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, December 29, 2013

The day after 9/11 America had the moral authority and military means to eradicate Islamic fundamentalism once and for all. Saudi Arabia, The Taliban and al Qaeda should have paid the just price. Bush and the Neocons blew it and we are stuck with the consequences.



The West has lost control of the world and disaster awaits

We're going to need a great of luck to avoid a nuclear catastrophe - and this can be traced back to the First World War and the death of Frederick III in 1888

3:01PM GMT 28 Dec 2013


As we look forward to the First World War commemorations, three stark conclusions are hard to refute. First, that in the course of this century we will need a great deal of luck to avoid a nuclear catastrophe. Second, that the Enlightenment has failed. Third, that this can all be traced back to the Great War.
As a result of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, it seemed that mankind might make a decisive break with the scarcity and oppression that had characterised previous eras. There was, admittedly, one early warning. The French Revolution proved that a radical reconstruction of society on abstract principles was likely to end in tyranny and bloodshed. But after 1815, the 19th century developed into one of the most successful epochs in history. Living standards, life expectancy, productivity, medicine, the rule of law, constitutional government, versions of democracy – there was dramatic progress on all fronts, and in the spread of civilization across the globe.

Then one of the scourges of modern life struck and killed. In 1888, Frederick III became Emperor of Germany. Queen Victoria’s son-in-law, he was a thoughtful man who had an easy relationship with his English relatives. By temperament he was a constitutionalist, a liberal and no enthusiast for militarism. As he had served in the field with distinction, Frederick could have mobilized the prestige to justify his pacific inclinations.

It was not to be. Already in the grip of cancer when he ascended the throne, he lived for only 99 days. There is an irony. Frederick, not a blood relation, would have had much in common with Prince Albert. The new Emperor, William, Albert’s grandson, was more like some of the worst Hanoverian princes. Envious and insecure, he was a strutting little ponce of an emperor: Kaiser Sarkozy.

It is by no means certain that 1914 could have been avoided. There was a great deal of tinder around, and most of the policymakers had a wholly insufficient understanding of the horrors of modern war. But a German emperor of immense authority, who would have been seeking a 20th-century version of the post-1815 settlement, who might even have invented the concept of collective security – it could have worked.
If so, Adolf Hitler’s name might now be gathering dust in a police file: “Failed artist and casually employed house painter, who sometimes tries to rabble-rouse the bierkeller dregs in the poorer quarters. Once spent the night in the cells for causing a disturbance outside a Jewish household…” An early British socialist, Robert Tressell, wrote a novel about house painters, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Without the Great War, Hitler would have been a mere unchronicled ragged-trousered misanthropist.
If only; 1914-1945 was the worst period in European history since the Dark Ages. In 1914, there was talk of “the war to end all wars” – possibly the most fatuous geopolitical mistake of all time. It makes “the new world order” sound like common sense. By the end of the First World War, they were rolling the pitch for the Second. Enlightenment, the Whig theory of history, any other theory based on inevitable and steady improvement: they had all formed a Pals’ battalion and died in the trenches.

The deaths continued. By 1945, Europe was staring into the abyss, and we know what Nietzsche said: “If you stare into the abyss for long enough, it will stare back at you.” The stare was broken, the Third and final war avoided, not by a reassertion of civilised values, but by the atom bomb. Mankind survived because of mutually assured destruction.

Apropos of atomic weapons, there is another terrible thought. If Hitler had not been anti-semitic, he would have won the Second World War. Instead of dismissing atomic/nuclear physics as “Jewish science”, suppose he had persuaded enough Jewish scientists to work for him? He would almost certainly have had the Bomb first. But anti-semitism was at Hitler's black and evil core. In the bleak midwinter, why do we need ghost stories to provide a frisson of pretend horror, when real horror is available in unlimited quantities just by contemplating the last 100 years?

The wars left Britain too exhausted to deal with a brace of imperial difficulties. Even if we had not been so depleted in blood and treasure, India would have been tricky. From Macaulay onwards, the wisest intellects who involved themselves with Indian affairs knew that English rule was a trusteeship, not a 1,000-year Reich. But when it came to India, Churchill’s was not a wise intellect, and he would have had supporters. No wars, therefore no imperial overstretch: assuming that wisdom had prevailed, India could have been brought to independence gradually, not in a post-war scuttle. It could also have been brought to independence as one country – so no Pakistan, that most dangerous of all failed states.

Equally, if there had been no First and Second World Wars, there would have been nothing like the same pressure for a Jewish nation in Palestine. The odd rich philanthropist, satiated with first-growth claret and sick of the falsity of drawing rooms, might have persuaded some similar-minded kibbutzniks of the delights of ditch-digging. As they would probably have paid the previous Arab proprietors 50 times what the land was worth, there might have been no trouble. It should have been possible to create a self-governing Jewish enclave in Palestine for the price of a few broken heads in the odd inter-communal riot.
Without Pakistan, without a chronic and insoluble Palestinian crisis – those two Ps that will continue to torment mankind, no matter how many mattresses are used to squash them – this century would look promising.

As it is, we have the two Ps, and mutually assured destruction is breaking down. It worked during the Cold War, and it has worked between India and Pakistan. Could it work between Israel and Iran? Could the Iranians be trusted not to hand some stuff out at the back door? For that matter, is it inconceivable that there could be a seepage from Pakistan? What about miniaturisation? A couple of hundred quid in a high-street computer shop will buy you something more powerful than the Pentagon’s computer resources 40 years ago. All other forms of technology are becoming smaller, cheaper and more accessible. Is nuclear weaponry really immune from that?


While the whole world was turned upside down in the 20th century, Islamic societies were not immune. Though it would be absurd to talk as if Islam was the same from Morocco to Malaysia, there are forces and fractures in the Muslim world, many of them related to religion; some of them producing young men who hate us and everything we stand for. The West has lost control, and it all started in 1888. We will need a lot of good fortune to steer through the next few decades. Happy New Year.

231 comments:

  1. As they would probably have paid the previous Arab proprietors 50 times what the land was worth, there might have been no trouble.


    AH yes the jews PAID for the land..

    Not stole.. Bought and Paid for it...

    One would expect to see commonplace examples of Jews stealing, strong-arming, swindling, blackmailing; basically resorting to any trick up their sleeve to pry land out of Arab hands. In reality, the Jewish technique of accumulating land was simple ... they bought it. Both the concern and the complaints of Jews dispossessing Arabs centered on how much land the Jews were purchasing, not stealing, from land owners:

    The British investigation into the Arab riots during 1936-39 identifies "Arab alarm at the continued Jewish purchase of land"1, not Jewish theft of land, as one of the motivating factors.


    "Conversely, the main Ottoman and Arab complaint against the Zionists was about land sales ..."2


    "Meanwhile, Jewish land purchase continued apace, exacerbating Palestinian disquiet."3


    "Arab discontent on account of Jewish immigration and the sale of lands to Jews which has been a permanent feature of political opinion in Palestine for the past ten years, began to show signs of renewed activity from the beginning of 1933, developing in intensity until it reached a climax in the riots of October and November."4

    ReplyDelete
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    1. "In the beginning of the 1930s, the national value of the land and its transfer from one people to the other became one of the main issues in the political conflict between the two communities. The Arabs insisted that His Majesty's Government put an end to land purchase by the Jews, claiming that it threatened their national existence."5


      "Though they had profited from the enhanced trade and employment opportunities generated by the new Jewish settlements, Palestinian Arabs had grown increasingly concerned about the rise of Jewish immigration and land purchases."
      6

      "An article published in July 1911 by Mustafa Effendi Tamr, a teacher of mathematics at a Jerusalem school" reads, "You are selling the property of your fathers and grandfathers for a pittance to people who will have no pity on you, to those who will act to expel you and expunge your memory from your habitations and disperse you among the nations. This is a crime that will be recorded in your names in history, a black stain and disgrace that your descendants will bear, which will not be expunged even after years and eras have gone by. ... Opposition to land sales was one of the principal focal points around which the Arab national idea in Palestine coalesced."
      7

      Delete
    2. "Of course, the Zionists bought the land from Arab landholders, who moved to cities or even left the country. They were all too willing to sell, for the price paid by the purchasers was often many times more than anyone else would or could pay."
      32

      King Abdallah of Jordan complains several times in his memoirs about Jews acquiring land in Palestine. Not once does he accuse the Jews of stealing it from the Arabs. Each time he mentions it, the complaint is how much land they are buying:

      "... the fears of the Arab political leaders are supported by the fact that the sale of land continues unrestricted and every day one piece of land after another is torn from the hands of the Arabs.
      8

      "According to my information the Jews have requested the continuance of the mandate so that they can buy up more land and bring in additional immigrants. No other country has gone through such a trial as Palestine."
      9

      "Or are you among those who believe that there is no harm in continuing the present deleterious mandate despite the Jewish usurpers it has brought and despite the demonstrated inability of those Palestinians now at the political helm to prevent their compatriots from selling their land? Furthermore, it is made quite clear to all, both by the map drawn up by the Simpson Commission and by another compiled by the Peel Commission, that the Arabs are as prodigal in selling their land as they are in useless wailing and weeping."
      10

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    3. "‘Know each of you that in the end every Arab who sells land of the Arab patrimony or who pimps for the Jews will soon receive his due, which is certain death.’ The placards were signed by an organization calling itself ‘Revenge.’ ‘Our problem is the outcome of the sale of our land. The amazing thing is that we sell to the Jews and then scream and wail and ask for the government’s help,’"11


      "The land policy of the Zionist movement in the pre-state era was based on purchase of land on the open market by Jewish institutions (mainly the JNF) and subsequent freezing of the ownership so as to ensure that the purchased land would be in Jewish hands in perpetuity."33

      Delete
    4. Not only was the land being legally purchased, it was being purchased at drastically inflated prices. Arab land owners were making a killing selling their land during the waves of Jewish immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite the animosity against selling land to Jews coming from elitist Arabs, it simply made good economic sense for landlords to sell while they could exploit the thriving market Jewish demand was creating. Sometimes the land being purchased was nothing more than sand dune, malarial swamps and marshes, or other unattractive plots of waste. Even so, it was payday for many landlords; a day many hadn't seen in a long time and one that wouldn't come again:

      "Until 1936 ... the Jews acquired about 25,000 dunam in the Beit-Shean Valley ... The soil was of the poorest quality, in scattered parcels of land, and it was impossible to establish even one settlement on it. The Jewish purchasers paid the full price for these lands; in addition the Government compelled them to cover all the outstanding debts that the sellers had accumulated. (In most cases not one penny of these bad debts had been paid for years.)"12


      "The Jewish authorities have nothing with which to reproach themselves in the matter of the Sursock lands. They paid high prices for the land, and in addition they paid to certain of the occupants of those lands a considerable amount of money which they were not legally bound to pay."13


      "He [the Arab] may sell his land for a fantastic price and add to the congestion in the other zones by moving there. An Arab living a short distance away, just across the zone boundary, cannot obtain anything approximating the same sum for land of equal quality.”14


      "The Jews were paying exorbitant prices to wealthy landowners for small tracts of arid land. “In 1944, Jews paid between $1,000 and $1,100 per acre in Palestine, mostly for arid or semiarid land; in the same year, rich black soil in Iowa was selling for about $110 per acre."15

