RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304451104577389750993890854.html

Dear Class of 2012:

Allow me to be the first one not to congratulate you. Through exertions that—let’s be honest—were probably less than heroic, most of you have spent the last few years getting inflated grades in useless subjects in order to obtain a debased degree. Now you’re entering a lousy economy, courtesy of the very president whom you, as freshmen, voted for with such enthusiasm. Please spare us the self-pity about how tough it is to look for a job while living with your parents. They’re the ones who spent a fortune on your education only to get you back— return-to-sender, forwarding address unknown.

No doubt some of you have overcome real hardships or taken real degrees. A couple of years ago I hired a summer intern from West Point. She came to the office directly from weeks of field exercises in which she kept a bulletproof vest on at all times, even while sleeping. She writes brilliantly and is as self-effacing as she is accomplished. Now she’s in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.

If you’re like that intern, please feel free to feel sorry for yourself. Just remember she doesn’t.

Unfortunately, dear graduates, chances are you’re nothing like her. And since you’re no longer children, at least officially, it’s time someone tells you the facts of life. The otherfacts.

Fact One is that, in our “knowledge-based” economy, knowledge counts. Yet here you are, probably the least knowledgeable graduating class in history.

A few months ago, I interviewed a young man with an astonishingly high GPA from an Ivy League university and aspirations to write about Middle East politics. We got on the subject of the Suez Crisis of 1956. He was vaguely familiar with it. But he didn’t know who was president of the United States in 1956. And he didn’t know who succeeded that president.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/05/07/the-stealth-legtimacy-of-j-street/ Did you know that J Street – which is, please, let’s acknowledge it already, a political lobbying organization – is launching a new national election year initiative? They have plans to train its supporters to lobby for the candidates they support, and ensure the defeat of candidates supported by “right-wing Republican” Jews in this […]

http://www.prudenpolitics.com/index.php/pruden/full_column/can_indiana_nice_save_an_old_lion I WOULD NOT CALL LUGAR AN “OLD LION’…..MORE LIKE AN ALLEY CAT…RSK Smashmouth politics, the norm nearly everywhere else, has overtaken “Indiana nice” on the banks of the old Wabash. A lion of the Senate – as Senate lions are now measured – is likely to fall today. All the polls say so. One […]

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/05/07/irreconcilable-budget-differen Mitt Romney continues to miss opportunity after opportunity — when he should be meeting with House leaders to save the defense budget and move on reconciliation. This week you’re likely to hear a lot more about the death of one of the Beastie Boys and the French election than what Republicans are trying to […]

Mourdock Beating Lugar by Double Digits With Primary Days Away
http://dynamopolitics.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/mourdock-beating-lugar-by-double-digits-with-primary-days-away/

Indiana has made the national news! We Hoosiers are so excited – it’s not everyday you see the word “Indiana” on Politico.com’s home page! Today’s reason for infamy? A new poll has just been released that puts tea-party challenger Richard Mourdock 10% ahead of incumbent Senator Dick Lugar as the May 8th Indiana GOP primary approaches.

This is big news, because many thought that the long-serving Lugar, who has been in office for 36+ years, had a decent chance to re-win his spot. It’s a bad day for any incumbent when he’s polling under 40% in his own party with a primary less than a week away. But Lugar has been mired in several residency scandals, including one in which he had to repay $14,000 to the US Treasury after abusing funds for his private hotel stays. Lugar has also been accused of shirking work to play golf, and received an F rating from the NRA for his “support” of gun rights.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/07/afghanistan-war-detainees-released_n_1495754.html?1336400929&icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D158439

WHAT IS THIS FLY FISHING? CATCH AND RELEASE…..RSK

WASHINGTON, May 7 (Reuters) – The United States has been secretly releasing detainees from a military prison in Afghanistan as part of negotiations with insurgent groups, the Washington Post reported in its Monday editions.The “strategic release” program has allowed American officials over the past several years to use prisoners as bargaining chips to reduce violence in restive provinces, it said, citing U.S. officials who it said spoke on condition of anonymity.

The freed detainees are often fighters who would not be released under the legal system for military prisoners in Afghanistan. They must promise to give up violence, the report said.

Officials would not say whether those who have been released have later returned to attack U.S. and Afghan troops, the Post said.

Releases have come amid efforts to end the war through negotiation, which is central to the Obama administration’s strategy for exiting Afghanistan, the report said.

Those efforts have yielded little to no progress in recent years. In part, they have been stymied by the unwillingness of the United States to release five prisoners from Guantanamo Bay – a gesture insurgent leaders have said they see as a precondition for peace talks, the report said.

