'Timbuktu'

The most beautiful moment in this film is the wonderful singing scene featuring Fatoumata Diawara.

My God I almost fell out of my seat.

You can hear her at the trailer, "Timbuktu Official Trailer 1 (2014)."

Once she's found out by the jihadists, however, you'll cry as she screams while being whipped. Forty-lashes was her punishment from the sharia court. No music allowed, praise be Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

I visited Laemmle's Royal Theatre last Tuesday to catch the show, the same day that Moaz al-Kasasbeh was burned alive.

Unfortunately, I can't wax ecstatic about the movie, as do so many of the MSM reviewers. The peace and happiness of the residents of Timbuktu is overtaken by the horror of Islamic jihad. The filmmakers try to use satire to make the terrorists look like bumblers, but sheer stupidity doesn't prevent them from wreaking death on the people in the community. It's pretty depressing. The problem is ISLAM. Until Muslims of the world abandon their religion, convert to Christianity or Judaism --- or Buddhism, for goodness sake --- then no amount of lush storytelling will transcend the existential horror.

See Joe Morgenstern, "‘Timbuktu’ Review: Artful Cry Against Thug Theocracy: Jihadists impose Shariah law in a West African village, suppressing joy in the process." And also Betsy Sharkey, at the Los Angeles Times, "'Timbuktu' a compelling exploration of extremism's absurdities," a mistake ridden review, pathetically. (Fatoumata Diawara does not play "La chanteuse ... roaming the streets, singing, laughing, taunting passersby, remnants of a black chador dragging in the dust behind her.")

Thankfully, A.O. Scott takes off the gloss, at the New York Times, "A Fury Arrives. Hypocrisy, Too: ‘Timbuktu,’ an Abderrahmane Sissako Film About Radical Islam."

The Dangerous Lie That 'Bush Lied'

From Judge Laurence Silberman, at the Wall Street Journal, "Some journalists still peddle this canard as if it were fact. This is defamatory and could end up hurting the country":

In recent weeks, I have heard former Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier on Fox News twice asserting, quite offhandedly, that President George W. Bush “lied us into war in Iraq.”

I found this shocking. I took a leave of absence from the bench in 2004-05 to serve as co-chairman of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction—a bipartisan body, sometimes referred to as the Robb-Silberman Commission. It was directed in 2004 to evaluate the intelligence community’s determination that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD—I am, therefore, keenly aware of both the intelligence provided to President Bush and his reliance on that intelligence as his primary casus belli. It is astonishing to see the “Bush lied” allegation evolve from antiwar slogan to journalistic fact.

The intelligence community’s 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) stated, in a formal presentation to President Bush and to Congress, its view that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction—a belief in which the NIE said it held a 90% level of confidence. That is about as certain as the intelligence community gets on any subject.

Recall that the head of the intelligence community, Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet, famously told the president that the proposition that Iraq possessed WMD was “a slam dunk.” Our WMD commission carefully examined the interrelationships between the Bush administration and the intelligence community and found no indication that anyone in the administration sought to pressure the intelligence community into its findings. As our commission reported, presidential daily briefs from the CIA dating back to the Clinton administration were, if anything, more alarmist about Iraq’s WMD than the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate.

Saddam had manifested sharp hostility toward America, including firing at U.S. planes patrolling the no-fly zone set up by the armistice agreement ending the first Iraq war. Saddam had also attempted to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush —a car-bombing plot was foiled—during Mr. Bush’s visit to Kuwait in 1993. But President George W. Bush based his decision to go to war on information about Saddam’s WMD. Accordingly, when Secretary of State Colin Powell formally presented the U.S. case to the United Nations, Mr. Powell relied entirely on that aspect of the threat from Iraq.

Our WMD commission ultimately determined that the intelligence community was “dead wrong” about Saddam’s weapons. But as I recall, no one in Washington political circles offered significant disagreement with the intelligence community before the invasion. The National Intelligence Estimate was persuasive—to the president, to Congress and to the media.

Granted, there were those who disagreed with waging war against Saddam even if he did possess WMD. Some in Congress joined Brent Scowcroft, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and former national security adviser, in publicly doubting the wisdom of invading Iraq. It is worth noting, however, that when Saddam was captured and interrogated, he told his interrogators that he had intended to seek revenge on Kuwait for its cooperation with the U.S. by invading again at a propitious time. This leads me to speculate that if the Bush administration had not gone to war in 2003 and Saddam had remained in power, the U.S. might have felt compelled to do so once Iraq again invaded Kuwait.

In any event, it is one thing to assert, then or now, that the Iraq war was ill-advised. It is quite another to make the horrendous charge that President Bush lied to or deceived the American people about the threat from Saddam.

I recently wrote to Ron Fournier protesting his accusation. His response, in an email, was to reiterate that “an objective reading of the events leads to only one conclusion: the administration . . . misinterpreted, distorted and in some cases lied about intelligence.” Although Mr. Fournier referred to “evidence” supporting his view, he did not cite any—and I do not believe there is any...

Keep reading.

Greek Prime Minister Rejects Extending Bailout and Seeks Loan to Keep Country Afloat

Hmm...

It's not going too well for the Greek Che Guevara.

At Euronews, "Greece needs a bridge loan not a bailout according to its new prime minister: A defiant Alexis Tspras has laid out his plans to dismantle what he calls Greece's 'cruel' austerity programme."

Is There Any 'Global Warming' We Can Trust?

See NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT, "Dellers on Temperature Adjustments, Cowton & More."

"Dellers" is James Delingpole, on whom brainless harpie Babs O'Brien lets loose an hysterical ad hominem attack: "Joy in Rightieville Over a Faux Climate Change Scandal."

If Babs had one scientific bone in her body I suspect she'd realize it's leftists who're anti-science.

Nothing is "settled" in scientific research. But when your mind is so closed off to the possibility of diversity --- including diversity of opinion --- there's no need to even discuss why surface temperature measurements might in fact be flawed.

Leftist regressivism is a religion. It's not about facts. It's a about faith.

Jim Clifton, Gallup CEO: I Might 'Suddenly Disappear' After Exposing Obama's 'Big Lie' on Unemployment

He'll be lucky if he "makes it home tonight."

At Gateway Pundit, "Gallup CEO: I May “Suddenly Disappear” for Telling Truth About Obama Unemployment Rate (Video)."

Plus, "Gallup CEO: 13 Million Jobs Lost - Only 3 Million Created Under Obama (VIDEO)."

The Roots of Obama's Appeasement

From Victor Davis Hanson, at National Review:

Members of the Obama administration have insisted that the Taliban are not terrorists. Those responsible for the recent Paris killings are not radical Islamists. The Muslim Brotherhood is largely secular. Jihad is a “legitimate tenet of Islam.” And “violent extremism,” “workplace violence,” or “man-caused disaster” better describe radical Islamic terrorism. Domestic terrorism is just as likely caused by returning U.S. combat veterans, according to one report by a federal agency.

What is the point of such linguistic appeasement?

The word “appeasement” long ago became pejorative for giving in to bullies. One side was aggressive and undemocratic; the other consensual and eager to avoid trouble through supposedly reasonable concessions.

But appeasement usually weakened the democratic side and empowered the extremist one.

The architect of appeasement — for example, Neville Chamberlain, former prime minister of Great Britain — was predictably a narcissist. Chamberlain believed that his own powers of oratory, his insights into reason, and his undeniably superior morality would sway even a thug like Adolf Hitler.

President Obama currently is convinced that his singular charisma and rare insight into human nature will convince the Taliban to peacefully participate in Afghan politics. Obama will supposedly also win over the Iranian theocracy and show it how nonproliferation is really to everyone’s advantage.

“Reset” diplomacy with Putin was supposed to lessen tensions — if, after the 2012 election, Putin just had more exposure to a flexible statesman of Obama’s wisdom.

Throughout history, without the vanity of the conceder, there would never have been appeasement.

