Islamic State Is Modern Islam

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine, "There Is No Modern Islam":

Like math and the Midwest, ISIS confuses progressives. It’s not hard to confuse a group of people who never figured out that if you borrow 18 trillion dollars, you’re going to have to pay it back. But ISIS is especially confusing to a demographic whose entire ideology is being on the right side of history.

Raised to believe that history inevitably trended toward diversity in catalog models, fusion restaurants and gay marriage, the Arab Spring led them on by promising that the Middle East would be just like Europe and then ISIS tore up their Lonely Planet guidebook to Syria and chopped off their heads.

But ISIS also believes that it’s on the right side of history. Its history is the Koran. The right side of its history is what Iraq and Syria look like today. It’s also how parts of Europe are starting to look.

Progressive politicians and pundits trying to cope with ISIS lapse into a shrill incoherence that has nothing to do with their outrage at its atrocities and a lot to do with their sheer incomprehension. Terms like “apocalyptic nihilism” get thrown around as if heavy metal were beginning to make a comeback.

Those few analysts who admit that the Islamic State might be a just a little Islamic emphasize that it’s a medieval throwback, as if there were some modern version of Islam to compare it to.

Journalists trying to make sense of ISIS demanding Jizya payments and taking slaves ought to remember that these aren’t medieval behaviors in the Middle East. Not unless medieval means the 19th century. And that’s spotting them a whole century. Saudi Arabia only abolished slavery in 1962 under pressure from the United States. Its labor market and that of fellow Petrojihadi kingdoms like Kuwait and Qatar are based on arrangements that look a lot like temporary slavery… for those foreigners who survive.

Non-Muslims paid Jizya to Muslim rulers until very recently. Here is what it looked like in nineteenth century Morocco from the account of James Riley, an American shipwrecked sea captain.

“The Mohammedan scrivener appointed to receive it took it from them, hitting each one a smart blow with his fist on his bare forehead, by way of receipt for his money, at which the Jews said, ‘Thank you, my lord.’”

Those Jews who could not pay were flogged and imprisoned until they converted to Islam. An account from 1894 is similar, except that the blows were delivered to the back of the neck. Only French colonialism finally put a stop to this practice as well as many other brutal Islamic Supremacist laws.

Morocco was one of the Arab countries where Jews were treated reasonably well by the standards of the Muslim world. It’s one of the few Arab countries to still retain a Jewish population. When ISIS demands Jizya from non-Muslims, it’s not reviving some controversial medieval behavior. It’s doing what even “moderate” Muslim countries were doing until European guns and warships made them stop.

If the French hadn’t intervened, the same ugly scene would have gone on playing out in Morocco. If the United States hadn’t intervened, the Saudis would still openly keep slaves.

Islam never became enlightened. It never stopped being ‘medieval’. Whatever enlightenment it received was imposed on it by European colonialism. It’s a second-hand enlightenment that never went under the skin.

ISIS isn’t just seventh century Islam. It’s also much more recent than that. It’s Islam before the French and the English came. It’s what the Muslim world was like before it was forced to have presidents and constitutions, before it was forced to at least pay lip service to the alien notion of equal rights for all.

The media reported the burning of the Jordanian pilot as if it were some horrifying and unprecedented aberration. But Muslim heretics, as well as Jews and Christians accused of blasphemy, were burned alive for their crimes against Islam. Numerous accounts of this remain, not from the seventh century, but from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Those who weren’t burned, might be beheaded.

These were not the practices of some apocalyptic death cult. They were the Islamic law in the “cosmopolitan” parts of North Africa. The only reason they aren’t the law now is that the French left behind some of their own laws.

Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia that were never truly colonized still behead men and women for “witchcraft and sorcery.” Not in the seventh century or even in the nineteenth century. Last year.

The problem isn’t that ISIS is ‘medieval’. The problem is that Islam is...

More.

Democrat Tulsi Gabbard Says Obama is 'Misidentifying' the Enemy

I expect Rep. Gabbard to switch parties if she keeps up this line of criticism much longer. Certainly, Obama's not going to all-of-a-sudden start calling the terrorists by their real, Islamic names.

Oregon's Kate Brown Sworn In as First Bisexual Governor in U.S.

Well, as they say, Obama's the first homosexual president (and thus bisexual, considering Mooch), so I don't think this is as dramatic as it sounds.

At LAT, "Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, first bisexual governor in U.S., stresses ethics."

Analysis of U.S. Policy Toward Islamic State

Last night, at CBS Evening News:

Obama Changed His Party, Not the Country

Well, good thing, about not changing the country that is.

From Josh Kraushaar, at National Journal:

As a presidential candidate, President Obama expressed his desire to "change the trajectory of America" along the lines of Ronald Reagan, rebuking the legacy of Bill Clinton's pragmatic presidency in the process. Now that his own presidency is winding down, Obama is finding that his main legacy is only half-achieved. He has indeed transformed the Democratic party to his liking, but failed to get anyone else to follow suit.

At the same time, there's no doubt he's successfully pushed Democrats to adopt his favored policies with minimal dissent—and that will have lasting consequences for many elections to come. Despite uneven personal relations with his own party in Congress, there have been very few instances when his party's members have split from his governing course, even on issues where the politics would dictate they should.

That's the consequence of being the most polarizing president in history, according to Gallup's latest polling analysis. Obama maintains strong support from his core supporters, even as Republicans have entirely abandoned him and independents have followed suit. Gallup found 79 percent of Democrats still backing him, even with a 42.6 percent average approval rating in his sixth year in office. That unusually large disconnect has emboldened the president to push forward on controversial issues that few other Democrats would touch, thanks to unyielding support from his base.

The recent debate over the Iranian nuclear threat and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's scheduled speech to Congress on this issue is a perfect example of this new Democratic dynamic. The Democratic party has long been strongly supportive of Israel, but thanks to Obama's pursuit of a deal with Iran, relations between this White House and Israel have hit historic lows. Democrats are now presented with an uncomfortable choice: Back Obama and his aggressive diplomatic push with Iran, or support the Israeli prime minister's speech to Congress raising questions about Iran's intentions.

In the past, the invitation of the Israeli prime minister to speak wouldn't have been nearly as controversial—even so close to an election. Obama knows that. And he's using this episode and his leverage as president to get his rank-and-file members to be less instinctively supportive of the Jewish state. It's having some effect: Most African-American Democrats and many progressive members of the party—Obama's base—have said they're not attending. Even several Jewish Democratic members haven't committed to doing so.

This is what Obama's former chief strategist David Axelrod meant when he wrote about the president's desire to have so-called "Bulworth moments" after being reelected in his new book. Translated into political terms, it means pushing his party to be more outspoken on sensitive issues, even when they may not be comfortable doing so. Challenging Israel was one of the president's top second term priorities, according to Axelrod. The worsening relationship between this administration and Israel was as much the president's preconceived plan as the result of a protocol breach...

More.

A Bloody Retreat from Debaltseve as Ukrainian Forces Suddenly Withdraw

At the New York Times:

ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces fought their way out of the embattled town of Debaltseve in the early hours of Wednesday, choosing a risky overnight breakout rather than surrender as they abandoned the town to Russian-backed militants.

President Petro O. Poroshenko said in a televised statement that he had ordered the retreat from Debaltseve, a strategic transportation hub where intense fighting raged in recent days despite a cease-fire agreement signed last week in Minsk, Belarus.

Mr. Poroshenko sought to cast the retreat in a positive light, but the loss of the town was clearly a devastating setback for the army at the hands of the separatists. Still, by avoiding capture, the soldiers who made it out also avoided handing the rebels a powerful bargaining chip.

