Americana: why blacks vote Democrat

Alfonzo Rachel: Examining Black Loyalty to Democrats

Nov. 20, 2012

Socialist Causes Explained: freedom through the state

Net neutrality beautifully illustrates the difference between the Left and the Right. To the Right Liberty means free from government intervention. To the Left it means government regulation -

C|Net: "Why Net neutrality is incompatible with 'Internet freedom'"

The FCC's Net neutrality rules violate the First Amendment, argues a free-market proponent, and are thus antithetical to "Internet freedom." (...) >>>

5 sep.2012
~

Life Ethics: the seat of consciousness

Research on severely brain damaged Patient R suggests the brain more than likely doesn't have a single region that is devoted to self awareness, but rather, the complex phenomenon likely emerges from much more distributed interactions between multiple brain regions -

Live Science: "Brain Damaged 'Patient R' Challenges Theories of Self Awareness"

Aug. 29, 2012
~

Black Heroism: a progressive form of slavery

CCCA: "Video: New Movie Shows How Big Government Is Enslaving Millions Of Americans"

In RUNAWAY SLAVE, an intriguing new documentary that opens in theaters this summer, Rev. C.L. Bryant journeys across America to find answers. A one-time NAACP local chapter president, Rev. Bryant discovers that by buying into the entitlement mindset of “progressives,” the black community has traded one form of tyranny for another.

Using leading black conservatives as “conductors,” Rev. Bryant believes it is time for a new Underground Railroad to help liberate all Americans from the Government plantation that has left the black community dealing with a new form of slavery: entitlements.

“Why are we still thinking we are not free at last? What ideas are keeping us down?” Rev. Bryant asks. “For too long, we have been depending on other people for our success. We have to pursue our happiness; our happiness is not provided to us. If we are relying on someone else for our wellbeing, that in itself is a form of slavery.” (...) >>>

Aug. 18, 2012
~

Serbia in the Dock: of Realpolitik and the unethics courts

The Slog: "WAR CRIMES: Milosevic intimate about to become Serbian Prime Minister"

Is the Hague’s War Crimes Court anything more than an irrelevant hypocrisy? The news that Ivica Dacic (a former close colleague of Slobodan Milosevic) is almost certainly going to be the next Serbian Prime Minister should give everyone connected to the real world where morality counts pause for thought. (...) >>>

Jul 29, 2012
~

A Private File for Private Parts (but not for all): secular zealots

They are not that easy to define at first glance. Covert antisemitism would be one explanation, but there's more than meets the eye. The fundamental secularists are thorough Robespierrists: collectivist obviously, nanny statists who aren't too shy to abolish parental autonomy in the name of child abuse. They are exceedingly intolerant and dogmatic. Yet another grave danger to liberty -

Spiked: "The bigotry of the anti-circumcision zealots", Frank Furedi

The international campaign demonising the religious practice of circumcising young boys is fuelled by a new form of misanthropic bigotry. It represents a synthesis of twenty-first-century cultural correctness and old-fashioned prejudice. This moral crusade brings together many of the worst trends of our age: the paranoid dogma about the ‘vulnerable child’; the culturally sanctioned contempt for the exercise of parental authority; intolerance of freedom of religion; insensitivity to people’s traditional beliefs; and old-fashioned prejudice against circumcised people. (...) >>>

July 6, 2012
~

Communist Crimes on Trial: state terror

The pillar of every totalitarian state: institutionalized terrorism and citizens snatching citizens. There is no safety, anywhere -

Suit101: "Stalin's Purges"

The history of the Soviet Union would not be complete without a discussion of Stalin's Purges. Stalin's Purges represented state-sponsored terror at its height. While Lenin set the precedent for terror, Stalin created a culture of terror that pervaded every aspect of a Soviet citizen's life.

