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Community Organizing America By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on November 2nd, 2015

The modern art of a community organizer seems fairly simple.

The proverbial agitator identifies a particular aggrieved racial, ethnic, gender, or class group that believes equality of opportunity must guarantee equality of result.

Then he “organizes” the victims by claiming that their ostensible failure to obtain parity can only be due to systematic racism, sexism, and bias by the supposed callous establishment majority (usually emblemized as callous white, male, heterosexual Christians). Myth is useful (e.g., “hands up, don’t shoot” or “one in four women on campus suffer sexual assault”).

Next he mounts a shrill campaign to demand “fairness” and “equality” (demonstrations, demonization of public figures, boycotts, media campaigns, showing up outside the homes of supposed enemies of the people, getting “in their faces,” and metaphorically “taking a gun to a knife fight,” etc.).

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL

Posted By on November 2nd, 2015

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

· An Israeli cancer treatment causes tumors to self-destruct.

Fooling cancer cells. Israel’s BioSight has developed the amino acid astrabine which acts as a “Trojan Horse” chemotherapy treatment that kills leukemia cells without harming healthy tissue. Astrabine closely resembles a protein called aspargine that leukemia cells depend on and the cancer cells are fooled into self-destruction.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-start-up-uses-trojan-horse-technology-to-kill-cancer-cells/
Muscular dystrophy treatment success. Israel’s BioBlast announced promising interim results from its Phase II study of its Cabaletta treatment for oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD). Due to the success BioBlast seeks to fast track a Phase III study in 2016, leading to a 2017 launch date.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-bioblast-orphan-drug-gives-hope-to-opmd-patients-1001076594

· Israel was elected to the membership of a UN Space Committee.
· Ethiopia is to install an Israeli solar power plant.
· An innovative all-terrain Israeli suitcase is successfully funded.
· A delegation of 50 Australian entrepreneurs is currently visiting Israel.
· Two Israelis won medals at a judo competition in Abu Dhabi.
· Thousands flock to pro-Israel rallies in New York, Rome, Paris, Madrid and Kiev.

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Obama’s EEOC Accommodates Muslim Religious Beliefs By Amil Imani and James Hyde

Posted By on November 2nd, 2015

Overdriveonline, a trucking industry news site, blares the headline:

“EEOC awards Muslim truckers $240k after being fired for refusing to haul alcohol.” The Obama administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued a trucking company, at taxpayer expense, when two Somali Muslim truck drivers were fired for refusing to haul alcohol. Doing so, the Islamists claimed, would infringe on their religious beliefs under “Islamic law.”

From the story: “EEOC also alleged that Star Transport could have but failed to accommodate their religious beliefs.” Stunning.

The intervention by EEOC was hypocritical, discriminatory and insanely out of equilibrium when the plight of Christians in the matrimonial business who object to providing goods and services for gay weddings is contrasted. Christian businesses are being fined; forced to take “diversity” propaganda courses or closed down for refusing to “accommodate” gay weddings. Are not their religious beliefs, duly protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment and 42 U.S. Code Chapter 21B – Religious Freedom Restoration equal to the beliefs of Muslims?

Since when does Islamic law trump the U.S. Constitution and U.S. federal law? For Obama, such violations of his oath began with the first breath he took after he took his inaugural oath. In fact, the scofflaw-in-chief gave us a glimpse of his personal religious preferences when, during his “Apology Tour,” he proclaimed to the world that, “The United States is no longer a Christian nation.” Had he taken the time to apply his finger to the nation’s pulse, he would have learned that an ABCNEWS/Beliefnet poll found that, “Eighty-three percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians.” Granted, that number has diminished some since he first sat in the big chair, but it’s still north of 70%.

