[THEATLANTIC] Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... is waging a ruthless war throughout northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... , Africa's most populous country. On Wednesday, Boko Haram gunnies laid siege to Baga, a city that has resisted them, setting fire to buildings and killing residents indiscriminately. Hundreds of people fled into Lake Chad and attempted to swim to a nearby island. Many drowned along the way. Those who didn't are now marooned without food and shelter and have no defense against the island's swarm of malarial mosquitos. The corpse count in Baga reportedly exceeds 2,000. Some 20,000 others are now displaced.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram
[DAWN] If you thought 17 dead in Gay Paree was bad enough for one week, you were wrong. In Nigeria, more than 2,000 people are feared dead after Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... launched its deadliest-ever attack on a strategic north-eastern town.
But, where are the solidarity marches, the passionate editorials and the international condemnations?
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
If you need a visual just google it.
Unbelievable savagery.
When will they quit playing around with these people?
[Forbes] As times go on the stories about how far and how fast the economy of Venezuela has fallen apart become ever more dramatic. They now actually have the Army, seriously, the armed forces, guarding food supplies. And the police are handing out toilet paper. We can just about imagine such things happening in the wake of some massive natural disaster, the levee breaks, the hurricane comes ashore, but not as day after day activity as something normal for the nation. But there has been no natural disaster in Venezuela, this is just the result of some years of idiot socialism. What makes it all so tragic is that there was and is another way to achieve the stated aim: making the poor better off. And when we consider what we might want to do to make the poor better off wed better pay attention to this, admittedly extreme, example.
Heres the news report:
Shoppers thronged grocery stores across Caracas today as deepening shortages led the government to put Venezuelas food distribution under military protection.
Long lines, some stretching for blocks, formed outside grocery stores in the South American countrys capital as residents search for scarce basic items such as detergent and chicken.
Police inside a Luvebras supermarket in eastern Caracas intervened to help staff distribute toilet paper and other products.
Sure, Venezuelas an oil exporter, sure the price of oil has fallen. But this isnt what happens in a commodity producer when the exports fall in price. This is what happens when you let the half-wits take charge of economic policy for a nation. Actually, in Venezuela, calling them half-wits is probably a mite too polite.
Theres absolutely nothing wrong at all with the intention of making the poor better off. Indeed, I share that aim: thats why Im this capitalist free marketeer type, as its the only socio-economic system weve ever had that has made the poor substantially better off for any period of time. However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... there are good ways and bad ways of going about doing this and if we want to succeed in our aim, in the US, of making the poor better off then wed do well to pay attention.
The short answer is dont screw with the market.
The slightly longer answer is that yes, prices are indeed what people get charged for something. But the information is flowing two ways here, its also flowing back to the producers and telling them what to produce in what volumes. Venezuela decided to fix prices: that does, in the very short term, aid people who cannot afford to buy things. But it entirely shafts that ability of market pricing to inform producers. Who wants what? We dunno if weve not got prices to tell us. So, the medium term effect of price fixing, of fixing prices low, is that there are shortages.
Think about the very mechanism of the market for a moment. By definition the market clearing price is the one which balances all the people who want to buy whatever with all the people who want to supply it. Now we fix the price. If we fix it lower than that market clearing price then more people will want to buy it than supply it. The result is shortages, as sure as eggs is the eggs not on the Venezuelan shelves. If we fix the price above the market clearing price then more people want to supply than want to buy. As the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... found out when they did this to food prices and we ended up with wine lakes and butter mountains. We could, of course, fix prices at the market clearing price but whats the point of that? And even then how can we calculate that price without using the market itself to do so (and Hayek said we couldnt do it without using the market)?
So, price fixing is simply a bad idea.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2015 00:00 ||
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[16 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
Much simpler solutions- Remove from power, then deport or execute as necessary all socialists and communists. See Pinochet & Co. for a how to.
#3
We look at this as a clusterf**k on a national scale - which it most certainly is - but these people are actually heroes. Seriously. There are some 200 member states in the United Nations. Each of them is a little experiment working to answer the question "How do we run a country?".
Those of you who have been following along are shouting "It's the Socialism, stupid!" Well, duh. Like Milton Friedman said, you need to judge policies by their results, not their intentions. So thanks, Venezuelans, for showing us just what not to do.
