Published by an old curmudgeon who came to America in 1936 as a refugee from Nazi Germany and proudly served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He is a former law enforcement officer and a retired professor of criminal justice who, in 1970, founded the Texas Narcotic Officers Association. BarkGrowlBite refuses to be politically correct.
(Copyrighted articles are reproduced in accordance with the copyright laws of the U.S. Code, Title 17, Section 107.)
After fully taking back control of Afghanistan following the abrupt withdrawal of US forces,
the Taliban is getting down to the every day issues of running and
maintaining the country. And one of its first culture and heritage
initiatives is… restoring an old synagogue?!
That certainly comes across as odd considering this is the same
jihadist group that demolished an ancient statue of Buddha for violating
Sharia law. While synagogues for dhimmi (read: second-class)
Jews are not prohibited by Islam, few could have imagined the Taliban
would use Afghanistan’s limited financial resources to preserve one.
But according to The Art Newspaper, the Yu Aw synagogue in the
Jewish quarter of the city of Herat will undergo a 16-month, $500,000
restoration project to save both the building and its mikva (ritual bath) from collapse.
The Taliban has given the go ahead to a restoration project to preserve the historic sites
associated with the Jewish community that once resided in Herat. Pictured, the main double height prayer space in Yu Aw synagogue. The walls in this space appear to be slightly leaning.
The question then is why?
Why would a group considered to be one of the most extreme Islamic
movements in the world care to preserve Jewish history and heritage?
Perhaps the answer lies somewhere hidden in recent remarks of an Afghan official with ties to the Taliban government.
The Taliban, the official told Israel’s i24News, “are
interested in establishing confidential relations [with Israel] with the
intent of seeing these negotiations bear fruit in years or even a
decade.”
The reason: “They [the Taliban] want to empower and sustain their
regime. Therefore, they need to form strong relations with superpowers
in the region, and they see Israel as a strong influencer.”
It is also worth noting that the Taliban is made up largely of members of the Pashtun tribe, which has proven Jewish roots.
Could Taliban-ruled Afghanistan eventually join the Abraham Accords?
And more importantly, should Israel let it, considering the group’s past
crimes against humanity?
A number of United Nations member states came to Israel’s defense on Thursday as a controversial UN Commission of Inquiry presented its second report to the body.
Several states condemned the commission, mandated to investigate any
and all aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since its roots, for
both its bias and an antisemitic remark made recently by one of its members.
In an interview with an anti-Israel website this summer, COI member Miloon Kothari
alleged that social media was controlled by the “Jewish lobby.” He
would later issue an apology for that remark, along with a comment in
the same interview questioning whether Israel should be allowed to hold
UN membership.
“We cannot ignore the fact that a current member of the commission
made antisemitic comments in late August, referring disparagingly to the
‘Jewish lobby,’” US envoy to the UN General Assembly Lisa Carty told the General Assembly’s Third Committee, where Thursday’s discussion was held.
“We categorically reject this statement, which we deem to be
outrageous, inappropriate and corrosive,” Caty said. “We regret that
senior UN leadership has still not publicly repudiated these repugnant
statements or asked this commission member to step down.”
Albania, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechia, Germany,
Guatemala, Italy, Liberia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, the
Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Uruguay were among the countries
defending Israel’s position, along with the European Union, which issued
a statement against the COI. It was a rare showing of strong vocal
support from a wide range of countries at the UN, including notably from
Australia, whose government this month rescinded its recognition of
west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The Palauan representative questioned why the three members of the
commission had been appointed, given “the numerous outright anti-Israel
public statements made by the members both before and during their
tenure.”
Hungary’s envoy said that her country was “outraged by the recent
anti-Israel and antisemitic comments made by a member of the COI,”
calling them “unworthy of the UN.”
The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva created the three-person
commission last year following an 11-day conflict between Israel and
terrorist groups in Gaza. The COI was given a unique open-ended mandate.
It is charged with investigating any Israeli human rights violations
both inside and outside its sovereign territory.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad
Erdan shows assembled media a recording of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad
rocket falling in Gaza. Credit: Israeli Mission to the United Nations.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan
blasted the commission’s structure and member appointments as further
evidence of the Human Rights Council’s hopeless bias against Israel. The
UNHRC holds a permanent debate each session on Israel, something it
does for no other country.
Erdan said on Thursday that the UNHRC didn’t choose the COI members
“for their investigative skills, but rather for their very public and
very poisonous hatred of Israel. They were chosen precisely because they
abhor the Jewish state.” He listed a number of comments and positions
held by all three members that he said shows their prejudice and bias,
if not outright hostility toward Israel.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has a long history of hatred toward Israel
COI chairwoman Navi Pillay, who refused to condemn
Kothari’s comments this summer, requested on Thursday that UN member
states ask for an International Court of Justice advisory opinion
regarding the illegality of “Israel’s occupation” of Palestinian
territory.
She also fought back against charges of antisemitism leveled at her
fellow COI members, telling envoys that “we are not antisemitic. I am
81-years-old and this is the first time I have been accused of
antisemitism.”
Pillay said there should be no complaints about the open-ended nature
of the COI, since the”occupation” is “permanent, as well.” The report
presented Thursday blamed only Israel for the state of the conflict. Hamas has been mentioned only once in the first two reports combined.
Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of The Jewish
Federations of North America, told JNS that “clearly we’re living in
this time of rising antisemitism and it’s so clear that it is not
random. It is the downstream effect of a concerted campaign of hatred
and vilification and delegitimization, of which anti-Israel activity is
an essential component.”
Fingerhut pointed to elements like the UNHRC as centers from where
antisemitism emanates. He credited Erdan for the strong support seen at
Thursday’s COI session, and said the American Jewish community has an
open-ended mandate to stand with Israel.
“I always say this is one of the reasons why we have an organized
Jewish community,” said Fingerhut. “People can make fun of us sometimes
for all of our organizations and alphabet soup, but it takes an
organized effort to be able to maintain focus over time.”
Sure about that, Joe? Biden, 79, claims US has FIFTY-FOUR states
during speech in support of post-stroke Senate hopeful John Fetterman
President Joe Biden again found himself blundering on the big stage when on Friday he claimed he'd been to 54 states. The president said he "went to 54 states" to stop pharmaceutical companies from driving drug prices.
EDITOR'S NOTE: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre's spin on it...
"Now, now just hold it right there! The president did not make a gaffe. With millions of migrant families from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras crossing the southern border, President Biden considers those countries as states. And Puerto Rico is an American territory that would be a state if the Republicans didn't oppose its statehood. That makes a total of 54 states."
Jerry Lee Lewis, original wild man of rock ’n’ roll, dies at 87
By Richard Cromelin
Jerry Lee Lewis performs in New Mexico in 2000.
Rock
’n’ roll was still in its infancy when a brash, backwoods maverick with
a wavy blond pompadour and an arrogant sneer roared onto the airwaves
with an unruly concoction of country, gospel, and rhythm and blues.
Much
like the piano bench he kicked mercilessly across the stage during his
explosive performances, Jerry Lee Lewis helped upend the staid, polished
pop music that still dominated the playlists of 1950s radio with raw,
nearly carnal anthems that all but willed fans to get to their feet and
dance.
But Lewis’ influence transcended the music. He was the
prototype of the hard-rocking, hard-living renegade, and his example of
audacity and independence became a part of rock’s DNA for decades to
come.
The Wild Man of Rock's 13-year-old bride. Following their 1957 wedding, the pair went on to have two children,
daughter Phoebe and son Steve. The latter passed away at the age of
three. The couple eventually parted ways and divorced in 1970.
Forever
celebrated as the original wild man of rock whose fiery records and
real-life scandals made him both fascinating and fearsome, Lewis died
Friday outside Memphis, Tenn. He was 87.
Lewis’ publicist
announced the singer’s death in a statement, following a premature
report of his demise from TMZ earlier in the week. The cause of death
was not revealed. Lewis had been hospitalized in early 2019 after
suffering a stroke, forcing him to cancel his planned spring and summer
concerts. He missed his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame
earlier this month while battling the flu.
The singer-pianist’s
first two hits, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of
Fire,” were definitive incarnations of rock ’n’ roll’s primal allure.
John Lennon referred to “Whole Lotta Shakin’” as “the perfect rock ’n’
roll record.” Elton John adopted Lewis’ signature piano bench maneuver.
His music and his life also
embraced some of the great dichotomies of the American experience —
notably, the interplay between Black and white America that his music
embodied, and the conflict between spirit and flesh that arose from his
upbringing in a Pentecostal church.
Lewis is considered one of the key founders of rock ’n’ roll, along with Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
He was a charter inductee in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986
and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy at
the 2005 Grammys.
“He’s the only guy, other than Ray Charles, who
sings country and rock ’n’ roll authentically,” said singer-songwriter
Kris Kristofferson, a longtime friend. “I don’t think he’s gotten the
credit for how good he really is. I’m sure that he ranks right up there
with Frank Sinatra and all the great American singers.”
Despite
his musical success, Lewis was relentlessly self-destructive yet
seemingly indestructible. His life was strewn with tragedy (the deaths
of a brother, two children and two wives), excess (drinking and drug use
triggered two near-fatal ailments), tax problems and sheer recklessness
— he accidentally shot his bassist in the chest, and he was arrested
after packing a pistol and drunkenly driving his car into the gates of
Presley’s Graceland estate.
Yet, somehow, Lewis survived,
outlasting nearly all his peers. Even after his rock ’n’ roll career was
derailed when he married his 13-year-old cousin in 1957, he rebranded
himself as a country singer in 1968 and occupied the charts for 15 more
years.
Jerry Lee Lewis was born Sept. 29, 1935, in Ferriday, La., a
small farming and sawmill community on the Mississippi River. His
father, Elmo, was a cotton farmer and bootlegger who did time in jail.
His mother, Mamie, was a deeply religious woman who was known to speak
in tongues during church services.
Jerry
Lee Lewis, performing in his prime, sings atop a piano. His mother sent
him to study for the ministry when he was 15, but honky-tonk music
ultimately claimed his soul.
The
couple’s oldest child, Elmo Jr., was struck and killed by a drunk
driver when he was 9. Jerry Lee grew up with his younger sisters Linda
Gail and Frankie Jean and shared a powerful interest in music with two
cousins — Jimmy Lee Swaggart and Mickey Gilley — who would later gain
fame as a televangelist and country star, respectively.
