Saturday, January 31, 2015

Decapitations show media loses its head





The BBC, the Guardian, New York Times and most other lemmings led or had at the top of their Web sites the latest decapitation. Viewer discretion not advised.

The Islamic terrorists have figured out how the media works, Media Sans Frontieres.

Just when you think that there are something things or ideas that won’t be tolerated reality slaps you in the face. Perhaps decapitations could be the next, well, probably not the next, but one day, a reality show.

Remember when in the film “Network” anchor Howard Beale his bosses decide to only to way to raise ratings is to have him shot dead live on the stage during a newscast.

The British show has topped it. A royal princess is kidnapped. The prime minister must fuck a pig or she will be executed.

As authorities try to plot the rescue and escape of the princess a TV newswoman “selfies” her tits to get tips. She founds out a SWAT team has been sent to the possible abduction location.

As she is headed there, and the government fails in its attempt to pose a porn actor for the pig job, audiences are turning their displays on. It could have been a regular beer commercial.

Kind of makes you think back to the old movies, when the British Army threatened to put a Muslim guerrilla inside a pig’s skin.

Well, the pig trick does not work, and the prime minister has to fuck the pig, which means his wife will never touch him again.

Bars throughout the world are full of people watching, deflating any notions, to use the word in a different sense than the Super Bowl, that people give a shit about anything, no matter how gross.

What’s next? Emmies and Oscars for executions. No problem. Oklahoma, Texas and some other states can set it up.

As a veteran reporter who witnessed death in many different situations, this makes me believe that those who say money is the only denominator are correct.

The only answer, and it is unlikely there is one, is for people to turn their displays off and refuse to buy products from advertisers who promote these zombies.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Aleteia posts phony article about Mikey Weinstein

TEK JOURNALISM UK – Website takes down article critical of Mikey Weinstein

Not only has Newsmax taken down an article critical of the President and Founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, two of the main sources are challenging the report.
Newsmax said, in an email from Managing Editor Tim Collie, that it had removed the article produced by the Vatican-backed Aleteia because the author did not answer questions raised about it.

The article implied that Mikey Weinstein, Founder and President of the organization, lied or exaggerated his ties with the Reagan White House to raise money to support the civil rights organization head leads. It has 40,000 active duty and veteran service members, of all faiths (about 96% are practicing Christians) and no faith, who want to keep the church out of the military’s business. They campaign aggressively to stop unconstitutional proselytizing throughout the U. S. armed forces and otherwise keep the “God Boys” out of the nation’s military where not to do so would be unlawful.
The article implied that Mikey Weinstein, Founder and President of the organization, lied or exaggerated his ties with the Reagan White House to raise money to support the civil rights organization head leads. It has 40,000 active duty and veteran service members, of all faiths (about 96% are practicing Christians) and no faith, who want to keep the church out of the military’s business. They campaign aggressively to stop unconstitutional proselytizing throughout the U. S. armed forces and otherwise keep the “God Boys” out of the nation’s military where not to do so would be unlawful.
In the article, written by Mark Stricherz, two officials were quoted challenging Weinstein’s legitimacy.
Ray Wilson, an archivist at the Reagan White House Library, was quoted as saying records did not show any indication Weinstein worked for the White House. Wilson on Thursday, in a telephone interview, disputed and said he told the author he didn’t have time to make an exhaustive check and a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request should be filed if he wanted an authoritative response.
University of Minnesota Professor Richard Painter, former deputy legal counsel for Reagan, was quoted as implying that although Weinstein did work for the Reagan White House he was exaggerating his role. Painter said he was asking for a correction from Aleteia.
Aleteia made a couple of minor changes in its article but says it is standing by its story.
Weinstein’s trial lawyers have demanded a retraction because they allege that the article maliciously defames Weinstein who is a public figure.
Not only is Weinstein an Air Force Academy honors graduate, and lawyer, he served in the Reagan Administration and later was general counsel for Ross Perot and Perot Systems Corporation.
Weinstein, who is Jewish, was discriminated against at the Air Force Academy, but did not become publicly active against the violation of Constitutional laws requiring separation of church and state until his two sons and daughter-in-law attended and graduated from the Academy. He has a son-in-law and brother-in-law who also attended and graduated. His father is a Naval Academy graduate.
Two of them were told that they would burn in hell if they did not accept Jesus as their savior.


Tuesday, January 27, 2015

West of the Hudson….


