What If G.W.Bush Were President?

I am not a fan of Glenn Beck, but this story is ridiculous. Rather than report the news, reporters would rather create the news.

Media Cross the Line Against Glenn Beck

When you read these next two stories, ask yourself - What if George W. Bush were president? Can you imagine the media going out of their way to protect him after four Americans were murdered on his watch? His administration?

Even the IRS story - imagine it taking place during President Bush's term of office - how quickly would this become a major scandal? Rather, the White House reaction (and consequently the media's reaction) is a disinterested eh, who cares.

Liberal Media Spin Benghazi Scandal to Protect Team Obama

IRS Inquisition Update

Happy Jerusalem Day!

Today is Jerusalem Day, celebrating 46 years of the liberation of Jerusalem. We take for granted the accessibility of our only holy place - the Kotel, the Western Wall - but we must not forget that for 19 long years (1948-1967) we were completely without that access... and the World didn't care.


A LETTER TO THE WORLD FROM JERUSALEM

I am not a creature from another planet, as you seem to believe. I am a Jerusalemite – like yourselves, a man of flesh and blood. I am a citizen of my city, an integral part of my people.

I have a few things to get off my chest. Because I am not a diplomat, I do not have to mince words. I do not have to please you, or even persuade you. I owe you nothing. You did not build this city; you do not live in it; you did not defend it when they came to destroy it. And we will be damned if we will let you take it away.

There was a Jerusalem before there was a New York. When Berlin, Moscow, London and Paris were miasmal forest and swamp, there was a thriving Jewish community here. It gave something to the world which you nations have rejected ever since you established yourselves – a humane moral code. Here the prophets walked, their words flashing like forked lightning. Here a people who wanted nothing more than to be left alone, fought off waves of heathen would-be conquerors, bled and died on the battlements, hurled themselves into the flames of their burning Temple rather than surrender; and when finally overwhelmed by sheer numbers and led away into captivity, swore that before they forgot Jerusalem, they would see their tongues cleave to their palates, their right arm wither.

For two pain filled millennia, while we were your unwelcome guests, we prayed daily to return to this city. Three times a day we petitioned the Almighty: “Gather us from the four corners of the world, bring us upright to our land; return in mercy to Jerusalem, Thy city, and dwell in it as Thou promised.”

On every Yom Kippur and Passover we fervently voiced the hope that next year would find us in Jerusalem. Your inquisitions, pogroms, expulsions, the ghettos into which you jammed us, your forced baptisms, your quota systems, your genteel anti-Semitism, and the final unspeakable horror, the Holocaust (and worse, your terrifying disinterest in it) – all these have not broken us. They may have sapped what little moral strength you still possessed, but they forged us into steel. Do you think that you can break us now after all we have been through? Do you really believe that after Dachau and Auschwitz we are frightened by your threats of blockades and sanctions? We have been to Hell and back – a Hell of your making. What more could you possibly have in your arsenal that could scare us?

I have watched this city bombarded twice by nations calling themselves civilized. In 1948, while you looked on apathetically, I saw women and children blown to smithereens, this after we had agreed to your request to internationalize the city. It was a deadly combination that did the job: British officers, Arab gunners and American-made cannon.

And then the savage sacking of the Old City: the willful slaughter, the wanton destruction of every synagogue and religious school; the desecration of Jewish cemeteries; the sale by a ghoulish government of tombstones for building materials for poultry runs, army camps – even latrines.

And you never said a word.

You never breathed the slightest protest when the Jordanians shut off the holiest of our holy places, the Western Wall, in violation of the pledges they had made after the war – a war they waged, incidentally, against a decision of the UN. Not a murmur came from you whenever the legionnaires in their spiked helmets casually opened fire upon our citizens from behind the walls.

Your hearts bled when Berlin came under siege. You rushed your airlift “to save the gallant Berliners.” But you did not send one ounce of food when Jews starved in besieged Jerusalem. You thundered against the wall which the East Germans ran through the middle of the German capital – but not one peep out of you about that other wall, the one that tore through the heart of Jerusalem.

