RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/diana-west-swimming-against-the-mainstream?f=puball

“The most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.”

That was the wisdom offered by award-winning novelist David Foster Wallace to the Kenyon College class of 2005, after he opened his memorable commencement address with this “didactic little parable-ish story”:

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”

The graduates were then challenged by Wallace to recognize that their education did not necessarily teach them “how to think,” but rather to realize their ability to determine what to think about. The rest of his speech focused on that determination and the resulting differences in interpretation based on one’s self-awareness and worldview.

Wallace’s wise “This is Water” words came to mind as I watched the drama begin to unfold around conservative author Diana West’s new book, American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character. For if “water” could represent the generally-accepted reality about whatever it is a person might determine to think deeply about and then challenge — then not only has West, like the “older fish” in Wallace’s story, been “swimming the other way.” She also asked, “How’s the water?” and proceeded to write a book about her discoveries after she dared peer closely into the water’s depths.

West’s book seems to have stirred major ripples in the taken-for-granted narrative; ripples that have splashed the toes of the mainstream and its recognized experts, both liberal and conservative.

From the left, the negative response was expected. From the right, the reaction from some influential sources could be described, at the very least, as perplexing.

The current that West dared swim against? Narratives such as: McCarthy was wrong; powerful and influential communist spies and sympathizers did not really infiltrate the highest levels of our government, media, and entertainment; and any such spying since proven by historians had no real influence on our strategy during World War II or in its resolution and aftermath.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/iran-threatens-widespread-retaliation-against-us-and-allies?f=puball Iran is ramping up its threats to the United States even as the American effort against Iranian client state Syria has ground to a crawl. President Obama made his case to the American people and the world community Tuesday night that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad must not be allowed to escape the consequences of using […]

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/final-flight-wasp-lillian-glezen-wray

During her first year at Texas Tech, Lillian Glezen made a bet with one of her sisters that,
if she earned a “B” in math, she would get to ride in a small plane.
From that first airplane ride, she knew that she wanted to learn to fly.

Lillian Glezen Wray, affectionately known as “Jay” as well as “Nanny Duke” and “Grandma Turtle,” was born in Gilmer, Texas on Dec. 9, 1913 to Thomas Hamilton and Lillian Corn Glezen. The young couple had recently moved their growing family from Indiana to Texas. Lillian was not only the youngest of eleven children, she was the only “native Texan” and a true tomboy.

Lillian attended Gilmer public schools, where she became an excellent tennis player. Following her high school graduation, she attended East Texas State Teachers College in Commerce, Texas (now Texas A&M Commerce) and Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.

When America was attacked at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Lillian was working as a switchboard operator at the Southwest Phone Company in Waco, Texas. After Pearl Harbor, she soon moved to Fort Worth and took a job Consolidated Aircraft, working as an inspector on the B-24 assembly line. She used part of her pay to take flying lessons. When she had acquired the number of newly reduced minimum required flying hours (35), she applied for WASP training and was accepted into class 44-W-9.

In April of 1944, Lillian and 106 other young women pilots arrived in Sweetwater, Texas and reported to Avenger Field for WASP training. After seven months of AAF flying training, in November, 1944, Lillian and fifty-four of her classmates graduated, received their silver WASP wings, and became Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP, the first women in history to fly America’s military aircraft).

She was then stationed at Goodfellow Army Air Base in San Angelo, Texas, where she flew AT-6s and BT-13s, training male cadets. She also occasionally ferried PT-19s to other air bases.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=67E27069-2249-4F27-9747-557223C8C4F2

The Syria researcher whose Wall Street Journal op-piece was cited by Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. John McCain during congressional hearings about the use of force has been fired from the Institute for the Study of War for lying about having a Ph.D., the group announced on Wednesday.

“The Institute for the Study of War has learned and confirmed that, contrary to her representations, Ms. Elizabeth O’Bagy does not in fact have a Ph.D. degree from Georgetown University,” the institute said in a statement. “ISW has accordingly terminated Ms. O’Bagy’s employment, effective immediately.”
O’Bagy told POLITICO’s Kate Brannen in an interview Monday that she had submitted and defended her dissertation and was waiting for Georgetown University to confer her degree.

Subject: Porn at Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona

Below is a picture and an excerpt out of the book Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia.

This is a 10th grade literature book that was used in my son’s class at Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona. The whole class read this book out loud during class. Everyone in the class had a copy of this book.

Notice the Buena High bar code on the cover.
The following excerpt is taken from page 80 (screenshot of page shown above):

“Dreaming in Cuban”
by Cristina Garcia
PAGE 80

Hugo and Felicia stripped in their room, dissolving easily into one another, and made love against the whitewashed walls. Hugo bit Felicia’s breast and left purplish bands of bruises on her upper thighs. He knelt before her in the tub and massaged black Spanish soap between her legs. He entered her repeatedly from behind.

Felicia learned what pleased him. She tied his arms above his head with their underclothing and slapping him sharply when he asked.

“You’re my bitch,” Hugo said, groaning.

In the morning he left, promising to return in the summer.
See two articles:
1) By Dana R. Casey, a high-school English teacher, who explains exactly how the Common Core Standards can warp vulnerable teenagers’ minds, setting them up to accept the next wave of anti-American sentiment.

8.18.13 – “A Monstrous Story for a Monstrous Curriculum: The Ugly Heart of Common Core” – by Dana R. Casey –http://dcclothesline.com/2013/08/25/a-monstrous-story-for-a-monstrous-curriculum-the-ugly-heart-of-common-core/

2) “The Perfect Plan To Destroy America: Nationalize Education” — http://educationviews.org/the-perfect-plan-to-destroy-america-nationalize-education/

(From Donna Garner):

http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2013/09/11/on-911-and-benghazis-anniversary-we-end-conservative-pessimism-and-right-wing-apocalypticism/?singlepage=true

The world may look bleak as we mourn those we’ve lost, but America’s greatest days lie ahead and James C. Bennett and Michael Lotus’s America 3.0 provides the blueprint for getting there.

