Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas yesterday.  It's here.

JANUARY 6,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:45 P.M. ET: 

AWFUL – From The New York Post:  "An 8-year-old Afghan girl wearing a suicide vest has been detained by police in Afghanistan.  She was detained on Sunday night in Helmand province, as she tried to carry out an attack against border police wearing a suicide jacket, a spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry told the BBC."  Repeat after me:  President Obama says the war on terror is over.

JUSTICE:  From The New York Times:  "PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge on Monday sentenced a Pennsylvania woman to 10 years in prison for her part in a plan to murder a Swedish cartoonist whose images of the Prophet Muhammad offended Muslims.  The woman, Colleen R. LaRose, who used 'Jihad Jane' as an online alias, pleaded guilty to four charges, including conspiring to aid terrorists and to kill a person in a foreign country, after she plotted with jihadists she encountered on the Internet to kill the cartoonist, Lars Vilks.."  Repeat after me:  President Obama says the war on terror is over.

PROGRESS? – From AP:  "Panasonic unveiled a product Monday that combines two big tech trends — ultra HD and wearable devices— with a portable, camera that hooks onto your ear and records in ultra-high definition 4K video."  I can think of a million embarrassing uses.  The next trend will be a wearable defense lawyer. 

PRESENTED AS A PUBLIC SERVICE – From Fox:  "Monday, January 6, 2014, is what some psychological researchers call 'Blue Monday.'  Millions are returning to work after time off for the holidays and they're facing the facts -- the big price tag that came with all the gifts.  Others are worried about weather, or relationship trouble, or their New Year's resolutions.  'Blue Monday,' which is said to be the most miserable day of the year, was originally calculated to be at the end of the month.  But researchers analyzed tweets over the past few years and found that Monday, January 6, 2014 is the day the most people feel sad and guilty.

January 6,  2014     Permalink

THE NEED FOR WISDOM – AT 10:03 A.M. ET:   Douglas MacArthur, who could be both wise and unwise, once said something that seems regularly true.  All military disasters, he said, begin with two words:  "too late."  Now we are told that the United States is coming to the aid of Iraq, which is in danger of being lost, despite the sacrifices of thousands of Americans.  But it may be too late, just as it's been too late in Syria.  From The Politico: 

JERUSALEM — Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that the United States will support Iraq’s fight against Al-Qaeda-linked forces that have overrun two cities, but won’t send in American troops.

Kerry said the militants are trying to destabilize the region and undermine a democratic process in Iraq, and that the U.S. is in contact with tribal leaders in Anbar province who are standing up to the terrorists.

But, he said, “this is a fight that belongs to the Iraqis. That is exactly what the president and the world decided some time ago when we left Iraq, so we are not obviously contemplating returning. We are not contemplating putting boots on the ground. This is their fight. … We will help them in their fight, but this fight, in the end, they will have to win and I am confident they can.”

COMMENT:  That is an absolutely awful statement.  Why telegraph to an enemy what you will or will not do?

The rhetoric of course, is familiar – it is the rhetoric of the anti-war movement of the Vietnam era, the era that shaped John Kerry's thinking.   He hasn't had a thought since. 

He says that this a fight for the Iraqis.  "That," he says, "is exactly what the president and the world decided some time ago when we left Iraq..."  It did?   The world decided that?  I guessed I was out sick that day.  The "world" doesn't decide anything.

We left Iraq badly.  We should have insisted on maintaining a stability force there, which could have been done had the president been interested.  Commitments like that have worked very well for the United States in a number of places – Korea, Japan and Germany being three.  But once we were out, Al Qaeda rose again.

It is probably too late, but we'll hope for the best.  Maybe we'll have a bit of luck.  With the crowd we have in power, we need it.

January 6, 2014        Permalink   

YOU MEAN, WE NEED MEN?  WELL, YEAH – AT 9:24 A.M. ET:  A new study by the University of Michigan – not exactly a conservative bastion – suggests the staggering possibility that men are of some value to society.  You might want to put a plain brown wrapper on this story before reading it in a public place.  You know, people are watching.  From the Deseret News: 

Youth violence shoots up when males are missing from the neighborhood, concluded researchers at the University of Michigan in a new study released last week.

The study centered on Flint, Mich., the former auto manufacturing center that is now one of the most impoverished and violent cities in the country. Researchers broke the city down by zip codes, comparing the number of males in the area to the number of assaults committed by young men.

