Moshe Dayan's Progressive Hubris Made Jerusalem an Issue Today

Tonight begins Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day. It celebrates the day in 1967 that the IDF returned the Old Jerusalem to Jewish hands.

It is also appropriate to remember on Yom Yerushalayim is that if it was not for the progressive hubris of the man who is considered the hero of the Six-Day-War, Moshe Dayan, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount would not be the issue it is today.

Jews were denied access to the Holy sites in the Old City Jerusalem since 1948, when Jordan took it over during the War of Independence. In the intervening 19 years the Jordanians waged systematic destruction, desecration and looting of Jewish sites.

But on that day 44 years ago was a miracle 1900 years in the making, even if you cannot understand the Hebrew in the recording below, you can understand the joy, and reverence as Jews approached the Temple mount for the first time in nearly 20 years. (if you cannot see audioplayer and video below please click here)

Playing: Historic Broadcast

Listen to Historic Broadcast

For those who don't understand Hebrew, the below is a translation of the key passages of the broadcast.

Colonel Motta Gur All company commanders, we're sitting right now on the ridge and we're seeing the Old City. Shortly we're going to go in to the Old City of Jerusalem, that all generations have dreamed about. We will be the first to enter the Old City. Eitan's tanks will advance on the left and will enter the Lion's Gate. The final rendezvous will be on the open square above.

[The open square of the Temple Mount.]

[ Sound of applause by the soldiers.]

...Colonel Motta Gur announces on the army wireless: The Temple Mount is in our hands! I repeat, the Temple Mount is in our hands!

All forces, stop firing! This is the David Operations Room. All forces, stop firing! I repeat, all forces, stop firing! Over.

Lt.- Col. Uzi Eilam blows the Shofar. Soldiers are singing 'Jerusalem of Gold'.]

Uzi Narkiss: Tell me, where is the Western Wall? How do we get there?

Yossi Ronen: I'm walking right now down the steps towards the Western Wall. I'm not a religious man, I never have been, but this is the Western Wall and I'm touching the stones of the Western Wall.

Soldiers: [reciting the 'Shehechianu' blessing]: Baruch ata Hashem, elokeinu melech haolam, she-hechianu ve-kiemanu ve-hegianu la-zman ha-zeh. [Translation: Blessed art Thou Lord God King of the Universe who has sustained us and kept us and has brought us to this day]

Rabbi Shlomo Goren: Baruch ata Hashem, menachem tsion u-voneh

Yerushalayim. [Translation: Blessed are thou, who comforts Zion and bulids Jerusalem]

Soldiers: Amen!

[Soldiers sing 'Hatikva' next to the Western Wall.]

Rabbi Goren: We're now going to recite the prayer for the fallen soldiers of this war against all of the enemies of Israel:

[Soldiers weeping]

Rabbi Goren sounds the shofar

Merciful God in heaven, may the heroes and the pure, be under thy Divine wings, among the holy and the pure who shine bright as the sky, and the souls of soldiers of the Israeli army who fell in this war against the enemies of Israel, who fell for their loyalty to God and the land of Israel, who fell for the liberation of the Temple, the Temple Mount, the Western Wall and Jerusalem the city of the Lord. May their place of rest be in paradise. Merciful One, O keep their souls forever alive under Thy protective wings. The Lord being their heritage, may they rest in peace, for they shalt rest and stand up for their allotted portion at the end of the days, and let us say, Amen.]

Since that day in 1967, the Muslims have been trying to reclaim Jerusalem's Holy Sites, not because of any 'religious ties" but to de-legitimize the Jewish claims to the city. During the past twelve months, President Barack Obama has joined in on the efforts to de-legitimize Jewish Heritage. The sad part of Israel's struggle to retain her capital is that it might not have been so fierce if Moshe Dayan didn't give away the Temple Mount almost 42 years ago.

When Israel gained possession of the Temple compound during the Six Day War, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol wanted to create a multi-faith council to run the compound. The Muslim Mosque would not have been touched, but all faiths would be allowed up on top of the mount.

Dayan thought the Temple Mount should remain in Muslim possession. In his biography Dayan clearly stated that the last thing he wanted was the Beit Hamikdash (the Jewish Temple) rebuilt.

Of course there was no way, that a third Temple would be built, by Jewish tradition that is supposed to wait until the coming of the messiah, but that didn't stop Dayan, like most progressives he felt he knew better than anybody. He didn't consult the Prime Minister or the Knesset, nor did the Israeli people have a say.

Dayan took it upon himself, he "gave" control of the Temple Mount back to the Arabs because he wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be a third Temple.  There was nothing that Prime Minister Eshkol could do about it, after all Moshe Dayan, was a war hero.

Today is a wonderful celebration but it would have so much extra meaning if Israel could celebrate Yom Yerushalayim with a beautiful ceremony where the two Temples stood, on top of the Temple Mount, but that isn't possible because of Dayan.  Thanks to the General, only Muslims are allowed to pray on top of the Temple mount.

The Jewish people have lost possession of the the Temple Mount three times since King David purchased the site 30 centuries ago. Only once, was the site given away voluntarily, when Moshe Dayan gave it away 44 years ago. Moshe Dayan will go down in history not as a hero, but as the man who gave away the Temple Mount, providing Barack Obama and the Muslims the opportunity to make Jerusalem an Issue:

.........."It's true," Eldad said, "that the original sin was when the Jewish People, immediately after the Six Day War in 1967, ceded its hold on the Temple Mount in an unholy alliance between the Chief Rabbinate and Moshe Dayan - each side for its own reasons - but now the danger is that the Arab sovereignty on the Temple Mount will spill over to the Western Wall plaza, and from there to other places."

Then-Defense Minister Dayan, just days after Israel's liberation of the Old City, informed the Muslims running the Temple Mount that they could continue to run the mosques there - and later went further by preventing Jewish prayer all over the Mount.

"It was evident that if we did not prevent Jews from praying in what was now a mosque compound," Dayan later wrote, "matters would get out of hand and lead to a religious clash... As an added precaution, I told the chief of staff to order the chief army chaplain to remove the branch office he had established in the building which adjoins the mosque compound."Source Israel National News

 That is what Jews call a shanda (a shame).

Interview With Ben Shapiro On His New Book Primetime Propaganda

My friend John Hawkins of  Right Wing News  interviewed Ben Shapiro about his new book, “Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV.”

This was a fascinating interview because it covers a subject most conservatives are interested in and provides new information. Did you ever wonder how Hollywood went from being so patriotic and conservative in WW2 to the sad state it's in today? Well, you will wonder no more after reading this interview. Here are some excerpts from the interview.

Ben Shapiro talks about his own personal experience with the Hollywood blacklist for conservatives.

About three weeks later, he calls me back and he says, “I’m not sure we can represent you.” I said, “Oh really? Why is that?” He said, “Well, we started getting your stuff out to some people and we got a call back from a producer. The producer liked your stuff and he Googled you. When he Googled you, he found your political opinions online and he called us back and said I will never work with anybody of that political persuasion. I think it’s going to be very difficult for us to find you work in this town.” So, even if you get your toe in like I did, it will get chomped off by a liberal alligator. I have tapes to document this. There is no question that there is a vast liberal bias in the industry and that they will exclude you from the industry if you do not agree with their prevailing ideal.

Ben Shapiro on the demographics scam that helped turn Hollywood liberal.

