THE BLACK KETTLE

DEAR READERS

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:10:00 +0000

AS MOST OF YOU HAVE SURMISED BLOGGER TAGGED TBK AS 'SPAM' ON APRIL 29TH AND REMOVED IT. I HAD NO ADVANCE WARNING. REPEATED APPEALS TO BLOGGER FELL ON DEAF EARS. IN FRUSTRATION I STARTED UP TBK ON WORDPRESS BUT I HAD NO WAY TO ALERT MY READERS AS TO WHAT HAD TRANSPIRED OR WHERE TBK RELOCATED TO. IT WAS VERY FRUSTRATING. I APOLOGISE TO ALL OF YOU. SUDDENLY TODAY TBK HAS BEEN RESTORED BY BBLOGGER - AGAIN WITHOUT WARNING. I AM NOW IN A QUANDARY AS TO WHAT TO DO NEXT. I MUST DECIDE WHETHER TO RISK RETURNING TO BLOGGER, KNOWING THAT AT ANY TIME THEY COULD AGAIN TAG IT AS SPAM AND REMOVE IT, OR JUST GIVE UP ON BLOGGER COMPLETELY AND MOVE PERMANENTLY TO WORDPRESS. AS I MULL IT OVER PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT TBK'S WORDPRESS ADDRESS IS:

THE BLACK KETTLE

http://blackkettle.wordpress.com/

Peter Schiff Vlog Report 28 Apr 2009

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:28:00 +0000

Forbidden Discussion

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:17:00 +0000

The View From 1776:

In the liberal-progressive-socialist religion, evidence (or lack of evidence) that calls into question any of its tenets is to be dismissed as non-scientific.

Liberal-progressive-socialism and its handmaiden, the Darwinian evolutionary hypothesis, claim the mantle of science. But, as there is exactly zero proof of their doctrine, and judging from the intense, irrational passion with which their believers attack all questioners, we can conclude that liberal-progressive-socialism and Darwinism are not science, but aspects of a religion.

[...]

Ed Stelmach puts Lindsay Blackett in his place

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:25:00 +0000

By Ezra Levant:

Ed Stelmach, Alberta's weak premier, shows he's still strong when it comes to pushing his MLAs around. Today he put that uppity cabinet minister Lindsay Blackett (at left) back in his place.

For months, Blackett had been musing about reforming Alberta's out-of-control human rights commission -- the one that put me through a 900-day prosecution for publishing some cartoons, and the one that sentenced an Alberta pastor to a lifetime speech ban about gay marriage, even banning him from giving church sermons or writing private e-mails about it.

Here are Blackett's bold comments in the Calgary Sun, just two months ago:

[...]

Catastrophe. How much more of the Stelmach Advantage can we stomach? I am seriously considering moving to B.C.

MORE

Say It's Osama. What If He Won't Talk?

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:09:00 +0000

By Michael Scheuer, Washington Post:

Americans should be clear on what Obama has done. In a breathtaking display of self-righteousness and intellectual arrogance, the president told Americans that his personal beliefs are more important than protecting their country, their homes and their families. The interrogation techniques in question, the president asserted, are a sign that Americans have lost their "moral compass," a compliment similar to Attorney General Eric Holder's identifying them as "moral cowards." Mulling Obama's claim, one can wonder what could be more moral for a president than doing all that is needed to defend America and its citizens? Or, asked another way, is it moral for the president of the United States to abandon intelligence tools that have saved the lives and property of Americans and their allies in favor of his own ideological beliefs?

Before enthroning Obama's personal morality as U.S. defense policy, of course, some dirty work had to be done. Last Sunday, Obama's hit man and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel led the charge by telling the American people that the interrogation techniques are a major recruiting tool for al-Qaeda and its Islamist partners. Well, no, Mr. Emanuel, that is not at all the case. The techniques surely are not popular with our foes and their supporters -- should that be a concern in any event? -- but they do not even make the Islamists' hit parade of anti-U.S. recruiting tools. That list is headed by Washington's support for Arab tyrannies in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, its presence on the Arabian Peninsula and its unqualified support for Israel. Still, Emanuel's statement surely sounded plausible to Americans who have received no education about our Islamist enemy's true motivation from Obama, George W. Bush, Clinton or George H.W. Bush.

