WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Iraqi YouTube Sensation Murdered by Father in ‘Honor Killing’ By Ben Bartee

Posted By on February 13th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/culture/benbartee/2023/02/12/iraqi-youtube-sensation-murdered-by-father-in-honor-killing-n1670007

Via CBS News:

Dozens of Iraqi protesters gathered Sunday to decry the so-called “honor killing” of a 22-year-old YouTube star who was allegedly strangled by her father, adding fuel to calls for legal reforms protecting women.

Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan on Friday announced that Tiba Ali was killed Jan. 31 in the central city of Diwaniyah by her father, who then turned himself in to the police. Reports say the father strangled Ali at night while she was asleep.
The so-called “honor killing” was met with condemnation from women’s rights groups and residents, who sounded the alarm on violence against women in Iraq and the need to reform legislation to impose harsher punishments on perpetrators.

Under Iraq’s penal code, Article 409 reduces the severity of punishment for men who injure or murder their wives in the pursuit of moral justice to as little as three years in prison.

A couple of takeaways:

Operation Iraqi Freedom apparently didn’t deliver liberal democracy to the Middle East as promised by the neocons. First, ISIS emerged from the wreckage, and now honor killings are more or less sanctioned in the law. It turns out that changing a society for the better requires more than bombs and bullets.
This shouldn’t be taken as an endorsement of honor killings, but if Western fathers were as involved in their children’s online activities as this Iraqi man was, the internet in the West might not be so cringe. Dylan Mulvaney might just find the fear of God — Allah, Christ, or otherwise.

P.C.-CULTURE Comments turned off

Actor Idris Elba Under Fire From Left for Rejecting ‘Black Actor’ Label By Matt Margolis

Posted By on February 13th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/02/12/actor-idris-elba-under-fire-from-left-for-rejecting-black-actor-label-n1669976

In a recent interview, famed actor Idris Elba said that he no longer wants to be identified as a “black actor” and that he wants his talent to be recognized regardless of his race.

“As humans, we are obsessed with race. And that obsession can really hinder people’s aspirations, hinder people’s growth,” Elba told Esquire UK. “I stopped describing myself as a Black actor when I realised it put me in a box. We’ve got to grow. We’ve got to. Our skin is no more than that: it’s just skin. Rant over.”

While many believe Elba should be applauded, his comments have drawn criticism from the identity-obsessed political left.

“There’s an innocuous way that Black folks in Hollywood like Idris, Terry Crews, etc—play the ‘good colorblind negro’ to have individual success,” tweeted screenwriter Kellee Terrell. “Meanwhile,Black folks like Gina, Gabrielle, John Boyega, etc, reject that bulls*** to ensure COMMUNAL SUCCESS.”

“Whether he defines himself as a Black actor or not, film directors and studios do. Does Idris transcend stereotypical roles absolutely, so does Denzel, Poitier, etc.,” tweeted Democrat strategist Ameshia Cross. “Something about Idris’ commentary here doesn’t sit well. I get where he’s going, but he took a dangerous path.”

Dangerous path? Really? How sad.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

Why 65 Percent of Fourth Graders Can’t Really Read By Rick Moran

Posted By on February 13th, 2023

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2023/02/12/why-65-percent-of-fourth-graders-cant-really-read-n1669964

On Saturday, I wrote about the 230,000 children who failed to show up for class when public schools reopened after the pandemic. It’s a tragedy without parallel in American history as many of the no-shows are very young — K through 3rd grade. Critical skills learned in early education were not taught to these kids, who are now hopelessly behind.

The pandemic didn’t necessarily cause the problem. It exposed problems that already existed and were exacerbated because of incompetence and, as it turns out, wrongheaded teaching.

Consider the fact that 65% of American fourth-grade students can barely read. This is a result of a radical shift to a new way of teaching children how to read.

What was wrong with the old way? Well, it was old.

The Free Press:

American Public Media’s Emily Hanford uncovers this sad truth with her podcast, Sold a Story. She investigates the influential education authors who have promoted a bunk idea and a flawed method for teaching reading to American kids. She exposes how educators across the country came to believe in a system that didn’t work, and are now reckoning with the consequences: Children harmed. Tons of money wasted. An education system upended.

