http://frontpagemag.com/2012/01/03/a-muslim-apostates-defense-of-the-west/ A Muslim Apostate’s Defense of the West Posted By Bruce Bawer Ibn Warraq is the pseudonymous, Pakistani-born author of the modern classic Why I Am Not a Muslim and the writer or editor of several other estimable books about Muhammed, the Koran, Islamic culture, Muslim apostates, and Western civilization. Surely few people know as […]
Libyan Jihadist’s Mavi Marmara Connection Posted By P. David Hornik
URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/01/03/libyan-jihadist%e2%80%99s-mavi-marmara-connection/
It turns out that major Libyan rebel commander Mahdi al-Harati was one of the jihadists on the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship that tried to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza in May 2010. As John Rosenthal notes, “after the seizure of Tripoli, al-Harati was named second-in-command to Abdul-Hakim Belhadj, the head of the newly formed Tripoli Military Council.” Belhadj also has an interesting pedigree, having been in phone contact with the leader of the 2004 Madrid train bombings just weeks before they were perpetrated.
Al-Harati, for his part, told the Spanish daily ABC in December that “I was wounded on the Mavi Marmara and spent nine days in an Israeli prison.” ABC reporter Daniel Iriarte had come upon al-Harati and two more of Belhadj’s men in Syria; they candidly told him they were there to help their “Syrian revolutionary brothers.” That should raise alarms as to just what sort of elements might be replacing Bashar Assad—who, like Gaddafi before him, is a brutal thug but not necessarily the worst the region has to offer.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/286962/december-diary-john-derbyshire
Global-warming-hysteria hysteria. In our 2012 predictions symposium, under the heading “Things that will get worse in 2012,” I included “the weather.” This prompted some e-mailers to wonder whether this particular prediction was inspired by what one of them called “the anthropogenic global warming mega-hoax.”
Not really; it was just my Englishness breaking through. Since the subject’s come up, though, I may as well take the opportunity to record the following opinion: The global-warming-hysteria hysteria (GWHH) of the political right is now every bit as annoying as the global-warming hysteria (GWH) of the left.
#ad#I understand of course that leftist globalist power-maniacs want to use global warming to advance their knavish schemes. As a conservative, I’ll fight that as enthusiastically as I’ll fight all other globalizing, nation-hating, liberty-destroying projects — mass immigration, imperialism (e.g. China’s in Tibet), multiculturalism, missionary wars, “refugee” rackets, common currencies, the United Nations, etc.
The fact remains that some things are true even though Comrade Zilliacus says they are true, and global warming is one of those things. Yes, the atmosphere is on a warming trend. Nothing the least bit surprising about that: The chronic instability of Earth’s climate was one of the first large facts ever to come to the attention of our species. And yes, human activity is making some contribution, as, again, it has been doing since our Paleolithic ancestors started setting grass fires to flush out game.
Progress: Canadian Senate Listens to Global Warming Skeptics Posted By Tom Harris
http://pjmedia.com/blog/progress-canadian-senate-listens-to-global-warming-skeptics/
On December 15, four leading scientists appeared before the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources to challenge global warming advocacy. The hearing was the first of its kind in Canada. (Video of the hearing can be found here [1].)
Guelph University Professor of Economics Dr. Ross McKitrick [2] led off the hearing, explaining that the foundation of the climate scare — the science as promulgated by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — cannot be trusted:
The so-called Climategate emails confirmed the reality of bias and cronyism in the IPCC process. … IPCC Assessments are guaranteed merely to repeat and reinforce a set of foregone conclusions that make up the party line.
McKitrick explained how his research showed that much of the warming seen in the IPCC surface temperature record is almost certainly a result of urbanization, agriculture, and other land use changes, not greenhouse gases (GHG). He also found that the 50-year record of temperatures measured by balloons does not show the warming trend forecast by climate models.
University of Ottawa (U of O) Professor of Earth Sciences Dr. Ian Clark [3] addressed the committee:
We have not really seen any global warming for the past 10 years. … This is in stark contrast with the IPCC forecast of an increase of some 0.2 degrees per decade.
http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2012/01/the_stratfor_scandal.html
STRATFOR’S CEO IS POMPOUS GEORGE FRIEDMAN WHO CONSISTENTLY DEMONSTRATES A NASTY VIEW OF ISRAEL’S SECURITY NEEDS…….SEE:
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110530-israels-borders-and-national-security?utm_source=GWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=
“However, I draw a different conclusion from these facts than the Israelis do. If the worst-case scenario is the basis for planning, then Israel must reduce its risk and restructure its geography along the more favorable lines that existed between 1949 and 1967, when Israel was unambiguously victorious in its wars, rather than the borders and policies after 1967, when Israel has been less successful. The idea that the largest possible territory provides the greatest possible security is not supportable in military history. As Frederick the Great once said, he who defends everything defends nothing.”
News that Stratfor, the “private intelligence service,” has been whacked by Anonymous has brought the former organization and its reputation into sharp focus. The fact that Stratfor hadn’t bothered to fulfill one of the lowest requirements of cybernetic security — encrypting sensitive client data — is one of the most damaging things that can be said about any company in the digital age, much less an “international security organization.” This intrusion went quite a bit farther than most — the Guy Fawkes boys actually managed to extract funds (a reported $500,000 worth) from Stratfor’s clients (whom the company insists on calling “members”), which they then gave to charities. The humiliation here is total, and Stratfor will be lucky to survive.
http://townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/2012/01/03/dont_die_stupid
A friend of mine hands me what looks like a business card. It says, “Don’t Die Stupid.” As America begins another round of voting to select the next president, or retain the current one, what we need is a stupid test. Flunk it and you shouldn’t vote.
