DIANA WEST: ALLIES THEY AIN’T

http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/1931/Allies-They-Aint.aspx

Iraq won’t give us permanent bases, let alone immunity for our troops in Iraq to train demonstrably untrainable Iraqis. (I mean, come on; eight years and they’re still not “trained”?) Score: Iran.

Now, Karzai says he would back Pakistan in a war with the USA:

“God forbid, If ever there is a war between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan will side with Pakistan,” he [Karzai] said in the interview to Geo television.

“If Pakistan is attacked and if the people of Pakistan needs Afghanistan’s help, Afghanistan will be there with you.”

Anything wrong with this picture?

MONTREAL MUSLIM GROUP: PEACE, LOVE AND WIFE BEATING

http://vinienco.com/2011/10/23/controversial-montreal-muslim-group-peace-love-and-wife-beating/

An Islamic group whose presence in Montreal sparked controversy insisted Friday night that its message has been misunderstood.

The Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) is a UK-based group that describes itself on its website as an “international dawah organization committed to educating and informing humanity about the truth and noble message of Islam.”

However, a speech by the group’s chairman Abdurraheem Green (pictured), where he suggested it is alright for a husband to use physical force on his wife, drew a lot of negative attention to the group.

It led Concordia University’s Muslim Students’ Association to cancel a planned speech that was to be held Friday night, but a Montreal group affiliated with the Muslim Association of Canada found another venue for another iERA lecturer to speak.

YORAM ETTINGER: A MIDDLE EAST DOUBLE DIP

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=696

A Middle East double-dip is ushered-in by the lynching of Gadhafi; the
violent alteration of alliances and regime in Libya; the inherent tribal,
ethnic, ideological and religious fragmentation in that oil rich country;
the volatile Arab Street from North Africa to the Persian Gulf; the
disintegration of nepotism-based Arab regimes; the artificial boundaries of
Arab countries, which exacerbates ethnic and sectarian violence; and the
1,400 years absence of Arab democracy and intra-Arab comprehensive peace and
compliance with agreements.

The call for Israel to assume additional risks for peace defies Middle East
reality. It is a derivative of the “Arab Spring” delusion, fueling Arab
radicalism and terrorism.

An Undeclared Victory, a Lack of Deterrence By Leif Babin (Former SEAL)

An Undeclared Victory, a Lack of Deterrence By Leif Babin
Leif Babin is a former Navy SEAL officer who served three tours in Iraq, earning a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.
The President announced yesterday that the United States will withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year. This ends months of speculation on U.S. troop levels in Iraq beyond 2011 and confirms the Associated Press reports from last week of a total withdrawal.
I wrote an Op-Ed for the Wall Street Journal last month entitled “We’ve Won in Iraq So Let’s Leave” and an editorial for FoxNews.com last week calling for just this outcome. In these I argued it was time the United States declare victory in Iraq and shift precious military resources to the highest priority mission in Afghanistan. Despite the hope of many U.S. military commanders to keep a large U.S. force in Iraq beyond 2011, the decision to withdraw all forces appears to have been based on the Iraqi Parliament’s refusal to grant immunity in Iraqi courts to U.S. military forces. This, in effect, is Iraq politely telling us that it’s time to go. They are confident enough to stand on their own. And while different than we might have originally envisioned, I would argue that this is, in fact, what victory looks like.
But while I applaud the decision to withdraw all U.S. Forces, I offer harsh criticism of the President for the following reasons outlined below.

FRANK MIELE: ONE PERCENT LOGIC AND 99% BULL….SEE NOTE

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/opinion/columns/frank/article_c7b346f4-fd32-11e0-9ad8-001cc4c03286.html  The Occupy Wall Street movement has been aptly described as “Anarchists for Totalitarianism.”   Given the logical inconsistency of such a movement, the OWS folks have to be glad there is no official theme song yet; otherwise, the repetitive mindless chants emanating from Zuccotti Park would all have to end with “If I only […]

ROGER KIMBALL: THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE SHAMEFUL CAMPAIGN TO DISCREDIT JUDGE BORK

http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/2011/10/23/the-bork-nomination-24-years-on/

I have to admit that when I saw the headline “The Ugliness Started with Bork” over an op-ed column by Joe Nocera in The New York Times [1], I reckoned it would be yet another chapter in the long-running left-liberal campaign to demonize the great jurist Robert H. Bork. I was wrong. Today — October 23 — is the 24th anniversary of the Senate’s shameful vote against Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Nocera wrote, if not to apologize, exactly, then at least to acknowledge that the poisonous campaign to discredit Bork — unprecedented in its nastiness — was “the beginning of the end of civil discourse in politics.”

