...The crybullies lately rampaging around Yale, the University of Missouri, and other campuses have shown how well that strategy works. Bewailing “microaggressions” that make them feel bad, increasing numbers of college students are dismissing civility, fairness, and especially free speech rights in the name of their “right” to emotional comfort. The Vice President of the University of Missouri student government, one Brenda Smith-Lezama, even said in a television interview, “I personally am tired of hearing that first amendment rights protect students when they are creating a hostile and unsafe learning environment for myself and for other students here.” The astonishing ignorance, selfishness, and contempt for American constitutional values packed into this one statement constitute proof that our constitutional rights are no longer valued or even vaguely understood by a wide swath of American college students.Sorry about subjecting you to this. The writing is horrid. I have not gone deeply into the University of Missouri situation, so I do not know whom to sling mud at, but I have an extreme aversion to such argumenta ad homines - or ad feminas, as the case may be here - using ghastly constructions such as "crybullies".
How did this happen? It is too easy to stop at pointing out Ms. Smith-Lezama’s clear limitations. She is parroting the radical agitprop fed to her by the radical professors and community organizers infesting our universities. But her cynical mentors did not come from nowhere. They and their ideology are products of the limp liberalism of their own upbringing, of a liberalism rooted more than anything in an ideology of individual rights...
... The liberal insistence that rights are abstract universal principles with no basis in or proper limits set by either history or their own internal logic was founded on an obsession with individual autonomy fated from the start to end in political cannibalism...
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
... Lost in the relentless drive over many decades for infinite civil liberties rather than ordered liberty has been the Constitution itself. The purpose of a Constitution is not merely to protect the rights of dissenters. Its more essential purpose is to set out a form of government. A free constitutional government provides its people with the procedures necessary to enact laws rooted in the consent of the governed and to chain the governors themselves to the law, including the Constitution. A Constitution cannot provide absolute protection for individual rights for the simple reason that rights are not absolute. As freedom of speech by nature ends where defamation, obscenity, and fraud begin, so all other rights have natural endpoints beyond which they, too, constitute abuses...This section denies the assertion in the Declaration of Independence that some rights are absolute.
... Thus we are left with no substantial protections for our rights on our campuses, in our business world, or in our dealings with governments. Crybullies, Mozilla, or petty administrators can silence us, fire us, fine us, or even send us to re-education camp (“sensitivity training”) for expressing politically incorrect views or refusing to participate in politically correct rituals...
... Unfortunately, the Bill of Rights has failed—or rather been made to fail—in its primary purpose. Those claiming to free the individual pretended that these rights are something absolute which the federal government must protect at all costs, and that any laws (even the Constitution itself) standing in the way of those unattainable absolutes are by nature illegitimate. In this way they delegitimized our frame of government, our fundamental institutions, and law itself. Those who claimed to be freeing the individual in effect left him alone, with no defenses, to face the mob. We now have proof of how well that works out. As Russell Kirk pointed out many times, order is the first need of all. And order, if it is not to come from the barrel of a gun, must come from law. For us that law once was rooted in our constitutional frame of government. Without that frame of government, without respect for the legitimacy and integrity—whatever the occasional abuses—of our constitutional order, all will be chaos and the pursuit of unjust power...Order is indeed the first need of all.
"You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name."
"But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one"By looking at the above photo, we realize that these verses are just more of that Jesus-saying stuff we have been able to ignore for quite a long time.
... A debate, it seems to me, requires a baseline commonality of fundamental values and desired goals. Sharing a common ethical understanding and seeking mutually compatible ends, debaters contest the best means to attain the mutually desired goal. For example, in my youth, there were many debates—some of them quite bitter—between liberals and conservatives, “doves” and “hawks,” over how to win the Cold War. But there was no fundamental disagreement about the imperative of our prevailing over the Soviet Union.
Contrast those Cold War debates with the current discord over euthanasia. Where is there room for debate or compromise between two incompatible worldviews? Those arguing about euthanasia are speaking two different moral languages.
Let me give an illustration of what I mean. Several years ago, I was invited to an international bioethics conference as a panelist on euthanasia. My co-panelist was a Dutch ethicist who supported his country’s liberal legalization regimen. We sparred courteously for an hour, and although the discussion remained cordial, we found no points of agreement, either on means or ends.
At the end of the convention, one participant—a UN bureaucrat—told me angrily that many people were upset because I was not willing to engage in “conversation.” I was surprised. “I flew 6,000 miles to engage in conversation,” I replied. “I have respectfully listened to opposing views and been civil in presenting my own opinions.”
“But you refuse consensus,” he complained. That’s when I realized that I hadn’t been invited to discuss and defend my viewpoint. Instead, I was brought there to reach an agreement, to find a compromise, by accepting “a little euthanasia” as the middle ground. But that was a fool’s errand—for me, a little euthanasia is still euthanasia.
