RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-dangerous-lie-of-the-hijab

As the number of converts to Islam grows around the world, little is more surprising than the fact that the vast majority of those converts are women – by some counts, as many as four times the number of women in the United States as men. And over and over, as if reciting dogma, these women offer the same bizarre explanation: Islam, they say, with its “modest” dress code, frees them from the “oppression” of Western society and a culture that judges women on their looks alone. It is, in fact, as if they have bought into the religion not for its precepts, but for its costumes.

Perhaps you could even believe their reasoning if most of these women actually dressed in full chador or burqa. But they don’t. Rather, they simply cover their heads – and occasionally their bare necks – in hijabs, or headscarves, arguing – with flawed logic and misrepresentations of the principles supporting Western notions of equality and feminism – that even this is a sign of “liberation” as much as it is of their allegiance to a religion.

And evidently, more and more non-Muslims are buying it, especially as legal battles erupt in Europe — and in some American cities — over the right to wear a hijab in the public realm.

Latest among them, it seems, are the editors of the International Herald Tribune, who earlier this summer ran an op-ed by Ayesah Nusrat, a self-described “Indian Muslim,” defending her decision to don a hijab at the age of 23. (What the editors evidently failed to notice was that the pious young author of the piece lifted all of her ideas and a reasonable portion of her words directly from a previously-published essay by a Canadian Muslim, Naheed Mustafa, which is widely available online,)

Poorly written, speckled with faulty grammar and plagiarized clauses, Nusrat’s piece presents a downright bizarre depiction of Western media and public opinion (among other things, she describes Western feminism as being defined by “a skewed perception of women’s equality as the right to bare our breasts in public”). Nonetheless, her commentary places in full view of a wide public one of the biggest obstacles we face in combating the growth of Islam in the West, and, even more, of political, aggressively Islamist Islam as it masquerades as a faith – and a doctrine – based on justice and equal rights, slinking its deceitful, theocratic destructiveness into the secular humanism of the West.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/08/condi_rice_apeaks_again_and_again.html

Condoleezza Rice spoke to the RNC Wednesday night to near universal acclaim. I agree that it was a smoothly delivered speech, no doubt because it’s the same speech she always gives and practice makes perfect.

Compare her speech to the GOP convention in 2000 to the one she gave in 2012; all very similar. In 2000, George Bush knows we must be strong and engage the world. In 2012 Mitt Romney does too. Free trade is good and important for international relations. In the latest iteration she also remarks on school choice. She ends both talks with a recollection of segregation days in Alabama.

No thought of any specific policy ideas are ever advanced. We are warned about China in both speeches, but not told what, if anything, we are supposed to do. From the 2012 speech you would never know George Bush had ever been President or Rice his National Security Advisor and Secretary of State.

Perhaps in a more extended format Rice might be more substantive? Don’t count on it; her 2011 autobiography runs an amazing 784 pages yet you learn next to nothing of her personal life beyond adolescence, or her foreign policy philosophy. There’s no analysis or reflection on the many historic events of the Bush years or her role in them. She barely even tells her readers where she was all that time, but merely regurgitates the international headlines of the day.

I don’t know if Rice seriously competed to be Romney’s VP. If she did and was outshone by Paul Ryan’s obvious depth and brilliance, it reflects well on Romney’s good judgment. Post-Reagan Era Republicans in any event, have had enough of Beltway careerists, who will say anything to win the next big job, or in Condi’s case, the same thing, over and over.

Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, Ky.

http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=283316
Dempsey: I don’t want to be ‘complicit’ in Iran strike

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey said Thursday that he did not want to be “complicit” if Israel chose to strike Iran’s nuclear program, positing that a premature attack would dissolve the international pressure on the Islamic Republic, The Guardian reported. Speaking to journalists in London, Dempsey said an attack would “clearly delay but probably not destroy Iran’s nuclear program,” but added that the “international coalition” pressuring Iran “could be undone if it was attacked prematurely”.

“I don’t want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it,” he added.

http://blogs.jpost.com/print/3721

We wish Israel’s 25-member team well as they begin contesting their events at the London 2012 Paralympics. Just by making it to London, these athletes [2] embody the Israeli characteristic that overcomes adversity in order to achieve success. On that theme, here are further recent news items that illustrate how Israel rises to every challenge.
All Israeli medical research starts with some form of health problem to solve. Whist investigating the cause of allergies, Tel Aviv University Professor Sagi-Eisenberg and PhD student Nurit Pereg-Azouz isolated two specific proteins involved in the trigger process for an allergic reaction [3]. These can now be targeted by medications that omit the debilitating side effects of steroid treatments. In another uniquely Israeli study, a team of microbiologists, including Professor Eshel Ben-Jacob of Tel Aviv University, has discovered that cancer cells and bacteria [4] behave in the same way as terrorists do in real life. They spy out the body, manipulate genes, enslave normal cells and become dormant to avoid danger. We now look forward eagerly to new “Mossad” treatments.