#2
The hypocritical press in the West hardly even showed us the cartoons for which the Charlie Hebdot cartoonists were murdered. In fact, those cartoons could not have been exhibited on just about university campus in the West; the cartoonists would have been hounded from those universities, and, in fact, in many countries could have faced charges of inciting hatred. It was a call to do, what? It was a call to do exactly nothing. The march was about nothing.
Sad, but true. Rampant PC has attempted to neuter our 1st Amendment and muzzle people. "Politically Correct" had its origins in the Stalinist USSR. The phrase referred to the "correct application" of Communist "dogma--whatever that meant. Primarily it meant government apparachiks applying it as a political weapon against enemies and for control of the people. Probably, not much will happen as the result of the demonstrations. Kind of like the celebrity event "We Are the World" in the 1980s.
[PJMedia]. The Obama administration is still deciding whether to bring felony charges against former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus, according to Attorney General Eric Holder. As a senior DOJ official in the Clinton administration, Holder arranged a presidential pardon for fugitive tax cheat Marc Rich. As attorney general, he ignored the unconscionable use of the IRS against conservative-leaning organizations seeking tax-exempt status.
This is a political prosecution. Petraeus’ supposed crime, leaking classified information to a girlfriend, is the sort of victimless infraction that never has been brought to the point of criminal prosecution at any time in the past. Petraeus’ offense, rather, is political: He is credited with the 2006-2007 surge that in Republican mythology won the Iraq War before President Obama snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. One risks being run out of the Republican Party on a rail for questioning this mythology, but someone has to say that the emperor has no clothes.
Petraeus improved the optics of the Iraq mess at the end of the second Bush administration, to be sure, but he also helped set in motion the catastrophe that has now engulfed the Levant. Mind you, IMO, Levant is was way overdue for a catastrophe
The story already has been told in depth by Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Daniel Bolger, whose memoir Why We Lost appeared last year. I reviewed it in Asia Times Online after observing that not one of the mainstream media reviews mentioned the most important assertions in Gen. Bolger’s excellent book: First, that American success in imposing majority rule on Iraq in 2006 set in motion the Sunni insurgency, and second, that America’s sponsorship of the Sunnis in 2007-2008 (the “Sunni Awakening” built with American funds as part of the “surge”) made the insurgency intractable.
...Petraeus doesn’t deserve criminal charges. But he shouldn’t occupy a pedestal in the Republican pantheon, either.
#1
Let's not forget Sandy Berger stealing classified documents from the National Archives in 2003, by stuffing the down his pants - and then lying about it to Justice Department investigators.
His punishment, according to Wikipedia: "Berger pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material on April 1, 2005. Berger was fined $50,000, sentenced to serve two years of probation and 100 hours of community service, and stripped of his security clearance for 3 years."
#4
Everything in this administration must be viewed through the prism of political value. Petraeus is being chilled just as the new House and Senate are looking into Benghazi for example, and Brennan and Rice and ValJar are using the threat of prosecution to still any insight into what happened, and the complicity of Hillary/DoS, the WH and the clueless Champ.
[PJMEDIA] A bizarre report from NBC News by Ayman Mohyeldin this morning broadcast during Meet the Press highlighted the city of Dearborn, Michigan, which has the highest Moslem population concentration of any city in America, as a beacon of American Moslem integration.
As Jeffrey Myers at Newsbusters observed, Mohyeldin blamed U.S. foreign policy for increased radicalization inside the Moslem community:
For some, radicalization and attacks against the U.S. stems from anger at American foreign policies and wars in the Middle East. While the overwhelming majority of muslims have successfully assimilated and integrated into U.S. society, the challenge remains to find individuals who may be on the fringes of the communities and are also alienated.
There are some curious omissions from Mohyeldins report that directly question his claims of successful assimilation and integration of Moslems in Dearborn.
For instance, last August The Intercept published an internal assessment by the National Counterterrorism Center showing that Dearborn a town of less than 100,000 had the second largest number of known terrorism suspects in the country behind New York City.
Needless to say, the Moslem community in Dearborn expressed outrage at the NCTCs data analysis. And despite the fact the NCTC report was the B.O. regimes own document and the finding was the expression of raw data, Detroit U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade joined local activists at a news conference to denounce those findings.