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America’s Real Education Woes By Robert Weissberg

Posted By on November 2nd, 2015

Despite ever-growing educational spending and endless experimentation to discover magic bullets, the recent news from the education front is depressing. For example, scores on the National Assessment for Educational Progress (the NAEP) showed a lack of progress in reading and math proficiency — only a third of the nation’s eighth-graders were “proficient” (or above) in math while the figure was only slightly higher for fourth-graders. Even worst news comes from Washington DC and New York City. Both have made expensive efforts to uplift students and close the race-related academic achievement gap. In DC eighty-two percent of white students met the proficiency standard in English; the corresponding figure for Hispanics was 8%, for blacks it was 4%. Meanwhile, in New York City the school Chancellor tried to spin truly dreadful outcomes into a “success.” She hailed the substantial uptick in blacks and Hispanics taking the Advanced Placement (AP) tests but her celebration failed to mention that 95% of the Hispanic students and 97% of the African Americans students could not pass a single AP test (and this despite Hispanic students being able to take an AP test in the Spanish language and culture).

Needless to say, these disappointing outcomes (and there are many others) will only further energize professional educators to demand yet more “investing in our future” and countless budget busting panaceas and, I suspect, much of this clamor will be heeded. After all, who could deny that America requires an educated workforce in today’s cutthroat global economy?

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Obama’s Corrupt and Immoral Abuse of the Military By Jonathan Keiler

Posted By on November 2nd, 2015

Barack Obama’s decision to send American special forces to Syria is not only hypocritical, but also a corrupt and immoral abuse of his powers as commander-in-chief.

This is not a comment on his circumvention of Congress, which is something that most modern American presidents have done at one time or another with respect to military engagements abroad. Rather, in Obama’s case – uniquely in American history – we have a president who puts Americans in harm’s way for no evident reason other than personal political calculations.

The insertion of fifty U.S. special-forces troops into Syrian peril, whether to serve as “non-combatant” advisors or something more, has been undertaken without any reasonable hope of meaningful military success or of advancing American interests. It is simply a political ploy, so obvious that no right-thinking American, on the right or the left, ought to countenance it, including the military officers charged with executing the mission.

Were this Obama’s only foray into meaningless and dangerous military policy, it might be excused as a rookie mistake or a well-meaning misapplication of power. But Obama has been president for seven years, and he has consistently abused the American military in ways that violate accepted principles of warfighting and application of power. In Afghanistan, Obama senselessly surged American forces and sent soldiers and Marines into some of the toughest fights of the war, with haphazardly selected force levels and without any plan or commitment to stick it out or produce a victory. The deaths and maiming of thousands of American troops in Afghanistan during Obama’s watch is a stain on his presidency.

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Sweden: Sex Change for Children by Ingrid Carlqvist *****

Posted By on November 2nd, 2015

Young Swedes are not allowed to vote until they are 18, and they cannot buy alcohol until they are 20, but plans are now being made to allow children as young as 12 years old to apply to have their legal gender changed.

Yes, the report actually says, “No one should have to go through any kind of medical or psychological treatment…” Nowhere in the report was there any mention of the suicide risk or any other negative aspects of mutilating healthy adolescents. The purpose of the investigation seems to be to pave the way for new legislation, not on the best interests of the children.

Activists are allowed to use the classrooms to propagandize against so-called heteronormativity and to promote all kinds of sexual expressions — except heterosexuality. One cannot but wonder if this school campaign has led to a record number of kids seeking treatment for gender dysphoria.

Studies “show that 70-80% of children who had expressed transgender feelings, over time “spontaneously lost those feelings.” — Paul R. Mc Hugh, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Maryland, USA

Although Swedes are shocked that many immigrant girls are subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), the Swedish government plans to allow hospitals to cut away the perfectly healthy genitals of children who believe they belong to the opposite sex. In 2011, a Swedish study done by Karolinska Institutet showed that the suicide rate among post-op transgender people is far higher than that of the general population. Other studies show that 70%-80% of kids suffering from gender dysphoria lose these feelings after a few years.

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Germany: “20 Million Muslims by 2020” by Soeren Kern

Posted By on November 2nd, 2015

“We are importing Islamic extremism, Arab anti-Semitism, national and ethnic conflicts of other peoples, as well as a different understanding of society and law.” — From a leaked German intelligence document.

