Displaying posts published in

2016

Iran: No Range Limit for Our New Ballistic Missiles Iran has successfully played America as the fool, challenging the U.S. to stand up to its belligerence. Yet every time America backs down, Iran becomes more empowered. By Meira Svirsky

The Iranian defense minister recently pronounced that the Islamic Republic has “no limit for the range” of the ballistic missiles it is developing.

In making the pronouncement, General Hossein Dehqan also said that Iran is now on par with world standards for most of its weapons and military equipment, specifically, that “production of the national individual weapons and efforts to improve the quality and precision-striking power of ballistic missiles are among the defense ministry’s achievements…”

One of the advanced weapons Iran has developed is a ballistic missile that deploys multiple warheads against a single target. As the government-aligned Fars News Agency reported, “This makes for an efficient area attack weapon.”

(Never mind that just three months ago, that the state-owned IranianPress TV announced that “all these advancements on the military level are only for defensive reasons.”)

In addition, Iran has now deployed the long-awaited Russian-made, long-range S-300 missile system. The system was deployed to protect the country’s Fordo nuclear facility, which the commander of Iran’s air force calls paramount “in all circumstances.”

Western officials, who tried to block the delivery of the missile system, said that once in place, the S-300 would essentially eliminate the military option to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

The nuclear deal made with Iran and the world powers was sold to the public as a way to contain not just Iran’s nuclear weapons program, but its ballistic missile program as well.

Ballistic missiles are mainly used to deliver nuclear warheads. Under the terms of the agreement we were told that the current UN restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile program would remain in effect for eight years, including forbidding Iran from testing of ballistic missiles.

Cubs of the Caliphate’: Child jihadis featured as executioners in horrific new ISIS video: Lisa Daftari

The Islamic State has released a gruesome new video showing children executing captured Kurdish and Syrian soldiers.

Children of foreign fighters reportedly hailing from Britain, Egypt, Tunisia, Kurdistan and Uzbekistan pull out handguns and place them behind their captives’ heads before taking aim and opening fire in a video published by ISIS jihadis based in the group’s de-facto capital of Raqqa, Syria.

One juvenile executioner’s gun appears to lock up briefly, but he smiles smugly before coldly completing the execution. One of the victims appears to be a teen himself.

Known as ‘cubs of the Caliphate,’ children in the Islamic State have been assigned advanced roles in ISIS propaganda movies.

The Islamic State has also systematically used children both in active jihad and in recruitment practices, encouraging many of them to leave their families and join ISIS.

Fighting alongside adults, children under ISIS control attend child soldier training facilities and are used to carry out executions and suicide bombing missions.

At the end of the video, another set of executions take place. This time, the executioners are old men, likely further jihadi propaganda suggesting that from the young to the elderly, anyone can participate in jihad.

The Enigmatic Donald Trump by Paul R. Hollrah

Would I bet serious money that neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton will continue to be presidential candidates on Election Day 2016? No, I might bet $10 or $20 they won’t, but bet the family farm? No, that would be too much of a gamble because, while I may be reading the political tea leaves correctly, I could also be terribly wrong.

Donald Trump was never cut out to be a presidential candidate. In fact, to watch him campaign on a day-to-day basis one wonders if he might be actually trying to elect Hillary Clinton. No man or woman with serious ambitions for the presidency would ever say or do the things that Trump says and does on almost a daily basis. I don’t agree with Hillary Clinton on much of anything, but when she claims that Donald Trump does not have the temperament to be president of the United States I have to concede the point… and Trump tries every day to prove her right.In fact, if the American people had hired an executive search firm to prepare a list of the top 1,000 Democrats and the top 1,000 Republicans, those most capable of serving as president of the United States, it’s almost a dead certainty that the names Obama, Clinton, and Trump would not appear on that list.

