http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NJ23Ak01.html Page 1 of 2 SPENGLER Why ‘Intelligent Design’ subverts faith By Spengler I hate it when the bad guys are right. But it happens sometimes, and when it does, we should own up to it. The bad guy who drove a wedge between faith and science was the 18th-century skeptic Voltaire, who did more […]
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/10/22/romneys-must-win-situation/print The death yesterday of George McGovern, the Democrats’ peace candidate in 1972, creates the context for tonight’s debate on foreign policy. McGovern’s defeat was the last time that foreign policy — the conduct of a war — was determinative in a national election. This year, despite the setbacks we’re suffering daily in every region […]
http://times247.com/ Fluke attracts 10 people to Obama rally….WOW !!! Reno Gazette-Journal Sunday, October 21, 2012 News Sandra Fluke, the woman at the center of a media firestorm earlier this year after Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut,” spoke Saturday in front of about 10 people at the Sak ‘N Save in north Reno. Read more… […]
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/nonie-darwish/why-obama-blamed-the-video/print/
Most Americans reacted with horror and pain when the decent American ambassador, Christopher Stevens, was dragged and sodomized by Libyan terrorists. To date, the autopsy report of the ambassador and three other American heroes has not been made public and is perhaps being held till after the elections.
Americans deserved the proper outrage and comfort by the US president after such a horrendous terror attack, but President Obama failed to do that. Instead, he found an excuse: a video that came out months earlier before Sept. 11, 2012. For weeks the Obama administration hammered the American people with a guilt trip over Islamic outrage; the killing and burning was because of a video insulting Islam.
But when the truth came out that this was a calculated terror attack, the American people were outraged. That was when the White House decided to quickly change the game, and without hesitation Obama boldly suggested in the second debate that he did call the attack an act of terror. How can Obama expect to get away with this? Holding Islamic outrage as a justification for violence and then changing to a wishy-washy condemnation of terror has failed to fix the damage already done. I was used to this kind of dishonest maneuvering by Arab leaders, but could never have imagined that an American president could stoop to that level. Have we been infected by Islamic illogic?
http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/331115 Tonight, Governor Romney and President Obama will meet for a third and final debate before November 6, and this time the exclusive subject will be foreign policy. Mr. Romney should relish the opportunity, having wound up but failed to deliver a critical blow to the president’s credibility on the miasma in Benghazi during their […]
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/331098/obama-s-foreign-policy-record-ira-straus The most important outcome of the Obama administration’s actions abroad has been the deposing of America’s allies in Egypt and Tunisia. This will weigh more heavily on the historical scales than everything else in the last four years. Egypt is the natural leader of the Arab world. Under Mubarak it led the region, painstakingly, […]
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/big_bird_liberalism_and_perversion.html
Fifty years of clinical observation have taught me the unwillingness of many to relinquish childhood dreams of perfect bliss. Utopia seems to be the goal for many from their first frustrated cries following ejection from the womb.
The outraged reaction by liberalism’s defenders to Gov. Romney’s jocular threat to take away Big Bird’s government subsidy shows that he touched a nerve. The screaming and caterwauling, the marches announced to defend the puppet, reveal some important truths about contemporary liberalism and its adherents. Gov. Romney in one witty comment suggested that it is time to grow up, to relinquish the utopian fantasy of a blissful androgynous childhood free of conflict. In one comment, he leveled a blast at the feminized metrosexual culture of contemporary liberalism. He went on to link his opponent to childhood, by likening him to his own boys when they were young, a time when wishes often prevail over reality.
No wonder liberals reacted with rage. No wonder the president mentioned his defense of Big Bird thirteen times in the week following the debate. Liberals long for what Big Bird represents: that utopian childish dream world where differences of gender, talent, fortune, looks, race, color, intelligence, etc. do not exist. Big Bird, the perfect symbol of liberal fantasies, is neither handsome nor ugly, has no discernible sexuality, is neither smart nor stupid. He is never threatened by the need to work hard to accomplish things, because he has no discernible ambition. He never demands anything and never has to deal with aggressive wishes. Anger is not a problem for Big Bird. Competition is not for him. Unlike the creatures of classic fairy tales, he is just a bland, unthreatening being purveying the liberal fantasy that in utopia, we are all equally lovable and all think good thoughts. No doubt there are graduate students at our elite universities composing theses on the postmodren significance of Sesame Street.
