Australia Day!!

 

Today is the day our friends and allies in Oz celebrate their country.Australia is one of America's most important and loyal friends in the world. They've fought shoulder to shoulder with America in every conflict since WWI, even in places like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan where they came simply because that's what allies do.

January 26th, 1787 is the day what Australians refer to as the First Fleet returned to Botany Bay, went ashore and established the first settlement in Australia. It was originally intended to be a penal colony.

From that unlikely beginning came the vibrant nation we know today.

 

So let the celebration rock!!

And yeah, it's summer over there now, which means it's beach weather...time for bathing suits, barbecues and beer...

 


 


Australia's veterans come out to honor the country they served so honorably:



It's a national celebration:








Best wishes on Australia Day...many more!

Baseless Hatred - Israel's Ultimate Price Tag

Both the Torah and our own long  history tell us that our biggest danger to Israel is what is called baseless hatred between Jews. Some even link the destruction of Israel's first two commonwealths to that baseless hatred, and not without reason.

There is a Jewish community in the hill country of the Benjamin region of Samaria where an incident occurred recently that sheds some light on how dangerous and destructive this is, a place called Eish Kodesh.

Eish Kodesh is the home of some 30 families and about 100 young children. The vast majority of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria were built on land that was either vacant, legally purchased by Jews before the ethnic cleansing by Jordan in 1948 or on former Jordanian government-owned land. In the case of Eish Kodesh, the land was vacant and uncontested.Since Eish Kodesh is near the Arab village of Kusra, there is a history of friction, vandalism, theft and violence.

On January 7th, a large force of border police destroyed the vineyards and orchards belonging to two of the residents of Eish Kodesh that the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria said had been illegally planted, and confiscated or destroyed privately owned farming equipment belonging to two of the residents with a Disruptive Use Order even though there were no conflicting claims. The damages amounted to over 80,000 NIS.

The Likud's enfant terrible Moishe Feiglin was one of those who donated new trees to replace the uprooted ones.

What happened next is frankly, shocking. Or it should be.

After the destruction at Eish Kodesh, a group of 20 or so young Jewish men, many of whom live in the vicinity decided to take a symbolic hike through the area to show solidarity with their neighbors and to demonstrate to their Arab neighbors that this is their home too, and that they intend to stay. There was no intention of committing any 'price tag' attack by any of the group. They claim that similar hike in the same area had happened just the week before without incident, and the Jewish group was unarmed. They also claim that they were in an area not attached to the Arab village of Kusra, nor did they try to enter the village. This version coincides with the testimony of Pinhasi Brown, one of the group.

What happened is that they were ambushed by an assembled mob of Arabs who forcibly dragged them into an unfinished building at a construction site in Kusra, tied them up and began beating them severely with fists, clubs and pipes. Four of the young men had to be hospitalized afterwards. After about a half hour, soldiers from the Tzahal arrived and managed, after another 90 minutes, to get the Jews released. The beatings continued while the soldiers were present, and they reportedly did nothing to stop them.

While some of the Jews were arrested, none of the Arab mob were taken into custody. The Arabs told the IDF that their captives had come to Kusra to commit a 'price tag' attack. There's absolutely no evidence that they did, and considering that this happened at mid-day and none of the group was armed, it's unlikely that it was. In fact the Arabs of Kusra have a recent history of making false accusations of this kind of thing before.

In view of this, the IDF not intervening to rescue Jews who had been kidnapped and essentially lynched is astounding, as is their failure to take the members of the Arab mob into custody for taking the law into their own hands, if nothing else. Are there two sets of law in Israel now?

Even worse was some of the media reaction. Prominent Channel 10 news editor Dror Zaresky wrote a piece in Maariv-NRG confessing his delight in seeing his fellow Jews beaten and abused:

"The reports in the media and around some of the water coolers,” he wrote, “ran the gamut from just-the-facts to awarding a prize for courage to the Palestinian residents of the village near Shechem who settled a long debt with the youths of the right wing specifically, and with Israel the occupier in general.”

"I will admit the truth: I, too, had to fight the smile that spread on my face when I heard the reports from the village,” Zaresky added. “When I first heard about the 'price tag' action gone bad in the wadis of Samaria, I could not hide my smile. Unlike many of my friends in the media, I do not see these actions as disastrous for the country; proportionality was abandoned long ago, in the way we report these incidents of graffiti and flat tires. And yet, there is no doubt in my mind that the right wing criminals are trying to disrupt the lives of many Palestinians – and on the way, they may just succeed in setting fire to our calm neighborhood in the Middle East.”

Fascinating that Zaresky and his friends, whom call themselves journalists would automatically judge their fellow Jews guilty without any evidence at all, especially in view of the Arab residents  of  Kusra's history of phony claims. But regardless of what happened, this is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about, While Dror Zaresky is certainly free to hate 'right wing criminals' as he puts it, he seems to have no clue about how dangerous this is.

(read the rest here)

French Billboard Company Cancels Jewish Themed Ads Because Of Vandalism

A French advertiser has decided to scale back a campaign for the Jewish oriented dating site JDate after a number of its billboards, similar to the one above  were vandalized with anti-semitic graffiti..

Thierry Courrault, the regional director for JC Decaux, a large French billboard company, told French Jewish news site Le Monde Juif.info. that the company decided to pull 18 billboards out of 100 advertising JDate because of “vandalism against our property, swastika graffiti and broken windowpanes".

"In this very particular current context, it was to avoid the proliferation of such acts,” adding that the decision “was commercial and does not represent any position on the issue.”

No position on Jew hatred? Faire Français pouvez-vous obtenir? (How French can you get?)

Most of the vandalized billboards were located in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre, which has a substantial 'immigrant' population.

On Jan. 19, less than a week ago, the remains of a freshly slaughtered wild boar were found on the doorstep of the Saint-Brice-sous-Foret synagogue north of Paris. The following day, the Chabad synagogue in the western Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt was hit by vandals painting swastikas on its facade.

même chose jour différent

Obama's IRS Still In Action - Against 'Political Enemies'

 

In spite of IRS-Gate, the hunting season on conservative groups is still open, as two of the latest targets show.

Hollywood is overwhelmingly Leftist and Democrat, at least publicly. That's especially true of th epeopl eon the lower rungs of the ladder or who are not established yet, as it's well known that being a Republican or espousing conservative beliefs is a sure way not to get hired.

But there is a small group in Hollywood known as Friends of Abe, a group for conservatives in the entertainment industry. Aside from people who are already established or outed themselves like actors Gary Sinise, Jon Voight and Kelsey Grammer, or the writer-producer Lionel Chetwynd, most of the membership remains secret for the above reasons.

The group recently applied for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status to the IRS, to assist their fundraising. Big mistake, according to the New York Times.

Not only was their application held up far longer than similar Leftist groups, but the IRS launched a formal investigation of the group, demanding “detailed information about its meetings”, a list of members and “enhanced access to the website" which also would reveal members names and personal details about them.According to the Times, the investigation is due to "guests who speak to the group who tend to be conservative."

Friends of Abe doesn't even permit cameras at its meetings, so you can bet the Obama Administration is salivating at the idea of outing the 1,500 or so members.And it's not just audits from the IRS for 'incorrect thought'.

Here's how it works in real life. Actress Maria Conchita Alonso, best known for her role in “Moscow on the Hudson,” had been hired to appear in a Spanish language version of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” in San Francisco - until she made a campaign ad with a conservative California candidate for governor, Tim Donnelly.

She was immediately fired.

Various pro-Amnestia groups threatened to protest the show if she appeared and complainedabout 'raa-aa-cism' even though Alonso is of Cuban descent and Donnelly is married to a Filipina, with a Mexican daughter-in-law.The producer was quoted as saying “We really cannot have her in the show, unfortunately. Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants. But we’re in the middle of the Mission. Doing what she is doing is against what we believe.”

And this is by no means an isolated incident. For instance, conservative-themed films and documentaries routinely have difficulty getting booked at film festivals.

Meanwhile, far-Left groups with 501(c)(3) groups like producer Norman Lear's People For the American Way received and enjoy tax exempt status even though their programs, fund raising and activities are blatantly political. And then there's the blatantly political offerings of theater companies, performance groups and independent filmmakers who also enjoy 501(c)(3) status..and we haven even discussed NPR or Pacifica yet.

The next time you hear Lefties whining about 'McCarthyism', be sure to laugh in their faces. They're the real practitioners of the blacklist mentality they're describing. We really need a good term to describe how the Left wages jihad against those it disagrees with. I like Left wing Stalinist thought control myself.

But wait, there's more. Another famous conservative who has run afoul of the president's IRS goon squad is none other than James O'Keefe and Project Veritas, who brought down ACORN, exposed NPR and Planned Parenthood, union teachers at play in New Jersey and most recently, Wendy Davis' radical supporters bashing her political opponent for being disabled.

As O'Keefe reports, this is a double team effort by both the IRS and Governor 'We don;t want no conservative here' Cuomo, who has unleashed the state's Labor Department on the organization.

According to O'Keefe, Cuomo has been targeting Project Veritas for months now:

Despite the fact that Project Veritas’s finances are meticulously maintained to the penny, Governor Cuomo and the New York Department of Labor is on a witch-hunt, demanding all documents and financials since our founding.

This is nothing more than meritless, politically-driven targeting. Governor Cuomo said it himself – we don’t belong in New York.

Still, we complied with the government and prepared all the requested documentation for a meeting scheduled on December 13, 2013.

