Friday, November 26, 2010

Pakistan Muslims warn of anarchy over Christian

Google News  "Pakistani Muslims threatened protests and anarchy if the government pardons a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy, calling hundreds of demonstrators onto the streets on Friday.
"Demonstrators marched in the eastern city of Lahore after the most influential Sunni Muslim alliance in Pakistan urged the government not to grant mother-of-five Aasia Bibi clemency."
Outraged Muslim photo taken Friday or maybe in the 7th century.
Via Weasel Zippers

The Irrelevance of START

Charles Krauthammer  "Even among national-security concerns, New START is way down at the bottom of the list. From the naval treaties of the 1920s to this day, arms control has oscillated between mere symbolism at its best to major harm at its worst, with general uselessness being the norm."

More on Norks Gone Wild

Why We're Always Fooled by North Korea "The analysts who predicted North Korea's latest nuclear breakthrough were denigrated and ignored."....
"The Obama administration has said that the bombardment of Yeonpyeong is not a crisis, which is probably wise if the aim is to avoid granting the North even more leverage. On the other hand, it would be a colossal mistake to return to negotiations as if provocations are merely the price of doing business with Pyongyang. The focus right now should be on containment, interdiction and pressure. The inability to do so on a sustained basis until now was a failure of policy, not intelligence."

North Korea: The Road Ahead  "Part of the CSIS-Schieffer Series Dialogues" (transcript) 

Via the Center for Strategic and International Studies

Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

Heritage  "No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy."
Phooto from LincolnImages, taken at the time of this address.

Strange Men Grope Nancy Pelosi or the Terrorists Have Won

Ann Coulter "We're talking about the pilot. Is there anyone in the government who can tell us why the pilot doesn't need a box-cutter to seize control of the airplane and kill everyone on it? You there, in the back -- the skinny guy with the big ears behind the teleprompter: Wanna take a guess? Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?"

In Defense of Defense

Victor Davis Hanson "Yet there are also compelling reasons not to cut defense, and these are rarely discussed. The United States has an alarming record of courting danger when it has slashed defense, or even merely been perceived abroad to be pruning its military. In the 1930s the Germans and Japanese did not take the United States seriously as a deterrent power, and understandably so: It was not until 1943 — after tens of thousands of American deaths — that the United States finally deployed planes, armor, and ships that were of rough parity in numbers and quality with those of its Axis enemies."

American Weakness and North Korean Aggression

National Review Online "South Korea and Japan have both been toying with the idea of going nuclear, and American weakness may now push them to it. The same thing is occurring in the Middle East, where several Arab countries are developing nuclear programs to defend themselves against Iran since the United States can’t be trusted any more to do so. Obama has declared a wish to have a nuclear-free world but the net result of his approach looks like being unprecedented nuclear proliferation."

Aviation Security Threats and Realities

STRATFOR "We believe that this review will help establish that there is a legitimate threat to aviation, that there are significant challenges in trying to secure aircraft from every conceivable threat, and that the response of aviation security authorities to threats has often been slow and reactive rather than thoughtful and proactive."
Aviation Security Threats and Realities is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

My First Thankful Thanksgiving

Robin of Berkeley  "Of course, I was just one of the progressive pack, parroting the party line. Being a Leftist means honing in on every possible injustice. Never-ending gripes and grievances are the glue that keeps progressives cemented together.
"But then, three years ago, the bottom fell out of my life. Slowly but surely, it dawned on me that everything I had held as sacrosanct was a lie. I woke up -- and now I behold the world with fresh eyes. Consequently, I am celebrating my First Thankful Thanksgiving."

Giving Thanks: Celebrating Thanksgiving with a speaker, a governor, a TV-show host, and more.

NRO Symposium  "...We all must pause this Thanksgiving and thank our creator that we live in a free and prosperous America, one that in recession and political turmoil remains an oasis compared to these bleak alternatives abroad.
"On this holiday, we must reflect, and often so, how much our forefathers sacrificed for our present security, freedom, and prosperity — and how much responsibility rests on our shoulders to preserve and pass on something even better than the great good that we were bequeathed." Victor Davis Hanson

We have so much to be thankful for this year (Updated)

Phil Boehmke "In a year which saw the passage of ObamaCare, the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Bill, the appointment of another unqualified hard-left advocate (Kagan) to our Supreme Court, a rising body count in Afghanistan, persistent high unemployment and other less well publicized assaults on our freedom and security it may seem as if there is very little to be thankful for. However this past year saw record numbers of our fellow Americans becoming engaged in the cause of Liberty and a number of significant victories which portent(sic) well for the year ahead."

A Lost Thanksgiving Lesson  "Long before the failure of modern socialism, the earliest European settlers gave us a dramatic demonstration of the fatal flaws of collectivism. Unfortunately, few Americans today know it.
"The Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony organized their farm economy along communal lines. The goal was to share the work and produce equally.
"That's why they nearly all starved."  John Stossel in RealClearPolitics

Giving Thanks for the Free Market  "When the first Pilgrims founded the Plymouth Colony, all property was taken away from families and transferred to a “comone wealth.” In other words, the Pilgrims tried to do away with private property. The results were disastrous. According to Bradford, the stronger and younger men resented working for other men’s wives and children “without any recompence.” And the women forced to cook and clean for other men saw their uncompensated service as “a kind of slavery.” The system as a whole bred “confusion and discontent” and “retarded much employment that would have been to [the Pilgrims’] benefit and comfort.” Unable to produce their own food, some settlers “became servants to the Indians,” cutting wood and fetching water in exchange for “a capful of corn.” Others tragically perished."

Strangers, Saints and Indians  "In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims reaped a bountiful harvest. To thank God for their deliverance and the help they had received from the Indians, Bradford held a three-day Thanksgiving feast inviting the Indians to join them in their celebration.
"Squanto remained friendly with the Pilgrims until he succumbed to an unknown fever and died in 1622. Amazingly, he bequeathed his possessions to the Pilgrims, as Bradford would document, "as remembrances of his love." "