You think YOU live in a bad neighborhood? Look at Israel.

Israel National News

Rockets hit Israel as Obama meets Palestinians  "Palestinians argue that only strong U.S. pressure can get Israel to change course and halt its settlement enterprise, but doubt Obama is willing to do so. Obama's wooing of Israeli public opinion during his current trip has further enforced such perceptions."

A rocket fired at Israel from Gaza caused heavy damage to a house in Sderot Thursday morning

Obama Speaks Under Arafat Banner

"Arafat, as the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting has noted, "is known to many as the “father of modern terrorism.” Below is a timeline of some of the key events of his life and terrorist acts with which he was associated." "

 

Khamenei: Iran Will Destroy Israeli Cities If Attacked  " “At times the officials of the Zionist regime (Israel) threaten to launch a military invasion but they themselves know that if they make the slightest mistake the Islamic Republic will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during an address, broadcast live on state television."

 

Obama Heckled During Speech to Israeli People  Not what you might think or hope; it appears to have been about Pollard. 

Sean Moore Says NJ Child Welfare Agency Overreacted To Facebook Photo Of Son Josh Holding Rifle

HuffPo

"The ruddy-cheeked, camouflage-clad boy in the photo smiles out from behind a pair of glasses, proudly holding a gun his father gave him as a present for his upcoming 11th birthday.
"The weapon in the photo, posted by his dad on Facebook, resembles a military-style assault rifle but, his father says, is actually just a .22-caliber copy. And that, the family believes, is why child welfare case workers and police officers visited the home in Carneys Point last Friday and asked to see his guns."
....
" "I don't like what happened," he said. "You're not even safe in your own house. If they can just show up at any time and make you open safes and go through your house, that's not freedom; it's like tyranny." "
Hat tip to Rich Cutter Avallone

Obama in Israel reading list; Remember, Israel, you have no better friend than President Obama and he doesn't bluff

Do you fans of the old "Closer" TV series remember the sleazy real estate dealer whose motto was "Gary doesn't lie"?
I don't know why that came to mind just now, but it did. 

Be sure to read the excellent article by Caroline Glick further down in this post

White House Map ‘Erases’ Jerusalem, Biblical Territories. Sources say Obama already has pledged to discuss land for peace
"The White House has released what it says is a map of Israel. The only problem is that Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights are missing.
An Obama administration video highlighting the president’s plans for his Mideast trip depicts Jerusalem, the Golan and the West Bank – also known as Judea and Samaria – as non-Israeli territory.
"The Washington Free Beacon, which first reported the discrepancies, noted the video shows the Golan Heights as part of Syria; Jerusalem is depicted as part of the West Bank; and northern Israel is shown as part of Lebanon."

The map appears at the 25 second mark and you may need to pause the video to see how truncated Israel is:

Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs also discusses the above video in this article: Hussein in Jerusalem  "Obama isn’t going to say or do anything in Israel that will cause any concern to Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan and the rest of his cabal. ....
"Obama hates the “settlements.” Obama hates the Jewish homeland. I have two words for Israel: Keep building!
"Why are agitating violent Muslims allowed to live in the tiny Jewish state while over a million Jews were ethnically cleansed from Muslim lands? The Muslim world is by and large Jew-free. How can that stand?"

Jonathan S. Tobin;  Obama Visit Signals Nadir of Israeli Left  "This means that although the president will underwhelm many Israelis, his visit will be a symbolic acceptance of the concept that the U.S. can’t dictate policy to its Israeli ally. That’s a boost for Israeli democracy, but very bad news for Israelis and their American cheerleaders who want Obama to override the verdict of the electorate.

Seth Mandel; Palestinians Welcome Obama with Demands and Ultimatums  "Israeli leftists may not be excited about President Obama’s trip to Israel, as Jonathan wrote yesterday, but they are taking it a lot better than the Palestinians."

Jennifer Rubin; Obama in Israel: Pretty speeches won’t do it  "The message all this sends to Syria’s patron, Iran, is simple: The United States won’t act. What the Israelis see is that if the United States is so unwilling to take on Syria and would allow such regional instability and humanitarian suffering, what chance is there that Obama would act to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapons capability? You see why Israelis don’t really feel like Obama has their back."

