A Professor of Religion Weighs in on Allah

Hat tip Frontpage and Religion News


Robert Spencer has an article in Frontpage Magazine about UC Irvine Professor Emeritus of Religon Jack Miles. In my 18 years of teaching part-time in the UCI Extension, I never met Jack Miles, but then again, I met very few professors or teachers other than those I worked with. (Outside of those folks, whose friendship I cherish, I didn't miss much-especially in the humanities.)

Anyway, Miles was interviewed by Religion News and made some very interesting comments about the merciful nature of Allah.

https://religionnews.com/2019/01/22/more-merciful-than-yahweh-jack-miles-on-god-in-the-quran/

Here is Spencer's take on Miles' comments:

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272685/scholar-religions-says-allah-more-merciful-god-robert-spencer

My turn.

Miles sounds like Rip Van Winkle. He has been asleep for the past 20 years-or maybe 1400 years. I taught part-time at UCI from 1996-2018 and attended way too many of the anti-Israel events sponsored by the Muslim Student Union every May. You would not believe the vicious speakers they have sponsored over the years. Amir Abdel Ali, Alim Abdul Musa, Mohamed al-Asi, crazy George Galloway, Hatem Bazian, Ben White and on and on. How many times I heard speakers call for the destruction of Israel. How many times have I heard insults thrown at Jews. I would invite MIles to attend the week long hate week that MSU puts on every May. Now they walk around with their faces hidden behind Palestinian keffiyas, chanting, and getting in peoples' faces trying to intimidate them. Whenever Jewish students put on a pro-Israel event, it gets disrupted necessitating the campus police to respond.

Miles should wake up and follow the news in the Middle East, Europe, and elsewhere. People are dying every day. In virtually every Muslim majority country, non-Muslims are persecuted.

Miles should learn how to read the Koran. The chapters are not in chronological order. Placed in order, they perfectly mirror Mohammed's beginnings as a prophet with his peaceful preaching in Mecca followed by his life as a warlord in Medina spreading Islam by the sword. One sees how the language in the Koran goes from the benign to the violent and hateful. Sura 9 is the last major sura before Mohammed's death. It is arguably the most hateful and violent.

So how do the Muslim scholars make sense of the contradictions? Very simple. The principle of abrogation means that in the case of conflict between verses in the Koran, that revealed later in time abrogates that revealed earlier. Sura 9 basically abrogates every peaceful verse in the Koran.

I would also note that the Koran (which to Muslims is the word of Allah passed down to Mohammad by the Archangel Gabriel) has many commandments to kill Jews, Christians and infidels in general. I also note that many imams around the world call out to Allah in their sermons to kill said Christians, Jews and infidels in general. Yet Miles offers this:

"I offer examples of great violence from Jewish and Christian Scriptures and note that we don’t deduce from that that all Jews and Christians are terrorists in waiting. If we don’t do that for ourselves, we shouldn’t do it for Muslims. But that’s a secondary motive, I would say. Once you get that out of the way, you’re free to look at the text, look at the characters and the episodes. That’s a pleasure. It’s a fascination."

I am not an expert on the Old or New Testaments, and I know there are troubling verses especially in the Old Testament. Yet I would suggest that for hundreds of years now, Christians and Jews have not acted on those verses. And no, the Holocaust had nothing to do with "defending" Christianity or because the Nazis disagreed with Jews in religious matters. To them it was about race, not religion. If you want to drag up the Crusades, fine, but I will argue that both sides were engaged in mutual combat (Christians also killed defenseless Jews as well.) Again, that was hundreds of years ago. Today, non-Muslims are being killed in the name of verses in the Koran. ISIS will point them all out to you before they cut off your head. The violent verses in the Koran are not just found in dusty pages nobody pays any attention to anymore. They are real and very current. Sorry, Dr Miles, but too many people are still dying in Allah's name.

A shame that Miles made it all the way to retirement without learning much about Islam.

Nigerian Organ Trafficking in Italy

Last week, we posted a video of Giorgia Meloni, leader of the center-right Italian party, Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy) speaking about organ trafficking by Nigerian migrants in Italy.

We are now posting an appearance by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on the talk program, Povera Patria (Poor Homeland). I have selected three excerpts from the show. In the first, Salvini is asked for his reaction to Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti questioning Salvini's Catholic faith over the migrant issue. In another segment, the hosts show a clip of a Nigerian mafia member (who has collaborated with police) talking about the Nigerian traffic in drugs, prostitutes, and most shocking of all, organs. The third segment is Salvini's response. The video may be accessed in the below link by Vlad Tepes.

