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.
Monday, July 4, 2016
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Friday, July 1, 2016
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Benghazi House Report: Assault Not Video or Protest
U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, including former Navy SEALs Ty Woods and Glen Doherty, were killed in the Benghazi attacks.
One U.S. agent at the Benghazi compound — whose name was withheld for security reasons — told the select committee he first heard “some kind of chanting” immediately followed by “explosions” and “gunfire, then roughly 70 people rushing into the compound with an assortment of “AK-47s, grenades, RPG’s … a couple of different assault rifles.”
A senior watch officer at the State Department’s diplomatic security command called it “a full on attack against our compound,” Fox News said, citing the GOP report. That officer also was asked if he saw or heard a protest before the attacks and answered, “zip, nothing, nada.”
The following facts are among the many new revelations in Part I:
- Despite President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s clear orders to deploy military assets, nothing was sent to Benghazi, and nothing was en route to Libya at the time the last two Americans were killed almost 8 hours after the attacks began. [pg. 141]
- With Ambassador Stevens missing, the White House convened a roughly two-hour meeting at 7:30 PM, which resulted in action items focused on a YouTube video, and others containing the phrases “[i]f any deployment is made,” and “Libya must agree to any deployment,” and “[w]ill not deploy until order comes to go to either Tripoli or Benghazi.” [pg. 115]
- The Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff typically would have participated in the White House meeting, but did not attend because he went home to host a dinner party for foreign dignitaries. [pg. 107]
- A Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) sat on a plane in Rota, Spain, for three hours, and changed in and out of their uniforms four times. [pg. 154]
- None of the relevant military forces met their required deployment timelines. [pg. 150]
- The Libyan forces that evacuated Americans from the CIA Annex to the Benghazi airport was not affiliated with any of the militias the CIA or State Department had developed a relationship with during the prior 18 months. Instead, it was comprised of former Qadhafi loyalists who the U.S. had helped remove from power during the Libyan revolution. [pg. 144]
“None of the information coming directly from the agents on the ground in Benghazi during the attacks mentioned anything about a video or a protest,” the report said. “The firsthand accounts made their way to the office of the Secretary through multiple channels quickly …”
The following facts are among the many new revelations in Part III:
- During deliberations within the State Department about whether and how to intervene in Libya in March 2011, Jake Sullivan listed the first goal as “avoid[ing] a failed state, particularly one in which al-Qaeda and other extremists might take safe haven.” [pg. 9]
- The administration’s policy of no boots on the ground shaped the type of military assistance provided to State Department personnel in Libya. The Executive Secretariats for both the Defense Department and State Department exchanged communications outlining the diplomatic capacity in which the Defense Department SST security team members would serve, which included wearing civilian clothes so as not to offend the Libyans. [pg. 60]
- When the State Department’s presence in Benghazi was extended in December 2012, senior officials from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security were excluded from the discussion. [pg. 74]
- In February 2012, the lead Diplomatic Security Agent at Embassy Tripoli informed his counterpart in Benghazi that more DS agents would not be provided by decision makers, because “substantive reporting” was not Benghazi’s purpose. [pg. 77]
- Emails indicate senior State Department officials, including Cheryl Mills, Jake Sullivan, and Huma Abedin were preparing for a trip by the Secretary of State to Libya in October 2012. According to testimony, Chris Stevens wanted to have a “deliverable” for the Secretary for her trip to Libya, and that “deliverable” would be making the Mission in Benghazi a permanent Consulate. [pg. 96]
- In August 2012—roughly a month before the Benghazi attacks—security on the ground worsened significantly. Ambassador Stevens initially planned to travel to Benghazi in early August, but cancelled the trip “primarily for Ramadan/security reasons.” [pg. 99]
- Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta bluntly told the committee “an intelligence failure” occurred with respect to Benghazi. Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell also acknowledged multiple times an intelligence failure did in fact occur prior to the Benghazi attacks. [pg. 129]
benghazi.house
Monday, June 27, 2016
Sunday, June 26, 2016
French Religion of Peace, Islamist Cop Killer
Peace
The Facebook live stream video shot by Islamist killer Larossi Abballa who murdered two French police officers and then indulged in a rant against the West has been released in edited form by the media arm of Islamic State.
In the video, taken after Abballa had stabbed senior French police officer Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and cut the throat of his wife and fellow police member Jessica Salvaing, Abballa calls on fellow Muslims to attack the West.
