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90 ISIS bodies found in southwest of Sirte
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos: Why are we funding illegal immigrants ?
[Breitbart] Breitbart Senior editor MILO appeared at the University of New Mexico today to deliver his immigration policy speech entitled, "Americans Deserve Borders", where the Dangerous Faggot ripped into illegal immigrants, the hijab and the threat of Islam.

MILO spoke about the effect of illegal immigrants on America saying, "Going back to George Borjas, from Harvard, he gives us several things to worry about. Firstly, no one has a real clue how many illegals there are in this country. The government likes to say 11 million, but that is not based in fact, just a bit of math. Someone at some point estimated 10% of immigrants were illegal, and they stuck with it. Your tax dollars at work."
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/28/2017 05:50 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  because the establishment ulitmately picks up that subsidy
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/28/2017 10:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Calculating how much illegal immigrants and 'refugees' cost the rest of us been Taboo for a long time.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/28/2017 18:14 Comments || Top||

#3  not a dime for illegals until Veterans are taken care of.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 01/28/2017 19:02 Comments || Top||

#4  The term you're looking for, Milo, is ILLEGAL ALIENS.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/28/2017 19:07 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Unuversity Education - 1868
Tuition and Fees, listed in the 1868 Course Catalogue:

In-state - $15 per annum (that's a year to the unsophisticated)
Out of state - $20 per annum
Room Rent - $4 per term
Board in Hall - $108 to $126.50

"Many young men reduce the expense to within $100 a year, and pay this by their labor during the year. It ought to be known that any young man can pay his way through college who is willing, for the sake of an education, to practice steadily the virtues of industry and economy."
The University's motto is still (I think) "Learning and Labor"
Posted by: Bobby || 01/28/2017 11:04 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You'd think a college graduate could spell "University", wouldn't ya?
Posted by: Bobby || 01/28/2017 11:26 Comments || Top||

#2  I must be as old as dirt as I can recall tuition being 90 bucks/term. College costs are rising faster than inflation. A large part of the problem is that in large public universities, they are being saddled with too many federal mandates. Data from 2012 as well as trend data beginning in 1985. .
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/28/2017 11:43 Comments || Top||

#3  I think part of the cause of increasing costs of higher education is the same phenomenon we saw with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. You loan ridiculous amounts of money at usurious interest rates to kids who probably don't belong at a university anyway and it increases the demand. Increase the demand and you increase the cost. Then you get a whole bunch of unemployed and under employed college graduates. Better to send them to trade schools. Better to eliminate high school and send them to trade schools instead. Then let them work for what they're worth instead of what the union demands. Sorry, but a college education should not be for commoners or to make somebody's Affirmative Action quota. College should be for young people who really are gifted enough to go on to a professional career.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/28/2017 12:17 Comments || Top||

#4  The major accelerator of costs is the Yuuuuge increase in educrats aka administrators.

There are far more admins now than faculty due to the Yuuuuge increase in Federal regs.

You'd think it was part of some loan scam or something.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/28/2017 13:02 Comments || Top||

#5  The fact that a student was basically unlimited money with their federal student loans to a collage, resulted in the skyrocketing expenses you see today.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/28/2017 16:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Universities are an anachronism in the internet age.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/28/2017 18:09 Comments || Top||

#7  And many Presidents are past academians rather than CEOs being asked to retool their businesses.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/28/2017 18:15 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
This Week in Guns, January 28th, 2017


By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

This past week in national politics has been amazing so far with President Donald Trump churning out Executive Orders, reversing many orders signed by his predecessor.

Missing in all the paperwork is guns. There's a reason for that, and I suspect it is because the government is such a mess it will take a while to straighten out. For my part, reversing the ban on 7N6 ammunition (5.45x39mm for AK-74) would be a good step in the right direction. As I mentioned on this site before, the ban was easy for Obama since it is his right as president to ban imports into the US under certain conditions. Not that I would start using the 7N6, but it seems inconsistent to ban one class of ammunition because it is considered to be armor piercing and not ban another class of 5.56x45mm ammunition for the same reason because it is much more popular.