Translation is by Fousesquawk with editing and sub-titling by Gates of Vienna and Vlad Tepes.


https://vladtepesblog.com/2019/01/31/italian-tv-salvini-reverses-flow-of-illegals-nigerian-crime-gang-member-confesses/

I wonder what Cardinal Bassetti's reaction to that was. Is Italy supposed to welcome them too? Personally, I prefer to extend my Christian charity to the victims of these criminals. In addition, I am fed up with religious institutions like the Catholic church, Pope Francis I, and certain  Protestant churches lecturing us on the need to admit anybody and everybody who shows up on our shores. Our own religious leaders are serving us very badly. Where are Cardinal Bassetti and Pope Francis every time somebody gets murdered or raped by these criminals? Where are they when European Jews are afraid to wear Jewish garb in public because of these poor immigrants they are so concerned about?

Rogue Professors Trying to Boycott Israel

Hat tip Jewish News Syndicate


My friend Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, has written an excellent op-ed for the Jewish News Syndicate. It concerns the efforts of US university faculty members to implement an academic boycott of Israel. The most noteworthy incidents concerning this issue occurred recently at the University of Michigan, where two professors refused to write letters of recommendation for two students who wanted to study in Israel. This op-ed is well worth reading. I am cutting and pasting the text since the below link simply takes you to a Wordpress page requiring a log-in.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/university-of-michigan-and-pitzer-college-are-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/

University of Michigan and Pitzer College are just the tip of the iceberg

University leaders across the country must loudly condemn faculty who would implement an academic boycott of Israel that deprives students of educational opportunities and academic rights in the name of personal politics.

Opponents of an academic boycott of Israel owe John Cheney-Lippold and Daniel Segal a debt of gratitude.

Cheney-Lippold is the University of Michigan professor who agreed to write a letter of recommendation for one of his students last fall and then reneged after realizing it was for study in Israel. Segal, a professor at Pitzer College and a major proponent of the academic boycott of Israel, convinced his fellow Pitzer faculty members to shut down the school’s study-abroad program at the University of Haifa only months later. These professors’ reprehensible behavior has brought much-needed attention to how implementation of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel—long-advertised as aimed at academic institutions in Israel—in reality directly threatens the academic freedom and rights of students on North American campuses.

Alarmingly, Cheney-Lippold and Segal are just the tip of the iceberg.

First, their behavior is not unique. They are just two of a growing number of faculty who choose to privilege their own personal politics above the academic welfare of their students. In fact, shortly after the Cheney-Lippold incident became public, another Michigan student reported that his graduate student instructor had similarly refused a letter of recommendation for a study-abroad program in Israel. Ten U.S. professors—all outspoken advocates of PACBI’s campus agenda—have also pledged their willingness to refuse letters of recommendation for students wanting to study in Israel and encouraged others to do the same. And a petition titled “Stand With John Cheney-Lippold” that states, “We, too, are supporters of the BDS Movement, and would not provide a letter of support for a student seeking to study in an Israeli University,” has been signed by 1,000 individuals.

Second, following the PACBI guidelines to a tee, attempts have also been made to sabotage student-organized programs and faculty collaborations related to Israel, thereby directly suppressing student and faculty free speech and freedom of assembly. For example, faculty boycotters at the University of California Santa Cruz tried to cancel a student-organized event titled “Queer in Israel” that was to take place at the school’s LGBTQ Center. And faculty boycotters at Cornell University attempted to block a partnership between Cornell and Israel’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to create a joint institute of applied sciences that would benefit Cornell faculty and students.

Third, some academic disciplines, particularly in the social sciences and humanities departments, have become dominated by academic boycotters, creating a professional climate that condones if not encourages faculty associated with those disciplines to support the boycott, despite its harmful effects on students. A recent study found that departments of Middle East, and ethnic and gender studies with affiliated faculty who support academic BDS are five to 12 times more likely to sponsor Israel-related events with BDS-promoting speakers than similar departments with no academic boycotters.

As blatantly antithetical to the mission and values of academia as an academic boycott of Israel may be, individual faculty members do have the right to express their public support for it. But when faculty like Cheney-Lippold and Segal go beyond merely expressing support for an academic boycott and actually threaten a student’s right to participate in university-approved educational programs, they are not only trampling on the academic rights of their students, they are undermining the academic integrity of the entire university. It is a serious and growing problem that university leaders must face before it spirals out of control.

