Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Obama Promotes Muslim Brotherhood
1/31/11: White House Press Briefing
Start playing at search term (8:43)
Obama Promotes Role for Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in new Egypt government
In Obama's view, the United States is a neo-colonial power occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, D'Souza says. "He sees the Muslims fighting against America as freedom fighters. This gives him a somewhat romanticized view of Islamic radicals."
As a result, Obama may not view the Muslim Brotherhood as a problem.
In his eyes, they may be "good guys trying to liberate Egypt from this horrible dictator Mubarak, supported by us, the rogue nation," D'Souza says.
"So Obama might encourage the democracy movement, not because he's an idealist about democracy, but because he might approve of the overthrow of a pro-American dictator and a reduced footprint for America in that region."�
Obama's Muslim Brotherhood Links Deserve Second Look 11 Jun 2009
Muslim Brotherhood supports ElBaradei
But when the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition group, threw its weight behind that movement in early July, suddenly the numbers ballooned, from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. The coalition now claims to have more than 300,000 petition signatures, with more than two thirds of them gathered by the Brotherhood.
Of course, those moderate voices who would hope for democratic reform will be disappointed; they are now on record as opposing the Muslim Brotherhood.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Obama to Imitate Mubarak's Internet Policy
One of Australia's top communications experts, University of Sydney associate professor Bjorn Landfeldt, had previously railed against the idea, saying shutting down the internet would "inflict an enormous damage on the entire world".
He said it would be like giving a single country "the right to poison the atmosphere, or poison the ocean".
Update: Seattle Activist Wins Case Against TSA
Phil Mocek of Seattle was told by TSA officers and police at the Albuquerque Airport on November 15, 2009, that he did not have the right to use a video camera in a public space outside a TSA zone. He was also told that when officers asked him for ID, he must comply or the police will be called. Mocek was arrested for disorderly conduct and concealing his identity.
Mocek is a software developer and civil liberties advocate. Mocek’s case marks the first time anyone has ever challenged the TSA’s authority to question and detain travelers.
Mocek is a software developer and civil liberties advocate. Mocek’s case marks the first time anyone has ever challenged the TSA’s authority to question and detain travelers.
The jury returned not guilty verdicts for charges that included concealing his identity, refusing to obey a lawful order, trespassing, and disorderly conduct.
TSA checkpoint staff have no police powers, and that contrary to TSA claims, passengers have the right to fly without providing ID, and passengers are free to video record checkpoints as long as images on screening monitors aren't captured.
Photography is not a crime. You have the right to fly without ID, and to photograph, film, and record what happens.
Ian Hunter, 30 Jan 2011, The Galaxy Theatre, Santa Ana CA
Cleveland Rocks
Dancing On The Moon
Dancing On The Moon,
version 2
Words (Big Mouth)
Soul of America
Boy
Letter to Britannia from the Union Jack
All The Way From Memphis
Once Bitten Twice Shy
Saturday Gigs
All The Young Dudes
All The Young Dudes (cut off)
Included here from the OC Weekly is a gallery of photos from the Galaxy Theatre.
Ian Hunter and the Rant Band played 24 songs Sunday at the Galaxy in Santa Ana, Calif. -- one more than they did at El Rey on Saturday -- and one of them was "Boy," right after "Wash Us Away." The setlist:
- Sea Diver
- Life After Death
- Cleveland Rocks
- Dancing on the Moon
- Shallow Crystals
- Irene Wilde
- Words (Big Mouth)
- Arms and Legs
- Flowers
- Soul of America
- Man Overboard
- Wash Us Away
- Boy
- 23a Swan Hill
- Sweet Jane
First encore: - Letter to Britannia from the Union Jack
- Somewhere (Bernstein/Sondheim)
- All the Way from Memphis
- Walkin' with a Mountain (plus Rock n Roll Queen outro)
- Once Bitten Twice Shy
Second encore: - Girl from the Office
- Roll Away the Stone
- Saturday Gigs
- All the Young Dudes
2nd Judge to Dismantle Obamacare?
US judge may escalate battle over health care reform.
