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Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

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A recent article from Adrienne Yaron has an important kernel of truth surrounded by a myriad of analytical errors and false conclusions.  The central point that BDS is a cover for defamation of Israel and development of a critical mass of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred on false pretenses is sound.  The suggestions that BDS is incapable of having an economic impact and that BDS should therefore be mocked rather than substantively opposed is not. Yaron's core and accurate observation is that BDS's economic arguments are a vehicle for simple malice:
The real goal and purpose of BDS is to defame Israel, and attempt to discredit it in the eyes of foreign observers, in order to exert political pressure. BDS demonstrations are an opportunity for them to spew antisemitic vitriol and express their vicious hatred of the Jewish state. BDS’ [sic] only real power is in propagating its hateful ideology.
This is absolutely true, with ample evidence from BDS supporters' anti-Jewish and anti-Israel deceptions and violence, and the overlap between BDS and actual or implicit support for terrorism.

LATEST NEWS

Democrat presidential candidate Martin O'Malley held a campaign event in Iowa Monday and one single person showed up. In O'Malley's defense, it was snowing in Iowa but still... one guy? Here's the worst part, the guy left uncommitted. Nick Gass reported at Politico:
One person shows up to O'Malley event in Iowa, remains uncommitted Amid a vicious winter storm on Monday that forced some presidential campaigns to cancel their scheduled stops in Iowa, only Martin O'Malley decided to press on. And one man at his last event, the only person to show up, in fact, "was glad to see me," the former Maryland governor said. But he still would not commit to caucus for O'Malley.

2015 will be remembered as a wild year for many reasons, including the weather. While the Eastern part of the country was enjoying record high temperatures, the Great Plains was slammed by "Winter Storm Goliath".
Winter Storm Goliath, the seventh named storm of the 2015-16 season, brought more than three feet of snow and extremely dangerous blizzard conditions to parts of the Southern Plains. New Mexico was under a state of emergency, where the governor called the weather a "dire situation." The panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma were also hammered by this storm, and officials were forced to close Interstate 40, which runs through Amarillo, because of the life-threatening conditions. Major roads were covered in snow, and drifts up to 10 feet were reported.

Tuesday evening, Republican Presidential candidate and former Governor of New York, George Pataki alluded to an exit from the Republican presidential primary race.

Border Patrol agents at Texas' Rio Grande Valley Processing Center spent part of Christmas Day with unaccompanied immigrant minors. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection:
“These children are thousands of miles from home, and most of them are essentially alone for the holidays as they came here without their parents or another family member,” said Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla Jr. “Christmas is a tough time to be without your family, so management at the CPC got together and raised money to purchase gifts for the kids and help make Christmas better for them.”

Russia's Navy is growing and playing a greater role is Russia's aggressive foreign policy posture for the first time in two generations, and the US seems - still - unprepared and unwilling to push back. Russia's military capacity has been severely limited since the end of the Cold War.  It's most noteworthy events were two Chechen Wars in the 1990s and early 2000s that went poorly, and the 2000 disaster that sank and killed all 118 sailors aboard the nuclear submarine Kursk. Even Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008 was poorly executed against a nominal military power. Since Georgia, Russia has done better.  The invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2009 was more or less flawless.  The Russian involvement in Ukraine today is less so, but is also hampered by having to maintain the pretense of non-involvement.

According to British newspaper Express, city of London and other European capitals have been warned about an imminent terror attack "on or before New Year's Eve." The security alert issued by an unnamed intelligence agency specifically mentions the likelihood of an attack on shoppers and revellers in crowded places around New Year’s Eve in a European city. The warning is considered credible, prompting the police departments across Europe to take security measures in a bid to avert another Paris-style attack. London-based Express writes:
The terror alert was handed to Austrian police from a "friendly" intelligence service, as evidence grows that jihadi sleeper cells are planning to hit Western targets. It has prompted police across the continent to increase security measures in a bid to prevent a Paris-style copycat attack on an unknown location in Europe. (...)

Actor Samuel L. Jackson let a little too much information slip in a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter. He was speaking to them about his new film The Hateful Eight but the conversation turned to current events. On the subject of the San Bernardino terror attack, Jackson had a different culprit in mind. P.J. Gladnick reports at NewsBusters (emphasis is his):
Samuel L. Jackson on San Bernardino Shooters: Disappointed It Wasn't 'Crazy White Dude' Rush Limbaugh has stated several times that the assassination of John F. Kennedy ushered in the era of modern liberalism. Liberals back then just couldn't handle the fact that the assassin was Lee Harvey Oswald, a communist who lived for awhile in the Soviet Union. So they attempted to blame America and the "rightwing" for Kennedy's assassination.