Separatist leaders have insisted that the cease-fire agreement did not apply to Debaltseve, but no exceptions were mentioned when the deal was announced in Minsk.

Mr. Poroshenko’s decision, and his earlier refusal to hand over the town during the cease-fire talks, cost the Ukrainian army an unknown number of casualties. As the scale of the nighttime fighting around the town comes into focus, those decisions could prove contentious in Ukraine.

In a post on Twitter and in the televised statement from an airfield in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, before leaving to visit the front line, Mr. Poroshenko called the withdrawal “planned and organized” and said Ukrainian troops had accomplished their mission.

As many as 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers were said to be in Debaltseve before the withdrawal. It was unclear on Wednesday how many survived and avoided capture. Mr. Poroshenko said 80 percent of the army’s units had left.

By midday on Wednesday, limping and exhausted soldiers were showing up on the Ukrainian side of the front lines in the conflict, describing a harrowing ordeal that began with a surprise 1 a.m. order to retreat.

“Many trucks left, and only a few arrived,” said one soldier, who offered only his rank (sergeant) and his given name (Volodomyr) as he knelt on the sidewalk smoking. “A third of us made it, at most,” the soldier said.

Others said that a majority, at least, of the soldiers who set off from the town in a column of about 100 trucks had managed to escape the encirclement, many of them straggling out on foot after their vehicles were blown up.

The order to retreat was kept secret until the last minute, and soldiers were told to prepare in 10 minutes and pile into the beds of troop transport trucks, according to Albert Sardaryen, a 22-year-old medic who made the journey...

More.

And at the Washington Post, "Ukraine calls for international peacekeepers."

President Obama Speaks at the Summit on Countering Violent Extremism

Oh boy. It's terrible.

Here, at the White House YouTube page.

And snippets at AP, "Obama: 'We Are Not at War With Islam'."

Obviously, Obama's problem is that Islamic State is not pushing "a twisted interpretation of religion." Indeed, as Graeme Wood writes at the cover story at the latest Atlantic:

The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.

We can agree that there are different interpretations of Islam, but it's simply absurd to argue that Islamic State --- or al-Qaeda itself --- is practicing a "twisted interpretation."

And if you listen long enough at the video, you'll see that Obama eventually gets to the heart of the leftist-collectivist agenda for supposedly "countering violent extremism": purportedly combating the alleged "legitimate grievances" of Islamists with ever-expanding big-government programs. Recall that this initiative is predicated on lies: "The 'Jobs for Jihad Delinquents' Program."


Anyway, FWIW, there's more at the Los Angeles Times, "Obama calls for global effort against spread of extremist ideas."

Here's Obama's Op-Ed at Today's L.A. Times

See, "President Obama: Our fight against violent extremism."

I think the harsh criticism of the administration's political correctness --- especially the president's refusal to mention "Islamic terrorism" --- is having an effect.

That said, it's hard to scrape off the PC blather when it's been piled on so thick. I don't think, for example, that terrorists "betray Islam," as is claimed at the op-ed. But at least the piece mentions that it was Egyptian Christians who were beheaded last weekend.

More at Memeorandum.

And see especially, Katie Pavlich, at Town Hall, "Obama: Extremists Have 'Legitimate Grievances'."

PREVIOUSLY: "The 'Jobs for Jihad Delinquents' Program," and "Ralph Peters: Until Islam Is Held to the Same Standards as Other Religions, Terrorism Wins."

Ralph Peters: Until Islam Is Held to the Same Standards as Other Religions, Terrorism Wins

Click through to watch.

An awesome interview, at Right Wing News.

The 'Jobs for Jihad Delinquents' Program

Michelle Malkin just destroys the left's literally suicidal, terror-enabling political correctness.

Don't miss a word, at the blog.

ISIS and Obama's Summit on Countering Violent Extremism

At the Wall Street Journal, "The Copts and Kurds Know the Threat is More Than 'Violent Extremism'":

The White House hosts its Summit on Countering Violent Extremism this week, and Islamic State seems not to understand it wasn’t invited. The event is supposed to showcase President Obama ’s leadership against a threat he refuses to identify by name, but the entire world has been watching Islamist jihadists advertise the specific threat across a brutal weekend.

In Iraq Islamic State paraded in cages through the city of Kirkuk 17 captured Kurdish fighters whom it presumably plans to burn alive as it recently did a caged Jordanian fighter pilot. Kirkuk is on the crossroads of Kurdish and Sunni Iraq, and ISIS didn’t hold any of the crucial oil hub when Mr. Obama unveiled his anti-ISIS strategy in September. The Kurds are on the front lines against Islamic State, but the Obama Administration has been wary of sending them significant arms lest it offend the government in Baghdad that can’t or won’t protect the Kurds.

Meanwhile, the rising Libyan branch of Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians. The Copts were kidnapped in Libya and killed as “A Message Signed With Blood To the Nation Of the Cross,” according to the video caption.

“Oh people, recently you have seen us on the hills of Al-Sham and Dabiq’s plain, chopping off the heads that have been carrying the cross for a long time, and today, we are on the south of Rome, on the land of Islam, Libya, sending another message,” declared a masked ISIS member.

These videos are intended to show a religious movement that is on the march, the vanguard of history. This helps win converts and intimidate Muslims who might otherwise resist. The longer Islamic State appears to be advancing despite Mr. Obama’s promise to “degrade and destroy” it, the wider its appeal becomes.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi responded to the murder of the Copts with bombing raids against ISIS bases in Libya, and he urged the U.S. coalition to expand its operations to North Africa. Like the Kurds and King Abdullah in Jordan, Egypt knows the real threat and understands the need to step up the fight against Islamic State...

Marie Harf Breaks the Internet

Here's the obligatory State Department spokeswoman of the day post.

At Right Wing News, "[VIDEO] “We CANNOT win this war by killing them” – State Dept. Spox on ISIS."

And at Twitchy, "Did Marie Harf just say jobs will defeat ISIS? [Hint: Yes … and let the mocking begin!]." (Via Memeorandum.)

Also, "‘What are you talking about?’ Marie Harf goes on the defensive — and off the rails."

Daniel Flynn, Why the Left Hates America

Shop for books!

Here's Daniel Flynn's, Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness.

Plus, Shop Amazon Fashion - Men's Watches.

Portraits of Conflict in Ukraine

At the Boston Globe's Big Picture blog.

Sea Lion Hitches Ride on Family's Kayak at Stearns Wharf, Santa Barbara

What a great story, from KEYT Santa Barabara:

Danes Expect More Attacks as Islamic Cells Escalate Jihad

Maybe if they keep wishing harder the jihad threat will go away.

At the Washington Post, "Danes wary of more attacks as gangs turn to extremism":

COPENHAGEN — With baseball caps pulled low over their eyes and scarves wrapped tightly around their mouths, the young men huddled at sundown to pay tribute to a killer.

Dozens had come to the scene where their “brother” was shot dead by police after he sprayed gunfire outside a cafe and a synagogue. Now they would give him a proper — and defiantly public — send-off: quiet prayers, followed by repeated chants of “Allahu Akbar” and the raised-index-finger salute of the Islamic State.

“May Allah show you grace,” read the handwritten sign they taped to the bullet-scarred apartment building where 22-year-old Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein fell. “Rest in peace, Captain.”

Hours later, an estimated 30,000 Danes held torches to the freezing Baltic wind in their own Monday evening commemoration — this one for Hussein’s victims. Swaying to the rhythm of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” they vowed not to bend to the impulse that drove the gunman to take two lives over the weekend in the country’s first fatal terrorist attack in three decades.