It’s incomprehensible to me. The good and blessed nuns who taught us to read made us “sound out” words, which not only drilled good habits into our heads but exercised our minds so that the more we read, the quicker we were able to “sound out” words.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Three-Quarters Report Suffering ‘Hardship’ From Bidenflation: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones

Posted By on February 13th, 2023

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/02/13/three-quarters-report-suffering-hardship-from-bidenflation-ii-tipp-poll/

No question about it: Americans are hurting from the surging inflation that began early in President Joe Biden’s first term and that has persisted ever since. Indeed, as the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows, a large majority of Americans now say the sharp rise in inflation has caused them financial hardship.

With inflation running at an average annual rate of 8% last year and 4.7% the year before, Americans are feeling the pinch.

In this month’s online I&I/TIPP Poll, taken Feb. 1-3 from 1,358 adults across the nation, we asked the following question: “How much of a hardship has inflation caused you and your family over the past two years?”

Respondents were given four possible responses: “A severe hardship”, “A moderate hardship,” “No hardship,” or “Not sure.” The poll’s margin of error is +/-2.8 percentage points.

The answer came back loud and clear: 77% said inflation is causing their family hardship, versus just 19% who said it isn’t and only 4% who said they aren’t sure. Of those who said they are suffering from inflation, 24% called it “severe,” while 53% termed it “moderate.”

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The retreat from globalism People don’t want to be squelched by big business or big government. Joel Kotkin

Posted By on February 13th, 2023

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/12/the-retreat-from-globalism/

In the wake of liberal globalism’s failings, a nationalist tide is rising today, not only in China and Russia but also throughout the West. It is a dynamic eerily similar to 100 years ago, when war, pandemic and economic insecurity brought national tensions to the surface. Yet today’s undoubted turn against globalism need not herald a return to the dark days of aggressive nationalism. Instead, we are seeing the rise of a new community-based and self-governing model of localism.

This new localism counteracts some of the worst aspects of globalism – homogeneity, deindustrialisation and ever-growing class divides – while eschewing the authoritarian tendencies often associated with nationalistic fervour. It essentially seeks to replace, where possible, mass institutions and production with local entrepreneurship and competition.

This approach has demonstrated remarkable appeal. The promising evolution of technologies like remote work and 3D printing is already creating opportunities to enhance local economies. In the US, strong majorities trust local governments, compared to the more than half who lack trust in Washington, notes Gallup. Big companies, banks and media receive low marks from the public, but small businesses continue to enjoy widespread support across party lines.

This is not merely an American phenomenon. In France there have been consistent protests against globalisation for decades. Poland and the rest of eastern Europe, recovering from decades of central control and imperial edicts from Moscow, have also favoured localism. There is also pushback against federal encroachment in Canada, while the UK’s turn against globalism was best exemplified by its withdrawal from the EU.

The movement against globalism constitutes an alternative to increasingly intrusive government: such as in Europe, where the unelected EU bureaucracy seeks ever-expanding powers, and in North America and Australia, where national bureaucracies work to undermine traditionally vibrant local communities. It also has strong connections to populism, particularly in Europe. Its base, small business, tends to tilt to the right in most countries, including the US.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The Climate Crusaders Are Coming for Electric Cars Too A new report makes clear the ultimate goal: tiny, uncomfortable apartments and bicycles for all.By Allysia Finley

Posted By on February 13th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-climate-crusaders-are-coming-for-electric-cars-too-global-warming-energy-power-fossil-fuels-environment-31a692ca?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

“Progressives’ ultimate goal is to reduce consumption—and living standards—because they believe humans are a menace to the Earth.”

Replacing all gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles won’t be enough to prevent the world from overheating. So people will have to give up their cars. That’s the alarming conclusion of a new report from the University of California, Davis and “a network of academics and policy experts” called the Climate and Community Project.

The report offers an honest look at the vast personal, environmental and economic sacrifices needed to meet the left’s net-zero climate goals. Progressives’ dirty little secret is that everyone will have to make do with much less—fewer cars, smaller houses and yards, and a significantly lower standard of living.

Problem No. 1: Electric-vehicle batteries require loads of minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, which must be extracted from the ground like fossil fuels. “If today’s demand for EVs is projected to 2050, the lithium requirements of the US EV market alone would require triple the amount of lithium currently produced for the entire global market,” the report notes.

Unlike fossil fuels, these minerals are mostly found in undeveloped areas that have abundant natural fauna and are often inhabited by indigenous people. “Large-scale mining entails social and environmental harm, in many cases irreversibly damaging landscapes without the consent of affected communities,” the report says. Mining can be done safely, but in poor countries it often isn’t.

