The Council Has Spoken!

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes! Bookworm Room –Democrat gaffes, nastiness, and sheer ignorance – just a few highlights from the Democrat side of the aisle
• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – The Razor – The Democratic Party’s War on Children
• Third place *t* with 2 votes – Simply Jews- Al Qaeda recruiting via the Internet – and I know why
• Third place *t* with 2 vote – The Independent Sentinel-Dems Using Every Trick In The Book To Distract From The Economy
• Third place *t* with 2 votes – The Noisy Room- The DNC Embraces Radical Islam
• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes – Joshuapundit- Speaking Of Rape – Democrats Oppose Mandatory Sentences For Child Rapists
• Fifth place with 1 vote – The Right Planet-The Fascism of Sustainable Development
• Sixth place with 2/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Offensive Meat
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – VA Right! –Homemade Video: ‘Remember” (A Remake of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’)
• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – Gay Patriot –Why do some Americans who favor ‘smaller government with fewer services’ continue to back Democrats?

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 votes! – P.J. O’Rourke-Of Thee I Sigh: Baby Boomers Bust submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Raymond Ibrahim –Ramadan: Islam’s ‘Holy Month’ of Christian Oppression submitted by The Watcher
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Danger Room –Top U.S. General: We Don’t Know Why Afghan Troops Are Killing Us submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes -Yid With Lid -Why Does Obama Have Anti-Israel Activists On His List of Rabbi Supporters? submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Alan Caruba/Family Security Matters -Destroying our military from within submitted by The Political Commentator
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Iowahawk –Stars Get In Your Eyes submitted by The Watcher
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 vote -FrontpageMag.Com –A Disturbing Event: The American Conservative Union Embraces an Islamist submitted by The Right Planet
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote -Jim Treacher/The Daily Caller –Obama pays tribute to Neil Armstrong, the only way he knows how submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Sultan Knish –Countdown in Tehran and Jerusalem submitted by The Noisy Room
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -The Contentious Centrist –On Hypocrites and Double Standards submitted by Simply Jews
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Jennifer Rubin –Is the liberal echo chamber a trap? submitted by Gay Patriot
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Big Jolly Politics –Harris County Democrats: no diversity, no tolerance submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -PowerLine –The Outside Story of the Obama Campaign submitted by Bookworm Room
  
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Taki’s Magazine –No Brain, No Vote! submitted by The Razor.

Point - counterpoint

Daniel Blatt aka Gay Patriot asks Why do some Americans who favor “smaller government with fewer services” continue to back Democrats?

Dave Schuler of The Glittering Eye tells Why We Must Change, but on the way does a pretty good job of explaining why there isn’t much chance that, regardless of who is elected in November and regardless of intentions, we will shrink the size of the federal government appreciably.

So I guess Daniel's question is answered: no one seriously believes that a change in the governing party will really cut down the size of the pork barrel.

So there.

Rachel Corrie contributed to her own (regrettable) death: the judge says so

From the Tablet, and an extremely useful counterweight to the inevitable Guardian whitewash, although, of course, because the article attempts to be balanced, it will, regrettably, be dismissed by many as irredeemably pro-Israel and therefore of little worth.

However, there is this fascinating paragraph from The Tablet on this issue: "Despite the warning by her own country’s state department against travel to Gaza, Rachel Corrie went anyway, entered a closed military zone where the IDF had been attacked hours before, and evaded prior efforts by the Israeli army to move her and other activists from the area. Judge Oded Gershon said as much in his 62-page decision: Corrie had put herself in danger. He also did not see evidence that proved Corrie had been in the line of sight of the driver of the bulldozer that struck her.*"

In British legal terms (thank you, better half), this is known as "contributory negligence" and often results in (in civil cases for damages) reduced damages or even the dismissal of a case.

Just what happened here.

Of course, both the Israeli legal system and the whole of Israel (not just the IDF) is in a no-win situation here: had the Corrie family won, both the bulldozer driver and the whole of the IDF/Israeli society would have been condemned as mindless brutes who care nothing for anyone who isn't an Israeli (or, in the worst cases, Jewish). In the actual situation, no doubt the whole Israeli legal system will be dismissed as biased in favour of the same group.

No-one in the (broadly defined) BDS camp will bother to remind us that the self-same Israeli legal system has sent numerous Israeli soldiers, border policemen and even civilians to prison for carrying out unlawful acts of violence against non-Israelis. Of course not, the truth would terminally undermine their case.

