Some times the most interesting information comes from people on the ground in the Middle East.  It seems that each person has a friend, a brother, a cousin or an uncle who is personally linked to a high level official in the government, on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides.  During our recent back to back tours, I traveled from coast to coast throughout Israel for 16 consecutive days. Several things I observed made me think that this idea of a Palestinian state along side of Israel was already a “done deal,” and the politicians gathering in Maryland were simply actors on the stage, speaking out a pre-written script for the world to hear. After hearing a friend who is linked with the Palestinian democracy moment, I realized what I was observing and feeling was not far from the truth.
He said, “Perry, much of what is happening in Israel has already been decided by Europe and the United States as far back as 14 years ago.”  I knew that the huge concrete wall dividing the West Bank from Israel was pre-planned back in the time of Arafat. It is now complete and the land has already been divided by ...   more »

Sidewalk adviser knocked unconscious, police let suspect flee
Pro-life activists are calling for an investigation into – and possibly prosecution of – police officers who responded to a severely injured abortion clinic sidewalk counselor, but then allowed his suspected attacker to leave the scene.
"It is unbelievable that an officer would allow an attacker to go free after inflicting life-threatening injuries on an elderly gentleman, then threaten to arrest the witness to the crime," said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue.
"That was not only unprofessional conduct, but it showed a fundamental lack of respect for Mr. Snell's life and beliefs. She should face serious discipline."
The attack happened just before Christmas, as Ed Snell, 69, was trying to counsel women entering the Hillcrest Abortion Center in Harrisburg, Pa., according to witnesses at the scene.
According to a report by the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, the work of counselors such as Snell had been so effective at Hillcrest that the abortion business had built a 7-foot-tall privacy fence to prevent counselors from speaking to women entering the business.
So counselors started bringing ladders to see over the fence. Snell, however, built a platform on ...   more »

By Dr. Patrick Jonston
January 1, 2008
Physicians have been writing letters and lobbying Congress and the Senate this week to urge our representatives to put a halt to the 10.1% cut in Medicare disbursements that was scheduled to go into effect on January 1. That rate cut would be devastating to physicians practices and subsequently, to their patients. We were relieved to discover on 12-20 that our lobbying was successful, and the rate decrease has been postponed. If Medicare disbursements decrease as Medicaid's has done, you may find more and more physicians refusing to take Medicare just as many have refused to take Medicaid.
However, why do I feel like we're putting a bandaid on a festering skin cancer? My town of Zanesville, Ohio, has recently erected a brand new spacious Social Security Administration office - a very elegant bandaid on this cancer indeed. Despite the appearance, Medicare and Social Security are inevitably headed for a cliff of economic bankruptcy. The General Accounting Office of the U.S. government has warned of the coming fiscal collapse if we continue with the status quo. Some taxpayer groups are fearful of Medicare bankrupting as early as 2019. Social Security will start running ...   more »

As I explained in yesterday’s post, the second phase of liberalism, egalitarian-liberalism, focused on inequities other than rich against poor, the traditional Marxist inequity. One such inequity that has been a frequent target of egalitarian-liberalism is that of privileged Christianity over other underprivileged religions.
Because liberals have often championed atheism, which of course is certainly an underdog philosophy in the United States when compared to Christianity, some people have gotten the false idea that liberals are pro-atheist, but this is not the case. Liberals are merely anti-Christian because it’s the most powerful religion.
Liberals will often take positions just to spite Christianity and for no other reason. For example, liberals are in favor of teaching evolution in the schools, and of course evolution should be taught, but this has given liberals an unfair characterization as being in favor of free scientific inquiry. But nothing could be further from the truth, liberals are only in favor of scientific inquiry that disproves Christianity. Liberals are dead set against any inquiry into evolutionary psychology, which is a natural consequence of evolution. Evolutionary psychology attacks the very egalitarian principles of liberalism, so liberals, quite ironically, attack evolutionary psychology with the same fervor that William ...   more »

