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Cincinnati: "Allah is in control!" shouts man after sentencing
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Trump’s election stole my desire to look for a partner
A single mother punishes herself because you voted for Trump, you bastards! Meanwhile some lucky guy missed stepping aboard the train wreck who wrote this piece.
In August, I went on six dates in one week. I had decided that I was ready to look for a partner. Enough of this dating unavailable men a half-decade younger than me. They’d never seriously consider a relationship with me, my two children and our needy dog. No. I wanted to find an equal. A man who wouldn’t feel the need to step in and rescue me. I didn’t need rescuing.
I think I see some of your problem.
But I knew deep down that was only partially true. I often felt the sort of loneliness that settled in my stomach, starting from a chaotic afternoon with my children, lasting well into the night when I pulled covers tight around my chin.
Do tell.
I’ve been on my own with my kids for most of the past decade. I have no idea what a supportive partner would even look like in my house. I imagined it as some sort of potluck: We’d both bring the things we have to offer and place them on the table. My ability to multitask and keep everyone’s schedules on track would sit next to his ability to fix cars, cook or read books in silly voices. Then we’d feast.
I hate to break it to you so early in this article, but millions of wimmin in your predicament find a partner and get married. It ain't forever -- they missed that boat years back -- but it does help.
Of the six first dates I had in August, two men seemed promising. One of them met me at a brewery. We chatted happily through two beers. Finally I was out of a job interview mode I’d fallen into while sitting across from strangers. I relaxed. I laughed. And it wasn’t the laugh I did just because. It was real.
Good to know.
We dated for a few weeks before he admitted he wasn’t ready for something serious. Two days later, the other of those good dates called me out of the blue. We talked for a while, and I asked him to dinner. Things were falling into place. A feast was laid out on the table, and it looked delicious.

But two weeks later, the election happened. Once it was clear that Donald Trump would be president instead of Hillary Clinton, I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to gather my children in bed with me and cling to them like we would if thunder and lightning were raging outside, with winds high enough that they power might go out. The world felt that precarious to me.
No, you wanted to inflict your kidz with your own unique brand of madness, instead of letting them be kidz.
My oldest came out of her room the next morning to show me the money the Tooth Fairy had left her. She’d unexpectedly had to have a tooth pulled, and so bravely went through it that I said, “Just think: You’ll always remember the day you got a tooth pulled with the day we elected our first female president.”
Way to crap on the kid's early part of her Good Day, Mom.
When I told her Trump had won, she protested: “But Mom. You said Hillary was going to win.”
The kid diplomatically left out the appellation, "dummy"
“A lot of people thought the same thing,” I said. I hugged her, a little scared to send her to school, out into the big sky country of the red state where we live.

Twenty minutes later, at a stoplight on the way to drop off my 2-year-old daughter at day care, steam started creeping out from under the hood of my car. Fortunately my mechanic’s shop was nearby.

My radiator was cracked in two places, right at the top. “I really wouldn’t feel comfortable with you driving it,” one of the mechanics said. Luckily a new radiator could easily be obtained and installed that day. I thanked them.

I didn’t start crying until I had crossed the street to walk home. We had a few miles to go, so I carried my daughter. I didn’t mind carrying her; I still had that urge to cling to her and keep her close. It was cold that morning, but the sun started to warm us enough to remove our hats. Halfway home, my tears stopped, and my despair grew to appreciation.

I have the means to fix our car. I, on my own, can support my family. I not only have the strength to keep it together mentally and emotionally but I also have the strength to carry my daughter home. I have the strength to carry all of us.