Lewis
absorbed country music through his father’s Jimmie Rodgers records and
the radio broadcasts of “The Grand Ole Opry” and “Louisiana Hayride,”
where he discovered the young Hank Williams. The music at the Assemblies
of God Church that his family attended and where he frequently played
ran toward the intense and rapturous.
At the movies, he loved the
cowboy songs of Gene Autry. Before one screening, he heard Al Jolson’s
“Down Among the Sheltering Palms” and was deeply impressed. Lewis later
became a regular, if unauthorized, visitor to Haney’s Big House,
Ferriday’s lone hotspot for touring blues and R&B acts, and he
sampled more blues on forays into the town’s Black neighborhoods.
Lewis once proclaimed that there were only four true musical “stylists” — Rodgers, Jolson, Williams and, of course, himself.
When
he was 8, his parents mortgaged their small house and bought Lewis a
used upright piano. He practiced constantly, developing a command of the
keyboard that would serve him throughout his career.
A
high-spirited, trouble-prone boy who frequently skipped school, Lewis
was called “Killer” by friends, a casual nickname that would assume
ominous overtones later in life.
He
gave his first performance at 13, at the opening of a Ford dealership.
The youngster went on to play wherever possible — in church, at dances,
on the radio and later at clubs.
When he was 15, he attended the
Southwestern Bible Institute in Waxahachie, Texas, with thoughts of
becoming a minister. He was expelled after one year.
Couples
married young in Ferriday, and Lewis took the plunge when he was 16 and
his wife, a preacher’s daughter, a year older. It lasted eight months
and overlapped with his second marriage, to Jane Mitchum. Their son,
Jerry Lee Jr., would die in a Jeep accident in 1973 at 19.
Lewis
sold sewing machines door to door, auditioned unsuccessfully in
Nashville and Louisiana, and played as he could at regional clubs. When
he heard Presley’s hit “That’s All Right” in 1954, he decided that he
belonged at Sun Records, Presley’s original label.
Sam Phillips,
the visionary owner at Sun, was out of town when Lewis arrived
unannounced at the storefront studio in Memphis, Tenn., but his
assistant Jack Clement took notice when the youngster proclaimed that he
could play the piano the way Chet Atkins played the guitar.
Years later, Phillips recalled the first time he heard Lewis’ tapes.
“I
said who is this cat?” he is quoted as saying in Lewis’ 1993
autobiography, “Killer!” “Because it was all there in abundance — as
spontaneous as anything I had ever listened to. I didn’t care how raw it
was. I didn’t give a damn how unpolished it was. To hear that core,
that soul, that heart and that freedom floating around. That’s the way I
listened to people and knew they was special.”
Lewis and Clement
started out with some country songs, and his version of Ray Price’s hit
“Crazy Arms” became a regional success.
Lewis’ second single was a
song that he had played regularly in his live act for years. He endowed
the recording of Roy Hall and Dave Williams’ “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’
On” with a massive dose of personality and a playful, leering
eroticism.
Jerry Lee Lewis performs at a club in Longview, Texas, in 1981.
“It
wasn’t a dirty record to me,” Lewis said in a 1981 interview with The
Times. “It wasn’t a religious song either, mind you, but I didn’t think
it was dirty.”
It was an overly erotic record to many, however,
and airplay was limited until Lewis performed it on Steve Allen’s Sunday
night NBC variety show. It quickly reached No. 2 on the pop chart and
No. 1 on the country and R&B charts.
His
next single, released in late 1957, was “Great Balls of Fire,” an
enduring touchstone of rock ’n’ roll that infused carnality with a
spiritual fervor. It was another smash, and when his next single,
“Breathless,” became his third straight hit, Lewis was poised to become
rock ‘n’ roll’s leading man.
In May 1958, he flew to England for a
tour that was intended to affirm his primacy but ended up sending him
into exile. Reporters met him at the airport in London to cover his
arrival and inquired about the young woman in his entourage. Lewis
introduced her as his 13-year-old wife, and all hell broke loose.
Lewis
had married Myra Gale Brown in December 1957, after moving into the
Memphis home of Myra’s father, JW Brown, who was Lewis’ cousin and bass
player.
The press came down hard on him, especially when it was revealed that Myra was his second cousin and that he was still married when they wed.
Amid
uproar and outrage, the tour was canceled after three dates. Back in
the U.S., Lewis was unable to get airplay on the radio stations he had
recently dominated. His next record, “High School Confidential,” stalled
at No. 21 on the pop chart.
Major concert bookings also dried up,
and Lewis began playing small venues that he had long outgrown. He made
the Top 30 with a version of Charles’ “What’d I Say,” but his days with
Sun were numbered, and in 1963 he signed with Mercury Records’ Smash
label.
He
recorded prolifically for years, and though he was absent from the
charts, he maintained his high standards. In 1968, Lewis seemed ready
for new directions. He played the role of Iago in “Catch My Soul,” a
musical based on “Othello” that was staged at the Ahmanson Theatre in
Los Angeles.
The
same year, producer Eddie Kilroy suggested that Lewis try a straight
country recording. The honky-tonk ballad “Another Place, Another Time”
brought him back, launching a phase that produced 22 Top 10 country
singles over 15 years, including “What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made
a Loser Out of Me),” “Middle Age Crazy” and “Thirty Nine and Holding.”
But as he enjoyed renewed success, his personal problems escalated.
