RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/bruce-bawer/muslim-days-of-rage/

One night back in the summer of 1990, I traveled by train from Munich to Berlin. The Wall had come down, in the sense that the borders between East and West could now be crossed at will, even though the two Germanys had yet to become one and the actual physical Wall itself was still largely intact. (In Berlin, I would find natives and tourists alike busily chopping away at it.) When, in the dead of night, the train stopped at a dilapidated, seemingly deserted station somewhere in the East, there appeared on the platform an aging, grim-faced woman, dressed in an extremely shabby military (or military-style) uniform and holding a clipboard, who, making her way along the length of the train, meticulously copied down the numbers on the sides of the carriages, performing a task that, I suspected, she had been carrying out for years, most likely decades, as a compliant tool of the totalitarian state. Her efforts were now utterly pointless, but she had plainly not been issued new orders, and so here she was, at the dawn of a new era, still robotically going through her Soviet-era motions.

I was reminded of that woman the other day when I saw the photograph (which by now, I gather, has been pretty widely distributed) of another woman, this one calmly writing up parking tickets for the skeletal remains of cars destroyed by the jihadist arsonists in Stockholm. Although this woman, unlike that German frau all those years ago, appeared to be young and slim, and wore a well-fitting, immaculate uniform, she, too, looked every bit the relic of a dying order – a functionary confronted with a new reality, but unprepared to do anything other than mindlessly copy down numbers, just as she had been trained to do. The image seemed to me instantly iconic – succinctly capturing the utter inability of official Europe to confront, and act upon, the horrific reality right before its eyes.

Oprah Gets a Degree From Harvard

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/ben-shapiro/oprah-gets-a-degree-from-harvard/print/

This week, Oprah Winfrey became just the latest celeb to grab an honorary degree from a prestigious university. Speaking at Harvard, Oprah lectured the graduates about immigration and gun control. She stated, “In our political system and the media, we often see the reflection of a country that is polarized, that is paralyzed, that is self-interested. And yet I know you know the truth. We all know that we are better than the cynicism and the pessimism that is regurgitating throughout Washington and the 24 hour cable news cycle.”

There’s a reason this rhetoric sounds familiar. It’s straight from Barack Obama’s playbook. But that’s what’s so astonishing about today’s politics: if you took the quote out of context, you wouldn’t know whether it came from the Queen of Daytime Television or the President of the United States.

And Oprah’s politics are the same as Obama’s, too. “The vast majority of people in this country believe in stronger background checks,” she said, “because they realize that we can uphold the Second Amendment and also reduce that violence that is robbing us of our children.” She then went on to immigration, where again President Obama’s teleprompter clearly spoke through her: “it’s possible to both enforce our laws and, at the same time, embrace the words on the Statue of Liberty that have welcomed generations of huddled masses to our shores.”

Finally, she ended with welfare. “People from both parties and no party,” she said, “believe that indigent mothers and families should have access to healthy food and a roof over the heads and a strong public education. Because here in the richest nation on earth, we can afford a basic level of security and opportunity.”

Why does Oprah sound so similar to President Obama? And is she cribbing from him, or vice versa?

In all likelihood, Obama’s America got its start in Oprah’s audience. Oprah described her mission on television this way to the Harvard audience: to show Americans “that what unites us is ultimately far more redeeming and compelling than anything that separates [us].” That’s just the sort of bromidic nonsense that President Obama speaks, before pretending that a false consensus for liberalism exists. This phraseology means nothing. What unites Americans and al-Qaeda terrorists — our biology as homo sapiens — is larger than what divides us. But that doesn’t mean that there are philosophical battles worth fighting and values worth defending.

But Oprah’s entire mission in life is to enfeeble those values. Her entire show was geared for years toward driving sympathy for poor decision making. Emotion was the name of the game. A typical hour of Oprah often included a weepy sob story from someone – either deserving or undeserving – followed by a giveaway to her audience.

