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Ruth King

MARTIN SHERMAN: EGYPT A DOOMED NATION?

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=302550
Looking out across the vastness of Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, it is difficult to see why Ethiopia is known as a land plagued by horrific droughts. – BBC, “Nile restrictions anger Ethiopia,” February 3, 2005

Any action that would endanger the waters of the Blue Nile will be faced with a firm reaction on the part of Egypt, even if that action should lead to war. – Egyptian president Anwar Sadat – cited in “The Waters Of Life,” Time, April 23, 2006.

While Egypt is taking the Nile water to transform the Sahara into something green, we in Ethiopia – which is the source of 85 percent of that water – are denied the possibility of using it to feed ourselves… and forced to beg for food every year. – Ethiopia’s late prime minister Meles Zenawi, February 3, 2005.

The Greek historian Herodotus (c.484- 425 BCE) is credited with designating Egypt “The Gift of the Nile.” Today, tens of millions of Egyptians might consider the epithet “gift” singularly misplaced.

Writing on the wall?

The recent unrest that has raged across Egypt has once again thrust the country into the center of international attention. Indeed, there is a growing realization that the gap between the challenges facing the country and its ability to meet them – in even a minimally adequate fashion – is widening, perhaps irretrievably, making a humanitarian catastrophe of staggering proportions evermore likely.

The Silent Exodus of Syria’s Christians by Nina Shea

http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/47467 In Syria’s rebellion, no religious or ethnic group has been spared horrific levels of loss and suffering, but its 2,000-year-old Christian minority is now facing a distinct persecution. Under the cover of war and chaos, this group, which alone lacks militias of its own, is easy prey for Islamists and criminals, alike. These assaults […]

THE GLAZOV GANG ON LARRY ELDER’S MEMOIR “DEAR FATHER-DEAR SON- TWO LIVES”

Dear Father, Dear Son: Two Lives…Eight Hours — on The Glazov Gang
by Frontpagemag.com
Larry Elder and Dwight Schultz discuss Larry’s new riveting memoir that will touch your heart in unexpected places.
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/frontpagemag-com/dear-father-dear-son-two-lives-eight-hours-on-the-glazov-gang/

MY SAY: MATTHEW VADUM SAYS IT BETTER…..ON JOHN BRENNAN

WHILE WE WERE LOBBING EMPTY SHELLS AT CHUCK HAGEL WHO IS ON A SELF DESTRUCT MODE ANYWAY….BRENNAN WILL SAIL THROUGH. AS MY E-PAL ELLEN SINGER REMINDED ME TODAY THIS IS WHAT BRENNAN SAID IN 2010 ABOUT JERUSALEM AND THE SAUDIS AND HEZBOLLAH…..http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/137642

Speaking to an apparently Muslim audience at New York University in February, at a forum co-hosted by the White House and the Islamic Center at New York University.” Brennan first told a story in Arabic, evoking laughter and concluding with, “Don’t tell the folks who don’t speak Arabic what I said.” He then said that his favorite city in the Middle East is “Al Quds, Jerusalem.”

In the same speech, Brennan also spoke of his time at the American University in Cairo in the 1970s, referring to the common aspirations of his former Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian classmates, including the freedom “to practice our faith freely … In Saudi Arabia, I saw how our Saudi partners fulfilled their duty as custodians of the two holy mosques at Mecca and Medina.”

In another speech before Lebanese leaders who visited Washington recently, Brennan told them, “Hizbullah is a very interesting organization,” and said that it had evolved from “purely a terrorist organization” to a militia and now to an organization that has members within the parliament and the cabinet. “There is certainly the elements of Hizbullah that are truly a concern to us, what they’re doing,” Brennan said. “And what we need to do is to find ways to diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements.”

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/matthew-vadum/raking-brennan-over-the-coals/print/

CIA director nominee John O. Brennan took heat during a confirmation hearing yesterday but not on the issues that matter most to America’s survival.

The nature of the struggle between the United States and the rest of Western civilization with totalitarian, irredentist Islam, was barely touched upon during Brennan’s confirmation hearing. Distressingly, Brennan is an intellectually vapid, double-talking bureaucrat and leading Obama administration apologist for Islamic terrorism who has exonerated radical Islamists again and again.

But instead of asking Brennan about his softness on terrorism, senators focused on the U.S. use of drone strikes abroad against terrorist targets. Despite his apparent inability to comprehend the nature of our Islamist enemies and the threat they pose to America’s democratic values, Brennan now serves as the Obama White House counter-terrorism and “assassination czar.”

Brennan is regarded as the architect of the administration’s overseas drone program that targets terrorists. President Obama has bragged about personally designating targets for assassination on his so-called kill list.

Although the drone program has scored some major successes, including the instant cremation of senior al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki, squeamish senators raked Brennan over the coals regarding the controversial program. Although an enemy combatant, al-Awlaki was a U.S. citizen.

