Displaying posts published in

December 2013

ELIANA JOHNSON: WHO IS BILL PALATUCCI? CHRISTIE’S RIGHT HAND MAN

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/366388/christies-right-hand-eliana-johnson ‘You can teach everything else, but you can’t teach smart, and you can’t teach loyal.” That’s how Chris Christie praised his chief of staff, Kevin O’Dowd, earlier this month, but he could just as easily have been talking about his friend and adviser Bill Palatucci. He does not often make headlines, but Palatucci is […]

Europe: Islamic Fundamentalism is Widespread by Soeren Kern

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4092/europe-islamic-fundamentalism A discussion paper published by the Germany-based Gustav Stresemann Foundation — a think tank dedicated to the preservation and advancement of liberal democracy in Europe — warns that national and international Islamic organizations are increasingly putting pressure on Western politicians gradually to criminalize any critique of Islam. In a commentary on the study, the […]

THE ALARMING RISE OF CAMPUS ANTI-SEMITISM: JOSEPH KLEIN ****

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/the-alarming-rise-of-campus-anti-semitism/print/

Anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses is growing at an alarming rate. It has escalated to the point that Jewish students on campuses have been physically attacked or threatened for peacefully demonstrating their support of Israel. Events demonizing Jews and even glorifying the murderers of Jews, in the guise of anti-Israel rhetoric, are tolerated by campus administrators despite the hostile environment such events create for Jewish students who are open about their beliefs in support of the Jewish state.

Title VI of the Civil Rights act of 1964 prohibits various forms of discrimination at federally funded programs, including higher educational institutions, but the Obama administration’s Department of Education has so far refused to enforce it against federally funded universities and colleges that have allowed anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students to go on with relative impunity. For example, in a letter rejecting a complaint that had accused a California state university of allowing a hostile environment for Jewish students to exist on campus, the education department’s Office for Civil Rights wrote: “In the university environment, exposure to such robust and discordant expressions, even when personally offensive and hurtful, is a circumstance that a reasonable student in higher education may experience. In this context, the events that the complainants described do not constitute actionable harassment.”

The same administration that decries even the slightest hint of so-called Islamophobia has treated hate speech and threats against Jewish students, which create a hostile environment for them, as the legitimate exercise of free speech. This double standard is only encouraging more hate and threats directed at Jewish students.

A study of Religious Tolerance on Campus published by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research in December of 2011, entitled “ALONE ON THE QUAD: Understanding Jewish Student Isolation on Campus,” surveyed over 1,400 students in the United States. The Institute, which claims its survey to be one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind, found that “Over 40% of students confirm Anti-Semitism on their campus.”

“Ample anecdotal evidence suggests that, over the last decade, Jewish college students have faced rising levels of anti-Semitism on campuses across the United States,” the Institute’s report concluded. “[Anti-Israel] divestment campaigns, protests, rallies, guerrilla theater and inflammatory speakers have featured anti-Jewish rhetoric. With insufficient response from administrators, these events have developed into hostile environments, where Jewish students and others have been maligned and threatened.”

The Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents for 2012 showed an increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus – nearly triple the number of reported incidents in 2012 versus 2011. “Some of those incidents included the use of anti-Semitic imagery under the guise of anti-Israel activism, with conspiracy theories about Jewish political and economic control being voiced on campus,” the ADL report said.

To put a human face on these findings, consider the physical injury suffered by a UC Berkeley student, Jessica Felber. Ms. Felber was assaulted at a 2010 Apartheid Week event during which Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated Muslim Student Association (MSA) established a mock checkpoint that included fake barbed wire and AK-47 firearms. At the time, Ms. Felber was holding a sign that said “Israel Wants Peace.” She claimed that a leader of SJP deliberately rammed a shopping cart into her back, causing injury that was serious enough to require medical attention.

Elian Gonzalez Leaves Cuba For First Time — on The Glazov Gang

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/frontpagemag-com/mandela-and-double-standards-on-the-glazov-gang/print/

This week’s Glazov Gang was joined by Ann-Marie Murrell, Monty Morton and Dwight Schultz.

The Gang gathered to discuss Elian Gonzalez Leaves Cuba For First Time. The dialogue occurred in Part I (starting at 13:20 mark) and shed light on what the Gonzalez case reveals about the Castro regime. The discussion was preceded by an analysis of Mandela and Double Standards (see Daniel Greenfield’s article The Mandela Myth).

The Gang also discussed Obama’s handshake with Raul Castro, what our national debt really means, the direction of health care if ObamaCare persists, and much, much more.

See both parts of the two-part series below:

Part I:

Obama’s China Bluff By Daniel Greenfield

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/obamas-china-bluff/print/ North Korea’s dictator is executing family members and ex-girlfriends at a speed that would give even Stalin pause. Meanwhile the People’s Republic of China has decided to follow in the footsteps of the Empire of Japan while the pacifistic modern Japan and an uncertain South Korea look to America for aid. Obama’s amazing Asian […]

ROBERT SPENCER: JIHAD IN WICHITA?