In Hollywood, the only rating that really matters is the 18-49 demographic. The 18-49 demographic and really, the 18-34 demographic, is considered more valuable than older demographics. So you’ll see shows like Glee that actually make more ad dollars than shows like NCIS because the conservative shows appeal to older audiences.

So if you’re skewing young, you’re inherently skewing liberal. This is why MTV as a network skews liberal. The key to that is that it’s utterly false. The 18-49 crowd is worth more than people who are 50 and up — it’s just not true. In fact…

Right, there’s more money in the over 50 crowd.

Yeah, that’s exactly right. It’s unbelievable that this has worked for 40 years. If you think about it for half a second, you realize wait a second people who are 18 have no money, they’re living in their parent’s basement. They’re not spending a lot because they have no money. They have no savings, they have no job.  

Well I found out, this is the really fascinating part — (emphasizing the 18-34 demographic) was a concerted scam on the part of the TV industry. This was not something that happened by accident. It’s no coincidence that the shift to liberal television happened at exactly the same time that the shift in the demographic appeal happened. It used to be that in the 1960s, television was for the most part conservative. By the time you got to the late 1960s and 70′s, it turned massively liberal. That’s because there were three networks at the time; ABC, NBC, CBS. ABC only had affiliates in the big markets. It had no affiliates in any of the rural markets. CBS had affiliates everywhere. It had rural, it had urban — it was kicking the crap out of ABC on a daily basis. The top shows in the country were shows like Beverly Hillbillies,Green Acres, Petticoat Junction…. They were for what people in Hollywood derisively called “rural trash.”

What happened is that ABC saw that it was getting its ass kicked in the ratings so they have to make their case to advertisers somehow. So they hire a guy to do a study for them that says that the young, urban crowd is actually worth more than the older crowd. So even if CBS is drawing bigger numbers by far, our audience is more valuable than their audience to you. …So they go to the advertising agencies with that. The advertising agencies which are generally staffed by people who happen to be young and urban say, Well of course I’m worth more than the schmuck who lives on the farm in Alabama.”

So, what they do is they start buying into the ABC view of advertising. Pretty soon, CBS looks at ABC, which is starting to gain in terms of advertiser revenue, even though they’re getting their ass kicked in content, and they say okay we need to shift our orbit. We need to go totally liberal…so they bought into the whole thing. It was an enormous scam.

Note as many of you know I spent 16 years in the media buying industry, this is not exactly true. First of all the bias comes from the advertiser not from the agency or the network. Ben is right when he says there is a bias against rural America and older demographics and the reason is two-fold.

First when Ben says "Well of course I’m worth more than the schmuck who lives on the farm in Alabama," unfortunately he is telling the truth, and there is a reason for it.  People who live in City and Suburban settings make more on average and spend more than people in rural settings.  It is not politics nor is it "looking down on rural America" its a matter of fishing where the fish are.  I have worked on products such as Bayer Aspirin and Homelite chainsaws whose usage was more concentrated in rural areas and we targeted those areas with our advertising.

The other reason is simple,  older people and people in rural communities watch more TV and are over-represented in most TV audiences. Therefore any advertiser who does not target older and/or rural audiences have to go overboard the other way just to make thing even.  In other words, if a big part of your TV buy doesn't go toward younger urban audiences, your entire ad effort is going to be directed toward people who may not be as likely to buy your product. Thus in many cases where a brand's target audience is A18-49, they will purchase their TV based on 18-34 with the full knowledge that they will get the 35-49 audience anyway.

Understand also, that Ben comes at it from the creative side and I come at it from the business side.

There is much more to this interview, John has done a great job in getting Ben to talk about his experiences and perspective.  I recommend strongly that you click here and go to Right Wing News to read the rest of this interview.

http://rightwingnews.com/interviews/interviewing-ben-shapiro-on-his-new-book-primetime-propaganda-the-true-hollywood-story-of-how-the-left-took-over-your-tv/

HE'S ALWAYS CLASSY: RAPPER "CLASSIFIED" CALLS ABOUT CANADA, CELEBS, AND THE REST OF THE WORLD

"That Ain't Classy" may be rotating as #5 on the MuchMusic countdown this week, but MMVA-nominated artist Classified refuses to abuse his bragging rights. In our phone interview today, Luke Boyd (that's his real name) remained calm, cool, and collected - just like your average dude and not the "self-centered weirdo" he refers to on his hit single. The Enfield, Nova Scotia-based rapper has actually been performing for a decade. No, his popularity didn't spontaneously erupt from a YouTube video (sorry, Bieber) or MySpace channel. All Belieb-ers aside, Classified matured gradually as a young artist, man, and father to his two little daughters. Classified went from coming out with his debut album Union Dues in 2001 and his best-selling record Self-Explanatory 8 years later (2009) - where he (kinda) invented a more modern version of the national anthem with his hit "Oh, Canada" for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games - to giving Handshakes and Middle Fingers (2010) (especially to those celebs who aren't very "Classy") and selling over 70K records in his lifetime (phew). Here, Classified spits some food for thought about the multiculturalism in Canada, multiculturalism in his video for "Oh Canada," and multiculturalism that is now - Charlie Sheen. Vote Classified's "That Ain't Classy" for UR Fave Video at the 2011 MMVAs http://mmva.muchmusic.com/whos-gonna-get-the-last-nom-for-ur-fave-video/.

V.B. So, you've just been nominated with a MMVA. How does it feel?

C. I feel pretty good about it. It was for the first video the MMVAs have nominated me for. (The MMVAs are also a great opportunity) to say what's up to everyone.

V.B. You grew up in Enfield, Nova Scotia. What's it like down there? What sets it apart from Toronto?

C. Enfield is a small town, about 35,000 people. Everyone knows each other at the grocery store (laughs). It's a bit slower-paced than Toronto or any "big city."

V.B. What's your view on multiculturalism in Canada? How do you show that you're proud to be Canadian?

C. Well, I made a song called "Oh Canada," so that shows I'm pretty proud (laughs). I lived here my whole life. The scenery is beautiful. I like the fact that we have the freedom here to live how we want. There aren't many natural disasters, religious (restrictions), or wars.

V.B. Speaking of "Oh Canada," scandal stirred up about there not being enough African Canadians in the music video. 

C. Canada's very multicultural, Toronto and Vancouver more than other (towns). There are alot of Mic Macs and whites where I grew up, and lots of Asians and Jamaicans here in Toronto. Not alot of black people came out for the music video shoot, and I'm not gunna stop the video because of that; that would actually look more racist, if anything. I'm done talking about this though; I've already addressed this issue on my album.

V.B. In "That Ain't Classy," you rap about celebrities who behave like divas or snobs. How do you see yourself as normal from other celebrities? Any examples you wouldn't like to follow?

C. It's been more like a cult (in this industry), these past few years. I was just poking fun at the stereotypical celebrity. Some people take it like I'm actually saying these celebrities aren't classy. But, there's that mind frame of people being famous just to be famous, and who cares what other people think? Jersey Shore and Charlie Sheen (have that mind frame). What would your kids think? That ain't classy (laughs).

V.B. (Laughs). Saying that, is the industry as wild as the tabloids make it out to be, or is it all just scripted like reality TV?

C. It's definitely a party; everything you hear about music tours are true. But, it depends on what you want to do. You don't have to party like that. It's alot of hard work though; you can balance party and work life, (to) earn the party.