Rantburger Steve S reminds us of another rule change sneaked in just hours before Trump took office which bans large classes of ammunition on federal lands, sacrificing 2nd Amendment rights on the Holy Alter of Environmentalism.

On a related note, a photo of the contraband seized in recent bust by a Pacolo (Oklahoma) Police unit showed a curious selection of ammunition for the weapon that was seized (see the link).

A commenter said: "Note the ammo selection for the gun. I read an article a while back about the guns and ammo criminals typically use. A police officer did his own study on the subject going over firearms confiscated by his department. As I recall many had missmatched ammo. Some had the wrong ammo. Several had the wrong magazines in semi autos. As I recall out of the hundred or so guns sampled (granted it's a small sample but the only data I've seen) roughly 25% wouldn't have fired 2 shots if they managed to fire the first shot."

This goes back to a survey of the guns Bad Guys use in the commission of their crimes, which was featured some time back on TWIG.

The bottom line? Happy Hunting!

Loads.

Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:

Prices for pistol ammunition were mostly steady. Prices for rifle ammunition were mostly steady.

Prices for used pistols were lower across the board. Prices for used rifles were mixed.

New Lows:

None.

Pistol Ammunition

.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: FedArm, Own Brand, TMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .23 per round (From Last week: -.01 Each)

.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Own brand, Brass Casing, Reloads, .21 per round (From Last Week: +.02 Each

9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (9 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .15 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: FedArm, Own Brand, TPMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .15 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))

.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (4Q, 2016)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel casing, .24 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (4Q, 2016))

.38 Special, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Own brand, LRN, Aluminum Casing, .26 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 500 rounds: FedArm, Own Brand, TMJ, Brass casing, Reloads, .20 per round (From Last Week -.04 Each)

Rifle Ammunition

.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .21 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .21 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)

.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: -.03 After Unchanged (8 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Alamo Ammo, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .31 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round (From Last Week: -.02 Each After Unchanged (7 Weeks)

7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: -.04 Each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .21 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .21 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (6 Weeks))

.30-06 Springfield 145 Grain. From Last Week Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .65 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Ammo Liquidator, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .56 per round (From Last week: -.03 Each)

.300 Winchester Magnum 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Prvi Partizan, Brass Case, SP, .87 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Ammo Liquidator, Hornady Whitetail, Brass Case, SP, 1.06 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each)

.338 Lapua Magnum 250 Grain, From Last Week Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Federal American Eagle, Brass Case, JSP, 2.30 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 200 rounds: Target Sports USA, Prvi Partizan, Brass Case, FMJ, 2.40 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)

.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds (10 Box Limit): Ammomen, Federal, RNL, .06 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 325 rounds: Gun Buyer, Federal, RNL, .06 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks))

Guns for Private Sale
Rifles


.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $493 Last Week Avg: $510(-) ($616 (2Q, 2015), $468 (8 Weeks))
Arizona (129, 122): Bear Creek Arsenal: $550 ($600 (3 Weeks), $500 (4 Weeks))
Texas (329, 318): Bushmaster Carbon 15: $499 ($700 (1Q, 2015), $350 (2Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (173, 176): Ruger AR556: $475 ($700 (2Q, 2015), $300 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (210, 206): Mixed Build: $495 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $415 (7 Weeks))
Florida (475, 454): Anderson Arms: $450 ($650 (2Q, 2015), $380 (1Q, 2015))

.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,020 Last Week Avg: $920(+) ($1,359 (2Q, 2015), $820 (3Q, 2015))
Arizona (27, 30): Armalite: $1,100 ($1,100 (CA:$750 (2 Weeks)), $650 (4 Weeks))
Texas (99, 92): DPMS: $1,100 ($1,500 (4Q, 2014), $700 (26 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (43, 38): DPMS: $1,100 ($1,600 (11 Weeks), $700 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (49, 48): DPMS: $1,000 ($2,750 (1Q, 2016), $800 (4Q, 2015))
Florida (87, 77): Unspecified Brand/Build: $800 ($1,950 (39 Weeks), $500 (3Q, 2015))