Stalin's Purges were the systematic removal of individuals from society. Stalin's Purges embodied state-sponsored terror in the Soviet Union of the 1930s. The Great Purge, which lasted from 1934-1938 saw an escalation in purges and an increase in the violence that underscored the purges. (...) >>>

July 5, 2012

~

The Cold War: Middle East and the legacy of the USSR

Very interesting piece on the machinations of the Soviet Union in the Middle East and how we still live with the consequences today. A lengthy comment by tzur highlights the role of Richard Nixon, which was much more historical than people realize. Commie Ashton really is a piece of work! Assigned reading -

The Tablet: "The Cold War’s Arab Spring - Stolen Kremlin records show how the Soviets, including Gorbachev, created many of today’s Middle East conflicts", by Claire Berlinski

The dominant narrative of modern Middle East history emphasizes the depredations visited upon the region by European colonization and accepts as a truism that the former colonial powers prioritized the protection of their material interests—in oil, above all—above the dignity and self-determination of the region’s inhabitants. Thus did botched decolonization result in endless instability. The most intractable of the regional conflicts to which this gave rise, that between the Arabs and Israelis, is attributed in this narrative to Israel’s unwillingness to accede to Palestinian national aspirations. Thus did the region become a breeding ground for radicalism, intensified by Cold War rivalry between the superpowers, who replaced the European colonizers as the region’s meddling overlords. Then came Mikhail Gorbachev—a Westernizing reformer. At last, the Cold War was over. A new world order was at hand.

What if this conventional wisdom is nonsense? Russian exile Pavel Stroilov argues just this in his forthcoming book, Behind the Desert Storm. “Not a word of it is true,” he writes. “It was the Soviet Empire—not the British Empire—that was responsible for the instability in the Middle East.” (...) >>>

June 24, 2012
~

Nuclear Proliferation: Do cyber attacks make Iran strike more likely?

Hotair: "Time for a new leak: U.S. and Israel developed “Flame” computer virus, say “western officials”"

Unlike the last few mega-leaks, this one’s not aimed at glorifying Obama’s James Bond-ian counterterrorist kung fu. In fact, Obama’s name doesn’t appear in the piece; it’s Bush who’s given credit for developing the Flame/Stuxnet program to sabotage Iranian nukes. Ace blames the leakers for revealing all the nifty things that Flame can do but I think we already knew all the details in WaPo’s piece from that Russian cybersecurity firm that went public about the virus a few weeks ago. The point here isn’t to spill the beans about Flame’s capabilities, it’s — as Ace says — to blame Israel for the virus’s discovery. And it’s not the first time that that’s happened. (...) >>>

June 20, 2012
~

The Iran-Syria-Pakistan axis -

Update: "UK military steps up plans for Iran attack amid fresh nuclear fears - British officials consider contingency options to back up a possible US action as fears mount over Tehran's capability". More here. Too bad Cameroon and the Obama are like boys playing war games in a china shop -

In Israel rumor has it an attack on Iran is imminent. Even The Guardian is running the latest UN report: "Iran's nuclear activity under scrutiny as evidence of weapons threat emerges - Atomic agency report uncovers Iranian nuclear experiments experts claim could only be used for development of warhead" -

Breitbart: "AP Exclusive: New signs of Syria-Pakistan nuke tie"

U.N. investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions that the Syrian government worked with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, to acquire technology that could make nuclear arms. The buildings in northwest Syria closely match the design of a uranium enrichment plant provided to Libya when Moammar Gadhafi was trying to build nuclear weapons under Khan's guidance, officials told The Associated Press. The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency also has obtained correspondence between Khan and a Syrian government official, Muhidin Issa, who proposed scientific cooperation and a visit to Khan's laboratories following Pakistan's successful nuclear test in 1998. (...) >>>

Nov. 2, 2011
~

Stop the Obama Constitutional Crisis: pOmo or 'pseudologia fantastica'

Hard to say whether the Obama's  'composites' and flights of fantasy are a part of his pOmo constructed reality or pathological lies. In the first case he must have some awareness of his lying, in the second he has not -

Mail Online: "Obama's grandfather tortured by the British? A fantasy (like most of the President’s own memoir)"

