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October 2016

EDUCATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Barnard Event: Zumba Is ‘Cultural Appropriation’ By Katherine Timpf

By on October 11th, 2016

Barnard College is hosting a lecture later this month titled “Health at the Expense of Cultural Appropriation: Yoga and Zumba.”

Yes — Zumba.

The lecture is part of a series titled “Barnard BLUE.” According to the college’s official website, “BLUE” stands for “Building Leadership & Understanding Equity,” and it’s “aimed to engage students in intentional dialogues to explore their identities and what it means to foster inclusive communities.” Titles for other sessions in the series include “Sorry for Party Rocking: College Party Culture & it’s Implications” and “Faux Feminists: Pop Culture Icons & Hypocrisy.”

Now, people freaking out that yoga is “cultural appropriation” definitely is stupid, but it’s a complaint that I’ve heard before, and seeing it as the subject of a lecture at a liberal women’s college hardly surprises me. But Zumba? As in, the form of jumping-around aerobics that moms like? I’ve got to admit that that’s a new one.

Although it’s not clear what exactly the claims of the lecture will be, I’d assume that the “cultural appropriation” complaints about Zumba have something to do with the fact that workouts are traditionally performed to Latin American music.

The title of the lecture, “Health at the Expense of Cultural Appropriation: Yoga and Zumba,” really does illustrate how completely stupid it is. After all, I really have a hard time believing that enjoying a workout centered around a typical kind of music — even if that kind of music isn’t from your own culture — is really coming at the “expense” of anyone, however, making people so terrified that their workouts might be racist that they’re too scared to do them could come at the “expense” of their health. We’re an obese nation, and if people like to stay in shape by doing Zumba, then good for them . . . whether they’re white (ew!) or not. Seriously, how far does this go? Are we going to get to the point where white people can only work out to white-people-music without having to have some sort of cultural consciousness discussion beforehand? I sure hope not, because working out is already annoying enough as it is.

One of the most beautiful things about this country is that we are made up of a mix of people from different cultures, and that that mix gives us so many opportunities to enjoy art and music from cultures other than our own. Now, I do understand how someone claiming another culture as their own — or claiming to understand what it would be like to experience life as someone from another culture — would be offensive, however, I highly doubt that anyone who’s going to Zumba class will think that their going to Zumba class means that he or she is some kind of Latin American cultural expert. They just think that they’re someone who went to Zumba class, and I’ve got to say, there are certainly bigger problems facing us than that.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, POLITICS Comments turned off

Trump’s Comments: The Latest Left-Wing Hysteria Don’t concede this election, conservatives. By Dennis Prager

By on October 11th, 2016

Regarding Donald Trump’s private sexual comments: We are living through a national hysteria.

To understand how and why, it is necessary to understand the indispensable role hysteria plays on the left. The Left is always in major crisis mode. And in nearly every case, the crisis is wildly exaggerated or simply false — in other words, hysteria.

For example:

Few people deny that the earth is warming. To assert that is not hysteria. What is hysteria is the Left’s position that carbon emissions will destroy life on Earth.

No one denies that there are racist cops. What is hysteria is the Left’s claim that innocent blacks are routinely shot to death by racist cops.

The widespread protests against the name Washington “Redskins” were pure left-wing hysteria — ended only by the revelation through polling that the vast majority of American Indians couldn’t care less about the name.

The examples are endless: from the alleged epidemic of heterosexual AIDS in America and preschool molestation scares in the ’80s to the wildly exaggerated dangers of secondhand smoke and the baseless fears about electronic cigarettes.

We are regularly forced to endure a new left-wing-manufactured, media-supercharged hysteria.

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ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Liberating Responsibility Of Atonement How Israel can secure its freedom and its future. Caroline Glick

By on October 11th, 2016

The Jewish people and the Jewish state face extraordinary challenges today. Luckily, we can handle all of them. But to do so, we need to be capable of judging ourselves fairly.

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year because it is the day that the Torah sets aside for us to reckon with ourselves. We are commanded to give an accounting – before our fellow men and before God – for our actions in the previous year. We must make amends to both for our misdeeds. And since none of us is perfect, every one of us has things to atone for.

Yom Kippur’s power stems from a basic assumption that forms its core. That assumption is that we are all moral agents. We all have to make an accounting.

This basic assumption is the most liberating notion ever created. Moral agency is what makes us free. It doesn’t matter how wretched or rich our external circumstances, the fact that the Torah enjoins all of us to take responsibility for our behavior means that as far as God is concerned, we are not slaves and never will be slaves.