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Twin Falls, Idaho, False, Inflammatory
Federal oppression of free speech.
The Obama-appointed U.S. attorney for Idaho has taken the highly unusual step of intervening in a local criminal case involving an alleged sexual assault by juvenile Muslim migrants and threatened the community and media with federal prosecution if they “spread false information or inflammatory statements about the perpetrators.” Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/06/explosive-new-twist-in-idaho-sex-assault-case/#5cwIbQ4iDxPRIpF3.99
EU Vocabulary
Grexit, Departugal, Italeave, Fruckoff, Czechout, Oustria, Finish, Slovlong, Latervia, Buggaria and Byegium, until the EU reaches the state of Germlonely.
Ian Hunter, City Winery, NYC, 25 June 2016
Before the show, separately, I ran into Dennis and Paul at the Starbucks diagonal from the City Winery. I said hello to Dennis and he said hey back and I hope you enjoy the show. I asked Paul if he recognizes this guy: it was pics from a recent upstate New York gig, he recognized the pics from the Pleasantville show. He responded "nice action shots." I told him they were from when he played "All American Alien Boys." He noted, right, when he moved upstage.
They started with the work song tape but opened with "I'm the Teacher" and did not play "Rest In Peace." "Trudi's Song" was added to the set. The harmonica was brought out for two songs, "I Wish I Was Your Mother" and "23A Swan Hill." All American Alien Boys was back in the set. Ian closed with see you in October. He has been explaining on stage that they're playing all the old songs until the new album comes out hopefully in September.
Setlist for June 25th:
1. (I'm the) Teacher
2. Central Park n' West
3. When I'm President
4. Now Is the Time
5. Wash Us Away
6. The Truth, the Whole Truth, Nuthin’ but the Truth
7. Honaloochie Boogie
8. All American Alien Boy
9. Just Another Night
10. Black Tears
11. Cleveland Rocks
12. Trudi’s Song
13. Shrunken Heads
14. I Wish I Was Your Mother
15. 23A, Swan Hill
16. Bastard
17. Sweet Jane
18. Encore:
19. Roll Away the Stone
20. Life
21. All the Young Dudes/Goodnight Irene
OBTS
'Cleveland Rocks'
https://youtu.be/QbNY_WeWBSs
'Just Another Night'
https://youtu.be/7OsDsNPs_tA
'Sweet Jane'
https://youtu.be/nABVIngPtZQ
'All the Young Dudes/Goodnight Irene'
https://youtu.be/K3gmAJn9CV8
They started with the work song tape but opened with "I'm the Teacher" and did not play "Rest In Peace." "Trudi's Song" was added to the set. The harmonica was brought out for two songs, "I Wish I Was Your Mother" and "23A Swan Hill." All American Alien Boys was back in the set. Ian closed with see you in October. He has been explaining on stage that they're playing all the old songs until the new album comes out hopefully in September.
Setlist for June 25th:
1. (I'm the) Teacher
2. Central Park n' West
3. When I'm President
4. Now Is the Time
5. Wash Us Away
6. The Truth, the Whole Truth, Nuthin’ but the Truth
7. Honaloochie Boogie
8. All American Alien Boy
9. Just Another Night
10. Black Tears
11. Cleveland Rocks
12. Trudi’s Song
13. Shrunken Heads
14. I Wish I Was Your Mother
15. 23A, Swan Hill
16. Bastard
17. Sweet Jane
18. Encore:
19. Roll Away the Stone
20. Life
21. All the Young Dudes/Goodnight Irene
OBTS
https://youtu.be/QbNY_WeWBSs
'Just Another Night'
https://youtu.be/7OsDsNPs_tA
'Sweet Jane'
https://youtu.be/nABVIngPtZQ
'All the Young Dudes/Goodnight Irene'
https://youtu.be/K3gmAJn9CV8
After the gig I had Ian sign Phonograph Record Magazine, February, 1973 (with Mott The Hoople on the cover), that the Licorice Pizza music store chain carried. Ian said I remember signing the handbill at the Sellersville, PA gig last week. I reminded Ian that this was the period between guitarist Mick Ralphs leaving the band and when Luther Grosvenor, guitar, joined Mott The Hoople. They had only played a live TV appearance at the Aquarius Theater in LA and then their first gig at the Hollywood Palladium in September 1973. Ian does not recall the gig but he remembered that they only played the Palladium once which is correct. This was the first time that I had seen the band and my first rock concert. Ian said that Luther could be dodgy but when he joined the band he lifted their morale. Luther's contribution made sense since the band had already lost not only Ralphs but Verden Allen on keyboards as well. To supplement the 1973 American tour Mick Bolton and Morgan Fisher had been added on keyboards. In any case, Luther offered a great deal on stage. I agree Luther was a wild man; he added a great deal to their stage presence.