That urge to cling to my family while keeping our foundation strong didn’t mesh well with continuing to date the man I’d been seeing. He also has a daughter. He, too, had been feeling a lot of the same emotions I was experiencing: hopelessness; fear; uncertainty about the future; panic over having to talk to my 9-year-old about anything that might come up at school, or what to do in the instance of sexual assault. But I couldn’t reach out to him anymore. He was too new, too unfamiliar.
Huh? Who is "sexually assaulting" whom? You lost me.
My focus had to be on my community of friends that are my family. I need to fiercely love the people close to me instead of learning to love someone new. To reach out to others could weaken the bonds that hold my family together.
You'll note how the prospective male element has been very subtly tagged as an "other" in her mind. Wonder why?
“I can’t,” I told him. “I just can’t.”
Left him with zero information, didja?
I’ve lost the desire to attempt the courtship phase. The future is uncertain. I am not the optimistic person I was on the morning of Nov. 8, wearing a T-shirt with “Nasty Woman” written inside a red heart. It makes me want to cry thinking of that. Of seeing my oldest in the shirt I bought her in Washington, D.C., that says “Future President.”

There is no room for dating in this place of grief. Dating means hope. I’ve lost that hope in seeing the words “President-elect Trump.”
Sux to be you.
Posted by: badanov || 12/06/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bullet status: dodged.
Posted by: Nguard || 12/06/2016 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  You should join your other friend that checked into the mental ward. That is where all of the democrat party, marxists, leftists, statists, and nutbag psychopath schitzo LIARS belong.

Pieces of sh!t
Posted by: newc || 12/06/2016 0:33 Comments || Top||

#3  So, as you said, Trump saved some poor SOB from getting involved in this walking cluster-F.

Is there anything he can't do?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/06/2016 1:01 Comments || Top||

#4  She forgot to lead off with her standard "I never thought I'd write to Hustler, but ... "
Posted by: Herb Peacock3295 || 12/06/2016 6:56 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm sorry for the kids. And I'm sorry for society when these kids grow up.
In grom Jr's previous school there were several "turkey buster" kids. Two observations.
(a) 90% are boys - these women are "who needs a man?", but...
(b) Most of these kids already exhibited serious psychological problems in fourth grade. Combine it with the fact that some of the sperm donors are very bright guys...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/06/2016 7:15 Comments || Top||

#6  "me, my two children and our needy dog"

I don't think your kids or dog are the needy problem here, sweetie.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 12/06/2016 7:20 Comments || Top||

#7  Another Mad Dog moment
“I urge fair treatment of all POWs”
Now…the rest of the qoute…
err…from somewhere…
“Laughter is the best medicine”
Posted by: MadDogMovie || 12/06/2016 7:24 Comments || Top||

#8  Is that you Julia?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/06/2016 8:05 Comments || Top||

#9  Is that you Julia?

Serious contender for snark of the day.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/06/2016 10:48 Comments || Top||

#10  Can't be Julia. Julia's "partner" (don't say boyfriend! That's so sexist!!!) is the O-gummint. Wait. What, O just skipped town? So sad...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/06/2016 11:03 Comments || Top||

#11  On her own the past decade with kids yet she has a 2 year old and a nine year old? Has she ever been married? Does she consider child support and GIVERnment assistance being independent? 6 dates with different men in one week?

I think it best she does take a break and based on the 2020 election she can then decide if it is safe again.
Posted by: airandee || 12/06/2016 11:16 Comments || Top||

#12  We dated for a few weeks before he admitted he wasn’t ready for something serious.

See, beer did make Bud wiser.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/06/2016 11:28 Comments || Top||

#13  Couldn't read it. It's just too sad.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 12/06/2016 11:45 Comments || Top||

#14  I am going to assume the "BabyDaddy(ies)" could have the same conversation as Billy Bob Thorton had with Brad Pitt: "I tried to tell you she was nucking futz!"
Posted by: Capsu78 || 12/06/2016 11:55 Comments || Top||

#15  Abu,
Single mom leaves kids at home to go to the bar every night to pick up men.

Out here, we call that White Trash.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/06/2016 13:10 Comments || Top||

#16  Fortunately my mechanic’s shop was nearby.