V.B. You have two little girls. How do you balance being a father and an artist?

C. I have a studio built in behind my garage. Today, I got up at 8 AM and was with my kids until 10 AM (One is 2 years, 9 months, and the other is about 10 months). I work close to home, so I can see them at home. But when you're on the road for 2 weeks, you can always use Skype. There's no easy way to do it.

V.B. You have a song called "Anybody Listening." Are there any causes that you feel should be brought to our attention more?

C. From the MC's point of view, people wanna hear songs about drinking and dancing - generic bullshit. How about curing cancer? Do people really want to listen any meaningful lyrics? Is there any point in taking the time to write (songs)? You have to look hard (for people who are listening), but are people really listening? (That's what the song is about).

V.B. You have two very interesting album(s) title(s), Handshakes and Middle Fingers and Self-Explanatory. These titles seem to give a ton of attitude. What's your philosophy on dealing with haters and sticky situations?

C. I actually tweeted about that this morning. For every person that loves your music, there's someone who hates it. There's a middle point, though: voicing your opinion or saying you don't really love or hate. Deal with hate, because there's alot of hate out there. But, make sure you voice your opinion too. Ignore haters, because they have something wrong with their lives (that may have nothing to do with you). I was once a hater coming into this industry, blaming my daddy. But once I focused on my music, I forgot about other people and was able to focus on myself (in a positive way).

V.B. Any last words? Who would you love to collaborate with?

C. I wanna produce a track on Royce's and Eminem's CD. I've worked with Royce before. I'm also working on festival dates and music video shoots this summer.

HE'S ALWAYS CLASSY: RAPPER "CLASSIFIED" CALLS ABOUT CANADA, CELEBS, AND THE REST OF THE WORLD

"That Ain't Classy" may be rotating as #5 on the MuchMusic countdown this week, but MMVA-nominated artist Classified refuses to abuse his bragging rights. In our phone interview today, Luke Boyd (that's his real name) remained calm, cool, and collected - just like your average dude and not the "self-centered weirdo" he refers to on his hit single. The Enfield, Nova Scotia-based rapper has actually been performing for a decade. No, his popularity didn't spontaneously erupt from a YouTube video (sorry, Bieber) or MySpace channel. All Belieb-ers aside, Classified matured gradually as a young artist, man, and father to his two little daughters. Classified went from coming out with his debut album Union Dues in 2001 and his best-selling record Self-Explanatory 8 years later (2009) - where he (kinda) invented a more modern version of the national anthem with his hit "Oh, Canada" for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games - to giving Handshakes and Middle Fingers (2010) (especially to those celebs who aren't very "Classy") and selling over 70K records in his lifetime (phew). Here, Classified spits some food for thought about the multiculturalism in Canada, multiculturalism in his video for "Oh Canada," and multiculturalism that is now - Charlie Sheen. Vote Classified's "That Ain't Classy" for UR Fave Video at the 2011 MMVAs http://mmva.muchmusic.com/whos-gonna-get-the-last-nom-for-ur-fave-video/.

V.B. So, you've just been nominated with a MMVA. How does it feel?



C. I feel pretty good about it. It was for the first video the MMVAs have nominated me for. (The MMVAs are also a great opportunity) to say what's up to everyone.



V.B. You grew up in Enfield, Nova Scotia. What's it like down there? What sets it apart from Toronto?



C. Enfield is a small town, about 35,000 people. Everyone knows each other at the grocery store (laughs). It's a bit slower-paced than Toronto or any "big city."



V.B. What's your view on multiculturalism in Canada? How do you show that you're proud to be Canadian?



C. Well, I made a song called "Oh Canada," so that shows I'm pretty proud (laughs). I lived here my whole life. The scenery is beautiful. I like the fact that we have the freedom here to live how we want. There aren't many natural disasters, religious (restrictions), or wars.



V.B. Speaking of "Oh Canada," scandal stirred up about there not being enough African Canadians in the music video. 



C. Canada's very multicultural, Toronto and Vancouver more than other (towns). There are alot of Mic Macs and whites where I grew up, and lots of Asians and Jamaicans here in Toronto. Not alot of black people came out for the music video shoot, and I'm not gunna stop the video because of that; that would actually look more racist, if anything. I'm done talking about this though; I've already addressed this issue on my album.



V.B. In "That Ain't Classy," you rap about celebrities who behave like divas or snobs. How do you see yourself as normal from other celebrities? Any examples you wouldn't like to follow?



C. It's been more like a cult (in this industry), these past few years. I was just poking fun at the stereotypical celebrity. Some people take it like I'm actually saying these celebrities aren't classy. But, there's that mind frame of people being famous just to be famous, and who cares what other people think? Jersey Shore and Charlie Sheen (have that mind frame). What would your kids think? That ain't classy (laughs).

V.B. (Laughs). Saying that, is the industry as wild as the tabloids make it out to be, or is it all just scripted like reality TV?



C. It's definitely a party; everything you hear about music tours are true. But, it depends on what you want to do. You don't have to party like that. It's alot of hard work though; you can balance party and work life, (to) earn the party.



V.B. You have two little girls. How do you balance being a father and an artist?



C. I have a studio built in behind my garage. Today, I got up at 8 AM and was with my kids until 10 AM (One is 2 years, 9 months, and the other is about 10 months). I work close to home, so I can see them at home. But when you're on the road for 2 weeks, you can always use Skype. There's no easy way to do it.



V.B. You have a song called "Anybody Listening." Are there any causes that you feel should be brought to our attention more?



C. From the MC's point of view, people wanna hear songs about drinking and dancing - generic bullshit. How about curing cancer? Do people really want to listen any meaningful lyrics? Is there any point in taking the time to write (songs)? You have to look hard (for people who are listening), but are people really listening? (That's what the song is about).



V.B. You have two very interesting album(s) title(s), Handshakes and Middle Fingers and Self-Explanatory. These titles seem to give a ton of attitude. What's your philosophy on dealing with haters and sticky situations?



C. I actually tweeted about that this morning. For every person that loves your music, there's someone who hates it. There's a middle point, though: voicing your opinion or saying you don't really love or hate. Deal with hate, because there's alot of hate out there. But, make sure you voice your opinion too. Ignore haters, because they have something wrong with their lives (that may have nothing to do with you). I was once a hater coming into this industry, blaming my daddy. But once I focused on my music, I forgot about other people and was able to focus on myself (in a positive way).



V.B. Any last words? Who would you love to collaborate with?



C. I wanna produce a track on Royce's and Eminem's CD. I've worked with Royce before. I'm also working on festival dates and music video shoots this summer.

Homeless - Homeless Alcoholics Need A Wet House

Homeless alcoholics need a wet house.

