HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

Texas’s Concealed-Carry Law Prevented Mass Murder By David Harsanyi

Posted By on December 31st, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/12/texass-concealed-carry-law-prevented-mass-murder/

Yes, good guys with guns can save lives. They just did in the West Freeway Church of Christ.

The same weekend that Orthodox Jews in Monsey, N.Y., were fighting off another knife-wielding anti-Semite thug with chairs and coffee tables — they were fortunate that the perpetrator hadn’t brought a firearm, like the killer who targeted a yeshiva in Jersey City only a few weeks earlier — Jack Wilson, a 71-year-old congregant and security volunteer at West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, took mere seconds to stop a potential mass murderer.

Earlier in the year, to the dismay of the usual suspects, Texas governor Greg Abbott had signed a bill making it explicitly legal for Texans with concealed-carry licenses to bring their weapons into places of worship. These kinds of protections allowed Wilson to achieve something that no gun laws now being pursued nationally by Democrats has ever accomplished: He stopped a mass shooter. My guess is that Wilson, a former deputy sheriff, is the kind of guy who probably wouldn’t have broken the law and carried a firearm into church had it been illegal to do so. The killer, on the other hand, I’m wholly certain, would have been undeterred by any laws.

Yet allowing people who pass ongoing criminal-background checks and take state-mandated training courses to bring their guns to a church or a school is a move that generates tremendous hostility among gun-control advocates. We must “do something” about gun violence, but we’ve learned that, in the liberal vernacular, that’s nothing more than a euphemism for “do something to inhibit law-abiding citizens from owning guns.”

BOOKS Comments turned off

‘The Winter Army’ Review: The Mountain Men The gripping and unlikely story of the making of America’s elite Alpine fighting force

Posted By on December 31st, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-winter-army-review-the-mountain-men-11577463400?mod=opinion_major_pos11

Lots of tales are told around roaring fires in ski lodges, stories about the day’s conquest of high bumps and deep fears on the trails, about the defiance of ferocious storms and the wolf winds of winter, about adventures in the back bowls and amid the pines and birches—and, at times, tales of poles broken on the chairlift and comical acts of ineptitude on the bunny slopes.

But every now and then, someone will offer up tales of a different genre altogether—stories that do not fade when the après-ski drinks wear off. These are the ones about the men who went to war on skis and later helped to build the resorts that are by now legendary among amateurs and professionals alike: Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin, Washington State’s Crystal Mountain, New Mexico’s Sandia Peak, Vermont’s Sugarbush, Oregon’s Mount Bachelor, Utah’s Alta.

The Winter Army

By Maurice Isserman
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 318 pages, $28

Meet the men of the 10th Mountain Division. Their peacetime achievements are themselves remarkable: Five of them were on the United States ski team in the 1948 Olympics, and a sixth was their coach. All told, five dozen ski areas across North America bear their mark, from selecting the terrain to designing the trails to installing the ski tows, lifts and funiculars. Their postwar achievements—basically building an industry out of an avocation—were set in motion by their unusual training as the nation’s World War II ski troops. It was in such an undertaking that they harnessed their reverence and respect for the mountains and then set out to share their sense of wonder—and their remarkable skills on skis.

Their training and wartime exploits are at the center of “The Winter Army,” a captivating account of the 10th Mountain Division by the Hamilton College historian Maurice Isserman. It is good to have the stories of these men between hard covers, for their heroics occurred three-quarters of a century ago and are in danger of disappearing.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Surely California Has Done Away With Racism By Now Francis Menton

Posted By on December 31st, 2019

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2019-12-28-surely-california-has-done-a

Let’s face it: As much as we here in New York would like to think of ourselves as the true vanguard of woke progressivism, California has long since seized that honor from us. On everything from sanctuary and free health care for illegal immigrants, to requiring transgender bathrooms, to banning plastic straws, to having the highest personal income tax rates in the country, it is California that today claims the mantle of woke progressive leadership.

Surely, then, California has done away with racism by now.

If you think that, then you must have missed the big piece in the December 23 print edition of the New York Times, with the headline “Black, Homeless and Burdened by L.A.’s Legacy of Racism.” This multi-page spread tells the tale of one Timothy Wynn, a black Los Angeles resident, who somehow recently “landed on the streets” in his 50s. How could that have happened? We are given few specifics about Mr. Wynn’s life prior to homelessness. Yes, there are brief mentions (without any details) of “mental illness” and of a “criminal conviction for drug trafficking” as possibly being “part of the problem.” But overwhelmingly, according to this article, the main factor in Mr. Wynn’s downfall was racism.