But guess what? The New York Department of Labor’s compliance officers never showed up.

That’s because they know we’ve done nothing wrong. Just like the IRS, they are simply intimidating and targeting us.

Now we are being subpoenaed and I must show up in court with accountants and attorneys to prove we’ve done nothing wrong.

Ah, but doing nothing wrong is no longer a defense. Not in Obama's America.

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week's Watcher's Council Results

 

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week's Watcher's Council match up.


“Oh, what a tangled web we weave...when first we practice to deceive.” -Sir Walter Scott, Marmion


“People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt.” ― Otto Von Bismark


“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.” - Walter Lippmann

 

This week's winner, Joshuapundit's Senate Intel Committee: Benghazi Was Preventable,Al Qaeda Was Involved, And The White House Knew It is my analysis of the long delayed Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the Benghazi debacle. Here's a slice:

The bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee finally issued its long-delayed report on the Benghazi attack, and based on what it said, it's pretty understandable why some of the Democrats on the committee strung things out as long as they could and fought over the wording. But some things simply give off too foul a stench for any perfume to make a difference.

The committee’s minority Republicans criticized the White House for obstructing the report, which the committee had wanted to complete much earlier, and openly accused Patrick Kennedy, U.S. undersecretary of State for Management of shielding the Obama administration from Congressional oversight.

Of course, Kennedy was also concentrating on covering his own behind. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) who normally votes with the Democrats an dis the very epitome of bi-partisanship angrily made a point of saying that Kennedy “failed to ensure that a facility he personally approved in December 2011 had the necessary security to match the heightened threat environment.”

The committee's report said that Benghazi was entirely preventable, and that the State Department failed to increase security at the Benghazi consulate in spite numerous warnings. As I've mentioned on these pages before,even the Brits and the International Red Cross had pulled their people out because Benghazi, thanks to President Obama's timely intervention had become a major headquarters for al-Qaeda and other Islamists. Anyone who knows anything about Ansar al Shariah and its connections to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) understood that a long time ago.

The report states, unequivocally: “Individuals affiliated with terrorist groups, including AQIM, Ansar al-Sharia, AQAP, and the Mohammad Jamal Network, participated in the September 11, 2012, attacks.”

The very fact that mortars and other heavy weapons were used points to long time planning. A mortar isn't like a Kalishnikov. It takes training, and it takes time to scope out ranges and angles of fire.

Georgia Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss summarized the report, saying,

“In spite of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi and ample strategic warnings, the United States Government simply did not do enough to prevent these attacks and ensure the safety of those serving in Benghazi.”

Another thing that came out is that the entire 'protest over a video' narrative pushed by the president, Mrs. Clinton, Jay Carney, Susan Rice and goodness knows how many others was an outright lie...and just like ObamaCare, they lied knowingly, although the report doesn't put it in such blunt terms.

What we were told - conveniently after the 2012 elections- is that the original fairy tales about the video and a spontaneous protest occurred because the situation 'was developing.'

It wasn't.

In fact, the FBI interviewed the Benghazi survivors over a three-day period right after the attack, when they were still being prevented from speaking to anyone. None of them reported a protest or a demonstration.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (SC) said that “The FBI confirmed to me that when they interviewed the survivors on the 15th the 16th and the 17th [of September], not one person ever mentioned anything other than a terrorist attack. No one mentioned a protest outside the consulate.”

“So, how could the Obama administration come up with a protest story if everybody on the ground during the attack said it was a terrorist attack and there was no protest?” he asked.

Trust me, the stench increases. Much more at the link.


In our non-Council category, we had a tie between Neo NeoCon with "Wendy Davis: 'empowerment' and the poor little woman; “struggle” and the man" submitted by The Glittering Eye,and Kevin Williamson/NRO for  The White Ghetto submitted by Joshuapundit, a beautiful and haunting portrait of Applachia.

I was torn on this one..I honestly like Wiliamson's piece a lot more personally, but while the totals were the same Neo Neocon got more individual votes among the Council, and it's a really nice piece, so I'm calling it that way,


Here are this week’s full results.

Council Winners

• *First place with 4 votes!-Joshuapundit-Senate Intel Committee: Benghazi Was Preventable,Al Qaeda Was Involved, And The White House Knew It


• Second place with 1 1/3 votes –Simply Jews – Bedouins of Negev


• Third Place *t* with 1 vote– The Right Planet – Hegelian Dialectics for Dummies


• Third place *t* with 1 vote –The Noisy Room – Bolstering the Marxist Vote


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote– Liberty's Spirit – Not Surprisingly US State Department Agrees as UNESCO Cancels Jewish Cultural Exhibit…(Update) Oopsie Foggy Bottom Says “My Bad”


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Bookworm Room – Bleeding heart liberal misses football’s important lessons for our boys


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Razor – Facebook'€™s Culture of Like Breeds Conformity


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Nice Deb – Analysis of Rocket Used in Syria Chemical Attack Shows “Administration Narrative Not Even Close To Reality”


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right! –We Can Pay For an Unemployment Extension with a Day for a Day Delay in Obamacare Mandates


• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Does Barack Obama Seek To Reduce Americans To A State of Slavery?


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Castle Strat


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –The Glittering Eye -Out Of Sight


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Arrow gets it right

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! – Neo-Neocon – "Wendy Davis: 'empowerment' and the poor little woman; “struggle” and the man" submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Second place with 2 votes – Kevin Williamson/NRO – The White Ghetto submitted by Joshuapundit


• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – White House Dossier -The Root of Obama'€™s Imperious Presidency submitted by Nice Deb


• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes -Caroline Glick – The Truth Hurts submitted by Liberty's Spirit


• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote-Kimberley A. Strassel/WSJ –IRS Targeting and 2014 submitted by The Noisy Room


• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote-Western Journalism – The Problems of Women in Combat – From a Female Combat Vet submitted by Watcher


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Mahmoud Salem ( AKA Sandmonkey) – Consequences submitted by Simply Jews


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Rebuilding Freedom – Part1 - Agenda 21, €“ Born in America, Raised by the United Nations submitted by The Right Planet


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Ace of Spades HQ-Common Core is pretty dumb submitted by Bookworm Room


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -PJ Tattler – Has Wendy Davis’ Charmed Run for Governor Started to Implode? (Update: Meltdown) submitted by Rhymes with Right


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Douglas Ernst – ‘White Privilege’ artist: Does it exist, or do I simply lack critical thinking skills? submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Rick Moran/American Thinker – Think it's hard signing up for Obamacare? Try getting out of it submitted by VA Right!

See you next week! Don't forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week's Watcher's Forum, as the Council and their invited guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in...don't you dare miss it. And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!

The Real Issue On Wendy Davis

I haven't had much to say about the controversy surrounding Wendy Davis, the Democrat candidate for governor of Texas, Wendy Davis. But then it occurred to me that what's going on here reveals something about the state of our politics.

It's been revealed that she's been, well, less than honest about her background.

Ms. Davis first came to prominence when as a state senator she performed a one-woman filibuster against the new Texas abortion law. She became an absolute darling of the Left, not just for opposing any limits on abortion on demand (about which more later) but for her supposed biography, a gutsy single teenage mom living in a trailer who earned her way to Harvard, a law degree and political office.

Except it was all, as the Dallas Morning News revealed, 'blurred'. Or as I might less genteelly phrase it, sheer horse manure.

Wendy was actually 21, not 19 as she claimed when she got a divorce from husband #1 and moved back into her parent’s trailer park home, where she lived only a few months before finding an apartment of her own for herself and her daughter.

So we go from a feisty teenaged mom who fought her way out of a trailer park on her own to an adult who moved back in with mom and dad for a few months before moving on. Not only that, but Wendy testified under oath, in a federal lawsuit regarding redistricting, that she was 19 when she got divorced. That's called perjury, and it reveals a certain lighthearted regard for truth in someone sworn to uphold the law..which is definitely not a good thing.

Jeff Davis, Wendy’s second husband, was a lawyer 13 years older than her when they married soon after she moved out of her parent's trailer. In fact, he was a friend of her father's and she got Dad to make the pitch to him and dangle Wendy in front of him. He paid her way through two years of Texas Christian University and then through Harvard Law while Jeff Davis became a single parent, caring for both her daughter by her first husband and a second daughter they had shortly after they were married while she was at Harvard.Davis took out hefty loans in his own name and even cashed out his 401(K) to pay her way through school...after which Wendy divorced him, literally the day after Jeff Davis wrote his final check to pay off her student loan:

Jeff Davis said that was right around the time the final payment on their Harvard Law School loan was due. “It was ironic,” he said. “I made the last payment, and it was the next day she left.

In his initial divorce filing, Jeff Davis citied adultery on her part, but the final court decree smoothed things over and made no mention of any infidelity, granting the divorce “on the ground of insupportability.” Once she and Davis were divorced, Ms. Davis handed over full custody of their daughter to her now ex-husband,(the daughter from her earlier marriage was 21 by then) stating that he was a “nurturing father” and that it was just “not a good time” for her.

In fairness, Wendy Davis claims she helped pay for her college and law school, although her website (at least the last time I looked) claims “With the help of academic scholarships and student loans, Wendy not only became the first person in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree but graduated first in her class and was accepted to Harvard Law School.”

No mention there of Jeff Davis, who won't comment now and says he has been told not to talk to reporters any more.

With kids involved,that's understandable.

