http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2013/04/boola_boola_save_your_moolah.html If you’re like me, your college alumni association floods your inbox with email invitations to contribute, often adding invites to football games and lectures by famous alums or popular professors. Except for the moment when an appeal made directly by an administrator turned out to be a multi-page swoon over Obama, most of these […]
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3205/the_importance_of_national_history
A people cannot forever remain a people if they forget what it is that binds them together
THIS IS REPEATED THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES….HISTORY REDACTED TO FIT BIAS AND MULTICULTURALISM….RSK
There are few things more important to a nation’s sense of itself than an understanding of its own history. In fact, it might well be the most important thing of all. How the citizens of a country view that country and its place in the past can have profound consequences for the politics of that country or even, in extremis, its future existence.
This was really driven home to me in a debate I ended up in last week where I once again found myself, as so often, defending Michael Gove’s schools reforms. This position was somewhat surprising because I’m currently living in Dublin, having finished the last classes of my postgraduate degree in Modern Irish History last week.
The scene was my very last seminar. One of our tutors had put it together in order to have a discussion about the practice of historical study, what changes we’d noticed in how Irish history is studied, what we’d change, and where we think Irish historiography (for such the study of the study of history is called) is going. If this all sounds a bit like specialist academic naval gazing, it is – the evolution of history justifying the continued employment of historians – but I do have a point.
What brought Gove under attack was the topic of popular history and, in particular, national history. Ireland iscurrently in the opening stretch of the so-called “Decade of Commemorations”, an eleven-year string of centenaries starting with the Ulster Covenant and ending with the close of the Irish Civil War. The source of the debate was a recently published book about the Irish Famine.
Now, the famine sits at the centre of an on-going debate in Irish history between nationalist historians, who cleave to the traditional narrative of Irish history where the English take the role of inveterate villains, and the revisionists who maintain that it’s all rather more complicated than that. To take an extreme example, a certain nationalist view of the famine maintains that it was an act of genocide, deliberately perpetrated against the Irish people.
This is not a view that has held much currency in academic circles for a while, even amongst nationalists. Yet this new book, published to take advantage of an anticipated rise in demand for national history by the Irish public, had eschewed all the historiographical advancements of academic Irish history to take up the tired arch-Anglophobic line. Why?
Short answer: that’s what people want and expect. ‘Irishness’ is informed by an understanding of its past more than many other countries, and the narrative that counts as received wisdom centres on an adversarial relationship with the big island to the east. This cultural understanding, steeped in assumptions and folklore, does not evolve to keep up with the fashionable theories of a suspect group of West Brit historians holed up in Trinity College.
Something like 6% of Israelis, or one in 16, begins his or her morning each day with a little serving of treason du jour known as Haaretz. Not only is this the Palestinian newspaper printed in Hebrew, its ideological line no longer differs in any noticeable way from the party line of the Israeli communist party, except when it comes to economics. (In bizarre only0in-Israel manner, Haaretz’ business section is the most strongly pro-market in all Israeli media.)
In the darkest days of Stalinism, communists and Soviet “citizens” would open Pravda (and its clones) each morning to discovery just what it is that they think and are expected to think. In some cases, what they were commanded to think might change throughout the day. The infamous example was the day when the morning edition of all communist papers in the world gushed about the deep friendship and lasting trust between Comrade Stalin and his ally and friend Adolf Hitler. Then the afternoon editions screamed denunciations of Nazi Germany and Hitler for invading the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
The Israeli radical Left works pretty much the same way. It opens Haaretz each morning in order to discover what it thinks. And it then spends the rest of the day mouthing these opinions and advocating what its gurus have instructed it to advocate.
Of the 6 percent of Israelis who read the “newspaper,” my guess is that 4 out of the 6 read it for the business/economic supplement, which is the best on these subjects in Israel. Go figure. Of the remaining 2 percent, some like me read it so they can see just what the enemy is thinking and planning. The remaining 1 to 2% are the true believers, the goose-stepping rank and file of the ultra-Left, many of these of course being tenured leftists.
Haaretz is openly anti-Zionist and pro-terror and pro-jihad. It opposes any sanctions and aggressive policy against Iran. Every day the paper is filled with mailman-bites-dog stories, about how settlers supposedly attack Arabs or vandalize Arab property. If Haaretz were reporting on World War II using its staff of today, the paper would be filled with reports about the sufferings of innocent German and Japanese civilians as a result of the aggressions of the Western imperialist powers: America and Britain. With no comment at all about Axis aggression.
