Obama seeks to calm US radiation fears, calls for nuclear safety review

CSMonitor   "Thus Obama may have taken a moment to perform one of a president’s primary duties: serve as a voice of calm at a time when some US citizens might be anxious.

"Fears that a radioactive plume might drift to the continental US have caused a run on potassium iodide pills, for example, which can offset some health effects of radiation. Obama stressed Thursday that the worry driving those purchases is unfounded."

What Would a Desperate Wimp Do?

Michael Ledeen "And so I asked myself, is there a point at which a president realizes that wimps don’t get reelected? And if so, what might he do to shatter that image? For the next two years I worried that Carter might overreact to some international crisis in order to make folks see that he was really a tough guy.
"It never happened, to my relief. But I’m starting to have the same worries about Obama. To be sure, he’s got a press that is considerably friendlier than Carter had, but even so we are seeing quite a number of stories about a president who just can’t seem to make decisions, who doesn’t seem to get it when terrible things happen, things that cry out for American leadership. The wimp seems to be mounting a comeback. If he gets tarred with that brush, he might start considering options to recreate his image. There are certainly many opportunities, from Iran to Venezuela."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/ericallie

Nuclear power

GRAPHIC: Inside a Nuclear Reactor

On Japanese nuke story, the boy who cried wolf might get eaten  "A suicide mission for employees and others trying to lock down the reactors? If true, it would appear that we are on the brink of a worst case scenario. But the quote comes from an unnamed "US official" who may or may not know what he's talking about. It sounds scary but how real is it?
"Unfortunately, if the official is correct, it would seem that the boy who cried wolf so often about nuclear power is about to be devoured."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/glennfoden

President Hamlet / Thinking out every possible side of a question can mean never acting on any of them.

Victor Davis Hanson  "But now Obama is chief executive, and learning, as did Prince Hamlet, that thinking out every possible side of a question can mean never acting on any of them — a sort of Shakespearean “prison” where “there is nothing either good or bad.” Worrying about pleasing everyone ensures pleasing no one. Once again such “conscience does make cowards of us all.”"

On Libya, the U.S. Is a Pitiful Giant

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE  "There cannot be anyone not moved and impressed by the stoicism, solidity, and bravery of the entire population of the afflicted areas of Japan, as thousands have died, tens of thousands have been left homeless, hundreds of thousands are threatened by radiation and other problems, and none have looted, or even, which would be more forgivable, panicked or, as far as can be seen, engaged even in self-pity or indignities of any kind."....
"Yet the disgusting cowardice, venality, and beastliness of the underside, uniformed and otherwise, of New Orleans, one of America’s most beloved and historic cities, occurred, and the world saw it, and it behooves America to think upon it, too."

Israelis Sitting Shiva For Fogel Family Help Save Palestinian Baby

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion    "What a contrast to the brutal murder of the Fogel family, including their 3 month old baby daughter."
Via Ynet News:

After massacre, settlers help bring new life into world: IDF forces and local paramedics helped save the life of a Palestinian woman and her newly born infant Wednesday, at the settlement where Fogel relatives are sitting Shiva for the five Israelis brutally murdered last week.

Why They Celebrate Murdering Children "Muslims, in fact, are more often exhorted by their scriptures to brutalize non-Muslims than Christians are urged by the gospels to love their enemies and turn the other cheek. Yet, though we assume the latter are meant to take the message to heart, we are somehow sure Islam doesn’t really mean what it says — that when Muslims strike terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, it must be Israel’s fault, or America’s, or something, anything, other than Islam, the only common denominator in these attacks."....
"Rep. Peter King is to be applauded for forcing Congress to notice the phenomenon we so gingerly call Muslim “radicalization.” The question that really begs for hearings, though, is why we continue pretending not to know what causes it."
We tend to become like that which we worship.