While hundreds of university presidents have condemned academic boycotts, including the heads of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Brown and Dartmouth, thus far only a handful of university leaders have recognized the importance of opposing attempts to implement an academic boycott on their own campuses:

• Following an enormous public outcry over Cheney-Lippold’s refusal to write a letter of recommendation, University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel issued a strong statement acknowledging that “such actions interfere with our students’ opportunities, violate their academic freedom and betray our university’s educational mission.”
• In a speech addressing the faculty vote to shut down his school’s study-abroad program in Israel, Pitzer College President Melvin Oliver forthrightly stated: “To deny Pitzer students who want to study at Haifa University the opportunity to study abroad and to enter into dialogue and promote intercultural understanding at the altar of political considerations is anathema to Pitzer’s core values.”
• Last month, all 10 University of California Chancellors issued a statement declaring that the academic boycott of Israel “poses a direct and serious threat to the academic freedom of our students and faculty, as well as the unfettered exchange of ideas and perspectives on our campuses, including debate and discourse regarding conflicts in the Middle East.”

University leaders across the country must follow suit by loudly condemning faculty at their own schools who would implement an academic boycott of Israel that deprives students of educational opportunities and academic rights in the name of personal politics. State and federal legislators should also consider withholding taxpayer monies from schools that allow faculty to implement a boycott that directly hurts students, undermines their school’s academic mission and erodes public trust in our nation’s institutions of higher education.

Rossman-Benjamin is the founder and director of AMCHA Initiative, a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to combating anti-Semitism at colleges and universities in the United States. She was a faculty member at the University of California for 20 years.

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One wonders where these arrogant professors get off. Fortunately, in the Michigan and Pitzer cases, the university presidents firmly put these academic frauds in their place.

Salvini on the Stump

Hat tip Gates of Vienna and Vlad Tepes




On Sunday evening, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini was speaking in Sulmona (Abruzzo) before a crowd of thousands who welcomed him enthusiastically. There were also a few demonstrators. Translation of the video by Fousesquawk with editing by Gates of Vienna and  sub-titling by Vlad Tepes.

CNN's Latest "Star"- Andrew Gillum

Always count on CNN to add to its stable of questionable characters as analysts and commentators. Just in recent weeks, LA ambulance chasing attorney Michael Avenatti suddenly disappeared from the CNN screen after he was charged with beating up his girlfriend. In addition, the "Most Trusted Name in News" cut ties with Marc Lamont Hill after his speech at the UN that excused Palestinian violence and repeated that cute little ditty about "from the river to the sea", which explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel.

But as any baseball team will tell you, every team needs a deep bullpen, so CNN went out and signed free agent Andrew Gillum, the former mayor of Tallahassee and recently defeated in a bid for the Florida governorship. CNN will need a quick hook, as they say in pitching, because Gillum is under investigation all over the place for corruption and ethics charges.

I can just see Gillum sitting there with Wolf Blitzer, Jeffrey Toobin, Gloria Borger, and all the rest analyzing the case against Roger Stone and whether this is the end for Trump. This should really be rich.

In all likelihood, Gillum will suddenly disappear from the CNN studio when and if that hammer drops on him. Better keep another arm warmed up in the bullpen.


"The phone's ringin'"

Asia Bibi Acquittal Confirmed

Pakistan's highest court has affirmed the reversal of Asia Bibi's conviction for blasphemy, rejecting an appeal by hardliners who wanted her executed. She is now free to leave Pakistan.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47040847

This is welcome news, but I will breathe easier once I know she is actually out of that hellhole.

*Update: As expected riots and other protests are breaking out across Pakistan.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-30/asia-bibi-free-after-nine-years-ending-blasphemy-case/10760788

"The court's decision prompted nationwide protests from Islamist hardliners.

The protests led to schools being shut in some areas and a major highway from Islamabad to Lahore was blockaded by angry mobs."

What a hellhole.


"Correction, Fousesquawk. It's a sh--hole."

Tom Brokaw's Blooper(s)

This article first appeared in New English Review.







Tom Brokaw, who used to be a big shot at NBC, is now on his apology tour for stating that Hispanics "should work harder at assimilation". He is afraid that his remarks were offensive to Hispanics, and he is walking around in the traditional sack cloth and ashes.

However, if Brokaw offended some Hispanics, he also offended others by saying that white Americans had hangups about having brown grandchildren, a reference to mixed marriages (which are a by-product of assimilation).