When I was living in Manhattan in 1976, working for the Associated Press, the New Yorker had one of its signature covers.
Half of the country was shown on a map with the Hudson River near the middle, the rest of the world filled up the page.
This said in a far more eloquent way than I ever could how the media bias of the East Coast was so often focused on the rest of the nation.
This morning the country awakened to another blown-out of proportion story. New York City was not the new North Pole.
The thousands of people stranded around the country by pro-actively canceled airline flights may not have been so sanguine about it.
I had lived most of my life in the West, and only moved the Big Apple a couple of years before the Hudson River cover.
I was so ambitious I had been promoted from Seattle to the AP head office in Rockefeller Center.
As part of my initiation I was called into a top editor’s office. He asked me if there was anything about the way things worked that bothered me.
Not realizing I was not supposed to answer I blurted out that there seems to be an East Coast bias. He quickly replied: “I am so tired of hearing that.”
I responded, again without thinking a lot, “Perhaps you hear it so much because it is true.”
Even the New York Times joined in the hype. But the Onion had the sexiest headline: “NYC Mayor: ‘Reconcile Yourselves With Your God, For All Will Perish In The Tempest.'”
Mayor Bill de Blasio “advised advised residents Monday to make peace with whatever higher power they call God, for all shall meet their death in the coming tempest.” He said the lucky residents would die in their sleep.
It was not known if there were cones on the George Washington Bridge. Word of disappearing shore apparently had not reached across the Pond. The BBC's lead story was "New York Shuts down for Blizzard."
As for me I was happy to be able to turn my attention to another East Coast story: Whether the Patriots, no relation to our forefathers, were guilty of deflategate. And what about Climate change?






















Sunday, January 25, 2015

Putin to become national Russian checkers champion




At this rate, after he and his government told his people to eat less and expect fewer jobs and more inflation, President Vladimir Putin is on the way to become national Podavvka champion.
His invasion of the Ukraine won him an entry to the tournament.
Keep in mind that Putin also told people that eating less will make them healthier.
Podavvka. It is a form of Russian checkers. “The winner is the first player to have no legal move: that is, all of whose pieces are lost or blocked,” reports Wiki. Otherwise the rules are the same as for standard checkers.
http://checkers.wikia.com/wiki/Russkie_Poddavki
And Putin is facing more sanctions for his bloody bombing of Mariupol this week.
The Kviv Post reported Ukrainian forces have been hiding devastating loses. e the day’s casualties – one killed and 20 wounded. A medic said no one should believe casualty figures reported by Kviv. “There are many, many more. At least 280 were injured in just one day last week and 30 or 40 killed. There were many more killed this week, Debaltseve and Konstantinovka are the worst cities now. I take 18 wounded to Kharkiv myself every day.”
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/poroshenko-russia-stands-behind-mariupol-tragedy-378354.html
A year ago, when sanctions imposed the majority of mainstream media warned that sanctions would not work. Some are still saying that.
Now Russian banks are broke, the ruble almost worthless and there is little money for the new international world news operation to tell Russia’s side.
The Telegraph explains that Russians do not understand how such things work. A Russian peasant is angry with his only horse for being so slow so he kills him. That could be compared to Putin imposing sanctions on the West.
The Telegraph also claims negotiations, best between Germany and Russia are the only answer. But wait the last time such negotiations were held Poland got invaded from both sides.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10986630/Sanctions-wont-work-we-will-have-to-negotiate-with-Vladimir-Putin.html
Now, according to Moscow, the West is rewriting history, but when Putin declined to attend the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops he opened Pandora’s box.
The Ukrainian government Putin seeks to oust announced that the snub was unimportant because the majority of troops who freed the Holocaust victims still alive at Auschwitz were Ukrainian.
When Putin angrily responded that the Soviet army was made up of soldiers from all its republics Warsaw stood its ground.
Ukrainians made up the majority of those who freed Auschwitz -- the Ukrainian Front," Valeriy Chaliy, deputy head of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s administration, told a January 23 press briefing.
Warsaw says one million Ukrainians were killed fighting the Nazis, second only to the Russian republic of the Soviet Union’s 15.
Since Ukraine split with Russia the Putin government has tried to make much of the Ukrainians being collaborators. In fact, some welcomed the Nazis, only a few years after Stalin’s policies had led to the starvation deaths of millions of Ukrainians. But they quickly realized the Nazis were not their friends and went underground to fight them or joined the Red Army.



























































Saturday, January 24, 2015

New research shows killing bad for the killers





PTSD is one of those things that gets the same kind of debate as climate change. Is it a new thing resulting from IEDs and frequently deployments?

The more you look the more obvious it is that it has been around for a long time. The return of U.S. veterans from Iraq produced an explosion in case numbers.

Research showed the U.S. Army had known about it since at least World War 1. Then it was learned that other armies had known of its existence since the first world war.

Researchers at Anglia Rusking University recently confirmed that it had been around during wars fought by ancient civilizations at least 1300 years before Christ.

The researchers looked at translations of accounts of earlier battles. Soldiers reported seeing “ghosts they (had) faced in battle.”

“The condition was likely to be as old as human civilization, the researchers concluded,” according to the BBC.

This raises a basic question about humans. Are they evolving to the point that it is no longer acceptable to kill other humans. Or have they always been that way.

If the latter, then military historian John Keegan’s 1976 warning, in “The Face of Battle,” is even more of a threat to commanders willing to send soldiers off to die or be wounded or to disappear entirely.