Many economic experts say that it was problems due to Israel’s shortage of natural resources that brought about the “can do” attitude of Israelis to overcome extreme difficulties. Israel’s breakthroughs in renewable energy technologies were a ‘natural’ result of its lack of oil and gas. Even now, despite Israel’s massive recent natural gas discoveries [5], initiatives continue such as the renewable energy program [6] for the Eilat-Eilot region. Laboratories will be set-up for bio-energy, bio-fuels, hydrogen, solar energy and more. Meanwhile, if you can’t afford one of Better Place’s new deals for its revolutionary electric cars, no problem [7]. Check out the electric scooters built by Israeli start-up Green Motors International.

Despite the lack of water, enterprising Kibbutz Neot Semadar has built an organic oasis in the desert [8]. The kibbutz grows several varieties of native date palms and organic grapes that it transforms into sulphur-free wines. It is also said, that “the harshest conditions produce the best wines”, but Israeli wine producers, such as the Golan Heights Winery, have made the most of this fact by harnessing Israeli technology [9] to eradicate viruses; match vines with the best subsoil and use satellite models to monitor the microclimate and ensure correct irrigation and harvesting.

A crisis always brings out the best in the Israeli spirit. When Italian budget airline Wind-jet collapsed [10], it ruined the holiday plans of 300,000 international customers. However, the Israeli government organised planes to fly the 200 stranded Israeli tourists home from Rome. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said, “The fact that all of Israel is responsible for one other is something which makes us unique and of which we should be proud”. Staying in the skies, you may have heard that due to a mistake by an on-line travel agent, El Al were forced to sell 5000 return tickets from New York to Israel at a bargain price of $400 each instead of the normal $1600. However, one high flier at El Al then saw an opportunity [11] to recover some of the lost profit. The airline offered the lucky customers the chance to upgrade their tickets to non-stop for an extra $75 each way. This ensured that only El Al planes would be used, rather than its code-sharing partners. It also means that El Al’s low-season flights will be full.

CNN called in Jerusalem Venture Partner’s Erel Margalit to suggest a solution [12] to the problems of the ailing US economy. Margalit’s answer is for America to learn from the “Start-up Nation by bringing entrepreneurship back into the game. A typical example of this entrepreneurship is Israel’s Siano [13], which has overcome the problems of low quality Internet TV images and regions with poor or non-existent wireless connections. With its “Carmel” miniature digital TV accessory you can watch live, high quality TV broadcasts [14] on your iPhone or iPad in Israel, the UK and much of Europe. You get all the available free channels, without any network connection and don’t even need a TV license.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3320/us-security-interests-egypt This week, without a murmur of dissent, the Egyptian Government restored the right to declare war to the President with the concurrence of Parliament. Morsi is continuing an evolution that promises to hasten the decline of American influence. How much recent events have eroded U.S. security interests in Egypt depends on how deeply rooted […]

http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2012/08/migron-and-the-threat-to-israe.php?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Migron+and+the+threat+to+Israeli+democracy&utm_campaign=20120831_m113403902_Migron+and+the+threat+to+Israeli+democracy&utm_term=Continue+Reading___ By Tuesday, 50 Israeli families will have been tossed out of their homes in their village of Migron, which is set for destruction. They will not be dispossessed because they unlawfully squatted on someone else’s property. The residents of Migron will be tossed from their homes – on the order of the Supreme Court […]

http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/6638 Just when we thought we could be proud of the Republican establishment, what with the inclusion of TEA Party favorite US Rep. Paul Ryan to the GOP ticket, reality rears its ugly head and mocks the hard work of the grassroots. In a stunning move that conjures images of Mayor Richard J. Daley and […]

No news here. The media is so craven in the tank for the Democrats that even Joe Biden sounds smart and sane. They just happen to miss some of the really good speeches at the convention.

Read this: http://www.register-herald.com/local/x143113247/Liberal-media-bias-directed-against-GOP-delegate-says by Mannix Porterfield….It sums it up

Liberal bias by the national media is being orchestrated to paint Republicans as white racists and proof has comes in the networks repeatedly ignoring speeches by blacks and Hispanics at the national convention in Tampa, a West Virginia delegate charged Wednesday.“Every time there was a Hispanic or African-American speaker, they’d break away,” John McCutcheon said of the Tuesday night coverage by the national television networks.
“What that does is continue their narrative and Chris Matthews is a perfect example of someone who says everything but, ‘Hey, all Republicans are white racists.’ To facilitate that narrative, they cut away.”
McCutcheon said this was plainly evident by two black speakers who prompted robust cheers — Mayor Mia Love of Saratoga Springs, Utah, and Arthur Davis, a former Democratic congressman in Alabama.
Davis had delivered a nominating speech for President Obama at the 2008 convention and told Republican delegates that was “a mistake” and he wanted to repair the damage to the nation that he helped foster. Unless they were tuned into C-Span’s unfiltered coverage, McCutcheon said, many viewers missed his remarks.“We need to stand up and say, ‘Hey, you people (network news reporters) are the racists,” McCutcheon said.
“You’re deliberately manipulating your viewers and making them think the only people who speak at the Republican National Convention are white males or white females. It’s infuriating, absolutely infuriating.”