I would like to address both statements, having grown up in Southern California among Hispanics and being married to a Mexican woman with whom we have produced two grown children and three grandchildren.

First of all, who is Brokaw talking about who don't want to have brown grandchildren? He isn't talking about anybody in my family, certainly not my mother, who loved my wife as the daughter she never had. Our two children have never had any issues or problems being half-Mexican in origin. I recognize that there are a few  KKK types out there who might have those feelings, but they don't represent more than a small fringe. The fact is that intermarriage between whites and Hispanics is quite common in the US as are other forms of intermarriage (white/black, white/Asian etc.) Culture clashes are generally not a major problem among couples who have intermarried since they have made a conscious choice to put those things aside. Ironically, this portion of Brokaw's commentary is being ignored by the media since they don't consider that as being offensive just a statement of fact (which it isn't).

As to his comments about assimilation, it should be asked which Hispanics he is talking about. Brokaw has spent enough time in California to know better. When he was a young journalist, he used to give the local news on one of the Los Angeles stations. I know because I used to watch him. I really don't think there is a problem of assimilation with Hispanics who are US-born or even naturalized citizens. Hispanics who are US citizens have no problems speaking English. I should add that I am much more familiar with the Mexican-American community of the Southwest than I am with Cuban-Americans in Florida or Puerto Ricans in New York, but it is my belief that the assimilation problems and the English language problems exist chiefly within the illegal alien communities. It is those children who land in elementary school having no English ability.

This kind of thinking is typical of those who lump illegal migrants together with Hispanic-Americans as being the same. For example, we have a situation where people are crossing the border illegally who are by definition poor. How convenient to lump them together with US-born Mexican-Americans when you want to make the case that income levels are lower for Hispanics, hence, that proves discrimination.

I don't think Brokaw is racist towards Hispanics at all. The man is getting up there in years and simply misspoke or worded his words wrongly at least as far as the assimilation angle was concerned. He apparently believes that immigrants should assimilate, and I agree with him on that. He should not confuse illegal migrants with established Hispanics who are, in fact, assimilated, educated and fully able to speak English. By the third generation, English is the native language and eventually, Spanish language capability dwindles. Intermarriage and inter-racial babies are simply one part of assimilation. Over the long term, they will help Americans put our ethnic differences aside

I have a greater objection with his categorizing white people as fearing brown grandchildren. That is absurd. I would advise Brokaw to make his peace with whomever he thinks he has offended and make his retirement full-time. In other words, it's over, Tom.

"Protecting" the German Constitution

Reichstag fire 1933
"We'll blame it on Alternatif fuer Deutschland."


After World War II, the West German government passed laws designed to protect the German constitution, which was based on democratic principles. It was designed to prevent a return to anything resembling the Nazi state. Thus, communists were considered as those who would destroy the German constitution.

However, the current application raises serious questions as to whether these laws are being abused. The German party, Alternativ fuer Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) is the only German political party that is opposed to further Islamic immigration into Germany. Thus, they are branded as racist and Islamophobic by their enemies, which includes other parties and the German left.

Now it is reported that German intelligence is investigating AfD for violation of laws for the Protection of the Constitution.

Gates of Vienna has an English translation of a German article from Bild that describes this current development.

https://gatesofvienna.net/2019/01/the-afd-fights-back-against-state-intimidation/

First of all, this is the first time I have ever heard of an intelligence agency announcing it was investigating and surveilling somebody. Rather bizarre.

More importantly, if this is accurate, don't the Germans understand the parallels here? What was the first thing Hitler did when he came to power in Germany through legal means? He set about to eliminate all the other parties. When the Reichstag was set on fire (we still don't know for sure who set it), the Nazis were quick to blame the communists. They were rounded up followed by the Social Democrats. Other parties closed down, and before anyone knew it, there was only one legal party in Germany, the National Socialists.

The powers that be in Germany desperately want to avoid any semblance of racism in their country due to their past history. That is commendable, and I have always defended Germany in the sense that they have acknowledged their crimes under Hitler and have worked hard to make themselves not only prosperous again, but a fundamentally decent country.

Where they are going wrong is that they are resorting to strong arm methods to clamp down on opposition to their insane immigration policy which is tearing the country asunder.  The people are understandably fed up with the crime, the murders, the rapes and the terrorist attacks. It is only natural that they would speak out against mass migration and Islamization. It is only natural that in a democracy, a party would form that would reflect their concerns. As long as AfD doesn't advocate violating the human rights of the migrants, like throwing them in jail without cause or physically harming them, they should not be treated in this manner. The question of immigration is a legitimate topic for discussion in any country.