7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $558 Last Week Avg: $568(-) ($668 (20 Weeks)), $450 (3Q, 2015))
Arizona (29, 30): VZ 2008: $500 ($650 (4 Weeks)), $500 (3 Weeks))
Texas (74, 67): MM Industries: $600 ($800 (1Q, 2016, $350 (3Q, 2014))
Pennsylvania (51, 44): CAI: $550 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $375 (1Q, 2015))
Virginia (47, 45): Romak Underfolder: $600 ($700 (34 Weeks), $350 (1Q, 2015))
Florida (115, 116): CAI: $540 ($700 (47 Weeks), $300 (4Q, 2014))

30-30 Winchester Lever Action Average Price: $366 Last Week Avg: $386(+) ($495 (16 Weeks), $296 (3Q, 2015))
Arizona (7, 7): Winchester 94: $500 ($500 (3 Weeks), $500 (4 Weeks))
Texas (14, 15): Marlin 336: $300 ($550 (1Q, 2015), $300 (1Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (12, 16): Winchester 94: $350 ($450 (1Q, 2015), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Virginia (17, 15): Winchester 94: $300 ($670 (36 Weeks)), $250 (4Q, 2015))
Florida (23, 19): Glenfield Marlin: $380 ($500 (1Q, 2015), $250 (2Q, 2015))

Pistols

.45 caliber ACP (M1911 Pattern Semiautomatic Pistol) Average Price: $439 Last Week Avg: $479(-) ($515 (25 Weeks)), $350 (4Q, 2015))
Arizona (92, 90): Para Ordnance: $550 ($550 (3 Weeks), $400 (4 Weeks))
Texas (252, 250): Para Ordnance: $500 ($600 (4Q, 2014), $300 (8 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (145, 145): Rock Island Armory: $345 ($575 ($575 (3 Weeks), $300 (2Q, 2015))
Virginia (140, 150): Iver Johnson: $450 ($575 (1Q, 2016)), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Florida (342, 339): American Tactical Imports: $350 ($500 (51 Weeks), $250 (1Q, 2015))

9mm (Beretta 92FS or other Semiautomatic) Average Price: $247 Last Week Avg: $267(-) ($358 (46 Weeks), $231 (4 Weeks))
Arizona (131, 124): Sccy: $300 ($300 (3 Weeks), $275 (4 Weeks))
Texas (364, 370): Smith & Wesson SW9VE: $225 ($355 (1Q, 2015), $200 (3Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (292, 293): Taurus PT 709: $200 ($350 (4Q 2014), $200 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (253, 253): Ruger LC9 : $250 ($425 (4Q, 2016), $189 (43 Weeks))
Florida (552, 555): SCCY: $260 ($400 (45 Weeks), $190 (25 Weeks))

.40 caliber S&W (Glock or other semiautomatic) Average Price: $313 Last Week Avg: $330(-) ($399 (1Q, 2016), $262 (33 Weeks))
Arizona (33, 30): Taurus PT940: $300 ($500 (3 Weeks)), $300 (CA: 450 (1 Week))
Texas (127, 124): Kahr CM40: $300 ($425 (4Q, 2014), ($210 (18 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (86, 92): Smith & Wesson SW40VE: $340 ($450 (41 Weeks), $200 (21 Weeks))
Virginia (87, 81): Taurus 740: $375 ($450 (2Q, 2015), $275 (1Q, 2015))
Florida (150, 151): Kahr CW40: $250 ($400 (1Q, 2015), $199 (4Q, 2015))

Used Gun of the Week: (Virginia)
Walther P1 Chambered in 9mm Parabellum
Posted by: badanov || 01/28/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  With a new (R) President, House and Senate and the Army SIG pick will we be seeing discount dumping on the pre-election panic surplus?
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/28/2017 18:10 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Officials announce proposal that would establish California as separate nation
[FOX] A proposal for California to secede from the United States was submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office Thursday.

The proposed "Calexit" initiative - its name borrowed from the UK's "Brexit" departure from the EU - would ask voters to repeal part of the state constitution that declares California an inseparable part of the U.S.

