Rumblings From The Crimea To Japan

The Times reports on Confidence Lost:

U.S. Response to Crimea Worries Japan’s Leaders

TOKYO — When President Bill Clinton signed a 1994 agreement promising to “respect” the territorial integrity of Ukraine if it gave up its nuclear weapons, there was little thought then of how that obscure diplomatic pact — called the Budapest Memorandum — might affect the long-running defense partnership between the United States and Japan.

But now, as American officials have distanced themselves from the Budapest Memorandum in light of Russia’s takeover of Crimea, calling promises made in Budapest “nonbinding,” the United States is being forced at the same time to make reassurances in Asia. Japanese officials, a senior American military official said, “keep asking, ‘Are you going to do the same thing to us when something happens?’ ”

Good question. The US response of sending lawyers, money but no guns is not something the Japanese want to experience as they scuffle with China.

Comments

[matt]

We have also been pooh pooing the concerns of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, all of them members of NATO.

[Danube on iPad]

Bear in mind that this is precisely the role that Obama has always wanted the U.S. to play in world affairs.

[GMax]

Russia has physical territory west of the Balkans on the Poland border. It is most definitely not beyond the pale the Vlad the Impaler would swallow up these states and relying on a treaty with a country run by President MomJeans has to be enough to keep you up at night.

[narciso]

Yes there was a piece in the journal today about Estonia's concerns, now this maybe Volodya's backyard, but he's free to roam in our frontyard, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua,
which in turn have become basis for Iranian influence to varying degrees.

[rich@gmu]

The Japanese have made a threat that the next North Korean missile launch they will start shooting the missiles down.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/japan-to-shoot-down-any/1060572.html

so incompetent they have gotten the Japanese to want to rearm themselves.

and the Koreans have been shooting at one another over the western maritime boundary.

http://www.voanews.com/content/north-south-korea-trade-artillery-fire-across-maritime-border/1882719.html

[pagar]

IMO, we have no ally that the Obama regime is not willing to betray. By now there is no chance that there is a nation on earth that does not understand that.

[rich@gmu]

isn't our ambassador none other than Caroline Kennedy?

[cindyk]

Posted this on other thread when I noticed new one up:

Clarice: OT - but didn't you have great things to say about the Big Green Egg? Hubby bought one yesterday, (thank goodness that is over - he's been sending me links to it for the last 3 months)! I am a bit skeptical, the thing weighs a ton. Your thoughts

[pagar]

http://conservativetribune.com/obama-destroying-our-influence/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Explains it well!

[narciso]

Yes, aren't you brimming with confidence now,

the story I was referring to on the other thread;

http://babalublog.com/2014/04/06/cubas-biological-weapons-and-an-assassination-in-miamia/

[Jack is Back!]

I follow Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the President of Estonia, on Twitter. He linked this excellent short article on "The Kremlin, Crimea and The Good Hitler"

Note how the Putin propaganda machine has dialed up to eleventy here by distinguishing between the "good" Hitler (pre-1939) and the "bad" Hitler (post 1939). The game is on and we are only in midway through the first set.

[narciso]

that seems daft, why would he not relate it to the tradition of Russian landgrabs going back to Peter the Great

Interesting bit, here,

http://maidantranslations.com/2014/04/05/dmitry-tymchuk-fsb-presence-in-ukraine-on-february-20-21/

[narciso]

Ilves, is the one who slapped down Krugman, 'with a wet mackerel' when he was talking out of his hat, which is admitted every day ending in y;

[jimmyk on iPad]

"isn't our ambassador none other than Caroline Kennedy?"

Um, you know, I think, you know, you are right.

Everything is going according to plan.

[NKonIPad]

Jimmy/DoT-- this anarchy with the USA standing by uselessly is exactly what Obummer wants the world to look like.

[narciso]

they are certainly following the Sudeten provocation though

http://linkis.com/interpretermag.com/cIwM8

[Kyon]

Obama will not honor any agreement that will force him to anything hard. International agreements are just pieces of paper to fluff up resumes. When needed Obama is on the 4th green not to be disturbed.

[Jack is Back!]

If you scroll down the photos in this link, you will come to one with a young girl in a white wedding dress on a stage with other young people. That is my niece in Bourdeaux modeling her own design wedding dress at a Défilé (fashion show) for her design school. She is an up-an-coming fashion designer in France.

[Miss Marple]

Jack, I can't get that link to work.

[glasater]

If one tunes into Fox News right now Shannon Bream is interviewing Jeb Bush on Common Core.

[Jack is Back!]

For some reason, bad link.

See if she shows up correctly in this photo:

Looks like you'll need a magnifying glass:)

[Jack is Back!]

I am getting better with this:)

She is the beauty on the right front with the long wedding dress on. She is the one who made Frederick's D'artangian Musketeer costume for Holloween last year.

[narciso]

Wonderful, JiB,

this has always been as much about the Bureau,
which Soufan, Coleman and co, were the advance force;

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/04/former-cia-official-responds-to-attack-by-senate-dems.php

[Beasts of England]

@cindyk: What were y'all grilling with before the egg? Gas, Weber? It will take getting used to - everything from lighting the coals to dialing in the correct temperature via the vents.