Not only is Trump unattractive, physically, he has a most unattractive personality. If he were an average man with a modest net worth he would never have had women named Ivana, Marla, and Melania in his life. Nor would he have many male friends. Most men are very much aware of the shortcomings of other men and tend to recognize the “warts” that other men possess. To put it bluntly, men find boorishness, boastfulness, and misplaced egocentricity to be most unattractive in other men and they generally avoid others with those characteristics. From the time he first entered the presidential primaries on June 15, 2015, Trump has been a perfect example of how not to attract supporters. His speaking style can best be described as “underwhelming.” Instead of making his political points firmly and objectively, in a forceful but modulated tone, he has a tendency to scream and shout at his audiences… his face beet red and his eyes bulging. However, sometime during the week of August 8, 2016, someone in his organization must have coached him a bit on his delivery. As a result, when he spoke before the National Association of Home Builders on August 11, his delivery was so low-key that he appeared to be falling asleep at the podium. If he has any hope of winning in November he will have to find a middle ground.

There are men such as Dr. Myles Martel who could work wonders with Trump if allowed to do so. As the nation’s premier leadership communications advisor, Martel has coached countless political leaders, including presidential candidates, governors, senators, ambassadors and cabinet members, as well as heads of major corporations and professional organizations. But the question arises, is Donald Trump coachable? Is he capable of taking good advice? His actions to date would seem to indicate that it would be easier to turn a supertanker around in a backyard swimming pool than to convince Trump that “being himself” is a certain prescription for defeat. Trump clearly adores himself just as he is. It matters little to him that more than 300 million people who have a major stake in his political success or failure might feel otherwise.

However, in his August 8 speech before the Detroit Economic Club, Trump appeared to be falling in line with longstanding Republican principles. He reminded his audience that, “When we abandoned the policy of America First, we started rebuilding other countries instead of our own. The skyscrapers went up in Beijing, and in many other cities around the world, while the factories and neighborhoods crumbled in Detroit. Our roads and bridges fell into disrepair, yet we found the money to resettle millions of refugees at taxpayer expense.”

Moderates and Radicals in Islam and the Left by Daniel Greenfield

The core strategic problem we face is two conflicts with two ideologies that operate subversively until they are in power. That is, instead of stating their agenda openly, Islam and the left operate as false fronts maintaining a friendly moderate image while pursuing a far more radical agenda.

The distinction between moderates and radicals is at the heart of the debate about Islamic terrorism. Much as it used to be at the heart of the debate about Communism and its fellow travelers. Everyone will concede that there are indeed radicals, if only ISIS and Stalin. What they will deny is the extent of the complicity and, more significantly, the fact that the radicals were pursuing the same ends as the moderates, an Islamic Caliphate or a Communist dictatorship, only more rapidly and ruthlessly.

The thing that must be understood is that moderates do not disavow radicals. Rather they bridge the gap between the radicals and the larger society, justifying their ends, and eventually their means, while pretending to disavow them. Radicals reject any dialogue. Moderates emphasize dialogue.

Moderates will verbally reject the means with which an end is pursued. Accordingly they will reject terrorism. They may even claim to reject the ends, such as an ideological dictatorship, but they will, in good fellowship, ask you to accept their premise which inevitably leads to the acceptance of both the ends and the means.

For example, moderates on the left and in Islam will ask you to accept that terrorism is caused by American foreign policy. Once you have accepted this premise, then you have partially justified terrorism and paved the way for accepting an “Arab Spring” that eliminates the consequences of American foreign policy by properly Arabizing and Islamizing the governments of the region.

Nation Building or Islam Building by Daniel Greenfield

Nation-building has become a very controversial term. And with good reason. Our conviction that we can reconstruct any society into another America is unrealistic. It ignores our own exceptionalism and overlooks the cultural causes of many conflicts. It assumes that a change of government and open elections can transform a tribal Islamic society into America. They can’t and won’t.
But it’s also important to recognize that what we have been doing isn’t nation-building, but Islam-

building.

Nation-building in Germany and Japan meant identifying a totalitarian ideology, isolating its proponents from political power and recreating a formerly totalitarian state as an open society. That is the opposite of what we did in Afghanistan and Iraq, never mind Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and all the rest.