A recent poll found that one in three California residents would support a possible secession from the U.S. due to their opposition to President Trump. No mention has been made of the president in the proposal.

If the proposal qualifies for the ballot and is approved by voters, it could be a step to a future vote on whether the state would break away from the rest of the nation.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/28/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How'd that idea work out 150 years ago? Or maybe they figure we'd be glad to be rid of them?
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/28/2017 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought Texas would be first.
Posted by: Hupuck Gray8571 || 01/28/2017 1:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe we can swap - The LA/San Francisco area for the wall.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/28/2017 1:15 Comments || Top||

#4  The Californians can secede, the territory stays. The people can move to Mexico. Or break the place up.
Posted by: Omomort Cheager7040 || 01/28/2017 5:17 Comments || Top||

#5  When the electoral college votes of Kaliphony it means Republican government for ever in the Real USA.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/28/2017 7:10 Comments || Top||

#6  "electoral college votes of Kaliphony "
is missing "are removed"


/Don't post without coffee.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/28/2017 7:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Easier and faster to renegotiate the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. They get 'rich' Calimexico to loot and they put the wall up. Only requires approval of the Senate as its an established treaty.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/28/2017 8:41 Comments || Top||

#8  California would be so broke they wouldn't be able to function in 5 years. They depend on federal funds and the money from other states buying shit to just stay afloat (and they are still billions in debt).

Go ahead idiots. Cut off most of your revenue and still pay your corrupt politicians and social groups.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/28/2017 9:36 Comments || Top||

#9  Also Northern California would secede right back and there goes your water for the South.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/28/2017 9:37 Comments || Top||

#10  Zimbabwe is to South Africa what Puerto Rico is to the United States. California no longer wants 'Statehood' they wish to become Puerto Rico.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/28/2017 9:41 Comments || Top||

#11  Also Northern California would secede right back and there goes your water for the South.


The political clique running California's state government, its Senators* and the influential Congress critters are from Northern California.

* yes one lists a residence in SoCal, but they're 'NoCal'.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/28/2017 10:29 Comments || Top||

#12  Only because they are appointed by the right paymasters, Pappy. The citizens of the State of Jefferson wouldn't take to kindly to being forced out of the US.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/28/2017 10:41 Comments || Top||

#13  Please note that the proposed State of Jefferson does not include and certainly does not want the canker sore that is the Bay Area. Like a beautiful but diseased Demi-monde doxy, it cannot be saved.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 01/28/2017 11:41 Comments || Top||

#14  As with their crappy celebrities, socialists always believe the last, most drastic action is separating themselves; they're all simply going to run away from home Seriously? Have none of them ever once noticed the alternating howls of laughter and shouts of encouragement? Leave already, what the Hell? we'll throw in Lena Dunham.
Posted by: Cesare || 01/28/2017 12:17 Comments || Top||

#15  Great. So then instead of being the governor Moonbeam becomes the president and with the loonies in the legislature going along with anything he wants it will indeed become Zimbabwe. Let the Bay Area secede. OK, Hollywood can go too. The rest of us want to remain Americans. Better yet, start arresting these people for treason. Also, deport the illegal aliens because they'll go along with it. Nip this thing in the bud before before they start to believe they can actually do it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/28/2017 12:33 Comments || Top||

#16  Anyway, never gonna happen. If they try a Fort Sumter at Camp Pendleton they'll wish they hadn't.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/28/2017 12:38 Comments || Top||

#17  Wait, before ya go we need to move Congress to San Jose first!
Posted by: Nero White 3083 || 01/28/2017 12:47 Comments || Top||

#18  Snark of the day Nero....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/28/2017 12:49 Comments || Top||

#19  Only because they are appointed by the right paymasters, Pappy

Most of them are well-off on their own. Do a search on Jerry Brown's financial and land holdings. Same for Feinstein (okay, she's retiring,) and Pelosi and their families.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/28/2017 13:26 Comments || Top||

#20  Let them, then declare war, conquer them and force them all into a reservation in death valley. Declare it theirs forever and allow no travel in or out. In two weeks, they are all gone and we can repopulate California with humans.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 01/28/2017 13:32 Comments || Top||

#21  Let them, then declare war, conquer them and force them all into a reservation in death valley.