Men are OK, when she can pay to be serviced.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/06/2016 13:24 Comments || Top||

#17  Skid, you have my recommendation for snark of the day.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/06/2016 16:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Trump's Taiwan call wasn't a blunder. It was brilliant.
h/t Instapundit
Donald Trump’s phone call with the president of Taiwan wasn’t a blunder by an inexperienced president-elect unschooled in the niceties of cross-straits diplomacy.

It was a deliberate move -- and a brilliant one at that.

The phone call with President Tsai Ing-wen was reportedly carefully planned, and Trump was fully briefed before the call, according to The Post. It’s not that Trump was unfamiliar with the "Three Communiques" or unaware of the fiction that there is "One China." Trump knew precisely what he was doing in taking the call. He was serving notice on Beijing that it is dealing with a different kind of president -- an outsider who will not be encumbered by the same Lilliputian diplomatic threads that tied down previous administrations.

...And if that message was lost on Beijing, Trump underscored it on Sunday, tweeting: "Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into their country (the U.S. doesn’t tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don’t think so!" He does not need Beijing’s permission to speak to anyone. No more kowtowing in a Trump administration.

...Trump’s call with the Taiwanese president sent a message not only to Beijing, but also to the striped-pants foreign-policy establishment in Washington. ... The irony is that the hyperventilation in Washington has far outpaced the measured response from Beijing. When American foreign-policy elites are more upset than China, perhaps it’s time for some introspection.



Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/06/2016 11:35 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Gee, you hold a LOT of our debt. Be a damn shame if we repudiated it"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/06/2016 18:40 Comments || Top||


Mark Steyn Backs #DumpKelloggs: Kellogg's ‘Real Target' Is Trump and His Supporters, Not Breitbart
[Breitbart] Author and radio host Mark Steyn offers support to Breitbart’s #DumpKelloggs boycott in his latest column, noting the danger posed to free speech and culture when corporations increasingly politicize every issue by siding with the left in order to silence or de-legitimize the left’s political opponents, which Steyn writes is the real aim of Kellogg’s actions.

Steyn at first takes aim at the Associated Press’ characterization of Breitbart in the wire service’s article about the Kellogg’s boycott, in which the AP writes: "Breitbart has been condemned for featuring racist, sexist and anti-Semitic content."

From Mark Steyn:

AP doesn’t actually produce any evidence of "racist, sexist and anti-Semitic content", which would require considerable journalistic effort on its part. Instead, it states blandly that the site has been "condemned" as such. "Condemned" used to be a term with legal meaning: A judge tells a convicted man that he is "condemned to hang". But in this case Breitbart hasn’t been convicted of anything, merely labeled by its political opponents. Just like Reuters could "condemn" Associated Press for "featuring pedophile content". If labeling is all it now takes.

And in fact the real target here is not Breitbart so much as the incoming President of the United States, who has appointed Breitbart honcho Steve Bannon as a senior counselor. The losing side in the election wants to "de-normalize" Trump and his administration, by in effect de-legitimizing his voters and their electoral victory.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/06/2016 05:41 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A blinding flash of the obvious, but the new president and his administration will have an extremely heavy lift. The 'blowback' from Kelloggs is just the tip of the iceberg.

Heavy profit margins are found in cheap Chinese labor. Visit any box store, Target, Walmart, or Home Depot and discovery is only a single shopping aisle away. The 'Made in China' trend is going to be very difficult to turn around, especially when they continue to buy our debt.

Faceless Institutional investors (who make up the vast majority of the Stock Market), don't give a rat's arse about the 'Forgotten Man' or the concept of 'Made in America.' Similarly, Delta Airlines could care less where the cheap oil comes from, as long as they can continue to reap huge annual profits and pay exorbitant union salaries. (DAL stock has nearly quadrupled over the past four years)

Yes, Trump's lift will be a very heavy one indeed.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/06/2016 6:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Faceless Institutional investors (who make up the vast majority of the Stock Market), don't give a rat's arse about the 'Forgotten Man' or the concept of 'Made in America.'