We did temporarily pursue de-Baathification in Iraq. But the Baathists were just Saddam’s cult of personality. Saddam was a problem in Iraq. But he wasn’t the problem in Iraq. His rule was a symptom of the real problem which was the divide between Sunnis and Shiites. The real problem was Islam.

Because we failed to recognize that, de-Baathification failed. The Baathists just folded themselves into ISIS. The Sunni-Shiite war went on even without Saddam. Today Sunnis and Shiites are still killing each other in Iraq much as they had for a long time. We have boiled this war down to ISIS, but ISIS, like Saddam is just another symptom of the political violence and divisiveness inherent in Islam.

Instead of secularizing Iraq, our efforts at democracy only heightened divisions along religious lines. The “Lebanon” model for Iraq with power sharing arrangements between Sunnis and Shiites was doomed.

Iraq’s first election was dominated by the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. If that name rings a bell, it should. It came out of Iran. You know, the original Islamic Revolution. The “free” election had given a boost to an Islamic terror group whose goal was the creation of an Islamic State in Iraq.

The bloodiest days of the Iraq War actually came when two sets of Islamic terror groups fighting to create an Islamic State began killing each other… and us. We know one of those groups today as ISIS. The other group is the Iraqi government. And a decade later, they’re still killing each other.

Instead of nation-building in Iraq, we practiced Islam-building. Iraq’s constitution made Islam the official religion and the fundamental source of legislation. Its first real law was that, “No law that contradicts the established provisions of Islam may be established.” The new Iraq we had built was an Islamic State.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Breakthrough in search for melanoma cure. Researchers, led by Tel Aviv University’s Dr. Carmit Levy, have unraveled the metastatic mechanism of melanoma (how it spreads to other organs). They have also crucially found chemical substances that can stop the process – promising news for future treatments.
http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Health-and-Science/Israeli-researchers-closing-in-on-cure-for-melanoma-with-new-breakthrough-464749 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/216807

New treatment for fatty liver disease. (TY Karen) Hadasit, the Hadassah Medical Organization’s technology transfer company, and Israel’s BioLineRx are to develop a treatment BL-1210 for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) or fatty liver disease. It modulates the immune system to reduce scarring that leads to cirrhosis. There is currently no FDA approved treatments. http://www.hadassah.org/news-stories/NASH-liver-disease.html

Physiotherapy using Virtual Reality. Israeli startup VRPhysio matches virtual reality and physiotherapy to help patients exercise and speed up recovery. The system includes a headset, a mobile app, weights and body sensors to monitor body movement and a set of virtual reality games that aim to make exercising more fun.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/vrphysio-uses-virtual-gaming-to-help-pain-in-neck/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq0v1tQD1CA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QFUVXJ7TwE

A device to cure pelvic floor prolapse. (TY Dan) Israel’s POP Medical has obtained US FDA approval for the marketing of its medical device for treatment of pelvic floor prolapse. 20% of the women in the world suffer from this condition at any given moment, and 30% at some time in their lives.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-pop-medical-awarded-fda-nod-on-pelvic-device-1001144762

Diagnosing sleep apnea in pregnancy. (TY Nevet) 25% of pregnant women may suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) but receive no treatment. Now researchers from Israel and the USA recommend a new diagnosis, ‘‘Gestational Sleep Apnea” (GSA) to properly describe, diagnose and treat OSA in pregnant women,
https://www.afhu.org/time-to-wake-up-to-a-new-diagnosis-with-gestational-sleep-apnea/news/
http://www.obstetanesthesia.com/article/S0959-289X(16)00038-8/abstract?cc=y=

Helping the visually impaired. (TY Nevet) Israeli startup RenewSenses develops the EyeCane, a small flashlight-like device that translates distance into sound and vibrations. Also EyeMusic which translates color and shape into music. RenewSenses has just joined Brainnovation – Israel’s Brain Technologies accelerator.
https://www.afhu.org/renewsense-enters-brainnovation-israels-brain-technologies-accelerator/news/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFsZ6RFRjtI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVBp2nDmg7E

