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March 2019

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Did Ilhan Omar actually like it when Farrakhan called her ‘sweetheart’?By Monica Showalter

By on March 3rd, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/03/did_ilhan_omar_actually_like_it_when_farrakhan_called_her_sweetheart.html

You want to hope she didn’t, but the Minnesota socialist’s new round of Jew-hating statements and her failure to apologize for them suggests some kind of influence from the famous anti-Semitic pariah.

Here’s here latest controversy over what a Democratic congressional leader called her vile anti-Semitic slur:

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is facing new accusations of making anti-Semitic remarks, this time rebuked by a senior member of her party who says the House freshman’s words conjured a “vile anti-Semitic slur.”

Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has demanded an apology over comments Omar made Wednesday, less than a month after she was condemned by bipartisan leadership for suggesting pro-Israel lobbying groups and Jewish politicians influence American politics.

[For Rep. Ilhan Omar, 2 apologies in 3 weeks for ‘anti-Semitic tropes’]

Her comments came during a town hall in Washington while speaking about liberal issues. “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” Omar said.

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Gas-guzzling car rides expose AOC’s hypocrisy amid Green New Deal pledgeBy Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein

By on March 3rd, 2019

https://nypost.com/2019/03/02/gas-guzzling-car-rides-expose-aocs-hypocrisy-amid-green-new-deal-pledge/

Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to save the planet with her Green New Deal, but she keeps tripping over her own giant carbon footprint.

“We’re like, ‘The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change,’ ” the progressive darling said in January, speaking of herself and her fellow millennials. “And, like, this is the war; this is our World War II.”

Last week, she ratcheted up the rhetoric: “It is basically a scientific consensus that the lives of our children are going to be very difficult” due to climate change. “And it does lead young people to have a legitimate question: is it OK to still have children?”

The guiding principle of her eco-vision is to bring about “a full transition off fossil fuels and zero greenhouse gases” within 10 years.To achieve this, the GND fact sheet says, the nation must “totally overhaul transportation by massively expanding electric vehicle manufacturing, build charging stations everywhere, build out high-speed rail … create affordable public transit available to all, with goal to replace every combustion-engine vehicle.”But the woman who boasts of a “razor-sharp BS detector” seems to have trouble sniffing out her own.Since declaring her candidacy in May 2017, Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign heavily relied on those combustible-engine cars — even though a subway station was just 138 feet from her Elmhurst campaign office.

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BOOKS, HISTORY Comments turned off

‘Islam: The Essays,’ Bruce Bawer’s Magnum Opus on ‘The Religion of Peace’ By Thom Nickels

By on March 3rd, 2019

https://pjmedia.com/trending/islam-the-essays-bruce-bawers-magnum-opus-on-the-religion-of-peace/

It is perhaps fitting that on the day I was to begin my review of Bruce Bawer’s magnum opus on Islam, Islam: the Essays, that Facebook would send me a notice stating that my “Free Tommy Robinson Philadelphia” page had been deleted because of “hate speech.” My Robinson page criticized Islam as an ideology but it did not attack individual Muslims at all. Still, why should I have been surprised at the censorship? We’re living in a new world where criticizing a group — in this case, Islam — is tantamount to the worst obscenity. For me it was an epiphanous moment that brought Bawer’s new book of essays to life. It also got me thinking about other brave writers who aren’t afraid to tell the truth about Islam: Oriana Fallaci in The Rage and The Pride; Pat Buchanan; and James V. Schall, S.J., whose little book, On Islam, published by Ignatius Press, was released last year.

“The first is that the West insists on seeing Islam through the lenses of its own modern, liberal theories about religion, freedom, and human motivation. Islam is just another religion; we are told that it acts like other religions, even when it does not,” Schall writes.

Salman Rushdie, author of Satanic Verses, which got the Ayatollah Khomeini to put a fatwa on his head in 1989, not long ago told France’s L’Express, “We are living in the darkest time I have ever known. I’ve since had the feeling that, if the attacks against Satanic Verses had taken place today, these people would not have defended me, and would have used the same arguments against me, accusing me of insulting an ethnic and cultural minority.”