“When violence and hatred hits Denmark, the answer is community and democracy,” Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt told the solemn crowd.

But the earlier, far smaller gathering offered ominous hints of just how long and difficult this country’s struggle with violent extremism may prove to be.

Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard told the BBC that the weekend’s attacks were believed to be the work of a “lone wolf,” a troubled young man who had already had multiple run-ins with the law and who had not acted in concert with a broader terrorist cell.

But authorities said Hussein was part of a network — a criminal gang called the Brothas that has traditionally traded in drugs and theft but whose members have lately been lured by radical Islam.

Like Hussein, many are the sons of Middle Eastern immigrants who have struggled to find a place in Denmark. These young men turn to the bonds of gang life and religion to forge their identities.

“The Brothas is dominated by young men without an education who feel they are not accepted in society,” said Aydin Soei, author of “Angry Young Men,” a book about gangs and inner-city life in Copenhagen. “They are not good Muslims and they know it. But Islam is part of their identity. They have a group identity of everyone being against them and being underdogs. In that identity, Islam means something.”

Welcome to Copenhagestan.

More.

Obama White House Refuses to Identify Egyptian Beheading Victims as Christian

Is there a moral fiber left in this government? Indeed, in this country?

It's going to take more than a few conservatives on the right to get something to register here. The terrorists announced that they would take "Rome." Their ultimate target is the "Christian nation" of America.

Here's the statement, "Statement by the Press Secretary on the Murder of Egyptian Citizens" (at Memeorandum).



And at Atlas Shrugs, "White House Refuses to Call 21 BEHEADING Victims Christians while Egypt launches airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Libya for savage beheading of Christians killed for their faith."

Teenager Kills Himself While Playing Russian Roulette in Torrance

At ABC 7 Los Angeles, "Teen Shoots Self in Head While Playing Russian Roulette in Torrance."

And at KTLA 5 Los Angeles, "Teen Dies While Playing Russian Roulette in Torrance Sheriff’s Department."

"Can someone explain to me how Verónica Bayetti Flores's agenda of promoting homosexuality among minority youth is about 'ending white supremacy' by beginning a 'revolution' against 'the colonial project'?..."

Yeah, please?

At the Other McCain, "‘Queer Youth of Color’."

Fabulous February Weather in Southern California

It's been just spectacular this Valentine's weekend.

Check this report from down south, at ABC News 10 San Diego:



And for the L.A./O.C. area, check ABC 7 Los Angeles.

Anti-Semitic Graffiti Sprayed on Dozens of Wisconsin Homes (VIDEO)

Well, it's Madison, one of the most leftist "progressive" cities in the country.

Thus no surprise that leftist storm-troopers are laying the foundations for a progressive Kristallnacht.

At Truth Revolt, "Dozens of Wisconsin Homes Vandalized with Anti-Semitic Graffiti":

"F*** Jews," swastikas among "troubling" messages painted on 30 homes.

More at Gateway Pundit, "Thirty Madison, Wisconsin Homes Spray-painted with Anti-Semitic Slurs."

Un-Retouched Cindy Crawford Photo Sparks Body-Image Controversy

She looks fine.

My goodness the woman's almost 50 and still smokin' the runways like pro.

Video at ABC News, "The photo from a 2013 Marie Claire Mexico cover went viral after British journalist Charlene White shared it on Twitter."

And at D-Listed, "A SANS Photoshopped Picture pf Cindy Crawford Leaked onto the Internet."

Walking Paris as a Jew

From Paula Stern, at A Soldier's Mother, "Why Jews Don't Belong in France."



Also, "Are You Alone?":

As I rode the train to work this morning, I saw the first mention of an attack in front of a synagogue in Copenhagen...first report said two policemen were shot (arm and leg) and one civilian was injured. Then, it was clarified that he was shot in the head; then updated again to say that he had died. Soon it was announced that he was the guard outside a synagogue where inside Jewish families were celebrating the coming of age of a young man.

That child now man will forever live with the fact that the guard who stood before his family and friends, sacrificed all for...for...and that's where I get stuck.

Certainly, Dan Uzan is a hero today, as all our security guards here in Israel are. In the simplest terms, he sacrificed his life to save the lives of many others, including many children. Jews, like him. Unsuspecting that today a simple event would be turned into tragedy.

I don't want to take anything away from his sacrifice and yet, like the Jews who died in France, it is so wrong. Wrong place, wrong time, but most of all, in the wrong country...defending what should not need to be defended. There are lines you draw and lines you don't. If the human body cannot live on Mars, you don't go there - at least not to live. We all need home and so we defend it but if someone offers you something beyond home for which the price is too high, you don't buy it, you don't go there.

What is in Copenhagen? Paris? London? Madison, Wisconsin?

If they are desecrating graves with swastikas, beating Jews, taking hostages and murdering people...in places that are not our own and cannot be defended...it is time to leave. I know it sounds so simple...but...did you ever consider the fact that it really might be?...

PREVIOUSLY: "France Rushes to Reassure French Jews After Cemetery Desecrated."

ADDED: At Israel Matzav, "A Jew walking in the street of Paris, 2015."

France Rushes to Reassure French Jews After Cemetery Desecrated

Good luck with that.

Jews should take Netanyahu's advice and get the hell out of Gaul.

At WSJ, "Prime Minister Calls on Country to Unite Against ‘Islamo-Fascism’":

PARIS—France’s top leaders rushed Monday to reassure the country’s Jews about their safety after a Jewish graveyard in eastern France was desecrated and a gunman in Copenhagen targeted a synagogue, a month after deadly attacks in Paris.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls called for France to unite against “Islamo-fascism,” and reaffirmed his call for French Jews to stay in France, even amid encouragement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for European Jews to move to Israel.

“France is injured as you are and France doesn't want you to leave,” Mr. Valls told French radio, in what he described as a message to French Jews. “France once again expresses its love for you, its support and solidarity.”

France is grappling with a growing sense of insecurity among its Jewish community, who feel threatened by a rise of anti-Semitic attacks.

The graveyard vandalism left around 300 out of 400 tombstones knocked down and spray-painted in Sarre-Union, a town near the French-German border. The incident came just over a month after a gunman killed four Jews in a kosher supermarket in Paris, part of a three-day spree of violence that left 17 people dead. Over the weekend, Jewish fears were further fanned when a lone gunman in Copenhagen killed a 37 year-old Jewish man who was guarding the door of a bat mitzvah ceremony in a parish hall.

Danish police said they shot and killed the gunman, a day after he also attacked a seminar on free speech that featured a Swedish cartoonist who has lampooned Islam.

Since the January attacks, France has tightened security at Jewish institutions, posting police and soldiers outside Jewish schools, community centers and places of worship. The community, which is already on edge, was further rattled after a man wielding a knife attacked soldiers guarding a Jewish center in the southern French city of Nice earlier this month.

France has the world’s third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the U.S., according to most estimates, but many French Jews have been moving to Israel, citing fears about their security at home.

Anti-Semitic attacks have been on the rise in France. In 2013, the latest year for which data have been compiled, there were 423 reported anti-Semitic incidents in France, compared with 82 in 1999, according to the Jewish Community Security Service, a body that compiles data based on police reports.

Around 6,900 French Jews moved to Israel in 2014, up from 3,300, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel, an Israeli organization that oversees the immigration process...

Egypt Launches Airstrikes After Islamic State Posts Beheading Video

At USA Today, "Egypt launches airstrikes against ISIL in Libya":

Egypt launched airstrikes against Islamic State targets in neighboring Libya on Monday, hours after militants there released a video purporting to show the mass beheading of Egyptian Christian hostages.