Keegan writes that even with all the tools society has to make soldiers fight there is increasing evidence that “make the fitness of modern man to sustain the stress of battle increasingly doubtful.”

Thus, the development of drones, and even robots.

It is not that soldiers can’t kill, it is that killing hurts them in ways that are difficult to measure but obvious.

Art is the best way to capture the essence of this quandary. Even NAZI commanders realized it that the millions of executions made their soldiers weaker.

Who better than “the man with no name,” Western star Clint Eastwood to show this on the screen. His “American Sniper,” far from glorifying the man considered to have killed more people than any other single marksman, shows it rips him and his family apart.

Those who live around military posts around the nation have seen this in robberies, rapes, drug abuse and murders.

But the ultimate question is does the world need a cushion of religions to stop humans from killing, or as some primatologists have found, are humans born not wanting to kill. And if that is true are religions really teaching us to kill in many instances.







Thursday, January 22, 2015

Tsunami will hit both coasts and destroy GOP





While President Barack Obama launches a Gen. Sherman-style march to the seas offensive, and the GOP tries to block his every move, the Supreme Court will be the decider, whether they like it or not.

By end of their term in June, the court will legalize same-sex marriage. There is little doubt because virtually every federal appeals court has already ruled that way.

The Republican mantra, based on reconstructed old South theology, repackaged but still with an expiry data, will be dead as a fetus in an Planning Parent clinic.

There are several ways the Court can do this. A simple, straightforward ruling would be the best thing that could happen to Republicans and their Tea Party. More likely, though, is a ruling that makes all sorts of legal challenges possible.

My favorite is the idea that states can pass laws that allow business owners to refuse to do their cleaning, serve them dinner or sell them products.

In addition to keeping attention focused on the issue, it also will make it clear to the nation’s aspiring young that they should avoid some states, especially if they are members of the Creative Class. Boulder or Birmingham?

The next train wreck for the right will be the legalization of marijuana. It will wreak even more havoc because many libertarians and others on the right will applaud the decision.

Desperately cash-poor states will begin a bidding war.

Also hurt will be the cops who have benefitted from federal bonuses for fighting the drug war, and the prison industry that needs its prisoners to pay for itself.

Immigration remains a riddle but there will be so much chaos who knows what might happen. The growing number of Hispanic voters will throw their weight to the Democrats.

Other important issues, like equal pay for women, will be a sideshow. Democrats and Republicans, for a change, will agree on the need to shut down the Islamic terrorist threat. Everyone will have a drone in their yard. The principle of an eye for an eye, which predates the Old Testament, will become U.S. foreign police. You kill one of us. We will kill you.

Islam could formally break into two or more groups, with those who want no part of a Holy War separating.

Somehow, though it is not clear now, people will begin to demand that income disparities be addressed, and not just in poor countries.

In the U.S., the Pièce de résistance will be the ending of the power of the former slave-holding states to delay progress in America. No one will benefit more from it. Lincoln will turn over in his grave.

Mark Twain, perhaps the nation’s greatest writer, and clearly at times its conscious, said it best: “Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”



He also said: “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”



Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mark_twain.html#I3DHCDKH8J8fUBUr.99













Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Fox newsreaders trained by watching Bogie in Casablanca


UKTEKJOURNALISM Original
Apparently, at least according to this story, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox newsreaders learned their journalism by watching Hollywood’s Casablanca.
It certainly is true that Fox generates many popular, and some extremely well done, entertainment shows.
But they may have crossed that red line between news and entertainment.
Fox interviewed a reporter after the Charlie Hebdo who claimed to have covered Afghanistan and other war zones.
He said there were enclaves in Paris that were so controlled by Muslims that he was scared to go into them. Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, whose knowledge of French neighborhoods is unlikely to extend beyond Bourbon Street, supported Fox.
Fox found another “contributor” who said there were parts of English that also were controlled by Islam of and were dangerous. Fox terrorism pundit Steve Emerson said Birmingham was a “totally Muslim city…” Jindal supported this also, saying there were veil-only areas for women in England.
French and British officials are outraged by the silliness, even though it was clearly only intended for ratings. It’s really nothing compared to listening in on the phone calls of families who have lost a child.
But to get to the point. In the best picture winning “Casablanca,” which opened during World War 2, hero Humphrey Bogart, who plays Rick, but is introduced only as Mr. Rick, has a night club which features gambling. One night the head of the Gestapo, Maj. Strasser, arrives.
Although the major has a file on Rick, who ran guns to rebels in Italian-invaded Ethiopia, he asks him his nationality. “I’m a drunkard…” The major then asks Rick’s views on how the war is going as the U.S. is not yet involved.
Major Strasser: “Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Germans in their beloved Paris?
Rick: “It's not particularly my beloved Paris.
Strasser: “Can you imagine us in London?
Rick: "When you get there, ask me!
… Strasser: “How about New York?”
Rick: “Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade.”



