Cowardice always fails...and kills-----How Islamists Are Slowly Desensitizing Europe And America

How Islamists Are Slowly Desensitizing Europe And America
The freakouts when people raise valid questions over Islamist actions are meant to frighten people into silence so Islamists can continue their attacks.
Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine whose offices Islamists attacked in 2015, published an editorial recently titled “How Did We Get Here?” that has raised some eyebrows.
In it, they ask how Europe has become where European-born Muslims have attacked the hearts of Paris and Brussels. 
Their answer has proved distasteful to many on the Left.
The editorial has been harshly criticized and the magazine accused of racism and xenophobia. 
The Washington Post says Charlie Hebdo blames extremism on individual Muslims—the veiled woman on the street, the man selling kebabs.
There’s some truth to this accusation, and to the extent that there is, Charlie Hebdo is wrong.
But this, and other critiques, miss the larger point of the article, which is to demonstrate the gradual and quotidian way in which criticizing Islam has been silenced.
It’s worth quoting Charlie Hebdo at length:
"In reality, the attacks are merely the visible part of a very large iceberg indeed. They are the last phase of a process of cowing and silencing long in motion and on the widest possible scale. Our noses are endlessly rubbed in the rubble of Brussels airport and in the flickering candles amongst the bouquets of flowers on the pavements. All the while, no one notices what’s going on in Saint-German-en-Laye. 
...Tariq Ramadan is never going to grab a Kalashnikov with which to shoot journalists at an editorial meeting. Nor will he ever cook up a bomb to be used in an airport concourse. Others will be doing all that kind of stuff. It will not be his role. His task, under cover of debate, is to dissuade people from criticising his religion in any way. The political science students who listened to him last week will, once they have become journalists or local officials, not even dare to write nor say anything negative about Islam. The little dent in their secularism made that day will bear fruit in a fear of criticising lest they appear Islamophobic. That is Tariq Ramadan’s task."
The Charlie Hebdo editorial correctly points out that in Europe the dominant liberal culture has pounded into us that we must adapt to Muslims who come to our country, and never ask them to adapt to any of our ways. 
Doing so would be colonialist and wrong.
It’s a double standard, of course.
As the welcoming countries, Europeans must suppress their own culture and ideals for those of the Islamic immigrant population.
But when they go abroad to non-Western countries, either to live or to visit, it’s considered offensive not to adapt to their ways of life..."

AM Fruitcake

History for April 9

History for April 9 - On-This-Day.com:
Charles Proteus Steinmetz 1865, Frank King 1883 - Cartoonist, creator of "Gasoline Alley" cartoon strip, Ward Bond 1903 - Actor ("It’s a Wonderful Life", "The Maltese Falcon") 


Hugh Hefner 1926 - Publisher, Michael Learned 1939 - Actress ("The Waltons", "All My Sons"), Dennis Quaid 1954 - Actor ("Wyatt Earp", "The Right Stuff"), brother of Randy Quaid 


1865 - At Appomattox Court House, Virginia, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the parlor of Wilmer McClean's home. Grant allowed Rebel officers to keep their sidearms and permitted soldiers to keep their horses and mules. Though there were still Confederate armies in the field, the war was officially over. The four years of fighting had killed 360,000 Union troops and 260,000 Confederate troops.


1867 - The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty with Russia that purchased the territory of Alaska by one vote.


1916 - The German army launched it’s third offensive during the Battle of Verdun.


1940 - Germany invaded Norway and Denmark.


1942 - In the Battle of Bataan, American and Filipino forces were overwhelmed by the Japanese Army.


1950 - Bob Hope made his first television appearance on "Star-Spangled Review" on NBC-TV.


1959 - NASA announced the selection of America's first seven astronauts.


1967 - The first Boeing 737 was rolled out for use.

