RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://news.investors.com/Article/596012/201112271909/ElBaradei-no-help-for-egyptian-freedom.htm

Middle East: With Islamists winning 70% in a second round of parliamentary voting, Egypt is speeding toward a theocratic, anti-American dictatorship. The “Arab Spring” is turning into a long winter of despotism.

Serious long-term trouble is brewing in the Mideast. The continued rise of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ridiculously named “Freedom and Justice Party,” as well as the Al-Nour Party of the radical Salafi movement, places in jeopardy the assassinated Anwar Sadat’s three-decades-old peace settlement between historic adversaries Egypt and Israel.

Add a soon-to-be-nuclear Iran and a Syrian terror regime that refuses to be toppled by street demonstrators and the skies above these ancient lands look dark indeed.

Some observers hasten to remind us, however, that the land of the pharaohs is home to someone who might save it from sharia law and jihadism, and preserve the Mideast from another full-blown war — a man of peace and Western enlightenment named Mohamed ElBaradei.

But on Tuesday, the ex-chief of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency, who says he will run for Egypt’s presidency next year, once again demonstrated how short he is on wisdom……CONTINUE READING AT SITE

http://news.investors.com/Article/595985/201112271909/army-permits-muslim-headscarf-in-military.htm

Political Correctness: First the Pentagon hosts the 9/11 imam. Then the Marines open a mosque at Quantico. Now the Army’s letting JROTC cadets wear the hijab. What next?

In a letter to a Muslim group sent on Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s behalf, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Larry Stubblefield said the Army will now let Muslims in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps wear the Islamic headscarf during training and parade formations.

“Based on your concerns, the Army has reviewed its JROTC uniform policy and will develop appropriate procedures to provide cadets the opportunity to request the wear of religious head dress, such as the turban and hijab,” Stubblefield wrote. “The Army prides itself in being a diverse organization, comprised of individuals from many faiths and religions. We appreciate you bringing this matter to our attention.”

The group who filed the complaint? The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the same one the Justice Department implicated in a scheme to raise millions for terrorists in America. CAIR is so shady the IRS recently revoked its nonprofit status for failing to disclose funding sources for the past three years in violation of federal law. It’s so dirty FBI Director Robert Mueller recently testified he refuses to do outreach with it…..continue reading at site

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/757/fascists_europhobes_deluded_imperialists_anybody_would_think_eurosceptics_were_advocating_all_out_war

Fascists, Europhobes, deluded imperialists. Anybody would think Eurosceptics were advocating all out war

Never mind the Europhiles. Being aware of the world around you is not delusional; thinking Europe is the only answer is.

The fall out from the EU Council Summit on the 9th December has opened up one heck of a row. With a plethora of knowledgeable Europhiles taking to the air in the aftermath of David Cameron’s use of the British veto, I have listened to their arguments with interest.

Some firmly believe that the decision has left the UK isolated. Last week, my article compared this so called isolation to that of Switzerland. Almost instantly, I was called a little Englander. How on earth could I possibly suggest that the UK could be better off like the Swiss? Readers can make their own minds up.

One thing that has fascinated me though is how vicious the latest attacks on Eurosceptics have become. One Labour MP referred to Conservatives as ‘Europhobes’. Another, as people who wear tweed jackets with military ties.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/

“There are real social and economic problems in Israel, but the left has made a career out of exploiting those problems. And Soros’ latest Israeli project is a subversive attempt to gain influence and undermine the country.”

If you have been seeing coverage of gender segregation issues in Israel then you may not be aware that you are actually seeing another Soros project in motion. The name of the game, as usual, is divide and conquer. Soros funded NGO’s embed themselves into a society and leverage its weakness to create confrontations that empower its activists and agendas.

While Israel does have neighborhoods in Jerusalem where a few Anti-Zionist cults practice their own form of intimidation and thuggery (if you have seen men in black protesting outside Israeli events, then you have seen some of these people at work) this particular crisis is the work of Soros funded NGO’s who have their own agenda, and it isn’t gender equality or women’s rights.

http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2011/12/27/krauthammer-huntington-islam-and-jihad/

Last night (12/26/11) Charles Krauthammer was interviewed by Mark Steyn (guest hosting for Sean Hannity on Fox News) about the ongoing murderous jihad depredations against Christians in Islamdom. The interview began by highlighting the pathognomonic Christmas day bombing of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla near Nigeria’s capital by Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram, “formally” known as Jamaatu Ahlis Sunna Liddaawati wal-Jihad meaning “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”. In Hausa, the spoken language of Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria, Boko Haram (not to be confused with Procol Harum) means “Western education is sacrilege”

