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."
At the end of the day, whether or not there are boots on the ground and everything is still on the table, nobody, absolutely nobody, cares about, thinks about , or believes your “thoughts and prayers”.
ReplyDeleteWhile I’m at it, can someone please book Miley Cyrus and all the Kardashians on the same Allahu Akbar flight to anywhere?
ReplyDeleteConnect the dots mutherfuckers.
ReplyDeleteI can't get the audio but can easily get the point through the facials and body movements.
ReplyDeleteSeems like a nice feller.
He has my thoughts and prayers.
Really though, you got to say something.
ReplyDeleteYou can't just say:
"Tough shit."
"Bummer"
"Life's a bitch"
"Glad it wasn't me"
"Suck it up"
David Pethers, 33, from East London said he tried to get everyone out of the station after seeing a man lying in a pool of blood on the floor.
ReplyDelete...
Mr Pethers said despite being injured himself, he was determined to help his fellow commuter.
“I was dragged away, I was bleeding from the neck. I know it sounds crazy, but I went back to have another go,” he said.
ISIS army of scientists set to wage chemical and biological war on West: Experts warn weapons of mass destruction 'have been carried undetected' into European Union
ReplyDeleteISIS already has smuggled chemical and biological weapons into the EU
The terror organisation has also recruited chemists and physicists
Western governments warned to alert the public about potential attacks
See full news coverage on ISIS at www.dailymail.co.uk/isis
By Darren Boyle for MailOnline
Published: 21:10 EST, 5 December 2015 | Updated: 06:47 EST, 6 December 2015
ISIS has recruited experts with chemistry, physics and computer science degrees to wage war with weapons of mass destruction against the West, a shocking European Parliament report has claimed.
The terror organisation, according to the briefing document, 'may be planning to try to use internationally banned weapons of mass destruction in future attacks'.
The document, which was compiled in the aftermath of the deadly attacks on Paris claimed that ISIS has already smuggled WMD material into Europe.
British police forces have already been training to deal with a potential chemical or biological warfare attack
Police even have access to Geiger counters, pictured, to help detect any nuclear or radiological material
A European Parliament report has warned that ISIS has already smuggled CBRN material into the EU
Experts fear that ISIS will be able to exploit a failure of EU governments to share information on possible terrorists.
Already, British police forces have been conducting exercises on how to deal with various types of terrorist attack. But the EU report claims that government should 'consider publicly addressing the possibility of terrorist attack using chemical, biological, radiological or even nuclear materials'.
The report, ISIL/Da'esh and 'non-conventional' weapons of terror warns: 'At present, European citizens are not seriously contemplating the possibility that extremist groups might use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) materials during attacks in Europe. Under these circumstances, the impact of such an attack, should it occur, would be even more destabilising.'
Rob Wainwright, head of Europol said after the attacks on Paris: 'We are dealing with a very serious, well-resourced, determined international terrorist organisation that is now active on the streets of Europe.
'This represents the most serious terrorist threat faced in Europe for 10 years.'
Last week, police firearms instructors, pictured, played the part of terrorists mock attack on London
The Metropolitan Police has dramatically increased training for its firearms officers because of the ISIS threat
DeleteArmed officers stormed the building during the mock terrorist attack in London as part of the exercise
Mr Wainwright warned that ISIS had serious capabilities in terms of resources and manpower.'
Nomi Bar-Yaacov, Associate Fellow in Chatham House's International Security Department said: 'There is a very real risk of ISIS using unconventional weapons in Europe and beyond.'
Wolfgang Rudischhauser, Director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Non-Proliferation Centre at NATO said: 'ISIS actually has already acquired the knowledge, and in some cases the human expertise, that would allow it to use CBRN materials as weapons of terror.'
The report claims 'ISIL/Da'esh has recruited and continues to recruit hundreds of foreign fighters, including some with degrees in physics, chemistry and computer science, who experts believe have the ability to manufacture lethal weapons from raw substances.'
EU governments have been warned to watch out for 'other radicalised individuals, who have access to, or work in, sensitive areas'.
Intelligence services have also been warned to screen returning Jihadi fighters for 'specialist CBRN knowledge'.
The shocking study claims that 150 cases of nuclear or radiological trafficking are reported annually.
Worse still: 'CBRN substances have been carried undetected into the European Union.
'Interpol's monthly CBRN intelligence reports show numerous examples of attempts to acquire, smuggle or use CBRN materials.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3347671/ISIS-army-scientists-set-wage-chemical-biological-war-West-Experts-warn-weapons-mass-destruction-carried-undetected-Europe-Union.html
It's Odd.
DeleteIQ doesn't seem to have anything to do with it.
ISIS has recruited experts with chemistry, physics and computer science degrees to wage war with weapons of mass destruction against the West, a shocking European Parliament report has claimed.
You'd think that if a person had a physics degree it might instill a little immunity, but no, IQ and education don't seem to make much difference.
British police have charged a 29-year-old man with attempted murder following a 'terrorist' knife attack at a London Underground station. -
ReplyDelete...
He reportedly shouted 'This is for Syria' before police used Tasers to subdue him.
ReplyDeleteOpinion
The video of revelers cheering 9/11 that no one got to see
By Harry Litman
December 3, 2015 | 8:45pm
The video of revelers cheering 9/11 that no one got to see
A flag marks the name of a loved one at the 9/11 Memorial North Pool. Photo: AP
If Donald Trump believes he saw videos of revelers celebrating after the Sept. 11 attacks that in fact never were broadcast, he’s in large company. Many of us believe we recall seeing similar footage of Palestinians living in the West Bank exulting in the wake of the attacks.
But implausible as it sounds, those recollections are faulty, and the actual footage has never been seen, because a major US news organization has kept it under wraps for the last 14 years.
Here are the facts, all of which are matters of public record. On the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of jubilant Palestinians took to the streets, chanting “God is great,” firing automatic weapons and handing out sweets to passers-by. The largest demonstration took place in Nablus in the West Bank, where some 3,000 marchers danced and cheered as guerrillas fired assault rifles and grenades into the air.
Many journalists were on the scene, but they were forcibly detained in a hotel by armed Palestinian security forces to prevent coverage of the rally. One cameraman — a freelance AP reporter — nevertheless managed to film some of the celebration.
The next day, members of Tanzim, the military arm of Fatah, physically threatened the cameraman and warned AP not to air the material. A cabinet secretary for the Palestinian government told the Associated Press that the government could not “guarantee the life” of the cameraman if the film were broadcast.
The Palestinian information minister explained to the Washington Post that the coercive tactics “were not against the freedom of the press but in order to ensure our national security and our national interest. We will not permit a few kids here or there to smear the real face of the Palestinians.”
