I’ve discussed the interest Egypt has in Palestinian peace and stability. And Egypt may cancel Palestinian talks because Hamas doesn’t want to play nice.
Continue reading “If Egypt can’t get the Palestinians together, who can?”
Nov 10 2008
If Egypt can’t get the Palestinians together, who can?
Nov 07 2008
Obama brings international acclaim, from people who hate the USA
Arabs happy Obama won… and that Bush’s man lost | Middle East | Jerusalem Post
Arab and Muslim reaction to incoming US President Barack Obama’s electoral victory around the globe has been largely optimistic, but some remain skeptical that Obama will bring significant change to the Middle East.
The excitement appears to be as much a celebration of Obama’s victory as of the perceived defeat of President George W. Bush – in the shape of his would-be Republican successor John McCain – whose foreign policies in the region have drawn widespread criticism from the Arab and Muslim world.
“Farewell racism, farewell tyranny, farewell wars and terrorism,” wrote Muhammad el-Said of Egypt Wednesday on the Facebook social networking site page entitled “The Arab campaign to support Obama…a necessity and a moral obligation.”
In rare praise, Syria’s state-run newspaper Al-Thawra said Thursday that it “extends its hand to Obama,” that his win “inspired” people around the world and that the American people should be congratulated for electing him.
One can only wonder how tangible was the “necessary and moral” support for Obama. “The Arab campaign to support Obama” sounds like a possible source for all the “untraceable” donations that came into the Obama campaign via its validation-free online credit-card donation system. Somehow, I suspect some of those donations came from Ali Baba… or one of his friends.
Then there’s this, after the 9/11 attacks:
Let’s try to put this another way, for perspective. What would have been the reaction of the American media and the Democrats if a Republican president-elect was hailed as a new beginning by an obviously racist, apartheid regime, maybe something like South Africa some years back? Would Democrats and the media be talking about how this means the new president will be able to reach out and negotiate effectively with the racist regime?
SURE they would….
Nov 05 2008
Historic Election: the understatement of the year
President-elect Obama’s victory is proof of several things about America, some good, some not so good. I’ll explore them at length, sometime soon.
Unlike the Left, which seems always to hope for the worst whenever Republicans are in power, I hope Obama’s presidency is marked by calmness, prosperity for all, peace, graceful resolution of conflict, and unity at home. If I could do anything to bring about an 8 year reign at the end of which we have not been attacked, there are no new (or rediscovered) deadly enemies looming on the horizon, Israel is at peace, our economy is humming, and social problems are significantly reduced, I would do it.
Come to think of it, the one thing we can all do is pray, genuine earnest prayer that his presidency will be as described above.
Unfortunately, that probably also means praying that he does not keep all of his campaign promises, or is blocked, somehow, in carrying them out. This is not snark; some of what he has promised will be deadly to some of us, sometime during his presidency, in all likelihood (difficult to know exactly who and when, of course). I hope his declaration of Christian faith was sincere, and I hope he prays sincerely for guidance. If he does, and tells the press about it, it will be interesting to compare their reactions to what they said about Bush’s piety.
The president-elect is a magnificent campaigner (at least, when he has an utterly compliant media backing his play, a factor which will change fairly soon, I think). He is going to learn that his charm will be utterly lost on our enemies, and many of our allies, hopefully not as riskily as John F. Kennedy, who nearly led us into nuclear exchange with the Soviets by showing weakness earlier. I’m not sure he knows just yet that he can’t hope to retain the grand acclaim with which he was received on his “credential building” world tour/”royal progress”, but perhaps God will guide his hand in choosing advisers, and some will be able to educate him. Perhaps the intelligence and military briefings he will receive during the transition period will sober him. Perhaps he will learn the craft of placating the radical Left, his most vociferous supporters, while not doing the radically stupid thing that leaves us vulnerable to our enemies. We can hope, and pray that he does not believe the praises heaped upon him by his acolytes.
He might benefit from someone following him around saying, “You are not a god. You are not a god.” Unfortunately, he may believe his own campaign releases.
It would be lovely if Russia, China and resurgent radical Islam would just fight it out between themselves, and leave us out of it, until it was time for us, being Americans, to send in humanitarian relief via the Navy, Air Force and Marines. I do not expect that to happen. All of our competitors know we’re the big dog they have to take down. We will not be able to lie down and look inoffensive and hope to be left alone. It has been tried already. It has never worked, and won’t this time, either. But our memory is short, as the election proves, and so painful reminders will sooner or later be the order of the day, I suspect.
Here are a few reflections from Power Line.
The historic election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States calls for reflections far beyond these provisional thoughts, but here are ten:
Nov 03 2008
A BUNCH of knockout videos, short, sweet, and to the point: bumped AGAIN!
