Displaying posts published in

January 2016

Here’s what ‘constitutional scholar’ Obama really taught at law school By Karin McQuillan

Among the lies about himself Obama consistently repeats is that he was a constitutional law professor.

Lie one: Obama was never a professor; he was a lecturer. He did not have the qualifications to be a professor. Obama never published a single law paper. He was hired by the University of Chicago when they learned he had been given a book contract on race and law directly after graduating from Harvard. There was no book – just the contract, which he later reneged on. This is not the normal level of accomplishment for a University of Chicago professor or even lecturer.

Obama was not capable of writing, and eventually, after failing to deliver, he changed it to a memoir, which he also struggled with. Finally, he asked Bill Ayers to write his memoir for him, using tapes that Michelle dropped off at the Ayerses’.

Lie two: Obama did not specialize in the Constitution. Obama cared about and taught only one subject: race. One course was about race in the Constitution. It is on this flimsy basis that he attempts to pawn himself off as a constitutional scholar.

As the New York Times explains, Obama the lecturer taught three subjects only: “race, rights and gender.”

The State of the Two-State Solution By Ted Belman

The Two State solution is dead but rather than bury it, the US and the EU want to embalm it, in the off chance that it can be brought to life in a decade or two. In the meantime they are doing their utmost to prevent Israel from building Jewish homes east of the armistice lines, including in Jerusalem. They do this in knowing violation of Israel’s rights.

Moshe Arens, a former Israel Ambassador to the US, Israel Defense Minister and Minister of Defense, noted in Haaretz, Israel’s version of the New York Times:

These critics (of settlement construction) should be required to reread Article 6 of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, which states: “the Administration of Palestine … shall encourage … close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.” The “Palestine” referred to here is the entire area west of the Jordan River, including Judea and Samaria.

Those who prefer to believe that this provision has lost relevance since the establishment of the United Nations and the termination of the League of Nations Palestine Mandate should refer to Article 80 of Chapter XII of the UN Charter. It states that the rights shall not be altered “of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties.” The United States chose not to join the League of Nations, but the U.S. Senate ratified the Palestine Mandate in 1925.

The EU and the US justify these actions on the alleged basis that settlements are illegal or illegitimate, respectively, pursuant to the Fourth Geneva Convention (FGC), which prohibits forced transfers of populations.

MIDEAST DISPATCH FROM TOM GROSS

That I was a part of her, and she protected me”

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001581.html

Tom Gross writes:

Six-month-old baby Shani Winter (above) lost her mother, Anat Winter-Rosen, in the terrorist attack on Café Apropo in Tel Aviv 18 years ago, on March 21, 1997. She survived only because her mother shielded her with her body.
Last January Shani joined the IDF. She asked the policewoman (Ziona Bushri) who carried Shani from the wreckage of the terror attack, and with whom she has remained friends, to accompany her as she joined the army. (Picture below.)
“Mom simply covered me with her body. It was more important to her to protect me than herself,” Shani told Yediot Ahronot. “I’m jealous of my friends who have mothers. I don’t know what it’s like to have a mother. On the other hand, I find comfort in the fact that my mother saved me. That I was a part of her, and she protected me.”

“Ziona has been there for me throughout my life. She visits me regularly and never forgets my birthday and is there for all the important occasions.”
Shani still has scars on her leg and hand, as a result of the terror attack.

Hollywood Goes to Benghazi: The Making of ‘13 Hours’ Action director Michael Bay discusses his new film about the 2012 Benghazi attacks By Don Steinberg

In a climate where just saying “Benghazi” can hint at a political agenda, Michael Bay’s new film “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” seems headed into an ideological skirmish that the director swears he wants no part of.

The movie “doesn’t get political at all,” says Mr. Bay, who directed the “Transformers” movies and “Pearl Harbor.” “We show you what happened on the ground. It was written with the men who were there.”

The drama, which opens Jan. 15, recreates the chaotic Sept. 11, 2012, attack on an American diplomatic compound and a CIA station in Benghazi, Libya. Militants killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Inquiries into what went wrong have dogged Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who as the Secretary of State at the time oversaw the diplomatic corps.