Appeasement also always subordinates the interests of vulnerable third parties to the appeaser’s own inflated sense of self. When Chamberlain and the French prime minister Edouard Daladier signed the 1938 Munich Pact, they worried little about the fate of millions of Czechs who lost their country — and less about millions of Poles who were next in line for Hitler’s Blitzkrieg.

Reset diplomacy with Russia in 2009 was not much concerned about the ensuing danger to Crimeans or Ukrainians. When the Taliban takes over, hundreds of thousands of reformist Afghans will die.

Obama sees a deal with Iran as a way to cement his legacy as a breakthrough statesman. In comparison, the long-term consequences of a nuclear Iran on the security of tiny Israel or on the stability of the largely Sunni Arab Middle East are future and more abstract concerns for others.

Even major concessions never satisfy aggressive powers. It is a traditional Western liberal delusion — brought on by our wealth, leisure, and the good life — that autocrats appreciate magnanimity rather than see it as timidity to be exploited further...

More.

'Up on Cripple Creek'

Listened to The Band yesterday on satellite radio, while out to visit my mom in the high desert north of Palm Springs.

Holly Williams Reports on Difficulties in Defeating Islamic State

For CBS Face the Nation:

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."




Also at Lonely Conservative, "Saturday Funnies," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

More at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies, " and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's Sunday Funnies."

  Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Target Practice."

Charlotte McKinney Sunday Rule 5

This lady is crazy hot, at Egotastic!, "Charlotte McKinney Is Super Busty In White for Manhattan Shindig."

And at iOTW Report, "2 American sisters arrested for nude photos at Cambodia’s Angkor Temple."

More at the Other McCain, "Rule 5 Sunday: Wax Ecstatic."

See the lovely Rachel Alexander, at Right Wing News, "Leftist With Violent History Threatens to Kill Sheriff Arpaio, is Promptly Arrested."

At Maggie's Farm, "Don't Go There: 'WONG FOOK HING BOOK STORE'."

More from Ms. EBL, "Fifty Shades Dakota Johnson Rule 5."

Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart: Kenda Perez."

And Drunken Stepfather, "Jennifer Lawrence Naked With Snake of the Day," and "KENDALL JENNER AND CARA DELEVINGNE EROTICA FOR LOVE MAGAZINE OF THE DAY."

At WWTDD, "Miley Cyrus Topless With Patrick Schwarzenegger."

See also Odie's, "Wheel of Fortune ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

Knuckledraggin', "GODDAMN, LOOK AT THEM TITTIES!!!"

GCeleb, "Ashley Benson and Juicy Melons."

Still more at the Last Tradition, "Rule 5 Sunday - Helena Christensen."

Dana Pico, "Rule 5 Blogging: Jordan!"

90 Miles From Tyranny, "Morning Mistress."

Over to Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……is a horrible climate killing refrigerator, you may just be a Warmist."

A View From the Beach, "Shame on the Anti-Vaxxers (Jenny McCarthy Nude)."

Also, at Goodstuff's, "GOODSTUFFs BLOGGING MAGAZINE: TITBITS (176th Issue)."

Now over at Gator Doug's, "WRAPPING UP BROOKE ADAMS APPRECIATION WEEK."

Proof Positive, "Friday Night Babe: Linsey Godfrey!"

Crazy Uncle Bubba has "Saturday Short Shorts!!"

At the Hostages, "Welcome to Monday."

Drop your links in the comments if I've missed your Rule 5.

Until then...

New Data Shows That 'Vanishing' of Polar Ice Caps is Not the Result of Runaway 'Global Warming'

From Christopher Booker, at Telegraph UK, "The fiddling with temperature data is the biggest science scandal ever" (via Gateway Pundit and Memeorandum):

When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records – on which the entire panic ultimately rested – were systematically “adjusted” to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified.

Two weeks ago, under the headline “How we are being tricked by flawed data on global warming”, I wrote about Paul Homewood, who, on his Notalotofpeopleknowthat blog, had checked the published temperature graphs for three weather stations in Paraguay against the temperatures that had originally been recorded. In each instance, the actual trend of 60 years of data had been dramatically reversed, so that a cooling trend was changed to one that showed a marked warming.

This was only the latest of many examples of a practice long recognised by expert observers around the world – one that raises an ever larger question mark over the entire official surface-temperature record.

Following my last article, Homewood checked a swathe of other South American weather stations around the original three. In each case he found the same suspicious one-way “adjustments”. First these were made by the US government’s Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). They were then amplified by two of the main official surface records, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Giss) and the National Climate Data Center (NCDC), which use the warming trends to estimate temperatures across the vast regions of the Earth where no measurements are taken. Yet these are the very records on which scientists and politicians rely for their belief in “global warming”.

Homewood has now turned his attention to the weather stations across much of the Arctic, between Canada (51 degrees W) and the heart of Siberia (87 degrees E). Again, in nearly every case, the same one-way adjustments have been made, to show warming up to 1 degree C or more higher than was indicated by the data that was actually recorded. This has surprised no one more than Traust Jonsson, who was long in charge of climate research for the Iceland met office (and with whom Homewood has been in touch). Jonsson was amazed to see how the new version completely “disappears” Iceland’s “sea ice years” around 1970, when a period of extreme cooling almost devastated his country’s economy.

One of the first examples of these “adjustments” was exposed in 2007 by the statistician Steve McIntyre, when he discovered a paper published in 1987 by James Hansen, the scientist (later turned fanatical climate activist) who for many years ran Giss. Hansen’s original graph showed temperatures in the Arctic as having been much higher around 1940 than at any time since. But as Homewood reveals in his blog post, “Temperature adjustments transform Arctic history”, Giss has turned this upside down. Arctic temperatures from that time have been lowered so much that that they are now dwarfed by those of the past 20 years.

Homewood’s interest in the Arctic is partly because the “vanishing” of its polar ice (and the polar bears) has become such a poster-child for those trying to persuade us that we are threatened by runaway warming. But he chose that particular stretch of the Arctic because it is where ice is affected by warmer water brought in by cyclical shifts in a major Atlantic current – this last peaked at just the time 75 years ago when Arctic ice retreated even further than it has done recently. The ice-melt is not caused by rising global temperatures at all...

More.

Plus, "Climategate, the sequel: How we are STILL being tricked with flawed data on global warming."

So Radical Lesbian Rosie O'Donnell Can't Make Her Same-Sex Marriages Work?

I seriously could't care less about Rosie O'Donnell, but the Other McCain has one more hilarious entry in the ongoing follies of radical left's culture wars.

O'Donnell's not doing so great on the homosexual marriage front, as if that were a surprise.

See, "The Tragedy of Lesbian Divorce":

Notice that this is O’Donnell’s second lesbian wife. Her first marriage to longtime girlfriend Kelli Carpenter ended in 2007. Carpenter now has her own second wife, and the four O’Donnell-Carpenter children seem closer to Kelli than to Rosie. Nobody in the world of media is allowed to say a word about the unnatural weirdness of all this — two boys and three girls without fathers, one of them (Kelli’s youngest) conceived by artificial insemination — because equality!

And let me emphasize the "no fathers" point. Homosexual families are inherently anti-child, since the absence of a father in the household provides a built-in disadvantage to childhood development.

'The Years of Persecution 1933-1939'

I picked up Saul Friedlander's, Nazi Germany and the Jews: Volume 1: The Years of Persecution 1933-1939, back in 1998, or thereabouts.

I was working on my dissertation at the time, so I don't think I read it cover-to-cover. But for some reason, I picked it up again last weekend and started reading, and kept on going. I finished it up early this morning.

I've got a couple of other books in progress, but I'm going to dive back into Volume II as well, Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945: The Years of Extermination.

The spring semester starts up next week at my college, however, so I doubt I'm be able to fully rip through this time, cover-to-cover. But we'll see.

It's been a great, long and relaxing winter break. I've done a lot of reading. If feels like an accomplishment.

Massive Data Hack at Anthem Health Insurance Could Expose Millions

Target, Sony, and now Anthem --- of just the most recent examples.

Digital data storage just isn't that safe, frankly.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Anthem hack raises fears about medical data."

