Posts
Friday Funny--Think Happy, Furry Thoughts
by Anthony Watts,
wattsupwiththat.com
October 5, 2012
People send me stuff. A couple of days ago this arrived in my inbox. – Anthony
The Gender-Neutral Kitten Salvation Happiness Fund
Brytni Ambyr is out to save the gender-neutral kittens of the world from abuse by global warming through Happy Thoughts.
Hi! :^) Brytni Ambyr* is an attractive blonde female out to save the gender-neutral kittens of the world from abuse by global warming through Happy Thoughts. Have you ever thought about what it would like to be forced to wear little fur coats through an endless summer? That’s like so cruel! :^(
Brytni will use your generous contributions to create lots of Happy Thoughts! She wishes she could save every little sweet creature. But she will do what she can to be Happy! and use your donations to be Happy! and [....]
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/10/05/friday-funny-think-furry-happy-thoughts/
Alliance Of Afghan Islamic Scholars Issues Fatwa Declaring Terrorism Against America ‘Obligatory’ For All Muslims And Islamic Nations
by 'ICA,'
MEMRI, Daily
posted: Midnight Watcher's Blog
original: Middle East Media Research Institute
October 5, 2012
After the attack against the US Embassy in Libya and the murder of Ambassador Stevens, a stupefied Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was unable to fathom how the events of the previous day could have happened “in a country we helped liberate” — words indicative of a foreign policy that has, and continues, to completely ignore the true nature of the enemy we’re dealing with …
Britannia Radio – “The Ittehad Ulema-e-Afghanistan (Alliance of Afghan Islamic Scholars), which is headed by Osama bin Laden’s friend Sheikh Abdullah Zakiri, has issued a fatwa urging the rulers of Islamic countries to boycott the U.S. and United Nations in protest against the controversial anti-Muhammad movie. Sheikh Abdullah Zakiri was described by Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri as Osama bin Laden’s friend in a video statement issued via jihadist internet forums on September 26, 2012.
Describing jihad against the United States of America as obligatory, the Ittehad Ulema-e-Afghanistan urged the Islamic nations to expel the U.S. ambassadors and recall their envoys from the United States. The fatwa, which is signed by over 25 Afghan Islamic scholars associated with Ittehad Ulema-e-Afghanistan, also condemned the Saudi Arabian leadership for permitting 250,000 American troops on Saudi soil. It also rejected a recent fatwa by Saudi cleric Qazi Abdul Aziz, which declared attacks on U.S. installation as haram (forbidden).
Following are excerpts [....]
[Post:] http://midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/alliance-of-afghan-islamic-scholars-issues-fatwa-declaring-terrorism-against-america-obligatory-for-all-muslims-and-islamic-nations/
[Original:] http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2012/10/memri-daily-october-4-2012-al-qaeda.html
Curious U.S. and French Military Deployments
Staff Report,
STRATfor.com
September 28, 2012
Summary Stratfor has received multiple reports of U.S. and French military movements that we would like to highlight to our readers. These movements could have multiple explanations and might not be linked. But given the numerous ongoing crises specifically centered in North Africa and the Middle East, we consider these developments to be worth following.
Analysis
According to a worldwide network of aircraft spotters and trackers, at least a dozen MC-130H, HC-130N, HC-130P and AC-130U military transport planes and gunships crossed the Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 13 heading eastbound. These aircraft are typically used for a variety of special tasks, including in close cooperation with special operations forces. The last reported stop for the aircraft was Souda Bay, Crete. It is unclear whether the aircraft have left Crete, but we are working on tracking them down.
A week and a half later [....]
http://app.response.stratfor.com/e/es?s=1483&e=591137&elq=ee45847683444e0bbaa01fb483186309
The Uses Of Blackmail
by William F. Buckley, Jr.,
National Review
December 7, 1973
This article first appeared in the December 7, 1973, issue of NATIONAL REVIEW.
New York, Nov. 14 — It is said, here and there openly but for the most part in whispers, that the disadvantages of our Mideast position are gravely damaging to us and that, as the results of the oil embargo begin to hit us, the public will rise in wrath against the foreign policy that brought it all on. And what — they say — of our allies? How can we justify what we are doing to them? What will be the cost to us of the loss of their friendship?
In that reasoning, it would appear to me, is implicit much of the weakness of the American position over the past years. It is a weakness that shows up in the defensive character not only of our deeds, but of our attitudes.
Begin, for instance, with the matter of our allies in Western Europe. Why do we think of them as our allies, when it is more accurate to think of ourselves as their ally? A learned strategist recently asked, “What has Israel ever done for us?” Posed just that way, it is hard to come up with the name of a single nation in Western Europe that has “done anything for us” in this century. Consider England — long may she wave, and while I am at it I wish Princess Anne great happiness — what has she done for the United States? The question is historically naive. The most obvious favor done in this century by one great country for another is the intercession by the United States in the Second World War, without which intercession Hitler would probably be giving away the bride at Westminster Abbey. Yet that intercession is also explainable in terms of self-interest: The prospect of a Hitler-dominated Europe was frightening to us.