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ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on March 3rd, 2019

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Early pregnancy blood test for genetic disorders. Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a new blood test to detect genetic disorders in fetuses as early as 11 weeks into pregnancy. DNA in the mother and father’s blood is sequenced. Then fetal DNA fragments in the mother’s blood is checked for any mutations.
https://www.jpost.com/Jpost-Tech/Business-and-Innovation/TAU-develops-blood-test-to-detect-genetic-disorders-in-early-pregnancy-581252

Identifying the early signs of heart failure. Israel’s Technion has partnered with Israeli startup Cordio Medical to develop a smartphone app to identify the first signs of heart failure. The app detects changes in a person’s voice due to lung fluid – an early warning of congestive heart failure. Clinical trials are in progress.
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/technion-working-with-startup-on-app-to-identify-early-signs-of-heart-failure/

AI system for diabetes treatment. I reported previously (see here) on Israel’s DreaMed Diabetes monitors. DreaMed has just partnered with French company BioCorp to create an Artificially Intelligent system that integrates BioCorp’s Mallya smart cap for pen injectors with DreaMed’s Advisor Pro insulin analysis system.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190220005514/en/BIOCORP-DreaMed-Diabetes-Join-Offer-Outstanding-AI https://dreamed-diabetes.com/advisor/

Artificial Intelligence to benefit humanity. A brief introduction to Israel’s Weizmann Institute’s new Artificial Intelligence Center for Scientific Exploration. It highlights Professor Yaron Lipman’s recent AI breakthrough in developing the On-Sight algorithm to automate heart function measurement from ultrasound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITAtrt7iv6s
https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/math-computer-science/algorithm-rivals-experts-could-save-lives

Why black women suffer hair loss. A 7-year international study led by Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center’s Professor Eli Sprecher, has revealed that a defect in the protein gene PAD13 is responsible for hair loss due to Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia [CCCA]. The condition affects 5% of African-American women.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Bald-black-woman-Israeli-scientists-make-the-leap-towards-a-cure-580698
https://read.qxmd.com/read/30763140/variant-padi3-in-central-centrifugal-cicatricial-alopecia

Predicting sports injuries. Israeli-founded startup Zone7 (InPlay Ltd) has developed software that analyzes data from wearables and video, tracks medical condition and performance and forecasts injuries. It is used by soccer clubs in the UK, Israel, and Spain. Zone7 has just raised $2.5 million including from top sportsmen.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3756158,00.html http://zone7.ai/

Hotline saves Israeli lives. ERAN is Israel’s only crisis intervention hotline, with 1,200 vetted and highly-trained volunteers, plus 25 full and part-time staff. They handled nearly 200,000 calls in 2018 and prevented some 800 likely suicides. ERAN has also trained 25 ex-pat Israelis in Canada to help cover overnight shifts.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-expats-in-canada-staff-hebrew-suicide-hotline-to-serve-their-homeland/

Stem cell transplant restored vision. Surgeons at Haifa’s Rambam hospital have restored vision to a woman suffering from chemical burns on her eyes. They took amniotic membrane from a mother who had undergone a Caesarian section and sewed it underneath the patient’s eyelids. After a short recovery, she could see!
https://unitedwithisrael.org/israqeli-doctors-restore-vision-with-revolutionary-membrane-transplant/

A center for stem cell donations. Israel has just opened the Ezer Mizion Stem Cell Harvesting Center – the first Israeli medical center specially designed to collect stem cells for bone marrow transplants. It will enable the public to donate stem cells in a dedicated environment, without having to spend up to 7 hours in hospital.
http://www.ezermizion.org/blog/israels-first-stem-cell-harvesting-center-established-outside-of-a-hospital-opened-by-ezer-mizion/

Eat healthy in Israel. (TY Jacob Richman) The Israel Ministry of Health has been running a TV and social media campaign against processed food. It recommends alternatives such as fresh chicken, legumes, and fresh vegetables. Jacob has created a page of the videos with English translations.
https://jr.co.il/videos/eat-healthy-hebrew-videos.htm
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3757091,00.html

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Report: “11 Christians Killed Every Day for Their Faith” by Raymond Ibrahim

By on March 3rd, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13813/christians-persecuted-killed

One of the most noteworthy trends concerns the “shocking reality of persecution against women…. In many places, they experience a ‘double persecution’ — one for being a Christian and one for being a woman.”