Daily Telegraph

New York Times







Saturday, January 17, 2015

Blame terror attacks on anything but Islam








For some, the increasing number of terror assaults by Islamic Jihadists around the world are a result of the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition.

Some blame Christopher Columbus and the slaughter of American Indians.

More recently there was President George Bush’s Iraq war and search for non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Don’t forget water-boarding.

Muslims are killing because Christians won’t leave them alone, said one of the three killers last week in France. Historians credit Mohammed himself for motivating suicidal bravery in his followers, writes Harry Richardson in “The Story of Mohammed _ Islam Unveiled.” Previously existing tribal rules making it taboo for residents of Mecca and Medina to kill each other were revised. Anyone seen to be stopping proselytizing by Muslims could be killed, even relatives.

Nigerian-American Teju Cole gives this theory, that the West is getting what it asked for, one of its more articulate expressions in a New Yorker article whose headline about Charlie Hebdo’s dead says: “Unmournable bodies.”

Mohammed himself could not have said it better.

Those who defend Islam have a timeline that doesn’t go back as far as the religion’s founder, and certainly not to Jesus Christ himself. The latter never attacked anyone, the former led the first Jihad, attacks on caravans, in 623.

He established rules in the Koran that required women to breed like rabbits, resulting in over-population that would result in a diaspora that would spread the faith.

Also key to the spread of his religion was to convince victims to blame themselves for their deaths, persuading those who lived that it was trying to stop the spread of Islam that led to their deaths.

Less than a century later Muslims invaded Spain, conquering Iberia and only were stopped in France by Charles “the Hammer” Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732. The Muslims retreated but held on to Spain; all or most of Spain for 600 years. Moors still held Spain during the first half dozen Crusades into Jerusalem, and were attacking Christians in Constantinople.

In fact, the timeline of the British comedy show Monty Python is more complete than that often presented to judge whether Islam is inherently violent.

The website TheReligionofPeace.com says nearly 25,000 deadly Islamic terrorist attacks have been carried out since 9/11, the vast majority in countries with Muslim majorities or very large Islamic populations.

Boko Haram has killed thousands in Nigeria. Teju Cole blames it on the Nigerian government’s incompetence. The BBC rarely misses an opportunity to blame U.S. President Barack Obama for not doing enough to #bringbackourgirls.”

It is widely reported that more people are killed each year by Islamic terrorists than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined.

The Guardian said the Global Terrorism Index reported 18,000 deaths last year, a 60 percent increase from the previous year.

While only a small fraction of these attacks occur in developed nations, each gains much more publicity for the Jihadists.






The 300,000 deaths in Syria’s Civil War rarely makes the news. Neither does fighting between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

Still, Islam hasn’t taken any territory in the West. Russian President Vladimir Putin easily acquired the Crimea. Muslims just do not have the weapons, and increasing cyber, satellite and drone surveillance making their job much tougher. The pipeline of would-be terrorists from Syria to Europe and North America has been identified. Some are calling the Charlie Hebdo attack the first time ISIS trained terrorists on a specific mission to Europe. Who knows. More Muslims are claiming responsibility than the number of Navy Seals who claim to have assassinated Osama Bin Laden.


On Saturday, Associated Press reported Niger's interior minister says at least four people have died and dozens have been wounded in violent protests against French newspaper Charlie Hebdo's publication of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. Interior Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou said demonstrators in the town Zinder in southern Niger set a French cultural center ablaze along with two churches in the area.

In a different reaction, Chad announced it was deploying its army against Nigeria's Boko Haram terrorists.


Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2015/01/16/6021756/4-killed-in-niger-protests-against.html#storylink=cpy


List of Islamic terror attacks since 9/11

The Story of Mohammed _ Islam Unveiled



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Robert Weller


College graduate, longtime Associated Press correspondent, including 14 years as a foreign/war correspondent. Served as a senior editor in New York City. Covered Colorado and the West for ten years. Have covered events ranging from apartheid in South Africa, Indira Gandhi's assassination,Columbine massacre. Also have covered climate change, skiing and politics. Was editor on New York desk the day Saigon fell.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Sloppy Net Article critical of Military Religious Freedom Foundation Taken Down




Not only has Newsmax taken down an article critical of the President and Founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, two of the main sources are challenging the report.

Newsmax said, in an email from Managing Editor Tim Collie, that it had removed the article produced by the Vatican-backed Aleteia because the author did not answer questions raised about it.

The article implied that Mikey Weinstein, Founder and President of the organization, lied or exaggerated his ties with the Reagan White House to raise money to support the civil rights organization head leads. It has 40,000 active duty and veteran service members, of all faiths (about 96% are practicing Christians) and no faith, who want to keep the church out of the military’s business. They campaign aggressively to stop unconstitutional proselytizing throughout the U. S. armed forces and otherwise keep the “God Boys” out of the nation’s military where not to do so would be unlawful.

In the article, written by Mark Stricherz, two officials were quoted challenging Weinstein’s legitimacy.