 Germany should think twice before they start investigating political parties. Beware the slippery slope.

Anti-Semitism in Swedish Schools

Hat tip Kronans Martell


The below article appeared as an op-ed in Aftonbladet, one of Sweden's oldest and largest news outlets. It was sent to me by my friend, Kronans Martell in Sweden. I have translated it into English. This is written by a school teacher who teaches children from other countries, mostly Africa, and the Middle East. She has discovered that these children not only have a negative opinion of Jews, but very little to no knowledge of the Holocaust.

https://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/a/0EREjJ/mina-nyanlanda-elever-tror-att-judar-ar-farliga

My Newly Arrived Students Think that Jews Are Dangerous

Teacher: We have a duty to do something about ignorance

This is a debate article. It is the writer who stands for the opinions expressed in the text, not Aftonbladet.

During more than four years in teaching newly-arrived (in Sweden) pupils, mostly from the Middle East, Afghanistan, Yemen, Ethiopia and Somalia, I have noticed a large ignorance  about Jews, the state of Israel, and the Holocaust.

This ignorance can lead to fear and in the worst case hate. Many pupils have become brainwashed  in their home countries that Jews are dangerous and that they should beware of them.

Comments such as "they are terrorists and we have a right to throw rocks at them", and that "they burn children alive" are some of the stories  that come up in discussions with pupils and during lectures in school.

During a series of lectures, we talked about the Nazis' genocide, and it was shown that none of our newly-arrived pupils knew about the Holocaust and its background, where over 6 million Jews were put to death.

The question over Jews and Israel is controversial, and we have had a hard time talking about the subject even though only 20,000 Jews live in Sweden, and they have protection as a Swedish minority.

Tolerance, co-existence, justice and love for fellow humans are born of knowledge, discussion, and analysis based on each person's right to freedom and to be able to feel safe in their society. Together we must punch through this darkness and this ignorance which can have terrible consequences for the Jews who live in Sweden and the rest of Europe-often behind armour, forced security, and not daring to even acknowledge their existence, religion, or their origin.

The numbers from the EU's Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) say it in its clear language. In the report, 16,000 Jews were queried in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Great Britain. Countries where around 96% of Europe's  Jews reside.

About 90% of those queried say that anti-semitism is growing in their home countries, and as many as 75% say it is evident in the public space.

The kinds of harassment and anti-semitism revealed by FRA include, for example, destruction of Jewish burial sites, vandalism of Jewish buildings or institutions, and open hostility towards Jews.

The report also points out  that Sweden is one of the countries where the most are of the opinion that anti-semitism has increased. More that 8 out of 10 respondents in Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Sweden believe that anti-semitism is a "very big" or "rather big" problem.

We can not betray the Jews through passivity and silence. Anti-semitism must be fought, and our responsibility for this must be clear-through enlightenment, knowledge by various authorities and in the school.

Those who attack Jews in Malmo and Gothenburg must be condemned  clearly, and political unity on the issue is required. Jewish and Muslim congregations need to continue to meet for cooperation. The forces for good must receive support.

More than four years (worth of) knowledge from my work with the newly-arrived has made me convinced that we must act. My pupils, for example, want to have all the information they can get about the Holocaust, Jews, and Israel in their native language.

They want to understand and they want to know so they can form their view based on knowledge from different sources. It doesn't work if the knowledge fails-first in their home countries and also here in Sweden.

It requires several conversations and discussions with our pupils  to create an understanding of the basis for the Holocaust even being possible and what mechanisms began the process. A single lecture that quickly disappears from memory is not sufficient.

We have a duty to dare to take on these issues even if difficult and thought of as controversial and politically "dangerous". It is so easy to end up in a discussion about right or wrong concerning Israel's policy, but the question is that people should be able to live side by side in Sweden and respect each other.

Otherwise, dark forces take over the empty space we leave behind.. Maybe 2019 will be the year that we take joint action against anti-semitism and its darkness-not just today on Holocaust Memorial Day but all other days of the year.

Annelie Danling Brash, head teacher for newly-arrived (pupils) and learning at Nyköping High School with help from Jonathan Brash, teacher, grades 4-6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I applaud the article, but what is missing here is the fact that these children have learned their negative opinions of Jews in their homes and most likely from their religion. I suppose in politically correct Sweden, the writer couldn't go that far. I hope education in a Swedish school will turn their attitudes around, but I am sceptical. Their religion (Islam) teaches them a different message about Jews. Hopefully, some can be turned around.