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    5. "The settlers were ready to pay much more than the economic value of the land. The same or better land is available a few kilometers to the east or north of the Palestine frontiers at one tenth or less of the Palestinian price."16


      “Between 1880 and 1914 over sixty thousand Jews entered Palestine … Many settled on wasteland, sand-dunes and malarial marsh, which they then drained, irrigated and farmed. In 1909 a group of Jews founded the first entirely Jewish town, Tel Aviv, on the sandhills north of Jaffa. The Jews purchased their land piecemeal, from European, Turkish and (principally) Arab landlords, mostly at extremely high prices.”17


      “By 1925 over 2,600 Jews had settled in the [Jezreel] valley, and 3,000 acres of barren hillside had been afforested. This previously uncultivated land, bought at highly inflated prices, became the pattern of all subsequent Jewish National Fund settlements in Palestine.”18


      "In his 'note of reservations' to the Report of the Woodhead Commission, Sir Alison Russel says: 'It does not appear to me that to permit an Arab to sell his land for three or four times its value, and to go with the money to a different part of the Arab world where land is cheap, can be said to "prejudice" his rights and position.'"19


      "The average price paid by Jews for the rural land they bought in Palestine during 1944 amounted to over $1000 per acre or about $250 per dunam (including the value of buildings, orchards and other improvements). These prices are, of course, highly inflated …"20

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    6. "... land brokers sometimes purchased their shares or parcels at a very low price and sold them at ten and twenty multiples to Jewish buyers. Peasants who were in musha' villages were particularly incensed at landlords, land brokers, or agents after learning that they had been swindled."21


      "Aharon Danin of KKL told of an interesting conversation he had at the beginning of the 1940s with Khaled Zu’bi (brother of Sayf al-Din), who helped him buy land in the Zu’biyya villages east of Nazareth: He [Zu’bi] said, ‘Look, who knows better than me that your work is pure. You pay money for everything, top dollar, many times more than what the land is worth. But that doesn’t change the fact that you are dispossessing us. You are dispossessing us with money, not by force, but the fact is that we are leaving the land.’ I say to him: ‘You are from this Zu’biyya tribe which is located here, in Transjordan, and in Syria, what difference does it make to you where you are, if you are here or if you and your family are there? …’ He said: ‘It’s hard for me to tell you, but in any case the graves of my forefathers are here. I feel that we are leaving this place. It’s our fault and not yours.’"30

      Delete
  2. http://www.middleeastpiece.com/dispossession_jewishmethods.html

    ReplyDelete
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    1. It goes on and on..

      Jews BOUGHT the land way above market prices...

      Delete
    2. This is the SAME JNF that rat complains owns land...

      Delete
  3. "The Arab large landowner quickly recognized that he could now do much better business with his land than continuing to have it worked by tenants. ... It was valid to sell it to the newly arrived [Jewish and German] colonist and indeed for the highest possible price. What was to happen to the renter for whom the land was ... sold from under his feet concerned the effendi very little. The tenant was just tossed out onto the street and had to take to his heels. So the colonization became an uninterrupted source of tenant tragedies. On the other hand, the price of land rose in an unimaginable manner."22

    In addition to the inflated land value, Jewish buyers were also making numerous and substantial (some might say extortionist) payments to see the deal through from beginning to end. "Initial sums were usually paid to lubricate the selling motive. Local village notables, tenants in occupation, mukhtars, intermediaries, brokers, short-term squatters, and land registry officials often received persuasive sums. The owner or owners also received a sum of money prior to signing the contract. This could mean paying several similar or different sums to members of one family who owned portions of a large land area. A subsequent payment was sometimes made when all the title deeds available were collected and condensed into one large parcel. Another payment was made when a portion of the land was legally transferred or prior to the land being considered free of tenants and agricultural occupants. Still another sum was paid when possession was taken (this to avoid squatting by transient fellaheen), and then periodically as stipulated in a contract."31

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    1. A Bit of Hypocrisy

      It was the Arab political leadership that was screaming the loudest about stopping these land sales: "The Arab Press lost nothing of its virulence in inveighing against ... the transfer of land to Jews ... The Arab leaders have been more outspoken and less compromising in their hostility ..."23 Of course, rendering these protests utterly disingenuous was the fact these same Arabs continued selling their land to immigrating Zionists. These elitist hypocrites wanted to reserve the right to profit from the suddenly valuable land in Palestine while denying other debt-ridden land owners the same option.

      "The historian's eye has also been caught by the ambivalent position of the Arab national leadership which, while publicly demanding an end to Zionist expansion, privately continued to sell land to the Jews."24


      "Here one cannot ignore the continuous sale of land by Arab landowners to Jews in the 1930s, which was so crucial to the success of Zionism. This can be treated in the context of the social fragmentation of Arab society in Palestine: some Arabs sold land for profit and thus deprived other Arabs of their only means of livelihood. Moreover, some of the national leaders themselves profited from land sales, despite their national consciousness."25


      "Throughout the Mandate, the leading Arab families, including Husseinis and Opposition figures, sold land to the Zionists, despite their nationalist professions. Jewish landholding increased between 1920 and 1947 from about 456,000 dunams to about 1.4 million dunams. The main brake on Jewish land purchases, at least during the 1920s and 1930s, was lack of funds, not any Arab indisposition to sell."26


      "And a giant question mark hangs over the “nationalist” ethos of the Palestinian arab elite: Husseinis as well as Nashashibis, Khalidis, Dajanis, and Tamimis just before and during the Mandate sold land to the Zionist institutions and/or served as Zionist agents and spies."27

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    2. "Muhammad Nimer al-Hawwari, who headed the Najjadah, took the microphone at a rally in Jaffa and said, ‘For twenty years we have heard talk against land brokers and land sellers, yet here they sit in the front rows at every national gathering.’ The rally’s organizers reacted swiftly; they turned off the loudspeakers."28


      "The rural elite, with their large landholdings, were accused of opportunism by fellahin, who declared: ‘They, the effendis, sold their lands to the Jews, they are the intermediaries between us and the Jews in the sale of land, they exploit us with usurious interest and head the gangs that abused us.’"29

      An initial contrast between the way Arab money lenders and merchants acquired land through economic oppression and trickery versus the way Zionist immigrants acquired land through paying exorbitant sums of money offers no answers for why conflict erupted. In fact, considering only the methods of land acquisition apart from any issue it would seem the arrival of Jewish immigrants and their money would have ended hostilities that should have already been in place. It cannot be suggested by any reasonable account that Jewish land purchases oppressed or dispossessed the legal owners of the land being sold. That was a willful agreement reached between two parties. The catch here was the tenant farmers that lived and worked the land being sold. These were often times the previous owners who had already been dispossessed of their ownership before Jewish immigrants arrived. Now with interested Jewish buyers available, the same Arabs guilty of demoting these farmers to tenant status were selling the land out from under them to turn a profit.

      The reason this was such a concern was that Jewish buyers wanted the land free of tenant farmers. Unlike absentee Arab landlords living in Damascus, Beirut, and Cairo, the Jews desired to live and work on the plots they bought. Certainly the new Jewish owners were within their rights to expect the land they had spent so much money for would not have to be shared, but we are looking to explain why this dispossession led to conflict, not to justify owners' rights which do not require a defense.

      Perhaps the physical act of relocation was of greater psychological consequence than losing intangible ownership and therefore accounts for why conflict only arose against the Jews. Yes, it was the Arab elite who stripped them of this ownership through a series of oppressive measures and then in a second pass sold away the land they used, but it was typically not until the Jews arrived that the Arabs faced the physical consequences of relocation.

      Delete
  4. As usual, you miss the point. You have no clue how to edit and you shoot your mouth off to no effect.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it's called context. Not proof texting.

      try READING the entire article...

      not just bullet points.

      Delete
  5. Keep it up and I’ll edit them for you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AND YET YOU NEVER EDIT THE RAT'S SPAM POSTS OF 5TH COLUMN?

    One standard for Jews, none for the anti-Semitic crap repeatedly posted day after day?

    Can you address that?

    ReplyDelete
  7. the point is that the Arabs were and are greedy pricks.

    No land that the arabs stole and sold back to the rightful owners was set at high enough a price.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As for Pakistan? Another land stolen by Islam.

      Delete
    2. the article posted was a bunch of "what if's".

      If the Queen had balls she'd be King.

      If only ww1 & 2 didn't occur Israel would be a small unimportant enclave...

      Delete
  8. The author has oversimplified the problem of land acquisition in Palestine. Prior to WWII, Jewish agents had purchased hundreds of thousands of acres in Palestine at rapaciously high prices. However, land is not the issue; but who lives on the land is. Wherever Muslims come into contact with those of other faiths there is violent friction. Look to Lebanon, Coptic Egypt, and Iraq's Syrian Christians: it is the same old story. As to Jews, when Mark Twain visited Jerusalem he reported that the city was a dump inhabited primarily by Jews. Long before Zionism, Jews were routinely persecuted by their Muslim overlords.

    It is the failure to recognize that Islam is not so much a religion as a political manifesto that led to the inaction of the US following 9/11. Our political correctness has led to thousands of our troops being killed and horrifically wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our political correctness will be the death of us.

    As any fool would know, any nuclear exchange will grow into a conflagration that will destroy not just Western Civilization, but civilization as a global whole. As Einstein observed about WW IV, it would be fought with rocks and sticks.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bernard Lewis is a great intellectual who has produced some of the best modern analyses of the Muslim world. His works are a must read for those hoping to make some sense of what has overtaken the West.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shh... don't tell them about Samuel Huntington either...

      Delete
  10. 5 rockets shot into Israel yesterday..

    The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) vowed on Sunday to locate the site where two Katyusha rockets were launch from Lebanon into Israel earlier in the day.

    After the projectiles landed in Israel near the norther city of Kiryat Shmona and the ensuing IDF response of massive artillery fire, UNIFIL head, Commander Major-General Paolo Serra immediately contacted the Lebanese Armed Forces and the IDF.

    Serra said, “This is a very serious incident in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701 and is clearly directed at undermining stability in the area. UNIFIL’s first imperative is to ensure that there is no further escalation of the situation and I have been assured by the parties of their full cooperation with UNIFIL in this effort and of their continued commitment to the cessation of hostilities.”


    LOL

    I am sure Israel is waiting with baited breathe to learn who is responsible for shooting truck sized rockets...

    ReplyDelete
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    1. 2 weeks ago, a member of the Lebanese Army, using a 50 cal sniper rifle assassinated an Israeli IDF member.

      The KNOWN Lebanese soldier returned to base and "turned" himself in. (of course now he is being given a medal and a feast)

      Israel is still waiting for the UNIFIL report.

      Maybe Israel should just bomb the barracks when the Lebanese are sleeping as punishment?

      Sounds fair..

      Delete
  11. now this is rich... 20,000 palestinians are starving to DEATH, and I am not exaggerating.. to death in SYRIA

    Israel has offered to allow them passage into the west bank, under the condition that this relocation/settlement absolves Israel of any future claim by them to returning to Israel. Abbas of course, refused.

    So now 5 died this week from starvation due to Assad's starvation tactic.