After she graduated from Harvard in 1993, Wendy Davis started her own law practice. Although she says, “I was a vibrant part of contributing to our family finances from the time I graduated to the time we separated in 2003”, most of her income came from work she was given by her husband at the title company he founded.

When the company was sold as part of the divorce, she took him for half of it, even though it was Jeff Davis who funded and financed the company.

So what is all this leading up to?

Most politicians lie. That's why so many of them have practiced as liars, er, lawyers. And goodness knows,given who's in the Oval Office these days, that bar has been lowered quite a bit.

But what bothers me here is not a little image enhancing, but the way that image enhancing fits against the truth. And especially, what that truth shows.

Wendy Davis is being sold as a model of the New Woman, a gutsy little self-achiever who got where she is through her own hard work and perseverance, a compassionate progressive who cares about people.

Actually, it pretty much seems like she got where she got to through an older man's money and influence. And once she'd milked that, she dumped him, leaving the baggage of her daughter behind for some one else to take care of while she moved on to better, more exciting endeavors, doesn't it?

Frankly, if she was just campaigning on issues and hadn't made the bio such a big part of her story that would have been something else. As it is, it looks like what we have here is another Hillary Clinton-style serial prevaricator.

And to be honest, her claim to fame, that filibuster against the very moderate Texas Abortion law fits into the same pattern

The law didn't criminalize abortion. All it did,after a couple of Dr. Gosnell style horror stories shocked Texans throughout the state was to mandate the abortion doctors meet certain minimum standards and have practicing privileges at a hospital, essentially a screening device to try and guard against the Dr. Gosnells and their chambers of horror.. It also limited abortion resulting from consensual sex that did not endanger the life of the mother to 20 weeks....5 months.

At 5 months, an infant has a totally developed nervous system and is fully capable of feeling pain when his or her skull is punctured, the brains are vacuumed out and what's left is dragged out of the womb by forceps. What Ms. Davis was filibustering for  was not only a continuation of that practice but for the right to abort infants in that fashion at any point during pregnancy for any reason. And for a lot less accountability for the doctors and clinics that perform them.

So much for being the children's advocate she claims to be.

And compassion? Aside from her tender regard for the unborn,  for someone who, in ProgSpeak frequently talks about the greed of the rich and how  everybody needs to contribute their fair share and show empathy for the less fortunate, she's a mite challenged when it comes to charitable giving herself.

Another example of her compassion for others was this gem, accusing her opponent, Attorney General Greg Abbot of being behind her unraveling narrative:

“I am proud of where I came from and I am proud of what I’ve been able to achieve through hard work and perseverance. And I guarantee you that anyone who tries to say otherwise hasn’t walked a day in my shoes.”

Actually, Greg Abbot hasn't been able to do much walking in anyone's shoes for some time...as Ms. Davis knows full well:



Now, this is a Texas election, and I am not a Texan. But if I were, this is not the sort of person I'd want held up to my daughters as a role model, let alone who I'd want running my state, especially when things are going quite well without her.

The ancient Greeks said it quite well...'Character is destiny'.

And that's the real issue.

UPDATE: A fairly high profile group of Davis supporters was caught on video mocking AG Greg Abbot's use of a wheelchair:



Battleground Texas, a nationally funded Democrat organization with direct funding from President Obama's Organizing for America and the DNC is the group the Davis supporters caught making the comments belong to.They naturally denied the video was real. Of course, they always say that about James O'Keefe and Project Veritas, don't they, and they're always shown up as liars.

Davis,of course, issued a statement condemning the language used in the video, although her campaign slogan,“Stand With Wendy” is pretty much a direct slur at Abbott. I liked the reply he made in an interview with Megyn Kelly:

Denigrating the disabled is unworthy of Texas….What Texans really look at is the depth of character. There’s a reason why I have been elected statewide in Texas five different times. That’s because Texans know I have the quality and depth of character to represent their families and their values.

When Kelly pressed Abbott about allegations that Davis’s entire “Stand With Wendy” campaign is misleading the people of Texas, he didn't unload on her,but merely said that it is up to voters to make that judgement.

I think that was exactly the right tone to take. As for Wendy Davis? Well, I think you know what I think.

Iran: We Did Not Agree To Dismantle Anything

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif can well afford to laugh at how Iran once again fooled the gullible West.

In response to comments from Washington about supposed Iranian concessions, Zarif in an interview told CNN that the so-called interim agreement was nothing like the White House was describing it.

“The White House tries to portray it as basically a dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program,” he said, speaking from Davos, Switzerland, where he is attending the World Economic Forum. “If you find a single, a single word, that even closely resembles dismantling or could be defined as dismantling in the entire text, then I would take back my comment.”

Zarif repeated that “we are not dismantling any centrifuges, we’re not dismantling any equipment, we’re simply not producing, not enriching [uranium] over 5%.”

If you'll remember,that infamous White House fact sheet released last November According to a White House fact sheet released in November said specifically that the interim deal mandates that Iran halt all uranium enrichment beyond 5% and “dismantle the technical connections required to enrich above 5%.”

The reason the last part of that is important is that ramping up the centrifuges to weapons grade is no major deal provided the equipment is still there, hooked up and functioning. In fact thanks to the three month delay, not only have the Iranians been appeal to destroy evidence of what they were up to and conceal anything they don't want the West to see, they had 3 months to add to their stockpile of weapons grade uranium. The last time I checked, back in November, they had a stockpile of 440 pounds of 20 percent-enriched uranium, a form that can be quickly upgraded for weapons use. That's within spitting distance of what's needed for a nuclear weapon, and based on their previous track record the Iranians might well have a lot more than that hidden away.And there's no way of knowing how much they have after three months.

Whoopsie.

Here's the bottom line,just as I wrote last November when this craven appeasement first surfaced. The Iranians have given up virtually nothing in exchange for President Obama destroying the sanctions regime which took years to put in place,as well as legitimizing the present regime and throwing them a financial lifeline of billions of dollars.

We will live to regret it.

Israel Thwarts Al-Qaeda Attack On U.S. Embassy

Israel's Shin Bet thwarted a major terrorist attack by al-Qaeda using Palestinian Arabs and hard core terrorists from the Caucasus with fake Russian passports.

The targets were the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, the Jerusalem Convention Center and buses on the Jerusalem-Maaleh Adummim route.

The plan was to have suicide bombers attempt to blow themselves up in the entrance to the US embassy in Tel Aviv,and to coordinate that attack with a simultaneous assault on buses riding on the Maaleh Adummim-Jerusalem line.

The Jerusalem National Convention Center was also to be targeted by suicide bombers in a classic jihadi combo, one bomber to blow himself up inside the building a second one detonating a truck bomb as people tried to flee the first explosion and police and medical personnel arrived to increase the casualties.

Three of the conspirators are in custody, while a fourth is still being sought.

Ayad Abu-Sara, an Arab resident of East Jerusalem, was to be sent to Syria to receive training for the planned attacks. His role was to assist and to look after a group of terrorists arriving from Russia with false papers.

e would then facilitate the twin attacks, which were to be carried out by al-Qaeda operatives entering Israel with Russian paperwork, according to the Shin Bet. Abu-Sara is one of the trio now under arrest.

According to the Shin Bet a Gaza-based al-Qaeda operative, Oreib al-Sham, was the point man for the attacks. Al-Sham is still at large.

A second recruit, Rubin Abu-Najma, is a married father of four from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tor.Al-Sham recruited him to attempt to kidnap an IDF soldier from the central bus station in Jerusalem and to aid in the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv attacks. According to my sources, he may have been the one chosen to set off the truck bomb at the Convention Center. He apparently sang a real aria to the Shin Bet, revealing where he had trained and the set up of the plot.

Jihadi #3 is Ala Anam, a 21-year-old resident of Aqaba, a town near Jenin in the Arab occupied area of Judea and Samaria.

All 3 men revealed that Al-Sham contacted them via social media over the internet.

Even more interesting, current al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri is reportedly to have taken a hand in planning this personally.

It's not too difficult to figure out al-Qaeda's strategy here, since it comes from Mohammed and the Qu'ran. The idea is multiple attacks on high profile targets, to erode any feeling of safety or security
in the target area.

In spite of our president's chest thumping, al-Qaeda is hardly 'on the run.' In fact, due to his actions, they're far stronger and better armed than they were before he took office.

Canadian PM Harper’s Moving Pro-Israel Speech Brings The Jew Haters Out

After Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's moving speech in Israel, it didn't take long for the haters to crawl out from under their rocks.

The above cartoon was penned by “Aislin,” the pen name of The Montreal Gazette editorial cartoonist Christopher Terry Mosher and the implications are obvious, that PM Harper and the Canadian Government are lackeys 'controlled by the Jews'.

This is the sort of stuff (and far worse) that runs routinely in the Arab world, usually with a hook-nosed stereotypical Evil Jew as a puppeteer,animal trainer, or something of that ilk.

Nor, as one of my Canadian readers informs me is it the first time Christopher Terry Mosher has given flight to his anti-semitic fantasies.In 1982, during Israel's war in Lebanon against PLO terrorists, he penned a cartoon showing Menachem Begin as a vampire bat with fangs, flying along holding bombs in his “talons” with the caption reading “torah, torah, torah.”

I can guarantee you he never drew a cartoon of Mohammed beheading someone and screaming 'Allahu Akbar!'

