Rocky Rhodes (sic) from Benghazi Bungle

Kudos to Jonathan Karl of ABC News for aggressively questioning White House Press Secretary Jay Carney about discrepancies in their Benghazi bungling cover up.  

Of course, the connection between NSC Deputy Assistant Secretary Ben Rhodes, who composed the alternative explanation email and his brother David Rhodes, who President of CBS News, is around a year old.  However, Ben Rhodes' incriminating email was just confirmed  after a FOIA request from Judicial Watch. 

A Liberal Education?

For those who might be concerned about the paraphrase of Dr. Harris-Perry, here is promo ad by the Tulane Professor of Political Science  for  MSNBC "Lean Forward" in its spliced stuccato splendor.


By the way, tuition at Tulane University in New Orleans for the 2013-2014 academic year is over $46,000.  Watching Harris-Perry inculcate liberal fascism on MSNBC is priceless. 

Bono Vox on Capitalism

Edmund Burke on Liberty

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John Kerry Lurches Forward on the Levant

When speaking in a closed door meeting of the Trilateral Commission, Obama Administration Secretary of State John F. Kerry opined that a two state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian affair was the only alternative to apartheid or annihilation of Israel.  This comes after talks with the Palestinian Authority were broken off by Israel as P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas reconciled with Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the Jewish State.

There are a few remarkable things about Secretary of State Kerry's admission.  It envisages that a one state solution could only be conducted under Palestinian auspices.  Currently, Arabs who live in Israel are first class citizens with full rights.  Muslim lead governments in the Mid-East have dhimmi second class citizens who do not ascribe to Islam but are countenanced by paying a jizha tax.

Secondly, Kerry's choice of words is alarming.   Notwithstanding the validity of Kerry's contention, applying the word apartheid is alarming as it introduces a pejorative phrase to the diplomatic toolbox for Israeli/Palestinian relations.  While apartheid is much more likely on the Palestinian plane, anti-semitic elements are much more likely to cast Israelis as the authors of apartheid.

Thirdly, the Obama Administration's Minister to the world has revealed the meaninglessness of President Obama's promise to Israel "I have Israel's back" when he was out of the campaign hustings in 2012.  To paraphrase another flimsy Obama promise: "If you like your state, then you can keep it."  It's a pity that too many people relied up these sweet sounding cozenings in exchange for their support.

Mike Lee on Immigration

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) railed against the Department of Homeland Security's rumored relaxation of deportations of illegal immigrants. At the same time, the Tea Party inspired Senator noted that conservatives are willing to address immigration but in a step-by-step rather than a collossal comprehensive immigration bill, which would be a monstrosity ala Obamacare. 

Teddy Roosevelt on Life

Mahmoud Abbas on the Holocaust

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen released a statement which extended his first official condolences of the Shoah.  Unlike prior Palestinian leaders (namely Yasser Arafat) who would say moderate things in English translation but would be undaunted anti-semitic in the Arabic original, Abbas' statement was released in both English and Arabic.

This statement is in stark contrast to his doctrinal thesis from Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow later published as  The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism (1984) in which he claimed: the Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that six million Jews were killed” and claimed that only some 890,000 Jews were killed by the Nazis.  Moreover  these were chiefly the victims of a Zionist-Nazi plot in the Havaara Agrement (1933) to facilitate German emigration to the Palestine Mandate.  Such a theory contributes to the fever swamp frenzy of Holocaust deniers.  Abbas had backtracked from this thesis in 2011 when he asserted that he could accept that six million people were killed during the Holocaust.

Abbas' conciliatory statements are not being welcomed with open arms by the Israeli government.  As Abbas reiterated his Holocaust condolence statement, Abbas' ruling Palestinian Fatah party (which prevails in the West Bank) made a rapprochement with Hamas, the terror organization which is based in the exclave Gaza Strip.  

As Hamas is still dedicated in its charter to the destruction of Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet unanimously decided to break off negotiations with a Palestinian government which incorporates Hamas.  In addition, Israel is planning to impose economic sanctions against the Palestinian Authority by withholding tax revenue collected by Israel on behalf of the PA.

Sarah Palin on "If I Were in Charge"

Craig Ferguson on Near Beer

John McCain on Illegal Immigrants

"Maverick" Republican Senator John McCain (R-AZ) proclaimed at a Kennedy School of Government Forum at Harvard University  that "the Republican Party" will never win another national election unless it enacts comprehensive immigration reform, such as was pushed by his Junta de Ocho (Gang of Eight).

Juan McCain out to consider that his party probably will not win an election with a massive amnesty which is sold to the public as a pathway to citizenship.

Of course, Tea Party types would insist that if the senior Senator supports such a questionable Comprehensive Immigration Reform with a pathway to citizenship is a way that a politician who evades leadership would not have to worry about being elected again by Copper State conservatives. 