A spokesman for the Armed Forces General Command announced the strikes on state radio, and said they were "to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers," the Associated Press reported.

The statement said the warplanes targeted weapons caches and training camps before returning safely. "Let those far and near know that Egyptians have a shield that protects them," it said.

It marks the first time Cairo has publicly acknowledged taking military action in Libya, where extremist groups seen as a threat to both countries have taken root in recent years.

A spokesman for Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni told the BBC that Egyptian jets had taken part in coordinated airstrikes on the militant-held city of Derna. Libya's air force commander, Saqr al-Joroushi, told Egyptian state TV that about 50 militants were killed.

Derna was taken over by an Islamic State affiliate last year.

Two Libyan security officials said civilians, including three children and two women, were killed in the strikes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Meanwhile, Bahrain said it deployed fighter planes to Jordan, a day after it announced plans to send troops to the kingdom.

Bahrain and Jordan are part of the U.S.-led coalition carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State, also known as ISIL and ISIS.

On Sunday, a video purporting to show the mass beheading of the hostages by militants in Libya claiming loyalty to ISIL was posted on social media. On Twitter, several accounts distributed links to the video carrying the title, "A Message Signed With Blood To The Nation Of The Cross."

Militants in Libya had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians hostage for weeks, threatening them with death. The makers of the video identify themselves as the Tripoli Province of the Islamic State group — the Islamic militant group that controls about a third of Syria and Iraq.

The video shows a line of men dressed in orange jumpsuits forced onto their knees and beheaded.

The Egyptian government and the Coptic Church based in Egypt both declared the video authentic. Egypt banned all travel to Libya by its citizens in response.

Obama's Party Line: Radical Islam Denial

From Jamie Kirchick, at the Daily Beast, "After the president called the attack on a Jewish deli in Paris ‘random’ instead of anti-Semitic, a White House spokesman doubled down. Then a State Department spokeswoman tripled down. At that point, it’s not a gaffe. It’s a plan":

In the wake of the uproar – mostly from conservatives – over their performances today, both Earnest and Psaki tried walking back their statements denying the anti-Semitic nature of the Paris attacks on Twitter. It is too late. The mask has slipped, and the face lurking behind it isn’t pretty.

We have always been clear that the attack on the kosher grocery store was an anti-semitic attack that took the lives of innocent people.

— Jen Psaki (@statedeptspox) February 10, 2015

Truly diabolical.

See also, "Barack Obama: Mainstreaming Jew-Hatred in America."

Missed Chances Doomed #ISIS Captives

At the Daily Beast, "ISIS hostages were held in same place for months, creating a wide window for rescue that the U.S. failed to exploit, according to security sources."

Well, considering the Obama White House's alacrity, this is a real surprise.

Hailey Clauson Swimsuit Body Paint

She's a rookie.

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.

Hailey Clauson is really bubbly, heh. https://t.co/ImS2Rq3Cb8 #SportsIllustratedSwimsuit

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 16, 2015

Europe's New Terrorist Normal

At the Wall Street Journal, "Islamist Attacks Are Becoming Routine on the Continent":

Islamist violence visited Denmark twice on the weekend, underscoring Europe’s new terrorist normal. Homegrown or immigrant Muslim terrorists targeting innocents and the Western way of life are becoming a feature of Continental life.

The alleged assailant didn’t choose his victims at random. First he fired dozens of rounds at a cafe in Copenhagen during a debate on free speech, killing one and wounding three. Police believe the same man attacked a synagogue hours later, killing a Jewish civilian guard and maiming two officers. Early Sunday police killed the man they believe committed both attacks. Witnesses heard him cry “Allahu Akbar” during the cafe assault.

Among those attending the debate at the Krudttoenden cafe was Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has received death threats and an al Qaeda bounty since the 2007 publication of a cartoon he drew that mocked Muhammad. A failed suicide bomber attacking downtown Stockholm in 2010 mentioned Mr. Vilks’s name in an email explaining his motives, and later that year the cartoonist’s home was the target of arson. He lives under police protection.

Denmark is also home to Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that set off days of Muslim rage world-wide in 2005 by publishing Muhammad cartoons. Five suspected terrorists were arrested in 2010 and four later convicted for plotting to murder Jyllands-Posten staffers, and an ax-wielding Somali tried but failed to murder one of the newspaper’s cartoonists at his home.

The 8,000-strong Danish Jewish community has also been besieged by anti-Semitism from the country’s Muslim quarters. In 2012 Israel’s Ambassador to Denmark warned visiting Israelis not to wear kippahs and other visible religious symbols.

Elite hostility to Israel amplifies street-level anti-Semitism. The Danish government has disbursed millions of kroner to anti-Israel activists and agitprop campaigns in recent years, according to NGO Monitor, an Israeli civil-society organization. Perhaps Danish officials will now spend less time henpecking Jerusalem about efforts to prevent terrorism and devote more energy to protecting their own citizens from the same forces.

They might look to France, where since the attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket, the government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls has ramped up counterterror powers...

France? Meh. At least Valls is trying. Hollande couldn't give a crap.

Carrier Air Wing 17 Flight Operations Aboard Aircraft Carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70)

A reminder that the U.S. is indeed doing something to degrade Islamic State. But of course current force levels and bombing schedules are not near enough to defeat the jihadists.

'Saturday Night Live' Turns 40

At LAT, "At 40, 'Saturday Night Live' is still in its prime."

Don't miss the photos, especially of the 1970s.

'SI: The Making of Swimsuit 2015' — On Travel Channel Sunday February 15

It's on tonight.

See Sports Illustrated, "Catch 'SI: The Making of Swimsuit 2015' on The Travel Channel TONIGHT!"

And at the Travel Channel, "About the Show":

Each of the 5 specials take viewers on location and behind the scenes where Sports Illustrated cameras capture candid moments of the world's most beautiful women amidst the world’s most beautiful landscapes.

It's on Cox Cable Channel 53 in Irvine. Check it out!

Here's Charlotte McKinney to Take Your Mind Off Global Jihad

Perhaps it's time for a Rule 5 break.

At Egotastic!, "Charlotte McKinney Never Before Seen Lingerie Photos, Oh, Yes."

BONUS: "Maitland Ward Chesty Goodness Wishes Egotastic! Readers a Happy Valentine’s."

Nothing 'Random' About Copenhagen Attacks

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary:

Many media accounts are referring to last night’s shootings in Copenhagen as a “copycat” episode in which the perpetrator sought to emulate the atrocities committed by Islamists last month in Paris. But whether or not the Copenhagen shooter was specifically motivated by the ones who committed the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices and the Hyper Cacher market, this crime must be understood as being one more example of the twin trends of Islamist violence and anti-Semitism that have spread across Europe. Even more importantly, it demonstrates the folly of the mindset of the Obama administration that continues to be resolute in its unwillingness to confront the sources of terrorism and the reality of its role in violent Jew-hatred.

The Copenhagen shootings provide important context for the interview of President Obama published last week in Vox. In it, he acknowledged that it was legitimate for people to be concerned about terrorism, but he spoke of it as a secondary concern that gained headlines merely because of the lurid nature of the crimes committed by those involved. Likening his job to that of a “big city mayor” who needs to keep crime rates low, he spoke of terrorism as merely one more problem on his plate and not the most serious one. Obama not only refuses to acknowledge that the spread of ISIS in the Middle East is fueled by a form of religious fundamentalism that has strong support in the Muslim world; he also quite deliberately refused to label what happened in Paris last month an act of anti-Semitism, a stand that was echoed by the press spokespersons for both the White House and the State Department last week.

