Saturday, January 11, 2014

Krauthammer: How to fight academic bigotry; boycott the boycotters of Israel

Liberals should never again claim victimhood because of the McCarthy-era "blacklists". Hear Bill Whittle speak about "social proof"; known also as politically correct peer pressure that forces culture farther to the left.


Charles Krauthammer  "For decades, the American Studies Association labored in well-deserved obscurity. No longer. It has now made a name for itself by voting to boycott Israeli universities, accusing them of denying academic and human rights to Palestinians.
"Given that Israel has a profoundly democratic political system, the freest press in the Middle East, a fiercely independent judiciary and astonishing religious and racial diversity within its universities, including affirmative action for Arab students, the charge is rather strange.
"Made more so when you consider the state of human rights in Israel’s neighborhood. As we speak, Syria’s government is dropping “barrel bombs” filled with nails, shrapnel and other instruments of terror on its own cities. Where is the ASA boycott of Syria?" ...
....
Deutsche Welle
"What to do? Facing a similar (British) academic boycott of Israelis seven years ago, Alan Dershowitz and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg wrote an open letter declaring that, for the purposes of any anti-Israel boycott, they are to be considered Israelis."
....

"Thousands of other academics added their signatures to the Dershowitz/Weinberg letter. It was the perfect in-kind response. Boycott the boycotters, with contempt.

But, as with teenagers jumping on the latest feel-good fad, here come artists, hoping to burnish their street cred for attaboys in desired social circles:

"But academia isn’t the only home for such prejudice. Throughout the cultural world, the Israel boycott movement is growing. It’s become fashionable for musicians, actors, writers and performers of all kinds to ostentatiously cleanse themselves of Israel and Israelis."

Now, Dr. Krauthammer gets to the salient point that he has been preparing us for:
"How? How to answer the thugs, physical and intellectual, who single out Jews for attack? The best way, the most dignified way, is to do like Dershowitz, Weinberg or Kissin.
"Express your solidarity. Sign the open letter or write your own. Don the yellow star and wear it proudly."

To wit:
A Call to Academics Worldwide to Join Nobel Laureates and University Presidents to Stand in Solidarity with Israeli Academics Facing Threats of Boycott
The text of this petition:

"We are academics, scholars, researchers and professionals of differing religious and political perspectives. We all agree that singling out Israelis for an academic boycott is wrong. To show our solidarity with our Israeli academics in this matter, we, the undersigned, hereby declare ourselves to be Israeli academics for purposes of any academic boycott. We will regard ourselves as Israeli academics and decline to participate in any activity from which Israeli academics are excluded."
 

Benghazi: Bad Movie Review or Act of Terror?

Bokbluster
140111-benghazi-movie-terror
 
"David Kirkpatrick wrote a long piece in the NYT December 28 that said the attack on Benghazi was the act of a bunch of locals very pissed off about a movie. The Washington Post later reported that a former GITMO detainee who had trained under Osama bin Laden and fought with the Taliban played a role in the attack.
"As they say, “what difference does it make?” Well, President Obama did say that al Qaeda was on the run and headed for defeat. After the attack Susan Rice went on five Sunday news shows to say it was caused by the internet video. And Hillary promised the father of murdered Navy Seal, Tyrone Woods, that they would prosecute the movie maker.

"Was Benghazi a Bad Movie Review or Act of Terror?

"The fact is the mystery of Benghazi can easily be solved by the man himself. In the second 2012 presidential debate Obama insisted that it is was an act of terror.
"Here’s Andrew Wilson’s review in The American Spectator."

Down and Out in Benghazi "It is time to present the top prize for fraudulence in international reporting in 2013 — the annual Walter Duranty award. As Moscow bureau chief for the New York Times at the height of Joe Stalin’s reign of terror, Duranty not only reported the news, he invented it — earning the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and wining the sobriquet of “Stalin’s apologist.' ”
 

You Still Don’t Understand Islamism, Do You?

This is a companion article to Debate! Christian Muslim Forum (Interfaith) vs. North American Infidels! , further down in the Tunnel Wall

Gloria Center*
Barry Rubin  ... "The main problem, however, was that all Islamism was a
political threat, but it was the second position that eventually won over the Obama administration. Take note of this; since 2009, if you wanted to build your career and win policy debates, only al-Qaeda was a problem. The Muslim Brotherhood was not a threat; after all, it did not participate in September 11. This view was well-known in policy circles, but it was easy to mistake this growing hegemony as temporary.

"Actually, it only got worse."...


*The Global Research in International Affairs Center

Gov. Christie catches it from all sides

Bridgegate Cartoon
 Bad timing for the Christie scandal?  "Governor Christie has plenty of enemies in his own party. Conservatives resent his embrace of President Obama following Super storm Sandy, the Romney campaign still remembers his lukewarm (at best) role, and many are uneasy that he may be a RINO. Although instinctively rallying around one of our own under attack by our mutual enemies, many conservatives are quietly relieved that the prospect of another non-conservative nominee is diminished.