AZ to Grant Driver's Licenses to Illegal Immigrants

AZ to Grant Driver's Licenses to Illegal Immigrants:

"Earlier today, a three-judge panel of the infamous Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an injunction against an Arizona policy denying drivers licenses to DACA recipients.  That initial injunction was ordered by a Republican-appointed judge, which tells you the insufferable judiciary is a bipartisan problem.
Whereas for 200 years our judicial system ruled that Congress has full authority over immigration and that illegal immigrants have no affirmative right to remain in the country, Judge Pregerson, the judge writing this liberal screed, ruled that Arizona had violated … you guessed it … the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.  Illegal aliens, who are to be placed into deportation proceedings pursuant to laws duly passed by Congress, now have an equal “right” to not only remain in the country but receive driver’s licenses. "

Pay Up: Americans Spend More on Taxes Than on Food, Clothing, Shelter

Pay Up: Americans Spend More on Taxes Than on Food, Clothing, Shelter:
"...it takes Americans 

• 46 days to earn enough to pay federal, state and local individual income taxes, 
• 26 days for payroll taxes, 
• 15 days for sales and excise taxes, 
• 11 days for property taxes, 
• 9 days for corporate income taxes and 
• 7 days for estate, inheritance, customs duties and other taxes."

Only 3 US Airports Screen Employees Daily Before Work

Only 3 US Airports Screen Employees Daily Before Work:
"At Senate Commerce Committee session, lawmakers heard that only three airports in the United States require their employees to undergo a security check before they begin their work day.
“Atlanta, Miami, Orlando.
What about the other 297 airports nationwide?” asked committee co-chair Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida).
TSA (Transportation Security Administration) head Robert Neffenger answered that while the TSA has “increased the inspection of employees five-fold in the last five months,” more needs to be done.
Neffenger said that all airports were asked to provide a report by the end of the month assessing their vulnerabilies.
A 2015 TSA committee concluded most airports could not afford daily employee screening.
In addition, they said the full screening would not “appreciably increase the overall system-wide protection.”
“No single measure can provide broad-spectrum protection against risks or adversaries,” the committee concluded.
“Therefore, risk-based, multi-layered security offers the greatest ability to mitigate risks through the application of flexible and unpredictable measures to protect commercial aviation.”
The report argued daily screening “is incapable of determining a person’s motivations, attitudes and capabilities to cause harm, among other limitations.”
The Senate committee also heard from Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who assured the Senators recent reports that 73 airport employees were suspected to have terrorist ties were misleading."

Democrats keep using Benghazi as a pejorative. Here’s why they should take it seriously. | Select Committee on Benghazi

Democrats keep using Benghazi as a pejorative. Here’s why they should take it seriously. | Select Committee on Benghazi:

"Contradicting Sen. Reid’s accusations is the fact that seven Democrats joined House Republicans in voting to create the Select Committee, and its membership ratio (seven to five) is less partisan than others created in the past under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (nine to six). The top Democrat on the committee even admitted in a moment of honesty that Republicans’ questioning of Huma Abedin was “overall fair,” and after Cheryl Mills testified she said Republicans were respectful and professional. As Chairman Gowdy explained, “The integrity of this investigation is my utmost concern. In fact, I have refused requests from the majority staff of other congressional committees to view our transcripts.”

As for the idea that the committee’s October hearing was “a flop” that produced “no new information,” in fact, it yielded numerous significant revelations, as many have reported:"

How the ACA Is Really Performing

How the ACA Is Really Performing | Economics21:
In March of this year the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) released a presentation on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) six years in. 
The document portrays the ACA in a very favorable light, as one would expect for one of the Obama administration’s signature pieces of legislation. 
A fuller and more objective understanding of the ACA, however, requires examination of facts beyond those which its advocates, or its detractors, may wish to emphasize.

The CEA presentation is notable in reflecting the core components of ACA advocates’ case for the law.
 It is fourteen slides long, and I find that its points break down into five main themes (in my own words):

1. The ACA represents a historic expansion of health insurance coverage (slides 2, 3 and 4).
2. The ACA is achieving policy goals such as reducing patient harm and hospital readmissions (slides 5, 12 and 13).
3. The ACA is helping to slow the growth of health care costs (slides 6, 7, 8 and 11).
4. The ACA has been good for job creation (slide 14).
5. The ACA is improving the federal fiscal outlook (slides 9 and 10).