It can be a wonderful tool. Good luck!

[Miss Marple]

Jack,

Beautiful dress! How fun to have someone who can design clothing in the family!

On another note, I listened to Jeb talk about Common Core. It's the soothing way he talks about it like objectors are unreasonable which has infuriated me.

Just like he talked about immigration prior to the education part of the interview.

I really hate being talked to like I am a moron.

[narciso]

I don't think he understands what's involved, it's just another bunch of magic beans, like his brother Neil sold to him, under the label of ignite

[jimmyk]

I guess the fact that they are ashamed is progress:

No member of the House GOP leadership has publicly hailed the fix, which was tucked, at Republicans' request, into legislation preventing a cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.

It is unclear how many members of the House rank and file knew of it because the legislation was passed by a highly unusual voice vote without debate.

GOP seeks coverage choices in health law they hate

[matt]

The Japanese are facing China and North Korea, and to a lesser extent, South Korea. None of them like each other very much and Japanese PM Abe has been willing to risk scorn with his visits to Yasukuni.

China is the main threat to regional peace but will use deceit and camouflage to get their way. Today's LA Times has an article on how the Taiwanese are now just realizing just how screwed they are.

In the early 90's I went to an international conference in Tokyo where the leading industrialist in the Taiwanese industry stated that the headlong rush into China would eventually bankrupt Taiwan, but they had no choice because everyone else was doing it.

Now we are finding that structural unemployment, caused primarily by the loss of middle class jobs, most of those linked to our manufacturing industries, is dragging the economy down by a substantial degree. It is exacerbating the class divisions and crony capitalism, meant to hide these structural issues is being exposed as a false messiah.

It is great to get Chilean blueberries at $7.99 for an 18 oz container in the middle of January, but it is not so great to be forced to purchase substandard, planned obsolescence junk because China is the sole source of the majority of products ranging from garden furniture to electronics to metal components.

Our government is further perpetuating the lie when they re-classify products designed in America but built elsewhere as a part of our GDP, as the Department of Commerce recently did.

China themselves are faced with another huge issue now, as cash is short and companies are trading due bills (instruments of debt) as payment for goods and services. This is a recipe for disaster.

It is economic musical chairs and once the first ones default a panic will set in. On top of the slowing markets there, China may actually have more of a problem dealing with internal disruption.

Situation normal, all fouled up.

[narciso]

Much like the rush into Russia by western oil companies, typified by BP attempted merger with TNK, Exxon deals with parts of Rosneft, Gazprom.

[Threadkiller]

C-SPAN Bob Unloads: Five Year Media Blackout; Obama Not Eligible To Be President

Bob in Louisiana @ C-SPAN regarding Obama's foreign policy: It's like this; The people in the United States don't know what's going on in the rest of the world. The media in America has been in a blackout for 5 years. And, Putin knows that Obama is not eligible to be president. So, that's why Putin's got Obama over a barrel. If only the media in the United States would give us the information that the whole world knows...

BR/ORYR: Amazing the host didn't drop the call. Although, he was ready as he puts his finger on the drop button"

http://youtu.be/nWgvKZ7WBWA

Loon.

[Frau Die Gedanken sind nicht frei]

Japan should have started worrying when Caroline Kennedy was named ambassador.

[Old Lurker]

Japan should have started worrying when we elected Obama President.

[Frau Die Gedanken sind nicht frei]

A carpy ad for Common Core just aired on FX telling me children would be smarter because of it. Without a doubt, those were actual teachers.

"Facts out; thinking in."
P-tooey!

[Danube on iPad]

Good. For him:

"Kevin Spacey is not your average Hollywood actor, by any means. Although he did meet with Hugo Chavez in 2007 and tends to keep his personal life very private, he just wrote a strongly worded statement in defense of the Venezuelan protestors on his blog.
Some key points:

“'These students were standing for basic human freedoms and engaging in the right to protest, which is a sacred right whether in Boston, Belarus, or Venzuela.'
 
“'I support all of the Venezuelans who peacefully and non-violently claim their right to self-determination and protest.'
 
“'We who are fortunate enough to live in freedom must stand up to oppression and injustice'”

[Miss Marple]

By the way, I saw the same ad, Frau.

I would say all teachers shown were victims of the screwed up food pyramid.

[narciso]

A fairly unobjectionable statement, of course there has been a significant blackout in coverage of Venezuela

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/06/just-joking-bugged-russian-ambassador-want-to-annex-alaska-and-miami.html

to that I say nyet;

[Frau Die Gedanken sind nicht frei]

Too true, OL.

[Danube on iPad]

"Putin knows that Obama is not eligible to be president"

And thus it follows as night follows day, that "Putin's got Obama over a barrel." That's because if Obama doesn't do exactly what Putin wants, Putin will tell on him, and then he'll really be screwed.

"Loon" seems a bit too kind.

[Threadkiller]

A "flexible after the election" loon...