And when the same thing happened 20 years later, and the Arabs unleashed a savage, unprovoked bombardment of the Holy City again, did any of you do anything? The only time you came to life was when the city was at last re-united. Then you wrung your hands and spoke loftily of “justice” and the need for the “Christian” quality of turning the other cheek.

The truth is – and you know it deep inside your gut – you would prefer the city to be destroyed rather than have it governed by Jews. No matter how diplomatically you phrase it, the age old prejudices seep out of every word.

If our return to the city has tied your theology in knots, perhaps you had better re-examine you catechisms. After what we have been through, we are not passively going to accommodate ourselves to the twisted idea that we are to suffer eternal homelessness until we accept your Savior.

For the first time since the year 70 there is now complete religious freedom for all in Jerusalem. For the first time since the Romans put the torch to the Temple everyone has equal rights. (You preferred to have some more equal than others.) We loathe the sword – but it was you who forced us to take it up. We crave peace – but we are not going back to the peace of 1948 as you would like us to.

We are home. It has a lovely sound for a nation you have willed to wonder over the face of the globe.
We are not leaving. We have redeemed the pledge made by our forefathers: Jerusalem is being rebuilt.
Next year – and the year after, and after, and after, until the end of time – in Jerusalem!

Stanley Goldfoot
Founder Editor
The Times of Israel
August 1969

I Love My Country But Fear My Government

There's a problem. There is a shortage of ammunition out there - and the ammunition that can be found has a higher price tag. Senators Jim Inhofe and Representative Frank Lukas have thankfully noticed.

Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe and Rep. Frank Lucas have introduced a bill that would prohibit every government agency — except the military — from buying more ammunition each month, than the monthly average it purchased from 2001 to 2009. 

The lawmakers say the Obama administration is buying up exceedingly high levels of ammunition in an attempt to limit the number of bullets the American public have access to on the open marketplace.

"President Obama has been adamant about curbing law-abiding Americans’ access and opportunities to exercise their Second Amendment rights," said Inhofe.

"One way the Obama Administration is able to do this is by limiting what’s available in the market with federal agencies purchasing unnecessary stockpiles of ammunition.”

It's a bit crazy. Homeland Security (not the military) has bought 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. A Forbes article puts that into perspective.

... at the height of the Iraq War the Army was expending less than 6 million rounds a month.  Therefore 1.6 billion rounds would be enough to sustain a hot war for 20+ years.  In America.

Somebody needs to explain this. Democrats and even the National Rifle Association are denying "conspiracies" by the Obama administration. Sure, I'm not one who thinks the government is out to get me every day -- but these huge buys of ammunition need to be explained, especially when the store shelves are empty and civilians can't buy a box for their own use.

1.6 Billion Rounds of Ammo for Homeland Security? It's Time for a National Conversation

DHS Seeks Millions More Rounds of Ammunition - what's up with this?

Fun Canadian Stuff

7 Things You Can't Say in Canada

13 Things You Didn't Know About Being Canadian

Top 10 Greatest Canadian Road Trips

The Shot Heard Round the World

238 years ago, on the night of April 18, 1775, British troops made an attempt at gun control by trying to take away the arms of the Colonial American - provoking the American militiaman and resulting in the battles of Lexington and Concord. The beginning of the fight for American independence had begun. This is memorialized in Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem:  Concord Hymn written in 1837.

Enjoy and have a good weekend.

Concord Hymn
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
     Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood;
     And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
     Alike the conqueror silent sleeps,
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
     Down the dark stream that seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
     We place with joy a votive stone,
That memory may their deeds redeem,
     When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

O Thou who made those heroes dare
     To die, and leave their children free, —
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
     The shaft we raised to them and Thee.

Lady Thatcher, "Amateur" Terrorists and Chemical Weapons

RIP Lady Thatcher
Timeline: Margaret Thatcher's Remarkable Life in Pictures
Anger over President Obama's Margaret Thatcher funeral 'snub'
The Texan who stole the show at Margaret Thatcher's funeral

"Amateur" Terrorists
The media keeps portraying the Boston Marathon terrorists as amateurs and recently Vice President Biden even called them "knock-off jihadis". This is stupid. While they were 'only' able to murder three, they injured at least 260 people and at least 14 people had limbs amputated. In the city of Boston a million citizens were locked down during the course of finding these terrorists.