Ian said I was talking about way back and the early days. Ian reminisced about when Keith Moon rang him up to go out and he had 24 bottles of champagne. Ian didn't know what happened to the bottles. Ian said he was new to famous rockers ringing him up so he just went along. Keith took him to Frank Zappa's house where they listened to two-inch tapes and Frank asked Ian what he thought. Ian simply said it was great so he had him listen to more tapes but Ian had no idea what the music was about. Dweezil, Frank's son was there and they had cats, one staring at Ian oddly. Ian said that he was talking to Jakob, Dylan's son, and the same tape listening experience happened to him. Zappa liked people to come over and listen to his music which no one understood.
I had walked with Ian and his entourage over to his hotel diagonal from the City Winery so I thanked him for signing and said good night.
Friday, June 24, 2016
Thursday, June 23, 2016
UK Declares Independence from EU
The United Kingdom declared independence from the regulations and encroachment upon British sovereignty by the EU. This is a resounding victory for the ordinary person in rebelling against me elites of both United States and England. Immigration was touch point and the vote reflects the frustration of the ordinary person against their government.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
“The Ideological and Political Power of the Islamic State,” by Army Colonel David M. Kobs in the February, 2016, issue of Army War College Review (pp. 40-44).
I would take issue with an otherwise excellent article about one aspect of the study:
"Importantly, non-Muslim states, including the U.S. must avoid any overt appearance or actual entry into the ideological debate."
An American ideology of Common Sense, The Federalist Papers, the U.S. Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, Letter from Birmingham Jail, and related documents is unbeatable.
It is not that America does not have a superior ideology to the Islamic State the difficulty is that our leaders do not appreciate our ideological advantage; and, perhaps more importantly, they can not communicate it effectively using the technological tools that Islamists exploit to their advantage.
"Importantly, non-Muslim states, including the U.S. must avoid any overt appearance or actual entry into the ideological debate."
An American ideology of Common Sense, The Federalist Papers, the U.S. Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, Letter from Birmingham Jail, and related documents is unbeatable.
It is not that America does not have a superior ideology to the Islamic State the difficulty is that our leaders do not appreciate our ideological advantage; and, perhaps more importantly, they can not communicate it effectively using the technological tools that Islamists exploit to their advantage.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Ian Hunter & The Rant Band at Sellersville. PA. USA - 06/19/2016 - Live Concert
https://youtu.be/XYC63LhM5nY
1.) Cleveland Rocks 0.00
2.) Irene Wilde 4:57
3.) Just Another Night 9:09
Flowers, All of the Good Ones Are Taken
Cleveland Rocks, Irene Wilde, Just Another Night, Dead Man Walking, All The Way From Memphis (snippet)
https://youtu.be/W0Lmk_sPOL0
ATWFM/Silver Needles/Shrunken Heads, Sweet Jane
All The Young Dudes/Goodnight Irene
Tonight "Mad Dog," now roadie and former band member with Mick Ronson, guitar, told me he got the nickname from Ian. On Saturday night "Mad Dog" gave me a partial set list from the City Winery gig. I asked him how he got the nickname and he said because he's got lots of ideas and I asked about what and he said about everything.
Tonight "Mad Dog," now roadie and former band member with Mick Ronson, guitar, told me he got the nickname from Ian. On Saturday night "Mad Dog" gave me a partial set list from the City Winery gig. I asked him how he got the nickname and he said because he's got lots of ideas and I asked about what and he said about everything.
Ian signed the Licorice Pizza, Bellflower, California hand bill. I told him he and Ronson were on a record store appearance for the Schizophrenic tour. Ian said he vaguely remembers the day. I told him I came for him to sign the first Mott The Hoople LP. On the inside gatefold it has the band members heads on all on the same leather jacket of Mick Ralphs, guitar. Ian repeated the story that he has told in various forms over the years. Ian said that the body is Mick's who was "young and thin and the rest of us were old and fat." I told him that's the same story that he told me that day so he must remember the event.
Before he got into his car I told him I was glad to see that he was not retiring after releasing "Salvation" since the story had been going around that he would retire after the song came out. Ian said it's on the box set coming out in September but he has no plans to retire.
