02/6/11

Impulse Purchase a Crowning Event

By: T F Stern
T F Stern’s Rantings

There was a short information piece on the Today Show last week explaining how grocery stores are laid out in order to entice impulse buying; items that weren’t on your list that end up going in the basket prior to hitting the checkout counter. Men out pace women by a considerable margin in this area, falling for spot items because of packaging or placement; maybe this is why Lucy doesn’t like me going to the grocery store.

Last night we stopped off to pick up a couple of items, soda and something else; can’t even remember now. On the way to the checkout counter I spotted an end cap of candy, “10/$10.” It had all kinds of great stuff I hadn’t had in years: Good & Plenty, Milk Duds, Whoppers. My will to resist weakened with each step; two boxes of Good & Plenty landed in the shopping basket. When we reached the conveyor belt to off load our basket there was another display filled with even more boxes of neat candy, “I gotta have some Milk Duds;” my hand being drawn toward the familiar yellow box.

Lucy shook her head knowing her oldest child would have his way. I was paying for the “extras” so it wasn’t like it came from her weekly grocery money. I couldn’t tell you the last time I had Milk Duds; must have been in my teens or early twenties. Back then a box of candy was a quarter. If you consider forty plus years, inflation and a slightly larger box; one dollar didn’t seem too much.

Later in the evening we watched Beverly Hill’s Cop on one of the movie channels; a perfect opportunity to sample a few Milk Duds. I’d forgotten how easily they stick to your teeth. By the time the third chocolate covered sticky bomb had gone to work I noticed something was wrong. The fancy porcelain crown, the one that used to be attached to my molar, had been snatched up and encased in a gooey glob of caramel.

It’s hard to explain; but somehow your mouth knows instinctively not to come down hard on a foreign object that’s floating across your tongue. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio could have used some help on chewing when he bit down on an olive pit at the congressional cafeteria. I heard he was suing them for damages to his dental work; $150,000 for having a dangerous substance in his olive sandwich, an olive.

Maybe I should become a liberal, that state of mind where you don’t have to be responsible for your own actions and go around blaming everyone else. I heard Kucinich settle out of court with the congressional cafeteria.

I know; I’ll hire a shyster lawyer (is that a redundancy?) and sue Milk Duds for not putting a warning label on their box, “Our candy might stick to dental work.” Somebody sued McDonalds years ago for getting scalded after spilling hot coffee out of a cup filled with hot coffee; got a fortune in the justice system lottery. If you get the right jury, it can really pay off. What’s the going rate on replacement crowns?

Monday morning I’ll set up an appointment with my dentist, have the crown properly anchored and empty my wallet at their checkout counter. I promise, no more impulse purchases; at least until I forget how much that last box of candy cost me.

This article has been cross-posted to The Moral Liberal, a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government & The American Constitution.”

02/6/11

Obama’s Pal George Soros and the Fall of Egypt

By: AJ

President Obama’s pal, George Soros, has his fingerprints all over the events unfolding in Egypt. Expelling Mubarak from Egypt creates a pathway to destroy Israel and it’s no secret that Soros fiercely opposes Israel.

Toppling governments through manufactured riots is old hat for Soros and, as he said, it was “a lot of fun.” Soros funds hundreds of far-left organizations, so there’s no doubt he has the resources, expertise and manpower to manufacture a revolution. Anyone paying attention knows that Soros and Obama work together and they would certainly collaborate on this coup.

We already know that American radicals like Code Pink and other anti-American communist and socialist groups have been working on the ground in Egypt. We also know that lame-stream media is falsely portraying the uprising to benefit the Obama persona. Does anyone in the Middle East think there’s something fishy going on? Let’s go to Turkey…

What do the Turks really think about the uprising?

… the sentiment among Turks, one interlocutor suggested, was that there was something really fishy about those Egyptian protests: I mean, Arabs couldn’t organize their way out of paper bag, so it must be the Americans behind it.

