For Valour; God bless our British friends along with the Israelis

Mark Steyn   "The Victoria Cross is the Commonwealth's highest decoration for valour on the battlefield. Yesterday it was awarded to the first living Briton for action in the Afghan war (if memory serves, three living Aussies have been so honoured). Lance-Corporal Joshua Leakey was with the 1st Battalion the Parachute Regiment on a joint UK/US operation in Helmand when it all went pear-shaped, and he found himself having to rescue a fallen American Marine captain while fending off 20 Taliban single-handed:"
. . .
"I would like to think he was "a normal bloke". But I worry these days that your "normal bloke" is fretting about micro-agressions in the safe space at Wesleyan University. The gulf between those who fight and those they fight for has never seemed wider."

Not So Random: Here’s What Paris Terrorist Asked His Victims Before He Shot Them Dead

The Gateway Pundit   "Barack Obama said the shooting victims were just a “random bunch of folks” shot “in a deli.”

"But now we know that Coulibaly asked his Jewish victims their name and origin before he shot them dead in the Kosher deli.

"The BBC reported:

Details have emerged of footage filmed by Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly during a bloody rampage inside a Jewish supermarket, a French website says.

He delivers an anti-Semitic rant and shouts “Stand up or I’ll kill you” at hostages, according to a transcript obtained by Le Nouvel Observateur.

During the seven-minute video he shoots dead three of his four victims.

Investigators are examining seven minutes 45 seconds of footage apparently filmed by Coulibaly on a GoPro camera worn during the siege, according to reports.

It shows him shouting “Nobody move”, before grabbing hold of a customer, asking his name, and then shooting him dead.

He asks another man what origin he is. And when the hostage replies “Jewish”, he kills him too.

“So you know why I am here then. Allahu Akbar,” he shouts, according to Le Nouvel Observateur’s report. He is also heard making anti-Semitic remarks when one woman tries to tell him that his hostages have done nothing wrong.

Comrades for Net Neutrality

John Fund:  The powers behind the FCC’s muscling of the Internet   "Today’s vote by a bitterly divided Federal Communications Commission that the Internet should be regulated as a public utility is the culmination of a decade-long battle by the Left. Using money from George Soros and liberal foundations that totaled at least $196 million, radical activists finally succeeded in ramming through “net neutrality,” or the idea that all data should be transmitted equally over the Internet. The final push involved unprecedented political pressure exerted by the Obama White House on FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, head of an ostensibly independent regulatory body. “Net neutrality’s goal is to empower the federal government to ration and apportion Internet bandwidth as it sees fit, and to thereby control the Internet’s content,” says Phil Kerpen, an anti-net-neutrality activist from the group American Commitment." . . .

Michelle Malkin: Net neturality is the Obamacare of the Web.
. . . "By a vote of 3–2, the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday adopted a controversial scheme to ensure “net neutrality” by turning unaccountable Democratic appointees into meddling online traffic cops. The panel will devise convoluted rules governing Internet-service providers, bandwidth use, content, prices, and even disclosure details on Internet speeds. The “neutrality” is brazenly undermined by preferential treatment toward wireless broadband networks. Moreover, the FCC’s scheme is widely opposed by Congress — and has already been rejected once in the courts. Demonized industry critics have warned that the regulations will stifle innovation and result in less access, not more." . . . 
"In fact, it was a pretext for creating a gargantuan federal bureaucracy with the power to tax, redistribute, and regulate the private health-insurance market to death — and replace it with a centrally planned government system overseen by politically driven code enforcers dictating everything from annual coverage limits to administrative expenditures to the makeup of the medical workforce."

http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/if-you-like-your-internet/

Andrew Klavan: Good News, Beheaded Christians

Truth Revolt   "Good news! Our optimistic host, Andrew Klavan, takes a look at President Obama's belief that no religion is responsible for terrorism. Sure, everywhere you look nowadays savages screaming Allahu Akbar are raping, murdering, decapitating and burning innocents, but hey, Christians did something bad way back a long time ago too!

TRANSCRIPT:

I’m Andrew Klavan and this is the Revolting Truth."

Obama Trolls for Help on Illegal Immigration: Enter Jeb Bush!

John W. Lillpop

"To the half a dozen or so goofy Republicans who actually savor the notion of a third Bush presidency in less than 30 years, Barack Hussein Obama delivered what one prays will be a kiss of death to the candidacy of  Jeb Bush.

. . .

. . .

“President Barack Obama on Wednesday in Miami urged former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to intercede with Republican House Speaker John Boehner to move forward with immigration reform.

"During his visit to Florida, the president said he appreciates the “concern” about immigration of Jeb Bush, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016, but he immediately went on to urge him to “talk” with Boehner and other Republican lawmakers about approving a law that alleviates the immigration situation of millions of undocumented foreigners living in this country.' ” . . . (Emphasis in the original)

Questions the Press Doesn't Ask Democrats

Mona Charen

"Gov. Scott Walker has leapt to the top of polls in Iowa. As day follows night, he has moved to the center of the liberal press's crosshairs. This is the world we inhabit: When a Democrat is perceived as popular, the press discovers layers of humor and elan we never suspected. When a Republican is gaining strength, the press sharpens its bayonets.

"Based on his response to trap-door questions in the past few days, we've been instructed that Walker a) is a crypto young Earther (or, just as bad, a panderer to same); b) that he ought to have answered the question regarding President Obama's faith with a resounding affirmation of Obama's fitness for sainthood; and c) that he is some sort of coward for not grabbing Rudy Giuliani by the scruff of the neck and escorting him off stage when the former mayor questioned the president's love of country." . . .