I think these videos are so great that I just want to keep them up front and center, so I may promote them occasionally. Here they are again!
This is the campaign to defeat Obama, in a nutshell.
I watched them all. Obama supporters may complain about interpretations, but these videos do not have a factual error I can see. They’re quite concise, delivered engagingly, and make their point very clearly.
The McCain campaign should take a lesson from these people.
Nov 02 2008
On Redistribution
We can tolerate some redistribution. Government always does some of it. But it is toxic for economies, because it distorts markets, which means it distorts production that sells to those markets. Nevertheless, some toxicity is tolerable (medicine is toxic, too, after all, in a good cause), and governments seem unable to resist the temptation to pick winners and losers.
But as with most toxic things (medicines as well as simple poisons), there are 4 dosage ranges.
Nov 01 2008
Dissent is patriotic, right?
An interesting report here about the Obama campaign dumping reporters not willing to be “useful idiots”. Much more at the link, but first check the cartoon below.
The Drudge Report is running a story about three newspapers having been kicked off the Obama campaign plane for the last 72 hours of the race— the Dallas Morning News, the NY Post, and the Washington Times, all of which endorsed McCain on their editorial pages.
Nov 01 2008
In cartoons, nothing is real
Mark Steyn, author of the brilliant America Alone, has taken off the three-D glasses and looked directly at the screen, finding it out of focus but still disturbing.
Obama in 2-D by Mark Steyn on National Review Online
In Tokyo last week, over a thousand people signed a new petition asking the Japanese government to permit marriages between human beings and cartoon characters. “I am no longer interested in three dimensions. I would even like to become a resident of the two-dimensional world,” explained Taichi Takashita. “Therefore, at the very least, would it be possible to legally authorize marriage with a two-dimensional character?”
Get back to me on that Tuesday night. We’ll know by then whether an entire constitutional republic has decided to contract marriage with a two-dimensional character and to attempt to take up residence in the two-dimensional world. For many of his supporters, Barack Obama is an idea. He offers “hope, not fear”. “Hope” of what? “Hope” of “change.” Okay, but “change” to what? Ah, well, there you go again, getting all hung up on three-dimensional reality, when we’ve moved way beyond that. I don’t know which cartoon character Taichi Takashita is eyeing as his betrothed, but up in the sky Obamaman is flying high, fighting for Hope, Change, and a kind of Post-Modern American Way.
Continue reading “In cartoons, nothing is real”
Nov 01 2008
Pro-life and for Obama? You’re DEEPLY confused and ill informed
Opinion: Robert P. George on ‘Obama’s Abortion Extremism’ – Catholic Online
Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress.Yet there are Catholics and Evangelicals-even self-identified pro-life Catholics and Evangelicals – who aggressively promote Obama’s candidacy and even declare him the preferred candidate from the pro-life point of view.
What is going on here?
Indeed. The entire article above is worth reading. Just click the link.
Nov 01 2008
Pro-Life for Obama?
Here are two links to sites claiming you can be pro-life and for Obama. Raise gullibility shields now.
Oct 31 2008
Taxing Credulity
Not exactly a scintillating read, but a sober summary of the candidates’ positions and differences on taxation. The first few graphs: (much more, with supporting charts and text, at the link)
Either Republican Senator John McCain or Democratic Senator Barack Obama will have to make very important decisions on tax policy when he takes office in January 2009. First, the U.S. economy will be recovering from the financial crisis and is already predicted to grow less than its usual rate of 3.3 percent over the last 50 years.[1] Second, President George W. Bush’s tax cuts will expire in 2011, and the President must decide how to extend or make permanent some of the tax cut provisions.
Senator McCain will make the Bush tax cuts permanent, with the exception of the estate tax. McCain credited the Bush tax cuts with helping the economy recover after the 2001 recession.
Senator Obama, on the other hand, will extend the Bush tax cuts only for those taxpayers who earn less than $250,000 a year—he has deemed the rest of the people “rich.” Senator Obama will also enact new tax increases on these rich individuals as well as a series of targeted tax credits for lower-income individuals. Senator Obama believes that the current tax system is not progressive enough and that higher taxes on the rich should be used to give money to low-income individuals or those who do not work at all, such as retired people, reduce the deficit, and reduce the size of Social Security’s shortfall.
In other words, Obama isn’t planning merely to return to the higher taxes under Clinton for “the rich”, he plans to tax them even MORE than Clinton’s Democrat congress voted in 1993, when Clinton “discovered” that he couldn’t keep his campaign pledge to lower taxes for the middle class after all. One can’t help but wonder if Obama will discover that “the rich” are those making more than $50K-$70K per year, when his staff really crunches the numbers.
Those windmills are going to be expensive.
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