Judge Roger Vinson of the U.S. District Court in Pensacola, Florida has suggested strongly that he too will rule the individual mandate oversteps constitutional limits on federal authority. He may also move to invalidate the entire law, by granting the plaintiff states' request for an injunction to halt its implementation.
"The power that the individual mandate seeks to harness is simply without prior precedent," Vinson wrote in an earlier opinion in October.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Obama, Like Carter, Loses Turkey, Lebanon, and Egypt
The street revolts in Tunisia and Egypt show that the United States can do very little to save its friends from the wrath of their citizens.
Obama sat on the fence and exercised caution. He neither embraced despised leaders nor evangelized for political freedom, for fear of undermining stability.
Obama's miscalculation arose from his misguided and naive comments in his Cairo speech.
Obama began his presidency with trips to Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and in speeches in Ankara and Cairo tried to forge new ties between the United States and the Muslim world. His message to Muslims was "I am one of you," and he backed it by quoting from the Koran.
His radical new orientation, in breaking with Bush's policies, was announced early on at Cairo (my brackets) [University].
Obama mistakenly believed that the main problem of the Middle East was the existence of Israel.
The absence of human rights issues from U.S. policy vis-a-vis Arab states drew muted, but harsh criticism.
Detroit Police: Attack Video
Detroit Police: 6th Precinct Attack Video
DETROIT (Tell Us Det) - Video footage released shows the shooting rampage at Detroit's 6th Precinct last Sunday that left four police officers wounded and the gunman dead.
Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee released the 68-second clip to the media Friday afternoon after receiving numerous requests from media outlets. The Chief said he was releasing the footage at this time, now that the police have had the chance to view and evaluate it.
Police say 38-year-old Lamar D. Moore entered the precinct Sunday afternoon and opened fire on officers before he was killed in return fire. All four officers survived the attack. http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/vid...
A 68-second video released by Detroit police Friday shows a gunman striding into one of the city's precinct stations, spraying volleys from a shotgun at surprised officers before being fatally wounded within inches of three of his victims. (Jan. 28)
Rutgers bars Jews from anti-Zionist gathering
Channel 12 news clip about the controversy surrounding a pro-Palestine fundraiser at Rutgers University.
A Libyan Jew's Testimony
A Libyan Jew's Testimony
Public event suddenly closed to all but supporters by campus police.
"In the midst of a year full of virulent anti-Israel campus events, this Saturday Rutgers University may witness the most objectionable event yet. Saturday night January 29, in the Douglass Campus Center, a Rutgers student group, BAKA, will host an event titled "Never Again for Anyone" in collaboration with American Muslims for Palestine, The International Anti-Zionist Jewish Network, and The Middle East Children's Alliance. This program is designed to coincide with the United Nations' sanctioned International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day created to remember and honor the victims of the Holocaust. Instead, the focus will be on "the on-going ethnic cleansing of Palestine," comparing Israel to Nazi Germany.
By invoking the Nazi genocide, this event both defames the Jewish state and trivializes the systematic murder of 11 million people in the Holocaust, including six million Jews. While Rutgers Hillel respects the right to free speech, the comparison of Israeli acts of self defense to the gas chambers of Auschwitz is morally repulsive and has no place on the campus of our State University."
Officer: Sami Jitan
"BAKA - Students United for Middle Eastern Justice is an officially recognized student organization at Rutgers University New Brunswick concerned with social, political, cultural, and human rights issues throughout the greater Middle East.
Our mission is to shed light on injustices currently taking place in the Middle East, as well as empower students to elucidate truths and eradicate such injustices. BAKA is dedicated to raising awareness through education by the means of guest speakers, forums for uncensored discussion, and various forms of artistic expression. We seek to provide a politically active voice for the diverse and marginalized Middle Eastern communities on campus.
However, we do not limit our leadership or membership to these communities; we view the struggles in the Middle East as issues of concern to all peoples, irrespective of race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. We seek to work with other groups, within and outside Rutgers, as a means of promoting our positive mission."