The first two of these are reasonable, defensible claims, though they also involve subjective value judgments. 

The last three are more problematic; there is little evidence for #3, whereas the totality of the evidence points in the opposite direction from assertions #4 and #5. 
Dissecting the five themes in order:
Read on!

Do we even own things anymore?

Glenn Reynolds: Do we even own things anymore?
"...But back to Gilbert’s story.
He’s a gadget fan, and Google has left him hanging. 
Here’s how he tells it:
“Seventeen months ago, Google acquired Revolv, a very cool home automation hub. 
It is a small circular device about the size of a small container of hummus that uses a variety of common home automation radios to communicate with light switches, garage door openers, home alarms, motion sensors, A/C controllers etc. ... 
When I arrive home my lights turn on. 
In lieu of motion detecting lights, I have a Z-wave motion detector that notifies my Revolv when there is motion on any side of our home and turns on the appropriate lights. 
Although I do set a home alarm, there is really no more effective vacation security than the programmatic turning on, dimming, and turning off of lights in a manner that would indicate that people are home. 
After buying my Revolv I put my outdoor landscaping light on it and threw away the old timer. 
Now at Sunset my landscape lighting turns on. Holiday lighting does the same. It’s magical.”
But as we all know, in the fairy tales the “magical” tool that makes everything wonderful always has a catch. 
In Gilbert’s case, the catch is that Google will shut down his device. 
They won’t just stop updating it, or end support. 
They’ll turn it off. 
Even though it “belongs” to Gilbert.
Gilbert notes: “On May 15th, my house will stop working. 
My landscape lighting will stop turning on and off, my security lights will stop reacting to motion, and my home made vacation burglar deterrent will stop working. 
This is a conscious intentional decision by Google/Nest.”
They’re “bricking” his device, making it an inanimate lump of circuitry that no more useful than a brick.
Or, actually, less useful, since you can build things with bricks.
They can do this because although you own the hardware, you don’t actually own the software in your devices; technically, when you buy the device, you just get a license to use the software.
(In a similar situation, General Motors and John Deere have said that they still own the software in the cars and other vehicles you buy.)

Lunch video-----After 70 years, World War II Pilot Flies the B-25 again!

Noon-toon

Limbaugh Heard The Warning Obama Admin Just Issued, Immediately Exposes What It's REALLY About...

Limbaugh Heard The Warning Obama Admin Just Issued, Immediately Exposes What It's REALLY About...:

"A new edict from the Obama administration has its roots in race-based thinking and a purpose that lurks below the surface, conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued guidelines saying that because there is “widespread racial and ethnic disparities” in the U.S. criminal justice system, landlords who refuse to rent to convicted criminals could “lack a legally sufficient justification” in doing so. The current Fair Housing Act does not make it illegal to refuse to rent to criminals.

“The Regime has told landlords they cannot refuse to rent to criminals,” Limbaugh said. “Wait ’til you hear why.”"

Government Will Soon Owe More Money Than Entire Economy Produces

Government Will Soon Owe More Money Than Entire Economy Produces
Report finds issues with reliability of government’s financial statements, improper payments
An auditor for the Government Accountability Office told lawmakers Wednesday that in the next few years the federal government will owe more than our entire economy produces.
Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general for the Government Accountability Office, testified at the Senate Budget Committee to provide the results of its audit on the government’s financial books.
“We’re very heavily leveraged in debt,” Dodaro said.

• “The historical average post-World War II of how much debt we held as a percent of gross domestic product was 43 percent on average; right now we’re at 74 percent.”

Dodaro says that under current law, debt held by the public will hit a historic high.
“The highest in the United States government’s history of debt held by the public as a percent of gross domestic product was 1946, right after World War II,” he said.
“We’re on mark to hit that in the next 15 to 25 years.”
Another economic projection which assumes that cost controls for Medicare don’t hold and that healthcare costs continue to increase, shows debt rising even further.

• “These projections go to 200, 300 percent, and even higher of debt held by the public as a percent of gross domestic product,” said Dodaro. 

