RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/13/decker-obama-chinas-stooge/
President Obama is overseas on a nine-day Blame America First tour. He’s ostensibly spending time on the other side of the Pacific to explore ways the United States can work better with Asian economies. Instead, he’s using his time in the spotlight to criticize the nation he’s supposed to be leading.

“We’ve been a little bit lazy over the last couple of decades,” Mr. Obama said at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Honolulu over the weekend. “We’ve kind of taken for granted — ‘Well, people would want to come here’ — and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new businesses into America.” This is the height of chutzpah from the elected official who has done more than anyone else to undermine the competitiveness of U.S. industries. Economic uncertainty is the chief reason businesses aren’t hiring or investing in new projects. The main causes for corporate uncertainty are out-of-control government regulation, spending and taxation – problems Mr. Obama has exacerbated.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/14/us-israel-france-idUSTRE7AD25Y20111114?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has written to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reaffirm friendship despite what he refers to as their “differing views on the Middle East,” Israeli officials said on Monday.

Sarkozy’s comments, in a condolence message to Netanyahu for the death of his father-in-law, seemed an effort to try to clear the air a week after a reported gaffe this month at the G20 summit in Cannes, when he was overheard telling U.S. President Barack Obama he thought Netanyahu was “a liar”.

In addition to words of sympathy, Sarkozy’s letter to Netanyahu, according to two officials in the Israeli leader’s office, said:

“You have my friendship, and our differing views on the problems of the Middle East, and the interpretations appearing in the media, have no effect on it.”

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/
Is Palestine’s Admittance To UNESCO Valid?
Sydney lawyer and Middle East specialist David Singer, a foundation member of the International Analysts’ Network, has cast his legal eagle eye over Palestine’s admittance to UNESCO, and finds that there’s a snag. His new article, entitled “Palestine – UNESCO Membership May Be Unconstitutional,” which comes via the antipodean J-Wire service, explains the issue.
‘Palestine’s membership of UNESCO could be under serious legal threat – as the vote approving such admission comes under increasing scrutiny.

The decision to admit Palestine has come at great financial cost to UNESCO and has threatened the abandonment or postponement of many of its worthy and worthwhile programs.

UNESCO notes in a Press Release on 10 November:

“The U.S has withheld its contributions following the admission of Palestine to UNESCO on 31 October. They were required to do so by U.S. laws dating from the 1990s. This leaves UNESCO with an immediate shortfall of US$65m to the end of 2011, and a further gap of 22 percent in its US$653m budget for 2012-2013. Israel has now followed suit and withheld its contribution of US$1.5m (0.3 percent of UNESCO’s budget) for 2012-2013.”

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova has now launched an Emergency Multi-Donor Fund to help find the very large shortfall resulting from dues withheld by the United States. It has left an enormous black hole to fill – given the financial crisis enveloping the European Union and its members.

One way of rescuing UNESCO from its current predicament would be to approach the International Court of Justice seeking an Advisory Opinion on the legality of Palestine’s admission to UNESCO.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/

The multiple incidents of sexual assault in the Occupation tent cities are as ugly as they are inevitable. The absence of theft, assault and other forms of attacks is not a natural phenomenon, it is the outcome of a system that protects individual rights. The Occupy tent cities are not concerned with the rights of the individual, but with the grand collective right of the “99 percent” to demand private property on behalf of the government. And collectivist movements are notoriously unconcerned with what happens to the individual.

The collectivist response to the allegations is to urge the victims to remain silent to avoid harming the reputation of the movement. This is a commonplace institutional response to rape allegations. It is not concerned with the individual, but the group. You have to break some omelets to make some eggs and you have to cover up some rapes and assorted bits of ugliness to have a society where everyone’s masters degrees are subsidized by the state.

http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2011/11/13/its-the-foreign-policy-stupid/?print=1

ROMNEY HAS “PEOPLE PLEASER” FOREIGN POLICY, CAIN HAS NONE, …..ONLY GINGRICH AND PERRY ACTUALLY MADE SENSE IN THE DEBATE……ALSO ENERGY INDEPENDENCE , IMMIGRATION AND DEFENSE CUTS ARE PART AND PARCEL OF NATIONAL SECURITY AND WERE NOT EVEN MENTIONED IN THE DEBATES…..AND BY THE WAY….WHO IS THE ENEMY?…..RSK

“It’s the economy, stupid,” some dude named Carville once said. He was referring to what was the correct prescription for winning a presidential election — and it’s been gospel ever since.

He’s probably right. Except when it comes to actually being president, it’s something else altogether. “It’s the foreign policy, stupid” — because day one of being POTUS, you, and basically you alone, determine the foreign policy of the United States of America and much of the future and present of humanity.

http://pjmedia.com/blog/the-fourth-act-of-the-un-romney-circus/?print=1 There are but seven weeks remaining to the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus on January 3, and the GOP presidential primary race remains unsettled, both in that state’s contest and the national race. It is a sign of the fluidity of the race that one can find articles on the same day that point to the […]

http://pjmedia.com/blog/court-to-hear-obamacare-challenge-what-it-means/?print=1 Court To Hear Obamacare Challenge: What It Means Posted By Hans von Spakovsky and Elizabeth Garvey It’s official. The Supreme Court will consider challenges to Obamacare stemming from the Eleventh Circuit decision striking down the law’s individual mandate. In that case, 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) partially won their […]

The End of the Eurozone The Welfare State Has Cannibalized the West’s Potential for Growth http://www.hudson-ny.org/2583/end-of-eurozone During a joint Franco-German press conference two weeks ago, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel openly ridiculed the competence of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and with that sealed his fate. Italy’s main problem, however, is […]

http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2011/11/15/will_republicans_blow_it/print Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said that a good catch phrase could stop thinking for 50 years. One of the often-repeated catch phrases of our time — “It’s the economy, stupid!” — has already stopped thinking in some quarters for a couple of decades. There is no question that the state of the economy can […]

http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2011/11/iron-burka-has-descended-across.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

“An Iron Burka Has Descended Across the Continent”
At Fjordman’s suggestion, the shade of Sir Winston Churchill delivered the following speech yesterday at the United Nations.
Ladies and gentlemen, Western Civilisation stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power. It is a solemn moment for the Western Democracies. For with primacy in power is also joined an awe-inspiring accountability to the future. If you look around you, you must feel not only the sense of duty done but also you must feel anxiety lest you fall below the level of achievement. Opportunity is here and now, clear and shining for all our countries. To reject it or ignore it or fritter it away will bring upon us all the long reproaches of the after-time. It is necessary that the constancy of mind, persistency of purpose, and the grand simplicity of decision shall rule and guide the conduct of Western peoples in peace as they did in war. We must, and I believe we shall, prove ourselves equal to this severe requirement.

Mr. Secretary General, when military men approach some serious situation they are wont to write at the head of their directive the words “over-all strategic concept”. There is wisdom in this, as it leads to clarity of thought. What then is the over-all strategic concept which we should inscribe to-day? It is nothing less than the safety and welfare, the freedom and progress, of all the homes and families of all the men and women in all the lands.

When I stand here this quiet afternoon I shudder to visualise what is actually happening to millions now and what is going to happen in this period when famine stalks the earth. None can compute what has been called “the unestimated sum of human pain”.