Gee, the GDP!

U.S. economy grew at anemic 0.2% pace in Q1.   When I saw this headline and the article blaming the cold winter,  I wondered if winters had ever been cold when Reagan was President.  Then I saw this comparison at Gateway Pundit:  OBAMA vs. REAGAN on GDP GROWTH — NOT EVEN CLOSE. 

Execution Resolution

Too bad people aren't as concerned with the way innocent people are tortured and murdered by these vicious killers! Death penalty in the US: Supreme Court considers whether lethal injection is 'cruel and unusual punishment' and breaches Constitution.

Wanted: More Parents Like This

It's refreshing to see that there are still some parents who discipline their children and hold them accountable! Look at this video from Baltimore.

Another Cowardly Cave-In

Daniel Greenfield reports “No Jewish Flag” Allowed in Berlin Over Fear of Muslim Violence.  Spineless responses like not flying the Israeli flag just encourages more Muslim violence! Should we also remove the American flag because it offends non-Americans? When will it end? Instead of getting stronger, we all keep allowing ourselves to become weaker while criminals and terrorists become more brazen.

Ferguson, Baltimore

I am sick watching the destruction, the looting, and the rioting in Baltimore live on TV as if it's a reality show, complete with excuses for the thugs who are destroying their own community. I noticed there hasn't been much attention given to the police who have been attacked and the one who is unresponsive, but perhaps it's too politically incorrect to mention cops in a sympathetic way.

Blatant anti-police sentiment and political correctness have contributed to this uncivilized situation, and I doubt anything will improve soon as long as people prefer to make excuses about the decline of our culture.

Dawn at Gallipoli

Watch this video and listen to this reading by Prince Charles given at the dawn service in tribute to the men who died in the Gallipoli campaign 100 years ago.

I happened to turn on the BBC news in time to watch this live and was very touched. Listening to the letter reminded me of the letter written by Sullivan Ballou during the Civil War.

Here's the text of the reading:  "I suspect that many of those here today may be of my own generation, born some thirty years after the end of the 1st World War and whose grandfathers and great uncles may easily have fought or lost their lives in this most bloody of campaigns. When I was young I remember talking to the then Field Marshall Lord Slim about his recollections of the battles in which he was ultimately badly wounded.
When the Anzacs finally left this place, they were tormented by the thoughts of leaving their comrades behind, that their suffering and loss would be forgotten, that their graves lie untended.
Lieutenant Ken Millar of the Second Battalion wrote:
There was the question of our dead mates… we lived at Gallipoli with our dead alongside us. Owing to the lack of space our cemeteries were always under our eyes. The hardest feature of the evacuation was in leaving those dead comrades behind. They had bequeathed us a sacred trust… as the party stole away from the line they took off their hats passing the crosses, and old hard-bitten Anzacs wept silent tears.
They did indeed bequeath us a sacred trust – a trust we honour today.
Company Quartermaster Sergeant Benjamin Leane of the 10th Battalion was one of six brothers, five of whom served in the First World War. He wrote his diary in the form of letters to his wife. On the night before the landing he wrote:
In case the worst happens and I am unable to make any more entries I will take this opportunity to bid you goodbye dear girl. I trust that I will come through alright, but it is impossible to say and I must do my duty whatever it is. But if I am to die, know that I died loving you with my whole heart and soul, dearest wife that a man ever had. Kiss little Gwen and our new baby, who perhaps I may never see, and never let them forget Daddy. And you, dear girl, I would love to write you a long goodbye letter, but I must do my work and there is no time. But I love you dearly, my own Phyllis, and I trust that you will always love me. But remember, dear, that if I am killed, I wish you to do absolutely as you think advisable for your future… One little word for mother, dear. Bear with her and be good to her in her few remaining years, for I know she loves me dearly. And tell her that I am not afraid to die, nor am I afraid of what is to come after death. Just tell her “I know in whom I have believed”. And now, dear, dear sweet heart, goodbye, goodbye.
Benjamin Leane never held his new baby. He survived Gallipoli and was promoted to Major only to die in France in 1917. Here today, we remember his sacrifice, and that of all those who served and suffered here in this far away place on the other side of the world to the Antipodes."