But in the current situation, our allies, as we call them, surely need the United States more than the United States needs them? They need our investments, our products, our tourists, our navy, and above all [....]
Anemic Job Growth Continues
Staff Report,
heritage.org
October 5, 2012
Job growth continues to sputter—this morning's jobs report shows that 12.1 million Americans are still out of work. Going against other economic indicators, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent. Economists are already looking into the drop, saying it seems to be a statistical fluke, because it doesn't match up with the sluggish job creation and recent downward revision of GDP growth. Heritage's J.D. Foster says:
One time out of a hundred, the true figure will be much different than the reported figure. One time out of a hundred for a monthly survey means about once every eight years. What seems to have occurred with the September household survey is the one time in a hundred. The last time the household survey showed such a huge jump in employment was in 1983 during the Reagan-era economic boom. Today's economy does not look much like the Reagan boom.The real story, then, from the more reliable employment survey is the economy created a paltry 114,000 jobs, leaving 12.1 million out in the cold. This story is getting old. And the economy has no good news to look forward to. Congress has gone home until after the election. When it returns to Washington, the end of 2012 will be staring us in the face. In just a few short months, the largest tax increase in history will hit America. It sounds like hyperbole, and we only wish that were the case. It's been dubbed Taxmageddon, because for millions of workers it will be an end-of-working pink slip scenario. But on January 1, a nearly $500 billion tax increase will slam the economy.
Not only will this [....]
http://links.heritage.org/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=13335894472&ch=307E8BE2AF456838EC12C0E30563015F&h=afad289988411987af5d2a8b6fa1b8c4&ei=s7_1-mk0N
Video: Obama House Of Cards Could Collapse With Donor Scandal
by Sabrina Siddqui,
The Huffington Post
October 4, 2012
http://youtu.be/x_1z3fIb0h4
A scandal that is being blamed for Obama’s poor performance at the presidential debate has been seething on social media since late Thursday night.
The Washington Examiner reports that an extensive investigation into the Obama campaign’s donations—specifically illegal donations from overseas—is due to be reported on by an unnamed national magazine in the next few days.
Will this be the scandal that will derail the Obama campaign?
Do the alleged overseas donations have anything to do with the illegal Russian money that poured into the Obama campaign in 2008? [....]
http://www.exposeobama.com/2012/10/06/video-obama-house-of-cards-could-collapse-with-donor-scandal/
Devaluation Coming?
by Bob Livingston,
Personal Liberty Digest
October 8, 2012
Government statistics never hint at the cost to the American people of constant devaluation of the currency. It’s a deep, dark secret that operates above the awareness threshold. What thief would announce his devices? Currency depreciation is a ploy governments have used for millennia. Why do evil men steal through currency depreciation? Because of its huge, ongoing income flow that goes to government over and above all taxes. Taxes have the implied legality of law and consent of the people. Currency depreciation is not allotted the parameters of legality or illegality. It is above the law and is almost never debated in the monetary realm. Currency depreciation is seductively covert when a regime is relatively stable. But when a government becomes unstable, depreciation of the currency becomes more overt until collapse.
The modern-day currency-collapsing event was [....]
http://personalliberty.com/2012/10/08/devaluation-coming/
Obama Adviser Claims The President Thought He Won The Debate
by Tara Dodrill,
inquisitr.com
October 9, 2012
A Democrat reportedly close to Barack Obama’s campaign claims that as he stepped off the stage, the president thought he won the debate. Critiques of the first presidential debate flooded the airwaves after the first fateful meeting between Obama and Mitt Romney, but until today, the general public had no idea that the president thought he had bested his Republican challenger. The unnamed source is reportedly a Democrat who is aligned with the Obama campaign and has been an unofficial adviser on occasion, according to the Daily Mail. The individual also maintains that President Obama did not take debate preparation seriously and ignored the advice of senior aides. The president reportedly had clever one-liners prepared for him to use to wind up Mitt Romney, but for some reason, opted against voicing them during the debate.
Hubris is being blamed as at least a partial culprit for the president’s performance during the most watched political debate in history. The Democratic source claims that Obama was so disdainful of Romney that he [....]
http://www.inquisitr.com/358173/obama-adviser-claims-the-president-thought-he-won-the-debate/
Obama’s Former Classmate:
‘He Told Us That His Father Was an Indonesian King,‘ That ’He Was a Prince’ and ‘Would Be a Ruler’
by Billy Hallowell,
theblaze.com
October 10, 2012
This week, PBS’s “Frontline” published the transcript from a June 27, 2012 interview with Kristen Caldwell, a woman who grew up with President Barack Obama and attended the Punahou School with him in Honolulu, Hawaii. Among other claims, she told PBS that, as a young child, Obama told his classmates that he was Kenyan royalty or an Indonesian prince — fascinating claims that she discussed in great detail.
