RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/23/the-latest-joint-cbs-castro-production/

Last week’s 60 Minutes featured another in its long line of joint CBS-Castro productions. This time Anderson Cooper and his production crew partnered with the Stalinist regime’s Centro de Investigaciones Marinas for a propaganda piece on the marvels of Cuban coral reef conservation. The co-host of the CBS show and conduit for this fruitful Communist infomercial was Dr. David Guggenheim, senior fellow at the Ocean Foundation in Washington, D.C. who chairs its Cuba Marine Research and Conservation Program. Dr. Guggenheim toasts himself as a “Cubaphile” and toasts Castro’s fiefdom (which he has visited over 40 times in recent years) as a “magical place.”

Needless to remind (or perhaps not given that the Cold War supposedly ended over 20 years ago), such a gold-plated visa is not handed-out haphazardly by Stalinist regimes. And such a welcome mat and red carpet are not rolled out randomly. To wit:

“Cultural exchanges with foreign countries are our most effective propaganda,” reads a declassified KGB document from May, 20, 1981.

“We cannot for a second abandon propaganda,” wrote Fidel Castro in a letter to revolutionary colleague Melba Hernandez in 1954. “Propaganda is vital — propaganda is the heart of our struggle.”

“Foreign reporters, preferably American, were much more valuable to us than any military victory. Much more valuable than rural recruits for our guerrilla force, were American media recruits to export our propaganda” wrote Che Guevara in his diaries.

It’s a long shot of speculation here, but just maybe the sentiments mentioned above had something to do with Cooper and Guggenheim’s instant Cuban visas and VIP pampering?

Dr. Guggenheim’s “magical place,” by the way, just decreed three days of mourning for Kim Jong Il. When Fidel Castro visited North Korea in 1986 his paeans to his hosts sounded much like Cooper and Guggenheim’s paeans to theirs last week. “I was astounded by the magnificent achievements of the heroic Korean people,” wrote Castro. “There wasn’t a single topic I could not discuss with my illustrious host [Kim Il Sung].”

Distorting Reality to Justify Jihad Posted By Raymond Ibrahim
URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/23/distorting-reality-to-justify-jihad/

Sheikh Ahmad Abu Quddum recently declared the legitimacy of offensive jihad for the world to hear:

When we declare Jihad against Germany, for instance, it is declared against the German state, for refusing to allow Islam to spread to the people of Germany. We give them a choice: Either to convert to Islam, or to pay the jizya and submit to the laws of Islam.

Otherwise, war is the third choice.

All well and good; the Sheikh is merely quoting standard jihadi doctrine.

But he did say something that revealed how utterly deluded he is, how he cannot comprehend the full significance of what he himself is preaching. After agreeing that there is a “clash of civilizations” between the West and Islam, he said:

If not for Jihad, Islam would not have reached us and all the other places. Within a quarter of a century, Islam reached most of the ancient world by means of Jihad. The common people want Islam. Anyone who doesn’t can stick to his own religion. Here in the Levant, most of our forefathers were not Muslims, but they converted to Islam because of its goodness and justice.

Iraq Under Seige Posted By Arnold Ahlert URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/23/iraq-under-seige/ ANOTHER SHOCKING EXAMPLE OF OUR ILL FOUGHT WAR……RSK A coordinated wave of bomb attacks has rocked the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. At least 69 people have been killed and more than 185 injured in a series of 14 explosions, consisting of four car-bombs and 10 improvised explosive […]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/harvard_fires_critic_of_jihad.html

In a crushing blow to academic freedom, Harvard University has censored and fired a prominent professor because university administrators didn’t like what he said about Islam. The tenured professors at Harvard, who cannot be fired in order to protect their freedom to express themselves, have failed to rally to the cause of the fired professor — and worse, the expulsion was occasioned in part by a faculty vote:

At a meeting of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, faculty members voted with an “overwhelming majority” to remove two economics courses – ‘Quantitative Methods in Economics and Business’ and ‘Economic Development in India and East Asia’ – that Mr Swamy teaches at the three-month Harvard Summer School session.

Harvard has dropped economics courses taught by a Hindu professor, Subramanian Swamy, president of the Janata Party of India and a former Union Cabinet minister, because of something that had nothing to do with economics: he wrote an editorial that Muslims find offensive. And now the Harvard Crimson has added insult to injury by applauding this decision and declaring a barbarian’s war on the founding principle of this great nation — our unalienable individual rights.