Here's more on Benjamin Leane by his great-great-niece, Wendy Frew. He was one of five brothers who served at Gallipoli.

Watcher's Council News

The Council has spoken! Here are the latest Watcher's Council results!

The Weasel of the Week is Mikey Weinstein, Obama’s Personal Czar To Eradicate Christianity In The Military!! I have never heard of him, and after reading his resume, I hope I never hear of him again!

Bonus  link: here's some common sense from Mama Angus, via American Digest.

Warning: May Cause Laughter

Here's an amusing read to end the week: Those Annoying, Stunningly Stupid Warning Labels.

Lots 'o Links

Pore over this week's roundup of news and scandals, thanks to Betsy's Page, Maggie's Farm, and Larwyn's Linx! 

Bonus: read Daniel Greenfield's Why Scott Walker is Right on Immigration. Imagine it -- Walker has the unmitigated gall to put America's interests first!

Oskar Groening & The Evil That Never Ends

'Bookkeeper of Auschwitz' tells court he once spent 24 HOURS watching Jewish families separated to be either killed or used in medical experiments as he faces charges of accessory to 300,000 murders.

Sympathy for the Devil

A murderer can blow up, kill, and maim innocent people and he will still be seen sympathetically by teenaged girls and by liberal fools.  Howie Carr explains.

 "Can the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Fan Club please tell the truth for once about why they really oppose the death penalty for their bloodthirsty monster?
It’s because the Joker is a poster boy for so many of their protected classes.
He is a 'refugee,' a Muslim, a welfare leech, a drug dealer, an on-the-record Obama supporter, a resident of Cambridge (in a Sect. 8 apartment naturally) and a terrorist — every fact proven at trial beyond a reasonable doubt.
And most important, at least to Rolling Stone, he has 'tousled hair.'
Just a nice 'young fella,' as ex-Gov. Deval Patrick once described him. A 'handsome lad,' as the Northeastern professor called him two weeks ago."

It's not only terrorists. Remember the Menendez Brothers; Robert Ramirez (the Nightstalker); Scott Peterson, and other killers, who had women lined up to visit them in prison?  And how about celebrities who support murderers? I'll never understand this twisted mentality. Too bad there's not this sort of support for the victims!

Standing Up For Christians

I did a double-take when I saw that Kirsten Powers was the author of the article titled Christians thrown overboard left to drown by Obama. I'm used to seeing her on Fox News vociferously defending him, so I was relieved to see her write a statement like this: "Obama only mentions Christians to lecture them, rather than defend them from persecution."  I hope she and others will continue to express their outrage at the persecution of Christians and the silence of the White House.

Dead Right

I enjoy reading about unusual obituaries, so this one caught my eye: North Carolina man’s obituary asks people not to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Please Stop!

Can the media stop its incessant pushing of marijuana and how wonderful it is to be gay and transgender?  They must assume the more they enthuse about these things and encourage this sort of propaganda, the more people will rush to accept it. They're wrong. 

20 Years Ago: Oklahoma City Bombing

Thi is a day we'll never forget, but I see many media outlets downplaying the horror of the bombing and the death and destruction caused by Timothy McVeigh. One newspaper article even mentioned McVeigh's sense of humor, so even now, liberals can't bring themselves to speak harshly of terrorists and must try to humanize them.  Reuters has this amazing statement: "Also attending the ceremony were some of the so-called "miracle babies" who were at a daycare center in the building when the bomb exploded. Despite seared lungs, ravaged faces and mental and psychological scars, they try not to dwell on the past."

The New York Daily News has it about right: "Oklahoma City bombing pain lingers for victims' kin 20 years later, including mom who wanted to kill Timothy McVeigh herself."