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
Unfed bugs are 1/4 to 3/8 inch long. They are brown or red-brown in color and the upper surface of the body appears crinkled. Recently fed, they are engorged with blood, dull red in color.
A bedbug epidemic has exploded in every corner of New York City - striking even upper East Side luxury apartments owned by Gov. Spitzer's father, the Daily News has learned.
The blood-sucking nocturnal creatures have infested a Park Ave. penthouse, an artist's colony in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a $25 million Central Park West duplex and a theater on Broadway, according to victims, exterminators and elected officials.
Once linked to flophouses and fleabags, bedbug outbreaks victimize the rich and poor alike and are spreading panic in some of the city's hottest neighborhoods.
"In the last six months, I've treated maternity wards, five-star hotels, movie theaters, taxi garages, investment banks, private schools, white-shoe law firms, Brooklyn apartments in Greenpoint, DUMBO and Cobble Hill, even the chambers of a federal judge," said Jeff Eisenberg, owner of Pest Away Exterminating on the upper West Side.
The numbers are off the charts: In 2004, New Yorkers placed 537 calls to 311 about bedbugs in their homes; the city ...   more »

The former Federal Reserve chief now admits there is a housing bubble, yet he still refuses to take the blame he so richly deserves.
By Bill Fleckenstein
A debate is beginning to rage about where to lay blame for the mortgage mess: the lenders or the borrowers. In some cases, I'd point to the lenders; in others, the borrowers; and beyond that, a combination of both.
But I think that where absolutely ridiculous mortgages were issued to folks who didn't make much money and could be considered somewhat naive, the blame ought to fall more on the lenders. Of course, the lenders didn't worry about their own exposure to risk, as they passed these mortgages on to financial companies. The latter sliced and diced them into derivatives -- products that, in turn, got peddled to the next bag holder.
Claiming innocence abroad
Alan Greenspan
That brings me to the champion-in-chief of derivatives and the man responsible for the lion's share of this debacle: Alan Greenspan. (He has been on my mind the past couple of months, as I have been writing a book about him, slated to be published around the turn of the year.) And yet, in a recent ...   more »

'Most Americans know the forces of terrorism will not rest'
Fred Thompson
GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson is warning the biggest threat facing America isn't economic or social or even political: It's the danger from nuclear terrorism.
"That the years ahead will be dangerous needs no elaboration from me," Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, says in a new video prepared for Iowa voters who will caucus later this week.
"Most Americans know the forces of terrorism will not rest until a mushroom cloud hangs over one of our cities," he said.
Thompson, who is trailing several other candidates in Iowa, said those other issues, such as "economy, taxes, protecting our borders, and protecting the right to life," are important but are not the biggest concern this nation faces.
Rasmussen Reports, considered one of the most accurate polling services, says Arizona Sen. John McCain held support from 17 percent of likely Republican primary voters, former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are at 16 percent, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is at 15 percent and Thompson is at 12 percent heading into the new year.
Thompson's 17-minute video notes there is no "frontrunner," and ...   more »

By OLIVER HARVEY
Chief Feature Writer
in Kahuta, Pakistan  
A FANATICAL Pakistani cleric told The Sun yesterday of his chilling dream to turn the world Muslim – by force if necessary.
Qari Hifzur Rehamn, 60, spoke openly of imposing Islamic law’s stoning and beheading on Britain – as Pakistan was rocked by unrest over the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
He warned: “We want Islamic law for all Pakistan and then the world.
“We would like to do this by preaching. But if not then we would use force.”
Rehamn, 60, spoke in the Pakistani town of Kahuta as the call to prayer echoed over the dusty streets.
He is Imam of the town’s fundamentalist religious school or madrassa, where classes for kids as young as nine include Jihad or Holy War and barbaric punishments.
His teachings are frightening enough. But his mosque lies in the shadow of the secret bunker where Pakistan produces nuclear weapons.
And when asked if it would be right to nuke British infidels, he laughed and answered: “Probably.”
Army
Rehamn, in a flowing grey beard and turban, explained Islamic, or Sharia Law as we sat surrounded by some of his 250 students.
He said: “Adulterers ...   more »