One of the things that I find amusing about the Democrats' war on the Koch brothers is the fact that it seems to be based more in projection than in fact.  George Soros is notoriously behind and/or involved in a slew of progressive initiatives, websites, and assorted pot stirrings. It's usually a good idea to know what the opposition is thinking, so it's worth taking a look at the article he penned for The Guardian entitled "The terrorists and demagogues want us to be scared. We mustn't give in."   In it, Soros claims that terrorists have discovered that western, "open" societies have a key weakness that can be exploited:  a fear of death. Note how he singles out France's response to the Paris attacks as being particularly "irrational" (as we'll see, he's quite happy with America's president's non-response to terrorism.):
Open societies are always endangered. This is especially true of America and Europe today, as a result of the terrorist attacks in Paris and elsewhere, and the way that America and Europe, particularly France, have reacted to them.

Scrolling through our Oberlin College tag presents a very sorry recent history of the campus. The Great Oberlin College Racism Hoax of 2013 was not used an opportunity to examine the campus grievance culture, but rather, as an excuse to to advance “even more extreme policies”. A student wrote to me at the time:
I’d like to personally thank you for your coverage of the Oberlin hate hoax. Many students… have been following your site and are glad that somebody is helping to get the word out about the Oberlin administration’s response. The Daily Caller story just grazes the surface of what really happened. The administration didn’t just allow students to live in fear, they actually used that fear to get students to push for even more extreme policies on campus. Many students formed into “working groups” to propose solutions for “institutional change”, nearly all of which have been approved by the administration and are being enacted.

According to media reports last week (see, for example, here and here) Scott Harrison, a Scottish anti-Israel activist, was sentenced last week to a year in jail. Back on October 25, 2014 he threw acid in the face of an 18-year-old woman manning a stall in Glasgow shopping center. The stall was owned by the Israeli cosmetics company Kedem. The victim, Greek-born Iona Georgianna, said she felt like her face was “melting” during the horrible attack. Luckily, a quick-thinking co-worker had the good sense to throw water on her head, sparing Georgianna from the worst of the acid’s effects. A Scottish court handed down the 12-month sentence for assault to injury. Harrison will be held in custody pending the results of an appeal filed by his lawyers.

The mainstream media is having a lot of fun reporting that Hillary is this year's Gallup "Most Admired Woman" for a "record 20th time." What they are leaving out, however, is that it appears that the long list of scandals and controversies that have plagued her since leaving her position as Secretary of State in early 2013 may be catching up with her (read LI's Hillary coverage here). When one looks more closely at the Gallup poll, it becomes clear that while still topping the list, Hillary has fallen quite sharply since December 2012. Take a look at the following:

Today, a Cleveland grand jury declined to indict two Cleveland Police Department officers over the November 2014 killing of Tamir Rice, as reported by ClickOnDetroit.  We've posted repeatedly on the shooting of 12-year-old Rice by Cleveland police officers, including:

VIDEO: Shooting of Tamir Rice by Police Goes to Grand Jury (6/4/2015)

Cleveland Tries Out Baltimore Justice, Ignores Facts in Tamir Rice Shooting (6/11/2015)

Two Independent Reviews: Shooting of Tamir Rice “Reasonable” (10/11/2015)

The shooting was caught on surveillance camera, and presented what to us certainly appeared to be a pretty open-and-shut case of a justifiable use of force. Tamir Rice, who while only 12 years old weighed a whopping 195 pounds (see autopsy report embedded at bottom of this post), was the subject of 911 cals reporting he was pointing an apparent gun at people.  (The gun would later turn out to be a pellet gun rather than a firearm.)  A patrol cars with two officers pulled up rapidly to Rice's location, at which point Rice clearly reaches for the "gun" in his waistband. The officers respond to this reasonably perceived threat of deadly force by shooting and killing Rice.  (One of the 911 callers had reportedly told the operator that the gun appeared to be a fake, but this information was not passed on to the responding officers, who necessarily assumed the "gun" to be real.) That video can be viewed here:

As embroiled Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel faces a chorus of criticism, the choir just got a little bit louder. MSNBC host and activist about town Al Sharpton called for Emanuel to resign. At the center of the controversy -- police-involved shootings.