I'll be the one with my hands up. Please don't shoot me. I'm on your side.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/28/2017 14:01 Comments || Top||

#22  The Poll the said 1/3 of California want Calexit was a poll of 500 people, statistically insignificant.

California has a serious budget problem that will have to be dealt with, going independent would add all sorts of additional costs ontop of that. It would also more or less mean a Republican majority in the remaining USA for decades to come.

It won't happen. It's just a tantrum.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/28/2017 14:01 Comments || Top||

#23  There you go rj, talking about facts again...

Facts to liberals are like garlic to vampires.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/28/2017 14:05 Comments || Top||

#24  Funny that the national media doesn't say jack shit about Calexit, but if it was Texas saying the same thing a few years ago, they'd portray the proponents as loony tunes.
Posted by: Raj || 01/28/2017 14:25 Comments || Top||

#25  Any state that leaves the Union must take its share of the National Debt when they go.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/28/2017 16:04 Comments || Top||

#26  A recent poll found that one in three California residents would support a possible secession from the U.S.

I hate to get all mathy, with fractions and stuff, but that means 2/3 said no.
(hint: 2/3 is the larger part)
Posted by: SteveS || 01/28/2017 16:59 Comments || Top||

#27  as noted elsewhere, a sample size of 500 is nonsense
Posted by: Frank G || 01/28/2017 17:05 Comments || Top||

#28  We'll be worried about overpopulation on Mars before California secedes.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 01/28/2017 20:55 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Fight in parliament
[DAWN] IT ought to be self-evident: parliamentary debate is necessary and important, and coming to parliamentary fisticuffs is embarrassing and damaging to democracy. What transpired in the National Assembly on Thursday is shameful and squarely the responsibility of the speaker, the PTI and the PML-N. The unseemly brawl on the floor of the house should never have happened. Worryingly, none of the parties involved seems contrite nor concerned about avoiding a repeat incident. The imperatives of democracy appear to have been relegated behind a boisterous and disturbingly familiar type of politics. Start with the role of National Assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq. While there was nothing wrong per se in his oversight of the house in the events leading up to the brawl on Thursday, Mr Sadiq has become a lightning rod for opposition criticism, particularly for the PTI. Contrast the non-partisan and sensible management of the National Assembly by speaker Fehmida Mirza in the previous parliament with Mr Sadiq’s contentious role. Following his return to the speaker’s chair after a charged by-election victory against a PTI candidate, Mr Sadiq appears to have lost sight of his principal role as a neutral steward of the house. Even where his rulings are fair and sensible, Mr Sadiq often appears exasperated and is curt in his dealings with the opposition. He ought to reconsider his approach while chairing the house.

Certainly, the PTI must bear a great deal of the blame too. The party appears to be suffering from at least three problems: a party leadership that is contemptuous of parliamentary norms; several first-time MNAs who are neither guided nor restrained by senior party colleagues; and a determination to create as much controversy whenever possible to highlight the PTI’s anti-government politics. While the political dividends of such a strategy can be disputed, what is clear is that the PTI will get nowhere in its avowed goal of strengthening the anti-corruption regime if democratic processes are constantly stalled or disregarded. The PTI itself had demanded a parliamentary debate recently, so why not use the platform of a new session to press its political and legislative case? Sadly, the PTI’s interest in positively contributing to the functioning of democratic institutions appears limited at best.

Finally, though by no means of least consequence, is the PML-N’s own tawdry role in the parliamentary brawl of Thursday. Whatever justification the PML-N believes it may have, two factors override that entirely. First, the PML-N is the governing party and as such the chief custodian of the democratic project in the country. It must always rise above petty provocation rather than descend into the muck of slander and brawling. Second, the big shotship of the PML-N knows well what unseemly parliamentary fights and squabbles led to in the 1990s. The government may not want to turn the other cheek, but it must rise above petty provocations.