His
marriage to Myra was strained by the 1962 drowning death of their
3-year-old son, Steve Allen Lewis, and ended in divorce in 1970. Her
memoir, “Great Balls of Fire,” was made into a 1989 movie starring
Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder as the famous couple.
Lewis married Jaren Gunn in 1971, and two years after their 1980 divorce, she drowned in a swimming pool accident.
In
1975 Lewis was arrested after shooting up his Nashville office, and the
following year there was more gun trouble when he accidentally shot his
bassist Norman “Butch” Owens with a ricocheting bullet that he had
aimed at a bottle.
Two months later came the bizarre Graceland
incident, in which an intoxicated Lewis pulled up and slammed into the
gate of the Presley estate with his new Lincoln, while in possession of a
revolver.
Lewis later said that Presley had called and asked him
to come over, and that the gun had been given to him as a gift by a club
owner earlier that night.
Lewis’ fifth wife, Shawn Stephens, died
in the bedroom of their Nesbit, Miss., ranch less than three months
after their June 1983 marriage. Officially, her death was blamed on an
accidental overdose of methadone, but suspicions dogged Lewis. Rolling
Stone magazine and ABC’s “20/20” both raised questions about the
circumstances and the investigation, but Lewis steadfastly maintained
his innocence.
“They’re
trying to slaughter me,” he told The Times in 1984. “But I’m used to
it. People have been trying for 30 years to show that I’m the wrong kind
of person. But justice will catch up with them. My conscience is
clear.”
The Internal Revenue Service periodically confiscated his
possessions because of a mounting tax debt. He was acquitted of income
tax evasion in 1984, and in 1992 moved to Dublin after being hit with a
$1.4-million tax lien. He ultimately settled and returned to the U.S.,
but also filed for bankruptcy — twice.
The wear and tear of his
fast living and prodigious intake of alcohol, amphetamines and sedatives
caught up with him in 1981, when he underwent surgery for a stomach
perforation, followed by an operation for a subsequent infection.
Shortly
afterward, Lewis was swigging from a whiskey bottle during an interview
with The Times, and he returned to the critical list in 1985 with
bleeding ulcers.
Lewis said he finally quit drinking in the mid-1990s, and kicked painkillers a decade after that.
His
life became more low-key, alternating between concert dates and down
time at his ranch near Memphis, where he enjoyed watching television,
especially “Gunsmoke” reruns. Phoebe Lewis, his daughter with Myra,
tended to his career, and his sixth marriage, to 21-year-old Kerrie
McCarver Mann, produced a son, Jerry Lee Lewis III, in 1987. They
divorced in 2005.
At age 82, Jerry Lee Lewis performs at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on Nov. 24, 2017.
In
2012 Lewis married his seventh wife, Judith Ann Coghlan Brown. She was
the ex-wife of his cousin Rusty Brown, the younger brother of Myra,
Lewis’ third wife.
Lewis’ career tailed off after his country
chart run ended. In the 1980s and ’90s, he recorded for a variety of
labels without much success. Los Angeles movie producer and real estate
heir Steve Bing financed “Last Man Standing,” a 2006 release that paired
Lewis with such rock stars as Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, John
Fogerty, Keith Richards and Jimmy Page. It was Lewis’ second outing with
his rock disciples, following his London-recorded “Sessions” album from
1973.
In
2017, Lewis played before thousands at Stagecoach in Coachella Valley
and, in a far more intimate setting, at the Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los
Angeles. Dressed in a gold suit, he spun through his classics, gingerly
tipped over his piano bench after the finale and grabbed a gold cane
before shuffling off stage.
While rock was a music and culture he
had shaped profoundly, Lewis often spoke about turning to the ministry
and singing only gospel songs — forever torn between the sacred and the
profane.
“You can’t straddle the fence,” he said in a 1981
interview with The Times. “The way I believe it is you’ve got to be on
one side or the other. You can’t serve two gods. Satan is pretty strong,
though. ... You’ve got to rock or you’ve got to preach. You can’t do
them both.”
Lewis
is survived by his wife, Judith Coghlan Lewis; his children Jerry Lee
Lewis III, Ronnie Lewis, Phoebe Lewis and Lori Lancaster; sister Linda
Gail Lewis; cousin Jimmy Swaggart; and many grandchildren.
Oldest Guantanamo Bay prisoner, 75, is freed and flown home to
Pakistan after being held there for 18 years without charge on suspicion
of 'facilitating' 9/11 plotters
The US has held Saifullah Paracha, 75, at Guantanamo since September 2004 and has long asserted it can hold detainees indefinitely. He allegedly helped Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is accused of
planning the 9/11 attacks, and Mohammed's nephew, Ammar al-Baluchi
By Joseph Michalitsianos
Daily Mail
October 29, 2022
Saifullah Paracha was the oldest prisoner at Guantanamo Bay prison before being released to his native Pakistan
A Pakistani national held by the United
States for 18 years in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp without trial on
suspicion of links to al Qaeda returned home to Pakistan on Saturday
after being the oldest prisoner at the detention facility.
Saifullah
Paracha, 75, was first captured in Thailand in July 2003 and taken to
the US military base at Bagram, Afghanistan, before being transferred in
2004 to the camp in the US naval station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Authorities
alleged he was an al-Qaeda 'facilitator' who helped two of the
conspirators in the Sept. 11 plot with a financial transaction after the
attacks.