[narciso]

that still doesn't explain why the Butterworth AFB was notified;

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/04/breaking-missing-mh370-purposely-skirted-indonesia-to-avoid-radar/

[Neo]

In a letter to ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Issa said it was vital for him to share what he learned from interviewing her attorney, William W. Taylor III.

The panel is investigating Lerner — who headed the Exempt Organizations division of the agency when it controversially targeted conservative groups — and will vote on contempt charges on the grounds that she has refused to cooperate with the probe.

"As you know, Mr. Taylor's position with regard to Ms. Lerner's willingness to cooperate with the committee has changed several times," Issa wrote. "So that all members of the committee can have a better understanding of Mr. Taylor's current position, please disclose any communications that you or your staff have had with Mr. Taylor."

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

Let's hope the hour produces the new Churchill to clean up Barry Chamberlain's mess and let us especially hope the mess doesn't reach critical mass while this anti American imbecile is still in charge.

I have to disagree that these expanding brush fires are what Barry had in mind with the emasculation of the US.
I think these left wing buffoons really believe that, absent the malignant US influence, the world would be a happier more peaceful place as the unleashed workers of the world unite in pax sans-americanus.

[pagar]

"It is great to get Chilean blueberries at $7.99 for an 18 oz container in the middle of January, but it is not so great to be forced to purchase substandard, planned obsolescence junk because China is the sole source of the majority of products ranging from garden furniture to electronics to metal components."

"The Global Recording Initiative: Yes, Your Grocery Store is Forcing You Into Agenda 21"

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/62214?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

Unbelievable! Our nation is paying the largest part of the bill for the UN to destroy us thru this global control of everything.

[Miss Marple]

Ignatz,

I do not notice those buffoons trying to make ANYONE happier, even here in the US.

The only enjoyment they get is in trashing and destroying those who oppose them. They do not want anyone to be happy.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Ig:
I think these left wing buffoons really believe that, absent the malignant US influence, the world would be a happier more peaceful place as the unleashed workers of the world unite in pax sans-americanus.

Maybe if Obama changed his name to Happy, happy, joy, joy Barack?

[narciso]

Well Allen Drury's 'Come Nineveh, Come Tyre' which I've referred to on a number of occasions, tells a tale of a leftwing firebrand, who becomes President and ultimately leads to the US capitulation, a slightly more optimistic tale was DeBorgrave's
the Spike, set in a successor administration to Carter, somewhat like Clinton's which foolishly has surrendered US leadership, the good guys win in the end, but it's a close fight to do so,

[Old Lurker]

I agree with Iggy.

Just like they truly believed all their tax and spend plans would produce the results they imagined. Pick a program, any program.

Man, facts are tough things and the world is a rough place.

[Jeff Dobbs]

The means justify the ends.

[Marlene]

Iggy,interesting you should mention Churchill.I'm reading a biography of his mother (the American born Jennie) and I keep thinking,where are the larger than life figures in our current times?

Hit, I thought of you today while at the grocery store.The guy behind me in line was buying a 30 can suitcase of Miller High Life. :)

[narciso]

True, although Volodya didn't think he would run into someone so eager to believe Soviet propaganda like Zaphod, Lurch and the Solon,

[daddy]

Good Morning.

Instapundit, in his excellent book on our horrible Education System (The New School) mentions something I had never heard before and would love to know more about---that Galileo was offered a job teaching at Harvard University a few years before his death in 1643.

Insty does not confirm or deny, simply mentions the rumor.

Any of our Harvard folk here know if this is just hooey, or whether there is a grain of truth?

[jimmyk]

I don't know, OL and Iggy, why would they then lie about the "success" of everything they do? Seems to me their primary goal is power, glory, and riches.

[Jeff Dobbs]

The guy behind Marlene at the grocery store has always been my favorite. Don't tell the others.

[Threadkiller]

where are the larger than life figures in our current times?

They are afraid of being called names as they sit idle waiting for Hitler.

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

--why would they then lie about the "success" of everything they do--

Once again I refer everyone to Eric Hoffer and the True Believer.
They lie because the world never conforms to their ridiculous notions about it. Since they truly believe in their cause when their programs don't work it has to be anything but their cause which is at fault, and so limitless, often insane excuses follow.

Doesn't mean there aren't a lot of cynical thieves and parasites along for the ride, nor does being a cynical thief or parasite preclude one from having elements of True Belief in them either.
And of course the one goal all True Believers share is power; they are the chosen ones who alone are privy to the secret truth and so cannot cede control to the unenlightened.

[rse]

Gosh so sorry I missed the CC ad and Jeb interview on the Common Core. I was off writing this post. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/identifying-education-globally-as-the-crucial-lever-for-nonconsensual-behavior-and-societal-change/

I just do not see any way that the extent to which CC is intentional social engineering and action research (in the sense created by MIT prof Donald Schon & Harvard prof Chris Argyris) will not be common knowledge. Jeb, I hope, is unaware, but voters will likely think he had a due diligence obligation before endorsing something so wholeheartedly. Plus it does rather benefit him. It's his livelihood now to put it kindly.