As to the foul, traditionally anti-semitic canard of PM Harper being a 'lackey' of the Jews, he made clear that while his love and feelings of friendship for Israel are deep and sincere, it is not a love that's blind, but a partnership based on similar values, goals and aspirations.

But apparently even that is too much for Mosher and people that think like him.

(read the rest here)

This Weeks' Watcher's Council Nominations - Black And White Edition

Welcome to the Watcher's Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the 'sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.

Council News:
I recently started writing for The Times of Israel. Anyone interested in checking out my opening salvo,entitled "Blaming the victim, with the best of intentions" can find it here.

Ch-ch-ch-changes..This week, we bid farewell to our dear friends and Council mates The Mellow Jihadi and The Political Commentator. It has been great having them on the Council and they will both be sorely missed, although they will remain members of the WoW community. So we hope to hear from them and see them weigh in on the Forum from time to time.

On the flip side, that also means that there are two Council seats up for grabs. These tend to fill up quickly, so if you think you might be interested in joining the Council and want more information on what's involved, please leave your name, the name of your site and your e-mail address anywhere in the in the comments section ( which won't be published) over at Joshuapundit.


This week, Ask Marion and The Blue Ridge Forum earned honorable mention status with some great articles.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

To bring something to my attention, simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won't be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out Wednesday morning

Simple, no?

It's a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let's see what we have this week....

Council Submissions

• Liberty's Spirit – Not Surprisingly US State Department Agrees as UNESCO Cancels Jewish Cultural Exhibit…(Update) Oopsie Foggy Bottom Says “My Bad”
• The Noisy Room – Bolstering the Marxist Vote
• Simply Jews – Bedouins of Negev
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Castle Strat
• Joshuapundit-Senate Intel Committee: Benghazi Was Preventable,Al Qaeda Was Involved, And The White House Knew It
• VA Right! - We Can Pay For an Unemployment Extension with a Day for a Day Delay in Obamacare Mandates
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Arrow gets it right
• The Glittering Eye -Out Of Sight
• The Right Planet – Hegelian Dialectics for Dummies
• Bookworm Room – Bleeding heart liberal misses football’s important lessons for our boys
• The Razor – Facebook'€™s Culture of Like Breeds Conformity
• Nice Deb – Analysis of Rocket Used in Syria Chemical Attack Shows “Administration Narrative Not Even Close To Reality”
• Rhymes With Right – Does Barack Obama Seek To Reduce Americans To A State of Slavery?

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion - Protecting Hillary…
• Blue Ridge Forum - NEW: Crucial WSJ Report! Tea-Party-Gag Rule: Will Appropriators Wolf & Harris Push Back?

Non-Council Submissions

• Caroline Glick – The Truth Hurts submitted by Liberty's Spirit
• Kimberley A. Strassel/WSJ –IRS Targeting and 2014 submitted by The Noisy Room
• Mahmoud Salem ( AKA Sandmonkey) – Consequences submitted by Simply Jews
• Rich Lowry/NRO – The Left can’t stand "Lone Survivor" submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Kevin Williamson/NRO – The White Ghetto submitted by Joshuapundit
• Rick Moran/American Thinker – Think it's hard signing up for Obamacare? Try getting out of it submitted by VA Right!
• Douglas Ernst – ‘White Privilege’ artist: Does it exist, or do I simply lack critical thinking skills? submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Neo-Neocon – "Wendy Davis: 'empowerment' and the poor little woman; “struggle” and the man" submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Rebuilding Freedom – Part1 - Agenda 21, €“ Born in America, Raised by the United Nations submitted by The Right Planet
• Ace of Spades HQ-Common Core is pretty dumb submitted by Bookworm Room
• TPNN –Democrat Wendy Davis, Candidate for Governor of Texas, Caught in Major Lies submitted by The Razor
• White House Dossier -The Root of Obama'€™s Imperious Presidency submitted by Nice Deb
• PJ Tattler – Has Wendy Davis’ Charmed Run for Governor Started to Implode? (Update: Meltdown) submitted by Rhymes with Right
• The Federalist – The Dozen Funniest Variations of Obama’s Pajama Boy Propaganda submitted by The Watcher
• Western Journalism – The Problems of Women in Combat – From a Female Combat Vet submitted by Watcher

Enjoy! And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!

The Navy's New Weapon - The Underwater Drone

What you're looking at above could end up changing naval warfare as radically as the submarine and the aircraft carrier did. It's a Slocum Glider, one of the Navy's brand new weapons - an underwater drone.

The Navy's idea was to be able to do underwater what drones have been been doing in the sky: recon stealthily for long periods of time, and gather intel. Attack crones may be only a step away.

Even more amazing, the underwater drones require no refueling, because they are designed to be powered by the ocean’s thermocline, the layers of warm water near the surface and colder water below.The glider changes its density depending on which layer its in which makes the 5-foot (1.5m)drone either rise or sink, something the Navy calls hydraulic buoyancy. Its wings use the up-and-down motion to create a forward speed of about a mile (1.6 km) an hour. At regular intervals the drone is programmed to regularly approach the surface, and an air bladder in the tail inflates to stick an antenna out of the water so it can transmit data.

The use of the drones in scoping out an enemy coastline, tracking surface ships and finding submarines looks to be invaluable in making the ocean, the coastline and the area beneath the surface an open book.

The one drawback I think will have to be worked on is the relatively slow speed....perhaps with a small fueled booster designed to be used to escape capture or destruction in an emergency,or a remote self destruct trigger.

The drones are named for Captain Joshua Slocum, famous for sailing alone around the world in a 37-foot sloop in the late 19th century.They're capable of being programmed to use a variety of sensors and as you can imagine, they're far cheaper to operate than normal fuel powered ships. There is even some research going on regarding the feasibility of launching the gliders via submarine torpedo tubes, making a single submarine an intel and espionage center that could cover a whole ocean sector.

I can almost guarantee you that we're going to hear more about these amazing devices.

Rape, Murder And Sometimes, Justice

The man pictured above is Dennis McGuire.

He recently made the news when he was executed by the State of Ohio because he took between 15-20 minutes to die, instead of the usual 2 to 8 minutes.

The reason was because the State of Ohio was unable to procure the drugs normally used in executions when the manufacturer took them off the market, so they used intravenous doses of the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone instead.His attorneys had argued against it, saying that he would suffer 'air hunger', where someone experiences immense terror and agony as they strain for breath.

That appears to be what happened.

McGuire's daughter, Amber, who watched her father die, called what she experienced the "agony and terror" of watching her father die as he appeared to gasp in his final moments Thursday. Just a coincidence I'm sure, but she used the used the same words McGuire's attorneys used in trying to stay his execution. She also described what happened to her father as "torture", another term her father's attorneys used prexiously. They of course are going to sue the state.

McGuire had a pretty good day up until then. He ate his final meal, which consisted of roast beef, a cream cheese bagel, fried chicken, potatoes two ways, butter pecan ice cream and Coca-Cola. He skipped a shower and breakfast the following morning and had a final visit with his children before the scheduled execution.

He arrived at the place of execution and spent the night writing letters, phoning his mother and sister and visiting with his son and daughter. In other words, he had ample time to prepare for his death, and even told his family, ‘I’m going to heaven, I’ll see you there when you come.’

This all seems poignant and heart rending...until you find out the whole story.

The picture in the lower right hand corner is a photo of 22-year-old Joy Stewart .

She was a newlywed, pregnant with her first baby. In 1989, in Preble County in western Ohio she was kidnapped, raped, sodomized, choked and finally stabbed and left to bleed slowly to death, along with her unborn child.

The crime remained unsolved for 10 months until McGuire, arrested on an unrelated assault charge tried to improve his situation by ratting out a totally innocent person,telling the police he had information about the rape and murder. The man he tried to implicate was none other than his own brother-in-law.

McGuire's story soon fell apart, and he was tried and convicted. I won't even soil these pages by telling you about the excuses and strategies his lawyers used to try and get him off, or at least plea bargain. Ten years later, while he was still on death row, his guilt was confirmed by DNA evidence and he finally admitted raping Joy Stewart and and murdering the young mother and her child in a letter to Ohio governor John Kasich asking -wait for it- for clemency and mercy. Kasich, being a decent man refused.

Much is being made of the terror and pain Dennis McGuire suffered because of the 'air hunger' method of his execution, and as I mentioned, McGuire's family will almost certainly attempt to sue the state to collect on it.

But just imagine, if you will, the terror and pain Joy Stewart suffered..being kidnapped,brutally raped and sodomized, choked repeatedly and then stabbed and left to bleed to death. Imagine how she felt knowing she would never see her husband or her family again, that her baby would die with her and that she was helpless to protect that child. Unlike McGuire, she had no opportunity for that last goodbye, or to prepare herself for death.

I have long been an advocate for capital punishment,because it provides closure for the ones left behind, because it ensures no repeat offenses and because the pain and fear involved back when hanging or the electric chair was commonly used provided a deterrent. The current painless 'drug cocktail', together with the years of life now given to murderers because of the amount of time it takes to execute someone has pretty much evaporated any deterrent factor that existed.

Except this time, when for 15 or 20 minutes Dennis McGuire actually felt something of the pain and terror he put his victim through. That's called justice. As a society, we seem to have largely forgotten the meaning of justice, substituting the language of grievance and entitlement instead.

Before the execution, the victim's sister commented, ‘There has been a lot of controversy regarding the drugs that are to be used in his execution, concern that he might feel terror, that he might suffer.I know she [her sister] suffered terror and pain.'