Next, the president used his personal popularity and the stature of his office to implicitly identify as liars those former senior U.S. officials who know -- not "argue" or "contend" or "assert" but know -- that the interrogation techniques have yielded intelligence essential to the nation's defense. The integrity, intellect and reputations of Judge Michael Mukasey, Gen. Michael V. Hayden and others have now been besmirched by Obama because their realistic worldview and firsthand experience do not mesh with the president's desire to install his personal "moral compass" as the core of U.S. foreign and defense policy. And after visiting CIA headquarters last week, the president made it clear that he rejected statements surely made by CIA officers who risked their careers to tell him how many successful covert operations against al-Qaeda have flowed from interrogation information. As with all Jacobins, Obama cannot allow a hard and often brutal reality -- call it an inconvenient truth -- to impinge on his view of how the world should and must be made to work.

And so as the Justice Department memos farce plays out over the coming weeks, Americans can be confident that both parties will play politics to the hilt while letting the nation's safety take the hindmost. Obama and his team will "reluctantly" agree to a congressional investigation of former Bush officials and serving CIA officers, politically targeted indictments from Holder's minions and perhaps even a truth commission to prove that even the United States can aspire to be a half-baked Third World country.

[...]

Prisoner Alert

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:58:00 +0000

Location: China
Arrested: February 2009
Days Imprisoned: 84

On Feb. 4, Gao Zhisheng, was abducted by Chinese secret police from his hometown. Since 2005, Gao has been repeatedly arrested, imprisoned and severely tortured by Chinese authorities, mostly for his work defending Chinese Christians. In 2006, he and a group of prominent human rights lawyers created the Association of Human Rights Attorneys for Chinese Christians. In 2007, he was arrested and spent over 50 days behind bars where he was tortured. “I was beaten so badly that my whole body began shaking uncontrollably on the floor,” Gao writes of his torture in an open letter.

PAKISTAN: TALIBAN-INSPIRED ATTACKS HIT CHRISTIANS

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:23:00 +0000

Compass Direct News:

As Taliban control hits pockets of Pakistan and threatens the nation’s stability, Christians worry their province could be the next to fall under Islamic law.

Violence on Tuesday night and Wednesday (April 21-22) near the port city of Karachi – some 1,000 kilometers (nearly 700 miles) from the Swat Valley, where the government officially allowed the Taliban to establish Islamic law this month – heightened fears. Christians in Taiser town, near Karachi, noticed on the walls of their church graffiti that read, “Long Live the Taliban” and calls for Christians to either convert to Islam or pay the jizye, a poll tax under sharia (Islamic law) paid by non-Muslims for protection if they decline to convert.

As members of the congregation erased the graffiti, armed men intervened to stop them. Soon 30-40 others arrived as support and began to fire indiscriminately at the crowd, leaving several injured. Among those seriously injured were three Christians, including a child, according to a report by advocacy group Minorities Concern of Pakistan: Emrah Masih, 35, Qudoos Masih, 30, and Irfan Masih, 11. A Pashtun named Rozi Khan was also among the injured.

[...]

Canada vindicated at Durban II

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:58:00 +0000

By Pierre Poilievre, NP:

We Canadians are often too polite to say, “I told you so.” But 16 months after we told the world that the Durban “anti-racism” conference was anything but, we have been vindicated. Canada was the first nation to pull out of the Durban II conference and to cut off funds for NGO participation. Countries like Italy, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Israel and the United States of America followed us. Many other nations later walked out of the conference when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad poured verbal acid all over Israel, the United States and Europe.

[...]

Al-Qaeda's PR Machine

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:11:00 +0000

By Ben Johnson, FrontPageMagazine.com:

[...]

Gibbs defended his actions later in the press conference, saying, “I think the president took swift action to change our image in the world.”

That he has. Upon taking office, Barack Obama promptly signed three executive orders closing Guantanamo Bay within one year, shuttering rendition "black sites," and binding interrogators to the Army Field Manual for high value detainees. He stepped away from the maximum, and exceedingly rare, interrogation techniques his predecessor allowed. Instead, what Bush authorized, Obama publicized, releasing memos describing less-than-shocking “torture” tactics. In the process, he gave our enemies vital information, not only on how far we were willing to go, but how far we are no longer willing to go. He has opened the door to prosecuting legal advisers in the previous administration and led the CIA to believe they will no longer “get top cover if something goes wrong.” He has now refused to stand his ground in the U.S. court system against the Legal Left – the same forces fighting to invest Guantanamo Bay detainees with the rights of a jury trial and charge Bush administration officials with war crimes. Under President Bush, the United States enjoyed a reputation as a nation that vigorously prosecutes captured terrorists and defends those who stand on its front lines. In three months, President Obama has reversed that. Quite a 100-day accomplishment.