Or George Soros.

Another friend said, “We’ve been suffering just like the Egyptians, and when did the Arabs ever protest for us?” Still another said, “It can’t really be the Egyptians behind that, it has to be the United States. Nothing happens in this region without the United States’ permission.” Her implication: “We’re not fools. We’re not going out in the streets to do the Americans’ bidding.”

Something else that’s really fishy… has anyone wondered why the rioters in Egypt have carried out so many attacks on journalists?

Harming journalists is counter to a storyline that “the Egyptian people want Democracy.” If these were ordinary citizens of Egypt rising up for a new and better form of government, wouldn’t they welcome reporting of their plight?

Instill fear in journalists and the questions won’t be asked and answered and we won’t learn the truth about who these rioters really are and who organized them. Are they Muslim/Communist/Socialist rioters who want revolution so that the radical Muslim Brotherhood can take control of Egypt and its advanced weaponry in order to defeat Israel? Is this what George Soros and Barack Obama want? Looks like it.

There’s a clear indication that the rioting is manufactured and White House visitor, George Soros, is involved. Despite the risk to Israel and America, Obama is anxious for Mubarak to leave and he believes the Muslim Brotherhood opposition should be represented in the coming presidential election.

Aside from Obama’s inclusion of Muslim Brotherhood members here in America, are there any other connections that bring us to Egypt with a connection to Soros? Yes, there are.

Soros and Obama have an influential, ground-engaged connection in Egypt – Saad Eddin Ibrahim.

Human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim sought funding from Soros’ Open Society Institute (OSI) in May of 2003 and OSI’s website contains a summary of their OSI Forum: “The Battle for Civil Society in Egypt – Freed Reformist Sees Hope for Islamic Democracies”:

At a recent open forum of the Open Society Institute in New York, Dr. Ibrahim called for a “coalition of the conscientious” to oppose both invasion and dictatorship, and said such a coalition could seize desire in Muslim-majority countries for real democracy. After hosting roundtables over the summer, he hopes to build a media network to tap that desire within 12 months. “We don’t have comparative advantage [against madrassas and extremists], we have only access to the elite intelligentsia through our newsletter,” he told EurasiaNet in a telephone interview after the forum. “We can reach thousands or tens of thousands. We need millions.” (Dr. Ibrahim has appealed for funding from the Soros Foundations Network, which funds EurasiaNet.)…

Nearly a year ago (May of 2010), Saad Ibrahim called for defiance and civil disobedience in Egypt as the means to achieve transformation. Ibrahim expressed disappointment that President Obama had not yet followed through with the transformation in Egypt. Ibrahim voiced his support for ElBaradei and Muslim rule in Egypt. See the video here.

Ibrahim is the founder and board member of Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies. On his website, Ibrahim shows his support for Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed El-Baradei. Ibrahim described ElBaradei as “my first choice for the presidency” at a conference in September 2010.

The fall of Egypt into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood would ensure war with Israel and would place America at risk. Is this the outcome Obama and his pal George Soros seek? Let’s explore whether Soros has done anything else to harm Israel.

When the UN (Judge Goldstone) issued a report alleging war crimes against Israel, a September 30, 2010 Washington Times article states, “Benjamin Netanyahu, famously said last year that Israel faces three major threats — “the Iranian nuclear program, rockets aimed at our civilians, and Goldstone” — while its president, Shimon Peres, said that the report “gives de facto legitimacy to terrorist initiatives and ignores the obligation and right of every country to defend itself.”

Judge Goldstone was involved with George Soros and OSI, and notice that J-Street and NAF receive funds from Soros’ OSI. Here’s more…

“Judge Goldstone told The Times in an interview that he had sought the meetings after a discussion with longtime friend Morton H. Halperin — president of the Open Society Institute (OSI) and one of five senior officers at J Street, according to the group’s federal tax returns. Those forms list Mr. Halperin as a “director,” and say he spends 10 hours a week on J Street business.

