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February 2016

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Review: Three films directed by brother teams By Marion DS Dreyfus

By on February 12th, 2016

JeruZalem

Directed by the Paz Brothers

After 14, most of us aren’t big fans of horror films. But as often gauche as JeruZalem is in parts, it benefits from a quirky POV as the protagonist female uses Google Glass for all the proceedings. Despite some obvious genre tropes – infected friend dragging along instead of being shot, screams where no one would want to make a sound, a supposedly lost brother coming back to convenient view, a creepy “rescue” scene in a Jerusalem insane asylum (we have all seen that building exterior, and pray the insides are not what is depicted here) – the film has some idiosyncratic charms, chief of which are many scenes of lesser familiarity in the catacombs, areas not often seen by tourists to this incredible country. The facial recognition data identifying known, acceptable people versus unacceptable appearing onscreen throughout is a nice touch.

Two grain-fed millennial girls from Corntown, USA visit the land of milk and honey. They meet two men and immediately swan around with them, though one is skeevy and up to no good, and the other is a bland drip. Premonitions of doom follow almost immediately. Run for your souls!

The basis for the grotty threat is from Jeremiah 19, in the Talmud: There are three gates to hell: One is in the desert, one supposedly in the ocean … and the last one is in Jerusalem.

Though not all audiences like this film – some guys got really annoyed as the film proceeded, and their view was not grace-noted and hosannas – it is actually kind of more unexpected viewability than you get from most horror films, and there’s all that terrific footage of out of the way sites in the ancient capital city. There’s less slashing and bleeding than the norm, and there’s a lot of biblical gobbledygook, but in the end, if you stick it out, it is sort of an apocalyptic take on a gloomy genre. There are unlikely giant monsters, random demons and zombie-ish creatures, even the manly few IDF regulars, who act in ways the IDF doesn’t and wouldn’t – and explanations are nowhere to be found. In terms of on-screen nightmares, a good rule of thumb is less is definitely more. But kudos, at least, to the directors for utilizing the holy city for more than sanctimony.

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The Myths of Black Lives Matter The movement has won over Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. But what if its claims are fiction? By Heather Mac Donald

By on February 12th, 2016

A television ad for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign now airing in South Carolina shows the candidate declaring that “too many encounters with law enforcement end tragically.” She later adds: “We have to face up to the hard truth of injustice and systemic racism.”

Her Democratic presidential rival, Bernie Sanders, met with the Rev. Al Sharpton on Wednesday. Mr. Sanders then tweeted that “As President, let me be very clear that no one will fight harder to end racism and reform our broken criminal justice system than I will.” And he appeared on the TV talk show “The View” saying, “It is not acceptable to see unarmed people being shot by police officers.”

Apparently the Black Lives Matter movement has convinced Democrats and progressives that there is an epidemic of racist white police officers killing young black men. Such rhetoric is going to heat up as Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders court minority voters before the Feb. 27 South Carolina primary.

But what if the Black Lives Matter movement is based on fiction? Not just the fictional account of the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., but the utter misrepresentation of police shootings generally. CONTINUE READING AT THE SITE

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Germany’s Migrant Crisis: January 2016 “Migrants Have No Respect for our Constitutional Order” by Soeren Kern

By on February 12th, 2016

Despite snow, ice and freezing temperatures across much of Europe, a total of 91,671 migrants entered Germany during January 2016.

German taxpayers could end up paying 450 billion euros ($500 billion) for the upkeep of the million migrants who arrived in Germany in 2015. This would presumably double to nearly one trillion euros if another million migrants arrive in 2016.

A 19-year-old migrant from Afghanistan sexually assaulted four girls between the ages of 11 and 13 at a swimming pool in Dresden. The migrant was arrested but then set free.

Three teenage migrants from North Africa tried to stone to death two transsexuals in Dortmund after they were seen walking around in women’s clothing. The victims were saved by police.

Bild reported that politicians in Kiel had ordered the police to overlook crimes perpetrated by migrants.