Give-and-take is possible when the subject is something technocratic, like tax rates or the proper speed limit, or when the debaters agree on ends. But for matters involving bitter differences over fundamental values, or, to borrow a term, issues that derive from or impact “first things”—abortion, religious liberty, sexual and gender controversies, the death penalty, terrorism and war—“compromise” is unachievable, because accord would require one side to surrender its moral views to the other.
That leaves us tolerating different opinions—increasingly our default setting—rather than engaging in fruitful debate as a true community. But we aren’t that community anymore. This does not mean that our estrangement will last indefinitely, but it does mean that society will have to choose between contesting and incompatible worldviews. As Lincoln put it so well about the slavery crisis that roiled his time: “I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” ...
... The vitriol makes it less likely that Israel will be a topic of discussion among American Jews in our communal institutions. Not only does this politicization undermine our ability to interact as a true community, rather than as an institution of factions, but it actually stifles the possibility for congregations to talk about and think about and to enjoy the central role of Israel in our collective experience. The executive vice president of the Academy for Jewish Religion told the Times of Israel that many rabbis were reporting being “unable or not comfortable talking about Israel in their synagogues. It didn’t come from a lack of love. They’re deeply invested in Israel, and yet they felt they could not get into a conversation without deeply offending other parts of their community.” ...
いのち短し
恋せよ少女
朱き唇
褪せぬ間に
熱き血潮の
冷えぬ間に
明日の月日の
ないものを
いのち短し
恋せよ少女
いざ手をとりて
彼の舟に
いざ燃ゆる頬を
君が頬に
ここには誰れも
来ぬものを
いのち短し
恋せよ少女
波に漂う
舟の様に
君が柔手を
我が肩に
ここには人目も
無いものを
いのち短しIn rōmaji:
恋せよ少女
黒髪の色
褪せぬ間に
心のほのお
消えぬ間に
今日はふたたび
来ぬものを
inochi mijikashi
koi seyo otome
akaki kuchibiru
asenu ma ni
atsuki chishio no
hienu ma ni
asu no tsukihi no
nai mono wo
inochi mijikashi
koi seyo otome
iza te wo torite
ka no fune ni
iza moyuru ho wo
kimiga ho ni
koko ni wa dare mo
konu mono wo
inochi mijikashi
koi seyo otome
nami ni tadayou
fune no yo ni
kimiga yawate wo
waga kata ni
koko niwa hitome mo
nai mono wo
inochi mijikashiIn English:
koi seyo otome
kurokami no iro
asenu ma ni
kokoro no honoo
kienu ma ni
kyou wa futatabi
konu mono wo
life is brief.
fall in love, maidens
before the crimson bloom
fades from your lips
before the tides of passion
cool within you,
for those of you
who know no tomorrow
life is brief
fall in love, maidens
before his hands
take up his boat
before the flush of his cheeks fades
for those of you
who will never return here
life is brief
fall in love, maidens
before the boat drifts away
on the waves
before the hand resting on your shoulder
becomes frail
for those who will never
be seen here again
life is brief
fall in love, maidens
before the raven tresses
begin to fade
before the flame in your hearts
flicker and die
for those to whom today
will never return
A Minority Report vignette of the near-future American scene, where one prevents crimes before the occur.
"Round up the usual female suspects... and for good measure, round them up before the attack takes place!"
... "Just so you understand," Trump explained, "when the World Trade Center was knocked down, the people, the animals that did that, they sent their wives and their families back to Saudi Arabia. Most went back to Saudi. Those wives knew what their husbands were going to do. We never went after them, we never did anything. We have to attack much stronger." ...
... "It was a terrorist attack," Trump said. While promising to handle situations such as this "so tough," he also noted that "if you had a couple of folks in there with guns, that knew how to use them, and they were in that room, you wouldn't have dead people. The dead people would be the other guys."
The shooters in Wednesday's attack who were both killed in a shootout with law enforcement, left behind a 6-month old daughter as well as siblings, in-laws and parents. Investigators have not implicated any of the shooters' family members in the attacks.
Trump, however, told CBS News Friday evening in an interview that he doesn't believe gunman Syed Farook's sister is innocent and that he would go after her. "I would go after a lot of people and find out whether or not they knew. I'd be able to find out. Cause I don't believe the sister," he said.
R. Simeon b. Eleazar testified on the authority of R. Simeon b. Hanina: He who reads a verse at its proper time brings good to the world, as it is written, “And a word spoken in its proper time, how good is it.”
... Zionist Organization of America national president Mort Klein said banning all Muslims from entering the country was “going too far.” But he went on to rationalize Trump’s position: “Few people would oppose Hindus or Buddhists, or Christians coming to America, but Hindus or Buddhists or Christians are not saying or doing things that threaten people’s lives,” Klein said. “Muslims are.”
