Monday, May 27, 2013

God bless our troops and those of our allies this Memorial Day and always

As we honor Americans who died for our nation, let's also remember those allies from the United Kingdom who fought alongside our troops for the past 100 years. I want to pay special tribute to British Soldier Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers  who was a victim of Islamic radicals just as much as if he was killed in the hills of Afghanistan.
How regrettable that his death will come with no honors; just anger and recriminations from his own people and shouts of triumph from our enemies. 
 
God bless all those whose loved ones mourn their loss
Political Cartoons by Henry Payne
Political Cartoons by Gary Varvel
Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell
 

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Now The Gibson Guitar Raids Make Sense

Hat tip to Edward W Wagner, who commented, "I don't think that Obama Inc. has an enemies list. I think they have a friends list and God help you if you are not on it. Obama Inc. is a system based on an ideology."

Investors Business Daily  "IRS Scandal: The inexplicable raid nearly two years ago on a guitar maker for using allegedly illegal wood that its competitors also used was another targeting by this administration of its political enemies."

"Interestingly, one of Gibson's leading competitors is C.F. Martin & Co. According to C.F. Martin's catalog, several of their guitars contain "East Indian Rosewood," which is the exact same wood in at least 10 of Gibson's
guitars. So why were they not also raided and their inventory of foreign wood seized?

"Grossly underreported at the time was the fact that Gibson's chief executive, Henry Juszkiewicz, contributed to Republican politicians. Recent donations have included $2,000 to Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and $1,500 to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

"By contrast, Chris Martin IV, the Martin & Co. CEO, is a long-time Democratic supporter, with $35,400 in contributions to Democratic candidates and the Democratic National Committee over the past couple of election cycles."  (Emphasis added)

More here from US News: Are the Feds Persecuting Gibson Guitars?  
"In the meantime, I'm struck by the fact that the guitar that quintessential American country boy Johnny B. Goode could play just like he's ringing a bell is now a global patchwork.
"I'm forced to echo the sardonic Glenn Reynolds: Is that the hope or the change?" 

Brit Hume Smacks Down Juan Williams Over Holder Investigation Of James Rosen

American Glob  "On FOX News Sunday, Juan Williams took the stunningly stupid position of defending Eric Holder over the investigation of reporter James Rosen.
"Brit Hume was barely able to stay in his seat." 

In Rush to Generate Revenue, Why Has Obama Failed to Unleash IRS on Illegal Aliens?

Voice of Lillpop  "Give Obama’s maniacal obsession with taxes it seems curious that he has all but ignored a growing segment of American society that is notorious for deliberately evading their “fair share” of the tax burden.

"That would be illegal aliens, who illegally feed at the public trough to take welfare, food stamps, and other public services intended for citizens, but many of whom pay no taxes.

"Why has Obama not ordered brass-knuckled goons at the IRS to smoke out illegal aliens and force these scam artists and freeloaders to pay up, and get out?"

UK Jihad Beheader was arrested in Kenya on terror charges, Deported to London

Atlas Shrugs  "Mujahid (yes, that's this convert's name, "holy warrior") was arrested for jihad related activities and he was .... deported to London. This is an epic security/intelligence failure, as was the FBI's refusal to follow up on the Boston  bombers.
"Suspected killer of British soldier was held in Kenya" Reuters, May 26, 2013 (thanks to Van)
(Reuters) - One of two men arrested over the murder of a British soldier in a London street was detained in Kenya in 2010 on suspicion of seeking to train with an al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia, Kenyan police said on Sunday. Confirmation that Michael Adebolajo was held in Kenya and deported to London will intensify calls for Britain's spy agencies to explain what they knew about the suspect and whether they could have done more to prevent Lee Rigby's killing on Wednesday.
 Proof the “leadership in the UK is as inept as it is in America  "Scholars of Islam like Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson insisted that the gruesome murder of a British soldier by two Muslims shouting “Allah Akbar” and quoting the Koran had nothing to do with Islam.
"However Imam Omar Bakri Muhammad, who influenced Mujaheed Adebowale, the London beheader, disagrees saying, “Under Islam this can be justified”, “I saw the film and we could see that he [the suspect] was being very courageous” and “To people around here [in the Middle East] he is a hero for what he has done.”"
....
“We don’t make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity.”
"Nothing to do with Islam. Not a bloody thing."

