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One Cheer for Obama's Foreign Policy By: Daniel Pipes FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, September 15, 2009   The Obama administration has established an alarmingly naïve and dangerous record on Arab-Israeli issues, leading me to worry about spectacular policy failures ahead. But it has initiated one innovative and positive policy deserving high praise. Instead of Israel making yet more unilateral concessions to the Palestinians, in late May Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu called to "bring Arab states into the circle of peace." U.S. special envoy George Mitchell and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak picked up on this and developed plans to integrate...

Philip Pullman / Bishop David McGough Related articles: The Divinity of ChristHow to Talk to an Atheist about ChristianityBiblical Book Names & AbbreviationsSt. Cyprian, Bishop, Martyr Birmingham, England, Sep 15, 2009 / 03:04 am (CNA).- Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham David McGough has criticized a new book by the atheist author Philip Pullman, saying that his contention that St. Paul invented the divinity of Jesus would not be held by any respectable scholar of Scripture.Pullman’s upcoming book, titled “The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ,” claims that St. Paul transformed the character of Jesus and bestowed divine attributes to...

Progressives exist in a state of constant angst, agonizing over snail darters, incandescent light bulbs, and of course global warming. But the issue that drives liberals to a state of tongue-wagging, eyeball-popping hysteria is population growth — what doomsayer Paul Erlich once termed the "Population Bomb." And history shows liberals are willing to take almost any measure to keep the population in check — just so long as the program can be cloaked in mesmerizing happy-talk. Want to stop the beating hearts of 46 million unborn children each year? Then just call it "promoting choice and empowering women" — doesn't...

Since the opening shot by Iran at Khobar Towers in 1996, the response of the US handling the conflict has been confused at best and misguided at worst. Iran has been battling the US in the Middle East on a number of fronts using proxies for decades with little consequence to itself. In terms of a military strategy for a smaller country against a superpower, it has been a resounding success. This is not to say that the initiator of a proxy war is immune to consequences such as economic ones. Iran’s research and development on nuclear weapons has been...

* Nabhan accused of 2002 Mombasa bomb * Was allied with Somalia's al Shabaab rebels * Insurgents vow to target Western nations (Recasts, updates throughout) MOGADISHU, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Somalia's al Shabaab insurgents denounced a U.S. commando raid that killed one of east Africa's most wanted al Qaeda suspects and vowed on Tuesday to continue their fight against Western nations. U.S. special forces in helicopters struck a car in rebel-held southern Somalia on Monday, killing the Kenyan said to have built the truck bomb that claimed 15 lives at an Israeli-owned beach hotel on the Kenyan coast in 2002....

<p>Like virtually every issue that faces the nation, our healthcare problem is greatly exacerbated by mass immigration—both legal and illegal.</p> <p>A total of 43 percent of non-citizens lack health insurance, compared to just 12.7 percent of native-born Americans. These uninsured immigrants impose huge strains on our healthcare system that helped create the crisis we currently face.</p>

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christian.councillor.calls.for.action.against.megamosque.group/24166.htm "Christian councillor calls for action against ‘mega-mosque’ group" SNIPPET: "A Christian councillor is calling on an east London council to take action against the Islamic group planning to build a ‘mega-mosque’ close to the site of the 2012 Olympics." by Jenna Lyle Posted: Thursday, September 10, 2009, 14:04 (BST) SNIPPET: "Tablighi Jamaat has come under the close observation of intelligence services in recent years over suspected links to terrorism, despite the group’s insistence that it does not preach violence. This week it emerged that the leader of the airline plot terrorist cell regularly attended a Tablighi Jamaat-controlled mosque in...

In the wake of President Barack Obama's recent address to Congress on healthcare, a new poll reveals he may not have the support of most Americans on his reform plans. The Zogby International/O'Leary Report survey of more than 4,200 likely voters found that a large majority oppose key provisions of Obama and the Democrats' healthcare reform proposals, including plans to extend health insurance to as many as 50 million uninsured Americans and to incorporate a form of healthcare rationing in the reforms. Zogby International and The O'Leary Report asked respondents several questions relating to the healthcare reform issue. Some results:...

Maureen Dowd wrote another unfortunate, poorly argued, and thinly researched column yesterday. She alleges that racism is behind the growing suspicion of the Obama administration and its initiatives. But almost everything we've seen so far has a parallel with liberal attacks on George W. Bush. By 2005, Democrats were booing him openly during his State of the Union address. Rep. Pete Stark called him a liar on the House floor. In fact, the response so far to Obama is mild in comparison to what Bush endured. That does not excuse the boorishness of Joe Wilson, but his tirade is symbolic...