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/david-solway/the-immoderate-moderation-of-the-moderates/ In an article I posted on FrontPage Magazine, in which I was at pains to suggest that from the standpoint of the ongoing war of Islam against the West—anyone who doubts this has not been paying attention—the distinction between Islam and Islamism is functionally moot, if not chimerical. I was by no means implying […]

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ On a mild London afternoon, two Muslims rammed a car into a British soldier returning to the barracks after working at the Tower of London. They shouted Allah Akbar and hacked and slashed at his body in an attempt to behead him. By the time they were done, his body could only be identified […]

Wall Street Journal columnist launches vitriolic attack on New York City bike share program

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2334602/Wall-street-journal-launches-vitriolic-attack-New-York-City-bike-share-program.html

Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz attacked the green Citi Bike program in an online video
Rabinowitz criticized Major Bloomberg for his support of the program calling him a ‘totalitarian’ and ‘autocratic’ leader
She also blasted cyclists for their alleged disregard of traffic laws

By Laurie Kamens

A Wall Street Journal columnist made an impassioned attack against New York city’s new bike share program, known as Citi Bike.

In an online video segment entitled ‘Death by Bicycle,’ editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz criticized Mayor Bloomberg for allowing the ‘dreadful program’ to come to New York.

Rabinowitz also attacked cyclists who she said were given carte blanche to ignore the rules of the road in the interest of environmentalist programs.

When asked by the host of Wall Street Journal Live why she thought the local government would want to implement a program like this, Rabinowitz came out swinging replying, ‘Do not ask me to enter the minds of the totalitarians running this government of the city.’

She went on to attack Bloomberg for his support of the program and bemoan the damage she felt it had done to the city.
‘Envision what happens when you get a government that is run by an autocratic major before which you are helpless,’ she said. ‘We now look at a city who’s best neighborhoods are absolutely begrimed by these blazing blue Citibank bikes.’

http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2013/06/01/a-governments-racist-hiring-and-targeting-of-conservatives-and-pregnant-women/?print=1

Government targeting of conservatives is not confined to a couple of federal departments, as demonstrated by the events in a small District of Columbia employee relations board. A letter obtained by PJ Media documents open racism and hostility toward pregnant and conservative employees in the D.C. Public Employee Relations Board (PERB). The letter also demonstrates that lawless hostility toward conservatives is a characteristic of all levels of government.

According to a resignation letter from its executive director, this District of Columbia government board responsible for resolving employee disputes with management has engaged in racist hiring practices, discrimination against pregnant women, and hostility toward conservatives.

The behavior described in the resignation letter of former executive director Ondray Harris is another example of the broader hostility toward conservatives found throughout federal agencies such as the IRS, EPA, and Justice Department.

Ondray Harris, an attorney, resigned as executive director of PERB on May 24, 2013. His resignation letter contains accounts of disturbing, racist, and illegal behavior by board members Don Wasserman and Ann Hoffman. Among the behavior:

Harris, an African-American, was criticized by board member Don Wasserman for hiring white men to work for PERB. From the letter:

“Mr. Wasserman rebuked me with regard to my hiring white male employees. What is more, Mr. Wasserman demanded that I ‘refrain from hiring white men in the future’ to fill open Attorney-Advisor positions supporting PERB.”

http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2013/06/01/the-pursuit-of-the-normal/?print=1 In case you didn’t know it, Tel Aviv can get hot. I was sitting in the courtyard of this place called Sonya’s, having lunch with the Rubin family [1], when the sun moved around to my side of the table and in a few minutes I felt as if I were Peter O’Toole in […]

http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2013/06/02/the-irs-scandal-it-just-gets-worse-and-worse/?print=1

Remember Malik Obama? He’s the Kenyan-born half brother of the more famous Obama. The men, who first met in 1985, are not close, but each served as the best man [1] at the other’s wedding. Malik has what The Daily Caller delicately calls [2] “a checkered past.” That’s not the president’s fault, of course, any more than Jimmy Carter was responsible for his erring brother Billy.

There are, however, wheels within wheels here. Consider the Barack H. Obama Foundation, [3] a 501(c)(3) entity founded in 2011 and presided over by Malik Obama. Never heard of it? I hadn’t either until a friend pointed out the curious connection between Lois “Fifth Amendment” Lerner, one of the IRS officials at the center of the widening scandal engulfing that federal agency, and the Barack H. Obama Foundation. It turns out that these last several years the IRS has not only been harassing groups whose descriptions include phrases like “tea party” and “patriot.” It has also been bending over backwards to give preferential service to certain groups with a different political complexion. Groups, that is, like the Barack H. Obama Foundation. As The Daily Caller reports [2], Ms. Lerner

signed paperwork granting tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years.

