MUSLIMS WANT SHARIA LAW

From Reuters.  Extensive polling on a number of issues from the Pew polls.

Large majorities in the Muslim world want the Islamic legal and moral code of sharia as the official law in their countries, but they disagree on what it includes and who should be subject to it, an extensive new survey says.

Suicide bombing was mostly rejected In the study by the Washington-based Pew Forum, but it won 40 percent support in the Palestinian territories, 39 percent in Afghanistan, 29 percent in Eygpt and 26 percent in Bangladesh.

UN OFFICIAL BLAMES US FOR BOSTON BOMBING

I have seen Falk's comments at other news accounts, but this one gives a bit more detail.  What was interesting is that this fellow still gets the UN appointment and has a career after describing the Ayatollah Khomeini as a moderate back in 1979. . .and 9/11 was a US government conspiracy.

The United Nations official who angered critics by blaming the Boston Marathon bombing on “American global domination” will keep his post, because not enough other countries took offense at his comments.

OBAMACARE

Democrat leaders in Congress were seeking a way to get around Obamacare while sticking the rest of the country with it.

HYPOCRISY IN BOSTON TERRORIST RESPONSE

From Howie Carr at the Boston Herald.  Suppose the marathon bombings had been committed by born-again Christian Tea Party members on the dole.  Do you really think that Gov. Deval Patrick would be hanging on to those terrorists’ welfare files even tighter than he clutches Lt. Gov. Tim Murray’s state cellphone logs from the morning of Nov. 3, 2011?

INSIDE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

A tell-all book is coming out!  It is not going to make the administration look as noble as the media presents it. A lot of hypocrisy.

A column on the "hubris" of Obama. Even as the nation’s workers wilted under a struggling economy and high unemployment, Obama decided to take two round excursions to Hawaii at taxpayer expense over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Just six weeks later, he jetted down to Florida for a luxury four-day golf vacation where he played with Tiger Woods. Meanwhile Michelle Obama also took another vacation, skiing in Colorado.

CHICAGO POLITICIANS SEEKING GANG SUPPORT

Chicago politicians are seeking help from gangs.  Chicago is going to look like Colombia or worse. Gangs will end up controlling the city council.  Money is also flowing from gangs to politicians.
 
The gang representatives were interested in electing aldermen sympathetic to their interests and those of their impoverished wards. As for the politicians, says Baskin, their interests essentially boiled down to getting elected or reelected. “All of [the political hopefuls] were aware of who they were meeting with,” he says. “They didn’t care. All they wanted to do was get the support.”

While they typically deny it, many public officials—mostly, but not limited to, aldermen, state legislators, and elected judges—routinely seek political support from influential street gangs. Meetings like the ones Baskin organized, for instance, are hardly an anomaly. Gangs can provide a decisive advantage at election time by performing the kinds of chores patronage armies once did.

NEW YORK SCHOOL BOARD & HOMOSEXUALITY

Girls asked to give lesbian kiss at school lesson.

QUESTIONS ABOUT US ANTI-TERRORISM EFFORTS

We are in the best of hands. I will be adding to this thread as I see articles on the possible failures of Washington to deal with terrorism.

WAPO:  "Is  the FBI Focused Enough on the Real Bad Guys?"

WAPO:  "CIA Pushed to Add Boston Bomber to Terrorist Watch List."  It did this more than a year ago.  The FBI appears to have ignored it.

Austin Statesman:   "Report:  Federal Agency Charged with Oversight of Fertilizer Plant Security in Disarray."

Wall Street Journal:  "Boston Suspect Was Put on Two Watch Lists."   Are these watch lists really meaningful?

Volokh:   "Why Wasn't Tsarnaev Searched at the Border?"

Mother of suspects was on terrorist watch list.  "If they were seeking asylum, why did they keep flying back and forth to their native country?"

BOSTON MOSQUE: RADICAL TIES

USA Today.

The mosque attended by the two brothers accused in the Boston Marathon double bombing has been associated with other terrorism suspects, has invited radical speakers to a sister mosque in Boston and is affiliated with a Muslim group that critics say nurses grievances that can lead to extremism. 

Several people who attended the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Mass., have been investigated for Islamic terrorism, including a conviction of the mosque's first president, Abdulrahman Alamoudi, in connection with an assassination plot against a Saudi prince.

UN: BOSTON HAD IT COMING

From Powerline.

OBAMA & GREEN ENERGY

Government money was given Fisker automotive to develop a "green" car even when the administration knew the company was in financial trouble.  $200 million down the drain.  Another Solyndra.

FBI & HOMELAND SECURITY BLEW IT ON BOSTON TERRORISTS

From The Hill:  Both agencies seem to have failed to pick up warning signs about the Tsarneav brothers.

And Russia alerted US agencies a number of times and no one seemed to be listening.

OBAMA BUDGET GOES AFTER THE MIDDLE CLASS

He promised taxes would not rise on the middle class.