Seth Meyers on Being Jew-"ish"

While Seth Meyers' paternal grandfather was Jewish and Seth has performed at some Jewish community centers, he does not consider himself Jewish.  

Judaism is a religion which is dependent on matriarchal lineage. But based upon his quip, it seems that based upon his persona, he is considered a member of "The Tribe".

Uriah Heep on Time

 

 

Dale Carnegie on Success

Gosnell: The Movie--Trying to Tell the Story of an American Serial Killer Which Strikes Too Close to Home

[L] Ann McElhinney and [R] Phelim McAleer

Last spring, husband and wife veteran filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Anne McElhinney were publicizing their feature documentary Fracknation as the murder trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell was occurring in Philadelphia.  McAleer was amazed at the lack of coverage of a prolific serial killer that murdered two women in botched late term abortions in unsanitary conditions, used a brutal snipping technique to kill a thousand children beyond the legal limit for abortion and also dealt prescription drugs.

Yet the national mainstream media ignored the Gosnell case, dismissing it like a local murder case while lavishing attention on the concurrent Jodi Arias murder trial. McAleer did man on the street interviews in California to learn about what the public knew about sensational murder trials.

As Katherine Graham, the former publisher of the Washington Post, proclaimed: "What we cover and what we don't matter a lot...The power is to set the agenda."  Fox News commentator Greg Gutfeld recently speculated about the reasons why most of the mainstream media (including Fox) did not cover the Gosnell trial closely:

"The reason why they don't do this one is not because the evil is so grotesque.  It's that it's too close to a moral choice they've made.  That's what it's about.  It's not that like, ah it's so hard to do something on this man who butchered babies.  It's because it's too close to the pro-choice mindset."

However, McAleer and McElhinney were so haunted by the Gosnell trial that they backed away from other crowd-source funded projects so as to make a movie about Gosnell.  Yet Anne & Phelim Media encountered more velvet gloved censorship by Kickstarter, which claims to not curate projects but would not allow them to describe their dramatized movie idea as being about a mass murderer who killed a thousand children as it allegedly violated community standards which Kickstart "encourages and (selectively) enforces".  McAleer believes that it is within Kickstarter's right to not facilitate funding but that it should be forthright that it is due to the project matter not a transparent lie about community standards which it does not enforce for sundry other offensive projects.

So they moved their crowd-source funding efforts to Indiegogo, where they have raised $1.2 million  of a fixed target $2.1 million.  If they do not make their designated funding mark by May 12th, the money reverts  back to the prospective investors.

There is already an excellent documentary film 3801 Lancaster, which interviews victims of Gosnell's House of Horrors.  So McAleer and McElhinney want to make dramatized version of the Gosnell story which would run on the Lifetime  Movie Network rather than a feature documentary to reach a wider audience.

 It is easy for seaboard elitists to dismiss a film about Gosnell as just being by religious zealots with pro-life propaganda, which is a touch charge to apply to McAleer and McElhinney. In addition, this dismissive instinct ignores how Dr. Gosnell was a racist as he gave his white patients much better and cleaner abortion services than his clients of color.

A film about Gosnell must also include a political angle.  Former Governor Tom Ridge (R-PA) was elected as chief executive of the Keystone State as a moderate Republican.  The governor's office made it clear that the Commonwealth should do nothing to impede abortion services, so Gosnell's clinic was not properly inspected for 17 years, despite gruesome reports and several deaths. 

Gosnell's clinic was raided because Gosnell was writing prescriptions like a pell mell pill mill for Oxycotin and the ilk.  That raid permitted police to stumble upon an unsanitary abortion butchery, where Gosnell kept severed limbs as trophies.

Hearing the filmmakers promote their project, it is clear that they yearn to tell a compelling true story about a prolific American serial killer and pull back the curtain on details which a progressive public would rather ignore.

If one wishes to help actuate the Gosnell movie project, one can contribute to the efforts at www.gosnellmovie.com.  Those who contribute $25 will get a DVD of the film.  But the filmmakers also implore people to contribute anything to show that people care.

Katherine Graham on Publishing

Secondary School Sports Plagued by Forced Political Correctness

For over a decade, wrestlers from the Parkersville South (West Virginia) High School have chosen to wear shirts which bear the scriptural verse: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."  This motto was also emblazoned on the team's website.

After a complaint from the Wisconsin based Freedom from Religion Foundation, Wood County (WV) School Superintendent Pat Law, demanded that the team take the motto off their web presence, but for the time being the students can continue to voluntarily wear the shirts. It was prudent for the grapplers to take the verse off their website so that there is no question about the separation of church and state.  But the privately funded tee shirts with the empowering message are another story altogether.

