RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443884104577647282429229736.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

“Mr. Obama also came to office saying, and apparently believing, that a more deferential America would be better respected around the world. He will finish his term having disproved his own argument. The real lesson of the last four years—a lesson as much for Republican isolationists as for Democrats who want to lead from behind—is the ancient one that weakness is provocative.”
The New World Disorder As the U.S. retreats, bad actors begin to fill the vacuum.

By their nature, foreign policy problems often have a long fuse. The successes of one Administration (Truman, Reagan) sometimes don’t pay off for years (Bush 41), while dangers can simmer until they suddenly explode (al Qaeda). The Obama Presidency has been an era of slowly building tension and disorder that seems likely to flare into larger troubles and perhaps even military conflict no matter who wins in November.

This is the bigger picture behind this week’s public fight between the U.S. and Israel, as well as the anti-American violence in Cairo and Benghazi. In the Persian Gulf, across the Arab Spring and into the Western Pacific, the U.S. is perceived as a declining power. As that perception spreads, the world’s bad actors are asserting themselves to fill the vacuum, and American interests and assets will increasingly become targets unless the trend is reversed.

The Administration can’t be blamed for the 9/11 anniversary attack in Benghazi, which was an act of terrorism by anti-American Islamists that wasn’t stopped by a weak new government. Chris Stevens, the first U.S. Ambassador killed abroad in 33 years, was one of America’s most capable diplomats who was deeply engaged in the post-Gadhafi transition. Libya’s government has condemned the attack, and one test of its desire for close U.S. ties will be whether it punishes the perpetrators.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/09/911_-_the_international_day_of_jihad.html On 9/11/12, somehow the existence of an unknown movie provoked the worst sort of protests and the U.S. Ambassador to Libya was pulled out of his car, dragged through the streets, and brutally murdered. The video has gone viral throughout the Middle East and the same people who cheered the 9/11 bombings rejoiced once […]

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/09/jihad_denial.html

The events of 9/11/12 should make obvious to even more Americans that Islamists dedicated to jihad by any and all means, not only control many Middle Eastern countries, they also enjoy wide popular support. But there are certain species of Americans who cannot let themselves believe that there actually is a sizable group of people in the world who want to conquer us and subject us to life under Sharia Law.

Many of these jihad denialists are liberals, but far from all of them are. Diana West makes savage fun of Senators McCain, Graham, and Leiberman, whom she terms Tweedles Dum, Dum, and Dee, for their almost painful reiteration of the blind faith that a majority of Middle Eastern Muslims sincerely want democracy, and if only they get it, they will forget what the Quran and the clergy tell them is their duty as Muslims. On her eponymous blog, blog she quotes and comments on their joint statement on events ion Libya and Egypt:

“Despite this horrific attack, we cannot give in to the temptation to believe that our support for the democratic aspirations of people in Libya, Egypt, and elsewhere in the broader Middle East is naive or mistaken.

We cannot resign ourselves to the false belief that the Arab Spring is doomed to be defined not by the desire for democracy and freedom that has inspired millions of people to peaceful action, but by the dark fanaticism of terrorists.”

Notice it’s all about them. Evidence of their error in supporting al Qaeda-Muslim-Brother-generic-jihad revolutions across the Arab world is penetrating the collective dome, but they are trying to resist with all of their might. What we are looking at is textbook, Psych 101 denial.

There’s more. Read it all.

http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2012/09/mrs_clinton_and_american_sensibilities.html

In an effort to protect the delicate sensibilities of Egyptian rioters who invaded the American Embassy and tore down the American flag, Secretary of State Clinton accepted at face value the claim that the rioters were just so outraged and horrified by an anti-Muslim movie that they couldn’t control themselves. While rejecting violence in a pro forma way (“There is never any justification…”), she went on to apologize for her nasty countrymen and to deplore them. “We condemn the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.” Later, on the State Department Twitter feed, “The U.S. deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.” And, “Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation.”

As does our Constitutional commitment to free speech, including and especially speech that offends someone. Americans should have two words for Secretary Clinton: “Piss Christ.” If you can’t make yourself say them, try “Skokie.”

In 1987, American Andres Serranno produced a photograph of a plastic crucifix in a glass of his own urine. His work was funded in part by the U.S. Government’s National Endowment for the Arts.