I have written previously in American Thinker about perversion as a mode of thinking, not just a form of sexual behavior. Perversion (see the Marquis de Sade) seeks to abolish all differences — of gender, of generations, of species. The incest taboo is overturned, species differences are abolished, and the distinction between animate and inanimate is dismissed as all things are reduced to fecal sameness. Sade anticipated the dreams of postmodern wordsmith intellectuals.
In the world of perversion, the Old Testament story of God the father creating the world, differentiating the creatures, naming and separating male from female, children from adults, species from species, etc. is overturned. The roles and functions of the father are undermined as the paternal world of the biblical creation story is rejected. Sade makes clear that the central perverse wish is to overturn the paternal universe, deny difference, and return to a blissful undifferentiated state. The problem is that utopian wishes such as those embodied by sexual perversion and perverse thinking can never attained. No matter how many affirmative-action programs are installed, politically correct egalitarian yearnings are, in reality, unrealizable. Differences cannot be abolished. When utopia fails to arrive as promised, when the seas don’t cease to rise, when the earth fails to heal itself, when postmodern, politically correct fantasies collapse, scapegoats must be found. Suppressed rage then erupts. In the therapeutic world of modern liberalism, while praising itself for caring about the downtrodden, liberals will vilify as evil those who puncture their illusions. Romney’s and Ryan’s policies are not important enough to deal with because Romney and Ryan are bad people — “liars.” Instead, let’s all rally to protect Big Bird from the heartless conservatives.
We all remember the name-calling schoolyard bully who was really a weakling and a blowhard. As grown-ups, these are the people who insisted that George Bush was not just mistaken in his policies; he was a bad person. He was another Hitler. In these wordsmith tantrums can be glimpsed buried infantile rage. This is Sesame Street thinking by adults. Big Bird symbolizes the perverse childhood thinking at the heart of utopian ideologies like liberalism. Bland, asexual Big Bird masks the seething, frustrated rage of thwarted children.
Liberalism as an ideology has devolved into a system that represents perverse thinking in its most obvious form. Liberals are quite correct to angrily defend Big Bird, for he represents their shared fantasy of a blissful world, free of conflict. Liberalism has become an emasculated ideology for all the utopian children who have grown up but failed to relinquish their childhood fantasies. It is an ideology of arrested development.
Optimally, childhood ends, and adults develop a mature, tragic acceptance of limitations. They come to terms with differences of talent; some are more intelligent, better athletes, better mathematicians, more creative. Accepting this is, paradoxically, a necessary step toward real achievement because it allows discovery of one’s own unique talents. By age 12 I had to recognize that I wasn’t going to succeed Joe DiMaggio in center field for the Yankees. I was a nearsighted kid who didn’t run well and, most importantly, couldn’t hit a curve ball. Learning to accept that freed me to discover my own unique abilities while enabling me to enjoy the superior skills of professional athletes. I didn’t seethe with resentment. Instead, I learned to appreciate the hard work necessary to actualize any talent.
Utopians who remain immature in their thinking feel an aggrieved sense of entitlement. A fair and just world would mandate that they play center field for the Yankees. Society hasn’t recognized their wondrous attributes. Why have those other boys and girls, so much less verbally gifted, done so well? It’s an outrageous injustice. After all, teachers all praised these future liberals for their verbal skills, yet some of those non-verbally adept kids who were not such good little boys and girls have achieved tangible success way beyond that of the aggrieved. It’s not fair.
