You know it's Passover when .... those pesky jews show up ..drinking blood again

MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from a drama show presented at the Gaza Islamic University, during a festival commemorating Hamas founder Ahmad Yassin. The show aired on Al-Aqsa TV on April 3, 2009.

Jewish father: We Jews hate the Muslims. We love killing Muslims. We Jews love drinking the blood of Muslims and the blood of Arabs. Are you Arabs? Are you Muslims? I hate you. Yes, I hate you. I hate you in order to please God. In order to please God... In order to please God...

Shimon, his son: Dad, I don't know how God could possibly be pleased with you when you stink so much. You haven't taken a shower for two years, yet you talk about pleasing God.

Father: In order to please God...

Shimon, my son, I'd like to teach you something. You must hate the Muslims.

Shimon: Of course I hate them.

Father: You must drink from the blood of Muslims.

Shimon: But mix it with soda water.

When I was a kid in the Bronx we used get Egg Creams from the candy stores with soda fountains, which was Fox's UBET, Milk and Seltzer.

Now muslim blood and soda, gee if we only had that, I know I would have been the first kid picked at stickball games on Bryant Avenue. Sounds so fortifying and satisfying !

Does anyone wonder if these morons actually have clue how truly, galactically STUPID they sound? How hopelessly ignorant and tribal they sound? Or are those who might have said 'guys, wait a second before we broadcast this play' hanging from piano wires and flying off buildings?

Tuesday Nooner!

Succumbing to some personal nostalgia while trying to concentrate on the paying gig. Guess which is winning.

from 1978

Southside Johnny

& Bruce Springsteen

The Fever

THE FEVER - SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY & BRUCE
Uploaded by runawaydream

Obama: Islam Has Shaped the U.S.A.

Damn. Didn't get the memo again.

Robert Spencer writing at Front Page Mag

Obama: Islam Has Shaped the U.S.A.

By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com Tuesday, April 07, 2009


“We will convey,” said Barack Obama to the Turkish Parliament Monday, “our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country.”

Undeniably the Islamic faith has done a great deal to shape the world – a statement that makes no value judgment about exactly how it has shaped the world. It has formed the dominant culture in what is known as the Islamic world for centuries. But what on earth could Obama mean when he says that Islam has also “done so much” to shape his own country?

Unless he considers himself an Indonesian, Obama’s statement was extraordinarily strange. After all, how has the Islamic faith shaped the United States? Were there Muslims along Paul Revere’s ride, or standing next to Patrick Henry when he proclaimed, “Give me liberty or give me death”? Were there Muslims among the framers or signers of the Declaration of Independence, which states that all men – not just Muslims, as Islamic law would have it – are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Were there Muslims among those who drafted the Constitution and vigorously debated its provisions, or among those who enumerated the Bill of Rights, which guarantees – again in contradiction to the tenets of Islamic law – that there should be no established national religion, and that the freedom of speech should not be infringed?

There were not.

Did Muslims play a role in the great struggle over slavery that defined so much of our contemporary understandings of the nature of this republic and of the rights of the individual within it? They did not. Did the Islamic faith shape the way the United States responded to the titanic challenges of the two World Wars, the Great Depression, or the Cold War? It did not. Did the Islamic faith, with its legal apparatus that institutionalizes discrimination against non-Muslims, shape the civil rights movement in the United States? The Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandated equality of access to public facilities – a hard-won victory that came at a great cost, and one that Muslim groups have tried to roll back in the United States recently. One notable example of such attempts was the alcohol-in-cabs controversy at the Minneapolis-St. Paul international airport, when Muslim cabdrivers began to refuse service to customers who were carrying alcohol, on Islamic religious grounds. The core assumption underlying this initiative – that discrimination on the basis of religion is justified – cut right to the heart of the core principle of the American polity, that “all men are created equal,” that is, that they have a right to equal
treatment in law and society.

Surveying the whole tapestry of American history, one would be hard-pressed to find any significant way in which the Islamic faith has shaped the United States in terms of its governing principles and the nature of American society. Meanwhile, there are numerous ways in which, if there had been a significant Muslim presence in the country at the time, some of the most cherished and important principles of American society and law may have met fierce resistance, and may never have seen the light of day.

So in what way has the Islamic faith shaped Obama’s country? The most significant event connected to the Islamic faith that has shaped the character of the United States was the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Those attacks have shaped the nation in numerous ways: they’ve led to numerous innovations in airline security, which in generations to come – if today’s politically correct climate continues to befog minds -- may be added to future versions of the fanciful “1001 Muslim Inventions” exhibition. The Islamic faith has shaped the U.S. since 9/11 in leading to the spending of billions on anti-terror measures, and to the ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to Guantanamo, and to so many features of the modern political and social landscape that they cannot be enumerated within the space of a single article.

Of course, it is certain that Obama had none of that in mind. But what could he possibly have had in mind? His statement was either careless or ignorant, or both – not qualities we need in a Commander-in-Chief even in the best of times.

Barack Obama rejects Normandy trip to avoid offending Germany

Insulting our heroes and honored dead, Obama doesn't have time to visit Omaha Beach. Porbably has to get to the gym or sumpin'

Daily Telegraph

Barack Obama rejects Normandy trip to avoid offending Germany

Barack Obama, concerned about offending Britain and Germany, rebuffed strenuous attempts by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to persuade the new American president to make a trip to Normandy this week.

By Toby Harnden, US Editor, and Henry Samuel in Paris

White House officials travelled to France at the start of March to discuss a visit by Mr Obama to Omaha Beach, the site of the American Cemetery, established in 1944 just after D-Day and where 9,387 American personnel are buried. Among them is Theodore Roosevelt Jr the eldest son of the 26th US President.