Krauthammer appropriately placed this horrific church bombing—which along with other Christmas jihadist attacks by Boko Haram killed at least 39—in the context of a litany of other Muslim acts of anti-Christian violence and persecution since the end of World War II. However, Krauthammer’s analysis was once again (see here, here, and here) rendered glaringly deficient because of his willful, politically correct ignorance of Islamic doctrine and history, specifically, the living legacy of jihad, a word (and concept) he omitted entirely from his assessment. Moreover, Krauthammer compounds this repeat offense by misrepresenting (disingenuously, or ignorantly) the late Samuel Huntington’s courageous insights on Islam and Islamic societies.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/lifestyle/article/israels_mr_basketball_is_also_mr_goodwill_20111226/
Israel’s Mr. Basketball is also Mr. Goodwillby Jacob Kamaras / JointMedia News Service

Selected 12th overall in the 1965 National Basketball Association draft, Tal Brody passed on the American Dream so he could help change the landscape of Israeli sports—turning down the Baltimore Bullets for a spot on Maccabi Tel Aviv.

“It was a challenge to take a team that never went past the first round of the European basketball championships to another level, and I’m very happy I took up that challenge because we won the championships five times,” he told JointMedia News Service.

The first of those five European titles came in 1977, when Brody—the team captain—was carried off the court on the shoulders of fans celebrating a historic victory over heavily favored CSKA Moscow. He declared afterward to a TV announcer: “We are on the map! And we are staying on the map— not only in sports, but in everything.”

These days, the man nicknamed “Mr. Basketball” in Israel has a very different opponent—those who continue to take shots at the Jewish homeland. Last year, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman appointed Brody as the first-ever international Goodwill Ambassador of Israel.

“I’m very proud that they chose a sportsman to take on that position,” Brody said in a phone interview from Miami (where he visited Dec. 12-17) arranged by the Consulate General of Israel to Florida & Puerto Rico. “It’s basically speaking on the [school] campuses and trying to go up with the facts against the fiction about a lot of things which are said about Israel, and having good discussions with the students.”

The ambassador’s latest journey

Brody, 68, takes diplomatic trips once every 4-6 weeks on behalf of Israel. On this particular mission, he visited the new campus of the David Posnack Jewish Day School in Davie, Fla., and was also at an event that he called “a page out of the history” of U.S. basketball, with 330 people—including Hall of Fame big man Dave Cowens—in attendance.

At the Posnack school, whose basketball team happens to be coached by former NBA guard Kenny Anderson, Brody said he was in contact with current New York Knicks’ star forward Amare Stoudemire—who made headlines in 2010 by visiting Israel and exploring his possible Jewish roots, then considered playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv before the resolution of this year’s NBA lockout.

“Although we’re happy that the NBA is going to have a season that we can watch, we’re disappointed in Israel because we lost [New Jersey Nets’ guard Jordan Farmar, who was playing with [Maccabi Tel Aviv] up to now, and the fact that if the NBA wasn’t going to have a season there was a good chance that Amare Stoudemire was going to join our team for the second half of the year,” Brody said.

‘Presenting Israel beyond the conflict’

Brody, who was born in Trenton, NJ, and starred at guard for the University of Illinois, said he works with both Jewish and non-Jewish organizations—from Hispanic, Christian, African American, and other circles—in his position as goodwill ambassador.

“When I’m coming in to the States, I’m presenting Israel beyond the [Arab-Israeli] conflict, our normal and daily lives in Israel,” he said. The Christian community, Brody said, is “more and more getting together and backing Israel, and helping to stop all these BDS boycotts, sanctions against Israel.”

Nevertheless, Brody must fight the numerous “misconceptions” about Israel that exist around the world. He highlights how Israel is the only country in the Middle East that gives full rights to women and homosexuals—not an Apartheid state, as it is commonly alleged.

“On the [college] campuses, Christians or African Americans who have never been to Israel, they sort of think that we’re like South Africa, which is so far from [the truth],” Brody said. “So when I come, we have these discussions and they get a better understanding for what Israel is, and what it isn’t.”

When asked by students why Israel doesn’t “give freedom of movement to Palestinians,” Brody explains that until the Second Intifada of 2000, there was never any type of security fence and that movement between the Palestinian Territories and Israel was unrestricted, wtih large numbers of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza working in the Israeli building industry.