Ray Wilson, an archivist at the Reagan White House Library, was quoted as saying records did not show any indication Weinstein worked for the White House. Wilson on Thursday, in a telephone interview, disputed and said he told the author he didn’t have time to make an exhaustive check and a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request should be filed if he wanted an authoritative response.

University of Minnesota Professor Richard Painter, former deputy legal counsel for Reagan, was quoted as implying that although Weinstein did work for the Reagan White House he was exaggerating his role. Painter said he was asking for a correction from Aleteia.

It wasn't clear why Stricherz, who is based in Washington, was unable to verify Weinstein's work, and went to people thousands of miles away.

Aleteia made a couple of minor changes in its article but says it is standing by its story.

Weinstein’s trial lawyers have demanded a retraction because they allege that the article maliciously defames Weinstein who is a public figure.

Not only is Weinstein an Air Force Academy honors graduate, and lawyer, he served in the Reagan Administration and later was general counsel for Ross Perot and Perot Systems Corporation.

Weinstein, who is Jewish, was discriminated against at the Air Force Academy, but did not become publicly active against the violation of Constitutional laws requiring separation of church and state until his two sons and daughter-in-law attended and graduated from the Academy. He has a son-in-law and brother-in-law who also attended and graduated. His father is a Naval Academy graduate.

Two of them were told that they would burn in hell if they did not accept Jesus as their savior.

hat the MRFF does

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Islam and Europe headed for collision


There are at least two reasons why Europe and Islam are headed for a collision aside from terrorist attacks.

Birth rates in Europe, even in Roman Catholic Italy, are declining sharply.

The drop has been so pronounced some countries populations could begin falling.

Madrid-based consultant Alejandro MacarrónLarumbe, author of Elsuicidiodemográfico de España, says today’s decline is “almost all about a change in values.”

Women do not need a big family to help them through aging. They are better-educated, better off financially, and have easy access to contraception and even abortion.



The European exception to declining birth dates is among the Muslim population. A the basic principle of Mohammed’s Islam is high birth rates will led to overcrowding and immigration, helping spread the message.

“Fecundism (word derived from fecundity) is the politics of willfully promoting high birth rate among a group for the sake of enlarging its numbers related to other groups and, consequently, its political influence.”

The technique was used in the past by other churches, including Mormons and Roman Catholics.

 “Fecundism: is the politics of willfully promoting high birth rate among the group for the sake of enlarging its numbers related to other groups and, consequently, its political influence,” according to Wikipedia.

This poses a grave threat to European civilization, unless Muslim women themselves decide to avail themselves of the many contraception methods.

Built into Islamic law is the right of a husband to beat a wife who refuses to provide children. Again, honor code beatings and killings are not ignored in Europe.

A second conflict is the Muslim belief that only Mohammed is God, and that there can be no changes in his teachings.

But the battle will be not so much between Islam and Christianity, and other European religions.

Just as Europe has abandoned large families, many in Europe have abandoned religion entirely. Having thrown off the yoke of Christian churches, Europeans are unlikely to embrace Islam, whose strict rules make modern Catholicism like a garden.

Will younger Muslims accept the brutality of Sharia Law, imposed on them by a religion that allows men four wives.

Writer Hanna Rosin, in “The End of Men,” says women are not only gaining on men but surpassing them in many arenas. A religion that makes them second class citizens is likely to collapse.

It won’t be from drones or airstrikes. Islam could easily split into two or more branches, such as the schmism that broke apart the eastern and western branches of Roman Catholicism.



http://www.npr.org/2012/09/13/161016743/does-the-success-of-women-mean-the-end-of-men



http://worddomination.com/fecundism.html



http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2012/05/30/whats-really-behind-europes-decline-its-the-birth-rates-stupid/


Friday, January 9, 2015

Vatican-connected web site attacks critic of church role in U.S. military







The Web site, Aleteia, which has ties to the Vatican, has accused a former Air Force Academy Honor Graduate and former General Counsel to H. Ross Perot and Perot Systems Corporation of lying or exaggerating his ties to the Reagan White House. An article accuses Mikey Weinstein of using the ties to raise money.

Weinstein has been the bête noire of the military, catching them violating the rules of separation of church and state frequently

Aleteia reported “Mikey”, as he prefers to be called, has built up an organization fighting the involvement of the Christian church in the military by misleading donors about his past.

Weinstein founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, after he witnessed Christians getting special treatment at the academy. Also, his three children, who later attended the academy, were threatened with burning in hell because they do not accept Jesus Christ as their savior. Weinstein is Jewish.

His MRFF now has more than 40,000 active duty military members, the vast majority Christians, but also includes Jews, Muslims, nonbelievers and many others.

The Aleteia article said no proof could be found that Weinstein worked for the Reagan White House. In the same article, it said he exaggerated his ties.

“I stand by the story,” said writer Mark Stricherz.

