COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, May 05, 2013

Hundreds are reported killed as powerful explosions struck the outskirts of Damascus early on Sunday, sending columns of fire into the night sky, and Syrian state television said Israeli rockets had struck a military facility just north of the capital.



NIGHT TIME ISRAELI TERROR ATTACK ON DAMASCUS:

134 comments:

  1. This is a game changer all right. No Arab country is going to want to be associated with any party that appears to be aligned with Israel.

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    4. Like Grouch Marx, you said the magic word, except here you lose.

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    5. Consider it an existential threat to your post. It was not a game changer.

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    10. Jenny and Rat have never sunk to the low attacks that you have made on this site. You have called people on this site Nazis and use personal attacks when your arguments get short of breath. You respond more than anyone on this site. I could delete you completely. You are the epitome of the constant victim. You play your Jewish card as a shield. No one else cares that you are a Jew. You use it to privilege.

      You are a victim of nothing more on this site than the casualty of your own mouth.

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    11. Do you even know what religion Rat or Jenny are? I don’t.

      You squeal like a piglet that your posts are being stepped on and deleted.

      Count those that you have already posted on this thread alone. They are here for everyone to read.

      Try that at another site.

      But put up some of the trash that you have in the past and I will do what I did the other day when I was sick of it. I’ll take them all down for the violation of one.

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    14. My concern is war in the Middle East. Israel is hell bent on getting the US involved in another ME war, if it were Iceland, it would all be about Iceland.

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  2. Obama, foolishly, having shot off his mouth about what he would or would not do based on hypothetical events has allowed a foreign power to put the US in a position where we can once again be dragged into another Middle Eastern war. This has been Israeli policy for months and we are now going to get their wish.

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  3. The Israeli have turned Obama’s words as an endorsement to get the US into a war with Syria

    Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon earlier told journalists that any alleged delivery of Syrian weapons to Hezbollah would be considered a "red line." Ya'alon then said Israel would not permit "sophisticated weapons" to fall into the hands of "Hezbollah or other rogue elements."

    US President Barack Obama has also said in the past that the crossing of a ‘red line’ would warrant further action from outside. This was in relation to the possibility that Assad forces may have used chemical weapons against Syrians – a claim that is still being investigated, with no evidence so far.

    Nonetheless, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced on Thursday that the US may now consider arming the Syrian opposition – something the US has shied away from openly doing in the two years since the start of the Syrian uprising.

    Asked directly if the administration was reconsidering its position on that option, Hagel said "yes". "Arming the rebels — that's an option," he said. "We must continue to look at options."

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    2. Let’s just hope that Israel can finish what it starts without having to have the US save it from its folly.

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  4. BBC


    Syrian state media said the attack showed that there was an organic link between Israel and the rebels.

    "The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups, which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army," state TV said, referring to recent offensives by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.


    Damascus-based journalist Alaa Ebrahim told the BBC it was "the biggest explosion" the city had seen since the conflict began two years ago.

    Residents living near Jamraya reported feeling a "mild earthquake" just before the blast, indicating that the rockets may have hit an underground facility, Mr Ebrahim said.

    He added that the Syrian army was likely to have suffered major casualties in the attack.

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  5. Once again the US will suffer the liability of its sycophant relationship with Israel.

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  6. We hear all the IDF propaganda about rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza. There have been 26 Israelis killed in rocket attack in Gaza since the day that they first started, 26. The Israelis have killed over 10 times that amount of Syrians last night. The burn victims must be horrendous, but then again they are Syrians.

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    1. Don't ship missiles to Lebanon, no boom.

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    2. Don't go to the Twin Towers - no boom
      Don't go to the Boston Marathon - no boom



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    3. boobie blames the victims for the booms

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    4. Don't fund Israeli aggression - no booms

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    6. This has been going on for decades.
      Very few Israeli have died.

      The Israeli should be at the UN.
      Not attacking foreign countries, killing civilians with weapons of mass destruction.

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    10. WMD, the Federals define it.

      When two pipe bombs in Boston are a WMD, a guided missile has to be.

      Doesn't mch matter who let it fly.

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  7. You are over thinking it. Israel blew up some missiles, evidently making a big boom, that were bound for Lebanon.

    Why should this affect what we do or don't do?

    How does this suck us into a war?

    We could simply disregard it. We could say Israel has a right to self defense.

    But.......

    Asked directly if the administration was reconsidering its position on that option, Hagel said "yes". "Arming the rebels — that's an option," he said. "We must continue to look at options."

    Hey, you were the guy saying what a wonderful choice Hagel was for Defense.

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    1. I recall saying I thought he was a nincompoop.

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  8. Making a big boom.

    Israel attacks Damascus research centre: Syrian media
    (AFP) – 1 hour ago

    DAMASCUS — Israel carried out a rocket attack on the Jamraya scientific research centre in Damascus overnight, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported Sunday.

    The agency did not say whether there were any wounded or dead.

    The "Israeli attack aims at loosening the noose around the terrorists in the eastern Ghouta" region, near Damascus, Syrian television added.
    There was no immediate comment from the White House in Washington on the reported attack.

    If confirmed, the attack would be Israel's second this week against Syria. US media reports say Israel targeted a weapons shipment to the militant group Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon overnight Thursday to Friday, but the Jewish state has refused to confirm or deny the bombing.

    A diplomatic source in Lebanon told AFP the operation destroyed surface-to-air missiles recently delivered by Russia that were being stored at Damascus airport.

