PUTTING MILITARY WOMEN'S LIVES ON THE LINE

"The key data Obama's move to force women into combat roles ignores."

Frontpage

"In a move that reeks of political correctness, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Thursday that all combat positions in the U.S. military will now be open to women, with no exceptions. "They’ll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat,” Carter declared. "They’ll be able to serve as Army rangers and green berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men.” 

 

"As the Center for Military Readiness (CMR) explains, Carter could only make the change by overruling the best professional advice of the U.S. Marine Corps “in matters involving life, death, and national security,” and “by breaking his own promise” to base his decision on the quality of scientific research behind the military services’ recommendations. The Marine Corps had requested some exceptions to the policy, but Carter declined to honor them. “The important factor in making my decision was to have access to every American who could add strength to the joint force,” he insisted, further stating the decision to do so was based on empirical analysis of the data following a three-year review by all armed services branches." . . .

Muslims United for San Bernardino Raise Over $100k for Victims’ Families

Muslims reject being “lumped in” with Islamist terrorists

Legal Insurrection

. . . "In addition to this group’s efforts, the LA Times reports that leading Islamic scholars also urged their followers to help with the campaign’s fund-raising efforts:

Several leading Islamic scholars also pitched the campaign in their Friday sermons last week.

“Since 9/11, we’ve felt we need to come out of our cocoons,” said Shaykh Mohammed Faqih of the Islamic Institute of Orange County. “We’re as American as anyone else … but if society is not feeling it, it means I’m not doing enough.”

Donors include Marya Ayloush, a 20-year-old student at Santa Monica Community College who gave $50 after seeing the campaign posted on Facebook. “This is an actual, tangible action we can do to show non-Muslims that we have your back,” she said. “In every situation where the terrorist happens to be a Muslim, every person, whether they admit it or not, is afraid they’ll be lumped in with these guys.”

"Ayloush’s concern is a very real one that, as I noted previously, is not helped by the Obama administration’s (including Hillary’s) refusal to make a distinction between radical Islamic terrorists bent on violent jihad and the Muslims who not only reject this evil but are eager to demonstrate that they don’t appreciate being “lumped in” with radical Islamist terrorists."

Enraged woman attacks Muslims praying in California park: ‘Allah is Satan and you are all murderers’

. . . "Albeshari said he moved four years to California from North Carolina, in part, because he thought he would face less discrimination.

"But Muslims across the U.S. have been targeted by violence and discrimination since terrorist attacks last month in Paris and a mass shooting last week in San Bernardino.

“ 'I never thought this would ever happen to me here,” Albeshari said. “It’s a very uncomfortable feeling.' ” . . .

Terrorists want us to turn on Muslims

Sky News reports:

. . . "We have to be careful we don't do the work of the people who are seeking to divide us, he said, adding that progressive and positive discussion are already occurring within Islam in Australia. " . . .
. . . 

 "'Inflammatory language undermines efforts to build social cohesion, mutual respect and has the potential to harm the efforts of national security agencies to keep Australians safe,' Mr Shorten said in a statement.

"The former prime minister also urged Australians not to apologise for holding Western values, calling for a 'restoration of self confidence' in the West.

" 'All cultures are not equal, a culture that believes in decency and tolerance is much preferred to one that says you can kill in the name of God,' he said." . . .

'Unknown' marine receives Arlington burial seven decades after death in battle

"Corporal James Otto died in the Pacific war but his remains were only recently discovered. He was finally laid to rest 72 years later in a solemn ceremony"

UK Guardian

US marines storm Tarawa in November 1943. Corporal James Otto was among about 1,000 marines killed in the assault on the tiny atoll. Photograph: WO Obie Newcomb Jr/Courtesy of US Marine Corps

. . . "Marine corporal James Otto, 20, of Los Angeles, was killed in action on the first day of intense fighting to capture the tiny Pacific island of Betio from the Japanese during the second world war. In all, about 1,000 marines were killed and more than 2,000 wounded during the battle in November 1943.

Corporal James Otto, of the US marine corps.
 Photograph: Department of Defense

"Otto’s family spent the past seven decades believing that he had been buried at sea. Then, in August this year, his closest living relative, cousin Charles Otto, 73, was informed that his remains had been found. “I thought at first someone was trying to pull my leg and get me,” he recalled. “It was hard to believe they found his remains after 72 years. They found complete skeletal remains except where he was hit in the legs.”

"The remains were identified via dental records preserved since Otto enlisted to fight. He is among at least 120 Americans found on Betio Island, part of Tarawa atoll, since 2005 by the charity History Flight using methods including subsurface remote sensing. Some have been returned to the US for interment in home cemeteries or in Arlington’s 620 acres; others are still being identified. About 74,000 service members from the second world war are still unaccounted for." . . .