Read more at: http://times247.com/articles/mitt-dodges-newt-over-one-on-one-debate-challenge

In an interview with the AP while campaigning in New Hampshire today, Mitt Romney said he would not meet Newt Gingrich in a one on one debate “out of respect” for the other candidates in the GOP race.

What a copout.

Were Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman being disrespectful to Romney when they agreed to one on one debates with Gingrich?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/22/us-korea-north-un-idUSTRE7BL1LJ20111222?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true

(Reuters) – The U.N. General Assembly granted a request from North Korea and held a few moments of silence on Thursday for Kim Jong-il, the country’s former leader who died on Saturday, though Western delegations boycotted it.

Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, president of the 193-nation assembly, called for a “minute of silence” before the start of a routine meeting at 3:00 p.m. EST in the half-empty U.N. General Assembly hall.

“It is my sad duty to pay tribute to the memory of the late Kim Jong-il, Secretary-General of the Workers Party of Korea, Chairman of the National Defense Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, who passed away on Saturday, December 17,” he said.

The minute of silence lasted for 25 seconds before Nasser proceeded with the scheduled meeting. The United States, European Union member states and Japan were among the countries that boycotted the tribute to Kim Jong-il.

http://myrightword.blogspot.com/2011/12/is-this-about-that-israel-fence.html

Ever heard of what some Texans call the “Mexican side” of the U.S. border fence?No? Well, this is what I learned from this story:-

There’s an 18-feet steel-and-concrete border wall erected by the American government and the wall was built to satisfy a law, passed in 2006 and 2008, that authorized 700 miles of fence on the southern border, 315 miles of it in Texas. President Bush said the fence would make the border safer and was “an important step toward immigration reform.”

O.K. Paul-Bots, Explain This Or Shut the Hell Up!!!

http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2011/12/ok-paul-bots-explain-this-or-shut-hell.html?utm_source=The+Lid+List&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=4097b018f2-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN

Yesterday Congressman Ron Paul, fearless Emperor of the Planet Ronulin and Candidate for the GOP Nomination for President of the United States, cut short an interview with Gloria Borger, of CNN because she pressed him on the publishing of his newsletters. Before he walked away, he offered, “I never read that stuff. I was probably aware of it ten years after it was written.” That would be somewhere between 2003-2005.

Duane Patterson (Hugh Hewitt’s Producer) pointed another nugget about this video on the Ed Morrissey Show today….Pay close attention to what Paul says when Borger says to him, “you must admit that the content is pretty incendiary” Paul answers “incendiary to you.” It sounds as if he is saying they weren’t incendiary to him.

http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korean-state-news-jimmy-carter-expressed-condolences-on-the-death-of-kim-jong-il-2011-12?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Politix%20Select&utm_campaign=Politix%20Select%202011-12-23
North Korean State News: Jimmy Carter Expressed Condolences On The Death Of Kim Jong Il

The Korean Central News Agency, an official arm of the North Korean government, said in a statement today that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter sent a message of condolences on the death of the country’s dictator Kim Jong Il.

We’ve reached out to a Carter spokesperson for confirmation.

Take this with a grain of salt, given the former “axis of evil” nation’s penchant for inventing news.

Here is the statement from state news agency:

Pyongyang, December 21 (KCNA) — Kim Jong Un, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea, received a message of condolences from Jimmy Carter, ex-president of the U.S. on Dec. 19.

In the message Jimmy Carter extended condolences to Kim Jong Un and the Korean people over the demise of leader Kim Jong Il.

He wished Kim Jong Un every success as he assumes his new responsibility of leadership, looking forward to another visit to the DPRK in the future. -0-

Turning up the lights!

It’s happened to me three times in the past few weeks. Once, while giving a tour, in the middle of a suspense story, the next time at a Brit, a baby’s circumcision, and two days ago, during a candle-lighting ceremony; all at Ma’arat HaMachpela, the tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs.

On the second night of Hanukkah we had a double candle-lighting ceremony. The first, at six o’clock, was with the police. Hebron police commander, Itzik Rachamim, together with some officers and police, were listening to Rabbi Hillel Horowitz speak about the eternal elements of Hanukkah. Then, as he mentioned the great miracle, the great blessing and the lights of Hanukkah, which still shine upon us today: Allah HuAbar. The muezzin began his call to prayer, with the loudspeakers facing into the Machpela courtyard, drowning out whatever anyone might try to say. Rather than begin lighting the Hanukkah menorah, the gathered crowd began singing and dancing to Eli Gilboa’s accordion music, in an attempt to prevent having to listen to the noise being projected by the Arab muezzin.
muaz1.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80Q2sRkbM8w