[Old Lurker]

Jimmy, I think the pursuit of power, glory and riches is at the heart of the human condition and is absolutely behind the dreams of the Progs as you say. They have always assumed they will be in charge of the machinery they impose, but they think they can mold a society that will be better for the masses whether the masses want it or not. In that they miscalculate because the desire to be free is also at the root of the human condition.

History proves that a given free man with the right skills at the right time who pursues power, glory and riches can accumulate all of those things, but never by counting on unicorns and tooth fairies. That's where the libs miscalculate every time.

[Happy, happy, joy, joy Ignatz]

--I do not notice those buffoons trying to make ANYONE happier, even here in the US.--

MM,
You and I do not define happiness in the same way nor even experience it in the same was as these creeps.
Happiness to the committed lefty is like heaven for a Christian; a thing that can only be achieved over a horizon not yet reached.
To a sour puss lefty, all their shortcomings and all the injustices and inequalities in the world will one day be overcome right here on earth, when the one true collective society is finally built. That every one so far and every one in the future will invariably and inevitably end in Robespierres and Gulags is plain fact and common sense to the rest of us but merely more evidence to a lefty he has to redouble his efforts to ensure that next time they get it right.

It's like Bullwinkle; no matter how many rhinos or lions he pulls out of his hat there will always be a rabbit some day when he gets just the right hat.

[jimmyk]

something I had never heard before and would love to know more about---that Galileo was offered a job teaching at Harvard University a few years before his death in 1643.

Never heard that, daddy, but it reminds me of the fact that the great librettist of Mozart's Italian operas, Lorenzo da Ponte, ended up at Columbia teaching Italian language and literature.

One day, two years after he landed in New York, he fell into conversation in a bookstore with a young man who, in the course of their talk, was unwise enough to disparage Italian literature. In response, Da Ponte delivered what was no doubt a long oration on the glories of Italian poetry, and finished with a suggestion that he himself was available to teach on that subject. The young man was Clement Clarke Moore, who later became a distinguished scholar—also the author of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (“ ’Twas the night before Christmas”)—and whose father, Benjamin Moore, was the Episcopal Bishop of New York and the president of Columbia College. Three days after their conversation, Da Ponte began teaching Italian literature, at Bishop Moore’s house. Dazzled by his erudition, the Moores arranged for him to meet what there was of learned society in New York. Arthur Livingston, in his introduction to Da Ponte’s memoir, imagines the scene: “Had Mr. de Ponty—that was the name?—had Mr. de Ponty read Metastasio? Had he read Metastasio, indeed! Mr. Da Ponte had known Metastasio personally! Why, one evening in Vienna . . .” In time, thanks to Bishop Moore, Da Ponte became the first professor of Italian at Columbia College (in fact, the first in the United States)—and also, unbeknownst to that institution, the first Jew on its faculty.

I recommend this article, as Da Ponte evidently led one of the most hilariously interesting lives of anyone ever, even if only half of what he claims in his memoirs is really true.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/01/08/070108crbo_books_acocella

[jimmyk]

History proves that a given free man with the right skills at the right time who pursues power, glory and riches can accumulate all of those things, but never by counting on unicorns and tooth fairies. That's where the libs miscalculate every time.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your point, but the libs seem to do quite well as shysters and extortionists. Bill and Hillary started out with little, and are now worth hundreds of millions. The same will be true of Barry and Mooch, if it isn't already.

[MarkO]

None dare call it treason:

“At the prodding of business organizations, House Republicans quietly secured a recent change in President Barack Obama's health law to expand coverage choices, a striking, one-of-a-kind departure from dozens of high-decibel attempts to repeal or dismember it.
No member of the House GOP leadership has publicly hailed the fix, which was tucked, at Republicans' request, into legislation preventing a cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.

It is unclear how many members of the House rank and file knew of it because the legislation was passed by a highly unusual voice vote without debate.”

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20140406/DAD0NOP00.html

[narciso]

So there was a Russian FSB General, who arrived in Kiev, right after the Maidan snipers started,

the power of narrative;

However, even with Mozart and Salieri being rivals for certain jobs, there is very little evidence that the relationship between the two composers was at all acrimonious beyond this, especially after 1785 or so when Mozart had become established in Vienna. Rather, they appeared to usually see each other as friends and colleagues and supported each other's work. For example, when Salieri was appointed Kapellmeister in 1788 he revived Figaro instead of bringing out a new opera of his own; and when he went to the coronation festivities for Leopold II in 1790 he had no fewer than three Mozart masses in his luggage. Salieri and Mozart even composed a cantata for voice and piano together, called Per la ricuperata salute di Ophelia, which celebrated the return to stage of the singer Nancy Storace. This work has been lost, although it had been printed by Artaria in 1785. Mozart's Davide penitente (1785), his Piano Concerto KV 482 (1785), the Clarinet Quintet (1789) and the 40th Symphony (1788) had been premiered on the suggestion of Salieri, who supposedly conducted a performance of it in 1791. In his last surviving letter from 14 October 1791, Mozart tells his wife that he collected Salieri and Caterina Cavalieri in his carriage and drove them both to the opera; about Salieri's attendance at his opera The Magic Flute, speaking enthusiastically: "He heard and saw with all his attention, and from the overture to the last choir there was not a piece that didn't elicit a 'Bravo!' or 'Bello!' out of him [...]."[43]

[Threadkiller]

The road the LIVs is paved with unknown intentions.