To read this story, California has not just failed to do away with racism. Even as California loudly proclaims to the world its woke progressive virtue, it has, instead, turned into a hotbed — some might even say a “cesspit” — of racism.

So who was it who denied Mr. Wynn the fair treatment to which he was entitled? No names are named; and indeed, it appears that actual namable people don’t have much to do with this. What we’re talking about here is not personal discriminatory misconduct, but rather something referred to as “structural” or “institutional” racism that has brought about an explosion of homelessness, now seen as the “defining crisis” of Los Angeles today.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Myth of “Palestine” By Fred Miller ****

Posted By on December 31st, 2019

https://www.dittoville.com/2019/12/29/the-myth-of-palestine/

The idealized “Progressive” narrative for the Israel/”Palestine” impasse is that these are two legitimate, equally worthy peoples, each yearning for a homeland of their own. What compassionate observer of this conflict could object to a two-state solution? Two nice neighbors, side by side, like Ozzie & Harriet next door to Ricky & Lucy.

The problem is that one of these parties has actually created a nation, a free society boasting wondrous achievement,  civilized living  for its ethnically diverse citizenry (including Muslims), not to mention providing a wildly disproportionate contribution to the good life on this planet. No nation, save the United States, has earned its beneficial, rightful place of honor in this world more dramatically than Israel.

The other proposed neighbor is a loose confederation of angry Arabs constantly goaded, exploited and tyrannized by their own Mafia overlords on the permanent take. This deliberately rootless Arabic entity, planted within the confines of the Israeli nation and capital, exists only to annihilate and conquer its host and continues to state as such. Not the stuff of peaceful coexistence.

Somewhere along the way, some canny Mafiosi came up with the notion of organizing these nationless squatters into a perpetually angry mob of the dispossessed, coining a name with Biblical authority, “Palestinians,” thereby kicking off the Middle East’s version of  a Democratic Party Inner City money funnel. Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton/Maxine Waters/Black Congressional Caucus, meet your Muslim counterparts Yasser Arafat’s PLO and their PA/Hamas/Hezbollah successors. Bigtime shakedown artists all, separated at birth, different only in place of business.

With all those billions & billions & billions in humanitarian aid and naïve expressions of sympathy pouring in to these perpetually perceived victims of “occupation,” what’s to be gained by giving up the profits of the Victim Scam and getting what they claim to want? Becoming law-abiding Israeli citizens? Setting up and running a nation that supports itself? Are you kidding?

Those sensible individuals among the local Arab population wishing to become Israeli citizens can no longer do so, having been thwarted by the “Palestine” hucksters with everything to lose by allowing their angry rabble to leave the “Palestinian” fold. The offer for citizenship has all but been rescinded by Israel in the face of continued acts of war from the PA leadership.

If the world’s Leftists insist “there is no answer” to this “historical dispute,” it is because they do not like the relatively clear-cut solution of letting the Israelis go their way and the Arabs going theirs. One look at the map above demonstrates that this is not about having a place to live. It’s about a group of criminals being called out for a major money-making, power-accruing operation. Being forever shilled as victims of those bullies America & Israel is simply too profitable for the terrorists running the “Palestine” boondoggle to give up.

CHARLOTTE'S NEWS WEB, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

8 Million Christians Stand with our Jewish Neighbors Pastor John Hagee (Christians United for Israel)

Posted By on December 31st, 2019

Dear Friend,

Today, we had planned to announce with some fanfare our having reached 8 million members. But instead we are informing you of our having reached this milestone in order to send a clear and unambiguous message: the Jewish people are not alone.

In recent days and weeks we’ve been horrified at the spate of attacks targeting our Jewish brothers and sisters in New York and New Jersey. These acts of terror are motivated by the dark and sinful evil of anti-Semitism. And they must be stopped.

Christians United for Israel is now 8 million members strong. This is a humbling milestone, but one we do not celebrate. Rather, it is the unrelenting march of anti-Semitism upon which we are focused. There are 8 million American Christian Zionists committed to confronting indifference, combatting anti-Semitism, and defending Israel but that is not enough.

There are millions of Christians across this country that are not yet members of CUFI and we must reach them. There are millions of college students across this country who are subject to anti-Semitic indoctrination on universities and we must educate them. And there are 535 Members of Congress who have seen their chambers paralyzed by partisanship and we must help them.

Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with those victimized by the attacks against the Jewish community in New York and New Jersey.

Christians United for Israel was created for such a time as this. We are here, 8 million strong, standing with the Jewish people. And we’ve only just begun.