Imagine a dozen "amateurs" on a Saturday night in busy shopping malls spread out across the country... who needs a "professional" terrorist when amateurs would bring bring our way of life to a standstill? Why are we underestimating the 'inspired' Muslim?

Chemical Weapons Used in Syria
They are reporting that it looks like chemical weapons have been used in Syria. President Obama has previously said that such a thing would be a "game changer" - I suppose that means that it would be unacceptable. What's he going to do about it? My answer: Nothing. Just like he'll do nothing about Iran getting a nuclear bomb.

The Boston Marathon Attack

I'll go out on a limb here.

Yes, it was a terrorist attack.

Yes, it was a Muslim group.

It's time to pray for those who were murdered, those who were injured and for the emergency responders.

Israel Memorial Day, Yom HaZikaron

Today is Israel Memorial Day, Yom HaZikaron - the day we remember our fallen brothers and sisters in Israel's military and the civilians murdered in terrorist attacks.

It should be a sad day for all of us, whether living in Israel or in the diaspora. They are defending the State of Israel, our ultimate Homeland. We forget that only 65 years ago, the Jews of Europe had nowhere to go - nowhere to run to - nowhere to hide. No country took them in. The State of Israel did not exist - and the British who administered the area did not allow Jews to enter.

The Land of Israel is our home of 3000+ years. The modern State of Israel is only a recent incarnation of what is already ours. We're here, and we're here to stay.

Please support One Family Fund, a great organization helping those individuals and families hurt by Arab terrorist attacks in Israel.

News Wrap-Up

George W.  and Laura Bush become grandparents
Congratulations!

Justin Bieber says he hopes Anne Frank 'would have been a Belieber'
Dumb

Rebuilt Rat Kidneys May Offer Human Transplant Path
Don't you love science?

The Terrifying Reality of Long-Term Unemployment
How's that stimulus working out for you?

Full Text of 'The Public Safety And Second Amendment Rights Protection Act'
Let's find out what our Congressmen have come up with this time.

Chaplain Emil Kapaun Awarded the Medal of Honor

This is an amazing story about an amazing man.

Army Chaplain Emil Kapaun Recieves Medal of Honor -- this is a must read.

Chaplain Emil Kapaun receives the Medal of Honor posthumously

RIP Margaret Thatcher

What a Lady. The world is a better place because of her.

Margaret Thatcher & the Revival of the West by Ronald Reagan

What the 'Iron Lady' Forged by Jonah Goldberg

Thatcher remembered for her affection for Britain's Jews - JTA

Holocaust Remembrance Day - Have We Missed the Point?

Every year we commemorate the 6 million plus Jews, 1.5 that were children, that were murdered by the Nazis and their sympathizers/bystanders during World War II. This year, Yom HaShoah begins Sunday evening, April 7th and ends Monday evening, April 8th.

While obviously I do not object to the remembrance of our six million brothers and sisters (and the destruction of their children and grandchildren along with them) I wonder if we have missed the point.

Six million Jews were murdered.

These individuals were murdered because they were Jewish - practicing, non-practicing, attended synagogue or not. There was no difference between them. I'm even sure that there were Jews at the time who considered themselves more German than the Germans and were quite surprised to find themselves in line with those Jews with long beards.

The Holocaust was the complete destruction of a third of the Jewish People at the time - our lives, our centers of Torah study, our contributions to secular society, our roots in places that had long been established.

It's easy to "universalize" the Holocaust today - who hasn't heard about various massacres around the globe and seen similarities between them. But if we do - we've missed the point.

We were murdered because we were Jews. That is the point. I think that to commemorate the dead is admirable and easy - but we must take it a step further and take action. It's time to honor those six million Jews by re-dedicating the day to learning about our heritage and history. What does it mean to be a Jew? What does being Jewish have to do with my life?

The Jewish People have been around 3000+ years, certainly not a fly-by-night religion. We've seen empires come and go, rise up and crumble - certainly it's time to give it more than a glance since our bar/bat mitzvah days.

Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day should be more than a moment of silence in our lives - it should be a reminder that we are part of something bigger, something our grandparents were massacred for - let's take some action.

Simple to Remember