On the Bank of Cyprus

The EU Crosses the Rubicon; How Far Behind Is the US?

"If you ever wanted to destroy America from within, Dr. Ben Carson has assembled a handy four-point plan to accomplish just that, which he discussed at CPAC this past weekend:"....

 

Below from Cagletoons

 
http://www.cartoonmovement.com/cartoon/9477

Notice a deleted post?

We removed an earlier post entitled "Cartoon Potpourri on Popery" after thinking some may think it a chop on the Catholic Church, which it was never meant to be.

The theme of all the cartoons was all about Congress and the Obama Administration's sense of importance; Obama's personal self-image as I see it and the smokestack on the capital indicating zero results.

Nobody has complained, but I realize the post could have been taken amiss due to the really neat-I think- title it was given.

The Tunnel Dweller

Trouble in the Nanny State

Ann Coulter   ...."Posters are popping up in subway stations and bus stops giving statistics about teen pregnancy that show cute little kids saying things like, "Honestly, Mom ... chances are he won't stay with you. What happens to me?" and "I'm twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen."
"(Based on a recent CBS report, the kid could add, "Then again, I'm in the New York City public school system, so even if I graduate I won't be able to read.")
"It's one thing to stigmatize "Big Gulp" drinkers, but liberals are hopping mad at this attempt to stigmatize teen pregnancy, 90 percent of which is unwed. To put it another way, if you're a New York teen with a distended belly these days, it had better be because you're pregnant."
....
I find Coulter emminently quotable, but this next one ranks way up there:

"Coincidentally, Planned Parenthood happens to provide reproductive health care! Liberals act as if gun owners, soda-guzzlers and smokers are innocent victims of the gun, food and cigarette industries, but the $542 million-a-year birth control industry is a quarry of angels."

Three steps to spark hiring in the US

The Hill via Heritage   Step one: Delay the enactment of the ObamaCare employer mandate and the ObamaCare exchange subsidies for two years. More....
....
Step two: Let the energy sector take flight. More....
....
Step three is a big one: reaching the holy grail of tax reform — both corporate and individual. More....
It is only a shame that the private citizen in this video couldn't bring these things up when he had the following encounter with President Obama:  

Some more details on the 60 mm mortars used by Marines

Typical 60mm mortar and round via afghanistansquid

Pentagon bans 60 mm mortar round after deaths
"The Marine Corps said early Tuesday that seven Marines were killed. But John Stroud, national junior vice commander in chief for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, began a memorial event in Hawthorne on Tuesday night by saying "one of the critical has passed," bringing the death toll to eight.
Members of the women's Auxiliary of VFW 231 then laid a wreath and eight individual floral arrangements at a park where a flag flew at half-staff within sight of the Hawthorne depot's boundary." Slide show at this link.

Video of Marines firing a 60mm mortar :

COMBAT FOOTAGE Marines in firefight beat Taliban ambush with 60mm Mortar Fire About four minutes in the mortar crew sets up. If you don't care for the salty language, turn the sound down. It was a bit slow playing back with several pauses.

Barry of Arabia

Alan Caruba; Barry O Goes to Jerusalem  "No doubt President Obama will repeat his assertion that the U.S. will never accept a nuclear Iran, but he will. Sanctions and “containment” are not going to work.

"“The reality is, however,” says [Barry] Rubin, “that Obama will continue to deny that his strategy is one of containing Iran but rather of preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons. That will go on until Iran gets nuclear weapons and Obama switches to a containment strategy.” "  More by Rubin on this.

More by Rubin; The Meaning of the Obama Visit to Israel and U.S.-Israel Relations in Obama’s Second Term  "In other words, the whole thing isn’t going to work. Obama might come away with just enough to claim some success, a claim that will be echoed in the mass media. But it would be meaningless."
Pretty much every story on national security contains disrespect or outright contempt for the press.