The results were striking. Researchers found an enormous chunk of the difference between a neighborhood with lots of youth assaults and one with relatively fewer could be explained by “male scarcity.” While a difference of 3 to 5 percent would have been significant, Daniel Kruger of Michigan’s Public Health Department and one of the study’s authors, found that 36 percent of the difference was explained by lack of adult males in the neighborhood. Add one other mammoth variable — high school graduation rates — and you get 69 percent of the variation in assaults committed by young men.

In Flint, Kruger said, the absence of males can be traced to three factors: men who left to look for jobs; young men who have died in gang violence; and men who are incarcerated.

“When we don’t have men as positive role models, we get much higher rates of violence,” Kruger said.

It's a vicious circle, the authors say. When young men get caught up in crime, they are more likely to end up incarcerated, which results in fewer adult males in the community, which leads to more dysfunction.

COMMENT:  This is common sense, something too many Americans took leave of in the late 1960s.  Traditional values didn't become traditional because they failed.  They became traditional because they succeeded.

I am all for women's rights and opportunities.  Absolutely.  But being for equal rights does not mean neglecting the needs and aspirations of young men, and that often happens these days.  Unless the male-absence issue is solved in many communities, those communities will simply die, or become wards of the state.

But I doubt if too many fashion plates in journalism or the academic world are listening.

January 6,  2014     Permalink

MORE LEFTIST ANTICS – AT 9:05 A.M. ET:   As they say, you cannot make stuff like this up.  From Washington's Free Beacon: 

The representative of a human rights group headed by a designated al Qaeda terrorist was denied a visa by the State Department after being invited by congressional Democrats to discuss drone strikes.

Mohammad Al Ahmady, the Yemen director for Geneva-based NGO Al Karama, was expected to brief Reps. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.), Barbara Lee (D., Calif.), and Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) the morning of the Nov. 19, according to press release from Grayson’s office.

Ahmady, who also serves as a top official in an al Qaeda-linked Yemeni political party, did not attend because of visa issues. The State Department said it could not comment on visa matters.

Several Al Karama officials have faced terrorism allegations. Al Karama’s founder and current president Abdul Rahman Naimi was designated as a terrorist and al Qaeda supporter by the U.S. Treasury Department in December, along with the group’s Yemen representative Abdulwahab Al-Humayqani. Al Karama’s legal director, Rachid Mesli, is currently wanted for terrorism charges in Algeria.

Schakowsky’s office referred questions to Grayson and Lee, saying the other offices led the briefing.

A spokesperson for Grayson said Ahmady did not actually attend the briefing and that the terrorist designation of Al Karama’s president was “not in place at the time of the briefing, so again, we had no reason to suspect any wrongdoing on the part of Mohammad [Al Ahmady].”

Lee’s office did not respond to request for comment.

COMMENT:  I'm not shocked by the identity of the Dems involved.  Barbara Lee, former head of the Congressional Black Caucus, is a fan of Fidel Castro.  Jan Schakowsky is on the left wing of her party.  Crazy Alan Grayson, who is educated well beyond his capacity, believes his degrees are a guarantee of wisdom.  They are not.

The question is whether the Democratic Party will express any disapproval of these three cavaliers.  I doubt it.

January 6, 2014       Permalink

END OF A CAMPAIGN – AT 8:49 A.M. ET:  Liz Cheney, whose decision to challenge an incumbent Republican senator in Wyoming was a serious blunder, is ending her campaign.  It's a wise move that will preserve her possibilities in future elections.  From CNN:

New York (CNN) -- Liz Cheney, whose upstart bid to unseat Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi sparked a round of warfare in the Republican Party and even within her own family, is dropping out of the Senate primary, she said in a prepared statement Monday morning.

"Serious health issues have recently arisen in our family, and under the circumstances, I have decided to discontinue my campaign," she said.

Cheney, the eldest daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, began telling associates of her decision over the weekend, CNN reported late Sunday night.

"Though this campaign stops today, my commitment to keep fighting with you and your families for the fundamental values that have made this nation and Wyoming great will never stop," she added.
Cheney's surprising decision to jump into the race, an announcement made in a YouTube video last summer, roiled Republican politics in the Wyoming, a state that Dick Cheney represented in Congress for five terms before moving up the Republican food chain in Washington.

Enzi was a low-key presence in Washington who was elected in 1996 and, with few blemishes, amassed a conservative voting record in the Senate. He expressed public annoyance at Cheney's decision to mount a primary challenge. A number of his Senate colleagues quickly rallied to his side and pledged support for his re-election bid.

There was little public polling of the race, but two partisan polls released last year showed Enzi with a wide lead, an assessment mostly shared by GOP insiders watching the race.

