Category: News

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Politically correct on Islam: To be or not be – that is the question

The Cinch Review

There are two stories whose headlines can be seen in various places today, and a comparison of the two seems instructive. One goes like this: Fort Hood shooting: Nine Army officers get reprimand for missing warning signs raised by Nidal Hasan.

The U.S. Army has announced that nine officers will be reprimanded in some way for “leadership failures relating to the career of Maj. Hasan.” Major Nidal Hassan shot 13 people to death at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, and wounded 32 others, in what was by far the deadliest jihadist attack in the United States since September 11th, 2001. For some of the officers involved, the reprimands are described as “career-ending.” Continue reading “Politically correct on Islam: To be or not be – that is the question”

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Life support turned off; crash victim gets better and goes home

The Cinch Review

The story is of Kimberly McNeill of New Zealand (as reported in the New Zealand Herald). She had been in a car crash before Christmas of 2010. Two months ago, doctors at Auckland City Hospital told her parents that she would never recover, and then against their wishes, the doctors turned off her life support. She did not die. Last Wednesday, she was well enough to return home, and is reported to be “singing, talking and slowly regaining her independence.”

Her parents were said to be sure that “with the right combination of treatment, love and support she would make a full recovery.” They’ve been correct so far. Highly paid doctors, who exercise the power of life and death based on their presumed superiority over ordinary people, were wrong. Continue reading “Life support turned off; crash victim gets better and goes home”

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Pete Seeger: Never Too Old to Support The Wrong Cause

It’s being reported that Pete Seeger, the 92 year-old folk/protest singer, has now joined the BDS movement. Some of you might say: “Well, I’m not really surprised that Pete Seeger would have Bush Derangement Syndrome, but isn’t this a bit tardy on his part?” Unfortunately, this BDS is even worse than that one. It stands for “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions,” and is all about ostracizing, punishing and ultimately destroying the state of Israel.

Even on the flagship website for the movement, you will have a hard time finding what it is — specifically speaking — that Israel would have to do to satisfy the Boycott/Divestment/Sanction folks. In the end, while it begins with a call for “self-determination” for Palestinians (about which Israel has openly been willing to negotiate for years, but lacking a willing partner) the goals are designed to be amorphous, so that the “movement” can just continue until Israel is completely gone. And so it’s just another iteration of the oldest hatred in the world.

And Pete Seeger proves himself to be the the Energizer Bunny of advocacy for evil: he just keeps going and going.

Hat-tip to regular correspondent and musician Dovid Kerner, who emailed:

Did you hear the news?? Pete is supporting the BDS movement. As we know, it took him several decades to apologize for his support of Stalin. He should live a long healthy life (ad meah v’esrim – till 120, as we say), but I just don’t think we can wait for him to get around to apologizing for supporting the boycott of Jews living in the disputed territories.

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Abortion billboard removed in New York City

The Cinch Review

The billboard is down, but the message has been sent, not least by all the attention given to the story in the media.

Anti-abortion billboardThe anti-abortion organization, Life Always, bought the space on the billboard, which featured a picture of a young African-American girl, and the statement, “The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb.” The billboard was in the elite area of Manhattan known as SoHo, known for its expensive boutique stores, galleries and restaurants. A Planned Parenthood center is also nearby.

The statement on the billboard may have been in reference to recently-released figures which indicated that the rate of abortion amongst black women in New York is 59.8% (the overall rate amongst all pregnant women was more than 40%). Nationally, while African-Americans constitute about 13% of the U.S. population, they account for 30% of abortions in the country (Guttmacher Institute). The persistently high rates of abortion amongst black women in America has led some to characterize the phenomenon as a silent genocide. Continue reading “Abortion billboard removed in New York City”

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Reuters slams Palin again for “blood libel” and gets it exactly wrong

The Cinch Review

They just can’t help themselves.

A Reuters story today (written by John Whiteside and edited by Todd Eastham) comments on Sarah Palin’s speech earlier at a tribute to Ronald Reagan, in which she warned that the Democrats’ big government policies have set America on the “road to ruin.” Towards the end of the piece, we are treated to a summary of what they think we ought to believe about Palin. Continue reading “Reuters slams Palin again for “blood libel” and gets it exactly wrong”

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Egypt: Yes, it’s Bush’s fault

The Cinch Review

The recent revolt in Tunisia has been followed by massive unrest in Egypt, and frustrations are beginning to bubble into actions in a number of other Middle-Eastern dictatorships. Is it 1989 again? Too soon to say that, but things are moving quickly, and, should Mubarak fall, it will surely encourage revolt in other nearby countries with underemployed and unhappy young populations. Continue reading “Egypt: Yes, it’s Bush’s fault”

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Helpless in Philadelphia

The Cinch Review

It’s been interesting, but also stomach-churning, to see the news gradually emerge on how an abortion doctor in Philadelphia was able to get away with murder for over 16 years.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell has recently been formally charged with murder, based on the death of a Bhutanese woman in 2009 and the deaths of seven documented “infants without identities” in his Philadelphia abortion clinic. As put somewhat apologetically by District Attorney Seth Williams:

I am aware that abortion is a hot-button topic. But as district attorney, my job is to carry out the law. A doctor who knowingly and systematically mistreats female patients, to the point that one of them dies in his so-called care, commits murder under the law. A doctor who cuts into the necks severing the spinal cords of living, breathing babies, who would survive with proper medical attention, is committing murder under the law.