Also missing from Mohyeldins Meet the Press report is that the most influential Islamic holy man for Western supporters of terrorist groups, including ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra ...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant... (Al-Qaedas official Syrian affiliate), is Dearborn-based Ahmad Jibril.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2015 00:00 ||
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[23 views]
Top|| File under: Salafists
#1
Dearborn — a town of less than 100,000 — had the second largest number of known terrorism suspects in the country behind New York City.
[DAWN] The much-trumpeted Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... operation, launched in late 2013, continued throughout 2014.
The year gone by was marginally better than its preceding counterpart that had seen the loss of 2,700 lives in crime and terror.
The Rangers and Police have conducted a series of operations and strikes against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and banned outfits. Multiple reports on recovery of illegal arms and ammunition also abound.
During the combing work done along the hideouts in Super Highway, Baldia, Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... and other locations in the western zone of the city, many hit mans and extortionists have been tossed in the clink I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! . Despite all these efforts, there is a sizable ground that needs to be covered yet.
Law-enforcement agencies have expressed their satisfaction on the progress achieved thus far, but leaders of some political parties are of the view that their workers were being picked up unnecessarily under the garb of the operation.
Some lamented the fact that a number of ring leaders and core suspects of terrorism had already fled the city, or even left the country. An interim conclusion that has evolved is that the operation must continue.
Ordinary citizens are concerned about the continuing spate of murders across the city. People are exterminated based on their sectarian affiliation, political background or even social work references.
The dastardly attack on Salim Alimuddin, the present director of Orangi Pilot Project, in January 2014 was a case in point. Many polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... vaccinations teams were routinely attacked and female staff assassinated. People also complain about the largely uninterrupted inflow of arms and explosives.
No political consensus could be reached among the major political parties and religious organizations on the regulation and control of illegal arms. The pace of delivery of justice has also been abysmally slow in respect of cases dealing with terrorism and similar heinous crimes.
Recruitment and training of competent coppers to fill the under-staffed Karachi Police is a fundamental pre-requisite to the success of the operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2015 00:00 ||
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[12 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
The world is focused on La Belle Frances murdered cartoonists, and their ideas particularly, the idea that Moslems should be able to handle caricature just as everyone else does. But the attackers weren't motivated just over images of the Prophet Mohammed. They and their cohorts around the world are on a jihad against all the ideas that Europe and America and especially our leading cities stand for.
Here in New York, since 9/11, they've targeted Times Square, Herald Square, the subways, the airports and other landmarks and critical spots.
Consider what happened in another global city weeks before the Gay Paree attack. At Christmas, British journalists noticed a change outside Buckingham Palace and other royal London residences. The Queen's Royal Guards (the guys with the big fur hats) are no longer doing sentry duty in pairs outside the palaces iron gates. The sentries are now posted behind the bars.
Why? The obvious reason. The brightly uniformed Guards aren't drawing pictures of Mohammed. But they're highly symbolic, and standing ducks for angry killers.
Nearly two years ago, two British men claiming to act for Islam murdered British soldier Lee Rigby on a London street outside a military barracks. And last fall, yet another self-proclaimed terrorist killed a guard at Ottawa's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before heading into Parliament meaning to slay more.
It may seem prudent to pull the Guards now before an attack especially since a murderer could kill and injure many bystander tourists. But pulling back the Guards ends a British tradition: the idea that the public can get close enough to touch a living symbol of the mighty British Empire.
You say the British Empire is not mighty anymore? The millions of tourists coming from all over the world to see the Changing of the Guard would disagree as would the hundreds of thousands of people who struggle each year to get into Britannia to stay. The Guards represent the idea of British economic, cultural, intellectual, artistic and military power so pulling them back represents a retreat from good ideas.
It is not a good idea.
The cartoonists, editors, columnists, office manager and coppers who died last Wednesday died for the same good Western ideas as did the four hostages who died in a kosher supermarket during Fridays hostage raid.
Consider the cartoons. Some have called them puerile but that misses the point of French cartooning. Deciphering French cartoons about politicians, celebrities, religious figures and often all three is one of the hardest things to do as you try to learn the French language. To understand many cartoons, you have to understand centuries of culture and history as well as plays on words.
