Charles Krauthammer: Obama: Charlie who?

A man sits atop the monument on Place de la Nation with a 'I am Charlie' sign as millions of people march against [radical Islam] in Paris, France, 11 January 2015.

Charles Krauthammer   "On Sunday, at the great Paris rally, the whole world was Charlie. By Tuesday, the veneer of solidarity was exposed as tissue thin. It began dissolving as soon as the real, remaining Charlie Hebdo put out its post-massacre issue featuring a Muhammad cover that, as the New York Times put it, “reignited the debate pitting free speech against religious sensitivities.”

"Again? Already? Had not 4 million marchers and 44 foreign leaders just turned out on the streets of France to declare “No” to intimidation, and pledging solidarity, indeed identification (“Je suis Charlie”) with a satirical weekly specializing in the most outrageous and often tasteless portrayals of Muhammad? And yet, within 48 hours, the new Charlie Hebdo issue featuring the image of Muhammad — albeit a sorrowful, indeed sympathetic Muhammad — sparked new protests, denunciations and threats of violence, which in turn evinced another round of doubt and self-flagellation in the West about the propriety and limits of free expression. Hopeless." 

 "As for President Obama, he never was Charlie, not even for those 48 hours. From the day of the massacre, he has been practically invisible." . . .

 This is serious. In both size and reach it is growing. Our president will not say it. Fine. But does he even see it?

  Keep reading...

 

A Scorecard for Obama’s 2015 State of the Union Address

Council on Foreign Relations via WSJ   . . . "Republicans will push back, of course, that the real theme of Mr. Obama’s 2014 speech was to downplay military responses to security challenges. They, too, would be right. Last year the president insisted that the U.S. had to “move off a permanent war footing.” He pledged to limit drone use, reform surveillance programs, and close Guantanamo (again).  What’s his message this year?  Something different: He wants new authorization from Congress for the use of military force abroad.

"Other lines from last year’s State of the Union can be used against the president.

"* It’s a little embarrassing to revisit his 2014 commitment to diplomatic efforts that would, he said, allow the Syrian people a future “free of dictatorship, terror, and fear.”

 "* Mr. Obama may also want to forget his promise that if Iran doesn’t come to a nuclear agreement, “I will be the first to call for more sanctions.” (How will White House spin doctors explain this one?)

. . .

 "There’s one sentence in the 2014 State of the Union adress that neither the president nor his partisan opponents will quite know how to use. Toward the end of the speech, Mr. Obama extolled the unique global responsibilities of the United States–a role made possible by our economic and military strength, our long history of bearing international burdens, and our appealing ideals. “On every issue,” he said, “the world turns to us.” Critics will argue that the president didn’t mean these words. The president should read them and recognize that he has yet to prove that he does." (Emphasis added, TD)

Obama's Islam Psychosis    Posted elsewhere in the TW

Al Sharpton Calls For Emergency Meeting To Address 'Appalling' All-White Oscar Nominees

Business Insider  "The Rev. Al Sharpton was left fuming mad after the Oscars revealed its all-white list of nominees for this year's Oscar awards on Thursday.

" 'The movie industry is like the Rocky Mountains, the higher you get, the whiter it gets," Sharpton quipped in a statement released later in the afternoon.

"Sharpton, a critic of the lack of diversity in Hollywood, also announced he was holding an "emergency meeting" next week to address the issue." Read more:

Cat instincts kick in; saves human baby from freezing to death

 

Wayne Dupree

"A long-haired tabby cat named Masha saved the life of an abandoned baby in the streets of Russia after she climbed into the box he was discarded in and kept him warm, health officials said.

“The baby had only been outside for a few hours and thanks to Masha, he was not damaged by the experience,” a hospital spokesman told Central European News.
"The whiskered hero even meowed to get the attention of a passerby.

“ 'She is very placid and friendly, so when I heard her meowing, I thought that perhaps she had injured herself,” said Obninsk city resident Irina Lavrova. “Normally she would have come and said hello to me. You can imagine my shock when I saw her lying in a box next to a baby.”
"Masha is a communal cat who is looked after by local residents. When she found the baby – who appeared to be in great shape – she immediately took to him as if he were her own, according to CEN.

“ 'Clearly her mothering instincts had taken over and she wanted to protect the child,” Lavrova explained. “He was well-dressed with a little hat, and whoever left him here had even left a few nappies and some baby food.”
"The baby was immediately rushed to a local hospital, where he was given a checkup and declared fit and healthy, officials said. Since the child was found, Masha has been hailed as a hero by local residents – and she’s been reaping the benefits."

Read more

Obama's Islam Psychosis

Islamic food served to prisoners at Gitmo. 

Jan LaRue  (Pictures added)"If President Obama believes that terrorists who identify as Islamic aren’t true Muslims, why does he treat them as if they are?