“It’s been kind of mind-boggling, all of this, but it happened a long time ago. We didn’t really know him but we’re proud. The marine code is no man left behind, and we brought him home.”

Mass Murder and Identity Politics

Victor Davis Hanson
. . . "One can argue statistically that the number of Islamist attackers is small compared with the pool of Muslim immigrants. It is, of course, also true that mass shooters come in all races and religions, from the cases of Columbine and Sandy Hook to those at the Oregon community college, Virginia Tech, and Miami. 

"But no other common tie — no particular religion, no political identification, no singular subset of mental illness — binds so many mass shooters as do professions of Islamist radicalism, both among first-generation arrivals and among their offspring." . . .

"The new arrival from the Middle East need not turn on Al Jazeera to be spoon-fed grievances, when he can listen to President Obama’s apology tours or Cairo speech or breakfast sermons about high-horse Christians and their millennium-old Crusades."

. . . "Appeasement is a psychological disorder that affects both the appeaser and the appeased. The more exemptions are granted the offender, the more the grantor feels good about himself, and the more the offender loses respect for someone seen as weak rather than magnanimous."

Trump’s Muslim Immigration Ban Should Touch Off a Badly Needed Discussion

Andrew C. McCarthy "Donald Trump’s rhetorical excesses aside, he has a way of pushing us into important debates, particularly on immigration. He has done it again with his bracing proposal to force “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” 

"I have no idea what Mr. Trump knows about either immigration law or Islam. But it should be obvious to any objective person that Muslim immigration to the West is a vexing challenge.
. . . 
The assumption that is central to this dilemma — the one that Trump has stumbled on and that "Washington refuses to examine — is that Islam is merely a religion. If that’s true, then it is likely that religious liberty will trump constitutional and national-security concerns. How, after all, can a mere religion be a threat to a constitutional system dedicated to religious liberty? 

"But Islam is no mere religion."

Mark Steyn: If You See Something...

 "Because political correctness requires that we regard as just another part of the vibrant tapestry of diversity people who believe in everything ISIS believes in (sharia, female subservience, clitoridectomies, death for homosexuals) but stop short of chopping your head off. So we cannot stop them before they open fire."

hopenchangecartoons.allah-allah-in-free

Steyn Online  "...shut up, racist.

"That's Kate McMillan's headline summation of the Big Security State in an age of political correctness.

"On the one hand, the Department of Homeland Security enjoins us: "If you see something, say something." It's an expensive, focus-grouped official government slogan.

On the other hand, when it's happening in your street, it's all a bit more complicated:

A man who has been working in the area said he noticed a half-dozen Middle Eastern men in the area in recent weeks, but decided not to report anything since he did not wish to racially profile those people.

" 'Middle Eastern men" bringing strange contraptions in and out at all hours of the night? What are you, Islamophobic? Who's to say it's not the local distributor for Ahmed the Clock Boy's amusing new Allahrm Clock? If you see a man of Middle Eastern appearance bearing a ticking object, say something - and get sued for 15 million bucks." . . .

Escalation: Hillary contradicts Benghazi families, denies blaming attacks on video at private meeting

Hot Air Blog Update: New email shows Pentagon offered to deploy rescue forces during attack?
"Before we circle back to Hillary’s statement on ABC News’ This Week, let’s lay some groundwork first. During her sworn testimony before the Benghazi Select Committee in October, Hillary Clinton was confronted with evidence that she had a clear-eyed understanding of the nature of those attacks within hours of their occurrence. On the night of the attack, she sent an email to her daughter lamenting that several American “officers were killed in Benghazi by an Al Queda-like group.” The next morning, she sent the following assessment to a top Egyptian diplomat:"

. . . "Did you tell the families that the attack was about the film?  Answer: No.  My Townhallcolleague Justin Holcomb has addressed her subsequent “fog of war” dissembling, which is belied by the fact that she consistently managed to get it right in private discussions, while peddling a very different tale in public.  But let’s ignore that part of her answer for the moment.  She was asked a direct question: Did she, or did she not, tell those family members that the Internet film was responsible for their loved ones’ deaths?  She says she did not.  This is a direct contradiction of very explicit memories shared on the record by multiple people who have far less incentive to lie than, say, a truth-challenged politician seeking power. " . . . 

. . . "UPDATE – Hmm, didn’t top Obama administration and Pentagon officials testify that there was no viable opportunity to send reinforcements to save our people under siege that night? So what “forces” are being referenced in this just-uncovered email sent from the Defense Department to the State Department during the attack, and why weren’t they deployed?" . . .

Oh, well; Barbara Streisand loves her, so what else matters?