“We need to be clear that there must be limits and quotas for immigration — we cannot save the whole world.” — Markus Söder, Finance Minister of Bavaria.

“The migration crisis has the potential to destabilize governments, countries and the whole European continent. … What we have been facing is not a refugee crisis. This is a migratory movement composed of economic migrants, refugees and also foreign fighters” — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

“Meanwhile, refugees are still heading into Germany — at a rate of around 10,000 a day. … The decade after Ms. Merkel first came to power in 2005 now looks like a blessed period for Germany, in which the country was able to enjoy peace, prosperity and international respect, while keeping the troubles of the world at a safe distance. That golden era is now over.” — Gideon Rachman, Financial Times.

Germany’s Muslim population is set to nearly quadruple to an astonishing 20 million within the next five years, according to a demographic forecast by Bavarian lawmakers.

The German government expects to receive 1.5 million asylum seekers in 2015, and possibly even more in 2016. After factoring in family reunifications — based on the assumption that individuals whose asylum applications are approved will subsequently bring an average of four additional family members to Germany — that number will swell exponentially. This is in addition to the 5.8 million Muslims already living in Germany

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Will Iran Walk Away from Nuclear Deal? by Lawrence A. Franklin

Posted By on November 2nd, 2015

The world powers are now experiencing what it means to negotiate with Persian theocrats. All is negotiable; nothing is ever finally decided. Words never commit one to action.

Iran demands right to implement a phased plan of centrifuge expansion to 150,000 over a period of 15 years.

Iran demands that no sanctions are to be leveled against it because of alleged support for terrorism or human rights violations.

Iran demands that it must be free to explore all future advances in nuclear enrichment technology.

The world powers are now experiencing what it means to negotiate with Persian theocrats. All is negotiable; nothing is ever finally decided. Words never commit one to action. Changing circumstances vitiate the substance of any prior commitment, leaving the door open to additional demands. Although the Islamic Republic insists that it be recognized as a normal member of the international community, it will continue to behave as if it is not bound by global norms.

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John O’Sullivan A Remarkable Feat of Fact-Checking

Posted By on November 2nd, 2015

The scathing eye that The Associated Press cast over Hillary Clinton’s latest deceptions will make for an interesting election season if it marks the birth of a trend. Here’s to the hope, a faint one, that the lure of a good story trumps Big Media’s leftist orthodoxy
Only hours after the first Democratic debate closed on October 13, the Associated Press fact-checkers issued their analysis of a random sample of the lies told by the two leading candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. This exercise was charitably described in the headline as “Clinton, Sanders revise history”. But it was weightier than the catalogue of minor errors that usually constitutes media fact-checking.

It pointed first to shameless and serious denials of the truth, such as Mrs Clinton’s claims that she had not reversed herself on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. For some years she has been praising the trade agreement (which she helped to negotiate) as “the gold standard” of such deals. In the debate before a highly-partisan and unionised Democrat audience, however, she switched, claiming with a straight face merely that she had “hoped” it would be the gold standard but that, alas and alack …

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The Slow-Motion Implosion of ObamaCare I see firsthand in my company why not enough people are signing up and premiums are rising. By Andy Puzder

Posted By on November 2nd, 2015

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced recently that she expects 10 million people to be enrolled in health-care coverage through ObamaCare’s exchanges by the end of next year. What she didn’t mention was that in March of last year the Congressional Budget Office predicted that 21 million people would be enrolled in 2016—more than double the new estimate.

The administration says the difference can be explained away: For instance, fewer companies dropped coverage than expected, thus fewer employees are migrating from employer-sponsored plans to the exchanges. “We haven’t seen much of a shift at all,” Richard Frank, a health and human services assistant secretary, told USA Today.

But the question isn’t where Americans are getting health insurance. It is whether ObamaCare will provide more Americans with affordable insurance for decades to come.

Supporters credit ObamaCare with helping nine million uninsured Americans find coverage in 2014. But a new paper from the Heritage Foundation, however, suggests that nearly all of the increase came from adding nearly nine million people to the Medicaid rolls.