"Still, most members of the press are partisans, and one cannot avoid them completely. Republicans should accordingly come prepared to any press encounter with a list of questions they would ask Democrats. If the journalist doesn't ask, the candidate can offer suggestions. For example:" . . .Read more...

Know well those who wish to kill you

Please Read the Koran  
"Greater clarity in the ongoing debate about Islam (radical or otherwise) would surely result from greater familiarity with the source document. 

"There’s a lot of commentary and speculation about the Koran and about those who are informed by its teachings -- about their actions and their motives and their authenticity as Muslims.

"Anyone who has an opinion on the matter would be well served by reading the book. I did, and it was a revelation.
. . .
"A special reward is earned (indeed, the only guarantee of heaven for a Muslim), if he dies in the process of killing an unbeliever, a blasphemer, or an apostate.

"I think that says it all. But don’t take my word for it. Read the book." 


American blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh  "A Bangladeshi-American blogger who wrote often opposing religious extremism was hacked to death on the streets of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, as he returned home from a book fair with his wife. Avijit Roy, whose blog Free Mind spoke out against extremism in all religions, was killed by Muslim extremists who carefully planned and executed the attack professionally."
More here

The fatal flaw in the Iran deal

Charles Krauthammer

"A sunset clause?

"The news from the nuclear talks with Iran was already troubling. Iran was being granted the “right to enrich.” It would be allowed to retain and spin thousands of centrifuges. It could continue construction of the Arak plutonium reactor. Yet so thoroughly was Iran stonewalling International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors that just last Thursday the IAEA reportedits concern “about the possible existence in Iran of undisclosed . . .development of a nuclear payload for a missile.”

" Bad enough. Then it got worse: News leaked Mondayof the elements of a “sunset clause.”. . .

We in the west turned "Jihadi John" from a sweet, loving human into what he became.

Unbelievable: ‘Human Rights Group’ Says MI5 Is Reason For Jihadi John Beheadings Because They ‘Alienated’ ‘Beautiful, Gentle Young Man’

"The group who helped name Mohammed Emwazi as ISIS executioner Jihadi John caused outrage today after blaming MI5 for pushing him towards his killing spree in Syria.

"Asim Qureshi, research director at the rights group CAGE, described the world’s most wanted man as ‘extremely kind, extremely gentle and the most humble young person that I ever knew’.

"At a press conference today Mr Qureshi was close to tears as he said Emwazi, who is linked to a string of executions of ISIS prisoners, ‘was such a beautiful man’." .

Much more here.

The anger is just a front; one can see the tenderness in his eyes. . . 

If only the world would have offered ‘Jihadi John’ some economic opportunity…

But his real name, according to friends and others familiar with his case, is Mohammed Emwazi, a Briton from a well-to-do family who grew up in West London and graduated from college with a degree in computer programming. He is believed to have traveled to Syria around 2012 and to have later joined the Islamic State, the group whose barbarity he has come to symbolize.

"According to the Obama/State Department model, the poor kid never had a chance!"

Obama Dares GOP: “Have a Vote on Whether What I’m Doing Is Legal…I Will Veto”

Weasel Zippers

"Pres. Obama is daring Republicans to vote on whether or not his executive actions are legal.

"Discussing opposition to his executive amnesty orders at an immigration town hall Wednesday, Obama said he would veto the vote because his actions are “the right thing to do”:

“ 'So in the short term, if Mr. McConnell, the leader of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, want to have a vote on whether what I’m doing is legal or not, they can have that vote. I will veto that vote, because I’m absolutely confident that what we’re doing is the right thing to do.' ”  Keep reading…

Obama Putsch: Without authorization by Congress, FCC approves Net Neutrality rules For ‘Open Internet’

Pamela Geller

. . . "Verizon mocks FCC with typewriter font and warns of internet “throwback Thursday” - 

FCC votes 3-2 in favor of net neutrality

"Is there anyone who is surprised that the FCC has voted in favor of net neutrality, and that the vote followed party lines? I doubt it. The general trend has been for greater and greater control by agencies in matters that may seem innocuous, technical, and/or unimportant at the time but can have wide-reaching effects, especially when they are followed by ever-expanding restrictions.

"The net neutrality rules don’t sound so bad. And maybe they’ll stay that way. But I wouldn’t bet a dime on it.

"Here’s the “neutrality” part:" . . . 

Another perspective on the origins of the mutual Obama-Netanyahu disdain

WaPo, via Volokh Conspiracy

. . . "Very succinctly, the Obama Administration came in to office thinking it could either force Netanyahu to make concessions, or force his government to fall.  Both the Shamir and the first Netanyahu governments made concessions and ultimately got tossed out by the voters after tensions rose with the U.S., so this was not a completely unreasonable  assumption.

"However, Obama and his advisors missed several contrary factors.  The Israeli public never liked Obama, never trusted him due to his well-known associations with various anti-Israel leftists such as Rashid Khalidi. Israelis’ impressions were solidified by major blunders made by the Obama Administration, which did not get much attention in the U.S., but did in Israel." . . .

Who’s Really ‘Frayed’ the U.S.-Israel Relationship? Susan Rice and Her Bosses  . . . "Let’s set the record straight on this laughable spin-job. Since 1967, no U.S. administration has been as guilty of “injecting partisanship” into the U.S.-Israel relationship as those of the presidents Rice has served, namely Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. And few officials in the history of the United States have been as guilty as of injecting partisanship, to say nothing of poisonous insults, into that relationship, as Susan Rice.