Remembering the 14 Victims of the San Bernardino Terror Attack

Legal Insurrection

"They were a young father of six and the cousin of an NFL player, a passionate defender of Israel who enjoyed debates and a community worker who dressed up as Santa Claus, some 14 victims in all, representing a tapestry of the multicultural American family, all gathered for what seemed the safest of occasions: a holiday party.

"The San Bernardino, Calif. Sheriff’s Department late Thursday released the names of those who died Wednesday night when a heavily armed man and woman burst into the room where they were enjoying a county health department banquet and opened fire. The male gunman, Syed Farook, presumably knew at least some of those he mowed down since he worked for the same department. The New York Post even reported that colleagues there had thrown him a baby shower earlier this year.

"The victims ranged in age from 26-60 and included eight men and six women…."

. . . "For me, one story stood out:

"When a hail of bullets ripped through the air, through their conversation, through their lives — Shannon Johnson didn’t hesitate.

“I’ve got you,” the 45-year-old San Bernardino man calmly told the young co-worker he’d just been chatting with, wrapping his arm around her as they hid behind a chair trying to escape the erupting fusillade." . . .

The American war against the Jews

Caroline Glick

"The foundations of American Jewish life are under assault today in ways that were unimaginable a generation ago. Academia is ground zero of the onslaught. The protest movements on campuses are first and foremost anti-Jewish movements.

"For the past decade or so, years, Jewish communal leaders and activists have focused on just one aspect of this anti-Jewish campaign. Jewish leaders have devoted themselves to helping Jewish students combat the direct anti-Semitism inherent to the anti-Israel student movements.

"Despite the substantial funds that have been devoted to fighting anti-Israel forces on campuses, they have not been diminished. To the contrary, with each passing year they have grown more powerful and menacing.

"Consider a sampling of the anti-Jewish incidents that took place over the past two weeks." . . .

CNN host equates Jewish terror with Islamic terror

. . . "Banfield is unaware or pretending to be unaware that jihadists frequently question the religion of their targets, releasing Muslims and then slaughtering Christians and Jews.  “Are you a Jew?” is understood every day around the world, and particularly in Israel.  An answer in the affirmative will get you killed." . . .

Ben Shapiro: The Myth of the Tiny Radical Muslim Minority

UPDATED: American Silliness 12/9/2015

UPDATE: School cancels ‘Christmas’ after single complaint   

"Parents are sounding off after a West Virginia elementary school opted to ditch its planned Christmas celebrations in the name of political correctness.

"Hollywood Elementary School officials planned to celebrate with the “12 Days of Christmas” leading up to the holiday with fun themes like “elf day” and “Christmas sweater day,” but principal Tamber Hodges told WVNS a single complaint forced them to cancel the celebrations.

. . . 

“Don’t tell me that my son dressing like an elf ‘offends’ you. He’s 4!” she continued. “He still believes in the magic of Christmas. Let him be a kid! You might not agree with me, and that’s okay. But my child WILL be participating, even if he’s the only one. You’ll be able to recognize him…he’ll be the one dressed like an elf. Merry Christmas and God bless!”

Cornell warns students mistletoe isn't 'inclusive' so don't use it  . . . “University members are reminded to be respectful of the religious diversity of our students and colleagues and are encouraged to use an inclusive approach in celebrating the holiday season,” the document says. Students are encouraged to be more “diverse” by either focusing on winter instead of Christmas or by including decorations for multiple holidays alongside secular decorations.

"The university then rattles off a list of decorations that are “NOT consistent” with the school’s “commitment to diversity and inclusiveness.” The discouraged decorations include the following:

-Nativity scenes
-Menorahs
-Angels
-Mistletoe
-Stars (when placed on top of trees)
-Crosses
-Stars of David

"While the religious connotations of nativity scenes or Stars of David is rather obvious, it’s not clear why mistletoe is considered as possibly offensive."

Delusional Demands Week at College Insurrection Here are just three:

• Hamilton College Students Demand Censorship
• Three in Five Professors Call Trigger Warnings a Threat to Academic Freedom
• UCLA Circulates List of “Microaggressions” to Students and Faculty

Black Student Union disrupts classes, blocks cars  "Participating students ran into classrooms shouting the same message and handing out flyers labelled “The Black Students 10-Point Plan” detailing their list of demands for the university to adopt."  Video here

Ole Miss renames Christmas event because it 'connoted too much Christianity'

SJW Student Protesters Jump The Shark: Demand College Change Name Of “Lynch Memorial Hall” Because The Word “Lynch” Reminds Them Of Slavery…

"Student protesters at Lebanon Valley College have managed to encapsulate everything outsiders see as wrong with the current campus “revolution”: privileged students finding outrage in mundane things."