French officials and senior American military officers walked with White House staff through the cemetery discussing how the two presidents might follow the same route. But even before their trip, the White House had decided that Mr Obama would not travel there this week.

"It wasn't going to happen," said an American official in Washington. "We went through the motions to placate President Sarkozy but giving special treatment to France was not on our agenda. (those are American dead you horses ass)

"During this trip, we wanted to maintain a balance between the British, German and France". A White House spokesman in London declined to comment. Last month, White House officials briefed that a Normandy visit had been considered but it had not been logistically possible.

Mr Obama will arrive in Strasbourg on Friday for the Nato summit. He will hold a meeting with Mr Sarkozy and a brief press appearance in Strasbourg and then fly to Baden-Baden to do exactly the same with Chancellor Merkel of Germany. He will then fly to Prague on Saturday.

Mr Sarkozy is said by French officials to be piqued that Gordon Brown became the first European leader to meet Mr Obama and was then lavished with praise by him at a 50-minute joint press conference in London on Wednesday.

The French president tried unsuccessfully to meet Mr Obama before he was sworn in after the G20 summit in Washington last November, even stationing a French military plane on 24-hour standby nearby to whisk him to Chicago should the then US president-elect change his mind.

He had also hoped Mr Obama would agree to a meeting before attending the G20 summit in London on April 3. The French had suggested that Mr Obama fly from London to Normandy on Friday morning for a stop before the Nato summit. Instead, he is going directly to Strasbourg.

According to French reports, Mr Obama was to visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Colleville-sur-mer, just north of Omaha Beach. The pair were apparently to have dined at the nearby chateau de Bénouville in Caen.

The White House rejected the offer, but Mr Sarkozy's most senior aide said Mr Obama had agreed to come back in June for the 65th anniversary of the June 6th 1944, D-Day landings. A White House spokesman declined to comment on whether Mr Obama would travel to France in June.

"This will allow for a longer conversation and a more ambitious bilateral visit," said Claude Gueant, the secretary general of the Elysée Palace, last week.

He denied any strains and said the two held an hour-long videoconference, which the Elysée hyped up as a "mini-summit", on the economic crisis.

"Relations between the presidents are excellent and very productive," he said. "Mr Sarkozy is not courting Mr Obama," he said.

Israel Hunts Nukes in Washington

When the penny finally falls. . .

Human Events:

Israel Hunts Nukes in Washington
by Robert Maginnis
04/07/2009

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s new prime minister, will soon visit the White House to deliver a tough message: President Obama must stop Iran from acquiring atomic weapons or Israel will soon act unilaterally to prevent Tehran from going nuclear.

“The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told The Atlantic magazine. He describes Iran’s nuclear program as “an existential threat for Israel” and warned that Iran threatens a second Holocaust with its “wipe Israel off the map” ideology.

“You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran,” Netanyahu said.

This issue is urgent for Israel and time lines are now drawn in months, “not years,” Netanyahu said. “The problem is not military capability, the problem is whether you have the stomach, the political will, to take action,” said another adviser.

Israel’s urgency was explained by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East. Last week, Petraeus told Congress Tehran’s “…obstinacy and obfuscation have forced Iran’s neighbors and the international community to conclude the worst about the regime’s intentions.”

Petraeus cautioned, “The Israeli government may ultimately see itself so threatened by the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon that it would take preemptive military action to derail or delay it.”

But some U.S. officials don’t share Israel’s sense for urgency. Adm. Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, said Israel and the U.S. are working with the same set of facts, but are interpreting them differently. Israel takes “…more of a worst-case approach to these things,” Blair explained.

“Reaching a military-grade nuclear capability is a question of synchronizing its strategy with the production of a nuclear bomb,” Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, Israel’s chief of military intelligence said. Yadlin argues Iran is stockpiling low-level enriched uranium (LEU) and hopes to use the dialogue with the West to buy the time it requires to manufacture an atomic bomb.

Iran has a growing inventory of LEU. The United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated that as of November 2008, Iran had almost a ton of LEU, and nuclear analysts estimate that’s nearly enough for conversion into high-enriched uranium suitable for one bomb. Meanwhile, Tehran’s uranium enriching centrifuges run around the clock and the regime continues to add more of them.

Further, on March 24, the IAEA indicated it “…was unable to make any progress … about possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear programme because of lack of cooperation by Iran.” IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei believes “Iran only wants enough mastery of enrichment to keep the world guessing about its nuclear defenses without provoking massive retaliation.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates guesses Iran isn’t close to having a nuclear bomb, and Director Blair adds, “[t]he minimum time at which Iran could technically produce the amount of highly enriched uranium for a single weapon is 2010 to 2015.”

Blair concedes Iran has imported some weapons-grade material, but it’s his view Tehran is still unable to make a bomb, even though it cooperates with ally North Korea which tested an atomic device in 2006.

The differences in the interpretation of the facts will be an issue when Netanyahu meets Obama to present three courses of action for the president’s consideration.

First, the prime minister will warn Obama that doing nothing could have dire consequences. Netanyahu will encourage Obama to reject the notion an atomic-armed Tehran will “behave like any other nuclear power.”

Netanyahu will cite Tehran’s irrational behavior during the eight year Iran-Iraq war as evidence. It “wasted over a million lives without batting an eyelash … It didn’t sear a terrible wound into the Iranian consciousness,” Netanyahu explained. “You see a country that glorifies blood and death, including its own self-immolation.”

