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August 24, 2010
Posted by Carla René in: Accountability, Advice, African-American, Attitude, Biography & Memoir, Book Marketing Online, Book Review, Books, Business, Business Management, Cancer, Cap and Trade, Children, China, Climate Change, Commentary, Comments & Discussion, Communications, Communism, Community, Computers, Congress, Contributor's Audio/Video, Creative Writing, Current Events, Democracy, Democrat, Diet, Economic Crisis, Economics, Education, Energy, Entertainment, Environment, Environmental Issues, Faith, Family, Fiction, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Freedom, Freelance Author, General Topics, Geopolitical Events, Global Warming, Governance, Habit Change, Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Heroes, History, Homeland Security, Humor, Inspiration & Motivation, Internet, Internet Advice, Interview, Islam, Journalism, Latino & Hispanic, Legal, Life Experiences, Lifestyle, Literature, Marketing, Marriage, Medical, Men's Issues, Mental Health, Mexico, Military, Minorities, Morality, Motivation, Music, Native American, Nature/Wildlife, Non-Fiction, Nutrition, Opinion, Personal Experiences, Philosophical Genres, Poetry, Politics, Publishing, Question of the Day, Recovery, Relationships, Religion, Republican, Rhyme, Satire, Self-Help, Sex, Short Stories, Social Aspects, Social Classes, Social Issues, Sociology, Spirituality, Sports, Technology, Television, Terrorism, The Economy, The Media, The Pundit's Corner, The Writer's Corner, Travel, Uncategorized, Website Instructions, Weight loss, Wellness, Women's Perspective, Women's Rights, Working Women, Workplace, World Issues, Writing Essentials
 Begun back sometime in 2001, this book was originally a fluke of an idea… [...]
August 22, 2010
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Accountability, Commentary, Current Events, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Governance, Homeland Security, Latino & Hispanic, Legal, Mexico, Minorities, Opinion
By Alan Caruba
It is increasingly obvious that the Obama administration is more interested in protecting Mexicans than Americans.
Case in point; Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has eleven suspects accused of murdering law enforcement officers in his maximum security county jail in downtown Phoenix. As reported in the August 18 Washington Post, “Justice Department officials in Washington have issued a rare threat to sue (Arpaio) if he does not cooperate with their investigation of whether he discriminates against Hispanics.”
“The standoff comes just weeks after the Justice Department sued Arizona and Gov. Jan Brewer because of the state’s new immigration law,” the Post noted. The latest word from Americans for Legal Immigration is that twenty-two States now have lawmakers developing versions of Arizona’s illegal immigration crackdown bill SB 1070.
So nearly half the States are aligning themselves with Arizona. Why? Continue reading Mexico, Bloody Mexico
August 3, 2010
The good times are rolling again in Macau despite the specter of visa restrictions on visitors from mainland China. [...]
July 1, 2010
by: Paul Finnerty | 03 April 2009
printed in: Edition 51 | section: Sport
 Photo by Caitlin Murray
When you think of Argentina and its sporting tradition, you think football, Maradona and the hand of God. You may also wonder how the country managed to churn out such good polo teams. You are rather mystified at being told that the national sport is pato, which used to be played with an actual duck’s head.
However, something new is emerging on the Argentine horizon. The Shankees have come to town, and brought with them that famous old US sport, baseball.
“In November 2008, I figured that I wanted to put a baseball team together. And then abracadabra, the rest is history,” says Paul Perry, founder and coach of the team.
“It was easy to get started. It was serendipity. You have to move on an idea quick. I had already tried putting a football team together called the Wild Turkeys and I even bought a turkey suit. It’s harder to get footballers though, because its rougher and you can get injured.”
It seems that Paul has reignited a lot of the players’ enthusiasm for baseball. The majority played in the US, some of them picking up their gloves for the first time since their Little League days.
The team is mostly made up of Americans. The exception is an Argentine, Rodrigo Castelli, a 34-year-old managing director from Villa Urquiza. “It’s good to be accepted by the guys,” he reveals. “When I was ten I went to the US. I played baseball for seven years, but then didn’t play for a further 15.”