“We’re going to owe more than our entire economy is producing and by definition this is not sustainable.”
Additionally, the audit found fault with the number of improper payments that should not have been made or were the incorrect amount.

• The audit found that in fiscal year 2015 there were $136.7 billion improper payments, which was up by $12 billion from the year prior.
• The audit also called into question the reliability of the government’s financial statements..."

Richmond, California gang members are being paid to stop shooting each other

Richmond, California gang members are being paid to stop shooting each other | Daily Mail Online

Gang members in Richmond are being paid $1,300 a month to stop shooting each other and even get to go on all expenses paid trips to New York (if they travel with a rival)

• Part-taxpayer-funded scheme has been introduced in the Californian area
• Gang members receive a maximum $1,300 if they refrain from gun crime
• Paired with men from rival neighborhoods as officials try and decrease rate
• DeVone Boggan founded scheme and said it was about 'paying attention'

Millennials Want Socialism, But Don’t Want to Foot the Bill for It

Millennials Want Socialism, But Don’t Want to Foot the Bill for It | Intellectual Takeout
"...But the Washington Post also offers another bit of telling information. 
Millennials love socialistic ideas – until it’s their turn to fork out the funds to pay for them:
“The expanded social welfare state Sanders thinks the United States should adopt requires everyday people to pay considerably more in taxes. 
Yet millennials become averse to social welfare spending if they foot the bill.
As they reach the threshold of earning $40,000 to $60,000 a year, the majority of millennials come to oppose income redistribution, including raising taxes to increase financial assistance to the poor.”
Similarly, a Reason-Rupe poll found that while millennials still on their parents’ health-insurance policies supported the idea of paying higher premiums to help cover the uninsured (57 percent), support flipped among millennials paying for their own health insurance with 59 percent opposed to higher premiums.
When tax rates are not explicit, millennials say they’d prefer larger government offering more services (54 percent) to smaller government offering fewer services (43 percent). 
However when larger government offering more services is described as requiring high taxes, support flips and 57 percent of millennials opt for smaller government with fewer services and low taxes, while 41 percent prefer large government.”...

Cruz: Look at Trump’s checkbook to see ‘New York values’ | TheHill

Cruz: Look at Trump’s checkbook to see ‘New York values’ | TheHill:

"The Texas senator ticked through a list of high-profile New York liberals and disgraced former officials from the state that he said have long been in the pocket of Trump. The billionaire businessman has admitted to donating to Republicans and Democrats alike to curry favor for his business interests.

“The people of New York know exactly what those values are — they’re the values of liberal Democrats like Andrew Cuomo, like Anthony Weiner, like Eliot Spitzer, like Charlie Rangel, all of whom Donald Trump has supported,” Cruz said.

“If you want to know what liberal democratic values are, follow Donald Trump’s checkbook,” he continued. “He has been funding these policies.”

Climate Model Predictions On Rain And Drought Wrong, Study Finds

Climate Model Predictions On Rain And Drought Wrong, Study Finds | The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF):
"Predictions that a warmer ­climate will lead to more rain for some but longer droughts for others might be wrong, according to a study of 12 centuries worth of data.
The study, published today in science journal Nature, found there was no difference between 20th-century rainfall patterns and those in the pre-­industrial era. 
The findings are at odds with earlier studies suggesting climate­ change causes dry areas to become drier and wet areas to become wetter.
Fredrik Ljungqvist and colleagues at Stockholm University analysed previously published records of rain, drought, tree rings, marine sediment and ice cores, each spanning at least the past millennium across the northern hemisphere.
They found that the ninth to 11th and the 20th centuries were comparatively wet and the 12th to 19th centuries were drier, a finding that generally accords with earlier model simulations covering the years 850 to 2005.
However, their reconstruction “does not support the tendency in simulations of the 20th century for wet regions to get wetter and dry regions to get drier in a warmer climate”.
“Our reconstruction reveals that prominent seesaw patterns of alternating moisture regimes observed in instrumental data across the Mediterranean, western USA and China have operated consistently over the past 12 centuries,” the paper says.
The research also highlights the importance of using paleo­climate data to place recent and predicted rainfall-pattern changes in a millennium-long context, the report says."