COMMENT:  Liz Cheney is a terrific woman, and she has a future.  But her campaign against a sitting, decent and easily re-electable senator was poorly considered and poorly run.

I have no idea what "serious health issues" she's talking about.  I think it's generally assumed that this is the polite public excuse.  The former vice president has serious health concerns, but they are hardly new.

We hope Liz remains active, and remains to fight another day.

January 6,  2014      Permalink

JANUARY 5,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:28 P.M. ET:

CLASS – One thing about Mitt Romney, he knows how to show class.  From The Hill:  "Mitt Romney on Sunday accepted an MSNBC host’s apology for joking about his adopted black grandson, saying he has made 'plenty of mistakes myself.'  The 2012 GOP nominee, appearing on 'Fox News Sunday,' said the recent apology from the host, Melissa Harris-Perry, was 'clearly heartfelt,' and that he and his wife, Ann, were ready to move on.  'People like me are fair targets. If you get in the political game, you can expect incoming. But children, that’s beyond the line. And I think they understand that,' Romney said.  'I think it’s a heartfelt apology. And for that reason, we hold no ill will whatsoever.'"  And that's the way it's done.  Now we will look forward to the next time MSNBC needs to apologize.  It's a regular occurrence.

THE PRESIDENT'S HAWAII VACATION – We just thought you'd like to know.  From The New York Times:  "Mr. Obama’s vacation schedule was nothing if not routine.  He went to the gym at Marine Corps Base Hawaii for a sunrise workout. He played golf nine out of 15 days. And he and the first lady, Michelle Obama, stepped out for dinner at a few of their favorite restaurants: Alan Wong’s, Morimoto Waikiki (twice!) and Nobu Waikiki.  Island Snow, the president’s favorite spot for shave ice — the island’s syrupy, brightly colored and refreshingly sweet version of the snow cone — even had a message board in its back room reminding its employees to 'wear Island Snow T-shirts all week long while the president is here!!'  Last week, Mr. Obama finally joined his daughters, who had been making solo shave ice runs for most of the trip, at the shop, emerging with a cherry and lemon-lime confection in a paper cone."  Your tax dollars at work.

MORE ANTARCTICA FUN IN THE FREEZE – "The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC Australia) has requested the US Coast Guard’s Polar Star icebreaker to assist the vessels MV Akademik Shokalskiy and Xue Long which are beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay.  The US Coast Guard has accepted this request and will make Polar Star available to assist.  The Polar Star has been en route to Antarctica since 3 December, 2013 – weeks prior to the MV Akademik Shokalskiy being beset by ice in Commonwealth Bay. The intended mission of the Polar Star is to clear a navigable shipping channel in McMurdo Sound to the National Science Foundation’s Scientific Research Station. Resupply ships use the channel to bring food, fuel and other goods to the station. The Polar Star will go on to undertake its mission once the search and rescue incident is resolved."  I hope we send those global-warming fanatics a large bill for our Coast Guard's services.  They've caused a lot of trouble, and disturbed the penguins, who must have a low regard for humans.

January 5, 2014        Permalink

AN UNSAFE SEAT? – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  It's been assumed that Mark Warner, the Dem senator from Virginia, would have an easy re-election run this year.  But things seem to be happening in Virginia that may indicate a real battle for Warner's seat is possible.  From Paul Mirengoff at Powerline:

Politico reports that Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, is likely to jump into the Virginia Senate race later this month. The Senate seat in question is held by Mark Warner, Virginia’s popular former governor.

Gillespie is a shrewd guy with no interest in a quixotic bid for office. The fact that he is seriously considering a run tells me that Warner’s hold on the seat isn’t safe.

Presumably, Gillespie is seeing approximately the same poll numbers that Warner sees. Michael Barone has inferred, based on Warner’s sudden recent efforts to pose as a moderate, that Warner has seen “bad poll numbers.” Barone defines bad poll numbers in this context as Warner “running significantly below 50 percent against a lesser-known challenger running farther behind.”

If he runs, Gillespie will not be handed the nomination on a silver platter. One potential candidate, State Sen. Jeff McWaters, is eschewing a run to make way for Gillespie. However, at least two other candidates are already in the race.

The nominee will be picked at a June convention, rather than in a primary. This selection method tends to empower activists, among whom an establishment figure like Gillespie may not be popular.

But as McWaters says, “if you can’t get 1,500 or 2,000 raging fans to Roanoke, Va., for a night and a day, then you probably can’t beat Mark Warner anyway.”

I stand by my assessment that Warner will be reelected unless 2014 turns out to be a pro-Republican wave election of the order of magnitude of 1994 and 2010. It is too early for me to assess whether 2014 will turn out that way.