When you sleep with your bottle, you've passed a milestone in your addiction. You've got to have it against your chest, all night, easy to reach. Your relationship to it is like other people's relationships with their smart phones; it's crucial to your existence, always clutched in your hand. You feel unsettled when you can't see it, until it's easier to just sleep with it.
But there are other, worse stages to come. As I ask my clinic patients about them, I hear a ding in my mind, like an elevator does each time a door opens, each time a patient answers yes.
Do you wake with the shakes? That means that you're so addicted that you begin to withdraw every night as you sleep. Ding.
Do you wake up in the night to take a drink? Your brain must be bathed in alcohol, awash in the acrid sea of it, at all times. You can no longer make it to morning. Ding.
Do you seize if you stop drinking? Deprived of alcohol, your tender brain begins to crackle and sizzle, and then ignites like a gas-explosion - ka-whoom - as a depth charge of neurons fires. Ding.
Can you remember how this happened? It looks like something hit you pretty hard, sir, the way your cheekbone is caved in here under all this blood. Do you remember? You never remember what happens when you're drinking. Ding. Ding. Ding.
At what point does society decide that someone has become a danger to himself because of his addiction? And what can be done about it?
The large numbers of public inebriates on our sidewalks represent a financial, ethical, and moral crisis in cities across America. These suffering humans also represent a public health crisis. Mortality rates are sky high, with life expectancies equal to, or worse than, those of people living in the most devastated, violence-riddled pockets of our globe.
The issue of people drinking themselves to death on a sidewalk is one that unites and divides us in unpredictable ways, crossing "normal" divisions of politics, compassion, and fiscal conservatism. There are those who want a person slowly dying in plain sight to at least have a roof over his head. There are the more law-and-order, throw-the-bums-out types, who just want public inebriates off the streets. And no one can look at the eye-popping cost of this public, drawn-out suffering and death without thinking that, at $8 million dollars a year in health care costs for 100 people, there has to be a better - and cheaper - way.
Disclaimer: Identifiable patients mentioned in this post were not served by R. Jan Gurley in her capacity as a physician at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, nor were they encountered through her position there. The views and opinions expressed by R. Jan Gurley are her own and do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the City and County of San Francisco; nor does mention of the San Francisco Department of Public Health imply its endorsement.
Photo credit: George Erws via Flickr
Read more...

Major Oil Find in Texas, 3,000 Wells in 12 Months (Unless Obama Stops This Also)

Texas has a reputation of doing things in a big way and this time is no different, one of the worlds largest oil fields have been found right here in the U.S. in the western part of Texas.
And companies are rushing to get it out of the ground. More than a dozen companies plan to drill up to 3,000 wells around here in the next 12 months.

Eagle Ford the name of the Texas field, is just one of about 20 new onshore oil fields that industry sources say could collectively increase the nation’s oil output by 25 percent within a decade.

The "problem" is, at least to environmentalists, the oil fields are of the "shale oil" variety, and the way to get it it out of the ground is by fracking a process that makes environmentalists nervous. Fracking involves injecting water, with sand and other additives, into the rock to push the oil and/or gas into accessible pockets. Improvements in technology allow drilling horizontally from a single, above-ground well, reducing the above-ground hit on the environment.

Based on the industry’s plans, shale and other “tight rock” fields that now produce about half a million barrels of oil a day will produce up to three million barrels daily by 2020, according to IHS CERA, an energy research firm. Oil companies are investing an estimated $25 billion this year to drill 5,000 new oil wells in tight rock fields, according to Raoul LeBlanc, a senior director at PFC Energy, a consulting firm.

“This is very big and it’s coming on very fast,” said Daniel Yergin, the chairman of IHS CERA. “This is like adding another Venezuela or Kuwait by 2020, except these tight oil fields are in the United States.”

In the most developed shale field, the Bakken field in North Dakota, production has leaped to 400,000 barrels a day today from a trickle four years ago. Experts say it could produce as much as a million barrels a day by the end of the decade.

The Eagle Ford, where the first well was drilled only three years ago, is already producing more than 100,000 barrels a day and could reach 420,000 by 2015, almost as much as Ecuador, according to Bentek Energy, a consultancy.

That's only four years from now, but don't start celebrating yet environmentalists are trying very hard to stop the use of fracking. According to a recent report released by Congressman Issa, the Obama administration is doing its best to make it difficult to use the fracking method of extracting oil and gas.

Despite the success of fracking, federal agencies appear to be in a race to see which one can regulate it first. The Department of Interior announced last November that it will consider regulating fracking on federal lands. The EPA, which concluded seven years ago that fracking "poses little or no threat" to drinking water supplies, is revisiting the issue. Having found no evidence that fracking chemicals reach drinking water, EPA now wants to study the entire lifecycle of the water used. In addition, DOE has convened a study group to review the fracking process. In a written statement, DOE Secretary Steven Chu stated, “I am looking forward to hearing from this diverse, respected group of experts on best practices for safe and responsible natural gas production.” Although the study groups members are certainly highly respected, a survey of their biographies indicates none has recent industry experience with the advancements in the technology.

Additional regulation of fracking is unnecessary because, as EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson pointed out, fracking is not an unregulated activity. Federal regulation by EPA, DOE, and DOI would cause needless delay and uncertainty along with multiple additional layers of red tape. Ultimately, federal intervention will chill investment and decrease energy independence.  Quite the opposite - the states, not the federal government, have always regulated the process and have done so with a solid track record. Officials in state after state have gone on the record to say that fracking has not caused any problems and any reports to the contrary are inaccurate.

Oh and there is that other "thing." According to the Washington Examiner, the 3-inch dunes sagebrush lizard could hinder drilling in West Texas, as it could be named a new endangered species. If put on the list in December, drillers fear the lizard’s new status would slow down or halt drilling in the area.

Based on his track record of preventing drilling in the guild and the canceling of shale drilling contracts in Utah, it will not be surprising if President Obama finds a way to stop this drilling also.

5/31/2011 Playboy Tuesday Trivia Time!!!

It's time once again for Playboy's Tuesday Trivia contest on twitter. Make sure you follow @Playboy on twitter so you can reply back to them with your answer.

This week's question: What was the famous saying on the door of the Chicago Mansion?



Need a little help with the answer? Click here >>> http://www.playboy.com/articles/the-playboy-faq

5/31/2011 Playboy Tuesday Trivia Time!!!

It's time once again for Playboy's Tuesday Trivia contest on twitter. Make sure you follow @Playboy on twitter so you can reply back to them with your answer.

This week's question: What was the famous saying on the door of the Chicago Mansion?



Need a little help with the answer? Click here >>> http://www.playboy.com/articles/the-playboy-faq

Egypt: Where Moderates and Judges Endorse Terrorism

By Barry Rubin

In September, the leaves will start falling off the trees in the West. And so will their policies toward the Middle East. That month, Egypt will elect a radical and largely Islamist parliament. That parliament will write a radical and largely Islamist constitution. The new government will follow a radical and at least partly Islamist policy. It will be Iran all over again.

Of course, Egypt is different. The problem will not be as large or intense as Iran. But as the Shakespearean character said when given a fatal sword wound in "Romeo and Juliet": “No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but 'tis enough, ‘twill serve.”

There was a violent demonstration at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. The protesters set fire to an Israeli flag and demanded the Israeli ambassador be expelled. The demonstrators attempted to storm the embassy; 185 people were arrested, 18 police injured by thrown rocks.

The demonstration was organized on Facebook by the April 6 Youth Movement. The same "moderate" and "democratic" group so highly praised in the West for "leading" the Egyptian revolution.

Asmaa Mahfouz is a leader of the April 6 Youth Movement. In fact, she claims that she personally began the revolution with her January 18 video calling for demonstrations. Now, Mahfouz is trying to launch a new revolution against the military rulers. One of the reasons she’s protesting the transitional military regime is that the army protected the Israeli Embassy from being stormed and seized by the demonstrators.