AM Fruitcake

History for April 8

History for April 8 - On-This-Day.com:
Guatama Buddha 563 BC - 'The Enlightened One' in the Buddhist faith, Sonja Henie 1912 - Ice skater, Elizabeth "Betty" Ford (Bloomer) 1918 - Wife of 38th U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, founder of the Betty Ford Clinic


Shecky Greene (Sheldon Greenfield) 1926 - Comedian, actor ("Laverne and Shirley", "Northern Exposure"), Seymour Hersh 1937 - Investigative reporter, Robin Wright (Robin Wright Penn) 1966 - Actress


1513 - Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain.


1873 - Alfred Paraf patented the first successful oleomargarine.


1913 - The Seventeenth amendment was ratified, requiring direct election of senators.


1952 - U.S. President Truman seized steel mills to prevent a nationwide strike.


1974 - Hank Aaron hits 715th home run breaking Babe Ruth's record.


1986 - Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel, CA.


1994 - Smoking was banned in the Pentagon and all U.S. military bases.

Days of Rage: It’s NOT Just Coming From the Left | Glenn Beck

Days of Rage: It’s NOT Just Coming From the Left | Glenn Beck:

"We have the Black Panthers, we have Occupy Wall Street and we also have the Muslim Brotherhood coordinating for their own summer violence and marches on the streets of America. That’s all well documented, if anybody cares to look, but nobody in the media has looked.

On the other hand, we now have a super PAC of Donald Trump’s speaking out. (I believe that Donald Trump is wrong when he says that Ted Cruz is managing his super PACs. You can’t do that legally. I believe he’s wrong when he says, “Well, they can go around those laws and they know exactly what’s going on, and Ted Cruz can stop those super PACs when and if he wants to.” That would be illegal.) But now Donald Trump’s super PAC, headed by one of his close advisers — a guy who was in the Nixon administration, a guy who studies and adores Saul Alinsky, a guy whose nickname is the Dirty Trickster, the guy who was there at Watergate, a guy who really has no principles whatsoever — he’s now running one of Donald Trump’s super PACs. And he has started to promote the hashtag #daysofrage.

That’s what Chicago was called in 1968. I can’t believe that this is actually happening."

THOUSANDS ARE WAITING FOR PUBIC HOUSING BUT HUD WORKER GETS TWO APARTMENTS IN NO TIME

Instapundit » Blog Archive » THOUSANDS ARE WAITING FOR PUBIC HOUSING BUT HUD WORKER GETS TWO APARTMENTS IN NO TIME
THOUSANDS ARE WAITING FOR PUBIC HOUSING BUT HUD WORKER GETS TWO APARTMENTS IN NO TIME: 
Luke Rosiak of the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group strikes HUD again! 
Seems a HUD employee was able to rent two subsidized apartments by somehow leaping ahead of the hundreds of thousands of poor people waiting for public housing units to become available.

The employee lived in the Alexandria, VA., apartment and sublet the apartment in the nation’s capital to her sister who used it, among other things, to park her Lexus SUV. 
Housing authorities in both cities knew about the arrangement, yet did nothing. When the HUD Inspector General discovered the deal, HUD managers initially promised “severe discipline” for their misbehaving colleague.

Can you guess what comes next?

“But instead of being severely disciplined, Mathis was hastily promoted to a position in charge of giving out millions of tax dollars in federal grants,” Rosiak reports.
So a HUD employee steps on poor people who need places to live and gets a promotion to give away millions of tax dollars instead of being fired.
What’s wrong with this picture???"