Johnathan S. Miller, deputy assistant to President Ronald Reagan, reached by phone, was surprised anyone doubted Weinstein's bona fides. Asked if he could confirm Weinstein worked for Reagan, Miller said: "I absolutely can."

Weinstein, who was awarded the 1986 University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law "Professional Achievement Award" for his work at the White House, has demanded a retraction of the article through his trial lawyers, Mathis and Donheiser of Dallas.

Financier Samuel W. Fairchild, president of Trailblazers Resources, said he worked alongside Weinstein in the Reagan Administration.

Fairchild said, in a letter to Weinstein: “From 1986 - 1987, you were brought onto the legal staff of the White House Office of Administration (the EOP’s legal team) because, frankly, your superior work had caught the attention of people like Johnathan Miller, Assistant to the President and the “COO” of the Executive Office of the President, and other senior White House Staffers. Among the many duties you performed there as a tenacious lawyer was your service as the “Committee Management Officer” of the “Tower Commission” investigating the Iran-Contra Affair. You dove into the assignment with relish, and performed admirably. In fact, your strong work in this area led Frank Carlucci, who took over the National Security Council from John Poindexter when the Admiral resigned that post, and other senior corporate executives to hire you at Carlyle Group’s BDM International when he became Chairman of Carlyle.

I know this because I was there. We spoke nearly every day during that period.:

Weinstein’s trial lawyer, Randal Mathis, said the writer and "Aleteia should both be professionally embarrassed, but given the malicious nature of their defamation of Mr. Weinstein, I doubt they are professionally embarrassed about anything.”

Alleged Charlie Hebdo terrorists, hostages die




In the bloody takeover of two hostage sites in Paris, including a Jewish supermarket, terrorists and hostages have died.

The dead included two terrorists who killed at 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo magazine, the New Times reported.

ABC said a separate police action at a Jewish supermarket left some hostages dead as well. Le Figaro said at least four were killed.

The two brothers killed at one location were brothers held responsible for the slaughter at Charlie Hebdo to avenge making fun of the prophet Mohammed.

A third terrorist allegedly had killed a policewoman before cornered by police, and was known to be connected to the Charlie Hebdo killers. Le Monde said police killed the third terrorist also.

A woman believed to have aided them was not captured.

Ss far as was known, all the terrorists were French nationals. It was not clear whether they had received guerrilla training in Syria as had been suspected.

The two brothers had holed up at a printing plant in Dammartin-en-Goele outside Paris. Police assaulted the site at 5 p.m. Paris time. The two brothers were believed to have been holding one hostage, whose fate was not known.

Media said at least five hostages were held at the supermarket. Hebdo, were holding a single hostage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/10/world/europe/charlie-hebdo-paris-shooting.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=span-ab-top-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/AFP-Several-hostages-freed-at-Jewish-supermarket-in-Paris-387241

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Is grieving enough about latest Muslim terrorism?



“We are all Charlie,” says a banner headline on the web site of Liberation. The birthplace for modern democracy is no longer safe for a free press.

Today’s murders at the satirical newspaper, “Charlie Hebdo,” was once against allegedly the target of a terrorist attack by Muslims. At least 12 were killed, journalists and police protecting them. Others were criticially wounded.

Editor Stéphane Charbonnier was killed.

Also among the dead were four cartoonists. And it was not the first time Muslim terrorists have attacked artists in Europe for work they consider blasphemy. Charlie Hebdo itself had been firebombed previously.


Said and Chérif Kouachi, brothers ages, 34 and 32, were being sought. A third man, 18-years-old turned himself in, French police reported.



Cartoons have been featured in French publications all the way to the French Revolution. The magazine also made fun of Christians.

France had recently deployed soldiers on its streets because of threats from Muslim terrorists.

Of course there were knee-jerk reactions, including that not all Muslims are terrorists. Rightists will continue to push against allowing Muslims sanctuary or the right of citizenship.

This is not a good time to insist on wearing a burka. There is talk of a religious war. Jihadists have been involved in small attacks in recent weeks in France.

Is there a place in the world for people with no sense of humor?

As was suggested by some Muslim leaders, is starting a conversation on the need to abandon medieval concepts on blasphemy an answer?

Will countries that insist on freedom of the press have to begin checking the bags of anyone as they enter a store? Will there need to be roadblocks? Will more citizens arm themselves?

Charlie Hebdo frequently made fun of Mohammed, including in a recent Twitter post. “We have avenged the prophet Mohammed,” the killers were heard saying, witnesses told the BBC.

Questions being asked included were the terrorists French-born, perhaps trained in Syria, or Islamic jihadists who infiltrated the country. In some countries, Muslim asylum-seekers have been arrested for plotting terrorism after being granted sanctuary.

Le Monde reported least 3,000 police were searching for the terrorists, believed to have involved two or three.

French President Francois Hollande said, “France today received a shock. A newspaper means free speech for journalists.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/world/europe/charlie-hebdo-paris-shooting.html

www.liberation.fr













Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Why cops are at war with so many Americans




“If we can’t kill, we won’t bill.” That is a crude rephrasing of a famous phase in the O.J. Simpson case.