I must also shake my head at Aftonbladet's disclaimer that this is an opinion piece and only reflects the opinions of the writer and not Aftonbladet. I am sure this disclaimer is routine when they publish an opinion piece, but my God-the optics are terrible. 

Angela's Kids on a Field Trip in Germany

Hat tip Breitbart


It was just another school field trip for a group of children in Berlin.  Except that a 10-year-old German boy was attacked and raped by three of his classmates, who just happened to be refugees from Syria and Afghanistan.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/09/04/ten-year-old-german-boy-raped-migrant-classmates-school-trip/

How do three boys, age 10-11, from Afghanistan and Syria learn this type of behavior? Did they suddenly become practicing gays at this tender age? Or is there something in the culture they brought with them to Germany? I don't know about Syria, but there are all kinds of horror stories about this stuff coming out of Afghanistan, home of the so-called "dancing boys".

I wonder what Angela Merkel thinks about this. She has been ridiculed for her constant refrain regarding the importation of hundreds of thousands of Muslims (mostly young men) into Germany. "Wir schaffen das". (We can do this.)

So what do you have to say about this, Ms. Merkel?

"Wir schaffen das."

Angela's Kids Back in the News

In the Bavarian town of Landshut, another Syrian asylum-seeker has struck again. (Hat tip Breitbart)

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/26/syrian-man-arrested-molesting-young-german-girls-their-way-school/

While I applaud the girl who slapped this jerk, I keep asking myself: "Where the Hell are the men?"

"Men? Germany has me."

The Pro- Bowl:Flag Football at its Best

When I was a kid growing up in the 1950s and becoming a Steeler fan for life, my dad took me to a couple of Pro Bowls, which were then played at the Los Angeles Colosseum. In those days, the NFL consisted of two divisions, the East and the West, and the two teams winning those divisions played for the NFL title. That was before the Super Bowl.  Being a Steeler fan, I, of course, rooted for the East and looked forward to seeing Steelers like Ernie Stautner (below) on the field for the East.



Eventually, the game was moved to Hawaii as an incentive for the selected players to actually show up and play. By then, they had figured out that while they coveted the honor of being selected,  actually playing in a meaningless game and risking injury didn't make a lot of sense. I myself had long lost interest in the game. The only thing that mattered to me was how the Steelers did in the regular season. I have not bothered to watch a game since who knows when.

Last year, while flipping the channels, I came across the Pro Bowl by chance and watched a few minutes. I realized very quickly (like the first play) that any semblance of real tackling had disappeared. Ball carriers were simply run out of bounds or the whistle was blown  as soon as a "tackler" managed to wrap his arms around the ball carrier. In essence, it was a cross between flag football and touch football. So here is my question: Why is this game (now in Orlando) even being played?



This game has become a joke, now with pre-game "events" like players competing in dodgeball, no less. One Steeler fan blog, Behind the Steel Curtain, is calling it, "the dreaded Pro Bowl". How appropriate. Even the NFL can't figure out what to do with it. Should it come before or after the Super Bowl? Since it now comes before the Big Game, players from those two championship teams do not participate.

In truth, the only major sport all star game that holds any resemblance to the actual game is baseball, which has managed to hold on to its tradition (except for that dopey home run derby). In the NBA All Star game, there is no defense, just three point shots and elaborate slam dunks with the final score practically reaching 200 points for each team. The NHL all star game is absent things like cross checking. (Who wants to risk an injury in mid season?)

As for the Pro-Bowl, I think it's time to put this old dog out of its misery.

Church Bombing in Philippines

Today, two bombs have killed at least 20 people in a Catholic church in the the southern Philippines injuring many others. Though the Philippines is a predominately Catholic nation, there is a large Muslim population in the Mindanao area.


https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/27/asia/philippines-church-explosion/index.html

Nobody has yet claimed responsibility, but all signs point to Abu Sayyaf, the Muslim separatist/terrorist group that has been wreaking havoc in the Mindanao region for decades.

Anti-Semitism on the Left

Karin McQuillan has an interesting piece in American Greatness concerning the anti-semitism coming from the left.


https://amgreatness.com/2019/01/23/leftist-jew-hatred-has-come-to-america/#.XEyd5z8Hayh.email

Below is what I added in the comments section.