"Still, Christie is probably the potential GOP standard-bearer most-feared by Hillary Clinton and the Democrat-media establishment." ...
....
"If no evidence implicates Christie with direct knowledge of the bridge revenge closure plan, his performance yesterday will serve him well, and this scandal will be forgotten by 2016. His forthright apologies and swift firings contrast vividly with the failure of Obama to act in the face if his various scandals, and of Hillary's failure to confront the Benghazi scandal with meaningful apologies and action. What doesn't kill his political career only makes him stronger."

Drawing from the left, Pat Oliphant takes a harsher view of Christie:
 
Andy McCarthy is not so optimistic about Christie: New Scandal, Same Old Christie    ... "In public, the notorious Christie wrath is usually reserved for tea-party conservatives, for those who don’t share his soft spot for Islamic supremacists, and for the stray insolent teachers’-union rep — because, well, who doesn’t enjoy watching that? Playing nicely with Democrats is a big part of the governor’s shtick."
Political Cartoons by Steve Breen

There's Already 17 Times More Coverage on Christie Scandal Than in Last Six Months of IRS    " ... ABC, CBS and NBC have responded with 34 minutes and 28 seconds of coverage. Since July 1, these same networks managed a scant two minutes and eight seconds for the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups."

How about this? Hillary Advisor Created Traffic Jam To Help Gore  
... "Gore was “irate” at the “massive traffic jam” but then “Gore got the point” after Whouley explained that “they’re mostly Bradley voters.”
"And now we can all laugh at this, because it’s just smart politics when it involves Democrats."  Emphasis in the original.

Let's give the Christie affair a bit of perspective, shall we?

Debate! Christian Muslim Forum (Interfaith) vs. North American Infidels!

Logan's Warning
Print
 
"One of the greatest weapons Muslims have in their arsenal is interfaith dialogue. As it clearly gets naïve and trusting non-Muslims to actually support Islam. While interfaith talks might sound nice, the reality is that talking to Muslims does not change what Islam is. That is why I frequently speak out against these suicidal talks."

....
(2) are distinguished from Muslims in dress, wearing a wide cloth belt (zunnar)
(3) are not greeted with “as-Salamu ‘alaykun”;
(4) must keep to the side of the street;
(5) may not build higher than or as high as the Muslims’ buildings, though if they acquire a tall house, it is not razed;
(6) are forbidden to openly display wine or pork (A: to ring church bells or display crosses,) recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals and feastdays;
(7) and are forbidden to build new churches....
 
bluitgen 4

Ever wonder about that story, "The Emperor has no clothes"?

Bill Whittle at PJTV  "Social Proof, used to be called 'Peer-pressure,' is essentially a type of mob mentality that convinces people to go along with the herd. President Obama is really President Social Proof--he convinced a slew of voters that to question him was to be racist. Now, several voices are crying out that the Emperor...President...is wearing no clothes, and all that's left to do is run the hollow people into the river."

Friday, January 10, 2014

A wall is not equivalent to a suicide bomber: Denis MacEoin responds to Bethlehem Unwrapped

This is a follow-up to the TW post yesterday that was titled: Op-Ed: Israel vs. Islamists: Setting the Record Straight.
Visitors to the festival inscribe their messages on the replica wall at St. James Church, London.
 
CiF Watch  "There has been an enormous uproar over the decision by the Church of St. James at Piccadilly to erect a mock version of a wall that is part of Israel’s security barrier around the West Bank. The barrier is seen in black-and-white, politically biased terms, something that has become commonplace among politically motivated Christians in the UK, for whom there is only one narrative in the Middle East, namely the Palestinian narrative.

"The attack on Israel that it represents is high-minded, inarticulate, and without compassion for the Jewish people. It is also without compassion for those Christians who live in the West Bank and are attacked, persecuted, and expelled by their Muslim neighbours: an outrage St. James’s and its clerics fail to address."....
... "The West Bank barrier is only one of over 30 walls and fences round the world. Most of those are also anti-terror fences. Some are electrified and have killed many people — over 4000 in one instance, the barrier between Ceuta and Morocco. The long North Korean barrier is policed by two million soldiers. Yet St. James does not build mock-ups of any of these walls, nor does it preach about the deaths they cause. The clergy at St. James just concentrate on part of a security barrier that has saved lives. Shame on them for their blatant hypocrisy coupled with the assumption of moral superiority. Shame on them for their adroit negotiation of meaning, portraying themselves as champions of human rights while they show a streak of anti-Semitism in their routine assignment of evil only to the Jewish state."

One solid case for building a wall is this, lest we forget: Itamar massacre: Fogel family butchered while sleeping    "Names of Itamar attack victims cleared for publication Saturday evening: Udi Fogel, 36, Ruth Fogel, 35, and their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and three-month-old Hadas were stabbed to death."  Emphasis added; need we explain why?

More on the UK Guardian's point of view about Israel vs. the Arabs: Why the Guardian will support the next Palestinian Intifada

"Welcome to CiF Watch, dedicated to monitoring antisemitism and combating the assault on Israel’s legitimacy at the Guardian and its ‘Comment is Free’ blog."