"Media are fixated on the Obama administration’s latest ridiculous refusal to admit any link between Islam and terrorism, despite video of the Paris mass murderers shouting, “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad!”  

"The point here is not about Islam per se. It’s about the irreconcilability of Obama’s words with his actions." . . .

. . .
"If Obama didn’t consider Osama a faithful Muslim, why did he order the U.S. Navy to bury him at sea within 24 hours, according to Islamic law?

"Why didn’t Obama order the Navy to unceremoniously slip bin Laden’s body into the water from the ship’s deck as some sort of generic extremist? 

. . .

 

"Next question: Why hasn’t Obama ordered the Marine commandant at Guantanamo Bay to stop providing an Islamic diet, prayer beads, prayer rugs, and Korans to prisoners affiliated with al Qaeda, ISIL and other terrorist groups if they’re not Islamic? This includes Khalid Shaikh Mohammed who admittedly decapitated American journalist Daniel Pearl and masterminded the 9/11 attacks on the United States. 

. . .

The official called Gitmo detainees ‘some of the most pampered prisoners on the planet.’ He said they get as many as four choices of halal meals and have access to a new $750,000 soccer field. Islamic prayer beads and rugs are now “standard issue.” They get their choice of more than 10,000 Islamic books and videos stocked by a Muslim librarian, who also records soccer and Arabic TV for them. They even have their own clerics to preach to them in Arabic.

Everyone gets a Koran, paperback or hardback, along with little hammocks to keep their holy book from touching the ground when not in use. Guards are prohibited from handling the books. The Muslim librarian is ‘the only one that’s allowed to touch the Korans anymore, per detainee request,’ the official said. ‘If I went into the Koran room and started rifling through a Koran, I could be fired.’ But no one gets a Bible, because the Bible could ‘incite’ the terrorists.

. . .

Pathetic: Obama Pleads With Iran Not To View Him As A Threat…  
"Trust me, Barack, they don’t."

 

Fibonacci Sculptures That Animate Under A Strobe Light

Digg  "John Edmark designed the sculptures using the Fibonacci sequence — the same found in most spiral shapes in nature — and then synchronized their rotation speed with a camera's shutter. The results are astounding."

Via  Vimeo:  Fibonacci Zoetrope Sculptures

"These are 3-D printed sculptures designed to animate when spun under a strobe light. The placement of the appendages is determined by the same method nature uses in pinecones and sunflowers. The rotation speed is synchronized to the strobe so that one flash occurs every time the sculpture turns 137.5º—the golden angle. If you count the number of spirals on any of these sculptures you will find that they are always Fibonacci numbers.

"For this video, rather than using a strobe, the camera was set to a very short shutter speed (1/4000 sec) in order to freeze the spinning sculpture."

New Israeli Missile Streaks Through Enemy Defenses

United with Israel 

 

"Israels defense industry has developed an advanced missile that is immune to GPS jamming, revolutionizing the way air power is employed.

"Israel’s Rafael military industries, which specializes in defense systems, has developed a SPICE (Smart, Precise Impact, Cost-Effective) air-to-surface bomb that is immune to GPS jamming.

The SPICE 250 precision-guided glide bomb has a 100-km range and carries a 100-kg (250-pound) warhead. The weapon is useful in destroying lightly fortified bunkers, SSM and SAM batteries, vehicles and radar stations.

“ 'The SPICE-250 is a new product in Rafael’s series of air-to-surface glide bombs that revolutionizes the field,” Yuval Miller, Rafael’s EVP and head of the Air & C4ISR Systems Division, told Israel Defense News. “The new munition brings two primary advantages to the series: the ability to handle mobile targets and the Smart-Quad-Rack feature, which enables an aircraft to carry multiple munitions. An F-16 fighter can carry 16 munitions and an F-15 fighter can carry 28 munitions. This is an actual revolution in this field.' ” . . .

Leftism's rule over America's foreign policy; do we laugh or cry?

The White House admitted Monday President Obama should've attended the anti-terrorism rally in Paris. The press secretary said the president wasn't told of the rally. From now on whenever world events are breaking to which President Obama must respond, the ESPN anchor will tug on his right ear.  (Argus Hamilton)

Taiwanese Animators ask “Where Was Obama?” (#CharlieHebdo)

Charlie Hebdo France marches: 3.7 million plus march for freedom, minus the US

Branco Cartoon – Hang It Up, France

 

Duke Reverses: No Muslim Prayer Broadcast from Chapel Tower

Legal Insurrection

 "For now, Duke’s chapel bell tower won’t be working double duty as Muslim minaret."

 

"According to WRAL:

Two days after announcing that Islamic students would be broadcasting a weekly call to prayer from the Duke Chapel bell tower, Duke University officials abandoned that plan Thursday, citing the furor the move had created.