The truth is that Rodrigo is quite an exception to the rule. There are several established teams on the Argentine baseball circuit, but it is a long way from being professional. It is difficult to generate interest in the sport, especially amongst the fans. Continue reading The Shankees have come to town
May 6, 2010
Posted by Antonio de la Vega in: Democracy, Economic Crisis, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Freedom, Geopolitical Events, Governance, History, Latino & Hispanic, Mexico, Morality, Native American, Opinion, Politics, Social Aspects, Social Issues, Sociology, Uncategorized, World Issues
La ley SB1070 además de polémica debe encerrar otras razones de fondo, para llevar a la reflexión sobre los temas relacionados con el movimiento de personas en el mundo. [...]
April 29, 2010
Posted by Tim Roux in: Business, Economics, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Geopolitical Events, Governance, History, Homeland Security, Military, Morality, Politics, Terrorism, The Economy, World Issues
War and money have always been inter-related.
After all, you need money to fight a war – it has been argued that all world empires have collapsed ultimately economically because they had to protect too much territory with too little money – and conquest often brings in money. In the past, wars have often been fought to seize resources and enrich the conqueror – ask any passing European colonialist – and a short war generally proves a great stimulus to the economy too.
In feudal times, the king mostly fought wars to keep his otherwise revolting and over-mighty robber barons exhausted but happy. According to feudal law, the barons had to raise the army, but they then got to go on a glorified fox hunt in foreign lands and to return with goodies and rights to land far more valuable than both ears and the tail.
When the feudal system collapsed in the face of the rise of mercantilism in the sixteenth century, the king had to go to Parliament to raise taxes to fund his army, but he still managed to keep his greatest adventurers adventuring on someone else’s doorstep and bringing back the loot.
Not that the formula was infallible. Charles I of England seemingly got it wrong when he declared an unpopular war on Scotland and then tried to raise Ship Money to pay for it. He made the even bigger mistake of stockpiling all these expensively purchased armaments in Hull which subsequently declared for the rebel parliamentarians. However, as the Marxist historian Christopher Hill pointed out, the truth may have been a little different from the way it has been traditionally painted. Continue reading Haliburton – a touch of the medievals?
February 7, 2010
I am not the Manchurian Candidate
by Bob Grant
How can you embrace an enemy of the USA? More important – why would you? If these questions have not been outright asked of me – they have been implied. Why I chose to speak highly of China, and its people, is something that I [...]
January 6, 2010
China and US have taken the lead in saving earth away from the UN and fellow travelers that were bungling the job. [...]
December 2, 2009
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Accountability, Commentary, Current Events, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Governance, Homeland Security, Islam, Military, Opinion, Politics
By Alan Caruba
As I listened to the President address the nation from West Point, I was reminded of how well he can deliver a speech. It’s like watching a slight-of-hand magician. You marvel at his dexterity, but you know he’s still skillfully fooling you.
The speech, given in the Eisenhower auditorium at West Point, reminded me of President Eisenhower, the former general who led allied forces to victory in Europe in World War Two, the man called back to serve his nation, and a man who was hard on the ears when it came to delivering a speech. It made him more human. We forgave him his blunt manner. After all, he had spent his whole adult life in the U.S. Army, taking and giving orders.
Similarly President Bush never seemed all that comfortable giving a set speech, but you knew he meant what he said. You knew he hated the evil of al Qaeda and the Taliban. You knew he despised Saddam Hussein and other enemies of America, of freedom, and human dignity. He was not smooth, not articulate, but he was genuine.
Barack Hussein Obama never spent a day in uniform and something in the area of two years out of six of his first term in the Senate before being launched on the nation as its savior, its messiah. I always found the references to spiritual powers jarring though, like most, amusing in their over-reach. Obama did nothing to discourage the image.
His West Point speech was primarily political. The military elements revealed a get-in and get-out strategy in what has already been a long engagement of the U.S. military in the Middle East. It was filled with talk of NATO partners, Afghani partners, and Pakistani partners, but it also told the enemy that, if they were just patient enough, the U.S. would leave. Continue reading The Open-Ended War
November 8, 2009
Posted by Tim Roux in: African-American, China, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, History, Homeland Security, Islam, Journalism, Latino & Hispanic, Military, Morality, Politics, Religion, Republican, Sociology, Terrorism, Women's Rights
In Britain it is now a criminal offence to make any statement which might incite racial hatred. So, if you go around saying that all Irishmen are stupid or all Welshmen are thieves, then you may well find yourself helping the police with their enquiries and facing a sharp fine or even a term of imprisonment.