"My experience as a gentile teaching 18 years part-time at the Univ of California at Irvine convinced me that the focal point for the resurgence of anti-semitism in the US is on our university campuses. The main purveyors of anti-semitism today are Muslims (not all, of course). It is the pro-Palestinian crowd that has made the Israel-Palestinian conflict a hot button issue with the result that Jewish students are being bullied and intimidated-especially if they defend Israel. University administrators, to their shame, are too cowardly to stand up for their Jewish students.

In addition, most Jewish organizations deny the problem exists because they are too embedded to the universities and wed to the knowledge that they depend on having Jewish students attend the university rather than go somewhere else. Groups like Hillel and the Jewish Federations have had a conflict of interest. ADL ignored the problems at UC Irvine. They were missing in action.

To make things worse, inter-faith rabbis would rather join hands with their Muslim counterparts and bemoan anti-semitism coming from white nationalist, KKK-types and neo-Nazis rather than confront anti-semitism from Islamic quarters. In early 2017 I attended one of those inter-faith events at Temple Bat Yahm in Newport Beach and listened as speaker after speaker attacked Trump and his supporters as being the main culprits. Not a word about Islamic anti-semitism, of course.

All anti-semitism must be condemned, but in my view the biggest problem in the US is the marriage between the left with the pro-Palestinian, pro-Arab crowd, anti-Israel (sic). Sadly, that also includes some misfit, leftist Jews."

Who Has Free Speech at Stanford?

Hat tip Stanford Review and Jihad Watch


The Stanford Review has published an opinion piece by Professor Andrew Ziperski which shows just how scary discourse on college campuses has become. The letter was posted in Jihad Watch because Ziperski singled out Robert Spencer and Milo Yiannopoulos as speakers who should not be allowed to speak on campus. Yet, he wants speakers who will be provocative and make people uncomfortable.

"....those who are invited to speak as part of the Conversations must be provocative, and they must make us uncomfortable. This does not mean, of course, that speakers whose primary (or only) goal is provocation ought to be invited; people like Milo Yiannopoulos and Robert Spencer add no value to a campus like ours, and I would strongly oppose an invitation extended to them or those who employ their tactics." 


Typical leftist professor. In truth it is only people who don't think like him who should be made uncomfortable. At the same time, those who share his views must never be made to feel uncomfortable, hence we have newly-coined expressions like trigger warnings, and micro/macro aggressions. Ziperski thinks that the words of people like Spencer have no place on a college campus. For example I once  heard three members of Jewish Voice for Peace describe pro-Israel speech as "useless discourse" and that pro-Israel students should not feel comfortable on campus. What this all means is that conservative, pro-life, pro-America or pro-Israel speakers should not be allowed to speak on campus. On the other hand, people like Louis Farrakhan, Ward Churchill, Steven Salaita, Amir Abdel Malik Ali, and others on the fringe left are just fine because they, well, make us feel uncomfortable. (I have selected these four as examples, not Ziperski).

What kind of Stalinist thinking is this?

I have heard Spencer speak three times. He is in no way similar to Yiannopoulos in his speaking style, and it puzzles me how Ziperski could lump them together as being examples of being provocative. Spencer is a scholar and speaks in a professional style. In addition, he speaks and reads Arabic and is an expert on the Qu'ran. He has ample evidence to back up his points. However, Ziperski does not want students to be exposed to Spencer's knowledge because in our politically correct world, no criticism of Islam is allowed. No serious discussion of whether the teachings of Islam are contributing to the worldwide terror, hate and  slaughters we witness on a daily basis.

It is obvious that professors like Ziperski (and they are too numerous to count, at least within the humanities) have no concept of what free speech means. They think it applies only to them and not to those with whom they disagree.

When controversies like this occur on college campuses, I try to find out what the college newspaper is writing about it. Unfortunately, the Stanford Review has no space for reader comments because it is imperative that student readers are exposed to well thought out, well written responses. Ziperski's column is low hanging fruit for anyone who really understands what free speech is supposed to mean in our country.

*Update: I incorrectly identified Ziperski as a professor.  He is a Stanford student.For that reason, I should cut him some slack.

Mariah Carey to Perform in Saudi Arabia

Sneak preview


According to the Arab News (Saudi Arabia), sexpot crooner Mariah Carey will be performing in Saudi Arabia on January 31 as part of some golf tournament at some place called King Abdullah Economic City. (Watch out for those big sandtraps.)

                                                          18th hole


http://www.arabnews.com/node/1441826/art-culture

This, of course, leads to the obvious question. The diva usually appears in public in outfits resembling something between a negligee and a bathrobe.


