RUTHFULLY YOURS

In his June 14 address to the nation, President Obama attributed Omar Mateen’s attack on patrons of Orlando, Fla.’s, Pulse nightclub to “homegrown extremism,” saying “we currently do not have any information to indicate that a foreign terrorist group directed the attack.”

While Obama acknowledged that the Islamic State has called for attacks around the world against “innocent civilians,” he suggested these calls were incidental, emphasizing that Mateen was a “lone actor” and “an angry, disturbed, unstable young man” susceptible to being radicalized “over the Internet.”

It is a terrible thing to misunderstand one’s enemy so deeply. The doctrine of jihad invoked by terrorist groups is an institution with a long history, grounded in legal precedent going back to the time of Muhammad.

Militants who invoke the doctrine of jihad follow principles influenced by Islamic law. The point to be grasped is that the doctrinal basis of jihad generates conditions that can incite “bottom up” terrorism, which does not need to be directed by jihadi organizations.

When the Ottoman Caliphate entered World War I in 1914, it issued an official fatwa calling upon Muslims everywhere to rise up and fight the “infidels.” In 1915, a more detailed ruling was issued, entitled “A Universal Proclamation to All the People of Islam.”

Young people face many worries and uncertainties as they grow toward adulthood, so it really is immensely unfair that those with agendas work so hard to add to their burdens. Physicist John Reid has set out to relieve one of those fostered anxieties with A Young Persons Guide to the Green House Effect. A sample:
Climate change is a hot topic. Despite the experts telling us that `the science is settled’ it just does not appear to be the case.
Because the environment scare and the nuclear war scare were fresh in people’s minds they decided that the two things were connected and that rising CO2 must be causing the temperature to go up. They started calling CO2 a ‘pollutant’ like DDT and radioactive fallout. The increase in CO2 is supposed to be due to humans burning coal and oil in industry, but there are other explanations for it.

Many scientists believe there has been an hysterical over-reaction to these observations and that, apart from the fact that both CO2 and temperature have both been increasing recently, there is really no evidence to connect the two things. It is just a delayed reaction to the ‘Future Shock’ of the scary 1950s.
When CO2 and water vapour in the atmosphere increased at the end of the last Ice Age, which had lasted for more than 80,000 years, it made the earth warm again . It made the big ice caps melt and raised the level of the ocean. That happened 11,000 years ago and created a boom time for Homo Sapiens (us). Apart from a few random fluctuations, our climate has been warm and stable ever since.

After the Orlando attack, Obama ranted that it did not matter what we called Islamic terrorism. “What exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIS less committed to trying to kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is none of the above. Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away. This is a political distraction.”

The “Islamic terrorists by any other name would smell as sweet” argument is the last resort of the losing side. It dismisses the whole issue as a matter of semantics with no bearing on the real world.

And that’s a neat rhetorical trick for the political side that relentlessly refuses to acknowledge reality.

One of the more shocking moments in Jeffrey Goldberg’s extended Atlantic write-up of Obama’s foreign policy came with his conversation with the Prime Minister of Australia. Obama, who has refused to recognize any connection between Islamic theology and violence, and made the hijab into a civil rights issue, told the Australian leader how he had seen Indonesia turn to “fundamentalist” Islam and noted, unfavorably, the large numbers of women now wearing hijabs as a sign of that fundamentalism.

Obama blamed the Saudis for pushing Wahhabism through imams and madrassas into Indonesia.

It wasn’t an original critique, but also not one that you hear much in Obama’s circles. When Obama reportedly tells world leaders that there will be “no comprehensive solution to Islamist terrorism until Islam reconciles itself to modernity” and undergoes reforms the way that Christianity did, it’s like suddenly having Khrushchev explain why Communism can’t work and will end up falling apart.

Apparently, some tutors are concerned that an SAT math question with a chart showing more boys than girls in math classes may have made taking the test too difficult for females to handle emotionally.

According to an article in the New York Times, the content of the question is an example of what’s called a “stereotype threat.”

“When people are reminded during a test of a negative stereotype about their race or sex, psychologists say, it creates a kind of test anxiety that leads them to underperform,” the article explains.

According to the article, the question was one of two that some people in the test-prep industry felt fell into this category. The other one was a verbal question that included a historical passage from the 19th century that argued that a woman’s place was in the home.