The threat worked. After initially declining to confirm the incident, the AP bureau chief in Jerusalem acknowledged the intimidation and the news organization’s capitulation to it. On Sept. 14, 2001, the news organization made known that “in light of the danger,” it wouldn’t release the video for world broadcast because “the safety of our staff is paramount. At this point we believe there to be a serious threat to our staff if the video is released.”
DeleteFourteen years later, the historic footage from 9/11 remains inaccessible to public view.
But wait a minute. Wasn’t video of the West Bank celebrations transmitted around the world? In fact, the footage that many people remember consisted of a few still shots and brief clips of other, far smaller rallies in Lebanon and East Jerusalem. In contrast to the riotous celebrations in Nablus and elsewhere, these were possible to explain away as the repugnant response of “a few kids here or there.”
The suppressed video isn’t simply a historical artifact. The episode contains current lessons for the reliability of reporting from the Middle East, where the propaganda war can be every bit as intense and ruthless as ground combat. And the passionate anti-Western views it puts on vivid display appear to remain in full force.
A recent examination of more than 300 public-opinion polls among Palestinians revealed widely held views about terrorist attacks on Israel and the West that would be stunning even among Israel’s fiercest critics in the United States. A majority of respondents were unwilling to describe the 9/11 attacks — or, for that matter, the Madrid train explosions in 2004 and the London underground explosions in 2005 — as “terrorism.”
Fifty-nine percent responded that suicide bombings were often or sometimes justified. A similar percentage agreed with the statement “US involvement in the region justifies armed operations against the US everywhere.”
The continued suppression of the footage from 9/11 is a blot on the free press that, 14 years after the events, should long since have been removed. It was discreditable in the first instance for the AP to have capitulated to the shakedown, but whatever exigency it could point to in 2001 cannot justify a permanent gap in the documentary account of the worst domestic attack in US history.
These searing images belong in the public record, not in the closed video vault of a cowed news agency.
Harry Litman, the former US attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvnia, is a lawyer and teacher.
http://nypost.com/2015/12/03/the-video-of-revelers-cheering-911-that-no-one-got-to-see/
Don't know about all this, but I remember distinctly seeing the Palestinians celebrating 9/11, and I have read so many accounts of others that swear they saw Moslems celebrating on rooftops in USA that I believe that, too.
I hope from footage comes out that exonerates The Donald, though most news organizations are against him so it probably will not.
Ummm, dude, Palistine is not in New Jersey!
DeleteExcellent observation,Ash.
DeleteIt is not.
But the same unwillingness to come forward with video now might be at work.
The continued suppression of the footage from 9/11 is a blot on the free press that, 14 years after the events, should long since have been removed. It was discreditable in the first instance for the AP to have capitulated to the shakedown, but whatever exigency it could point to in 2001 cannot justify a permanent gap in the documentary account of the worst domestic attack in US history.
These searing images belong in the public record, not in the closed video vault of a cowed news agency.
See what I say, Dude ?
I've read a dozen accounts by credible people at AT and Hot Air and other places backing The Donald up.
When you think about it, why wouldn't some Moslems on the east coast in the USA celebrate 9/11?
Some of the poor darlings lost control of Gaza and the West Bank by attacking the Israelis.
And, Dude Ash, it's Palestine, not Palistine.
DeleteAssistant Chief Constable Mark Newton of British Transport Police said: "The safety of the travelling public remains our top priority.
ReplyDelete“In addition to our usual specialist response teams, last week we launched Project Servator deploying even more highly visible police patrols designed to identify and deter terrorism.
“Following the incident last night, we are now deploying still more officers in this role. They involve both uniformed and plain-clothed officers, supported by other resources, such as armed officers, police dogs, a network of CCTV cameras, and the thousands of rail staff we work alongside.”
Knife control !
DeleteWord on the street is O'bozo will commiserate with us all, and talk about gun control in tonight's Oval Office speech.
ReplyDeleteWe will see soon enough.
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – The commander of Anbar Operations Command Maj. Gen. Ismail Mahlawi announced on Sunday the killing of 40 elements of the ISIS as well as the destruction of 14 booby-trapped vehicles in Ramadi during the past 48 hours.
ReplyDeleteMahlawi said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The ISIS organization suffered heavy losses in lives and equipment in the city of Ramadi, after foiling an attack on the security forces stationed in the vicinity of the city, especially in the northern axis,” adding that, “His forces, with support from the Iraqi Air Force as well as the international coalition aviation and the artillery force, had managed to kill more than 40 elements of ISIS and destroy 14 booby-trapped vehicles driven by suicide bombers over the past 48 hours in Ramadi.”
Iraqnews
One of the DOD articles, the other day, stated that the effectiveness of ISIS' "vehicle borne IEDs" was down to 5%. That's a pretty big deal, inasmuch as VBIEDs are arguably ISIS's Primary, and most effective, weapon.
ReplyDeleteThe following is a summary of the strikes conducted against ISIL since the last press release:
ReplyDeleteSyria
* Near Mar'a, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL vehicles and an ISIL building.
* Near Ayn Isa, four strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL excavator, an ISIL tactical vehicle, and an ISIL building.
* Near Dayr Az Zawr, five strikes destroyed five ISIL oil well-heads.
Iraq
* Near Al Huwayjah, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL vehicles and an ISIL tunnel.
* Near Albu Hayat, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and suppressed an ISIL rocket rail.
* Near Mosul, four strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL mortar tube, an ISIL fighting position, an ISIL command and control node, an ISIL excavator, an ISIL heavy machine gun, and suppressed a separate ISIL heavy machine gun position.
...
The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct operations. Coalition nations which have conducted strikes in Iraq include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
ISIL Terrorists
.
ReplyDeleteI've read a dozen accounts by credible people at AT and Hot Air and other places backing The Donald up.
:o)
.
Bob is, indeed, an idiot!
DeleteBob's logic:
Delete''If the Donald, while in New Jersey, saw a video on TV of Palestinians celebrating, then the Donald saw Muslims in New Jersey celebrating."
An, hmmm, Ash, that doesn't even make any sense.
DeleteHave you been smoking the information flow blocking loco weed tonight ?
.
ReplyDeleteBut the same unwillingness to come forward with video now might be at work.
:o)
:o):o)
:o):o):o)
:o)
Right, in 2001, Governor Donald DiFrancesco (Republican)threatened all US media not to run videos of the celebrating because it could hurt New Jersey tourism. He threatened to ban them from the Jersey Shore unless they complied.
You are priceless.
.
:)
DeleteHeh
Right, see you've proven my point. There is a big big video cover up going on.