“The topics we cover are determined by the government. … We must report in such a way that serves Europe and the common good, as it pleases Mrs. Merkel. … today we are not allowed to say anything negative about the refugees. This is government journalism.” – Wolfgang Herles, retired public media personality.

The European Commission called for the “rejection of false associations between certain criminal acts, such as the attacks on women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, and the mass influx of refugees.”

In January 2016, the German public appeared finally to wake up to the implications of their government’s decision to allow 1.1 million — mostly male — migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to enter the country during 2015.

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Israel’s Arabs: A Tale of Betrayal by Khaled Abu Toameh

By on February 12th, 2016

During the past two decades, some of the Israeli Arab community’s elected representatives and leaders have worked harder for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip than for their own Israeli constituents.

These parliamentarians ran in elections on the promise of working to improve the living conditions of Israeli Arabs and achieving full equality in all fields. However, they devote precious time and energy on Palestinians who are not citizens of Israel. They vie for the distinction of being the most vitriolic provocateur against their country.

Such provocations make it more difficult for Arab university graduates to find jobs in both the Israeli private and public sectors.

The big losers are the Arab citizens of Israel, who have once again been reminded that their elected representatives care far more about non-Israeli Palestinians than they care about them.

The uproar surrounding a recent meeting held by three Israeli Arab Members of Knesset (parliament) with families of Palestinians who carried out attacks against Israelis is not only about the betrayal of their country, Israel. It is also about the betrayal of their own constituents: the 1.5 million Arab citizens of Israel.

Knesset members Haneen Zoabi, Basel Ghattas and Jamal Zahalka managed to accomplish several things at once with this controversial meeting. They certainly seem to have provoked the ire of many Jewish Israelis. Perhaps they violated the oath they made when they were sworn into parliament: “I pledge to bear allegiance to the State of Israel and faithfully to discharge my mandate in the Knesset.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, POLITICS Comments turned off

Clinton Classified E-mails Spread Far and Wide By Andrew C. McCarthy

By on February 12th, 2016

In last weekend’s column, I outlined why the damage to national security caused by Hillary Clinton’s reckless mishandling of classified information is so great as to be incalculable. Because Mrs. Clinton’s e-mail system was non-secure, the intelligence community must assume that it was penetrated by hostile foreign intelligence operatives – who, after all, manage to hack into even the government’s secure systems. When even a single national defense secret is deemed to have been compromised – a piece of information, a covert method of obtaining information, a human operative risking his or her life to provide our government with information – intelligence analysts must assume the worst: i.e., that covers have been blown, operations have been corrupted, and lives are in danger.

Here we are not talking about just one secret. To date, 1,600 Clinton e-mails containing classified information have been found.

Moreover, as I elaborated, the intelligence catastrophe is not confined to Mrs. Clinton’s own e-mails. There are also “e-mail ‘trains,’ communications involving several exchanges and multiple participants — as to which it will be difficult, if not impossible, to calculate how often and how widely recipients forwarded the information.”

Today, Fox News’s Catherine Herridge and Pamela K. Browne report report stunning news on that front:

At least a dozen email accounts handled the “top secret” intelligence that was found on Hillary Clinton’s server and recently deemed too damaging for national security to release, a U.S. government official close to the review told Fox News.

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

AN IMPORTANT REQUEST FROM GATESTONE INSTITUTE

By on February 12th, 2016

Facebook soon to ban Gatestone? What you can do. Dear Friends, Last week, an important article, “Facebook’s War on Freedom of Speech” by Douglas Murray, detailed a new initiative by Facebook in Germany, to remove supposedly “racist” comments from Facebook. This initiative by Facebook at the moment appears to include anything critical of the EU’s […]

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The UN’s ‘violent extremism’ scam: What to say when ‘radical Islamic terror’ is too scary Anne Bayefsky

By on February 12th, 2016

There is a dangerous scam gaining traction at the United Nations, backstopped by the White House. It’s called “violent extremism.” Given the U.N.’s long and undistinguished history of being unable to define terrorism, and an American president who chokes on the words “radical Islamic terrorism,” pledges to combat “violent extremism” have become all the rage.