While I'm here, there is this further paragraph from this article that I thinks sums up the whole issue for those of us who believe in Israel's right to exist in peace and security (wherever we are on the conventional political spectrum): "Meanwhile, the Israel that traded 1,000 prisoners for Shalit’s life is the same Israel that still lamented Corrie’s death even while deciding that it was not at fault. It is also the same Israel that, while extremely flawed, investigated the circumstances of Corrie’s death and carried out a long and painful trial that less moral countries wouldn’t have bothered with."

By the way, today's Times (of London) reports that gorgeous George Galloway has accepted a tainted fee from a pro-Assad tv station. You'll have to take my word for it (given that The Times is behind an on-line pay-wall) and I am relying on a brief glimpse of the paper while my wife showed me the article - she's still out and has the paper.

By Brian Goldfarb.

(*) By the editor: not only there was no evidence that proved Corrie had been in the line of sight of the driver of the bulldozer, "four experts — including an expert on the behalf of the Corrie family — concluded that the bulldozer driver could not see Corrie."

Simply Che

Number 15:

Where the ultimate insults are concerned, that one should be the ultimatest...

Al Qaeda recruiting via the Internet - and I know why

It looks like the best and bravest of the ultra-Islamist outfit have some HR trouble brewing, as the TOI noticed:

Apparently low on bombers, al-Qaeda is running a (short-term) employment advertisement on its Shumukh al-Islam Internet forum. Under the heading “Area of activity: The planet Earth,” the ad seeks jihadists to carry out suicide attacks.

Applicants must be Muslim, mentally mature, dedicated, able to listen, and utterly committed to completing their mission, the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Tuesday.

From what I hear, 3500 eager candidates have already answered the ad, however compared to the total number of Muslims in the world, it is a drop in the ocean. And the reason for the numbers being that low is not in the inner controversy between the offered job and the requirement of mental maturity, although the two is difficult to reconcile. The real problem is that demand that the candidates be "utterly committed to completing their mission", which is no more than a thinly veiled hint at the undefined period of excruciating anal discomfort:

A 2010 Arabic news video that is making the rounds on the Internet gives the details. Apparently a cleric, one Abu al-Dema al-Qasab, informed jihadis of an "innovative and unprecedented way to execute martyrdom operations: place explosive capsules in your anus. However, to undertake this jihadi approach you must agree to be sodomized for a while to widen your anus so it can hold the explosives."

Even assuming that one is a penniless seventh son of a seventh son, unable to get an education and/or to come up with a necessary number of camels to pay for one bride (not to mention prescribed four), ugly as sin, sickish and in general values his own life below that of a cockroach - still the offer is not something that could be accepted without qualms.

What if, after an unknown period of anal improvement, the candidate fails some other test - for instance ability to walk normally in order not to offer a dead giveaway to the security agents? All the pain for nothing, aside of the funny way of walking and no 72 virgins on the horizon...

It's time for some creative thinking, Mr al-Zawahiri, and no buts about it.

On the devolution of Julian Assange

Ezra Levant does a great number on the subject. While I am not at all persuaded about the rape accusations, the part where he speaks about Assange abandoning the declared Wikileaks focus on dictatorships, betraying his co-founders and selling down the river several human rights activists is definitely worth your attention.

So, we really are a people

Please accept my apologies for my absence from these columns these past two weeks or so, but it's been the Olympics here in London, and I've been glued to the tv or listening to the radio while out and about. And didn't the Brits do well? 3rd place overall, ahead of the Russians (and the Australians, but don't let my Oz cousin read this: lovely man, but a bit sensitive on the topic!). The crowds really did roar the GBR athletes on to medal places: we managed a couple of visits, and had sore throats as a result. We've also got tickets for some of the Paralympics events: now there are the real Olympians - overcoming their disabilities (and possibly the depression that goes with becoming disabled) and being prepared to perform in public.

BTW, there's a drama-doc on BBC2 this Thursday at 21.00 BST (and available here for a further 7 days) about Lewis Gutmann, the German-Jewish emigre neurologist who developed the programme that became the Paralympics. Also BTW, The Times (of London and also behind a pay wall - see below - so you'll have to take my word for it) reported last Saturday that (a) sportspeople from democracies have won more medals in total than those from dictatorships and tyrannies in the Modern Olympics - there's food for a PhD someone - and (b) the same is true of countries whose official language is English (so that's why Israel does so badly: nothing to do with world-beating technofreaks).

However, what this is really about is an article in The Tablet that reports on research that shows (as if we didn't know already: if we were less closely related, we wouldn't argue with each other all the time) that Jews are related to each other, even if the links are oddly skewed. Thus, those expelled from Spain and Portugal are relatively closely related to Ashkenazi Jews, and relatively distant from other, older established, North African Jewish communities. Also, most strangely, Syrian Jews are more closely related to Ashkenazis than to other Middle Eastern Jews. Go figure.

