Dumb Versus Dumber in Common Core Debate

Ramesh Ponnuru "Last week, Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, picked just the right words to make an increasingly hot controversy even hotter.
"Like many education officials in both parties, Duncan is a defender of the Common Core initiative to create uniform academic standards for K-12 education in all states. Resistance to it, he asserted, comes mainly from “white suburban moms” who don’t take kindly to hearing that their children aren’t meeting newly raised standards.
"Last week, Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, picked just the right words to make an increasingly hot controversy even hotter.
Like many education officials in both parties, Duncan is a defender of the Common Core initiative to create uniform academic standards for K-12 education in all states. Resistance to it, he asserted, comes mainly from “white suburban moms” who don’t take kindly to hearing that their children aren’t meeting newly raised standards."

This administration knows it's enemies and it's friends

Alan Caruba; The UN Global Warming Hoax is Slowly Dying

Warning Signs

 

... "The media has been a co-conspirator to the global warming hoax and I take this latest example as one that reveals its utter desperation to maintain the greatest hoax of the modern era. The facts mean nothing to them. Real science means nothing to them. But reality is intruding on theirs and the United Nations environmental program just wrapped up Conference of Parties-19 in Warsaw, where more nations are now in open revolt."

....

"Some journalists are trying to tell the truth, but magazines like BusinessWeek and newspapers like The New York Times continue to keep the hoax alive. An informed population, not just in the United States, but increasingly worldwide, will ensure that it dies a long overdue death."

Ohio State marching band performs patriotic halftime show

Columbus Dispatch  "The halftime show went off with a bang yesterday inside Ohio Stadium.
"From a cannon firing to a man on a horse wielding a sword, the Ohio State University Marching Band's formations continued to entertain.
"The show's theme, "A New Birth of Freedom," was a nod to the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Gettysburg.

"Musical selections included Lincoln Portrait and Battle Hymn of the Republic, which featured the Ohio State Men's Glee Club.
"The marching band will take this show on the road to Michigan next week, but you can watch the entire routine in video here."

Oppression in Higher Education: Hilarious and Sad

Thomas Lifson  "In the politically correct hothouse of an elite university campus, all sorts of bizarre theories and beliefs flourish. Did you know that grammar is racist? That's the gist of a kerfuffle currently playing out at UCLA, the taxpayer-funded institution that is one of America's most prominent research universities, and a global brand name (UCLA-licensed tee shirts and other merchandise are wildly popular overseas -- scores of of dedicated UCLA merchandise stores and departments exist in Japanese, South Korean and Chinese malls and department stores and bring in substantial royalties to the university)."
"You see, by highlighting spelling and punctuation errors, the professor is contributing to an "unsafe climate for students of colour." Reminding students of the basic rules of English apparently helps to create "a hostile and toxic environment" in Professor Rust's classroom. Such are the mental and emotional traumas of the modern grad school intellectual.' "
....
"These UCLA grad students, so convinced that they are victims and that everything is stacked against them really ought to travel to China and talk to some people their own age, looking at how they live, how hard they study, and what they are willing to do in order to make it to the privileged life lived by  the grievance mongers on the idyllic campus in West Los Angeles."

Nigel Farage attacks culture of political correctness amid growing sacked dinner lady row

"UKIP leader Nigel Farage today attacked a culture of political correctness he believes is “terrifying” people from causing offence.

British School Threatens to Label 8 Year-olds as Racists if They Miss Required Islam Workshop   "Parents were ordered to send their children to a workshop on Islam or have them labelled as racist for the rest of their school career.
"They were sent a letter warning that the primary school pupils would have a ‘racial discrimination note’ put on their records if they did not go.
"Families were told to pay £5 per child for the Explore Islam trip next Wednesday to Staffordshire University, which would involve Year 4 and Year 6 children being shown Islamic artefacts.
" ‘All absences on this day will be investigated for their credibility and will only be sanctioned with a GP sick note.’"

