RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324407504578183312848676912.html?mod=opinion_newsreel

THIS IS A LOVELY TRIBUTE TO WONDERFUL NEWTOWN…..THERE IS ALSO A SECTION OF NEWTOWN CALLED “PALESTINE” AND THE NAME EVOLVED BECAUSE DOZNES OF JEWISH FAMILIES WERE RELOCATED TO NEWTOWN IN THE EARLY PART OF THE LAST CENTURY TO TAKE THEM AWAY FROM THE CROWDING AND POVERTY OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE IN NEW YORK CITY. BESIDES BEING A REMINDER OF THE JEWISH TIES TO “PALESTINE” LONG BEFORE THE INVENTION OF “PALARABS,” THE JEWS FOUND A BUCOLIC HAVEN. THEY TRIED THEIR HANDS AT FARMING BUT MOST WENT INTO RETAIL. ….RSK

The word “community” is overused. It is even the title of a television sitcom. But in the context of Newtown—the Connecticut town of 27,000 that I’ve known as home since 1969—it is authentic. Yet from within our midst came Adam Lanza, now a murderer of 20 innocent local children, six of their dedicated teachers, and his own mother.Today the world is focused on our heretofore-bucolic slice of America. As the international media’s satellite dishes sprout and their choppers descend to dissect the shooting and the shooter, Newtown is mostly presented as either an affluent suburb of New York or a picture-perfect New England hamlet with old-timey colonial houses, horse farms and a historic Main Street.Neither characterization does it justice. To live here is to know why, after two decades of global wandering, I returned eight years ago to raise my family.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324640104578161593492943144.html?mod=opinion_newsreel

Wind and solar power cannot possibly meet the world’s growing need for more electricity.

Investing in and using fossil fuels is so wrong it should be seen as the equivalent of support for apartheid. That is the message being promoted by 350.org, the organization headed by environmental activist Bill McKibben.

Over the past month or so, Mr. McKibben and a rotating cast of activists have held rallies in 21 U.S. cities encouraging students to campaign for ridding their university endowments of investments in coal, oil and natural gas. The effort is modeled on the 1980s effort to get universities to shed investments in companies that did business in apartheid-era South Africa. A few small schools, including Unity College in Maine and Hampshire College in Massachusetts, have responded to the pressure and agreed to rid their portfolios of fossil-fuel stocks.

One of the slogans used in 350.org’s divestment campaign is “Do the math.” OK. Let’s.
Set aside the financial arguments for—or against—investing in companies that produce hydrocarbons. Further, let’s not judge the claims made by Mr. McKibben and his allies that a concentration of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere is “the safe limit for humanity.”

Let’s do the math by considering what will happen if we humans—in the words of the campaign—attempt to “go fossil free” and rely solely on “clean energy.” To make the computation simpler still, let’s ignore oil altogether, even though that energy source represents about 33% of all global energy use and is indispensable for transportation.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ Forget the Grand Prix or the Daytona 500, the real race right now is the race to Damascus. The racers include Syrian rebels in pickup trucks with mounted machine guns and homemade tanks, toting weapons and equipment supplied and paid for by Qatar and Turkey, and more covertly by the British and French intelligence […]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/hillary_in_hiding.html For once, I am inclined to believe Hillary Clinton. The U.S. Secretary of State, suffering from a sick stomach, has reportedly fainted and bumped her head. As a result, her spokespeople have already announced that she will be unable to testify at the Benghazi hearings, although she was not due to appear until December […]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/us_ambassador_tells_georgia_to_vote_for_a_palestinian_state.html

From the former Soviet Republic of Georgia comes news of an extraordinary betrayal by the Obama Administration. As Obama continues to abandon freedom in his support of Muslim Brotherhood and Sharia revolutions and regimes in Egypt and elsewhere, he has taken behind-the-scenes steps to further the international isolation of Israel, the only democracy in that Middle East.

