ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

A Scientist’s Week at the Vatican By Henry I. Miller

Posted By on May 10th, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/05/09/a-scientists-week-at-the-vatican/

Ten years ago this month, I had the experience of a lifetime. I was one of a small group of scholars from around the world who were convened by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences for a “study week.” Our subject was “Transgenic Plants for Food Security in the Context of Development.” As directed by Pope Benedict XVI, its purpose was “to evaluate benefits and risks of genetic engineering [GE] and of other agricultural practices on the basis of present scientific knowledge and of its potential for applications to improve food security and human welfare worldwide in the context of a sustainable development.”

The week was beyond fascinating. At the initial session, we participants were greeted by a cardinal who had spent decades in Rome, most recently as the Vatican’s official theologian. He was exceedingly warm and charming, and stressed the importance of technological advances to the poorest and most vulnerable populations. When I googled him, I had a shock: His most recent academic paper had been the introductory chapter in a book on exorcism. Clearly, I was outside my customary science-suffused bubble!

One evening toward to the end of the week, my girlfriend and I ventured outside the Vatican walls for dinner (we were housed—in separate single rooms—in the dormitory-like residence where cardinals and other visiting dignitaries stay). When we returned, we found that the gate through which we had exited was locked. We walked for a long way around the perimeter of the Vatican’s walls, looking for an open gate, and finally encountered a priest who offered to take us to the appropriate entrance. (It turned out that he was a bishop and the head of Catholic Charities worldwide.) When we arrived at our destination, I thanked him and apologized for the detour. He smiled and said, “You’re most welcome, my son; it’s a privilege to assist a pilgrim who has lost his way.” I felt like a bit-player in one of those old films in which Spencer Tracy and Bing Crosby played priests.

The result of the conference was, especially for the time, a rare, constructive melding of science, technology, religion, and humanistic principles. The Pontifical Academy of Sciences’ summary document included these salient conclusions (quoted verbatim):

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

A ‘Constitutional Crisis’ Nancy Pelosi stages a phony impeachment war.

Posted By on May 10th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-constitutional-crisis-11557444084

America is in a “constitutional crisis.” Trump Administration officials have “decided that they’re not going to honor their oath of office.” President Trump is “almost self-impeaching” and “is every day demonstrating more obstruction of justice.”

All of these are quotes in the last 48 hours from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will soon have to hire a lexicographer to come up with new ways to say that Mr. Trump is committing impeachable offenses. How many synonyms are there for “obstruction”?

Yet Mrs. Pelosi and House Democrats refuse even to begin a formal impeachment inquiry. If Mr. Trump is so disrespectful of the Constitution, and so in violation of the separation of powers, what are they waiting for? Mr. Trump still has 20 months left in his four-year term, so surely if the threat is so dire, Democrats will move urgently to fulfill their sacred vow to protect the Republic?

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Kimberley Strassel: What Nadler Really Wants His strategy clearly aims at provoking a confrontation for political purposes.

Posted By on May 10th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-nadler-really-wants-11557442946

Don’t think this week’s headlines about contempt of Congress and impeachment are about anything so serious as contempt of Congress or impeachment—never mind the “constitutional crisis” Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared Thursday. This is red-meat politics.

The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt. It demands Mr. Barr turn over an unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, as well as “all documents obtained and investigative materials created by” Mr. Mueller’s office.

Chairman Jerrold Nadler also threatened to hold former White House counsel Don McGahn in contempt if he doesn’t testify. Mrs. Pelosi spent all week meditating on the prospect of impeaching President Trump, accusing him of “obstruction, obstruction, obstruction,” and even declaring him “self-impeachable,” whatever that means.

Mr. Nadler insists the point of his subpoena fusillade is to obtain “evidence” as part of his “investigation” into “abuses of power” by Mr. Trump. This is obviously untrue, as evidenced by Mr. Nadler’s dogged, daily efforts to make sure he does not obtain any information of value.