He will caution Obama that an atomic Iran would enable its terrorist proxies, Hizballah and Hamas, to fire rockets at Israel while enjoying a nuclear umbrella and could “embolden Islamic militants worldwide.” The regime could give atomic weapons to terrorist proxies and other nations.

Netanyahu will warn that a nuclear-armed Iran would dramatically change the balance of power in the Middle East, weakening America’s influence especially in the energy sector. It might persuade Arab nations to develop nuclear arsenals which would further destabilize the region.

Second, the prime minister will support Obama’s diplomacy and sanctions course of action, but not for long. “How you achieve this goal [denying Tehran atomic weapons] is less important than achieving it,” Netanyahu will repeat to Obama.

The prime minister is skeptical that Iran can be pressured to surrender its atomic program, however. Netanyahu acknowledges Tehran’s economy is in trouble, “…which makes Iran susceptible to sanctions that can be ratcheted up by a variety of means.”

But the U.S. has imposed sanctions against Iran under the National Emergencies Act, and the U.N. has sanctioned the regime’s commercial activities associated with its nuclear program. Tehran continues its atomic activities in spite of these measures.

Last Friday, Obama told a NATO summit in France “We cannot have a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.” He promised his administration will use diplomacy to dissuade Tehran from pursuing atomic weapons. But top Iranian officials have dismissed U.S. overtures, demanding the U.S. remove its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan before dialogue could begin.

The Israeli prime minister’s final course of action is an Israeli attack, possibly with U.S. assistance. Some Israelis believe Netanyahu has made up his mind to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities with or without the U.S., because he has no confidence in diplomacy and sanctions.

An attack could be triggered once the Israelis determine that the Iranians are close to acquiring a finished bomb. It’s not clear exactly how anyone will know that time, however.

Israel has the right attack arsenal to destroy the Iranian targets, but mission success is dependent on certain U.S. support. The Israeli Defense Forces have special operations forces, long-range fighters and refuelers, cruise missile armed submarines and ballistic missiles that can range Iran. But they lack air space control, electronic warfare cover, air defense codes, and other support that the U.S. can provide.

Some experts say, however, that the Iranian facility at Natanz is buried so deeply and hardened sufficiently to prevent an Israeli air attack -- even with the bunker-buster bombs sold to Israel last year -- from succeeding.

Netanyahu will promise Obama the strike can destroy Iran’s atomic facilities. But the prime minister will exclude the possible consequences from his petition because the list is long and sobering.

Iran would immediately retaliate by trying to blockade the Straits of Hormuz through which 40 % of the world’s oil passes. This can be done by sinking tankers in the narrow channel.

Tehran will counterattack Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf with hundreds of ballistic missiles and unleash its terrorist proxies. In 2004, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, said, “If anyone invades our nation, we will jeopardize their interests around the world.”

The long range implications are potentially more problematic because Iran might redouble its atomic efforts. Israel’s 1981 attack on Iraq’s Osirak reactor served to reinforce that country’s atomic lusts, even though it set Saddam back by at least a decade. After the attack, Saddam Hussein increased his nuclear staffing from 400 to 7,000 personnel and invested 20 times more money in his renewed program.

How serious is Netanyahu about unilaterally striking Iran, and how close is Tehran to acquiring an atomic weapon? Obama’s national security team wants those answers before selecting the administration’s course of action.

The answers are deadly serious and too close.

The upcoming meeting between Netanyahu and Obama is likely to be a watershed event in our Middle East policy and world events.

Mr. Maginnis is a retired Army lieutenant colonel, a national security and foreign affairs analyst for radio and television and a senior strategist with the U.S. Army.

NY banks unwittingly aided in Iranian NUKE material transfers, says DA

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG WHILE THE OBAMA TEAM 'ENGAGES' MODERATE IRANIANS

The Manhattan district attorney's office has smashed a sinister plot to smuggle nuclear weapons materials to Iran through unwitting New York banks, the Daily News has learned.

Officials plan to unseal a 118-count indictment Tuesday accusing a Chinese national of setting up a handful of fake companies to hide that he was selling millions of dollars in potential nuclear materials to Tehran.

"This case will cut off a major source of supply to Iran and it shows how they are going ahead full steam to get a nuclear bomb. Long-range missiles they pretty much have already," a law enforcement source close to the case said.

"We think it is one of the largest suppliers of weapons of mass destruction to Iran."

READ IT ALL

WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE?

Signs of the locals RECOGNIZING REALITY... BYE BYE DOLLAR

Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing

A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money.

Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.

The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount -- say, 95 cents for $1 value -- and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.

Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.

Ed Collom, a University of Southern Maine sociologist who has studied local currencies, says they encourage people to buy locally. Merchants, hurting because customers have cut back on spending, benefit as consumers spend the local cash.

MIDAS MULLIGAN ON A BILL ANYONE?

Do you agree with these observations?

• The Westphalia order of states is dead, replaced by a modern system that includes states, semi-states, and irrational international players
• The free world must focus on defeating the countries, forces, and extremist entities "that are trying to violate it." The real problems are coming from "the direction of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq"
• "The fact that we say the word 'peace' twenty times a day will not bring peace any closer."

If so, congratulations.

You are in accord with someone most people think of as an anathema .

AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN, the new Foreign Minister of Israel.

READ IT ALL

"When was Israel at its strongest in terms
of public opinion around the world?

After the victory of the Six Day War,
not after all the concessions in
Oslo Accords I, II, III and IV."

CAIR Crows Over BHO

First thing on this morning's news, before I had even gotten down my first cup of coffee, one of the local news channels here welcomed CAIR's co-founder and Director Nihad Awad for a smarmy interview, in which the news anchor appeared thrilled to be graced with the presence of one of those Moslems to whom BHO has reached out at least three times since taking office last January 20 — most recently, yesterday in Turkey.