“He suggested — and I agreed — that it would be a good idea for me to meet with some of the leading members of Congress,” Judge Goldstone said. “I thought it was important to correct the misimpressions.” He added that Mr. Halperin had hand-delivered a personal letter he had written to members of Congress.

Judge Goldstone said he remembers attending “10 or 12” meetings. J Street co-founder Daniel Levy, who accompanied the judge to several of the parleys, said that the New America Foundation (NAF) — whose Middle East Task Force he co-chairs — had also hosted a lunch with Judge Goldstone for “a group of analysts and Middle East wonks.” The judge, Mr. Levy, and J Street all declined to identify the members of Congress.

All three organizations associated with Judge Goldstone‘s visit to Washington — J Street, NAF and OSI — receive substantial funding from Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros, a fierce critic of AIPAC and Israeli policies.

OSI controls nearly $2 billion in assets provided by Mr. Soros over the years. NAF, in turn, received $855,000 from OSI in 2009, though the money was not set aside for the think tank’s Middle East program. The Times disclosed last week that J Street had received $750,000 from Mr. Soros and his family despite repeated denials from the group that it had received any funding from Mr. Soros in the past…

Summing up, George Soros is connected to President Obama, Saad Ibrahim, Judge Goldstone and America’s far-left anti-Israel and anti-American organizations. It appears the violent revolutionaries in Egypt may be nothing short of radical Muslims organized by America’s far-left, supported by Obama and Soros and who are on a mission to destroy Israel and increase harm to the United States of America. (Egypt controls the trade route through the Suez Canal; America is directly at risk.)

It’s clear the lame-stream media is full of nothing but spin and ideological rhetoric, not investigative reporting. What’s needed now is a Congressional investigation to reveal the truth before it’s too late.

We’ve Had Enough

02/6/11

Pacepa on Soviet Exploitation of Islamic Radicalism

By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

Further evidence of the Soviet roots of Islamic terrorism.

Ion Pacepa

From Ion Pacepa, the highest-ranking intelligence official ever to have defected from the former Eastern Bloc of the Soviet Union.

Pacepa was a two-star Romanian Securitate General who simultaneously held the rank of advisor to President Nicolae Ceaucescu, acting chief of his foreign intelligence service and state secretary in Romania’s Ministry of Interior.

In 1972, the Kremlin decided to turn the whole Islamic world against Israel and the U.S. As KGB chairman Yury Andropov told me, a billion adversaries could inflict far greater damage on America than could a few million. We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel and its main supporter, the United States. No one within the American/Zionist sphere of influence should any longer feel safe.

According to Andropov, the Islamic world was a waiting petri dish in which we could nurture a virulent strain of America-hatred, grown from the bacterium of Marxist-Leninist thought. Islamic anti-Semitism ran deep. The Muslims had a taste for nationalism, jingoism, and victimology. Their illiterate, oppressed mobs could be whipped up to a fever pitch.

Terrorism and violence against Israel and her master, American Zionism, would flow naturally from the Muslims’ religious fervor, Andropov sermonized. We had only to keep repeating our themes — that the United States and Israel were “fascist, imperial-Zionist countries” bankrolled by rich Jews. Islam was obsessed with preventing the infidels’ occupation of its territory, and it would be highly receptive to our characterization of the U.S. Congress as a rapacious Zionist body aiming to turn the world into a Jewish fiefdom. [Pacepa, National Review, 8/24/06]

Hat Tip: Spirit of Truth

02/6/11

Stanley Kurtz on Obama’s Socialism

By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

Very informative interview with Stanley Kurtz, author of “Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism.”

Kurtz’s meticulously documented book proves far beyond any reasonable doubt that Barack Obama is and has always been a covert socialist.

Kurtz’s book is a must read.

For KeyWiki summaries of Obama’s socialist/communist connections go here, here and here.