A new biography of Barack Obama has established that his grandfather was not, as is related in the President’s own memoir, detained by the British in Kenya and found that claims that he was tortured were a fabrication.
'Barack Obama: The Story' by David Maraniss catalogues dozens of instances in which Obama deviated significantly from the truth in his book 'Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance'. The 641-page book punctures the carefully-crafted narrative of Obama’s life.
One of the enduring myths of Obama’s ancestry is that his paternal grandfather Hussein Onyango Obama, who served as a cook in the British Army, was imprisoned in 1949 by the British for helping the anti-colonial Mau Mau rebels and held for several months. (...) >>>

June 20, 2012
~

Assault of the New Storm Troopers: styled to death

Celebrating and main-streaminng violence and disorder. This is how the culture is used to popularize, celebrate and mainstream negative values (nihilism), violence and disorder. But that's just Stock Photos. That's not how Will Potter, an award-winning independent journalist based in Washington, DC, sees it. According to the author of "Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege" it's just the public's imagination that sees Anarchism as synonymous to chaos, destruction, kids with green hair playing smashy smashy.
That's all a construct of the government. They're actually about #caring, #love, general assemblies using non-hierarchical consensus models and helping each other out (without the government). Ya know, what ninetynine percent of us are doing.
Reality is more like Chris Bevacqua "Black Bloc", a video zine featuring his photos taken 2 years ago during the "Heart Attack" march during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games here in Vancouver

Green is the New Red: "17 “Anarchists” According to Stock Photos"

June 19, 2012
~

Dossier Common Purpose: CP Netherlands (diseased)

Minutes of bankruptcy CP Netherlands on file by @ancetreIV

faillissementsverslag #commonpurpose nl 1: certalegal.nl/faillissemente… en 2: certalegal.nl/faillissemente… geldschieters: twitter.com/ancetreIV/stat…
— Charlotte Badger IV (@ancetreIV) June 12, 2012

CP Exposed: "How will the Netherlands survive without Common Purpose?"

Julia Middleton CEO of Common Purpose has announced that CP is closing down operations in Holland due to a lack of interest....

"'It is with great sadness I report that Common Purpose in the Netherlands has closed down. In the current climate in the Netherlands, the open courses have struggled to cover costs. The Netherlands team have worked very hard over the years for Common Purpose and we are all very grateful for their work."

The team at Cpexposed.com wonder just how the Netherlands will survive without a network of future leaders trained by Common Purpose. How will the Dutch be able to communicate alternative agendas behind closed doors without their beloved CP? How will they now be able to influence poltical agendas by unknown people working to a common purpose, ouside and alongside the Dutch democratic system? How will they survive past 2012 if they have no CP 'future leaders'? I suspect that the Netherlands will continue to function very well indeed without common purpose. (...) >>>

June 12, 2012
~

Ruled by the Mob: under attack by the Left (call it new civility)

Having suffered a cyber attack this week by extreme Leftist trolls we know how pomo ad hominem tactics work. This is the postmodern version of the storm troopers. You can follow @ali <--- here and @DavidAFrench, Senior Counsel at American Center for Law and Justice <--- there

NRO: "Defending Bloggers from Attacks, Intimidation, and Frivolous Lawsuits"

Here in the Corner, Jonathan Adler has been ably covering a series of new and particularly pernicious attacks on bloggers’ free speech. For those who haven’t been following the story, roughly three weeks ago a number of conservative bloggers (both independent and affiliated with larger publications) began investigating the story of Brett Kimberlin, a radical domestic terrorist who’s been funded by several prominent leftist donors. As the investigation gained momentum, Red State’s Erick Erickson was subjected to a “SWAT” attack, where a fake call is made to local police reporting a shooting at the blogger’s home. Erick is not the first blogger to experience a SWAT-ing. (...) >>>

June 7, 2012
~

Delete the Border!: Israel finds proof of the agenda

Israel in unearthing proof that leftist 'civil society' NGOs are actively seeking to change the demographics of the country. This is Israel, but they are pushing their ideas of 'universalistic citizenship‘ all across the Western world. They do this evidently not because their love for Western free societies, or they would not do it -

ISN: "African Infiltration Planned by Left?"