    Israel implicitly confirmed it staged an air strike on Syria in late January as President Bashar al-Assad accused the Jewish state of trying to further destabilise his war-torn country.

    That air strike targeted surface-to-air missiles and an adjacent military complex believed to house chemical agents, a US official said at the time.

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  9. Any country that borders Israel would be out of their mind not to have surface to air missiles. As someone noted recently, surface to air missiles are defensive missiles. Air to ground or ground to ground are offensive missiles. Israel attacked Syria with offensive missile killing hundreds of Syrian people.

    You may enjoy the spectacle but then no one ever accused you of thinking more than two moves ahead. You are immune to any kind of human empathy if someone is foreign and murdered by a nighttime terroristic missile attack, but that aside, the potential consequences of this are unknowable.

    The intent of the Israeli terror attack is obvious.

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    1. Beyond the terror, the Israeli utilized WMD!

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  10. Who was killed and wounded? Civilians, woman and children and young conscripts doing their jobs. Chritians and Muslims. Police, fork lift drivers and no one whose death or injury will bother you for one second.

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    4. We don’t supply weapons to Hamas or Hezbollah. We fight on our own dime. If Israel can handle wars of its choosing with its own resources, that is there business. Stand by the sword, fall by the sword.

      There is not one country in the Middle East that does not have the need to have a nuclear deterrent.

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  11. .

    bobSat May 04, 09:42:00 PM EDT
    QuirkSat May 04, 03:48:00 PM EDT

    .

    I did not say the WOT was illegal.

    BULLSHIT.

    You most certainly did. You made a fool out of yourself once again by arguing that while it might be Constitutional, yet it was nevertheless still illegal.

    You are a poltroon, coward, dastard, recreant, faint-heart, funk and liar.



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    RepliesQuirkSun May 05, 12:08:00 AM EDT
    .

    And you are an English major who lacks the ability to read or comprehend.

    Please put up my post that you refer to. If I said it, I will apologize since it is the exact opposite of what I have said here many times before and I obviously posted it in error.

    However, if you don't post it, unlike rat, who you accuse of statements he denies, you provide no proof of, and no one on this blog backs you up on except WiO, I won't let it lie.

    .


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    1. What are you belly aching about?

      I recall you were calling me a dumb shit for not comprehending your fine distinction between constitutional and legal and constitutional and illegal, etc.

      How long ago was that? You got plenty of time on your hands, if you are not busy painting cross hairs on someone's back, you go look it up. It was where you were arguing the distinction between illegal yet constitutional.

      peckerhead



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    2. But boobie, you are a dumb shit.

      Whether you are right or wrong about Q

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    3. .

      As I thought, all hat and no cattle.

      And why would I waste my time going back to try convince you of anything? It's would be a waste of my time trying to address any of your silly allegations. You lack the subtlety of mind to perceive either distinctions or the concept of context.

      And context is important. Rat and I were talking the WOT in conjunction with UMFA while discussing the legality or constitutionality of the former. Therefore, we were talking of the WOT within the context of U.S. law. Within that context, I stand by what I said.

      In a broader context, and beyond discussions of Obama's 'interpretations' of his authority under UMFA, some of the actions taken by Obama can be considered 'illegal' under international law or the laws of other countries. For instance, we are a signatory of the Geneva Conventions and we abrogate our responsibilities under that treaty when we indulge in actions such as signature assassinations and 'double-taps' which the treaty and most of the world consider war crimes. Likewise, our actions can be considered illegal in specific jurisdictions outside the U.S. An example is Italy where our kidnapping and rendition of Abu Omar, led to the trial and conviction in absentia of 23 CIA agents. Since the U.S. is the biggest dude in the valley and as rat is always arguing 'might makes right', these convictions may ultimately have no practical consequence; however, were any of these individuals to be caught in Italy, they like a number of Italians also caught up in the plot, would likely end up in prison for a very long time.

      I have in the past admitted that you 'know your dirt'; however, the concepts of legality and constitutionality are likely to give you a headache so why don't you once again expound on your fascination with the monomyth or better yet just slide on over to casino?

      .

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  12. Here is the party line with every imaginable magic word to make you feel good about it

    Western intelligence sources confirmed on Sunday morning that both the overnight strike and Friday’s alleged attack on Syria targeted an Iranian missile shipment intended for Hezbollah.

    The sources said the target was a shipment of Fateh-110 missiles. The Fateh-110 is a medium-range advanced guided missile capable of hitting targets at a range of up to 300 kilometers.

    Israel did not officially respond to the reports.

    Large explosions rocked Damascus early Sunday morning, only a few days after an Israeli strike allegedly hit the country, Syrian state TV reported. The Assad regime's news service blamed Israel for the rocket strike, which targeted a military research center on Mount Qassioun, north of Damascus.

    On Saturday morning, anonymous Israeli officials told the Associated Press that the Israeli Air Force carried out a strike against Syria early Friday that targeted a shipment of advanced missiles bound for the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.

    According to a New York Times report on Saturday, American officials say the first alleged Israeli strike on Syria also targeted Iranian Fateh-110 missiles that Israel thought were headed for Hezbollah.

    A shipment of the missiles were being stored at a Damascus airport when they were struck in the attack, a U.S. official told the newspaper.

    Later Saturday, U.S. President Barack Obama said that Israel has the right to guard against the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah.

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  13. The genius, Bibi Netanyahu, just made opposition to Assad equal to supporting Israeli terror attacks on a Muslim country. He is one stupid son of a bitch.