In this morning's interview, according to Nihad Awad, who participated in a 1993 Hamas meeting in the United States — a fact apparently unknown by the interviewer — BHO is an American President who understands the following: "American Muslims have suffered tremendously since 9/11." Perennial victimhood in the typical style of CAIR, and the news anchor nodded both solemnly and eagerly in agreement as she sucked down the Kool-aid in huge gulps.

I, on the other hand, nearly choked on my coffee....

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

Obama to town hall in Turkey - ME is Northern Ireland

At a town hall for students today....Obama was dishing HOPE

Didn't you know Sinn Fein and most Irish believed that the new testament, uncreated and always existing and its author, God, made Northern Ireland property of the Catholics until judgment day?

He also said he is not naive.

Then he is stupid or disingenuous.

He claimed that if mothers were in charge for a while there would be peace.

Maryam Mohammad Yousif Farhat (Arabic: مريم محمد يوسف فرحات‎) (or Mariam Farahat; born in 1950), popularly known as Umm Nidal, "the mother of Nidal" or "the mother of struggle"^[1], is one of Hamas' most popular candidates elected in the Palestinian legislative election, 2006. She sent three of her six sons on Hamas suicide missions against Israel.

She attracted public attention after being filmed joyously preparing and advising her 17-year old son Muhammad Farhat for his March 2002 suicide attack against Israeli civilians. After infiltrating the Gaza Strip former Jewish settlement of Atzmona, opening fire on the students and throwing hand grenades at the school where they were studying, killing five teenagers and wounding 23 others, he was shot dead. Upon hearing of her son's death, she celebrated proclaiming "Allahu Akbar!" and giving out boxes of halva and chocolates

Is this woman an outlier on the bell curve? Anyone making that case? I think she is to one side, between the center and the edge. To many, her unshakeable belief that her actions, and her children's, guarantee her and them paradise is precisely what makes a succesful candidate. And she is. Elected. She represents the Palestinians.

• 75 percent of Palestinian Arabs do not recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, and 70 percent in fact support a one-state solution where Jews would be a minority. (Near East Consulting poll, February 12-15, 2007)

• 67 percent of Palestinian Arabs support Hamas in its refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist. (Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll, September 14-16, 2007)

• 61.3 percent of Palestinian Arabs support continued terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, and 52.5 percent support rocket attacks on Israeli towns, even during peace talks. (Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah University, September 7-9, 2006)

• 69 percent of Palestinian Arabs see terrorism against Israelis as legitimate; furthermore, 65 percent support Al Qaeda attacks on the US and Europe. (Fafo poll, December 22, 2005)

Sounds just like Northern Ireland. DELUSIONAL.

Anyone think the protestants thought Ireland had no right to exist or that the catholics thought Britain has no right to exist? Or that two thirds of the Irish supported Sinn Fein's nonexistant plan to destroy Great Britain? Or that EITHER side had two thirds of the populace ready to take responsibility THE POLICY of killing the other side's civilians?

If Obama actually believes what he is saying, and this is a typical example and sample of his historic knowledge, player knowledge, and portent of action, every foreign effort will be a failure.

Two months

No No No Wrong Wrong Bad Wrong on Soooo Many Levels

The Obama Action Figure.

Put down anything you may be drinking before clicking.

Wish I could read the captions. . .

h/t View From The Porch

Yep, It's a mini Zep Fest

Betcha Ro stops by any minute

Immigrant Song

I've Been Dazed and Confused For So Long It's Not True

I wanted a woman, I never bargained for you ...

Acknowledged

Led Zeppelin loved the music of Islam. And, we love the music of Led Zeppelin.

F-16s Trail Plane Taken in Canada and Flown South

So tonight I finished reading a book called Critical Mass. Essentially, the Jihadis use very small light planes that can take off from streets and be at their targets in under 5 minutes to deliver nukes against Vegas and Rome, attempting on other cities as well.

So it's no wonder Wisconsin evacuated the Capitol

And I'd have to say the student evacuated something else and wasn't running away but looking for a bathroom, to have 2 F-16's trailing you.

Newsmax:

F-16s Trail Plane Taken in Canada and Flown South


Monday, April 6, 2009 10:33 PM

WAUSAU, Wis. -- A single-engine airplane believed stolen from an airport in Canada by a student pilot Monday is reported to have landed in southeastern Missouri after being trailed by two jet fighters from Wisconsin.

Laura Brown of the Federal Aviation Administration said the Cessna 172 landed on a dirt road at Ellsinore, Mo., near Poplar Bluff and the pilot ran away.

She said local law enforcement officers are responding.

The pilot hadn't communicated with authorities through the entire flight.

In Wisconsin, the incident caused the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison to be evacuated as a precaution as the plane flew through that section of the state.

Missed The Boat

While we're on the subject, could we change the subject now?





Everyone's unhappy, everyone's ashamed
Well, we all just got caught looking at somebody else's page

We carried it all so well
As if we got a new position
As if we got a new promotion

We're certainly uncertain, at least I'm pretty sure I am
Well, we didn't need the water, but we built that good God dam.

Got to Get Some

Because Strip Poker is just so last year. . .



(swiped from Theo at Last of the Few)

Steyn

Tie a Yellow Ribbon [Mark Steyn]


A few days ago in The Corner, I mentioned the South Yorkshire Police, who sat outside watching as a young couple and their children burned to death, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who sat outside a Greyhound bus for four hours watching a cannibal slice body parts off his victim and eat them. Now from Binghamton:

One receptionist was killed, while the other, shot in the abdomen, pretended to be dead and then crawled under a desk and called 911, he said.