Mounting evidence that influx of Africans is part of a leftist plan to flood Israel with Muslims. (...) >>>

June 3, 2012
~

The Finer Points of Warfare: up in Flame

BareNakedIslam: "More sinister than Stuxnet, Flame computer virus strikes Iran and other enemies of Israel"

Stuxnet has an even more ominous successor. Iranian security experts report a virus far more dangerous than the Stuxnet worm has struck the country’s computer systems. Dubbed the “Flame,” the virus is one that has struck not only Iran, however, but a number of other enemies of Israel as well. The country with the largest number of machines infected by Flame is believed to be Iran, following by the West Bank, and Sudan and Syria after that. Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt have also been affected. (...) >>>

May 29, 2012
~

"The Dystopia of Paradise": there's life after pomo

But it does take a country that is living with evil, on the edge of destruction, every day. So for now, don't hold your breath for the West to find out -

Caroline Glick: "Post-Zionism is so 1990s"

You can learn a lot about a nation's health by watching how it celebrates its national holidays. In Israel's case, compare how we celebrated our 50th Independence Day in 1998 to what celebrations involve today. During the 1990s, Israel's elite took a vacation from reality and history and they brought much of the public with them. Then-foreign minister Shimon Peres said that history was overrated. The so-called "New Historians," who rummaged through David Ben-Gurion's closet looking for skeletons, were the toast of the academic world. Radicals like Yossi Beilin, Shulamit Aloni and Avrum Burg were dictating government policy. The media, the entertainment establishment, and the Education Ministry embraced and massively promoted plays, movies, television shows, songs, dances, art and books that "slayed sacred cows." Everywhere you turned, post-Zionism was in. Post-Judaism was in. And Zionism and Judaism were both decidedly out. (...) >>>

May 25, 2012
~

Obama's Radical Connections: the vetting continues

Update Apparently Dystel's partner, Miriam Goderich, says the whole Obama-born-in-Kenya thing was a fact-checking mistake by her. Not likely, says character witness -

Breitbart: "THE VETTING - EXCLUSIVE - OBAMA'S LITERARY AGENT IN 1991 BOOKLET: 'BORN IN KENYA AND RAISED IN INDONESIA AND HAWAII'

Note from Senior Management:

Andrew Breitbart was never a "Birther," and Breitbart News is a site that has never advocated the narrative of "Birtherism." In fact, Andrew believed, as we do, that President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961.
Yet Andrew also believed that the complicit mainstream media had refused to examine President Obama's ideological past, or the carefully crafted persona he and his advisers had constructed for him.
It is for that reason that we launched "The Vetting," an ongoing series in which we explore the ideological background of President Obama (and other presidential candidates)--not to re-litigate 2008, but because ideas and actions have consequences.
It is also in that spirit that we discovered, and now present, the booklet described below--one that includes a marketing pitch for a forthcoming book by a then-young, otherwise unknown former president of the Harvard Law Review. It is evidence--not of the President's foreign origin, but that Barack Obama's public persona has perhaps been presented differently at different times.

***

Breitbart News has obtained a promotional booklet produced in 1991 by Barack Obama's then-literary agency, Acton & Dystel, which touts Obama as "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii."
The booklet, which was distributed to "business colleagues" in the publishing industry, includes a brief biography of Obama among the biographies of eighty-nine other authors represented by Acton & Dystel.
It also promotes Obama's anticipated first book, Journeys in Black and White--which Obama abandoned, later publishing Dreams from My Father instead. (...) >>>

May 18, 2012
~

Freedom isn't Free!: meet the new Warsaw Pact

New Zeal: "Russia Builds Military Alliance Against NATO"