President Obama believes these people are the hope for the future and backs them 100 percent. Of course, there are real moderate democrats in Egypt, but they are few and terrible at organizing a political structure. There is no strong moderate party running in the parliamentary election. The Muslim Brotherhood is well-organized. Smaller Islamist and radical leftist parties are organized.

The dominant emotion today in Egypt is fear. The dominant response today in the West is blindness.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian court took Egyptian citizenship away from a leading Coptic Christian activist and banned him from entering the country. Among the charges was supposedly insulting Islam and asking the United States and Israel to interfere in Egypt's internal affairs.

Former Deputy Head of Egypt's Court of Appeals Judge Mahmoud al-Khodheiri, gave an interview on al-Jazira (thanks to MEMRI for video and translation) and said:

"We should stop exporting natural gas to Israel.” But is it all about the money? No: “I consider the export of gas to Israel an act of treason, and we should stop it. I salute the people who bombed the gas pipe, because this is my blood that is being transferred to my enemy."

A man who’s been a high-ranking judge salutes terrorists who blew up a pipeline. Yet judges are supposed to uphold the rule of law. If a judge can cheer those who blow things up that opens the door to supporting other acts of lawless violence. Wherever al-Khodheiri draws the line others will find justification for mayhem. Attack Christians? Kill Jews? Assassinate secularists or government officials? Once lawlessness is rationalized as absolute right there are no limits.

A former high-ranking judge calls for ignoring a legal contract. Judges are supposed to uphold contracts. Of course, he could call for renegotiating the contract through legal channels, but that isn’t what he does. So the acceptable resort to an agreement where you aren’t currently gaining an advantage is violence and unilateral abrogation. What does this tell us about other agreements (contracts) that Israel might make with Arab neighbors or the Palestinians?

Israel is an enemy. Despite a peace treaty 33 years ago, most Egyptians regard this as merely a temporary truce. The return of the Sinai, reopening of the Suez Canal, reopening of Egyptian oilfields in western Sinai do not suffice to make them feel at peace with Israel, whatever continuing sympathy and support they might give the Palestinians. Nor does Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the creation of the Palestinian Authority and Israel’s acceptance of its arming and transfer of funds, nor Israel’s other actions. Why should we believe that Israel’s turnover of east Jerusalem, the West Bank, and creation of a Palestinian state would change anything? I wish that were true but I’m not going to pretend it is when I see it isn’t.

Selling gas is “treason.” And what does one do to traitors in the Arabic-speaking world? One kills them. While al-Khodheiri isn’t a cleric, he has been a career judge, the people who lay down the law of the state as Muslim clerics rule on Sharia (Islamic) law. So in a real sense what he ‘has done is to issue what one might call a “secular fatwa.” If an official of Egypt’s energy authority is murdered tomorrow the killers can cite al-Khodheiri as justifying it, just as previous killers or the would-be assassin of Naguib Mafouz, Egypt’s great novelist, rationalized their acts because of clerics’ statements.

Remember, al-Khodheiri is a Mubarak-appointed judge! What will the judges selected by the next government sound like?

Finally, “blood.” The resort to passion rather than reason is dangerous. The English-language expression “as sober as a judge” doesn’t just refer to intoxication with alcohol but to a “judicious temperament,” calm, cool, and rational.

If judges call for violence and murder, invoke blood and treason how might common people behave? What example is being offered to the national political culture?

President Barack Obama and European leaders don’t get it. We are about to be projected back to the bad old days of radical Arab nationalist regimes competing with each other in militancy, anti-Americanism, and hatred of Israel. Except this time they’re Islamists and that’s worse.

When top judges yell for fire and vengeance your society is in real trouble. And so are its neighbors. No democratic state can be built on such a foundation. Ignore all those soothing and ignorant journalists and “experts” on television and in the newspapers. Here comes the judge. And he’s a hanging judge.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal, and a featured columnist at PajamasMedia http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/ His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center is http://www.gloria-center.org. His PajamaMedia columns are mirrored and other articles available at http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com/.

Consumer Confidence, Manufacturing And Housing- More Signs of Coming Recession Part Two

The Conference Board announced today that their Consumer Confidence Index fell to a six-month low of 60.8 from a revised 66 in April, a further sign that the still stagnant job market and the high gas prices based somewhat on the President's continued strangle-hold on domestic oil, is fraying the public's confidence of the United State's economic future.

The drop was a surprise (isn't it always) as economists had expected an increase to 67. Anything over a 90 is indicative of a healthy economy.

"Consumers are considerably more apprehensive about future business and labor market conditions as well as their income prospects," said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. She said fears of inflation that had eased in April picked up again in May.

Adding fuel to the fire, the housing market continued its slide back into recession.

The U.S. housing market is in a “double dip” – the second wave of falling prices since the Great Recession gained steam in 2008, according to the folks who operate the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

The index tracks 20 large metropolitan areas, including Portland, and found that current house prices are back where they were in mid-2002, on average, for those cities.

And if that isn't enough all indications are that the manufacturing sector is slowing down:

The May ISM purchasing managers index is forecast to drop to 57.5 in May from 60.4 a month earlier according to a survey of economists by Market News International.

It would mark the first time this year that the closely-watched manufacturing index has fallen below 60, though it is still well above the 50 mark that indicates growth in the sector.

HSBC economist Ryan Wang said U.S. exports, which fueled a rebound in manufacturing earlier this year, are now a key reason for the slower pace of growth in May.

"The slowdown seems to be global. That's impacting the U.S.," Wang said in an interview. "The key question is whether it turns into a more serious pullback."

Regional manufacturing indicators across the board have signaled a slowdown is on the cards. The Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing index plunged to 3.9 in May from 18.5 the previous month.

The New York Fed's Empire State report and Chicago PMI have also shown slower growth in their regions, while the Dallas Federal Reserve and Richmond Fed indexes reported contractions in May.

If this was any other President, or at least a republican one, the media would be all over the place screaming double-dip recession. With each passing day, the numbers seem to confirm that we are heading into another tailspin, which is why businesses and consumers alike seem to be keeping their money hidden in their mattresses. If this trend continues, sadly more people will find themselves out of work, and without a home.  If it continues long enough one of those jobless people will be President Obama--beginning in January 2013. Its time for the GOP to pick of the mantra of the Bill Clinton campaign "its the economy stupid!"

PBS Website Hackers LulzSec Praise Zennie62, Media Misses Message

LulzSec is gaining fame for hacking into the website's of Fox, Sony, PBS, and it seems AT&T, by reading their Twitter tweets. Of course, the actions of the group of what Parmy Olson at Forbes.com says are four people (I think more) are lost on the mainstream media.

While the LutzSec folks say they're out to just have fun, their real intent in much greater, and necessary.

It was that observation I arrived at after reading a vast number of Twitter tweets, articles, and blog posts about LulzSec, then writing my own take that appears on Zennie62.com and on SFGate.com. After seeing it on Twitter (because I shared it with them), the group issued this tweet:

LulzSec The Lulz Boat

A fine article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail?entry_id=89990 @Zennie62

13 hours ago

Cool.

Now at this point you might get the idea I'm egging LulzSec on. No, I'm not. They're going to do what they do regardless of my take. But, as a person who has intense disagreement with the way much of the media operates online, and an overall lack of understanding or interest in the Internet on their part, I see this as a much-needed cleansing.