And they're not even thinking of those forgotten Americans as they leap from or just burn in the glass towers that housed their offices. However, for a brief moment their colleagues in other buildings, suddenly remember who they're going to call upon to protect their little Brooks Brothers covered posteriors.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/06/2016 8:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Wonder if the CEO ran this career-making idea past Marketing. Has anyone at Kelloggs recently walked the cereal aisle of any grocery store and seen the other options available? Maybe, to avoid "triggering," they don't recognize competition.

I sent them a nice "eat cornflakes and die" letter last week.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is a real winner also. SJW to the core. Interestingly enough, no mention of BLM support at Wiki. Go figure.


Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 12/06/2016 8:34 Comments || Top||

#4  The Kellogg Foundation is the thinking equivalent of highly processed food.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/06/2016 8:51 Comments || Top||

#5  I declare bacon & scrambled eggs revolution!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/06/2016 9:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Good. I'll have my kids making quiche within a year. Daughter already makes her own scrambled eggs, and is steadily exploring outside the basic recipe. Anyone out there interested in some cheesy scrambled eggs with (beginner level) diced green pepper and Cholula?

Talk about taking the chicken to the bunk - Americans turn back on NFL and ESPN, dumping the sugar bombs from my kids breakfast, well that is some Michelle Obama award behavior there chuck.

This will be interesting. In an era where people purposefully do not talk about how to make a tuna salad, my kids will be able to go from lure to dessert on their own. Uncultured? Daughter read Tolkien in third grade; I know it isn't the latest app and all. We'll figure that one out after a musical instrument is decided upon.

Maybe g(r)rom's comment got me on a rant, but they really are going to make a generation of bad-asses, if only in comparison to their crop. I don't need their TV entertainment, don't need their education, don't need their advice. They have taught me that I can teach myself how to teach.

"Hey s-for brains racist, buy my quarter pound of processed sugar to feed your kids."

(golf clap)

That is some top notch business modeling right there.

As the snark went, Stupid Kellogg's, cereal is for kids.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/06/2016 11:15 Comments || Top||

#7  Perhaps if they're ground, lightly toasted, coated with sugar, and marketed correctly as breakfast food........
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/06/2016 11:20 Comments || Top||

#8  Requires a bit of preparation but, boy, is it worth it!
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 12/06/2016 11:55 Comments || Top||

#9  That is inspirational.

Cleaning out the fridge the other week, had a cheese ball left over from Thanksgiving - summer sausage & jalapeno. Cooked up some high-quality sausage patties, Texas toast through the toaster, had a sausage & cheese sandwiches.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/06/2016 13:23 Comments || Top||

#10  1/2 c. generic rolled oats mixed with 1 c. water of your choice. Microwave in huge bowl for 4 min. Add milk if you like &/or flavorings. Eat out of the bowl you cooked it in. Haven't had packaged cold cereal for years.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/06/2016 15:34 Comments || Top||

#11  The 'Made in China' trend is going to be very difficult to turn around, especially when they continue to buy our debt.

I don't know how much of our debt China still holds, nor Japan either. A few years back I read that both countries had significantly cut back on their holdings of US Treasuries because the interest rate was so low and the risk of default had increased significantly.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/06/2016 19:11 Comments || Top||

#12  Its an interesting phenomena I have never seen adequately explained. Why companies pander to obviously minority views, invariably on the left, and piss off many of their customers.

In part it's the media that inflates the significance of these minority views, and ignores any blowback, such that the companies can convince themselves that what they do is good for business.

Which is why it took an alternative media heavyweight - Breibart - to throw this issue into focus.

I've been boycotting various companies and products for years, mostly because of their stand on social and political issues. Unfortunately, I never eat cereal.