    Better they should die then compromise about "right of return" to Israel. Living good lives in the West Bank aint GOOD enough.. better to let them starve to death.


    Sunday, December 29, 2013
    Abbas orders Immediate Food Supplies to Yarmouk Camp in Syria
    Abbas orders Immediate Food Supplies to Yarmouk Camp in Syria
    http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=23914

    RAMALLAH, December 28, 2013 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas ordered
    Saturday dispatch of immediate food supplies to Yarmouk refugee camp in
    Syria due to the difficult situation the camp is going through.

    Abbas ordered Palestine’s ambassador to Syria and other official parties to
    immediately act to facilitate entry of these supplies.

    The president’s decision came following reports that five Palestinian
    refugees have died of hunger in the besieged camp.

    Yarmouk has been under siege by the Syrian army for several months. No one
    has been allowed in or out of the camp since then, including the United
    Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, which is
    responsible for all Palestinian refugee camps in the region.

    UNRWA Commissioner General Filippo Grandi said in an earlier appeal that
    “humanitarian conditions in the besieged refugee camp of Yarmouk are
    worsening dramatically and that we are currently unable to help those
    trapped inside.”

    He said that the situation has progressively deteriorated since the camp,
    the largest refugee camp in Syria, was engulfed in the Syria conflict a year
    ago and that 20,000 Palestinians remain trapped inside it.

    “Although very alarming reports of hardship and hunger have continued to
    multiply, since September 2013 we have been unable to enter the area to
    deliver desperately needed relief supplies,” he said.

    Finding themselves increasingly isolated, some 150,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria — there are approximately 350,000 in total in the country — were forced to flee the Yarmouk refugee camp located outside Damascus due to attacks, including an aerial bombardment, by the Bashar Assad regime. Their flight has created a humanitarian crisis in Damascus; others have fled to Lebanon and Jordan, reportedly causing those countries to become increasingly hostile to their presence there.
    According to the report, head of Hamas in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh told UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, that the Gaza Strip couldn’t take in Syria’s Palestinian refugees due to an ideological issue: If they take in the refugees from Syria, Israel could use it against them when it comes to the Palestinians’ demand for the “right to return” to villages inside present day Israel, by pointing out that the refugees no longer need to return to Israel because they have been relocated to new homes in the Gaza Strip.
    The Palestinian Authority’s refusal stems from a different reason — a financial one. The PA, which, according to the report, initially inquired about absorbing the Palestinian refugees in Syria, has experienced severe budget cuts and has begged Arab leaders for millions of dollars in loans to solve its debt crisis. The PA’s coffers have been hurt following Israel’s decision not to hand over PA tax revenues and other related payments in the wake of President Mahmoud Abbas’s successful UN bid for nonmember observer status in November.
    In December, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, citing the fragile situation of the Palestinian refugees in Syria, called on Damascus’s neighbors, including Israel, to open their borders to them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now that's funny... 150,000 HOMELESS Palestinians, selling their daughters into slavery, is ok... RATHER than simply find a place to live in the West Bank.

      Delete
  12. Lebanese army to receive $3 billion from Saudi ‘to purchase French arms’

    Will Hezbollah get a warm welcome home? The Saudis have something in mind.

    This is a drop in the bucket compared to the $110 billion USD contracts NSA had with Israel, according to Desert Rat, but the Saudis are sending a signal.

    ReplyDelete
  13. What is "Occupation"Sun Dec 29, 01:17:00 PM EST

    Their flight has created a humanitarian crisis in Damascus; others have fled to Lebanon and Jordan, reportedly causing those countries to become increasingly hostile to their presence there.

    As some may recall, the Jordanians expelled the PLO from Jordan decades ago, creating a refugee crisis in the process. Jordan killed thousands of Palestinians when it became obvious that Arafat was working to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nobody likes the Palestinians, except as a stick with which to poke Israel.

      Nobody wants them.

      Delete
  14. Mourners chant anti-Hezbollah slogans at funeral of assassinated Lebanese ex-minister

    Hezbollah is the only group that kept its weapons after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, saying they were needed for defense against Israel, but it has also become one of Lebanon's most powerful political forces.

    ReplyDelete
  15. "DeuceSun Dec 29, 11:51:00 AM EST

    Keep it up and I’ll edit them for you"

    *********
    Please don't. I read it all. Found it informative.

    It's in agreement with what I have read in books.

    Much of the land was owned by Turkish absentee landowners. I think a lot was purchased from them. They were far away and much of it had gone to waste. They were happy to get something for it.

    When the Jews got it up and producing and doing things, many Bedouin came in from the desert looking for work.

    This may seem out of character, a Bedouin looking for work, but on the other hand burning camel dung for heat gets old after a while too.

    I'd cite the two books I've read on the subject but it was so long ago the authors and names escape me. One was by a Jewish fellow the other by a Gentile.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If anyone deserves to be edited out of existence here it is Whackopath.

      Day after day, week after week, he fills the place up with trash and slanders.

      And the same old trash and slanders, too. Endlessly repeated.

      Just on the grounds of being boring in the extreme a little editing might be in order.



      Delete
  16. "The day after 9/11 America had the moral authority and military means to eradicate Islamic fundamentalism once and for all. Saudi Arabia, The Taliban and al Qaeda should have paid the just price. Bush and the Neocons blew it and we are stuck with the consequences."

    This seems a little ironic. Bush and the "Neocons" whoever they may be are usually criticizes for being warmongers, but in this outlook they seem to be criticized for not warmongering enough.

    Bush and the "Neocons" just can't catch a break here.

    They are, basically, always found "guilty" of simply breathing.

    I do like the sounds of " to eradicate Islamic fundamentalism once and for all", though.

    Has the nice ring of finality to it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/12/jesus_was_middle_class.html

    Jesus was middle class.

    Off topic, but interesting, but interesting article.

    This is old news though.

    Jesus left his middle class life and went on the adventure.

    It seems to sell better these days in our society thinking of him as a poor fellow.

    The Buddha on the other hand left his castle for his adventure, but this doesn't prejudice the man in those societies.

    Whether leaving one's humble hut, one's home, or one's castle, the adventure is the same.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Join the Probation Movement Now !!

    ********

    Time to go hunt up the Seattle Seahawks game.

    Sam, I gave you a link last thread.

    later......

    ReplyDelete
  19. Israel’s population reaches more than 8 million at year’s end

    Sunday’s data showed that 75.2% of the country – approximately 6.1 million Israelis – are Jewish. The Arab population of Israel, which includes Muslims, Arab-Christians, and Druse, is 20.6% – 1.6 million. The remaining 4% of Israel’s population – 348,000 – are either non-Arab Christians, individuals practicing another religion, or those with no religious affiliation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. The Jews in Jerusalem ...The Nazis in Germany…the Japanese in Shanghai…

      Treating people as less than human because
      of the shape of their faces or the sound of their names.

      Sometimes it feels like the whole damn world is unraveling.



      bob

      Delete
  20. Justin Veltung, #19, is the punt return guy for the StL Rams. He was one of ours, but not one of those that trashed the place.

    It is good to see he has a special teams starting position.

    Go Justin !

    Seahawks ahead 7 - 0 right now on an interception returned for a touchdown.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (he's the kid you had the nice mom from Boise)

      Delete
    2. Correction, that would be Derek W. whose nice mom was from Boise.

      Seattle 13
      StL 0

      halftime

      Delete
    3. Justin Veltung got injured on the third return and looks to be out for the day........:(

      Delete
    4. Seattle 27
      St Louis 9

      Final

      Big melee during 3rd quarter........

      Penalty flags everywhere.......

      Delete
  21. It makes Al Gore feel good if the power companies burn fossil fuels and send the power for your electric car over wires than if you burn fossil fuels locally in an internal combustion engine. It's like how calories don't count on a woman's birthday.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Are you and Miss Fely at the football game today, Miss T?

    Haven't caught sight of you in the crowd yet.........

    ReplyDelete
  23. .

    Well, I stop in to see if anything has changed since I took off for the holidays and I see it hasn't.

    I started reading the first post and gave up. Little changes.

    When the British Mandate ended, Jews owned 7% of the land in Palestine, owned it in the sense that they purchased it as someone would purchase a lot in Idaho. Under Resolution 181 had it been approved by the UN SC, they would have received 56% of the land in Palestine including areas in which there were significant Arab majorities. Now, sixty-five years later, they possess 100% of Palestine.

    The res of this, talk of peace treaties, 'historic' homelands, et al is all justification and rationalization, in other words, bullshit and hypocrisy.

    You all have a happy New Year.

    .

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quirk, thanks for IGNORING Jordan, Gaza Strip and most of the West bank.

      Your ability to understand the issue?

      Pretty pathetic.

      Happy New Year moron.

      Delete
    2. Thread's most mis-leading, stupid statement: "Now, sixty-five years later, they possess 100% of Palestine"


      Delete


    3. “His own chocolate center has filled up with poison,
      the roses he gave her all twisted black”

      ― Terra Elan McVoy, After the Kiss

      Delete
    4. .

      Your ability to understand the issue?

      I understand the issue perfectly being divorced from the need to justify or rationalize in any way.

      Thread's most mis-leading, stupid statement: "Now, sixty-five years later, they possess 100% of Palestine"

      I usually pick my words pretty carefully. I'll leave the reality of the situation to others to judge.

      Palestine<

      Check it out.

      Possess (from WIKI Answers):

      What is the meaning of 'possess'?

      In: Definitions and Word Differences [Edit categories]

      Answer:
      To posses something can mean two different things.
      When you posses an object it means that you own/control/or are holding it.
      Another example is if someone is possesed with something.
      i.e she was possesed by a monster.


      Lest you get too upset, I was referring to the first meaning. Using the first meaning, 'possess' is perfectly apt. Isreal holds the West Bank and controls Gaza. They possess Palestine. To assume there will ever be a Palestinian state flies in the face of the reality we have witnessed over the past 45 years. I've stated the reasons Israel will never give up the West Bank before. If you need them repeated, I'll do them after the New Year.

      As for Gaza, they are surrounded on three sides by Israel and have a closed border with Egypt. You can say it's Egypt's responsibility all you want but in fact it is Israel that controls the Gaza, de facto is not de jure. They tell the Gazan's not only what they can eat but also how much they can eat. They tell them what they can sell. The cannot freely sell their natural gas resources because Israel demands that any gas be pumped through Israel. Israel controls what materials and how much comes into Gaza. Israel controls who can come into or leave Gaza. Israel controls Gaza.

      Possess is a perfectly good word to use when stating Israel possesses 100% of Palestine.

      .

      Delete
    5. Your grasp of reality?

      Sucks.

      You ignore Jordan. You play loose and fast with definition while ignoring fact.

      Needless to say but I will say it anyway, You are retarded on this issue.

      Delete
    6. Well, forgive old Quirk. He is not the "critical thinker" he sometimes tries to make himself as being.......never the less he is mostly among the angels, and it is good to know he is still among the quick.

      I was beginning to worry he was in the can for DUI.

      Which is possible of course. He may have just bailed out........

      I have seen this movie before.......he will plead solo contender and act on his own half winking and strutting for the ladies. Irresistible, he will hang the jury, and walk......what's a blood alcohol content of .20 on Christmas Eve when the ladies find you irresistible?