Cf. http://getinvolved.rutgers.edu/organizations/find-an-organization/?category=&search-text=baka&x=24&y=7
Ian Hunter, 29 Jan 2011, El Ray Theatre, Los Angeles CA
Man Overboard
Walking With A Mountain
Roll Away The Stone
All The Way From Memphis
Once Bitten, Twice Shy
Ian Hunter and the Rant Band on Saturday at El Rey, a restored old movie theater in the Miracle Mile on L.A.'s Wilshire Boulevard. The set list included:
* Sea Diver
* Life After Death
* Cleveland Rocks
* Dancing on the Moon
* Shallow Crystals
* Irene Wilde
* Arms and Legs
* Flowers
* Soul of America
* Man Overboard
* Girl from the Office
* River of Tears
* Wash Us Away
* Michael Picasso
* 23a Swan Hill
* Sweet Jane
First encore:
* Somewhere (the song from "West Side Story")
* All the Way from Memphis
* Walkin' with a Mountain (with end of Rock n Roll Queen)
* Once Bitten Twice Shy
Second encore:
* Roll Away the Stone
* Saturday Gigs
* All the Young Dudes
http://s90.photobucket.com/albums/k274/the_dirtywater_dog/Ian%20Hunter%20El%20Ray%20LA%20January%2029%202011/?albumview=slideshow&direction=reverse
Clinton repeatedly asked to back, or oppose President Mubarak, but side-stepped every opportunity to do either
Egypt protests: Hillary Clinton urges 'orderly transition'
Clinton stressed that the U.S. had been "on the side of the people" as it had been for more than 30 years of cooperation with Cairo while advocating greater democratic and civil rights. "We're not advocating any specific outcome," she said. The claim is of course patently false. We propped up a pro-Western dictator and now when diplomacy and the moral influence of the U.S. could bear weight the Obama regime is flummoxed into inaction and indecision.
The U.S. should hold out the annual $1.3 billion in military aid sent to Cairo as a means of influencing the outcome of the crisis. Yet, the Obama regime is sending mixed signals, as is its wont, to hedge its bets and indicative of how unclear its policy is in regards to Egypt. While straddling the fence, as if the $1.3 billion in aid is insignificant, Obama is missing a prime opportunity to positively influence the outcome.
All that military aid in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood would be a game changer. Obama invited the Muslim Brotherhood to his infamous “speech to the ummah” in June of 2009.
In addition, he is bearing the fruit of his inattention to Iraq and the possibility that fuel supplies could be transported unhindered, and the possibility of a free, democratic, and representative government in a Muslim-majority nation.
Lastly, in 2009, Obama's silence about the brutal, murderous repression of its people by the Iranian mullahcracy amount to his tacit support of that offensive, and spoke volumes. Obama became part of the problem, not part of the solution. He gave religious barbarism the free hand. In response, Iranian protesters had a direct message for America’s president: “You’re Either With Us or With Them.”
If an Islamist regime rises to the fore the Egyptian-Israeli accord will be be set back to square one. The outcome in Egypt has profound implications for the flow of oil and Middle Eastern relations.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Muhammad taught that Muslims must wage war against and subjugate unbelievers (1/28/11)
http://abnsat.com/abnnew/index.php?option=com_hwdvideoshare&Itemid=70&task=viewvideo&video_id=636
Don't look now! No John 3:16 at Super Bowl Read more: Don't look now! No John 3:16 at Super Bowl http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=256845#ixzz1CSZHblHJ
Fox rejects Fixed Point's advertisement on 'religious' grounds.
On Super Bowl Sunday, an organization that sponsors debates between Christians and atheists will not be given the opportunity it planned to spark a nationwide discussion on Jesus Christ, for Fox Broadcasting Company has rejected its commercial featuring John 3:16.
Fox spokesman Louis D'Ermilio further issued a statement explaining, "As a matter of company policy, Fox Broadcasting Company does not accept advertising from religious organizations for the purpose of advancing particular beliefs or practices. The Fixed Point Foundation was provided with our guidelines prior to their submission of storyboards for our review. Upon examination, the advertising submitted clearly delivers a religious message and as a result has been rejected."
Fixed Point released a statement criticizing Fox's decision: "It seems one can advertise just about anything else. Few movie trailers are deemed too violent or beer commercials too sexual for prime time. But religious messages, particularly Christian ones, well, that's just too controversial."
