RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2013/12/30/the-principal-enemy/

Back in the seventies when I was a lefty and under the sway, like the new mayor of the city of New York, of various Central and South American marxists, we used to speak of “el enemigo principal,” the principal enemy. In fact, there was a rather graphic (and well made) Bolivian movie of that name by leftwing director Jorge Sanjines. (Clip here.)

Not surprisingly in those days the principal enemies of Sanjines’ film were los yanquis and their dreaded CIA — a bit of a cliché, one must admit, but the idea of having a principal enemy in itself is not bad, if you know who it really is. Identifying your enemy can make you more effective, whoever you are.

And, whether they know it or not, Republicans, conservatives, libertarians, center-right folks, all those who favor smaller government and increased freedom, do have a principal enemy. But, surprisingly, it’s no longer Barack Obama. He is over. He was already a lame duck when Obamacare plucked most of his remaining feathers. The damage he can do may still be serious, but most of it will be reparable.

http://jamieglazov.com/2013/12/31/the-hero-of-2013-on-the-finch-gang/

This week’s Glazov Gang, hosted by Michael Finch, the Freedom Center’s Chief Operating Officer, was joined by Mark Vafiades, the Chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, Dr.Karen Siegemund, Founder of Rage Against the Media andOrestes Matacena, a Hollywood filmmaker and actor.

The Gang gathered to discuss The Hero of 2013. The discussion occurred in Part II (starting at the 13:17 mark) and gave respect to the warrior who stood out amongst all others in his stand for freedom.

The episode also focused on Freedom vs. Security, 2013: Year of the Scandals, and Predictions for 2014.

Watch both parts of the two-part series below:

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=6859 The one thing common to all New Year’s resolutions is that they are based on the fantasy of a brighter future. Though the aim to lose weight or make a career move is neither unreasonable nor necessarily unattainable, the reason it involves fantasy is twofold. In the first place, the unconscious, underlying goal of […]

http://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/2013/12/bibis-choice/?utm_source=Mosaic+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=98c29a35a4-Mosaic_2013_12_31&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0b0517b2ab-98c29a35a4-41165129
“Releasing terrorists in return for continued peace negotiations with the Palestinians is bad enough; accepting another settlement freeze would amount to saying: we have no right to be here. ”

The release of unrepentant Jew-killers from Israeli prisons to keep the engine of the peace process running has left many, even those sympathetic with the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, angrily wondering why Prime Minister Netanyahu did not accept a settlement freeze instead. There is a good reason, even for those not generally sympathetic to the Jewish presence: unlike the other concessions, a settlement freeze implicitly concedes Israel’s chief negotiating positions before even sitting down at the table.

The first thing to say is that the position Israel was put in by Secretary of State John Kerry and the Palestinians was fundamentally unjust. Israel is forced to make sacrifices even for the “privilege” of participating in peace negotiations to whose ultimate goal is “painful sacrifices” by Israel. In Israel, politicians talk about paying “the price” for peace. Kerry has put a price on paying the price: a value-added tax on peace.

Moreover, if the occupation were so terrible (or real) one would think Abbas would be in a hurry to get to the bargaining table without any preliminaries. This suggests Abbas is not in such a hurry to get an “end of the occupation” so much as particular tactical wins. Moreover, the fact that a top priority for Abbas is the release of mass murders so they can be feted and remunerated shows that “peace” is not vaguely on the horizon, regardless of whether a Kerry diplomatic achievement is. If Bibi partied down with Jewish terrorist Baruch Goldstein, it would be the end of his career.

http://www.romirowsky.com/14215/state-of-failure ‘If you build it, they will come,” was the line that made Kevin Costner’s character in Field of Dreams famous, as his Ray Kinsella was called upon to build a baseball field that would allow Shoeless Joe Jackson and the seven other players banned in the 1919 Black Sox scandal to play again. The […]

http://torahmusings.com/2013/12/was-the-conservative-decline-inevitable-a-baal-teshuvas-perspective/ “Nowhere is [the] rapid collapse [of non-Orthodox American Judaism] more visible than in the Conservative movement, which is practically imploding before our eyes,” writes Rabbi Daniel Gordis in the current issue of The Jewish Review of Books. “In 1971, 41 percent of American Jews affiliated with the Conservative movement, then the largest of the movements. By the […]

http://leebsmarketforecast.com/content/the_complete_investor/committing-citycide-new-york-seattle-voters-embrace-fiscal-destruction As the Big Apple’s tax base shrinks, its municipal costs skyrocket, increasing the urgency that it get its financial house in order.  So I’ll make a bold prediction: New Yorkers may someday regret electing a man who says he does not believe in the free market system. “Everything you heard about me is true…I […]

http://letthemfight.blogspot.com/2013_12_29_archive.html The controversy ignited by the latest story emanating from the decaying carcass that is the New York Times and it’s writer, David Kirkpatrick, playing the amateur philologist on NBC’s “Meet the Press“, magnifies the ludicrousness of political discourse in the second decade of this twenty first century. In one of the most nauseating displays […]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304591604579290350851300782 As he came to the end of his awful year Barack Obama gave an awful speech. The president thinks America has inequality issues. What it has—what he has—is an envy problem. I’ll get to the point in a moment, but first a word about the speech’s awfulness. To illustrate the evils of income inequality, […]

Dumping irrationality as a national strategy US Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive in Israel for his 14th visit this week. And to assure that his stay will be a happy one, Saturday night the government approved the release of 26 more Palestinian mass murderers from prison. This will please Kerry because today a […]