There is a flurry of letters, columns and e-mails about Roosevelt and his decidedly shabby treatment of the Jews before and during the Holocaust. For the record, I don’t like much of what I know about Roosevelt…in fact, I think he was a closet Socialist. I also think that Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower was a lousy president who ended the Korean conflict too soon leaving a divided nation, issued ridiculous warnings about a “military industrail complex” and betrayed Israel, France and England during the Suez War in in 1956.

However,I have gotten off the anti-Roosevelt train. For all their flaws Roosevelt and Eisenhower and the great Russian army (read Andrew Robert’s magnificent book: The Storm of War”) won World War 2 and effectively ended the Holocaust. The rest is commentary.

I have far more loathing for those who have abandoned Israel and who remain blind and deaf to the present danger, namely resurgent Islam and Jihad. I also have great derision for those political recidivists and repeat offenders who will vote for Obama.

Mitt Romney is our only hope. Support him instead of dwelling on the past…..rsk
The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War by Andrew Roberts (Hardcover – May 17, 2011)

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1180/french_socialist_victory_is_a_disaster_for_europe_but_typical_of_our_times

It was always a case of one disastrous candidate or another. Sarkozy’s greatest achievement was to have spent much of his utterly wasted presidency under the shadow of Silvio Berlusconi. Why? Because otherwise, Sarkozy’s claim to be the Clown of Europe could not have been disputed.
But don’t look now, here’s the real thing: not a fake socialist (forget right-left definitions in France, it’s only about minor deviations from the socialistic centre-ground) but someone who pledges the following: cutting not raising the retirement age; raising not cutting taxes; increasing not reducing the size of the state sector; raising not cutting debt.

But the ramifications are so much bigger. If France has decided to set itself even faster and further on the path to disaster, then, in the end, that’s their affair.

Although we have no love for the euro, newly elected President Francois Hollande has also suggested he will work against the deficit reducing austerity policies that have been the only ideas holding the single currency from total collapse.
As we listened to his victory speech, it was like listening to some naive, populistic young socialist from the 1980s. But his voters love him for it, and that is the tragedy, not just of France, but of modern Europe as a whole.

The entitlement state – the bribe made by every Left-populist politician, which means “vote for me and I give you cash“ – is so deeply entrenched that it is hard to see how we can get out of the hole, whichever European country we live in.

Francois Hollande and his supporters may celebrate today. But, and this maybe putting it mildly, as Pyrrhus is reputed to have said after his victory over the Romans: One more such victory, and we’re lost.

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1172/more_shameful_bbc_propaganda_against_israel

The BBC has now sunk to pinning its stories against Israel on people who refer to the Jewish state in terms of Nazism and Apartheid

It was another one of those do-I-laugh-or-do-I-cry moments as I came across the latest piece of flagrant anti-Israeli propaganda on the BBC‘s website.

It started off badly enough with the headline — UN “appalled“ by Israel treatment of hunger strikers. Sorry, that’s just not a story. The UN is always “appalled“ by something to do with the Jewish state, and that’s because its members are overwhelmingly in thrall to an obsessive anti-Zionist bigotry which appears to know no bounds.

So, it was clear from the outset that this was going to be something of a gratuitous hatchet job. Then again this is the BBC, so no surprises there. But even I have to admit to having been surprised about just how gratuitous it was going to be. Here are the first two paragraphs from Yolande Knell’s story:

“A UN expert has said he is appalled by the “continuing human rights violations in Israeli prisons”, as Palestinian inmates continue a mass hunger strike.

“Special Rapporteur Robert [sic] Falk said Israel had to treat hunger strikers in line with international standards.“

Oh dear, oh dear. The BBC is pinning its stories on the words of Robert Falk. Or rather, that’s Richard Falk – the BBC was obviously so excited at the prospect of a piece of Israel bashing that in the news room’s heightened state of euphoria nobody bothered to check out the man’s name. (I have remarked before that the hysteria which usually drives anti-Zionism frequently results in an abandonment of basic standards of normal behaviour and practice.)

Now, Richard Falk is actually rather well known, and here’s why.

http://news.yahoo.com/al-qaida-surprise-attack-kills-20-yemeni-soldiers-100501502.html
GEE I GUESS THE WAR ON TERROR IS NOT OVER…SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL THE PREZ….RSK

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Al-Qaida militants staged a surprise attack Monday on a Yemeni army base in the south, killing 20 soldiers and capturing 25 just hours after a U.S. drone strike killed a senior figure in the terror network wanted in connection with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.

It was not immediately clear if the pre-dawn attack on the military base in the southern Abyan province was in retaliation for the death of Fahd al-Quso, a top al-Qaida leader on the FBI’s most wanted list.

The militants managed to reach the base both from the sea and by land, gunning down troops and making away with weapons and other military hardware after the blitz attack, Yemeni military officials said.

Government forces later shelled militant positions elsewhere in Abyan, killing 16 militants, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.