RUTHFULLY YOURS

The newly sworn-in 113th Congress is the most diverse group of representatives in history. 98 women, 43 African-Americans, 31 Latinos, 12 Asian-American and Pacific Islanders, and seven gay and bisexual members are now new members of the House and Senate.

Unfortunately, the number of combat veterans in congress continues to decline in spite of a bump from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is too bad since major decisions on defense spending and policies will be made by people with no experience in the military.

http://times247.com/
CAIR chief claims Muslims discovered America
The Daily Caller
Friday, January 4, 2013
News
CAIR chief claims Muslims discovered America
Muslims discovered the Americas long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, the head of a D.C.-based jihad-linked Islamic lobbying group told a Saudi TV station Dec. 27. Read more…

Read more: http://times247.com/#ixzz2H6Jquv9e
Fatah, Hamas drop rivalry for rally in Gaza
BBC
Friday, January 4, 2013
News
Thousands of supporters of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction are celebrating the anniversary of its founding with a rally in Gaza. The rival Hamas movement, which governs Gaza, agreed to allow Fatah to mark the occasion. Read more…

Read more: http://times247.com/#ixzz2H6KJRECG
First Hindu member adds to diverse Congress

Gabbard previously served on the Honolulu City Council and as a Hawaii state representative; she was the youngest woman in the United States to be elected to a state legislature.[7] She is currently a Company Commander with the Hawaii Army National Guard, and has served on two deployments to the Middle East. She is also vice president and co-founder of the environmental non-profit organization Healthy Hawaiʻi Coalition…..
Daily News and Analysis
Thursday, January 3, 2013
News
Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu member of Congress, was sworn in Thursday as the 113th Congress convened, along with 43 African American members, a record high number of 100 female, seven LGBT members, and one member of the Kennedy family returning to elective office. Read more…

Read more: http://times247.com/#ixzz2H6KWpCSX

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01/egypts_stillborn_democracy.html While all eyes in Washington have been directed as to whether or not we will be going off the “fiscal cliff”, there is a civilizational cliff that much of the Muslim and Arab world are rapidly plunging across. Much of the West had thought we had been providing them with a parachute, cut out […]

A version of this column is scheduled for publication Monday, Jan. 7, 2013, in The Washington Times

Follow the money No. 150

China – the odds are long

Perhaps more than Westerners, Chinese have a gambling streak.

Even during the darkest hours of Maoist oppression and pretended Puritanism, Beijing tolerated gambling on its southern flank in the Portuguese colony of Macau. Now reincorporated into China, in 2012 the world’s largest casino, holding the country’s only legal gambling monopoly, raked in $38 billion. December record receipts showed the tide was up with 19.6% growth.

Next door, even old Mentor Minister Lee Kwan Yu has had to abandon Singaporean self-righteouness to welcome casinos to compete for Chinese tourists pouring into neighboring Thailand at a million a year.

But the biggest gamble in Chinese history is now on in Beijing as the regime heads toward a new generation of Communist Party [CCP] rulers. After months of soul-searching for “reforms”, in the tightly controlled media and with the help of China watchers overseas, it’s pretty clear there are going to be only cosmetic tweaks.

Basically, Communist leadership is gambling. Despite enormous growing problems, in no small measure arising out of its two decades of economic transformation, the CCP is hoping its two-decades old development formula will continue working.

Hezbollah Leader Begs Al Qaeda for a Truce WE CARE A LOT Head of Hamas in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh told UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, that the Gaza Strip couldn’t take in Syria’s Palestinian refugees due to an ideological issue: If they take in the refugees from Syria, Israel could use it […]

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ THIS NOT A GUN PROBLEM, IT’S A PEOPLE PROBLEM Chicago, where Obama delivered his victory speech, has homicide numbers that match all of Japan and are higher than Spain, Poland and pre-war Syria. Chicago’s murder rate of 15.65 per 100,000 people looks nothing like the American 4.2 rate, the Midwestern 4.5 or the Illinois’ […]

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/2373/boy_suspended_for_making_gun_sign_with_hand_no_really The contest continues; whose government is more stupid with its policies – the US or the UK? I’ve shared several horror stories of government incompetence and bureaucratic nonsense as part of my series comparing stupid policies in the United States and United Kingdom. This has been a neck-and-neck battle, with the United Kingdom recently […]

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/2360/mohammed_morsi_on_israel_these_blood_suckers_these_warmongers_the_descendants_of_apes_and_pigs_ Mohammed Morsi, now Egyptian President recorded TV segments in 2010 calling for the destruction of the State of Israel ootage of Mohammed Morsi, now President of Egypt, has emerged showing his inflammatory and hateful comments against the State of Israel. The clips, hosted and translated by MEMRI, show Mohammed Morsi in 2010 giving a […]

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/2364/extremist_targets_students_with_discount_retreat_ An extremist preacher who runs a Sharia divorce court in London and supports the death penalty for apostates continues to be promoted to university students in Britain, with discount ticket prices offered to members of university Islamic societies. Haitham Al-Haddad, in a recent interview in Norway, stated that “I agree with you that for […]

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/algae-382493-deal-fiscal.html

The politics of the “fiscal cliff” deal is debatable: On the one hand, Boehner got the “Bush tax cuts” made permanent for most Americans; Obama was forced to abandon his goal of increasing rates for those earning $250,000. On the other, on taxes Republicans caved to the same class-warfare premises (the rich need to pay their “fair share”) they’d successfully fought off a mere two years ago; while on spending the Democrats not only refused to make cuts, they refused to make cuts even part of the discussion.

Which of the above is correct? Who cares? As I said, the politics is debatable. But the reality isn’t. I hate to keep plugging my book “After America” in this space, but if you buy multiple copies they’ll come in very useful for insulating your cabin after the power grid collapses. At any rate, right up there at the front – page six – I write as follows:
“The prevailing political realities of the United States do not allow for any meaningful course correction. And, without meaningful course correction, America is doomed.”

Washington keeps proving the point. The political class has just spent two months on a down-to-the-wire nail-biting white-knuckle thrill-ride negotiation the result of which is more business as usual. At the end, as always, Dr. Obama and Dr. Boehner emerge in white coats, surgical masks around their necks, bloody scalpels in hand, and announce that it was touch-and-go for awhile but the operation was a complete success – and all they’ve done is applied another temporary Band-Aid that’s peeling off even as they speak. They’re already prepping the OR for the next life-or-death surgery on the debt ceiling, tentatively scheduled for next Tuesday or a week on Thursday or the third Sunday after Epiphany.