Blessings to you and those you love,

HOMELAND SECURITY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

In a World of Uncertainty, Standing Up For Oneself and Others, a Necessity By Nurit Greenger

Posted By on December 31st, 2019

https://newsblaze.com/world/israel/in-a-world-of-uncertainty-standing-up-for-oneself-and-others_161133/

In a world of uncertainties, it is necessary to stand up for oneself and others.

And that is what I learned when I participated in a few hours-long course at Caliber-3: to defend myself when the occasion arises and in the process have the ability to protect others.

On my recent visit to Israel, during November-December 2019, I accepted an invitation to visit Caliber-3, extended to me by Sharon Gat, Caliber-3 CEO/Founder when we met during Caliber-3 USA inauguration ceremony. I dedicated the day to learn, firsthand, what is Caliber 3’s work scope.

I traveled on the roads of the historical Shomron region’s hills, sensing the Bible era, and drove the lone road leading to the Caliber-3 facility, which made me feel as if I was entering a James Bond type movie setting.

I rang the walled facility’s bell to identify myself and be allowed in. Inside, the activities were going on strong and everywhere. I entered the world of its own institute.

Sharon Gat was not present, apparently away on a military reserve service mission while rockets were fired, once again, at Israel’s south from the terrorists’ enclave in Gaza. My host was the lovely Yael Gat, Sharon’s wife.

What is Caliber-3?

Established in 2007 by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Col. Sharon Gat (Res.), Caliber-3 has since become the largest and leading counter-terror & security training academy in Israel.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Democrats peddle doom, but the middle class never had it so good Most Americans give the economy high marks Stephen Moore

Posted By on December 30th, 2019

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/dec/29/democrats-peddle-doom-but-the-middle-class-never-h/

These days when you listen to the gloom of the media and many of the presidential candidates you have to wonder what country these Debbie Downers are talking about.

Former Vice President Joe Biden recently declared “the middle class is getting crushed … and the working class has no way up.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders stews that President Trump’s policies have brought “handouts for billionaires and hunger for the poor.”

Mayor Pete Buttigieg claims that many working families are struggling so much financially they don’t have enough income to be able to “afford a two-bedroom apartment.”

The Washington Post says that Americans are awash in debt that they can’t repay.

Time out for a does of reality. If things are so bad, how is it that a new poll from CNN — hardly a network friendly to Mr. Trump, finds three of four Americans rate the economy as pretty good or really good.

We have become so rich as a nation that even most poor families can buy dolls and baseball bats and $100 Nike basketball shoes for the kids, and cellphones that have more computing power than every computer used to put a man on the moon.  

It is nonsense to say the poor and the middle class are worse off than 20 or 30 or 50 years ago.

Go to any neighborhood Walmart or Target and you will see average and even low-income Americans — blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, teenagers, mothers with three kids, and seniors — filing out of the store with sometimes two or three shopping carts overflowing with toasters, and winter coats, and flowers, and games, and dog food, and stuffed animals, and potato chips, and video games, and every conceivable piece of merchandise — and all stuffed in the back of the minivan. 

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Extinction Rebellion Founder Confirms That Global Warming Is Voodoo Science by J. Frank Bullitt

Posted By on December 30th, 2019

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/12/30/extinction-rebellion-founder-confirms-that-global-warming-is-voodoo-science/

Global warming protests, past the point of absurdity long ago, have become even more extreme thanks to a relatively new group from England. The founder’s background shows exactly why the organization has chosen to engage in the mindless behavior it’s become known for.

Though she has a doctorate in molecular biophysics, Extinction Rebellion architect Gail Bradbrook, called a “neo-pagan” by Britain’s Daily Mail, intentionally went down a path filled with folklore, superstition, tribal rites, and primitive hallucinogenics.

She’s a “lifelong activist,” reports CNN, who has “spent decades working on an array of social justice campaigns,” though few ever lead to real change. So, “in order to bring about real, radical change, Bradbrook felt like something inside her consciousness needed to be unlocked.”

In search of whatever she thought was missing, Bradbrook “traveled to the jungle-covered mountains of Costa Rica,” where she found “a psychedelic retreat.”

There she gulped “a flood dose of Iboga, a tree bark used to induce visions,”  consumed Kambo, “the poisonous secretion of a giant tree frog hailed for its healing powers,” and drank a “hallucinogenic brew” called ayahuasca.

“All,” reports CNN, “have been used in indigenous cultures for centuries as part of Shamanic spiritual rituals.”

In a story earlier this year, Bradbrook told the Daily Mail she had been focused on rabble rousing since 2010 and had “tried many things.” When “they didn’t work,” Bradbrook said she “went on a retreat and prayed in a deep way with some psychedelic medicines.” This appears to be the same event described by CNN, in which, under the influence of ayahuasca, Bradbrook sought the counsel of supernatural forces, praying for “the universe to show her the ‘codes for social change.’”