You might have figured this was coming, that when dust settled from the Sept. 12 march on Washington, D.C., the brain trust at MSNBC would attempt to frame it as negatively as possible. And MSNBC's resident left-wing curmudgeon-in-training David Shuster didn't disappoint. The former host of the canceled "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" took a report from the Huffington Post debunking attendance figures and attempted to belittle the event. The story focused on an old photograph that had been circulating on some minor conservative blogs showing a huge crowd for the Sept. 12 march. Shuster asked Washington Examiner columnist and author of...

Is there a politician George W. Bush ever liked? Not according to former Dubya speech writer Matt Latimer. In his forthcoming memoir, "Speech Less: Tales of a White House Survivor," Latimer says the former Prez dissed pretty much everyone in Washington - including Barack Obama. "He came in one day to rehearse a speech, fuming," Latimer writes. "'This is a dangerous world,'" he said for no apparent reason, "and this cat [Obama] isn't remotely qualified to handle it. This guy has no clue, I promise you." GQ's October issue has a sneak peek at the book - out Sept. 22...

This idea of freedom of speech is going to far with this Tea Party Express. White people in RV driving from city to city disrupting the townhouse meetings. Everyone wants and needs healthcare but the wealthy wants tax cuts, they can pay for healthcare for themselves and others. It won't stiphened their income. I think President Obama's Healthcare reform is great it allows people who can't afford healthcare to have it. That what the Hatians do. It's not socialism it's called taking care of your country so we can stand strong against the enemy. This capital government is a mess,...

NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula Credit & Copyright: Daniel López, IAC Explanation: NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. This beautiful portrait of the nebula is from the Isaac Newton Telescope at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in the Canary Islands. It combines a composite color image with narrow band data that isolates light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the wind-blown nebula. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the detailed folds and filaments. NGC 6888's...

Down it poured — a nerve-scalping war dance of rain, pummeling its drums and refusing to let up. Like a tribe of ghouls, the uninvited gusts howled around the pit. If, as the Native Americans believed, the wind really is an instrument through which the souls of the dead commune with the living, what, then, on this day of all days, was it trying so hard to say? Friday marked the passing of the first anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks without George Bush. The man who for seven years stood strong as our graying father figure and Condoler-in-Chief was...

Remember Dickens: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” That’s pretty much what we saw on the national security front last week. Here is the worst: White House “soft power,” struck out twice last week.

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO Linda McMahon appears primed to run for Senate in Connecticut and should make an announcement very soon, according to sources with knowledge of her deliberations. “A decision is imminent, and she will likely make a decision over the next couple of days,” said a Republican strategist. “It will be made sooner rather than later.” One well-placed source said McMahon is “99 percent” in. Another said the announcement could come as early as Wednesday. The second source noted that she has done polling on the race and hired consultants Mike Slanker and Patrick Sullivan. She has...

I got this is an email from Chris yesterday. I really thought it was fantastic and asked his permission to post it at FR. This is his take on March on DC. Chris said he drew hoping that it would somehow reach a wide audience and doesn't mind it being distributed anywhere we feel so inclined.

BALTIMORE — Baltimore police say a Johns Hopkins University medical student armed with a samurai sword killed an intruder in his garage.

... President Obama was blasted by a top Latino ally on Monday for modifying his health-care plan in the face of conservative criticism. The criticism was leveled in Spanish by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois who was the first Latino member of Congress to endorse Barack Obama for president. Referring to the Obama administration, Gutierrez said: "Those who should be our friends, our allies, are more and more giving Rep. (Joe) Wilson, R-S.C., exactly what he wants to continue with this prejudice against our community." Gutierrez, who made his remarks in Washington, D.C., while participating in a panel...

I've been trying to give Chuck Todd the benefit of the doubt when it comes to classifying him as part of what Rush would call the state-controlled media. But that indulgence was strained to the breaking point on Morning Joe today when Todd flatly rejected the notion that the MSM had under-covered the Van Jones story and suggested that delving into his background would have been a waste of MSM time. JOE SCARBOROUGH: You say [ACORN] has been a Republican obsession. It certainly hasn't been an obsession in the media. Mike Allen said the mainstream media was slow on the...