Some commentators consider this law to be draconian but it does take a clear political stance and one thing I have learnt over my lifetime is that nearly all racism is neither random nor ‘naturally’ grassroots-derived but rather politically or economically motivated, indeed directed.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, black Africans were slaves or treated as slaves. They were shackled, they died in transit under inhuman conditions, they were worked to death, they were unpaid. How do you justify treating a fellow human being this way? How can it be possible even legally to rape and execute black Africans at whim?
There was a simple answer. Black Africans were not human, they were sub-human. Indeed, they hailed from another, lesser, branch of the human family altogether. And there was no shortage of commentators and pseudo-scientists who popped up to argue that black Africans were so bestial that they were really no different from a cow or a horse, that they were incapable of moral understanding (probably the most obscene argument in history), that they were beyond civilisation and, yes, if you measured their brains they were smaller and lighter than a white man’s. Continue reading Should there be a law against it?
October 24, 2009
Mr. Obama inherited a domestic and global mess the likes of which have not been seen by any of his predecessors. As he tries to sort it all out, he must remember that he was elected as the voters chanted ‘Change’ at every polling booth. ‘Business as usual’ will not be acceptable to them, regardless of how much a spineless Congress wants to maintain the status quo and please their wealthy campaign contributors. [...]
October 16, 2009
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse in: Commentary, Comments & Discussion, Current Events, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Freedom, Geopolitical Events, Heroes, History, Homeland Security, Islam, Military, Morality, Opinion, Religion, Terrorism, The Pundit's Corner
War
During America’s brutal and bloody Civil War, General William T. Sherman said, “War is cruel and you cannot refine it” and “war at best is barbarism.” Sherman is also credited with saying “War is hell.”
Alexander the Great was known to be both a wise philosopher and a fearless conqueror. In the fall of 335 BC, Alexander marched to the gates of Thebes (a Greek city that broke free from his Macedonian empire when Alexander was twenty). He let the people of Thebes know that it was not too late for them to change their minds. The next day, the Macedonians stormed the city killing almost everyone in sight, women and children included. They plundered, sacked, burned and razed Thebes, as an example to the rest of Greece. Alexander did not fight a “refined” war where women and children were spared.
After Alexander conquered the Persian Empire, he ran into trouble in Afghanistan and used the same tactics to quell the rebellious Afghans.
Genghis Khan (1165-1227 AD) was one of history’s more charismatic and dynamic leaders. During his lifetime, he conquered more territory than any other conqueror, and his successors established the largest empire in history. As an organizational and strategic genius, Genghis Khan created one of the most highly disciplined and effective armies known, and this same genius gave birth to the administration that ruled that empire. After he died in 1227, the Mongol armies dominated the battlefield until the empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Adriatic Sea. Genghis Khan, like Alexander, spared no one when he met resistance. When people surrendered, he was benevolent. When they resisted, his armies slaughtered everyone like Alexander’s armies did. Continue reading War
October 13, 2009
Posted by seamus in: Attitude, Current Events, Democracy, Democrat, Economic Crisis, Economics, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, General Topics, Republican, Social Issues, Uncategorized
Back from Italy and bummin’-caught a massive cold….funny, in March I was in the UK and they were really slurping Obama. Same in June in Germany although in July it changed when Merkel said he wasn’t going to ruin the German economy.
Obama is not a happening thing now. Saw Obama voodoo dolls in [...]
October 1, 2009
On a busy news day, CNN took two hours to wet kiss China’s rulers. [...]
September 23, 2009
Posted by Muhammad Cohen in: Current Events, Environment, Environmental Issues, Faith, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Geopolitical Events, Global Warming, Islam, Opinion, The Economy, The Pundit's Corner
The spirit of this holy season for Muslims and Jews, rather than the angry rhetoric of religious zealots on both sides, could help bring peace to the Middle East. [...]
September 18, 2009
The UN and green groups are sabotaging meaningful progress to combat climate change. [...]
September 17, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
What continues to astound me is how wrong the Obama administration is on so many issues. It is not unusual to disagree with some element of the White House agenda, no matter who is president, but I keep looking for something, anything, with which to agree.
This is the price Americans who voted for “change” without actually asking or understanding what that change would be are paying. Most, I suspect, were so fixated on any change that did not include George W. Bush that it was no surprise that Obama’s initial answer to every question in the first few weeks of his term was to blame Bush for “the mess” he encountered.
The problem with that is that every president leaves his successor “a mess” in some respect. For ten years FDR never successfully figured a way out of the Great Depression until World War II solved that problem. When he died, Harry Truman had to conclude the war in the Pacific and did so with two A-bombs. Then he had to save Europe from Soviet ambitions and get the UN off the ground.