How reassuring to have a district attorney on the job who understands that he’s obliged to actually prosecute cases of murder, hot-button issue or no. The people of Philadelphia can certainly sleep easy in this knowledge. Continue reading “Helpless in Philadelphia”

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Loose Change, Loose Morals, Loose Minds

The Cinch Review

People who closely followed the early reports on 22 year-old Jared Loughner, after the shooting in Tucson, would have noted some references to his interest in September 11th conspiracy theories, and specifically the notorious short film called “Loose Change.” Last weekend, a story in the New York Times delved deeper into what people who knew Jared Loughner had to say about him, and included this paragraph:

He became intrigued by antigovernment conspiracy theories, including that the Sept. 11 attacks were perpetrated by the government and that the country’s central banking system was enslaving its citizens. His anger would well up at the sight of President George W. Bush, or in discussing what he considered to be the nefarious designs of government.

One is reminded of what — back in the old days — we used to describe as Bush Derangement Syndrome. That was the tendency of many on the left (represented online by the nice folks at the Democratic Underground and Daily Kos) to be so blinded by their hatred of President George W. Bush that they literally could not think straight, and jumped from one utterly illogical thought Continue reading “Loose Change, Loose Morals, Loose Minds”

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The Truth About Sarah Palin and Jared Loughner

The Cinch Review

We previously have been told that Jared Loughner’s father saw him on the morning of the shooting (Saturday, January 8th) when he had in his hands a black bag, possibly taken from the trunk of the family car.

We have also been told that Jared Loughner fled with that bag into the desert, and that his father, Randy Loughner, was concerned enough about this circumstance that he pursued his son. He failed to catch up with him. Continue reading “The Truth About Sarah Palin and Jared Loughner”

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Finally, a fact: Jared Loughner and the Tucson shooting

The Cinch Review

In the midst of all the fog, hypocrisy and nonsense, one enlightening fact has now emerged to answer the question, “What could have been done, that wasn’t done, to prevent Jared Loughner’s rampage?” There are no doubt a range of possible answers to that, but, according to a piece on NPR by Laura Sullivan, there is one very big and quite definite answer. Continue reading “Finally, a fact: Jared Loughner and the Tucson shooting”

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Following up on Jared Loughner and the Tucson tragedy and travesty

The Cinch Review

Two days later, the New York Times inches towards the same assessment made here the day after the murders in Tucson for which Jared Loughner has been arrested. Not that the assessment I made wasn’t pretty obvious and also made by many others not disabled by political blinders. From Benedict Carey in Continue reading “Following up on Jared Loughner and the Tucson tragedy and travesty”

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Forty percent of pregnancies in New York City ending in abortion

The Cinch Review

Figures from the local Department of Health indicate that the rate of abortion in New York City has exceeded 40% in recent years. In other words, nearly one in two of all known pregnancies in the five boroughs of New York City ends with an abortion. (Via CBS News.)

It’s beyond words, really, but you have to look for some. What does this say about the level of self-hatred in a society, masquerading as self-will and independence? Continue reading “Forty percent of pregnancies in New York City ending in abortion”

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Just a Reading of the Constitution

About ten years ago, in the summer of 2001, Bob Dylan said this in an interview with Robert Hilburn of the LA Times:

I am not a forecaster of the times. But if we’re not careful, we’ll wake up in a multinational, multi-ethnic police state — not that America can’t reverse itself. Whoever invented America were the greatest minds we’ve ever seen, and [people] who understand what the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights are all about will come to the forefront sooner or later.

This morning on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Constitution is being read aloud, by way of a symbolic beginning of this 112th Congress. Amazingly enough, this is the first time this has occurred in the history of the United States.

Now, this act is obviously not the end of anything, and it doesn’t mark Continue reading “Just a Reading of the Constitution”

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Ted Williams and his golden voice

The Cinch Review

I was a born like this, I had no choice
I was born with the gift of a golden voice

So sang Leonard Cohen in The Tower of Song, and effectively that’s what an apparently homeless man named Ted Williams wrote on a cardboard sign, before standing at a busy intersection in Ohio and asking for help. Within 24 hours, via a bacterial [I can’t stand clichés] YouTube video, the guy has all kinds of lucrative job offers, and at the time of writing is said to be accepting one from the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA franchise, along with a house to live in.

And I say: Please let the story end here. Fan-bloody-tastic! Continue reading “Ted Williams and his golden voice”

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Universe to End as “Cold, Dead Wasteland”

The Cinch Review

Earth (for now)That’s it. The end. For real and forever. Now that you know, how does it make you feel, exactly? As published in the journal Science, and summarized below by the BBC:

Astronomers used the way that light from distant stars was distorted by a huge galactic cluster known as Abell 1689 to work out the amount of dark energy in the cosmos.