Police said they arrived within two minutes...

Police heard no gunfire after they arrived but waited for about an hour before entering the building to make sure it was safe for officers.

What's the point of calling 911 if they arrive within two minutes and then sit outside for the rest of the day to "make sure it's safe"?


At the Dawson College shooting in Montreal a couple of years ago, a couple of officers happened on the scene to investigate an unrelated drugs incident, called for back-up, entered the building with guns drawn, and shot the shooter — all in three minutes.


If you ever have to call 911, it may be worth requesting that kind of service rather than the world's most heavily armed and lavished equipped yellow-tape installers.

=========================================================

Meanwhile Tam (h/t to her for the story) over at View From the Porch says:

Let me get this straight: You don't want me to be able to bust caps to save myself, but you're not going to do it for me, either? Thanks so much for the concern. What am I paying y'all to do, again, exactly? As Marko is so fond of pointing out, the only thing that stops a spree killer is a gun. The body count is determined by whether the gun is already on the scene or needs to be carried there in the holster of a cop.

She gets cranky about this sort of thing. Me too. But you already know how I feel about cops standing around trying to figure out what the hell to do while the media breathlessly reports every fucking shot they hear

"Brian, Brian I believe, hello, Brian, yes I believe we just heard another shot. It could have been an automobile backfiring but I don't think so. Officer, Lt Smith. What's the --oh there's another one-- what's the situation?"

"Well, obviously, we have an active shooter inside and we're waiting for the SWAT team to arrive and take tactical positions before sending in officers. We don't want to endanger any more lives than we have to at this point"

"There you have -- OH ANOTHER! That sounded like what they call a double tap!-- it Brian. America's finest on the scene making the situation as safe as possible."

Marcus Luttrell's Dog Murdered by Punks in Texas

My God the restraint this man had to show.

Some backstory from Dr Bulldog

CALLER: Hey, Glenn, thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to know, Friday you asked us to pray for Marcus and I was just seeing if you had an update today on what’s going on with him.

GLENN: Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Marcus Luttrell is the lone survivor. He was part of the SEAL team. It was the biggest battle any SEAL in SEAL history. He was the only survivor. He lost his whole team. He was then taken by Al Qaeda and the Taliban and he was tortured beyond your wildest imagination and there they held him for a while. He’s been sick. He still hasn’t recovered from all of the things that they did to him and so he just has he’s always in for his back and surgery and everything else.

On Thursday I believe it was, Wednesday or Thursday about 1:00 a.m., Marcus is a guy who doesn’t sleep anymore at night. He sleeps during the daytime. And about 1:00 he happened to be awake and he heard a gunshot. He lives on a ranch with his mother in Texas. He grabs his gun and he goes outside. There he sees, I believe it was four. It may be three but I believe it was four young men 18 to 24 years old, all of them, where they had just shot his dog. Marcus’ dog is named Dasy. Each letter represents D A S Y represents one of the fallen members of his team. It was given to him in recovery to help him through the recovery process. This dog means everything to Marcus. Marcus had his gun and he took it out and he put it right between the eyes of one of the guys. He was standing away from them, pointed right between the eyes. Now, here’s a SEAL team member who is wildly, he’s just, he is having trouble, man. He is still recovering from his injuries. He had just gotten out of surgery. He’s standing there with a gun between the guy’s eyes. He doesn’t fire. All four and he’s just saying, “You killed my dog.” They executed his dog. “You killed my dog. Why would you do that?” They run. They get into his car. Marcus gets into his truck, chases them over four counties, finally runs them into a ditch. He calls the Rangers. The Texas Rangers arrive and these guys, when the Texas Rangers are taking these guys away, Marcus has held them there by a gun. As the Rangers are taking these guys away, they’re threatening Marcus’ life and saying, “When we get out, we’re coming for you next.

First it was your dog. It’s going to be you next. You don’t know who you’re messin’ with.” That’s when Marcus kind of snapped just a little bit and said to the Ranger, “Excuse me, ranger, do you know who I am?” He said, “Yes, sir, Mr. Luttrell, I do.” He said, “You might want to explain to these punks because I could have killed them 600 different ways and if I wanted to kill you guys after what you would have done what you just did to my dog, I would have pulled you down into my basement and I would have tortured you for days and you wouldn’t have died until you begged me for death. So before you start saying you’re going to come after me, you better learn who you’ve just whose dog you just killed.”

They get into jail. These four punks have been killing dogs in Marcus’ county now for a month, for joys, joy rides and kicks. Tonight Marcus is going to be on television and he’s going to tell the story, and I’m showing the pictures of these dirtbags. And I want you to call PETA, I want you to call every activist you know. I want you to hear the story of a hero whose dog was executed. In all of the times that everybody is saying, oh, guns gotta be taken off the streets, you gun nuts. Here’s a responsible gun owner that with everything he’s gone through, everything that that dog means, these dirtbags come and kill his dog. He could have killed them all. He probably would have enjoyed it, justifiably so and he didn’t because he’s an American hero. Keep him in your prayers.

Where the Guitars Play

One of my favorite Zep tunes. The song is adapted from a very old blues song first recorded by Leadbelly.

from the UnLedded Concert

Jimmy Page

& Robert Plant

Gallows Pole

Leadbelly

Gallis Pole

Is BHO Accepting And Advocating A Form Of Segregation?

Jeffrey Imm seems to think so:

...[T]he segregationist concept of a so-called “Muslim world” is so ingrained and accepted within foreign policy dialogue that we continue to see the use of this phrase. This includes people that know better. I was recently asked about a challenge in the “Muslim world.” As I stated then, our biggest problem with Islamic supremacism as an ideology is the idea that we would ever accept a segregationist concept as a “Muslim world.”