 

O, Canada! School Tells Mom Her Homemade Lunches are Illegal   "A mom who thought she was properly parenting by sending her two young kids to school with a homemade, whole-food lunch was shocked to find a penalty note from school officials informing her that the lunch of roast beef, potatoes, carrots, oranges and milk she provided was “unbalanced” and therefore had to be supplemented with Ritz crackers.

"She was also fined $10."   Life under liberals.

Losing faith in Barack Obama's cult of personality

White House photographer

Washington Examiner "Conservatives and libertarians were quick to ridicule President Obama's photobombing of the Kennedy assassination anniversary Friday -- they've gotten used to noticing how his cult of personality overshadows everything else, even the brilliance which still reflects from Camelot 50 years later.
"But the president's attempt to ride on John F. Kennedy's popularity may have been a last gasp. There are signs that even the most die-hard of Obama cultists have gotten tired of the endless, fawning hagiography."....

"The dismantling of the Obama cult has even reached across the Atlantic, with this week's cover of The Economist showing him mired in the water instead of walking on it.

 

Obama, Cyrus among GQ’s least influential list  "Obama came in at No. 17 because “nothing gets done.' ”

John Bolton: Abject Surrender by the United States; What does Israel do now?

First: Iranian news agency publishes alleged text of nuclear deal
The details of the agreement signed in Geneva with world powers, according to semi-official regime outlet Fars.
By Times of Israel staff

Next: Full text of Obama statement on nuclear deal with Iran
"President says interim agreement cuts off ‘Iran’s most likely paths to a bomb’ ".

Weekly Standard  "This interim agreement is badly skewed from America’s perspective.  Iran retains its full capacity to enrich uranium, thus abandoning a decade of Western insistence and Security Council resolutions that Iran stop all uranium-enrichment activities. Allowing Iran to continue enriching, and despite modest (indeed, utterly inadequate) measures to prevent it from increasing its enriched-uranium stockpiles and its overall nuclear infrastructure, lays the predicate for Iran fully enjoying its “right” to enrichment in any “final” agreement.  Indeed, the interim agreement itself acknowledges that a “comprehensive solution” will “involve a mutually defined enrichment program.”  This is not, as the Obama administration leaked before the deal became public, a “compromise” on Iran’s claimed “right” to enrichment. This is abject surrender by the United States.

"In exchange for superficial concessions, Iran achieved three critical breakthroughs. First, it bought time to continue all aspects of its nuclear-weapons program the agreement does not cover (centrifuge manufacturing and testing; weaponization research and fabrication; and its entire ballistic missile program). Indeed, given that the interim agreement contemplates periodic renewals, Iran may have gained all of the time it needs to achieve weaponization not of simply a handful of nuclear weapons, but of dozens or more.

 

"Second, Iran has gained legitimacy. This central banker of international terrorism and flagrant nuclear proliferator is once again part of the international club.  Much as the Syria chemical-weapons agreement buttressed Bashar al-Assad, the mullahs have escaped the political deep freezer." 

OBAMA'S IRANIAN NUKE DEAL IS EVERY BIT AS GOOD AS KERRY'S PLASTIC SURGERY

Iran and world powers reach nuclear deal in Geneva

The Times of Israel  "Obama hails ‘important first step’ but says Israel has ‘good reason to be skeptical’; Rouhani applauds agreement, which comes after weekend of marathon talks and puts substantial curbs

on uranium enrichment program; Kerry: Deal makes Israel safer."
....
 "According to a fact sheet released by the White House, under the deal Iran will halt all uranium enrichment above 5% and “dismantle the technical connections required to enrich above 5%.” During the period covered by the deal, Tehran will also “neutralize” its existing stockpile of 20% enriched uranium, either diluting it to less than 5% or converting it “to a form not suitable for further enrichment.' ”

 White House held secret talks with Iran for past year   "High-level, face-to-face meetings were kept from Israel and allies."