Now, the article does admit that, according to the College Board, “No differences in the scores of boys and girls of comparable ability were found on the questions in dispute.”

So, what’s the problem? Well, according to the article, the issue isn’t really about scores on specific questions. Rather, the tutors are concerned that the very presence of “stereotype threat” questions may be a reason why males score better than females on the SAT in general.

This special edition of The Glazov Gang presents the Mark Christian Moment with Mark Christian, the President and Executive Director of the Global Faith Institute. He is the son and nephew of high ranking leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in his home country of Egypt. After his conversion from Islam to Christianity, Dr. Christian dedicated his life and work to the proposition that “the first victims of Islam are the Muslim themselves.”

Dr. Christian discussed Can Any LGBT Individual Survive a Day Under Sharia Law?, unveiling the connection between Islamic theology and the jihadist massacre in Orlando.

Don’t miss it!

By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman/JNS.org http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2016/6/2/mekonen-puts-a-face-on-the-stories-of-the-idf-and-ethiopian-jewry#.V3D8SjU_nSY=

Squeals of laughter and high-spirited traditional Ethiopian dancing, coupled with deep and mournful cries of loss and pain. The piercing sound of bullets whizzing above a soldier’s head. “Ready, aim, fire.” The quiet smile of a night under the stars with your fellow comrades.

“Mekonen: The Journey of an African Jew,” the latest production from the film-focused educational non-profit Jerusalem U, is the story of an intrepid and introspective young Ethiopian-Israeli soldier.

The film, which debuted on Israeli Independence Day last month, is a spinoff of Jerusalem U’s previous documentary, “Beneath the Helmet: From High School to the Home Front” (2014), which followed five Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recruits, including Mekonen Abebe, through their military training. “Mekonen” follows up by honing in exclusively on Abebe, a young Ethiopian shepherd who overcame financial and familial hardships to realize his dream of becoming an officer in the IDF.

“After nearly every screening of ‘Beneath the Helmet,’ the audiences had burning questions about Abebe. They connected with him and wanted to know more about where he came from and how the next chapter of his story would unfold,” said Rebecca Shore, Jerusalem U’s creative director and the director of “Mekonen.”

The film, according to Jerusalem U CEO Raphael Shore, is part of the organization’s series of mission-driven productions that are meant to engage, educate, and empower Jewish young adults—particularly on college campuses, where anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are on the rise.

“We create these products to try to inspire and push back,” Shore said at the premiere event for “Mekonen” in Israel, which welcomed more than 200 youths who were culminating a year studying in Israel before attending college in the United States. “We all tend to think of ourselves as small. But we are all leaders. I hope you step up.”

“There is definitely growing anti-Semitism on campus—swastikas being painted on houses, assaults. We see it growing,” said Moshe Lencer, an international ambassador for the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi). “But on the other side, the pro-Israel camp is growing, too.…The students use these movies to help put a face to the story.”

But as much as “Mekonen” is a pro-Israel film, it is also the universal story of the Ethiopian aliyah (immigration to Israel)—and of aliyah in general.

“I decided to participate in ‘Mekonen’ to be there for others who need hope,” Mekonen Abebe, charming and modest, said in an interview with JNS.org. “It’s to give the weaker segment of society, those who are struggling, an example that you can win from nothing.”

As the blood dried at the scene of the latest Tel Aviv massacre, the city’s mayor rushed to empathize with the terrorists’ motives.

“We might be the only country in the world where another nation is under occupation without civil rights,” he claimed. “You can’t hold people in a situation of occupation and hope they’ll reach the conclusion everything is alright.”

This prognosis was quickly followed by the usual Israeli “hope” peddlers.

“The terror will continue as long as the Palestinian people have no hope on the horizon,” argued a Haaretz editorial. “The only way to deal with terrorism is by freeing the Palestinian people from the occupation.”

But this precisely what Israel did 20 years ago.

The declaration of principles (DOP, or Oslo I) signed on the White House lawn in September 1993 by the PLO and the Israeli government provided for Palestinian self-rule in the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip for a transitional period not to exceed five years, during which Israel and the Palestinians would negotiate a permanent peace settlement. By May 1994, Israel had completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (apart from a small stretch of territory containing a small number of Israeli settlements that “occupied” not a single Palestinian and were subsequently evacuated in 2005) and the Jericho area of the West Bank. On July 1, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat made his triumphant entry into Gaza, and shortly afterward a newly- established Palestinian Authority (PA ) under his leadership took control of this territory.