The article is here. Unfortunately, online Haaretz has hidden itself behind a pay wall while I wasn't looking, so the internal links won't work. Personally, I already spend enough on media links without adding to the total.

By Brian Goldfarb.

Just as you thought it was safe to open the newspaper again...

Goes away for ages, just to watch people performing all sorts of "sports", then comes back and floods us with postings. The nerve of some people. And I haven't caught up with The Commentator, yet.

Still, I'd like to start with a quote from Nick Cohen (always worth doing). It appears to have gone into hiding on his blog, so I don't have a link, but it's from an Observer column of his (15 July 2012). He says “Is opposition to reaction reactionary? Or a loathing of religious bigotry, bigoted? To slam ‘Islam as oppressive of gay and women’s rights’, said a Guardian columnist last week, is to manifest the ‘progressives’ prejudice’. True liberals did not criticise illiberal religion. They denounced criticism of prejudice as prejudiced.” This is an Alice Through the Looking Glass world with a vengeance. It is now illiberal to criticise illiberalism. How mad is that? And we thought that we were the real liberals and progressives. Plainly not (though I'd rather be behind the same barricade as Nick C. than alongside that Guardian columnist).

It gets worse. The Tablet has an article concerning the Danish paper Jyllands Posten, the one that bravely published all those Mohamed cartoons, and now has to protect itself behind a concrete barrier big enough to stop a (presumably explosive-laden) truck. The following gives you a flavour of the article, and it fits, regrettably, right in with the Nick Cohen quote I started with: "While much of the world condemned the newspaper’s decision to run the cartoons, the vast majority of Danes did not think their government should have apologized. “In Denmark we do not apologize for having freedom of speech,” then-Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at the time, a principled stand...


Yet one of the most important organs of the Danish cultural elite, the state-funded Danish Arts Council, has taken the opposite view of the citizens who subsidize it. A major art exhibit located just steps away from the heavily fortified Jyllands Posten offices at Copenhagen’s Kunsthal Charlottenborg, among the most prominent contemporary art museums in Europe, makes the case that it is the cartoonist Westergaard, his newspaper colleagues, the former prime minister, and other Western leaders who are the enemies of free expression—not those who continue to call for the murder of cartoonists and publishers."
Makes you wonder why you bother to get up in the morning! Full story here.

Just to really make your day, The Tablet also has this from JPost. It seems that the Deputy Foreign Minister of South Africa, one Ebrahim Ismael Ebrahim, made a call on Sunday to his countrymen to refrain from visiting Israel. Yep, this is the country that insists that it is against boycotts. "A rose by any other name..."

See what trouble we get into just by continuing to be. So be it: I'm not going to roll over and make their lives any easier for them. Besides, the Olympics are over and the Rugby season doesn't start for another 2 weeks.

By Brian Goldfarb.

The Council Has Spoken!

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 2/3 votes! Joshuapundit –Tom Friedman Beclowns Himself On Israel – Again
• Second place*t* with 2 1/3 votes – The Right Planet-On Death ground
• Second Place *t* with 2 1/3 votes – The Razor- When I Met Salman Rushdie
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes – The Political Commentator- A talking horse? Is that really what this election is all about? (Video)
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Bookworm Room - Lemmings and herded cats — musings on Japan and America
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Independent Sentinel-Officer Phillip Cardillo Cannot Be Memorialized Thanks to Louis Farrakhan
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Noisy Room- Making Oregon a “Dry State”
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Simply Jews – Norman Finkelstein and Tablet
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Romney Vs. Obama On Investment
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey –A gay man’s view of the Chick-fil-A imbroglio
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Glittering Eye –The Marilyn Monroe Anniversary
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi – Winston Churchill, US Citizen

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 4 2/3 votes! – Victor Davis Hanson-California: The Road Warrior Is Here submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Jonathan S. Tobin –Palestinians Waiting for Obama to Win submitted by Gay Patriot
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Yid With Lid – How the US Government Should Deal with the Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital Issue submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Third place *t* with 1 vote -Confessions Of A Closet Republican -Honor Killings, the latest rash of Muslim Misogyny submitted by Simply Jews
• Third place *t* with 1 vote The Arabist -On the Attacks in the Sinai submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Third place *t* with 1 vote - Barry Rubin –The Meaning of the Egypt-Israel Cross-Border Attack submitted by The Watcher
• Third place *t* with 1 vote - Seraphic Secret –Romney Is Right on Culture and the Wealth of Nations submitted by The Watcher
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Wired.Com –How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Grand Blog Tarkin –The Jedi Way of War submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Paul Kengor/American Spectator – All in the (Political) Family submitted by The Noisy Room
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Gavin McInnes, Taki’s Magazine –Whose Country Is it, Anyway? submitted by The Razor