The harmonica is used for only one song: "23A Swan Hill."
Ian Hunter, Sellersville Theater
All The Young Dudes/Goodnight Irene
Tonight "Mad Dog," now roadie and former band member with Mick Ronson, guitar, told me he got the nickname from Ian. On Saturday night "Mad Dog" gave me a partial set list from the City Winery gig. I asked him how he got the nickname and he said because he's got lots of ideas and I asked about what and he said about everything.
Tonight "Mad Dog," now roadie and former band member with Mick Ronson, guitar, told me he got the nickname from Ian. On Saturday night "Mad Dog" gave me a partial set list from the City Winery gig. I asked him how he got the nickname and he said because he's got lots of ideas and I asked about what and he said about everything.
Ian signed the Licorice Pizza, Bellflower, California hand bill. I told him he and Ronson were on a record store appearance for the Schizophrenic tour. Ian said he vaguely remembers the day. I told him I came for him to sign the first Mott The Hoople LP. On the inside gatefold it has the band members heads on all on the same leather jacket of Mick Ralphs, guitar. Ian repeated the story that he has told in various forms over the years. Ian said that the body is Mick's who was "young and thin and the rest of us were old and fat." I told him that's the same story that he told me that day so he must remember the event.
Before he got into his car I told him I was glad to see that he was not retiring after releasing "Salvation" since the story had been going around that he would retire after the song came out. Ian said it's on the box set coming out in September but he has no plans to retire.
The harmonica is used for only one song: "23A Swan Hill."
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Ian Hunter, City Winery, NYC
I ran into Paul at the Starbucks diagonal from the club. He said the new CD has several mid-tempo rockers and a couple of ballads.
This was a substantially different set than the two shows last weekend. They started out with the work song rhythm track that they have not used recently to begin the show but the first song was "Rest In Peace." Then, he also played "Michael Picasso" and "All The Way From Memphis," among others, that have not been in the set. The two "Moondogs" from the Ronno era were also there. One Moondog does the technical set up; and, the other played keyboards on "All The Young Dudes" while Dennis moved to Ian's keyboard. Ian's son, Jesse, also sang backup on the tune.
Tommy Mandel - keyboards, vocals; Tommy Morrongiello - guitar, vocals;
This was a substantially different set than the two shows last weekend. They started out with the work song rhythm track that they have not used recently to begin the show but the first song was "Rest In Peace." Then, he also played "Michael Picasso" and "All The Way From Memphis," among others, that have not been in the set. The two "Moondogs" from the Ronno era were also there. One Moondog does the technical set up; and, the other played keyboards on "All The Young Dudes" while Dennis moved to Ian's keyboard. Ian's son, Jesse, also sang backup on the tune.
Tommy Mandel - keyboards, vocals; Tommy Morrongiello - guitar, vocals;
Friday, June 17, 2016
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Moderates Are Islamists
Moderates are Islamists
Fahad Qureshi stated that the desire to see homosexuals killed was a belief held by so-called “moderate” Muslims.
“I always try to tell them that….these are general views that every Muslim actually has….every Muslim believes in these things,” says Qureshi.
Qureshi then asks the audience of Muslim attendees – black, white and Arab – to raise their hands if they agree with gender segregation and stoning women for adultery, as taught by the Koran.
Virtually every single ‘moderate’ Muslim in the room raises their hand to agree with these positions. Qureshi then asks the audience if they go to “normal Sunni mosques in Norway.” Virtually everyone raises their hand in agreement once again.
“What are the politicians going to say now? What is the media going to say now? That we are all extremists? That we are all radicals? That we need to deport all of us from this country?” states Qureshi.
The chillingly ironic thing is of course that in trying to argue that most Muslims are not ‘radical extremists’, Qureshi only proves the point that so-called “moderate” Muslims do in fact hold radical, violent and extreme views about the treatment of women and homosexuals.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Gays and Muslims
Gays, Muslims, Roman Catholics
TRANSCRIPT
All the victims at the gay nightclub who were murdered over the weekend need our prayers. Fifty people, 50-plus souls were on the scene, and the very next moment, they were standing before the judgment seat of Almighty God — as we all will be one day. Life can seem so certain one moment and over the next, in a twinkling of an eye. We must always be prepared to die.
The murders bring about a very interesting point of a larger discussion. The liberal alliance has brought various factions together, with one common goal: to end Catholic morality's influence on Western civilization.