Khamenei and Obama are Geneva’s winners, Netanyahu the big loser   "The interim agreement announced in Geneva early Sunday morning between Iran and the world powers does not resolve the issue of Iran’s rogue nuclear power program. It is only the starting point on the way to a decisive junction that the sides will reach in another six months. Only then will it become clear how good or bad the interim agreement is for the State of Israel, the United States, Iran and its Arab neighbors. Only then will it be possible to gauge its success (or lack thereof) in reducing Tehran’s ability to attain a nuclear bomb."

It’s a way for the Obama administration to avoid confronting Iran, and to buy time to acclimate the world to accepting a nuclear Iran.

William Kristol  "Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg will be studied as long as people care about the American experiment in self-government, or about political greatness. But Lincoln knew as well as anyone that speech has to be supported by deeds. It was the soldiers’ hard-won victory in the battle of Gettysburg that was the precondition for Lincoln’s remarks, and for America’s “new birth of freedom.” So Lincoln was telling the plain but deep truth when he emphasized, and gave priority to, “what they did here.” In politics, deeds matter. Speech, even the most eloquent and thoughtful speech, is not enough.

"Benjamin Netanyahu understands this. Jewish history, and not just Jewish history, teaches this lesson. Netanyahu may well judge that he has to act to stop the Iranian regime from getting nuclear weapons. If he does, then Israel will fight. And Israel will be right."      

Most scholars of prophecy see Israel standing alone,. without allies against the nations who would destroy her

From the apparent absence of America in prophecy, the U.S. will be "neutralized" sometime before this Middle-East conflict begins. The United States will be unwilling or unable to defend Israel against her enemies.  For the Bible warns Israel must stand alone . . . with God!

‘Sucker’s deal’

Charles Krauthammer   ...."The only reason Iran has come to the table after a decade of contemptuous stonewalling is that economic sanctions have cut so deeply — its currency has collapsed, inflation is rampant — that the regime fears a threat to its very survival
.
"Nothing else could move it to negotiate. Regime survival is the only thing the mullahs value above nuclear weapons. And yet precisely at the point of maximum leverage, President Obama is offering relief in a deal that is absurdly asymmetric: The West would weaken sanctions in exchange for cosmetic changes that do absolutely nothing to weaken Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.'....
....
"The mullahs are eager for this interim agreement with its immediate yield of political and economic relief. Once they get it, we will have removed their one incentive to conclude the only agreement that is worth anything to us — a verifiable giving up of their nuclear program.

"Brilliant."

This Iranian political cartoon nicely captures the country’s view of nuclear talks

'In case you don't know your foreign diplomats by sight, the left panel shows U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gesturing to E.U. foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The joke is pretty clear: that the United States, under the guise of good-faith negotiations, is actually pushing Iran (and maybe the European Union) toward disaster. It's a reminder that, just as many in the United States are skeptical of Iran's intentions, so, too, are many Iranians skeptical of the Americans."

UPDATE: French Foreign Minister: Iran Nuclear Deal Reached  'The French foreign minister says Iran and six world powers have reached a first-stage agreement on curbing Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. Laurent Fabius gave no details as he left a meeting of foreign ministers early Sunday in a fifth day of talks. A formal announcement was expected soon."

Senior General: US in Greatest Danger Since 1930s

israelnationalnews   "Senior military analyst Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney spoke to Arutz Sheva on Tuesday, warning that rising Russian and Iranian influence, coupled with America's waning Middle East presence, has put the US in the most dangerous situation it has been in since the 1930s just prior to World War II."....

"In particular McInerney highlighted the danger of US President Barack Obama's handling of longtime US ally Egypt, which has recently turned to Russia. Just on Wednesday reports revealed that Egypt signed a $4 billion arms deal with Russia designed to let Egypt attain parity with the IDF."....
Hat tip to Allyson's Geo-political Inspections

17 Scenes From Dallas’ Historic JFK Assassination Memorial Ceremony

Buzzfeed  "It’s been 50 years since Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F. Kennedy from the Texas School Book Depository in downtown Dallas.

" Hundreds of people visited Dealey Plaza to pay tribute — or extol conspiracy — on Friday."