[...]

The idea that there is a “Muslim world” sets expectations that segregation in the 21st century is somehow acceptable. It sets expectations that our universal truths of human equality and liberty can somehow be only partially accepted to accommodate so-called “local cultures.”

[...]

...So when President Obama tells the press of the need for “partnership with the Muslim world,” he needs to go back and think about how we accept a segregation of a so-called “Muslim world,” while challenging those who seek to create a caliphate (which he has identified as our enemies)....

Read the whole thing. Is Jeffrey Imm correct in his assertions that BHO is, in effect, denigrating "universal human rights" and being inconsistent when he refers to "the Muslim world"?

Coffee Break

CONTENT WARNING! CONTENT WARNING! CONTENT WARNING! (translates to typical male pig alert)

Best clear out the kids and those with weak hearts for this one.

Unwind a little before supper. Or after.

Thanks for the idea, Pasto :)

Monster Magnet

Unbroken

Your Money's No Good Here

US Recovery Is Far Off, Banks Are 'Basically Insolvent': Soros

From CNBC:

The healing of the banking system and housing markets is crucial to recovery. "The banking system, as a whole, is basically insolvent," Soros said.

What's more, the Treasury's Public-Private Investment Fund is going to work but it won't be enough to recapitalize the banks in a way that they are able to or willing to provide credit.

"What we have created now is a situation where the banks who will be able to earn their way out of a hole, but by doing that, they are going to weigh on the economy," he said. "Instead of stimulating the economy, they will draw the lifeblood, so to speak, of profits away from the real economy in order to keep themselves alive. This is the zombie bank situation."

The stress tests being conducted by Treasury could be a precursor to a more successful recapitalization of the banks, he added.

Dollar is Vulnerable

Soros, whose latest book, "The Crash of 2008 and What it Means," has made prescient calls during the current credit crisis.

Exactly one year ago, he told Reuters that global losses are likely to top $1 trillion from the credit crisis. To date, U.S. and European banks have recorded more than $700 billion in losses and write-downs, as of Feb. 5. 2009, according to Reuters data.

Soros also said the U.S. dollar is under selling pressure and may eventually be replaced as a world reserve currency, possibly by the IMF's Special Drawing Rights, a synthetic currency basket comprised of dollars, euros, yen and sterling.

"I think the dollar is now under question and I think the system will need to be reformed, so that the United States will be subject to the same discipline as is imposed on other countries," said Soros, whose famous bet against the British pound earned his Quantum Fund $1 billion in 1992. "Being the main issuer of international currency, we have been exempt and we have abused that because we have effectively consumed 6.5 percent more than we have produced. That is now coming to an end."

Obama's Multiculturalism Endangers the West

President Obama’s being a multiculturalist endangers the West. In a speech in Turkey he announced, “The United States is not and will never be at war with Islam.” He also called for Turkey to become a part of the EU. Both of these statements reflect a very poor understanding of history and cultural diversity. It is dangerous for our president to be multiculturalist instead of culturist.

His call to have Turkey join the EU shows that he does not respect the sovereignty of the Western world. His ability to do so stems from multiculturalists’ failure to recognize diversity. He announced his desire to join Islam in “rolling back the violent ideologies that people of all faiths reject.” This statement indicates that all cultures are the same and hold the same basic values. None are different. Diversity does not exist. This multiculturalism needs to be challenged by culturism if the West is to survive.

Culturists know that diversity exists. Anyone with any familiarity with history knows that not all peoples are polite humanists. Obama carefully said we will never be at war with Islam and left out declaring that we have never been at war with Islam. Islam has been at war with Christendom in the name of cultural supremacy for most of the last 1300 years. Secular multicultural Europe has trouble understanding that Muslims really believe in Islam and its supremacy. Turkish entry into the EU would invite massive immigration of a non-western, different and hostile culture. Because diversity exists, we must be culturist.

Names are important. In Obama’s speech he spoke of the “Muslim community” and the “Muslim world.” Neither of these phrases implies borders. It signifies their cross-border unity. But, there is a non-Muslim world as well. We often speak of this space as Europe and call it multicultural. This indicates that it is just a geographic location with no particular tradition. We need a phrase that implies cultural content in the way that Christendom did for centuries. In a post-Enlightenment world, that phrase is “the West.” Using it implies Jerusalem and Athens, shows our cross-border unity, combats multiculturalism, and lets the world know that a non-Muslim world and community also exists.

Obama said, “We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world.” But, again, as a multiculturalist he must flatten and lie about history. He cannot acknowledge that Islam has stood for a theocratic mode of governance as it still does. He thereby fails to acknowledge the struggle against theocracy and freedom of thought as a major theme of the West since Greece took on Persia. Since the Islamic world is not multiculturalist, this philosophy does not impact them. But it undermines our sense of self as it blinds us to diversity. Our sense of culturism must be dedicated to preserving “the West.”

If Obama is strategically flattening history in order to create global stability and cooperation, I am afraid his plan is doomed to failure. It is doomed because the Islamic world has not forgotten history and denied diversity in the name of multiculturalism. They are culturist. The current existence of theocracies should key us into the fact that secular humanism has not swept the planet and ended history. Diversity still exists. Obama says he wants to “strengthen opportunity for all people.” He is not President of all people. He is the President of a Western nation with a specific history, culture and agenda for which to fight. His not being clear on the fact that diversity exists is dangerous. We need our president to be a western culturist, not a multiculturalist.

www.culturism.us

Jerusalem Falls to British, "Great Rejoicing in the Christian World"

Christians ain't what they used to be.