I wrote last week that, contrary to Obama, there was nothing “random” about an attack on a kosher market in Paris: the assailants were clearly seeking out a place where they could kill Jews and succeeded in that respect. The same is true of the Copenhagen shooter’s decision to attack a synagogue after spraying bullets at a café where a cartoonist who had drawn images of the Prophet Muhammad was speaking. One person was killed at the café and a Jewish voluntary security guard at the synagogue (who was there protecting the celebrants at a bat mitzvah being held at the time).

The Copenhagen attacks are one more reminder that the debate about whether there is such a thing as Islamist terrorism or if attacks on Jews are “random” isn’t about semantics. The refusal to address the religious sources of terrorism—a point on which some Arab leaders have begun to be heard—inevitably renders American efforts to do something about the problem ineffective. Just as importantly, denying the connection between this form of Islam and anti-Semitism seems to be causing the administration to also refuse to acknowledge that Jews in Europe are being targeted because of their identity and not simply due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If the U.S. were to begin to tell the truth about the Islamist roots of terror and the connection with anti-Semitism, that might be the start of a re-examination of mistaken policies that have, albeit unwittingly, led to the rise of ISIS as well as a determination to retreat from the Middle East...

More.

And see Tom Gross, at the Weekly Standard, "Nothing Random Here":

Yesterday evening’s Copenhagen synagogue shooting is yet another attack on Jews as Jews -- just as we have witnessed such attacks at the Toulouse Jewish primary school, the Brussels Jewish museum, the Paris kosher supermarket, the firebombing of the synagogue in the German city of Wuppertal, and at many other places in recent years, from the Jewish communal centres in Mumbai and Casablanca, to the ancient synagogues in Istanbul and Jerba.

Yet only last week President Obama and his spokespeople were suggesting that it was just some kind of “random” accident that Jews were being killed.

The Obama team has consistently demonstrated a willful lack of understanding about the nature of Islamism, about anti-Semitism, and about the intentions of the Islamic revolutionary government in Iran. They seem more interested in disparaging the prime minister of America’s ally Israel than in preventing the regime in Tehran going nuclear – a regime which has already de facto taken control of large swathes of Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon. Its terrorist actions outside the Middle East spread to, among other places, Thailand, Bulgaria (where Jewish tourists were blown up in 2012) and Argentina, where 85 people were murdered at the AMIA Jewish centre in Buenos Aires. Only last month an Iranian diplomat in Montevideo was expelled from Uruguay for planting a bomb designed to kill Jews. (This foiled attack was barely reported on outside the Uruguayan and Israeli media.)

As Middle East scholar Bassam Tawil wrote last week: “Does Obama really want his legacy to be, ‘The president who was an even bigger fool than Neville Chamberlain’?”

Part of the Obama team’s attitude, it seems to me, is derived from the misreporting of the New York Times, a paper whose claim to be “the paper of record,” they presumably take seriously.

At the present time, over a dozen hours after other media (such as The Guardian) reported prominently on the specifically anti-Semitic nature of yesterday’s attack in Copenhagen and on the fact there was a Bat Mitzvah going on in the synagogue while it was being attacked (with over 80 people including many children inside), the lengthy report on the New York Times website on the Copenhagen shootings doesn’t mention the word “anti-Semitism” once. Instead New York Times correspondent Steven Erlanger writes in his piece “anti-Muslim sentiment is rising in Europe.”

Nor does the New York Times mention the bat mitzvah. There are not so many Jews in Denmark and not many bat mitzvahs -- it seems the terrorist had done his research carefully. Yet the New York Times website home page says, at the time of writing, that the shooting was “near a synagogue”. It wasn’t near a synagogue. It was at a synagogue. The synagogue was the target. Which is why a Jew guarding the synagogue was shot dead. With the New York Times’ reporting one starts to understand how Obama and his spokespeople could say the kosher attack in Paris was “random” even though the perpetrator – interviewed live on French radio during the attack – proudly boasted that he had come all the way across Paris in order to kill Jews gathering before the sabbath.

(None of this is new, of course. Even during the Holocaust, the New York Times did all it could to avoid mentioning that those being deported to Auschwitz and other camps were being deported because they were Jews.)

One can only imagine how many children might have died had the gunman managed to enter the bat mitzvah celebration yesterday...

Boko Haram Jihadists Attack Chad for First Time (VIDEO)

Meanwhile, in Central Africa.

At Pamela's, "Jihad in Chad: Boko Haram attacks Chad, kills several, burns village."

Egypt's Abdel Fattah al-Sisi Calls for 'Urgent' Talks After Islamic State Beheads 17 Copts

Well, Jordan wasn't dithering after Islamic State torched Moaz al-Kasasbeh.

And now here comes Egypt with freakin' righteous indignation. The terror threat is hitting too close to home in Arab states across the Middle East.

At Al-Arabia, "Sisi calls for urgent security talks after ISIS beheading video."

Sisi bans Egyptians from going to #Libya. pic.twitter.com/vy0ZyNof8G

— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) February 15, 2015

#Sisi: I'm sending foreign minister to New York "#Libya situation is s threat to global security" pic.twitter.com/UsDfZn13JC

— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) February 15, 2015

Sisi: The time is not for "selectivity and double standards" when it comes with dealing with terrorism. pic.twitter.com/PnQubDY80L

— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) February 15, 2015

Netanyahu Urges Europe's Jews to Move to Israel

Watch, at Euronews.

PREVIOUSLY: "Copenhagen Attacks Reignite Debate About Safety of Jews in Europe."

Omar el-Hussein Released from Prison Just Two Weeks Ago — #CopenhagenAttacks

Shoot, forget the rehab.

Just go through the incarceration motions for a week or two, them blam! Back out on the streets!

At Telegraph UK, "Copenhagen suspect 'was released from prison two weeks ago'":

Copenhagen terror attack suspect named as 22-year-old Omar el-Hussein, who 'had violent past'.

Terror returned to Europe at the weekend when a suspected Islamist extremist gunned down two people in separate attacks on a Copenhagen café and a synagogue before being killed by police in a predawn shoot-out on Sunday.

The dead suspect, named on Sunday night as Omar el-Hussein, had reportedly been released from prison two weeks ago after serving a two-year sentence for grievous bodily harm.

In a rampage with parallels to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris five weeks earlier, the 22-year-old Danish-born assailant fired around 40 shots at a free speech debate in an arts café on Saturday afternoon, killing a 55-year-old documentary filmmaker, Finn Norgaard.

After fleeing in a stolen car, the gunman went on to target a girl's bat mitzvah party at Copenhagen's main synagogue at one o'clock on Sunday morning, shooting dead Dan Uzan, 37, an economist at the Danish treasury, who was acting as a volunteer security guard.

The gunman was then later killed after a shoot-out with police at a train station in central Copenhagen. Up to four other people were being held by police on Sunday night following raids across the country.

As with the Charlie Hebdo attackers, the head of the Danish security and intelligence service, Jens Madsen, said on Sunday that the gunman had been identified as a potential threat.

"He was on the radar but he was not known to have travelled to conflict areas like Iraq or Syria," Mr Madsen said. "We cannot yet say anything concrete about the motive ... but we are considering that he might have been inspired by the events in Paris," he told a news conference.

Police traced the killer from CCTV footage from the arts café attack, which showed him abandoning his getaway car, a stolen Volkswagen Polo, and taking a taxi. They questioned the driver, and went to the address in the mainly immigrant area of Norrebro where he had dropped off the suspect.

The gunman had left again by the time police arrived at his home, near the railway station, and went on to attack the synagogue. When he returned around 5am, police tried to apprehend him but shot him dead after he opened fire on them.