The former classmate, who referred to Obama as “Barry” throughout the interview (the name she claims his classmates called him), said that she believes Obama was at the prestigious school on scholarship. Like other kids who were attending on reduced admission, he likely worked at the tennis courts on campus — a location where the two frequently hung out.
During the interview, she described Obama’s physical appearance and his frequent purported embellishment of his background.
“I can picture him as this slightly — “chubby” is too strong, but rounded, short little guy, Barry Obama,” Caldwell said. “And he told us that his father was an Indonesian king and that he was a prince, and after he finished school he was going to go back, and he would be a ruler in Indonesia.” [....]
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/obamas-former-classmate-he-told-us-that-his-father-was-an-indonesian-king-that-he-would-be-a-ruler-in-indonesia/
REALITY REPORT - Tom DeWeese on Agenda 21
uploaded by 'lonelantern,'
YouTube.com
March 30, 2010
Tom DeWeese, the president of the American Policy Center, joins Gary for a special interview to break down the threat to freedom through the international Agenda 21 program.
http://youtu.be/iIbDLViZU6E
A Frustrated Paul Ryan Confronts Interviewer After Strange Question: ‘You Trying to Stuff Words in People’s Mouths?’
by Jason Howerton,
theblaze.com
October 8, 2012
A seemingly routine interview with WJRT in Flint, Michigan was abruptly ended after GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan and his team got frustrated with the interviewer’s attempt to “stuff words in people’s mouths.” The interview had already run over when Ryan and company shut it down, according to a campaign spokesperson.
The video interview began innocently enough,
http://youtu.be/zo3xQ8mZpBU
with a few questions about gun laws in the United States.
“What we’ve learned – if we just put more gun laws in place, it doesn’t actually stop criminals from getting guns and committing these crimes,” Ryan said.
“This is why we need economic growth, this is why we need education reform.”
Ryan also argued that the nation needs to be focused on solving the
“problems of civil society.”
“Does this country have a gun problem?” the interviewer asked.
“This country has a crime problem,” Ryan replied.
“Not a gun problem?” the interviewer asked again.
Ryan went on to explain that not even President Obama is talking about implementing more gun laws. He said the country’s [....]
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/a-frustrated-paul-ryan-confronts-interviewer-after-strange-question-you-trying-to-stuff-words-in-peoples-mouths/
Losing His Grip: Obama's New Theory of Freedom
by John Ransom,
townhall.com
October 8, 2012
While Obama remains a great curiosity outside of the U.S., it’s largely his American-ness that draws the crowds, rather than some innate ability of his own. A man comes from low beginnings and ascends to the White House. That tale quintessentially remains the American strive-and-succeed story since Washington was first born poor and lowly in a kind-of log cabin. While Washington is represented as a rich, privileged, white guy, the success Washington enjoyed and the wealth he built -- yes, built -- he earned by working hard on the dangerous and brutal, American frontier, going places often were few men traveled.
Obama was not quite born in a log cabin, but a straw hut or a condo in Hawaii will do as well. The Obama story also is another measurement of how far a free society-- through its own efforts-- can go toward healing centuries-old wrongs, without resorting to interminable blood-lettings that still feature so large in ethnic conflicts around the world. That is not to say that ethic blood wasn’t spilled in America as atonement for much sin, but at least we learn.
In this, Obama is also a measure of the eagerness with which Americans are anxious to redress old wrongs. But there are two things that Obama’s story certainly are not.
And it is here that tale differs from the Washington story: It’s not a measure of the capacity of Barack Hussein Obama, nor yet his devotion to liberty. First, forget Jimmy Carter as the mean of failure for Democrat presidents. You’d have to hearken back to James Buchanan to graph the order of magnitude of the disaster Obama has left, not just for the United States, but for the world. Buchanan, like Obama, was more interested in theoretical freedom than he was in freedom that might apply to any actual, living persons. Buchanan’s presidency, it will be recalled, helped lead America to its great [....]