Also at CBS This Morning, "Anthem insurance data breach could be one of largest hacks in history," and "Why hackers target health providers like Anthem Insurance."

BONUS: At the New York Times, "Protecting Yourself From the Consequences of Anthem’s Data Breach," and at USA Today, "Anthem data breach: How to protect yourself."

Obama's Meeting with Muslim Leaders Included President of Hamas-Tied ISNA, Other Islamic Supremacists and Subversives

These are the secret meetings. The White House refused to release the names of the Islamists who met with Barack Hussein.

See Pamela Geller, at Atlas Shrugs.

Also, on Megyn Kelly's a few days ago, "White House Won’t Reveal Which Muslim Leaders Attended Obama’s Secret Meeting."

Harvard Bans Sexual Relationships Between Professors and Undergrads

Hmm...

Just how common is sex between professors and undergrads?

At the New York Times, "New Harvard Policy Bans Teacher-Student Relations":

Harvard University has adopted a ban on professors’ having sexual or romantic relationships with undergraduate students, joining a small but growing number of universities prohibiting such relationships. The move comes as the Obama administration investigates the handling of accusations of sexual assault at dozens of colleges, including Harvard.

The ban clarifies an earlier policy that labeled sexual and romantic relationships between professors and the students they teach as inappropriate, but did not explicitly prohibit professors from having relationships with students they did not teach.

Harvard said Thursday that the change had been made after a panel reviewing the institution’s policy on Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education, determined that the university’s existing policy language on “relationships of unequal status did not explicitly reflect the faculty’s expectations of what constituted an appropriate relationship between undergraduate students and faculty members.” It said the policy had been revised “to include a clear prohibition to better accord with these expectations.”

The change was recommended by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Committee on Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedures. It was made public Monday in a document revising the division’s sexual harassment policy.

Besides banning sexual and romantic relationships between professors and all undergraduates, the policy also bans such relationships between teaching staff, such as graduate students, and the students who fall under their supervision or evaluation.

 “Our rule is that if you are supervising, evaluating or grading someone, you should not have a sexual relationship with that person,” said Alison Johnson, a history professor who led the committee...

Still more at that top link.

And at the Harvard Crimson, "Professors Praise New FAS Sexual Harassment Procedures," and "Two College Students Dismissed for Sexual Misconduct."

Again, hmm... It's going to be another tool of feminists to destroy the lives of young men.

Lucy Collett at Zoo Today

Heh, as always, I love the accents, "Lucy Collett returns in naughty underwear for a new shoot!"

Parents of Journalist Austin Tice, Kidnapped in Syria in 2012, Slam Obama Admin's Terrorist Hostage Policy (VIDEO)

Clarissa Ward reported on the missing journalist last September, at CBS This Morning, "Family of kidnapped journalist Austin Tice calls for his release."

Debra Tice, mother of Austin, is heartbreaking at the clip above. After James Foley and Steven Sotloff were murdered, she said "It was such a gut punch, because we never imagined that that would happen to an American..."

And now they no longer doubt that that could happen to their own son --- and they're speaking out against President Obama's disinterest and inaction.

At CBS News, "Gov't handling of kidnapped Americans 'appalling'":

WASHINGTON -- Parents of a missing journalist detained in Syria and the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders are calling on the White House to help bring the journalist home safely and to improve U.S. policy on hostage cases.

Marc and Debra Tice of Houston said Thursday that they are taking part in meetings for a White House policy review on how to handle hostage cases. Their son, Austin Tice, has been missing since 2012 - 906 days by his mother's count.

"After almost two-and-a-half years ... we feel like we need to let everybody know that our son is missing - and will you please help us get him home?" Debra Tice pleaded during a news conference at the National Press Club.

On Feb. 16, the family plans to launch an online campaign with support from USA Today, McClatchy Newspapers and other media companies, placing online ads with the message "Free Austin Tice." The parents are asking supporters to sign a petition to President Barack Obama to do more to bring Tice home.

Austin Tice disappeared in August 2012 while covering the civil war in Syria. Tice is a former Marine who has reported for The Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, The Associated Press, CBS and other outlets. He was one of the few journalists reporting from Damascus when he vanished. In 2012, Tice and the staff of McClatchy Newspapers won the prestigious George W. Polk Award for war reporting.

The circumstances surrounding his disappearance are still a mystery. It's not clear what entity is holding him, but it is not believed to be the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Syrian government, the family said. The parents said they have been told by "credible sources" that Austin Tice is alive, reasonably well treated and that they need to be patient.

"There's a general confidence that he will come home safely," Marc Tice said. "That's about as much detail as we have."

The family has grown frustrated, though, with the U.S. government's coordination and sharing of information. Each agency has its own agenda, they said.

"It is appalling to us" that no single U.S. government entity is responsible for pursuing the safe return of Americans taken hostage abroad, said Debra Tice. "That has to change."

The family is advocating for a new U.S. policy that would provide a single point of accountability, responsible to the president, to pursue the safe return of hostages. They also are pushing the government to improve information sharing among government agencies and with families and to create protections for the hostages' interests and assets at home, such as online profiles, bank accounts and housing.

"We want to make sure that when Austin comes back, he has a life to come back to," Marc Tice said...

And see McClatchy, "Family of journalist missing in Syria campaigns anew for his return."

'Vacation Cutting' — More Than 500,000 Women and Girls at Risk of Female Genital Mutilation in U.S.

The Islamization of America proceeds apace.

At the Los Angeles Times, "More than 500,000 in U.S. could be at risk of female genital excision":

Nearly 507,000 women and girls in the United States could be at risk of female genital excision, including 57,000 in California, a new study has found.

That is more than twice the number that were thought to be at risk in 2000, the last year for which estimates are available.

Analysts at the Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit research organization in Washington, attributed the preliminary findings released Friday to an increase in immigration from countries where the practice is common, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Somalia.

It is unclear how many families continue the practice after moving to the U.S., but community activists say there is anecdotal evidence of girls being sent back to their parents’ home countries for “vacation cutting” and of traditional cutters traveling to the U.S. to circumcise girls in this country.

To estimate the number who may have undergone the procedure or be at risk, the research group used data collected by the Census Bureau for the 2013 American Community Survey to determine the number of women and girls whose families originate in countries where female genital excision is practiced. It then applied the prevalence rates in those countries to the numbers in the U.S.

The methodology is similar to that used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a study that found about 168,000 women and girls were at risk of genital excision in the U.S. in 1990, said Mark Mather, the group’s associate vice president for U.S. programs.

Campaigners have been urging the government to update its estimate, and the CDC is expected to release new figures this year.

“What’s happening around the other side of the world has implications for families here in the U.S.,” Mather said. “We’re seeing more and more of this with immigration and economic ties. Issues that most people might not have considered before may be emerging in their small towns and communities.”

California is the state with the highest at-risk population, followed by New York (48,000) and Minnesota (44,000), the Population Reference Bureau found.

“California historically has been a very important gateway state for immigrants, and I think that’s reflected in the numbers,” Mather said.


That is also true for many of the other states with high at-risk populations. But Mather said he would expect to see more of these families spreading across the U.S. in the coming years.

Turns out those Ethiopian, Egyptian, and Somalian immigrants aren't assimilating as fast as we'd like, or something.

More at the link.

Female genital mutilation is illegal in the U.S., although the Obama administration doesn't enforce the law, especially since Barack Hussein privileges Islamic values above universal human rights.

Voters Criticize Obama's Response to ISIS 'War Crimes'

At iOTW Report.

It's "what response?" at this point.

PREVIOUSLY: "'People Committed Terrible Deeds in the Name of Christ...'"

Islamic State Claims U.S. Hostage, Kayla Mueller, Killed in Airstrike

At the Los Angeles Times, "Jordanian airstrike kills U.S. hostage, purported militant statement says":

A purported statement from Islamic State militants said Friday that a Jordanian airstrike had killed an American aid worker who was being held hostage in the northeast Syrian city of Raqqa, an extremist stronghold.

There was no immediate confirmation of the report from Washington or means of verifying whether the militant claim was true.