When I say “wrong”, I mean that it wasn’t just wrong to try to take over one sixth of the nation’s economy with a grandiose remaking of Medicare, but it was blindly arrogant and stupid. Medicare, heading toward insolvency and riddled with waste, was not the biggest problem to be solved, getting the nation’s financial house in order was. Continue reading Obama: Wrong, Just Wrong
September 11, 2009
Judging people by what they are, instead of who they are, is the mother’s milk of terrorism. [...]
September 7, 2009
Posted by Muhammad Cohen in: China, Current Events, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Geopolitical Events, Islam, Journalism, Minorities, Opinion, Politics, Television, Terrorism, The Media, The Pundit's Corner
China allows international reporting on Uighur unrest because it suits China’s interests. [...]
August 24, 2009
Blame Scotland and Great Britain for freeing the Lockerbie bomber. [...]
August 17, 2009
Posted by seamus in: Accountability, Attitude, Congress, Current Events, Democracy, Economics, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, General Topics, Geopolitical Events, Homeland Security, Military, Morality, Opinion, Social Aspects, Social Classes, Social Issues, The Writer's Corner
With double navy crosses, a distinguished flying cross, a bronze star and three purple hearts, I was singled out by a long haired professor my first week back in college as a baby killer. Welcome home, right? [...]
August 15, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
Referring to a 1990 report in The Economist, the editors recently said, “To revisit the Arab world two decades later is to find that in many ways history continues to pass the Arabs by. Freedom? The Arabs are ruled now, as they were then, by a cartel of authoritarian regimes practiced in the arts of oppression.”
The central problem affecting the Middle East and much of northern Africa where Arabs rule is Islam. The Islam of the Middle East is utterly resistant to change. Not all of the world’s billion-plus Muslims practice Islam with the same intensity as many Arabs do (and we should note, as Iran’s Persians have pursued since their revolution in 1979.)
Trying to understand Arabs is like trying to find one’s way out of one of those cornfield mazes where most turns lead to a dead end. In a recent analysis by Herb Keinon in the Jerusalem Post the lament was familiar. It referred to a meeting in Khartoum after the loss of the 1967 war on Israel in which the participants agreed to the “Three No’s”; no to peace with Israel, no to recognition of Israel, and no to negotiations with Israel.
Reflecting the observations of The Economist, Keinon wrote that Syria still regards its loss of the Golan Heights and its demand for its return as “non-negotiable.” Add to that a meeting of Fatah rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s call for a Palestinian recognition of Israel. This reflects the position of Hamas as well. And, finally, at a recent event at the U.S. State Department Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said that Israel could forget about any confidence-building measures from that nation.
In starkest terms, the Obama administration efforts to “re-set” its relations with the Middle East have hit the same brick wall that all previous administrations encountered. You cannot negotiate with people who have no intention to negotiate. The Israelis cannot find a partner for negotiations with the Palestinians because Fatah and Hamas would far prefer to kill one another than sit down together.
Continue reading The Middle East Maze
August 12, 2009
Posted by AngelaPoseyArnold in: Advice, Current Events, Family, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Freedom, General Topics, Inspiration & Motivation, Lifestyle, Marriage, Relationships, Religion, Self-Help, Social Aspects, Social Issues, Spirituality, Uncategorized, Wellness
A Letter from Your Guardian Angel
Greetings to you, my charge, in the name of The Lord our God and Creator Who lovingly assigned me to you. I am always happy when God sends me to do something really important in your life. Great joy filled my soul last week when I intervened in the car accident you almost had. You knew it was me, didn’t you? You felt the brush of my wings.
There are just a few things we need to clear up. I suppose it is odd for you to get a letter from me, your Guardian Angel, but I can’t wait any longer to serve this message to you.
I bring glorious good tidings of great joy. I know you can’t see me but you know I am there. Remember when your grandmother passed away and you felt my presence? Yes, that was me, sent by God to comfort and protect you. I am always with you. I am in the cool breeze on a hot day, the glint of light in the dark night and the comfort you feel while you praise Him.
I want you to know I am not in the little golden pin you see on lapels throughout your culture. I am surely not a trumpet toting porcelain figurine on the coffee table. I am a messenger and a protector for
you. Everything I do is by command of God. Continue reading A Letter From Your Guardian Angel
August 4, 2009
By Alan Caruba
I could probably make some money if I bet most people they could not tell me where Honduras is and which nations it borders.