Klein said that the ZOA’s board recently voted unanimously to oppose “Syrian Muslims coming to America.”
Congressman Lee Zeldin, the only Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives, did not answer directly when asked what he thought of Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the country.
Instead, he too focused on the issue of Syrians.
“Focus at the moment should be on improving the visa waiver program, stopping the influx of Syrian refugees due to current vulnerabilities in the vetting process, and defeating ISIS altogether,” Zeldin wrote in a statement.
The Orthodox Union, meanwhile, a large centrist Orthodox umbrella group, said that it had “no position” on Trump’s Muslim ban. The group and its advocacy arm are often vocal on foreign affairs issues, and rallied loudly on Capitol Hill against the Iran deal.
The Rabbinical Council of America, a Modern Orthodox group, did not respond to a request for comment about Trump’s plan. The group has made statements in recent months on terror attacks in Israel and Paris, and on the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
Groups that did condemn Trump include the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, J Street, and the Israel Policy Forum, according to a JTA report.
Blogger and activist Pamela Geller, who the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “the anti-Muslim movement’s most visible and flamboyant figurehead,” told the Forward that Trump’s proposal doesn’t go far enough.
“Trump didn’t call for a complete ban, but only a temporary one,” Geller wrote in an email.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
... In the few cases when the National Front has been able to win a local election, its track record is appalling. In Hayange, the extreme-right mayor was found to have falsified its electoral budget. In Beziers, the National Front mayor Robert Menard has encouraged the creation of private militias and the religious listings to target minorities. In each of the Southern cities of Toulon, Vitrolles, Orange and Marignane, once held by the National Front, corruption, nepotism and mismanagement have been endemic.
After a few years of National Front administration, each city ended up in severe debt and unable to balance budgets despite severe cuts in spending in culture and social welfare.
On every occasion, the National Front has proved to be inept in any power position. Unfortunately, the very electoral system that prevented the parliamentary representation of the National Front might end up ushering a tsunami of incompetent and corrupt politicians in the coming years...
Paris (AFP) - One is a pragmatist: a 47-year-old lawyer by training who has steered France's far-right National Front (FN) from pariah status to mainstream.
The other is an ideologue: her 25-year-old niece, a Roman Catholic traditionalist whose easy smile and youthful good looks belie a stance on abortion, homosexuality and Islam that critics say is dangerous or sectarian.
On Sunday, Marine Le Pen and Marion Marechal-Le Pen -- respectively the daughter and grand-daughter of the FN's firebrand founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen -- established themselves as major players in France's political landscape...
Pour moquer le score de Christian Estrosi (36%), candidat les Républicains arrivé derrière Marion-Maréchal Le Pen (41%) en Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, l'octogénaire a cru bon de poster sur Twitter une vidéo du député-maire de Nice en train de danser avec des juifs orthodoxes...and one wonders who or what is the terror which haunts or vivifies old man Le Pen.
(To mock the score of Christian Estrosi (36%), candidate of République Solidaire [RS] was trailing Front National [FN] candidate Marion-Maréchal Le Pen (41%) in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the old octogenarian posted on Twitter a video of the deputy mayor of Nice dancing with some Orthodox Jews... )
Anatoly Zemlyanka, 28, came from 'normal' family in Noyabrsk, and was into Thai boxing and karate.--
A video was posted this week showing the supposed 'execution' of 23 year old Russian citizen Magomed Khasiev, from Chechnya, by Islamic extremists in Syria.
He had travelled to the Middle East in support of the Islamic State, although in a 'confession' before his apparent killing he claimed he acted as an informant for the FSB, the Russian secret service. Sources have indicated there is no proof of this claim by a man who had refused to speak to his adoptive mother in Chechnya over his trip to Syria, believing she would disapprove.
Next it was revealed that the Russian-speaking executioner was from Noyabrsk, the largest city in the energy-rich Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region.
On Friday, the Russian media identified the executioner as Anatoly Zemlyanka, a former Thai Boxing competitor, who had also loved karate while he studied at Tyumen State University in 2004 - 2009.
Friends said that in his fifth year he began to communicate with Muslims and converted to Islam. His mother is believed to be an Orthodox Christian...
After he spoke out against police brutality, the Fraternal Order of Police issued a cryptic threat to Tarantino, saying “something is in the works.” Now, Tarantino has responded.Firstly, I always said that Mr. Tarantino did the script for Django Unchained by having pot-smoking bull sessions all night with the cast and crew, and I think this sort of verifies it.
Harvey Weinstein, who’s positioned The Hateful Eight for Oscars and Golden Globes gold, has rightly called the movie Quentin Tarantino’s most political to date.