Those conspirators were allegedly Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is accused
of planning the 9/11 attacks, and Mohammed's nephew, Ammar al-Baluchi.
Paracha was captured in Thailand
in 2003 during an FBI sting. He has admitted to safeguarding $500,000,
but says he didn't know the conspirators were al-Qaeda
The Department of Defense
confirmed the repatriation and said Paracha's continued detention was no
longer necessary to protect against a 'significant threat' to the US
Khalid
Mohammed remains at Guantanamo Bay, with no trial death penalty trial
date set after the January 2021 trial was delayed due to COVID-19. Ammar
al-Baluchi is also being held at Guantanamo Bay.
'We
are glad that a Pakistani citizen detained abroad is finally reunited
with his family,' the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
At
75, Paracha was the oldest inmate at the camp, according to Reprieve, a
London-based human rights group that worked on his case. He was never
charged.
Paracha admits to safeguarding
$500,000, but says he didn't know the conspirators were al-Qaeda and
denies any involvement in terrorism.
Paracha was captured in Thailand in 2003
during an FBI sting. Paracha believed he was going to discuss a
merchandising deal with Kmart, only to be seized by intelligence agents
and flown to Afghanistan.
The US has
held him at Guantanamo since September 2004 and has long asserted that
it can hold detainees indefinitely without charge under the
international laws of war.
The
Department of Defense confirmed the repatriation and said Paracha's
continued detention was no longer necessary to protect against a
'significant threat' to the security of the United States.
The US has held Paracha at
Guantanamo since September 2004 and has long asserted that it can hold
detainees indefinitely without charge under the international laws
Paracha has been held at the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba, pictured in January 2017, for more than 18 years
The United States has not transferred a detainee from Guantanamo Bay to Pakistan since 2008.
Paracha
is the latest release from the prison camp set up following a U.S.-led
invasion of Afghanistan in pursuit of the al Qaeda network behind the
9/11 attacks.
The camp drew worldwide condemnation for holding large numbers of prisoners without charging them or holding trials.
Its population peaked at about 800 inmates, then declined during the 2009-2017 Obama administration.
The
Defense Department said 35 detainees remain at Guantanamo Bay, of whom
20 are eligible for transfer and three for a Periodic Review Board.
Nine are involved in the military commissions process and three convicted in military commissions.
Brothers Jonathan Teelin, and Felix Teelin were arrested for brutally beating a man in Yonkers.
Disturbing video shows two brothers beating and stomping on another
man’s head in Yonkers this week – while a responding sergeant apparently
does little to stop the attack.
Footage obtained by The Post shows the siblings – one of them
shirtless – punching and grappling with another man at Yonkers Avenue
and Ridgewood Road and then pushing the victim against a parked car just before 6:30 p.m. Oct. 26.
A female sergeant is shown getting out of a double-parked cruiser and
slowly approaching the fighting men, appearing to say something to them
– but not physically intervening at all.
Seconds later, the victim, seen with a bloodied face, falls to the ground, the video shows.
The sergeant then simply stands by for a moment before gesturing
for one of the assailants to get back – and grabbing the arm of the
other as he continues to stomp on the man’s head and punch him, the
footage shows.
Disturbing video shows two brothers beating and stomping on another man's head as the Yonkers cop stood by
By the end of the clip, two more officers finally intervene.
The men shown in the footage were part of a group of several guys who
were involved in a clash at a local bar that spilled outside and turned violent, according to Yonkers Police.
Brothers Jonathan Teelin, 26, of Mount Kisco and Feelix Teelin, of
Hastings-on-Hudson were arrested and charged with felony assault, cops
said.
The victim, a 26-year-old Yonkers resident, suffered non-life threatening injuries and is expected to recover, police said.
The Yonkers Police administration is also “conducting an internal inquiry into the initial police response,” authorities said.
As of Friday, the sergeant had not been suspended or placed on modified duty, police sources said.
With all the talk of democracy being in
“danger” in both Israel and the US, it’s odd, if not downright
hypocritical that everyone’s bent on creating a non-democratic
Palestinian state.
Is democracy really so holy and sacred to pundits and politicians?
With elections looming in both Israel and the US, those whose parties
look poised for defeat are busy loudly lamenting the impending doom of democracy.
And yet, they have no problem pushing for the establishment of a new
Middle East state that everyone knows will be anything but democratic.
One of the core ideas of the Middle East peace process was that the
Palestinian state created alongside Israel would be a true,
Western-style democracy.
None of the global peace brokers could legitimately
support the birth of yet another Middle East dictatorship, or of a
pseudo-democracy where elections are held only when it suits the rich
and powerful, and where various armed groups compete for votes through
violence.
But that is precisely what the Palestinian Authority has become.
The interim period built into the “Oslo” peace
process was meant to give the Palestinians an opportunity to put in
place the mechanisms of statehood, to lay the foundations of a free and
democratic society.
At a briefing organized by the Jerusalem Press Club several years ago, Lt.-Col. Alon Eviatar,
former Adviser for Arab Affairs to the Coordinator of Government
Activities in the Territories (COGAT), provided an explanation as to why
the Palestinian Authority is so allergic to routine open elections.
“Local elections in the Palestinian Authority are a
joke, but the drama surrounding them provides an important glimpse into
Palestinian political culture,” Eviatar began.