Taken together, it becomes clear Obama seeks to elevate his image by turning the Bush administration into a moral pariah. However, his decisions are undoing the edifice that protected this nation for seven years – and even his administration publicly fears his latest move alone will supercharge al-Qaeda recruitment. As a whole, his Homeland Security policy is either a stunning series of unmitigated naivete, megalomania, spite for President Bush, or hatred of his own country.

[...]

Two States: A Figment of Obama’s Imagination

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:05:00 +0000

By Arlene Kushner, FrontPageMagazine.com:

“Insanity,” Albert Einstein advised us, “is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Rarely has this quote been more apt than now, as Barack Obama attempts to do what his predecessor, George Bush, attempted to do and could not, following the failed attempts of his predecessor, Bill Clinton.

To wit: his attempts to achieve a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority for a “two state solution” that would establish a Jewish state and a Palestinian state “living side by side in peace and security,” bringing stability to the area and joy to all concerned parties. Obama is going to fall on his face with regard to this effort, but he has the potential to cause a certain amount of damage before he does.

Of course, as Obama’s level of self-certainty reaches unprecedented heights, he is not going to be deterred by the failures of previous presidents. That is why last Tuesday he made an announcement about needing to see the involved parties take “concrete steps” under his watch. But it is not for lack of effort that the “two-state solution” has failed to date.

The reason there has not been a “two state solution” is clearly understood by those ready to see it: The Palestinians haven’t wanted it.

[...]

Emperor Jones

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:59:00 +0000

David Pryce-Jomes, NRO:

When the decline of Britain comes to be properly recorded by some future Edward Gibbon, the name of Jack Jones will feature prominently. He has just died at the age of 96, In his heyday in the 1960s and 1970s he was General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union with its 2 million members, and a representative, almost a caricature, of intransigence, selfishness and militancy in the name of the workers. How he loved class warfare! And how he laid down the law to Prime Ministers Wilson and Heath, both of them apparently defenseless to deal with so rigid, so Stalinist, a figure. He obliged them to agree to a social contract in spite of the contradiction in it, namely that money was evil but it still had to be taken from everyone else and given to workers. He was one of the master-minds of the British economic disaster of those decades. Paul Johnson nicknamed him “Emperor Jones.”

[...]

Barack's in the basement

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:54:00 +0000

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES:

President Obama's media cheerleaders are hailing how loved he is. But at the 100-day mark of his presidency, Mr. Obama is the second-least-popular president in 40 years.

According to Gallup's April survey, Americans have a lower approval of Mr. Obama at this point than all but one president since Gallup began tracking this in 1969. The only new president less popular was Bill Clinton, who got off to a notoriously bad start after trying to force homosexuals on the military and a federal raid in Waco, Texas, that killed 86. Mr. Obama's current approval rating of 56 percent is only one tick higher than the 55-percent approval Mr. Clinton had during those crises.

As the attached chart shows, five presidents rated higher than Mr. Obama after 100 days in office. Ronald Reagan topped the charts in April 1981 with 67 percent approval. Following the Gipper, in order of popularity, were: Jimmy Carter with 63 percent in 1977; George W. Bush with 62 percent in 2001; Richard Nixon with 61 percent in 1969; and George H.W. Bush with 58 percent in 1989.

It's no surprise the liberal media aren't anxious to point out that their darling is less popular than George W. Bush.

[...]

The Truth Delusion of Richard Dawkins

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:33:00 +0000

Melanie Phillips:

The most famous atheist in the world, biologist Professor Richard Dawkins, poses as the arch-apostle of reason, a scientist who stands for empirical truth in opposition to obscurantism and lies. What follows suggests that in fact he is sloppy and cavalier with both facts and reasoning to a disturbing degree.

I previously wrote about the remarkable debate (which can be seen at this website) between Dawkins and John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics and Fellow in the Philosophy of Science at Oxford. Lennox is the author of God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? which demolishes Dawkins by showing not only that there is no inherent conflict between science and faith but that the argument for faith is now being bolstered enormously by the remarkable developments in science. Dawkins was on the back foot because Lennox was attacking him from his own platform of science. He was on safer ground only when, in a further debate between the two at Oxford’s Natural History Museum last October, he attacked Lennox for his Christian faith which he could more easily ridicule. But to Lennox’s core arguments, he seemed to me to have no convincing response.