It is in the Central American region of nations between Mexico and the Panama Canal. It is bordered by Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
There’s been attention paid to Honduras because its former president, Manuel Zelaya tried to do an end-run around its constitution to become the same kind of president-for-life as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Chavez, whose hero is Fidel Castro, is a flat-out Communist and, of course, he is supporting Zelaya’s return to power.
There was no Military Coup
Zelaya was arrested on June 28 by the Honduras military on the orders of its supreme court that had found him guilty of violating the constitution. The arrest also had the approval of the Honduran congress. This was not a military coup or overthrow as the U.S. State Department would like people to believe. Zelaya was arrested and flown to Costa Rica. He was replaced by Roberto Micheletti, a member of his own party. Continue reading U.S. Supporting Communist Takeover of Honduras
July 26, 2009
 By Alan Caruba I have often wondered why it is such a tiny nation as Israel commands so much news coverage. Having declared its sovereignty in 1948, it is now just over sixty years old.
David Ben-Gurion went on the radio and said, “Two thousand years of wandering have come to an end.”
The name, Israel, means “he who wrestles with God.” The wandering began after the Jews had lived in Israel for over a thousand years, after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple and drove them out in 70 AD.
Israel has fought and won wars intended to annihilate it. Zionism, a new Jewish state, began as the dream in the late 1800s among European and Russian Jews seeking to escape anti-Semitism. It became a place of refuge for Holocaust survivors in the late 1940s and for Jews who were forced to flee Middle Eastern nations.
For a relatively new nation, it has held the attention of the world from the day it was reborn in the sweat and blood of Jews seeking a place where being Jewish was normal, accepted, unexceptional.
To gain an extraordinary insight, I recommend you read Rich Cohen’s “Israel is Real: An Obsessive Quest to Understand the Jewish Nation and its History” ($26.00, Farrar, Straus and Giroux), possibly one of the best books I have read in decades about the astonishing history of Israel from its earliest to the present times. It is filled with stories of the people who built the First Temple and, after the destruction of the Second Temple, as Cohen says, “turned the Temple into a book”, praying for the next two millennia, “Next year in Jerusalem.” Continue reading The Jerusalem Quandary
July 12, 2009
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse in: China, Congress, Current Events, Democracy, Economics, Environment, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Freedom, Geopolitical Events, Military, Morality, Motivation, Politics, Republican, Social Issues, Uncategorized
Is China a danger to the world? This is a topic I have wanted to write about for some time. I suspect my motivation for writing this comes from being sent to Vietnam [...]
June 28, 2009
By Alan Caruba
In the more than four decades of the Cold War following World War Two, a cadre of specialists called “Kremlinologists”, academics, diplomats, and military, developed for the purpose of figuring out what the Soviet Union was doing and how best to counteract it. As often as not, they were wrong. The fall of the Berlin War came as a surprise to them, followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Now we are watching the same thing occur as various “experts” struggle to tell us what is happening in Iran and why.
What I really want to know is why the President of the United States thought it best not to “meddle” with a nation that had taken American diplomats hostage for 444 days, was funding two Middle East terrorists organizations, Hezbollah and Hamas, and striving mightily to become a nuclear power with which to threaten their region and the world.
President Obama’s muted and belated response to the protests in the streets of Tehran by thousands of Iranians was a national and international disgrace. If America will not speak out boldly for liberty and support a popular uprising for democracy, who will?
Continue reading Iran’s Mullahs Threaten the World
June 23, 2009
 By Alan Caruba There are ample reasons why the predominantly young population of Iran has risen up to denounce “the Dictator” otherwise known as the “Supreme Leader”, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his thuggish, incompetent regime.
The one, though, that the Obama administration and the whole of the nation’s mainstream media have overlooked or ignored is the fact that Iran’s neighbor, Iraq, is a functioning democratic state that has held elections safely and without strife for some time now.
Iraq’s citizens, who suffered grievously for three decades under the rule of Saddam Hussein, have now joined much of the rest of the world by virtue of George W. Bush’s conscious decision to transform that nation and, by extension, the Middle East by force of arms. Continue reading The Democracy Next Door to Iran
June 21, 2009
 By Alan Caruba John F. Kennedy, standing in front of the Berlin Wall, said “Ich bin en Berliner” to declare his solidarity with Western Germany, divided from its eastern half by the compromises with the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. Ronald Reagan would later demand, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” as well as declare his solidarity with the Polish people seeking to free themselves from Soviet domination.
