Boker tov, Boulder!

Shabbat Shalom

I was too busy today trying to figure out what the heck is going on (and what is likely to happen) to settle on blogging something worthwhile. It will have to wait now until after Shabbes.

 

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, papercut by artist Archie Granot

 

On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword, who by beast, who by famine, who by thirst, who by storm, who by plague, who by strangulation, and who by stoning. Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquillity and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted. 

But repentance, prayer and charity

remove the evil of the decree.

 

 

"Welcome back to 430 BC"

The Husband sent me this, so I thought I'd share.

 

ALERTS TO THREATS IN 2013 EUROPE
From JOHN CLEESE

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Syria and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

 The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels ..

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be right, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is cancelled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the last final escalation level.

Regards,
John Cleese,
British writer, actor and tall person

And as a final thought - Greece is collapsing, the Iranians are getting aggressive, and Rome is in disarray. Welcome back to 430 BC.

Life is too short...

"The dead lay higgledy-piggedly all over the place"

I actually heard this panel discussion last night on Lefty News (otherwise known as the PBS Newshour). It's unfortunate that Tablet editors - or the writer, Yair Rosenberg - skewed the headline just a tad for dramatic purpose, because what actually happened was bad enough, it and of itself.

Mearsheimer Says Hitler Never Used Chemical Weapons

 

Here are Mearsheimer's exact words:

I would like to point out that all of this discourse about chemical weapons being so special is, I think, wrong. I think it’s, again, regrettable that chemical weapons have been used. But chemical weapons are not weapons of mass destruction, like nuclear weapons are. The reason that chemical weapons were not used in World War II wasn’t because someone like Adolf Hitler was above using them for moral reasons. They weren’t used because they have very little military utility. Anybody who has been in the Army knows that chemical weapons just don’t buy you much on the battlefield…

Even though at the time I was trying to follow the argument Mearsheimer was making - which was to question the greater significance assigned to the Syrian deaths from a chemical attack, over those dead from more "standard" means - his assumption that chemical weapons weren't used in World War II seemed to me to stand out as if written in neon lights. And he wasn't the only one! Omitted from the Tablet article is the fact that another panelist, Ivo Daalder, said basically the same thing when he described chemical weapons as "the kinds of weapons that weren't used in World War because of the horror of their use in World War I."  

Two out of three panelists made this outrageous assertion, and no one questioned it. That was even more shocking, and I was left wondering if I had heard everything right. Daalder seemed like he was just there to rubber stamp whatever Pres. Obama had done or said, and pretty much kept to that script; Mearsheimer, on the other hand, was more interested and interesting. We have to wonder though, because such a prominent academic could not possibly have forgotten that millions of Jews were gassed to death with Zyklon-B. He must somehow, in his mind, dissociate the Holocaust from "the battlefield" of World War II -- which is deeply disturbing, even in the context of his proven antisemitism.

* * *

From the statement of Hans Stark, registrar of new arrivals, Auschwitz (Klee, 255):

At another, later gassing -- also in autumn 1941 -- Grabner [Maximillian Grabner, Head of Political Department, Auschwitz] ordered me to pour Zyklon B into the opening because only one medical orderly had shown up. During a gassing Zyklon B had to be poured through both openings of the gas-chamber room at the same time. This gassing was also a transport of 200-250 Jews, once again men, women and children. As the Zyklon B -- as already mentioned -- was in granular form, it trickled down over the people as it was being poured in.

They then started to cry out terribly for they now knew what was happening to them. I did not look through the opening because it had to be closed as soon as the Zyklon B had been poured in. After a few minutes there was silence. After some time had passed, it may have been ten to fifteen minutes, the gas chamber was opened. The dead lay higgledy-piggedly all over the place. It was a dreadful sight.

 

 

"What we should be dreading this week is not Syria, but IRAN"

 

 At the suggestion of BtB's friend Michael Krauss, we're reading the comments of "an American academic who has lived in Israel for years" as emailed to Jennifer Rubin:

“There are two kinds of fear here … the fear of the people on the street who’re worried that we’re going to get attacked, which most people know is VERY unlikely, and the fear of [those] who understand that the president of the United States is basically signaling to the world that there is no head of the free world, that the US can’t be counted on to stop Iran, either.”

He concludes, “So, ironically, people are panicked about the wrong thing.  What we should be dreading this week is not Syria, but Iran, because Obama is giving them a green light. THAT is the truly frightening piece of this.”

 

 

None was a hustler or huckster ...

Our friend Rick Richman directs our attention to the following excerpt from Joshua Muravchik's article in the September issue of Commentary entitled "Fifty Years After the March" (the emphasis is mine):

Its great success was attributable to impressive leadership. Four whites -- representatives of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish denominations and labor leader Walter Reuther -- spoke at the march and served on its executive committee. But they were later additions to the original core group, comprising the leaders of the major civil-rights organizations: [Martin Luther] King ... Wilkins ...Farmer ... Young ... and [A. Philip] Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly black labor union. The Big Six, as they were called, naturally had their rivalries and vanities and other shortcomings, but in addition to their eloquence, they each exhibited intelligence, learning, and a profound sense of responsibility ... None was a hustler or huckster or demagogue out to glorify himself on the back of his people. ... In addition, at the very core of the march was what we might call the 'big two,' Randolph and Rustin.