What should come from these efforts are better and more secure website systems, and a lesser degree of corporate arrogance when matters of Internet operations are considered. What should also happen is the media should devote more time and effort to understanding and explaining what groups like LutzSec do.

Any one who thinks it's just for fun only sees what LutzSec wants them to see. The truth is, they do it because the website systems of many large companies allow them to do so. That goes for many news organizations.

If you think the PBS website hack was just playing around, don't think so. Every news website should look at what LulzSec has done and make sure their systems are secure so it doesn't happen to them. To think the unthinkable, imagine if the group had simultaneously hacked into three major news websites and posted the same Tupac story? Given the connections to Google News and other news aggregators, the damage to the media system would have been tremendous.

Yet, for now, this is possible.

It's possible, in part, because Google itself has subordinated blogs in favor of news websites, thus opening the public to such an effective attack. It's possible because a number of news websites are arguably not as secure as they could be.

This is a real problem. And look at it another way, LulzSec's not attacking websites where data exists that can really harm innocent people if it's compromised. These folks have a plan, and it's not about hurting society.

I'm not supporting what LulzSec is doing, I'm only explaining it's true implications to a public and a mainstream media that seems clueless. This idea of the hackers just having "fun" is only pablum, and the media's eating it up.

Stay tuned.

Subway Fights, NYC Naked Man Rants - How To Avoid Both

If you live in an urban area with a subway train system, chances are you've seen it, a subway fight. And maybe you've seen a naked man go on a rant on the subway system, as was true for a number of passengers on the #6 train in NYC in early May of this year. Well, if you've wondered what to do to avoid such calamities in the future, this video blog is for you.

Let's use three recent, real World examples - two from New York City.

In the first one, a young girl, black, is eating pasta out of a container, much to the displeasure of an adult white woman sitting across from her. Race is noted here, because the adult white woman uses racist terms and insults to verbally assault the obviously young girl. That alone was horrible, and some measure of understanding must be offered to the girl, who calls the woman by her overweight status.

But the best way for both to avoid these situations is, for the adult woman, to stop trying to control others. If she didn't like it, she could have moved - no one was stopping her.

The girl's not supposed to eat on the train, but let's face it, many people do. And I've seen some patrons and the police on San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit System make an issue of it if a person of color was doing the consuming of even a cup of coffee; it's OK if the person happens to be white.

But today, BART allows the sale of Starbucks Coffee in two stations: Berkeley and Powell Street. So, the BART Police should not even enforce such a "no eating" law and the BART Board should take it off their books, because it's not fair to maintain it, and sell food at the same time.

But I digress.

In the second example, an older Latina woman is singing on the Hollywood Subway. A man standing next to her doesn't like it. But rather than walk away, tries to control what she's doing. Another man takes offense to the, as I call him, "Angry Man's" behavior, and steps between them. The Angry Man sucker punches the other man and a fight breaks out.

The Angry Man had a problem and I personally hope he was charged with assault. He should have just walked away. The woman has a free speech right to sing on a public train, and at least one of the passengers enjoyed it.

Racism Is A Mental Illness

In the final example, a man in the video, obviously nuts, strips naked while yelling racial insults. What to do? Well, first get a camera or camcorder! Seriously. YouTube, for one video distribution company, pays well for viral videos. Second, get away from the guy and call the police, ASAP. Third, unless you like danger and think you can take him down without putting your hand in the wrong place, leave him alone.

The guy in the video had to be on something to act like that. Plus, he disobeyed a police officer, and then in one of the other videos it was said he tried to grab the cop's gun.

So this guy's looking at a bit longer than the standard penalty for disorderly conduct.

BART Is Safer - But Not By Much

Thankfully the BART system doesn't have as many happenings like these, even though they do occur. Take the guy blowing his horn in the passenger's face after the Giants World Series Game last year:




That passenger did the right thing: he just went with it, and the drunk guy walked on.

One reason for the fewer fights than in Eastern cities, I think, is simply because the trains are much nicer than their New York counterparts.

But the quiet, clean, nice BART of the 20th Century, is giving way to a dirtier, louder version in the 21st Century.

If this is a budget issue, and it must be, then given the state's overall revenue problem, we're in for trouble. One way BART should mitigate that is to have a sponsored train. Here, revenue is generated by allowing a train to have logos of a sponsor.

Something has to be done. Else, BART's degeneration into the next venue for urban fight clubs will continue.

Stay tuned.

When Palestinian President Abbas Said NO To A Settlement Freeze

The reason the Palestinians give for not negotiating with Israel is that the Jewish State refuses to halt building new housing units in existing communities in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.  That claim is nothing but a red herring. First of all the entire Israeli Settlement Freeze issue was a creation of the naive administration of Barack Obama, just as important is the fact that the "moderate" terrorist, Palestinian President Abbas refused a generous offer by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to continue last years 10-month-long freeze, if the Palestinians recognized Israel as the Jewish State.

While the Palestinian's have never accepted Israeli settlements,cessation of all settlement building has never been a precondition to talks. Israel had long ago agreed not to build new "settlements" in Judea and Samaria but would continue to add housing units to existing communities.

During the government of PM Ehud Barak, there were direct talks and construction continued in existing communities.

Hillary Clinton first demanded the freeze in 2009 and was quickly backed up by Obama. What the President and his advisers perceived as a minor concession (a settlement freeze including no new housing units in existing communities) was for Israel a grave sacrifice. From their point of view it was if they were telling adults that their children could not purchase a home in their neighborhood.

This was a major error by the Obama administration and it was compounded by their inclusion of Jerusalem in the mix and their constant public berating of the Jewish State turned the Israeli population against Obama. In fact the only thing that Obama's public berating of Israel accomplished is to unite the Israeli populace against him.


Additionally Obama's  demand for a freeze  broke a US/Israel agreement made during the Bush administration. Obama, through his Secretary of State Ms Clinton, said there was never an agreement between Israel and the US about natural expansion of existing settlements. Elliot Abrams who negotiated the agreement for the United States says  Obama's contention is simply not true (diplo-speak for he they are lying).

The Palestinians seized upon the Obama-created issue. Seeing an opportunity to avoid talking, they used Obama’s demands to make a settlement freeze a precondition to further talks, even there were negotiations and construction going on simultaneously before Obama became president.

In August 2009 Prime Minister Netanyahu announced a ten month settlement freeze. It was approved and implemented on November 25, 2009 and ran till September 25, 2010. Despite pressure from the United States, the Palestinians wasted the first 9+ months of the freeze and would not come to the negotiation table till September 2010, three weeks before the freeze ended. A fact lost on the liberal media.

Yet the onus was put on the Jewish State to extend the freeze, the administration did not question the Palestinian Authority’s refusal talk for the first nine months of a ten month freeze.

As the end of the construction halt approached, the US began to negotiate with the Israel to extend the freeze via Hilary Clinton. Based on their experience with the Obama Administration, they demanded that any proposal be presented in writing. In other words,  as any oral deal with the Obama administration was worth the paper it was printed on.

The written offer never came and worse yet, the Secretary of State wasn’t negotiating in good faith. Ms Clinton was playing "Bait and Switch."

As Israel waits for a letter clarifying America's guarantees in exchange for a proposed building ban for Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, a diplomatic source has come forward saying that no such letter is on its way. United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton misled Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and contrary to reports, the U.S. does not guarantee an end to the freeze, the source said.