Fixed Point features videos with issues of serious discussion regarding religion and culture.
The God Delusion Debate (Dawkins-Lennox)
Is God Great? Oxford Professor John Lennox and journalist Christopher Hitchens
Has Science Buried God? Dawkins and Lennox
Ian Hunter, 28 Jan 2011, The Fillmore, San Francisco CA
All the Young Dudes
Photos from The Fillmore
Interview: Ian Hunter on Mott reunion, Ringo Starr and a secret collaborator
Jon Jepson: I have a true or false question for you. In 1989, you helped Mick Jones of Foreigner on his only solo album, co-writing the single "Just Wanna Hold" with Mick, and one "M. Phillips". Rumour has it "M. Phillips" is a pseudonym for Mick Jagger, whose middle name is Phillip.
Ian Hunter: It's true. Mick Jones played Mick Jagger a riff and Jagger sang some falsetto over this main riff. Mick Jones then added a lot of stuff on it, and got in a total state of confusion with it, and lost his direction. I got it back on track, and sat behind the board while he was doing the vocals. Not a bad song. He's better at singing ballads than singing rock. It was okay.
Report: Ian Hunter Live In S.F.
Friday Night: Ian Hunter Plays Glam-Rock for All Ages at the Fillmore
Mottober Pics
Update: Haskell's Stick by Story, Christmas Day Bomber a Plant, Patsy
The Haskell's and other witnesses noted at the time that a mysterious figure intervened to allow the bomber to board the plane. Up to the present, the Haskell couple have consistently maintained on their blog that there is more to this story than meets the eye.
Cf. http://blogsmithconsulting.blogspot.com/2010/01/kurt-haskell-on-latest-muslim-terrorist.html and http://blogsmithconsulting.blogspot.com/2009/12/airplane-lies-of-this-administration.html
Update: Wilmington, DE, John Wheeler, Mysterious Death
Medical examiner: Homicide victim John Wheeler died of 'blunt force trauma.'
Within hours of the grisly New Year’s Eve discovery, state pathologists had ruled that the 66-year-old New Castle resident was a homicide victim, but until today authorities had been mum on the cause of his death -- an unusual posture in Delaware, where such information is usually released promptly.
Hal G. Brown, deputy director of the medical examiner’s office, said he did not know what medications or chemicals, if any, were in Wheeler’s system, but said the death certificate makes it clear that toxicology “didn’t play a role’’ in Wheeler’s death.
Obama Promotes Islamist Youth in Egypt
A secret US document discloses support for Islamist youth protesters which implicates Obama and the United States government with supporting the unrest occurring in Egypt. The British newspaper the Telegraph reports that Egypt protested against the U.S.'s secret backing for rebel leaders behind the uprising. It looks like the way this story will be spun is to suggest that Obama advocated democracy, human rights, and they were privately pushing Mubarak towards reform. The Iranians are closer to the mark. Iran correctly sees the rise of Islamic hard-liners. Usually by playing both sides, as much chaos and confusion can be created. The Islamists received support from Obama's regime, yet, Mubarak's repression is marked with "Made in USA" teargas.
Finally, it should be noted that the secret State Department document expresses skepticism whether the revolutionaries truly have the support of significant numbers of Egyptians against Mubarak.
The Alliance of Youth Movements Summit began with a December 2008 summit in New York City to identify, convene, and engage 21st century movements online. The United States Department of State partnered with Facebook, Howcast, MTV, Google, YouTube, AT&T, JetBlue, Gen-Next, Access 360 Media, and Columbia Law School to launch a global network and protect the efforts of young people to mobilize. Speakers at the 2008 summit included actress Whoopi Goldberg, Facebook Co-Founder Dustin Moskovitz, The Obama Campaign’s New Media Team, and then-current Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs of the United States James K. Glassman.
In March 2009 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced and endorsed the Second Alliance for Youth Movements Summit, held in Mexico City. Young delegates were described by Secretary Clinton as “the vanguard of a rising generation of citizen activists."
