And then???

Iran must break down, I argued last June, or break out, through a military adventure. The sand is slipping out of the hour glass, and the regime must decide what to do within a few months. If it does nothing, the default position, as it were, is Pakistan.

The above is from a thoughtful post from Power and Control. It is a hard read and will require some linking back and forth but raises some thoughts that will make you uncomfortable.

Rape, Taliban, Tea and Biscuits.

But will he respect her when he has been paid the money?

Really. I am not making this up.

In November 2008 a Dutch journalist, Joanie de Rijke, was abducted by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. She was held captive, raped repeatedly, and released after six days for a ransom of 100,000 euros ($137,000). After her ordeal, she acknowledged that her captors “did horrible things to me,” but added in several media interviews “They also respected me,” and emphasized “They are not monsters.”

Gert Wilders, the man so terrible the Brits won’t let him in their country, had this to say:

She was raped, but she was not angry. The journalist who went looking for the Taliban in Afghanistan saw her curiosity end in a cruel ordeal of multiple rape. While this would make others angry or sad, this journalist shows understanding. She says: ‘They also respected me.’ And she was given tea and biscuits.”

And the clincher comes when her boss can't make himself believe that these are Taliban people.

Lescroart also said that he believed the group which abducted de Rijke were not real Taliban but........“some sort of Taliban ‘freelancers,’ scum who were after money. They did not want the real Taliban to know what they were doing, because the real Taliban do not accept that kind of behavior.”

Oh, really? Can we agree that this man is not part of the real world?

Wilders added:(This) “is a perfect illustration of the moral decline of our elites. They are so blinded by their own ideology that they turn a blind eye to the truth. Rape? Well, I would put this into perspective, says the leftist journalist: the Taliban are not monsters. Our elites prefer to deny reality rather than face it. One would expect: a woman is being raped and finds this unbearable. But this journalist is not angry because the Muslim involved also showed respect. Our elites, whether they are politicians, journalists, judges, subsidy gobblers or civil servants, are totally clueless. Plain common sense has been dumped in order to deny reality. It is not just this raped journalist who is suffering from Stockholm syndrome, but the entire Dutch elite. The only moral reference they have is: do not irritate the Muslims – that is the one thing they will condemn.”

It is beyond obvious that Europe, especially Western Europe, has collapsed. It has no moral positions left. It supports the radical Muslims because the radical Muslims hate what the Lefties hate. Western culture, western values, Christian values. Thus we have the ultimate “Enemy of my enemy” situation in which the ruling elites cannot surrender fast enough and anyone who objects, as Wilders has, is attacked by his own people for the radical Muslims.


Link to Brussels Journal.

US tax payers fund Islamic studies

Or....Whatever happened to the First Amendment???

Is this stupid? Does a bear....?



AIG, with our money, is supporting:

In his well-written and detailed analysis issued yesterday, Judge Zatkoff denied the request by the Obama administration’s Department of Justice to dismiss the lawsuit. The request was filed on behalf of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the Federal Reserve Board – the named defendants in the case. In his ruling, the judge held that the lawsuit sufficiently alleged a federal constitutional challenge to the use of taxpayer money to fund AIG’s Islamic religious activities.


Finally, after the government acquired a majority interest in AIG and contributed substantial funds to AIG for operational purposes, the government co-sponsored a forum entitled “Islamic Finance 101.”

Link

The difference between Iran and Australia

But let us conclude on a lighter note. A jolly Australian lady friend used this topic to explain to me the difference between Iran and Australia: “In Iran, you fornicate and then you get stoned. In Australia, you first get stoned and then you fornicate.”

Some history on stoning.

Say Goodnight Jay! And other bad dreams..

Jay Leno stepped away from the "Tonight Show" last night after 17 or so years.

I confess that I didn't watch him leave. In fact I was unaware he was, not having watched him in probably 9 years or so. I never was a huge fan of late night shows. In my much younger days I was often busy doing other things, traveling or just falling into bed too tired to be amused. Plus if Armed Forces TV existed I don't remember.

I did watch some Jack Parr, but missed his last show. Parr never did anything after that and I have often used his departure as a prime example of why we should never do things in a snit. Roman Emperors had a slave whose job was to whisper into their ear, "Remember you are not a God!" Sage advice to all whose power comes from others.

I became a fan of Johnny Carson because the show was uniformly good and I recognized that it was good because of him. And the humor was adult but not vulgar. Plus, much of the humor required the audience to have a basic education. Bob Newhart had a bit in which the punch line was a submarine navigator advising the Captain they would surface off the coast of New York..... or Rio de Janeiro. If you don't know geography that line doesn't work. Comedy was dumbed down to serve a dumbed down audience.