There are indeed some strange pairings in this liberal alliance: homosexualists, the Democratic Party, the mainstream media and Islam. Whatever differences Islam and liberals have, they have been willing to overlook them to join forces against the common enemy of Christianity, specifically Catholicism.
So, for example, from ISIS and the Islamic world you hear threats against Rome — loud threats, so loud that Italian army soldiers now stand at the ready fully armed with machine guns in very plain sight around the boundaries of Vatican City. And you hear from various gay groups that the Catholic Church hates gays — that we are homophobic, that we are a threat, that we need to have our non-profit status revoked, that we need to be monitored and so forth.
One point needs to become very clear to all those who wish to paint the Church as an enemy of gays: We want you saved. Islam wants you dead. And let's be very clear: The Catholic Church wants to save gays from Hell. Islam wants to send gays to Hell.
Just last month in the Middle East, these horrific images of a man being thrown off a building to his death were released. His "crime": being gay in a Muslim country. Again, Catholics don't hate gays. But Islamicists do. It wasn't Catholics throwing that man to his death. And it wasn't a Catholic in the gay nightclub murdering dozens of same-sex-attracted men and women.
But this whole situation does pose a very difficult conundrum for the whole liberal alliance. Gays hate the Church because the Church teaches about the immorality of homosexual acts. And Islam hates the Church because it was born from a hate of the Church and has always had as its object the overthrow of Christianity.
Up until now, the liberal mainstream media has been happy to be complicit in giving Islamic terrorism a pass because it had common cause with undermining Catholicism in the culture. The liberal alliance was happy to make common cause with Islam because they had a common enemy: the Catholic Church. So whenever an Islamic terrorist murdered a group somewhere, it could be whitewashed and follow-up stories done on how Islam doesn't really have a widely accepted notion of jihad and violence, and how the various terror acts were "isolated," or the individual was disturbed and so forth. But Islam could never be approached as a problem in itself. That would be shooting an ally in the back.
Well, this past weekend radical Islam shot one of its own allies in the back; more than 50 souls were dispatched into eternity as a result. So now the conundrum: Random victims were not targeted but homosexual men and women. Islam hates gays and wants them dead, and this is a fact that the liberal alliance of homosexualists, Democrats and the media have simply not said out loud.
Well, now they have to.
The liberal alliance may finally have to come out and say for the whole world to hear what should be blindingly obvious to the whole world: Islam hates gays and wants them dead.
But that admission will cost the liberal alliance. For all their common cause with wanting to undermine or even eradicate Catholicism, the Church does share some core principles with Islam regarding morality. Pope John Paul II was able to use those shared beliefs about sexual morality in the U.N. Cairo Conference back in the 1990s to fend off an attempt by Western nations to embrace abortion and contraception as human rights. By working with various Islamic nations, the Church was able to beat back the initiative.
This move by the Vatican angered many Western powers who want to push sexual immorality, and the Church came into sharp focus as a threat to their new world order. So the liberal alliance of gays, news media, politicians, Hollywood, all banded together and began their relentless pounding of the Church. To the extent that Islam could be conscripted, even indirectly, all the better.
Up until Orlando, the strange alliance between gays and gay-hating Islam was able to hold. Now, it's over — or, at least, it should be. What remains to be seen is how this will be handled or massaged in the media. Will the Muslim killer be painted as a lone extremist who does not represent "peaceful" Islam? Will media reports devolve into story after story about the need for gun control? Will the murderous action be whitewashed as an act against "Americans" and "our way of life" instead of the full-on truth that Islam hates gays and wants them dead?
Now that Islam has broken ranks with the liberal alliance by attacking a key component of it in the homosexual ideology, what remains to be seen is which enemy will the liberal alliance choose to attack more: Islam or the Catholic Church? Since Satan is behind the liberal alliance, the homosexual ideology and Islam, it's pretty certain the Church will be the one continuing being attacked once this has all receded from the headlines.
Monday, June 13, 2016
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Ian Hunter, Hoboken Arts and Music Festival
Ian Hunter and the Rant Band will be playing at the 2016 Hoboken Arts and Music Festival on June 12. The are scheduled for 4:30 PM on the Observer Highway Stage.
http://www.hobokennj.org/departments/human-services/cultural-affairs/arts-music-festival/
http://www.hobokennj.org/departments/human-services/cultural-affairs/arts-music-festival/
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