But his annual budget is doing more to target middle-class taxpayers than any of his previous proposals, calling for caps on deductions, changes in the way some tax benefits are calculated and a big hike in cigarette taxes — all proposals that would make middle-class Americans pay more.

“The president keeps breaking his campaign pledge to not tax the middle class — first with his health care law and now with these tax hikes in his budget,” Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top GOP member on the Finance Committee, told POLITICO. “As I’ve said before, when it comes to this White House and its penchant for wanting to raise taxes, everyone — including those middle-class families the president says he wants to help — needs to watch their wallets.”

JEW HATRED

You don't see this covered in the mainstream media.  A Jew was attacked by a Muslim on a New York City subway.

A harrowing scene occurred recently on the New York City subway when a group of teens approached and harassed a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke. The ringleader, a self-identified Muslim teen, threatened to kill the man and added, “They should have killed all of you.” When police confronted the belligerent 17-year-old at a stop in Brooklyn, a mob formed. As the crowd filmed the scene and yelled at the policemen, one young woman began beating a cop before being arrested.

GOD OR ATHEISM?

Philosopher Peter Kreeft discusses the issues involved in this debate.

MEDIA SPIN ON BOSTON TERRORISTS

Barry Rubin questions how  the media is beginning to handle the Boston terrorists. Will the media and Washington really dig into true motivations?

Now that the two (primary, at least) terrorists from the Boston Marathon attack have been killed or captured, we enter a new phase in which the dominant Politically Correct, factually incorrect forces try to explain away the attack.

BILL MAHER ON MUSLIM VIOLENCE

In his typical earthy language Bill Maher says you can't compare Muslim violence with Christianity. "There is only one faith that wants to kill you. . ."

THE BOSTON BOMBERS

An interesting account by a woman who received facials from the terrorists' mother and observed the family.  It seems the family was becoming increasingly observant Muslims while the writer knew them.

A plea from a moderate Muslim.  Unfortunately the media doesn't give moderates as much attention as CAIR and radicals.

The Tsarnaev brothers prove that the current Homeland Security “whack-a-mole” strategy is severely limited and rather flawed. The United States must address head-on the ideology of political Islam, which is the root cause of Islamist terrorism.

Until most Muslims begin to harness our resources and our efforts to counter the ideology of Islamism and its attraction of vulnerable American Muslim youth and its pathway towards jihadization, we will continue to see youth ages 13 and up turn against us. The “morphine” of jihadism numbs their identity and drives them to destroy free societies. It infects them, dehumanizes their fellow Americans, and instructs them to commit acts of terrorism against their own — Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

OBAMA & BIDEN 2012 TAXES

Obama paid at the 18% tax rate--pretty low for someone making over $600,000.

EXPLAINING THE GOSNELL NEWS BLACKOUT

An analysis of why the media is not covering the trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell.

But the thing is that I’m getting kind of sick of pointing out egregious bias only to see things not just remain bad but get worse. Just think, in the last year, we saw the media drop any pretense of objectivity and bully the Susan G. Komen Foundation into funding Planned Parenthood. And then we had how many months of coverage focused on someone calling a birth control activist a bad name? And who can forget every pro-life person in the country being asked to respond to Todd Akin’s stupid remarks about rape?

So our abortion-drenched media would certainly want to cover what is arguably the country’s most horrific serial murder trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, right? Well, far from the front-page, top of the news, daily update coverage you rightfully would expect, it’s been downplayed. Majorly downplayed.

IRS

I think everyone should pay their taxes, but when the IRS claims to be able to read emails, texts, etc. without a search warrant of some kind, 1984 has arrived.  Increasingly civil liberties are being co-opted.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has claimed that agents do not need warrants to read people's emails, text messages and other private electronic communications, according to internal agency documents.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/292989-irs-claims-it-can-read-emails-without-a-warrant#ixzz2QA4vL6B6

EDWARD SAID

A summary of the impact and background of Edward Said.

Columbia University’s English Department may seem a surprising place from which to move the world, but this is what Professor Edward Said accomplished. He not only transformed the West’s perception of the Israel-Arab conflict, he also led the way toward a new, post-socialist life for leftism in which the proletariat was replaced by “people of color” as the redeemers of humankind. During the ten years that have passed since his death there have been no signs that his extraordinary influence is diminishing.

EVANGELICALS & CATHOLICS EXTREMIST GROUPS

Army Reserve training material: Evangelicals, Catholics are extremist groups.  
 

A slideshow presentation shown to US Army Reserve recruits classifies Christians, including both evangelicals and Roman Catholics, as religious extremists, placing them in the same category as skinheads, the Ku Klux Klan, Hamas and Al Qaeda.

The presentation also warned that members of the military are prohibited from taking leadership roles in any organization the Pentagon considers ‘extremist,’ and from distributing the organization’s literature, whether on or off a military installation.

The opening slide warns that ‘the rise in hate crimes and extremism outside the military may be an indication of internal issues all [armed] services will have to face.’

