"The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself": Why Do We Allow the Media to Terrorize Us?

Pope Denounces Violence Against Christians
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians to remain strong in the face of intolerance and violence in a New Year's appeal Saturday that came hours after a bomb blast outside an Egyptian church killed 21 people as worshippers left Mass. The Pope condemned a widening campaign against Christians in the Middle East in his homily at St. Peter's Basilica, echoing comments last month in which he called a lack of Religious Freedom a threat to world security. "In the face of the threatening tens...

8 Baghdad Bombings Target Christians
Al-Safir reports that 2 were killed and 14 wounded in a series of bombings extending over a two-hour period in Baghdad in the late afternoon on Thursday, which targeted Christians. The bloodiest attack took place in the district of of al-Ghadir in the center of the capital, where guerrillas attacked two Christian homes with bombs, killing two and wounding 5. The other five attacks, which took the form of Roadside Bombs, did not kill anyone, though they wounded a further 9 persons. Many Christian...

Pope denounces abuses of Christians
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians to remain strong in the face of intolerance and violence in a New Year's appeal Saturday that came hours after a bomb blast outside an Egyptian church killed 21 people as worshippers left Mass. The Pope condemned a widening campaign against Christians in the Middle East in his homily at St. Peter's Basilica, echoing comments last month in which he called a lack of Religious Freedom a threat to world security. "In the face of the threatening...

Pope denounces abuses of Christians
Vatican City — Pope Benedict XVI urged Christians to remain strong in the face of intolerance and violence in a New Year’s appeal Saturday that came hours after a bomb blast outside an Egyptian church killed 21 people as worshippers left Mass. The Pope condemned a widening campaign against Christians in the Middle East in his homily at St. Peter’s Basilica, echoing comments last month in which he called a lack of Religious Freedom a threat to world security. "In the face of th...

Al-Qaida aiming at soft targets?
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security ramped up its efforts to protect soft targets from Terrorist Attack this year, intelligence analysts said. During the holidays, the effort has included more visible security at places like train stations, the Los Angeles Times reports. Just before Christmas, riders on the Washington Metro were subjected to random checks. The department has issued bulletins to state and local Law Enforcement warning of the possibility terroris...

Example #635,891,098,652 of the Corporate Medias Useful Idiocy
As if we needed further proof of the Wall Street Journal’s imbecility and jaw-dropping jingoism, James Taranto (“editor of OpinionJournal.com and author of its popular Best of the Web Today column. In August 2007 he was named a member of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board”) defended the TSA in his column yesterday. It takes a particular sort of toadying nincompoop and tone-deaf newsman to fight for the TSA now, when much of the country has awakened to the agency’s evil

Kathy Kemper: Where are the Moderate Muslims?
Since 9/11, many have asked: where are the moderate Muslims? Why don't they stand up and denounce those who pervert Islam to justify violence? Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf exemplifies the type of individual they should be embracing. The man I heard speak at the Fourth Annual Bridges of Understanding Conference, held at the Meridian Center in Washington, DC in early December bore no resemblance to the stereotype that some have promulgated: that of a stealth Islamic supremacist who seeks to build a "...

Fullbore Friday
Lt. Gen John Kelly, USMC has returned to Fullbore Friday. There is no reason for me to say anything more. SEMPER FI SOCIETY OF ST LOUIS Speech, 13 NOV 2010 Nine years ago two of the four commercial Aircraft took off from Boston, Newark, and Washington. Took off fully loaded with men, women and Children-all innocent, and all soon to die. These Aircraft were targeted at the World Trade Towers in New York, the Pentagon, and likely the Capitol in Washington, D.C... Three found their mark. No Ameri...

Question for My Foreign-Policy Critics, by David Henderson
In the comments on my post yesterday, Prakhar Goel, Patrick R. Sullivan, and Shayne Cook were critical of my views on U.S. Foreign Policy. All three implicitly or explicitly seemed to favor the U.S. government's attack on Afghanistan in 2001. So here's my question to them. I promise that I'll say more about my response in a follow-on post, but I'd like to hear their answers and/or the answers of those who agree with their criticism of my foreign policy views. Here's the set-up hypothetical, a ...

Egyptian President Mubarak on church bombing: "This blind terrorism does not differentiate between Copts and Muslims"
Oh, really? And when did these "blind" Terrorists bomb a Mosque? This statement by Mubarak is just more avoidance of the real problem. "Mubarak blames 'foreign hand' for church attack," from AFP, January 1: Cairo: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused "foreign hands" of carrying out a deadly New Year's day attack on a church early Saturday that killed 21 people and wounded 79 others. In a televised Speech, Mubarak said the bombing targeting worshippers as they emerged from a New Year's eve...

Ticket Replay: Barack '8 Years of Failed Bush Policies' Obama tells high school grads: 'Don't make excuses'
During the Holiday Season, as in years past, The Ticket is republishing some of our favorite items from the previous political year. This story was originally published on June 8, 2010: It was a Big Deal for the excited about-to-be graduates of Kalamazoo's Central High School. They had won a White House competition against 1,000 other schools, not for payoff jobs in the Obama Administration. But to see and hear the Real Great Talker himself. President Barack Obama went all the way to Mich...

And yet no one went to jail
By Edward Copeland Reliving the Valerie Plame affair in Fair Game, based on the books written by Plame herself and her husband Joe Wilson, if you didn't have any anger before over what the Bush White House did to a loyal CIA agent in the name of politics and a war they wanted no matter what the facts were, that old rage will well up once again. In Doug Liman's film, it comes up even more so because before we get to the events of the leak of Plame's covert status itself, we actually see what h...