I oppose the involvement of the U.S. State Department and Obama's partisan political arm promoting Islamic youth movements. The leaked documents show the extent to which the U.S. was offering support to Islamic activists in Egypt while publicly praising Mubarak as an important ally in the Middle East. After Obama's regime came to power in late 2008, in a secret diplomatic dispatch, sent on December 30 2008, Margaret Scobey, the US Ambassador to Cairo, recorded that opposition groups had allegedly drawn up secret plans for “regime change” to take place before elections, scheduled for September this year. The documents showed that the activist had been approached by US diplomats and received extensive support for his Islamist campaign from officials in Washington. The documents released by WikiLeaks reveal US Embassy officials were in regular contact with the activist throughout 2008 and 2009, considering him one of their most reliable sources for information.
The Egyptian youth leader further claimed in the secret document that several opposition forces -- including "the Wafd, Nasserite, Karama and Tagammu parties, and the Muslim Brotherhood, Kifaya, and Revolutionary Socialist movements -- have agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition" in Egypt.
Political parties in Egypt are dominated by the one-party rule of Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
The Revolutionary Socialists are international communists.
The Wafd party is a nationalist group. Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wafd_Party and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wafd_Party.
The Nasserites are an Arab nationalist political ideology based on the thinking of the former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. It was a major influence on pan-Arab politics in the 1950s and 1960s, and continues to have significant resonance throughout the Arab World to this day. It also metamorphosed into other nationalist movements during the 1970s. However, the scale of the Arab defeat in the Six Day War of 1967 severely damaged the standing of Nasser, and the ideology associated with him. Nasser himself died in 1970, and certain important tenets of Nasserism were revised or abandoned totally by his successor as Egyptian President, Anwar El-Sadat. Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasserites and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Democratic_Nasserist_Party.
Karama - is the Dignity Party (Hizb al-Karama) - a Nasserist offshoot led by journalist and MP Hamdeen Sabahi. Isn't granted full-license yet.
Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Egypt
Tagammu is the National Progressive Unionist Party (in Arabic: Hizb al Tagammu' al Watani al Taqadomi al Wahdawi حزب التجمع الوطني التقدمي الوحدوي, commonly referred to as Tagammu) is a socialist political party in Egypt.
Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_National_Unionist_Party
Kifaya (Egyptian Arabic: كفاية kefāya, IPA: [keˈfæːjæ], “enough”) is the unofficial moniker of the Egyptian Movement for Change (Arabic: الحركة المصرية من أجل التغيير el-Haraka el-Masreyya men agl el-Taghyeer), a grassroots coalition which draws it support from across Egypt’s political spectrum to oppose President Hosni Mubarak’s presidency and the possibility he may seek to transfer power directly to his son Gamal.
Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefaya
Friday, January 28, 2011
Egypt Shows How Easily Internet Can Be Silenced
The U.S. has a more robust infrastructure but the Internet can be shut down more easily in places such as Egypt.
Are you eating food sacrificed to idols?
Are you eating food sacrificed to idols? from El Shaddai Ministries on Vimeo.
zabihah lists halal sites in the U.S.
Marc Faber on Bloomberg 01/25/11
I think he’s done a horrible job and I think that will continue, I think he is a dishonest person, and nothing has changed… Some politicians are more honest than others. I don’t think that I have a very high regard for politicians, I have a high regard for businessmen and for people who work, and not for people who abuse the system continuously. And in comparison to other politicians, I think he came in on a platform as a president that would want to change the government in Washington, and actually he’s made it worse… We foreigners, we just laugh at someone like Mr. Obama. I was very critical of Mr. Bush, but at least he had one line and he stuck to that line, and at least he set out to do a thing and he was relatively straight on the thing that he did. He may have been wrong, but at least he didn’t change his mind continuously, and didn’t prostitute himself.”
Thursday, January 27, 2011
British Schoolgirl's Testimony - Muslims Threaten Children With Violence & Rape Outside School Daily
They have to use "Asian" for Muslim the kids are so afraid of speaking plainly since they live in fear of retaliation.
Border Insecurity: Suicide Bombers Book Found in Arizona
Iranian Book Celebrating Suicide Bombers Found in Arizona Desert
Other Than Mexican (OTMs)
Just last year, the Department of Homeland Security had in custody thousands of detainees from Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. U.S. Border Patrol statistics indicate that there were 108,025 OTMs detained in 2006, compared to 165,178 in 2005 and 44,614 in 2004.