Another trend that should send an alarm is that, “For the first time since the start of the World Watch List, India has entered the top 10” — meaning Christians there are now experiencing “extreme persecution.”

Last year, Christians were persecuted more than ever before in the modern era — and this year is expected to be worse: “4,136 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons,” according to Open Doors USA in its recently published World Watch List 2019 (WWL) of the top 50 nations where Christians are persecuted. “On average, that’s 11 Christians killed every day for their faith.” Additionally, “2,625 Christians were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced and imprisoned” in 2018, and “1,266 churches or Christian buildings were attacked.”

Whereas 215 million Christians faced persecution in 2018, 245 million will suffer in 2019, according to Open Doors — a 14% increase, that represents 30 million more people abused for their faith. This means that “1 in 9 Christians experience high levels of persecution worldwide” (note: all quotations in this article are from the WWL 2019).

One of the most noteworthy trends concerns the “shocking reality of persecution against women.”

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ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

The Politics, Science, and Politicized Science of Climate Change By Edward Ring

By on March 3rd, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/03/02/the-politics

One has to wonder if the shock and despair described in David Bowie’s 1971 hit, “Five Years,” would be the preferred collective mentality for humanity, at least if the relentless propaganda campaigns of climate change activists are successful. And one must admit they have powerful allies at their disposal. A climate alarm consensus informs America’s entire educational, entertainment, and media establishments, along with most corporate marketing, and most political platforms from the local city council to the United Nations.

Climate alarm shouldn’t be a hard sell, and it isn’t. The horror inspired by natural conflagrations taps into primal, instinctual fears; when vividly imagining terrifying acts of nature, even the most hardened skeptic might have a moment of pause.

California’s horrifying wildfire that incinerated the town of Paradise in November 2018 is a good example. Later that month, retiring Governor Jerry Brown appeared on “Face the Nation” and predicted, “In less than five years even the worst skeptics are going to be believers.”

Taking shameless advantage of every natural disaster to stoke fears of climate change has become normal. In October 2018, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report predicting imminent global climate catastrophe. A month later, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a grim “Fourth National Climate Assessment.” In both cases, news reports included cataclysmic images designed to tap our deepest, most unreasoning and terrifying species memories; tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, fires.

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ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

A Bulwark of Liberal Clichés By Julie Kelly

By on March 3rd, 2019

https://amgreatness.com/2019/03/02/a-bulwark

In keeping with the annual custom, a progressive journalist attended this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, D.C., with the sole purpose of mocking the event.

The self-admitted liberal posted an ongoing Twitter screed that made fun of several CPAC speakers, including a beloved, elderly man recovering from a brutal bout with cancer. She questioned why so many pro-life, pro-gun and anti-socialists were among the 10,000 attendees, but concluded it must be because Trump supporters are “poorly educated.”

A college dropout herself, the reporter nonetheless tried to shame Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk also for being a college dropout. Vice President Mike Pence, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), among others, were on the receiving end of her unfunny, unimaginative insults. “We’re listening to a bearded Ted Cruz fellating Donald J Trump,” she tweeted Friday morning.

She seemed confused at discussions about conservatives being stifled by Big Tech companies and wondered why there was so much hostility toward the news media. She laughed off criticism of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, the Green New Deal, and Planned Parenthood. “I’m happy to have the night off and not have someone screaming at me about socialism,” she tweeted on Friday.

When she was confronted on social media about her hostility to pro-lifers, she proudly brandished her pro-abortion credentials, which included a 2018 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that defended late-term abortion after she considered having one herself. “How dare I say an anti-choice panel was anti-choice. Owned.”

No, the reporter—Molly Jong-Fast—doesn’t work for the New York Times or MSNBC. She is a freelancer for The Bulwark, a new site that claims it will save conservatism from the clutches of Trumpism. “As much of the Right descends into sophism and trollery, we will be a forum for rational, principled, fact-based conservative commentary,” wrote The Bulwark’s editor-in-chief Charlie Sykes when the site launched in January.