Posted by: Fred || 01/28/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Bottom of the class
[DAWN] I have often wondered why successive governments have been so slack in cracking down on the jihadi militias that have been rampaging on our soil for decades now. I know one reason is the support many of them receive from our intelligence agencies. But why have civilian leaders not acted against the hard-line madressahs, or stopped hate speech in mosques and TV chat shows, or, indeed, cleaned our school and college curricula of their murderous Moslem content?

It’s true that our politicians are not known for decisive action, just as our bureaucracy has not set any records for rapid implementation. But had a majority of the 60,000 or so of the victims of terrorism been members of the upper echelons of society, I’m sure the state’s response would have been very different.

As an example, look at what happened in the aftermath of the two attempts on Musharraf’s life in December 2003: the suspects were rapidly tried, found guilty and executed. And it took a major Taliban attack on a Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
army school to get a consensus on military action, and the approval of the National Action Plan. Had the over 140 victims been from a Peshawar slum, I doubt very much that such a determined response would have been crafted by our leadership.

This attitude merely reflects other aspects of life in Pakistain. Our state hospitals and schools are in a shambles because our elites use private facilities. Quacks and madressahs thrive in the vacuum created by the state’s abdication of its responsibilities. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that an educated and healthy population is essential for any nation’s progress.

Yet we continue to ignore these basic needs because our children don’t have to go to schools where little education is imparted. Or, if they are sick, don’t have to go to hospitals where they would have to wait endlessly to receive third-rate care.

It’s the same depressing story for clean drinking water and sanitation. Again, these problems don’t exist for our entitled ruling classes. Bot­tled water and tan­kers for the lawns and swimming pools of the rich are the order of the day. And yet, waterborne diseases and poor sanitation account for the vast majority of diseases afflicting millions of Paks.

Everybody is aware of these issues, and yet government after government has refused to tackle them. Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

has done a bit better than the other provinces, but the Sharif family’s preoccupation with their ’mega projects’ has diverted attention and resources from more pressing needs.

One excuse is that the security forces have siphoned off a large chunk of the funds available, leaving little for the citizenry. While this may be true, it is not the whole truth: year after year, millions of rupees allocated to education and health in the budget are surrendered because our bureaucracy was unable to spend them within the financial year.

The reality is that the military, the bureaucracy, the political class, feudals and businessmen all grab the state’s resources and deprive the poor of their share. As long as this loot continues, expect to see Pakistain at the bottom of the table for human development.
Posted by: Fred || 01/28/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


God’s own country: Why freedom is scarce in the Islamic republic
[HERALD.DAWN] The news from Pakistain the world now sees is of a country run by corrupt politicians and military opportunists who are powerless to stop intolerant priests from indoctrinating children to blow themselves up as jacket wallahs. Though created to guarantee freedom to Moslems, Pakistain has become a country where Moslem Sunnis kill Moslem Shias or attack Moslem Sufi shrines and where Ahmadis are declared to be non-Moslem.

Where religion should remain each individual’s private concern, Pakistain has had the misfortune to be periodically governed by unscrupulous dictators who exploited the majority, which they kept uneducated, by championing religious dogma to command their unquestioning support. Blasphemy laws are nothing more than institutional bullying by the state to maintain that unquestioning support.

The country was piously renamed the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Pakistain, a contradiction in terms, for the defining exclusiveness of ’Islamic’ makes the Republic a nation for only a part of its people and fails to protect such minorities as Christians or Hindus, should any believer bring charges of blasphemy against them, and therefore it is a plain lie to call it a Republic.

One of the worst newscasts I have had the sadness to see of my native land showed lawyers showering rose petals on an assassin (executed on court orders on February 29, 2016). They were celebrating his 2011 killing of Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

Governor Salman Taseer for harbouring the ’un-Islamic’ notion of repealing the country’s blasphemy laws. (Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman whose trial on blasphemy charges had directed Taseer’s attention towards these laws, remains on death row, awaiting the hearing of her appeal.)