Perhaps time to reread MauMauing the Flackcatchers.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/06/2016 19:16 Comments || Top||

#13  The 'Made in China' trend is going to be very difficult to turn around, especially when they continue to buy our debt.

Tariffs will and always have moved business operations to the tariff imposing country, at the expense of consumers in that country. US tariffs and China imports will have the added benefit of financially destabilizing China, which has very high levels of dubious debt.

As for US debt, there is only one limit to how much sovereign (federal government) debt they can issue and it really doesn't matter if anyone buys it, because the government can buy it off itself, ie QE.

The limit is eventually your currency collapses. The USA is a very long way from that point.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/06/2016 19:28 Comments || Top||


Michael J. Totten: Trump's Taiwan Call Wasn't a Blunder

Posted by: newc || 12/06/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  China is a bully. That’s the problem.

And who continues to feed the bully ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/06/2016 6:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Really. At the end of the day, they will nuke us if we don't trade on their terms? That'll end well...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/06/2016 10:55 Comments || Top||

#3  "I owe you 10 trillion $. Better be nice."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/06/2016 13:44 Comments || Top||

#4  "Really, Western Civ, we put a lot of effort into finding the NICE hospice for you. If you don't like it we've got one with much more aggressive orderlies we could have sent you to."
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/06/2016 15:18 Comments || Top||

#5  #2 Really. At the end of the day, they will nuke us if we don't trade on their terms? That'll end well...

Really? Then I guess we just drop a couple of crowd pleasers behind that big dam of theirs. And radiate a few dozen cities.
Posted by: Grarong Spawn of the Heathen Rus2966 || 12/06/2016 18:43 Comments || Top||

#6  I think M. Murcek was being sarcastic. Worst China could do is sell off what they owe and try to screw us while they collapse their economy.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 12/06/2016 23:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Our World: Michael Flynn and what he means for Trump's foreign policy

In the US and around the world, people are anxiously awaiting US President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement of his choice to serve as secretary of state. There is no doubt that Trump’s choice for the position will tell us a great deal about the direction his foreign policy is likely to take.

But the fact is that we already have sufficient information to understand what his greatest focus will be.

Trump’s announcement last week that he has selected Marine General James Mattis to serve as his defense secretary is a key piece of the puzzle.

In 2013, US President Barack Obama summarily removed Mattis from his command as head of the US Military’s Central Command. According to media reports, Mattis was fired due to his opposition to Obama’s strategy of embracing Iran, first and foremost through his nuclear diplomacy. Mattis argued that Iran’s nuclear program was far from the only threat Iran constituted to the US and its allies. By empowering Iran through the nuclear deal, Obama was enabling Iran’s rise as a hegemonic power throughout the region.

Mattis’s dim view of Iran is shared by Trump’s choice to serve as his national security adviser. Lt. General Michael Flynn’s appointment has been met with far less enthusiasm among Washington’s foreign policy elites.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/06/2016 07:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  His kid's a conspiracy nut and they just booted Jr. out of the Transition Team. Sr. looks OK
Posted by: Frank G || 12/06/2016 18:41 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pak-Afghan ties
[DAWN] AFGHAN President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
has become a harsh critic of Pakistain -- harsh to the point of outdoing Indian hawks and, seemingly, undermining his own country’s interests. At the Heart of Asia conference in Amritsar, where the theme was cooperation against security threats, Mr Ghani’s rhetoric was aggressive, almost as if Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
desired a rupture in Pak-Afghan ties. This is not the right attitude and it is hoped that better sense will prevail. Certainly, there is some history here. When Mr Ghani assumed office more than two years ago, he made it a priority to reach out to Pakistain through some bold verbal statements and diplomatic gestures towards Islamabad and Rawalpindi; it indicated that resetting ties with Pakistain were a core part of his agenda. The outreach was received warmly by both the political government and the military leadership here, but Mr Ghani soon became impatient with what was perceived in Afghanistan as Pakistain’s slow pace in addressing his country’s concerns.