When the Palestinian Authority last suggested local
elections in 2004-2005, it was a means of putting political pressure on
its rivals in Hamas, which had previously refused to participate in the
democratic process. But, Eviator recalled, everyone was shocked when
Hamas responded positively and ended up scoring major electoral
victories.
“Hamas correctly analyzed that they were finally
ready for elections, which they saw as an opportunity to advance their
goal of seizing control of the Palestinian government,” he explained.
This, Eviatar continued, was a blow from which the
Palestinian Authority and its ruling Fatah faction still hasn’t
recovered. And that’s why Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,
citing various procedural excuses, had his court’s call off the latest
scheduled election. “Abbas and his Fatah are afraid,” said Eviatar.
Clan influence
Another aspect of Palestinian elections that doesn’t sit right with Western observers is clan influence.
Large clans dominate most Palestinian
municipalities, and when the clan leadership supports a particular
faction or politician, everyone else must vote accordingly. In some
areas that can mean political leaders are effectively appointed by
powerful sheikhs, rather that being democratically chosen.
Role of terrorism
Israel Today
asked Eviatar what role terrorism against Israel plays in Palestinian
election campaigning. According to him, “the armed struggle is not one
of the topics the parties are currently addressing.” Not yet, at least.
“Like anywhere else,” he continued, “the main issues on the table are social and civil in nature.”
What if?
Everyone wanted to know, what if Palestinian elections were held today?
In that scenario, Eviatar saw a narrow victory for
Hamas. Though he said the group’s real challenge would be to win a large
municipality like Nablus (biblical Shechem)
or Hebron, while maintaining control of Gaza. The reason being that
local elections are seen as a litmus for the next general election.
But regardless of who emerges as the next
Palestinian leader in that future general election, Eviatar foresees
more of the same in as far as Israel and the peace process are
concerned.
In fact, he believes the next Palestinian leader
will have to be even more extreme than Abbas if he wants to remain in
power. “No Palestinian candidate will be able to hold a position of
compromise,” he said. “Nor do any of them hold such views, anyway. They
are all disciples of Yasser Arafat. He is the reference point.”
The Painful Truth About Media Bias: Some Journalists Lie
Why is coverage of certain issues—like
Israel—so one-sided? The midterm election once again proved that many
reporters suppress the truth to bolster their position in any dispute.
Blatant
media bias in favor of Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman
demonstrates again why the press can't be trusted in its reporting on
Israel
Those who monitor media coverage have long struggled with the key
question at the heart of their endeavor. Faced with slanted news
stories—such as the many on Israel in the mainstream media—it is easier
to point out mistakes, distortions and lack of context than it is to
prove why this is happening.
Americans paying attention this week were provided with an
explanation for one instance of bias in coverage of an election
campaign. After Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman debated his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the reactions to what had to be the most bizarre such encounter in living memory were mixed.
In a hyper-partisan era, and in an election that might decide control
of the Senate, it was to be expected that Democrats and Republicans
would react to the nationally televised debate by saying their candidate
was better, no matter what either man said. Many people may claim
always to vote for the best candidate, but politics is a team sport. And
ours has become a tribal culture war.
What couldn’t be ignored, however, was the fact that Fetterman, who’d
had a stroke shortly before winning the Democratic nomination in May,
was clearly incapable of understanding many of the questions or
articulating a coherent response. This was in spite of the fact that he
was aided by a closed-captioning system.
It was a painful spectacle and should inspire sympathy for his
plight. One can only hope that he is eventually able to completely
recover.
That those journalists who identify with the Democrats would spin his
performance as either acceptable or of no importance was also to be
expected. Some claimed, disingenuously, that noticing or drawing
conclusions from the debate is “ableist” or—even more risibly—somehow an
act of discrimination against the disabled.
But the post-debate spin shouldn’t concern those who worry about the
collapse of the media’s credibility. Rather, it is the fact that a
number of prominent liberal reporters interviewed Fetterman in the
months since his stroke and then assured the public that he was fine.
Only one journalist, NBC News reporter Dasha Burns,
dissented. Hers was the sole on-camera interview that Fetterman gave
prior to the debate, as his team assumed her outlet was friendly. But
she later noted that when his closed-captioning device was not turned on, Fetterman couldn’t understand the conversation.
In response, team blue journalists performed a gang tackle on Burns, denouncing her as insensitive or as somehow bolstering the Republicans. Atlantic and Vogue contributor Molly Jong-Fast called Burns’s comments “B.S.”
New York Magazine’s Rebecca Traister and Kara Swisher, of Vox and New York Magazine,
agreed, arguing that Fetterman was just fine and claims to the contrary
must be proof of journalistic misconduct. Even “Today Show” host Savannah Guthrie, an NBC colleague of Burns’s, seemed to attack her credibility.
Armed with such testimonials, Gisele Fetterman, the candidate’s wife, not only demanded that NBC apologize, but said there should be “consequences” for Burns.
Until the debate, their defense of Fetterman might have seemed credible. But no longer.
Anyone who watched the dismal spectacle now knows who told the truth
about Fetterman and who didn’t. Burns was following the ethical
standards of her profession and, regardless of her personal views about
the election, gave the public important information.
As for Jong-Fast, Traister and Swisher, there’s no nice way to characterize their claims. They lied.
Their motives, like Fetterman’s wife’s, are not a mystery. The same
goes for all those who seconded their objections to Burns’s reporting.