The school is concerned about agitation from aggressive atheist groups who want to wipe any expression of Christian faith from the public square, while balancing the rights of citizens.
Even though the Parkersburg South wrestlers had been voluntarily wearing these shirts (paid for by parent boosters), the school system rolled at the raising of one complaint.  Presumably this was to avoid costly law suits.  It is dubious if the Wood County will dare to bar other t-shirts which others might find "offensive".

The Freedom from Religion Foundation proclaim that it "works as an umbrella for those who are free from religion and are committed to the cherished principle of separation of state and church." Yet their news over the past three months only consists of Judeo-Christian agitation.  No mention is made on the FFRF website about the many municipal accommodations which are made for Muslims. None of their current lawsuits tackle topics like the incorporation of Sharia law, New York schools taking days off for Muslim religions holidays, public foot washes etc.  Their fight to enforce the separation of church and state could be given more credence if it took on those troubling topics instead of just being contrarians curmudgeons against Judeo-Christian traditions.

Even though the Parkersburg South wrestlers had been voluntarily wearing these shirts (paid for by parent boosters), the school system rolled at the raising of one complaint.  Presumably this was to avoid costly law suits.  This is like the politically correct insanity that beset Plymouth (Michigan) High School sports.  Six years ago, the Plymouth High School Baseball boosters raised money to revamp baseball bleachers so that fans could better see the game.  But this was only done for the mens' baseball fields and not the womens' softball bleachers. Thus the US Department of Education applied a literal reading of Title IX and ordered the dismantling of the better bleachers.

Aside from the outcomes of games, high school sports teach valuable lessons. The Parkersburg South Wrestling kerfluffle demonstrates that a lone dissenting voice can overcome an empowering message with the quisling support of a politically correct administrator.  The Plymouth/Canton bleacher imbroglio exemplifies that a politically correct America will enforce equality at all costs and the PC government  can override and rip out privately funded improvements to make its point.

Thomas Sowell on Eric Holder

Henry David Thoreau on Life

Samuel Adams on Tyranny

Joyce Meyer on Patience

Dirty Harry Reid -- How the West Wasn't Won

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) recently made headlines when he declared that those protesting on the Bundy Ranch in southern Nevada were "domestic terrorists" for standing up to the hard nosed tactics of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) because they did not obey the law by paying taxes and fees.

Yet Senator Reid emphatically pushes for immigration reform to take "undocumented workers" out of the shadows despite their occupying America without the color of law.




Liberal logic is so seductive-- ignore some flouting of the law by newcomers yet demonize longtime long time lease holders of federal grazing rights with the dogs of war and painting them as domestic terrorists.

It seems that it depends upon who's scratching your back as to how the Senate Majority leader stands on obeying the law.   Who's scratching your back, Dirty Harry?

Abraham Lincoln on Freedom

Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez on Dying

Paul Gauguin on Seeing

Flannery O'Connor on Truth

Sharpton Frames Easter Message Through Obama Crucified and Rising Again

The Reverend Al Sharpton gave an unusual Easter message on the Tom Joyner Show.  Sharpton tried to be ecumenical to reach out to Christians, Jews and atheists with an anti-materialist message to remember the reason for the season.

Sharpton alluded to every man challenges where people feel crucified. Sharpton encouraged folks to rise above their suffering and not become like the disease they fight. Sharpton closed his secular preaching by alluding to an alleged crucifixion of Barack Obama.  The Reverend claimed that he was not comparing Obama to Jesus but for every crucifixion there is a resurrection for those who believe.

So the question is on the orthodoxy of Reverend Al Sharpton's Easter message that to every crucifixion there is a resurrection for those who believe, so rise above your unearned suffering.

Did Rev. Al Sharpton correctly convey the Easter Message?
	Yes
	No
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For those who want to hear more of Reverend Sharpton's preaching, you will not find him in church but on PoliticsNation, 6 PM et on MSNBC. 

Bloomberg Believes That He's Earned an E-Z Pass Thru the Pearly Gates

As Michael Bloomberg engaged in a publicity campaign with the New York Times which highlighted his $50 million personal contribution to support gun control, the three term former  Mayor (D,R,I, D- NYC) offered some insightful opinions on his eternal reward
.

While Mr. Bloomberg is Jewish in origin and agnostic in practice, he is confident that his nanny state policies banning Big Gulps, trans-fats, salt and his efforts to grab guns has earned him an easy pass through the Pearly Gates, should it exist. 

Bloomberg's metaphysical musings seem counter to Christian concepts of sacrificial redemption from the Cross, which will be celebrated this weekend during the Triduum and Easter. 

Consequential Extreme Sports

For those who seek the adrenaline rush of extreme sports, they ought to consider opportunities in the military. But admittedly not everyone is called to serve.