ISRAEL, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

When all of the evidence is collected together, it is as if Amnesty has declared war on Israel Researcher David Collier sets out the findings from his new 200-page report on the NGO

Posted By on December 30th, 2019

https://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/when-all-of-the-evidence-is-collected-tog

I have just published a forensic 200-page report on Amnesty international, the world’s largest humanitarian NGO.

The overarching conclusion is that Amnesty International has an institutional hostility towards Israel that borders on obsession, with the NGO visibly attacking Israel more frequently and with far more energy, than it does any other nation.

When all of the evidence presented is collected together, it is as if Amnesty has declared war on Israel.

The research was some of the most detailed I have carried out and it was commissioned by Jewish Human Rights Watch. I followed over 50 Amnesty social media accounts and monitored the output of over 40 staff and volunteers who work or have worked for the NGO.

I poured through 100,000s of social media posts. The process took several months and involved rigorous checks to try to identify what Amnesty were doing and how much of their time was spent focusing on Israel.

I was shocked by the findings. I knew when I started that accusations of bias against Amnesty were not new.

NGO Monitor, an Israel-based NGO that analyses anti-Israel bias has frequently been critical of Amnesty. Even having read their detailed analysis, I was still unprepared for what I found.

The report provides examples from the absurd to the foul. One Amnesty human rights researcher publicly asked non-Jewish citizens of Israel not to vote in an election. How cruel a twist is this, in a world where voting rights are so frequently denied.

An Amnesty media manager for the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region was found advising Palestinian terror groups like Hamas not to publicly identify their martyrs if they were lost in an action, but rather to have the west believe the fallen were innocent civilians.

An Amnesty consultant tweeted an image of two Islamic Jihad terrorists, with a love heart — and she wrote the word ‘heroes’ above the images. In the same week she tweeted that others in Gaza should be careful about what they say publicly — so as not to harm ‘the resistance’.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Germany Puts Its Head in Russia’s Energy Pipeline Noose by Soeren Kern

Posted By on December 30th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15353/germany-russia-nord-stream-pipeline

A report by the Swedish Defense Research Agency found that Russia has threatened to cut energy supplies to Central and Eastern European more than 50 times. Even after some of those states joined the European Union, Russian threats continued.

Not surprisingly, Germany’s current Social Democratic Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, has criticized the U.S. sanctions as foreign interference. “Decisions on European energy policy are made in Europe, not the USA,” he tweeted on December 12. “We fundamentally reject foreign interventions and sanctions with extraterritorial effects.”

U.S. President Donald Trump, like his predecessor Barack Obama, has opposed the pipeline project. Trump in particular has criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her refusal to increase defense spending while at the same time supporting the pipeline that will funnel billions of dollars to Russia…. “So, we’re supposed to protect you against Russia and you pay billions of dollars to Russia and I think that’s very inappropriate. Germany will have almost 70 percent of their country controlled by Russia with natural gas. You tell me, is that appropriate?” — U.S. President Donald J. Trump.

“One must assume that Putin’s pet pipeline is not really a business venture — and that the fools are the Europeans, in particular the Germans…. In short, Nord Stream 2 could make Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states less secure, undermine the EU’s security strategy, give Russia a big stick for threatening Eastern Europe and sow discord among NATO allies. To Mr. Putin, causing so much trouble for a mere $11 billion must seem like a bargain. For Europe it is a trap…. The mystery is why Germany has fallen into it and has been twisting French arms to do the same.” — The Economist.

A Swiss company working on the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline directly linking Russia to Germany has suspended pipelaying operations after U.S. President Donald J. Trump signed into law new sanctions.

The sanctions are part of an effort by the United States to halt completion of the €9.5 billion ($10.5 billion) pipeline, which would double shipments of Russian natural gas to Germany by transporting the gas under the Baltic Sea. Opponents of the pipeline warn that it will give Russia a stranglehold over Germany’s energy supply. Proponents counter that with European domestic natural gas production in rapid decline, the pipeline will enhance security of supply.

American sanctions may delay Nord Stream 2, but they are probably too late to kill the project. More than 80% of the 1,230-km (764-mile) pipeline has already been laid and the project is expected to be completed in 2020, according to Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak.

On December 17, the U.S. Senate, by a vote of 86 to 6, passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual defense spending bill, which includes the Nord Stream 2 sanctions language. The measure previously cleared the U.S. House of Representatives on December 11 by a vote of 377 to 48. President Trump signed it into law on December 20.