‘He is being treated far more humanely than he treated her.’

I totally concur.

You see, not only do I not care that he suffered, I'm actually glad that he did, at least to that extent. And while things like drawing and quartering or the rack obviously go too far, I have no problem with anyone suffering the amount of pain and terror McGuire did during a death penalty execution. He richly deserved it, and if more murderers did, we would have far fewer of them.

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert Asks Netanyahu To Call For A Day of 'Prayer and Fasting' To Protect Israel

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert is a long time friend of Israel and the Jewish people. Here he relates while speaking at the South Carolina Tea Party Convention how he asked Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu to call for a national day of prayer and fasting to protect Israel.

Gohmert told the audience that he told Netanyahu that the United States was pushing Israel “into a corner,” (referring to the Obama Administration's pressure for concessions to Abbas and the Palestinians) and warned Israel was going to see “a couple of crises this year.”

Gohmert said he told Netanyahu that he should call for nationwide prayers.

“And I know you’ve got secularists, and I called off a couple, that you have to deal with here and tell them this is not for you, it is only for people who believe, but I’m declaring a national day of prayer and fasting in this crisis for G-d’s direction and protection, and for all of those who believe,” he explained. “And I said, I promise you God will answer that prayer, the secularists will hear, the world will see, and even people in the United States will see, and Israel will be blessed because of you doing that.”

I agree with him, and I hope Netanyahu follows his advice.

The Maple Leaf And The Mogen Dovid - PM Harper Comes To Israel

 

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Israel today on a long-awaited visit to the Holy Land. He and the Canadian government have long been one of the staunchest supporters of Israel in the world, a major change from Canada's stance under the Left wing liberals.

PM Harper first announced the visit at a Jewish National Fund dinner in December, calling Israel “a light of freedom and democracy in what is otherwise a region of darkness” and pledged that the Jewish state “will always have Canada as a friend.”

That will almost certainly be true under Canada's conservative government. PM Harper's press release issued by his office about the trip referred to Israel as the “Jewish State of Israel”, and when a Muslim Brotherhood front, The National Council of Canadian Muslims angrily objected to the inclusion of Toronto Rabbi Daniel Korobkin as part of the Canadian delegation merely because he had spoken at the same event with Pam Geller and Islamic scholar Robert Spencer, Jason MacDonald, the prime minister’s communications director, told them essentially to take a long walk on a short pier:

“We will not take seriously criticism from an organization with documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas,” MacDonald said. “The delegation accompanying the prime minister to the Middle East includes a range of stakeholders from various business, religious and community organizations.”

Rabbi Korobkin, by the way, is the senior rabbi at Beth Avraham Yoseph Congregation, the largest Orthodox congregation in Canada, and is a former regional vice-president of the Rabbinical Council of America.

When PM Harper addressed the Israeli Knesset, his message was crystal clear...that Canada supports Israel because it is both morally and strategically right, denounced 'antri-Zionism' and said that ‘Through fire and water, Canada will stand with you.’

He praised both the Canada-Israel free trade agreement and Canada's security cooperation with Israel.

The full text of his speech can be found here. It is worth reading.

Part of this comes from PM Harper's solid Christian faith, and part of it simply from what he refers to as a Canadian tradition, "to do something for no reason other than it is right even when no immediate reward for, or threat to, ourselves is evident."

And on top of that, he remains balanced, committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state, but as he put it, “I believe, we share with Israel a sincere hope that the Palestinian people and their leaders… will choose a viable, democratic, Palestinian state, committed to living peacefully alongside the Jewish state of Israel.

“As you, Prime Minister [Netanyahu], have said, when Palestinians make peace with Israel, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations — it will be the first.

“Sadly, we have yet to reach that point.

“But, when that day comes, and come it must, I can tell you that Israel may be the first to welcome a sovereign Palestinian state, but Canada will be right behind you."

PM Harper received a standing ovation from Israeli PM Netanyahu and the entire Knesset..except for the Arab members, who briefly heckled the speech and then walked out.

In visiting Ramallah and speaking with the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, he likewise urged him to make peace with what he called 'the Jewish State of Israel', something Abbas has said repeatedly he will never do. Therein, of course, lies the problem.

But there's no doubt that the relationship between Israel and Canada is strong and will become st4ronger, to the benefit of both nations.

Putin Vs. Obama - A Head To Head Comparison

Enough said....

(h/t, Bookworm Room)

AG Holder To Prohibit Federal Agents From Considering Religion, National Origin, Immigration Status In Investigations

 

Our attorney general is in the process of issuing new 'guidelines' that will make it a lot harder for federal agents to catch Islamist terrorists, illegal aliens and probably foreign espionage agents.

The Justice Department will significantly expand its definition of racial profiling to prohibit federal agents from considering religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation in their investigations, a government official said Wednesday.

The move addresses a decade of criticism from civil rights groups that say federal authorities have in particular singled out Muslims in counterterrorism investigations and Latinos for immigration investigations.[...]

Since taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been under pressure from Democrats in Congress to eliminate those provisions. “These exceptions are a license to profile American Muslims and Hispanic-Americans,” Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said in 2012.…

“Putting an end to this practice not only comports with the Constitution, it would put real teeth to the F.B.I.’s claims that it wants better relationships with religious minorities,” said Hina Shamsi, a national security lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Adding religion and national origin is huge,” said Linda Sarsour, advocacy director for the National Network for Arab American Communities. “But if they don’t close the national security loophole, then it’s really irrelevant.”

Ms. Sarsour said she also hoped that Mr. Holder would declare that surveillance, not just traffic stops and arrests, was prohibited based on religion.

It is huge, and I'll just bet she hopes that all surveillance on jihadi mosques here in America ends. So do a great many Islamists with terrorist attacks or illegal fund raising in mind.

Remember just what a great idea it is when the next Boston Marathon-style bombing takes place. Elections have consequences.

Obama: 'Racism Is Why My Approval Rating Is Down'

Remember, nothing is ever his fault.

President Barack Obama said that racial tensions may have softened his popularity among white voters within the last two years, according to a story posted on the New Yorker magazine’s website today.

“There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black president,” Obama said in the article by David Remnick, appearing in the magazine’s Jan. 27 edition.

“Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black president,” Obama said in his most direct comments on how race has affected his political standing since he’s been in office.

No...really? Of course utter incompetence, fiscal irresponsibility, ObamaCare and scandals like Benghazi, Fast and Furious and using the IRS as his personal goon squad have nothing to do with anything.

This is his response to a Gallup poll rating of 39% approval, 53% disapproval.

Must be raa-aa-acism. When in doubt, pull out the card. It's certainly worked well so far.

Me? I'd say, to paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that this president is upset over being judged by the content of his character..but he blames it on his skin color.

Blaming The Victim, With The Best of Intentions

My latest is up at the Times of Israel. Here's a slice:



It's been said with a great deal of truth that the way to Hell is paved with good intentions.Equally true is that your friends can do you far more harm than your worst enemy, even without perhaps realizing it.

Judea Pearl is the father of murdered reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and beheaded by jihadis in Pakistan in 2002 and who now dedicates himself to the Daniel Pearl Foundation and the mission self-described on its website, "to promote mutual respect and understanding among diverse cultures through journalism, music, and dialogue."

Recently, he commented on the boycott of Israeli academics and universities by the American Studies Association (ASA). And  for all his obviously good intentions, those comments show that Judea Pearl has unfortunately  swallowed a healthy dose of anti-Israel narrative, whether he realizes it or not. Parsing this is valuable as a teachable moment, because  he's not alone.

Pearl mentioned quite rightly that two of the common responses to the ASA boycott are unhelpful - the notion that Israel is being unfairly targeted when there are far worse offenders out there, and that Israel is aware of its 'crimes' and is working to rectify them.

Yes, he has that correct, although the spectacle of a Dutch pension fund divesting from Israeli banks over Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria while still continuing to invest in Chinese banks in Tibet makes for interesting speculation on their real motives.

But as he continues, Pearl slips into the narrative of explaining that Israel's occupation was really not intentional, that what he calls the occupation is ugly and unsustainable, and what he refers to as Israel's 'forced presence' needs to end with an agreement to end the conflict.

What Pearl is really doing, whether he realizes it or not is even more deadly then the BDSers, because it's phrased with such reasonable sounding terms.

It's time to recognize a few basic truths here.

In 1948 and in every war since, the Jews were literally fighting for their lives.The Arab objective was never simply to just take over territory, but annihilation.When Palestinians talk today about the nakba of 1948,it's important to remember that what they are mourning is a failed genocide. It's high time this was said, and repeatedly so that it sinks in. The UN declared Israel a state, but there was never any clear agreement about its borders, since the Arabs rejected any notion of living in peace with Israel and figured on a successful jihad to seize and keep all of it.

The entire idea of 'occupation' here is a fallacy. The UN itself never recognized Jordan's 1948 ethnic cleansing and illegal 19-year de facto seizure of the area. This is especially true of Judea and Samaria, where Israel's claim is bolstered by the 1924 San Remo Agreement between Britain and the League of Nations that allowed Britain to partition Palestine into a Jewish state west of the Jordan and and Arab state east of the river called Jordan, and Article 80 of the UN charter which preserved the application of the League of Nations Mandate’s stipulations, as the Levy Report showed. Britain's failure to keep her pledged word and Jordan's invasion do not change that. And when Jordan attacked Israel in 1967, Israel had a perfect right to retain that territory, especially since it included a great deal of legally owned Jewish property. Judea and Samaria never belonged to any other country, especially not to the Palestinians since they did not exist then as a nation.Their sole claim of sovereignty over any part of Judea and Samaria is based on the Oslo Accords, which Yasser Arafat never abided by  and which the Palestinian Authority now says they're no longer bound by anyway.