In an indication that the gunman may have had accomplices, four people were arrested when a dozen armed police raided an internet café in central Copenhagen. Among the four were a Pakistani and an Arab, according to Danish media reports.

Witnesses at both attacks said further killings were only averted by the swift intervention of the police, who have been on high alert in the Danish capital since the Paris shootings...

Still more.

Copenhagen Attacks Reignite Debate About Safety of Jews in Europe

I don't see why Copenhagen should "reignite" the debate on the safety of the Jews in Europe. It's been barely a month since the Paris attacks.

I mean God, have we forgotten already? Is the West that cynical?

Safety of Jews? What safety?

At the Wall Street Journal, "Netanyahu Invites Jews to Seek Refuge in Israel; Others Call for Increased Effort to Fight Terrorists":

Denmark’s Jewish community was in shock Sunday after a gunman attacked a Copenhagen synagogue, in a weekend of violence that echoed the deadly events in Paris last month and rekindled a debate over the dangers of being a Jew in Europe.

Police said they shot and killed the gunman, who killed a guard and wounded two policemen at the synagogue a day after attacking a seminar on free speech that featured a Swedish cartoonist who has lampooned Islam. One man, a participant in the conference, was killed and three policemen were wounded in the first assault.

At the synagogue, the gunman killed 37-year-old Dan Uzan, who was guarding the door of a bat mitzvah ceremony in a parish hall. None of the reported 80 guests were injured.

A stream of Danes converged on the synagogue to pay their respects to the victims, laying flowers along a stone-and-iron fence.

“Jews have been murdered again on European soil only because they were Jews,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday after the Copenhagen attacks. I would like to tell all European Jews and all Jews wherever they are: ‘Israel is the home of every Jew.’”

Mr. Netanyahu, who had made a similar declaration after the Paris attacks, in which four Jews were killed at a kosher store, said his government would launch a $46 million plan to prepare for “mass immigration” from Europe to Israel.

Several Jewish leaders said the call by the Israeli Prime Minister was ill-timed. “Terror is not a reason to move to Israel,” Jair Melchior, Denmark’s chief rabbi, told the Associated Press, adding he was “disappointed” by Mr. Netanyahu’s comment.

Some said authorities need to do more to protect Jewish communities. European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor called on European authorities to form a pan-European task force with legal authority and financial resources dedicated to taking the battle to the radical Islamist enclaves, hunting terrorists down before they act.

“The threats against Jews and the inability of governments to defend them are forcing Jews out of Europe,” Mr. Kantor said. “Intelligence-gathering, surveillance and protection must be amassed and shared by all nations and terrorists need to be hunted down before they act. Now is the time for all EU member states to act swiftly and effectively.”

About 8,000 Jews live in Denmark, a nation of 5.7 million, according the European Jewish Congress...

More.

Islamic State Video Shows 17 Kurdish Fighters in Caged Procession 'to be burned alive...'

At London's Daily Mail, "Paraded in cages 'to be burned alive' like Jordanian pilot: ISIS releases video claiming to show 17 Kurdish fighters in humiliating procession through Iraqi city."

Video Purports to Show Copenhagen Jihad Suspect Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein Lying Dead in Street

Via Live Leak, "Footage of Copenhagen gunman lying dead in the streets."

PREVIOUSLY: "Copenhagen Jihad Suspect Identified as 22-Year-Old Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein."

Denmark's 'Soft Touch' on Terrorism: Danish Jihadis Returning from Syria Offered Rehabilitation for 'Trauma'

At London's Daily Mail, "PICTURED: Danish lone wolf 'jihadi' who was gunned down by police in dramatic standoff after Copenhagen terror shootings which killed film director and Jewish security guard":

Rather than face terrorism charges, Danish jihadis who return to the European country from Syria are offered rehabilitation.

Unlike in Britain, where a handful of terrorism suspects have been detained after flying into the UK from Turkey, the Danish government enrols citizens in a rehabilitation programme.

More Danes travelled to Syria last year per head of population than any other European country except from Belgium.

Thirty per cent hailed from Aarhus, the country's second largest city, where the rehabilitation programme was orchestrated.

Everyone who returns from war-torn countries is screened and offered treatment for shrapnel wounds as well as psychiatric care for trauma.

The families of those already in Syria are also given access to Skype.

It was intended for those who travelled to the Middle East with the intention of helping civilians oppressed by the Assad regime.
Some of those enrolled in the programme said they would have turned against the government if treated as a criminal.

Critics however fear the system, allegedly designed in anticipation of the breakdown of ISIS, will be abused.

Hmm...

Yeah, that might happen. Rehab sounds a lot better than life in prison, you know...

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



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

Also at Lonely Con, "Saturday Funnies," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Round Up..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Tongue Tied."

Copenhagen Jihad Suspect Identified as 22-Year-Old Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein

Local television reports have identified the suspect. Still awaiting police confirmation.

At Telegraph UK, "Danish television has named the suspect as Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein. This has not been confirmed by the police."

And at the Guardian UK, "Local media have named the suspect in the shootings as 22-year-old Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein. Police have not confirmed the reports. Danish national broadcasters TV 2 and DR named the man, with the latter - along with newspaper Ekstra Bladet - reporting that he had recently been released from prison."

Also at the Times of Israel, "Suspected Copenhagen attacker named as Omar El-Hussein."

Fox News Poll: 73 Percent Say Obama Doesn’t Have Clear Strategy to Defeat Islamic State

Here's the report, at Fox.

And from Bill O'Reilly's talking points memo, "Are you safe?"

Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt: 'This is not a war between Islam and the West...'

Okay.

Riiiiight. Keep telling yourself that.

At Jihad Watch. "“We feel certain now that it was a politically motivated attack, and thereby it was a terrorist attack,” said Thorning-Schmidt...":

But actually, it was a religiously motivated attack. Islam is the only belief-system that mandates violence against those who commit the crime of drawing cartoons of Muhammad and those who commit the crime of being Jews. Thorning-Schmidt’s denial of manifest reality only aids and abets the advancing jihad.

Below, Thorning-Schmidt lays flowers at the Copenhagen synagogue, saying Denmark "will do everything" to protect the Jewish community. Yeah. Riiiiight.

Copenhagen Shooter Identified as 22-Year-Old Born and Raised in Denmark

Check for updates at Telegraph UK.

Police have not released the name of the perp.

More at the Guardian UK, "Copenhagen shootings: suspect was 'known to authorities' – live updates."

Netanyahu Address Divides Democrats, Because They Hate Israel

Netanyahu should be uniting the Democrats, but then, they're the party of progressive anti-Semitism, so this is no surprise.

At LAT, "Netanyahu's U.S. speech drives a wedge between Democrats, Israel":

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned address to Congress next month is driving an uncomfortable and rarely seen wedge between congressional Democrats and Israel — and that may have been exactly what House Speaker John A. Boehner and other Republicans intended.

For many Democrats, and especially the more than two dozen Jewish members of Congress, Boehner's decision to invite Netanyahu to speak about Iran's nuclear program — despite objections from the White House — is forcing them to choose between their president and their long-standing support for Israel.

On Thursday, Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) became the third Jewish Democrat to say he would not attend the planned joint session speech, a surprising expression of protest in contrast to the usual outpouring of support and standing ovations U.S. lawmakers lavish on Israel's leader.

"There's a tension," said Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), who has not decided whether to attend. "The prime minister's coming puts us who are supportive of Israel in a difficult position, especially as Jews who do support Israel, because I think it's totally inappropriate to come at this time."