But after all, Simpson was a black man who police couldn’t convict of a murder.

That started a notion that race determined outcomes in courts and on the street. A growing number of widely publicized killings of unarmed blacks by police fed the rumor mill. Police did not look good following case after case of gun massacres where they had not intervened to prevent deaths.

Some believe that with the used armored cars the Defense Department gave to police departments the officers believed they got the same immunity deployed soldiers get.

Because the mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, has supported some criticisms of police actions after overwhelming evidence that blacks are subjected to cop violence vastly more often than white, cops are on a work slowdown. The number of tickets being issued has declined dramatically.

But no one is telling visitors to avoid the Big Apple, or urging its residents to stay indoors. Foreign governments aren’t warning their nationals to stay away. Indeed, Tea Party and libertarian critics are saying the failure to enforce many laws shows shows the ordinances are unneeded.

It must be remembered that police over-enforcement of laws, particularly stopping and searching blacks and Latinos based on their color, became an year before a police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., started nationwide protests. Critics not only were outraged that blacks were so often the victims of shootings, but that the Pentagon had provided the nation’s police with armored cars and other anti-guerrilla warfare fear that seemed suit more for Iraq than Berkeley.

In reaction to de Blasio defending the rights of protestors to oppose racial bias in the enforcement of law, police turned their back on his twice when two slain officers were buried.

At the same time, according to the New York Times: “For two straight weeks, New York City police officers have sharply cut back on making arrests and issuing summonses throughout the five boroughs, magnifying the growing divide between the city’s police force and its mayor … Officers made half as many arrests in the seven days through Sunday as in the same week a year ago. In the entire city, 347 criminal summonses were written, down from 4,077 a year ago, according to police statistics. Parking and traffic tickets also dropped by more than 90 percent.”

The Times said: The numbers, disclosed on Monday, reveal a downturn in nearly every category of arrest — including gun possession and drunken driving — and all three categories of summons activity, parking violations, (down 93 percent to 1,191 from 16,008); traffic infractions (down 92 percent, to 749 from 9,349); and low-level crimes (down 91 percent).”

There is no sense of fear that the city is becoming sense however.

The reaction, so far, has been to make people believe that along with the used equipment from Afghanistan the cops believe they have the same kind of immunity U.S. troops have who serve in wars foreign countries.

Perhaps Americans can get a better idea of what is going on by turning away from the mainstream news, even Comedy Central. The Cartoon Network’s after-hours Adult Swim Club will release an episode of “Black Dynamite” that is sort of like using police as enforcers on “Animal Farm.” Or is it “The Hunger Pain Games.” Don’t say art didn’t warn you.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/06/nyregion/decrease-in-new-york-police-arrests-continues-for-a-second-week.html?ref=nyregion

http://youtu.be/fVwiHVdjSgU

Monday, January 5, 2015

Are some commericial pilots flying into oblivion unknowingly

Are the cockpits designed by the world's best aircraft engineers becoming cocoons that are hiding pilots from the oblivion they are heading into?

Based on evidence from the rich record of data recovered from Air France 447 in 2009 it appears the crew did not realize they were about to crash.

"From the evidence. It appeared the crew was in some semblance of control until the very end, which would also explain why no call for help for issue," it is reported in "The Mystery of Flight 447." "Ergo, the crew likely felt there was no need for a distress call. There was a double crew on board. None had the time, even in a bouncing cockpit, to report the problems that the Airbus data sensors were reporting all through its descent into the ocean? Hard to accept.

Because the Air France Airbus had two separate controllers, called joysticks, that were independent, it appears that one pilot was trying to get the plane to descend to pick up speed and stay in the air. A second pilot was pulling the stick back, lifting the nose and causing the stall. Neither may have understood what the other was doing.
  
The crash of an Airasia Airbus and several other crashes, and the disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, raise questions about whether pilots in a cocoon-like cockpit are getting enough reliable data to fly safely.

Some pilots have worried that the cockpits have become like the definition of a cocoon, leaving them enveloped or surrounded “in a protective or comforting way.”

The cause of the crash of the Airasia Airbus on Dec. 28 on a flight from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 souls on board is far from being determined. Yet it shares at least two things with the crash of the Air France Airbus en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009.

Both jets were flying into storms, and neither sent a distress message. Such disappearances of modern jets were startling.

Years of investigations, and the recovery of key flight data recording systems from Air France 447, showed members of the flight crew were mislead by some data. Essentially they pointed the nose too high, slowing the speed down, and leading to the crash.

At issue here is what pilots call “the angle of attack.” It’s pretty simple. Point the nose down and houses get bigger, pull the stick back and they get smaller. At a certain point a steep climb, which unnamed sources said occurred with Airasia, will cause a stall.