In a message posted on social media, Islamic State purportedly declared that midday “crusader” airstrikes on Raqqa resulted in the death of the hostage. The post also gave the woman’s name, email address, phone number and a home address in Arizona.

It had been publicly known for months that a U.S. aid worker identified by the militants as Kayla Jean Mueller was being held.

News media had withheld Mueller's name out of concern for her safety. The 26-year-old woman did not appear in any of the hostage videos that Islamic State released in recent months.

“The crusader criminal air force struck a site outside of Raqqa city today at noon during Friday prayers, and the strikes lasted for one hour,” the purported Islamic State message said. “And we have confirmed the death of the American hostage by the bombs that fell on the site.”

In the purported post, Islamic State blamed the woman’s asserted death on the Jordanian air force, which has reportedly been conducting airstrikes on Islamic State targets in recent days.

“The losing Jordanian Air Force kills an American hostage,” read the headline of the message, sent via a Twitter account associated with Islamic State.

The group also posted a photograph of a bombed-out building compound identified as the site where the woman had been held. The message said nothing about other victims...

 More. (Also at Memorandum.)

Various reports have questioned the authenticity of Islamic State's claim, although Jordan today did indeed conduct airstrikes on ISIS jihadis inside Syria. See USA Today, "Jordan pounds Islamic State targets inside Iraq, Syria."

Kerrie McMahon

At Egotastic!, "Irish Model Kerrie McMahon Shows Off Killer Bikini Body Along the Southern California Beach Line."

Well, it's definitely been beach weather this last few days, heh.

Obama: 'We are summoned to push back against those who would distort our religion for their nihilistic ends...'

From Pamela Geller, at Atlas Shrugs:

Our religion? What religion is that? Islam is not my religion, Mr. President. Is it yours?

Obama’s speech today at the prayer breakfast continues to send shockwaves through this country.

Contrary to his claims that Christians were slaughtering in the name of Christ, we see none of that. Nowhere do you see Christians beheading, setting alight, or crucifying non-Christians while screaming “Christ is greatest!” Obama had the unmitigated gall to bring up the Spanish Inquisition and what was done at the end of that 800-year-old war, as well as the Crusades (which Obama mentioned as well), which was against the Muslim hordes close to 1000 years ago. Had it not been for Charles Martel beating back the Muslim armies, Europe would look like the hellhole that much of the Middle East looks like today.

Obama freely brought up Christianity’s ancient history, but did not mention Islam’s 1400-year bloody history of jihadi war, land appropriations, cultural annihilations and enslavements. He failed to mention the 1,400 jihad against the Jews raging still today against Israel and Jews across the world. And of course he did not discuss the religion’s bloody jihad now. On the contrary, he falsely claimed it was being “hijacked.” Hijacked, how? Jihadists are citing Quran chapter and verse. They are using Muhammad as their “perfect example.” Obama never said Christianity had been hijacked a thousand years ago. But he did make the outrageous claim that Jim Crow and slavery were sanctioned in the name of Christ.

Jesus did not behead, kill, rape or steal from conquered people, calling the theft righteous booty. Jesus did not marry a six-year-old. Mohammed did. And he slaughtered untold numbers, with his mujahadeen raping and pillaging every bloody step of the way.

Those of us who saw this coming back in 2008 and 2009 were excoriated, ridiculed, and marginalized for speaking the truth about Obama’s past. In 2007 I wrote an article for Israel National News entitled, “Op-Ed: Obama, the Muslim Thing, And Why It Matters.” Before Obama’s election, anyone who used his middle name Hussein was labeled a racist-anti-Muslim-Islamophobic-bigot. And yet the first call he made to a foreign “leader” after he was inaugurated was to terror leader Mahmoud Abbas. The first interview he gave was with al Arabiya television. His first world tour was an apology tour to the Muslim world, culminating in a speech from the leading Islamic university in Cairo, Al Azhar. He invited the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group to his speech in Cairo, despite the fact that it had been banned for decades. Then President Mubarak and his cabinet, America’s 30-year ally in that troubled region, could not attend Obama’s speech because of the terror presence.

It’s why I wrote my 2010 book, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America.

And now eight years later, with the global jihad roiling the world thanks to Obama’s support and sanction, he deigns to tell us what our religion is.

President Dawah. The more jihad rages, the more Obama proselytizes for Islam. Muslim countries like Jordan are taking a much harder line than the USA. It’s outrageous...

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "'People Committed Terrible Deeds in the Name of Christ...'"

The Genocidal Nature of Jew-Hatred at U.C. Davis

At Blazing Cat Fur.

PREVIOUSLY: "Swastikas Painted on U.C. Davis Jewish Fraternity House: Leftist BDS Anti-Semitism Suspected (VIDEO)."

'A 400-foot chunk of electrified rail sliced through an SUV, punctured its fuel tank and pierced the first and part of the second car of a commuter train, investigators said Wednesday...'

The third rail apparently caused the gas tank to explode, consuming the car in fire.

Man, what a tragedy.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Investigators scour N.Y. train wreckage; death toll stands at 6."

Also, "Train engineer pulled emergency brake when he saw SUV on tracks."

'As someone who has spent several months in southern Afghanistan covering the U.S. infantry, walking foot patrols and occasionally coming under fire, I cringed when I saw the story about Williams...'

Yeah, it's pissed off a lot of good people who've paid their dues.

From Dan Lamothe, at the Washington Post, "Why war reporters can’t stand the Brian Williams scandal":

Brian Williams Must Resign -- if Mr. Williams does not resign or get fired, I will not link again to NBC This... http://t.co/qT0XBxXs9K
— Michael Yon (@Michael_Yon) February 5, 2015

Obama Slamming Christians, Protecting Islam

Yep, that's what he's all about.

Made me sick listening to Obama slam Christians, while protecting Islam. There are no limits to his own evils. #tcot pic.twitter.com/fAIROdoHni
— Wolf♔H&U♔Raven (@WolfSpirit2013) February 5, 2015

PREVIOUSLY: "'People Committed Terrible Deeds in the Name of Christ...'"

Sen. Tom Cotton Unloads on Brian McKeon, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy: Guantanamo Bay Prisoners 'Can Rot in Hell'

At the Hill, "Senator says Gitmo detainees can 'rot in hell'."

'People Committed Terrible Deeds in the Name of Christ...'

This is just one more iteration of the president's moral equivalence, and worse, his refusal to name the religion, today, that is committing unspeakable atrocities in the name of faith.

At the Weekly Standard, "Obama: 'People Committed Terrible Deeds in the Name of Christ'."

And Laura Ingraham is interviewed at Gretchen Carlson's show, on Fox News, "Pres Obama: People Committed Terrible Deeds In Name of Christ - ISIS - Laura Ingraham."

We've had almost a month of non-stop, high-profile Islamic jihad, death and terror. And our president is talking about the "terrible deeds" committed in the name of Christ? Who buys this anymore? I mean, who besides the hardcore Islamo-enabling partisan left, like the ghoulish John Amato at Crooks and Liars?

Among likely Republican and Democrat caucus-goers in Iowa, there's little disagreement on the need for more aggressive military action against the threat. See USA Today, "New Iowa Poll finds surge in GOP focus on terrorism":

When polled on a list of specific actions, Republicans and Democrats align on two points: more aggressively pursuing terrorists in this country and abroad to prevent more attacks, and cutting back on surveillance programs that collect data on phone calls of ordinary Americans.

On pursuing terrorists, 91% of Republicans and 70% of Democrats want more aggressive action. The desire to curtail surveillance is nearly equal at 60% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats.

I guess they didn't talk to the horrible, horrible ghouls at Crooks and Liars.

Hayat Boumeddiene Calls for New Terrorist Attacks on France?

Well, she was whisked away through a terrorist network out of France, so why not?

At Telegraph UK, "Hayat Boumeddiene 'appears in Islamic State film'":

Hayat Boumeddiene, widow of Paris killer Amedy Coulibaly and dubbed France's most wanted woman, appears in Isil film calling for more attacks against native country, report says.

