Saturday, January 11, 2014

Krauthammer: How to fight academic bigotry; boycott the boycotters of Israel

Liberals should never again claim victimhood because of the McCarthy-era "blacklists". Hear Bill Whittle speak about "social proof"; known also as politically correct peer pressure that forces culture farther to the left.


Charles Krauthammer  "For decades, the American Studies Association labored in well-deserved obscurity. No longer. It has now made a name for itself by voting to boycott Israeli universities, accusing them of denying academic and human rights to Palestinians.
"Given that Israel has a profoundly democratic political system, the freest press in the Middle East, a fiercely independent judiciary and astonishing religious and racial diversity within its universities, including affirmative action for Arab students, the charge is rather strange.
"Made more so when you consider the state of human rights in Israel’s neighborhood. As we speak, Syria’s government is dropping “barrel bombs” filled with nails, shrapnel and other instruments of terror on its own cities. Where is the ASA boycott of Syria?" ...
....
Deutsche Welle
"What to do? Facing a similar (British) academic boycott of Israelis seven years ago, Alan Dershowitz and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg wrote an open letter declaring that, for the purposes of any anti-Israel boycott, they are to be considered Israelis."
....

"Thousands of other academics added their signatures to the Dershowitz/Weinberg letter. It was the perfect in-kind response. Boycott the boycotters, with contempt.

But, as with teenagers jumping on the latest feel-good fad, here come artists, hoping to burnish their street cred for attaboys in desired social circles:

"But academia isn’t the only home for such prejudice. Throughout the cultural world, the Israel boycott movement is growing. It’s become fashionable for musicians, actors, writers and performers of all kinds to ostentatiously cleanse themselves of Israel and Israelis."

Now, Dr. Krauthammer gets to the salient point that he has been preparing us for:
"How? How to answer the thugs, physical and intellectual, who single out Jews for attack? The best way, the most dignified way, is to do like Dershowitz, Weinberg or Kissin.
"Express your solidarity. Sign the open letter or write your own. Don the yellow star and wear it proudly."

To wit:
A Call to Academics Worldwide to Join Nobel Laureates and University Presidents to Stand in Solidarity with Israeli Academics Facing Threats of Boycott
The text of this petition:

"We are academics, scholars, researchers and professionals of differing religious and political perspectives. We all agree that singling out Israelis for an academic boycott is wrong. To show our solidarity with our Israeli academics in this matter, we, the undersigned, hereby declare ourselves to be Israeli academics for purposes of any academic boycott. We will regard ourselves as Israeli academics and decline to participate in any activity from which Israeli academics are excluded."
 

Benghazi: Bad Movie Review or Act of Terror?

Bokbluster
140111-benghazi-movie-terror
 
"David Kirkpatrick wrote a long piece in the NYT December 28 that said the attack on Benghazi was the act of a bunch of locals very pissed off about a movie. The Washington Post later reported that a former GITMO detainee who had trained under Osama bin Laden and fought with the Taliban played a role in the attack.
"As they say, “what difference does it make?” Well, President Obama did say that al Qaeda was on the run and headed for defeat. After the attack Susan Rice went on five Sunday news shows to say it was caused by the internet video. And Hillary promised the father of murdered Navy Seal, Tyrone Woods, that they would prosecute the movie maker.

"Was Benghazi a Bad Movie Review or Act of Terror?

"The fact is the mystery of Benghazi can easily be solved by the man himself. In the second 2012 presidential debate Obama insisted that it is was an act of terror.
"Here’s Andrew Wilson’s review in The American Spectator."

Down and Out in Benghazi "It is time to present the top prize for fraudulence in international reporting in 2013 — the annual Walter Duranty award. As Moscow bureau chief for the New York Times at the height of Joe Stalin’s reign of terror, Duranty not only reported the news, he invented it — earning the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and wining the sobriquet of “Stalin’s apologist.' ”
 

You Still Don’t Understand Islamism, Do You?