The converse is also true.

We are only free for as long as we are capable of accounting for our actions. This means that preserving our ability to properly judge ourselves is the key to preserving our liberty.

This is true not only for the Jewish people as individuals. It is true as well for the Jewish state, Israel.

The question then is how do we do that? As far as Israel is concerned, the answer to this question has become one of increasing urgency over the past generation or so.

Over the past couple of decades, we have seen the world – and more importantly our own elites in Israel – rushing to judge our society and find it lacking seemingly on a daily basis.

Our journalists, professors, judges and generals routinely tell us what is wrong with our society. And each year, their harangues become shriller and angrier.

Indeed it is becoming hard to avoid the conclusion that for our elites, Israeli society is morally irredeemable.

Consider the behavior of our generals in the IDF. Sunday night, after the terrorist attack in Jerusalem, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot spoke at a memorial ceremony for the armored corps. There he restated for the umpteenth time in recent months that the key to defeating terrorism is maintaining the IDF’s values.

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HOMELAND SECURITY, IMMIGRATION, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Election 2016: The Threat of Immigration Anarchy Hangs in the Balance Opening the doors to terror. Michael Cutler

By on October 11th, 2016

Election Day is rapidly approaching. In considering what is at stake, it is important to understand that, as I recently noted, “The Three Most Important Issues For 2016: Immigration, Immigration, Immigration.”

Most polls skew how the concerns of the majority of Americans are reported by the media. Most Americans are most concerned about the threats posed by terrorists and criminals. All too many Americans fear losing their jobs and are concerned about the opportunities that their children will have in these United States. Generally, when polls and surveys are conducted, participants cannot pick more than one item that they consider to be the most important issue. When those polled need to decide what is their biggest worry, they tend to ignore the fact that failures of the immigration system profoundly undermine national security and have a huge impact on nearly every other issue of great concern.

In the Orwellian world of politics and journalism, cities that violate our immigration laws by shielding illegal aliens from detection are referred to as “sanctuary cities.” I addressed the threat that such jurisdictions create in my article, “Terrorism, Enclaves and Sanctuary Cities: How sanctuary cities facilitate the growth of terror enclaves in America.”

In point of fact, on October 3, 2016 the New York Times ran an article with the breathless title, “Millions at Risk of Deportation as Justices Refuse to Rehear Case.”

The “millions at risk” are aliens who either entered the United States without inspection. In the parlance of immigration enforcement personnel, such aliens are referred to as Entrants Without Inspection (EWI). They were not vetted and their presence in the United States is a violation of our laws that are supposed to prevent the entry of aliens who pose a threat to the safety and/or well-being of Americans.

Such “at risk” aliens also include those who, subsequent to being admitted into the United States, went on to violate the terms of their admission by remaining in the United States beyond their authorized period of admission if they were admitted as non-immigrant (temporary) visitors. Foreign students who fail to attend school or fail to maintain proper grades are subject to removal. Aliens who take jobs for which they lack authority are subject to removal, as are aliens who are admitted under the provisions of temporary work visas and fail to report for those jobs or leave those authorized jobs, but remain in the United States without permission.

Finally, aliens who commit a variety of serious crimes may be subject to removal even if they were admitted as lawful immigrants.

Would the New York Times run a report about efforts to get more drunk drivers off the road by saying that stepped-up police efforts to identify and arrest drunk drivers put those drunk drivers “at risk” of arrest? It is more likely they would accurately report that such enforcement programs were aimed at making our roads safer.

Aliens who work illegally, it must be noted, are likely displacing American and/or lawful immigrant workers. In this faltering economy where so many Americans are unemployed and under-employed, a job is a valuable commodity. Somehow the nonsense spewed by the media makes it appear that there is nothing wrong with aliens who are present in the United States provided that they are working, even if they have stolen the jobs of hard-working Americans.

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Bill Whittle’s Firewall: Debating Hillary, Part 6: Provocations The country deserves somebody who is not a traitor, a pathological liar and a felon, or an unprepared, thin-skinned egotist.

By on October 11th, 2016

In the final installment of this six-part series, Bill Whittle challenges Hillary’s sneering at Trump about “provocations starting a war.” Trump was 100% right, she was 100% wrong, and Bill lines up the history to prove it.