At least 20 other members of Congress have also vowed to skip the speech. Some see Netanyahu's visit as an affront to the president, while others view it as the latest in a continuing effort by Republicans to upset the ties between Democrats and Jewish American voters and donors.

Boehner insisted the invitation was intended only to give a key ally a forum for discussing the Iran nuclear talks, in which Israel has a significant stake.

But privately, Republican aides haven't hidden their delight at how the issue is vexing Democrats, without conceding that was the intent.

Democrats suspect politics were part of the reason Boehner broke the usual protocol by not coordinating the invitation of a foreign leader with the White House.

"I don't know what's in the speaker's mind," said Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel, who represents a district in south Florida with a sizable Jewish population and plans to attend the speech. "He could be thinking about Iran, he could be thinking about politics.… I am just very disturbed — and I would say upset — that Israel is to be used as a political football."

Though Israel has long coveted the bipartisan support it enjoys in Congress, Netanyahu's Likud Party and U.S. Republicans have moved closer together in recent years, joined by shared conservative ideologies and hawkish foreign policies. Evangelicals, who are often more pro-Israel than many Jewish Americans, have also pushed the GOP toward greater support of the Netanyahu government.

So have wealthy donors like casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who contributed more than $100 million to Republicans in the 2012 campaign and is expected to be a major player in the 2016 presidential race. Adelson, who is Jewish and is married to an Israeli, is also one of Netanyahu's biggest political patrons; he owns a free, pro-government daily newspaper in Israel that has become one of the country's most-read.

But in the U.S., 70% of American Jews identify with the Democratic Party, while just 22% with the GOP, according to a 2013 study by Pew Research Center. President Obama won 69% of the Jewish American vote in 2012, according to exit polling reported by NBC News, though support dropped from 78% in his 2008 election.

"You're seeing an emerging split between a part of the community that is politically in line with the prime minister and in line with the Republican Party, and a part of the community that is more supportive of a progressive political agenda here and the Labor Party there," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group. Boehner's invitation "has successfully exposed that that difference can no longer be papered over."

Obama publicly declined this week to offer advice to fellow Democrats when asked whether they should attend Netanyahu's address, though he has said he wouldn't meet with the prime minister when he comes next month, citing the proximity to Israel's March 17 election.

Vice President Joe Biden, who would usually attend the speech as the president of the Senate, is proceeding with plans to travel abroad then.

Amid the initial controversy over the invitation, top Israeli officials worked the halls of the U.S. Capitol last week to gauge the level of concern, particularly among Democrats...

The Dems. The party of hate.

Islamodenialists

Via iOTW Report, "The left likes to call people 'deniers'."

Judge Jeanine Blasts Unserious Obama

Time to get serious, you indifferent hack.

Denmark Police Kill Suspect at Noerrebro Train Station, Near Copenhagen Synagogue (VIDEO)

At the Guardian UK, "Copenhagen shootings: police kill man after deadly attacks at cafe and synagogue – rolling report."



And at Euronews, "Copenhagen: Man killed in police shoot-out after two deadly attacks."

Second Shooting Reported at Copenhagen Synagogue

At Twitchy, "Second shooting reported in Copenhagen, this time near synagogue; Three shot, including two police officers."

And at Telegraph UK, "Twin attacks in Copenhagen leave one dead, six injured":

Gunman opened fire on a synagogue, hours after one man was killed and three police officers wounded during an attack on free speech event in city.

More at NYT, "Fatal Shootings at Cafe and Near Synagogue in Copenhagen."

And watch, at CNN, "Police: Second shooting reported in center of Copenhagen."

PREVIOUSLY: "At Least One Dead in Attack on 'Freedom of Speech' Event at Krudttønden Cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark (VIDEO)."

Obama Arrives in Palm Springs, Golfs at Sunnylands — Blissfully Indifferent as World Burns

Hard at work.

At the Palm Springs Desert Sun, "Obama arrives in Palm Springs, golfs at Sunnylands."

From the airport, Pres Obama heads to the golf course at the Sunnylands Annenberg Estate. He's played there 5 times on previous visits.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) February 14, 2015

Barack Obama: Mainstreaming Jew-Hatred in America

From Caroline Glick, "Mainstreaming Jew hatred in America":

U.S. President Barack Obama is mainstreaming anti-Semitism in America.

This week, apropos of seemingly nothing, in an interview with Mathew Yglesias from the Vox.com website, Obama was asked about terrorism. In his answer the president said the terrorism threat is overrated. And that was far from the most disturbing statement he made.

Moving from the general to the specific, Obama referred to the jihadists who committed last month’s massacres in Paris as “a bunch of violent vicious zealots,” who “randomly shot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.”

In other words, Ahmedy Coulibaly, the terrorist at Hyper Cacher, the kosher supermarket he targeted, was just some zealot. The Jews he murdered while they were shopping for Shabbat were just “a bunch of folks in a deli,” presumably shot down while ordering their turkey and cheese sandwiches.

No matter that Coulibaly called a French TV station from the kosher supermarket and said he was an al-Qaida terrorist and that he chose the kosher supermarket because he wanted to kill Jews.

As far as the leader of the free world is concerned, his massacre of four Jews at the market can teach us nothing about anything other than that some random people are mean and some random people are unlucky.

And anyway, Obama explained, we’re only talking about this random act of senseless violence because as he said, “If it bleeds, it leads.” The media, desperate for an audience, inflates the significance of these acts of random violence, for ratings.

Obama’s statement about the massacre of Jews in Paris is notable first and foremost for what it reveals about his comfort level with anti-Semitism.

By de-judaizing the victims, who were targets only because they were Jews, Obama denied the uniqueness of the threat jihadist Islam and its adherents pose to Jews. By pretending that Jews are not specifically targeted for murder simply because they are Jews, he dismissed the legitimate concerns Jews harbor for their safety, whether in Diaspora communities or in Israel.

If nothing distinguished Coulibaly’s massacre at Hyper Cacher from a mugging or an armed robbery gone bad, then Jews have no right to receive unique consideration – whether for their community’s security in London or Paris, or San Francisco – or for Israel’s security.

As subsequent statements from administration spokespeople made clear, Obama’s statement was not a gaffe. When questioned about his remarks, both White House spokesman Josh Earnest and State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki doubled down on Obama’s denial of the anti-Semitic nature of the massacre at Hyper Cacher. Earnest said that the Jews who were murdered were people who just “randomly happened to be” at the supermarket.

Psaki said that the victims didn’t share a common background or nationality, pretending away the bothersome fact that they were all Jews.

Just as bad as their denials of the anti-Jewish nature of the attack on Hyper Cacher, were Psaki’s and Earnest’s belated revisions of their remarks. After coming under a storm of criticism from American Jews and from the conservative media, both Psaki and Earnest turned to their Twitter accounts to walk back their remarks and admit that indeed, the massacre at Hyper Cacher was an anti-Semitic assault.

Their walk back was no better than their initial denial of the anti-Jewish nature of the Islamist attack, because it amplified the very anti-Semitism they previously promoted.

As many Obama supporters no doubt interpreted their behavior, first Obama and his flaks stood strong in their conviction that Jews are not specifically targeted. Then after they were excoriated for their statements by Jews and conservatives, they changed their tune.

The subtext is clear. The same Jews who are targeted no more than anyone else, are so powerful and all controlling that they forced the poor Obama administration to bow to their will and parrot their false and self-serving narrative of victimization.

The administration’s denial of the unique threat Jews face from jihadists is not limited to its anti-Semitic characterizations of the attack at Hyper Cacher.

It runs as well through Obama’s treatment of Israel and its actions to defend itself against its jihadist enemies from Hamas to Hezbollah to Iran...