I have heard two versions of what President Obama has done in response to the Iranian uprising. One says that he was right to keep a low profile so that the United States would not be blamed for the rebellion against the tyrannical ayatollahs. This, it’s said provides “deniability” in the event the regime successfully puts down the rebellion. The other version says he should be outspoken in his support for the Iranian people.
History will decide whether President Obama has chosen the right course of action, but we know he has already made major efforts to reach out to the “Supreme Leader” and his mullah cronies. Death to the U.S. and Israel has always been the rallying call for the thirty-year-old Islamic revolution. We are the external enemies by which the mullahs assert their right to run Iran. At the same time, by distancing himself from the Israelis, President Obama has let the whole of the Middle East know he has cast his vote for Islam. Continue reading From Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama: A Horror Story
June 18, 2009
By Jack B. Rochester
Is it a coincidence that, within a day of the 60th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell’s prescient novel, 1984, the repressive, dictatorial, Communist Chinese government issues an edict that all imported computers must have its homegrown filtering software installed?
As if Vista wasn’t slow enough to begin with!
Chinese officials say that “unhealthy information” must not be exposed to its people. Under the guise of blocking pornography, this “Green Dam” will block other topics the Communist leaders don’t want, “…Web sites that discuss the Dalai Lama, the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters, and the Falun Gong, the banned spiritual movement,” The New York Times reported.
Jon Zittrain, professor of law at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, says Green Dam can scan all your personal data, working both directions, so to speak: an insidious Big Brother, just like in Orwell’s 1984. You can hear Jon’s views here in an NPR interview. Continue reading Big Brother Redux in China
June 6, 2009
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Accountability, Current Events, Democrat, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Governance, Homeland Security, Military, Opinion, Politics, Terrorism
By Alan Caruba
“In defense of our nation, a president must be a clear-eyed realist. There are limits to the smiles and scowls of diplomacy. Armies and missiles are not stopped by stiff notes of condemnation. They are held in check by strength and purpose and the promise of swift punishment.” I will tell you who said that at the end of this commentary.
D-Day, 65 years ago, was one of many days throughout history that determined the final outcome of a war. I suspect one can attach a great battle to just about every day in the calendar because the history of humanity is one of constant warfare somewhere, anywhere in the world where two men, two families, two tribes, two empires, or two or more states clashed.
The courage that Americans, joined by Canadians, British, Free French, Polish, and other troops showed on June 6, 1944 preserved freedom for a bit longer among the victors, though all of Eastern Europe had to be written off as the bribe to keep Soviet Russia involved. It would ultimately loose 20 million of its people.
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed about 199,000. People forget that the Japanese emperor and the military, though clearly defeated, refused to concede. Continue reading War! War! War!
June 5, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
Some of my favorite science fiction villains are the “shape-shifters” like the cyborg from the 1984 “Terminator” movie. Barack Hussein Obama reminds me a lot of those creatures.
All during the campaign, the use of his middle name was decried as a subtle form of racism, suggesting his Muslim roots, but when he took the oath of office, there it was and, in Cairo, Obama stressed those same roots. Salaam Alaykum everyone!
His Cairo speech, however, was met predictably by his Arab Muslim audience with less than enthusiasm and, as always, the endless complaints by people for whom democracy is an illusion and oppression is a way of life.
Our Commander-in-Cliché did not disappoint anyone by saying anything original. “We have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world we seek.” No kidding! Wow! Obama is under the impression that America and the nations of the Middle East “share common principles—principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.” Continue reading Commander-in-Cliche
June 4, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
In life as in international affairs the rule is to never show weakness. It tends to awaken a bloodlust and too often leads to the worst outcomes.
In the Arab culture this is especially true. They are a pretty cowardly bunch as people go. Their weapon of choice these days is the suicide bomber; some dimwit who thinks 72 virgins are awaiting him. As 9/11 demonstrated, they have developed the sneak attack to perfection and, not surprisingly, the word “assassin” comes from Arabic. Arabs prefer to wage war on the weak and that usually means each other.
They tried destroying Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973. They failed. They were especially unhappy with the protection and friendship America extended, but now they have less reason to be unhappy. They have, they suspect, a Muslim in the White House. A lot of other people suspect that as well. Continue reading Obama’s Magical Muslim Tour
May 27, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
Does anyone believe that we don’t live in an increasingly dangerous world; one in which nuclear weapons are proliferating and worldwide Islamic terrorism threatens our nation and others?