That will not fly in the puritanical kingdom.

I guess as I write, Mariah is rehearsing in full burka and nikab.

Then again, Arab News is not a completely trustworthy news source. This might just be fake news. Until I read it in Buzzfeed or CNN, I will take it with a grain of sand.

A Pre-Dawn Raid for Roger Stone-Really?

This article first appeared in New English Review.

On Friday, we learned that special prosecutor Robert Mueller's team had obtained an indictment against Roger Stone, a former advisor to President Trump, for lying about issues relating to information obtained by Wikileaks that related to the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton, and the Democrat National Committee. Pursuant to that indictment, FBI agents conducted a pre-dawn raid Friday and dragged Stone out of his residence in Ft Lauderdale, Florida.

As a retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent who participated in more pre-dawn raids than I can recall, my reaction to this is simply: Are you kidding me?

You can talk all you want about how everybody should be treated equally under the law, which is true. However, to carry out an operation such as was conducted to arrest Stone is limited to situations where arresting agents expect to confront dangerous resistance and/or destruction of evidence. Normally, people like Stone are arrested by a knock on the door by two or three agents or by notifying their attorney of the warrant and arranging for the person to turn himself or herself in.

This was the same tactic Mueller's team used to arrest Paul Manafort. Again, it was unnecessary and designed to draw publicity.

And how was it that CNN happened to be on the scene to report the arrest? Who tipped off CNN?

This is not only unprofessional but despicable. Here we have somebody within the law enforcement apparatus feeding information to a news outlet dedicated to bringing down the Trump presidency.

In the late 1980s, while I was a DEA agent stationed in Pittsburgh, our office was involved in an investigation into the manufacture and sale of fentanyl, a synthetic heroin that had led to the overdose deaths of some 15 heroin addicts in the Pittsburgh area. When the moment came that we carried out a pre-dawn raid into multiple locations to arrest the principle suspects, we found to our dismay that the news media had been tipped off and were present at the locations to report the arrests. This led to our having to carry out the arrests before we had intended to. In this case, we were not dealing with people like Roger Stone, but people whose actions were totally unpredictable. We had a good idea who had tipped off the media, but I couldn't prove it. However, in a subsequent telephone conversation I had with a supervisory prosecutor in the US Attorney's office in Pittsburgh, I told that person that whoever tipped off the media had committed a despicable act. He himself was not the person we suspected, but the reader may draw the appropriate conclusions.

I don't know a lot about Roger Stone, and don't know anything about whether he lied to Congress, which I would not condone. I do feel, however, that Mueller, who was the director of the FBI, is abusing his power. It is interesting that in his quest to bring down Trump, he has now ventured into the Wikileaks matter-without any attention directed to Hillary Clinton or the DNC, which basically fixed the primary in her favor. Mueller now has another scalp, but it does nothing to advance the case against Trump and whether he colluded with the Russians to sway the election in his favor. Mueller is no longer the director of the FBI, but he is dragging that agency back down to the level of when J. Edgar Hoover was director.

Arab Gangs in Berlin

Hat tip Gates of Vienna, Vlad Tepes and Nash Montana for translation


The below video is a German news interview with Rainer Wendt, head of the federal police union. He is discussing the recent roundups of weapons traffickers and Arab gang members in Berlin.



Wendt refers to the "parallel societies" existing in Germany. You can lay the blame for that on the German leaders who have allowed immigrant societies to live separately and unassimilated apart from German society. Naturally, what comes with all that are ethnic mafias. Virtually every European country has made the same mistake.

Is the Asia Bibi Story Nearing a Conclusion?

Hat tip Christian Post


Asia Bibi

It appears there might be a final resolution of the Asia Bibi case. Bibi is a Christian woman who had been sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy against the Muslim prophet Mohammad, a capital offense in Pakistan. The Pakistani Supreme Court reversed her conviction, but the story hasn't ended there. Mobs of Pakistanis all over the country are howling for her death as she is being held under security an an unknown location. According to the below report, the Supreme Court is to reconsider the ruling. That could be as early as January 29.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/pakistans-top-court-to-decide-asia-bibis-fate-as-muslim-extremists-demand-her-death.html

We can only pray that the court will affirm the reversal and that Pakistani authorities will do the right thing and secretly spirit her out of the country to another country that will step up and give her asylum. I would be proud if that country would be the US.

People everywhere should note this case as a cautionary tale against the spread of Islam into the West.