http://q4j-middle-east.com There’s increasing talk these days about American and other Western military action aimed against the Assad regime in Syria. It appears the latter used some of its enormous stockpile of weapons of mass destruction (poison gas, that is–you know, what Iraq’s Saddam also had, used, murdered many folks with, transferred to Syria, and […]
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/08/27/farewell-big-sis-napolitano-advises-successor-to-brace-for-effects-of-climate-change/
“You will need to continue to ensure the security of key government leaders and events of national significance,” she continued. “…You will also have to prepare for the increasing likelihood of more weather-related events of a more severe nature as a result of climate change and continue to build the capacity to respond to potential disasters in far-flung regions of the country that could occur at the same time.” (HUH????RSK)
In her farewell speech at the National Press Club in Washington today, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the “key to success” during her four and a half years leading the DHS has been shaping a department that’s “flexible and agile.”
“Being flexible and agile means acknowledging that we may not be able to stop all threats all the time, but we can and must be prepared to address them quickly when they happen, minimize their consequences, draw pragmatic lessons and emerge stronger and better,” she said. “These are the most critical elements of our ability to meet our complex mission. And I believe we are seeing that approach bear fruit in a profound, positive way.”
Napolitano is leaving the department to head the University of California without a successor in place.
She hailed her “see something, say something” program, which D.C. commuters are periodically reminded of in a booming Napolitano voice ringing across the Metro platforms. The secretary said she expanded the campaign “to more than 250 states, cities, transportation systems, universities and private sector entities nationwide to encourage the public to play an active role in reporting suspicious activity.”
http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2013/08/27/annals-of-intolerance-tulane-edition/ When it comes to Hobbits and the rest of J.R.R. Tolkein’s bestiary, I am pretty much at one with the critic Edmund Wilson. In “Oo, Those Awful Orcs!,” Wilson expressed astonishment, and not a little distaste, at the wild popularity of Tolkien’s kiddie books. “Juvenile trash,” I recall, was one phrase he employed about […]
http://upww.us/vinienco/
WELCOME TO ISLAM: 82-Year-Old Saudi Languishing in Prison, Waiting to Be Blinded:
An 82-year-old Saudi man has been in prison for nearly seven years awaiting a court sentence to blind him after he was convicted of causing blindness to another man during a fight. The old man could be saved if pardoned by the victim.
During the fight in the southern Saudi town of Bisha, Wahair Al Harthi shot his adversary in the face, causing him to lose sight in both eyes.
The court found him guilty and ordered him to be “blinded” on tooth-for-tooth basis under Islamic law unless the victim accepts …
Read more
Fourteen More People Killed by Boko Haram
Fourteen More People Killed by Boko Haram:
Members of Boko Haram have killed 14 pro-government youths an attack on the northeastern town of Bama, a local official who attended a mass funeral for the victims said on Monday.
Sunday’s attack was one of a spate of deadly assaults by the Boko Haram Islamist sect this month that raises doubts about whether a military offensive against it since May can succeed.
Local vigilante groups run by youth volunteers have been instrumental in helping the military capture Boko Haram members, but they have also made them a target for the insurgents, drawing civilians further into …
Read more
New Book Details Gaddafi’s Sexual Abuse of Boys and Girls
New Book Details Gaddafi’s Sexual Abuse of Boys and Girls:
Colonel Gaddafi ordered the kidnap of schoolgirls who were then kept as sex slaves at compound, according to a book on the dictator.
One girl, named Soraya, was kidnapped when she was 15 and held for five years in a basement at his six-mile long fortress just outside Tripoli.
She says she was violently raped, beaten and abused on an almost daily basis and saw similar abuse of other girls and boys.
Her story and those of others who say they were raped by the despot are told in the book Gaddafi’s Harem: The …
Read more
Assad: A Vietnam Scenario Awaits the U.S in Syria
Assad: A Vietnam Scenario Awaits the U.S in Syria:
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned the United States on Monday, saying Washington will have to deal with another Vietnam scenario if it chooses to militarily intervene in the conflict-ravaged country after allegations that his regime has used chemical weapons in a Damascus suburb attack last week.
“Failure awaits the United States as in all previous wars it has unleashed, starting with Vietnam and up to the present day,” Reuters quoted Assad as saying in an interview published in a Russian newspaper on Monday.
While denying that the Syrian forces have used chemical weapons in …
Read more
Saudi Decapitates Wife, Kills His Four Young Children
Saudi Decapitates Wife, Kills His Four Young Children:
A Saudi man used a knife to cut off his wife’s head before slitting the throats of his four children, aged between two and 11 years, in the most heinous crime in his area. He also had a son from a previous marriage who he killed at the same time.
Police said the woman and her children were brought dead to hospital in the southern province of Najran on Monday night after the husband severed her head and slit the throats of his three sons and one daughter.
