David Brooks, "Support Our Students": What's Another $60 Billion If You're Going Bankrupt Anyway?

In an important New York Times op-ed entitled "Support Our Students" concerning President Obama's decision to make community college free, David Brooks writes:

"The problem is that getting students to enroll is neither hard nor important. The important task is to help students graduate. Community college drop out rates now hover somewhere between 66 percent and 80 percent.

Spending $60 billion over 10 years to make community college free will do little to reduce that."

So, is the creation of educational opportunities a "good thing," even in the face of evidentiary failure? Maybe.

Will the community college program expand employment opportunities for professors, guidance counselors, college administrators, etc.? Absolutely.

Might the program reduce America's workforce if it results in the full-time enrollment of students, thereby bringing unemployment down by a small notch? Perhaps.

Can the United States, whose national debt now exceeds $18 trillion, afford this program? I suppose if you're going bankrupt anyway, it doesn't make a difference.

Paul Krugman, "Hating Good Government": Once Again, the Wonders of Obamacare!

“In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year.


. . . .


We won’t do all this twenty years from now, or ten years from now. We’ll do it by the end of my first term as President of the United States.”


- Barack Obama, June 2008

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Hating Good Government," Paul Krugman writes:

"Meanwhile, the news on health reform keeps coming in, and it keeps being more favorable than even the supporters expected."

Now compare Krugman's  sanguine declaration with a November 14, 2014 New York Times article entitled "Cost of Coverage Under Affordable Care Act to Increase in 2015" by Robert Pear, Reed Abelson and Agustin Armendariz, which begins:

"The Obama administration on Friday unveiled data showing that many Americans with health insurance bought under the Affordable Care Act could face substantial price increases next year — in some cases as much as 20 percent — unless they switch plans."

Also have a look at an October 23, 2014 Forbes article entitled "Now There Can Be No Doubt: Obamacare Has Increased Non-Group Premiums In Nearly All States" by Chris Conover, which informs us:

"However, a new study from the well-respected and non-partisan National Bureau of Economic Research (and published by Brookings Institution), overcomes the limitations of these prior studies by examining what happened to premiums in the entire non-group market. The bottom line? In 2014, premiums in the non-group market grew by 24.4% compared to what they would have been without Obamacare. Of equal importance, this careful state-by-state assessment showed that premiums rose in all but 6 states (including Washington DC)."

The news on health reform is more favorable than even its supporters expected? Yeah, right!

And with free community college studies on their way - Who is going to end up paying for this? - good government just gets better and better.

Shmuel Rosner, "France’s Jews Have No Choice but Israel": The Writing Is on the Wall

In a New York Times op-ed entitled "France’s Jews Have No Choice but Israel," Shmuel Rosner begins:

"A government [Israel's] that never misses an opportunity to lecture the Western world about the pitfalls of surrendering to terrorism is proposing exactly that — surrender — to the Jews of France."

Rosner, however, concludes:

"If the only way for Jews to live in France today is behind barracks and guards with guns, perhaps it makes more sense not just for the dead to go to Israel, but also for the living to move to a place where we are the guards, we are the army and we are the government."

So which is it? French Jews must not surrender to terror, or, it makes no sense for Jews to live with armed guards in France?

For me the answer is clear: Europe is dying. As Muammar Gaddafi once declared:

"We have 50 million Muslims in Europe. There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe—without swords, without guns, without conquest—will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades."

Sadly, Gaddafi was correct, and ultimately there will be no place left for Europe's Jews.

Refuse to surrender to this demographic trend? Ignore the reemergence of anti-Semitism throughout Europe? As reported two days ago by The Telegraph in an article entitled "Survey shows anti-Semitic views are common among Britons" by Gregory Walton:

"Antisemitic views have been shown to be rampant among British people according to the results of a new polls.

One in four Britons were shown to believe that Jews 'chase money more than other people', according to a poll by YouGov.

Meanwhile the new survey showed that 17 per cent of respondent believe that Jewish people think themselves better than others.

A similar proportion felt that Jewish people have too much power in the media.

A separate poll also revealed that more than half of all British Jews feel that antisemitism has begun to echo the widespread anti-Jewish hatred of the 1930s, according to the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA).

Over half of British Jews (58%) surveyed said they feared that Jews may have no long-term future in Europe, said the CAA."

Yes, the writing is on the wall. Wait for better times, as did many German Jews in the 1930s? Good luck.

[Rosner additionally states in his op-ed:

"It is heartbreaking to witness a great Jewish community in a great country slowly losing its ability to thrive in a hostile and violent environment. And it is unfortunate that all the Jewish state has to offer them is escape."