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is planning to create a large military contingent comprising units and formations of several Central Asian states, the head of the post-Soviet security group said Monday. CSTO members – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – use the organization as a platform to fight drug trafficking, terrorism, and organized crime, and have pledged to provide immediate military assistance to one another in the event of an attack. The bloc has a Collective Rapid Reaction Force deployed in Central Asia, and is continuing to build up its military forces. (...) >>>

May 16, 2012
~

In Defense of Liberty: Steyn's foreword to Wilders' book

- Artwork by Bosch Fawstein - 

NRO: "The Spirit of Geert Wilders - A foreword to Wilders’ Marked for Death", by Mark Steyn

When I was asked to write a foreword to Geert Wilders’ new book, my first reaction, to be honest, was to pass. Mr. Wilders lives under 24/7 armed guard because significant numbers of motivated people wish to kill him, and it seemed to me, as someone who’s attracted more than enough homicidal attention over the years, that sharing space in these pages was likely to lead to an uptick in my own death threats. Who needs it? Why not just plead too crowded a schedule and suggest the author try elsewhere? I would imagine Geert Wilders gets quite a lot of this. And then I took a stroll in the woods, and felt vaguely ashamed at the ease with which I was willing to hand a small victory to his enemies. (...) >>>

May 15, 2012
~

Money & Economy: it's the deteriorating asset base, stupid!

Zerohedge: "Everything You Know About Monetary Policy Is Wrong... And Why This Is Very Bad News For Europe"

For over a year we have been cautioning that even more than a "liquidity versus solvency" debate, the biggest unspoken factor (though slowly gaining prominence) not only for Europe, although manifesting itself there most prominently, but all across the developed world is the quality of the (deteriorating) asset base, thanks mostly due to the Fed's influence over corporate cash misallocation, and courtesy of the fact that the bulk of credit money creation in the past decade has come via the shadow banking system, broad asset collateral. Last year MF Global taught us that it is this shadow collateral which exists merely in ledger entries between fractional reserve entities (mostly broker dealers and hedge funds), that is now extremely scarce and has to be pledged and repledged in daisy chains of ultra rehypothecation, and which just like robosigning exists until it is actually called for delivery, when the entire collateral<->money linkage falls apart. It is this intersection of traditional monetary liabilities and new shadow aggregates that is completely undiscussed by conventional economic literature, and is why traditional monetary theory is completely helpless in coming up with credible and effective means of returning the world to a growth state. In other words, the Krugmans of the world are absolutely unable to explain how shadow banking should be accounted for when explaining something as simple as the leverage collapse, first in Europe, and then in the US (we have covered the collapse of shadow banking repeatedly, most recently here). (...) >>>

May 5, 2012
~

The Perversion of Development Aid: when growth is evil

May 1, 2012
~

Turkey Trot: Turkey starts illegal drilling in N. Cyprus update

John Ward has an analysis of the situation (and while we're at it, might as well have a look at the rights situation: letters from political prisoners (where's Amnesty when you need them?)) -

The Slog: "MED ENERGY WARS: UK Foreign Office slumbers on as Israel/Turkey showdown grows ever nearer"

Veteran Sloggers are well aware of Erdogan The Mad: Turkish leader, free-speech crusher, Kurd-basher, Holocaust denier, energy thief, and best friend of Iran and David Cameron at one and the same time.

They’ll also know from earlier in the week that, ignoring existing territorial waters ratified by the UN, Rabid Recep and his Erratic Engineers have plonked a drilling derrick right next to Cyprus (having earlier this year threatened to annex it) and got right down to the task of tapping into other people’s oil.

Now the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is denying Greek media reports that a Turkish Petroleum Company is carrying out oil exploratory works along the Greek continental shelf in the Mediterranean Sea. (...) >>>

Apr 29, 2012
~

Athens News: "Greece condemns Turkish drilling in Cyprus"

The Greek foreign ministry on Thursday sharply condemned the exploratory drilling launched by a Turkish firm in the region of Sygkrasi (Sinirustu in Turkish) near the town Famagusta in the Turkish-occupied northern third of Cyprus.