Transcript below:

CLINTON: The other day, I saw Donald saying that there were some Iranian sailors on a ship in the waters off of Iran, and they were taunting American sailors who were on a nearby ship. He said, you know, if they taunted our sailors, I’d blow them out of the water and start another war. That’s not good judgment.

You are absolutely, 100%, totally and completely WRONG here, Mrs. Clinton, and this isn’t just more incompetence and arrogance. This attitude will cost American and Israeli lives. Many lives, because history shows us again and again and again that tyrants and dictators CONSTANTLY TEST what they feel to be “decadent democracies” for WEAKNESS.

World War II didn’t really start in 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland. It started on March 7, 1936 – three years earlier – when contrary to the Treaty of Versailles he sent a small number of German troops into the demilitarized Rhineland.

You want to know the most heartbreaking fact in human history? It’s this: after the war, we had access to the internal records and memos of the German OKW – Oberkommando der Wehrmacht — it’s the German High Command. And in those records we find that Hitler’s generals, to a man, thought that by violating Versailles and putting those token troops into the Rhineland, Hitler would start a war with France and Britain. And we found memos from the German High Command saying that had those troops met ANY resistance – a company, a squad, maybe a marching band, maybe even a single policeman that stood his ground and refused to get out of the way – ANY resistance and the German generals would shoot Hitler, and 52 million lives would have been saved if we had only shown THAT MUCH resolution and courage.

When Iranian gunboats – or Russian fighter jets – come dangerously close to US forces in international waters – that’s a TEST. And if we back away from that test there will be a more dramatic test. And with people like you in charge, we would back away again and again until war became inevitable.

We should declare that any unauthorized vessel approaching within, say, a half mile of US vessels will be given one warning shot and if they continue to approach THEY WILL BE SUNK. As President I would pre-authorize the destruction of any vessel that came one inch within that exclusion zone, because we need to stop fearing going to war with Iran and have Iran start fearing GOING TO WAR WITH US.

See, I could do this all day.

This is what it sounds like when you not only believe in this country, but you also love it enough to do the hard work of reading history and psychology, of economics and weapon systems and all the rest. The country deserves somebody who is not a traitor, a pathological liar and a felon, or an unprepared, thin-skinned egotist, to fill the toughest and most important job in the history of the world.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, POLITICS Comments turned off

Hillary’s Two Faces The latest WikiLeak disclosures expose the aspiring Liar-in-Chief in her own words. Joseph Klein

By on October 11th, 2016

One of the online questions posed to Hillary Clinton during the second presidential town hall debate in St. Louis on Sunday evening had to do with remarks she had reportedly made in private to a Wall Street audience, revealed by WikiLeaks, that she has “both a public and a private position” on such issues as Wall Street reform. The questioner wanted to know whether “it is okay for politicians to be two-faced.” Hillary Clinton rationalized her private remark to her audience of Wall Street benefactors as a reference to “Abraham Lincoln after having seen the wonderful Steven Spielberg movie ‘Abraham Lincoln.’”

The only association Hillary Clinton can legitimately claim with the memory of Abraham Lincoln was when the Clintons traded on his name and rented out the Lincoln bedroom to wealthy donors while she and Bill Clinton inhabited the White House.

Donald Trump was ready with the perfect retort: “She got caught in a total lie… She lied. And now she’s blaming the lie on the late, great Abraham Lincoln – Honest Abe. Honest Abe never lied. That’s the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you. That’s a big difference.”

The latest releases from WikiLeaks revealed other disturbing dimensions of Hillary’s private/public dichotomy. For example, Hillary Clinton, in a bid to win over Bernie Sanders voters, reversed her previous support for free trade deals. Although originally a supporter of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Hillary has in more recent years publicly criticized it. During her primary campaign against Sanders, Hillary also came out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which she had called the “gold standard” while serving as Secretary of State. With respect to the issue of open borders, Hillary Clinton’s so-called fact-check website charges that “Donald Trump and his allies have falsely said Hillary Clinton wants to ‘create totally open borders.’” Yet, in a private speech to a Brazilian bank in 2013, Hillary extolled both “open trade” and “open borders,” according to this excerpt released by WikiLeaks: “My dream is a hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders, some time in the future with energy that is as green and sustainable as we can get it, powering growth and opportunity for every person in the hemisphere.”