Evidence of the dumbing-down of America is everywhere. Some of it is chronicled in a new book, “Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America” by Daniel J. Flynn.
Flynn contends popular culture has divorced itself from the life of the mind. He has plenty of examples in case television, texting, video games and improper use of English (“she was like and then I was like”) are not enough.
Flynn calls the digital age that has sped up the process by which we receive information “Idiotville,” because it has made us less intelligent.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550304577136564147813258.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_BelowLEFTSecond
2012: A U.S. Referendum on Europe The EU’s crisis is not just fiscal and monetary. It’s also a crisis of vision and character.
“Do the Iowans who will turn out to vote today know all this? I suspect they do. What is happening in Europe is more than an economic crisis: It’s the coming apart of a world view that held together for over a century. For Europeans it will probably mean a decade of economic hardship and political risk. For Americans, it’s a loud pinging signal coming across the Distant Early Warning Line.”
The conventional wisdom about this year’s presidential election is that it’s mostly about domestic issues and barely about foreign policy. That’s wrong. What kicks off today in Iowa is America’s referendum on whether it wants to become an honorary member of the European Union.
GOP-leaning voters generally get this: Warning against the “European social democrat” model is one of Mitt Romney’s better talking points. The problem for Mr. Romney is that he represents something of another European specialty: the dispassionate technocrat, data-driven, post-ideological, lacking in soul. GOP-leaning voters get that, too.
Many on the left also understand American politics as a referendum on Europe, and it wasn’t all that long ago that they were more-or-less prepared to say it. For example:
• “Europe is an economic success, and that success shows that social democracy works.”
-Paul Krugman, Jan. 10, 2010
• “The European Dream, with its emphasis on collective responsibility and global consciousness. . . . represents humanity’s best aspirations for a better tomorrow.”
-Jeremy Rifkin, “The European Dream,” 2004
• “If we took Europe as a guide, we would do a lot better at capitalism.”
-Thomas Geoghegan, “Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?” 2010
These views have now become a bit embarrassing, intellectually speaking. But it hasn’t done much to change the basic terms of the debate President Obama will have with whoever emerges as his challenger.
http://news.yahoo.com/hackers-disclose-israelis-credit-card-information-103908419.html
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli credit card companies say hackers claiming to be Saudis disclosed credit card information of thousands of Israelis on the Internet.
The companies, however, disputed the hackers’ claims that 400,000 credit-card holders were affected. Isarel’s central bank put the number at 15,000.
Visa CAL company spokeswoman Sagit Ofir says she cannot confirm Saudi hackers were responsible.
The Ynet news website says the hackers called the cyber attack a “gift to the world for the New Year” that they hoped “would hurt the Zionist pocket.”
Ynet says the information was removed from an Israeli sports website shortly after it appeared.
Credit card companies say the compromised cards have been blocked to Internet purchases and will be replaced soon. It’s unclear how the information was compromised.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204720204577128584234925996.html?mod=opinion_newsreel
Arab Democracy Is the Best Bet for a Muslim ReformationWhen the state isn’t hostile to religion, Islam isn’t a bankable political issue.
SAME OLD DRIVEL BUT THIS LAST PARAGRAPH IS OUTRAGEOUS!!
“New Arab leaders will have enough headaches of government to occupy them for years. Islam will be just part, hopefully small, of the story of those who undertake democratic reform. Yet this may also be the best chance for another overdue experiment to reconcile Islam with modern politics. No faith that makes strong demands on its practitioners necessarily dooms itself to tyranny. As the former Polish dissident and writer Adam Michnik rather impishly says, “If Judaism can co-exist with democracy, any religion can.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204632204577130570667022372.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
SHADES OF BOB DOLE AND JOHN McCAIN…..AND ALL THE GARBAGE THEY HAVE THROWN AT EACH OTHER IS BEING LAPPED UP BY THE OBAMATHONS…..RSK
Mr. Good Enough
Mitt Romney lost the nomination in 2008 because of his lack of focus and a reputation for shifting his message. He’s learned something this time around.
Voters aren’t convinced by Mitt Romney. They’re not certain of his convictions; they wonder if he is the leader for these times; they’re not sold on his policies or his personality. Yet voters may be about to make the former Massachusetts governor the Republican nominee for the presidency. Mark this down as the triumph of strategy over inspiration.
As Iowans head to their caucuses Tuesday, Mr. Romney has come from behind to lead in the polls. A victory here—where he was once written off—followed by a coup in New Hampshire could well knit up the nomination. That outcome would be the result of a lot of luck, mistakes by his rivals, and a shrewd—and ruthless—campaign by Mr. Romney himself.
If there has been one threat to the governor, it has been the gaping opening for a candidate to his right. Mr. Romney is hardly an easy fit with the GOP base—from his past flip-flops on issues like abortion, to his weak tax proposals, to his concoction and defense of RomneyCare, the Massachusetts health plan that was the model for ObamaCare. The threat of President Obama and his determination to create an entitlement state, combined with the dismal economy, have voters eager for a bold conservative leader.