All the Jewish state has to offer is escape? Rubbish! Notwithstanding all its sorrows and shortcomings, Israel is also a place where hi-tech dreams come true, where there is freedom of the press, where women can attain leadership positions in government and industry, and where the gay community can live proudly.

Is it really so bad for you in Israel, Shmuel? Maybe you should move to New York and write full-time for the Times - at least until it goes under and you must find your way back to Israel.]

Thomas Friedman, "We Need Another Giant Protest": Obama Is Too Busy With His Golf Game

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "We Need Another Giant Protest," Thomas Friedman begins by observing:

"President Obama was criticized for failing to attend, or send a proper surrogate to, the giant antiterrorism march in Paris on Sunday. That criticism was right."

Friedman, who almost never criticizes Obama, is at least partially correct. Obama was too busy with his golf game and ESPN to attend. Also, Obama is preoccupied with a nuclear deal with Iran, which has been busy fomenting Shiite terror around the globe for many decades. As was noted by Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes regarding a possible nuclear deal with Iran:

"This is probably the biggest thing President Obama will do in his second term on foreign policy. This is healthcare for us, just to put it in context."

Deplore Sunni terrorism in Paris while seeking an accord with a vicious Shiite regime? Quite honestly, this doesn't make much sense.

Friedman continues:

"Saudi Arabia has redoubled its commitment to Wahhabi or Salafist Islam — the most puritanical, anti-pluralistic and anti-women version of that faith. This Saudi right turn — combined with oil revenues used to build Wahhabi-inspired mosques, websites and madrassas across the Muslim world — has tilted the entire Sunni community to the right. Look at a picture of female graduates of Cairo University in 1950. Few are wearing veils. Look at them today. Many are wearing veils. The open, soft, embracing Islam that defined Egypt for centuries — pray five times a day but wash it down with a beer at night — has been hardened by this Wahhabi wind from Arabia."

Only Egypt has "tilted" to the right? Have a look at what has happened in Turkey, ruled by Obama's friend Erdogan, since the AKP came to power in 2002.

Friedman further observes:

"The Saudi government opposes the jihadists. Unfortunately, though, it’s a very short step from Wahhabi Islam to the violent jihadism practiced by the Islamic State, or ISIS."

Horse manure! A "short step"? There is no "step" whatsoever. Funding for ISIS and the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front has been coming from "private donors" from both Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Volunteers for the armies of both of these organizations have been arriving from Saudi Arabia. If Saudi Arabia and Qatar wanted to block the funding and halt the movement of volunteer fighters, it could be accomplished in the blink of an eye.

Pressure from the isolationist Obama administration to halt this assistance to ISIS and al-Nusra has been non-existent.

So why should we have expected Obama to participate in the Paris rally? We shouldn't.

New York Times Editorial, "Saving the Nuclear Deal With Iran": Setting a New Benchmark for Depravity

In an editorial entitled "Saving the Nuclear Deal With Iran," The New York Times begins by declaring (my emphasis in red):

"Twice recently, Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has acted boldly in support of his biggest political gamble, pursuit of a nuclear agreement with the major powers. In a speech last Sunday on Iran’s troubled economy, he argued that Iran will never enjoy sustained growth if it is isolated from the rest of the world. Three weeks earlier, he made clear that he would confront Iran’s hard-liners in his efforts to clinch a deal in which Iran would agree never to produce a nuclear weapon in return for the lifting of crippling international sanctions.

But Mr. Rouhani is not the only leader trying to keep a potential agreement from being savaged by domestic opponents. President Obama has a similar problem in Congress, where Senators Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, and Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, are expected to introduce legislation that could torpedo any deal by imposing new sanctions on Iran, including tighter controls on its battered oil industry."

Whoa! The Times would truly compare senators Menendez and Kirk with Iran's hardliners at a time when Iran continues to incarcerate Baha'is, hang homosexuals and oppress women? And then there was that recent tweet from Khamenei calling for the "annihilation" of Israel:

"This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of #Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated."

Or in other words, in the aftermath of the recent terrorist and anti-Semitic attacks in Paris, the editorial board of the Times sees fit to ask the US to find common ground with the Khamenei regime. Why? Because as was noted by Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes regarding a possible nuclear deal with Iran:

"This is probably the biggest thing President Obama will do in his second term on foreign policy. This is healthcare for us, just to put it in context."