Dark energy is a mysterious force that speeds up the expansion of the universe.

Understanding the distribution of this force revealed that the likely fate of the universe was to keep on expanding.

[…]

Eventually it will become a cold, dead wasteland with a temperature approaching what scientists term “absolute zero”.

Professor Priyamvada Natarajan of Yale University, a leading cosmologist and co-author of this study, said that the findings finally proved “exactly what the fate of the universe will be”.

Hmmm. And how does Professor Natarajan feel about that, I wonder? She seems happy enough to be the messenger, and I suppose it is quite the feather in her cap.

You would think that this news about the ultimate fate of the universe and everything that it has ever contained — including all of our lives, legacies and dreams — would be getting more attention, and indeed perhaps it will once it filters out through the rest of what’s going on in the headlines today, like the baseball player Roger Clemens being indicted for perjury and the salmonella-induced recall of 340 million eggs in the United States. Continue reading “Universe to End as “Cold, Dead Wasteland””

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Supreme Court recognizes 2nd amendment

The Cinch Review

From my cold, dead handsThe headline from the AP is: “Justices extend gun owner rights nationwide.” This, as distinct from their more narrow decision in the D.C. case in 2008. But just to correct the headline: The right always existed, and will continue to exist even if some later more perverse court should fail to recognize it. The fundamental rights of Americans do not and must not rest on the passing whim of any elite.

More details via the WSJ:

Monday’s ruling elevates the Second Amendment right to bear arms to the status of a fundamental right that states can’t abridge.

“It is clear that the Framers and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty,” wrote Justice Alito in his majority opinion.

The full text of this judgment is available from the Supreme Court at this link, in .pdf form.


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Rush Limbaugh Marries Elton John


PALM BEACH, FL — Leading American radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, 59, married legendary British rock star Elton John, 63, in a ceremony here on June 5th. People Magazine reports:

Amid dozens of giant bouquets of white roses (and very tight security), reports the Palm Beach Post, guests at the wedding included former Bush adviser Karl Rove; actor-politician Fred Thompson; former Kansas City Royals slugger George Brett; Fox News commentator Sean Hannity; former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft; former Clinton adviser James Carville and his wife, GOP analyst Mary Matalin; and golfer Tom Watson. A wedding guest also tells PEOPLE that among the others was Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Continue reading “Rush Limbaugh Marries Elton John”

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A Commercial Message: Fight the Boycott

As at least a partial-Irish-ex-pat, I keep an eye on news from the Emerald Isle. Today I saw this story: Group calls for boycott of Israeli products.

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign is urging a boycott of Israeli products and services – saying Palestine must not be forgotten.

Two members of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla will be holding a public meeting at the Central Hotel on Exchequer Street in Dublin this afternoon at 2pm.

Fintan Lane and Derek Graham were on board different ships intercepted by Israelis while trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The IPSC is also hoping to highlight what it calls the complicity of Veolia, the operators of the Luas in Dublin, with Israel’s regime. [sic]

A spokesperson for the Irish Anti-War Movement said: “It is vital the murders of peace activists trying to break the siege of Gaza, and most importantly the cruel siege itself are not forgotten and that Israel is held to account for what it is doing to the Palestinian people.

“The easiest and most concrete way, ordinary people can put pressure on Israel and show their solidarity with the Palestinian people is by supporting the campaign of boycott, sanctions and divestment.

“Today we want to make the shops and shoppers in Dublin city aware of the connection between Israeli atrocity and some of the goods stocked in Dublin shops, and appeal to them not to buy these goods or stock them.

“Israel does very significant trade with Ireland. We need to hurt Israel in the pocket if we are to put pressure on them to end their cruel oppression of the Palestinian people.”

Charming indeed. This kind of thing is breaking out all over, but it’s nothing new either. The campaign of divestment and boycott against Israel has been going on for years, centered amongst the European left. The current situation merely gives it a renewed head of steam and focal point. And make no mistake: The attackers on the Mavi Marmara gave their lives for just this purpose, knowing that the next day’s headlines would deal a massive blow to the image of “the Zionist regime,” and rally the opposition of those across the world only too willing to swallow the ready-made narrative of “Israeli atrocity,” pushed with vigor by the likes of Turkey’s Erdogan.

Most countries in Israel’s neighborhood refuse to trade with the Zionist regime anyway, so an economic boycott by the larger world is no small thing. In fact, it’s part of a growing multi-pronged existential threat.

That’s why I’ve added to my sidebar a link like this: FIGHT THE BOYCOTT: BUY ISRAELI!

That takes you to Amazon.com and some products labeled as “Made in Israel.” As an added bonus, buying anything from Amazon after following a link from THE CINCH REVIEW benefits this website at no added cost to you, the discerning consumer!

Of-course, there are plenty of other ways of buying Israeli products. You can find many listed on this page: Ways To Help Israel.

Shalom, and go raibh maith agat.