The newspaper of the thinking Israeli, as it likes to dub itself, openly cheers on Palestinians who throw rocks and molotov cocktails at Jews. After all, the Palestinians have grievances. The paper only uses the “T” word “terrorist” to refer to Jews, never to Arabs. This week Jack Teitel, the mentally ill ex-American who killed two Arabs and placed a small explosive device near the home of radical anti-Israel professor Zeev Sternhall, was denounced by Haaretz (he was just sentenced to two life terms in prison) as a “Jewish terrorist.” The rest of the left repeated the mantra in unison. Teitel is not a terrorist but a mentally ill person.
Christian and Muslim women are being raped in Tahrir Square in Cairo. Hindu girls are being kidnapped, raped and sold as slaves to Muslim men. Muslim girls have been incinerated for attending school.
All of these activities “please Allah.”
This is the hate ideology masquerading as a religion that we have allowed to expand into our midst.
Janet Levy, Los Angeles
P.S. Note below that the VAST MAJORITY of the Muslim Parliament calls for the release of the murderer. This is NOT A CRIME in their unholy book!
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/vast-majority-of-jordanian-parliament-calls-for-release-of-man-who-murdered-7-israeli-schoolgirls/
Vast Majority of Jordanian Parliament Calls for Release of Man Who Murdered 7 Israeli Schoolgirls by Daniel Greenfield
This is yet another reminder that meaningful peace of any kind is utterly impossible. The issue isn’t territory. It’s bone deep hatred to a degree that is inconceivable among normal human beings.
Peace is impossible.
The Island of Peace massacre was a Mass murder attack that occurred at the Island of Peace site in Naharayim on March 13, 1997 in which Ahmed Daqamseh, a Jordanian soldier opened fire at a large group of Israeli schoolgirls from the AMIT Fuerst School in Beit Shemesh who were on a class field trip, killing seven of them and injuring six others.
The shooter, who expressed pride for his actions, was imprisoned by Jordanian authorities, but was later called a “hero” by the Jordanian Justice Minister and Parliament, who called for his release.
Speaking on Al Jazeera in May 2001, Ahmed Daqamseh’s mother said, “I am proud of my son, and I hold my head high. My son did a heroic deed and has pleased Allah and his own conscience. My son lifts my head and the head of the entire Arab and Islamic nation. I am proud of any Muslim who does what Ahmad did.
“When my son went to prison, they asked him: ‘Ahmad, do you regret it?’ He answered: ‘I have no regrets.’ He treated everyone to coffee, honored all the other prisoners, and said: The only thing that I am angry about is the gun, which did not work properly. Otherwise I would have killed all of the passengers on the bus.”
In an interview Daqamseh gave in 2004 to Jordanian weekly a-Shahed, he expressed pride in his actions and said that “if I could return to that moment, I’d behave exactly the same way. Every day that passes, I grow stronger in the belief that what I did was my duty.”
www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
http://blogs.jpost.com/users/just-look-us-now
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Immune cells prevent and cause brain degeneration. Weizmann Institute’s Professor Michal Schwartz and her team have discovered that immune cells at the edge of the brain travel an extraordinary route to repair brain trauma. In the elderly, the cells no longer do their function, which could open up new treatments for dementia.
http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/gateway-to-the-brain#.UWmh3UoX7KU
Immune cells fight or cause liver disease. Sounds familiar? Professor Rifaat Safadi’s team from Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem has identified that the normal function of Neuroliglin 4 in the immune system is to fight cirrhosis of the liver. But in patients with Hepatitis or alcoholics, the cell changes and attacks the liver.
http://nocamels.com/2013/04/israeli-makes-breakthrough-discovery-in-liver-disease-treatment/
Sweetner could treat Parkinson’s. Researchers from Tel Aviv University have found that the sugar substitute mannitol protects the brain against the effects of Parkinson’s disease. Laboratory trials are to be completed before human clinical trials can commence.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-flies-potential-sweet-treatment-parkinson.html
Pediatrician delivers baby in elevator. On her way to give a lecture at Kaplan Medical Center Dr. Hanni Olivestone found a woman in labor in a public bathroom. She took the woman in a wheelchair to the delivery room but as they entered the elevator, the baby’s head emerged.
http://www.jpost.com/Health-and-Science/Passing-pediatrician-delivers-baby-outside-hospital-308774
Top US award for Israeli cancer specialist. The American Association for Cancer Research has awarded Professor Alexander Levitzki of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem its 2013 Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research. It recognizes Prof Levitzki’s work on signal transduction therapy and the development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors as effective agents against cancer.