COMMENT:  Virginia Republicans must run this race as if victory is in sight.  No giving up.  No nominating goofballs who lose on the very first day of the campaign.  Gillespie is a serious operator.  I think he has a shot.  I hope he gets the nomination.

The convention system is awful.  It really doesn't give the rank-and-file a chance to be heard. 

January 5, 2014       Permalink

AND IN AMERICA... – AT 10:55 A.M. ET:  My friend, Iranian rights activist Banafsheh Zand, alerts us to a strange story out of Minneapolis.  You may have seen that a building blew up in that city on New Year's Day.  There are three confirmed dead. 

Immediately there were claims of a gas explosion.  We were told that witnesses "smelled" gas, but, strangely, none of those witnesses seemed to have names.  One person interviewed who had a name said he smelled no gas.  And the power company later announced that the area had no gas leaks and no reported incidents of gas odor.

We were then told that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security were on the case.  Then the names of victims started coming out.  From Fox: 

ST. PAUL, MINN. – A third person injured in Minneapolis apartment building explosion has died, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office said Saturday.

Abdiqani Adan, 29, who did not live in the building, died Friday at the Hennepin County Medical Center, according to the office.

Meanwhile, two survivors still in the hospital recounted jumping from windows to save themselves. Abdi Qobey, 59, was sitting in bed watching television early on New Year's Day when he heard a boom and saw the walls buckle.

And...

Ali Jama, 41, was visiting friends and sleeping in a second-floor apartment when he heard the loud boom. The windows shattered.

"When the windows were blown out, I took a look downstairs," said Jama, a truck driver from North Carolina. He tried to go down the stairs, but there was too much smoke. He kicked the rest of the window glass and sat in the window opening.

And...

One of the two people who didn't make it out of the building was identified Friday as Ahmed Farah Ali, a 57-year-old resident. His body was recovered Thursday.

COMMENT:  Okay, the building is near a mosque and, yes, it is possible all those people lived or visited there to be near the mosque.  But when you see this, and realize that buildings don't just suddenly explode, especially when there's no documented gas leak, it raises the gravest suspicions.

Oh, by the way, the building was demolished the next day.  Why was this permitted?  That is the destruction of evidence.

I guess there's nothing to see, nothing to see.  But this looks remarkably like what the Israelis politely call a "work accident" – where a bomb being built goes off.  The building is in the heart of the Somali community.  We make no charges without evidence, but some members of that community are believed by intelligence sources to be involved in possible terrorist activity. 

The press is asking no questions, naturally.  Political correctness all the way.  Another coverup?  Maybe.

January 5, 2014       Permalink 

UNBELIEVABLE – AT 10:25 A.M. ET:  This is happening in Britain right now.  And why not?  Hasn't President Obama told us that the war on terror is over?  From London's Daily Mail:

Seven dangerous Al-Qaeda suspects are to be freed from Government curfews and able to walk the streets within days, it has emerged.

The men, some of whom are suspected of plotting to kill thousands on transatlantic airliners, will no longer be bound by electronic tags or curfew restrictions after the terrorism prevention orders are lifted.

The measures were introduced in 2012 to replace Labour government rules which, according to the Liberal Democrats, undermined the suspects' human rights.

Let's not forget that "liberal Democrats" are part of the current governing coalition in Britain.

However they only last two years unless the government can prove the suspects have engaged in 'new' terrorist-related activity.

Officials say such proof is hard if not impossible to come by as the men, who have not been named, know their behavior is being monitored.

Under the curbs, suspects are required to stay at home for up to 10 hours each night, wear electronic tags and are banned from certain places.

Among the seven due to be freed this month is a would-be suicide bomber known only by his initials, AM.

The Sunday Times reports the 26-year-old was involved in what investigators called 'Operation Overt', a plot to attack flights from London to America in 2006.

Another is, BF, a former train driver who was part of a group of British extremists seeking terrorist training in Pakistan.

Others include a 30-year-old who attended a training camp alongside four of the attempted suicide bombers involved in failed attacks on London in 2005, and a man who was trained by al-Shabaab,

The whereabouts of two suspects is unknown, including that of Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed who cut off his electric tag while visiting a mosque last November.

COMMENT:  As we've said before, there's a Great Britain and a Not-so-great Britain.  This is an example of the latter.  Britain always seems to be on a knife edge, between the forces of freedom and the forces of appeasement.  In the 1930s, appeasement came close to winning.  We may be seeing a repeat, and I don't see Churchill on the horizon.

January 5,  2014     Permalink