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    2. City-State, quot.
      A City-State.

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    3. the term "city-state"

      A city-state is an independent or autonomous entity whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as a part of another local government. A city-state can also be defined as a central city and its surrounding villages, which together follow the same law, have one form of government, and share languages, religious beliefs, and ways of life. Today, only five independent, sovereign city-states exist: Monaco, Singapore, Vatican City, San Marino and Malta.

      Once again you are PROVEN wrong Rat Droppings... WRONG as rain.... WRONG WRONG WRONG....

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    4. No, not wrong, at all.
      Israel is the main city and capital, Tel Aviv, surrounded by villages and lessor cities.

      It is a modern colonial City State, or it is a country in a state of Civil War, take your choice.

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    5. Israel is either an independent City State, or it is a part of Palestine/Israel, engaged in a civil war.

      As a City State, it would be matched by a Palestinian City State, its capital, Jerusalem.
      That is the Two City-State solution.

      The One State solution, the civil war continuess

      Is there an ongoing war, in the Levant?
      quot, you've told us it has been going on for decades, now you deny the battles rage.

      Whats up, wit dat?

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    7. Dude, all of Palestine/Israel is the size of Maricopa County, in Arizona.

      That is the Phoenix metro area.
      A Cityscape, with a rural and desert tinge.

      That is all you got, in Palestine/Israel, a cityscape with a desert tinge.

      One metropolitan area.
      Split into two countries, not likely.

      It'll be one country, after the UN brings those Pali-Israeli home from the refugee camps, in Lebanon. Hezbollah will let your people go, quot, someday.

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    9. Let all those folk vote, from Lebanon and Jordon, bring 'em back home to vote.
      Folks from Gaza and the West Bank.

      They'll balance the Soviet voting bloc that moved down to the Med, from Russia.

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  14. The U.S. State Department said it was "appalled by horrific reports that more than 100 people were killed May 2" in Beyda, a suburb of Baniyas.
    “We call on all responsible actors in Syria to speak out against the perpetration of unlawful killings against any group, regardless of faith or ethnicity," spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said in a statement.

    The U.S. State Department will not be saying it was “appalled by horrific reports that more than 100 people were killed May 5” in a nighttime sneak attack by Israeli missiles.

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    2. Words have meaning. It was a terror attack and a sneak attack. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Of course, the US uses sneak attacks.

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  15. Words are such deliciously malleable things.

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    2. Here is the lesson learned from this attack and the standard:

      If you have Israel for a neighbor and you do not wish to be a suppliant, have your air space or borders violated, have your flagged ships being vulnerable to attack, your cities attacked with terror weapons in the middle of the night, motorcyclists hit with drone missiles, your land confiscated, then it would be prudent to have a nuclear deterrent.

      Lesson learned.

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    4. "...you should not supply for YEARS tens of thousands of of rockets, trained 10,000 terrorists to bomb pizza shops, stab civilians and bomb buses."

      That is truth. Some here seemed to have forgotten it or willfully ignore it.

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  16. .

    Fourth Amendment? What Fourth Amendment?

    The Obama administration wants legislation enacted that will punish Internet service providers who fail to cooperate with FBI requests and court orders. The FBI has revealed that its agents often "lack the time" to obtain search warrants, and so they have gotten into the bad habit of asking Internet service providers to let them in without warrants.

    This was notoriously done in the Bush-era, during which the feds promised immunity to telephone service providers that enabled the feds to spy on their customers. That spying was criminal and gave rise to civil causes of action for damages, as well, until Congress changed the law retroactively and granted the promised immunity after the Bush administration spying was exposed.

    Some telephone providers declined the government requests then, and some Internet providers decline these requests today. Hence, the proposed legislation would punish those providers who protect the privacy of their customers by telling the FBI to go home.

    The second category of punishment sought by the administration is for Internet service providers as to which the FBI has obtained a warrant. A search warrant typically authorizes the government to enter private premises and look for the specific items designated in the warrant. But it does not require the custodian of those specific items to find them for the government. This proposed legislation would change all that.

    The government has subtly revealed that when it comes to digital data it often does not know what it is looking for, and its agents lack the skills to hook into the Internet providers' systems. This raises another set of questions, likely to escape members of Congress as they examine this latest assault on the Fourth Amendment.

    The Framers were very careful when they wrote the Fourth Amendment, as it imposes the most explicit requirements on the government found anywhere in the Constitution. It requires that all search warrants "particularly describ(e) the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." So, if the government follows the Constitution, it cannot seek what it is unable to identify, and it cannot compel the custodian of whatever records it is seeking to do its work for it.

    Until now...



    http://reason.com/archives/2013/05/02/obama-continues-his-war-on-the-fourth-am

    .

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  17. Well, if you have nothing to hide, why should you care? The government wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.

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  18. If Obama thought it would help with the mid-terms, I think he would do it.

    Since no one is hot to do it, except McCain, I don't think he will do it.

    There is no political upside for him to do it that I can see.

    He does have a proven sympathy for sunnis though.

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  20. .

    you should have a thread about the 80,000 civilians murdered by assad.

    You have stated this number several times this morning.

    1. You ignore the fact that the dead and wounded include supporters of Assad killed by the 'freedom fighters' and surrogates of other states and organizations.

    2. It is obvious now that Israel has chosen sides in the Syrian civil war, just as have Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Russia, and Turkey. When the predictible results of these actions play out it will be the responsibility of those involved including the U.S. if we get sucked into it.