[AliceH]

--that Galileo was offered a job teaching at Harvard University a few years before his death in 1643--

Snopes says almost certainly not:
This is chronologically possible since Harvard College was founded in 1636 and Galileo died in 1642, but I'd say it's unlikely because:

a) Galileo spent the last nine years of his life under house arrest in Florence.

b) The early Harvard College's emphasis was on producing "literate [Protestant] ministers," so they probably had no interest in bringing someone like Galileo on board.

c) At its founding in 1636, Harvard College had "nine students with a single master," so they probably weren't looking to spend money on recruiting foreign professors from abroad.

Additionally, though "established" in 1636, it seems it took a few years to actually get going: First President appointed 1640; first commencement (class of 9) was 1642.

[narciso]

Clinton, Manbearpig, Zaphod are all rentiers, crony capitalists, running their various Bialystok and Bloom schemes, they can do nothing but interfere and destroy productive endeavors.

[pagar]

Just one more on the VA ripoffs.

"Obama Insults Homeless Veterans with Judgeship Nomination"

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/62232

"Now, President Obama is “rewarding” Andre Birotte for his fighting the ACLU lawsuit and homeless Veterans with his nomination for a Federal Judgeship."

Look who supports this!

[Clarice Feldman]

The word of Obama is not binding anywhere, is it?

[Clarice Feldman]

Cindy on that other thread, I noted I was running out to a social event. We love the green egg..it does many things well, including great pizza, There's a green egg forum you should look for where people share ideas, techniques and recipes.

[daddy]

Miss Marple on the other page has a good quote on emotional manipulation:

"The person using the passive state blackmails the other person with emotional pressure into doing what he or she wants. Nobody wants to be mean. Nobody wants to make mothers cry and children be afraid. No one wants to be the aggressor, so the passive aggressive person uses their passive, sentimentality to manipulate and engineer the situation to their advantage. Often they do it very skillfully and usually they do it unconsciously.

Just as soon as they sense the advantage they flip to aggressive mode

That "Emotional Manipulation" thought reminds me of this New York Times Headline that jumped out at me when I saw it printed in my McClatchey owned ADN (Anchorage Daily News).

To hit back at Kochs, Democrats revive tactic that hurt Romney

That headline falsely accuses the Koch Brothers as the evil aggressors, and thus instantly excuses whatever disgusting actions Democrats engage in to smear and destroy the Koch Brothers. It tacitly endorses such behavior and explains how you too can engage in such behavior to damn the evil Koch Brothers.

Perhaps I am going overboard, but to me such a tactic from the Times is only different in degree, not in kind, from the following sort of headline:

"To get back at Jews, good German citizens are being forced to engage in Kristallnacht."

[Clarice Feldman]

Cindy, this website also has recipes, techniques and videos of use:https://www.fredsmusicandbbq.com

[narciso]

the Koch's are like the 'wicked animal' in the French proverb, it has the nerve to defend itself.

[narciso]

I see they have taken up the attack on the Flint Hills refinery, which closed because of their blinkered regulations, in part.

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

They are afraid of being called names as they sit idle waiting for Hitler.

Sadly true. :(

[rse]

narciso-

The social science schemers I was quoting from today in discussing how to prime the public specifically mention the fact that Gore had been VP as propelling the useful message of An Inconvenient Truth. They also mentioned Prince Charles as helpful to gaining public acceptance.

Yes I did write useful idiots in the margin.

[cindyk]

Thanks Clarice! BOE - Hubby is the outdoor cook - Gas, Charcoal, Electric Smoker. His specialty is baby back ribs. He is very excited about experimenting on me, so its great to know the Big Green Egg has its fans!

[daddy]

It never hurts to take a few stabs at Europe Geography Quizzes like this one, to keep our Latvia's straight from our Lithuania's:

Europe: countries quiz

[pagar]

We can't seem to get a site that promotes Conservatives, but:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/04/muslim-brotherhood-launches-us-political-network-to-promote-sharia-law/

These people get every thing they want.

Here's a sharia law that is just going into effect:

"Brunei's Islamic Shari'a Criminal Penal Code, Coming Into Force April 2014: Highlights"
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/7924.htm

""For Adultery Between A Married Muslim And A Married Non-Muslim, Both Parties Can Be Punished By Stoning To Death"

Sharia Law in the US or Brunei is all from the same unadjustable beginning.

[daddy]

Narciso,

If you click back on the ADN posted NYTimes story damning the Koch's, you can see where in posting it they have left in some instructions from I presume McClatchy, about which parts they must post and which parts they do not have to include.

They left in these instructions around a few paragraphs:

BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM

END OPTIONAL TRIM

Teams of editors.

[Old Lurker]

"He is very excited about experimenting on me"

Is he starting you in the smoker or the gas grill?

I've told Mrs. L so many times that I would just hide her body in the unused septic tank in the front yard that she has told the girls to look there first if she ever comes up missing. I had not thought about using the grill.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Don't judge me*.

