Why is Chuck Todd, the chief White House correspondent for NBC, more upset with Mitt Romney than with the radical Islamists who raped and murdered US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens? Find out on Stephen Green’s Week in Blogs. Also, you’ll hear about the radical Occupiers who threatened to blow up a bridge in Cleveland, Ohio, and why Michele Obama, incredulously, considers obesity the greatest security threat facing the nation.
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In 1959, Richard Condon wrote one of the most chilling political thrillers of all time — The Manchurian Candidate — about a Korean War prisoner brainwashed by the Communists and transformed into a “sleeper agent.” Unbeknownst to him, he was literally a walking time bomb, hardwired so he could be triggered to carry out an assassination years later by the flashing of a simple sign — the Queen of Diamonds in a game of Solitaire.
Sounds like fiction? Well, fast-forward to 2012. Now, scientists have demonstrated they can “hack” into the human brain, and extract vital secrets, even from unwilling subjects, using technology no more advanced than a video game headset. The mind boggles pondering the possibilities. H/T SourceFed
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Reason Magazine Editor Matt Welch joins Kennedy on a New York City rooftop to provide a sneak peek of the magazine’s October issue and its cover story — “The Recovery That Wasn’t.” Practically on a monthly basis, a different member of President Obama’s administration trots out a wildly optimistic prediction about the upwards direction of the economy. Reason juxtaposes these phony proclamations with the actual economic data to make a comical, and sad, commentary on the state of the job market during the Obama years.
In a show of independence, Reason also takes a swing at Republicans for refusing to shave defense spending as a means to shrink the federal deficit. Pollster Scott Rasmussen has penned a piece on that topic, and the public’s growing acceptance of defense cuts with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down.
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Sen. Rand Paul discusses Americans’ continuous loss of liberty through the lens of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian classic Fahrenheit 451. The Kentucky Republican warns that the federal government is monitoring email and phone communications, and even delving into what books we read, in the name of preserving national security. “We are giving up our privacy, we are trading our liberty, for some sort of sense, or some sort of ostensible security,” he says in a talk delivered last month at FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Nevada. He directs his strongest criticism at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), citing a couple of chilling examples where that agency trampled upon the rights and dignities of travelers.
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President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign has been one of the most disgraceful national campaigns of the last century — marked by gutter politics involving outright lies, vile and vicious innuendo, divisive class warfare, racial pandering and rank name-calling. But of all the dirty and deceitful tricks being used by the president and his palace guards, perhaps none has been as damaging as the administration’s reckless leaking of military and national security secrets in a callous attempt to gain political advantage.
The fact is, by revealing the tactics and procedures used by the CIA and US special operations forces, this administration has exposed the personnel involved to great risk and compromised the likelihood for success of future missions. Furious and frustrated by this lack of discretion, a band of former intelligence and special operations experts has taken the extraordinary step of forming OPSEC and going on the record, publicly, to educate Americans about the deadly consequences of these serious breaches of national security. H/T Nice Deb
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Remember when Pac-Man swallowed cherries and chased the ghosts Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde? Now, the yellow orb is being unleashed on a mission much more vital to the national security in this nifty fan film created by animator James Farr at Steelhouse in Tulsa, Oklahoma. H/T Machinima
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We rarely showcase 50-minute lectures on Call Me Stormy. It’s just not our speed. Chalk it up to Attention Deficit Disorder or living in a fast-paced society. Whatever, but we don’t go for the long-winded stuff. Our material’s more modest: In and out, ten minutes or less.
Today, we’re making an exception to that rule by presenting Caroline Glick’s inaugural Henry M (Scoop) Jackson Lecture on National Security. In her riveting and powerful talk, she outlines how the United States is shooting itself in the foot — and also undermining Israel — by embracing naive, boneheaded policies in the Middle East. What are we doing wrong? For one thing, we’re trying to make nice with Islamic extremists in Egypt, Iran and elsewhere, when time and time again, history has shown that appeasement doesn’t work with these bad guys.
Glick boasts some powerhouse credits. She is director of the Israel Security Project at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy. Give her a couple minutes of your time, and if you’re like us, you’ll be hooked by her wise and deeply strategic thinking. H/T American Power
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Christopher McDonald provides assurances that we have nothing to fear from unmanned drones. “A lot of people look at these modern marvels and see automated flying soulless death dealers that spy on all our private lives. But you can trust me when I say: ‘Those people are Communists.'” Coming from Shooter McGavin, that says a lot. H/T Funny or Die
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Rock dinosaurs Crosby, Stills & Nash unveil their latest protest song “Almost Gone,” bemoaning the arrest of Bradley Manning and his pending military trial.
Who’s Bradley Manning? A traitor who violated his oath of office by taking it upon himself to indiscriminately release thousands upon thousands of classified documents. Not only did he place American soldiers and agents in grave personal danger through his treason, but now he’s trying to escape the moral and legal consequences of his reprehensible act.
Sorry, CS&N. Manning is hardly an innocent babe in the woods or a political prisoner. He’s just a sniveling, confused weasel — a domestic spy — deserving of neither our pity or respect. And if this flaccid and whiny song is any indication of CS&N’s artistic abilities, these geezers are, in the words of Jackson Browne, running on empty. Time for them to exit — stage left.
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Latma, Israel’s premiere satirical troupe, pens an ode to President Obama, drawing inspiration from Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.” This is the kind of lively, topical humor you used to see on “Saturday Night Live,” but that was before NBC and its crony capitalist parent company, General Electric, became arms of the multi-tentacled Democratic Party. Seek out Latma’s earlier videos including “We Con the World,” about the Turkish-led Free Gaza Flotilla, and “The Iranian Bomb,” a parody of Tom Jones’ song “Sex Bomb.” H/T Yid with Lid.
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