Yet, Pakistain, too, has had genuine concerns vis-à-vis Afghanistan. As Mr Ghani and the National Unity Government he heads became increasingly hawkish on Pakistain, they deliberately steered closer to India -- a growing closeness that the security establishment here saw as one of the reasons behind the renewed security troubles in Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
. Moreover, with counter-insurgency operations in North Wazoo and other parts of Fata nearing their final stages, the problem of sanctuaries for anti-Pakistain murderous Moslems in Afghanistan, particularly in the eastern region, has become a thorny issue. The combination of Afghan and Pak grievances against one another has led to a relationship that is now in a shockingly poor state. Still, there are compelling reasons for both sides to move the bilateral relationship back towards cooperation, and Mr Ghani surely knows this, even if he prefers to give voice to a one-sided interpretation of events at the moment.

There are at least three areas in which cooperation is merited -- and can be achieved, if both sides are willing to accept the principle of reciprocity. First, the problem of cross-border militancy is a regional one, as the joint statement at the Amritsar conference indicated. In the case of Afghanistan and Pakistain, border management and interdicting cross-border murderous Moslem movement can be a joint priority. Second, the goal of a political reconciliation with the Afghan Taliban is one shared by all sides. Pakistain can continue to use its influence in a way that nudges the Taliban towards reconciliation, while Afghanistan can tamp down its hostile rhetoric towards Pakistain as it explores further ways to move dialogue ahead. Third, trade and commerce between Pakistain and Afghanistan can and should be expanded -- Pakistain remains a vital trading partner for Afghanistan and the old business links, formal and informal, are an important platform. Cooperation needs to be the guiding principle of Pak-Afghan relations.

Posted by: Fred || 12/06/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Pakistain can continue to use its influence in a way that nudges the Taliban towards reconciliation, while Afghanistan can tamp down its hostile rhetoric towards Pakistain as it explores further ways to move dialogue ahead.

"Nice, albeit backwards, country you got there, Ghani. Real shame if anything happened to it."
Posted by: Pappy || 12/06/2016 16:14 Comments || Top||


Old challenge, new approach
[DAWN] AMRITSAR reconfirmed Pakistain remains a target of joint criticism by India and Afghanistan. Much of domestic and international opinion by and large concurs with such criticism. Such is the failure of our Afghanistan and India policies. They cannot and will not be redressed by those who can only construct self-serving narratives. Control of our Afghanistan and India policies remain with those who are neither authorised nor qualified for the task. The situation is similar for much of our domestic security and political policies,

Our India policy impacts our Afghanistan policy. This is not to say Pakistain’s Afghanistan policy should run through Delhi. But to a great extent it does because our short-sighted and incompetent policymakers effectively insist that it does -- with consistently negative results. Consistent with Einstein’s definition of lunacy, our adherence to such an India-focused Afghanistan policy is endlessly pursued in the hope that, somehow some day, it will produce positive results! We remain obstinately India-centric in the conduct of our Afghanistan policy, which has always alienated Afghanistan. It wilfully ignores the sensibilities and self-image of our Afghan brethren. Moreover, history testifies that any policy towards Afghanistan that provokes Afghan resistance is doomed to failure.

While Afghanistan cannot be treated as an aspect of our India policy, the state of our relations with India does impact on the range of options we can avail of to improve our relations with Afghanistan. This is because any significant and sustained improvement in our relations with India may (a) incline us to re-evaluate our dysfunctional strategies towards Afghanistan and (b) reduce India’s incentive to use its influence with Afghanistan as an option against Pakistain. For Pakistain to be simultaneously locked in a zero-sum relationship with two of its most immediate neighbours is pure folly. Pakistain can never be stable in such a situation.