 

Randolph, who was already in his seventies, was in effect the chairman of the march ... Wilkins paid tribute to the accomplishment of the 'big two.' History, he reflected, 'has attached the name of Reverend King to the march, but I suspect it would be more accurate to call it Randolph's march - and Rustin's.'" 

 

I presume the reference is to Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), co-founder of the A. Phillip Randolph Institute in 1964 and organizer of the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee (BASIC) in 1975 -- for which, I am assuming, he later won The Stephen Wise Award. For more, see his biography at the link.

They Have Theories

I often enjoy Mike Huckabee's brief commentaries on facebook. Here's the latest:

Something is happening in Michigan that’s baffling criminologists. All over the state, cash-strapped cities have been forced to cut their police forces. Yet at the same time, crime is declining. For example, Grand Rapids has lost one-seventh of its police force since 2003, but both violent crime and property crime have dropped by about 33 percent. Experts are at a loss to explain it. But they have theories. Maybe it’s the bad economy keeping young people living at home past their peak thug years. Or maybe legalized abortion reduced the number of poor kids who might’ve grown up to be criminals. Or my favorite, the elimination of leaded gasoline reduced pollutants that make some kids more violent.

I guess the fact that Michigan now has a concealed carry law has nothing at all to do with that mysterious drop in the crime rate.

 

Male Michiganders with a CPL (concealed pistol license) may want to consult "The Stylish Man's Guide to Concealed Carry" at The Art of Manliness.

 

The New Segregation?

 

Yesterday, the Democrats held a Democrats-ONLY event at the Lincoln Memorial to celebrate the legacy of... a Republican.

.... Given the circumstances of that era, it is understandable why Dr. King was a Republican. It was the Republicans who fought to free blacks from slavery and amended the Constitution to grant blacks freedom (13th Amendment), citizenship (14th Amendment) and the right to vote (15th Amendment). Republicans passed the civil rights laws of the 1860s, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Reconstruction Act of 1867 that was designed to establish a new government system in the Democrat-controlled South, one that was fair to blacks. Republicans also started the NAACP and affirmative action with Republican President Richard Nixon’s 1969 Philadelphia Plan (crafted by black Republican Art Fletcher) that set the nation’s fist goals and timetables. Although affirmative action now has been turned by the Democrats into an unfair quota system, affirmative action was begun by Nixon to counter the harm caused to blacks when Democrat President Woodrow Wilson in 1912 kicked all of the blacks out of federal government jobs.

Few black Americans know that it was Republicans who founded the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Unknown also is the fact that Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen from Illinois was key to the passage of civil rights legislation in 1957, 1960, 1964 and 1965. Not mentioned in recent media stories about extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is the fact that Dirksen wrote the language for the bill. Dirksen also crafted the language for the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which prohibited discrimination in housing....

 

There was no mention yesterday of the fact that the original 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King was organized by yet another black Republican -- A. Phillip Randolph.

 

Asa Phillip Randolph at the Lincoln Memorial, during 1963's March on Washington (Library of Congress)

 

[Update: The Husband points out that the location itself honors a Republican... Abraham Lincoln!]

 

Are the Democrats really moving our country 

 ???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would feel a lot more secure about the direction of this nation had we seen black Republicans on the stage yesterday -- black Republicans who share not just the party affiliation and skin tones of Martin Luther King, Jr., but also his emphasis on character.

Republican Senator Tim Scott from SC

 

HASSAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR FORT HOOD MASSACRE

Justice.

FORT HOOD, Texas - A military jury sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death on Wednesday for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood....

Hasan could become the first American soldier executed in more than half a century. But because the military justice system requires a lengthy appeals process, years or even decades could pass before he is put to death.

The lead prosecutor assured jurors that Hasan would "never be a martyr" despite his attempt to tie the attack to religion.

"He is a criminal. He is a cold-blooded murderer," Col. Mike Mulligan said Wednesday in his final plea for a rare military death sentence. "This is not his gift to God. This is his debt to society. This is the cost of his murderous rampage."

 

U.S. Funding Mortgages for 'Palestinians' in Judea & Samaria? WHAT?!

Carl in Jerusalem reports a real JAW-DROPPER!

.... The US government has funded $313 million of home mortgages in the 'West Bank.'

No, not the 'West Bank' of the Mississippi River. The 'West Bank' of the Jordan River. As in Judea and Samaria.

Yes, the United States government is funding mortgages for 'Palestinians.' 

The GAO report released Tuesday described some of the actions OPIC is taking in the emerging market of the Palestinian territories.