The first months of the Obama administration bode ill for the safety of the United States. Calling on the United Nations to rebuke North Korea for what North Korea has always done, fire off missiles and test atomic bombs, is as useless a response as could be imagined. Consider this approach in light of the administration’s cuts to a much-needed missile defense system for the homeland.
Organizing a serious inspection system of every ship entering or leaving North Korean waters would go much further to reducing its ability to ship its weapons to others with bad intentions. Is it an act of war? Is routinely using U.S. national holidays to demonstrate its belligerence a signal of their intentions? They have already said they do not intend to abide by the 1953 armistice agreement.
What has been Iran’s response to President Obama’s extended hand of friendship? They have sent their warships into international waters, although it can be argued they want to protect the oil tankers on which their economy depends. They have tested new longer range missiles, making it clear they can now target Israel and others in the region. They continue to work on developing nuclear weapons. Continue reading How NOT to Defend America
May 26, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
With yet another meeting between the Prime Minister of Israel and the President of the United States, we are witnessing the world’s oldest and most pointless negotiations, the call for a Palestinian State.
As Dan Greenfield, a freelance commentator, recently pointed out, “For 17 years, Israel, America, and just about every interested party has tried to build a Palestinian state”, noting quite accurately that such a state has existed since the founding of Jordan.
Israel was supposed to be much larger when its borders were originally planned, but Winston Churchill insisted that the Hashemites, a Saudi breakaway clan, be given a big chunk of the land from Great Britain’s Palestine Mandate, a result of the Versailles Treaty after World War I.
It was this treaty that literally divided up the former Ottoman Empire into various colonies of England and France. Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and modern day Lebanon are literally geographic inventions of this treaty. Jordan exists due to the protection and support provided by both Israel and America.
The British who, via the Balfour Letter asserted that a homeland for the Jews was their policy, betrayed the early Zionists seeking a modern homeland in Israel, their ancient homeland, when it carved out a large section of their Palestinian Mandate to be ceded to Jordan. Continue reading The World’s Most Pointless Negotiations
May 10, 2009
Japan, like other countries, tailors its visa regulations to reflect whatever reciprocity it enjoys with each specific country. For instance, in 1988, The U.S. was rather restrictive in issuing work visas to Japanese citizens, so Japan reciprocated with correspondingly strict regulations for Americans. At the time, there were more flexible options available to, for example, citizens of the U.K.
Nevertheless, stricter did not mean strict. The Japanese government required English teachers from the U.S. to have at least a bachelor’s degree, but the degree could be in anything. A B.A. in agricultural entomology or Tibetan Studies would grease the machinery just as effectively as a degree in English or Linguistics.
Bureaucracies are much the same everywhere, but government institutions in Japan seem to have their own personality which distinguishes them from their American counterparts. Two anecdotes come to mind as examples of this difference.
Continue reading Japan: Flavors of Bureaucracy
May 10, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
There are few nations on Earth other than Israel with a greater claim to exist as a homeland for a specific people. Along with China and India, Israel reaches back thousands of years, predating both Christianity and Islam.
For some 3,500 years, Jews have lived in Israel. In good times and bad, Jews have always identified themselves with Israel even when, as a Diaspora, they spread for their survival to many other nations. The re-establishment of Israel on May 14, 1948 led to two immediate events. Within eleven minutes after the announcement, President Harry S. Truman recognized the new nation. Within hours, the Arab League declared war.
With only six hundred thousand Jewish residents at the time, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq joined together to destroy Israel. They failed. They tried again in 1967. They failed. They tried in 1973, attacking on one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur. They failed. Continue reading Israel in the Crosshairs
May 8, 2009
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Accountability, Current Events, Economic Crisis, Environmental Issues, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Geopolitical Events, Governance, Homeland Security, Opinion, Politics, The Pundit's Corner
 By Alan Caruba Whenever I am feeling a bit despondent and need to shake off the mood, I remind myself that I did not vote for Barack Hussein Obama.
The other day, feeling buyer’s remorse, I returned an item I had purchased and requested credit. It looked so good in the catalog, but turned out to be a bad idea. While those who voted for Obama are said to still regard him quite fondly, one suspects large numbers of them are experiencing the same feeling. I, however, did not vote for Barack Hussein Obama.