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WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Codifying Islamophobia by Edward Cline

By on March 3rd, 2019

https://edwardcline.blogspot.com/2019/03/codifying-islamophobia.html

A law code or legal code, is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the code was enacted, by a process of codification. Though the process and motivations for codification are similar in different common law and civil law systems, their usage is different.
In a civil law country, a code of law typically exhaustively covers the complete system of law, such as civil law or criminal law.

Britain is fatally infected by Islam. Bill Warner, founder of the Center for the Study of Political Islam, tells how.

The subject is the 72-page All-Party Parliamentary Group’s Islamophobia Defined.; Warner stresses that in it Islamophobia is not defined. The legal beagles of Britain in every district have been ordered to weigh in on the meaning and ramifications of “Islamophobia” with the aim of not only banning it at the behest of resident Muslims, but recommending punishments for its expression . Warner also stresses that no definition of Islamophobia has been settled or what the term means by definition, nor what Islam is.

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MEDIA, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Facebook’s Tommy Robinson takedownBy Anne-Christine Hoff

By on March 3rd, 2019

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/03/facebooks_tommy_robinson_takedown.html

On February 26, 2019, Facebook removed Tommy Robinson’s official Facebook and Instagram profiles for allegedly violating their community standards. The company’s public statement alleges that Robinson consistently used dehumanizing language and incited violence against Muslims. Yet Facebook’s press release includes not even one screen shot to justify Robinson’s removal.

British news outlet Kipper Central wrote a piece on September 28, 2018 about Robinson’s meteoric rise on Facebook since his creation of an account five years earlier. According to the article’s author Reece Coombes, just before Tommy reached one million followers last year, he posted this message:

“Soon to reach one million followers. That is double as many as our Prime minister Theresa ‘the appeaser’ May.

The elites, establishment and the mainstream media are just so detached from what normal people feel. They continue to label all of us as extreme, fringe or far right but the fact that I have twice as many supporters as that so called ‘mainstream’ politician who is busy making a mess of this country, should give them a wake-up call.”

South African Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema is allowed to make statements on Facebook that truly incite violence, statements such as the one made on March 24, 2018 that call for the taking of other people’s land without payment. Yet he is never deplatformed.

Facebook’s community standards also go further to warn the followers of Tommy Robinson not to show their support on the platform or they too could have their accounts removed. The statement reads:

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EDUCATION, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Cornell University President Shares ‘Strong Opposition to BDS’ for ‘Unfairly’ Singling Out Israel, Questioning Jewish State’s Right to Exist avatar by Shiri Moshe

By on March 3rd, 2019

https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/03

“In her response to SJP’s letter, shared online by the Jewish campus group Cornell Hillel, Pollack expressed a “strong opposition to BDS,” and rejected the idea of using the school’s endowment as a tool of “political or social power.”“BDS unfairly singles out one country in the world for sanction when there are many countries around the world whose governments’ policies may be viewed as controversial,” Pollack wrote. “Moreover, it places all of the responsibility for an extraordinarily complex geopolitical situation on just one country and frequently conflates the policies of the Israeli government with the very right of Israel to exist as a nation, which I find particularly troublesome.”

The head of Cornell University in New York has responded to demands by anti-Zionist student activists that she embrace the Palestinian-led boycott of Israel, saying the campaign was antithetical to academic freedom and unduly targeted Israel for sanction while ignoring other countries.

President Martha Pollack’s comments came in response to a letter delivered to her on February 18 by members of the Cornell chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which urged the university to divest its endowment from companies “complicit in the morally reprehensible human rights violations in Palestine.” The letter also accused Israel of sharing a “common history” with the United States as a “settler-colonial project rooted in genocide,” and claimed that the BDS campaign was working to isolate Israel “until it meets its obligations under international law.”

Critics of the effort — including major Jewish groups in the US and globally — say it fails to recognize Arab and Palestinian culpability in the conflict with Israel, aims to undermine the Jewish state’s very existence, and rejects the Jewish people’s right to national self-determination.

SJP also plans to bring forward a Student Assembly resolution in support of BDS, which has already been endorsed by more than 20 student groups, including the Queer Political Action Committee, Black Students United, Climate Justice Cornell, South Asian Council, Islamic Alliance for Justice, and Cornell Young Democratic Socialists.

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