The source, a senior diplomat with inside knowledge of Netanyahu's recent meetings in Washington, said Clinton made commitments when talking to Netanyahu, but later slipped out of them by claiming that she had not been speaking on behalf of U.S. President Obama – who, she said in the end, did not give his approval.

That didn't stop Netanyahu from trying to give the Palestinian side an "out." In early October he made a very simple offer to the PA.  If you were to recognize Israel as the Jewish State, we will extend the freeze.  As reported by Al Jazeera the answer was a resounding no:

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has offered to renew a partial settlement construction freeze in exchange for Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
He announced the offer on Monday, just three days after the Palestinians and Arab states gave the US a month to persuade Israel to renew a 10-month moratorium on settlement housing starts that expired on September 26.

Netanyahu's proposal met with swift rejection from senior Palestinian officials.

"The whole world holds Netanyahu responsible for what is happening in the region, after he chose to push ahead with the settlement project at the expense of an advance in the peace process. Settlement freeze is a commitment Netanyahu should respect," Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, told Al Jazeera.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior official of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, described the settlement issue as "an aggression on Palestinian rights and land".

"What Israel calls itself is an Israeli matter that does not concern us. The two issues are not related," he told Al Jazeera in reference to Netanyahu's condition that Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

Nabil Abu Rudainah, the spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said a return to peace talks required a freeze on settlement building by Israel.

"The issue of the Jewishness of the state has nothing to do with the matter," he told the Reuters news agency.

 President Obama believes that the unrest in the Middle East, the so called Arab Spring is the perfect opportunity for crafting a peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. But how can he try and make peace if he does not recognize the fact that the Palestinian side refuses to make the most basic of acknowledgments, that Israel is the Jewish State. Until they recognize that fact, it is clear that the Palestinians have no desire to make peace.

Michael Jordan Biography

Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born on February 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York. Michael Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, businessman who is active, and also the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats.

Biography of Michael Jordan at the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, is Michael Jordan the greatest basketball player of all time." Michael Jordan is one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in 1980 and 1990 .

Michael Jordan Biography
Michael Jordan's family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, when Michael was still very young. His father worked as a General Electric plant supervisor, and his mother worked at the bank. His father taught him to work hard and do not be tempted by street life. His mother taught him to sew, clean, and wash clothes. Jordan loves the sport but failed to make his high school basketball team as a sophomore. He continued to practice and make the team next year. After high school he received a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina, where he played under head coach Dean Smith.

At Laney High School, as a sophomore, he decided to try to cut the university team but because he was raw and size. The next summer, he grew four inches and practiced relentlessly. The hard work paid off when he averaged 25 points per game in two years and was elected to the McDonald's All-American Team as a senior.

After high school, he received a basketball scholarship from North Carolina University where he will be playing under legendary coach Dean Smith. In its first year, he was named ACC Freshman of the Year. He will help lead the Tarheels to the 1982 NCAA Championship, making the shot that won the game.

A brief list of the top accomplishments would include as follows: Rookie of the Year, five-time NBA MVP, six-time NBA champion, six time NBA Finals MVP; Ten-time All-NBA First Team; Nine time NBA All-Defensive First Team, Defensive Player of the Year, 14-time NBA All-Star, three time NBA All-Star MVP; the 50th All-Time Team; Ten scoring titles - NBA record and seven consecutive matching Wilt Chamberlain; Pensioners with an average score NBA top of 30.1ppg. Michael Jordan Biography

Newsbusted: Did Obama Send Mitt Romney a Dead Fish?

After his overseas trip last week we learned of President Obama's Irish roots, but he may have some Italian in him also.  According to Newsbuster's Anchor Jodi Miller the President may have responded to a gesture by Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney with a dead fish.

Other exclusives covered in today's edition of the twice-weekly feature from Newsbusters.org  include the real reason why the President signed the Westminster Abbey guest book using a date from 2008, why the President has been criticized for being too Al Gore-like and just who are those Israelis who say they support Obama's new Middle East plan.

Please don't let yourself miss this issue of  Newsbusted.  Because should you miss it, the blue bird of happiness will crap all over your bar-b-que. Click play below and remember, if you don't, Snookie will come visiting.

Oh, and if you cannot see video below click here  

Why I haven't Covered Weinergate

I have been asked by a couple of readers why I am not covering the Wenergate scandal. While I enjoy a good wiener joke especially at the expense of Anthony Weiner who I believe is a blight upon Congress, there is something I do not trust about the story.  Can't put my finger on it, and until I believe something is true it wont appear here.

Just to make one more thing clear, having written over 150 posts for the Breitbart sites since March of last year, I do not believe that the "bigs" invented the story either (some one else might have, but my experience has been that they have questioned me about links and sources for stories with implications much smaller than this story).

The bottom line is if the Weinergate story is true, it could not only hurt Weiner's career but his marriage, therefore I want to be convinced it's real before covering it.

Thanks for understanding.

5/31/2011 Playboy's 'Sole Mates'

Jaime Faith Edmondson

Kimberly Phillips

New at the Playboy Cyber Club: 'Sole Mates'

Playboy Playmates Kimberly Phillips, Heather Rae Young, Francesca Frigo, Jessica Burciaga, Jaime Faith Edmondson, Candice Cassidy, Tiffany Taylor, Patrice Hollis, and Hiromi Oshima rank the top 23 Air Jordan's off all time in this spectacularly, sexy pictorial! Wow! Click here to check it out! >> playboy.com/solemates

5/31/2011 Playboy's 'Sole Mates'

Jaime Faith Edmondson

Kimberly Phillips

New at the Playboy Cyber Club: 'Sole Mates'

Playboy Playmates Kimberly Phillips, Heather Rae Young, Francesca Frigo, Jessica Burciaga, Jaime Faith Edmondson, Candice Cassidy, Tiffany Taylor, Patrice Hollis, and Hiromi Oshima rank the top 23 Air Jordan's off all time in this spectacularly, sexy pictorial! Wow! Click here to check it out! >> playboy.com/solemates

YouTube's Statement On Harrassment And Cyberbullying

As this blogger's effort to have YouTube install a channel filter to block, for me, the unwanted N-word continues, we have to look at what Google and YouTube say about this problem, which is called "Harassment And Cyberbullying.

But before we press on, here's my video message:



Now. Why examine what YouTube and Google say about the problem?

Because some commenters on my video don't get the problem. Here's one comment that illustrates my point:

What I don't understand is how this word is so hurtful. It's just a word, and I guarantee you that 95% of the people that use it aren't racist at all, they're just trying to make you angry, and you're letting them.

I don't think that they should add a word filter. What are they going to do, remove all the videos such as rap and movie clips that have the word too? It's not going to happen and your complaining about it is just going to make more people do it because they know it ticks you off.

In other words, according YouTuber CelebO1996 (well, YouTube account holder, since he or she doesn't post videos) I should just take it, right? Continue to be harassed, right?

This is what YouTube and Google explain in their policy statements, starting with a definition of harassment:

Harassment is when someone persistently troubles or attacks another. Online, this is called cyberbullying and is commonly seen in text comments, messages and videos. People who harass others are usually doing this to get attention or reactions from others online or in real life. Harassment can be mildly annoying or can pose very serious safety issues. It's important to know the differences between the two to know when you should just ignore the user or report to a trusted adult or authorities.

So people who use the N-word fall into this category, obviously. Well, er, it doesn't seem to be obvious to some people.