    The ME is a cesspool. Only a fool would get involved the sectarian/internicine conflicts there.

    .

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    1. You ignore the fact


      No I dont IGNORE that fact.


      And as for your assertion that Israel "picked" sides?

      No, It's taking out weapons headed for Hezbollah, weapons that were going to kill Jews. AND as everyone here knows that is my concern. Things that KILL Jews I dont support. Nor does Israel.

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    2. .

      Merely a stated reason for getting involved.

      But Israel will, like all the other participants, now share responsibility in the ultimate consequences, intentional or not, resulting from the civil war. It's the reality of it.

      Everyone fighting there has an excuse, self-defense, democracy, humanitarian reasons, sectarian strife, religion, survival, you name it. If you are there you are part of it.

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  21. The coverage of this story that’s been coming from CNN and NBC and the Libertarian this morning has been puzzling to say the least. The number one question I’m hearing being asked is, in various forms, “What does this mean for the United States? Does this put more pressure on Obama to act against Syria?”

    That seems a bit off topic, doesn’t it? Obama’s interest, if any, is in the internal war Assad has going on with his own people. This doesn’t appear to be any sort of effort by Israel to depose or kill Syria’s embattled leader. They’re wiping out weapons before they wind up in the hands of people who have every intention of using them against Israel. And even if we were to ignore the motive behind the strikes, do any of these media geniuses really think the President is going to get up in the morning, read the paper and say, “Oh! Israel bombed Syria? I’d better get in on this action too!”

    I’m fully prepared to be proven wrong, but I don’t see these actions changing much, if anything, in terms of the current standoff between Assad and the rebels. And I highly doubt that Syria will try to mount an actual ground offensive against Israel. Assad’s blustering about war will, I’m guessing, turn out to be just that… bluster.


    http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/05/israel-bombs-syria-again/

    This fellow talks some sense.

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  22. Remembering Kent State -


    43 years ago today: Four dead in Ohio
    posted at 1:01 pm on May 4, 2013 by Jazz Shaw

    http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/04/43-years-ago-today-four-dead-in-ohio/

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  23. The only side Israel has so far chosen in the civil war in Syria is their own side.

    As the guy said above - They’re wiping out weapons before they wind up in the hands of people who have every intention of using them against Israel..

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  24. The Blog
    Obama Aide On Syria's Assad: 'If He Drops Sarin On His Own People, What’s That Got Do Do With Us?'
    10:12 AM, May 5, 2013 • By DANIEL HALPER


    President Barack Obama got ahead of himself and his advisers when he said that Syria using chemical weapons would cross a "red line," the New York Times reports.

    “How can we attack another country unless it’s in self-defense and with no Security Council resolution?” an unnamed Obama administration official tells the paper. “If he drops sarin on his own people, what’s that got to do with us?”

    But they concluded that drawing a firm line might deter Mr. Assad. In addition to secret messages relayed through Russia, Iran and other governments, they decided that the president would publicly address the matter.

    Several officials said they recalled no discussion about the “red line” phrase but suspected that it came out of the election-year conversation about Iran and how far to allow its nuclear program to progress before being forced to take action. It was a concept that was “embedded in people’s prefrontal cortex,” one of the officials said.

    While surprised at the president’s use of the term in regard to Syria on Aug. 20, advisers concluded that it had succeeded, at least for a while, since months passed with no chemical weapons attack.

    But if the tough rhetoric "succeeded" for a time, it appears to have backfired in the long-run. Because Syria has now apparently used chemical weapons, and President Obama is not willing to do anything about it.


    In fact, Obama is now downplaying any sort of response, even before settling on a specific response to Syrai crossing the red line.

    “As a general rule, I don’t rule things out as commander in chief because circumstances change and you want to make sure that I always have the full power of the United States at our disposal to meet American national security interests,” Obama commented on Syria, while speaking at news conference in Costa Rica. Then, Obama went on to contradict himself.

    “Having said that, I do not foresee a scenario in which boots on the ground in Syria, American boots on the ground in Syria, would not only be good for America, but also would be good for Syria,” the president said.


    My hunch is the most Obama might do is set up a no-fly zone.

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  25. (Reuters) - Israeli jets bombed Syria on Sunday, rocking Damascus for hours and sending pillars of flame into the night sky in what a Western source called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah.

    Local people reported massive explosions and internet video showed the capital's skyline lit by flashes; Syrian opponents of President Bashar al-Assad rejoiced at Israel's third raid this year, and second in 48 hours, while anger in Tehran highlighted how Syria's civil war risks spinning further beyond its borders.

    Israel, while declining to confirm the strike, stressed its focus was to deny its Lebanese foes new Iranian firepower and not take sides between Assad, long seen as a toothless adversary, and rebels who have won sympathy from Israel's Western allies but who also include al Qaeda Islamists hostile to the Jewish state.

    It appears to calculate that Assad will not risk forces he needs to fight the rebels by attacking a much stronger Israel.

    Syrian state television said the bombing around a military research facility at Jamraya caused "many civilian casualties and widespread damage" and quoted a letter from the foreign minister to the United Nations saying: "The blatant Israeli aggression has the aim to provide direct military support to the terrorist groups after they failed to control territory."

    People living near the Jamraya base spoke of explosions over several hours in various places near Damascus, including a town housing senior officials: "Night turned into day," one man told Reuters from his home near Jamraya, also struck on January 30.

    CNN quoted Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad calling Sunday's attack a "declaration of war", and the Iranian foreign minister urged countries to resist Israel. But a senior Iranian commander also said Syria was strong enough to defend itself without Tehran's help - though he also offered training.