From Daniel Pipes

Reporting on Allenby's conquest of Jerusalem on December 9, 1917, the New York Herald announced in a headline: "Jerusalem Rescued by British after 673 Years of Moslem Rule." Subtitles then elaborate: "Great Rejoicing in the Christian World" and "Jews Everywhere in Particular See the Restoration of Palestine as Part of Allies' Programme."

First page - click for enlargement.

The math checks out: 1917-673=1244, the year when the Ayyubids, with Khwarezmian aid, seized the city for the last time from the Crusaders.

The newspaper's second page boasts stories under headlines that read "Distinguished Jews Here [i.e., New York] Express Joy Over Capture of Jerusalem by British," "Rescure of Jerusalem Causes Joy," and "Holy City Ravaged in Many Wars by Pagan and Turk: Has Been Under the Yoke of Mohammedan Rule for 670 Years."

Second page - click for enlargement.

Comments:

(1) The lead headline captures a mentality once dominant but now rare in the West, when there was a self-conscious "Christian world" and it rejoiced in a religious/military victory over Muslims.

(2) Conversely, the "Muslim world" would still today rejoice in precisely this manner, recalling medieval rivalries, raising religious sentiments, and taking satisfaction at the humiliation of an age-old enemy.

(3) If the West can travel so far in less than a century, why not Muslims as well?

(4) It's no wonder that Jews and Zionists "expressed joy" over the British conquest, for it had been barely over a month since London had proclaimed the Balfour Declaration in which His Majesty's Government stated that it viewed "with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." (March 30, 2009)

U.S. Based Al Qaeda Magazine

According to this at The Jawa Report:

It's called "Jihad Recollections" and is a production of Charlotte, NC al Qaeda supporter Samir Khan's self-styled jihad media company, "as-Fursan"....

The magazine is 70 pages of the same kind of garbage that you'd expect from al Qaeda itself, and certainly not from an American living in North Carolina. It seems to be imitating several other jihad magazines, which started with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's "Voice of Jihad."

[...]

The most worrisome articles, though, aren't the two aimed at teaching wanna-be terrorists about the technologies behind EMP and night-vision --- even though we are told that "through war booty, we can expect to see more mujahideen using night vision in their strategies." No, I think the most worrisome article is one entitled "Principles of Guerrilla Warfare."

Clearly the point of the magazine is to gain sympathy for al Qaeda, the Taliban, Shabaab, and any other violent Islamist terrorist organizations...

Less than nine years after 9/11.

Please, somebody, tell me that this isn't happening!

Will BHO reach out to the magazine's editor?

Only Bling

In a cartoon strip, a boy wearing a large cross around his neck is shown telling a friend that a smiling Muslim girl in a veil looks like a terrorist.
He later confronts her and shouts: "Hey, whatever your name is, what are you hiding under your turban?"
She replies that the garment is called a hijab and that it is part of her religion "like the cross you wear".
The girl is then shown standing up for another boy, who is being bullied, and her behaviour is contrasted with that of the boy wearing the cross.
The cartoon story, entitled Standing Up For What You Believe In, appears in the latest issue of Klic!, a quarterly magazine aimed at children in care aged from eight to 12.
Published by the Who Cares? Trust, a charity set up in 1992, it is described on the cover as "the best ever mag for kids in care" and is widely distributed by town halls.
The charity received £100,000 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, in both 2007 and 2008, and £80,000 this year.
Although the cartoon does not specifically refer to the boy's religion, it has angered Christian groups and MPs who fear it sends out the wrong message.
Mike Judge, of the Christian Institute, said: "What about Christian children in care who receive this magazine? How will they feel to see themselves mocked as narrow-minded Islamaphobes.
"It is a clumsy caricature, symptomatic of a culture which says it is OK to bully Christians in the name of diversity."
Philip Hollobone, the Tory MP for Kettering, said: "I think it is very unfortunate that the lad who is pointing the finger is wearing the cross. You can hardly imagine anyone producing a magazine in which the roles were reversed and it was the Muslim girl who was behaving badly."
But Who Cares? Trust chief executive Natasha Finlayson described the cross as "bling" rather than a religious symbol. She said the charity had received one complaint.
"I am a Christian myself, so when a woman called us to complain, I went back and looked at the comic strip from her point of view," she said. "I am sorry she is upset but I don't share her view."

Obama to help Allah's People

Watch this one minute clip of Obama addressing the government in Turkey. He does not say he wants to strengthen the opportunity for "all people." Listen carefully. He says he wants to strengthen the opportunity for "Allah's people."

Did the world's smoothest orator just make a pronunciation gaffe? Have I now come down with a disease that causes me to see conspiracy when there is none? Is this as significant as Led Zeppelin played backwards saying "give Satan your keys"? Let me know what you think. Am I going insane? Does he say "Allah's people"?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7986154.stm

www.culturism.us

Feed The World, Let Them Know It's Time To Die

You've heard of Live Aid ...

Dambisa Moyo says aid given to Africa is causing the death of Africa. I agree with her.

From GLB:

There is no doubt: we want to help. The well-documented horrors of extreme poverty around the world have created a moral imperative that people have responded to in their millions. Yet the poverty persists. At a time of unprecedented global prosperity, children are starving to death. Are we not being generous enough? Or is the problem somehow insoluble, an inevitable outcome of historical circumstance?In this provocative and compelling book, Dambisa Moyo argues that the most important challenge we face today is to destroy the myth that Aid actually works. In the modern globalized economy, simply handing out more money, however well intentioned, will not help the poorest nations achieve sustainable long-term growth. 