And if you don't like my sources, well just shove it up your ass.
And you too, Ashole.
(Ever since the Democrats took over New Jersey place has gone to the devil, to the point even Quirk is afraid to go there any longer)
DeleteO'bozo's speech was quite tranquilizing.
ReplyDeletePolitics
Obama tries to ease anxiety over terrorism with Oval Office address
Hillary is still for fighting them thus:
“President Obama’s declaration tonight that his policies are working was strange,” said retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, another GOP presidential contender. “Strange that it took four days from the attack to respond and even more strange that somehow the attack on our soil is proof his policies are working. One must wonder who has contained who.”
Meanwhile, the setbacks have put Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, in the uncomfortable position of being asked to second-guess Obama.
On ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, the former secretary of state said: “We have to fight in the air, fight on the ground and fight them on the Internet. We have to do everything we can with our friends and partners around the world. That’s what we’ll hear from the president, to intensify the current strategy.”
She added that the United States must also take additional steps, including asking Facebook, YouTube and Twitter not to allow Islamic State fighters to post messages appealing to potential sympathizers around the globe.
But, she emphasized, “I don’t think there should be American combat troops. . . . That would make things worse.”
Obama has cautioned the public not to overreact — and denounced rhetoric from some Republicans, including Cruz and Jeb Bush, another GOP presidential nominee, who have called on the administration to halt the influx of Muslim refugees from Syria.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-tries-to-ease-anxiety-over-terror-attacks-with-oval-office-address/2015/12/06/95d9a34c-9c72-11e5-bce4-708fe33e3288_story.html
"We have to fight in the air........... fight them on the Internet"
DeleteShe added that the United States must also take additional steps, including asking Facebook, YouTube and Twitter not to allow Islamic State fighters to post messages appealing to potential sympathizers around the globe.
That's the winning formula. We must win in cyberspace....and we must ask Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to do it for us.
We must double down on the current losing strategy !
Delete.
Delete“This Week” on Sunday, the former secretary of state said: “We have to fight in the air, fight on the ground and fight them on the Internet.
Is this considered plagiarism?
.
“She has not yet begun to fight!”
DeleteWe shall fight them in the air, in Cyberspace, on the Internet, and if they should take our mainland, we shall fight them on Twitter and YouTube from Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, until God, not Allah, shall give us the victory.
DeleteThat would be plagiarism, in my opinion.
“We have to fight in the air, fight on the ground and fight them on the Internet."
DeleteLying witch. She has ruled out ground forces.
.
DeleteIt all depends upon what the meaning of the word 'we' is.
.
.
DeleteAnd fight.
.
.
DeleteAnd land.
.
.
DeleteSorry,
And ground.
.
I was kind of thinking the same thing.
Delete"We" does not, in this case, include "Me" I should think.
From the tone of these articles up at RealClearPolitics this day, we can conclude that O'bozo is floating out in space -
ReplyDeleteSunday, December 6
NY Times Tries to Distract From Obama's Failures
Glenn Reynolds, USA Today
Obama's Struggle to Be Heard
Greg Jaffe, Washington Post
Obama Actually Thinks He's Being Reassuring
Jim Geraghty, National Review Online
No New Strategy For Defeating ISIS
Michelle Fields, Breitbart
U.S. Intel to Obama: ISIS Is Not Contained
Kimberly Dozier, The Daily Beast
Obama: Gun Control, Rejecting Islamophobia Keys to Terror Fight
D. Politi, Slate
-- joined by The Ashlole and The Quirkmon.
All we need do to win is to give up all our guns, and reject Islamophobia.
DeleteAsh doesn't have to reject Islamophobia.
DeleteHe is one infidel too dumb to have any.
Any being a token liberal here, he wouldn't think of having a gun!, so he's good to go.
DeleteAsh being...
DeleteGermany has publicly warned Saudi Arabia against further financing religious radicals globally. German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel’s demand to cut money flowing to the Wahhabis comes as some lawmakers are growing weary of Saudi-funded radical mosques.
ReplyDeleteGabriel stressed that the Saudi regime has been funding mosques known for radicalizing the Muslim population, including in various communities in Europe.
“We have to make clear to the Saudis that the time of looking away is over,” Mr Gabriel, Merkel’s deputy and the head of the Social Democrats (SPD), told Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “Wahhabi mosques all over the world are financed by Saudi Arabia. Many Islamists who are a threat to public safety come from these communities in Germany.”
A senior Iranian official says Tehran is in possession of evidence showing Turkey is involved in illegal oil trade with the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.
ReplyDelete“Iranian advisers in Syria have taken photos and videos of all the routes [used by] Daesh oil trucks [to move] to Turkey; and these documents can be presented and published,” said Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, on his official website.
Responding to a question on why Turkish officials categorically deny any involvement in oil trade with Daesh, Rezaei said, “If the Turkish government is not aware of Daesh oil sales in its own country, we are ready to give it the formation.”
Turkey stands accused of being involved in illegal oil trade with Daesh. The government in Ankara denies the charge.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/12/05/440365/Iran-Mohsen-Rezaei-Turkey-oil-trade
THE TURKS ARE SHOCKED
ReplyDeleteTurkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç said on Sunday that statements by Iranian officials and reports from official news agencies using inflammatory language against Turkey and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have shocked Turkey.
Bilgiç criticized recent statements made by the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman and other officials accusing Turkey of facilitating the sale of oil for the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Bilgiç also criticized some Iranian officials who acted as if there had been no phone conversation between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, for manipulating what was actually talked about as being “unethical" and showing an effort to deceive Iranian people.
Bilgiç said Turkey denies the allegations accusing it of aiding terrorism, saying those countries that helped the Syrian regime against the people have contributed to the conflict.
On Thursday President Erdoğan said he had called Iranian President Rouhani to discuss the Iranian allegations that Turkey is facilitating the sale of ISIL oil. But the Iranian Fars news agency reported that Erdoğan never spoke with Rouhani or warned him. Later the news agency removed the story from its wire service.
The allegations about Turkey facilitating ISIL oil sales were first mentioned right after Turkey shot down a Russian jet on Nov. 24 over airspace violations at the Syrian border. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia had long been aware of Turkey’s aiding of ISIL to sell oil, make money and commit terrorist acts.
http://www.todayszaman.com/diplomacy_turkey-says-shocked-by-iranian-allegations_406270.html
December 6, 2015
ReplyDeleteBitter Jihadists Cling to Guns and Religion
By Daniel John Sobieski
Meeting privately with a group of donors in San Francisco on April 6, 2008, presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama told them of “small towns in Pennsylvania” and in the Midwest beset by job losses in a changing economy. He told of how “they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment” to vent their frustrations.