    ROCKETS TARGETED

    A confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel hoped that by not confirming its attack, it would not force its enemies into serious retaliation. There was little response from Hezbollah, Syria or Iran to an earlier attack on the Jamraya compound, near the Lebanese border, on January 30.

    After an Israeli strike on Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama defended Israel's right to defend itself from Hezbollah, which fired many rockets into Israel during a war in 2006.

    A Western intelligence source told Reuters: "In last night's attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah."


    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/05/us-syria-crisis-blasts-idUSBRE94400020130505

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  26. .

    But if the tough rhetoric "succeeded" for a time, it appears to have backfired in the long-run. Because Syria has now apparently used chemical weapons, and President Obama is not willing to do anything about it.

    Syria has "apparantly' used chemical weapons? Who says? What proof do they offer as to when, where, and by whom they were used? Even the warmongering Brits and French admit the amounts found were 'miniscule', that they were provided to them by 'opposition' forces, they refuse to tell where they were used, they can't tell when they were used though they speculate, and they have no proof of who used them; yet all conclude that 'apparently' it was Assad that used them.

    Convenient.

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  27. Wow, I am surprised at the vehemence many are directing at Israel for the Syrian military strike. I think back to folks reactions to US strikes in Iraq...

    but I digress.

    The Middle East could be descending into a broad sectarian conflict. Many sides, many different powers, many different interests.

    Israel has made her bed in the region and now she must sleep in it. It is entirely understandable that Israel has an interest in preventing Hezbollah from obtaining precision guided medium range missiles. Israel, I am sure, has weighed the risks of the strike. She may have miscalculated, or not, but given the unraveling around her it makes for tough decisions. But calling the attacks "terror attacks" and "using WMD" is silly (so is charging the Boston bombers with use of WMD). Heck, the USA in launching "Shock and Awe" explicitly announced the intentional use of terror to effect political change. Hypocrites abound.

    For the US to further enmesh itself in the widening sectarian conflicts of the Middle East would be a mistake for the US I think. For Israel to take action in the region, well, she is firmly embedded in the region.

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    1. Okay, goddammit, who are you? And what have you done with Ash?

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    2. .

      True enough, Ruf.

      He actually does make sense.

      I will have to save my "God bless America and God help Canada" for another time.

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      Delete
    3. I do find it funny - years ago I was vilified for opposing the Iraq adventure (from day 1) and then I was vilified for opposing hard action against Iran (I said many years ago that Iran would probably obtain nuclear weapons and that it wasn't worth a war to stop them) and now, at a place like this, some folk agree with me. I've consistently opposed Israeli expansionism and argued that Israeli actions in that regard (and others - hit us we will hit you harder back is one example) is counter productive. The Palestinians have been done poorly by Israelis and Arabs but also aren't very good actors...

      Maybe some day folk will also adopt a more open immigration policy and a greater commitment to free trade (in labor as well as goods). I'm not holding my breath though, these things happen slowly.

      Delete
    4. and there are a whole host of other issues we can address that will get your dander up - diversity is good, multi-lateral institutions are also a good thing (ummm the UN is more benefit than not) as opposed to cowboy America dictating the rules of the world according to her interest...universal health care.

      all words of wisdom but many unrealized as of yet ;)

      Delete
    5. .

      I knew it wouldn't take long.

      "God bless America. God help Canada."

      :)

      .

      Delete
  28. Astonishing:

    It seemed like a watershed moment for the Affordable Care Act when Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), a staunch Obamacare opponent, embraced the Medicaid expansion in February.

    “While the federal government is committed to paying 100 percent of the costs, I cannot deny Floridians who need access to health care,” Scott told reporters at a press conference.

    Scott wouldn’t be the one to “deny Floridians” a part of the health care law—but the Florida legislature had other plans. Lawmakers adjourned Friday after passing a budget that does not include funding for a Medicaid expansion. Unless the Republican-controlled legislature comes back for a special session later this year—which some Democrats are calling for—Florida will not expand Medicaid in 2014.





    In Florida, where one in five non-elderly residents lack insurance coverage, the consequences are especially large: An estimated 1.3 million Floridians were expected to gain coverage through the the Medicaid expansion.

    Simply beyond belief

    ReplyDelete
  29. . But calling the attacks "terror attacks" and "using WMD" is silly

    Ash does indeed seem to have lately 'risen from the dead', so to speak.

    One would be almost compelled to say welcome to the land of the living, but it is still premature.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Is MEATO being born?

    Israel 'Opting to Contain' Nuclear Iran?
    Report in Sunday Times says U.S. is brokering a deal between Israel, Saudis, Jordan, Turkey and UAE.

    By Gil Ronen
    First Publish: 5/5/2013, 4:32 PM

    Israel is considering partnering with several Sunni-Muslim Arab states in a U.S.-brokered defense alliance that would be aimed at containing a nuclear Iran, the Sunday Times reported, citing an unnamed Israeli official.

    The alliance would see Israel teaming up with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to forge a Middle East "moderate crescent" to "contain" Iran, rather than confront it, according to Russian website RT, which quoted the Times.

    According to the report, such an alliance would give Israel access to radar stations in Saudi Arabia and the UAE in exchange for its own early warning radar information and anti-ballistic missile defense systems, the source told the Sunday Times. The report suggested that Jordan would be protected by Israel’s Arrow long-range anti-missile batteries.