Hillary has time and again publicly insisted that she did not place any classified information at risk from hacking by adversaries when using her private e-mail system and devices while Secretary of State. However, she acknowledged in one private speech, excerpts of which were released by WikiLeaks, that “at the State Department we were attacked every hour, more than once an hour by incoming efforts to penetrate everything we had.” Hillary also acknowledged security concerns with the use of blackberries for government business at the time she arrived at the State Department. Yet she would have the public believe that her unsecured private system, server and blackberry devices were somehow not vulnerable to enemy intrusion.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

KING ABDULLARD OF JORDAN SPEAKS ON “OUTLAWS OF ISLAM” SEE NOTE PLEASE

By on October 11th, 2016

Jordan King: ‘Outlaws of Islam’ are ‘Less Than a Drop in the Ocean of Good Muslim Citizens’ Bridget Johnson
THE KINGLET OF JORDAN, NOT “PLUCKY” AS HIS LATE FATHER WAS DESCRIBED COULD NOT SURVIVE A WEEK WITHOUT THE HELP OF ISRAELI INTEL. THE PALARABS HAVE HAD THEIR SIGHTS ON JORDAN SINCE HIS FATHER KILLED THOUSANDS OF PLO UPSTARTS AND EXPELLED AN EQUAL NUMBER IN THE INCIDENT KNOWN AS “BLACK SEPTEMBER.”…RSK

In Germany on Saturday to accept the Westphalian Peace Prize, Jordanian King Abdullah II told Chancellor Angela Merkel and the German people that “without all of you the world would not be where we are today and we would be in a much worse position.”

“I see, unfortunately, too often, among western officials and opinion leaders, a dangerous lack of understanding of the true nature of Islam. Extremists – on all sides – use that lack of knowledge to polarize societies and drive us apart,: the monarch said. “Far from benefiting a country or community, this division harms us all.”

Abdullah asked to audience to “imagine what the future would look like if we don’t take a stand for each other.”

“If we ignore distant violence and poverty, as if it has nothing to do with our lives, our countries, our economies? If we close our eyes to the worst global refugee crisis in human history, and let a ‘lost generation’, millions of young people, come of age without hope?” he said. “If we let the future belong, not to law, but to outlaws: mass murder, persecution, the abuse of children, the enslavement of women, videoed executions of those who disagree? No. To such a future, we must say no.”

Jordan has absorbed about 1.4 million Syrian refugees, while Germany has taken in more than 600,000.

The king called for “collective action” to “end the regional crises and vulnerabilities that terrorists exploit.”

“Muslim-majority countries in the Balkans need to be integrated into an inclusive Europe, and supported in keeping the door shut against terrorist groups. They are your family, your frontline,” Abdullah argued.

He called for a peace process “that engages all components of the Syrian people, upholds Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, ends suffering, and brings hope.”

Abdullah also advocated “a Peace and Stability Pact for the Levant – a pact that will encompass not only a code of conduct, but enhanced regional cooperation, and a regional fund for cohesion to address the serious socioeconomic challenges our people face.”

The king admitted that the influx of Syrian refugees in his country “has put unprecedented pressures on the essentials of life: jobs, energy, housing, even water” and “is draining a quarter of our entire national budget.” Adding in Palestinians, Iraqis, Libyans, Yemenis, etc., “makes Jordan the biggest host of refugees in the world.”

“It is wrong for Jordanians to be asked to carry such a refugee burden,” he said, stressing the crisis “demands global, collective action, to share the burden and support host communities and refugees alike.”

On fighting terror groups, Abudllah said “the Golden Commandment, to love our neighbor, guides our global responsibilities – and it must guide interfaith relationships as well.” CONTINUE AT SITE

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Clinton Foundation Head Declines Questions About Congressional Inquiry By Nicholas Ballasy

By on October 11th, 2016

WASHINGTON — Clinton Foundation president Donna Shalala dodged questions about a congressional request for all communications between the foundation and the State Department while Hillary Clinton was secretary of State.

Shalala was in Washington for a speech at the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Leaders Summit, where the nation’s “healthiest schools” were honored. Following her speech at the event, PJM began to ask Shalala about the letter she received from House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) about the committee’s investigation into connections between the State Department and the foundation. Ranking Member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) was copied on the letter.

Shalala, who served as Health and Human Services secretary under former president Bill Clinton, waved and walked away when PJM mentioned the letter sent to her by Chaffetz.

Later, after the event concluded, PJM started to asked Shalala if the foundation is going to release the names of all its donors.

“We already do,” she said as she went up the escalator of the hotel.