On September 28, 1995, despite the PA ’s abysmal failure to clamp down on terrorist activities in the territories under its control, the two parties signed an interim agreement, and by the end of the year Israeli forces had been withdrawn from the West Bank’s populated areas with the exception of Hebron (where redeployment was completed in early 1997). On January 20, 1996, elections to the Palestinian Council were held, and shortly afterward both the Israeli Civil Administration and military government were dissolved.

“What happened… in the territories is the Palestinian state,” gushed environment minister Yossi Sarid. “The Palestinian state has already been established.”

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

SACH saves its 4000th child. (TY Hazel) 4-year-old Sanusey was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. The surgery needed to repair his heart is not available in Gambia. Sanusey is now recovering from open heart surgery at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel. He is the 4,000th child saved by Israel’s Save a Child’s Heart organization. Other children currently being treated include five from Iraq and Zead from Gaza.
http://www.saveachildsheart.com/sach_news/save-childs-heart-saves-4000th-child/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/sanusey-4-is-4000th-child-helped-by-save-a-childs-heart/?
http://www.saveachildsheart.com/global/children-we-help/children-currently-in-israel/

Good trials of colon X-ray capsule. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported about Israel’s Check-cap previously (Feb 2012) that requires no prior preparation or hospital visit. After 4 years, trials on 54 participants of its ingestible and disposable low-dose 3D imaging capsule proved safe and well tolerated and detected small and large polyps.
http://ir.check-cap.com/2016-05-25-Check-Cap-Announces-Preliminary-Data-Evaluating-its-Preparation-Free-Colon-Screening-Capsule

US approves CT radiation safety system. (TY Atid-EDI) The SafeCT-29 solution from Israel’s Medic Vision Imaging Solutions produces high-quality medical scan images but reduces radiation doses by up to 80%. SafeCT-29 works with any CT scanner and has just been approved by the US FDA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIxekstfs5k http://www.medicvision.com/en/home

Canada approves tremor treatment. (TY Atid-EDI) Canada’s federal department responsible for helping Canadians maintain and improve their health, Health Canada, has approved the Exablate Neuro system for the treatment of essential tremor developed by Israel’s Insightec. http://www.insightec.com/news-events/press-releases/2016/health-canada-approves-insightec-s-exablate-neuro-system-for-the-treatment-of-essential-tremor/

Skin stickers to monitor activity. A new medical innovation, developed at Tel Aviv University’s Center for Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, uses ‘stick it and forget it’ electrodes affixed to the skin, to monitor muscle activity. Applications include monitoring driver alertness and individuals with neuro-degenerative diseases.
http://unitedwithisrael.org/new-israeli-developed-stickers-can-detect-and-map-emotions/
http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/InnovativeIsrael/ScienceTech/Pages/New-electrode-maps-emotions-20-June-2016.aspx

The science of daydreaming. Scientists at Bar-Ilan University have used low-level electricity to increase the rate at which daydreams – or spontaneous, self-directed thoughts and associations – occur. They also discovered that daydreams have a positive effect on task performance.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/289896.php

Help for patients and care-givers. Israeli Marni Mandell launched the startup CareHood to provide patients and care-givers with a website where they can learn what has helped other people in similar situations. They can then build a care package of services, gifts, tasks and errands that their friends and family can assist with.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/when-medical-crisis-strikes-carehood-tries-to-answer-how-can-i-help/

Monitoring cancer in the genes. Israel’s NovellusDx monitors the effect of cancer therapies on a patient’s genetic mutations. NovellusDx reports to the oncologist on the contribution of the driver mutations to the activation of the signaling pathways. NovellusDx has just received $2.5 million funds from the VC Orbimed.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-orbimed-invests-25m-in-cancer-profiling-co-novellusdx-1001133996 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zBQzAXFDrQ

Making any fabric antibacterial. I reported on Israel’s Nano Textile previously (Feb 2015) when it announced its antibacterial Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nano-coating for bed linen and clothing to prevent hospital infections. Nano Textile has now announced that it can make any fabric (natural or synthetic) antibacterial.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/nano-textile-says-it-can-make-any-fabric-antibacterial/
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-israeli-co-nano-textile-introduces-antibacterial-fabric-1001131859

We are rapidly getting to the point where any word in the English language uttered by a white male within earshot of an oppressed minority will be considered a microaggression.

