RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_1_scott-walker.html

One morning last February, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker called his staff into his office. “Guys,” he warned, “it’s going to be a tough week.” Walker had recently sent a letter to state employees proposing steps—ranging from restricting collective bargaining to requiring workers to start contributing to their own pension accounts—to eliminate the state’s $3.6 billion deficit. That day in February was when Walker would announce his plan publicly.

It turned out to be a tough year. The state immediately erupted into a national spectacle, with tens of thousands of citizens, led by Wisconsin’s public-employee unions, seizing control of the capitol for weeks to protest the reforms. By early March, the crowds grew as big as 100,000, police estimated. Protesters set up encampments in the statehouse, openly drinking and engaging in drug use beneath the marble dome. Democratic state senators fled Wisconsin to prevent a vote on Walker’s plan. Eventually, the Senate did manage to pass the reforms, which survived a legal challenge and became law in July.

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2773/turkish-women-permitted-rape

At the beginning of the New Year, as reported in the daily newspaper Haber Türk (Turkish News) of January 6, 2012, E.D., a 25-year old man in the northwestern Turkish city of Bolu, took his 11-year old “wife,” Z.Ç., to the hospital because she suffered pain. The news story identified the couple only by their initials. The doctor diagnosed the girl as eight months pregnant by her “husband.” Whether the girl was in a condition to consent to sexual relations is obviously questionable. One would more probably assume she was raped by the 25-year old.

Marriage to an 11-year old girl is illegal in Turkey, but such cases are a constant in the country’s life.

The doctor called for the girl to be kept in the hospital for in-patient care, but her “spouse” refused, and the couple returned to their village, Alpagut, near Bolu. The hospital released them after the girl signed a document declaring her wish to leave the facility.

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2775/anti-semitism-chile

Strong antisemitic comments appeared on Chilean websites after the arrest of a young Israeli tourist in connection with a forest fire that destroyed thousands of hectares in the Chile’s Torres de Paine national park in Patagonia. The media reports that Rotem Singer, 23, a tourist from Israel, failed to extinguish burning toilet paper and that was allegedly how the fire started. If Singer is convicted, he could face up to 60 days in jail; however he denies any involvement in the fire and insists he is certain that the tissue paper he had lit had already been extinguished before the fire began. The authorities have ordered Singer to remain in Chile while an investigation is carried out.

The news that an Israeli Jew might have been the culprit for starting the forest fire immediately created an explosion of conspiracy theories over the internet, with many Chileans focusing intensely on on antisemitic explanation for the fire, but wondering what could have been the “ulterior motive” of “the Jews” to start a fire there. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that several Chilean news web sites “found” the reason for the arson in a 19th century antisemitic conspiracy theory known as the “Andinia Plan,” according to which Jews want to gain control of the land in the Patagonian region and were carrying out this plan by destroying the ecological reserve.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/articles/author/?q=Joel+Kelsey&source=author&blog_id=3

WHILE THE GOP IS SHOOTING ITSELF ROBBING HOODS LIKE CHRIS DODD HAVE CELEBRITY AND PRESTIGE AND GREAT NEW JOBS…..DODD IS A DISREPUTABLE AND DISHONEST SLEAZEBAG WHO WAS ONCE ALMOST ARRESTED FOR GROPING AND HARASSING A WAITRESS WITH HIS PAL TED KENNEDY….THEY WON RE-ELECTION BUT THE GOP IS HELD TO HYPOCRITICAL STANDARDS…..RSK

People inside the D.C. bubble often tell stories about lavish fundraisers and the use of campaign cash to shore up votes in Congress. Conspiracy theories about who uses their PAC money, or direct contributions, to bend the ear of powerful committee chairmen and party leaders circulate throughout the capital faster than the Metro.

Still, the stories are usually hard to substantiate, and publicly members of Congress and their staffs are quick to deny that money has any influence at all. Rarely is the systemic corporate capture of Washington, D.C. on display in such a transparent and ugly way as it was last week.

http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/2012/01/24/a-dark-look-at-what-does-and-doesnt-offend-muslims/

Pity the NYC Police Department. Entrusted with safeguarding the welfare of almost 9 million people daily as the first guard of defense against terrorism, their only hope is to be smarter than the enemy and intercept him before he strikes again. After the horror of 9/11, and after all the other Muslim generated terrorist acts in the U.S. and abroad, this is a very tall order and one which our police department, under the command of Commissioner Kelly, deserves great praise for having accomplished. Undoubtedly they have gotten assistance from the FBI, the Dept of Homeland Security and from various community watchdogs but since we have not had a repeat of 9/11 since then, we should all be eminently grateful for the success of their training and the bravery of New York City’s police corps.