The Russians Lecture the Americans: Private Sector, Not Gov't the Solution
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on 25 January 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that the most effective way to resolve a severe economic crisis is through the Private Sector - not big government:
"Simple and often populist solutions, in ninety cases out of one hundred, are wrong, or prove to be wrong, or perhaps even prove to be worst out of all the possible options. A vivid case in point is a tendency of trying to resolve economic problems through nationalization, including the nationalization of financial institutions.
"In the [recent era and] period of financial crisis, many states paused to think about that, and many states took that option, including states with well developed Liberal economies. Our economy is not developed well enough - I'm referring to the Russian economy - but we have exercised restraint, and we did not resort to that option. And I believe that we were right in doing that.
"I believe that, in most cases, crisis can be resolved through the efforts of private sectors, and, in the long term perspective, this is the most effective way of dealing with things."
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
"Only government can break the cycle that are crippling our economy. The federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back into life. It is only government that can break the vicious cycle."
Obama - 2009
Obama Plagiarizes SOTU
Obama's State of the Union Was Tantamount to Plagiarism
Early in his address, Obama said that he wanted the nation he leads to be a "light to the world." The last president who set such a mission for the nation he led, and in those exact words, was Woodrow Wilson.
Obama’s concept of the “American family” may well have had its origins in the first State of the State address New York Governor Mario Cuomo delivered in 1983. Cuomo proclaimed the state of New York as a “family.” He also talked about multiple partnerships, both public and private.
Margaret Thatcher coined a phrase Obama made his own in his second State of the Union address. Thatcher told her American audience that "no other nation has been built upon an idea." In a slightly revised form, Obama, in his second State of the Union address, all but repeated it, using additional words.
The most famous quote from the plagiarized statement is the Sputnik moment: Obama's Not the First to Use 'Sputnik Moment.'
It’s a theme that Obama has toyed with on and off for some time, and it’s one that other pols—including Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney--have used for several years as well.
Reagan described “ordinary heroes,” after all, it was Reagan who began the practice of inviting citizens who had done extraordinary things to sit beside the first lady in the House gallery as the president recited their achievements. It was also Reagan who reminded his listeners that the greatness of America emerged not from the hand of government, but through the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people.
Obama said, "I know there isn’t a person here who would trade places with any other nation on Earth." Leaving aside the faulty grammar (people change places with people, not with nations), the poaching from John F. Kennedy's immortal inaugural address was obvious. ("I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation.") That Obama could utter almost identical words days after paying tribute to Kennedy on the 50th anniversary of the delivery of that famous speech and not making reference to it suggests a self-absorption rare even among presidents.
Most pointedly, the low point of Obama’s speech came when he brought back government re-organization from the ash heap of failed efforts of previous presidents who sought to save money without inflicting pain on a public that had grown accustomed to government largesse. This one, like all that talk about all those green energy jobs that lay before us, had fallen out of the presidential repertoire with retirement of Jimmy Carter. Obama might have had the decency to have Carter on hand to witness the moment. He will have another chance should he, when he delivers his budget, bring back that other Carter flop from yesteryear, “zero based budgeting.”
Even Obama’s feigned attempt at humor had an antecedent in the remarks of a predecessor who spun better yarns than this guy. Obama informed his listeners that salmon comes under the jurisdiction of one department when swimming in fresh water and under another when swimming in salt water. He rhetorically inquired what happened to the fish when “smoked.”
Franklin Roosevelt wrote to an adviser in which he complained that some bears were the property of the Interior Department, while others belonged the National Parks System. FDR, tongue in cheek, warned of a pending custody battle over cubs that emerged from illicit unions of bears crossing departmental jurisdictions.
The teleprompter rules; Obama reads whatever is on the screen. There is no thinking behind the words.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
New speech: same old words
Obama keeps repeating himself and yet the unemployment figures do not lie. The only word noticeably absent is health since cramming the now problematic health care rationing plan down the American's throats.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Web tools: animation, presentation, critical thinking arguments, brainstorming, book discussion
Animasher
is a site to make animations by using pictures from the gallery or you
can use your own pictures too. You can add music, some sound effects,
text or record your own voice for your animation. You can get a link or
publish your video on the site.