A young woman seen in an Islamic State propaganda video may be Hayat Boumeddiene, widow of one of the gunmen behind the Paris killings, it has been reported.

The video, titled Blow Up France 2, was released on Tuesday by French-speaking Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters and features a militant calling for new attacks in France.

A woman clad in camouflage clothing and holding a weapon is seen standing next to the speaker.

"French authorities are investigating the possibility this woman could be Hayat Boumeddiene," a security source told CNN. French authorities have not confirmed her identity.

Boumedienne's husband, Amedy Coulibaly, was killed by police on January 9 after he had killed four Jewish hostages in a kosher supermarket and a policewoman.

More.

Brian Williams Lied About Helicopter Being Shot Down in Iraq

I first saw this story yesterday at Legal Insurrection, "Did NBC News Anchor Brian Williams lie about Iraq incident?"

He did indeed.

And the story has become the outage of the day at Memeorandum. Plus an update at LI, "Dan Rather was Brian Williams before Brian Williams became Dan Rather."

I stopped watching both ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News at least a decade ago. Most of ABC's news operation is composed of leftists and former Bill Clinton administration lackeys. I'm holding out hope for the network's new anchor David Muir. My wife likes ABC, so sometimes I'll watch it. I haven't watched Brian Williams since forever. At one time I thought he was going to be a savior of the dying breed, an old-style newsman to rescue a floundering format in the age of cable and the Internet. But not so, it turns out. He's leftist and opines on the air, and gets called out by new media. I can't stand that. And he's openly blustery and pompous. Peter Jennings he's not be a million miles.

In any case, Erik Wemple nails it with this headline and story, "The Brian Williams scandal is an NBC News-wide scandal." (At Memeorandum.)

And Alisyn Camerota reports at CNN, "Williams apologizes for 'bungled attempt' to thank vet."

BONUS: At AoSHQ, "OMG!"

Vindicating Chris Kyle

At the Wall Street Journal, "Islamic State proves the late sniper was right about the ‘savage’ enemy":

‘Savage, despicable evil. That’s what we were fighting in Iraq.” Those were among the words the late Chris Kyle, of “American Sniper” fame, used to describe the enemy he and fellow veterans of the Iraq war faced. After seeing images this week of Islamic State jihadists murdering a caged Jordanian pilot by burning him alive, can there be any real doubt that Kyle was right?

Of course not.

But keep reading.

Jordan's King Abdullah to Personally Suit-Up Against Islamic State?

He's a fighter pilot and he's taking al-Kasasbeh's murder personally.

From Mary Katharine Ham, at Hot Air, "Too good to check: Angry Jordanian king may personally suit up against ISIS":

If he’s trained as a pilot, this feels less like silly Putinesque staged bravado and more like a Jordanian John Wick after vengeance. Or, maybe that’s just how I’d like to imagine it because it’s nice to imagine a leader of a country so righteously enraged by the brutal killing of his citizens and so skilled in the kicking of ass that he decides to engage in it personally. Even if it’s not the most practical of foreign policies to have each president enter the Octagon with these barbarians, I long for a modicum of the clarity that animates the impulse.

Via Memeorandum.

Charles Krauthammer: Obama's 'Completely Uninterested' in Rolling Back Islamic State

As I was saying about Obama's "bloodless" foreign policy. He gets more excited when illegal DREAMers are visiting the White House.

Emily Ratajkowski in New Teaser Advertisement for Italian Lingerie Brand Yamamay (VIDEO)

Lovely.

Hanna Davis on Cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue 2015

At SI, "2015 SI Swimsuit cover model Hannah Davis surprised with reveal."

And at London's Daily Mail, "How low can they go! Hannah Davis is named Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition's cover girl of the year in one of the magazine's most revealing shots yet."

Mike Morell: 100,000 Troops Needed to Stop Islamic State

From the former CIA deputy director, at yesterday's CBS This Morning.

There might not be much public support for a huge deployment, but it's not like President Obama has even tried to rally public support against the horror of Islamic State. His legacy is ending wars not actually fighting them.

The 'Population Control' Solution for Climate Change

The solution for "population control," to say nothing of "climate change," is economic growth in the developing world. Economies move through a "demographic transition" as they advance through periods of development. This is basic developmental economics, and it's not new. Leftists are pushing "solutions" to problems that have long been solved. But then, there's a reason we call them "regressives."

In any case, at Truth Revolt, "Population Control Being Pushed as Solution for Global Warming."

Child Shown Smiling Gleefully as Raqqa Muslims Cheer Islamic State Murder of Moaz al-Kasasbeh

Not everyone in the Muslim world was repulsed by the Jordanian pilot's immolation, obviously.

At London's Daily Mail, "Slaughtered for their entertainment: Crowds gather to watch the barbaric murder of Jordanian pilot on specially erected giant screens on the streets of Raqqa... and CHEER when the airman goes up in flames."



Watch: "Brutal ISIS Crowd Cheers Watching Jordan Pilot Burning Alive in Flames."

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters: Islamic State 'Ain't Bankrupt ... It's Spreading Really, Really Fast...' (VIDEO)

Once again, the unshakable, irascible Ralph Peters:

Britney Spears Strips Down to Pink Lingerie for Intimate Collection

At London's Daily Mail, "Britney Spears displays her taut curves in pink bra and knickers as she continues to promote her Intimate Collection."

BONUS: At Life & Style, "Britney Spears’ Super Bowl 2015 Commercial Almost Broke the Internet (Sorry, Kim)." Sounds a little exaggerated, although seeing Britney like that was pretty trippy.

REPORT: Moaz al-Kasasbeh's Murder by Fire is Ritual Purification in Islam

And everyone keeps blubbering, "Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam!"

From Dawn Perlmutter, at FrontPage Magazine, "ISIS Purifies Islam Through Fire":

Fire is symbolic of the destruction of evil. Symbolically people who are burned alive are human sacrifices that are expiating evil from the community. Tainted victims are purified through fire. Fire is considered a powerful transformer of the negative to the positive. Because of such properties, fire is commonly found in purification rites throughout the world. In other cultures polluted persons may be required to walk around, jump over, or jump through fire. Historically, burning a person to death was reserved for the most threating evil, such as heresy or witchcraft and considered an extreme form of purification. In the context of honor killing the use of fire is not only symbolic but practical. Practical in Iraq because most of the homes do not have electricity so every house has a large supply of oil which makes it easier to conceal honor killings under the guise of suicide or kitchen accidents. In the context of the murder of Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh fire is an Islamic purification ritual that serves vengeance and restores honor and purity to the community of believers.

Islamist jihadists from different movements, countries, sects, and factions all emphasize the need to cleanse Islam of its impurities. Al Qaeda’s ideological belief is the purification of Islam through violent struggle. Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri have continually called on supporters to purify Muslim holy lands of infidels, un-Islamic beliefs, and practices. The Islamic State cleanses Islam of its impurities while protecting its territory in the same manner as Mexican cartels, using brutal tactics that are justified as vengeance.

The title of the video, Healing the Believers’ Chests, is a quote from the Quran: “Fight them, and Allah will punish them by your hands, cover them with shame, help you over them, heal the breasts of Believers.” (Qur’an 9:14). It was reported to mean ‘giving them pleasure’ – interpreted as a reference to achieving revenge. That is one interpretation, however healing is symbolic of purification, the title Healing the Believers’ Chests can be understood as cleansing the community of the contamination of impurity. Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh’s alleged crimes symbolically unleashed an epidemic of contagious evil. The function of the burning ritual is a communal act of expiation, expelling the contagious evil of an infidel enemy through fire. Having ISIS fighters participate and watch makes it a communal sacrificial ritual. Ritualizing the violence justifies it and makes it sacred. Once the transgressor is ritually killed the impurity is removed, the evil has been expelled, taboo has been ameliorated and justice is served. The body is immediately buried under the earth, another purifying element, restoring honor and purity.

Filming and disseminating the ritual killing strikes fear into the hearts of enemies and attracts new recruits. Similar to an arsonist that is fascinated with fire, disaffected young people will be attracted to this ritual burning. Like moths to a flame.