I have never understood why it became funny to toss out a few F bombs and body part references. I never felt compelled to shut them up. I just couldn't understand, although I think much of it was a desire to shock Mommy and Daddy by listening and laughing. And yes, some of the new comedians were funny, but would have been so without the vulgarities.

So, over time Jay became less funny not because he was vulgar, although the show hit that mark a few times, but because what he and the audience found funny I did not.

There were more sports shows, more home improvement, more Channel news, more everything. If Jay bored, the clicker was handy and the Internet sealed the deal. Besides, along with instant communications came continual questions and the job became 24/7.

So the market fragmented. Early on I remember hearing one of the cable founders....Tom??? (senior moment)... say that the limitation of wiring the home wasn't technology but lack of content. He was right. Having 200 channels, all bad, has put a crimp in how much people will spend for TV. IPTV may move the pile a bit, but that is still in the future.

I opine that TV has more choices, most terrible, but fewer viewers, as a percentage of population, than when everyone watched Ed Sullivan. The result is a more fragmented society with a much smaller core of stability.

And as we continue to have more choices the trend will continue.

And as more people pay fewer taxes and as fewer people pay more taxes the resentment will grow in the payers.

It is not logical to think that we can say that our goal is Equal Rights, elect a Black President and then have him nominate a judge for the SC who claims that her seeing things as a Latino and a female is a grand qualification.

It is not logical to claim we want diversity and then write laws to shut people up who say hateful things.

It is not logical for some of us to claim they support the troops while damning our wars.

It is not logical to claim that we are patriots when we not only do not join our military but vehemently oppose being drafted and trained to fight if necessary.

It is not logical for us to have a military that is volunteer and professional and think that it will not, at some point, decide that it will have a large say in who their leader is.

Bad dreams are made of this.



Picture from.

Obama and Hugo - Presidents for life

This is no joke.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:

‘Article--

‘The twenty-second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.’.

Link

Hat tip to Larry P.

Dallas Home Owners Association bans Marine Corp emblems

I have never been big on declaring “never.” I mean it only took me a hundred or so “never” to quit smoking and I did vote for Jimmy Carter after declaring to never vote for a Leftie again. So my batting average on “never” isn’t the greatest. In fact, it took me two “never” on buying a home in a neighborhood with a Home Owners Association.

The first happened in Seattle. I was summoned home by my spouse to find a guy wearing Rockport shoes and driving an itty bitty pick up with a “Save the Whales” sticker on the back bumper standing resolutely in front of the D4 Cat owned and operated by the guy who I had hired to finish off rough landscaping in my backyard. By rough I mean leveling, pushing some rocks around to where I wanted them and burying a huge stump and other tree trash… But I digress.

“Where’s your permit?” he demanded.

“Start your machine,” I told the Cat driver. “Since I am within the greenbelt I don’t need one.”

That seemed to satisfy the Cat driver. He cranked it up and after a few seconds the HOA Nazi stepped aside. We had further conversations at that time, and indeed we exchanged some registered letters. The upshot of it all was that I was correct, but the board was appalled that I hadn’t came to them for discussions and their approval, thus eliminating all the confusion.

That I wasn’t confused seemed to be of interest only to me.

In our next transfer and purchase I had no problems with the board, but attending a few board meetings soon showed me that my Seattle dude had all kinds of relatives in my new neighborhood. Fortunately we had a board that shut the nuts down with firm applications of common sense. But that was enough to make “never” stick when I purchased the palatial retirement compound.

And my guess is that this HOA board in Dallas will shut this down, probably in a special meeting this weekend.

DALLAS - Frank Larison is a disabled veteran with more than 14 years of service, including more than a year of combat duty in Vietnam.

The 58-year-old former Marine now finds himself under attack by his Dallas homeowners association for displaying seven decals on his vehicle supporting the Marine Corps.

"To me, it's being patriotic, and it shows that I served," the veteran told FOX 4.
The board says the decals are advertisements that violate HOA rules, and must be covered or removed.



One board member said he was unaware the HOA presidents sent the letter and did not know of any issue with Larimore's vehicle.

"I will be looking into it," said board member Art Bradford. "I didn't know anything about this. I haven't seen this."

The board president was out of town and unavailable. The condo management company did not want to comment.

In the video (see link) Bradford looks embarrassed. And he should be. Especially since the video shows all sorts of vehicles with stickers that actually are advertisements.

Anybody want to bet that the person complaining isn't anti-military????

Link to story and video.


Picture Link