EDUCATION Comments turned off

The University of North Carolina Fight Escalates The school’s accreditor issues an implicit threat against the board of trustees for creating a new school to protect free inquiry.

Posted By on February 13th, 2023

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-university-of-north-carolina-fight-escalates-unc-belle-wheelan-sacs-higher-education-college-accreditation-free-expression-d2077882?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

The kerfuffle we reported two weeks ago over a new school for free expression at the University of North Carolina keeps getting more complicated, and not in a good way. Opponents are now suggesting that UNC’s accreditation could be in jeopardy over the board of trustees’ plan to create the new School of Civic Life and Leadership without the blessing of the faculty.

At a meeting Tuesday of the Governor’s Commission on the Governance of Public Universities in North Carolina, accreditation official Belle Wheelan declared that the UNC board would be getting a letter from her agency. Ms. Wheelan is president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS), which accredits UNC, and she referred to “a news article that came out” on the plan to create a new school.

“We’re waiting for them to explain that, because that’s kind of not the way we do business.” she said, according to a report by HigherEd Works. “We’re gonna . . . either get them to change it, or the institution will be on warning” with SACS. Ms. Wheelan also brought slides to illustrate “What a Board Member is NOT,” including “Solver of all problems” and “One who runs the institution.” Instead, the role of board members should be “Eyes in, hands off.”

In a phone call with UNC Trustee Marty Kotis the following day, Ms. Wheelan said that her agency would be sending a letter to UNC because she was encouraged to do so by Margaret Spellings, who was Secretary of Education under George W. Bush, “I was asked to mention it . . . I will tell you it was Secretary Spellings who asked me to mention that.”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Three Jewish funerals and an Israeli hate-fest By Ruthie Blum

Posted By on February 13th, 2023

https://www.jns.org/opinion/three-jewish-funerals-and-an-israeli-hate-fest/

Imagine the scene on Saturday night at 8-year-old Asher Menachem Paley’s funeral. The previous morning, he and his brother, Yaakov, 6, had been among a group of Jews targeted by an Arab terrorist on a car-ramming rampage in Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood.

Yaakov was killed on the spot. He was laid to rest a few hours later, before the onset of Shabbat.

Asher was rushed, in critical condition, to Shaare Zedek medical center. Despite doctors’ efforts to save his life, he died of his wounds the next day.
Their 10-year-old brother, Moishie, whose injuries from the attack were far lighter, was treated and quickly released from the hospital. This enabled him, along with his five other siblings and their mother, to be present at both burials.
Their father, Avraham, on the other hand, couldn’t attend either. The 42-year-old had been with the above three of his six kids when Hussein Karaka, 31—an Israeli citizen residing in Issawiya in eastern Jerusalem—accelerated his Mazda into them and the several other people standing at a bus stop.

Avraham’s “moderate” condition didn’t allow for him to part properly with his little boys or be present to comfort his devastated wife and surviving children. He was forced to remain, in physical and emotional pain, at the Hadassah Medical Center/Mount Scopus.

The third victim slain by Karaka (who, thankfully, was fatally shot by a police officer who happened to be in the vicinity) was 20-year-old newlywed Alter Shlomo Lederman. His funeral, like that of Asher Paley, was held on Saturday night.

You know what else took place on Saturday night? The usual, pre-scheduled anti-government protests at select locations in major cities.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Sydney Wiliams: We Are All Americans

Posted By on February 13th, 2023

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

“America was not built on fear. America was built on courage,on imagination and an unbeatable determination to d0 the job at hand.” President Harry Truman Message to Congress       January 8, 194

 Public    debates, be they high school, college or Presidential, are aimed at diminishing one’s opponent and convincing the audience of one’s superior argument. It is rhetoric, the art of persuasion. Like political campaigns, its goal is to win. In contrast, debates in the classroom – at least in years past – and in legislative bodies – at least when no press is present – are to test one’s argument, to listen to one’s opponent. The purpose is to learn and to come to a consensus. When I was young, I argued with my father; only later did I realize I was trying to understand why he believed as he did.

In a polyglot society, such as the United States, individual identities are natural and differences in ideas are to be expected. The latter should be encouraged, for it is through respectful debate that common ground is found. On the other hand, the political exploitation of group identifications has caused a widening divide among an already fractionated people. Factionalism was a concern of the Founding Fathers. In “Federalist 10,” James Madison warned that it could lead to “…instability, injustice, and confusion…the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished.”