They must feel very insecure about the correctness or validity of their ideas who need to protect themselves against any reasonable criticism from another human being by having the state enact laws that suppress the expression of criticism while sanctioning the glorification of primitive prejudice. Should it be thought that these remarks on blasphemy are themselves an expression of blasphemy, my position as an observer of human folly is no different from that of the highway patrol who, spotting a car go speeding past, must himself break the legal speed limit in order to fulfil his duty to arrest the lawbreaker.

Posted by: Fred || 01/28/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Because there has never has been GOD in Islam.
Posted by: newc || 01/28/2017 0:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Islam is about submission. Individual thought and free speech got you killed.

Therefore, there is no freedom in lands infested with this disease.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/28/2017 10:39 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Ilana Mercer: Make Jerusalem Safe Again
[Barely a Blog] RELOCATING the American Embassy to Jerusalem, as President Donald Trump has pledged to do, is more than symbolic. It’s what Christians should be praying for if they value celebrating future Easter Holy Weeks, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, located in Jerusalem’s Old City. With such a forceful gesture, the Trump Administration will be affirming, for once and for all, the undivided Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State.

There’s a reason Muslims living in Israel proper--1.5 million of them--don’t migrate to the adjacent Palestinian Authority. They’re better off in Israel. Should Jerusalem, East and West, be recognized formally as the capital of Israel only, under Jewish control alone; Christianity’s holiest sites will be better off. Judaism’s holy sites will be safer. And so will Islam’s.

Jerusalem is no settlement to be haggled over; it’s the capital of the Jewish State. King David conquered it 1000 years Before Christ. The city’s "Muslim Period" began only in the year 638 of the Common Era. "Yerushalaim," and not Al Quds, is the name of the city that was sacred to Jews for nearly two thousand years before Muhammad. Not once is Jerusalem mentioned in the Quran. And while Muhammad was said to have departed to the heavens from the Al Aksa Mosque, there was no mosque in Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa Mosque were built upon the Jewish Temple Mount. Muslim theologians subsequently justified this usurpation by superimposing their own chronology--and relatively recent fondness for Jerusalem--upon the existing, ancient sanctity of the place to Jews.

Essentially, this amounts to historical identity theft. It’s bad enough that Bethlehem--the burial site of the matriarch Rachel, birthplace to King David and Jesus and site of the Church of the Nativity--is controlled by the Palestinians. But, as one wag wondered, "How would Christians react if the Muslim theologians aforementioned had chosen to appropriate the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, rename it and declare it Muslim property?"
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/28/2017 00:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
For the Times They are Achanging
[AccordingToHoyt] Sixteen years ago, when I was first on the blogs (under deep cover, with mustache and sunglasses) there was a lot of talk about the cold civil war.

It is only now that I understand the name wasn’t EXACTLY right. Sure, there were two camps sharply divided, and the fact that we were geographically enmeshed meant that it couldn’t go hot in the traditional way. But there were other factors too.

In the cold war, what prevented it going hot was Mutual Assured Destruction. Sure, the Soviets were fanatics, but they weren’t the sort of fanatics who want to make sure they die TOO. They wanted to win. They wanted for various and complicated reasons, among them that the only way a communist society can be prosperous is through theft, to own the Earth. We weren’t about to allow that and we had the nukes to enforce it.
IMO, this wasn't (isn't) socialism but Russian national character: for Russians, through their entire history, border is that invaders come across - so safety = no abroad.
Oh, they grabbed what they could, mostly because the left here were very susceptible to Soviet propaganda, and the idea MAD was wrong, and we should disarm first. (Honestly, sometimes I think they’re aliens. That’s not how the world works, that’s not how humans work. That’s not how any of this works. The one who disarms first is known as "victim" or perhaps "dead.")