      Have a Happy New Year, Ouirk-O.

      Delete
    7. And we love the way he is always struggling with the meanings of words......

      He can even answer the question of what the meaning of is, is.......

      Hint: it depends on the situation......

      :)

      Delete
    8. Quirk, a lapsed Catholic, in violation of all sorts of Canon Law, and originator of the famous phrase "Life Sucks" -- Quirk nearly became a Lutheran when he first read, but did not truly understand, Luther's advice to 'sin bravely'.

      With the dawning of a more correct understanding of such things he didn't like what he heard, as he was searching for something to allow him 'to do what you will', which is what he always does in any case.....and turned to a branch of ethics and knowledge known as Situational Ethics..

      It is from the linguistics branch of this......Situation Meanings.......that Quirk gets his meanings of words these days........he has hoodwinked more than one Jury with this kind of horseshit, I can tell you that....

      ;)

      Delete

    9. I never told my own religion nor scrutinized that of another.

      I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change another's creed.
      I am satisfied that yours must be an excellent religion to have produced a life of such exemplary virtue and correctness.

      For it is in our lives, and not from our words,
      that our religion must be judged.

      ― Thomas Jefferson

      Delete
    10. .

      You ignore Jordan. You play loose and fast with definition while ignoring fact.

      Of course, I ignore Jordan, you idiot. Jordan (Transjordan) has always been a separate entity from Palestine from the days of the initial discussions leading up to the mandate. If you've got a problem, talk to England and France. Who in their right mind when speaking of Palestine today considers Jordan as part of it?

      My comment was regarding Israel and its role in Palestine. What's Jordan got to do with that?

      .

      .

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

      Delete
    12. .

      You ignore Jordan. You play loose and fast with definition while ignoring fact.

      As for ignoring facts, I gave you the facts at

      QuirkSun Dec 29, 06:09:00 PM EST

      You dispute them by saying, "Well, what about Jordan?"

      Retarded?

      Try looking in the mirror.

      .





      Delete
    13. .

      Bob,

      Happy New Year to you too.

      [As an aside, I would suggest as a New Year's resolution that you separate your posts by subject matter. I don't mind your banter with me. Some of it even rises to the point of being mildly amusing. However, when you tie it to a particular post as you did in this case it gives the impression that you are as much a buffoon as your buddy. Just saying.]

      .

      Delete
    14. .

      Whoops, I see the link I tried put in my post at

      QuirkSun Dec 29, 08:21:00 PM EST

      didn't take. Normally, I would apologize but since the post was directed at WiO, a guy who claims to be pretty knowledgeable about Palestine, it probably wasn't necessary anyway. However, I am reposting the link to point out one other thing that comes up here on occasion

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

      Before you get to the various maps showing Palestine, take a look at the Overview section that lays out who controlled the region over the past 4000 years.

      .

      Delete
    15. Jordan is Palestine.

      Cut off of the mandate, cut off from the Jews. It is, in fact Palestine.

      Delete
  24. Pakistan's former military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, said Sunday that the country's civilian government and courts are pursuing a vendetta against him, days before his landmark treason trial is set to begin.

    The court hearing, due to begin Wednesday, would be the first time that a former Pakistani military ruler has faced prosecution.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Those Pakistani, they treat treason seriously.

      Why they may even feel vendettas are justified, targeting Treasonous Traitors, Fifth Columnists .and Spies.

      Just look at how they treat their women!


      bob

      Delete

    2. A raped girl is bad for the family: it shows that they can’t protect their women;
      that they have little social standing; and that they’re not respectable.

      It’s worse for the victim because once a woman, or a girl—or a boy—is known as the target of a rape she becomes so despised, so shamed, so worthless that she turns into public property.

      No one is raped only once.

      ― Louise Brown,
      The Dancing Girls of Lahore:
      Selling Love and Saving Dreams in Pakistan's Pleasure District



      bob

      Delete
  25. For those who disapprove of Israel's policies regarding distribution of land, offer an alternative. It is easy to become frustrated with the status quo. Offer, then, a constructive opinion.

    The JP is reporting that an Israeli committee has voted to annex the Jordan Valley. Livni is going to try to appeal the finding but has little hope of succeeding.

    Oh, Kerry wants to put American boots on the ground in the Jordan Valley to guarantee Israel's security. We have been in Afghanistan for twelve years and there is no security for our own troops. Amazing...

    I almost forgot, Israel does not want American boots on the ground. It is difficult enough dealing with Palestinian human shields.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Three key features characterize Israeli apartheid:

      • Four million Palestinians in the Occupied Territories lack the right to vote for the government that controls their lives through a military occupation.

      In addition to controlling the borders, air space, water, tax revenues, and other vital matters pertaining to the Occupied Territories,
      Israel alone issues the identity cards that determine the ability of Palestinians to work and their freedom of movement.


      • About 1.2 million Palestinian Israelis, who make up 20 percent, or one-fifth, of Israel’s population, have second-class citizenship within Israel, ...
      ... which defines itself as a Jewish state rather than a state for all its citizens.

      More than 20 provisions of Israel’s principal laws discriminate, either directly or indirectly, against non-Jews, according to Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Rights in Israel.

      Millions of Palestinians remain refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere, unable to return to their former homes ...
      ... and land in present-day Israel.

      Even though the right of return for refugees is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.




      bob

      Delete
  26. House lawmakers on Sunday disputed a new report that concludes Al Qaeda played no role in the fatal 2012 terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

    The report, published Saturday in The New York Times, found no evidence that Al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had a role in the assault that killed four Americans on Sept. 11, 2012, and that it appeared that the attack was fueled in large part by anger at an American-made anti-Islamic video, as the Obama administration first claimed.

    ReplyDelete
  27. In 1948, at least five Arab armies attempted to militarily overwhelm the new Jewish state, contrary to the oaths they had taken to gain membership in the UN. Most of the Arab states were themselves relatively new creations. Israel survived. Jordan successfully annexed what is now called the West Bank and ethnically cleansed it.

    In 1956, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, contrary to international law. Britain, France, and Israel attempted to return the Canal to the status quo ante. Eisenhower intervened and Nasser got his canal.

    In 1967, contrary to law, Nasser shut the Suez Canal to Israeli traffic. Furthermore, he attempted to blockage Israel's port on the Red Sea. Additionally, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan moved troops and armor across "red lines". Israel defended itself and defeated the Arabs in detail.

    In 1973, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan attacked Israel without provocation. Israel defeated the Arab forces again.

    Following Lebanon's turning a blind eye to PLO incursions and artillery attacks into northern Israel, war was waged in 1982, with Israel driving Arafat out of the ME.

    Under the circumstances, I think Israel has been suicidally tolerant. Israel needs to determine its own secure boundaries, annex the land, and leave the world to stew. There may never be a better time.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. “Do you know, Mother, that Haj Salem was buried alive in his home?

      Does he tell you stories in heaven now?

      I wish I had had a chance to meet him.
      To see his toothless grin and touch his leathery skin.
      To beg him, as you did in your youth, for a story from our Palestine.

      He was over one hundred years old, Mother.

      To have lived so long, only to be crushed to death by a bulldozer.

      Is this what it means to be Palestinian?”

      ― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

      Delete
    2. "To beg him, as you did in your youth, for a story from our Palestine...."

      How they used to shoot at Jews from behind the olive trees, shouting, 'there is a Jew over there, behind that tree, shoot him'...his favorite quote from the Koran.....the only book he ever had read to him.....always with a happy twinkle in his olden eyes....how they used to plant bombs......even once a car bomb !........how they used to beat their wives if they got out of line........and kill their daughters if they did shame......how they lived on the work of others.......it must have Paradise in those days, Mother.......and no more burning camel dung for heat.......he must have been wonderful........

      Delete

    3. But in our camp, his story was everyone’s story, a single tale of dispossession,of being stripped to the bones of one’s humanity,

      of being dumped like rubbish into refugee camps unfit for rats.

      Of being left without rights, home, or nation
      while the world turned its back to watch or cheer the
      jubilation of the usurpers proclaiming a new state they called Israel.

      ― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

      Delete
  28. Replies

    1. US Training of Mexican Troops Has Escalated in Step With Mexico’s Murder Rate
      Posted by Bill Conroy -

      Boots-On-The-Ground Instruction Carried Out by US Military
      in Mexico City, Campeche and Chiapas — Home of the Zapatistas

      http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2013/02/us-training-mexican-troops-has-escalated-step-mexico-s-murder-rate


      Delete

  29. "The so-called “Palestinian autonomous areas” are Bantustans.
    These are restricted entities within the power structure of the Israeli Apartheid system."

    - N. Mandela

    The Palestinians are in their "Ghettos", on their "Reserves"

    Palestinian lackeys rule over the fractured and factionalized Palestinians, $100 million a month the Israeli pay their house boy Arabs in baksheesh.

    Just as the Germans used Ashkenazi guards in the Warsaw Ghetto.

    The first commander of the Warsaw ghetto was Józef Szeryński, a Polish-Jewish police colonel.

    Warsaw Ghetto archivist Emanuel Ringelblum has described the cruelty of the ghetto police as ...
    "at times greater than that of the Germans, the Ukrainians and the Latvians."


    bob

    ReplyDelete
  30. The American way of war is to win the war in nothing flat, and then spend the next decade losing the peace. The American people have digested that to the point where they assume that, no matter how "unbelievably small" (as Kerry promised of Syria) the next intervention is, it's a fool's errand.

    ...

    If Hamid Karzai treats Washington with contempt and gets away with it, why expect the Iranians to behave any differently? A nation responsible for almost half the planet's military spending goes into battle with the sentimental multiculti fantasist twaddle of Greg Mortensen's Three Cups of Tea as its strategy manual — and then wonders why it can't beat goatherds with fertilizer.

    Incidentally, I'd be interested to know which particular fellow at the Pentagon ordered that a copy of Three Cups of Tea be included in every Kandahar-bound kitbag. He should be fired.


    Sharia's Protector

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stoning is making something of a comeback in the world's legal codes — in October the Sultan of Brunei announced plans to put it on his books. Nevertheless, Kabul has the unique distinction of proposing to introduce the practice on America's watch. Afghanistan is an American protectorate; its kleptocrat president is an American client, kept alive these last twelve years only by American arms. The Afghan campaign is this nation's longest war — and our longest un-won war: That's to say, nowadays we can't even lose in under a decade. I used to say that, 24 hours after the last Western soldier leaves Afghanistan, it will be as if we were never there. But it's already as if we were never there: The last Christian church in the country was razed to the ground in 2010.

      Thanks, Sam

      Delete
  31. Borderland Beat Reporter ddSun Dec 29, 08:30:00 PM EST

    By Damien Cave, NYT

    Jittery families cram into his tiny office here, daily. Hundreds more have appeared at the San Diego border 1,500 miles away, clutching an official-looking letter bearing his name, gambling that its description of the violence in this blistering stretch of central Mexico will help them gain asylum in the United States.

    The letter has quickly become a document of hope for the desperate. And the writer, an obscure local official named C. Ramon Contreras Orozco, keeps delivering, creating an unusual bureaucratic tangle that is testing American asylum policy.