Like apartheid, 'occupation' is simply another convenient word misused to demonize Israel.And it happens because the conversation when it comes to Middle East peace always revolves somehow around Israel's security and not the rights of its people, while discussions about the Palestinians are exactly the reverse. 

Read the rest here

Forum: What Are Your Five Favorite Movies?

 

Every week on Monday morning , the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week's question:What Are Your Five Favorite Movies?

Gun Crazy

Robert Avrech,  Seraphic Secret :

1. The Seven Samurai, 1954

 

Director Akira Kurosawa’s epic, the greatest movie ever made, speaks directly about the moral imperative of a just war.

The Seven Samurai takes place in medieval Japan, a time when bandits—the terrorists of their time—roamed the land looting, raping and killing defenseless farmers.

Seven down-at-the-heels Samurai warriors are hired to defend one poor village. The Samurai do not negotiate with the bandits. They do not try and appease them. Nor do they ponder the root causes of banditry. The Samurai set strategy and kill the bandits. One by one.

Every true warrior understands there is no deterrence and no freedom without the disproportionate use of force.

The climactic battle in the rain, where mud, blood and tears mix, is perhaps, the finest choreographed battle scene ever staged.

Every skilled director in Hollywood studies this masterpiece and tries—without success—to emulate Kurosawa’s cinematic style. We all stand in Akira Kurosawa’s shadow. This is the film that compelled me to become a screenwriter.

If you love movies but have not seen The Seven Samurai, you are without oxygen.


2. City Lights, 1931

 

Silent movies were dead by 1931, but Charlie Chaplin begged to differ. He released City Lights as a silent film enhanced with synchronized music and a few sound effects. The plot of is elegant and simple; the tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind girl, Virginia Cherrill—Mrs. Cary Grant from 1934-35—and tries to get the money for an operation to restore her sight.

City Lights does not have the memorable comic set pieces of The Gold Rush or Modern Times, but in terms of narrative velocity, City Lights is Chaplin’s most accomplished film. The ending, in this screenwriter’s not-so-humble opinion, is the most coherent and touching in the history of film.

During production, Chaplin fired Virginia Cherrill and planned to reshoot her scenes with Georgia Hale, his co-star in The Gold Rush. But Chaplin decided that reshooting would be too expensive and asked Cherrill to come back. On the clever advice of her good friend, actress Marion Davies, Cherrill refused to return unless Chaplin gave her a raise.


3. Bombshell, 1933

Jean Harlow plays Jean Harlow. That’s what this film is really about. Harlow, all wisecracks and fed-up with Hollywood’s insanity, is Lola Burns, a Hollywood sexpot. Her father and brother are always looking for handouts, and the studio publicity flack cooks up outrageous publicity stunts to add heat to an already overheated reputation as a smoldering blonde bombshell. Harlow, a hugely appealing and gifted comedienne, delivers the best, most energized performance of her tragically short career. In truth, like Lola, Harlow yearned for a normal life, a husband and children, but was thwarted by bad judgment in men and a monstrously overbearing mother who controlled every aspect of her daughter’s life and career.

Director Victor Fleming—he also helmed Red Dust, Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz—with ace screenwriters John Lee Mahin and Jules Furthman cooked up this Hollywood tale as a thinly disguised look at Fleming’s former lover, silent film star Clara Bow. Fleming observed that Bow’s life, on the surface was Hollywood glamorous, but when Bow went home at night, her mansion was filled with dog droppings and her deeply unstable family soaked her for every penny she earned. Fleming was two-timing his wife, but Bow was two-timing Fleming with Gary Cooper.


4. The Lady Eve 1941

 

4. The Lady Eve 1941

Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck, real name Ruby Catherine Stevens, star in this, one of the greatest screwball comedies ever made.

Fonda, heir to an ale—not beer!—fortune, has been up the Amazon studying snakes for a year. Stanwyck, a con-artist, takes one look at Fonda and says: “I need him like the axe needs the turkey.”

Preston Sturges wrote this script in Reno while awaiting his third divorce. Hmmm.

Stanwyck is, naturally, after Fonda’s fortune. Fonda is bumbling, clueless, and like most men in screwball comedies, helpless in the face of a smart, worldly woman.

In the greatest seduction of the movies, Stanwyck cleverly maneuvers Fonda into her stateroom onboard an ocean liner. She gets him down on his knees, slyly has him change her “slippers.” Fonda, who has not seen a woman in a year, is positively melting. This might be the sexiest scene in the history of the movies, yet there is no nudity, not even a single kiss. It is romantic yet painful, and yes, deeply moving as the movie plays out the primal Biblical story of the fall of man as romantic comedy. Airy and witty, the dialogue sparkles as Stanwyck—the greatest actress of Hollywood’s Golden Age—often in a single breath, speaks a double-edged language of love, creating a haze of confusion and desire in Fonda’s Charles ‘Hopsi’ Pike.

This is a seduction in words and subtle body language. Stanwyck’s voice is low and cozy, her tone grows increasingly intimate as the scene progresses. Notice how Stanwyck’s Brooklyn accent brushes up against Fonda’s midwestern drawl. It’s a lovely contrast.

Original sin as comedy is an audacious concept and writer-director Preston Sturges, a true genius—until he burned out on pride and booze—pulls it off with a firm but invisible hand.

The fall of man is played out as Fonda falls for Stanwyck, falls into her trap, and then literally as Fonda takes numerous pratfalls—Sturges had a weakness for slapstick—throughout the film.

The plot takes delightful and unexpected turns as Stanwyk’s ruthless Jean Harrington—in a reversal of theme—falls hard for Fonda. But her love turns to ice-cold hatred when Fonda, a man who is unable to deal in anything but moral absolutes, scorns the contrite Jean, after being made aware of her deception.

Not only did they have faces in old Hollywood, but their voices were astonishing.

Indeed, the secret weapon in a great screen actor’s arsenal is a distinctive voice.Think of Bette Davis spitting out her dialogue with such violence that we thrill at her delivery. Marilyn Monroe makes her initial impression with an exaggerated, hip-swaying, mincing walk. But it was her voice—the breathless, whispery delivery—that made audiences love her. Consider Cary Grant, Claude Rains, Greer Garson, Myrna Loy, James Mason, William Powell, Clark Gable, Jean Arthur, Jimmy Stewart, Ronald Colman, and John Wayne to name just a few, skillfully used bewitching and memorable voices to inform their performances with subtle complexity.


5. Gun Crazy, 1949

 

Produced as a B movie, Gun Crazy has emerged as one of the most important films of the noir genre. It’s unusual in that it does not take place in a cold, impersonal urban environment. Rather, Gun Crazy finds its darkness in small American towns and its dirt roads. Second tier stars, John Dahl and Peggy Cummins, intelligent and gifted actors, turn in the best performances of their careers, as sharp shooters who fall in love and then turn to crime.

Dahl plays Bart, a confused kid who gets mixed up with Laurie, a carnival Annie Oakley. Cummins wants money so she can buy nice stuff. And she’ll do anything to get what she wants.They both have a passion for guns, but this passion plays itself out in a deadly, obsessive relationship that can only end in tragedy.

Director Joseph H. Lewis pulls out all the stops in a bank robbery sequence that is one of the most thrilling and suspenseful ever filmed. So impressive is this sequence that Billy Wilder asked Lewis how he did it. Truth is, Lewis didn’t have enough money to shoot the sequence in the traditional shot-counter-shot method and so he improvised a one-take scene with the camera fixed in the car’s back seat. The post-modern guy-girl crime-spree story is the blood drenched Bonnie and Clyde (1967). But Gun Crazy, deeply restrained by today’s standards, is thematically a far more ambitious and profound film.

The Colossus of Rhodey: 

In no particular order:

 

-- Goodfellas. So damn good I have to watch it each and every time all the way through. The story and acting are first rate, especially Joe Pesci, who was put on the map because of the film.

 


-- Aliens. I'm a huge science fiction fan, and as such this has to be on the list. This James Cameron-created sequel to the 1979 Alien is a completely different film from the original. While the first film was scare-your-ass-off horror, Aliens is an all-out slam-bang action fest.


-- The Shawshank Redemption. Although lead Tim Robbins is a radical lefty nut (and not a very good actor, in my view), it's Morgan Freeman's acting brilliance that carries this superb Stephen King tale of a man wrongly convicted of his wife's murder, and his desire for freedom.





-- Star Wars (Episode IV). The original. The best.


-- Scarface (1983 version). Al Pacino's tour de force as the Cuban immigrant-turned drug kingpin. Just remember: "De only ting een dees world dat geeves orders ees balls."


JoshuaPundit: A tough job, to be sure. My pal Robert Avrech picked two films definitely on my list. Akira Kurosawa is one of the greatest film makers of all time, bar none and the Seven Samurai is a movie for the ages. I remember the first time I ever saw it on the big screen, as a rerun at the old Toho La Brea in Los Angeles. I could pick any of Kurosawa's other masterpieces, Ran, One Wonderful Sunday, Yojimbo, Stray Dog, just to name a few. But I'd have to give pride of place to Rashomon, one of the strangest and most beautiful movies ever made.