http://www.aacr.org/home/public–media/aacr-in-the-news.aspx?d=3073
Repairing the damage from acne. (Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s Syneron Medical is launching its unique bi-polar fractional radio-frequency (RF) energy device to remove acne scars. 22% of adults 18 years and older are adversely affected by acne scars and 77% of them want a low-cost, quick and painless way to remove them.
http://investors.syneron.com/2013-04-04-Syneron-Launches-its-Proprietary-Sublative-Technology-for-Acne-Scars
*Reprinted, with permission, from the Chicago Jewish Star. The first two words of the title Choosing Life in Israel, by P. David Hornik, are fraught with double meaning for any literate Jew. In Deuteronomy 30: 19, Moses calls heaven and earth “to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life […]
http://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/what-would-the-us-do-if-israel-defied-it-by-attacking-the-iranian-nuclear-weapons-program/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-would-the-us-do-if-israel-defied-it-by-attacking-the-iranian-nuclear-weapons-program EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: If Israel strikes Iranian nuclear weapons facilities, the paramount American national interest would be dissuading the Iranian regime from rebuilding its nuclear program – not punishing or isolating Israel. Washington should signal to Iran that despite America’s strong objections to an Israeli attack, after such an attack it would support Israel and […]
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/04/10/philadelphia-abortion-clinic-horror-column/2072577/
We’ve forgotten what belongs on Page One.
Infant beheadings. Severed baby feet in jars. A child screaming after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure. Haven’t heard about these sickening accusations?
It’s not your fault. Since the murder trial of Pennsylvania abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell began March 18, there has been precious little coverage of the case that should be on every news show and front page. The revolting revelations of Gosnell’s former staff, who have been testifying to what they witnessed and did during late-term abortions, should shock anyone with a heart.
NBC-10 Philadelphia reported that, Stephen Massof, a former Gosnell worker, “described how he snipped the spinal cords of babies, calling it, ‘literally a beheading. It is separating the brain from the body.” One former worker, Adrienne Moton, testified that Gosnell taught her his “snipping” technique to use on infants born alive.
Massof, who, like other witnesses, has himself pleaded guilty to serious crimes, testified “It would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place.” Here is the headline the Associated Press put on a story about his testimony that he saw 100 babies born and then snipped: “Staffer describes chaos at PA abortion clinic.”
“Chaos” isn’t really the story here. Butchering babies that were already born and were older than the state’s 24-week limit for abortions is the story. There is a reason the late Democratic senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan called this procedure infanticide.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/345435/mrs-thatchers-losing-victory-mark-steyn
A few hours after Margaret Thatcher’s death on Monday, the snarling deadbeats of the British underclass were gleefully rampaging through the streets of Brixton in South London, scaling the marquee of the local fleapit and hanging a banner announcing, “THE BITCH IS DEAD.” Amazingly, they managed to spell all four words correctly. By Friday, “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead,” from The Wizard of Oz, was the No. 1 download at Amazon U.K.
Mrs. Thatcher would have enjoyed all this. Her former speechwriter John O’Sullivan recalls how, some years after leaving office, she arrived to address a small group at an English seaside resort to be greeted by enraged lefties chanting “Thatcher Thatcher Thatcher! Fascist fascist fascist!” She turned to her aide and cooed, “Oh, doesn’t it make you feel nostalgic?” She was said to be delighted to hear that a concession stand at last year’s Trades Union Congress was doing a brisk business in “Thatcher Death Party Packs,” almost a quarter-century after her departure from office.
Of course, it would have been asking too much of Britain’s torpid Left to rouse themselves to do anything more than sing a few songs and smash a few windows. In The Wizard of Oz, the witch is struck down at the height of her powers by Dorothy’s shack descending from Kansas to relieve the Munchkins of their torments. By comparison, Britain’s Moochkins were unable to bring the house down: Mrs. Thatcher died in her bed at the Ritz at a grand old age. Useless as they are, British socialists were at one point capable of writing their own anti-Thatcher singalongs rather than lazily appropriating Judy Garland blockbusters from MGM’s back catalogue. I recall in the late Eighties being at the National Theatre in London and watching the crowd go wild over Adrian Mitchell’s showstopper, “F**k-Off Friday,” a song about union workers getting their redundancy notices at the end of the week, culminating with the lines:
http://q4j-middle-east.com But if Barack Obama is not the main reason for a lack of progress (and that’s indeed a possibility), he’s certainly not been a major constructive force either. Secretary of State John Kerry recently carried Team Obama’s old/new schemes to the Middle East–with predictable results. The Arabs swear they won’t budge in any “negotiations” […]