In San Bernardino, California, bitter people clinging to their guns and their religion, full of antipathy towards people not like them, shot up a Christmas gathering, killing 14 Americans. They were radical Islamic terrorists, a phrase which has not and is not likely to fall from President Obama’s lips as he still considers the possibly it might be “workplace violence” as the administration dubbed the massacre at Ft. Hood. And don’t forget that terrorist inducing number one threat to national security and American lives -- climate change.
Islamists shooting up a Christmas gathering is not “workplace violence”. It is radicalized, “less than loving” Muslims participating in a global jihad against Christianity and our Western Judeo-Christian culture. When Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik they were bitter clingers indeed, filled with the same animus towards Christianity and Western culture as Maj. Nidal Hassan was when he shot up Ft. Hood while yelling “Allahu Akhbar” (God is great November 5, 2009, killing 13 and wounding 30.
How did the pair, on Fraook’s limited salary, amass thousands of rounds of high-powered ammo, wire their home with sophisticated booby troops, assemble a bomb-making factory in their garage, and acquire semi-automatic weapons with foreign help?
It has been reported by CNN that Tashfeen Malik had pledged allegiance online to the Islamic State:
Investigators think that as the San Bernardino, California, attack was happening, female shooter Tashfeen Malik posted a pledge of allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Facebook, three U.S. officials familiar with the investigation told CNN. Malik's post was made on an account with a different name, one U.S. official said.
It was exactly the kind of attack by “lone wolves” that the Islamic State has been encouraging and exactly the kind of attack that President Obama said a “contained” ISIS could not mount here. It is part of a curious pattern of denial of radical Islamic terror by a President Obama who pointedly refused to march with world leaders in Paris after the attack on the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. As Investor’s Business Daily has pointed out, President Obama has exhibited a curious double standard:
DeleteSpeaking of the Chapel Hill, N.C., murder of three Muslims, President Obama, as his FBI began an investigation into whether it was a "hate crime," issued a statement saying that "no one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like or how they worship."
Indeed not. Yet, we could find no such sentiment or statement by Obama condemning as a religiously motivated hate crime in the September 2014 beheading of an Oklahoma Christian woman by a former co-worker for not heeding his demand to convert to Islam or die.
Dare we say it depends on whose ox is being gored? Obama -- who apologized to the United Nations after the Benghazi terrorist attack, saying a video offensive to Muslims prompted it -- also said, "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."
That declaration would seem to include the staff of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, who were accused of doing just that before a terrorist attack killed twelve journalists. The massacre at Fort Hood was "workplace violence, "not a jihad terrorist attack by Maj. Nidal Hasan against Western "crusaders."
The lives of the four Jews killed in a kosher market in Paris were dismissed by Obama as "a bunch of folks in a deli" shot "randomly" as they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Detect a pattern here?
Indeed, we should, a pattern of denial and obfuscation by a president who is either delusional or incompetent or both. This is not a problem with guns that will be solved by background checks or cross checking gun buyers with no-fly lists. CBS has reported that Tashfeen Malik, who came here on a visa to marry American citizen Syed Farook, actually passed vetting by our vaunted Department of Homeland Security.
So what should we be looking for after San Bernardino? Attorney General Loretta Lynch has an idea -- look for those spouting hate speech against Muslims. Speaking to a group of Muslim advocates, Lynch said:
The day after a horrific shooting spree by a "radicalized" Muslim man and his partner in San Bernardino, California, Attorney General Loretta Lynch pledged to a group of Muslim activists that she would take aggressive action against anyone who used "anti-Muslim rhetoric" that "edges toward violence."
Speaking to the audience at the Muslim Advocate's 10th anniversary dinner Thursday, Lynch said her "greatest fear" is the "incredibly disturbing rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric" in America and vowed to prosecute any guilty of what she deemed violence-inspiring speech.
What? The president has said words have consequences but we don’t have an epidemic of Christians shooting up or burning down mosques. We do have an epidemic of radical Islamic terrorists killing Christians and Jews. The president decried Republicans for their reluctance to blindly admit Syrian refugees, accusing them of being afraid of “widows and orphans.” What they are afraid of, Mr. President, is your policies here and overseas of allowing the Islamic State and their sympathizers to create more widows and orphans there and here while you whistle past their graveyards.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/12/bitter_jihadists_cling_to_guns_and_religion.html
Charlie Hebdo, by the way. has either shut down or shut down with the criticizing moslems or depicting Mohammad. So I read, but can't recall whether it was a total shutdown, or not.
DeleteSo it's a win for the terrorists in that sense.
The good news from France is that Marine Le Pen and her Niece Marion Le Pen and the National Front are going to do well in the elections that are taking place.
DeleteIn 2017 the National Front might be running the government.
News about National Front
bing.com/news
France elections: National Front leads in regional polls
France elections: National Front leads in regional polls
BBC · 1 minute ago
France's far-right National Front (FN) appears to have made big gains in the first round of regional elections, estimates show. They put the FN ahead in at least …
Far-right Front National makes big gains in French elections
Far-right Front National makes big gains in French elections
CNN · 2 hours ago
(CNN)France's far-right Front National (FN) party has emerged as the leader in regional elections in the wake of brutal …
France’s Far-Right National Front Gains in Regional Elections
France’s Far-Right National Front Gains in Regional Elections
New York Times · 54 minutes ago
PARIS — The far-right party of Marine Le Pen was poised to make major gains in regional French elections on Sunday …
Why the media always tags them with 'far right' I do not know but can guess.
Stokes fear.
What they are is traditional French Catholics, particularly Marion, the Niece.
Marion Le Pen is French for Sarah Palin.
DeleteThe two of them, Marine and Marion, got rid of old man Le Pen, the father and grandfather.
DeleteOld man Le Pen founded the party, and was kicked out of it by Marine and Marion.
He wanted to bring back the guillotine and this was causing an unfortunate stir.
:):):)
Michael Goodwin
ReplyDeleteNews
What will it take for Obama to admit this is Islamic terrorism?
By Michael Goodwin
December 5, 2015 | 10:34pm
During his tenure, President Obama occasionally has been inspiring, sometimes perplexing and, more often, infuriating. His recent appearances provoke another reaction. He looks and sounds pathetic, a shrunken figure detached from reality.
Always half-hearted about the war on terror, the President’s stubborn refusal to call the atrocity in Paris “Islamic terrorism” has put him out of step with events. In listless, vapid remarks, he called the death of 130 innocent victims a “setback,” and salted the wound by insisting that climate change is a greater threat.