Citing a Southern Poverty Law Center report as evidence that extremism is on the rise, the Army Reserve presentation blames ‘the superheated fears generated by economic dislocation, a proliferation of demonizing conspiracy theories,the changing racial make-up of America and the prospect of 4 more years under a black president who many on the far right view as an enemy to their country.’

PLANE DIVERTED: POSSIBLE TERRORISTS!

A family complains about scenes of violence and sex on an in-flight movie that there children were being exposed to.  The next thing is the plane is diverted and the family is escorted off the plane for questioning!

ASSOCIATED PRESS REVISES TERMS

The AP will no longer use the terms "illegal immigrant" and "Islamist".

FDR AND ANTISEMITISM

A discussion of the issue of whether FDR could have done more to help Jews in Nazi Germany.

OBAMA: THE ANTICHRIST?

From the Guardian:  1 in 4 Americans think Obama is the antichrist.

About one in four Americans suspect that President Barack Obama might be the antichrist, more than a third believe that global warming is a hoax and more than half suspect that a secretive global elite is trying to set up a New World Order, according to a poll released on Tuesday.

The survey, which was conducted by Public Policy Polling, asked a sample of American voters about a number of conspiracy theories, phrasing the questions in eye-catching language that will have the country's educators banging their heads on their desks. The study revealed that 13% of respondents thought Obama was "the antichrist", while another 13% were "not sure" – and so were at least appeared to be open to the possibility that he might be. Some 73% of people were able to say outright that they did not think Obama was "the antichrist".

CHRISTIANS IN MIDDLE EAST NEED PROTECTION

Kirsten Powers in USA Today. 

"Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world." So asserted German Chancellor Angela Merkel late last year, causing a stir. Merkel echoed a concern expressed by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who warned in a 2011 speech that Christians face a "particularly wicked program of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing."

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, an expert on the region, told me he is shocked that American Christians aren't regularly protesting outside of embassies drawing attention to this issue. Persecution of Christians in the Middle East is, he says, "one of the most undercovered stories in international news." Perhaps it's time for that to change.

OBAMACARE INCOMPETENCE

This is from Joe Klein, a liberal!

Let me try to understand this: The key incentive for small businesses to support Obamacare was that they would be able to shop for the best deals in health care super-stores—called exchanges. The Administration has had 3 years to set up these exchanges. It has failed to do so.


This is a really bad sign. There will be those who argue that it’s not the Administration’s fault. It’s the fault of the 33 states that have refused to set up their own exchanges. Nonsense. Where was the contingency planning? There certainly are models, after all—the federal government’s own health benefits plan (FEHBP) operates markets that exist in all 50 states. So does Medicare Advantage. But now, the Obama Administration has announced that it won’t have the exchanges ready in time, that small businesses will be offered one choice for the time being—for a year, at least. No doubt, small business owners will be skeptical of the Obama Administration’s belief in the efficacy of the market system to produce lower prices through competition. That was supposed to be the point of this plan.

4/5/2013 Another article on Democrat concerns about Obamacare.

Two-thirds of Democrats now believe Obama's health care reforms will either hurt them personally or have no effect on their daily lives, a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows. In comparison, just 27 percent of Democratic respondents said the reforms would help them.

VIOLENCE OF CHICAGO TEACHER'S UNION

Footage.  It is interesting to see the role played by socialists in the march. 

OBAMA & BANKS

I couldn't figure this one out when I saw the headline in the Washington Post:  "Obama Administration Pushes Banks to Make Home Loans to People with Weaker Credit."  Haven't they learned anything from recent history?  This was one of the reasons we had the banking and Fannie Mae crisis just 5 or 6 years ago.

Officials are also encouraging lenders to use more subjective judgment in determining whether to offer a loan...  If you loan someone money there has to be objective criteria that they will pay it back or someone is getting to eat the loan.  And it usually ends up being the honest taxpayer.

CNBC reports more problems developing with loans to people who cannot realistically pay the loan off.

KATRINA RELIEF MONEY MISSING

$700 million of Katrina relief money has gone missing. Where did it go and is this just the beginning?  Since New York was described as the most corrupt state in the union, I kind of think there will not be an investigation that really follows through.  And I wonder how much more misspent money will be discovered.

COMING ICE AGE????

I thought everyone was concerned about global warming.  Die Welt is a very credible German newspaper so when it reports on questions about global warming, it cannot be considered some right-wing conspiracy to silence Al Gore.

The right accuses global warmers as "junk-scientists."

From Forbes:  "Hide the Decline."  A global warming supporter won't debate a fellow scientist on the issue because he is an "evangelical."

Greenhouse gases protect the earth from harmful gases.

LASHING RETURNS TO LIBYA

Islamists have revived lashing for lawbreakers.  Waiting to see how Washington or media handle this.

ENJOY YOUR COFFEE!

High coffee consumption explains the longevity of Greeks on the island of Ikaria!  Drink up.