Needless to say, there is no mention by the Times how "good cop" Rouhani has overseen a spike of executions in Iran. As reported in an October 14, 2014 Washington Times article entitled "Iran executions surge amid U.S. nuclear talks" by Guy Taylor:

"Iran’s abuse of human rights, including the hangings of hundreds of dubiously convicted citizens — in several cases minors — has soared over the past year, even as the Obama administration has yielded to Tehran’s demand for an extension in precarious international talks over the Islamic republic’s disputed nuclear program.

. . . .

During the 14 months since Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took office, Iranian authorities have carried out at least 936 executions, according to data compiled by the Connecticut-based Iran Human Rights Documentation Center.

. . . .

An advance copy provided to The Washington Times notes the executions of at least 22 women since Mr. Rouhani took office and highlights more than a dozen cases of people younger than 18 accused of crimes and hanged. One case involved Iraj Nassiri, whom the report says was 'less than 15' when Iranian authorities accused him of 'premeditated murder.'"  

Likewise, there is no mention by the Times of how Rouhani, in a pre-election interview, bragged how he had lulled the West into complacency while radically expanding Iran's nuclear weapons development program.

A pity the author of this Times editorial is able to spew this sewage under a veil of anonymity. 

Thomas Friedman, "How ISIS Drives Muslims From Islam": Yet More Drivel About Shariah Law From Tom Terrific

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "How ISIS Drives Muslims From Islam," Thomas Friedman writes:

"THE Islamic State has visibly attracted young Muslims from all over the world to its violent movement to build a caliphate in Iraq and Syria. But here’s what’s less visible — the online backlash against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, by young Muslims declaring their opposition to rule by Islamic law, or Shariah, and even proudly avowing their atheism."

Fascinating! A backlash against ISIS and Shariah law. The fly in Friedman's ointment? That's simple. As reported by the Pew Research Center in April 2013, the "% of Muslims who favor making sharia the official law in their country" is as follows:

Indonesia: 72
Malaysia: 86
Afghanistan: 99
Pakistan: 84
Bangladesh: 82
Iraq: 91
Morocco: 83
Egypt: 74
Jordan: 71
Tunisia: 56
Palestinian Territories: 89

Of course, according to the Pew Research Center, there are also Muslim countries with lower percentages, e.g., Kazakhstan with 10 percent. However, the percentage in Indonesia, the country with the largest population of Muslims in the world, is not going to decline overnight.

Friedman's examples of opposition to Shariah Law are meant to warm our hearts? Remember how Friedman gushed over the Arab Spring from Tahrir Square . . .

Spare me. I no longer have the patience.

Thomas Friedman, "The Gift That Keeps Giving": More Hot Air on Terrorism From Tom Terrific

In a New York Times op-ed entitled "The Gift That Keeps Giving," Thomas Friedman writes:

"I have sympathy for President Obama having to deal with this mess of a world, where the key threats come from crumbling states that can be managed only by rebuilding them at a huge cost, with uncertain outcomes and dodgy partners. Americans don’t want that job. Yet these disorderly states create openings for low-probability, high-impact terrorism, where the one-in-a-million lucky shot can really hurt us. No president wants to be on duty when that happens either. Yet many more Americans were killed in their cars by deer last year than by terrorists. I don’t think Obama has done that badly navigating all these contradictions. He has done a terrible job explaining what he is doing and connecting his restraint with any larger policy goals at home or abroad."

Chaos in Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan only "create openings for low-probability, high-impact terrorism, where the one-in-a-million lucky shot can really hurt us"? Fascinating.

But now consider what Thomas S. Warrick, deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy at the Department of Homeland Security, told the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-Proliferation, and Trade, yesterday:

"While this hearing focuses on the terrorist threat from Syria and Iraq, core al-Qa’ida, al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and their affiliates and adherents in other parts of the world are a major concern for DHS. Despite senior leadership deaths, these groups maintain the intent and, in some cases, the capability to conduct attacks against U.S. citizens and our facilities. AQAP and other terrorist groups have shown they can adjust their tactics, techniques and procedures to target the West in a number of ways.

. . . .

At present, DHS is unaware of any specific, credible threat to the U.S. Homeland from ISIL. However, violent extremists who support terrorist groups based in Syria have demonstrated the intent and capability to target American citizens overseas. ISIL constitutes an active and serious threat within the region and could attempt attacks on U.S. targets overseas with little-to-no warning.

. . . .

We are concerned about the threat of foreign fighters from the United States or elsewhere who might go to Syria, become even more radicalized, and then return to their home countries, including the United States, where they might try to conduct attacks either on their own or in concert with others."

Note that Warrick does not refer to "low-probability, high-impact terrorism, where the one-in-a-million lucky shot can really hurt us."

So whom do you believe, Friedman or Warrick? I know whom I would trust.