Obama Administration Refuses to Label London Attack as Terrorism


Heritage "In stark contrast, the Obama Administration’s response has been to avoid calling the attack terrorism, let alone terrorism motivated by a radical Islamic ideology. Instead the Administration, via the State Department, said it stood with the U.K. in the face of “such senseless violence.”
"Senseless violence? One can hardly term a targeted attack on a U.K. soldier in broad daylight — where the assailants gleefully admit the radical motivation behind their attack — “senseless violence.”
"Yet, use of this terminology is nothing new for the Obama Administration. “Senseless violence” is the Administration’s catch-all phrase loyally called upon whenever motivations for a despicable act should not be ascribed, lest someone take offense."

The West's Timidity toward Terrorism "Americans of an anti-terror bent are quick to point to these incidents as further proof of the Islamization of Europe, and to harshly judge the men of Europe's meek response. Before we judge their response too harshly, a review of our own recent man-caused disasters might be in order."
....
"The truth is that most Westerners simply don't have the moral courage to criticize another culture, no matter how repugnant to humanity many of its adherents are."

Jihad Butchery in London and the Big Islamic Lie  "Despite the continued Big Islamic Lie being enunciated by Britain's political elites -- most notably Prime Minister Cameron himself -- the savage jihadist murder of Lee Rigby validates the legitimate concerns most ordinary Britons already had about normative Islam.
"Ultimately, to preserve their liberties, the British people must force chronically capitulating political leaders to act decisively against sharia encroachment -- violent and nonviolent alike.  Mervyn Hiskett identified the crux of the problem already in 1993:"  Read more...

Impeding our stand against the terrors of Islamic domination are the useful idiots among us: Islamophobia Watch; Documenting anti Muslim bigotry

HUFFINGTON POST MUSLIM WRITER TWEETS DEATH THREAT AGAINST MUSLIM BRITISH OFFICER

Infidel Bloggers
Assed Baig has written for the Huffington PostThe New Statesman and the Islamic Human Rights Commission (more on that organisation, here). He was furious at an article in the Independent that featured Afzal Amin, a former officer in the British Army (now a Conservative PPC). Mr Amin has put his life on the line for our freedoms. In the article, Mr Amin states sensible propositions including:
“The Prophet Mohamed said: ‘Love for one’s nation is part of faith’; ‘Who serves a people is the best of them’, and that ‘the Muslim is the one from whose hands and tongue others are safe’. The motto of Sandhurst is ‘Serve to Lead’. These are all British values and Islamic values,” he says.....

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Philosophical Aspects of the Climate Change Controversy

The Intellectual Conservative
"One might reasonably ask why Al Gore built a mansion on an oceanfront property, considering his dire pronouncements about rising sea levels? "
....
Photo from Doug Ross Journal
"In general, people confuse two concepts: expertise and objectivity. Having great intelligence or specialized knowledge isn't assurance against a person remaining unbiased in their public opinions. Persons of all stripes are generally loyal to their source of income. We shouldn't assume that every expert begins their search tabula rasa, that is to say, without an agenda or wholly independent of prevailing consensus.

"That is why appeals to credentials or expertise are never as conclusive as they ought to be.
....
"Often people who advocate for legislation curtailing greenhouse gasses offer us an argument ... “What if we don’t act, but Climate Change is a reality? When we know for sure it will be already too late.”

"But the point is easily reversible. We may pass unnecessary legislative measures that irretrievably harm economic and technological development, as well as forfeiting national sovereignty and restraining individual liberties. Consider everything carefully."


By the way, the rumor that the Gore's home in Nashville uses 20 times more electricity than average is not entirely true. Even if we have become un-enamored with the man, let's be truthful with our claims about him.