Just before the November 29 United Nations vote granting non-member state observer status, the U.S. ambassador to Georgia, Richard Norland, an Obama appointee, met with Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili. During their conversation, Norland recommended that the Prime Minister that Georgia should vote in favor of a Palestinian state.

This happened despite the U.S.’s official opposition, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the vote “unfortunate and counterproductive … plac[ing] further obstacles in the path of peace.” Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on the day of the vote: “None of the vital interests of peace appear in the resolution that will be put forward before the General Assembly today and that is why Israel cannot accept it.” He was right. But in Georgia, the U.S. was betraying a steadfast and true ally.

This information comes from Gabriel M. Mirilashvili, a prominent businessman and corporation owner in Georgia, who is Vice-President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and head of the World Congress of Georgian Jews. Mirilashvili says that he heard this from Ivanishvili himself, and that there exists an official record of the conversation between Norland and Ivanishvili. When Mirilashvili urged Ivanishvili to oppose the Palestinian statehood resolution, Ivanishvili responded that the American ambassador had told him to support it.

It is also interesting to note that a few days before this meeting, George Soros came to Georgia and also met with Prime Minister Ivanishvili, and they agreed to collaborate on various initiatives. President Obama’s close ties to Soros goes back to the 2007 and the run up to the 2008 presidential election.

Meanwhile, another source said that Georgia is harboring Chechen jihadists — killers who have Georgian passports. When some of these jihadis were arrested in Turkey, the Turkish press published the fact that they were traveling on Georgian passports. What’s more, their leader, Umar Sugaipov, who is not currently in Georgia, is a former deputy head of security for the late President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Aslan Maskhadov.

This is the kind of government that the Obama Administration is whispering with to work against Israel. That the U.S. Ambassador to Georgia would advise that nation’s Prime Minister to support a Palestinian state is shocking, but not surprising. This is what the U.S. under Obama has been covertly but effectively pursuing on the world stage for four years now. While Obama is courting influential Jews in America and Americans who support the tiny Jewish state, he is betraying Israel, our only reliable ally in the Middle East.

Obama’s foreign policy has been instrumental in the rise of jihadist and Islamic supremacist regimes across the Middle East and North Africa. And it is not difficult to see what the second Obama presidential term will bring. President Obama is consistent in his foreign policy. Four years into his presidency, the world is radically transformed, and soon will be unrecognizable.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/what-can-a-husband-do-about-a-disobedient-wife A month ago, an Iraqi woman was found on a roadside, beaten to death. A sign was pinned on her: “Go back to your country, you terrorist.” There was immediate hand-wringing from good-hearted people, led by the Islamic American legal propagandists (CAIR), pointing to one more hate crime against American Muslims. Because there have […]

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-finances-of-hypocrisy

Bill Gates is liquidating his billions to “do good” – “dedicated to improving lives here and around the world” – and also to avoid an annual tax bill that could match the GNP of Luxembourg or perhaps Switzerland. His foundation website boasts the egalitarian motto: “All Lives Have Equal Value.”

Do they? Doubtless, Bill Gates believes they do. But is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation merely a super-sized tax dodge? All tax dodges are altruist in nature. And hypocritical. Our tax code enforces altruism by granting deductions for charity and exempting nonprofit enterprises. It encourages dishonesty and – what is worse than tax evasion – moral evasion, and ultimately moral corruption.

Much has been written by critics since the beginning of 2009 and President Barack Obama’s reign about the hypocrisy of members of his allies in the Left/Liberal Establishment. Particular focus has been on wealthy politicians and the champions of left/liberal causes, such as movie stars and professional talking heads, who advocate financial discipline and lower expectations for Americans but who don’t themselves wish to practice what they preach.

This barrage of accusations has largely fallen on deaf ears. Virtually the only thing that will guarantee the permanent potting and retirement of a liberal is a sex scandal, à la former North Carolina Senator John Edwards or former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. A charge of criminal behavior and gross malfeasance of public funds and just plain blatant corruption sometimes works, but not always. New York congressman Charles Rangel is a case in point. He was “censured” by the House in 2010 but still maintains his corrupt ways and lifestyle, and grins at you from his House web page with the amiability of a card shark.