The plot's been borrowed many times..at a trial, the story of a rape and murder is retold from the point of view of the perpetrator, the victims, an uninvolved witness and even the ghost of one of the victims...all of whose stories differ. What really happened, and does it matter? If you want the answer, see the film.

Likewise, Charlie Chaplin has to be one of the handful of geniuses in film. Not only was he an incredible actor, but  he frequently wrote his own scripts, directed the films, and usually wrote the musical score. A hint of how good his films were is that they still delight audiences world wide, in some cases a century after they were made. My daughter used to love to watch the films with 'the funny littel man' in them.  City Lights is one of my favorite films. The comic bits are superb Chaplin...and the look in the Flower Girl's eye's when she realizes who the Tramp is...if that doesn't move you, you simply have no heart.

As an alternative Chaplin, I'll go with Modern Times.



Made during the Great Depression, it features Chaplin at his best, the Little Guy trying to survive with dignity in a world that seems bent on taking it away. The romance with the orphaned Gamine, played by Paulette Goddard is bittersweet as they take on the modern world...and the Tramp's message to her when she starts to give in to defeat is a message to all of us to persevere in tough times.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is something I didn't expect to be very good at all.




I never expected anyone to be able to do a decent job of putting Tolkien's masterpiece on film without cutting out the subplots and details that give it its flavor. Peter Jackson did it, and he did it without the pace getting bogged down in the least or turning it into a meaningless cartoon. Needless to say, it has a message superbly suited for our times.

The Year Of Living Dangerously has always been a huge favorite of mine.

 

Starring Mel Gibson as an Australian reporter and Sigourney Weaver as a British intelligence officer who fall in love in the exotic setting of Sukarno's Indonesia right before the purge of the PKI communists, it's a story of passion, loss of values and love and their recovery..all of it captured wonderfully by Peter Wier on film and with the late Maurice Jarre's incredible score behind it.



Duck Soup..how could I leave out the Marx Brothers?




David Gerstman of Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion:

1) Groundhog Day - Don't have a reason but I'm sure that Jonah Goldberg has explained it.

 



2) The Wrath of Khan - I'm a Trekkie. There I've said it. If you want to have a sense about what the original series was about, no episode or movie did a better job of highlighting the gamesmanship that made the show so much fun.

3) The Incredibles - Overall I've preferred the Pixar animated movies to the Dreamworks ones and the Incredibles was the best Pixar. Loved it that superheroes had to get registered because some guy sued when he was injured being rescued.

 

4) Ghostbusters - Dumb fun. Oh, did I mention that the bad guy was from the EPA. And I loved this dialogue:

Dr. Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Don't cross the streams.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why?
Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.

5) The Little Mermaid - First date with my wife.

If I had a few runners up I'd say Darkman - it's been awhile but I still think it's the best live-action superhero movie I've seen; Dead Again - spooky Terminator - about as thrilling an action movie as I've seen.

 Bookworm Room:These aren't in any particular order.

1. Groundhog Day. I've always loved what I call "getting it right" movies. These are movies in which the lead character is bumbling along through life and, by working and trying and thinking, finally gets it right. He stops being a bumbler and starts being someone who is in control of his destiny. He finds his moral core and masters the ability to get what he wants, whether it's the job or the girl or whatever else. Groundhog Day is the best example of this genre ever.

2. Singing In The Rain.

 


Do I really have to explain this one? Doesn't everyone love Singing In The Rain? It's got it all: Witty script, wonderful singing and dancing, and just a bright cheerfulness that makes me quite extraordinarily happy every time I see it.


3. Casablanca.

 

 
 I saw Casablanca for the first time when I was in my late 20s. Although I hadn't yet figured out that I was a conservative at heart, I knew already then that I pretty much disagreed with movie critics. If they raved about something, I was usually unimpressed. I was therefore cynical about my chances of enjoying this much raved about movie. Oh, how wrong I was. As with Singing In The Rain, this was yet another movie in which everything came together perfectly. The movie captures so beautifully the oppressive feel of a town that is occupied, even if it isn't yet at war. I enjoy Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, but I adore Claude Rains and Peter Lorre ("Why do you hate me, Rick?"). Their lines are wonderful and they same them wonderfully. And of course, both Bogart and Rains eventually "get it right."

4. All the black-and-white Fred and Ginger movies. Yes, I'm cheating here, but in my mind, these movies are one glorious whole. The plots are ridiculous, the character actors are interchangeable, and Fred & Ginger are consistently wonderful. They banter, they sing, and they dance like angels -- and I just smile and smile.

5. I don't have a fifth favorite movie. I love old musicals but am loathe to elevate any one of them (other than the ones named above) to "favorite" status. For example, Broadway Melody of 1940 is a dreadful movie when it comes to plot. It's mind-numbingly dull. Worse, half the dance numbers are dreadful. It's the remaining half of the dance numbers, though, that has me TiVoing this movie every time it comes around. Watching Fred Astaire and George Murphy sing "Don't monkey with Broadway," or seeing Fred doing the vaguely stalker-ish "I've got my eyes on you," or watching any number in which Fred and Eleanor Powell tap away together is sheer pleasure. I loved the Harry Potter saga, and the Lord of the Rings saga, and Gone With The Wind (even though the racism is embarrassing to watch now), but they're not favorites. I love romantic comedies from the teens, 20s, 30s and 40s, not because they're particularly good (most are rather bad), but because I like the sense of traveling back in time. It always amazes me when I watch people going about their lives in something that was filmed 70, 80, or 90 years ago.

 The Razor: Movies are like music. One man’s classic is another man’s most hated piece of garbage. As a member of Generation X my preferences are influenced by the time in which I’ve grown up – so 4 out of 5 of my picks were made during my lifetime. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the classics that came before me. I am a big fan of Humphrey Bogart, especially the Maltese Falcon and Casablanca and recognize why they appear at the top of critics lists. I also am a fan of Gene Kelly musicals such as Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris. But some movies linger in your memory more than others and influence your life. All five of the movies I’ve picked often appear as references in my writing and my speech. Perhaps not as much as the books I’ve read have influenced me, but I’ve absorbed these works of art in various ways nevertheless. Here are my favorites in no particular order (except for the last two which I cannot decide on).

Airplane!




Another ground-breaking and sacred cow goring movie along the lines of Blazing Saddles, this Zucker Brothers classic moves from one sight gag and one liner to another for an exhausting 90 minutes. “What’s your vector, Victor?” “Ever seen a grown man naked?” “Joey, you ever been in a Turkish prison?” “Guess I picked a bad time to stop sniffing glue.” The jive-talking old lady who translates for the stewardesses. People standing in line to beat up the Hare Krishna in the airport (that was when Hare Krishnas actually proselytized in airports). “Surely you can’t be serious. I am. And don’t call me Shirley.” The movie is like being machine-gunned by comedians with one-liners, zingers and gags until you die laughing.

Blazing Saddles

 


 If there’s a funnier movie that’s been made, I can’t think of one, and if there is such a movie then it was probably written and directed by Brooks as well (The Producers? Young Frankenstein? High Anxiety?) Watching this movie today 40 years after it’s release proves that not only is this movie a timeless classic, it shows just how rigid and restricted the era we now live in. There is no way Blazing Saddles would be made today with all the black and gay jokes intact.

Seven Samurai – Arguably one of the best movies of the 20th Century, a movie that was so good its bastardized American version the Magnificent Seven also became a classic. Set in 16th century Japan, elders of a small village hire a masterless samurai to help defend their village from attacking bandits. The samurai, played by Toshiro Mifune, rounds up six other samurai who then teach the villagers to defend themselves. Directed by Akira Kurasawa, Seven Samurai marked the emergence of a post-war Japan into the post war international arts scene. One particular scene stands out: starving villagers picking grains of rice out of the dirt after a bandit raid. The desperation portrayed by Kurosawa’s unique directorial skills haunts me thirty years after I first saw this amazing film.

Blade Runner – On the surface it’s a simple story: a cop trying to stop a killer. But transport it into dystopian future of flying cars, non-stop rain and smoke, and it becomes much more. Philip K. Dick is our Jules Verne. In his stories he explores basic questions such as What does it mean to be human? How can the individual and society co-exist? And finally, what is real? Blade Runner explores all three questions before a backdrop designed by futurist artist Syd Mead and directed by Ridley Scott. I have a poster of Blade Runner (in Japanese) in my home office, and every time I look at it I see the dehumanized future in this movie classic. I’m still waiting for a movie based on Philip K. Dick’s best work not appearing on film, “Ubik.”

 

Apocalypse Now – What can I say about this film that hasn’t been said countless times by others? Based on the classic work by Joseph Conrad but set in the jungles of the Vietnam War instead of the colonial jungles of Africa, the film follows the decent of a warrior as he journeys over the edge of madness. Some scenes have become embedded in our culture. Can anyone hear the Ride of the Valkyries and not imagine low-flying Huey choppers? Or the paraphrased words of Lt. Colonel Kilgore, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Smells like victory.” The entire scene stands as a cinematic classic. Speaking of scenes there’s not a bad one in the movie, and no other film flows the way it does. Starting from the ceiling fan that gradually syncs with chopper blades to the attack on Kurtz’s compound, we come to know and experience the madness that is War, and while some viewers may see it as an anti-war film (and that was Coppola’s intention), the issues raised by the film are much more complex. What is the role of the warrior in war – to follow orders or to follow a higher code? Are we all savages hiding behind a thin veneer of civilization?

 GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD: Too many to list LOL.

Valkyrie.

 

An ancient viking superstition believed when brave Norsemen fell in battle (often raiding parties) warrior hotties with mammoth, uh, shields would appear on winged horses and tote off the fallen to heathen heaven - Valhalla.

Despite oathbreaking, defacing images of gods and wickedness in general - all would be forgiven by success in combat - especially if the offender died a heroic saga inspiring death.

An exceptional flick that totally captures the moment of the July 20 bomb plot to assassinate the evil leaders of the 3rd Reich

An all star cast - Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Eddie Izard, Tom Wilkinson and Terrence Stamp make this movie rock.

"Long live our sacred Germany!"

The mantle of a near-mystic German past, a warrior, yet decent Germany, a noble Germany, a poetic Germany, a Germany of myth and longing was a very real thing to aristocratc, intellectuals, and generally decent ppl who hadn't hopped on the NSDAP train

Colonel Graf Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg was a true blue blood aristocrat from a noble honorable ancient Teutonic House. A panzer officer that had fought in Poland, France, Russia and with the famous 'Afrika Korps'.

Suffering debilitating wounds from combat - losing an eye, a hand and three fingers, Claus and his co conspirators - facing the truth of the regime they so valiantly served - tried in their own way to rectify their sins - singular and collective.

The Colonel's stroke of genius was to subvert the emergency plan for defending Berlin against insurrection, Valkyrie, into a plan for a coup d'état after 3rd Reich's leadership had been incapacitated - arrested or killed - just as good even better, nicht wahr? As der fuhrer became more paranoid, it seemed that Stauffenberg was the only one who had both the access and the resolve to kill him.

He was fully aware that the chances of success were slim, but he felt that he needed to demonstrate to the world that there was a better Germany - what he thought of as sacred Germany - and perhaps that he was the agent of history.

Even though ebberdobby knows how the failed attempt ended - viewers still hang on their seat every moment because it seems the coup is going to be pulled off.

Cats of the coup were ruthlessly hunted down, tormented and slain. The ground ran red with German blood. The regime was determined to fight to the last and like Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" heralded the final lo down ho down like Wagner's viking final, apocalyptic battle - "Gotterdammerung."

Idiocracy


Think the world is fully crunk with idiots? Just check out what it looks like in 500 years. A totally average in every way guy and girl are suspendly animated to awaken in the far future to find a dysfunctional society full of extremely stupid people.

Advertising, commercialism, and cultural anti-intellectualism have run rampant and dysgenic pressure has resulted in a uniformly unthinking society devoid of intellectual curiosity, social responsibility, and coherent notions of justice and human rights.

It's also funny as H, with hilarious scenes piled on one after another and a great cast like Luke Wilson, Myra Rudolph and Dax Shepard.

A cult classic, Ideocracy is a must see.

Fatherland

The ultimate "What If" flick, Fatherland opens with a frightening prolouge - the failure of the D-Day invasion forces the United States to withdraw from the war in Europe and General Dwight Eisenhower to retire in disgrace.

The US fights Japan and wins. In Europe, Churchill is exiled to Canada and dies in 1953; Edward VIlI returns to the throne. Germany, has corralled all European countries into a single Euro Union named "Germania," and Deutschland's client state of Great Britain's hottest import is the Liverpudlian rock group The Beatles.

Although Wehrmacht has pushed the Soviets east of the Urals, the conflict prett much guerrilla warfare, with what is left of the Soviets supported by the United States. Terrorism is rampant in the New Germany because of incessant resistence from occuppied nations and imported laborers.

By 1964, the United States and the Greater German Reich are involved in a Cold War. Hitler's 75th birthday is planned to knock out a detente with a Berlin summit with America's President Joseph P Kennedy.

German society, while very high tech with a high standard of living is still a police state ran by NSDAP couture in all things art, science and life.

The Holocaust is a closely guarded state secret. A body is found floating in a lake near Berlin at Swannsea. SS Major Xavier March starts investigating the body and the witness who saw it being dumped. The dead person is revealed to be Josef Buehler, a retired Nazi Party official who managed the resettlement of Jews and 'racially inferiors'.

As March investigates he learns the horrible truth of the industrial genocide the regime and with the help of a visiting American journalist lady, tries slip the documents to the president to as Kennedy arrives at the Great Dome Speer built.

Starring Rutger Hauer, Miranda Richardson and Michael Kitchen - Fatherland expertly compasses exactly 'what if' indeed.

Marvel's The Avengers



Action packed with a collective of unevenly super gifted cats that have to form a team to literally save Earth from a cruel yet, hot Norse god and really freaky army of downright nasty lookings minions.

This flick ties in most of Marvel's Hero stuff (all the Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and of course Captain America in a perfect, seamless fashion. True art

Loyalty, regret, and repentence along with indepth character humour and inner and outer conflicts while remaining true Heroes to humanity in every sense. has raised the bar by Marvel while remaining true Heroes to humanity in every sense.

Everything is top notch. Great Satan's Hollywood at her finest!

Zero Dark Thirty

 

Only Great Satan - alone of all nation/states tormented by al Qaeda - uniquely powerful - the only one of her kind - had the brainpower, firepower, staying power and will power do whatever it takes, whatever it costs to track down Supper Villan ObL, kill him and chuck his sorry carcass in the briney deep.

 Nice Deb:

1. A Man For All Seasons.

 

Listed at the Vatican as one of the best religious movies ever made, this deeply moving portrait of St. Thomas More packs a powerful emotional punch. At least it does for me. Paul Scofield brought his stage version of Sir Thomas to the screen in a performance that is close to perfection and won him the Oscar for Best Actor.

2. The Exorcist

 

It should never be a surprise to anyone when there is a religious element in a horror film - the antidote to supernatural evil would have to be God - but amazingly enough, most horror flicks gets this wrong. William Peter Blatty, alumni of Georgetown University and George Washington University got it perfectly right in one of the most bone-chilling tales of horror every told.

3. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

If you're a fan of the books - you have to be a fan of these movies - period. Peter Jackson, (a huge fan himself) did an awesome job bringing Tolkien's work to the screen.


4.The Wizard of Oz.

 

If for no other reason than Judy Garland singing "Somewhere Over the Raindow"- 'nuff said. Brings tears to my eyes every time I see it. A very special and amazing movie given the technology available in 1939.

5. Jaws:

 

I keep telling my younger kids who haven't seen this one yet, they have to watch it on Netflix. Many amazing performances in that one AND one crazy-huge, ferocious mechanical shark.

Honorable mentions:

Princess Bride

Most of Hitchcock's films, most notably North by Northwest and Notorious

Casablanca.

Blackhawk Down

The Hunger Games movies

The Harry Potter movies.



 The Glittering Eye: There are common threads running through my favorite movies. I'm a sentimental person so the movies I like tend to be sentimental, too. I'm also attracted to movies that revolve around the theme of redemption and I prefer movies without a lot of overt sex and violence so that rules out many of the movies made over the last couple of decades. With that preamble here are my favorite movies:

1. The 39 Steps (1935)
   
   
   
   
   Robert Donat flees the police across the highlands of Scotland, handcuffed to Madeleine Carroll in this picture, one of Hitchcock's best. Much imitated, including by Hitchcock himself.
2. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
   RAF pilot David Niven, suspended between life and death, goes on trial before a celestial court to determine his fate. Fantasy/allegory directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
3. The Quiet Man (1952)
   
   
   
   
   After killing a man in the ring, prizefighter John Wayne returns to the Irish village in which he was born. He finds more than he bargained for there including not only peace of mind but love. John Ford's love song to Ireland.
4. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
   One of the last great MGM movie musicals. After this movie musicals were mostly Elvis pictures, beach pictures, and movie versions of Broadway musicals. The best singers on the lot, the best dancers they could find, a Gene De Paul and Johnny Mercer score, and Michael Kidd's naturalistic choreography.
5. Strictly Ballroom (1992)
   
   
   
   
   In this early Baz Lurhmann movie (his first), competitive ballroom dance Paul Mercurio rebels against the constraints of his sport. In searching for his own way he finds fulfillment and love. A combination of ballroom dancing, drama, comedy, and the surreal anarchy of a Marx Brothers picture.Honorable mentions: Duck Soup (1933), just about any picture directed by Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, or Michael Powell, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), The Uninvited 1944, A Portrait of Jennie (1948), and about half of the pictures made in 1939.

 The Independent Sentinel:I like the older movies the best.

My favorite, bar none, is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

 

It was just so funny. Sundance didn't want to jump off the cliff into the water when they were being chased. Butch asks him why and he says he can't swim. Butch says, "What are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you."

Gunga Din was my next all-time favorite. "By the living God that made you. You're a better man than I am Gunga Din!"The movie actually lost money because of production costs. Every so often, I watch it again. I don't really get tired of the actors, the script, the cinematography. Eduardo Ciannelli was great as the mad Guru. In real life, he was a doctor, then an opera singer. Every time I watch the movie, I read biographies of the actors, director, writer...

The first Godfather movie was great. It seemed so brutal but not compared to the movies now.

 

Jaws actually kept me out of the water for a while. The scene with Brody, he's throwing chum into the water when the shark jumps up to grab it. Brody backs into the cabin and says, "You're gonna need a bigger boat."

There are many other great movies, but these were favorites.

Well, there you have it.

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