As to how to stop it, this is the Google / YouTube statement:

Not everyone online is nice. Comments can get pretty rough sometimes. One thing nearly all haters have in common is that they are trying to get a reaction out of you. If a user's comments are bothering you, it's probably not a good idea to reply back. Instead, try deleting the comments and blocking the user so they can't view your other videos or leave more comments. You can also turn comments off for any video or manage comments by requiring pre-approval before they get posted.

Now for a person who has 1,468 videos, and counting, and thousands of comments, deleting and blocking the N-word has become a job onto itself. As I've said, and will continue to say, I've had it.

YouTube has something called the Help & Safety Tool, but it's designed to report a single YouTube account holder. If I used that, YouTube would get about 30 to 50 reports from me per month. Does YouTube want that? 

Why not just save everyone the trouble and add a word filter?

I'm not saying I don't believe in free speech, but if this wasn't a problem, Google and YouTube would not bother to install pages and write procedures for how to deal with Harrassment And Cyberbullying.

So, since the organizations have gone that far, why not go the extra mile and add a word filter?

It's not too much to ask for.

On Memorial Day, Remembering My Fathers

At first I wasn't going to do this, because it's too hard. But I just knew I could not let the Memorial Day go by without honoring my father, Zenophon Abraham, Sr., and my stepfather Chester Yerger, Jr. Both served in World War II, and both received honorable discharges from it.

In my father's case he's now buried at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery and, as I show in my 2009 video, ...



I have his burial flag that was given to me after his ceremony, which included a 21-gun salute. Zennie Sr. passed away without a lot of money, and I was prepared to take on the debts he left behind, but it never came to that. We had a relationship that was on-and-off-and-on.

I think, as I grew and became 'my own man' as they say, he, at first, didn't know how to deal with that. He was used to me always agreeing with him; then I hit 18 years old, and that pretty much stopped. I remember the first time I took issue with his point-of-view, explaining to him that, even though I was a Dallas Cowboys fan, I believed that the then-Los Angeles Rams were going to beat them in a NFL First Round Divisional 1981 Playoff Game.

Well, that's what happened.

We didn't talk much after that.

Dad remarried during the 80s, then in 1993, first informed me of my three young half-sisters. I didn't actually meet them until the year my father passed away: 2005. The oldest and I communicate often, but not quite as much as I'd prefer.

My father and I reconnected in 1999. It was my first NFL Owners Meeting, the Fall Meeting that was then commonly held at the Hyattt Regency O'Hare. It was my first such meeting during the effort to bring the Super Bowl to Oakland, and I was jazzed to say the least. Attending such an event, let alone being asked to make a presentation, is a rare happening for anyone. 

I even remember talking with this guy who would literally hang out in the lobby by himself, waiting to talk to the NFL Owners as they came out of whatever meeting was being held.  He was an NFL junkie in a black shirt - a guy who looked like a kid at a candy store.   Now, he's on Fox Sports and his name's Jay Glazer. 

Since I knew that Dad lived 15 minutes away from the Hyatt, I invited him to have lunch with me. It was a moment I will never forget, because it was the day after the day that Chicago Bears Running Back Walter Payton passed away: November 1, 1999. My father said "I want to talk with you as a father talks to his son." And he did.

I don't care what anyone says, or how this is taken, you can't replicate the impact a father has on the growth of a child - son or daughter. You just can't. He said things to me that I will never forget or recount here.

Later, after my successful Super Bowl Policy Committee Meeting, where I was the only person representing Oakland (a long story) to talk before a group that consisted of then-NFL exec Neil Austrian, then-NFL SVP and "Mr. Super Bowl" Jim Steeg, Indianapolis Colts Owner Jim Irsay, the late NY Giants Co-Owner Bob Tisch, and the late Kansas City Chiefs Owner Lamar Hunt (and where Irsay said my presentation was "outstanding" and you can ask him today), I called my father.

I just wanted to meet Dad for a drink; he wanted to go out and into Downtown Chicago to a club! Man, I just couldn't see doing that with my old man. Boy, was I a square! Well, not really. I just think there are some activities that a young man should not do with his father, and that's one of them!

My father, like my stepfather Chester Harding Yerger, Jr., was full of life. In Chester's case, he was married to my Mom for 18 years before passing away the same year as my father - 2005.

Chester loved to talk with everyone, especially about the War, and about his legendary Arkansas family. The Yergers were one of the largest tax payers in the State of Arkansas, and have a history remembered today in the form of Yerger Middle School in Hope, Arkansas. He was proud of the legacy of a great African American family that was paced by Henry Clay Yerger, Chester's grandfather.

Mr. Yerger started the Henry Clay Yerger School System in Hope, in 1886, with one building and one teacher - him. It grew steadily and became the first training school for Blacks west of the Mississippi River, and then in 1931 called Yerger High School.

After re-reading that, it's not hard to brag, eh?

I lost both my father and Chester in 2005 and in October and on St. Patrick's Day, respectively. That same year, in January, my mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Thanks to early detection, an early-stage drug called Femara, a great diet, and friends, and me, Mom beat it and was declared Cancer-free on April 17, 2005.

She's still giving me lectures today; I love every one of them.

Happy Memorial Day.

This Weekend

Folks Hopefully you noticed that I took much of this weekend off, spending time with my family.  Among other things, my son and I saw both Thor and Pirates of the Caribbean, and spent other time with my wife and daughter.

I hope you understand and I will be back up and running full time very early tomorrow morning.

Barack Obama's "Muslim Problem"

By Barry Rubin

The idea that President Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim is ridiculous. (And don’t write me disagreeing because there’s no proof.)

BUT this red herring has blocked a serious discussion of what is Obama’s attitude toward Islam. As so often happens regarding the Middle East and Islam, people spend their time and passions focusing on the wrong issue.

I think two points can be made reasonably:

• Based on his youthful experience, Obama thinks he is a great expert on Islam. He isn’t. And the Islam he came in contact with at the time (in Indonesia mainly) was quite different from what he has to deal with in the Middle East today. Particularly, he genuinely does not seem to comprehend revolutionary Islamism. And since that's the main international threat in the world today his failure creates a gigantic problem for the future of what used to be called the Free World.

• Obama has a strong sympathy and empathy for Muslims. In theory, that’s just fine but it has led to a policy of trying to win the love of the Muslim-majority world rather than to develop strategies that work and protect U.S. interests. Another theme that emerges from this is his relentless mirror-imaging in which Egypt's revolution becomes equivalent to Rosa Parks protesting against segregation on buses in the Southern United States and the quest for democratic liberty by America's Founding Fathers.

So Obama's "Islamophilia" makes him have a huge "Muslim problem." The problem is not that he "likes" Muslims but that he doesn't distinguish among them. It's the difference between loving Russia, its people and its culture a generation ago, and not understanding the problem of Communism. 

By believing that the only problems are: a tiny group of evil people (al-Qaida) and mistakes made by U.S. policy, Obama is missing the biggest political development in the world today. 

It's like saying after the Russian Revolution that the real problem is a small group of anarchists who want to hijack Bolshevism, but that if the United States is only nice enough to the Communists, shows them that America isn't their enemy, and helps them get rid of a few extremists everything will be great.

 

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal, and a featured columnist at PajamasMedia http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/ His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center is http://www.gloria-center.org. His PajamaMedia columns are mirrored and other articles available at http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com