Aifan al-Issawi, leader of the powerful Albu Issa tribe of Anbar Province in Iraq, has been killed in a terrorist attack.[…]
This exchange gives some sense of the priceless strategic position President Obama threw away with his “responsible end to the war in Iraq.” It also gives a sense of the situation Iraq may be sliding toward now.
It bears recalling that we embraced Aifan and his tribe as allies, promised that we would stay by his side, and then, when it suited the new American president, abandoned him to fend for himself. Alas, Aifan’s faith in the worth of America’s promises turned out to be misplaced.
The Sound Of Settled Science
The five-year mean global temperature has been flat for the last decade, which we interpret as a combination of natural variability and a slow down in the growth rate of net climate forcing. – James Hansen et al
O, Sweet Saint Of San Andreas
Hear my prayer. (h/t EBD)
In The Mail
| Glock – the Rise of America’s Gun by Paul M. Barrett |
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It’s Probably Nothing
… in what is the biggest news of the week, and possibly the year, the Bundesbank has broken away from its “all is well” posturing exhibited as recently as three months ago, and in a dramatic reversal of its diplomatic position, has demanded repatriation of some of its NY Fed and all of its Paris-domiciled gold.
h/t Adrian
Days of Anarchy?
Is Canada about to be paralyzed for a day or more? OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis appears to have given the green light to those who wish to do so.
Throughout Wednesday, please feel free to post first-hand accounts from your community, with links to photos & videos if you have them.
Update: Idle No More backfires . . . BIG TIME: Audio clip from Charles Adler’s show
Reader Tips
In tonight’s entertainment en route to the Tips, vocalist Edythe Wright, backed by American bandleader and trombonist Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra, asks us, as if with a concerned nudge, Are You Having Any Fun?
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Honey, I Finished The Internet
Why Is There Always A Big Screen TV?
Say, how’s that #idlenomore thing working out for ya?
The chief received an approval rating of 29 per cent in a new Ipsos Reid poll conducted exclusively for Global News and Postmedia News.
The survey suggests the Idle No More movement hasn’t garnered much sympathy for Canada’s First Nations, but rather, raised awareness about financial accountability on the reserves.
Nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) of poll respondents believe Canada’s First Nations receive too much federal funding. About the same number (62 per cent) believe Ottawa treats Aboriginals well.
But Aboriginals are also creating problems for themselves, according to more than half (60 per cent) of respondents.
Strong And Free
Scratch a Leftist
While researching my book, yesterday I came across a fascinating FBI report from 1970 that was declassified under the Freedom of Information Act in 2009. Titled, “FBI Monograph: Fedayeen Impact – Middle East and United States, June 1970,” it is focused on the PLO, and Fatah’s penetration of the American political Left.
As the report puts it, “Since the June 1967, war, reports emanating from various sources have suggested that the Arabs have co-opted black extremists in the United States to assist the ‘struggle’ against Israel in the Middle East and in the United States.”
In the section on PLO operations in the US, The monograph discussed its outreach to the African American political leadership and the radical white establishment. These sections of the report are fascinating and I recommend you take an hour or so to read the entire document yourself.
[…]
The Soviet Union openly sided with the Arabs in the Six Day War and cut off relations with Israel immediately following the war. The radical American Left, populated by the Communist Party USA and other Communist front groups and New Left groups abandoned Israel at the same time. This mass abandonment included the Progressive Labor Party; Students for a Democratic Society, (SDS); SDS-Weathermen; the Socialist Workers Party; Workers World Party; and the Communist Party – USA, (CPUSA).
Since President Obama’s political world is populated by individuals from all these groups, and since Obama launched his political career in the living room of SDS-Weathermen terror commanders Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, it is worth noting that in the SDS-Weathermen magazine “SDS Fire” December 6, 1969 issue, contained an editorial stating that “Arab peoples, above all the Palestinian people, will not and cannot accept the existence of Israel, a colonial-type creature imposed by outside forces on the area.”
h/t Adrian
Not Waiting For The Asteroid
“We have temporarily suspended this advertising campaign pending a review of our policies that govern sponsor content and subsequent comment threads.”
The Children Are Our Future
And that’s why I’ve invested in subterranean housing – University of Toronto student group hosts “epic sex club adventure”.
What We Really Need Is Democracy
With a Jew-hating theocracy to vote for;
There are a lot of illusions out there about how the exercise of power will moderate the Muslim Brotherhood and similar groups. To some degree, Morsi’s record in office shows a pragmatic willingness to maintain a treaty he deeply loathes with the “sons of apes and pigs.” But we would do better to think of this as caution rather than moderation. If a real opportunity presented itself to destroy the Jewish state, there can be little doubt that Morsi and the members of his movement would think it their duty to act.
“No Guns, No Violence”
Project Veritas offers Gun Free Zone signs to members of gun free media.
Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Barack Obama, 2006 – “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit [to $8.9T] is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay its own bills. … I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”
Barack Obama, 2013 – “Chuck, what I’m saying to you is that there is no simpler solution, no ready, credible solution, other than Congress either give me the authority to raise the debt ceiling [to $16.4T], or exercise the responsibility that they have kept for themselves and raise the debt ceiling. Because this is about paying your bills.”
The second link is worth reading, if only for the novelty of seeing journalists ask this President bona fide questions. (Video here)
Related: President Downgrade
h/t Canadian Friend
Reader Tips
Tonight, the late Jackie Vernon recounts the heartwarming, romantic, and inspirational Legend Of The Lake.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
You’re Screwed!
“The world doesn’t need any more girls with Spanish degrees from California State, Long Beach. Sorry, but it just doesn’t. We need you gals to learn how to build software in equal number with your male peers.”
Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?
Americans bought enough guns in last two months to outfit the entire Chinese and Indian armies.
The Sound Of Settled Science
Rottweiler study links ovaries with exceptional longevity;
The study, published in the December 2009 issue of the journal Aging Cell, found that Rottweilers that were spayed after they were 6 years old were 4.6 times as likely to reach 13 years of age as were Rottweilers that were spayed at a younger age.
The finding is important because the average life expectancy of Rottweiler dogs is 9.4 years, observed research team leader Dr. David J. Waters. “Our results support the notion that how long females keep their ovaries influences how long they live,” he said.
Dr. Waters is the executive director of the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation at the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Ind. The foundation is home to the Center for Exceptional Longevity Studies, which tracks the oldest living pet dogs in the country.
[…]
Researchers found that female Rottweilers have a distinct survival advantage over males–a trend also documented in humans. That advantage appears to be determined by whether the female dog is sexually intact, however. “Taking away ovaries during the first four years of life completely erased the female survival advantage,” Dr. Waters said.
There remain many good reasons to reproductively alter the family dog, but most are related to owner convenience – the health “benefits” claimed are a decidedly mixed bag and leash laws have largely solved the problem of unwanted litters. But as “spay-neuter” is a key political and legislative tool in service of the broader animal rights agenda to eradicate the ownership of companion animals, studies such as this have a tendency to be studiously ignored and their authors dismissed as unqualified. It’s not just “climate science” that’s been captured by a leftist agenda.