A decade earlier, members of the National Socialist Party wanted to march in full Nazi regalia in Skokie, IL — home to a large number of Holocaust survivors. In a series of court actions, Skokie lawyers argued that, for Holocaust survivors, seeing a swastika was the equivalent of a physical attack. The Illinois Supreme Court disagreed, calling the swastika a symbolic form of free speech entitled to the protection of the First Amendment.

“Piss Christ” and Skokie are metaphors for the First Amendment right to hurt people’s feelings. Americans are told to suck it up and shut up. “Sticks and stones,” “If you don’t like it, lump it,” and all that.

As a practical matter, Secretary Clinton’s acceptance of the movie as instigator of the riots reeks of naiveté. Did it not occur to her that a purported offense against Islam might be a smoke screen for well-planned violence? Later press reports suggest that to be the case. Did she think radical Muslims don’t know that Americans generally hasten to be seen as sensitive to the feelings of others? The best defense is a good offense — “You Americans insulted us.” They read her like a book.

Did it not occur to her that the anniversary of 9-11 would be a great time for Islamic enemies of the United States to launch another attack on a symbolic American target? They can’t reach New York perhaps (thank you, NYPD and the Patriot Act), but an American Embassy is sovereign American soil.

Of the killing of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans, she said, “This is an attack that should shock the conscience of people of all faiths around the world.” Muslims included, no doubt, but why only “people of faith?” Can’t an ethical atheist be horrified?

http://news.yahoo.com/actress-says-duped-anti-islam-film-details-emerge-075312258.html

OH PULEEZ! IT WAS NOT THE STUPID FILM….THIS WAS SO DELIBERATELY ORCHESTRATED AS AN EXCUSE TO VENT JIHADIST RAGE IN ALL THE ARAB COUNTRIES…..RSK
Actress says was duped, as anti-Islam film details emergeBy Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The origins of a crudely made anti-Muslim movie that sparked violent protests in Egypt and Libya began to slowly emerge on Wednesday, with an actress in the California production saying she was duped and was unaware it was about the Prophet Mohammad.

Cindy Lee Garcia of Bakersfield, California, who appears briefly in clips of the film posted online, said she answered a casting call last year to appear in a movie titled “Desert Warrior.”

“It looks so unreal to me, it’s like nothing that we even filmed was there. There was all this weird stuff there,” Garcia told Reuters in a phone interview.

Clips of the movie, posted on YouTube under several titles including “Innocence of Muslims,” portrayed the Muslim prophet engaged in crude and offensive behavior. Many Muslims consider any depiction of the prophet as blasphemous.

http://news.yahoo.com/protesters-storm-us-embassy-yemen-084845510.html SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Chanting “death to America,” hundreds of protesters angered by an anti-Islam film stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Yemen’s capital and burned the American flag on Thursday, the latest in a series of attacks on American diplomatic missions in the Middle East. The protesters breached the usually tight security around […]

http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/1094/presidential-elections This piece is dedicated to Prime Minister Netanyahu, writes Prof. Chesler, ‘who would be treated like royalty were he to visit my home’. Prof. Phyllis Chesler is the author of fifteen books, including Women and Madness (Doubleday, 1972), The Death of Feminism: What’s Next in the Struggle for Women’s Freedom (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) and […]

http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/12/former-univ-of-chicago-law-school-dean-obama-was-never-offered-tenure/ A longtime professor and one-time interim dean of the University of Chicago Law School told The Daily Caller that Barack Obama was never offered tenure, despite the assertions of a New York Times reporter who covers the president and the first family.“Other faculty members dreamed of tenured positions; [Obama] turned them down,” wrote Times […]

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3344/islamophobia Any concerns about Islam can be dismissed as illegitimate by attaching a “phobia” at the end of it, and the power of the “phobia” is not just limited to killing debate about the famously moderate religion, but any “extreme” versions of it as well. Most Americans were introduced to the term “Islamophobia” after the […]

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3340/conservative-election-narrative It seems that the political right ends up time and again fighting on terrain which has been set out for them to lose on. How does the political left win so many arguments? More than any other cause, it seems to be that the political right ends up time and again fighting on terrain […]