Flashback 2007: Senator Obama Calls For AG Gonzales To Step Down

Weasel Zippers 
Every time he refers to Gonzales just plug in “Holder” to see how apropos this is…  

Special Report Panel on Obama's Scandals

You should know this: Why did British bystanders watch a soldier get hacked to death?

Daily Caller  "The recent attack on a British soldier by assassins wielding meat cleavers while bystanders looked on raises the question: “Why didn’t anyone try to help the victim?”
"Because British citizens are prohibited from carrying objects that could be used as “offensive weapons.”
"While it is well known that Brits cannot carry guns, a lesser known law prohibits any subject of the Queen from carrying a knife of consequence, pepper spray or a stun gun."
....
According to the United Kingdom government website, the online storehouse of British government regulations, it is illegal to:
  • sell a knife of any kind (including cutlery and kitchen knives) to anyone under 18
  • carry a knife in public without good reason – unless it’s a knife with a folding blade 3 inches long (7.62 cm) or less, eg a Swiss Army knife
  • carry, buy or sell any type of banned knife
  • use any knife in a threatening way (even a legal knife, such as a Swiss Army knife)
Mark Steyn; To the Slaughter; British lions come up lambs in Woolwich.
"In Woolwich, a large crowd of Londoners apparently volunteered to “shelter in place,” instinctively. Consider how that will play when these guys’ jihadist snuff video is being hawked around the bazaars of the Muslim world. Behold the infidels, content to be bystanders in their own fate."
...."And so life goes on, and it’s all so “mundane,” in Simon Jenkins’s word, that you barely notice when the Jewish school shuts up, and the gay bar, and the uncovered women no longer take a stroll too late in the day, and the publishing house that gets sent the manuscript for the next Satanic Verses decides it’s not worth the trouble. . . . But don’t worry, they’ll never defeat our “free speech” and our “way of life.”"
 

Telegraph publishes falsehoods about Qur'an in attempt to clear Islam of responsibility for London jihad murder/ US Networks help out

JihadWatch
"Note what Mehdi Hasan leaves out of his Qur'an quotation. "The Muslim faith does not turn men to terror: The two suspects in the Woolwich killing were violating the doctrine of their own holy book," by Mehdi Hasan in the Telegraph, May 23 (thanks to JH):
'Whosoever killeth a human being…” says the Koran, in the 32nd verse of its fifth chapter, “it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.”

 "Yes, let's be clear. Qur'an 5:32 actually says this:
For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind. Our messengers came unto them of old with clear proofs (of Allah's Sovereignty), but afterwards lo! many of them became prodigals in the earth.
.... "Now we see why Mehdi Hasan left that part out of his Qur'an quote.
So it is permissible -- indeed, commanded -- to kill those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after "corruption in the land." Islam doesn't permit the killing of innocents, but this victim was a British soldier. He was, in the view of his killer, making war upon Allah and his messenger and spreading corruption in the land by fighting in Afghanistan. In that case, the killer's jihad was defensive, and Hasan's words about it being only permissible if sanctioned by a legitimate government are simply false in terms of Islamic law."
Emphasis added.

Network Evening Shows Don’t Name Islam in London Terror Attack "Over at ABC, on “World News with Diane Sawyer,” reporter Lama Hasan would only say British authorities were trying to find out including “whether or not one of [the attackers] is of African origin with ties to terrorist groups.” Of the one attacker’s video rant, Dian Sawyer said, “officials in the United States and the United Kingdom are studying the meaning of this tape.” Yes, it’s a real head-scratcher.
"By contrast, the U.K. media seems to be calling the attacks what they are. The BBC (no right-wing media shop) reported that one of the attackers told a witness, “I killed him because he kills Muslims over there and I am fed up that people kill Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The BBC also said that “The Muslim Council of Britain said the murder was ‘a truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam and we condemn this unreservedly,’” and noted that “At least two plots by Islamist extremists to kill soldiers in the UK have been foiled in recent years.” "