Hurling a charge of hypocrisy at a liberal hypocrite is about as effective as throwing a spitball at the back of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie sporting a flak jacket. It is a fruitless, impotent act because the target is by nature inured against charges of verisimilitude, dissimulation, venality, and double standards. Morality, honesty, integrity, and legally gained wealth – these virtues, the hypocrite avers, are for others, not for him. He is of the elite and must have some freedom of action and viable options and financial security and comfort so he has the leisure time to concoct his utopian fiscal and social plans for everyone else, and then propose them with the religious fervor of a ragged desert anchorite.

Charges of hypocrisy have never made hypocrites blush in embarrassment. When such charges are made public, a hypocrite’s first concern is his public image, not the falseness and fraudulence of his private and public character. Such charges only move his ilk to erect even higher opaque barriers to exposure and to dig deeper labyrinths of secrecy.

As a rule, liberals and advocates of confiscatory taxation seek to conserve and protect their nest eggs from the very tax and fiscal policies they propose for everyone else. They can afford the tax lawyers and CPA firms which most middle income individuals can only dream of employing. Liberals such as John Kerry and any random Kennedy patronize the services of law firms and CPA firms with a dozen names between them to fix their books. All others must patronize a strip mall’s Jackson Hewitt or H&R Block.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3502/protestant-consultation-israel-middle-east The next Presiding Bishop of the ELCA would do well to forget the obsession with pro-Palestinian activism and pay more attention to the real wishes of the faithful. Ditto for the other churches whose members have signed the Declaration. Protestants from three continents met in Jerusalem during November 5-8, 1912, to initiate a Protestant […]

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3501/spain-innocent-prophet-film The case demonstrates how the fear of Muslim rage is threatening the exercise of free speech in Europe. Firasat said he has received far more threats from the Spanish government than from angry Muslims. “I have been threatened by the authorities [and told] that my refugee status will be revoked; I will be deported […]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother-mental-illness-conversation_n_2311009.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

THE WORDS “MENTALLY ILL” AS A CATCH-ALL FOR ALL MANIFESTATIONS OF MENTAL ILLNESS….FROM ANXIETY OR DEPRESSION OR ATTENTION DEFICIT TO CRIMINALLY INSANE…ARE OFFENSIVE. I HAVE FRIENDS WHO THEMSELVES OR THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS HAVE FORMS OF MENTAL ILLNESS WHO ARE PEACEFULLY FUNCTIONING AND PARTICIPATING AND CONTRIBUTING TO LIFE. THESE PEOPLE WHO MURDER ARE CRIMINALLY INSANE AND THAT SHOULD BE THE TERM TO DESCRIBE THEM. PLEASE READ THIS HEARTBREAKING LETTER….RSK

Written by Liza Long, republished from The Blue Review

Friday’s horrific national tragedy — the murder of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut — has ignited a new discussion on violence in America. In kitchens and coffee shops across the country, we tearfully debate the many faces of violence in America: gun culture, media violence, lack of mental health services, overt and covert wars abroad, religion, politics and the way we raise our children. Liza Long, a writer based in Boise, says it’s easy to talk about guns. But it’s time to talk about mental illness.

While every family’s story of mental illness is different, and we may never know the whole of the Lanza’s story, tales like this one need to be heard — and families who live them deserve our help.

Three days before 20 year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut kindergartners, my 13-year old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus because he was wearing the wrong color pants.

“I can wear these pants,” he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises.

“They are navy blue,” I told him. “Your school’s dress code says black or khaki pants only.”

“They told me I could wear these,” he insisted. “You’re a stupid bitch. I can wear whatever pants I want to. This is America. I have rights!”

“You can’t wear whatever pants you want to,” I said, my tone affable, reasonable. “And you definitely cannot call me a stupid bitch. You’re grounded from electronics for the rest of the day. Now get in the car, and I will take you to school.”

I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.