Even at that point, pilots usually can recover. In some cases just handing control back to the auto pilot would save the plane.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued an airworthiness directive on Dec. 10 expressing concern about possible problems in how pilots of Airbus aircraft would handle problems with angle of attack.

Aircraft carrier pilots are experts at being able to do two things at once that would cause many planes to crash: land at relative slow speeds with their noses up. They have to do it to get down on decks of carriers, much shorter than land airfields.

Such precision flying shouldn’t be necessary on a multiengine jet that has already reached 30,000 feet elevation or higher.

This raises the question of whether the flight crews know what they need to know when they encounter storms and turbulence.

The FAA directive said: “The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Community, has issued Emergency Airworthiness Directive 2014-0266-E, dated December 9, 2014 … (referred to after this as the Mandatory Continuing Airworthiness to correct an unsafe condition on all Model A318, A319, A320, and A321 series airplanes. The MCAI states: An occurrence was reported where an Airbus A321 aeroplane encountered a blockage of two Angle of Attack (AoA) probes during climb, leading to activation of the Alpha Protection (Alpha Prot) while the Mach number increased. The flightcrew managed to regain full control and the flight landed uneventfully.”

Whether the angle-of-attack problem contributed to the Airasia crash is not known, but bears examination for the entire industry.


In the Air France crash, one interpretation of data recorder evidence is that the crew did not understand they were heading to a crash, and therefore did not issue a distress call. A similar event may have occurred with the AirAsia jet.

One old saying aviation was not worry if one of your two engines fails, the other will take you directly to the scene of your crash.


Could better, and possibly more expensive solutions be found? Has cost-cutting, such as not paying for satellite monitoring, made flying less safe than it could be?


http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/airworthiness_directives/search/models/?id=210629D32E131BC986257DAA007CCDDB


http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2014/05/19/what_is_it_like_to_land_on_an_aircraft_carrier.html


http://www.bea.aero/en/enquetes/flight.af.447/rapport.final.en.php




Sunday, January 4, 2015

Airasia crash raises questions about airline safety







The crash of an Airasia Airbus and several other crashes, and the disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777, raise questions about whether pilots in a cocoon-like cockpit are getting enough reliable data to fly safely.

Some pilots have worried that the cockpits have become like the definition of a cocoon, leaving them enveloped or surrounded “in a protective or comforting way.”

The cause of the crash of the Airasia Airbus on Dec. 28 on a flight from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 souls on board is far from being determined. Yet it shares at least two things with the crash of the Air France Airbus en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009.

Both jets were flying into storms, and neither sent a distress message. Such disappearances of modern jets were startling.

Years of investigations, and the recovery of key flight data recording systems from Air France 447, showed members of the flight crew were mislead by some data. Essentially they pointed the nose too high, slowing the speed down, and leading to the crash.

At issue here is what pilots call “the angle of attack.” It’s pretty simple. Point the nose down and houses get bigger, pull the stick back and they get smaller. At a certain point a steep climb, which unnamed sources said occurred with Airasia, will cause a stall.

Even at that point, pilots usually can recover. In some cases just handing control back to the auto pilot would save the plane.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued an airworthiness directive on Dec. 10 expressing concern about possible problems in how pilots of Airbus aircraft would handle problems with angle of attack.

Aircraft carrier pilots are experts at being able to do two things at once that would cause many planes to crash: land at relative slow speeds with their noses up. They have to do it to get down on decks of carriers, much shorter than land airfields.

Such precision flying shouldn’t be necessary on a multiengine jet that has already reached 30,000 feet elevation or higher.

This raises the question of whether the flight crews know what they need to know when they encounter storms and turbulence.

The FAA directive said: “The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Community, has issued Emergency Airworthiness Directive 2014-0266-E, dated December 9, 2014 … (referred to after this as the Mandatory Continuing Airworthiness to correct an unsafe condition on all Model A318, A319, A320, and A321 series airplanes. The MCAI states: An occurrence was reported where an Airbus A321 aeroplane encountered a blockage of two Angle of Attack (AoA) probes during climb, leading to activation of the Alpha Protection (Alpha Prot) while the Mach number increased. The flightcrew managed to regain full control and the flight landed uneventfully.”

Whether the angle-of-attack problem contributed to the Airasia crash is not known, but bears examination for the entire industry.


In the Air France crash, one interpretation of data recorder evidence is that the crew did not understand they were heading to a crash, and therefore did not issue a distress call. A similar event may have occurred with the AirAsia jet.
One old saying aviation was not worry if one of your two engines fails, the other will take you directly to the scene of your crash.

Could better, and possibly more expensive solutions be found? Has cost-cutting, such as not paying for satellite monitoring, made flying less safe than it could be?


http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/airworthiness_directives/search/models/?id=210629D32E131BC986257DAA007CCDDB


http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2014/05/19/what_is_it_like_to_land_on_an_aircraft_carrier.html


http://www.bea.aero/en/enquetes/flight.af.447/rapport.final.en.php