OBAMA ON MIDDLE EASTERN ALLIANCE

From World Tribune.  In the recent meeting Obama had with Netanyahu, he is said to have promoted an Iran-Egypt-Turkey alliance.

The sources, familiar with Obama’s discussions during his March 20-22 visit to Israel, said Egypt, Iran and Turkey represented the new Muslim powers that would determine the future of the Middle East. They said Iran’s alliance with Sunni Egypt and Turkey would avoid a nuclear arms race despite concern over Teheran’s uranium enrichment program.

RELIGION IN US CITIES

Gallup lists the top ten most religious cities in American and the bottom 10 in religiosity.  The most religious:  Provo-Orem, Utah.  The least religious:  Burlington-South Burlington, Vermont.  Portland, Oregon is the 4th least religious city.

WHAT HAPPENED IN CYPRUS?

There is a lot of coverage of the crisis but most of the articles do not explain why Cyprus, a rather small country, got into the problems it did.  The Economist interviews an official in the central bank of Cyprus.  Basically it goes back to a communist government whose fiscal spending and deficits to support social and retirement programs bankrupted the country.

LIBERAL CRITICISM OF DR. BENJAMIN CARSON

Dr. Carson is the black neurosurgeon who has spoken out criticizing a number of Obama's policies.  It is hard for liberal to deal with blacks who don't follow the Democrat world view.

GLOBAL WARMING ACTIVIST ATTACKS EVANGELICAL

From Forbes. 

Prominent global warming activist Michael Mann threw down the gauntlet against evangelical Christians this week, calling a distinguished climate scientist and well-known Christian an “evolution denier” while refusing to participate with him in a global warming debate. In the wake of Mann’s unprovoked attack, prominent ‘evangelical’ global warming activists, who target evangelical Christians by claiming to also be evangelicals, declined to stand up for the Christian scientist against Mann’s ugly and unprovoked assault.

Roy Spencer is a senior scientist at NASA who is skeptical that humans have caused global warming.  Michael Mann attacked his religious beliefs and refused to debate the global warming issue with him.  Was he afraid he would lose the debate and as a result chose to focus on discrediting someone for his religious belief?  So much for secular open-mindedness and willingness to discuss issues they do not agree with.  And Mann ignores that the fact that some evangelicals do believe in global warming.

THE NEW EUGENICS

Where will all of the new genetic testing take us?  The eugenics movement of the early 20th century led to racism and national socialism.

JOURNALISTIC HYPOCRISY

What was okay for the media to say about the Bush family is not okay to say about the Obama family.

BANNING THE "EASTER" BUNNY

Diversity is great for everyone except if you are a Christian.

Heritage Elementary School in Madison, Alabama is taking the word “Easter” out of Easter, according to WHNT19 News.

What does that mean?  Well, they’ll still tolerate someone dressed as a giant bunny, but it will no longer be called the “Easter bunny.”  Similarly, “Easter eggs” are just “eggs,” and it might be better just to use “different shapes.”

THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY

USA Today columnist, Jonathan Turley, argues that Obama has achieved "the imperial presidency" that Nixon tried to establish but failed.  Warrantless surveillance, unilaterial military action, kill lists, and attacking whistleblowers. . .not exactly aspects of constitutional rule.

STOMPING ON JESUS

Students were expected to stomp on a picture of Jesus as part of an in-class assignment at Florida Atlantic University.  One student who refused to do it is being "punished" for refusing to do the assignment.

Florida Atlantic University as secular seminary. Dennis Praeger:

Question: What is the difference between Christian seminaries and American universities?
 
Answer: Christian seminaries announce that their purpose is to produce committed Christians. American universities do not admit that their primary purpose is to produce committed leftists. They claim that their purpose is to open students’ minds.

4/10/2013 A group of students and faculty are demonstrating to support the professor's right to have this kind of activity.

IRAN PENETRATING VENEZUELA

Iran is laundering billions of dollars through Venezuela and Hezbollah is setting  up bases to expand its operations into the western hemisphere.  Terrorism is growing closer to home.  I haven't seen this covered in the media, but it is from an "off-the-record" State Department official. 

OBAMA'S DEAL WITH PUTIN

FP Passport | FOREIGN POLICY

"We watched the president state to Medvedev that he would have greater flexibility after the election," Turner told Foreign Policy on Sunday night. "Putin later announced the terms of the agreement. You'd have to conclude that there was a deal."

The Ohio Republican was referring to a "hot mic" exchange between Obama and then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a nuclear security summit in South Korea last March. "After my election I have more flexibility," the president told Medvedev, referring to ongoing discussions about missile defense. "I understand," replied Medvedev. "I transmit this information to Vladimir."

Since the incident, the administration has steadfastly denied ever plotting a secret deal with Putin. Additionally, on Friday, when the Pentagon announced the cancellation of some Europe-based defenses as part of a reallocation of resources to protect against North Korea, Pentagon spokesman George Little rejected the notion that the plan had anything to do with Russia. "The missile defense decisions Secretary Hagel announced were in no way about Russia," he said.