[...]

Margaret Thatcher's revolution 30 years on

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:33:00 +0000

Edwina Currie, Telegraph [UK[:

She was a small, pretty woman with chintzy blouses and a nervous habit of clearing her throat. A stiff leather handbag hung like a weapon over her arm; if a wisp of hair escaped from the helmet of her coiffure, she fiddled with it anxiously. In mid-campaign, she was given a grubby calf to hold and didn't know what to do with it. Our first views of Margaret Thatcher weren't reassuring.

Yet it was la différence that underwrote her astonishing success. The unthinkable – a woman prime minister – had been made flesh. Suddenly anything seemed possible. I was a city councillor in Birmingham with two small children. I knew, with total certainty, that if she could do it, then so could I.

[...]

Exclusive excerpts: The Late Great State of Israel

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:25:00 +0000

by Ed Morrissey, HOT AIR:

Aaron Klein’s new book, The Late Great State of Israel: How Enemies Within and Without Threaten the Jewish Nation’s Survival, gets its official release today, and I’ll be speaking with the WorldNet Daily correspondent live today on the Ed Morrissey Show this afternoon about it. Aaron gave Hot Air readers a couple of exclusive excerpts from the book to whet your appetites for both the book and the interview:
Israeli policies and follies the past few years have actually been strengthening Iran and emboldening it to surround the Jewish state with Tehran’s proxies, according to a new book released today.

“Of all the grave security threats facing Israel today, Iran is by far the single greatest. Controlled by a fanatical regime of Shi’ite Muslim revolutionaries, Iran today is a semi-fascistic country of more than 65 million whose leaders routinely threaten to annihilate the Jewish state. Its nuclear program, on the brink of weaponization, is clearly intended for hostile purposes. Among global political analysts, no one doubts that a nuclear Iran would be a game changer. It would irrevocably alter the balance of power in the Middle East, placing Tehran and all of its proxies (Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas) under the protection of a nuclear umbrella, and would give Iran the technical option of wiping Israel off the map….
[...]

Soros Show Trials

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:13:00 +0000

By Matthew Vadum, American Spectator:

The so-called Commission on Accountability which mysteriously appeared on the political scene a few days ago to push for show trials related to War on Terror interrogation policies is a PR hoax created by liberal philanthropist George Soros and political operatives sympathetic to the Obama administration.

The push is part of a vindictive campaign to pay back the architects of the War on Terror for making a good faith effort to defend America.

[...]

Specter leaving the Party to keep his seat? (symposium)

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:51:00 +0000

Joeseph Ashby writes:

Human Events is reporting that Arlen Specter will announce today he's switching to the Democrat Party.

While Republicans may believe he left their party long ago, Specter has now found a way around the primary voters who want him out.

Four days ago, Real Clear Politics reported the following:
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (R) finds himself down 21 points to former Rep. Pat Toomey in a potential 2010 Republican primary, according to a new Rasmussen poll. Specter now has a 42%/55% favorability rating, while Toomey enjoys a 66%/19% rating.

Toomey 51
Specter 30
Someone else 9
Und 10
A large, early gap in the polls is common an unpopular incumbent. Such polls generally tighten as the election approaches. Specter, however, must think he's in real danger of losing the Republican primary.

His answer: avoid the Republican primary.

[...]

Virus not the deadly pandemic first feared, Canadian experts say

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:46:00 +0000

Tom Blackwell, National Post:

As public-health officials across Canada braced for more cases of a new swine flu virus and the World Health Organization ramped up its pandemic alert, some experts suggested on Monday the bug might not be the deadly menace it first appeared to be.

Most patients outside of Mexico have suffered only mild illness, infectious-disease specialists noted. And it is quite possible that tens of thousands of similarly slight cases have occurred, unnoticed, in Mexico itself, making the death rate from the virus there much less ominous, they said.

It is too early to rule out a disastrous global pandemic, but it is also not clear that the novel and "weird" flu that emerged in recent weeks will be more lethal than the regular, seasonal influenza, said some doctors.

[...]

Let's just give Quebec Alberta, and be done with it

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Raphael Alexander, NP:

It’s nice to know that Quebec is being well taken care of by the rest of Canada. After all, we wouldn’t want to let it do something foolish like, for instance, take care of itself. Never mind the fact that it receives $8 billion of the $14 billion in annual equalization funding. They’re worth it.