The film, about an octet of travelers—bounty hunters, ex-soldiers, and prospective lawmen—holed up at a traveler’s stop, Millie’s Haberdashery, in the post-Civil War Midwest, consists of a racially-charged milieu of violence and distrust that is not so far removed from today’s America, argued Tarantino at a press conference on Saturday.
“[We made this movie] during that last year and a half where many of the themes that we were dealing with, we were watching on television when we got home. We’d come to set and talk about them,” said the filmmaker, who first performed the script last year as a live read after an early draft was leaked. “But the one good thing about the script getting out there is I’m on record for having written it before all the shit started popping off.”
Of course, commenting on just how badly shit in America has been popping off landed Tarantino in the middle of a firestorm this fall, leading police unions across the country to declare him auteur non grata...
...Addressing the intimidation tactic on Saturday, Tarantino shamed Pasco and admitted that while he had no clue what the country’s largest police union had in store for him, he wasn’t too spooked.
“People ask me, ‘Are you worried?’ And the answer’s no, I’m not worried, because I do not feel like the police force is this sinister black hand organization that goes out and fucks up individual citizens in a conspiracy sort of way,” he said. “Having said that, a civil servant shouldn’t be issuing threats, even rhetorically, to private citizens. The only thing I can imagine is that they might be planning to picket us, picket one of the screenings or maybe picket the premiere, or one of the 70mm screenings.”
“Or buy up all the tickets to make sure the theater’s empty,” Jackson offered, prompting snickers from the room.
“Well, that don’t really hurt me!” laughed Tarantino. “I don’t have any inkling and I haven’t heard anything about it, other than Patrick Lynch is keeping the fire on simmer,” he added, referring to the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association who in October slammed Tarantino as a “cop-hater” and “purveyor of degeneracy” and called for a boycott of his films...
For Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore's (R) 2015 family Christmas card, which she posted on Facebook on Monday, her family was each outfitted with a gun. If it wasn't immediately obvious, Fiore is a staunch defender of Second Amendment rights.
"It's up to Americans to protect America. We're just your ordinary American family. -With love & liberty, Michele," her message read.
In the top left corner the [Christmas] card lists the guns photographed: a Beretta 92FS, Glock 30 .45ACP, Serbu Super-Shorty 12-gauge shotgun, Extar EXP-556, Walther P22 (LR), Glock 19 9mm and Glock 30 .45ACP.
Fiore's daughters, Sheena and Savanah as well as her grandchildren Jake, Jayden, Mara and Morrigan, and her mother Lill are pictured. Jake, who a bio on Fiore's website says is at least 5 years old, is pictured holding the Walther P22...
The United States and its NATO allies offered a ritual of NATO unity after Turkish officials presented their case that the shoot-down of a Russian jet occurred after two planes had penetrated Turkish airspace. The Turkish representative reportedly played a recording of a series warning the Turkish F-16 pilots had issued to the Russian jets without a Russian response, and U.S. and other NATO member states endorsed Turkey’s right to defend its airspace.
U.S. Defense Department spokesman Colonel Steve Warren supported the Turkish claim that 10 warnings had been issued over a period of five minutes. The Obama administration apparently expressed less concern about whether Russian planes had actually crossed into Turkish airspace. Col. Warren admitted that U.S. officials have still yet to establish where the Russian aircraft was located when a Turkish missile hit the plane.
Although the Obama administration is not about to admit it, the data already available supports the Russian assertion that the Turkish shoot-down was, as Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted, an “ambush” that had been carefully prepared in advance. The central Turkish claim that its F-16 pilots had warned the two Russian aircraft 10 times during a period of five minutes actually is the primary clue that Turkey was not telling the truth about the shoot-down.
The Russian Su-24 “Fencer” jet fighter, which is comparable to the U.S. F-111, is capable of a speed of 960 miles per hour at high altitude, but at low altitude its cruising speed is around 870 mph, or about 13 miles per minute. The navigator of the second plane confirmed after his rescue that the Su-24s were flying at cruising speed during the flight.
Close analysis of both the Turkish and Russian images of the radar path of the Russian jets indicates that the earliest point at which either of the Russian planes was on a path that might have been interpreted as taking it into Turkish airspace was roughly 16 miles from the Turkish border – meaning that it was only a minute and 20 seconds away from the border.
Furthermore according to both versions of the flight path, five minutes before the shoot-down the Russian planes would have been flying eastward – away from the Turkish border.
If the Turkish pilots actually began warning the Russian jets five minutes before the shoot-down, therefore, they were doing so long before the planes were even headed in the general direction of the small projection of the Turkish border in Northern Latakia province. In order to carry out the strike, in fact, the Turkish pilots would have had to be in the air already and prepared to strike as soon as they knew the Russian aircraft were airborne...
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