New soft material for artificial limbs. Researchers at Tel Aviv University and in the Netherlands have developed a breakthrough material that can be “morphed” into any shape. The programmable metamaterial could be ideal for prostheses or wearable technology in which a close fit with the body is important.
www.timesofisrael.com/new-synthetic-material-may-bring-prosthetic-relief/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxcCtimWxn0

Cardiac surgery saves Afghan boy’s life. (TY Ron) A covert operation has ensured that Yehia (born with multiple heart defects) is the first Afghan to have been treated by Israel’s Save a Child’s Heart organization, joining over 4,000 children from over 50 other countries who have been saved by SACH.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/with-cardiac-surgery-israeli-team-saves-afghani-boys-life/

Essays from Essex “New Hampshire’s White Mountains” by Sydney Williams

Straight ahead is Eisenhower. My eleven-year-old grandson tells me the rounded, domed peak mimics the late President’s bald head. I am impressed with George’s cranial knowledge of past Presidents. We are sitting on the veranda of the Mt. Washington Hotel looking south and east toward the Presidential Range.

The hotel, now renovated and owned by the Omni Group, was the scene, in the summer of 1944, of the Bretton Woods Conference that set new rules for the post-War international monetary system that created the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and assured stable currencies, with the U.S. Dollar exchangeable into gold at $35.00 per ounce and with other currencies pegged to it. The system worked, at least for twenty-seven years, until in 1971 the Nixon Administration, coping with rising inflation and a run on the metal, ended gold convertibility.

In July of 1944 the Second World War had nine months to run. By the time of the Conference the Allies had landed at Normandy. The Soviet Army was moving west toward the Elbe. American, British and Canadian troops were pushing east toward the Rhine. Paris was yet to be liberated. Tens of thousands more would die, but ultimate victory seemed clear. Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, in the summer of 1944, were committed to avoiding what a lack of planning had unleashed on Europe in the years following the Armistice ending the First World War twenty-six years earlier. Conference delegates were watched over by the inspiring and magisterial peaks of Washington, Adams and Jefferson.

From our view on the veranda we look out at a number of summits – Pierce, Eisenhower, Franklin, Monroe, Washington, Reagan[1], Jefferson, Adams and Madison. Franklin was named for Benjamin Franklin, who while never President, nevertheless served a critical role in the founding of our government. There is a Mt. Jackson, but that is named for Charles Thomas Jackson, a New Hampshire geologist, not Andrew Jackson. There is also a Mt. Lincoln, but that is in Franconia Notch, not the “Presidential Range.”

The White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) was established in 1918. While we typically associate Theodore Roosevelt with conservation efforts, it was President Benjamin Harrison who, in 1891, signed the bill creating the National Forest System. At 750,852 acres, the WMNF seems large, but relative to the 190 million acres of National Forest owned by the federal government it is small. Geologists estimate that the White Mountains, which are part of the Appalachian Range, were formed about 100 million years ago. Even to a white-haired grandfather of ten that seems a long time ago. However, the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa and the Hamersley Range in Australia date back three to five billion years.

My Money Is on a Trump Victory Trump’s voters (and many are staying mum) are well aware of his flaws and might carry him to victory anyway. By Heather R. Higgins

For what it is worth: Nothing is ever certain, and much could go wrong, but my money remains on a Trump victory. Why?

1) It feels a whole lot like Reagan in ’80 and Newt in ’94.

Reagan was disliked by the establishment (who liked Baker or Bush), viewed with suspicion by professional conservatives (they liked Phil Crane, not a divorced, former Democrat, big-spending governor), and regarded with condescension by the media and the Left (who saw him as stupid and as a dangerous cowboy). Those camps could not fathom the breadth and depth of his popular momentum.

Ditto the GOP’s taking the House in ’94 — I was on CNN five weeks prior to that election and produced outright guffaws and rolled eyes from everyone when I said that the GOP would win not only the Senate but also the House. The signs were all there, but because the idea seemed so preposterous, many analysts couldn’t see them.

