The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria’s (ISIS) video of the beheading of 22 Syrian soldiers took between four and six hours to film and used equipment that cost around $200,000, a new analysis has shown.READ MORE
I will replay my last interview with Christopher Hitchens --a three hour conversation about his autobiography-- sometime between now and the New Year. He was a joy to interview and a wonder to listen to debate, unfailingly gracious to me, my other guests and my audience. . .Christopher Hitchens, RIP
We spent a great deal of time discussing God, and I hope and pray I am correct in my views and that he can concede to me on that subject when we meet again.
UNHITCHED
I have nothing particular to say about the death of Hitchens. I have always believed that we face a larger threat that requires us to make common cause with people we disagree with and even people who hate us. Speaking as a Jew, Hitchens certainly fell into that category. He was a lefty who made the somewhat unique decision not to follow his movement from supporting Arab Socialist terrorists to supporting Muslim terrorists. That he was one of the few not to do so is more damning of the left than it is a praise of him.
Hitchens hated Jews, he hated Christians and he hated Muslims. That made him an ally of sorts and an enemy of sorts, Benjamin Kerstein at the Jewish Daily sums up most of the relevant stuff. Like others on the Counterjihad atheist left, he didn't like Israel or Jews, but he recognized that Islam was the larger threat.
I see no real point in penning completely misleading headlines like Ron Kampeas' "Christopher Hitchens, contrarian who embraced and battled Judaism, dead at 62". It's about as far from the truth as imaginable, except his name, age and the contrarian part. . .
So let me stop insulting you, dear reader, and pose a question to which we do not have any obvious answer. Why is Sen. Clinton, the spouse of the great influence-peddler, being nominated in the first place? In exchange for giving the painful impression that our State Department will be an attractive destination for lobbyists and donors, what exactly are we getting? George Marshall? Dean Acheson? Even Madeleine Albright? No, we are getting a notoriously ambitious woman who made a fool of herself over Bosnia, at the time and during the recent campaign, and who otherwise has no command of foreign affairs except what she's picked up second-hand from an impeached ex-president, a disbarred lawyer, and a renter of the Lincoln Bedroom. If the Senate waves this through, it will have reinforced its recent image as the rubber-stamp chamber of a bankrupt banana republic. Not an especially good start to the brave new era.All of it
People who think with their epidermis or their genitalia or their clan are the problem to begin with. One does not banish this specter by invoking it. If I would not vote against someone on the grounds of "race" or "gender" alone, then by the exact same token I would not cast a vote in his or her favor for the identical reason. Yet see how this obvious question makes fairly intelligent people say the most alarmingly stupid things.Read the whole thing
Madeleine Albright has said that there is "a special place in hell for women who don't help each other." What are the implications of this statement? Would it be an argument in favor of the candidacy of Mrs. Clinton? Would this mean that Elizabeth Edwards and Michelle Obama don't deserve the help of fellow females? If the Republicans nominated a woman would Ms. Albright instantly switch parties out of sheer sisterhood? Of course not. (And this wearisome tripe from someone who was once our secretary of state . . .)
Those of us who follow politics seriously rather than view it as a game show do not look at Hillary Clinton and simply think "first woman president." We think -- for example -- "first ex-co-president" or "first wife of a disbarred lawyer and impeached former incumbent" or "first person to use her daughter as photo-op protection during her husband's perjury rap."
Alias Barack Obama: a lie is born: The greatest identity fraud in history Paperback – July 10, 2012