Foreign ministry spokesman Grigoris Delavekouras, referring to the drilling by a Turkish petrol company, stressed that this is another illegal Turkish move, blatantly violating the UN Security Council resolutions that call on all countries to respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Cyprus. (...) >>>

Apr. 26, 2012
~

Caucasian Heat: Russia gearing up for pushback on Iran, Syria

With tensions rising in Iran, and it's satellite Syria presently engaged in the Western operation dubbed Arab Spring, the Caucasus region is back in the news. Read also up on the developments on "The Levant's Intricate Intrigues", yesterday's entry April 11 (map right) -

Business Insider: "Russia Is Massing Troops On Iran's Northern Border And Waiting For A Western Attack"

The Russian military anticipates that an attack will occur on Iran by the summer and has developed an action plan to move Russian troops through neighboring Georgia to stage in Armenia, which borders on the Islamic republic, according to informed Russian sources. (...) >>>

Apr 12, 2012
~

The Levant's Intricate Intrigues: Obama's dangerous game in Syria

Besides setting the stage for WWIII, what are the interests (strategics, geopolitical implications) Assigned reading! Check The Optimistic Conservative's Blog for more great posts (see also file "Caucasian Heat", entry Apr. 12) -

Hotair: Syria, Russia: It all looks different from out there"

(...) The US should be concerned about the danger as well – but instead, the Obama administration is seeking reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, backing it in Syria (see here as well), and proposing to fund and treat with the terrorist group Hamas. The Russians are justified in being worried that the US shows little discrimination in our choice of clients and protégés in the region. Whether the reason is ideological sympathy or ideological naïveté, the US administration’s affinity for the most radical, repressive, Islamo-statist elements in the Islamic world cannot be a basis for strategically responsible uses of power.

The Obama administration showed clearly during the Libya operation that it was committed to not using US power to achieve decisive political outcomes. Yet US power is the element most badly needed in the situation in Syria. The feat needed in Syria is one to which only America, up to now, has been suited: acknowledging the regional implications of any Syrian outcome; bringing Russia into a group effort; and yet also bringing an end to the Assad regime on terms favorable for the Syrian people, and acceptable to the Arab world, the West, and Russia.

Perhaps, in the weeks ahead, another nation will find a way to fill that role. France may shift her focus: from dismissing Russia and setting up a separate coalition, to trying to engage Russia. Turkey may be able to broker a group effort in which Russia gets a role.

Russian intransigence is marginally more likely to win out; I don’t think France and the UK are really stupid enough to provoke an armed standoff with Russia, even if the US is. But we are in uncharted territory, and that assessment may be wrong. (...) >>>

HotAir: "Report: Russian “anti-terrorism” troops arrive at Syrian port"

They’ve had military advisors inside the country assisting the regime for months and they’re doing their level best to meet Assad’s exploding demand for new weapons. But actually sending Russian special forces to Tartus, presumably to lend a hand in case Syrian troops need help with with their, er, “counterterror” operations, is a new one on me. Message to NATO and any other nascent western/Arab coalition: The price of intervention will be higher than you estimated. Time to start paying closer attention to Syria. (...) >>>

Apr. 11, 2012
~

pOmo rAVagES: going pomo as a carreer choice

Big Government: "SOWELL: BELL WENT ‘INCOHERENT’ TO AVOID OBSCURITY"

Thomas Sowell’s syndicated column this week took on Derrick Bell, whom Sowell knew at Stanford. Sowell writes that Bell was not a leading scholar, and that he found himself between a rock and a hard place in career terms:

Derrick Bell's options were to be a nobody, living in the shadow of more accomplished legal scholars — or to go off on some wild tangent of his own, and appeal to a radical racial constituency on campus and beyond. His writings showed clearly that the latter was the path he chose. (...) >>>

Mar 14, 2012
~

Science as a Narrative: pomo post normal science

Closely related to pomo science to post normal science. Watch also here on YouTube - Hat tip: @justintempler - There is of course something very wrong in mixing science and political agendas -

De Staat van het Klimaat: "Paltridge: postmodern science is a dangerous beast", by MARCEL CROK

There is an excellent op-ed by Garth Paltridge on the Australian Financial Review. I agree with almost everything he writes. I also much enjoyed his short book The Climate Caper. Paltridge explains why climate science is far from settled (...)