For season 2 of the 13 Weeks Radical Reading Regimen each afternoon I juxtapose book excerpts with a collection of PJ Media’s headlines and links to the 10 most interesting stories I find each morning from other sites around the web. The goal is to make fresh connections between the events of the day and the bigger picture of humanity’s place in the universe. This series’ current focus also begins each day through highlighting the contributions of an important writer.

My original plan for today’s 9/11 reflection had been to write something very mean about Barack Obama and the Shadow President who actually makes his decisions, Valerie Jarrett.

I was angry at the president over Syria and particularly the way he had knocked off the radar his other scandals: the IRS targeting of his political opponents, his NSA’s unconstitutional surveillance of all internet traffic, the myriad of corruptions in Eric Holder’s racialist Justice Department, and, finally, what I still believe and pray will someday emerge in full clarity for all Americans as what it is, Obama’s Worse-Than-Watergate for which he should be impeached. His abandonment of four American heroes to die as they called for help, the still mysterious circumstances of just why Ambassador Chris Stevens was there on the anniversary of 9/11, and then the administration’s denial of a terrorist attack, asserting against all evidence that the attack was the result of “spontaneous uprisings” provoked by a YouTube video whose filmmaker was promptly arrested. (Think any Muslim in the Middle East has any idea he technically sat in jail for a parole violation, instead of for blaspheming the Prophet?)

But enough of all that. Or it’s “goodbye to all that” that’s the cliché of choice for previous generations, right?

Throughout Obama’s presidency I’ve called him just about every name in the book short of the Birthers’ “Kenyan.” But what’s the point any more? There’s no longer an election to win. There is no one left to try to convince of Obama’s stealth-socialist, Alinskyite strategy for “fundamentally transforming America.” Now all that’s necessary is to stand back and quietly mutter “I told you so” as our Democrat, progressive, and leftist friends watch in horror as Obama’s agenda collapses across the board. What will be left to brag about at the end of eight years? A healthcare law that doesn’t work and that Obama himself has delayed implementing?

The Syria speech last night crystallized the confusion of the era. President Jarrett has no idea what she’s doing—and neither does Obama. No matter how malevolent their goals, regardless of postmodern indoctrination distorting their sense of right and wrong, very real limits exist to limit how much damage they can actually inflict. I arrive at this conclusion for two reasons, one that is becoming more apparent even to Democrats, and another that is more hidden, particularly to those like me whose public school and undergraduate history education was so inadequate.

In the United States of America, you can burn Bibles, stomp on the flag, display crucifixes in urine and throw cow dung at a picture of the Virgin Mary BUT you may NOT burn or desecrate the Koran – a book that tells Muslims to murder, rape, rob, plunder, defeat, etc., non-Muslims and establish a worldwide Islamic government under shariah – a misogynistic, supremacist, totalitarian, triumphalist, repressive doctrine.
Koran 9:5: Slay the infidels wherever you find them, and take them captive and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush….”
You may not like Terry Jones and what he stands for but the abridgment of HIS Constitutional rights is a much bigger issue for ALL Americans.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The First Amendment has been unofficially eliminated….JANET LEVY, LOS ANGELES

If only there was a Constitutional amendment that protected free speech.

Via LA Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?_r=1&

WHEN BARRY MET VLADY….SUCH PERESTROIKA….RSK

RECENT events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.

Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization — the United Nations — was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again.

The United Nations’ founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America’s consent the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades.

No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage. This is possible if influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorization.

The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders. A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-israel-nsa-20130912,0,3708841.story

The National Security Agency regularly gives Israel intercepts that may include sensitive data about U.S. citizens, a memo leaked by Edward Snowden says.

“One of NSA’s biggest threats is actually from friendly intelligence services, like Israel,” an unnamed NSA official is quoted as writing in one document. “There are parameters on what NSA shares with them, but the exchange is so robust, we sometimes share more than we intended.”The reason that risks are taken with Israel, the second former official said, is because Israel and the U.S. have many mutual foreign policy interests, and Israel in some cases has greater expertise in Middle Eastern languages and cultures.”Managing the intel-sharing relationship is always kind of a quid pro quo,” the official said. “One country may have access to certain communications that we can’t otherwise get, so there are decisions made at fairly high levels whether or not it’s worth it to share.”

BY KEN DILANIAN
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel that probably includes sensitive information about Americans, according to the latest top-secret document leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

The 2009 document, a memorandum of understanding between the NSA and its Israeli counterpart, says the U.S. government regularly hands over intercepted communications that have not first been reviewed by U.S. analysts and therefore may contain phone calls and emails of American citizens.

The agreement allows for the possibility that intercepts given to Israel might include the communications of U.S. government officials, in which case Israel is supposed to destroy them immediately. Other data on U.S. citizens who aren’t in the government, however, can be kept by Israel for up to a year, according to the document, first published Wednesday by Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

NSA officials declined to answer questions but issued a statement saying, “Whenever we share intelligence information, we comply with all applicable rules, including the rules to protect U.S. person information.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323595004579069291111631648.html?mod=opinion_newsreel smaller Larger After writing in the London Telegraph that Monday was “the worst day for U.S. and wider Western diplomacy since records began,” former British ambassador Charles Crawford asked simply: “How has this happened?” On the answer, opinions might differ. Or maybe not. A consensus assessment of the past week’s events could easily form […]