It turns out that the terminological fast one is a lethal diplomatic dance that needs to be deconstructed, and quickly.

In 1999, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) adopted an “anti-terrorism” treaty stating that “armed struggle against foreign occupation, aggression, colonialism and hegemony, aimed at liberation and self-determination…shall not be considered a terrorist crime.”

In practice, that means it is open season on all Israelis, as well as Americans and Europeans who get in the way. Each of the 56 Islamic states, and what the UN labels the “State of Palestine,” is a party to this treaty.

The September 11 terror attacks then launched a growth industry in U.N. counter-terrorism chit-chat and paraphernalia.

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MY SAY: THE AGE OF POLITICS

By on February 11th, 2016

Today, a respected columnist referred to Clinton as a “crone” and Sanders as a “museum piece.”

A crone is defined as “an old woman who is thin and ugly.” And a “museum piece” is usually a fossil.

I would not vote for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, however, criticizing their age in those terms is a cheap shot. Maybe it cuts close to my bone, but being superannuated is not what I dislike about them. There is enough to tarnish them in policies, biographies, agenda, morality, etc. without stooping to nasty allusions to their age.

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BOOKS Comments turned off

Student Op-Ed: Trying to Give a Classmate a Ride Is Rape Culture Apparently, looking for somewhere to park to go to class is a sexual activity. By Katherine Timpf

By on February 11th, 2016

According to a student at California State Polytechnic University–Pomona, trying to give a classmate a ride to their car so you can get their parking spot is rape culture.

In an op-ed for the Poly Post, the school’s official newspaper, Editor-in-Chief Adrian Danganan admits that commuting to the campus “has never been more difficult” because “parking is becoming increasingly sparse.”

She explains that “students are struggling to find suitable methods ” to find a spot to park to attend class, and that some have resorted to offering departing classmates rides in order to take their spots when they leave.

But this method, according to Danganan, is far from “suitable.”

Now, she starts off by explaining that it’s generally a bad idea to get into a stranger’s car — which is a totally fair argument. She quickly goes from reasonable to ridiculous, however, when she writes that “pressuring a pedestrian to enter a vehicle only encourages idiosyncrasies that attribute [sic] to rape culture.”

(Yikes! I guess these students would be better off missing class entirely. They might fail out of school, but at least they wouldn’t be contributing to a culture of sexual assault!)

Now, Danagan does concede that “this seems radical and outlandish,” but explains that she’s actually totally right because “trying to ease someone or even guilt him or her in to [sic] doing so is almost like sweet-talking to get what is desired.”

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BOOKS Comments turned off

Student’s Conservative Op-Ed Draws Stabbing Threat By Katherine Timpf

By on February 11th, 2016

A student at the University of California–Santa Barbara had to deal with someone threatening to stab him because he dared to write an op-ed with a conservative point of view.

Jason Garshfield wrote a piece in the Daily Nexus, the school’s official newspaper, criticizing the Department of Feminist Studies.

Basically, Garshfield’s piece argued that the department violated the the University of California Regents Policy 3201, which forbids using the classroom “for political indoctrination.” He explained that he himself once took a course in the department, and that it promoted ideas such as gender as a social construct and the “recognition of male privilege,” and that the lessons were taught as fact without giving students the opportunity to contest or debate them.

“How can an academic department which is explicitly named after a political movement possibly claim to be ‘aloof from politics?’” Garshfield asked. “Imagine how you would feel if there was a Department of Objectivist Studies at UCSB. The department was dedicated to promoting Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. All of the professors were Objectivists, and students in the department were taught heavy doses of Objectivism without being exposed to a single dissenting opinion. Would you consider such a department to be ‘an instrument for the advance of partisan interest?’ You probably would.”

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