Hat tip to Allyson’s Geo-Political Inspections

Don't mess with this attorney general

FBI Called In For Christie Bridge Case

Weasel Zippers
Screen Shot 2014-01-10 at 10.43.49 AM
 
"When do you suppose the FBI will start, erhem, I mean finish, their intensive Benghazi investigation?
"It took them three weeks to even reach Benghazi, but they’re on the hop in this case.
"Paul Fishman, the U.S. Attorney behind this call, is a Hillary Clinton fundraiser and Christie’s Democratic successor in that post."
 
“We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”   “ 'It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,” an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.' ” 

Gates reveals Obama coldness regarding our soldiers

soldier obama photo:  BOvisitsUnknownSoldier.gif
American Thinker  ... "Clearly, Gates is referring to soldiers injured or killed in the line of duty.  One recalls that George Bush gave up golf - a sport he loved-during his presidency - because he felt it unseemly and insensitive for a commander-in-chief to swing golf clubs while Americans were in harm's way. Barack Obama, in contrast, has never stopped playing golf.

"There are many other examples of Obama's lack of knowledge or concern regarding our military."
....
"He also just doesn't care much for America or Americans. He is not only a notorious loner who "does not like people" (in the words of a former aide).  He has an empathy deficit, a character trait I wrote about over three years ago in "Obama's Empathy Deficit."

"He is the textbook example of a narcissist. And a very cold-hearted one at that. He only saves his warmth to flamethrow Republicans."

Obama’s Insincere War   "John Kerry famously asked during the Vietnam War: How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake? Now the secretary of state should pose a version of his long-ago rhetorical question to his boss. Obama evidently has been asking men to die for what he considers a mistake for years now."

Obama Admits He Uses Our Troops for Photo Ops



 

The massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane; the town left as it was on that day (UPDATED)

In the news on Jan 9th: Prosecutors charge 88-year-old man over 1944 Nazi massacre at Oradour-Sur-Glane – where 642 villagers were shot and burnt
 "An 88-year-old former member of an SS armored division has been charged with murder and accessory to murder for allegedly taking part in the massacre of 642 French villagers by Nazi soldiers during World War Two.
"The man, named only as Werner C, from Cologne, has been charged with 25 counts of murder  and hundreds of counts of accessory to murder in connection with the slaughter in Oradour-sur-Glane.   Video


Video with narration

Oradour scrapbook
 "The map shown above was scanned from a book which I purchased in the book store of the Center of Memory at Oradour-sur-Glane. It shows the six killing sites where the 190 men were murdered and the location of the Church where the women and children were killed."

Oradour-sur-Glane
The village has purposely been left untouched since the massacre, to serve both as a shrine to those who died and as a constant reminder of the unremitting evil of the Nazis
"The investigation into the massacre where almost the entire population of the village, including more than 400 women and children, was gunned down or burned alive on June 10, 1944, was re-opened by German prosecutors last year."
A close look at the village as it is today
The remains of the church in Oradour
The remains of the church in which 247 women and 205 children were 
 trapped and killed  by the Nazis. The middle window behind the altar is
the one through which the only survivor Marguerite Rouffanche escaped
Oradour-sur-Glane  "The original population was destroyed on 10 June 1944, when 642 of its inhabitants, including women and children, were massacred by a German Waffen-SS company. A new village was built after the war on a nearby site but on the orders of the then French president, Charles de Gaulle, the original has been maintained as a permanent memorial and museum."
Another video
 Oradour-sur-Glane
Oradour-sur-Glane in a picture taken not long after the troops left and survivors were left to pick up the pieces

..."They marched into the town and separated the men from the women and children.
"The men were taken to six barns and shed while the women and children were locked in the church while the village was looted.
"The men were said to be shot in the legs before being doused in petrol and set alight."
From the testimony of Marguerite Rouffanche, one of the few  survivors of the massacre.
 Significant locations within the town  Scroll down at the link
 
... "Protests followed from Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel; General Gleiniger, German commander in Limoges; and the Vichy government. SS-Standartenführer Stadler felt Diekmann had far exceeded his orders and began a judicial investigation. Diekmann, 29 years old, was killed in action shortly afterwards during the Battle of Normandy, and a large number of the third company, which had committed the massacre, were themselves killed in action within a few days, and the investigation was suspended."
The SS commander, Adolf Otto Diekmann

Brief history of the unit

Ex-SS soldiers face massacre charges  "Mr Brendel said the six former SS soldiers, all aged 85 or 86, served with the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the Der Führer Regiment of the SS's Das Reich Division."
 

 UPDATE: Oradour-sur-Glane scrapbook  Contains a number of before and after photos.
"On 10 June 1944, the idylic French village of Oradour-sur-Glane was completely destroyed and 642 innocent men, women and children were massacred by soldiers in Hitler's elite Waffen-SS army. The ruins of the martyred village have been preserved as a reminder of German barbarity."
 
Ruins of Catholic Church in Oradour-sur-Glane
 

 
  More links in this site.