And now, with the slaughter in San Bernardino showing Islamic State tentacles reaching America, the president’s continuing unwillingness to admit the truth puts him even further outside the mainstream of American society and law enforcement.
By closing his mind to facts, Obama is making himself a denier.
America is at war and the Commander in Chief isn’t even trying to lead from behind anymore. He’s gone AWOL at the worst possible time.
His consistent failure to acknowledge the roots of Islam in the jihadist death cult always was peculiar. He insisted that the religion not be defined by those who hijacked it, but with the barbarism of Islamic State and the growing number of lethal attacks, his intransigence is downright weird. What’s the harm of admitting a truth the whole world sees?
Obama’s attempts to obscure the connection to Islam in Wednesday’s massacre is leaving a leadership vacuum and fanning America’s fears.
Soon after the California shootings, but before the facts were known about casualties, the president saddled up his favorite hobby horse.
A couple embraces at the scene of the shooting.Photo: AP
Admitting that “we don’t know that much yet,” he still knew the solution — gun control. “The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern of mass shootings that have no parallel anywhere in the world,” he told CBS Wednesday afternoon.
As the facts emerged through the evening and overnight, common sense pointed toward terrorism. The killers were dead, their cache of weapons and ammo, along with 12 explosive devices, made it clear this was not a spontaneous act or a case of a mentally ill loner. The pattern led the FBI agent in charge to say that terrorism could not be ruled out.
Soon, the identification of the killers as Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, led some of Obama’s fellow travelers to abandon him. A California chapter of CAIR, the hard-line Council on American-Islamic Relations, held a news conference where officials condemned the murders and expressed sympathy for victims’ families.
DeleteTheir quick action was a tacit confirmation that terrorism was a reasonable explanation for the slaughter of unarmed innocents by Muslims. Otherwise, why speak out so early or at all? No other religious group felt the need to come forward.
Although there were odd elements, including that Farook worked with those he killed, the carnage looked similar to what had happened in Paris and fit Islamic State’s call for individual radicals to kill fellow Americans.
Yet Obama remained a determined outlier. It would be Thursday afternoon, nearly 24 hours after the shooting, before Obama spoke again. He budged slightly, but still tried to obscure the issues.
The subdued president called the shooting a “tragedy,” expressed condolences to the families and gave extensive praise to “the coordination of law enforcement” before getting to the substance.
“We do not know why they did it, we do not know their motivations,” he claimed. “It is possible that this is terrorist-related, but we don’t know. It’s also possible this was workplace-related.”
A victim is taken away from the scene of the shooting.Photo: KNBC
He said investigators needed to understand the “workplace relationship between the individual and his superiors.” From there, he jumped back to gun control, insisting we “need to search ourselves as a society.”
He then went silent until his Saturday radio address, where he delivered the understatement of the year: “It is entirely possible that these two attackers were radicalized to commit this act of terror.”
Equally troubling, Attorney General Loretta Lynch told a Muslim advocacy dinner that “my greatest fear” is that anti-Islam “rhetoric will be accompanied by acts of violence.” She threatened prosecution and said the First Amendment does not protect “actions predicated on violent talk.”
That was a warning to Donald Trump and other GOP candidates, as well as ordinary Americans, that speaking the truth could land them in jail. Apparently the zeal for denial is boundless.
We are witnessing a mistake of historic proportions. The idea that the link between Islam and terrorism cannot be admitted is absurd, and it is backfiring. The refusal to concede the obvious is leading to greater suspicion about Islam. Denial is tainting all Muslims in ways the facts never could.
Americans, including Muslims, deserve the truth, Mr. President. They can handle it. Why can’t you?
http://nypost.com/author/michael-goodwin/
Rufus is nearly always wrong on his figures and his figurin'.
ReplyDeleteHe told us recently that 32,000 Americans die in gun violence each year.
One needs to go to a trustworthy site like American Thinker to get the true skinny --
December 7, 2015
Gun violence has plummeted in America
By Ed Lasky
To quote Dragnet’s Joe Friday, “Just the Facts, Ma’am”.
For years every time there has been a high-profile gun killing or killings in America, Barack Obama and the usual suspects blame the guns not the perpetrators (unless they are policemen).
Obama cares about the dead only insofar he can score political points and attack Republicans. Recall that he thinks most Americans (and not just small-town folks it has become increasingly clear over the years) are xenophobic and cling to religion and guns. He certainly never indicts Islamic terrorism. The NRA and GOP are the enemies, not ISIS or AQ. Hillary Clinton agrees since she has identified the former two as her enemies and not the latter two.
The New York Times predictably join the chorus in Saturday’s edition of the paper by publishing on its front-page editorial/screed But Obama and those allied with him who use victims to decry the epidemic of gun violence in America ignore the facts.
The Washington Post begs to differ. In a column “We’ve had a massive decline in gun violence in the United States. Here’s Why” the paper lays out the facts:
Premeditated mass shootings in public places are happening more often, some researchers say, plunging towns and cities into grief and riveting the attention of a horrified nation. In general, though, fewer Americans are dying as a result of gun violence — a shift that began about two decades ago.
In 1993, there were seven homicides by firearm for every 100,000 Americans, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By 2013, that figure had fallen by nearly half, to 3.6 — a total of 11,208 firearm homicides. The number of victims of crimes involving guns that did not result in death (such as robberies) declined even more precipitously, from 725 per 100,000 people in 1993 to 175 in 2013.
Older data suggests that gun violence might have been even more widespread previously. The rate of murder and manslaughter excluding negligence reached an apex in 1980, according to the FBI. That year, there were 10.8 willful killings per 100,000 people. Although not a perfect measure of the overall rate of gun violence, the decline in the rate of murder and manslaughter is suggestive: Two in three homicides these days are committed with guns.
DeleteThis decline in gun violence is part of an overall decline in violent crime. According to the FBI's data, the national rate of violent crime has decreased 49 percent since its apex in 1991. Even as a certain type of mass shooting is apparently becoming more frequent, America has become a much less violent place.
The paper identifies and explains five factors as being behind the good news. More police officers, smarter policing, less alcohol abuse, less lead in the environment (in paint and car/truck exhausts) leading to less behavioral problems, and a better economy. I would add at least one more off the top of my head, related to a better economy: capitalism. Smarter technology and manufacturing has led to a plummeting price and widespread availability of consumer goods. I recall reading about the recent bankruptcy of retailer Radio Shack. The columnist had toted up all the items that used to be bought separately that can now be found in a smartphone. Expensive though some of those phones may be the savings can be tremendous (no stereo system, no camera, no phone, etc.). Flat panel televisions used to be a target of thieves, but now they are just ignored. Cash is on its way out and credit cards now populate wallets and purses. There are just fewer “reasons” to commit property crimes.