Yet politicians today have found that splitting the electorate into manageable pieces makes it easier to campaign and win on specific issues. Thus, we have been divided into victims and assailants. This division makes the insulting assumption that certain races are incapable of competing on merit; so different standards are used for Asians, blacks, and whites in college admissions and jobs. We have been divided by cultural preferences, where gender is seen as a matter of choice, not biology. Dependency on government has come at the expense of individual responsibility and accountability; the concept of equal opportunity has been subordinated to a demand for equal outcomes, and the dignity of work seems an abandoned philosophy. Diversity and inclusion, the battle cry of the Woke, does not include diversity of ideas or the inclusion of those who dare challenge conventional thought.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on February 12th, 2023

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

The state of the State of Israel combines triumphs and grief. This week two brothers aged six and eight died of wounds sustained in a terrorist car ramming attack in Jerusalem. On that very day Israel’s Army Search and Rescue Mission was saving lives in the rubble of the massive quakes in Turkey with the blessings of the Chief Rabbi to work through the Sabbath.

As Michael Ordman reminds us, during the same week Israelis were training Kenyan medics, providing critical pediatric equipment to Moldova, and developing technology to help millions of hapless citizens throughout the entire world.

And they were also enjoying jazz and dance performances, concerts, restaurants with varied and delicious cuisine, and welcoming the growing number of new arrivals.

Israel chooses life! L’Chaim!….rsk

 
 
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Proteins in focus for AMD. Tel Aviv University researchers have identified two genomic proteins LHX2 and OTX2 that affect the chances of contracting Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). The discovery is a key stage in understanding the genetic mechanisms related to AMD and other complex genetic diseases.
https://english.tau.ac.il/risk_factor_amd
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001924
 
New peptides to target Alzheimer’s culprit. (TY UWI) Scientists at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, working with Canadian scientists have developed peptides (small proteins) that in laboratory tests prevent the production of oligomers – small polymers that are the true culprits of the neuron damage in Alzheimer’s disease.
https://www.israel21c.org/treatment-for-very-early-alzheimers-under-development/  
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2210766119
 
World’s most advanced children’s hospital. (TY Hazel) The Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital just inaugurated at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, features unique early genetic tests for detecting and treating rare diseases. It will also treat children from the Palestinian Authority, Gaza, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco.
https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/byhmjk1to
 
Dental center for patients with disabilities. The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine is establishing the Robert I. Schattner Oral Health Center for People with Disabilities. The state-of-the-art facility will provide accessible, optimal care for patients and specialized training for dental professionals.
https://www.afhu.org/hebrew-university-hadassah-school-of-dental-medicines-robert-i-schattner-oral-health-center-for-people-with-disabilities/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGLPsB_EQjs
 
AI to build UK care center. AI technology from Israel’s Buildots (see here previously) is constructing the new maternity, pediatrics, emergency, and critical care center at Royal Bournemouth Hospital. It is the first UK healthcare facility to be built using Artificial Intelligent tech to increase efficiency and decrease costs.
https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-ai-construction-technology-helps-build-uk-hospital/
 
Partnering for medical air rescue service. Israel’s Magen David Adom and America’s Hatzolah Air are partnering to provide any future emergency medical evacuations in Israel. MDA’s flight paramedics will board Hatzolah Air and MDA Medevac helicopters to perform rescues via MDA’s Tiberias and Beer Sheva air bases.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/366974
 
Universities partner to study the brain. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Kentucky have received a joint $1 million grant to study new aspects of RNA biology. They will try to discover why humans have more complex brains than other organisms with roughly the same number of genes?
https://www.bfhu.org/2023/02/03/university-of-kentucky-and-hu-partner-to-study-brain-complexity/
 
Non-animal testing in Dubai. (TY Atid-EDI) UAE’s MBZUAI has signed an agreement with Israel’s Quris-AI (see here previously) to establish a world-class Bio-AI center in Abu Dhabi, that will support development of personalized medications, specifically tailored to the MENA (Middle East Nort Africa) region population.
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/01/18/2590734/0/en/Quris-AI-and-MBZUAI-to-launch-world-class-Bio-AI-center-in-Abu-Dhabi.html  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTKg274ehgU
 
Training Kenyan navy to treat casualties. For the first time ever, experts from Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, including doctors, nurses, and simulation specialists, helped prepare Kenya’s navy for mass casualty scenarios. They worked alongside military and civilian personnel from Kenya, the US 5th fleet, Qatar, and Denmark.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-730225