They want the Democrats to maintain control of the Senate. This means
Fetterman must win. They were prepared to cover up or falsify the facts
about his health in order to advance his candidacy.
The conclusion to be drawn about this incident transcends the
arguments between the parties and candidates over the issues. You don’t
have to favor Oz to understand that this was a case of journalists
sacrificing the truth in order to advance a political agenda.
It is just one example of a trend that has become commonplace in legacy media outlets.
As former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer wrote in his new book, Suppression, Deception, Snobbery and Bias: Why the Press Gets So Much Wrong—And Just Doesn’t Care, the problem isn’t ignorance or error. It lies in a partisan press that always slants the news in one direction.
Other examples abound. The New York Times provided a glaring one earlier this month in a story about the untruths that President Joe Biden
routinely utters. The point of the article was to argue that Biden’s
falsehoods should be regarded as merely benign grandfatherly tall tales,
rather than vicious lies like those that it claims are told by former
President Donald Trump.
The idea that some lies are okay while others are not, because one
man should be thought of as decent and the other not, is so
transparently biased and absurd that it’s a wonder even the woke
activists who edit the nation’s leading newspaper thought the piece
promoting it worthy of publication.
Of course, while Trump is guilty of saying a great many things that
aren’t true—exaggerations and hyperbolic insults that he and his
followers might excuse as efforts to illustrate a point—Biden’s personal
history of serial fabulism and mendacious smears, which dates back to
his early life, is also a matter of record.
The point here isn’t that anything both men say should be taken with a
shovelful of salt. It’s that the blatant double standards by which the
so-called paper of record reports the news means no one should take
anything it reports at face value.
It also contributes to a situation in which people on both sides of
the political aisle ignore arguments from their opponents, and—as another Times article pointed out—leads to Democrats and Republicans thinking that democracy is in peril. They just disagree about who is at fault.
There are lots of reasons for this landscape. But to deny the
responsibility of the media, and the way so many journalists lie for
partisan reasons, is not only to fly in the face of the facts; it
exhibits a failure to understand how and why our politics and our
society are so broken.
This atmosphere helps explain, at least in part, the rise of antisemitism and how it is being tolerated
on both ends of the political spectrum. It reflects an over-the-top
partisanship in a society in which few are willing to condemn political
allies, even when they are guilty of blatant hate-speech.
The same pattern applies to coverage of Israel and the Middle East.
Though ignorance of the history of the region might seem to be at the
root of the slant—since many editors and reporters simply don’t know,
for instance, that peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs might
have been possible had the latter not consistently rejected any and all
compromises throughout the century of the conflict—even relatively
recent events are often ignored, buttressing a narrative about
oppression of the Palestinians.
Furthermore, many reporters, influenced by Palestinian propaganda and
antisemitic talking points, deliberately distort the way the conflict
is depicted. This helps create fertile ground for prejudice. It also
paves the way for developments like the recent UN Human Rights Council’s
Commission of Inquiry report, which traffics in blatant antisemitism and falsely accuses Israel of being an “apartheid state.”
The consequences, both in the United States and abroad, of a broken
media that can’t be trusted do not merely affect the world of
journalism. When members of the press lie to advance a cause, they are
not simply spreading misinformation; they are also creating an
environment in which democracy fails and antisemitism advances.
Israel Has a Problem on Its University Campuses, Too
Far-left and Arab Israeli students hold demonstration praising Palestinian terrorists killed by the IDF in recent days.
Israel Today
Tel Aviv University, like so many others in the West, has become a platform for anti-Israel expression.
We are all familiar with the problem of anti-Zionism and antisemitism
on university campuses in the West, and in particular in the United
States. But Israel itself is not free of this phenomenon, as seen
Thursday during a demonstration at Tel Aviv University.
Supporters of terrorism held a demonstration in front of Tel Aviv
University on Thursday morning in reaction to IDF operations against the
new Palestinian terror group known as the Lions’ Den.
The demonstration was led by members of the left-wing anti-Zionist Hadash party’s student group at the university. Zionist group Im Tirtzu reported that demonstrators were seen shouting their support for the terrorists who were killed, calling them “martyrs.”
“From you came the decision – intifada and victory,” they changed,
while others cried out: “Oh, mother of the martyr, rejoice, all the Shabab
are your sons. Oh, mother of the prisoner, be happy, death is better
than humiliation,” and “Martyr, rest, we continue the struggle… unity
with Palestine in the return of all refugees, unity with Palestine in
removing all the occupiers.”
Earlier this week Israeli security forces conducted a raid on a bomb making factory belonging to Lions’ Den
in Nablus (biblical Shechem), the city where the terror group is based.
The raid destroyed the facility and took the lives of five of its
operatives, including the head of the Lions’ Den organization, Waddia Al-Houh.
Shai Rosengarten, Director of Activism in the Im Tirtzu movement said in response to the demonstration:
“The fact that at the entrance to Tel Aviv University
chants of martyrs and intifada are heard, and the president of the
university does not even bother to leave his office and remove the
protesters is a sign of weakness and a shameful surrender to terrorism.
If someone makes a mess in front of your house do you say you are not
responsible for the entrance? The entrance to Tel Aviv University has
become like a terrorist demonstration in the middle of Jenin. Tel Aviv
University students deserve a president who will make sure to keep them
safe.”
David DePape attempted to kill Paul Pelosi, fracturing his skull with a hammer.