Importantly, two of the reasons given for the decline of gun violence are the police: more of them and smarter police methods. Do Barack Obama or his political allies give them any credit -- ever? President Obama has admitted that gun violence is something that we should politicize (he politicizes everything so why should victims stand in the way of his and his party’s drive for a one-party state)?
Will their agenda against the police reverse the good news about gun violence? Do they care about facts when lies can be used to score political points?
Those are all rhetorical questions.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/12/gun_violence_has_plummeted_in_america.html
*****************
Putting Gun Death Statistics in Perspective
Gangs Remain Key Unaddressed Problem in Gun Debate
There are roughly 32,000 gun deaths per year in the United States. Of those, around 60% are suicides. About 3% are accidental deaths (between 700-800 deaths). About 34% of deaths (just over 11,000 in both 2010 and 2011) make up the remainder of gun deaths and are classified as homicides. Sometimes the 32,000 and 11,000 figures are used interchangeably by gun control advocates. Clearly, the 32,000 figure is a far more dramatic number and it is often used for impact by anti-gun activists.
http://usconservatives.about.com/od/capitalpunishment/a/Putting-Gun-Death-Statistics-In-Perspective.htm
The Passive-Aggressive Monetary Two-Step
ReplyDeleteDECEMBER 7, 2015 7:38 AM December 7, 2015 7:38 am 2 Comments
Ted Cruz somewhat surprised Janet Yellen by accusing the Fed of causing the Great Recession by tightening monetary policy in 2008; David Beckworth sort-of-kind-of supports Cruz by arguing that the Fed did in fact “passively” tighten by failing to do enough to offset falling spending.
Uh-oh: it’s starting to look a bit like the Friedman two-step, only this time done at internet speed.
By the Friedman two-step, I mean the process of argument that began with Friedman and Schwartz on the Great Depression, in which they argued that the Fed could have prevented the Depression by aggressively expanding the monetary base to prevent a sharp fall in broader monetary aggregates. This was a defensible argument, although it looks much weaker in the light of more recent developments; as I warned in 1998, in a liquidity trap the central bank loses control of monetary aggregates as well as the real economy; it’s by no means clear that the Fed really could have prevented the Depression. Still, that remains a live argument.
But what happened over time — and Friedman himself was very culpable — was that the claim “the Fed could have prevented the depression” turned into “the Fed caused the depression.” See? Government is the root of all evil! Friedman used this to push his patented agenda of laissez-faire on everything except monetary policy, where under the guise of M2 targeting he was actually calling for a very active Fed.
The thing is that even if that would have worked (which it probably wouldn’t), it was inevitable that others would go the whole way and call for laissez-faire all the way, including monetary policy. I mean, who needs the Fed when everyone knows it caused the Great Depression. Back to the gold standard!
DeleteThe path from Friedman and Schwartz to goldbuggism took several decades. But things move faster these days.
When Ted Cruz uses the passive-aggressive method to attack the Fed, claiming that it caused the Great Recession because it didn’t do more in 2008, he isn’t using it to push the cause of market monetarism. He is already on record as an ardent supporter of a return to gold. Needless to say, a gold standard would have meant much tighter, not looser, monetary policy since 2008. But Cruz uses the framing of failure to act as acting in the wrong direction to obscure this point.
The question of whether inadequate policy should be viewed as tightening may seem like a fun word game. But you really don’t want to provide, um, passive support to policy ideas that would make things much worse.
PK - NYT
SOUTHWEST ASIA, December 7, 2015 — U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
ReplyDeleteOfficials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Strikes in Syria
Attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted nine strikes in Syria:
-- Near Hawl, four strikes struck four separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed nine ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle bomb, and three ISIL vehicles.
-- Near Dayr Ar Zawr, four strikes struck four ISIL oil wellheads.
-- Near Mar’a, a strike damaged an ISIL artillery piece.
Strikes in Iraq
Attack, bomber and fighter aircraft conducted 11 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:
-- Near Kisik, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit , destroyed an ISIL fighting position and suppressed an ISIL heavy machine gun.
-- Near Mosul, a strike destroyed two ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Ramadi, seven strikes struck four separate ISIL tactical units, wounded five ISIL fighters, denied ISIL access to terrain, and destroyed 13 ISIL buildings, nine ISIL fighting positions, six ISIL heavy machine guns, three ISIL staging areas, two ISIL house bombs, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL tunnel, an ISIL bomb, and an ISIL assembly area.
-- Near Tal Afar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.
DOD
RIP Rufus' Uncle:
ReplyDeleteDied, Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7th, 1941.
Remember the Vets who died for us.
DeleteRemember Pearl Harbor.
Meanwhile, My Comment, yesterday, was:
ReplyDeletegalopn2Sun Dec 06, 01:46:00 PM EST
Well, let's see:
Gun Deaths in the U.S. - 32,000
Gun Deaths by IS sympathizers - 14
ReplyDelete
No mention of Gun "Violence"
Yo, Bob, why did you lie?
DeleteWell OK, Rufus. I erred. I humbly apologize.
DeleteBut still you used the misleading figure of 32,000.
*****
I'm getting a new computer for Christmas so I can watch Fox News again......
Ralph Peters on Fox News: Let’s face it, Obama is a “total pussy”; Update: Suspended two weeks
posted at 3:21 pm on December 7, 2015 by Allahpundit
Via the Free Beacon. A total pussy? That seems harsh. Just because a guy won’t use the phrase “radical Islam” and sets “red lines” he has no intention of enforcing and claims the enemy is “contained” when it clearly isn’t and fights a half-assed war from the air against a spreading “caliphate” and doesn’t respond when Russia bombs our rebel proxies and tries to blame his critics for his failed policy and seems to relish scolding Americans more than performing his official duties and…
Wait, where I was going with this again?
And that’s just Syria. I haven’t even mentioned the catastrophic deal with Iran that’s going to make them a nuclear threshold state in 15 years.
Sometimes, my friends, a phrase like “low energy” just won’t cut it. Hey, he’ll always have the Bin Laden raid.
Update: That was fast.
A couple of hours later Stacey Dash, a Fox contributor, said the president “didn’t give a sh–” about Sunday night’s terrorism speech.
“Earlier today, Fox contributors Lt. Col. Ralph Peters and Stacey Dash made comments on different programs that were completely inappropriate and unacceptable for our air,” Fox senior executive vice president Bill Shine said.
“Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel do not condone the use of such language, and have suspended both Peters and Dash for two weeks,” he said.
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/12/07/ralph-peters-on-fox-news-lets-face-it-obama-is-a-total-pussy/
Fox News, the family friendly news station.