(...) From the social and economic side of things, one might take much more notice of the global warming scare campaign if it were not so obvious that many of its most vociferous supporters have other agendas. There are those, for instance, who are concerned with preservation of the world’s resources of coal and oil for the benefit of future generations. There are those who, like the former president of France, Jacques Chirac, speaking at a conference on the Kyoto protocol in 2000, look with favour on the possibility of an international decarbonisation regime because it would be a first step to global governance (the president’s actual words were “For the first time, humanity is instituting a genuine instrument of global governance”.) There are those who, like the socialists of the 20th century, see international action as a means to force a redistribution of wealth both within and between the individual nations. There are those who regard the whole business mainly as a path to the sort of influence which, until now, has been wielded only by the major religions. More generally, there are those who, like the politically correct everywhere, are driven by a need for public expression of their own virtue.

Of course there is nothing wrong, or at least not much that is wrong, with the ideals behind any of the above agendas except perhaps the last couple on the list. But the battles over them should be fought in the open and on their own merits rather than on the basis of a global warming crusade whose legitimacy is founded on still-doubtful science and on massive slabs of politically correct propaganda. (...) >>>

June 24, 2012
~

Natural Resources: gas and oil in the East Med

RT: "New Mediterranean oil and gas bonanza"

The Middle East could soon see new battles over rights to oil and gas beneath the eastern Mediterranean in the Levant Basin and Aegean Sea. The discovery of huge reserves off Israel's coast is changing the geopolitical balance of power in the region. (...) Energy self-sufficiency had eluded the state of Israel since its founding in 1948. Abundant oil and gas exploration was repeatedly undertaken with meager results. Unlike its energy-rich Arab neighbors, Israel seemed out of luck. Then, in 2009, Israel’s exploration partner Noble Energy discovered the Tamar field in the Levantine Basin, some 50 miles west of Israel’s port of Haifa and with an estimated 8.3 tcf (trillion cubic feet) of highest-quality natural gas. Tamar was the world’s largest gas discovery in 2009. (...) >>>

Febr. 26, 2012
~

Ethics of Capitalism: the African dream

Quite an achievement! Singing the praises of capitalism under a Leftist ethics program! This article did it! -

The Atlantic: "Africa's Amazing Rise and What it Can Teach the World"

(...) The economic evidence that they were right, building since the start of the new century, now seems incontrovertible. In the ten years from 2000 to 2010, six of the world's ten fastest-growing countries were in sub-Saharan Africa: Angola, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Chad, Mozambique, and Rwanda. In eight of the past ten years, sub-Saharan Africa has grown faster than Asia, according to The Economist. In 2012, the International Monetary Fund expects Africa to grow at a rate of 6%, about the same as Asia. (...) >>>

Feb. 26, 2012
~

Under the Bus: Muslim power grab - who cares?

Here we go! Archeological News Network: "Mob storms Maldives National Museum, destroys Buddhist statues" -

American Thinker: "Coup in the Maldives", by Rick Moran

Well here's a head-scratcher. The Religion of Peace backs a coup that overthrows a democratically elected government on Tuesday. On Thursday the US recognized the new government. There were reports that the police and security forces forced the president out, but Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman for the US State Department, saw no problem because "President Waheed, as you know, has committed to forming a national unity government." Of course he did. All any new tyrant has to do is coo magic words like "national unity government" and we bow before him. (...) >>>|

Feb. 12. 2012
~

Transnat'l Progressivism: Davos: FU Capitalism!