RTWT.

These purification immolations are hardly uncommon for Islamic terrorists.

REPORT: Islamic State Justified Moaz al-Kasasbeh Murder by Fire with Koranic Verses

From Walid Shoebat, "Watch the Most Horrific Video by ISIS Burning POW Jordanian Pilot":

And so the method on how to kill Al-Kassasbeh was not some dreamed up concoction, but stemmed from Islam as the quest on how to execute him circulated the Muslim world. In the burning scene video (see 1:00 above) ISIS gave the Islamic edict straight from the top Islamic authority of Ibn Taymiyya’s jurisprudence:

“So if horror of commonly desecrating the body is a call for them [the infidels] to believe [in Islam], or to stop their aggression, it is from here that we carry out the punishment and the allowance for legal Jihad”...

To desecrate the victim while alive is part and parcel of Islam in hope that people would convert through sheer fear or to repulse the enemy. The backdrop of the video is in Raqqa where over 20 ISIS terrorists met their fate by U.S. led coalition in which according to ISIS were burned alive. To ISIS, they followed the Quran “So whoever has assaulted you, then assault him in the same way that he has assaulted you.” (Q2:194)

More.

According to Shoebat, Islamic State will continue to escalate its methods of murder. Indeed, Muslims are calling for infidels and Jews to be impaled through the anus, in a murder ritual known as Khazouk, dating back the Ottoman empire.

Piers Morgan's Faux Outrage on Islamic State's 'Abominible' Inhumanity

In what could have been an excellent editorial, Mr. Morgan captures the horror of Moaz al-Kasasbeh murder, but then he sputters out with his conclusion about how this has "noting to do with Islam."

For leftists, it's never about Islam --- despite the fact that Islamic State quoted Koranic scripture in the video's release.

Here, "Watching ISIS burn a man alive was the most abominable thing I have ever seen - and any Muslim who won't stand up to these barbarians must watch it too":

My finger hovered over the ‘click’ button.
I’d heard that ISIS had burned a young Jordanian pilot alive in a cage, and there were numerous people posting the snuff movie on social media.

I wanted to watch it.

To see for myself whether it really was, as many claimed, the ‘sickest video ever made’.

But I hesitated.

I don’t ‘need’ to see a man burned alive. Nobody ‘needs’ to see such an abomination.

It’s diabolical enough that it happened at all. Why compound the misery of that man’s life ending by acting as some kind of complicit voyeur?

Then I pressed click anyway.

I watched those murderous bastards light up a trail of petrol into a small cage, I watched as Lieutenant Moaz al-Kasabeh caught fire, and I watched as he screamed in horror and burned to death.

It was just as repulsive and sickening as I feared it would be. Truly the worst thing I have ever had to witness, and as a journalist for 30 years I’ve seen a lot of unpleasant things.

But I’m actually glad I watched it.

Glad I saw in real time, on professionally-crafted movie-quality video, exactly what these monsters are capable of.

Glad I know they have no limits, no humanity, no semblance of any kind of soul.

Glad I saw the undisguised joy in their evil little faces as they perpetrated such a despicable act on a fellow human being.

Glad they repeatedly switched the camera shot from blow-torch to their victim’s face so we can be under no illusion what utter sadists they are.

I’m glad about all this because it allows me to feel such uncontrollable rage that no amount of reasonable argument will ever temper it.

And that’s precisely what we all have to feel now towards ISIS and those who support its hideous activities.

We all have to feel the same kind of unquantifiable, collective horror everyone felt when the full scale of the Nazi concentration camps was revealed.

Hitler’s Nazis and ISIS share similar aspirations and values:

The extermination of vast numbers of people.

The pursuit of power through death and mayhem.

The ability and willingness to commit physical and mental torture and murder so depraved that it defies belief or reasoned understanding.

And as with the Nazis, the world must now come together to rout and destroy them.

The big question is how?

This is not a conventional enemy that operates with an army, air force or navy.

It’s a disparate, amorphous entity whose tentacles spread wide around the Middle East.

Hard to track, thus hard to defeat.

But I believe ISIS made a big strategic error today.

Moaz al-Kasabeh was a devout Muslim.

He was the first high profile Sunni Muslim from a state involved in the US-led coalition ‘war’ effort to be executed.

By killing him in such a grotesquely barbaric way, ISIS should rouse the decent, civilized Muslim world as never before.

It’s easy to justify attacks on the West by screaming to young, impressionable poverty-ravaged minds that it’s ‘revenge’ for all the bombing campaigns in Iraq or Afghanistan.

It’s far tougher to justify the bestial immolation of a young Muslim man to other young Muslims...

Actually, there'd no reason to suspect a backlash in the Muslim world had Islamic State immolated a Christian American or an Israeli Jew.

Indeed, after the Paris attacks Muslims worldwide hoisted "Je Suis Cherif" banners over their heads, in militant solidarity with the Kouachi brothers.

No, sadly, Mr. Morgan's logical flaw is to pretend that Islam isn't really the ideological equivalent to the Nazism that the horror the Jordanian pilots murder evoked.

Jordan's King Abdullah Vows 'Relentless' War Against #ISIS After Pilot Burned Alive

I don't imagine this was the response the jihadists were expecting.

At JPost, "Jordan's king vows 'relentless' war against ISIS after pilot burned alive":

Amman vows to step up role with international coalition fighting ISIS a day after video released of Jordanian pilot being executed by terror group.

The Scourge That Obama Dare Not Name

From S.E. Cupp, at the New York Daily News, "Islamic extremist terrorism: The scourge that Obama dare not name":

There's nothing more childish than living in a fantasyland.

There's a famous painting of a pipe, by Belgian artist Rene Magritte. Under the pipe it says in French, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" — "This is not a pipe."

The average onlooker says, "of course that's a pipe!" But Magritte is challenging the viewer to acknowledge that, in fact, they are not looking at a pipe, but, more accurately, a painting of a pipe.

It's surrealism at its most annoying. Magritte was that know-it-all at the party who corrects your grammar during a fun game of beer pong: "It's with 'whom' am I playing next."

To the average person, it's pretty clear we're at war with Islamic extremists. Yet, to hear President Obama tell it, we are not technically at war, and even if we are, he wants you to believe religion has little to do with it.

He and his surrogates have repeatedly refused to say the words "Islamic extremism" or "radical Islam" when describing our enemies in groups like Al Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, ISIS and Boko Haram, just to name a few.

His administration was caught flatfooted last week when White House spokesman Eric Schultz painfully strained to justify negotiating with Taliban, insisting it was not a terrorist group but "an armed insurgency."

Surreal indeed...

Cowardly.

Obama's a coward. Simple as that.

Keep reading.

Obama Chief of Staff Denis McDonough: We Don't Negotiate with Terrorists

Oh really?

So the Taliban aren't terrorists?

At Gateway Pundit, "More Lies… Qatar Foreign Minister Admits “We Were Asked to Negotiate Bergdahl Swap”."

'WAR IS NOT VIOLENCE AND KILLING...'

At Stormbringer, "War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose..."

Obama: Islamic State Operating on a 'Bankrupt Ideology' (VIDEO)

As I was saying earlier, "bloodless."

Watch: "Obama: ISIS operating on a 'bankrupt' ideology."

Lt. Col Ralph Peters: Islamic State Terrorists 'Are Having the Time of Their Lives...' (VIDEO)

At Fox News Insider, "'America Needs to Get Serious': Peters Sounds Off on ISIS":

Peters sounded off on the terrorists who are seen in the video, saying, “Those terrorists are the people the president and Democrats don’t even want to waterboard.”

“America needs to get serious," he said.

Peters called for a limited number of boots on the ground for a limited time.

“My God, ISIS is taking over the Middle East, and our president […] can’t even say Islamist terror.”

Watch: "Peters: 'Murder of Pilot Is 'Better than the Best Sex' Jihadists Have Had...'"

Spectacular Video Shows Moment TransAsia Airways Plane Crashes: At Least 12 Killed

Unreal.