This is from your own comment, up above, you ignorant, illiterate asshole:
Delete"There are roughly 32,000 gun deaths per year in the United States."
You moronic ignorant illiterate swamprat asshole.
Delete.
Delete“Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel do not condone the use of such language, and have suspended both Peters and Dash for two weeks,” he said.
Only two weeks.
Never heard of Dash but Peters is batshit crazy. The only reason FOX has him on is to gin up the hicks and yahoos.
.
SYRIAN-BORN US CITIZEN CHARGED WITH SMUGGLING TO MILITANTS...
ReplyDeleteTRUMP: 'COMPLETE SHUTDOWN' ON MUSLIMS ENTERING...Drudge
I agree with The Donald on the grounds that religion is foremost in most Muslim minds, and that outlook is totally at odds with our Constitution. They wish to substitute Sharia Law for rationality.
Avoid trouble.
(((((HILLARY DEMANDS TECH STOP ISIS...)))))
Lynch walks back comments on prosecuting anti-Muslim speech...
Malik attended Islamic school in Pakistan...
PARTICIPATED IN TARGET PRACTICE.................Drudge
'ISIS TARGETED REFUGEE PROGRAM TO ENTER USA' ......Drudge Headline
One poll has Cruz ahead in Iowa, another has Trump still firmly in the lead. Everything is still up in the air.
CNN Iowa poll: Trump 33, Cruz 20, Carson 16........Drudge
DeleteYuge: Ted Cruz leads among likely voters in Iowa for the first time, 24/19 over Trump
posted at 1:21 pm on December 7, 2015 by Allahpundit
Not only is he leading but he’s still got that (likely) endorsement from Bob Vander Plaats coming, which will further consolidate evangelicals behind him. Ben Carson has collapsed from 32 percent two months ago to 13 percent now. How much of that remaining 13 percent will shift to Cruz once Vander Plaats weighs in?
We’re six months into the campaign and the first shot still has yet to be fired in the inevitable Trump/Cruz war. Any minute now.
No fancy math needed to see what’s happening. The romance with Carson is over and the romance with Cruz — and, to a lesser extent, Rubio — has begun, and this time it’s unlikely to be a fling. Steve King’s endorsement seems to have helped Cruz a bunch: 19 percent say it made them at least a little more likely to support him. Carson led in October among evangelicals with 36 percent, 18 points better than Trump. Now Cruz leads with 30 percent, 12 points more than Trump and 14 more than Rubio. Carson is now fourth in that group. Yikes. This isn’t the only recent poll to show movement in Iowa for Cruz either; the two most recent polls of the state each had him passing Carson for second place, and Quinnipiac had him just two points behind Trump. There’s every reason to think Monmouth has the order of the race correct right now.
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/12/07/yuge-ted-cruz-leads-among-likely-voters-in-iowa-for-the-first-time-2419-over-trump/
.
DeleteI agree with The Donald on the grounds that religion is foremost in most Muslim minds, and that outlook is totally at odds with our Constitution. They wish to substitute Sharia Law for rationality.
You are nutz.
.
You are nutz.
Delete"First we show the Poles, then everybody else"
DeleteHamtramck, Michigan City Council member after Muslims elected to control of City.
That's YOU Quirk-O.
DeleteThey will get around to me a little later.
You can still always come to the farm.
First statement out of the starting gate:
DeleteFirst we show the Poles, then everybody else
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December 7, 2015
ISIS has smuggled WMD materials into Europe: EU report
By Rick Moran
We all know that Europe is in big trouble. Now it appears that the situation is even worse than most of us suspected.
A report by the European Union Parliament states that the Islamic State has been recruiting dozens of chemists, biologists, and nuclear physicists to build weapons of mass destruction – materials for which have already been smuggled into Europe.
Daily Mail:
The terror organisation, according to the briefing document, 'may be planning to try to use internationally banned weapons of mass destruction in future attacks'.
The document, which was compiled in the aftermath of the deadly attacks on Paris claimed that ISIS has already smuggled WMD material into Europe.
Experts fear that ISIS will be able to exploit a failure of EU governments to share information on possible terrorists.
Already, British police forces have been conducting exercises on how to deal with various types of terrorist attack. But the EU report claims that government should 'consider publicly addressing the possibility of terrorist attack using chemical, biological, radiological or even nuclear materials'.
The report, ISIL/Da'esh and 'non-conventional' weapons of terror warns: 'At present, European citizens are not seriously contemplating the possibility that extremist groups might use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) materials during attacks in Europe. Under these circumstances, the impact of such an attack, should it occur, would be even more destabilising.'
Rob Wainwright, head of Europol said after the attacks on Paris: 'We are dealing with a very serious, well-resourced, determined international terrorist organisation that is now active on the streets of Europe.
'This represents the most serious terrorist threat faced in Europe for 10 years.'
We shouldn't doubt that ISIS has smuggled the raw materials to make WMD into Europe. But the challenges facing ISIS to actually carry out an actual WMD attack are, thankfully, daunting.
The problem for the terrorists is how to construct a dispersal system that would kill the largest number of people. While chemical weapons might be fairly easy to build, finding a way to disperse the gas to affect dozens or hundreds of people is a lot harder. One obvious target is subway systems, where the closed space coupled with massive numbers of people could lead to a horrific event. But authorities are aware of this and have radically increased security at targets like the underground in Great Britain.
Constructing bio-weapons demands an expertise that few biologists possess. Weaponizing the bugs is even harder. This would not be the WMD of choice by ISIS.
The biggest danger is from a radiological, or "dirty," bombs. While efforts to secure nuclear waste from hospitals and research labs have improved in recent years, experts say there is still a vulnerability there. In fact, the EU study makes some startling claims:
The shocking study claims that 150 cases of nuclear or radiological trafficking are reported annually.
Worse still: 'CBRN substances have been carried undetected into the European Union.
'Interpol's monthly CBRN intelligence reports show numerous examples of attempts to acquire, smuggle or use CBRN materials.'
The bottom line is that ISIS are not dummies and will eventually figure it all out. In the meantime, authorities race to stop an attack before one is carried out. But as we all know, in order to be safe, we have to get it right 100% of the time. ISIS has to get lucky only once.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/12/isis_has_smuggled_wmd_materials_into_europe_eu_report.html
I've read, but don't have the links now, that if the violence in the inner cities is subtracted from the accounting, the USA is no more violent than the average EU country.
ReplyDeleteHonduras, of all places, is the murder capital of the world.