However, once Palestinian suicide bombers attacked the country’s citizens, killing more than 1,700 Israelis—including Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Christians and Druze, infants and seniors, in pizza parlors, buses and hotels—more security was needed, he tells students.

“Try to picture yourself, in the morning, getting on a bus to school … and all of the sudden a young guy gets on who is brainwashed, who thinks he’s going to heaven with 72 virgins waiting for him, and your only benefit is ZAKA (volunteers responding to tragedy in Israel] to pick up your limbs and put them in a bag for a decent burial,” Brody said.

‘The sports capital of the Middle East’

When he speaks to crowds, Brody said he also calls Israel “the sports capital of the Middle East”—and with good reason. He explained the “60-40-20” system for remembering the country’s athletic history—60 years since first participating in the Olympics; 40 years since 11 Israeli athletes were massacred at the Olympics in Munich, Germany; and 20 years since Israel won its first Olympic medal, in Judo.

Since its breakthrough two decades ago, Israel has received medals at each Summer Olympics, with most of its success coming in martial arts and watersports. But Israel isn’t a fish out of water when it comes to winter sports, either—its junior ice hockey team (13-year-olds) recently placed first in its group at the world championships in Canada.

“We don’t even have ice in Israel, they practiced on rollerblades,” Brody said.

By Andrew Puzder

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) — I am not an expert on health-care
policy, but I do know something about job creation. So when a
House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee asked me to
testify about the effect on employers of the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act, sometimes known as Obamacare, I thought
I could offer some insights.

As I told the committee in a July 28 hearing, it is
critical that Congress does a good job of balancing the benefits
of new legislation against the costs of that legislation. That
process begins with recognizing that laws like Obamacare come at
a price.

Our company, CKE Restaurants Inc., employs about 21,000
people (our franchisees employ 49,000 more) in Carl’s Jr. and
Hardee’s restaurants. For months, we have been working with
Mercer Health & Benefits LLC, our health-care consultant, to
identify Obamacare’s potential financial impact on CKE. Mercer
estimated that when the law is fully implemented our health-care
costs will increase about $18 million a year. That would put our
total health-care costs at $29.8 million, a 150 percent increase
from the roughly $12 million we spent last year.

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2700/got-missiles

Classified Ad: Missing 69 Patriot missiles and 160 tons of explosives? If so, contact traffic police, Kotka, Finland. Iran, don’t bother.

Dock workers in the port of Kotka were suspicious of ill-packed crates labeled “fireworks” on a ship bound from Germany to Shanghai. While adding to the existing cargo on the British-owned Thor Liberty, they found the explosive picric acid in open containers as well as the Patriots. Picric acid is a propellant (making one wonder where the radars and command-and-control systems are that complete the Patriot package). Traffic safety authorities took control of the ship and Finnish officials are questioning the two senior officers.

The head of Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation said that although there are customs documents showing a valid transaction and a legal end-user – South Korea – there are at least two crimes involved: the shippers did not request permission to transit missiles and explosives via Finland; and the explosives were not properly packed and safeguarded.

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2707/nigeria-church-attacks

Several churches in northern Nigeria were bombed December 25, in what has been described as “Nigeria’s blackest Christmas ever.” The attacks, perpetrated by the Muslim militant group Boko Haram, killed at least 39 people, “the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church [in Madalla near the capital of Abuja] after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion.” Charred bodies and dismembered limbs lay scattered around the destroyed church.

The world, as usual, offered its wishy-washy, half-hearted condemnations. Although Boko Haram has been bellowing its straightforward goals for over a decade — enforcing Sharia law and subjugating, if not eliminating Nigeria’s Christians — the word so many Western leaders, from the White House to the Vatican, selected to characterize this latest Muslim attack on Christians was “senseless”— which implies no motive, no goal, no rhyme, no reason. Reading the mainstream media’s coverage of these attacks, one walks away without any sense of continuity or context.

http://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2011/12/28/the_year_in_obama_scandals__and_scandal_deniers/print With 2011 drawing to a close, it is time to account. As an early-and-often chronicler of Chicago-on-the-Potomac, I am amazed at the stubborn and clingy persistence of President Barack Obama’s snowblowers in the media. See no scandal, hear no scandal, speak no scandal. Dartmouth College professor Brendan Nyhan asserted in May — while Operation […]