Our Neo-Medieval World: Devolution of Power to Non-State Actors
Parag Khanna has an interesting essay in the Financial Times. You need a subscription to read it the whole thing, but a few important excerpts are below: Imagine a world with a strong China reshaping Asia; India confidently extending its reach from Africa to Indonesia; Islam spreading its influence; a Europe replete with crises of legitimacy; sovereign city-states holding wealth and driving innovation; and private mercenary armies, religious radicals and humanitarian bodies playing by their own...

The Hijacking of Conservatism by Big Government Progressives
Hey Conservatives, are you there? No I don’t mean you Republicans…I mean those of you who are lovers of liberty! I mean those of you who defend the Constitution, not just when it protects them but when it protects someone they don’t like. I know you’re out there. You may be a Libertarian or an independent, you may not be affiliated with any party at all. Ok you might be a Republican too, but I know you’re there. Well listen up! I am not exactly sure at what moment the theft o

Homeland security chief arrives in Afghanistan
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano arrived in Afghanistan Friday and planned to spend New Year's Eve with U.S. Troops in the region. She reviewed security operations at a key point along the Pakistani border - part of an ongoing U.S. effort to strengthen Afghanistan's border police. "Building and maintaining a strong border crossing system is critical to the stability and security of Afghanistan," Napolitano said in a written statement. "Over the past year, the...

VIDEO: Napolitano Meets With Karzai
Check out this Fox video of Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano meeting with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace in Kabul. Below that is a read out from DHS officials on the meeting. READOUT OF SECRETARY NAPOLITANO'S MEETING WITH AFGHAN PRESIDENT KARZAI AND MINISTER OF FINANCE ZAKHIWALKABUL, Afghanistan-Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Minister of Finance Zakhiwal to discuss progress being made in securing ...

Islamic scholar: Jihadis are "tools in the hands of the Zionists, Israelis, Europeans, and Orientals, with the goal of damaging
Maybe Sheikh al-Awda was the source for Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III. In any case, it is disturbing to see this fantastical claim gaining increasing currency, although it isn't really surprising given three well-established tendencies: the inability of Islamic supremacists to acknowledge any responsibility for any wrongdoing, their fanatical Jew-hatred, and their ongoing attempts to portray themselves as Victims. "Sheikh al-Awda: 'The Terrorists Work in the Service of Israel an...

The 2011 Congressional Agenda
The year 2011 is noteworthy since it will be the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It is also a year when the Republicans will gain control of the House and have a strong say in the Senate. American Thinker interviewed some influential Congressmen and former CIA officials to gain insight on what can be expected in 2011. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the newly appointed Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, wants to challenge and review the status quo presented by the Obama Administration by a...

Round the Water Cooler *Open Thread
The pundits talked, and I typed. Below are some of what I’ve been hearing on the pundit Cable News channels, including one particularly great prospect for Hillary … Gary Berntsen, an expert on the CIA, Special Operations and and Agfghanistan, Pakistan and the AfPak strategy was on Parker Spitzer Thursday night (Berntsen is a good, longtime friend of Larry Johnson‘s) … and DO NOT MISS the appearance of Climate Change skeptic Bjorn Lomborg who has a gift for explaining the...

Golden Oldie: On the merging of journalism and activism spaces
An Adam Bink Golden Oldie From Apr 19, 2010. Original HERE Tim Vollmer has a thoughtful piece out expressing concern over the decline of traditional LGBT press. A few reactions are in order. I think folks like Tim have to get past the notion that you're only an LGBT media Journalist if you have credentials, an office, write entirely without opinion, and your work appears in print. To borrow the phrase of a friend, "journalactivists"- something I would call myself- are on the rise. While I eng...

Laughing in Afghanistan
What’s the Pashto or Dari-Persian phrase for laughing you’re a** off?  Because that is what they are doing in Afghanistan right now, reveling in the New Year’s visit of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.  I bet they are gushing tears of laughter. Fox News reports that The Department of Homeland Security has about two dozen officials in Afghanistan, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Customs and Border Protection officers, and Border Patrol agents. Many...

DREAM Act Faces Dim Future in House, But
The GOP takeover of the House of Representatives in the New Year is worrying some members of the Latino population and left-wing Activists who were hoping the much-touted DREAM Act would pass and become a first step in achieving Amnesty for millions of Illegal Aliens. The Democrat-controlled Senate even failed to pass the DREAM Act in December, leaving it to the new Congress - which returns on January 5, 2011 - to try again. The DREAM Act, which

Big Sis in Afghanistan
I read about Janet Napolitano being in Afghanistan this New Years.  At first, I was annoyed as I could not figure out a legitimate reason for the head of Homeland Security being in a foreign country, especially Afghanistan.  And, then it hit me.  The Obama Administration is truly the theater of the absurd. Napolitano is supposedly going to Afghanistan to visit her personnel stationed there.  Now, why are U.S. Homeland Security personnel in the ‘stan?  Could it be t...

Grenade attack kills Afghan child, wounds 6
KABUL, Afghanistan - Insurgents threw hand grenades into two homes in a Taliban provincial heartland Friday, killing a child and wounding six civilians in an area that has been at the center of the international coalition's push against the Militants, a local Afghan official said. Zhari, where Taliban leader Mullah Omar's radical Islamic movement was born just outside Kandahar city, was part of the focus of the U.S. surge of 30,000 Troops earlier this year. U.S. Troops advanced on the dist...

Robyn N. Cohen: The Value of You
I think everyone, both men and women, struggle with understanding and appreciating the value of themselves when it comes to their careers or their relationships. However, I feel women struggle with this at a much deeper level. I remember at the beginning of 2010, The Economist had on the cover a picture of Rosie the Riveter. It was symbolizing the fact that, for the first time ever, women had surpassed the 50% threshold becoming the majority of the Workforce in the US. Was that something to c...