There is some crossover between extreme sports and military training. The Department of Army has instituted the Warrior Adventure Quest, which is a training tool to introduce soldiers to alternative activities to avoid aberrant activities after finishing a deployment.   These adrenaline rush high adventure activities  (like bungee jumping, rock climbing, mountain biking, paintball and whitewater rafting) are intended to help introduce coping activities to returning soldiers as they realize their new normal after deployment.

These civilian extreme sports somehow seem calm compared to what forward deployed troops do as they recreate in a combat zone. 

The IRS and the Known Unknown

Yesterday, as millions of Americans rushed to file their taxes to with the IRS before the April 15th deadline, longtime public servant submitted his materials with a sardonic smile.  Along with Rumsfeld's forms, he included a letter which registers his uncertainty about the complexity of conforming with Internal Revenue Service rules.

Rumfeld's bureaucratic broadside includes a nod to the phrase "the known unknowns" which he made famous in executing the War on Terror at the Pentagon. 

Rummy's  bon mot was not only risable but he's right. Who in the world can have surety about a tax code which is ten time the size of the bible and with none of the Good News?

Walt Disney on Adversity

"We are Boston, we respond, we endure, and we own the finish line."

To mark the first anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombing, Vice President Joe Biden participated in the solemn memorial tribute.  

The Vice President gave a stirring speech which ranged from an emphatic whisper to a defiant proclaimation while speaking before the invitation only crowd of 2,600 people at the Hynes Convention Center, close to the finish line where three people were killed and 260 people were injured in a terrorist attack by two ethnic Chechen Muslims.

Alas, Biden's bloviating had some awkward elements. In commending the Boston Strong ethos epitomized by many in touched by the travesty, the Vice President pronounced "It was worth it."  

To be fair, here is the quote in context:

"Let me say to those quote ‘survivors’ [who spoke previously]. My God you have survived and you have soared. It was worth it, I mean it sincerely, just to hear you speak. You are truly, truly inspiring. I have never heard anything so beautiful.”

Biden is known for his sui generis verbal gymnastics which seem awkward but can still win over the home crowd.  Biden's tribute fused fanfare for the common man, a defiance to terrorism and some sports metaphors.  Not surprising for a 71 year old Democrat preparing for his own race.

Rudyard Kipling on Life

Paul Ryan on Taxes

"The US Tax Code Is Ten Times Longer Than the Bible With None of the Good News"

                                                                                   ~ Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI 1st) 

Ayn Rand on Politics

W. Somerset Maugham on Libations

Dr. John on Truth

If you think that truth the Night Tripper dropped on you was far out, then try the Gris Gris Gumbo in Zou Zou Mammo from the '70s.

Friedrich Nietzsche on Prudence

Hank Aaron Strikes Out at GOP as Political Commentator

As Hank Aaron reflected upon America in the forty years since he surpassed  Babe Ruth's then record of  714 Home Runs, the former Braves slugger offered a provocative political answer.  The 80 year old slugger claimed that not much has changed in race relations since his 22 years in the Major Leagues, where he received some cruel correspondences as he chased the legendary mark of the Sultan of Swat.                                                                                                                           To underline his assertions, Aaron essentially asserted that Republicans have treated President Barack Obama like the KKK, except that they wear neckties and starched shirts rather than hoods.  USA Today summarized theses reflections with the headline: "40 Years Later, Hank Aaron's grace a beauty to behold."  It is dubious that those in the GOP smeared by this biased broadside of bigotry would agree with that assessment. 

Although Barry Bonds now holds the MLB  record of 769 Homers surpassing Aaron's mark of 755 in 2007, even Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig still consider Aaron the Home Run King.  Aaron's strength, skill, longevity and perseverance without steroids to pass Babe Ruth was commendable. It is a pity that he tarnishes his legacy with a polemic political philippic.

While public policy partisans may quibble about priorities or programs, no one is entitled to their own facts. It is rich irony that Hank Aaron compares the GOP to the KKK.  Perhaps he has forgotten that Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King supported Republicans, because of what the Grand Old Party did to ensure Blacks freedom in the 1860s as well as their key role in enacting civil rights protections in the 1950s and 1960s and rejecting the Klan.

Of course, there is also the legacy of Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), who had had actually been a Grand Kleagle in the KKK. Some dismiss this charge noting that Byrd was not in the KKK long enough to get his sheets broken in.  Yet Byrd was an ardent opponent of civil rights legislation in the Senate during the 1960s. 

Yet Hank Aaron has the audacity to imply that the GOP are doing the high tech lynching, to borrow a phrase from Democrats excoriating  President George H.W. Bush's nominee  Clarence Thomas during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. 

In his time, Aaron was an outstanding slugger behind the plate.  But as contemporary political commentator, Hank "the Hammer"  strikes out badly.  May Aaron not continue to follow the lead of his fellow Georgian octogenarian, President Jimmy Carter, who makes outrageous opinionated outbursts which sully his legacy.

h/t: Eric Allie