The left's Jew-hater-in-Chief.

Keep reading.

VIDEO: Archive Footage Shows 'Muhammad' Artist Lars Vilks Saying 'I'm a Constant Target'

Well, indeed he is.

Via Telegraph UK:



PREVIOUSLY: "At Least One Dead in Attack on 'Freedom of Speech' Event at Krudttønden Cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark (VIDEO)."

Also, "VIDEO: Aftermath of Terrorist Attack at 'Free Speech' Event, Krudttønden Cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark," and "Inna Shevchenko, FEMEN Activist, Live Tweets Terrorist Attack at Krudttønden Cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark."

Inna Shevchenko, FEMEN Activist, Live Tweets Terrorist Attack at Krudttønden Cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark

Supreme irony.

Here's Ms. Shevchenko at FEMEN's blog, "Inna Shevchenko e le Femen in topless al Festival di Berlino (foto)."

And on Twitter:

In some hours will speak about freedom of speech at a panel debates with Lars Vilks in Copenhagen
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

shots during our panel in Copengagen
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

i ran away with some people though the back door, didn't see anything, heard 20 shots at the entrance to the building of our panel
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

with me at the room there was Lars Vilks, french ambassador and dozens people from the audience
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

i didn't see anything, i heard around 20 shots while speaking and then people started to run
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

i am not sure what was that, i don't know what we heard but everybody was running
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

another escaper joined me: we got info policemen were shot and some civilians i dont confirm it
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

the event we were at was protected by police. They were at the entrance of the building. as it is reported now, some of them were shot
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

in the room with me there were few dozens of people, french ambassador Francois Zimeray, Lars Vilks
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

police is everywhere around
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

We are in police station now
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

I was at the point of ny speech when i was saying that often it is an illusion that we have freedom of speech in Europe.then we heard shots
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

1/2"We dont have to talk about freeedom of speech, we have to practice it" was the point of my today's speech
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

2/2 it was interrupted by someone who was practicing his ideology
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

We are all in police station describing today's attack in #Copenhagen pic.twitter.com/HCyem0Bhb0
— inna shevchenko (@femeninna) February 14, 2015

PREVIOUSLY: "At Least One Dead in Attack on 'Freedom of Speech' Event at Krudttønden Cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark (VIDEO)," and "VIDEO: Aftermath of Terrorist Attack at 'Free Speech' Event, Krudttønden Cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark."

VIDEO: Aftermath of Terrorist Attack at 'Free Speech' Event, Krudttønden Cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark

Via Telegraph UK:



PREVIOUSLY: "At Least One Dead in Attack on 'Freedom of Speech' Event at Krudttønden Cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark (VIDEO)."

At Least One Dead in Attack on 'Freedom of Speech' Event at Krudttønden Cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark (VIDEO)

Well, so much for "freedom of speech."

At Legal Insurrection, "#CopenhagenShooting: Deadly Attack on Meeting Hosted by Muhammad Cartoonist."

And at Telegraph UK, "Copenhagen shooting during debate on Islam: live":

One dead in shooting at a Copenhagen cultural centre, where a meeting about freedom of speech was being held - organised by a Swedish artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad.

Expect updates...

10:12am PST: At London's Daily Mail, "BREAKING NEWS: One dead after 200 bullets are fired into Copenhagen cafe in failed Charlie Hebdo-style attack on Swedish artist who drew the Prophet Mohammed."

And at Atlas Shrugs, "1 dead after shooting at event with Muhammad cartoonist."

10:17am PST: At Blazing Cat Fur, "Shooting at Copenhagen blasphemy debate featuring Mohammed Cartoonist Lars Vilks: 3 police injured."

And from Ed Morrissey, at Hot Air, "Breaking: Shots fired at free-speech event in Copenhagen; Update: One dead."

10:26am PST: At Twitchy, "‘Charlie Hebdo-style attack’ in Denmark leaves one dead, three injured."

10:48am PST: At Russia Today (FWIW), "Copenhagen Shooting: Deadly attack at free speech meeting with cartoonist who depicted Muhammed (VIDEO)."

11:06am PST: Now a Memeorandum thread, "Copenhagen shooting during debate on Islam: live."

Kelly Brook in Los Angeles

Turns out she's trying the Atkins Diet to shed a few pounds.

Busty as ever, that's for sure.

At the Mirror UK, "Kelly Brook shows off cleavage in busty beach workout as she embraces California life."

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Kelly Brook almost spills out of low-cut work out vest as she flashes her cleavage in multi-coloured sports bra on the beach," and "Dip it low! Kelly Brook continues with her weight-loss mission as she shares video of her working out in low cut top on the beach."

BONUS: "Flower power! Kelly Brook rocks a floral headband as she poses for a series of busty bikini selfies with her Los Angeles 'roomie'."

Distorting Christian History to Defend Islam

From Michael Ortiz, at the Wall Street Journal, "Secularism didn’t save the West from religious excesses, and it won’t save us from jihadists":

In an attempt to find a peaceful alternative for those in the Islamic world who advocate violence for political and religious goals, Christians in the West shouldn’t distort the history of Christianity, or stand idly by while others do so. Letting this version of events shape perceptions of Christian history invariably means a portrait of religion as a force of darkness, while science and technology will always be beacons of sanity and light.

The narrative portraying religious conviction as antithetical to reasoned comity among people and nations is easy enough to fall into. At the national prayer breakfast last week, for instance, President Obama compared the excesses of the Crusades and the Inquisition to the terrorism of today’s radical Islam. The president went on to condemn (rightly) those who advance their religious convictions with violence.

But what he and many others miss is the conviction that Western core values come from a faith in which God enters into human history precisely to save the world from the erring reason that fails, among other things, to recognize that terrorism is an affront to God and humanity.

The all-too-common narrative goes like this: Centuries ago, Catholics and Protestants gladly burned heretics up and down Europe by the thousands until, thank God—or All Powerful Goodness, as Ben Franklin would put it—the rise of Enlightenment thinkers banished the barbarity that is somehow native to religious fervor. Only with the liberalizing mandates of Vatican II (1962-65), we’re told, did Catholicism—usually the main boogeyman in this version of history—come to grips with the idea of democracy and religious freedom, and finally extinguish the last embers of the Inquisition.

This narrative is false according to the historical record and to the origins and abiding ethos of Christianity, Catholic and Protestant. Historians call this the la leyenda negra—the “Black Legend”—because it blackens the name of Catholicism in particular and religion in general. According to this legend, the Inquisition is on a continuum with the Holocaust and the terrors of Stalinism.

Yet objective historians realize that in the most infamous example, in Spain, several popes condemned the Inquisition’s excesses. Moreover, the 6,832 members of the clergy executed by the Spanish Republican Red Terror in 1936 is more than twice the number of those executed in 345 years of the Inquisition in Spain.

Far from being an enemy of reason and peace, Christianity’s overwhelming message through the centuries has been one of tolerance, a message that underpins many of the values that people of all faiths, and of no faith, can live by. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI ’s work as a theologian has done great service in trying to correct the erroneous view that faith and civil tolerance must always be opposed.

He looks forthrightly at the negative aspects of the rise of democracies in the West, while not forgetting their positive legacies. As then- Pope Benedict pointed out in a 2005 address to the Roman Curia—the church’s governing body—popes of the 19th century condemned democracy because so many of its exponents were claiming “to embrace with their knowledge the whole of reality to its limit, stubbornly proposing to make” God completely “superfluous.” He thus reminds us that a Western culture beset by nihilism cannot provide a way out of the nihilism of the jihadist...

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