At ABC 7 Los Angeles, "TAIWAN PLANE WITH 58 ABOARD CRASHES IN TAIPEI; 12 KILLED."

Also at Sky News, "Taiwan Plane Crash: Passenger Jet Hits Bridge."

UPDATE: At USA Today, "Death toll rises to 31 in Taiwan plane; 12 missing."

President Obama Downplays Terrorist Threat (VIDEO)

Actually, I don't know if he's downplaying it so much as over-rationalizing it. When folks call Obama a political "realist" on national security policy, this is what they're talking about. (See Stephen Walt, for example, a true fanatical supporter of this administration's foreign policy, "Think Before You March").

The problem is it's bloodless realpolitik. It doesn't make for particularly compelling viewing. It seems more like resignation to global dangers, with the luxury of pulling up the drawbridge. Even when there's no existential threat, Americans like some emotion and resolve. And besides, some argue that global jihad is currently "the greatest danger facing mankind."

There's a disconnect.

In any case, watch at Pat Dollard's, "WATCH, (P)RESIDENT EVIL: “I Insist We Do Not Provide a Victory to These Terrorists by Over-inflating Their Importance as a Threat to the U.S.”

U.S. Intelligence Warns of Growing Threat from Islamic State

Well, no doubt.

Britian's Andrew Parker, head of MI5, warned of an immediate al-Qaeda threat just last month, so it's just confirmation at this point. Pretty good timing, considering the Jordanian pilot and all.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Pentagon official lists militants, Russia and China as threats to U.S.":

Russian military activity is at its highest level since the Cold War, destructive state-sponsored attacks on U.S. computer systems are on the rise and Islamic State is expanding into unstable parts of North Africa, the Pentagon's top intelligence official told Congress on Tuesday.

The warnings came against the grim backdrop of the release of a video that appeared to show a Jordanian military pilot being burned alive by his Islamic State captors, and a day after President Obama proposed reversing a five-year decline in military spending to help battle the Sunni Muslim extremists who control parts of Iraq and Syria.

Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the militant group Islamic State has steadily extended its reach despite near-daily U.S.-led coalition airstrikes that began in August. More than two dozen extremist groups around the world have merged with or pledged allegiance to Islamic State, and its ranks continue to swell with new recruits.

"With affiliates in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, the group is beginning to assemble a growing international footprint that includes ungoverned and undergoverned areas," Stewart, who took command of the Pentagon's spying arm last month, told the House Armed Services Committee in an annual review of national security threats.

The militant group's appeal apparently extends to Canada. Police there on Tuesday charged three men suspected of having ties to an Islamic State recruiting cell in Ottawa. The three reportedly were trying to travel to Syria and were not plotting an attack in Canada when they were arrested.

Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that Islamic State "has a fairly evangelical strain about it."

"They want to metastasize. They want to grow. They want to increase their influence," Kirby said. "We're watching it as closely as we can."...

Keep reading.

King Abdullah II of Jordan: Islamic State 'Does Not Resemble Our Religion in Any Way...' (VIDEO)

Actually, at this point literally anything Islam touches turns to death, so it's no surprise that the Ummah is working at Blitzkrieg pace to distance Islam from the fiery hell that is Islamic State.

See Robert Spencer, at Jihad Watch, "Jordan’s Abdullah: Islamic State “does not resemble our religion in any way”":

The video of the burning of the Jordanian pilot is entitled, “Healing the Believers Chests.” That’s from the Qur’an: “Fight them, and Allah will punish them by your hands, cover them with shame, help you over them, heal the breasts of Believers.” (Qur’an 9:14) Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, who years ago tried to murder students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the name of Islam and jihad, also referenced this verse when explaining his actions.

And then there is this story from Muhammad’s conquest of Khaybar: “Kinana b. al-Rabi`, who had the custody of the treasure of B. al-Nadir, was brought to the apostle who asked him about it. He denied that he knew where it was. A Jew came (T. was brought) to the apostle and said that he had seen Kinana going round a certain ruin every morning early. When the apostle said to Kinana, ‘Do you know that if we find you have it I shall kill you?’ he said Yes. The apostle gave orders that the ruin was to be excavated and some of the treasure was found. When he asked him about the rest he refused to produce it, so the apostle gave orders to al-Zubayr b. al-Awwam, ‘Torture him until you extract what he has,’ so he kindled a fire with flint and steel on his chest until he was nearly dead. Then the apostle delivered him to Muhammad b. Maslama and he struck off his head, in revenge for his brother Mahmud.” (Ibn Ishaq 515).

“King Abdullah of Jordan says pilot’s reported ISIL murder does not resemble Islam,” the Telegraph, February 3, 2015...

Jordan Executes Prisoners in Retaliation for Pilot Burned to Death

ICYMI, from earlier, "Jordanian Hostage Moaz al-Kasasbeh Burned Alive (VIDEO)."

Jordan responded without delay.

At the New York Times, "Jordan Executes Prisoners After ISIS Video of Pilot’s Death."

More at iOTW Report, "Jordan Retaliates."

And at Ms. EBL's, "As promised: Jordan quickly executes ISIS terrorists Sadjedah al-Rishwi and Ziyad al-Karbouli."

Jordanian Hostage Moaz al-Kasasbeh Burned Alive (VIDEO)

At Atlas Shrugs, "VIDEO: The Islamic State Burns Jordanian Pilot Alive in a Cage."

WARNING GRAPHIC: "The Enemy: ISIS Burns Jordanian Pilot Alive (VIDEO)."



More at Bare Naked Islam, "ISLAMIC STATE (ISIS) Muslim savages kill captured Jordanian pilot by burning him alive in a cage."

And at London's Daily Mail, "One of the most sickening acts ever committed to film: 22 minutes of carefully edited, and highly choreographed footage that ISIS knows will horrify the West - and entice even more jihadists to their cause."

Perhaps the most horrifying thing I've ever seen.

Obama Expresses Solidarity for New Greek Communist Government

Well, the new radical left government, with the Marxist "Greek Che" prime minister, is a godsend for the communist-loving Barack Hussein.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Obama Expresses Sympathy for New Greek Government: U.S. President Said There Are Limits to How Far European Creditors Can Press Athens":

President Barack Obama expressed sympathy for the new Greek government as it seeks to rollback its strict bailout regime, saying there are limits to how far its European creditors can press Athens to repay its debts while restructuring the economy.

“You cannot keep on squeezing countries that are in the midst of depression. At some point there has to be a growth strategy in order for them to pay off their debts to eliminate some of their deficits,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria aired Sunday.

He said Athens needs to restructure its economy to boost its competitiveness, “but it’s very hard to initiate those changes if people’s standards of livings are dropping by 25%. Over time, eventually the political system, the society can’t sustain it.”

Mr. Obama expressed hope that an agreement would be reached so Greece can stay in the eurozone, saying, “I think that will require compromise on all sides.”...

FLASHBACK: "Greece Still Wants Free Lunch."

Same as it ever was...

Super Bowl Breaks Viewing Record

Hey, it's hella entertainment extravaganza.

At WSJ, "Super Bowl Breaks Record for U.S. TV Viewing: Preliminary Nielsen Figures Pegged at 114.4 Million."

Richard Sherman's all, "Dafuq!"

Coca-Cola Targets Online Hate with #MakeItHappy Super Bowl Campaign — #DanicaPatrick

At Ad Week.



More videos at the link.

Obama's Budget-Busting Spending Plan Expected to Balloon Federal Debt to More Than $25 Trillion by 2025

Man, talk about drunken sailors.

The Obama-Dems have no inkling of restraint. None.

See Town Hall, "Obama's record budget: Tax the rich, screw the middle class":

The deficit would remain under $500 billion a year through 2018, but would rise to $687 billion by 2025, according to administration projections — though levels of red ink could still be considered manageable when measured against the size of the economy.

But the cost of financing the government's debt would spiral as the debt grows to more than $25 trillion by 2025 and interest rates rise. According to the projections. Interest costs would jump from $229 billion this year to $785 billion in 2025...