Sesame Street promised otherwise. Being good should be enough. After all, Big Bird is good just by virtue of existing, and even if it’s a fantasy, everyone loves him. Well, let’s introduce government programs to make up for the unfairness. Let’s legislate a utopian egalitarianism. Let’s apply “Sesame Street” modes of understanding to foreign policy, and everyone can join hands and show they care. We can redistribute everything in accord with “fairness.”
Nuclear weapons in the hands of fanatics? As Joe Biden laughingly suggested, we should all just calm down. Isn’t Iran’s “culture” as valid as Western culture? Given that Israel possesses nukes, wouldn’t it be fair to give nukes to 7th-century savages? (Sorry, they’re not “savages” — just believers in alternative cultural values.) Our government leaders went to elite schools, where postmodern disquisitions on “narrative truth” were taken seriously and Machiavelli was just an old Italian guy who lived a long time ago. Of course, when their postmodern “narratives” result in disaster, someone else must be to blame, and it can’t be liberals, because their hearts are pure.
Arms Flow to Syria May Be Behind Benghazi Cover-Up http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/print/arms-flow-to-syria-may-be-behind-benghazi-cover-up The day after the big Obama-Romney debate, as media and politicians were engaging in the usual after-action assessment frenzy, some of the most important issues surrounding the September 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, remain unaddressed. While it clearly matters (a lot) […]
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/house-armed-services-chair-blocked-from-getting-answers-from-military-about-threat-warnings-prior-to-benghazi-consulate-attack?f=puball
http://freebeacon.com/incommunicado/
House Armed Services chairman blocked from getting answers from senior military about threat warnings prior to Benghazi consulate attack
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is demanding answers from four senior United States military officers about whether there was advance warning of terrorist threats and the need for greater security prior to last month’s terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
However, an aide to the chairman, Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, (R., Calif.), said the office of secretary of defense Leon Panetta blocked the senior officers from providing the answers last night.
“The chairman is disappointed that the administration won’t respond to this basic request for information,” the aide said.
“It is nearly unprecedented that the office of the secretary of defense would prohibit a member of the uniformed military from answering direct questions posed by the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.”
Pentagon spokesman George Little told the Free Beacon: “We received the letters last night and are working expeditiously to provide a response.”
The chairman’s letters are dated Thursday. They were sent to Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command, which is responsible for military activities in Africa; Adm. William H. McRaven, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command; Vice Adm. Kurt W. Tidd, director for operations at the Pentagon’s Joint Staff; and Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/mullikin-and-smith-receive-senate-commendations-for-honorary-titles?f=puball
COLUMBIA, S.C. – State Senator Michael L. Fair (R-Greenville) formally commended attorney Thomas S. Mullikin and military analyst W. Thomas Smith Jr. for having received the title, “Honorary Green Beret,” by the U.S. Army Special Forces Association (Chapter XXXIV).
According to the senator’s commendations, presented Oct. 18, 2012, “This honor is indicative of your years of honorable military service, your military and civilian leadership in defense of our nation in the Global War on Terror; and your activities in support of U.S. Army Special Forces, the Special Forces Association, and the special operations community.”
The Senate commendation is the second set of laurels for both men each of whom were named, “Honorary Green Beret,” by the state chapter of the Special Forces Association, Sept. 28.
Both Mullikin and Smith have extensive military – and military related civilian-professional – backgrounds.
Mullikin – founder and pres. of the Mullikin Law Firm and Global Eco Adventures – was recently named deputy commander of the S.C. State Guard. Mullikin is a former U.S. Army JAG lawyer (USAR) and was attached as an international legal officer to a Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne) within the U.S. Special Operations Command. He is a noted world adventurer, having climbed Mt. Elbrus (Europe’s highest mountain) in July and Mt. Kilimanjaro (Africa’s highest mountain) in 2010. Mullikin has chalked up multiple dives in five oceans (his most recent off Antarctica and in the Galapagos), and he has parachuted with members of several foreign airborne forces. An author, film producer, and lecturer; Mullikin is executive in residence at Coastal Carolina University.