Cash for Stinkers

Obama is going to give Iran $50 billion dollars if they sign the nuclear agreement.  On the web this is cleverly being referred to as a signing bonus. Remember Cash for Clunkers? Now you have Cash for Stinkers!

This is via Israel Matzav: "An immediate and irreversible infusion of $50 billion would boost Iran's GDP by more than 10% overnight and signal the end of meaningful financial pressure. But it would also allow the White House to continue insisting that sanctions relief was being phased out in principle: all the sanctions that matter would get removed immediately, but there would still be a few sanctions left as a legal matter.

The trick could still prove politically toxic on the Hill. It would provide the Iranians with an infusion of $50 billion for their terror infrastructure and their march across the Middle East, which would panic our Arab allies. who are at war with Iran because of those campaigns. It’s also $50 billion to a regime that is dedicated to America's destruction and that killed over a thousand American soldiers. That spins itself."

How does Obama continue to get away with these things? It helps that the American media is so compliant and that the American people are so stupid.

Watcher's Council News

The Council has spoken! Here are the latest Watcher's Council results!

The Weasel of the Week is Racist Judge Olu Stevens!!

Lots 'o Links

It's Thursday, so that means it's time for the weekly news roundup courtesy of Betsy's Page, Maggie's Farm, and Larwyn's Linx!

Also, if you go to Adventures in AliyahLand, you will find Haveil Havalim, Parshat Shemini, the Fed-Up-To-Here with Matzah Edition.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Read Bergen-Belsen through the Eyes of Its Liberator, then tell me again that the Holocaust is a lie.

Read this touching column called Shouldering an Inheritance of Grief by Linda S. Haase, then tell me that Jews talk about the Holocaust too much.

Also, read Itamar Aminoff's Remembering the dismembered culture of Polish Jewry; Noah Klieger's The 'Inferior' Children Who Defeated the Nazis; and Zev Shandalov's Gazing into my great grandmother's eyes, and look at the family photographs.

April 14, 1865

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Smithsonian Magazine has a lot of good reading, including this article about personal relics that ended up at the Smithsonian.

Here's an article by the wonderful historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on The Night Abraham Lincoln Was Assassinated.  And here's how the Associated Press covered the terrible news -- a far cry from how it would be covered by social media today!

Political Memory Lane

Miss him yet?  From Moe Lane: "Just a reminder: ‘Bush-era policies’ were as following":

"In no particular order:

• Gas prices were low.
• So was unemployment.
• The labor participation rate was higher.
• Minority representation in the middle class was increasing.
• We had a manned space program.
• We had elections in Iraqi towns, instead of slave auctions.
• Our allies in Europe trusted us.
• Our rivals worldwide were wary of us.
• And our enemies did their absolute damnedest to hide from us.  Well. The ones still breathing, at least.

It’s been a bad six years, folks. Particularly the first two: they set the tone for the next four, and likely six. Just the way it is."

Argus Hamilton Quips

Here's the latest column by humorist Argus Hamilton, which includes this news item: "State Department spokesperson Marie Harf dismissed Henry Kissinger's editorial that questions the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal as a bunch of big words. She's guarding the president's lasting world legacy. Barack Obama started as America's first black president and he ended up as the Father of Greater Iran."

Cartoons With Sting

It's just sickening to hear sympathy for the killer Tsarnaev. Do the victims who lost limbs sympathize with him? Are the parents of the murdered child against the death penalty? I really have never understood how any terrorism victims could possibly want their tax dollars going for the upkeep of brutal killers in prison!
The Dry Bones cartoon needs no explanation. Endangered species get more attention than murdered Christians!
The Obama statue is a take-off of that hideous Lucille Ball statue in New York. Both should be dismantled immediately!
(First and third cartoon by Michael Ramirez. )

Watcher's Council News

The Council has spoken! Here are this week's Watcher's Council results.

The Weasel of the Week is Male Bashing Leftist Cadre and U of VA President Teresa Sullivan!!

