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.
"Now we have identical policies with the Obama administration," said Ahmet Davutoglu, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's chief foreign policy adviser, who called Obama's visit "historic."
"If you look at the agendas of the two countries, it is almost the same," he said. "Our experience in the region and their new approach are very compatible."
It is historic for America to advance a Middle Eastern Muslim agenda and in that I agree with Davutoglu.
William K. Black, the former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, an Obamabow supporter, and now an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri, explained to Bill Moyers why we are in such a financial fix. Black charges that Geithner is "covering up." There is massive fraud that Congress is not investigating, and the American people are not outraged.
Obamabow just got spat upon by measly little North Korea while he argues that: “As a nuclear power – as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon – the United States has a moral responsibility to act.” The only deterrent is strength on the part of the U.S. We have no intention of using nuclear weapons and the rest of the world is not naive enough to disarm since we already have an overwhelming advantage in nuclear weapons. They have no incentive to disarm since because Obamabow wants them too. The effective leader would be developing an effective strategy against rogue states and non-state actors from testing, transporting, and deploying weapons. Obamabow is an effective agent for Russian and Chinese military aims.
I would like to be the first one to dismiss anything that the discredited Newt Gingrich had to say but he has a point. In his reaction to North Korea's missile and launch, and I would consider with Obamabow's tepid, let's-talk-about-it at the U.N. response, Gingrich stated: "I’d recommend, look at electromagnetic pulse, which changes every … equation about how risky these weapons are.” Electromagnetic pulse has its possibilities, since it has been noted as a threat to the U.S., it could well be a weapon of choice against a rogue state such as North Korea. Obamabow either is too tepid in his response or has not developed an effective counter-measure so far. He just wants to talk about it more.
Security Council Resolution 1718 was passed in 2006 to force North Korea to halt nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches, but sanctions have been suspended or loosely applied since North Korea joined disarmament talks.
Although Obamabow will push the issue of more sanctions against North Korea for this act of defiance, the last sanctions clearly did not work.
Theoretically the missile launched by North Korea, could reach Alaska or Hawaii and the import of the test is that the U.S. is not defending itself.
The little thug Kim Jong-Il has tested an effective missile and now we will see if the international leaders respond with more than just words or watered down resolutions guaranteed to be nothing more that attempts to make the public think something is being done.
Resolutions with no teeth do nothing as we have seen with previous resolutions against North Korea as well as the pathetic resolutions against Iran.
Obamabow's failure continue as NATO will only send 5,000 more personnel: but, these are military trainers and police. The allies refused to agree to a request for additional combat troops.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”
The British offered to send several hundred, expected to number between 500 and 700, of extra British soldiers to provide security during the August election: Belgium offered to send 35 military trainers and Spain offered 12.
The U.S. Mint is issuing the first coin ever in Spanish. The Puerto Rico commemorative quarter-dollar, a 25 cents coin, will be launched. A Spanish inscription appears on the reverse side showing a sentry box on an old Spanish fort with the phrase "Isla del Encanto" or "Island of Enchantment."
Obama, center, back to camera, greets King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, center, before the official G20 leaders group photo with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II at London's Buckingham Palace, Wednesday, April 1, 2009. Graphic source: AP Photo/John Stillwell/pool
Obama humbling himself; he is almost down on bended knee before the Saudi King. The subservient Obama averts the eyes of the King as he looks at his feet. Fortunately, the King outlawed the kissing of his ring in 2005 or else Obama might have done that as well. Although Obama is clearly a much taller man he is obviously lowering his head below the King's head and eyes. Obama ensured that he was seen as inferior in the presence of the King. With this picture, Americans should grasp our precarious situation in the world and realize that with Obama representing us on the world stage we can expect nothing but maltreatment in the world.
During the heroic generation of the 1930s and 1940s, not that long ago, Americans would bow to no one. They were watched closely during the Olympic Games for any sign of obeisance.
At :53 Obama bows low before his King; then, at 2:25, the leader of the free world is relegated to the back 2nd row off to the right. The King, the Queen, and the Chinese are all seated in the middle, front row, in the power positions.