Yes, gun violence is way down… but not everywhere
posted at 12:01 pm on December 7, 2015 by Jazz Shaw
Leaving Islamic terrorism aside for the moment, shootings of the domestic variety continue to fascinate the media and are used as fodder for gun control arguments on a daily basis. (Unless, of course, it’s a gang shooting such as the mayhem at Bunny Friend Park, in which case nobody talks about it.) To listen to these endless looping stories, one would think that gun violence is at “epidemic” levels (thanks New York Daily News!) and only getting worse.
The reality, of course, is very much the opposite. With a few admittedly important exceptions, gun violence has been steadily declining in the country for the better part of two decades and that’s not a blip on the radar. The Washington Post explains. (Some emphasis added)
Premeditated mass shootings in public places are happening more often, some researchers say, plunging towns and cities into grief and riveting the attention of a horrified nation. In general, though, fewer Americans are dying as a result of gun violence — a shift that began about two decades ago…
In 1993, there were seven homicides by firearm for every 100,000 Americans, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By 2013, that figure had fallen by nearly half, to 3.6 — a total of 11,208 firearm homicides. The number of victims of crimes involving guns that did not result in death (such as robberies) declined even more precipitously, from 725 per 100,000 people in 1993 to 175 in 2013.
So overall, the rate of gun violence of all sorts has been falling since some of our readers were in diapers. The reasons cited included an expanded number of police with continually improving technology and best practices for tracking, identifying and capturing criminals. A better economy (at times) with more jobs and a healthier population also contribute to the decrease.
DeleteBut in recent years that trend has reversed in a few places, all of which are large urban centers. Murders and assaults are actually on the rise again in New York, Baltimore, St. Lois, Chicago and Los Angeles. Call it the Ferguson Effect or anything else you like, but the numbers speak for themselves. And in some of these cities – Los Angeles in particular – the crime rates may be even worse than we’re being told.
LAPD misclassified more than 25,000 serious crimes as minor (LA Times)
Poor training, an error-prone records system and widespread confusion among Los Angeles police led to thousands of serious crimes being omitted from the city’s tally of violence over the past seven years, an audit by the department’s independent watchdog found.
In the report, which was released Friday, Inspector General Alex Bustamante estimated the LAPD misclassified more than 25,000 aggravated assaults as minor incidents from 2008 to 2014.
The errors meant the number of serious attacks would have been 36% higher than what the LAPD reported during that time, the audit found. Aggravated assaults are included in the department’s official count of crime, while the less-serious incidents are not counted.
The LAPD’s internal watchdogs may want to attribute these findings to ineffective record keeping, a lack of training or confusion, but you’ll pardon me if I’m more than a bit skeptical. Anyone who knows and has spoken to cops who work the beat in major cities is probably already aware of how the wind blows. Mayors like to see falling crime statistics. It’s a sure fire way to garner some good headlines heading into an election and improves their chances of staying in office. “See how my policies are keeping you safe” is a golden ticket in municipal politics and elected leaders keep continual pressure on their police departments to produce results in the form of crime numbers going down. Sure, they’d love it if there was really less crime, but they’ll take a set of cooked books in a pinch as long as the papers will print the statistics.
We have a gun problem and a crime problem, but it’s centered in the cities for the most part. And it’s a problem with illegal guns in the vast, vast majority of cases. It’s also a gang problem. But nobody wants to talk about gangs or the lack of sufficient police resources to get the illegal guns off the streets and out of the hands of criminals. It just doesn’t fit the narrative. Democrats and liberals would much prefer solving the “problem” of too many law abiding people who actually follow the rules and pass background checks having guns. Talking about gang violence brings in all manner of unpleasant subjects which they’d rather not deal with.
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/12/07/yes-gun-violence-is-way-down-but-not-everywhere/
JUST IN: Trump says Muslim-American citizens currently abroad also included in ban http://hill.cm/X86yR3O
ReplyDelete4:35 PM - 7 Dec 2015
Man, this cat is a sweetheart. He's definitely found his party. :)
The Donald doesn't know the law very well, if he is serious.
DeleteA citizen is a citizen.
Immigrants are an entirely different matter.
PublicPolicyPolling @ppppolls
ReplyDeleteTrump supporters on our NC poll coming out tomorrow: only 24% think Islam should be legal in United States, 44% illegal
3:27 PM - 7 Dec 2015
:)
44% have it right.
DeleteThey are in favor of overthrowing our Constitution.
You must be in favor of this, Rufus.
If you've said it once, you've said it a hundred times -
"All religion ought to outlawed"
Fess up, 'gator.
heheheheh
:):)
Rufus has always been at the forefront of the battle to outlaw religion!!
DeletePentagon confirms U.S. airstrikes kill top ISIS leader in Libya
ReplyDeleteposted at 7:21 pm on December 7, 2015 by Ashley Pratte
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In what appears to be some good news after Obama’s lackluster address to the nation last night, the Pentagon confirmed today that United States airstrikes last month killed Abu Nabil, the leader of the Islamic State in Libya.
The Pentagon also confirmed the death of Abdiraham Sandhere, a senior leader of al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Somalia.
Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said of the two deaths,
“This is an important step forward in the fight against al-Shabaab, and the United States will continue to use the tools at our disposal—financial, diplomatic, intelligence and military –to dismantle al-Shabaab and other terrorist groups who threaten United States interests and persons.”
While this is encouraging, it is important to note that we need more of a strategy than just airstrikes when it comes to combating ISIS and we also need a president willing to use military force, something that a majority of Americans support. The same day that it was reported Abu Nabil had possibly been killed in an airstrike the Paris terrorist attacks happened. Clearly, ISIS is still able to operate and run its well-oiled operation without its highest commanding leaders.
We need a tough and comprehensive military strategy in order to destroy ISIS, it is not enough to just conduct airstrikes and continue with the plan put in place by Obama. Americans have little to no confidence in our ability to combat ISIS, about two-thirds of the American people disapprove of his handling of ISIS according to new a CNN/ORC poll.
Despite the fact that Americans want to see significant military action carried out against ISIS, last night Obama made it clear that we would not be changing or even re-evaluating our strategy to combat radical Islamic terrorism, in fact he believes our current strategy is the right one to overcome the threat of terrorism. While it is very obvious that ISIS and radical Islamists are waging a war against America and the ideals we represent it isn’t very clear what our strategy is to eradicate them and the threat of terrorism here at home in the United States.
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/12/07/pentagon-confirms-u-s-airstrikes-kill-top-isis-leader-in-libya/
Venezuela opposition thrashes 'Chavismo' to win legislature...
ReplyDeleteSocialists on the run!..........Drudge
Chavismo is over.
He ran the country into bankruptcy.
Crime is our of control.
It would take some time to bring our country to this sorry state, but eight years of Bernie Sanders would give it a running start.