Here’s the latest list of no-no words compiled by the University of North Carolina.

Daily Caller:

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill issued a guide this week which instructs students that Christmas vacations and telling a woman “I love your shoes!” are “microagressions.”

The taxpayer-funded guide — entitled “Career corner: Understanding microaggressions” — also identifies golf outings and the words “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” as microagressions.

The UNC Chapel Hill guide, published on Thursday, covers a wide range of menacing microaggressions — which are everyday words that radical leftists have decided to be angry or frustrated about.

Christmas vacations are a microagression, the public university pontificates, because “academic calendars and encouraged vacations” which “are organized around major religious observances” centralize “the Christian faith” and diminish “non-Christian spiritual rituals and observances.”

Interestingly, the long break between semesters at UNC Chapel Hill for the 2016-2017 academic year will last from December 17 to January 10 — thus covering Christmas as well as the New Year’s Day of the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar is named for Pope Gregory XIII. The Roman Catholic Church introduced the calendar in 1582.

The microagression of liking shoes occurs when someone says “I love your shoes!” “to a woman in leadership during a Q & A after a speech.” So it’s a very specific microagression. The problem, the University of North Carolina document declares, is that the shoe admirer values appearances “more than” “intellectual contributions.”

ABC’s Quantico is TV’s most multicultural and multiethnic soap opera, and its formula is a nod to ABC’s lucrative Thursday night Shonda Rhimes dramas.

Created by Joshua Safran, Quantico focuses on FBI recruits and their instructors. Most of the students have dark family or personal secrets. Trainees quickly pair off into love affairs among themselves and sometimes with instructors who have already engaged in illicit faculty love affairs. Has anyone here been vetted…ever?

By these “standards,” the most “qualified” trainee is Simon Asher (Tate Ellington), who happens to be the lone Jewish recruit, and who served with the Israeli Army in Gaza. Simon is introduced as a gay man, but soon (10-25-2015, written by Jake Coburn and Justin Brenneman), his gay classmate Elias (depicted as a coward and turncoat) asks him outright, “Are you a patriot? Are you Jewish? Are you even gay?… The only thing real about you is the way you look at Nimah Amin [a Lebanese-born classmate] when you think that no one is looking.”

Only when threatened with exposure by Elias, Simon responds:

“You’re right about me. I am dangerous…. I was in the Israeli Defense Forces. They sent me into Gaza. I didn’t just see things, I did things, things that haunt me every single day of my life. After I got back, living under cover was the only way I could cope with what I did. So I made myself a lie.”

Nimah (Yasmine Al Massri), too, will question Simon’s claims to be gay, and will grill him, “Simon Asher, you’re a Conservative Jew from a…Zionist family, but for years ago you traveled to Gaza to live with the Palestinians, and to this day you never told anyone.”

What is Simon Asher hiding? In the aforementioned dialogue Elias tells Simon, upon learning that he is not gay, “The only thing that bugs me is the lengths you’re willing to go to maintain your façade. You’re dangerous.”

Nimah is hiding something, as well. Simon is literally knocked over when he discovers that she has a twin sister. Has he unknowingly been involved with both? The twins are already being used to infiltrate an Islamic terrorist group. They conceal things because of patriotism, which is demonstrated, as well, by foreign-accented recruit Alex Parrish (Priyanka Chopra) even when she is falsely accused of terrorism.

Simon is depicted as having the most to hide of any of the trainees. Early on in his relationship with Nimah, he tells her: “It became easier to let people believe I was gay, so I wouldn’t show them who I really was. It gave me boundaries, just like you have boundaries.” (11-1-15, by Shafran and Beth Schacter) The “boundaries” refer to the Muslim faith in which the twins were raised. The writers’ message appears to be that soap opera love affairs may save the world since they are the best therapy to connect with the “other” and thus to learn about oneself.

The writers do give Simon rare strength and courage. In an episode written by show creator Safran (12-13-15) he withstands efforts to frame him. Simon manages to retain his cool even while being literally hooked to a bomb. Once Simon is convinced that Alex Parrish is being framed in some terrorist conspiracy (by which Simon himself has been victimized), he does everything possible to help her, aiding her with his vast technical knowledge and skills, even hacking into a computer used by a classmate.