This Week’s Watcher’s Council Nominations – Dog Days Edition

Council Submissions

• Simply Jews – Norman Finkelstein and Tablet
• The Noisy Room – Making Oregon a “Dry State”
• Joshuapundit-Tom Friedman Beclowns Himself On Israel – Again
• The Independent Sentinel – Officer Phillip Cardillo Cannot Be Memorialized Thanks to Louis Farrakhan
• The Political Commentator – A talking horse? Is that really what this election is all about? (Video)
• Gay Patriot – Chick-fil-A: Latest object of the left’s “two-minute” hate – Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day: response to left-wing bullying
• The Colossus of Rhodey – A gay man’s view of the Chick-fil-A imbroglio
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Pussy Riot!!
• The Razor – When I Met Salman Rushdie
• Bookworm Room – Lemmings and herded cats — musings on Japan and America
• The Glittering Eye -The Marilyn Monroe Anniversary
• The Mellow Jihadi – Winston Churchill, US Citizen
• The Right Planet – On Death ground
• Rhymes With Right – Romney Vs. Obama On Investment
• VA Right! - Defending the American Dream Summit 2012

Honorable Mentions

• Right Truth – Christians told: “Renounce your faith or stay in prison”
• Ask Marion – Palin Derangement Syndrome Continues
• The Pirates Cove – Awesome: 2nd Worst President Ever To Address DNC In Primetime To Help Reelect Worst President Ever

Non-Council Submissions

• Confessions Of A Closet Republican – Honor Killings, the latest rash of Muslim Misogyny submitted by Simply Jews
• Paul Kengor/American Spectator –All in the (Political) Family submitted by The Noisy Room
• Victor Davis Hanson – California: The Road Warrior Is Here submitted by Joshuapundit
• Yid With Lid – How the US Government Should Deal with the Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital Issue submitted by The Independent Sentinel
• Commentary -The Great Islamist Comebacksubmitted by The Political Commentator
• Jonathan S. Tobin - Palestinians Waiting for Obama to Win submitted by Gay Patriot
• The Weekly Standard – Dignity Defined submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• The Arabist – On the Attacks in the Sinai submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Gavin McInnes, Taki’s Magazine –Whose Country Is it, Anyway? submitted by The Razor
• Wired.Com-How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking submitted by Bookworm Room
• Grand Blog Tarkin – The Jedi Way of War submitted by The Glittering Eye
• BLACKFIVE –Sympathy for the Sikhs submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Gulag Bound – Collectivism in America? Conspiracy of Left & Right? Listen to G. Edward Griffin submitted by The Right Planet
• Barry Rubin – The Meaning of the Egypt-Israel Cross-Border Attack submitted by The Watcher
• Seraphic Secret – Romney Is Right on Culture and the Wealth of Nations submitted by The Watcher

Iran: Syria part of 'axis of resistance'

Uhu... we heard this already somewhere. Sounded a bit differently, though. No matter...

Fake landing : Mars Curiosity rover is really near Area-51 In Nevada. And the first super-secret image from Mars - here!

As sure as death and taxes:

The supposed landing of the Curiosity was CGI and computer sound effects piped into mission control at JPL in order to fool the engineers, the invited guests, the media and the dumbed down public.

The real rover is in Nevada near Area-51 complete with a Hollywood backdrop standing in for the horizon and the color imaging being re-tuned to a red tint in order to make blue skies look pink and the brown desert soil look deep red.

It's all FAKE, FAKE, FAKE!

And remember where you have seen this first - the really first Mars photograph, kept secret (now we can say unsuccessfully) by NASA:

Now, a big 64K question will be who is depicted there: the Mossad blonde, the 30 ft woman, the... you have a go at it.

Mossad behind Sinai attack, says Muslim Brotherhood. What took them so long?

Don't get excited: the text follows the usual formula:

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said on its website on Monday that the attack on a police station in Sinai on Sunday in which 16 policemen were killed "can be attributed to Mossad" and was an attempt to thwart Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

The statement said the Mossad was trying to abort the Egyptian uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak last year and that it was "imperative to review clauses" of the agreement between Egypt and Israel.

The only question is: why was it published only on Monday, when the whole event took place on Sunday? Hm...

Oh, and the usual crowd is out in force, of course. Check this out.

Update: And yes, some Egyptians are receptive...

What do they mean?

"Penis Growth Free Sample" - the subject line of the first email in my spam box says today. I have seen quite a few spam emails on the subject, but this is the first one with that specific offer.

What exactly do they send you if you ask for that free sample? On the other hand, I am not sure I want to know...