Apparently not everyone feels that same sense of gratitude. Members of the City Council, American Muslim leaders and civil rights activists are complaining that a film shown to the department, “The Third Jihad,” casts unsavory suspicions over the American Muslim community. Though the film seems to have been distributed by the Dept of Homeland Security and would therefore have been carefully vetted, these objectors are offended by its implications and the Times headlines it as a “dark film.” In our Alice in Wonderland society, offending someone’s feelings about their religion, race or gender often takes priority over common sense or the urgent need to protect millions of people from harm. Thus, though the majority of violent crime in New York is committed by black men against other black people, it’s considered racial profiling for cops to be suspicious of young black men hanging out on streetcorners in high crime neighborhoods. And though the great majority of terrorist incidents on planes has been enacted by Muslim men, every other man, woman and child has to be screened before getting through security. Americans have complied with these expensive, time-consuming and overly inclusive searches to avoid the perception that we are racially profiling Muslims.

http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/19035-Haditha-Was-Exploited-To-Increase-Danger-To-The-US,-US-Troops,-And-To-Noncombatants.html
Haditha Was Exploited To Increase Danger To The US, US Troops, And To Noncombatants

The killings at Haditha in November 2005 were blown up by opponents of the US in Iraq into an indictment of the US and its troops. This onslaught sapped the will of many Americans. The following rules of engagement and the drawn out prosecution of the Marines involved have undermined the morale and endangered the lives of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Take the premise that at Haditha both the Marines and those who were killed in houses 1 and 2 were correct in their own view. The long term losers are both US troops and noncombatants.

Both Marines, and US troops generally, are at increased risk due to perhaps understandable rules of engagement that in practice are often excessive and dangerous. Noncombatants are at increased risk of oppression, or more impersonal death from US technology, in countries where thuggish foes seek domination and can serve as refuges for further attacks on the West.

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/davidmalpass/2012/01/25/imf_lowers_global_growth_forecast_but_vshaped_upturn_comes_into_view
We think the possibility is increasing of a synchronized global upturn in 2012 and a V-shaped inflection point in the U.S. expansion. Since 2009, we’ve been in the muddle-through camp, disagreeing with both the double-dip and V-shaped forecasts.

* We now think that the U.S. and global upswing from the deep 2011 funk may be strong enough to create some quarters in 2012 with U.S. growth well above 3%. This type of burst in growth is normal after a recession but has been delayed in the current expansion by the long series of policy setbacks – Japan’s 2011 earthquake, the ECB’s lack of engagement until late 2011, the U.S. policy disasters (too many to name), and the 2010 oil spill,. Earlier we raised our 2012 U.S. forecast to 3% Q4/Q4. Some quarters may materially exceed that after what we think will be a subpar first quarter.

http://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2012/01/25/the_euphemisms_of_prochoice_evil/print  This week marked the 39th anniversary of the greatest American moral tragedy of the 20th century: Roe v. Wade. And yet the left cheered this anniversary with the enthusiasm of an intoxicated teenager stumbling on a free copy of Penthouse. Planned Parenthood, which rakes in millions each year by performing abortions, asked via Twitter, […]

http://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2012/01/25/obamas_green_robber_barons/print Had enough of fat cat Barack Obama, his jet-setting wife and his multi-millionaire Chicago consigliere/real-estate mogul Valerie Jarrett attacking the “rich”? Well, brace yourselves. You’ll be hearing much more from the White House about the “wealthy few” who aren’t paying their “fair share” as Obama’s re-election campaign doubles down on class-war demagoguery. As usual, […]

Are We Losing Our Constitutional Republic? By Janet Levy
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2012/01/are_we_losing_our_constitutional_republic.html

While pundits at opposite ends of the political spectrum seldom agree, many seem to have reached accord over recent Obama administration deviations from constitutional principles. The conclusion on both sides: the United States is moving precariously away from its origins as a constitutional republic and toward repressive government control of many aspects of life.

These changes, sparked perhaps by 9/11, are nonetheless uncharacteristic of a free society. In a free state, access to information is unrestricted, freedom of speech by individuals and the press is upheld, dissent is lawful, and the opinions and attitudes of citizens toward government and law enforcement do not spur investigations. Further, surveillance and investigations are limited to planned or actual criminal activity, due process is honored, and unreasonable search and seizure by government agents is unacceptable absent probable cause.