That’s probably correct. And while politics by its very nature is a partisan business that elicits strong emotions, and strong rhetoric to match, the campaign against Judge Bork was unparalleled in its ferocity and — something Nocera touches upon but gingerly — patent mendacity. Supreme Court nominees had been voted down before (and since). But had any previous candidate with what Nocera right calls Bork’s scholarly “pedigree” and “intellectual fire power” ever been voted down? After all, at the time he was tapped by Reagan, Bork had been a professor of law at Yale, former solicitor general of the United States, and a federal appeals court judge. He was — and is — also a prominent and articulate legal scholar, arguing forcefully for the doctrine of “original intent,” i.e., that a judge’s primary task is to discern the law in the light of the Constitution.

IOWAHAWK’S GREAT PARODY ON A REP. CANDIDATE…..”TOGETHER, I SHALL RIDE YOU TO VICTORY”

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2011/10/together-i-shall-ride-you-to-victory.html

Together, I Shall Ride You To Victory A Very Special Announcement by T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII

In the long steeplechase of human events, the course ofttimes wends its way through a dense forest of uncertainty; into which the horseman must dash headlong through the hazardous branches of Doubt, surmount the briary hedgerows of Fear, only to confront the crossroads of Destiny. Here, the wizened old course-keeper Fate drops a gauntlet of challenge: down one path awaits doom, down the other victory and apres-race cocktails. Which path shall the rider choose? It is the fortunate horse indeed upon whom is mounted a rider equal to Destiny’s challenge, and wise to Fate’s trickery; for he can be sure that with every whip of the rider’s crop he is one gallop closer to the stables of security. And thus, today, I dismount to retrieve Fate’s gauntlet, strike him smartly across his face, and declare my official candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.

IN FRENCH SCHOOL IT’S READING, WRITING AND “RESPECTING” ISLAM

http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/european-children-being-forced-to-bow-down-to-islam-literally/
European children being forced to bow down to Islam…literally
European children are being brainwashed into ‘respecting’ Islam with school-organized mosque visits and syllabuses that give undue prominence to a mythical Islamic ‘Golden Age.’

Islam vs Europe Here’s an excerpt from the British government website that provides information on the national curriculum. It describes a programme of lessons called “The Achievement of Muhammad (pbuh)” and discusses how to grade the childrens’ essays, quoting a few examples:

Over a number of lessons, the pupils had read and discussed texts about Muhammad’s (pbuh) life, covering his family’s reaction to his claims, as well as the reaction of people in Mecca and Medina. The pupils debated Muhammad’s (pbuh) achievements in groups and as a class.

IT’S OFFICIAL: LIBYAN LEADER DECLARES ISLAMIC STATE AND SHARIA LAW

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/gaddafi-sharia-islamic-law/2011/10/23/id/415429?s=al&promo_code=D502-1 Libyan Leader Declares Nation Islamic, Sharia Law to be Implemented Libya’s transitional leader declared his country’s liberation Sunday after an 8-month civil war and set out plans for the future with an Islamist tone. The announcement was clouded, however, by international pressure to explain how ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi had been captured alive days […]

AMBROSE EVANS PRITCHARD:THE UNITED STATES WELL ON THE WAY TO SELF SUFFICIENCY IN ENERGY

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8844646/World-power-swings-back-to-America.html
The American phoenix is slowly rising again. Within five years or so, the US will be well on its way to self-sufficiency in fuel and energy. Manufacturing will have closed the labour gap with China in a clutch of key industries. The current account might even be in surplus.
The making of computers, electrical equipment, machinery, autos and other goods may shift back to the US from China.

Assumptions that the Great Republic must inevitably spiral into economic and strategic decline – so like the chatter of the late 1980s, when Japan was in vogue – will seem wildly off the mark by then.

Telegraph readers already know about the “shale gas revolution” that has turned America into the world’s number one producer of natural gas, ahead of Russia.

Less known is that the technology of hydraulic fracturing – breaking rocks with jets of water – will also bring a quantum leap in shale oil supply, mostly from the Bakken fields in North Dakota, Eagle Ford in Texas, and other reserves across the Mid-West.