The movie isn’t about the aftermath, Mr. Bay says. The 50-year-old director wanted to make a tense film about American military heroes who rose to the challenge of a deadly sneak attack—something he has done before on a bigger budget. “Pearl Harbor” cost around $140 million in 2001 and made the Guinness Book of World Records for its massive explosions.
From left, John Krasinski, James Badge Dale and director Michael Bay on the set of ‘13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.’ ENLARGE
From left, John Krasinski, James Badge Dale and director Michael Bay on the set of ‘13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures

“It took 3½ months to set up one explosion, seven hundred events going off on seven ships, 20 planes in the air. The good old days!” he says.

“13 Hours” came in just under $50 million.

“I didn’t want all the expensive toys,” Mr. Bay says. “It was about shooting it very raw, over the shoulder of guys to make it feel like you are really there. Everything that I have learned from many, many soldiers is the confusion of warfare and how everything goes wrong. You kind of feel that in the movie.”

Of course there’s also a commercial aim, that “13 Hours” might follow the path of another January release about modern warfare, “American Sniper.” Made for about $40 million, “Sniper” opened widely last January and reached $350 million in domestic box office, becoming the highest-grossing war movie of all time and the biggest-grossing January movie ever.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Prostate cancer therapy completes successful trials. Prostate cancer therapy (laser plus TOOKAD Soluble) invented at Israel’s Weizmann Institute completed Phase 3 trials on 480 patients in Latin America and Europe and was approved by Mexico’s health authority. Minimal side-effects were associated with the high cure rates.
http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/press-releases/tookad-soluble

Pain therapy has 100% success. Israeli and US trials of Israeli-developed Hyperbaric (high-pressure) Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) reported relief for all 48 sufferers of the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia. Dr. Shai Efrati, lead author of the study at the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center noted his own mother suffers from the syndrome.
(See previous newsletters here) http://news.rice.edu/2015/06/02/hyperbaric-hope-for-fibromyalgia-sufferers-2/

A treatment for pancreatic cancer. Israeli biotech Silenseed has completed a Phase 1/2a clinical study of its siG12D LODER treatment in 15 patients with Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer (LAPC). The treatment combined with chemotherapy was well tolerated and demonstrated promising efficacy with durable responses.
http://silenseed.com/?page_id=2539

Your virtual personal nutritionist. Israeli app Nutrino (with a little help from IBM Haifa’s Watson supercomputer) promotes healthy eating. Enter your details, goals and tastes and Nutrino gives you meal plans and more. http://www.timesofisrael.com/coffee-during-pregnancy-app-tells-you-pros-and-cons-of-morning-java/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr89Bnh9ISk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df8CYPD90fM
http://nutrino.co/

Training Chinese doctors. (TY Hazel) The MASHAV organization of Israel’s Foreign Ministry is to train medics from the underdeveloped southwestern regions of China. Doctors from Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces will study medicine in Israel in 2016.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-12/05/c_134888285.htm

Enabling paraplegic US veterans to walk. (TY Dan) The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) has issued a national policy for the evaluation, training and procurement of Israel’s ReWalk Personal exoskeleton systems for all qualifying veterans across the United States who have suffered spinal cord injury.
http://rewalk.com/u-s-department-veterans-affairs-issues-national-coverage-policy-rewalk-robotics-exoskeleton-systems-qualifying-veterans-spinal-cord-injury/

True Islam by Jan Mel Poller

We are told by experts that this or that is not “true Islam” and “it has nothing to do with Islam”. So I ask experts like President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and the mayor of Philadelphia, “What is true Islam?” What do they know that we don’t? What do they know that Muslims don’t?

There are 73 sects of Islam. Here are 4 major ones. Which ones are true Muslims and which are not?

Sunni

Shia

Alawite

Salafi

What do Muslims in each of the 73 groups say? Do the Sunni think that Shia are real Muslims? Do the Shia think that the Sunni are real Muslims?

Which of these groups are true Muslims and which are fake Muslims who falsely identify themselves as Muslims? Which aren’t Muslim at all?

IS/ISIS/ISIL/Da’esh/Islamic State

Al Qaeda

Hamas

Hezbollah

Islamic Jihad

Boko Haram

Abu Sayyaf

Kurdistan Workers Party

The Sexual Savaging of Europe :: Posted by Edward Cline

So, we all know all about German and European women. But, where are all the German and European men?

Just a brief note: In the wake of the mass Cologne Grope/Rape assaults that were repeated in other European cities, my November 14th column, “Raping the Swedish Corpse,” has risen in page views on Rule of Reason and on edwardcline.com. Leading the page views, appearing not only for the first time in the page view statistics but leading them ahead of the U.S., Russia, France, and Germany is Norway. Significantly absent is Sweden itself. Sweden has appeared in the statistics occasionally in the past.