According to the organization’s filings, Lerner approved the foundation’s tax status within a month of filing, an unprecedented timeline that stands in stark contrast to conservative organizations that have been waiting for more than three years, in some cases, for approval.

Lerner also appears to have broken with the norms of tax-exemption approval by granting retroactive tax-exempt status to Malik Obama’s organization.

Yikes! No wonder she wants to take the Fifth. Where do you suppose this rottenness ends? Yesterday, Israpundit pointed out [4] in a video that Malik’s “checkered past” extends to the present. Among other things, he is the executive secretary of the Islamic Da’wa Organisation [5], an entity that was created by the Sudanese government, which is considered by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist state. [6] So why was Ms. Lerner so eager to facilitate the fund-raising operations of a foundation presided over by a man with such dubious connections?

I do not know the answer to this. But one thing, I think, is certain: we’re going to hear a lot more about this affair and I predict that Malik won’t be the only person named “Obama” involved.

http://pjmedia.com/blog/the-francejihadist-critical-mass/ On May 25, a 21-year-old soldier named Cédric Cordiez was stabbed in the neck in the La Defense district of Paris. He survived, but the aggressor’s intention was clearly to kill him (possibly even to sever his head). Four days later, a suspect referred to as Alexandre D., a 22 year-old-convert to Islam, was […]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/349739/mental-illness-and-homicides-e-fuller-torrey-sally-satel

A federal agency tasked with mental-health treatment makes the system worse.

‘My son was only able to get treatment by killing his mother.” This was the testimony of Joe Bruce at congressional hearings on May 22. In 2006, Will Bruce, then 24 and suffering from schizophrenia, killed his mother, Amy, with a hatchet. “But an unbearable aspect of Amy’s death,” Bruce told members, “is that my own tax dollars helped make it possible.”

Bruce was referring to the federally funded Disability Rights Center of Maine, whose employees coached Will on how to get out of the psychiatric hospital and avoid being treated. As a result, Will returned home. Two months later and still psychotic, he killed his mother.

Today, Will Bruce is being properly treated. The young man, who was eventually deemed not guilty by reason of insanity and now resides indefinitely in a forensic institution, acknowledged to his dad that “none of this would have happened if I had been medicated.”
In a steady voice, Joe Bruce delivered his jaw-dropping testimony before the House Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Representative Tim Murphy (R., Pa.), a psychologist. The subcommittee is especially well suited for medically related investigations, as it also includes two physicians (Michael Burgess from Texas, and Bill Cassidy from Louisiana) and a nurse (Renee Ellmers from North Carolina).

The hearings were the third forum held by this subcommittee to investigate psychiatric aspects of the mass killings at such now-infamous places as Newtown, Conn.; Littleton and Aurora, Col.; Tucson; and Virginia Tech. While almost everyone else has stressed the gun issues, the subcommittee has focused on the role played by untreated severe mental illness.

The hearing examined the role of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a little-known component of the Department of Health and Human Services. The size of the agency, which has 600 employees and a budget of $3.5 billion, pales in comparison with that of other federal health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. This makes it one of Washington’s stealth agencies flying under the radar and rarely in the news.

Yet SAMHSA’s core mission is important: to reduce “the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America’s communities.” The subcommittee wanted to know how well SAMHSA was meeting its obligation to deliver services to the severely mentally ill.

SAMHSA administrator Pamela S. Hyde was questioned for two hours by subcommittee members. They asked her multiple times why SAMHSA’s detailed three-year planning document contained no mention of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and why SAMHSA employs not even one psychiatrist in its Center for Mental Health Services, the entity responsible for services for mentally ill people.

No satisfying answers from Hyde were forthcoming, confirming what Murphy observed in his opening statement: “It’s as if SAMHSA doesn’t believe that serious mental illness exists.”