This is a companion article to Debate! Christian Muslim Forum (Interfaith) vs. North American Infidels! , further down in the Tunnel Wall

Gloria Center*
Barry Rubin  ... "The main problem, however, was that all Islamism was a
political threat, but it was the second position that eventually won over the Obama administration. Take note of this; since 2009, if you wanted to build your career and win policy debates, only al-Qaeda was a problem. The Muslim Brotherhood was not a threat; after all, it did not participate in September 11. This view was well-known in policy circles, but it was easy to mistake this growing hegemony as temporary.

"Actually, it only got worse."...


*The Global Research in International Affairs Center

Gov. Christie catches it from all sides

Bridgegate Cartoon
 Bad timing for the Christie scandal?  "Governor Christie has plenty of enemies in his own party. Conservatives resent his embrace of President Obama following Super storm Sandy, the Romney campaign still remembers his lukewarm (at best) role, and many are uneasy that he may be a RINO. Although instinctively rallying around one of our own under attack by our mutual enemies, many conservatives are quietly relieved that the prospect of another non-conservative nominee is diminished.

"Still, Christie is probably the potential GOP standard-bearer most-feared by Hillary Clinton and the Democrat-media establishment." ...
....
"If no evidence implicates Christie with direct knowledge of the bridge revenge closure plan, his performance yesterday will serve him well, and this scandal will be forgotten by 2016. His forthright apologies and swift firings contrast vividly with the failure of Obama to act in the face if his various scandals, and of Hillary's failure to confront the Benghazi scandal with meaningful apologies and action. What doesn't kill his political career only makes him stronger."

Drawing from the left, Pat Oliphant takes a harsher view of Christie:
 
Andy McCarthy is not so optimistic about Christie: New Scandal, Same Old Christie    ... "In public, the notorious Christie wrath is usually reserved for tea-party conservatives, for those who don’t share his soft spot for Islamic supremacists, and for the stray insolent teachers’-union rep — because, well, who doesn’t enjoy watching that? Playing nicely with Democrats is a big part of the governor’s shtick."
Political Cartoons by Steve Breen

There's Already 17 Times More Coverage on Christie Scandal Than in Last Six Months of IRS    " ... ABC, CBS and NBC have responded with 34 minutes and 28 seconds of coverage. Since July 1, these same networks managed a scant two minutes and eight seconds for the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups."

How about this? Hillary Advisor Created Traffic Jam To Help Gore  
... "Gore was “irate” at the “massive traffic jam” but then “Gore got the point” after Whouley explained that “they’re mostly Bradley voters.”
"And now we can all laugh at this, because it’s just smart politics when it involves Democrats."  Emphasis in the original.

Let's give the Christie affair a bit of perspective, shall we?

Debate! Christian Muslim Forum (Interfaith) vs. North American Infidels!

Logan's Warning
Print
 
"One of the greatest weapons Muslims have in their arsenal is interfaith dialogue. As it clearly gets naïve and trusting non-Muslims to actually support Islam. While interfaith talks might sound nice, the reality is that talking to Muslims does not change what Islam is. That is why I frequently speak out against these suicidal talks."

....
(2) are distinguished from Muslims in dress, wearing a wide cloth belt (zunnar)
(3) are not greeted with “as-Salamu ‘alaykun”;
(4) must keep to the side of the street;
(5) may not build higher than or as high as the Muslims’ buildings, though if they acquire a tall house, it is not razed;
(6) are forbidden to openly display wine or pork (A: to ring church bells or display crosses,) recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals and feastdays;
(7) and are forbidden to build new churches....
 
bluitgen 4

Ever wonder about that story, "The Emperor has no clothes"?

Bill Whittle at PJTV  "Social Proof, used to be called 'Peer-pressure,' is essentially a type of mob mentality that convinces people to go along with the herd. President Obama is really President Social Proof--he convinced a slew of voters that to question him was to be racist. Now, several voices are crying out that the Emperor...President...is wearing no clothes, and all that's left to do is run the hollow people into the river."