The full tape was inadvertently filmed by a Spanish station and has the advantage of being unscripted: it was not featured on American TV or commented about in any appreciable amount.
The "red herring" tape has been analyzed to death on CNN and on the talk shows. Did he bow or not to the Queen of England is the important question of the hour? It does not matter.
Obama bowed to his King who is the protector and defender of the holiest sites of Islam. Bear in mind that an early act of Obama was to support the 2002 Saudi Plan upon assuming office. Obama decides in deference to Saudi wishes.
In one generation Rosa Parks refused to sit at the back of the bus which was a great day for America and for Civil Rights. Americans were offended in 1994 when Bill Clinton came close to a bow when meeting the Emperor of Japan. Clinton did not quite bow, but he inclined his head and shoulders forward, and he pressed his hands together. It lasted no longer than a snapshot. Today, in three months with Obama all of America has been relegated to second-rank status as he visibly humbled himself well below protocol and it should
Obama (L), Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (C) and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (R) pictured in the 2nd row behind the Saudi and Chinese representatives and the British host.
be noted that other leading heads of state did not bow to the King at all. The appropriate protocol is to simply extend and then shake hands between men. Obama did not perform as an equal man; he demonstrated that he was the subject of the King.
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Information Week: Business Innovation Powered by Technology:
Infostor: The Leading Source for Enterprise Storage Professionals;
Infrastructure Insite: Bringing IT Together;
Insurance Technology: Business Innovation Powered by Technology;
Integrated Solutions: For Enterprise Content Management;
Intel Premier IT: Sharing Best Practices with the Information Technology Community;
Irwin, Robert, Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and Its Discontents;
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Kasser, Rodolphe, The Gospel of Judas;
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McCullough, David, John Adams;
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Pitre, Brant, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper;
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Premier IT Magazine: Sharing Best Practices with the Information Technology Community;
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Profit: The Executive's Guide to Oracle Applications;
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Redmond Magazine: The Independent Voice of the Microsoft IT Community;
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Scholastic Instructor
Scholastic Parent & Child: The Joy of Family Living and Learning;
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Strategy + Business;
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Sumner, Graham, Roman Military Clothing (2) AD 200-400;
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Swanston, Malcolm, Mapping History Battles and Campaigns;
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Swiderski, Richard M., Quicksilver: A History of the Use, Lore, and Effects of Mercury;
Swift, Jonathan, Gulliver's Travels;
Syme, Ronald, The Roman Revolution;
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Tech Briefs: Engineering Solutions for Design & Manufacturing;
Tech Net: The Microsoft Journal for IT Professionals;
Tech Partner: Gain a Competitive Edge Through Solutions Providers;
Technology & Learning: Ideas and Tools for Ed Tech Leaders;
Tenet, George, At the Center of the Storm: The CIA During America's Time of Crisis;
Thackeray, W. M., Vanity Fair;
Thompson, Derrick & William Martin, Have Guitars ... Will Travel: A Journey Through the Beat Music Scene in Northampton 1957-66;
Tolstoy, Leo, Anna Karenina;
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Twain, Mark, The Gilded Age: a Tale of Today;
Ungar, Craig, House of Bush House of Saud;
Unterberger, Richie, The Unreleased Beatles Music & Film;
VAR Business: Strategic Insight for Technology Integrators:
Virgil, The Aeneid
Virtualization Review: Powering the New IT Generation;
Visual Studio: Enterprise Solutions for .Net Development;
VON Magazine: Voice, Video & Vision;
Wall Street Technology: Business Innovation Powered by Technology;
Wallace, Robert, Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda;
Wang, Wallace, Steal This Computer Book 4.0: What They Won’t Tell You About the Internet;
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Wright-Porto, Heather, Beginning Google Blogger;
Xenophon, The Anabasis of Cyrus;
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A tax on toilet paper; I kid you not. According to the sponsor, "the Water Protection and Reinvestment Act will be financed broadly by small fees on such things as . . . products disposed of in waste water." Congress wants to tax what you do in the privacy of your bathroom.