We're having bacon for dinner.

Bacon and what, you ask? Bacon and bacon, I answer.

The kids couldn't be happier. mrs hit and run might turn it into a BLT. Pshaw, I say. Just give me bacon.

--------
*envy me all you want, #whatdoicare

[Old Lurker]

So Hit, we mention Cindy in the smoker and you think of bacon?

Interesting.

[Beasts of England]

I recommend indirect heat, OL! ;)

[Old Lurker]

Beasts, is that your puppy?

Can I have him please?

[Jane]

IMO, we have no ally that the Obama regime is not willing to betray. By now there is no chance that there is a nation on earth that does not understand that.

I agree completely Pagar, and frankly I am embarrassed and appalled.

[Beasts of England]

I wish it were, OL! I'd love one...

[daddy]

Just for discussion on the Japanese potentially re-arming and being serious about it.

My personal experience in interacting with folks from our main WW2 enemy nations, Germany and Japan, has led me to different perceptions of both regarding the use of Military force.

In Germany I get the sense that they are overwhelmingly strong pacifists, and proudly almost belligerently vocal about it. They seem to have a shared cultural sense that military confrontation is 100% wrong and should be avoided. It is as if I am talking to a nation of 11th Graders when the topic is broached, and from chats with a few older German Military Pilots they tell me that my perception is their perception as well---that as a consequence of the WW2 guilt thing, the entire culture has pulled almost entirely back from seeing Military Ops as justified, and basically view the use of Military force as some sort of illegitimate jingoistic relic of neanderthalism.

In Japan, on the other hand, I see it entirely differently. As I understand it the citizen prior to WW2 owed a personal obligation to the Emperor, to do what he ordered, and they did so. When the War ended it seems to me that The Emperor shouldered the collective "guilt and responsibility" of his people on his shoulders, and the average Japanese soldier/citizen had a bit more psychological wiggle room to deal with their guilt role in WW2 than the average German. I do not sense a knee-jerk pacifism among the general Japanese public at all. For instance, as I understand it, the returned Japanese Warrior hiding on Guam jungles for 30 years after the War was hugely popular and well honored in the popular culture.)

I think the Japanese are much more realist about understanding the importance of Military Force to protect themselves than I get from the German's, and I think the Japs would mobilize in an instant and be close to 80 to 90% onboard with militarily mobilizing if they start seeing the chinks in their US protection umbrella.

The only real question I have regarding the Japanese is the nuke question. Due to Hiroshima/Nagasaki, and now due to the Fukushima reactor problem, I believe there is a very strong anti-nuke attitude in much of the country, so whether that would preclude the Japs from quickly converting to a force capable of creating and using such weapons I can't say, but I do believe the population is overall almost a mirror image of the German's in regard to the average citizens belief in the appropriateness of the nation using Military force.

I'd be interested in the opinions of others here as mine is pretty much put together anecdotally over the last 25 years.

[daddy]

"Facts out; thinking in."

Why the heck does it have to be 1 or the other?

Is 12 years of Public School Education somehow not enough to teach both?

It's as stupid as the old joke about you can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

New version, "We can't teach facts and teach thinking at the same time."

What lunacy.

[Danube on iPad]

My stepson says bacon is the best food in the world. A grandson agrees. I am coming around to their view.

[Frau Die Gedanken sind nicht frei]

jimmyk - I heart your 3:16. It's hard to think there were such uneducated dummies at Columbia at that time. Today is a different matter.

[daddy]

Thanks for that Librettist link, JimmyK.

The stuff I don't know...

[Jeff Dobbs]

I prefer my bacon raw. I am in the minority.

[anonamom]

raw bacon sliced very thin is pancetta

[Threadkiller]

I remember when you preferred raw chicken:

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2013/09/and-then-there-was-one.html

[daddy]

Still unable to get the American Thinker website to open, and Lucianne for months now has been slow as molasses, and frequently when I am trying to scroll thru Lucianne's links I get an auto-shut down of all my windows and I have to start all over again. That only happens when scrolling on Lucianne, not on any other website.

So far:)

[Jack is Back!]

DoT,

I now use turkey bacon (Oscar Meyer) and it is just as good as pork and less fat and sodium. In fact, today for lunch before our round of golf, Frederick and I made BLT's using turkey bacon and Duke's Mayonaisse (Its a southern thing).

BTW, 87F today at the Creek Course. Down to 73 now.

Did Matt Kuchar throw the Houston Open in order to be more competitive in the Masters? It is a given in golf to not win a tournament before the Masters but come in playing well enough to have won.

[Clarice Feldman]

Eh--Nueske's applewood smoked bacon for me.

[Jack is Back!]

This one is for Hit: The 15 Most Underrated Canned Beers in America

[Clarice Feldman]

daddy, I get auto shutdown on Lucianne's site, too--regularly..

Someone reprinted the article on their site in its entirely, Here it is:
The clumsiness and incoherence, if not madness, of this administration’s foreign policies are creating havoc around the world. No one wrapped up the story of the chaos better than Sultan Knish did this week:

When Bush left office at the end of his second term, the region was mostly stable aside from Iran’s nuclear program. By the time Obama had finished his first term, it was in a state of endless war.