I did not vote for the feckless lad who sent Air Force One to buzz New York City, accompanied by a fighter jet, neglectful of the panic that would ensue among people who had a sudden frightening flashback to 9/11.
I did not vote for the man whose choices for his cabinet and advisors included tax cheats and others who have been an on-going succession of embarrassments. His science advisor went on record suggesting we shoot stuff into the atmosphere to stop global warming. His Environmental Advisor and EPA Director want to regulate carbon dioxide as “a pollutant” and threat to health. (We each exhale about six pounds of CO2 every day.)
Continue reading I Did Not Vote for Barack Obama
May 4, 2009
Serving Up More U.S. Hostages to Iran
by Alan Caruba
If there is one thing Americans know about Iran it is that Iran takes hostages.
Iran did so from November 4, 1979 until January 20, 1981, holding fifty-two United States diplomats as the Islamic revolution swept over that nation, replacing the Shah with a handful of fanatical ayatollahs preparing the way for the return of a mythical twelfth imam. The scenario for that is the equivalent of Armageddon, involving massive conflicts and death.
The Islamic Revolution that has been roiling the Middle East as a resistance movement to everything modern does not recognize any kind of international laws. Its weapon of choice is terror. The international immunity extended to diplomats is one that is conspicuously ignored by Muslim terrorists. Continue reading Serving Up More U.S. Hostages to Iran
May 3, 2009
Pakistan Implodes
By Alan Caruba
 The wars going on in the Middle East will soon be the entire world’s next war as the fanatic Islamists throughout the region threaten to take over Pakistan and Afghanistan while continuing to wage war in Iraq. If they’re successful, India will be dragged into the full scale battle against the Taliban and al Qaeda. Where it spreads from there is anyone’s guess.
It is a battle between the seventh century of Islam and the twenty-first century of the rest of the world. It is a battle between men who believe that Allah demands it and they are prepared to spend as much time as necessary to achieve victory.
It is a battle in which the United States has been an unwilling participant for a very long time. The jihadists drew blood in Beirut, Lebanon during the Reagan years in the 80s and again when they blew up two U.S. embassies in Africa during the Clinton years. Tellingly, it included an abortive effort to destroy the Twin Towers in 1993. Continue reading Pakistan Implodes
April 28, 2009
By Alan Caruba
If some found fault in George W. Bush’s muscular approach to foreign affairs which included the belief that the entire West had a stake in fighting al Qaeda and the general threat of resurgent Islamic fundamentalism, the policy pendulum has now swung to the view that the United States of America is to blame for everything that is wrong in the world.
Those who think the USA is to blame for 9/11 need read no further. Blaming America now includes “global warming.”
Unfortunately, the United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper deliberately distorted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement at a UN climate change conference to make it sound like the USA was taking responsibility in its words, as the leader “of the world’s polluters.” What Secretary Clinton actually said was that the United States “wants you to grow” and is intent on finding solutions that will allow countries to combat climate change without stunting development.” Continue reading USA Becoming Leading Apologist for Everything
April 28, 2009
By Alan Caruba
If some found fault in George W. Bush’s muscular approach to foreign affairs which included the belief that the entire West had a stake in fighting al Qaeda and the general threat of resurgent Islamic fundamentalism, the policy pendulum has now swung to the view that the United States of America is to blame for everything that is wrong in the world.
Those who think the USA is to blame for 9/11 need read no further. Blaming America now includes “global warming.”
The U.S. has now formally acknowledged that it is to blame for the non-existent “global warming” since it is, as the United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper put it, a leader “of the world’s polluters.” The pollution cited is carbon dioxide, a gas that plays no role whatever in so-called “climate change”, the other name for “global warming.” It is a gas that is vital to all life on planet Earth. Continue reading It’s Official: The USA is to Blame for Everything!
April 27, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
If the first hundred days of the Obama administration have been a blur of legislation, controversy, embarrassing choices to fill top positions, and reversals of the previous administration’s policy, it may well have been too much for the public to absorb.
It was, in my view, very deliberate. The Democrats inside the beltway who held the majority in Congress, now had a Democrat President to advance their agenda. They moved swiftly and, in doing so, they foisted massive trillion-dollar amounts of debt on present and future generations.
Over at the Federal Reserve, they revved up the printing presses and made money out of mere paper. It appears that the government has given away billions of taxpayer’s money without any true accounting as to who received how much. Meanwhile, banks that received TARP money are desperate to return it. Continue reading Too Much, Too Deliberately, Too Dangerous
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