Ahead
is a similar site to Prezi. It’s a way to create a presentation that
transforms your layout into a zooming experience. You can add images,
audios, documents, links and videos. You can also embed your
presentations. The site itself is also created with Ahead.
AwesomeHighlighter is the easiest way to highlight texts on web pages.
AMap is a great and a fun way to display your live debates on a very simple visual format. It may help with critical thinking and developing arguments.
Bubbl.us lets you create a brainstorming sheet that can be embeddable to your website.
BookGlutton lets
you create virtual groups to meet up in the digital books and have
discussions on any chapter. You can also chat by leaving comments and
sharing them with each other.
Black Pro-Life Leaders
Santorum ‘Absolutely Right’ to Wonder How Obama Could Support Abortion
Pastor Clenard H. Childress Jr., founder of the Black Genocide.org Web site, said he agreed with Santorum.
“Rick Santorum is absolutely right,” Childress, the Northeast regional director the Life Education and Resource Network in Montclair, N.J., told CNSNews.com.
“It’s very interesting that the ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ was referenced,” Childress said. “In that same letter, Martin Luther King references infanticide or child-killing as evil. So what Martin Luther King calls evil, Barack Obama and this administration calls good -- because all of their policies have more or less facilitated the growth or the intrusion of abortion in our community and our legislation a hundred fold.”
New Obama Adviser Jeff Immelt’s Agenda: “Big Government and Big Business”
General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt — Obama's choice to lead the new "President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness" — is only about "big government and big business" and not thinking about the little guy. This is the message of Project 21 fellow Deneen Borelli. On the 1/25/11 edition of "Fox and Friends" on the Fox News Channel, Deneen presents a new commercial from the National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project and FreedomWorks that asks Immelt to resign his position with GE. This petition is available at www.bigbusinesswatch.org.
Monday, January 24, 2011
GM's China sales pass US for first time in history
General Motors Co. sold more cars and trucks in China last year than it did in the U.S., for the first time in the company's 102-year history. Toyota is still the world's largest auto maker. GM and Toyota tied for the global sales lead in 2007, ending GM's 76-year string of dominance. Toyota took the title in 2008 and has held it ever since.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Jews and Muslims in America, Sylviane Anna Diouf, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas
Who would deny the presence of Muslims, both as traders and as slaves? However, this research does not state that the presence of Muslims in America means that somehow Muslims have always had a founding presence in America. They were slaves. In fact, one section of Diouf's book is "Resistance, Revolts, and Returns to Africa," indicating the significant non-participation of Muslims in American life.
On the other hand, in 1654, twenty four unwelcome Jews arrived in Peter Stuyvesant's Dutch colony in New Amsterdam, and were eventually allowed to remain (p. 161, The Course of Modern Jewish History, Howard M. Sachar). The presence of a Jewish community pre-dated the founding of America but the claim that somehow Muslim presence means the existence of a Muslim community, or that Muslims are part and parcel of Revolutionary America is simply a fairy tale. Thereafter, both in New England and in the South a Jewish community existed, to the extent that Sachar can state: "On the eve of the Revolution, the American Jewish community was comparatively secure" (p. 162).
To wit, there is a credible scholarly account for one 19th Century figure.
Abd-Allah, Umar Faruq, A Muslim in Victorian America: The Life of Alexander Russel Webb. Oxford University Press, 2006. 400 pages.
Prominent American Muslim scholar Shaykh Umar Abd-Allah examines the life of a late nineteenth-century American intellectual and diplomat who converted to Islam.
A key work produces evidence of Muslims among slaves which hardly is documentation of a thriving community. This is akin to claiming that since bananas exist in the United States they must be a native plant.
Austin, Allen, African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles. New York: Routledge: 1997. 194 pages.
An analysis of biographies of numerous West African Muslim slaves who lived in the American South between 1730 and 1860. These men and women, who were 15% of the slave population, were the first Muslims in the United States.
US Textbooks: Muslims Discovered America
Saudi-funded textbooks are being used in America's K-12 classrooms.