    “I’m trying to help,” said Mr. Contreras, the jefe de tenencia, or occupancy chief, of this battle-scarred town, where a drug cartel has declared war on residents. “People keep coming, telling me: ‘I’m afraid for me and my children. I need to go.’ ”

    Asylum requests along the border with Mexico are soaring: claims more than doubled to 36,000 in fiscal 2013, from 13,800 in 2012. American officials believe that Mr. Contreras’s letters were presented in nearly 2,000 of the most recent cases, turning him into a focal point for the anxiety over violence in Mexico and making his letter a case study for contentious issues on both sides of the border.

    Indeed by furiously churning out documents that highlight Mexico’s inability to protect civilians in this region of avocados, citrus and drugs, Mr. Contreras, 38 — a hefty lime farmer in his first government job — has managed both to shame his own country and to sign his way into the latest immigration feud in the United States.

    “I’m just verifying reality,” Mr. Contreras said, sweating at a too-small desk in an office without air-conditioning. “I’m not doing anything wrong.”

    Mexican officials have nonetheless become frustrated by attention to this agricultural area’s slide into chaos, with drug cartels battling armed self-defense groups. And in Washington, influential lawmakers, including Robert Goodlatte, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, are increasingly concerned that criminals are abusing the asylum process, cheating their way into the country and disappearing for at least a few years until their cases are heard.

    Mr. Contreras’s efforts rouse both concerns. In the 2013 fiscal year, most of the petitions for asylum based on a “credible fear of persecution or torture” came from Central America. But of the roughly 2,500 cases that came from Mexico, Mr. Contreras estimated that nearly 80 percent of them involved his letters. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security said they considered that more or less accurate.

    http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2013/12/a-civil-servant-in-mexico-tests-us-on.html

    ReplyDelete
  32. Assassinated DEA Agent Kiki Camarena Fell in a CIA Operation Gone Awry, Say Law Enforcement Sources

    Posted by Bill Conroy -

    He Was Killed, They Say, Because "He Knew Too Much" About Official Corruption in the Drug War


    DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was abducted in early February 1985 shortly after leaving the US consulate in Guadalajara, Mexico. His body was found several weeks later, partially decomposed, wrapped in a plastic death shroud and buried in a shallow grave some 70 miles north of the Mexican city.


    Several recent reports in the US and Mexican media, however, have raised questions about the real story behind Camarena’s murder. Those stories are based on interviews with several individuals who are familiar with the case, including the DEA agent who was charged with investigating Camarena’s slaying, the now-retired Hector Berrellez.

    The other two individuals also knew Camarena personally and were intimately familiar with the US government operations Camarena was allegedly investigating prior to his abduction and murder. One of those men is former DEA agent Phil Jordan, who used to head the El Paso Intelligence Center, located in far West Texas along the Mexican border; the other is Tosh Plumlee, a long-time CIA operative, pilot, and, since then, whistleblower.

    The mainstream press stories — published by Fox News and The El Paso Times in the US, and Proceso in Mexico — raise the specter of CIA involvement in Camarena’s death. Proceso's coverage went as far as to claim the CIA ordered Camarena’s murder.

    But CIA officials released a statement to the media claiming that“it’s ridiculous to suggest that the CIA had anything to do with the murder of a U.S. federal agent or the escape of his killer [Caro Quintero].”

    Narco News, however, has uncovered previously unreported information about the Camarena case, following independent interviews with Berrellez, Jordan, Plumlee and others — that confirms Caro Quintero was, in fact, protected by CIA assets in the weeks after Camarena’s murder and that the DEA agent’s abduction may well be connected to what a renowned Mexican journalist had uncovered just prior to his assassination in Mexico in 1984.

    http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2013/10/assassinated-dea-agent-kiki-camarena-fell-cia-operation-gone-awry-say-l


    ReplyDelete

  33. BEIRUT (AP) — Saudi Arabia has pledged $3 billion to Lebanon to help strengthen the country’s armed forces and purchase weapons from France, Lebanon’s president said Sunday, calling it the biggest grant ever for the nation’s military.

    Michel Sleiman, who made the surprise announcement in a televised national address, did not provide any further details. The Lebanese army has struggled to contain a rising tide of violence linked to the civil war in neighboring Syria, a conflict that has inflamed sectarian tensions in Lebanon and threatened the country’s stability.

    “The Saudi king decided to give a generous, well-appreciated grant to Lebanon amounting to $3 billion for the Lebanese army, which will allow it to buy new and modern weapons,” Sleiman said. “The king pointed out that the weapons will be bought from France quickly, considering the historical relations that tie it to Lebanon and the military cooperation between the two countries.”

    Read more: Saudi Arabia To Give Lebanon $3B to Strengthen Army | TIME.com http://world.time.com/2013/12/29/saudi-arabia-to-give-lebanon-3b-to-strengthen-army/#ixzz2ov6tpkxb



    bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Saudis are sending a message to Washington with this weapons deal: We will take care of business on our own.

      The Saudis are sending a message to Washington with their support of the Egyptian military: We will take care of business on our own.

      The Saudis are funding anti-al-Assad fighters in Syria and allowing "religious" Saudi volunteers to join in the fight. The Saudi message to Washington: We will take care of business on our own.

      What is interesting about Saudi involvement is that historically neither Syria nor Lebanon were under Saudi domination or influence. The Arabian Peninsula in toto was never part of either the Ottoman Empire or the Persian Empire.

      Delete

  34. FBI Director Comey Complicit in “Dark Chapter” in US History
    Posted by Bill Conroy -

    Former Deputy Attorney General Played Leading Role in Cover-Up of US Government Informant’s Participation in Mass Murder in Mexico


    http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2013/06/fbi-director-candidate-comey-complicit-dark-chapter-us-history

    ReplyDelete
  35. RADICAL ISLAM
    CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY,
    ISLAMIC HORROR


    I just cannot figure out why no one can make peace with Muslims.

    A barbarian should not receive land for peace, but the edge of a sword.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies


    1. The White Man's Burden - 1899

      Take up the White Man's burden--
      Send forth the best ye breed--
      Go bind your sons to exile
      To serve your captives' need;
      To wait in heavy harness,
      On fluttered folk and wild--
      Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
      Half-devil and half-child.

      ...


      http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kipling.asp

      Delete
    2. Desert Rat,

      What does The White Man's Burden have to do with the systematic, cold-blooded murder of Christians on Christmas by your Muslim buds? Nothing. And this lack of discrimination shows the tragedy of high school dropouts.

      Delete

    3. We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home
      to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.

      Delete

    4. “You presume to name those who have no name.
      We are pandemonium and disaster.
      We are the dancing, gibbering horror of the world.”

      ― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

      Delete
  36. Some may recall the hoopla when Bethlehem was turned over to the Palestinians. Arafat and company vowed that it would be the model open city for the religious pilgrims of all faiths. Right

    80% of Bethlehem's Christians have fled. Christians were living in Bethlehem hundreds of years before the prophet. It may be safely said that Christians are not felling that reknowned Muslim love.

    Bethlehem is also a sacred place to Jews. Now this:

    Governor of Bethlehem rejects IDF request to visit city

    Governor Bethlehem says that if the IDF and its officers want to visit, they could enter the city 'with tanks and armored vehicles.'


    Hamayel claimed that IDF Central Command Maj.-Gen. Alon Nitzan had asked to visit Bethlehem on Sunday night.

    “The Israeli side has requested a visit to Bethlehem by the commander of the central region in the occupation army together with a group of IDF officers in civilian clothes,” Hamayel said in a statement. “They are unwelcome because of the continued crimes of the occupation army against Bethlehem.”

    The governor said that if the IDF and its officers want to visit Bethlehem, they could enter the city “with tanks and armored vehicles.”


    So much for openness and brotherhood and false promises of peace for land.

    No more land for peace.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. The grim horror now surrounding our “Little Town of Bethlehem”

      By Stuart Littlewood

      London’s Christmas was made gloomier this year – and rightly so –
      by the appearance in the courtyard of St James’s Church, Piccadilly, of a replica of
      the hated Israeli annexation wall that threads its thieving way around the Palestinian West Bank.

      It’s a life-size representation of the actual 8-metre high wall surrounding Bethlehem
      and imprisoning its inhabitants. The project, called Bethlehem Unwrapped,
      is a response to a call from the united churches of the Holy Land
      pleading with churches and communities around the world to “help us get our freedom back”.

      The Israelis claim that the monstrous wall, also known as the Apartheid Wall,
      is to protect it’s citizens from terrorist attack.

      But in reality it is carefully routed to bite deep into Palestinian territory in order to steal
      choice agricultural land and water resources, as well as to seize strategic landscape and communication features while disconnecting Palestinian communities from their livelihoods and from each other.

      Delete
    2. The real horror in Bethlehem occurred when your Muslim studs kidnapped nuns and priests and desecrated Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity.

      used the Bible as toilet paper...

      The Palestinian gunmen, members of Yasser Arafat’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, seized church stockpiles of food and “ate like greedy monsters” until the food ran out, while more than 150 civilians went hungry...
      A church helper told the Times the quantity of food consumed by the gunmen in the first 15 days should have lasted six months.


      Angry Orthodox priests showed reporters empty bottles of whiskey, champagne, vodka, cognac and French wine on the floor along with hundreds of cigarette butts.


      “They should be ashamed of themselves. They acted like animals, like greedy monsters. Come, I will show you more,” said one priest, who declined to give his name.


      Computers were taken apart and a television set dismantled for use as a hiding place for weapons.


      “You can see what repayment we got for ‘hosting’ these so-called guests,” said Archbishop Ironius, according to the Times report.




      No Land For Peace


      Delete
    3. Stuart LittlewoodSun Dec 29, 10:17:00 PM EST
      The grim horror now surrounding our “Little Town of Bethlehem”

      But in reality it is carefully routed to bite deep into Palestinian territory in order to steal
      choice agricultural land and water resources, as well as to seize strategic landscape and communication features while disconnecting Palestinian communities from their livelihoods and from each other.


      Bunk! But one can hope! From your mouth to G-d's ear.

      Delete

    4. Home Demolitions: By the Numbers

      Since 1967, Israel has destroyed approximately 27,000 Palestinian structures in the occupied territories (the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip), including more than 24,000 homes, according to ICAHD.

      Since the renewal of negotiations in August 2013, Israel has destroyed approximately 25 Palestinian homes, in addition to dozens of other structures, leaving approximately 200 people homeless.

      According to the UN, between January and September 2013, 862 Palestinians were displaced by Israeli demolitions, compared to 886 (including 468 children) in all of 2012.

      In 2012, a total of 600 Palestinian structures were demolished by Israel in the occupied territories, including at least 189 homes, according to ICAHD.
      This figure doesn’t include “self-demolitions” whereby Palestinians destroy their own homes ...
      rather than have Israel do it and charge them an additional fine.


      One Bedouin village, Al-Araqib, in the Negev desert in the south of Israel, has been destroyed more than 50 times by Israel since July 2010.

      Between 2005 and 2012, Israel demolished approximately 1500 Palestinian homes due to owners lacking hard-to-obtain construction permits.

      Between 1993 and 2000, when the Oslo Accords were being negotiated between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization,
      Israel destroyed almost 1700 Palestinian homes in the occupied territories.