Unions, teachers, death threats and the press (Updated)

Media Silence on Wis. Death Threats Is 'Intellectual Dishonesty and Journalistic Bias'  "It seems that some on the left are beginning to notice the epic journalistic malpractice going on in the media's refusal to cover a litany of death threats - some specific and credible - against Wisconsin Republicans for their support of legislation trimming the power of public sector unions.
""Burying the death threat story is a clear example of intellectual dishonesty and journalistic bias," liberal blogger Lee Stranahan succinctly put it in a piece at the Huffington Post on Tuesday. Stranahan wondered "why progressives shouldn't expect more from our media -- and ourselves -- than we expect from our political adversaries.""

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Related, wouldn't you say? Windows at Washington, D.C. Republican Office Shot Out "The executive director of the Republican Committee says an air gun was probably used. Police also say they found a ‘BB’ on the ground outside the office.
"Workers believe the shooting was politically related."

Ignoring Death Threats to Wisconsin Politicians Is Media Bias  "Three questions for you."

1.Do you think of Republicans and the Tea Party as dangerous, violent extremists?
2.Do you think the Wisconsin protests over GOP Governor Scott Walker’s move to strip public sector employees of collective bargaining were peaceful?
3.Do you scoff at the right wing notion that mainstream media like the New York Times, the TV networks and NPR have a liberal media bias against the conservatives?

If you answered ‘yes’ to all three of those questions, then let me ask you one more …

Why isn’t the mainstream media talking about the death threats against Republican politicians in Wisconsin?

How Many Trillions Must We Waste on the War on Poverty?

Heritage  "Which American politician said the following? “The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.” Had to be a mean-spirited Tea Party conservative, right? Wrong. President Franklin Roosevelt included these words in his 1935 State of the Union Address."

Chris Matthews Rips GOP 2012 Candidates on Leno, Then Claims: 'I Want to Be Somewhat Nonpartisan'

Media Research Center "Matthews bashed Mitt Romney as someone who "gives a bad name to empty suits." He claimed Mike Huckabee was being "racist" by mistakenly saying President Obama spent part of his childhood in Kenya instead of Indonesia. When Leno asked about Minnesota Congressman Michele Bachmann, Matthews ranted about a gaffe she made about Lexington and Concord being in New Hampshire: "You ought to at least know high school history....you got to know something to run for president, don't you?""

Pakistan Frees American After 'Blood Money' Paid

GlobalSecurity.org  "Families of the two slain Pakistanis were taken into the court and signed documents formally forgiving him in exchange for receiving an undisclosed sum of money.
"Payment of "diyya," or blood money, is permitted under Islamic Shari'a law. Such compensation is often used to resolve such cases in Pakistan." 
McClatchy reported $1.4 million in "blood money" was paid to the families of the two men he was accused of killing. Kidnapping Americans could be a win-win for the bad guys.

How Does Blood Money Work?  "In practice, diyya works like an out-of-court settlement in a Western tort case, and its payment is often more prosaic than the term blood money implies. Foreigners who plan to drive a car in Islamic countries are often encouraged to purchase coverage for potential blood-money claims as part of their regular auto insurance."

Lawyer: 'Blood money' bought CIA contractor's freedom  ""ISI and CIA are working on ensuring that their relationship remains on track and there are no future undeclared CIA operations in Pakistan that result in jeopardizing bilateral relations," said a senior Pakistani official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
"The outcome seemed to be face-saving for all sides, with the Pakistani government able to say that the courts had let Davis off, while Washington didn't concede its stance on diplomatic immunity. The families have ended up wealthy by Pakistani standards."

Taming Chaos with a Personal Plan

STRATFOR   "When a crisis erupts, having an established personal contingency plan provides people with a head start and a set of tools that can help them avoid, or at least mitigate, the effects of the chaos and panic that accompany crisis events."

A Glowing Report on Radiation

Ann Coulter  "With the terrible earthquake and resulting tsunami that have devastated Japan, the only good news is that anyone exposed to excess radiation from the nuclear power plants is now probably much less likely to get cancer.
"This only seems counterintuitive because of media hysteria for the past 20 years trying to convince Americans that radiation at any dose is bad. There is, however, burgeoning evidence that excess radiation operates as a sort of cancer vaccine."