“U.S. agencies and implementing partners participate in various programs with the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) or PIF-owned entities that include home mortgage financing, loan guarantees, and educational initiatives,” says the report. “First, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) along with PIF and other entities have committed to lend $485 million to the Affordable Mortgage and Loan Company (AMAL) to support mortgages for low- and medium-income borrowers in the West Bank....

 

 

Read. It. All.

And then go back to May 2008 and review. To be quite fair, we note that while this is now happening on Obama's watch, it has its roots in the Bush administration.

 

al-Reuters, May 21, 2008:

.... In remarks prepared for delivery to the Palestine Investment Conference in Bethlehem, Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt said $150 million has already been transferred as budget support to the Palestinian Authority.

The United States also has pledged to provide $148 million in humanitarian aid through the United Nations, and is "requesting significant levels of assistance from Congress for next year," Kimmitt said in remarks released in Washington.

Kimmitt said much of the other direct U.S. funding will be channeled through the U.S. Agency for International Development to bolster private sector growth. "Agribusiness partnerships, microfinance assistance, modernizing financial institutions, and a new trade facilitation program are only a few of the several important initiatives that USAID is undertaking."

Kimmitt said the mid- to long-term goal was to catalyze private investment flows to promote broad, sustainable growth.

He highlighted a $500 million mortgage lending facility for the West Bank, which aimed to boost the local housing sector.

The facility was being supported by the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corp, Britain's Department for International Development, the World Bank's International Finance Corp, the Palestine Investment Fund and the Bank of Palestine....

 

We pick up BtB on Day 3 of the Conference:

"The mere convening of an international investors' conference in Palestine defines success to me," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a former World Bank economist, told Reuters. "That's what success is about and it's a Palestinian message to the world saying 'Yes, we can.'"

 

And after the conference, we lined up these dots: Tony Blair, the miners' canary, and Caroline Glick.

 

.... Could we get a closer look at that map?

Doesn't look like a two-state solution to me.
Looks like a one-state solution.

 So why does Blair look like the cat that ate the canary? There's a lot I could read into the picture, but I think I'll leave it alone and let you come to your own conclusions.

P.S. My thanks to Caroline Glick, who recently made a statement that is forever etched in my mind: 

"... even though Israel is the proverbial

canary in the mineshaft,

everybody is ignoring the bird."

 

What I learned today... in a nutshell

Watching the lefty news tonight on PBS, one would assume that the biggest, most important "issue" in America right now is the 50th anniversary of the civil rights march on Washington in which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I have a dream" speech. In case you might have thought otherwise, that event - along with the killing of Trayvon Martin and the recent Supreme Court decision releasing nine historically discriminative states from special federal oversight of their voting laws - combine to form the Major Concern of The Day. 

Tomorrow Barack Obama, the Nobel Peace Laureate (and twice-elected Historic First African American President of the United States) will give a Great Speech (can there be any doubt?) right where the iconic MLK speech was given. The president will commemorate that day and reflect on the state of race relations over the past half-century. In this way, we the serfs of the Country Class might learn in what direction The Won intends to redistribute the arc of history... for the winners, and for the rest of us.

Obama will give the PBS Newshour an exclusive interview at the White House afterwards.

Meanwhile,

A German news magazine has reported that the Israel Defense Forces intercepted high-level communications in the Syrian government "and has the records of [their] orders" to use chemical weapons. (Hot Air)

Obama's War on American Prosperity continues, as the non-scandal of NSA surveillance takes a toll on the international market of US-based "cloud providers," and adversely affects the American tech industry in general. (Breitbart)

And from the Department of Y/our Tax Dollars At Work:  The U.S. military is giving special paid leave to couples who want to get married, but only if the "bride" and "groom" are of the same sex. Or should I say, gender? I read the memo, but I forget. (WND) 

And last but not least, the president is fulfilling his 2008 campaign promise that "we can't eat as much as want." Mike Huckabee explains that this is just one of the "benefits" of Obamacare:

If you’re hoping to avoid higher insurance prices under Obamacare by eating healthier, I have some bad news for you: your food prices might be going up, too. Reason.com reports that there hasn’t been much discussion of the impact Obamacare is going to have on marginally-profitable agricultural businesses, but it won’t be pretty. They talked to California labor contractors, who provide field workers to the state’s many big farms. They operate on about a 2 percent profit margin. And that’s not enough to cover buying health insurance for hundreds of thousands of farm workers. The farm workers themselves are also scared. They’ll be expected to buy insurance. They say they currently make just enough for food and rent, with nothing left over. Some have cheap, bare-bones policies, but Obamacare will ban those. So the only way to pay for all that mandated health insurance is to convince farmers to pay workers a lot more money. In case you hadn’t heard, most farmers aren’t independently wealthy. One way or another, the cost is going to get passed along to us, and we’ll likely see it in the grocery aisles.

 

There's no homework tonight, so you have extra time to pray for Israel and America and all that is good in the world, that there should be a light unto the nations to show us the way. Ameyn.