[snip]

Bush had sought to stabilize the Middle East by removing Saddam. Obama instead destabilized it by trying to remove every government that was in any way friendly to the United States and was not covered by the umbrella of the Saudi GCC.

Bush’s Axis of Evil had consisted of “rogue states”. Obama’s Axis was made up of allied governments. Bush had set out to stabilize the Middle East by clearing out rogue states while Obama set out to empower rogue states by clearing out stable allied governments… which left the rogue states in charge.

The fall of more modern pro-Western governments left the Middle East divided sharply between Sunni and Shiite Islamists in Iran and Saudi Arabia.

[snip]

Obama’s abandonment of Iraq led to a comeback for Al Qaeda in Iraq. Al Qaeda in Iraq had always been the most feral Middle Eastern franchise in the Al Qaeda family. The most brutal, the most senselessly violent and the likeliest to kill just for the sake of killing; its members seemed sociopathic even to hardened Al Qaeda leaders. And Bush had succeeded in burying it until Obama dug it up again.

The sectarian split in Iraq and Syria turned Al Qaeda in Iraq from a defeated footnote to a resurgent army with tens of thousands of fighters and a grip on two major countries.

[snip]

The Arab Spring had been Obama’s international ObamaCare. It was the project that he was most identified with and the one that he could most take credit for. But by the time the Arab Spring had come down to bombing Syria, it was about as popular as ObamaCare. Russia, Iran and Syria offered Obama a way out. A new, new beginning to replace the old new beginning that had gone wrong in Cairo.

Having sold out Iraq, Egypt and Tunisia, Obama finished the job by dumping the rest of his Sunni allies and taking a ride on the Shiite nuclear express.

[snip]

No country in the Middle East still trusts the United States. Egypt despises Obama. The Saudis insult him. The rest don’t even bother to do that much. The Israeli Defense Minister talks of dealing with Iran alone.

[snip]

The one thing that all the parties in Egypt, that Sunni and Shiite from Syria to Iraq to Lebanon, that Christian, Jew and Muslim can agree on, is that the Middle East would have been better off if Obama had kept his mouth shut and stayed away.

Particular attention this week was paid to the Libyan disaster at Benghazi, where former acting CIA Deputy Director Morell (now working for Beacon Global Strategies, an operation run by former Clinton and Obama officials) testified inconsistently and bizarrely before Congress. Former CBS reporter and honest journalist Sheryl Attkisson described his inconsistent testimony. Here’s a bit of her report:

When Morell’s own C.I.A. station chief in Tripoli, Libya sent evidence that the Benghazi attacks were not the outgrowth of protests over a YouTube video, he says he and his Washington analysts disregarded it and didn’t pass it along to other agencies.

Morell was called to testify after several Republican member of Congress alleged new evidence shows he misled them by withholding what he knew about the genesis of the government’s so-called talking points after the attacks. It turns out that Morell was a key player in editing the talking points and interfacing with the White House.

? Under questioning from members on the committee, Morell described a process under which C.I.A. analysts in Washington provided an early assessment without seeking or receiving information from the many C.I.A. officers and other witnesses on the ground in Libya. And when the C.I.A. Tripoli station chief attempted to correct the record in an email to headquarters on Sept. 15, 2012, Morell says it was discounted as unreliable. According to Morell, the email claimed the attacks were “not an escalation of a protest.” However, Morell said that intel relied on press reports and C.I.A. officers on sight who probably would have arrived too late to see a protest anyway.

“My actions were appropriate in response as Deputy Director of CIA,” Morell testified. “I immediately recognized the discrepancy between my station chief and the judgment of our [Washington] analysts.”

? Morell says he asked his analysts to revisit their judgment and “they stuck to their initial conclusion” that the attacks were by protesters. Morell defended the decision. “I did not hide nor did I downplay the station chief’s comments as some have suggested, in fact I did the opposite,” Morell said today.

But as a result of the misinformation, the approved talking points provided to members of Congress and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice continued to perpetuate the mistaken narrative that spontaneous protesters rather than calculated terrorists launched the attacks that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

How convenient that the man who ignored the reports on the ground in favor of a cock-and-bull narrative that protected Obama’s re-election puffery about al-Qaeda being dead because “he” killed Osama bin Laden lands in such a cushy post-government slot. How awful for us all that the CIA and its intelligence assessment was so obviously politicized.

If you recall, part of the scandal of Benghazi - besides the baldfaced lying about the perpetrators and motivation - was that the Department of State refused Ambassador Stevens’s pleas for extra security.

So while the press covers Hillary’s yapping about “a double standard for women” as she rakes in millions from low-information women, it largely buries the fact that under her, the Department of State lost and misplaced six billion dollars because of sloppy accounting and poor auditing procedures on outside contracting. I can’t imagine a male secretary of state getting more gentle coverage of such poor executive management than she got.

The State Department misplaced and lost some $6 billion due to the improper filing of contracts during the past six years, mainly during the tenure of former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, according to a newly released Inspector General report.