And see the Hill, "President to unveil $4 trillion budget that busts spending limits."

More astronomical budget projections at the Wall Street Journal, "Obama’s 2016 Budget: Behind the Numbers."

And see, "Obama Budget Sets Off Push for Deals: Republicans Dismiss Calls for New Taxes, but Openings for Compromise Are Seen."

Students at Eastern Michigan University Kill Mandatory Indoctrination by Using Anonymous Social Media App Yik Yak

This is great.

At Instapundit, "FIGHT THE POWER: The latest press release from GWU Law Prof. John Banzhaf explains why some campuses are so hostile to Yik Yak."

Leftist Enclave: Santa Monica Infant-Toddler Center Closed After Baby Diagnosed with Measles (VIDEO)

Santa Monica, heh.

Hippies, Hollywood poseurs and entertainment industry tycoons, to say nothing of the biggest technology sector this side of Silicon Valley. Lots of granola-crunching 'Whole Foods' lefties, that's for sure.

At LAT, "Santa Monica High School's day-care center closes after infant contracts measles."

Also at WSJ, "California Child-Care Center Closed After Infant Diagnosed With Measles: More Than a Dozen Children Quarantined for 21 Days:"

In the 2013-14 school year, 11.5% of students districtwide received waivers to avoid vaccination, said Ms. Pinsker, who noted that the district has encouraged immunization for students.

Dang, that's one of the highest waiver rates I've seen. More kooks down Santa Monica way than even the ultra-entitled Marin-San Francisco elite-culture corridor.

Plus, a video report at CBS News Los Angeles, "New Case of Measles Reported at Santa Monica Infant Toddler Center."

PREVIOUSLY: "Anti-Vaxxers: Prius-Owning, 'Whole Foods', Composting Types," and "Affluent Leftists Dominate the Ranks of Anti-Vaxxers, Overwhelmingly Voted for Obama."

Groundhog Bites Wisconsin Mayor at Sun Prairie Ceremony (VIDEO)

The perils of prognostication.

At the Chicago Tribune, "Jimmy the Groundhog turns on Wisconsin mayor."

And watch, at AP, "Groundhog Bites Wisconsin Mayor at Ceremony."

RELATED: At WaPo, "Groundhog Day 2015: Punxsutawney Phil sees shadow, predicts six more weeks of winter."

San Francisco Racial Segregation Surging as Affluent Parents Opt for 'School Choice'

Affluent leftists.

Maybe they'll self-segregate so hard that they get naturally selected out of the population due to a catastrophic infectious disease epidemic.

Seriously. Hispanic students are increasingly marginalized in the schools.

At the San Francisco Public Press, "As Parents Get More Choice, S.F. Schools Resegregate":

San Francisco faces a challenge: promoting educational options without undermining classroom diversity.

San Francisco faces a challenge: promoting educational options without undermining classroom diversity

Each January, parents across San Francisco rank their preferences for public schools. By June, most get their children into their first choices, and almost three-quarters get one of their choices.

A majority of families may be satisfied with the outcome, but the student assignment system is failing to meet its No. 1 goal, which the San Francisco Unified School District has struggled to achieve since the 1960s: classroom diversity.

Since 2010, the year before the current policy went into effect, the number of San Francisco’s 115 public schools dominated by one race has climbed significantly. Six in 10 have simple majorities of one racial group. In almost one-fourth, 60 percent or more of the students belong to one racial group, which administrators say makes them “racially isolated.” That described 28 schools in 2013–2014, up from 23 in 2010–2011, according to the district.

But the San Francisco Public Press has found the problem may be even more stark: If Asian and Filipino students are counted together — the standard used by the Census — together the number of racially isolated schools in the last school year rose to 39.

The drive toward racial isolation in the district parallels a larger trend in the city: With many wealthier families opting for private alternatives, the public school system is becoming racially and economically isolated from the city as a whole.

Why does it matter whether schools are diverse? One reason is academic performance. Recent studies from Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley, show that many students do much better on tests when placed in integrated classrooms, and that all kids are much less likely to grow up with racial stereotypes and prejudices. Far from being opposed to each other, excellence and diversity go hand in hand.

How did this resegregation of schools happen in a city where almost everyone from district leaders to parents supports the ideal of diversity?

Dramatic income inequality, shifting demographics, rising housing costs and the proliferation of language programs are fueling the trend. But the biggest culprit, say outside researchers and local education leaders, is the feature that defines the student assignment system: school choice.

The district provides parents with a dizzying amount of information about the schools. The application process requires time, language skills and access to technology — advantages that often come with education and financial resources. “Choice is inherently inequitable,” San Francisco Board of Education member Sandra Fewer said at a December meeting on student assignment. “If you don’t have resources, you don’t have choice.”

Orla O’Keeffe, the district’s policy director, said affluent, educated parents compete for the small number of seats at the highest-performing schools. Children from poor and working-class families, disproportionately black and Latino, often end up in underperforming schools.

The district currently has few tools to address the problem. “If you’ve got racially isolated choice patterns, then your capacity to create diversity using a choice mechanism is constrained,” O’Keeffe said. “There’s none of that in our system. It’s all about what families want.”

The choice system tries to make the schools diverse by giving more preference to students who live in neighborhoods with low average test scores, a proxy for measuring poverty. But some Board of Education members are acknowledging that mechanisms intended to promote diversity are flawed.

“The story of our efforts at student assignment is the story of unintended consequences,” said Rachel Norton, a board member since 2009. “In some ways, it’s a perfect mismatch of intent and results.”...

Hey leftists!

Diversity is great, right? As long as you're not the ones diversifying. Yippee!!

Anti-Vaxxers: Prius-Owning, 'Whole Foods', Composting Types

Leftists are literally the worst people on earth.

Here's more on the anti-science left, at Science Magazine, "Why the 'Prius Driving, Composting' Set Fears Vaccines":

Journalist Seth Mnookin's new book, The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear, explores the public health scare over vaccines and autism. The 1998 paper in The Lancet by British physician Andrew Wakefield that sparked the panic has long since been debunked and retracted, and Wakefield himself has been barred from practicing medicine and accused of fraud. But that hasn't stopped thousands of people from refusing to vaccinate their children out of fear that they could become autistic.

Mnookin warns of grave consequences. Recent outbreaks of measles, whooping cough, and other preventable infections have sickened thousands of children and killed more than a dozen in the United States. Vaccine rates are falling below the level needed to prevent an outbreak in a growing number of communities, including ones with wealthy, educated populations.

Last week, Mnookin spoke with ScienceInsider about why.

Q: There's a perception that vaccine refusal is especially common among affluent, well-educated, politically liberal parents—is there any truth to that?

S.M.: It's dangerous to make broad generalizations about a group, but anecdotally and from the overall data that's been collected it seems to be people who are very actively involved in every possible decision regarding their children's lives. I think it relates to a desire to take uncertainty out of the equation. And autism represents such an unknown. We still don't know what causes it and we still don't have good answers for how to treat it. So I think that fear really resonates.

Also I think there's a fair amount of entitlement. Not vaccinating your child is basically saying I deserve to rely on the herd immunity that exists in a population. At the most basic level it's saying I believe vaccines are potentially harmful, and I want other people to vaccinate so I don't have to. And for people to hide under this and say, "Oh, it's just a personal decision," it's being dishonest. It's a personal decision in the way drunk driving is a personal decision. It has the potential to affect everyone around you.

Q: But why liberals?

S.M.: I think it taps into the organic natural movement in a lot of ways.

I talked to a public health official and asked him what's the best way to anticipate where there might be higher than normal rates of vaccine noncompliance, and he said take a map and put a pin wherever there's a Whole Foods. I sort of laughed, and he said, "No, really, I'm not joking." It's those communities with the Prius driving, composting, organic food-eating people...

"Entitlement." That's so disgusting, but then regressive leftism is disgusting.

More.

And ICYMI, "Affluent Leftists Dominate the Ranks of Anti-Vaxxers, Overwhelmingly Voted for Obama."