      Immediately following Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza in 1967, approximately 6000 Palestinian homes were demolished, including four entire villages in the Latrun area, along with dozens of homes in the Mughrabi Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, which were destroyed to make way for a plaza for the Western Wall.

      In 1971, between 2000 and 6000 Palestinian homes were destroyed in Gaza in an effort to pacify the newly occupied territory.

      During Israel’s creation (1948-49),
      Zionist and then Israeli forces expelled approximately 750,000 Palestinian Arabs from their ancestral lands in order to create a Jewish majority state of Israel.

      In the process, more than 400 Palestinian population centers were systematically destroyed, including thousands of homes, businesses, and houses of worship.



      bob

      Delete
  37. Borderland Beat Reporter ChivisSun Dec 29, 10:32:00 PM EST



    Caballeros Templarios Decapitate 5 and Leave Message Signed "CJNG"

    Borderland Beat Reporter Chivis

    Chivis Martínez for Borderland Beat

    The bodies and decapitated heads were found In two locations of Michoacán, around 6AM this morning.
    Three decapitated bodies were found in the municipality of Tarimbaro,
    near the bridge known as “Los Erandenis”.
    The bridge sits at the town entrance and is heavily travelled.

    The decapitated heads were found lying to the side of the bodies.
    Discovered along with the bodies was a blood drenched knife.

    Por Libertad Michoacán is reporting a narco cartulina. (poster board) was left with the bodies indicating Cartel Jalisco New Generation were the killers, this was done by singing the message as being from CJNG.

    Por Libertad and other sources report that in fact the killings were perpetrated by Templarios
    with the purpose of directing the blame at CJNG.

    There is no proof that the dead men were even involved with a cartel,
    and quite possibly are innocents, picked up and killed for use as props
    .
    Within 10 minutes in Morelia, the capital of Michoacán,
    two additional decapitated bodies were discovered,
    the heads were left on the sidewalk on Francisco Juararez Mijia Street close to the bodies.

    Another Narco message was left at the scene.

    The narco message reads

    "we are here already, (you) fucking Michoacana . Sincerely, CJNG"

    The men have not yet been identified and were estimated to be between 30 and 40 years of age.

    http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2013/12/caballeros-templarios-decapitate-5-and.html

    ReplyDelete
  38. Roberto - el Loco CagaderoSun Dec 29, 10:40:00 PM EST




    From threatening to "End Western Civilization" to ...
    ... fabricating false headings on a "Cut & Paste"


    How the 'mighty' have fallen!

    "Spengler's Laws": "When a nation is reduced to selling its women, it's lost."
    hat tip: allen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And don't forget, with my magic Elders of Zion ring I can threaten Oz.

      Tell me how the NSA paid Israel $110 billion USD... :-)

      Delete
    2. Camouflaged in the $3 to $6 billion per year, as part of the Camp David Accords.

      &quot has old us that the entire history of the Middle East, from the invasion of the Egypt in 1953 to the attack on the USS Liberty and even the killing of Furkan Dogan, were all engineered by the NSA!

      Good chess strategy suggests you make good developing moves,
      and generally develop your Knights before your Bishops




      Roberto - el auténtico anónimo





      Delete
    3. You hae to understand, allen, the NSA is a 'secret agency', their monies are 'off budget', as it were

      If the sources of our data set were made available, to you, why ...

      Your very life could be in danger, just by being in procession of such classified data.
      Seeing as how you are disabled and infirm, it is a risk that is just unacceptable, to us

      To put it plainly, it is a risk that we, of the Anonymous Collective, refuses to allow.

      But rest assured, that the $110 billion USD has reached Israel, since 1977,
      direct from the taxpayers of the United States


      Delete
    4. No! No! No! You were quite specific. You lied. NSA did NOT contract with Israel to the tune of $110 billion USD as you stated.

      Delete
  39. The year in taxes started with the nation toppling, briefly, over the fiscal cliff. And it ended with some interesting policy proposals on tax reform though little political progress.

    ...

    President Obama signed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) on January 2, 2013. The law included:

    * An increase in the individual marginal tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent for individuals with taxable income over $400,000 and for couples over $450,000.

    * An increase in the rate on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends from 15 to 20 percent for high-income taxpayers.

    * A permanent increase of the AMT exemption amount to $50,600 in 2012 for individuals and $78,750 for married taxpayers filing jointly, with indexing of the AMT for inflation.

    ...

    In November, Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT) laid out his ideas for reforming the corporate tax code, both domestically and internationally. However, Baucus has not said when his committee would consider the measure.

    ReplyDelete

  40. Israel’s Troubling Walls


    – Ghetto Walls

    In modern times some walls have taken on a sinister character for Jews. The archetypal modern ghetto wall was constructed by the Nazis in 1940 to enclose the Jewish quarter of Warsaw, Poland. It was made of brick, stood about 10 feet high and ran for 11 miles. Like the Western Wall, only a fragment of this ghetto wall survives.

    While Zionists consider any comparison between their “separation barriers” and the walls that separated out Europe’s Jews anathema, some other very knowledgeable Jews see a connection. For instance, Sygmunt Bauman, a well-known Polish-Jewish sociologist who once taught in Israel but now lives in England, has likened Israel’s present-day barriers to those that surrounded the Warsaw ghetto. He believes that successive Israeli governments have not been interested in peace and “a younger Israeli generation was being raised on the understanding that the state of war and military alert was natural and unavoidable.” That would certainly fit well with a culture of walls.

    – The Berlin Wall

    Comparisons have also been made between Israel’s “separation barriers” and the infamous Berlin Wall. Constructed by communist East Germany starting in 1961, the Berlin Wall separated the East German population from West Berlin. The Berlin Wall ran for some 87 miles and at its completion was almost 12 feet high. On its eastern side it was paralleled by a 110-yard “death strip” offering a “clear field of fire for the wall guards.” By comparison, the Israeli wall will at completion run over 400 miles, be 26 feet high, and be paralleled by a 200-foot “exclusion zone.”

    Like the Berlin Wall, Israel’s walls are designed to separate populations, but unlike the one in Berlin, the Israeli version also facilitates the systematic ethnic cleansing of elements of the Palestinian population. It is perhaps for this reason that the musician Roger Waters, a strong supporter of the boycott Israel movement, called the Israeli separation barriers “100 times more horrifying than the Berlin Wall.”

    http://consortiumnews.com/2013/11/13/israels-troubling-walls/

    ReplyDelete
  41. "One Bedouin village, Al-Araqib, in the Negev desert in the south of Israel, has been destroyed more than 50 times by Israel since July 2010."

    It has become known world wide as The Phoenix Village because it exists in the mind of, among others, a demented in Phoenix, Arizona known locally as ratbob whackopath.

    50 times !!

    Wow, this is not exactly 'German efficiency'.

    One wonders how Israel can have such a first class Air Force when they seem unable to destroy a few Bedouin huts.

    Perhaps this place is the birth place of the Phoenix bird, that always arises anew from its own ashes.

    I can't think of any more mythy or better explanation.

    Maybe they should sow the place with salt, as the Romans are said to have done on occasion.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. By my calculations, they have been destroying that sad place once every three or four months for the last four years.

      No wonder they need 110 billions of $$$ in secret USA funding.

      Delete


    2. The key question is the identification of a regime that practices systematic oppression and domination by one group over another.

      How then does it apply to Israel?

      To answer that, we need to clarify another concept: Israel.

      Although usually seen as residing within its pre-1967 boundaries, the Israeli regime exercises control over Palestinians in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza.

      For the past 46 years, all residents within greater Israel have lived under the same regime, which claims to be the sole legitimate political and military authority.

      The state controls the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, ruling over eight million rights-bearing citizens (75% of whom are Jews) and four million Palestinian subjects denied civil and political rights.

      Millions of Palestinian refugees (who were born in the territory or whose direct ancestors were) cannot set foot in their homeland,
      let alone determine its political future as citizens.



      bob

      Delete
    3. William BlackstoneMon Dec 30, 12:11:00 AM EST



      So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property,
      that it will not authorize the least violation of it; no,
      not even for the general good of the whole community.


      William Blackstone

      Delete

    4. The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, ...
      ... not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not.

      It is only because the control of the means of production is divided among many people acting independently ...
      ... that nobody has complete power over us, that we as individuals can decide what to do with ourselves.

      If all the property were vested in a single hand, ...
      ... whether it be nominally that of “society” as a whole or that of a dictator, ...
      ... whoever exercises this control has complete power ....

      Delete

    5. The Israeli government has, to a large extent, continued the Ottoman legal system in regard to land ownership. 

      Thus, today the vast proportion of land within the State of Israel (roughly 93%) is owned and managed either by the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) or the JNF.  This figure includes much of such extensive regions as the Negev and the Judean Wilderness (near the Dead Sea), which are sparsely populated. 

      Jewish settlements in the State of Israel usually are located on lands that are owned by the ILA or the JNF and that have been consigned to each settlement through long-term leases. 

      Less than 7% of the land in the State of Israel is privately owned.

      http://elearning.la.psu.edu/jst060/lesson_2/land-ownership



      bob

      Delete

    6. Private property was the original source of freedom. 
      It still is its main bulwark.
       

      Delete


  42. A German magazine has reported that US spies intercept computers ordered by their targets, and plant bugs in them before they are delivered.

    Der Spiegel's claims relate to a division of the National Security Agency known as Tailored Access Operations, or TAO – said to be a team of hackers specialising in stealing data from the toughest of targets.

    Citing internal NSA documents, the magazine said on Sunday that TAO's mission was ''getting the ungettable'', and quoted an unnamed intelligence official as saying that TAO had gathered ''some of the most significant intelligence our country has ever seen''.

    Der Spiegel said TAO deployed hardware such as cables that acted as keyboard logging recorders, USB sticks rigged to transmit intercepted data wirelessly, and fake mobile phone base stations to intercept calls.
    Advertisement

    Some attacks described by Der Spiegel exploit internet vulnerabilities to install spying software on specific computers. Others take advantage of weaknesses in hardware or software distributed by leading US technology companies, including Cisco Systems, but also by foreign firms, such as China's Huawei Technologies.

    One claim was that the NSA spies on Microsoft crash reports, the Windows dialogue box that pops up when a program freezes.

    One NSA document cited by the magazine wryly replaced Microsoft's standard error report message with the words: ''This information may be intercepted by a foreign sigint [signals intelligence] system to gather detailed information and better exploit your machine.''

    No one was available at Der Spiegel to clarify whether former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden had been the source for the latest story.

    http://www.smh.com.au/world/nsa-intercepts-computer-deliveries-report-20131230-hv75q.html#ixzz2ovnRNhYF



    bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are about 16 hours late with this cut and paste.

      Delete
    2. Anne Elisabeth StenglMon Dec 30, 12:37:00 AM EST


      I could try to care, but I ain't sure it's worth the bother.

      ― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Veiled Rose

      Delete
    3. That's true, desert rat, you have never let the truth interfer with your racism and total lack of personal integrity.

      Liar, liar, pants on fire!

      Delete

    4. “You presume to name those who have no name.
      We are pandemonium and disaster.
      We are the dancing, gibbering horror of the world.”

      ― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

      Delete
  43. Replies
    1. How on earth is one a "virtual" prisoner?

      vir·tu·al
      ˈvÉ™rCHo͞oÉ™l/Submit
      adjective
      1.
      almost or nearly as described, but not completely or according to strict definition.

      Delete

    2. All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts.

      A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency.

      Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them,
      and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour,
      mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians —
      which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by 'our' side . . .

      The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side,
      but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them

      ― George Orwell

      Delete
    3. By not allowing him to leave the country.

      A virtual prisoner, some one on parole or probation.

      virtual
      adjective practical, near, essential, implied, indirect, implicit, tacit,
      near enough, unacknowledged, in all but name

      He was a virtual prisoner in his own home.


      ESL time for you, allen.



      bob

      Delete
    4. I will stick with Webster's primary definition.

      Delete
  44. The Lebanese Army may not get those weapons from France soon enough. It is just about time for Israel to move the boundary up to the Litani River.

    Netanyahu says Lebanese rocket attack constitutes 'double war crime

    Lebanon has been warned. UNIFIL has been warned.

    NO MORE LAND FOR PEACE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies


    1. Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.

      Delete
    2. Right, Voltaire........you believe the Koran you start to commit atrocities.

      The Litani seems a good and proper boundary line to me. Defensible, etc. I hope they do.

      If rockets were coming into Washington State aimed at Miss T in Seattle from Vancouver, B.C. I'd be all for occupying Vancouver B.C. and incorporating it into our country. Would not we all want to stop Miss T from be rocketed?

      Somebody has to stop the rocket attacks.

      These amount to an act of war, after all.

      Delete
    3. Same can be said for Phoenix, Arizona, by the way.

      If ratbobwhackopath were being rocketed from Mexico, >most< here would wish to invade Mexico and put an end to it.

      Delete

    4. You seem to be surprised to hear that there are still problems of 1948 to be solved, the most important component of which is the right to return of Palestinian refugees.

      The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and Israel is not a country that was established “normally” and happened to occupy another country in 1967.

      Palestinians are not struggling for a “state” but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa.

      Nelson Mandela

      Delete
    5. Roberto - el Loco CagaderoMon Dec 30, 01:27:00 AM EST


      But it is not, so again Farmer Bob creates his own fiction.

      And wants us to call it good.

      heh, heh, heh


      Farmer Bob!
      How is it that your Blogger account was created in November of 2013,
      when you claimed to have accomplished the task on 22DEC2013?

      Why did you tell us a false tale?

      What is your real agenda?


      Roberto - el Loco Cagadero





      Delete
    6. Don't honestly really know what the fuck you are talking about, as usual.

      You will recall I had a blogger account, which went south.

      Both my daughter and I worked on trying to get it back up.

      Finally succeeded with the help of the marvelous Ash, and a new google email address.

      Maybe my daughter created it for all I know.

      It was only AA, after Ash, that I have become Farmer Bob, since you have stolen my name.

      You NEED help.

      Desperately.

      Seek, you may find.

      Knock, and it may be opened unto you.

      Continue as you are, one day you may find yourself involuntarily committed as a danger to yourself or others.

      Delete

    7. Information sharing produces shared awareness among the participants,
      and collaborative production relies on shared creation,
      but collective action creates shared responsibility,
      by tying the user's identity to the identity of the group.

      ― Clay Shirky

      Delete
  45. 60 Best Photos of 2013

    http://galleries.realclearworld.com/gallery/Best_World_Photos_of_2013#.UsETze3TnIV

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. “All our silences in the face of racist assault are acts of complicity.”

      . . . . killing rage: Ending Racism . . . .

      Delete
  46. I admit even I would be for 'saving Phoenix'.

    Even though it is half Mexican already, and whacky would end up living under Mexican law without the effort.

    He might even wake up and find that the blessed stolen 360 acres of prime bottom land with water rights is, actually, no longer belongs to him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Farmer Bob dies unexpectedly


      Western Nevada County has lost a major contributor to its agricultural vitality.
      Bob Bobertson, 56, better known as Farmer Bob, owner of Farmer Bob’s produce stand in Grass Valley, died of an apparent heart attack on Saturday afternoon.
      He was helping a customer load a Christmas tree onto a vehicle when he abruptly passed out, said Steven Sears, his childhood friend. An employee at the produce stand, located behind The Union office off Sutton Way at the end of Olympia Park Circle, performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
      The emergency responders were unable to resuscitate him, Sears said.

      http://www.theunion.com/news/9264872-113/bob-farmer-keyser-produce



      bob

      Delete
    2. An employee at the produce stand, located behind The Union office off Sutton Way at the end of Olympia Park Circle, has mysteriously contracted AIDS.

      This has shocked the community of Grass Valley, who always considered him to be a man's man, and local hero to the local produce crowd.

      RIP, Lettucehead

      Delete
  47. Farmer BobMon Dec 30, 01:36:00 AM EST

    60 Best Photos of 2013

    http://galleries.realclearworld.com/gallery/Best_World_Photos_of_2013#.UsETze3TnIV


    The second to last photo, of an Israeli Lady Surfer, with such a wonderful bottom !!, and a bunch of Arab men from the West Bank enjoying the day by the beach in Apartheid Israel in quite good and interesting.

    And important too, for our continuing educational purposes here at this blog.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Quirk, the resident middle east expert: Of course, I ignore Jordan, you idiot. Jordan (Transjordan) has always been a separate entity from Palestine from the days of the initial discussions leading up to the mandate. If you've got a problem, talk to England and France. Who in their right mind when speaking of Palestine today considers Jordan as part of it?

    My comment was regarding Israel and its role in Palestine. What's Jordan got to do with that?

    .
    Jordan is Palestine.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Quirk made the assertion that 100% of Palestine is possessed by Israel.

    if that is the case?

    Then Israel should BUILD everywhere and deport anyone it chooses to.

    As per Quirk, our resident middle east expert, all arabs are now being ordered to leave the Israel, the west bank and gaza at once as Israel now: "Now, sixty-five years later, they possess 100% of Palestine"

    Thanks Quirk for your insight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shh don't tell Quirk about the Arabs at the UN that call themselves "palestinians"

      Possession is 9/10th of the law.

      The dispute is over.

      100% of Palestine is Israeli... Time for some ethnic cleansing!!!!

      aka the other 898/900th of the middle east.

      All according to the wisdom and legal authority of Quirk.

      Delete
    2. I rise to defend poor ol' Quirk.

      Defense: temporary alcohol poisoning

      Type: Vodka, cheap Russian

      Folks, he's of the angels, it's just that he goes through periods when he forgets who, where, what, when he is - he always pulls out of it.......eventually.....

      I suspect now it is his way of dealing with the anxiety of those moments immediately before he transcends fear and is so marvelous......preternatural if you know what I mean.....

      Delete
    3. .

      WiO, you are an idiot. My opinion of course. First, you have been telling us right along that there is no Palestine or Palestinians, a stupid statement in and of itself. Now, you tell us Jordan is Palestine and equally stupid but opposing view.

      What century were you born in? On what basis do you offer up this latest inanity?

      I can't think of anyone else who would say it. Perhaps, I am naïve.

      .

      Delete
    4. "I can't think of anyone else who would say it"

      Heh, Brain Lock.

      ...Again

      Delete
    5. Relax,

      It'll Free Your Mind

      Trust Me

      Delete
    6. .

      Say Farmer Bob, you have been weighing in on this since last night. While we are waiting for WiO to explain why anyone born in the 20th or 21st century for that matter would refer to modern Palestine as Jordan, why don't you explain it to us.

      You seem to be pretty confident in your bud's opinion.

      .

      Delete
    7. .

      I just made the offer to Bob. The same goes to you, Dougo. If you want to join in, expound freely. Why do you consider Jordan to be Palestine?

      .

      .

      Delete
    8. I was simply trying to inspire more brilliance from the Quirkster.

      No offense intended.

      No harm, no foul, right?

      - Duckbreath

      Delete
    9. QuirkMon Dec 30, 08:58:00 AM EST
      .

      WiO, you are an idiot. My opinion of course. First, you have been telling us right along that there is no Palestine or Palestinians, a stupid statement in and of itself. Now, you tell us Jordan is Palestine and equally stupid but opposing view.

      What century were you born in? On what basis do you offer up this latest inanity?

      I can't think of anyone else who would say it. Perhaps, I am naïve.




      Thanks for the insult Quirk, you calling me an idiot is a blessing... Face the truth, your opinion that "Israel possesses 100% of Palestine" says it all..

      Now of course I SAY there is no such thing as a "true nationalistic people called Palestinians" that doesn't stop the middle eastern savages to self label themselves as such.

      If the Crips and the Bloods CHOOSE to call themselves that, that is their choice. I don't have to accept that it has any historic roots older than 60 years.

      No quirk, you are the retarded idiot, not I.

      You now seem to "limit" my assertions by adding in additional wording after you make your point when shown you are incorrect...


      quirk: What century were you born in? On what basis do you offer up this latest inanity?
      I can't think of anyone else who would say it. Perhaps, I am naïve.


      perhaps you are an idiot.

      Jordan's is the promised arab lands from 1922 when it was striped from the jewish homeland.

      Jordan's population SELF IDENTIFIES as Palestinian, at least 70% that is (some say 90%), the Queen is a self identified Palestinian. Jordan controlled Jerusalem and the "west bank" (to use that name rather than it's historic one".

      Jordan, is Palestine.

      The arabs of Gaza? are MORE Egyptian than west bankian...

      Your knowledge of fake arab nationalism is weak at best, insulting at worse. Not specious at least...

      there is hope for you.

      1st I'd recommend you remove that very large stick that resides in your ass and throw it away.

      2nd. I'd recommend you visit Israel, the so called "west bank" & gaza.. and then tell us about how Israel possesses 100% of it.

      3rd. Go visit Jordan and talk to the savages, oh I mean Jordanians and ask them if they are "jordanian" or Palestinian...

      Now again, I still stay the nationalistic movement called arab palestinians is a crock of shit., but if they want to wrap a shit blanket of a fake national people around themselves? who am I to stop them?

      Delete
    10. I can't follow the "logic" of the argument.

      ...but do think it would be cool if Jordan would repatriate the Pale's.

      You May Say I'm a Dreamer.

      ...and you'd be right.

      Delete
    11. .

      You now seem to "limit" my assertions by adding in additional wording after you make your point when shown you are incorrect...

      What wording, you dumb fuck? Get specific. What are you talking about?

      .

      Delete
    12. Tsk, tsk.

      The words are "Dumb F..." in this community of Gentlemen and Enlightened C.... .

      Delete
    13. Quirk can't argue without insults. It's a genetic defect.

      Delete
    14. .

      I'm tired of WiO distorting both history and geography to try to accommodate his own screwed up views.

      My statement was a simple one, "Israel now possesses 100% of Palestine". A simple statement of fact.

      My post and the subsequent comments on it started at

      QuirkSun Dec 29, 06:09:00 PM EST

      In response to my simple statement, all WiO can offer in refutation is the comment 'Jordan is Palestine' followed by his latest rant talking about Crips and Bloods and Jewish Homeland. The boy has lost it.

      Jewish Homeland?