The Saudi government has donated millions of dollars to Middle East Centers at universities that receive Title VI funding.
The Harvard Middle Eastern Studies Center -- whose recommendations to the Massachusetts Board is one of them. As CBN News reported earlier this year, the Harvard Center received a $20 million donation from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in 2005. Georgetown University -- another title VI recipient--also received $20 million from the Prince that same year.
It's through these Title VI university centers -- all of them government-sanctioned and taxpayer supported--that Saudi-funded materials find their way into K-12 classrooms.
Cf. The Stealth Curriculum: Manipulating America's History Teachers, Stotsky, Sandra.
Chinese Pianist Plays Propaganda, Anti-American Tune at White House
US humiliated in eyes of Chinese by song used to inspire anti-Americanism.
Chinese pianist Lang Lang plays anti-American music at the state dinner concert in the White House on Jan. 19, 2011. (from 6:24, it is a theme song from the well-known movie "Battle of Triangle Hill" about the Korean War, a successful propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party.
“In the eyes of all Chinese, this will not be seen as anything other than a big insult to the U.S.,” says Yang Jingduan, a Chinese psychiatrist now living in Philadelphia who was Deputy Director of science and technology development at the No. 4 Military Medical University in Xi'an in China. “It’s like insulting you in your face and you don’t know it, it’s humiliating.”
Yang sees Lang Lang choosing this tune as an expression of the deeply anti-American propaganda that is constant in China.
“This deeply anti-American chauvinism has been fanned by the CCP for years; Lang Lang is expressing the feelings of this generation of angry young people,” Yang said.
A well-known example of such feelings was seen on Sept. 11, 2001, when Chinese chat rooms were filled with young people celebrating this act of terror as an American defeat.
Scenes from the 1956 movie Triangle Hill/ShangGanLing
BattleTriangleHill.flv
Scenes from the 1956 movie 'Triangle Hill' (ShangGanLing), which is based on a real battle of Korean War, in 1952. Because the previous US strike, a CPV company posted on the Triangle Hill (the 7th Company of the 135th Reg., 45th Div., 15th Corps of the Chinese Peoples' Volunteers) was forced to give up surface positions and retreated into the bunkers. When US troops were proceeding towards the main hill, Zhongfa Zhang, commander of the company (charactor based on the real commander Jifa Zhang) organized machine guns to beat their flank. The Goryunov gunners had more protection in the battle, but the DP gunners were more exposed to the returning fire and suffered heavy casualties. The young CPV soldiers stood in line ---- silently but solidly, ready to replace and ready to give up their lives. Honor belongs to them.
When Nixon visited China, a photo was taken of him getting off the plane to greet Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. Nixon has a big smile and extends his hand out to Zhou. Zhou stands with a rigid face and holds his hand close to his body.
The photo was widely used in all of the Chinese media to help support the idea that Nixon’s visit was a victory for China. Chinese schoolchildren were told, “See how long Nixon’s arm is stretched out? That shows the United States is reaching out to us.”
Pork Chop Hill
Vintage movie trailer for Pork Chop Hill.
1953 Korean War - American GI's must retake a barren hill in Korea that has been overrun by Red Chinese troops. The ensuing battle becomes a meat grinder for American and Chinese alike.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
The Debt Limit: Made Simple
This video takes you to the United Estates--a gated community in sunny Florida--to help you understand the impact of Congress decision to annually raise our nations debt limit without addressing the out-of-control spending that keeps us buried in debt.
Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget
You Fix the Budget
Think you might have good ideas on how to balance the federal budget? Well, now’s your chance to solve it! With this budget simulation from The New York Times, you can peruse a menu of possibilities for cutting spending or raising taxes. As you select each item, the interactive feature shows how much money will be saved in both short-term and long-term forecasts.
The idea is pretty simple: read each issue along with its brief description underneath, and if you think, “yeah, let’s cut that,” check the box. When an item is selected, the gray boxes at the top (each representing $1 billion) will turn to blue. The goal is to cut enough spending and/or raise enough taxes to balance the federal budget by both 2015 and 2030.
Today, you’re in charge of the nation’s finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. Make your own plan, then share it online.
Friday, January 21, 2011
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