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 It’s Rosie O’ Donnell VS Donald Trump…

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(sadly, millions)

From 1992-2006

Dubai is the fastest growing city on earth. For anyone who thinks the territories of Islam are an economic backwater, take a look at the building boom in Dubai in just 14 years.  This view shows the same street in 1992 and 2006.

By comparison, look at what New York City has been able to build in the last 5 years on the site of the World Trade Center.  The Freedom Tower (NYC), meant to be the tallest building in the world has yet to be started.  In Dubai, on the other hand, the Burj Dubai is already under construction and will exceed the height of the Freedom Tower by about 300 meters.

The Burj Dubai

Thomas Sowell (born 30 June 1930), is an American economist, political writer, and commentator, generally from a socially conservative and economically laissez faire perspective. He is currently a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. In 1990, he won the Francis Boyer Award, presented by the American Enterprise Institute. In 2002 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal for prolific scholarship melding history, economics, and political science. Conservative British author Paul Johnson has described Sowell as “America’s leading philosopher”.

Quotes from the Man

“One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.”

“‘Entitlement’ is not only the opposite of achievement, it undermines incentives to do all the hard work that leads to achievement. It is the people who were born and raised in the welfare state atmosphere who seem to have great difficulty finding jobs.”

“The next time some academics tell you how important ‘diversity’ is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.”

“The real minimum wage is zero [unemployment].”

“The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.”

“Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late.”

“Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.”

“Like a baseball game, wars are not over till they are over. Wars don’t run on a clock like football. No previous generation was so hopelessly unrealistic that this had to be explained to them. It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.”

I recently purchased these old French casts of the hands of Franz Liszt in bronze.  Many people regard Liszt as the greatest pianist to have ever lived.  His rhapsodies and etudes continue to seperate the men (Volodos, Cziffra, and Kissin) from the boys (Yundi cLang, Watts, and a host of other sad wannabes).  The casts–life sized, of course–were made when he was in his fifties and are exceptionally rare.  They bear the mark of the famous French foundry (contemporary to the day) of F. Barbedienne.  They have been authenticated by comparing close-up photographs of Liszts hands and known casts made at the time of his death.  There are several distinguishing features (scar, mole, deep creases) that appear in the proper locations on these casts.  The hands are known to be casts, rather than sculpted works, because of the manner in which the fingers tips are depressed on a flat surface. 

With them came this fine miniature painting of Liszt on ivory when he was quite a lot older.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A U.S. attack plane killed many people with barrages of gunfire in a remote Somali village occupied by Islamists thought to be hiding at least one al Qaeda suspect, a Somali government source said on Tuesday.
 
 In the first known direct U.S. military intervention in Somalia since a failed peacekeeping mission that ended in 1994, an C-130 plane rained gunfire on the desolate southern village of Hayo near the Kenyan border late on Monday.
 
 ”I understand there are so many dead bodies and animals in the village,” the senior source told Reuters.
 

(more…)

No More Bin Laden “Love-fests” for Somalia

Last jihadist stronghold in Somalia captured Ras Kamboni, at the southernmost tip of Somalia, has been a stronghold for jihadist activity and a conduit for al-Qaeda for a number of years, as illustrated by this BBC report from December, 2001. Its capture is a significant victory.
 
 ”Islamic hideout in Somalia said captured,” by Mohamed Olad Hassan for AP:
 
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Ethiopian-backed government forces captured the last remaining stronghold of the Islamic movement in southern Somalia, the Somali defense minister said Friday, hours after warlords met with the president and promised to enlist their militiamen in the army.
The southern town of Ras Kamboni fell after five days of heavy fighting, Defense Minister Col. Barre “Hirale” Aden Shire told The Associated Press. He said government troops backed by Ethiopian forces and MiG fighter jets chased fleeing Islamic fighters into nearby forests and the fighting would continue. He did not give casualty figures.
Ras Kamboni is in a rugged coastal area a few miles from the Kenyan border. It is not far from the site of a U.S. airstrike Monday targeting suspected al-Qaida militants — the first U.S. offensive in Somalia since 18 American soldiers were killed here in 1993.
The report of the town’s fall came after Somalia’s warlords met with President Abdullahi Yusuf in the capital of Mogadishu and pledged to disarm their militias, a major step toward bringing calm to this city after years of chaos.

My best advice to any thinking American who might stumble across this post is to go out and buy everything you can from this man, read it, assimilate it, and pass it on.
 
My current recommended Sowell tome: Black Rednecks and White Liberals is a collection of essays by Thomas Sowell, published in 2005.
 
Another brilliant book you might like is: Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study 2004 by economist Thomas Sowell.
 
(Mr. Burke)
 
Here’s a brief review of it:
 
 Already known as a critic of affirmative action or race-based hiring and promotion, Sowell, himself African-American, analyzes the specific effects of such policies on India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria, four countries with longer multiethnic histories and then compares them with the recent history of the United States in this regard.
 
 According to Dutch Martina’s review of this book:[1]
 
 Among the common consequences of preference policies in the five-country sample are:
 They encourage non-preferred groups to redesignate themselves as members of preferred groups to take advantage of group preference policies;
 
They tend to benefit primarily the most fortunate among the preferred group (e.g. black millionaires), often to the detriment of the least fortunate among the non-preferred groups (e.g. poor whites);
 
They reduce the incentives of both the preferred and non-preferred to perform at their best — the former because doing so is unnecessary and the latter because it can prove futile– thereby resulting in net losses for society as a whole; and
 
They engender animosity toward preferred groups as well as on the part of preferred groups themselves, whose main problem in some cases has been their own inadequacy combined with their resentment of non-preferred groups who– without preferences– consistently outperform them.

Arguably the greatest living pianist, Arcadi Volodos, is missing in action; at least from American concert halls.  One is compelled to ask, “What happened?”  “Why doesn’t Sony Classical promote Volodos or even list his concert dates (albeit in Europe and the Far East) on their website?” 

Thankfully “You Tube” has some videos of this master at work (but for how long?) Here is a link to an interesting video of Volodos in a private home playing Mendelssohn’s Wedding March.

Are we to waste away on a watery broth of Andre Watts and Earl Wild? Are we doomed to be force-fed the faddish cLang cLang and Yundi Li (the Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan of the classical world) as they ride the same hyped up train to nowhere that inflicted Helfgott’s bizarre resurrection on the world?  Deliver us Arcadi Volodos!

If anyone has any information about Arcadi Volodos, please let it be known.  If anyone knows Mr. Volodos and can get a message to him; please tell him this: “Your fans wither for want of a glimpse of the gift you possess.  Please come to the United States.  We can bare this deprivation no longer!”