“It’s the idea of giving any president unfettered power to kill an American without checks and balances that’s so troubling,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore). “Every American has the right to know when their government believes it’s allowed to kill them.”

BRUCE BAWER: THE FOREIGN AID RACKET

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/bruce-bawer/the-foreign-aid-racket/print/ Are you one of those people who look askance at foreign aid because you think most of it ends up in the pockets of dictators, warlords, terrorists, and the like, and because even when it does get into the right hands, it tends to encourage dependency and work against economic growth? Well, have I […]

STEVEN PLAUT: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON THE EVE OF OBAMA’S VISIT TO ISRAEL ****

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/steven-plaut/questions-and-answers-on-the-eve-of-obamas-visit-to-israel/print/ Q: With Obama about to visit the country, should Israel agree to attend new negotiation sessions with the Palestinian Authority? A: No. Nothing positive can come out of it. For twenty years Israel has been attending “talks” with the Palestinians and these have achieved absolutely nothing other than Israeli capitulation. In each round of […]

Fact-Busters and the “Mosque-Buster” Posted By Janice Fiamengo

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/janice-fiamengo/fact-busters-and-the-mosque-buster/print/ Gavin Boby is a British lawyer who established the Law and Freedom Foundation in 2011 to work with communities to resist Islamization, particularly the campaigns of harassment and dominance that mosques routinely bring in their wake. Dubbed the “mosque-buster” because of his success in defeating 16 of 17 mosque applications in British neighborhoods, Boby […]

P. DAVID HORNIK: EUROPE A STAGING GROUND FOR ANTI-ISRAEL TERROR?

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/davidhornik/europe-staging-ground-for-anti-israeli-terror/print/ This week the Bulgarian government announced that Hizballah was behind the terror attack in Burgas, Bulgaria last July 28 that killed five Israelis, including a pregnant woman, and a Bulgarian bus driver. Bulgarian interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said the perpetrators—one of whom died in the attack—were an Australian and a Canadian who had moved […]

LIVE BY THE SWORD AND DIE BY THE DRONE? DANIEL GREENFIELD

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/live-by-the-sword-die-by-the-drone/print/ Ronald Ernest Paul, the nation’s last best hope for Internet gambling and the gold standard, responded to the murder of a Navy SEAL by saying, “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.” But the question is whose sword is it? To the anti-war movement, all conflicts between the free world and […]

IN CALIFORNIA: NO MAS ALGEBRA ROBBY SOAVE SEE NOTE PLEASE

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/california-gives-up-on-math-state-will-no-longer-require-eighth-graders-to-take-algebra?f=puball

http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/08/california-no-longer-requiring-eighth-graders-to-take-algebra/?print=1

“The Square of the Hypotenuse is a right triangle is equal to the sum-of the squares of two adjacent sides- You’d not tolerate letting your participle dangle,so please effect the self same respect for your geometrics slides–Old Einstein said it, when he was getting no where-giv him credit He was heard to declare,-“Eureka”- -The Square of the Hypotenuse os a right triangle is equal ro the sum-of the squares of two adjacent sides- You’d not tolerate letting your participle dangle,so please effect the self same respect for your geometrics slides- -Sure as shootin’, when problems get in your hair-Be like Newton Who was heard to declare,”Eureka”!- The Square of the Hypotenuse os a right triangle is equal ro the sum-of the squares of two adjacent sides- You’d not tolerate letting your participle dangle,so please effect the self same respect for your geometrics slides– The two Wright brothers, before they conquered the air-Like those others Orville holers, “Lookheah!-Wilbur- The Square of the Hypotenuse os a right triangle is equal ro the sum-of the squares of two adjacent sides- You’d not tolerate letting your participle dangle,so please effect the self same respect for your geometrics slides-” FROM THE IMMORTAL DANNY KAYE IN “MERRY ANDREW” IN 1958 LYRICS BY JOHNNY MERCER

California will no longer require eighth-graders to take algebra — a move that is line with the Common Core standards being adopted by most states, but that may leave students unprepared for college.

Last month, California formally shifted to the Common Core mathematics standards, which recommend that students delay taking algebra if they aren’t ready for it. Previously, algebra class was a requirement for all eighth-graders in the state.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, which is sponsored by the National Governor’s Association, is an effort to unify diverse state education curricula. Forty-five other states and the District of Columbia have signed on so far.

But some education experts worry that the change will further damage struggling students’ college chances, since early proficiency in Algebra I is an excellent predictor of college graduation, according to the Mercury News.

Black and Latino students in California are significantly more likely to fail eighth-grade algebra, and 80 percent of those who fail it once will fail it again when they take it in high school.

A study published by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area claims that some minority students who score well enough to place into advanced math classes are often mistakenly held back.

“School districts have been disproportionately requiring minority students to repeat Algebra I even after they scored proficient or advanced on the Algebra I California standardized tests,” said Kimberly Thomas Rapp, executive director of the committee, in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The new standard is a step back for California, and may leave students, particularly minority and low-income students, unprepared for college, said Rapp.