Students Call for Police to Censor Classmates' Political Messages

Students Call for Police to Censor Classmates' Political Messages
The University of Michigan is one of our nation’s premier institutions of higher learning.
Young people from all over the country move to Ann Arbor every year to obtain an education and to have their ideas challenged by exposure to fellow students from many walks of life.
Or maybe not.
Last Thursday afternoon, a number of anonymous chalk messages appeared on campus.
But because these innocuous chalk messages read “#StopIslam” and “Trump 2016,” they elicited 911 calls and an apology from the president of the university.
...Apparently such statements constitute “hate speech.”
Nowhere in America is the urge to censor and intimidate dissenting opinion more apparent than on college campuses, where students are treated to “safe spaces” from dissenting opinion and where even mentioning controversial topics will “trigger” feelings of insecurity by the unique snowflakes that are our college students.
Apparently pro-Trump chalkings by students have occurred now on several campuses, and the overreaction by politically correct college administrations has elicited a hashtag for this phenomenon: the #Chalkening.
It started on the campus of Emory University in Georgia, when chalk messages appeared and a number of students complained that the messages constituted anti-minority targeting and made them feel “unsafe.”
The president of the university, James Wagner, vowed to investigate the messages before realizing that the messages constituted free expression..."

Mom Unleashes Fury After Spanish Teacher Sends Children Home With This ‘Privilege’ Assignment | Video | TheBlaze.com

Mom Unleashes Fury After Spanish Teacher Sends Children Home With This ‘Privilege’ Assignment | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"The mother of a Tampa, Florida, seventh-grader is speaking out after finding an assignment given to her 12-year-old daughter and other students in Spanish class at Monroe Junior High.

The form asked, “How much privilege do you have? Circle the boxes that apply to you.”"

ICE: Illegal Charged With Vehicular Homicide Not a Priority for Detention

ICE: Illegal Charged With Vehicular Homicide Not a Priority for Detention – DennisMichaelLynch.com:
"Illegal released due to Obama and DHS Sec. Jeh Johnson 2014 policy of deporting only those with “the most serious criminal records.”
Edwin Mejia (aka Eswin Mejia), 19, came to the U.S. illegally as part of the surge of unaccompanied children from Central America in May 2013.  The Border Patrol turned him over to social services, who sent him to live with his brother, already in the U.S.  
In January of this year, Mejia was street racing while drunk, in Omaha, Nebraska.  
He struck a vehicle driven by Sarah Root, 21, who later died as a result of her injuries.
Mejia was charged with vehicular homicide, and despite several requests by the Douglas County Police Department, ICE never came to pick him up for detention.   
Mejia posted a $5,000 bond and disappeared, and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse is demanding answers.
ICE Director Sarah Saldana responded that neither the Obama administration policy nor federal law required ICE to detain Mejia. 
Ms. Saldana said being charged with vehicular homicide wasn’t enough to make Mr. Mejia a priority under standards set by Mr. Obama and Mr. Johnson in 2014.
“Even if he were convicted of the offense, motor vehicle homicide — driving under the influence, the conviction would not constitute a crime of violence under the immigration laws, and consequently, would not constitute an aggravated felony,” she wrote.
“The conviction would not render him subject to mandatory detention, nor would it significantly impact his eligibility to apply for relief or protection from removal.”
Ms. Saldana said her agency has asked Honduran officials to see if he shows up back there."

Study: 1 in 4 College Freshmen Need Remedial Education

Study: 1 in 4 College Freshmen Need Remedial Education | Intellectual Takeout
Recent high school graduates and their families overall paid an extra $3,000 for skills and content they should have learned in high school. 

In recent years, the expressed goal of the education system has been to ensure that every child is college- and career-ready. That goal has enjoyed a measure of success, particularly as college enrollment rates rose from 26% to 41% between 1980 and 2012.

But landing a spot in college doesn’t necessarily mean students are ready for college coursework, a fact highlighted by a new report from Education Reform Now. According to the report, a quarter of college freshmen need to enroll in remedial courses to catch up. The authors explain:

“Contrary to common belief, remedial education is a widespread phenomenon not at all confined to low-income students or community colleges. It affects a broad swath of students, including those from middle-, upper-middle, and high-income families, as well as a broad swath of colleges.”

 

Lunch video-----Number Of Sanctuary Cities In The U.S. Rise to 340 - Illegal Immigration...