    “The plan is to start with information-sharing about Iran’s ballistic missiles,” said an Israeli official.

    The proposal is reportedly known by participating diplomats as ‘4+1’, and is being brokered by the United States.

    Turkey has dismissed the report. “These are manipulative reports which have nothing to do with the reality,” a Turkish Foreign Ministry official told Hürriyet Daily News.

    Israel and the U.S. have stated clearly in the past that they oppose a policy of containment vis-à-vis Iran. However, retired Mossad head Meir Dagan and other former Israeli security officials have come out strongly against the idea of a military strike on Iran. The report could therefore be a sign that forces within Israel are trying to encourage containment, or it could be a bluff.

    Strategy analyst Mark Langfan believes the initiative is real. "MEATO has been born," he said. "The Middle East Alliance Treaty Organization has been created out of the ashes of Hosni Mubarak's fall."


    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/167735#.UYa7zMqwfrd

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Containment will work, just fine.

      It certainly did with China, Russia and a lessor extent, Pakistan.

      Pakistan ... our best ally, there, is under arrest, there, for treason.

      Delete
  31. It's come to this -

    “The postal workers have a right to fear for their life,” said Quantanya White, 38, a home health-care worker. “It doesn’t give them the right not to deliver the mail. Just because this place is bad, you’re not going to deliver the mail?

    She should be thanked for her concern. The Postal Service needs some kind of Postal Star for those killed, wounded, robbed in the line of duty. Better yet, people should do their business on-line. Whoever writes a real letter anymore anyway.

    Postal workers too scared to deliver mail in crime-ridden Brownsville, Brooklyn

    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/mailmen_deliver_us_from_evil_9TJh9RgtiTv1FGwOw05MOI

    ReplyDelete
  32. Hi there! I could have sworn I've been to your blog before but after looking at a few of the articles I realized it's new to me.

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    ReplyDelete
  33. This Is The World's First Entirely 3D-Printed Gun -

    A tall, sandy blond engineer named John has just pulled a twenty-foot length of yellow string tied to a trigger, which has successfully fired the world’s first entirely 3D-printed gun for the very first time, rocketing a .380 caliber bullet into a berm of dirt and prairie brush.

    “Fuckin’ A!” yells John, who has asked me not to publish his full name. He hurries over to examine the firearm bolted to an aluminum frame. But the first to get there is Cody Wilson, a square-jawed and stubbled 25 year-old in a polo shirt and baseball cap. John may have pulled the trigger, but the gun is Wilson’s brainchild; He’s spent more than a year dreaming of its creation, and dubbed it “the Liberator” in an homage to the cheap, one-shot pistols designed to be air-dropped by the Allies over France during its Nazi Occupation in World War II.

    Unlike the original, steel Liberator, though, Wilson’s weapon is almost entirely plastic: Fifteen of its 16 pieces have been created inside an $8,000 second-hand Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer, a machine that lays down threads of melted polymer that add up to precisely-shaped solid objects just as easily as a traditional printer lays ink on a page. The only non-printed piece is a common hardware store nail used as its firing pin.


    http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/05/meet-the-liberator-test-firing-the-worlds-first-fully-3d-printed-gun/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At over $8,000 dollars only Rat and his rich ranching friends will be able to afford them, though.

      The new toy of choice for the rich fertile bottom land folk.

      ;)

      Delete
    2. Though for keeping the Apache, Hopi, Navajo away from their ancestral homes , the old .30/.30 Winchester is best.

      Delete
  34. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  35. from "I'll meet you in the Park" Department -

    The real capabilities and behavior of the US surveillance state are almost entirely unknown to the American public because, like most things of significance done by the US government, it operates behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy. But a seemingly spontaneous admission this week by a former FBI counterterrorism agent provides a rather startling acknowledgment of just how vast and invasive these surveillance activities are.

    Over the past couple days, cable news tabloid shows such as CNN's Out Front with Erin Burnett have been excitingly focused on the possible involvement in the Boston Marathon attack of Katherine Russell, the 24-year-old American widow of the deceased suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. As part of their relentless stream of leaks uncritically disseminated by our Adversarial Press Corps, anonymous government officials are claiming that they are now focused on telephone calls between Russell and Tsarnaev that took place both before and after the attack to determine if she had prior knowledge of the plot or participated in any way.

    On Wednesday night, Burnett interviewed Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism agent, about whether the FBI would be able to discover the contents of past telephone conversations between the two. He quite clearly insisted that they could:

    BURNETT: Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It's not a voice mail. It's just a conversation. There's no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?

    CLEMENTE: "No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It's not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.

    BURNETT: "So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.

    CLEMENTE: "No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not."

    "All of that stuff" - meaning every telephone conversation Americans have with one another on US soil, with or without a search warrant - "is being captured as we speak".



    Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government?

    A former FBI counter terrorism agent claims on CNN that this is the case

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/04/telephone-calls-recorded-fbi-boston

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are behind the curve, again.

      Q and I discussed this yesterday.
      Are you that self-centered that you ignore what you do not initiate?

      Delete
    2. Probably asleep. I do that sometimes. It might be that I just saw your pic and ignored what you wrote, moved on.

      Delete
    3. Well bob there is yet another example of why I don't bother reading what you write. It was Quirk who made the post the other day but here you go saying you were "asleep" - yeah, asleep but still posting.

      Not only do you constantly post illogical drivel and regurgitate American Thinker nonsense you don't even bother to read what others write. No wonder your posts are so out to lunch.