A person or persons unknown forced his way into the
Pelosi residence in the Pacific Heights district of San Francisco in the
wee hours of Friday morning and thumped Paul Pelosi, 82, a few times
with a hammer. Mrs. Pelosi (who is under Secret Service protection as
the #3 in the presidential succession) was in D.C. at the time. The U.
S. Capital Police California Field Office (which apparently exists
solely to provide police services to Nancy Pelosi) responded along with
the FBI, SFPD, DHS and Coast Guard. (I am joking about the Coast
Guard. I think.)
Donald
Trump had nothing to do with it, but it will be interesting to see if
anybody picks it up. My personal suspicion is that it was a Green
Nutter who is pissed that Pelosi's husband drives a Porsche instead of a
Prius.
EDITOR'S NOTE: I wouldn't make jest of something so serious.
Many on the left are alarmed about Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover.
It is reasonable to say that
Twitter got Joe Biden elected. They buried the Hunter Biden Laptop
story shortly before the 2020 election. There is no question about
that. Less than 40,000 votes the other way could have elected Donald
Trump. That COULD HAVE been the difference.
Elon
Musk has gone in with a big broom. The CEO, CFO, and the Chief Legal
Officer are all gone. Sacked. Also whoever it was that banned Trump
for life was also sacked.
It
is too early to tell for sure but it certainly looks like Musk intends
to turn Twitter into an HONEST electronic bulletin board as opposed to
the propaganda arm of the DNC which is what it is now.
No
longer will be you shadow-banned if you don't understand how
restricting honest, law-abiding gun owners will bring down violent
crime. No longer will you be booted off the platform if you opine that
maybe putting untested medication into small children to protect them
from something that is very unlikely to harm them is maybe not such a
great idea. No longer will numbers be tweaked to make left-wing nutters
appear to be massive numbers of followers that maybe they don't
actually have.
Will it
help the notion that maybe an honest exchange of ideas is a good thing
for Democracy? I don't know, but it sure as hell won't hurt.
World's biggest sports gambler Jim 'Mattress Mack'
McIngvale moves closer to 'record' $75MILLION payout after his Astros
sweep the Yankees... with furniture magnate, 71, set to scoop huge prize
if red-hot favorites win the World Series next week
Mattress Mack' placed $10 million in bets on the Astros to win the World Series. Houston plays the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, beginning Friday
By Jake Fenner and Alastair Talbot
Daily Mail
October 26, 2022
Jim McIngvale from Houston, Texas, has placed a $10million in bets on the Astros to win it all
One of Texas's
most notorious gamblers is just four games away from collecting one of
the biggest sports bet payouts in American history if the Houston Astros win the World Series.
Jim
McIngvale, better known in the Houston area as 'Mattress Mack' just
needs his beloved Houston Astros to win their second title and would win
a $75 million payout if they're able to knock off the Philadelphia Phillies.
The owner of the Houston-area Gallery Furniture placed $10million in
bets on the baseball team he loves so much to win the World Series, with
the average payout set at 7.50-to-1.
'Mattress Mack' is also giving Gallery Furniture customers a chance to double their purchases
And of course, no one other than Gallery Furniture customers would
profit from the 71-year-old potentially entering the sports betting
record books.
The business has promoted its owner's gambling for years and offers
consumers free furniture after a certain amount spent in the off chance
that McIngvale's chosen teams win championships.
Though, this time around, McIngvale has
set a percent like no other, as he is giving customers an opportunity to
double their purchases if the Astros are awarded the Commissioner's
Trophy, according to The Houston Chronicle.
For example, if someone bought $3,000 worth of furniture then they would be receiving $10,000 in return.
McIngvale is worth approximately $300million and owns Houston-based Gallery Furniture
'When you purchase a Tempur-Pedic, Stearns
& Foster or Sealy mattress sleep set priced at $3,000 or more, and
if the Houston Astros win it all in the 2022 final championship series,
your purchase is FREE!,' a promotion on Gallery Furniture's website
reads.
'Join us at any Gallery
Furniture showroom TODAY make your qualifying mattress purchase for the
chance to get it all FREE FREE FREE!'
McIngvale's name is well-known in the sports-gambling world, as the maverick, who has an estimated net worth of $300million, is known for placing insane bets.
In
April, he went to Lake Charles, Louisiana, to gamble on Kansas winning
the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. He cashed in on
$15million. Gambling is not legal in Texas.
'Mattress Mack' previously bet $9.5million on the Cincinnati Bengals to beat the Los Angeles Rams during Super Bowl LVI.
In
2014, he also saw his biggest loss to date, offering a promotion that
essentially provided customers with free furniture if the Denver Broncos
beat the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVII.
In
total, it is believed that McIngvale has lost $15.43million on bets in
his life, including on the University of Alabama, the New England
Patriots, Tampa Bay and Tennessee Titans each winning the Super Bowl.
Brothers Jonathan Teelin, and Felix Teelin were arrested for brutally beating a man in Yonkers.
Disturbing video shows two brothers beating and stomping on another man's head as the Yonkers cop stood by 
Blatant
media bias in favor of Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman
demonstrates again why the press can't be trusted in its reporting on
Israel
Tel Aviv University, like so many others in the West, has become a platform for anti-Israel expression.
'Mattress Mack' is also giving Gallery Furniture customers a chance to double their purchases