But in the Civil War we fought, they commanded all the positions of power. It wasn’t just the arts, or publishing, just the press or universities. If you were fairly wealthy, even back in the eighties, you made "left noises" because being leftist was aspirational and a positional good. Their control of the rest of the culture had a hard lock on the idea that leftist ideas were not just right and good but "Smart". Opening your mouth in public and revealing right-wing (and right wing was anything non-left, like supporting Ronald Reagan) opinions was the equivalent of committing social suicide.
And, in my experience, by 90es just keeping your mouth shut i.e., not expressing strong leftist sentiments loudly at every possible occasion, became social (and professional in the academia) suicide.
This is not a Cold Civil War. We were occupied. The Vichy had full control of society, and we were the plucky resistance. We didn’t even have a flight helmet, or an egg beater, but we were doing what we could, in the shadows. Those of us in the arts ported seemingly incongruous bits into our stuff, at great risk of discovery or at least suspicion. Local journalists sometimes broke with the narrative. But none of this had a great deal of effect. We were mostly sidelined, and when someone managed to break through, he or she was immediately demonized. Even a hero of the gonzo right like P. J. O’Rourke had to refer to Reagan as "his dumbness" to prove he was cool and hip enough. (No one referred to Carter as his dumbness, and having heard the man, this is a miracle of the controlled press.)

It is no longer like that. Things have changed. Now we are in a cold civil war with occasional flare ups.

...What I’m saying is that if they could demonize a squishy left and frankly morally impeccable man like Romney as an uber-fascist, they could demonize anyone and anything. Which meant for a long time, when the right got pressured, they buckled. They had to. It wasn’t a cold civil war. It was a guerilla war.
...I don’t know what happened with this election cycle. Perhaps it was that the economy is really, stupendously, bad. We don’t know for sure, because the press would rather die than report on it until a year from now, when they can blame it all on Trump, and also because Obama played tiddly winks with our number gathering, making things mean not what they say they mean. But the signs on the ground, they suck.
IMO, the economy is really bad - but that's not the reason. The reason is, republicans got (enforced on them) a candidate who does not believes the Left hold the high moral ground. One who, being a bit of a con man himself, sees them as what they are - a bunch of slogan mouthing thieves and murderers.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/28/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  David Shoup at Tarawa: "Casualties: many. Percentage dead: unknown. Combat efficiency: We are winning."
Posted by: Matt || 01/28/2017 9:44 Comments || Top||

#2  The economy was part of it, but let's not forget the triumphal malevolence of "Whitey is gonna die out and that's a good thing", and "We will take things away from you for your own good" and the attempted normalization of p*dophilia, and so many other things.

They didn't think that we were listening, or that we could do anything about if we were.

Simply put, they let the mask slip a little too soon.

They'll be more careful next time. (not the hysterics in the streets, but the true powers of the left)

Don't get cocky.
Posted by: charger || 01/28/2017 13:00 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2017-01-28
  90 ISIS bodies found in southwest of Sirte
Fri 2017-01-27
  Yemen’s Rebels Seize 3 Trucks Carrying Aid to Al-Bayda
Thu 2017-01-26
  Libyan Army captures Ganfouda district
Wed 2017-01-25
  Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham (Nusra) expels Jund Al-Aqsa from its ranks
Tue 2017-01-24
  Yemen army claims control of port city of Mokha
Mon 2017-01-23
  Nearly 70 killed in fresh Yemen fighting
Sun 2017-01-22
  Suicide bombers blow themselves up in Saudi Arabia
Sat 2017-01-21
  Over 100 Al Qaeda fighters killed in 'major' US air strike in Syria
Fri 2017-01-20
  Over 80 IS Fighters Killed in U.S. Strikes in Libya
Thu 2017-01-19
  Suicide blast kills 33 at north Mali military camp
Wed 2017-01-18
  US Air Force kills high ranking Al-Qaeda leader in Syria
Tue 2017-01-17
  Obama Releases 10 More GITMO Detainees Just Before Leaving Office
Mon 2017-01-16
  Noor Salman, wife of Orlando bomber, now jugged by FBI
Sun 2017-01-15
  Three arrested during Belgian police raid on Molenbeek street where Paris attacks mastermind Salah Abdeslam lived
Sat 2017-01-14
  Islamic State supporters face jail after infiltrated in undercover police sting

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