But how about the GOP’s shamelessness…..They feature, (Sob) Boehner (Snore)Mitch McConnell (Bore) John McCain….you would have had to waterboard me to keep me awake during those snoozers.

And Condoleeza Rice, now a baseball star who “hit it out of the park”????? Hit what out of the park, her silly take on and coooing on “the Arab Spring”….without mentioning the Obama even once?…oh puleez, spare me.

Why did they not invite two former presidents named Bush? One is a World War 11 hero who presided in the White House during the fall of the Soviet Union….a seminal event in world history.

The other shepherded this nation through the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.

I have serious disagreements with both Bushes…but the Dems host Jihadists, harridans (Debbie Wasserman Schultz), an impeached and dishonorable serial woman abuser,(you know who) and the GOP cravenly disses two former Presidents out of cowardice and fear of the mainstream attacks on George Bush. Shame on them!!!

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/110449/judaism-central-sacrifice?print=1
Judaism’s Central Sacrifice

Yoram Hazony’s new book bases Judaism on a naturalistic reading of the Bible, but it’s a stretch

As co-founder and now a senior fellow of the Shalem Center, a leading Zionist think tank in Jerusalem, Yoram Hazony has sought a bridge between secular nationalism and Jewish religion. His latest book [1], The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture, claims to find it, in a naturalistic reading of the Hebrew Scriptures that allows the sacred texts of the Jewish people to do double duty: They can be read as revelation by the religious, Hazony argues, or by the secular as a guide to personal virtue and national prowess. The question is whether this shidduch between God’s word and natural law is a union of two besherts or a shotgun wedding that leaves both parties miserable.

Hazony seems to think of Mosaic law as an afterthought to natural law—the former “is indeed held to be the key to a just and prosperous life” in the biblical narrative, but that is only because “it is so much in conformity with the natural law that even from the perspective of the shepherd, who examines its strictures from the outside, it can be accepted and obeyed.” Like the late political philosopher Leo Strauss, Hazony draws a bright line between faith and reason. But Hazony abhors Strauss because he is competing for the same side of the street. Faith, he argues, is for the Christians. His book, on the other hand, “is the first direct and sustained argument in favor of approaching the Hebrew Scriptures as works of reason.”

Hazony contends that an ethical philosophy founded in natural law is embedded in the Tanakh’s historical narrative, requiring no recourse to supernatural revelation. This stems from what he calls “shepherd’s ethics”—that is, “the vantage point of an outsider” who “owes nothing and has committed to nothing that cannot be reconsidered in light of one’s own independent judgment as to what is really right.” Inherent in the life the shepherd, he avers, is a virtue that distinguishes nomads from farmers and city-dwellers: Abel from Cain, the Abram of Ur from the nomad Abraham of Canaan, Joseph the shepherd from Joseph the minister of Pharaoh, and so on.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443409904577619043372332290.html

Tuesday brought the news that “No Easy Day,” a firsthand account of the 2011 raid on the Osama bin Laden compound written by a former Navy SEAL and due to be published on Sept. 11, had been discovered already on sale in a bookshop. Its contents are being widely discussed, the publisher has moved up publication to Sept. 4—and the brouhaha over the appropriateness of Matt Bissonnette’s writing the book is only going to increase.

Please, spare us the outrage, or at least most of it. The U.S. Special Operations Command has expressed indignation about “No Easy Day,” which will be published under the nom de plume Mark Owen, even though Mr. Bissonnette’s bid for anonymity has been foiled. If the author violated his classified nondisclosure agreement, he must accept the consequences. Submitting the book for pre-approval would have avoided investigation by the Pentagon, which is currently checking the manuscript.

But to label this book as an unprecedented breach of security reflects a confused understanding of an equally confused policy. Mr. Bissonnette has joined a tradition of SEAL best sellers. While the U.S. Army Delta force remains the silent service, over a decade of war the SEALs have garnered extraordinary publicity.

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Associated Press/Relativity Media

A scene from ‘Act of Valor’ (2012), an action-drama starring active-duty Navy SEALs.

During World War II, President Truman complained that the Marines had a public relations man in every squad. But even we Marines had to rely on John Wayne for our Hollywood fame. Earlier this year saw the release of the action movie “Act of Valor,” a box-office success ($80 million so far) starring active-duty SEALs and developed with the organization’s thorough input.