      Delete
  36. Whistle blowers (Benghazi division) up Wednesday.

    Fox News is reporting there will be testimony that Hilliary and Under Secretary Kennedy ordered the State Department's Emergency/Terrorism Reporting Unit (this label may not be exact) out of the loop/shut down in the early hours of the attack.

    She didn't want to hear about it, what would it matter at that point anyways?

    O Hillary, Hillary, you are going to get burnt someday........the Lord is not mocked......even if you are Hillary.....

    ReplyDelete
  37. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ("God is greatest!")

      Truth is G_D and the followers of Mo run from it like cockroaches in the light.

      Delete
    2. In the United States sometimes it almost feels these days like the slogan is "Hey hey, ho ho, all the theists gotta go".

      Delete
  38. Israel launched airstrikes into Syria for the second time in three days, said Syria and its allies, targeting what it believes are stores of advanced missiles that could be transferred to the militant group Hezbollah, amid new concerns that the Syrian civil war could widen into broader regional conflict.

    Syria's Foreign Ministry sent the United Nations secretary-general a letter on Sunday saying Israeli jets flying over Lebanon fired at three military installations northwest of Damascus near the Lebanese border. The airstrike followed another that took place overnight Thursday and another in January...

    ReplyDelete
  39. U.N. has testimony that Syrian rebels used sarin gas: investigator


    Related News

    Israel bombs Hezbollah-bound missiles in Syria: official
    Sat, May 4 2013
    Bomb blast kills 13 in center of Syrian capital
    Tue, Apr 30 2013
    Syrian prime minister survives Damascus bombing, six die
    Mon, Apr 29 2013
    Syria's neighbors cautious about U.S.-led intervention
    Sun, Apr 28 2013
    "Evidence" of Syria chemical weapons use not up to U.N. standard
    Fri, Apr 26 2013

    Analysis & Opinion

    The global vacuum of power is expanding
    Sarin: The lethal fog of war

    Related Topics

    World »
    United Nations »
    Syria »

    GENEVA | Sun May 5, 2013 6:13pm EDT

    (Reuters) - U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.

    The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

    "Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated," Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.

    "This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities," she added, speaking in Italian.

    Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney-general who also served as prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, gave no details as to when or where sarin may have been used.

    The Geneva-based inquiry into war crimes and other human rights violations is separate from an investigation of the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria instigated by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which has since stalled.

    President Bashar al-Assad's government and the rebels accuse each another of carrying out three chemical weapon attacks, one near Aleppo and another near Damascus, both in March, and another in Homs in December.

    The civil war began with anti-government protests in March 2011. The conflict has now claimed an estimated 70,000 lives and forced 1.2 million Syrian refugees to flee.

    The United States has said it has "varying degrees of confidence" that sarin has been used by Syria's government on its people.

    President Barack Obama last year declared that the use or deployment of chemical weapons by Assad would cross a "red line"

    .http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/05/us-syria-crisis-un-idUSBRE94409Z20130505

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe they are gassing each other, which does have a sort of severe divine poetic ring to it.

      Delete
  40. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Even Ash.....ASH!....shies away from calling the Israeli strike a terrorist attack -

      It is entirely understandable that Israel has an interest in preventing Hezbollah from obtaining precision guided medium range missiles. Israel, I am sure, has weighed the risks of the strike. She may have miscalculated, or not, but given the unraveling around her it makes for tough decisions. But calling the attacks "terror attacks" and "using WMD" is silly.

      Delete
  41. Meanwhile I just go a photo essay from Mat about Netanya, Israel. Lots of photos downtown by a beach.

    Replied asking if he is over there now.

    Looks like a very clean modern place.

    Here is wiki about Netanya ....

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netanya

    Notice the photo from 1930, then compare to today.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Freedom in the 50 states --

    http://freedominthe50states.org/

    Rankings by Mercatus Center

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercatus_Center

    Another view

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/03/29/mercatus_freedom_map_and_the_fallacies_of_libertarianism.html

    ReplyDelete
  43. Least free: New York, California - 50 and 49

    Most free: North Dakota, South Dakota - 1 and 2

    Arizona - 11
    Mississippi - 41
    Utah - 10
    Idaho- 6
    Alaska - 13
    Hawaii - 47
    Pennsylvania - 31
    Texas - 14
    Florida - 23
    Ohio - 33
    Wyoming - 36 (?????)
    Michigan - 35
    Illinois - 45
    Wisconsin - 38

    ReplyDelete
  44. Let’s see if the US and the EU condemn Israel’s air attacks. I doubt it.

    Which would mean, if we are silent, that we approve of them. Silence, to quote Sir Thomas More, gives consent.

    So now the Iranians and Hizballah are accused of intervening in Syria – true, though not to quite extent we are led to believe – and Qatar and Saudi Arabia funnel weapons to the rebels – true, but not quite enough weapons, as the Syrian rebels will tell you – and the Israelis have joined in. We are now militarily involved.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Replies
    1. Fisking, definition -

      Fisk is a pacifist and has never voted.[25] He has said that journalism must "challenge authority, all authority, especially so when governments and politicians take us to war." He has quoted with approval the Israeli journalist Amira Hass: "There is a misconception that journalists can be objective ... What journalism is really about is to monitor power and the centres of power."[26] Speaking on "Lies, Misreporting, and Catastrophe in the Middle East," at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 22 September 2010, Fisk stated, "I think it is the duty of a foreign correspondent to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer, whoever they may be."[27] He has written at length on how much of contemporary conflict has its origin, in his view, in lines drawn on maps: "After the allied victory of 1918, at the end of my father's war, the victors divided up the lands of their former enemies. In the space of just seventeen months, they created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East. And I have spent my entire career—in Belfast and Sarajevo, in Beirut and Baghdad—watching the people within those borders burn."[28]