SODOMY & JIHAD

It is hard to believe what some Islamic clerics not only teach, but issue fatwas on. . .and in London as well.  (MEMRI TV)

“My question is whether I am permitted to allow one of the mujahideen access to my anus, if my intentions are honorable, and the purpose is to train for Jihad by widening my anus.”

The sheik praised Allah and said: “In principle, sodomy is forbidden. However, Jihad is more important. It is the pinnacle of Islam. If sodomy is the only way to reach this pinnacle of Islam, then there is no harm in it.

THE ARAB SPRING: A REASSESSMENT

A discussion of how "optimism bias" influenced US foreign policy decision-making during the Arab Spring of 2011.  As crowds gathered in the streets in the Middle East demanding an end to dictatorships the media and policy-makers were ignoring the potential problems and even the actual rhetoric to blindly report that the Middle East was moving into an entirely different era of democracy and freedom. 

When the spring first bloomed in the winter of 2010–2011 it was welcomed by jubilation on the part of the young revolutionaries congregating day after day in places such as Tahrir Square in Cairo, but also by the foreign correspondents who would carry the good news about the fall of tyrants to the rest of the world. The air of freedom was intoxicating, as one young Egyptian wrote; the lion-hearted Egyptians were risking their lives to overthrow the corrupt and cruel dictatorship in an uprising such as the world had not witnessed in living memory. It was people power at its best and it was a shining example for the whole world. The rebels told the foreign correspondents that they had been inspired by America’s example of freedom, and that it was therefore a great shame that America and other Western governments, blinded and paralyzed by unreasonable fear of Islamism and the Muslim Brotherhood, had not given full support to these freedom fighters.

There is a place for Bismarckian realists.

ABORTION DEATHS IN CHINA

The number is mind-boggling--since 1971 over 330,000,000 abortions have been done in China as a result of its "one child policy".  Now the country faces an ageing problem.

IMAGE OF AMERICA DROPS IN THE WORLD

But it has gone up in Mexico!  Nevertheless the drop presents challenges to Obama and Kerry.

The median approval rating for U.S. leadership for 130 countries was 41 percent in 2012, down 8 percentage points from the 49 percent approval during Obama’s first year in office, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday

OBAMA AS NEGOTIATOR

From Politico.  Interesting observations about Obama as a less than stellar negotiator.  He doesn't work the room to convince Republicans of his opinions--LBJ would have been grabbing everyone he could corner to convince them of his agenda.  Looking at his Blackberry when there are people to lobby. . .

Another reason is the rancid relationship between Obama and Republicans on the Hill. House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the third-ranking House Republican, told us about an exchange he had with Obama at Saturday night’s white-tie Gridiron dinner. During a break in the program, McCarthy saw an empty chair next to Obama and decided to seize the chance. Surprised Obama wasn’t working the room, and thinking the president really is a loner, McCarthy walked up to the head table. He found the president was reading his BlackBerry. (Another attendee said Obama was talking to Ken Burns, the documentarian, who was showing POTUS pictures of his family on his phone.)
It appears that Obama is really a loner (even among Democrats) with a few close friends who he really trusts and works with.

The Myth of a "Rock Star" Professor.  Obama's student evaluations were great his first two years but after that they dropped dramatically.  And very few students were signing up for his classes.

ANOTHER US FOREIGN POLICY GOOF

U.S. aid policy contributed to the coup in Mali which led to an al-Qaeda group trying to take over the country.  The State Department blew this one.

U.S. efforts to help the Malians secure their national territory failed spectacularly the first time. Until March 2012, when a cataclysmic military coup caused the State Department to suspend all assistance, the U.S. concentrated its aid on Mali’s economic and social development, on the theory that extremism could best be defeated by alleviating poverty. In 2011, the U.S. spent $221 million on irrigation, transportation, education, health and other development initiatives. It spent less than $4 million for security programs. Much of that sum, moreover, went to development projects that purported to curb extremism.

GREEN CARS ACTUALLY CREATE MORE POLLUTION

The global warming supporters are really causing more warming than less with an emphasis on green energy.  And there is also the issue of how they will dispose of the batteries when these cars are sent to the junk yard.

A 2012 comprehensive life-cycle analysis in Journal of Industrial Ecology shows that almost half the lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions from an electric car come from the energy used to produce the car, especially the battery. The mining of lithium, for instance, is a less than green activity. By contrast, the manufacture of a gas-powered car accounts for 17% of its lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions. When an electric car rolls off the production line, it has already been responsible for 30,000 pounds of carbon-dioxide emission. The amount for making a conventional car: 14,000 pounds.

WILL LIBERAL WHITES TURN REPUBLICAN?

A discussion of how liberal whites condemn racism but when liberal Boston commuters begin to see hispanics at normally white commuter stations, they evidence racial discomfort with minorities.

The results were clear. After coming into contact, for just minutes each day, with two more Latinos than they would otherwise see or interact with, the riders, who were mostly white and liberal, were sharply more opposed to allowing more immigrants into the country and favored returning the children of illegal immigrants to their parents’ home country. It was a stark shift from their pre-experiment interviews, during which they expressed more neutral attitudes.