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/robert-spencer/jihad-in-wichita/print/ If an Islamic jihadist in Kansas had gotten his way, jihad would have struck again in America on Friday. Instead, Terry Lee Loewen, an avionics technician at Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport, was arrested that morning as he tried to drive a van that he thought was full of high explosives onto the tarmac at that airport, where […]

ED LASKY: OUR BORED PRESIDENT

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/12/our_bored_president.html

Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s Rasputin, unwittingly provided us an answer to the question of why the Obama Presidency is such a man-caused disaster.

There are few people who are close to the notoriously insular Barack Obama (a former aide, Neera Tanden, said that “Obama doesn’t call anyone, and he’s not close to almost anyone. It’s stunning that he’s in politics, because he really doesn’t like people”) but Valerie Jarrett is among the select few. They have been friends for decades; she introduced Barack to Michelle; she is a constant presence in the White House, and highly unusual for a White House aide, enjoys her own Secret Service protective detail. And when she described Barack Obama as having been “bored to death his whole life” she helped explained what lies behind a failed presidency.

People familiar with Barack Obama’s history realize he has a very low threshold for boredom. This is a trait shared by many millennials: they bore easily, and that character flaw is one reason employers refrain from hiring them. Yet they feel entitled to promotions as a way for others to display gratitude towards them and to give them an ego booster shot. They want to be stimulated and entertained all the time and find work tedious and…boring.

Obama’s boredom began early.

When interviewed upon becoming the first black Harvard Law Review President he told the Associated Press, “I’m not interested in the suburbs. The suburbs bore me”; by inference, suburbanites bore him, as well — and we know how he feels about small-town Americans). Ah…to be jaded and judgmental so early in life and to feel free to spout stereotypes.

INSIDE THE SAUDI 9/11 COVERUP: PAUL SPERRY….MUST READ

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/inside-the-saudi-911-coverup?f=puball, http://nypost.com/2013/12/15/inside-the-saudi-911-coverup/

After the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors.

But the White House never let it see an entire section of Congress’ investigative report on 9/11 dealing with “specific sources of foreign support” for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals.

It was kept secret and remains so today.

President Bush inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the 800-page report. Text isn’t just blacked-out here and there in this critical-yet-missing middle section. The pages are completely blank, except for dotted lines where an estimated 7,200 words once stood (this story by comparison is about 1,000 words).

A pair of lawmakers who recently read the redacted portion say they are “absolutely shocked” at the level of foreign state involvement in the attacks.

Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) can’t reveal the nation identified by it without violating federal law. So they’ve proposed Congress pass a resolution asking President Obama to declassify the entire 2002 report, “Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.”

CORRECTING THE RECORD AT ELLIS ISLAND: ANGELA CHEN

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304477704579252482831363744?mod=New_York_newsreel_2
Rightly Identified—At Last
‘Armenian Jew, Ellis Island Immigrant, 1926’ Is Actually a Picture of Shalom Nadoff

The picture captures the face of a new American, one of the more than 164,000 immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island in 1926.

Shalom Nadoff was ‘nowhere near to being Armenian.’ Lewis W. Hine/George Eastman House/Getty Images

It is of a man, in a suit and tie with a hat, looking straight ahead. The photographer was Lewis Hine, who devoted his life to documenting the human condition.

Mr. Hine titled his photo “Armenian Jew, Ellis Island Immigrant, 1926.”

Over the years, the haunting stare came to symbolize the loneliness that immigrants—many eastern Europeans—faced in their adopted homeland.

The man, though, wasn’t an Armenian Jew. He was Shalom Nadoff, a Yemenite rabbi, and today, officials at two museums, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and the George Eastman House in upstate New York, are working to correct the record almost 90 years after Mr. Hine tripped the shutter.

MIKE TYSON ON PHILOSOPHY AND LOVE AND KIRKEGAARD (WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK?)

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303932504579256390785052798?mod=trending_now_1

Mike Tyson Explores Kierkegaard

I’m currently reading “The Quotable Kierkegaard,” edited by Gordon Marino, a collection of awesome quotes from that great Danish philosopher. (He wanted his epitaph to read: “In yet a little while / I shall have won; / Then the whole fight / Will all at once be done.”) I love reading philosophy. Most philosophers are so politically incorrect—challenging the status quo, even challenging God. Nietzsche’s my favorite. He’s just insane. You have to have an IQ of at least 300 to truly understand him. Apart from philosophy, I’m always reading about history. Someone very wise once said the past is just the present in funny clothes. I read everything about Alexander, so I downloaded “Alexander the Great: The Macedonian Who Conquered the World” by Sean Patrick. Everyone thinks Alexander was this giant, but he was really a runt. “I would rather live a short life of glory than a long one of obscurity,” he said. I so related to that, coming from Brownsville, Brooklyn.
What did I have to look forward to—going in and out of prison, maybe getting shot and killed, or just a life of scuffling around like a common thief? Alexander, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, even a cold pimp like Iceberg Slim—they were all mama’s boys. That’s why Alexander kept pushing forward. He didn’t want to have to go home and be dominated by his mother. In general, I’m a sucker for collections of letters. You think you’ve got deep feelings? Read Napoleon’s love letters to Josephine. It’ll make you think that love is a form of insanity. Or read Virginia Woolf’s last letter to her husband before she loaded her coat up with stones and drowned herself in a river. I don’t really do any light reading, just deep, deep stuff. I’m not a light kind of guy.

— Mr. Tyson is the author of “The Undisputed Truth.”