      The blogosphere term fisking originates from various American conservative blogs, which have taken particular issue with Mr. Fisk, who holds a "very skeptical view of U.S. foreign policy", and his articles and reports. Many of these bloggers have responded by reprinting his dispatches on their blogs, adding their own paragraph-by-paragraph commentary, purportedly dissecting and debunking Fisk's facts and opinions.[29] Irrespective of the success of their endeavour, the term "fisking" has come to denote the practice of "savaging an argument and scattering the tattered remnants to the four corners of the internet".[30]

      In a 2002 appearance at the Cambridge Union Society, actor John Malkovich when asked whom he would most like to "fight to the death", replied that he would "rather just shoot" journalist Robert Fisk and British MP George Galloway.[31] Fisk reacted with outrage at both the comment made by Malkovich and for also "associating me with a jerk like Galloway".[32]



      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_fisk

      Fisk, whose views seem a little contorted by many, can't be all bad if he doesn't like Galloway.

      :)

      Delete
  46. We are not all Dicks -



    Consider the reality we're living in today. Schoolchildren kept in line by use of drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall. Technology that is as exasperating as it is necessary. Criminal syndicates operating at the speed of light from the other side of the world. A president with a record so convoluted and opaque that it's impossible to tell what is false and what isn't. (See Dick's short story, "The Mold of Yancy," in which a presidential candidate is totally unavailable and never seen outside of his video ads, because, it turns out, he doesn't actually exist.) Masses of people living in virtual alternate universes -- game clubs, social media -- in preference to dealing with the world as it exists. An encroaching surveillance state intent on tracking every living individual at all times under every possible circumstance. A would-be aristocracy slowly separating itself from the masses. Effectively invisible weapons that can kill from high altitude without the victim even knowing he was targeted.



    What is this but a Philip K. Dick universe?



    Dick, it seems, was a far superior prophet than the colleagues who disdained him, because, unlike many of them, he had a line on human nature, which never changes.



    So what does Dick have to say about surviving and prevailing in this world?



    Dick had no political solutions. His personal politics was as convoluted as the rest of his personality. He was a man of the "left," but, like Orwell, very much a left of his own devising. He was once thrown out, within a period of weeks, of meetings by the local GOP and the Communist Party, in both cases for asking penetrating questions. He had no use for authoritarian systems (His short story "Faith of our Fathers" is one of the eeriest condemnations of communism ever written, in which the leader of a victorious worldwide communist party is indistinguishable from death itself. When he grips the protagonist's arm, he leaves stigmata that continue bleeding and refuse to heal.)


    May 5, 2013
    Philip K. Dick and Our Predicament
    By J.R. Dunn

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/philip_k_dick_and_our_predicament.html

    From that dreaded right wing site the American Thinker.


    ReplyDelete
  47. Hundreds of thousands of hardline Islamists demanding a new blasphemy law blocked highways and fought running battles with police, leaving three people dead in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka on Sunday, police said.

    ...

    Witnesses said rioting broke out after police tried to intercept stick-wielding protesters, most travelling from remote villages, in front of the country’s largest mosque. Trouble then spread to central districts of Dhaka.

    ReplyDelete
  48. If serial-killing abortionist Kermit Gosnell is convicted and the jury considers the death penalty, perhaps he should seek to avoid the death penalty by pleading the sanctity of life?

    ReplyDelete
  49. It was narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) that women will form the majority of the people of Hell. It was narrated from ‘Imraan ibn Husayn that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “I looked into Paradise and I saw that the majority of its people were the poor. And I looked into Hell and I saw that the majority of its people are women.”

    It seems the best chance one has is to be a poor man.

    Iranian cleric: Immodest women to blame for earthquakes

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/05/iranian-cleric-immodest-women-to-blame-for-earthquakes.html

    ............................

    Montedoro44 | May 5, 2013 10:00 PM | Reply


    Promiscuous women cause quakes —
    They're demonic and making mistakes.
    They're shirking their duties
    When shaking their booties,
    But Islam can put on the brakes.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Canada is so screwed up.

    Pam Geller banned from speaking in a synagogue there.

    So that’s who’s banned. But who’s welcome?

    As I write this, a student group not affiliated with the University of British Columbia is scheduled to host a conference on campus with a guest speaker, named Leila Khaled, appearing via Skype.

    Unlike Geller, Khaled doesn’t believe in peace and security. Khaled is a Palestinian terrorist, convicted of hijacking planes, twice.

    That’s Canadian “diversity, equity and inclusion.” Our police will bully a Jewish rabbi into cancelling a speech from a Jewish New Yorker whose chief contribution to our country was to give Aqsa Parvez a proper gravestone.

    But a convicted terrorist? No problem! Help yourself to our leading universities, paid for by public tax dollars. Maybe police will even provide security — to keep out any troublesome Jews.


    Ezra Levant: Free speech? It appears guest speakers at synagogues now have to register their opinions in advance with police

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/05/ezra-levant-free-speech-it-appears-guest-speakers-at-synagogues-now-have-to-register-their-opinions-.html

    Pam Geller is a New York liberal concerned about sharia, free speech, women's rights, terrorism, and jihadism.

    ReplyDelete
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