Dead Aid analyses the history of economic development over the last fifty years and shows how Aid crowds out financial and social capital and directly causes corruption; the countries that have caught up did so despite rather than because of Aid. There is, however, an alternative. Extreme poverty is not inevitable. Dambisa Moyo also shows how, with improved access to capital and markets and with the right policies, even the poorest nations could be allowed to prosper. If we really do want to help, we have to do more than just appease our consciences, hoping for the best, expecting the worst. We need first to understand the problem.

Great Moments In The History of Moderate Islam

And this is contemporary history. In other words, this happened the other day.

The freaking Muslim Chaplain at Harvard University clearly signaled his support for the idea of killing Apostates.

Really, such a thing ought to make any reasonable person ask the question, "Are there any moderate Muslims at all?"

From Secular Right:

Talk Islam points me to a controversy over the Muslim chaplain at Harvard, Taha Abdul-Basser, expressing a moderate viewpoint when it comes to killing apostates. Moderate insofar as he admits to the wisdom of killing apostates! Here is the comment from the listserv:

There is a vibrant Muslim community at Harvard. They have a Muslim chaplain, employed by Harvard and loved and respected by Muslims all around Boston. His name is Taha Abdul-Basser. He gives Friday sermons, is invited to talks and to him local Muslims go when they need religious advice. Rarely does any one voice disagreement with him.

Recently, Muslim students as MIT had a disagreement on what Islam has to say on apostasy. Fortunately, some one from Harvard was able to get Brother Taha’s opinion on this. Enjoy.

assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah

here is Brother Taha’s response on apostasy. he also suggested contacting two other people and if they get back, inshaAllah i will fwd the responses.
Wa-`alaykum as-salam

Taha Abdul-Basser:

Wa-iyyakum.

I am familiar with these types of discussions.

While I understand that will happen and that there is some benefit in them, in the main, it would be better if people were to withhold from _debating_ such things, since they tend not to have the requisite familiarity with issues and competence to deal with them.

Debating about religious matter is impermissible, in general, and people rarely observe the etiquette of disagreements.

There are a few places on the Net where one can find informed discussions of this issue (Search ["Abdul Hakim Murad"|Faraz Rabbani" AND "apostasy"]) . The preponderant position in all of the 4 sunni madhahib (and apparently others of the remaining eight according to one contemporary `alim) is that the verdict is capital punishment.

Of concern for us is that this can only occur in the_domain and under supervision of Muslim governmental authority and can not be performed by non-state, private actors._

Some contemporary thought leaders have emphasized the differing views (i.e. not capital punishment) that a few fuqaha’ in the last few centuries apparently held on this issue, including reportedly the senior Ottoman religious authority during the Tanzimat period and Al-Azhar in the modern period. Still others go further and attempt to elaborate on the argument that the indicants (such as the hadith: (whoever changes his religion, execute him) used to build the traditional position apply only to treason in the political sense and therefore in the absence of a political reality in which apostasy is both forsaking the community and akin to political treasons in the modern sense, the indicants do not indicate capital punishment.

I am not aware of `Allama Taqiy al-Din Ibn Taymiya’s position on this issue but much is attributed to him by both detractors and supporters so one should be wary of accepting things attributed to him without asking experts. Perhaps you can ask Ustadh Sharif el-Tobgui or Shaykh Yasir Qadhi (I am copying both), both of whom are Ibn Taymiya specialists.

I would finally note that there is great wisdom (hikma) associated with the established and preserved position (capital punishment) and so, even if it makes some uncomfortable in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse, one should not dismiss it out of hand. The formal consideration of excuses for the accused and the absence of Muslim governmental authority in our case here in the North/West is for dealing with the issue practically.

And Allah knows best.

Wa s-salam.
Taha

The reality is, there are clearly many people who self-identify as Muslims who adhere to principles which we would consider to be moderate.

But, the question here is, are there ANY Muslims who adhere to Islamic doctrine who are decent human beings?

If the Muslim Chaplain of Harvard University feels free to express such an opinion in public, I think it ought to be clear that there are, at best, very few moderate Muslims. 

There may be nominal Muslims who have moderate world views, but the world is seriously lacking in serious Muslims who are "moderate".

In other words, Islam is an extremist ideology in an of itself. It is dangerous. It is a religion of the sword. It is primitive. And, it's adherents believe in ideas that come right out of the 7th century. 

Therefore, the more adherent Muslims we have in the Western world, the more trouble we will have.

The More Things Change - the More They Remain the Same

Click to enlarge

This is a political cartoon from 1934 !

FDR did not "Waste a Crisis" either...

Cosmic Hand Reaches for the Light

From Space.com:

Tiny and dying but still-powerful stars called pulsars spin like crazy and light up their surroundings, often with ghostly glows. So it is with PSR B1509-58, which long ago collapsed into a sphere just 12 miles in diameter after running out of fuel.

And what a strange scene this one has created.

In a new image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, high-energy X-rays emanating from the nebula around PSR B1509-58 have been colored blue to reveal a structure resembling a hand reaching for some eternal red cosmic light.

The star now spins around at the dizzying pace of seven times every second -- as pulsars do -- spewing energy into space that creates the scene.

Strong magnetic fields, 15 trillion times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, are thought to be involved, too. The combination drives an energetic wind of electrons and ions away from the dying star. As the electrons move through the magnetized nebula, they radiate away their energy as X-rays.

The red light actually a neighboring gas cloud, RCW 89, energized into glowing by the fingers of the PSR B1509-58 nebula, astronomers believe.

The scene, which spans 150 light-years, is about 17,000 light years away, so what we see now is how it actually looked 17,000 years ago, and that light is just arriving here.

A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).