From the Jerusalem Post; GOP representatives also protest US president’s decision not to address Knesset  and also "to protest the exclusion of Ariel University students from the speech he is scheduled to deliver on Thursday.
"Out of Israel’s eight accredited universities, Ariel is the only one that is located in the West Bank. Students from the other seven universities were invited to the speech to be delivered at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center."

 JINSA Reports;  President Obama's Visit to Israel: U.S. Policy Priorities

 "Given the high levels of instability and uncertainty in the region at this time, we urge President Obama to make it clear to both our allies and adversaries that:"....I'm sure sometime this week we will hear Obama say the words, "let me be clear".

Blackfive update: Harry Reid hits rock bottom with those Marines who died in Hawthorne, NV

Ironic for me in a way, because in 1957 Marine Barracks, Hawthorne, NV was my first duty station after Boot Camp and Camp Pendleton; the Second Marine Division at Camp Lejeune was my final duty station from 59-61. TD

Nevada training explosion kills 7 NC unit Marines
"Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller tweeted: "Thoughts and prayers are with the families who lost a loved one in the Hawthorne Army Depot explosion. Grateful for their service."".

Harry Reid Hits Rock Bottom, Keeps Digging  "Harry Reid immediately took to the floor of the Senate to play politics with their lives by implying the sequester had something to do with it, even though he’s completely unaware of the cause of the accident:"  

Update from Blackfive; Harry Reid is a despicable human being

"For the the Majority Leader in the Senate  to use the tragic death of these 7 Marines to make a political point  shows you how ill served we are by the cretins who govern us. Too bad there's not hot tar and feathers immediately available. I doubt I'd have any trouble recruiting a bunch of Marines to help ride Reid out of town on a rail with the appropriate plumage attached."

Thanks much, Nevada voters.  "The Marine Corps is not happy, according to NBC News reporter Jim Miklaszewski (once again by way of RealClearPolitics):

Now I can tell you, Marine Corps officials this afternoon are taking a strong exception to what Harry Reid implied. Saying that this this exercise, for example, was planned well in advance, had nothing to do with the budget cuts. There were no corners cut, and if they couldn’t afford to have all the safety precautions into place, they wouldn’t do the exercise.
And in fact, one Marine Corps official told us a short time ago that he considers this nothing but pure political posturing on the backs of these dead Marines.

"Are Nevada voters content to allow their honor to be soiled through continued representation by Harry Reid?  They were apparently cool with him inventing imaginary friends to slander Mitt Romney as a tax cheat, but has he finally crossed a line?"

This isn't the first time Harry Reid got into the mud over our military "[Liberals] lie about the premise, then they speak on behalf of the military which they claim to be upset about, which is what they've been lying about in the first place! They are the ones who have been condemning the military. They are the ones who have been demoralizing the military. They are the ones who have -- I can't say this more powerfully enough -- trying to secure defeat for the US military."  Rush Limbaugh
Harry Reid eats crow    More on Reid 

How to Decipher a Social Security Number

eHOW  "Each Social Security number has three parts, though the first is the most informative. The first three digits can tell you what geographical area the person had a connection to and when he received his number. The last two parts can help you judge whether a Social Security number is a real, valid number. While a person is still living, the Social Security Administration keeps other information confidential, but after a person dies, you can also find out a little more."   Read more...
So that's why many just ask you for the last four digits.

Who Will Bell America? Obama, like Carter, may provoke one of our enemies to test our teeth and claws.

Victor Davis Hanson  "As a candidate, Obama ridiculed the Bush commitment to missile defense — only, as president, to extend such a capability to allies like Turkey and Japan that felt threatened by neighbors. In the latest crisis with North Korea, Obama has beefed up anti-missile defenses on our own West Coast. That erratic message was also not lost on world observers. The Hagel appointment and the sequester confirmed the impression that while Obama relies on the U.S. military, it is a military that he himself would never have created or funded and that he sees as a cultural laboratory where social change — such as overt gay service and women in combat — can be fast-tracked without the messiness of dealing with Congress, rather than as a force to ensure deterrence."

Innocents have died in the millions because of leftist, liberal fecklessness down through all of history. TD