While the real avant guarde is looking ahead what what to do after the onset of the bankruptcy of globalization (entry Jan. 26), the degenerated elite is breaking up its annual confab at Davos. Jeffrey Folks is looking back -

Jan. 30, 2012
~

A new global paradigm -

If we can keep it together or not with the collapse of the monetary system and deliberately triggered revolutions that have destabilized the entire Middle East, this author is predicting the time of Cumbaya, #NWO, globalization, interconnectivity and interdependence, is over. Indeed, everything is in place for a new global paradigm -

Foreign Policy: "The End of the Win-Win World", by Gideon Rachman

I have spent my working life writing about international politics from the vantage points of the Economist and now the Financial Times. Surrounded by people who tracked markets and business, it has always felt natural for me to see international economics and international politics as deeply intertwined.

In my book Zero-Sum Future, written in 2009, I attempted to predict how the global economic crisis would change international politics. As the rather bleak title implied, I argued that relations between the major powers were likely to become increasingly tense and conflict-ridden. In a worsening economic climate, it would be harder for the big economies to see their relationships as mutually beneficial -- as a win-win. Instead, they would increasingly judge their relationships in zero-sum terms. What was good for China would be seen as bad for America. What was good for Germany would be bad for Italy, Spain, and Greece. (...) >>>

Jan. 26, 2012
~

Globalists descend on Davos #NWO -

CanadaFreePress: "Capitalism is the Problem—Who Knew?", Daren Jonescu

The perfectly named World Economic Forum—that is, an organization dedicated to the creation of a world economic system—is meeting in Davos again to discuss the problems of the day, and to propose solutions. Although the official problem-solving has not yet begun, a hint as to the direction of said solutions can be found in the definition of the main problem to be solved, offered by the group’s leader: the “out-dated and crumbling” economic system, capitalism. Surprise!

Among the problem-solvers in attendance: the dean of the China European International Business School, a joint project of the Chinese communist and European socialist governments; the President of the European Central Bank, formerly the head of the Bank of Italy; the Treasury Secretary to America’s first openly redistributionist President; and Tunisia’s new Islamist prime minister, who recently stood with a Hamas Party deputy and called for the “liberation of Jerusalem.” Who better to reform the world’s economy? (...) >>>

Jan. 24, 2012
~

Pomo Lingo: all about control and conditioning

The New Editor: Killing the Speech - "Modern" Kids losing Language and Confidence?" Hat tip: @victorsterren

Jan. 23, 2012
~

Socialist Utopia Redux: Argentina's serial collapse

"War with Argentina might save the United Kingdom and see Scots abandon independence move", opines @PurpleLine - Indeed. More tinder added to the global powderkeg. Argentina's socialists meanwhile have no learning curve to speak of, as is usual with the Left. The narrative without a doubt: socialism proper has NEVER been tried LOL -

Zerohedge: "Another Consequence Of Economic Decline"

Nearly 10-years ago to the day, the government of Argentina collapsed. Beset by weighty deficit spending and a completely unrealistic currency peg to the US dollar, Argentina became the poster child for the golden rule of economics: ‘that which is unsustainable will not be sustained.’ It’s reversion to the mean. (...) At this point, it’s all just tough talk and petty annoyances. But here’s the thing– there are four billion barrels of oil estimated to be within the Falklands’ territorial waters. Given the utter insanity with which Fernandez governs her country and the desperation in the Argentine economy, one cannot rule out the possibility of her trying to grab Las Malvinas by force. After all, military conflict is the ultimate social distraction.

I’ve often written that economics drives everything. A solid, vibrant, competitive economy lifts an entire nation into prosperity, while deteriorating fundamentals and a socialist agenda create inflation, unemployment, and social turmoil. War is just another one of those consequences. And given the vast deterioration in the global economy coupled with deeply-seeded conflicts around the world, the Falklands is just one of many that we may have to look forward to in 2012. >>>

Jan. 10, 2012
~

#Occupy: orc agit prop

NewZeal: "How serious is the left about disrupting America?"

Jan. 3, 2012
~