The boys are aged between five and …
Read more
In Tatters: Egypt’s Militants Seek Truce with Army
In Tatters: Egypt’s Militants Seek Truce with Army:
Two Egyptian militant groups have proposed a truce between the military and the ousted president’s Muslim Brotherhood group, in a move that highlights the extent to which Islamists have been weakened by a massive security crackdown.
The leaders of the Gamaa Islamiya and Islamic Jihad movements said Monday their initiative calls for supporters of former President Mohammed Morsi to cease street demonstrations if the military-backed government halts their moves against them.
The two groups, which waged an insurgency against the government in the 1990s but later renounced violence, want the army and Brotherhood to enter …
Read more
Melbourne, Australia: Mosque Approved to be Built Next to Assyrian Christian Church
Melbourne, Australia: Mosque Approved to be Built Next to Assyrian Christian Church:
Residents have accused a north Melbourne Council of being insensitive and inflammatory after approving a permit for a mosque to be built next to an Assyrian Church.
Members of St Mary’s Ancient Church of the East in Coolaroo say a mosque in such close proximity to their church will result in re-triggered trauma and a volatile worshiping environment.
They say their church community is made up of refugees who survived persecution as religious minorities in war torn Iraq.
Australian Christians Senate candidate Vicki Janson says the Council hasn’t considered the mental health …
Read more
American Pastor’s Appeal Rejected by Iranian Court
American Pastor’s Appeal Rejected by Iranian Court
An Iranian court has rejected an appeal by an American pastor to reduce his eight-year prison sentence, a human-rights group representing his family in the U.S. said Monday.
The decision by a two-judge panel on the Tehran Court of Appeals came Sunday, but the panel refused to provide Saeed Abedini’s lawyer with a copy of the ruling, the Idaho Statesman reported.
Abedini is of Iranian origin and had lived in Boise with his family since 2006. He has been jailed in Iran since last September on charges that he attempted to undermine state security by creating …
Read more
Latest Syria: Kerry Accused of Fabricating Evidence/ Investigation Suggests ‘Rebels’ Used Chemical Weapons
Latest Syria: Kerry Accused of Fabricating Evidence/ Investigation Suggests ‘Rebels’ Used Chemical Weapons:
Testimony from victims strongly suggests it was the rebels, not the Syrian government, that used Sarin nerve gas during a recent incident in the revolution-wracked nation, a senior U.N. diplomat said Monday.
Carla del Ponte, a member of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss TV there were “strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof,” that rebels seeking to oust Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad had used the nerve agent.
But she said her panel had not yet seen any evidence of Syrian government forces using …
Read more
http://letthemfight.blogspot.com/ Incredible! Even as United States Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen and Coastguardsmen continue to be sacrificed in Afghanistan for a failed understanding of that culture, we are speeding toward the likelihood of doing the same in Syria. Yes; the Administration has repeated the mantra; ‘no boots on the ground’ until I can hardly sleep without […]
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/novelists-view-world/2013/aug/27/engelhard-salinger-back-and-pbs-has-got-him/ NEW YORK, August 27, 2013 — The theme of despair runs throughout literary and even biblical history. So J.D. Salinger, who excelled in writing about the melancholy of human existence, mainly so in The Catcher in the Rye, was not the first to approach the topic of futility. Raised as a rich kid in […]
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/08/27/why-the-world-thinks-jewish-blood-is-cheap/ While visiting Israel this week, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide grudgingly admitted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to Israeli-Palestinian talks “sounds increasingly credible.” As proof, he cited Israel’s release of 26 Palestinian murderers earlier this month. But he immediately downplayed the move’s significance: While it was a “first sign,” he said, it […]
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/how-putin-does-it/ When Vladimir Putin became acting president of Russia after Boris Yeltsin’s resignation on New Year’s Eve, 1999, the retired KGB Major-General Oleg Kalugin, then already living in or around Washington, was asked about the former KGB lieutenant-colonel. “Never heard of him,” Kalugin answered. The youngest chief of counterintelligence in Soviet history, Kalugin may have […]
http://torahmusings.com/2013/08/can-conservative-religion-survive-gay-marriage/ I. Orthodox Judaism and Gay Marriage A leading Catholic writer, my friend and former colleague Joseph (Jody) Bottum, shocked the conservative world last week with the publication of an argument for Catholic acceptance of gay marriage. Jody’s essay in the liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal is wrong on many counts but sounds an alarm we […]
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/st-debaters-say-about-israel-and-the-jews/ The Israeli Debating League is heading home from this year’s European Universities Debating Championship in Manchester. The annual “Euros” tournament brings together hundreds of students from across Europe to argue about thorny issues for which they have only fifteen minutes to prepare. This year, over two hundred teams battled over the motion: “This House Believes that Israel […]