PJM began to ask a follow-up question but a Clinton Foundation staffer stepped in and said, “She’s heading to a dinner if you could just give us a minute. Thank you so much.”

PJM started to ask about the Oversight Committee letter when the staffer interrupted.

“She’s on her way to some personal activities, so we appreciate your understanding,” she said.

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IMMIGRATION, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Refugees or an Occupation Army? by Maria Polizoidou

By on October 11th, 2016

“Allah requires from the believers to be masters of the land where they live, and only they can have property, and only we will be able to own the land.” — Muslim migrants in Crete, Greece.

The migrants were ready to wage jihad because they believed a rumor about an event for which, even had it been true, the Greek State and its inhabitants had no responsibility.

The establishment in Greece is a miniature of the American establishment: politicians and institutions of government corrupted to the bones.

We Greeks have already been crushed by Islam, by the twentieth century genocide in Turkey and the more recent Turkish occupation of Cyprus, again with the world’s complicity.

What is happening in Greece, as in much of Europe, is actually a massive replacement of its population, its values and its way of life.

The mainstream political parties obey the self-destructive EU policies on immigration that could eventually cause the end of the Hellenic-Judeo-Christian values of Europe, such as individual freedom, critical thinking and dispassionate inquiry.

What does an occupation army do when it is installed in a country? It occupies the land, forcing residents to follow its own way of life. It implements measures against the country’s inhabitants, it propagandizes its beliefs and uses force to have them imposed.

This, sadly, is what has been happening in Greece from the migrants who seem to “forget” that they are hosted in Greece and force the Greeks to feel like guests in their own country.

If someone is a war refugee or his life is in danger in his homeland, it would seem appropriate, when he arrives in the country which offers him asylum, to be grateful to this country, respect its history, its people its values and its laws. The same would hold true for an immigrant who wants to go to a country where he hopes he will find a better future.

In Greece, conversely, illegal immigrants — all of whom the media call “refugees,” apparently trying artificially to legalize them in the moral consciousness of citizens — have been occupying spaces that do not belong to them, using violence, blocking roads, committing crimes against public property, acting aggressively toward residents and the police, and saying that they feel offended when they see symbols that represent Christianity. The guests seem to be trying to take over the house.

A few weeks ago, 200 North Africans and Pakistanis rioted in the middle of the night, demanding to leave Mytilene Island. They were chanting, “Jihad! Jihad!”, smashing the residents’ cars in the center of the island and disrupting the local community. The migrants claimed that someone told them about the death of seven migrants on a ship, so they rose up against the authorities. The police and NGO workers explained that this was misinformation, but the 200 migrants were evidently not interested in hearing that. The migrants were ready to wage jihad because they believed a rumor about an event for which, even had it been true, the Greek state and its inhabitants had no responsibility. The authorities were unsuccessful at calming them down and trying to make them return to their living area.

As it turned out, there were no dead migrants; the uprising was a “mistake,” but the police and the locals had to spend the night tracking down refugees and migrants on the streets of Mytilene.

The illegal immigrants stated that the information about the seven dead migrants came through phone calls to them during the night. Police sources say, off the record, that this incident has all the hallmarks of covert “black operations.”

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Turkey’s Dangerous Moves in Iraq by Burak Bekdil

By on October 11th, 2016

Turkey’s primary concern is not to drive ISIS out of Mosul but to make it a “Sunni-controlled city” after ISIS has been pushed out. And this ambition jeopardizes the planned assault on ISIS.

Turkey’s pretext is that its troops are in Iraq to “fight ISIS.” That does not convince anyone.

In a span of five years Turkey has had serious political and military tensions with several countries in its vicinity: Israel, Syria, Russia, Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus and Greece. Most recently, Iraq has also joined the club of hostilities surrounding Turkey.

Despite the Iraqi government’s vehement requests that Turkey withdraw its troops in Iraq, Ankara shrugs it off and says it will maintain its military presence in the neighboring country for “Iraq’s stability.” What a nice neighborly gesture! Behind the Turkish indifference lies sectarian concerns and ambitions.

On October 1, Turkey’s parliament extended the mandate of Turkish troops deployed in Iraqi territory by one more year. The troops are stationed near Bashiqa in northern Iraq — as unwanted guests. That sparked a row with Baghdad and may further complicate the cold sectarian war between the Sunnis in the region, supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and their Shiite enemies, supported by Iran and the Shiite-controlled government in Baghdad.

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