RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2013/03/10/4-old-dreamy-songs/?print=1

FOR THE SENIOR GENERATION….THE WORLD WAR 2 SONGS EVOKED THE LONELINESS AND THE DREAMS OF A WHOLE NATION…CLASSICS SUCH AS “I’LL WALK ALONE”…OR “I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS”…OR “ALWAYS”….SONGS WITH GENTLE AND TOUCHING LYRICS…..RSK

My main solace and support during an unhappy adolescence was my radio. I remember it as good-sized and rectangular with a wood finish. It sat on the little night table by my bed, and was always set to the same channel — WRPI, the station (still in existence) of the nearby Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, staffed and run by college students.

WRPI played what was then called progressive rock — rock songs that were outside the Top 40 hits that the commercial stations played. These could be songs, available only on albums, by performers who had Top 40 hits, or songs by performers considered esoteric or “experimental” enough that they were outside the Top 40 sphere altogether. Among other things, “progressive rock” offered me more introspective, poetic music that knew something about the deeper world of my feelings.

Since then my tastes have expanded, from ultra-introspective Mahler and Bruckner to wildly joyous Sonny Rollins and much in between (I also attempt my own contribution). The advent of YouTube some years back led me, in a sort of hushed curiosity, to search and find songs that in some cases I hadn’t heard since those distant days of adolescence. And in some striking cases I discovered that a song had not lost—or had even gained—power over me compared to back then.

All of the four songs I’ve picked below use only voice and acoustic guitar. All are from the late sixties; my WRPI-listening years were 1969-1972.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/bloomberg-bans-breathing-and-death-to-battle-global-warming?f=puball New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced at City Hall today that the city’s Board of Health has instituted a ban on both breathing and death in order to combat the crippling effects of global warming. The ban will go into effect in May of this year, giving city residents time to figure out […]

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/us-national-security-document-will-omit-references-to-islamic-extremism-and-jihad?f=puball

In what appears to be another victory for the US Muslim Brotherhood, Associated Press is reporting that “religious terms” such as Islamic extremism and Jihad will be removed from the document known as the National Security Strategy. According to the AP report:

President Barack Obama’s advisers will remove religious terms such as “Islamic extremism” from the central document outlining the U.S. national security strategy and will use the rewritten document to emphasize that the United States does not view Muslim nations through the lens of terror, counterterrorism officials said. The change is a significant shift in the National Security Strategy, a document that previously outlined the Bush Doctrine of preventative war and currently states: “The struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century.” The officials described the changes on condition of anonymity because the document still was being written, and the White House would not discuss it. But rewriting the strategy document will be the latest example of Obama putting his stamp on U.S. foreign policy, like his promises to dismantle nuclear weapons and limit the situations in which they can be used. The revisions are part of a larger effort about which the White House talks openly, one that seeks to change not just how the United States talks to Muslim nations, but also what it talks to them about, from health care and science to business startups and education. That shift away from terrorism has been building for a year, since Obama went to Cairo, Egypt, and promised a “new beginning” in the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world. The White House believes the previous administration based that relationship entirely on fighting terror and winning the war of ideas.

The AP report also identifies a little known White House office that appears to have played a major role in the language change:

“You take a country where the overwhelming majority are not going to become terrorists, and you go in and say, ‘We’re building you a hospital so you don’t become terrorists.’ That doesn’t make much sense,” said National Security Council staffer Pradeep Ramamurthy. Ramamurthy runs the administration’s Global Engagement Directorate, a four-person National Security Council team that Obama launched last May with little fanfare and a vague mission to use diplomacy and outreach “in pursuit of a host of national security objectives.” Since then, the division has not only helped change the vocabulary of fighting terror but also has shaped the way the country invests in Muslim businesses, studies global warming, supports scientific research and combats polio. Before diplomats go abroad, they hear from the Ramamurthy or his deputy, Jenny Urizar. When officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration returned from Indonesia, the NSC got a rundown about research opportunities on global warming. Ramamurthy maintains a database of interviews conducted by 50 U.S. embassies worldwide. And business leaders from more than 40 countries head to Washington this month for an “entrepreneurship summit” for Muslim businesses.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-hardball-realities-of-obamacare While Paul Ryan shrugs, the media mocks. That’s the impression that Chris Matthews gave on his recent MSNBC segment from “Hardball,” where he criticizes Representative Ryan for his new budget plan which would get rid of most of the spending outlined in Obamacare. “Call it ‘Ryan Shrugged,’” asserted Matthews. “It kills the President’s health […]

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/2953/who_is_immigration_for
Opinion polls show a majority of Europeans to be against large scale immigration. Unfortunately for the majority, the political class has always displayed contempt for public opinion

The conventional wisdom among the mainstream political class in Europe is that non-European immigration to Western Europe has been an economic benefit.

An example of this conventional wisdom was to be heard recently on the BBC programme Any Questions. The Liberal Democrat Evan Harris stated, as if it were an obvious truth, that the National Health Service would be “non-existent if it wasn’t for immigrant doctors propping it up.”

This claim went unchallenged and to great applause from the audience, the usual British response to all soft-left statements. But is there any truth in the claim? Has immigration economically benefited Britain and the rest of Europe?

Some of the most fascinating statistics on this subject are to be found in Christopher Caldwell’s book: Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West.