Already, on April 18, Mr. Barr made available to senior members of Congress the opportunity to view a version of the report more complete than the one released to the public. It contains the minimum redactions required by law—only 1.5% is redacted material, compared with about 10% for the public version. Mr. Nadler could have weeks ago obtained a flurry of new detail about Mr. Mueller’s investigations and evidence. But neither he nor any other Democrat has visited the Justice Department to view the fuller report. CONTINUE AT SITE

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

MAY 9, 2019: OPENING PRAYER IN CONGRESS

Posted By on May 10th, 2019

https://twitter.com/andrewbostom/status/1126637002584150017

Imam Omar Suleiman who stated (link: https://bit.ly/2VcIWqY) bit.ly/2VcIWqY “The Zionists are the enemies of Allah, His Messengers, sincere followers of all religions, & humanity as a whole,” Delivered Opening Prayer in US House of Reps Today (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=JiCAPZcjlWg) youtube.com/watch?time_con…

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Democrats’ Tolerance of Anti-Semitism Exposes Their Intolerance By Rick Scott

Posted By on May 9th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/democratic-party-tolerance-anti-semitism-exposes-intolerance/

An old hatred is finding a new home on the far left, and Democratic leaders have failed to condemn it forthrightly.

Last week, the New York Times was widely criticized after publishing a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon. And while the image was certainly shocking, it isn’t surprising given where we are today. Something has changed; we are living in a scary time in which anti-Semitism is being tolerated. I cannot comprehend why anyone would be anti-Semitic.

The media love to decry the president for everything he says, but they seem to have fallen oddly silent when it comes to the new anti-Semitism on the left. What we saw at the New York Times merely reflects my fear that anti-Semitism is finding a home in America on the far left.

I’m proud to represent Florida, which is home to the third-largest population of Jewish Americans in the country. Unfortunately, we saw anti-Semitism and hate rear its ugly head in Florida last year. I was the first governor in Florida history to make major investments to secure our Jewish day schools after a series of bomb threats. And after the shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, I ordered state troopers to increase patrols at religious institutions all across the state.

We shouldn’t have had to do this — but unfortunately, anti-Semitism continues to be a major issue across our country. Just a few weeks ago, we saw the horrible attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue in California.

In a major departure from the norm, every major Democratic candidate for president refused to go to the annual AIPAC conference in Washington, D.C. This is unprecedented. It turns out that Democratic candidates for president were afraid to offend the sensibilities of the far-left anti-Semites among them.

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Against the Persecution of Bill Barr By David French

Posted By on May 9th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/against-the-persecution-of-bill-barr/

The attorney general has gone above and beyond legal requirements in his release of the Mueller report. He deserves Congress’s gratitude, not its contempt.

The Democratic party’s current war on Attorney General William Barr is one of the most misguided, misplaced bursts of outrage that I’ve seen during the first term of the Trump administration. Barr protected the Mueller investigation, he went above and beyond legal requirements to release Mueller’s report to the public, and he has offered to congressional leaders far more details about the investigation than are publicly available. Yet now he’s subject to congressional contempt proceedings?

This is nonsense.

Barr has been far, far more transparent than governing law requires. The special-counsel regulations are crystal clear: The special counsel is required to deliver to the attorney general a “confidential report explaining [his] prosecution or declination decisions.” The attorney general is under no obligation to make that report public. Instead, the regulations state that he “may determine that public release of these reports would be in the public interest” and if so can release them subject to “applicable legal restrictions.”

This is exactly what Barr did: He released the report with minimal material redactions. The American public can read all about Russian interference in American elections, Trump’s unscrupulous campaign team, and Trump’s own deceptions right here. An annotated version can be read here. A bound volume of the report can even be bought here.

So why are Democrats now claiming that we’re in the grips of a “constitutional crisis”? Why are some openly suggesting using the sergeant at arms to arrest Barr and throw him in jail? The answer is absurd: because Barr has not complied with a congressional subpoena that demands from him documents he cannot legally disclose. Yes, that’s right. Congress is threatening Barr with contempt in part because Barr won’t break the law.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Islamic Jew-Hatred: Dishonest Takiya From Qanta Ahmed and Mohamed Z. Jasser, Honest Mea Culpa From Ayaan Hirsi Ali Andrew Bostom

Posted By on May 9th, 2019

https://www.andrewbostom.org/2019/05/islamic-jew-hatred-dishonest-takiya-from-qanta-ahmed-and-mohamed-z-jasser-honest-mea-culpa-from-ayaan-hirsi-ali/

The unique, global pandemic of Muslim Jew-hatred will only begin to ebb, if at all, with honest reform of Islam’s vast, ugly corpus of canonical Jew-hatred—from the Koran, and the traditions—as currently still promulgated, in all its virulence, by Islamdom’s most prestigious religious teaching institutions.