Members of the Duke Muslim Students Association were supposed to start the three-minute weekly call or chant, known as adhan or azan, on Friday afternoon. Now, the call to prayer will take place in a quad outside the chapel.

“Duke remains committed to fostering an inclusive, tolerant and welcoming campus for all of its students,” Michael Schoenfeld, Duke’s vice president for public affairs and government relations, said in a statement. “However, it was clear that what was conceived as an effort to unify was not having the intended effect.”

Khalilah Sabra, executive director of the Muslim American Society in Raleigh, called Duke’s reversal “a terrible shame,” saying it’s unfair for Graham and others to blame all Muslims for the violent acts of a few."

The sound of the call to prayer:

The Fox News Obsession; It’s an exercise in confirmation bias on the Left.

Kevin D. Williamson

"The “Fox News Is Stupid and Evil” article is by now its own genre of journalism, albeit one that almost nobody does very well." . . .

"Other entries in the genre are not holding up well over time, either. The gentlemen-scholars of Alternet gave it their very best with a piece published under the subtle headline “Study confirms that Fox News makes you stupid.” The column contains a bullet list detailing nine outrageous things that Fox News viewers believe in error, which I have reproduced here with my comments in brackets." . . .

"(Given the demographics of cable-news audiences, it’s a safe bet that MSNBC viewers believe in astrology at much higher rates than Fox News viewers.) That the nation is scandalized by conservatives pushing “intelligent design” but not by a federal law mandating subsidies for equally nonsensical quackery has nothing to do with our alleged regard for science and everything to do with the class biases of media people." . . .

Obama’s Last Foreign Policy Chance

 The failure of Obama or Biden to show up in Paris made clear that most of the president’s team can’t be trusted to conduct U.S national security policy and must be replaced—at once.

Gelb Makes Obama A Gelding    "I remember as a mere callow college student when I made out that Jimmy Carter was finished: when liberals turned on him. For example, Ken Bode, then the revered moderator of “Washington Week in Review” on PBS, wrote in 1979 “It’s Over For Jimmy” in The New Republic: “The past two weeks will be remembered as the period when President Carter packed it in, put the finishing touches on a failed presidency” (There’s lots more in this vein recounted in the first volume of my Age of Reagan books.)

"So it shouldn’t surprise us that people are saying Obama’s no-show in Paris last weekend was his “diplomatic Katrina.” More serious is the Daily Beast article out yesterday from Leslie Gelb, who doesn’t come any more Establishmenty(sp) than a Harvard-trained Rockefeller. Gelb, notable for chiefly being boring, is the kind of Establishment figure who usually tut-tuts Republican presidents for being too bellicose. But he thinks Obama is circling the drain on foreign policy:" . . .

The article referred to:
This Is Obama’s Last Foreign Policy Chance by Leslie Gelb
"Here’s why America’s failure to be represented at the Paris unity march was so profoundly disturbing. It wasn’t just because President Obama’s or Vice President Biden’s absence was a horrendous gaffe. More than this, it demonstrated beyond argument that the Obama team lacks the basic instincts and judgment necessary to conduct U.S. national security policy in the next two years. It’s simply too dangerous to let Mr. Obama continue as is—with his current team and his way of making decisions. America, its allies, and friends could be heading into one of the most dangerous periods since the height of the Cold War.

"Mr. Obama will have to excuse most of his inner core, especially in the White House. He will have to replace them with strong and strategic people of proven foreign policy experience." . . .

The Sharpton-Obama Alliance

How the Obama-Sharpton Alliance Began    

 

"Near the end of 2007, Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett met with Al Sharpton in New York City and began to cement a relationship that would eventually make the inflammatory activist the president’s “go-to man” on race, according to multiple sources.

"The backdrop to the incipient Obama-Sharpton alliance was the then-senator’s 2008 presidential campaign, which still hadn’t locked away the black vote, and the political cross-currents created by two other controversial reverends, Jesse Jackson and Jeremiah Wright.

"That tentative relationship has now grown into a full-blown partnership that has vastly increased the once-shunned Sharpton’s influence and prestige and elevated him into a key White House ally at a time of heightened tension over policing and race." ...
  Jillian Kay Melchior writes for National Review as a Thomas L. Rhodes Fellow for the Franklin Center.

Obama Had Sharpton Report Directly To Valerie Jarrett On Situation In Ferguson, Acted As Their Go-Between With Brown Family…  "Rather ironic the “post-racial” president’s inner circle includes vile race pimp Al Sharpton."
... " White House officials enlisted an unusual source for on-the-ground intelligence amid the chaos and tear gas: the Rev. Al Sharpton, a fiery activist who became a household name by provoking rather than pacifying."...

Related:  Black Democrats to gather in Ferguson