The $6 billion in unaccounted funds poses a “significant financial risk and demonstrates a lack of internal control over the Department’s contract actions,” according to the report.

The alert, originally sent on March 20 and just released this week, warns that the missing contracting funds “could expose the department to substantial financial losses.”

The report centered on State Department contracts worth “more than $6 billion in which contract files were incomplete or could not be located at all,” according to the alert.

"The failure to maintain contract files adequately creates significant financial risk and demonstrates a lack of internal control over the Department’s contract actions,” the alert states.

The situation “creates conditions conducive to fraud, as corrupt individuals may attempt to conceal evidence of illicit behavior by omitting key documents from the contract file,” the report concluded.[snip]

“A recent OIG audit of the closeout process for contracts supporting the U.S. Mission in Iraq revealed that contracting officials were unable to provide 33 of 115 contract files requested in accordance with the audit sampling plan,” the report states.

The value of the 33 “missing files” totaled $2.1 billion, according to the report.

Additionally, 48 of the 82 contract files that were produced “did not contain all of the documentation required by” internal regulations, according to the report.

The 48 “incomplete files” were worth another $2.1 billion, according to the report.

A further audit of the department’s Bureau of African Affairs found that administrators “were unable to provide complete contract administration files for any of the eight contracts that were reviewed.”

These contracts were worth $34.8 million.

The investigation also found instances in which a company owned by the spouse of a contractor employee was not properly documented[.]

Even Hillary could not, when pressed, come up with any concrete examples of achievement, though the interviewer, the New York Times’ Tom Friedman, bobble-headed encouragingly throughout, as if she had actually said something substantive, instead of her usual disingenuous verbal tap-dancing .

As Powerline observes:

“There is an unintentionally satirical component to her brief answer as well. She claims as part of the legacy of her accomplishments our ability “to deal with problems like Ukraine because we’re not so worried about a massive collapse in Europe and China…” Somebody cue the laugh track!”

And then there’s her successor, who, doubtless wanting a Nobel Prize to attach to his yacht, has been engaged in a fruitless, feckless effort to make peace in the Mideast. This week, he even leaked a thoroughly insulting offer to release Jonathan Pollard in exchange for Palestinian terrorists held by Israel, something even Pollard, convicted of spying, felt beneath him. In any event, the collapse was made obvious when the Palestinians slapped a glove in his face by taking their plea for recognition to the only outfit more clueless and weak than our Department of State: the United Nations.

Like Powerline cuing the laugh track on Hillary’s “accomplishments," Tom Maguire is amused that the New York Times finally realizes that Secretary of State Kerry’s efforts in the Middle East are futile.

The NY Timescomes home to reality:

Keeping Mideast Talks Going Has Become an End in Itself

Who knew?

The Times puts the players on the couch:

All three parties have vested interests in the engagement: negotiations often come with tangible take-homes for the Palestinians, ease international pressure on Israel and lend credibility to the Obama administration’s faltering foreign policy. But now all three parties are calculating the costs as well: how long can Mr. Kerry continue chasing an elusive peace while there is so much else to deal with in a tumultuous world, and how can Israeli and Palestinian leaders avoid looking weak to their skeptical constituents and fractured governments?

...

The peace process has been churning for more than 20 years now, taking on a life of its own and becoming something of an end in itself. Some analysts see the Kerry-fueled negotiations as inhibiting a reckoning with the fundamental gulfs between the Israeli and Palestinian positions. The parties have spent hundreds of hours in recent weeks debating the particulars of which prisoners might be freed when; any discussion of how to divide Jerusalem, where to draw a border or the rights of refugees is a distant memory.

There is a culture of codependency surrounding the talks, with Mr. Kerry -- whose umpteen visits and phone calls have provided life support in the last months -- cast in the role of enabler. One Israeli columnist this week likened him to a nanny offering aspirin instead of a cure. Another column was headlined, “Mr. Kerry, Go Home.”

There is a Nobel Prize out there with John Kerry's name on it. He just knows it!

Any day now the Times will discover that the talks in Syria are all process and no result.

I really think our best hope - short of doing away with the department of State and starting over - is to place at its head some really first-rate rug and used car dealers, instead of Ivy League-credentialed morons.

americanthinker.com

[Frau Geräuchert]

Got Speck?

[daddy]

Don't judge me*.

We're having bacon for dinner.

Bacon and what, you ask? Bacon and bacon, I answer

Hit-sama,

That 'bacons the question' of which came first, the pork chop, or Ritual uncleaness?

I always enjoyed Marvin Harris's old books on Cultural Anthropology where he came up with various possible materialism answers for why some cultures worship the Pig and some cultures damn the Pig:

Cannibals and Kings was my fav, but
Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture is much fun and deals with the "To Bacon or not to Bacon" question.

Harris may be out to lunch (eating who knows what:), but what I enjoy from him is reading a book that came out before the advent of PC, so he is able to examine the issues simply by examining the issues, without including tons of Left Wing baggage into the text like Jarod Diamond does in all his Cultural Materialism tomes.