      Take a look at the following link. Near the bottom it of the article, you will see maps showing the evolution of the Palestinian Mandate. (If you want the history, just google Palestinian Mandate.)

      Palestine

      Regarding the 'Jewish Homeland' take a look at the Overview section of the link. It lays out 4,000 years of history and the peoples who ruled there. You will notice that there were people there for a 1,000 years (at least) before there was an Israel. And Israel is a mere blip in the bigger picture, a province ruled by the more powerful. To say there have always been Jews in the are so it is their historical homeland is like saying my brother-in-law saved me a spot in line on Black Friday so we claim the Best Buy parking lost.

      It might make sense culturally to Jews, but has little justification when looked at rationally. I'm sure the Palestinians also claim it as their 'national homeland'.

      .

      Delete
    15. .

      Quirk can't argue without insults. It's a genetic defect.

      :)

      You flaming hypocrite.

      In your response to my first post, you called me a moron. And that is hardly the worst insult you have thrown around here. Quit playing the shocked little boy.

      .

      Delete
    16. "I admired Hitler for instance because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. And I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for his way of getting to the people and so on." Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican, 1975

      Delete
    17. a. I aint little
      b. aint shocked
      c. all man.
      d. and in no way do I flame.

      Delete
    18. .

      I'm having trouble getting a clickable link lately.

      The following is the link I tried to put in the post two above this one in the space marked "Palestine".

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

      .






      Delete
    19. e. aint a hypocrite.

      still advocate what you do...

      all palestinians to move to AZ and live in Rat's occupied lands.

      Delete
    20. Adolf Hitler may have owed more to the 'subhuman' races he tried to exterminate than to his 'Aryan' compatriots, according to new finding published in Belgium this week.

      In research for the Flemish-language magazine Knack,
      journalist Jean-Paul Mulders traced Hitler's living relatives in the Fuhrer's native Austria,
      as well as the United States.

      "The results of this study are surprising,"
      said Ronny Decorte, a geneticist interviewed by Knack.

      "Hitler would not have been happy."

      Geneticists identify groups of chromosomes called haplogroups,
      'genetic fingerprints' that define populations.

      Hitler's second most dominant haplogroup is the most common in Ashkenazi Jews.

      "The findings are fascinating if you look at them in terms of the Nazi worldview,
      which ascribed such an extreme priority to notions of blood and race,"

      Decorte said.

      http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/dna-tests-reveal-hitler-s-jewish-and-african-roots-1.309938



      bob

      Delete


    21. Is self-loathing a genetic malady amongst the Ashkenazi?

      Delete
  50. I'm off to Sochi for some competitive sking

    2nd explosion rocks Russian city

    At least 10 dead in trolleybus explosion, a day after similar incident and just before the Olympics.
    Suicide bomber in 1st attack


    F1 champ critically injured skiing

    Michael Schumacher was in a coma after falling on his head during an accident in the French Alps.
    - Mike

    ...oops

    Winner of the Sonny Bono Memorial Olympics.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Replies
    1. That turtle's right front leg is downright scary.

      Delete
    2. How about the left?

      Even my high speed camera could not catch that action.

      Delete
    3. Now I need one of you Mensas to explain the Rabbit Joke to me.

      Delete
    4. Something about the peace sign or something, Mensignor.

      Delete
    5. Or is that the V for Victory sign?

      Whatever it is it's downright hilarious.

      Delete
    6. Thanks.
      Now I see it, even if the camera can't.

      Forgot about Peace.

      Thought the idiot rabbit was a genius playing a cosmic joke on the whole Rabbit Ear Thing.

      Delete
  52. Some guy here has an aerial photography business/obsession that takes incredible shots of all there is to see here from an entirely new perspective.

    From an Ultralight and a Drone. Amazing stuff.

    If I get some sleep sometime, tonite, I'll link it.

    Since I got about 12 hours today, the odds aren't good.

    Not really depressed, just devastated.

    The Dreams have all died.

    They haunt me.

    Guess I sleep as a defense.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Turn to your other loved ones if you can.

      Talking sleep, I'm going back to bed myself.....

      Delete
    2. My loved one next door is 30 and obsessed with his life, mostly leaving out this old guy.

      My sis is bedridden by strokes, and Dumbass me still hasn't got a long distance phone deal.

      Talks with my brother are helpful when he calls.

      He lost his wife a year ago, and is going blind.

      80 yrs old and a big drinker.

      The body can only take so much, I guess, but I wouldn't bet on me seeing 80, so who am I to judge.

      (I do, though, they subsidized their son's alcoholism.)

      So when God strikes me down, you'll know why.

      Delete
  53. "At a Michael Jackson dance party that broke out spontaneously in the Mission, a random man grabbed her hand.

    "There's the cutest guy over there, come meet him with me," he said. Kyra reluctantly played wingman, and shared an awkward moment with these two strangers. She then fled back to her friends.

    It could have ended there. But as soon as "the cutest guy" laid eyes on Kyra, he was done.

    "I have a feeling about that girl," Sawyer Steele told his friends. In his words, "I instantly became obsessed with her."

    Soon, Kyra and Sawyer were talking, and then dancing together. Kyra noticed Sawyer's "Trans March" button from earlier in the day.

    "I'm trans!" he blurted out.

    "I had no idea," Kyra said later. "I had thought he was an adorable gay boy."

    Kyra would soon realize she wasn't alone in her thinking. Although the pair pass as a straight couple, "it's also confusing for people when they assume I'm a gay man," said Sawyer, "with them thinking Kyra doesn't realize it." (While they are out to most everyone, they were sure this article would be a revelation to some who know them only casually.)

    Sawyer - a filmmaker, writer and producer who works with Bay Area filmmaker Tiffany Shlain at the studio she founded, the Moxie Institute - came out as transgender at age 21..."

    She thought he was Gay

    He, she, it, WTF?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      I got confused after the first few sentences.

      .

      Delete
  54. Arguing with Quirk? Is like trying to corral cats...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What if he's a closet SF Tranny hiding under the cover as a professional in Detroit?

      Delete

    2. All you need, is a brain.

      So it's off the see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz!



      Delete
  55. Wife to be's apartment was near the Mission District.

    Castro had yet to really rock.

    Now the whole place rocks and rolls...

    ReplyDelete
  56. Talk about irony....

    Russia now being plagued by islamic terrorists....

    Why not sit down and give the savages land for peace...

    LOL

    Fuckers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sure wish we woulda let them pacify The 'Stan into rubble.

      Delete
    2. Maybe The Crips and The Bloods will identify themselves as Followers of Mother Teresa.

      ...and fight over That Turf.

      Delete
    3. The Islamoids are protesting the release of Pussy Riot.

      Delete
  57. 400-Pound High School Running Back Is Virtually Un-tackle-able

    A 400-pound high school student is sure to stand out in the hallways—or pretty much anywhere really. That’s exactly what Tony Picard does, especially on the football field.

    The 6’5” senior is a captain for the White Swan High School football team in Yakima, Wash. Picard’s size, which makes him the nation's largest running back, allows him to run through and over standard-sized high school players in comical fashion.

    Watch Picard drag defenders down the field in this highlight video. Don’t worry, you can't miss him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Four hundred pounds, is that what you're shooting for, Doug, twelve hours a day in bed?

      Delete
    2. I'm devastated that you held your Yakima Secret all these years, and I eat when sorrow overtakes me.

      Why did you keep your secret love secret from me/us?

      Delete

  58. The key question is the identification of a regime that practices
    systematic oppression and domination by one group over another.


    How then does it apply to Israel?

    To answer that, we need to clarify another concept: Israel.

    Although usually seen as residing within its pre-1967 boundaries,
    the Israeli regime exercises control over Palestinians
    in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza.


    For the past 46 years, all residents within greater Israel have lived under the same regime,
    which claims to be the sole legitimate political and military authority.

    The state controls the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, ruling over eight million rights-bearing citizens
    (75% of whom are Jews) and four million Palestinian subjects denied civil and political rights.

    Millions of Palestinian refugees
    (who were born in the territory or whose direct ancestors were)
    cannot set foot in their homeland, let alone determine its political future as citizens.

    Insiders
    How is the notion of apartheid relevant to this reality?

    The Israeli regime is based on an ethnic-religious distinction
    between Jewish insiders and Palestinian outsiders.

    It expands citizenship beyond its territory,
    potentially to all Jews regardless of their links to the country,
    and contracts citizenship within it:

    Palestinians in the occupied territories and refugees outside have no citizenship and cannot become Israeli citizens.

    The regime combines different modes of rule:
    civilian authority with democratic institutions within the Green Line
    (the pre-1967 boundaries), and military authority beyond it.

    In times of crisis,
    the military mode of rule spills over the line to apply to Palestinian citizens in Israel.
    At all times,
    the civilian mode of rule spills over the line to apply to Jewish settlers.

    The distinction between the two sides of the line is constantly eroding as a result,
    and norms and practices developed under the occupation filter back into Israel.

    Israel as a "Jewish democratic state" is "democratic" for Jews and "Jewish" for Arabs.

    http://mg.co.za/article/2013-10-04-00-is-there-a-better-adjective-than-apartheid-to-describe-israel/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What Me Worry?

      Your's truly,

      Alfred

      Delete

    2. Some remember him for his haunting and tragic speech,
      . . . . "Give Me Your Children" . . . .,
      in 1942, when the Germans insisted on deporting 20,000 children to death camps.

      He was also remembered as an autocrat and tyrant who built a personal empire within the ghetto.
      He made work the basis of survival and created profit for the Germans

      Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski was a Fifth Columnist.



      bob

      Delete
  59. Before Grant, only Washington and Scott had been lieutenant generals, now they just get coffee for all the Four Stars in the Pentagon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Celebrity Replicants and Party Line Followers.

      Delete
  60. Doug: My sis is bedridden by strokes, and Dumbass me still hasn't got a long distance phone deal.

    Sign up for Google Voice. Free long distance anywhere in the US, and 11 cents a minute to the Philippines. You dial from the webpage on your laptop, rings the phone on both ends. Beats the hell out of getting phone cards from the Sari Sari Store, which is now, I guess, the Sorry Sorry Store.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, Kid's at fault for that:

      Convinced me that there was some trick involved, and I should wait for him to do it for me.

      He and Farmer Bob's Daughter should get together.

      Flim-Flam Folks.

      Delete
    2. Does Google pay the phone companies?

      Seems like somebody's gotta pay the bill.

      Delete
    3. Who pays for the World Wide Web, Doug?

      Who pays for 'The Libertarian'?

      Who supplies the bandwidth?

      Socialists or Capitalists?


      bob

      Delete
    4. So, if I pick up first, I just wait for her to answer?

      Delete
    5. Yes Doug, pick up right after you click the "Call" button on the website, and wait for her to pick up.

      Delete
  61. Quirk: WiO, you are an idiot. My opinion of course. First, you have been telling us right along that there is no Palestine or Palestinians, a stupid statement in and of itself. Now, you tell us Jordan is Palestine and equally stupid but opposing view.

    WP sez: "After capturing the West Bank during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Abdullah I took the title King of Jordan and Palestine."

    So I guess WiO is right. But that makes Israel Palestine now.

    ReplyDelete