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2012/10/08/losing_his_grip_obamas_new_theory_of_freedom/page/full/
Scary: Obama Appointed the Jobs Number Cruncher; Scarier: Her Resume
by Charles Payne,
townhall.com
October 9, 2012
First, I'm a grandfather for the first time, and it's an amazing blessing. The country my granddaughter has come into is at a very dangerous point. The economy is teetering, but Main Street is being told it's all okay. What's problematic is the rapid decline in the last year. That unemployment rate number on Friday was a total farce, but even if it was completely honest, 7.8% is way too high for an economy that supposedly turned the corner a long time ago. The number doesn't jibe, with an economy growing at 1.3%. The only honest aspect of the report was that more people were entering the work force, but I guarantee a new line of questioning accompanied the Household Survey. Few people know that President Obama placed a former contract negotiator and union steward to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Erica Groshen taught Statistical Methods for Economists, Trade Unions, Collective Bargaining, and Public Policy at Harvard. Although she calls herself "nonpartisan," rumblings about sending her children to a communist summer camp coupled with her left-leaning teachings have many worried. Of course, the Left uses the victim-race card, saying Nixon pushed all the Jews out of BLS, so it's about time. This is scary stuff. What was real in the Friday number was private sector job creation at 104,000, below consensus and less than half where it was a year ago.
Manufacturing continues to shed jobs, and temp work is exploding. This is a shadow of what America is really all about. But, this is how nations morph when the focus is on squeezing the gap between rich (and the so-called rich) and poor, by browbeating the former, while spreading crumbs to the latter.
If Socialism is So Great, Why all the Cheating? [....]
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/charlespayne/2012/10/09/scary_obama_appointed_the_jobs_number_cruncher_scarier_her_resume/page/full/
Pew Poll Says Obama a Loser as Reality Sets In
by John Ransom,
townhall.com
October 10, 2012
A new poll from the Pew Center for Public Something-or-Another finally get's it right.
Obama's going to lose and it likely won't be close.
According to Fox News, liberals are up in arms about the Pew poll, which has Romney up 49-45 percent just few weeks before balloting starts in some states.
From Fox News:
Something isn’t just rotten in Denmark. Try Washington, D.C., where liberal are going insane reacting to the latest Pew poll results that show Romney kicking election butt by 49-45.[....]
The Daily Beast’s Andrew Sullivan freaked out about the math and the “12 point swing” that sent Romney from down by 8 points to up by 4. Sullivan asked: “Did Obama Just Throw The Entire Election Away?” That rant earned it front-page coverage on Drudge with the headline: “SULLIVAN: SOS OBAMA.”
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/johnransom/2012/10/10/pew_poll_says_obama_a_loser_as_reality_sets_in/page/full/
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/10/09/liberals-make-stink-about-pew-poll/#ixzz28qg4uBpk
National Education Standards, Title I Portability Shape First Presidential Debate
by Lindsey Burke,
heritage.org
October 4, 2012
Last night’s presidential debate included quite a few specifics on education policy from both President Obama and Governor Romney. President Obama’s call for more federal spending on education was no surprise. But his choice to highlight the Administration’s involvement in pushing states to adopt national standards and tests was remarkable.
The President stated that 46 states had raised their standards as a result of his policies, leaving no doubt that he was referring to the Common Core national standards push. To date, 46 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards, incentivized with $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funds along with access to No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waivers.
The President could have referenced a number of education policy changes during the debate, but it’s noteworthy that his push to nationalize standards and tests was at the top of his list. As Education Week notes:
And Obama, who doesn’t refer to Race to the Top much on the campaign stump, invoked his signature education-reform brand three times in the debate as having ‘prompted reforms in 46 states.’ (Clearly a reference to the common core, without naming the common-standards movement, which is a politically dicey thing for the federal government to support these days.)Standards, assessment, curriculum, textbooks, and teacher training are the domain of local school districts and states—not the federal government. Washington’s 10 percent share in education financing, along with legal prohibitions against federal involvement in curriculum, clearly vests decisions about what will be taught in our nation’s schools with state and local leaders and parents. National standards illustrate once more the degree to which the Obama Administration is intervening in this most quintessential of local school functions. President Obama also urged more “investment” in education. This of course means more federal spending—a failing strategy that has cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars over the past 45 years and left America’s children no better off.
Governor Romney discussed his ideas for making Title I dollars (federal funding for low-income children) and IDEA funding (federal funding for special needs children) portable—effectively turning these large federal programs into a voucher system. At approximately $15 billion and $11 billion respectively, giving states control over how their share of Title I and IDEA funding is allocated would give them control over a significant amount of their federal education dollars. As we have written before, Title I and IDEA funding portability is a laudable goal. To ensure the tenants of federalism are best reflected however, states should be allowed to make those funding streams portable. Better still would be reforms like A-PLUS—the conservative alternative to NCLB—that would give states control to direct their share of education funding for almost all federal programs that fall under NCLB in the way that best meets student needs. Portability would allow states with school choice plans to let federal dollars follow students to the school of their choice as well.
Governor Romney also stated [....]
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/10/04/national-education-standards-title-i-portability-shape-first-presidential-debate/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email;utm_campaign=EdReview
Until Next Sunday....
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