A column that is a few months old on Rule of Reason usually fades into the distant past and from the statistics. But the Swedish Corpse column has rebounded in the wake of Cologne. Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna has kept up an almost 24/7 account of what is looking like a planned, ISIS-style assault on Europe. It boasted months ago that its agents were among the hundreds of thousands of “refugees” pouring into Europe’s borderless nations, and that they would strike.

Words and Reality :: Posted by Edward Cline

While reading Stephen Coughlin’s seminal and all-important Catastrophic Failure: Blindfolding America in the Face of Jihad, I frequently encountered quotations the author used to stress his many points that in terms of defending this country from Islamic incursions, or, rather, failing to defend it, the language of the defenders has been corrupted and rendered meaningless. The quotations came from Josef Pieper’s Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power (Mißbrauch der Sprache, Machtmißbrauch), first published in 1974. The quotations were so intriguing that I ordered the book, which is actually a 54-page pamphlet featuring two essays by Pieper, “Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power,” and “Knowledge and Freedom.” Coughlin remarked that Pieper’s book “underlies much in what I do.”

Josef Pieper (1904-1997) was a German philosopher and a key figure in the Thomist revival. In his teens, he was initially drawn to the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard, but after being recommended a work by Aquinas, Commentary to the Prologue of St. John’s Gospel, he became a lifelong devotee to Aquinas. Ignatius Press’s Insight reveals that:

Pieper went to the University of Münster in 1923, and later on he went to Berlin. The plan of his first book – which he ultimately submitted to the university in order to obtain his doctorate in philosophy – was born during a lecture on Goethe and Thomas Aquinas, given by Msgr. Romano Guardini at the Jugendburg Rothenfels on the Main in 1924; the lecture was entitled “About Classical Spirit.” Pieper’s first book, Die Wirklichkeit und das Gute (Reality and the Good; contained in Living the Truth [Ignatius Press, 1989]) based on St. Thomas’ works, tries to show that the good is nothing else but what is in accordance with the reality of things.

Cain and Abel, Michael and Fredo, Cuomo and de Blasio They were once brothers in liberalism, but now the governor regularly yanks the mayor’s chain, especially about homelessness. By Kyle Smith

When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the first Democrat to hold that title in 20 years, assumed office two years ago this month, he and his fellow New York Democrat, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, appeared to be political brothers, both progressive former Clinton allies. Mr. Cuomo served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the 1990s; Mr. de Blasio was Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager for her 2000 Senate bid.

Today, though, it’s clear the brothers that Messrs. Cuomo and de Blasio most closely resemble are Michael and Fredo Corleone in “The Godfather” movies. What started as friction grew into a rift and is now undisguised mutual loathing. One of Mr. Cuomo’s top political priorities seems to be using his superior political power to nettle, check and/or humiliate Mr. de Blasio at every opportunity. Nearly every day, the two men act out another scene in one of the most curious and entertaining political psychodramas of our time.

Muslims and the Police New York City ignores the lessons of its antiterror success.

Terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino have shown the danger of homegrown Islamist radicals. Naturally, then, progressives want to shame and punish the police who first warned about the threat.

That’s the essence of the settlement disclosed this week between New York City and the American Civil Liberties Union over the police department’s Muslim intelligence program. The deal confirms that the cops have been right all along in saying they did nothing wrong. But it nonetheless embarrasses the cops with a new civilian monitor and castigates them for being right about radicalization.

The settlement proposes changes to the Handschu Guidelines on surveillance that police have followed since they were laid out in a 1986 settlement of a federal lawsuit. In 2003 a judge modified the guidelines to give police the greater investigative freedom to meet the threat from Islamist terrorism.

As part of this effort, the police set out to identify places in New York where a terrorist might turn for shelter, a job, a meal, access to an Internet cafe and so on. Such intelligence might have come in handy, for example, if the Tsarnaev brothers had succeeded in their plan to make New York their next target after they exploded their pressure-cooker bombs at the 2013 Boston marathon.

Enter the Associated Press, which portrayed these tactics as illegal, followed by new Mayor Bill de Blasio, who campaigned by portraying police as the city’s enemy. Mr. de Blasio is close to the activists who sued and—unlike predecessor Mike Bloomberg—seems incapable of standing up for cops. Mr. de Blasio’s police commissioner, Bill Bratton, has already killed the Muslim mapping program.