Sympathy for Killer Terrorists

This Howie Carr column is right on the mark: Media morons seeking mercy 
for Dzokhar Tsarnaev must be joking.  But it's not only the media, it's the usual PC liberals.

Lots 'o Links

Get ready to end the work week by catching up on all the news, gossip, culture, and outrages, thanks to Betsy's Page, Maggie's Farm, and Larwyn's Linx.

Speaking of outrages, read this: Don’t Speak English? Congratulations, You Can Apply for Disability!

Israel: The Smart Choice!

Here's a list of Israeli innovations that have benefitted the world, as well as a list of the countries that have recognized all that Israel has to offer.  Take that, Obama!

Woe Is Him

Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn write,  "When all else fails, play the victim. Fresh off his 'I’m insulted' campaign against Israel’s prime minister speaking to Congress, President Obama is rolling out the victim shtick again, this time to try to intimidate Israel and American Jews over his Iran capitulation."  Just how stupid does he think we are? (Never mind...don't answer that.)

The Fish Rots From The Head

Dennis Prager talks about the decay of American culture.  We've seen columns like this before, but it doesn't get any easier. Kids growing up today think this is normal, but those of us who remember what normal really is find it hard to watch this decline -- and we will not accept it!

If you want a perfect example of the decay, read this Mitch Albom column. He's an excellent writer, and it's a shame he had to waste his skill on an animal like this who tortured and killed her kids. "In Blair's low-income housing complex, the Martin Luther King Apartments, the units are attached. You could certainly hear screaming through the walls. You could certainly notice a terrorized child. No one did? For years? What does that say?"

Watcher's Council News

The Council has spoken! Here are the latest Watcher's Council results.

Grover Norquist is the winner of the Golden Weasel statuette of shame as Weasel of the Week.

Tax Change Surgery

Stories like this make me sick: "An inmate convicted of murder will receive taxpayer-funded sex-change surgery that could cost $100,000 after a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that not doing so would violate the inmate's constitutional rights."  What about the constitutional rights of taxpayers? Don't we have the right to say no to outrages like this?

Kissing Up To Iran

Gee, and I thought the selfie fad was ridiculous here.  Just look at what's been going on in Iran: "In response to the deal and the speech, young Iranians grabbed at the opportunity to make unusual selfies - against the TV screens with Obama - and posted them to social media. One man pinched the US President on the cheek, and another kissed US Secretary of State John Kerry." Well, there's no accounting for taste, but of course they're ecstatic -- they've just defeated The Great Satan and gotten the best of a bad deal. I doubt the Israelis will be kissing Obama's picture any time soon.

Slaughter in Kenya

Al-Shabaab has massacred at least 147 at Garissa University in Kenya. Oh well, they were only Christians.

Lots 'o Links

Here's this week's roundup of news, culture, and outrage courtesy of Betsy's Page, Maggie's Farm, and Larwyn's Linx. What terrific blogs and links!

Think Like a Liberal -- or Else

It now seems that if you don't agree with the liberal, politically correct view on every issue (pro-marijuana, pro-transgender, pro-gay marriage, etc), you are automatically labeled a bigot, and if you don't give your opinion at all, like Coach K, you are even attacked for that!  Here's the best definition of tolerance that I ever saw: "Tolerance means recognizing others’ right to refuse to celebrate what they don’t agree with. Religious liberty protections defending that right take nothing away from anyone. But compelling celebration certainly does." Amen to that.


I came across this open letter to homosexual activists at Adrienne's Corner, which includes my own sentiments exactly:  "Back in the olden days, people didn't usually announce to the world the manner in which they engaged in sex, including people who were heterosexual.  We deemed it not worthy parlor chit-chat and, frankly, it was no one's business.   Now, the noise makers amongst you are demanding tolerance.  I hate to break this to you, but tolerance is not a good thing.  Tolerance presupposes that the one doing the tolerating has already decided that what he is tolerating is not good....You don't want to be tolerated.  You know that is not a good thing.  No, you want approval for the manner in which you engage in sex."