Unfortunately, Fox News’ go to so-called “reformist” Muslims, Qanta Ahmed and Mohamed Z. Jasser, completely deny this facts-on-the ground reality, while monotonously spewing apologetics that whitewash its major cause: Islam’s viscerally Jew-hating theology. In the wake of the Philadelphia Islamic Center video imbroglio—whose Islamic teaching roots I analyzed extensively—here are two recent examples of the dishonest misrepresentations Ahmed and

Jasser repeatedly put forth, unchallenged, to Fox News’ enormous viewing audiences:

[Qanta Ahmed, May 6, 2019]: “It is absolutely anathema to Islam…This is completely not what Islam teaches. Islam sees Christians and Jews as legitimate believers who are party to paradise, who have a true message from God, and they are our brethren. We cannot be Muslim unless we believe in the Bible and the Torah.”

[Mohamed Z. Jasser, May 7, 2019]: “The ideology—What they wanna do is say well the militant part is what’s the problem. No. The non-violent ‘Islamism’, the ‘supremacism of ‘Islamism’…”

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

A Looming Crisis in the Mideast by Ahmed Charai

Posted By on May 9th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14193/looming-crisis-mideast

After raining down some 600 rockets that killed four Israelis this past week, the Netanyahu government responded with overwhelming force, deploying jet fighters to carry out multiple air strikes, killing 23 Gaza residents including a pregnant woman, according to Palestinian Authority officials. (The pregnant women and her child, however, are now confirmed as having been killed by a Palestinian rocket that feel short.)

And, so, the cycle of violence makes another cruel revolution. What makes the events of the past week different from earlier rockets-and-retaliation episodes? The reaction of Arab intellectuals and other thought leaders in Muslim world.

Consider the tweet of Dr. Turki Al-Hamad, a well-known Saudi author and thinker. He tweeted: “It’s a repeating loop: rockets [are fired] from Gaza into Israel, Israel bombs [Gaza], someone or other mediates, the fighting stops – and the common Palestinian folks pay the price. This is ‘resistance,’ my friend. Iran and Turkey are in trouble, and the Palestinians are paying the price.”

Note his use of scare quotes around resistance and his willingness to blame Iran and Turkey, two Muslim-majority nations, instead of the Jewish state. This marks a real rhetorical change.

And many influential Arab voices echoed the thoughts of Dr. Al-Hamad.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Andrew McCarthy: Congress’ contempt stunt against Attorney General Barr

Posted By on May 9th, 2019

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andrew-mccarthy-congress-contempt-barr-democrats-watergate

When Congress uses its contempt power, there are basically three avenues it can pursue for purposes of enforcement. In the case of the House Judiciary Committee’s party-line vote to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt – for purportedly failing to produce a report he has actually produced – Democrats, who control the House, will use the route that is most political and, thus, least credible: the unilateral congressional procedure.

The committee will refer its finding for a vote by the full chamber. The stunt here is so nakedly partisan that the House won’t even try to get support from the Senate. In theory, the House could try to take enforcement action on contempt. Congress even has a jail cell in the bowels of the Capitol … though it hasn’t been used in many, many years, and it certainly is not going to be used against a cabinet officer of the executive branch. (I’m thinking the U.S. marshals would not take kindly to the House sergeant-at-arms showing up at Main Justice with a congressional arrest warrant for the attorney general).

On the other extreme, the House could theoretically avail itself of the second avenue: It could seek the help of the executive branch – specifically, the Justice Department – to pursue criminal contempt charges against the attorney general (i.e., it could ask the attorney general to prosecute the attorney general).

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Waving Goodbye To the Jerusalem Waiver

Posted By on May 9th, 2019

https://www.nysun.com/editorials/waving-goodbye-to-the-jerusalem-waiver/90677/

Secretary of State Pompeo’s report that no further waivers are necessary in respect of the Jerusalem Embassy Act is a wonderful moment in these parlous times. It is a marker not only of principle but also of stick-to-it-ive-ness. And it puts paid to an account opened, so to speak, by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan when he was at the peak of his power in the Senate.

That was in the mid-1990s. We were editing the Jewish Forward at the time, and the senator had asked if he could stop by. He was then chairman of the finance committee and we wanted to talk about — naturally — the gold standard. He, it turned out, had no more interest in the gold standard than the man in the moon. Instead, he thrust at us a copy of the State Department telephone directory.

Moynihan handed the book to us even before he sat down. “Here,” he said once a few colleagues were seated at a round table. “Let’s talk about this.” We were stumped. So he riffed through State’s phone book, stopping at Jerusalem. It wasn’t listed under Israel, he pointed out, or any other country. Alone among capital cities, it was listed under Jerusalem — as if it were a separate nation altogether.