But the cartoons are uniquely funny. The cartoonists didn't have to take on prominent figures to make people laugh or to make a point. Consider a cartoon that Jean Cabut, one of last weeks murdered artists, drew five years ago for the city of Gay Paree. At the time, Gay Paree was launching a public-service campaign to get disaffected youth to stop brutally destroying its bikeshare bicycles (Velibs). The ad Cabut or "Cabu" drew was a masked wrestler ripping apart a municipal bike. "Its easy to break a Velib," the fighter confided as spectators looked on. "It cant defend itself."
Simple but not so simple. At the time, lots of people in Gay Paree were saying that the people who wage their bizarre jihad on the bikes were motivated by poverty, racism, lack of opportunity and the like. It is an outcry, a form of rebellion; this violence is not gratuitous, transportation sociologist Bruno Marzloff told the Times.
Cabu knew otherwise. A person who needs to smash a piece of public infrastructure and a symbol of modern Gay Paree, at that, to feel better about himself is nothing more than a coward and a loser who is afraid to pick on someone his own size and afraid, too, to engage in the civil society that makes the West work.
The bitter never-do-wells who kill people because they can and wrap themselves in Islam as they do so, because they have no other way to make anyone care what they do or say aren't just afraid of Royal Guards, cartoonists or bikes. They're afraid of coppers particularly minority coppers like Ahmed Merabet, a first-generation Frenchie who chose to be part of society rather than rail against it. They're afraid, too, of regular people who feel safe and secure enough in their diverse society to go to a kosher supermarket during a manhunt.
Terrorists -- a word that gives too much credit to people who do what anyone can do, but most people don't, which is kill for attention, aren't mad at cartoons. They're mad at all of us and how we succeed in our many different ways, whether as cartoonists or coppers or office managers.
So we're all Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... , after all.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/13/2015 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Salafists
#1
You reap what you sow. For decades "The West" tried to appease Islam---branding everyone who dared to argue otherwise, as racist.
#2
Strange how those immigrants, legal and illegal, seem to gravitate to the mass urban centers for some reason. Wonder why? Bennies? Building their own huddled community avoiding assimilation? Allies in the form of those indigenous citizens who despise their own culture?
h/t Instapundit
Want proof that the liberal social-democratic society works? Look to Denmark, the country that routinely leads the world in happiness surveys.
In the American liberal compass, the needle is always pointing to places like Denmark. Everything they most fervently hope for here has already happened there.
So: Why does no one seem particularly interested in visiting Denmark? ("Honey, on our European trip, I want to see Tuscany, Paris, Berlin and . . . Jutland!") Visitors say Danes are joyless to be around. Denmark suffers from high rates of alcoholism. In its use of antidepressants it ranks fourth in the world. (Its fellow Nordics the Icelanders are in front by a wide margin.) Some 5% of Danish men have had sex with an animal.
Let's look a little closer, asks Michael Booth, a Brit who has lived in Denmark for many years, in his new book, "The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia"
Those sky-high happiness surveys, it turns out, are mostly bunk. Asking people "Are you happy?" means different things in different cultures. In Japan, for instance, answering "yes" seems like boasting, Booth points out. Whereas in Denmark, it’s considered "shameful to be unhappy," newspaper editor Anne Knudsen says in the book.
Moreover, there is a group of people that believes the Danes are lying when they say they're the happiest people on the planet. This group is known as "Danes."
#1
"We do not allow unhappiness here!"
(There was a Twilight Zone about this...)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/13/2015 7:29 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Well, even then being made up of 99% white and Lutheran* cultural stock, may also account for some of the 'luster'. So, how about adopting that as a baseline? /rhet question
* you pay for your sins, there is no dispensation for your actions. Contrast that with other theologies and philosophies that you can get out of your venial and mortal corruption by acts of contrition.
#4
Beyond fantastic myth and fantasy, the physiological response to sleep deprivation and skewed circadian rhythms due to the high latitude and 20+ hours of daylight has quite a bit to do with the depression and alcoholism. Not so much how they voted.
#4
No mention of the AG's contempt of Congress convictions. Holder became the first U.S. Attorney General in history to be held in both criminal and civil contempt. Why is he still sitting in the AG's office?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[HOTAIR]
A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