As Caldwell puts it:

“One of the amazing statistics in the history of European immigration is that the number of foreign residents in Germany rose steadily between 1971 and 2000 – from 3 million to about 7∙5 million – but the number of employed foreigners in the work force did not budge. It stayed rock steady at roughly 2 million people. In 1973, 65% of German immigrants were in the workforce; in 1983, a decade later, only 38% were.”

According to those statistics, the vast majority of immigrants to Germany (mainly Turkish Muslims) did not come to the country to work. Almost 4.5 million immigrants arrived, yet there was no change in the immigrant workforce.

Caldwell claims that this immigration pattern has been replicated across Western Europe. In Britain, for example:

Dear Member:

A new video has gone up.

“Christian Zionism Part 4: Origins in America” is now available.

You can see it directly via the following link:

http://zionism101.org/NewestVideo.aspx

Or log in at www.zionism101.org

“Christian Zionism Part 4: Origins in America” examines the long tradition of Christian Zionism in the United States. The Puritans who came on the Mayflower identified strongly with Jews. But the greatest impact on American Christian Zionism came in the 19th Century from British theologian John Nelson Darby, who made several lengthy visits to North America, beginning in 1862.

Darby wrote:

“Deny Israel’s place and glory with Messiah and the Church will become earthly, rise in its own conceits and, finally, as a system down here be cut off.”

We encourage you to share information about “Zionism 101” with your friends, family, and co-workers, plus anyone else who is interested in learning about the most important development in modern Jewish history.

If you haven’t already, please watch our completed video series on ‘Founding Fathers’, ‘Origins of Zionism’ and ‘Rivals to Zionism’.

We welcome questions and comments.

Sincerely,

David Isaac
Executive Director
Zionism101.org

http://nsroundtable.org/as-we-see-it/catch-and-release/

Two reports recently caught our attention.

The first, “Stopping Terror the New York Way” (first piece below), was written by Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr. and deals with the case of Algerian immigrant Ahmed Ferhani, who was convicted for plotting to blow up New York City synagogues, and sentenced this Friday in State Supreme Court.

Mr. Vance cites the case as a successful example of the “powerful new tools” given by NYS to local prosecutors to prevent future terrorist attacks.

And indeed it was, i.e., a success, except for one thing. Apparently, trying to blow up synagogues and murder hundreds if not thousands of people in NY will get you only 10 years in prison, and deportation when released!

The second report, entitled “Palestinian airline bomber to be released from US prison,” is about Jordanian-born Palestinian bomber, Mohammed Rashed, who set off a bomb on Pan Am flight 83 that exploded as the plane crossed the Pacific Ocean, filling the rear passenger cabin with smoke, screams and blood, and killing a Japanese teenager. Investigators linked this 1982 attack to a terrorist organization known for making sophisticated bombs. You can read the piece (second piece below) for gory details of the case and Mr. Rashed’s nefarious dealings with other known terrorists.

Now, after serving a 20-year sentence, Mr. Rashed is scheduled to be released from U.S. federal prison in 3 days. He will then be “deported to a country of his choice.”

In light of these two reports, our question is: Why are convicted mass-murdering terrorists being released from U.S. jails AT ALL, much less given tickets to fly anywhere?!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323415304578366370800326406.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop Obama’s Missile-Defense Reversal Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel chose Friday afternoon to announce one of the biggest switcheroos of the Obama Presidency: The Pentagon now plans to fortify America’s homeland defenses against missile attack, reversing a 2009 decision that was part of President Obama’s fantasy of a world without nuclear weapons. Mr. Hagel said the […]

www.geraldahonigman.com According to whose numbers are used, Iran’s non-Persian population makes up between 40-50% of the nation’s 80 million people…Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, and other ethnic groups. Recent reports have shown ever-increasing torture and executions of Iranian Arabs, Kurds, and others–including freedom-loving Iranians themselves–by the regime of the mad mullahs. In light of the current news […]

Gerstenfeld: Dutch press tries to hide anti-Semitic incident
Link: http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48093
In Gerstenfeld’s Jerusalem Post Op ed he lascerates the Dutch ruling coaltion in the Hague Parliament for not addressing the problem. He notes in conclusion: The Arnhem youths affair is just the tip of the Dutch anti-Semitic iceberg. Any investigator will quickly find that there is widespread anti-Semitism among Dutch Muslims. It is far from limited to what white-washers are wont to say about street youth, because it can also be found among many adults and university students. Anti-Semitism should also be investigated in detail in the native Dutch community. This would include studying how major problems are hidden by the media, deficiencies in appropriate action taken on issues which have been known for many years already and the Dutch authorities’ politically hollow rhetoric. [ . . .] The more Dutch authorities shirk their responsibilities, the worse these problems will become. Time, we believe, for Geert Wilders of the PVV excoriate the myopia of the ruling coalition who have swept Islamic and native Dutch Antisemitism into the dustbin of history prematurely. He and the PVV have brought to the public’s attention Islamic violence towards women. Now it is time for Wilders to expose the rampant disease of Islamic Judenhass festering shamelessly in public. It is a national embarrasment to The Netherlands and the country’s leaders.

Title: Gerstenfeld: Dutch press tries to hide anti-Semitic incident
Link: http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/48093