More recently, Matt Bevin was left for dead by most of the smart money in his race for Kentucky governor, and Brexit was “sure” not to pass. Trump is an extension of that zeitgeist for many — a long-awaited reclaiming of control of their lives, their country, their self-identity.

2) Who are you going to believe, polls or your lying eyes?

I started asking people in the spring whom they were voting for. A surprisingly large percentage of not-supposed-to-be-a-Trump-supporter types turned out to be exactly that. That includes rich and highly educated people, women, blacks, Hispanics, and Muslims. A bunch of anecdotes, but interesting.

Everyone keeps saying this election is about Trump. But I have come to believe it really is about his supporters, who to a person are deeply versed in all his flaws and faults and support him regardless. For them, this is about one or more of the following:

deep antipathy for Hillary and all she represents and would do;

disappointment with a broken system they feel has ignored them and in some cases harmed them for years;

a desire to reclaim the country and their own lives and personhood.

They genuinely love and worry about their country, and they want to feel proud again to be an American.

Suicide bombing kills 60 at Yemen army camp No group takes responsibility for suicide car bomb at basic training center in Aden that also left dozens dead, injured

A suicide car bomb attack on an army training camp in Yemen’s second city of Aden killed at least 60 people on Monday, medical sources said.

A security official told AFP that the attacker drove his vehicle into a gathering of new recruits at the camp in northern Aden.

The assault killed 60 people and wounded 29 others, medical sources from the three hospitals where the victims were taken told AFP.

Security officials had provided an earlier toll of 11 dead.

The port city, the temporary base of Yemen’s Gulf-backed government, has seen a wave of bombings and shootings targeting officials and security forces.

Attacks in Aden are often claimed by jihadists from either Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, which have both taken advantage of the chaos in Yemen to make gains in southern and southeastern regions.

But no group claimed immediate responsibility for Monday’s attack.

Yemeni authorities have trained hundreds of soldiers in Aden over the past two months to as part of operations to retake neighbouring southern provinces from jihadists.

Earlier this month, Yemeni government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition entered Abyan’s provincial capital Zinjibar.

Troops retook other towns across Abyan but have been met by fierce resistance in key Al-Qaeda stronghold, al-Mahfid, a town which lies further east, security sources said.

The militants are still present in areas surrounding the recaptured towns and control large parts of the neighboring Shabwa province, the sources say.

The Arab coalition, which backs the Yemeni government against Iran-backed rebels, has also been providing troops with air cover throughout their war against the jihadists.

The coalition intervened in Yemen in March last year and has helped government troops push the rebels out of Aden and four other southern provinces.

But authorities have been struggling to secure these provinces.

More than 6,600 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Yemen since March 2015 and more than 80 percent of the population has been left in need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.

Amar’e Stoudemire inks 2-year deal with Hapoel Jerusalem After retiring from 14-year NBA career, star forward set to play for team he partially owns in ‘country he has grown to love’

Former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire on Monday signed to play for the Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team for two years.

Stoudemire, 33, announced his retirement from the NBA on July 26, after a 14-year career. He is a six-time NBA all-star, and had career averages of 18.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.

“I am looking forward to playing for Hapoel Jerusalem and helping the team compete for titles,” he said, according to the Hapoel Jerusalem website. “My family and I are excited to start a new journey in Israel, a country I have grown to love.”

Hapoel Jerusalem won the Israeli championship last year for the first time in its history and will play in the EuroCup this year. The team moved to the newly completed Jerusalem Pais Arena in 2014.

The owner of the team said he was “thrilled” Stoudemire was coming on board.

“We are thrilled to have a player of Amar’e’s caliber join our team, solidifying our place among the top echelon of Israeli and European basketball,” said Ori Allon, president and majority owner of Hapoel Jerusalem, according to the site. “More importantly, bringing Amar’e to Jerusalem raises the profile of the entire Israeli Basketball League, and we hope that his joining our team will lead to increased interest in our league from basketball fans around the world as well as talented international players.”