not. It is extremely relevant to the times - and the mess - in which we now find ourselves.

Quote of the Day

The quote of the day comes from Gabriel Malor at Ace of Spades:

 

" Stupid Party, your table is ready."

 

I'm still laughing...

Drudge calls it a "Shock Poll"

 

Romney 45%, Obama 39%

 

 

Also, Rick sent me to this zombie post: Barack Obama Will Still Be President on January 19, 2017. It's a very interesting read, with two polls and hundreds of comments.

I posted a comment suggesting Bush-Cheney 2012 (Jeb Bush, Liz Cheney) but what I really, really, really want -as long as we're yearning for a better field- is Allen West for President. I'm told, however, that the Republican Ruling Class would never go for a West-Rubio ticket. 

"Downplaying" Killer Santa

I assume this year's "Killer Santa Claus" was the first ever in America. I certainly don't remember ever hearing of mass-murders by the jolly old elf before this.

 

.... Here’s how ABC News reported it:

A Santa-suited gunman who killed six people on Christmas morning was the estranged husband of one of the victims and the father of two teenagers who died in the massacre.

Aziz Yazdanpanah, 56, showed up to his estranged wife’s apartment on Christmas morning dressed like St. Nick and opened fire shortly after the family had unwrapped presents.

Yazdanpanah then killed himself.

The six victims were identified by ABC affiliate WFAA as: Nasrin Rahmaty, 55, who was Yazdanpanah’s wife; Nona Yazdanpanah, 19, his daughter; Ali Yazdanpanah, 15, his son; Zohreh Rahmaty, 58, his sister-in-law; Hossein Zarei, 59, his brother-in-law; and Sahra Zarei, 22, his niece.

Later reports tell us that the murderer was a Muslim, a fact that the media are downplaying. “Aziz Yazdanpanah, a Muslim, didn’t like his daughter’s non-Muslim boyfriend and was exhibiting stalker behavior. ‘She couldn’t date at all until she was a certain age, but when he was going to let her date she couldn’t date anyone outside of their race or religion.’”

Investigators are downplaying the motive. Lt. Todd Dearing said that motive isn’t important.

Motive is always important except, it seems, when “when Islam is involved.” (Source)

 

 

Spengler on Ron Paul

David P. Goldman (known to many only as "Spengler") has written a very controversial piece in which he proposes that Ron Paul and the Iranian mullahs share a certain retrospective view of the future.  It's pretty disturbing.

 

Mullah Ron Paul

Rep. Ron Paul’s defense of Iran’s nuclear weapons program should surprise no-one. The same resentment motivates Ron Paul and the Iranian leadership–a paranoid hostility toward a world that is swiftly changing and has little mercy, and a Millennarian desire to return to a mythical, untroubled past. Get rid of the Federal Reserve, scourge the bankers, return to a gold standard and erect a wall around the United States–and we will return to when? To 1957, when the Russians launched the first space satellite, alerting the United States to the danger that it might lose the Cold War? Then, as always, we prevailed, but by the skin of our teeth. Ron Paul’s program is an American version of the Iranian desire to return to a world of Islamic purity that never existed, any more than did a golden age of American isolationism....

 

 Continue reading at http://pjmedia.com/spengler/2011/12/29/mullah-ron-paul/

Are the Basics of our Foreign Policy a Bit Muddled, or is it me?

Here's another "my head must be screwed on backwards" moment, triggered by Eli Lake at The Daily Beast: 

.... Panetta’s seemingly innocent remarks on Dec. 2 triggered the latest drama in the tinder-box relationship that the Obama administration is trying to navigate with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government."

 

One would think that if the U.S. has a "tinder-box relationship" with any country, it's  Iran ...  No?  

Unless Israel is threatening America and I just haven't heard about it...

Eyes on Iran

Okay, so I fell down on the job yesterday. You can expect a lot of that in coming days; the grandboys are coming to visit so I intend to be happily engaged elsewhere much of the time for the next week or so. I'll see what I can do about getting some help in so that BtB remains at least somewhat relevant, but in the meantime this is the most urgent of news:

Iran Threatens To Close Strait of Hormuz

Ace of Spades:

.... Obama has presented himself to the world for three years as a weak man embarrassed and ashamed of America's might, chiefly obsessed with making apologies and insulting old (colonialist) allies, and who flinches from the hard way.

He's been clear on his policy of appeasement towards Iran, which emboldens Iran, and which may cause them to think they really can block traffic in the Strait with impunity.

There is one snag in that chain of reasoning: It's an election year, and Obama is as a weak in the polls as he is in world leadership.

We may wind up exchanging shots precisely because Obama has presented himself as so craven, and now reaches for the military option out of a different sort of craveneness.

This could all just be saber-rattling, and Obama's own rattled saber might induce the Iranians to but their own saber away.

But many times wars erupt due to miscalculation, don't they? Miscalculations about the enemies' capabilities, intentions, and likely responses to provocations.

Do the Iranians understand it's an election year and Obama desperately needs some kind of accomplishment to add to his pile of one?

I don't know.

.... But I do know what "peace through strength" means.... Peace through strength means would-be enemies do not doubt your mettle or your will to carry your national interests forward, so they don't test that mettle.

It's not just the fights you win. It's the fights you win because no one attempts to fight you at all.

 

Tell it to the Democrats.

As for me, I'm waiting to see what retired US Naval Intelligence officer J.E. Dyer has to say about all this.

 

USS George Bush transits through the Strait of Hormuz (StrategicRisk.edu)

 

See also Business Insider:

"US Sends Aircraft Carrier Into The Strait of Hormuz As Iran Beats Its Chest."

Why Not Vote for Newt?

THOMAS SOWELL (a/k/a The Voice of Reason) surveys the field:

Republican Voters' Choices

.... Perhaps the strongest reason for some voters to support Governor Romney is that the smart money says he is more "electable" than the other candidates in general and Newt Gingrich in particular.

But there was a time when even some conservative smart money types were saying that Ronald Reagan was too old to run for president, and that he should step aside for someone younger.

Washington Post editor Meg Greenfield said that the people in the Carter White House were "ecstatic" when the Republicans nominated Reagan, because they were convinced that they could clobber him.

Today, it is said that the Obama administration fears Romney, but would relish the opportunity to clobber Gingrich because of his "baggage." CNN has already started digging into Gingrich's most recent divorce.

Much depends on whether you think the voting public is going to be more interested in Newt Gingrich's personal past than in the country's future. Most of the things for which Gingrich has been criticized are things he did either in his personal life or when he was out of office. But, if we are serious, we are more concerned with his ability to perform when in office.

Even some of those who believe that Gingrich would devastate Obama in head-to-head debates on substantive issues nevertheless claim that all Obama has to do is come back with questions about Newt's work for failed mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac.

But, even at the personal, point-scoring level, Barack Obama can open up a can of worms by going that route, since Freddie Mac at least never planted bombs in public places, like some of Obama's political allies.

There are no guarantees, no matter whom the Republicans vote for in the primaries. Why not vote for the candidate who has shown the best track record of accomplishments, both in office and in the debates? That is Newt Gingrich. With all his shortcomings, his record shows that he knows how to get the job done in Washington.