India is, of course, the greater challenge because it is by far the bigger country and there is a long and cumulative history behind the current relationship. Moreover, Pakistain cannot control and contain the longer-term consequences of a hostile relationship with India. In the case of Afghanistan, the ’differences’ are much more recent and far less profound even if they are not insignificant. Pakistain as the larger country is more able to lend a positive orientation to the development of the relationship. This would enhance our ability to cope with the challenge of India. We should, accordingly, ensure that the India-Afghanistan-Pakistain trilateral dynamic does not remain a vicious circle for us.
Posted by: Fred || 12/06/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Terror Networks
The Jihadi Thinker Who Ushered in the Era of ‘Anything Goes' Warfare
[Defense One] Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir died in a recent airstrike, but his ideas will shape Islamic State and al-Qaeda tactics for years to come.

Last year, the Islamic State released a training video, one of a multipart series shot in Iraq. With its scenes of foot drills, target practice, and karate chops, it would have been entirely unremarkable were it not for a short classroom scene, in which an instructor walks viewers through the ideological curriculum forced upon new recruits to the ISIS cause. As he’s shown reeling off a list of some key topics in jihadist jurisprudence, one can glimpse a thick volume resting atop each of the 20 or so schoolroom desks--a manuscript that, while few would recognize it outside of jihadist circles, is instrumental to ISIS as a theological playbook that is used to justify the group’s most abhorrent acts.

Recently, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the obscure author of this book, Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir, had been killed in a corner of northeast Syria by an American strike. Notably, at the time of his death, he was not affiliated to ISIS but, rather, its chief ideological rival in Syria, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra), a group whose orbit he entered into sometime in the last few years.

Mystery and intrigue shroud the life of Muhajir, a man who has a rich aural lineage (literally days’ worth of online recordings) but who only appeared on camera for the first time in June of this year. However, while there is a striking paucity of open-source information about him, the Egyptian national, a veteran of the Afghan jihad and long-time al-Qaeda associate, had a massive impact upon the development of jihadist thought in the last four decades. Indeed, it’s hard to overstate his importance in the context of modern Islamist terrorism--neither the Islamic State nor al-Qaeda would be where they are today without him.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/06/2016 11:49 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  I'm sure both Vlad & Donald can cope with the idea of ‘Anything Goes' Warfare.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/06/2016 13:41 Comments || Top||

#2  The Pennsylvania militia did a pretty good job of 'anything goes' warfare at Gnadenhutten in what is now Ohio in 1782. The state of Ohio erected a memorial marker there in 2003, calling the event a "day of shame".
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/06/2016 15:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, and a distant relative of mine was burnt at the stake as a result, Anguper.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 12/06/2016 20:13 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Puh-LEEZE. Lefty rag claims well-known Christmas song is about rape, gets mocked HILARIOUSLY by Twitter
’Tis the season for crazy, cat-hoarding, hairy-legged feminists to screech about the fairly well-known Christmas song, "Baby It’s Cold Outside." Luckily Affinity Magazine (which is written by millennials so take this with a grain of salt) seems to be the only one SO FAR claiming the song is about rape.

So far being key here folks.



The Twitter comments contained within the post are (mostly) v-e-r-y funny.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 12/06/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probably taking a class on microaggressions.
Posted by: gorb || 12/06/2016 2:24 Comments || Top||

#2  She could at least bring in fire wood equal rights and all!
Posted by: Goober Wittlesbach5685 || 12/06/2016 5:53 Comments || Top||

#3  They trotting this tired, old line out again? At this point anyone spouting this shit should be boiled in his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through their heart.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/06/2016 10:54 Comments || Top||

#4  But rap songs which are openly about rape and degradation of Hos women is ok right?

Just checking....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/06/2016 11:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Rap is Vibrant!, so it's OK.

Vibrant! makes all the dirt go away!
Posted by: charger || 12/06/2016 19:01 Comments || Top||

#6  If it made the dirt go away, who would "sing" it?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 12/06/2016 20:15 Comments || Top||



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Mon 2016-12-05
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Thu 2016-12-01
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Wed 2016-11-30
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