They’re so worth it, in fact, that they got 85% of the funds available for committees organizing "Celebrate Canada" festivities in 2008. Quebec received $3.2 million last year for events such as National Aboriginal Day on June 21, Canada Day on July 1 and Quebec’s Fete nationale holiday on June 24, while Ontario got $100,000, and British Columbia $55,000. The funding comes from Heritage Canada, a sublimely wasteful federal department that manages to blow $3.78 billion each year by finding creative ways to tell ourselves how great we are.

[...]

Mommy blows up with toddler — this has got to be a new low for militant Islam

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:37:00 +0000

by Jonathan Kay:

Having spent this morning catching up on my weekend reading, I came across this Page 4 article from Friday's New York Times. Here's the lead paragraph: "BAGHDAD — At least 80 people died and 120 others were injured Thursday in three bombings, one by a female suicide bomber in Baghdad who, Iraqi officials said, held a young child’s hand as she set off her explosives among a group of women and children receiving emergency food aid."

Even putting aside our baseline revulsion at terrorism, there are three especially hideous things that jumo out from this:

[...]

Obama’s Foreign Policy Disasters

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:39:00 +0000

By Jamie Glazo, FrontPageMagazine.com:

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

FP: Victor Davis Hanson, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

What report card would you give the Obama administration in terms of foreign policy right now? Why?

Hanson: An Incomplete that at the present rate will turn into a D/F if he is not careful.

Obama has confused a number of issues: intractable problems like North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, Islamic terrorism, etc. both pre- and post-dated George Bush; they present only bad and worse choices, and are predicated on different agendas of authoritarians that hinge on whether the United States can or cannot deter their regional megalomaniac dreams.

In the long-term, Obama's nontraditional heritage and charisma make little difference; on the other hand, serial apologies, "Bush did it", the "reset button" ad nauseam, trumpeting the "I was only (fill in the blank) when that happened" etc. have a brief shelf life, and achieve only a transitory buzz, similar to a Bono-celebrity tour.

He needs to cut out the messianic style, and realize that millions of brave souls, who invest at great danger in democracy, freedom, open markets, etc. around the world, count on an American President for moral support and guidance against a bullying Russia, Iranian-backed Hezbollah, Chavez's thugs, Castro jailers, et al.

When they see Obama's moral equivalence, they realize they are on their own and must cut their own deals to survive--understanding that multicultural trendiness is now a cynical cover for moral laxity and 'can't we all get along?' appeasement.

[...]

Molotov cocktail hits Christian mayor's car

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:29:00 +0000

By Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily:

A Molotov cocktail and gunshots targeted the car of Bethlehem's Christian mayor yesterday, as local leaders there quietly fingered Islamists for attempting to intimidate Christians in one of the most important cities for Christianity.

"It's in retaliation for the Passover festivities we held two weeks ago," claimed one Bethlehem Christian leader, speaking to WND on condition of anonymity out of fear for his life.

"We had very loud and public Christian displays," he said. "Now they (Islamists) want to send us a message not to get too comfortable."

Mayor Victor Batarsa's car was hit while it was parked in front of his home in the central shopping area of Bethlehem. Batarsa said he was not home at the time of the attack.

A security source in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, speaking to WND, blamed Islamists in Bethlehem connected to Fatah's rival, the Hamas terrorist organization.

Christians previously comprised the vast majority of the city, but most fled after PA Leader Yasser Arafat took control of the territory.

[...]

Peter Schiff Vlog Report 27 Apr 2009

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:49:00 +0000

Evening Newscasts Have Covered Obama More Than Bush & Clinton Combined

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:44:00 +0000

mediabistro.com: TVNewser:

The nonpartisan research group Center for Media and Public Affairs along with California's Chapman University released a study that found the nightly newscasts devoted 27 hours, 44 minutes to Pres. Obama's presidency in his first 50 days. That compares to 7 hours, 42 minutes for Pres. George W. Bush and 15 hours, 2 minutes for Pres. Bill Clinton during the first 50 days of their first terms.

Not only has Obama gotten more coverage, but that coverage has been more positive than his predecessors.

[...]

That's because Obama is sooooo wonderful ...

h/t: DRUDGE

MORE

Breaking News: Fred Thompson Calls Obama 'Naive, Arrogant, Inept'

sprayriver@yahoo.ca (Tim) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:18:00 +0000