fouad ajami deconstructs obama's foreign policy in the WSJ

dec 31st, 2009

foaud ajami savages obama's foreign policy in WSJ. 

http://bit.ly/4TfVyV 

(excerpts)

With year one drawing to a close, the truth of the Obama presidency is laid bare: retrenchment abroad, and redistribution and the intrusive regulatory state at home. This is the genuine calling of Barack Obama, and of the "progressives" holding him to account. The false dichotomy has taken hold—either we care for our own, or we go abroad in search of monsters to destroy or of broken nations to build. The decision to withdraw missile defense for Poland and the Czech Republic was of a piece with that retreat in American power.

In the absence of an overriding commitment to the defense of American primacy in the world, the Obama administration "cheats." It will not quit the war in Afghanistan but doesn't fully embrace it as its cause. It prosecutes the war but with Republican support—the diehards in liberal ranks and the isolationists are in no mood for bonding with Afghans. (Harry Reid's last major foreign policy pronouncement was his assertion, three years ago, that the war in Iraq was lost.)

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David Klein

india shining according to surjit bhalla

dec 31st, 2009

RajeevSrinivasa 

india shining? surjit bhalla is one of the better economists around, and is worth reading carefully. 

http://bit.ly/5MJbLJ

obama's ratings are sinking. fast.

dec 31st, 2009

RajeevSrinivasa 

obama sinking. Economist/YouGov poll - Obama's approval rating at end of 2009 marks an all-time low 

http://bit.ly/550bOj

Indian students to shun Australia: convicts to lose cash cow

dec 30th, 2009

the arab and other racists are causing the goose that laid the golden egg (ok, i am mixing metaphors wildly) to be killed.

besides, it does look like australia's economy will take its time coming back.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Girish

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8434559.stm   The drop in the number of Indian students is expected to cost Australia almost $70m (£44m).  More than 70,000 Indians studied in Australia in 2009. Australia's higher education industry is its third biggest export earner after coal and iron ore.

New Year - Jan 1st or Yugadi ?

dec 30th, 2009

i have for years refused to celebrate jan 1st as anything other than a random day, which it is. 

now, the winter solstice is worth celebrating, as it is a real, tangible event -- and that is what the makara sankranti is. as i have mentioned here before, the makara sankranti in the hindu calendar has moved backward by a couple of weeks away from the actual solstice because of the precession of the earth's axes over 5111 years, which is the current year in the kaliyuga calendar, which started in 3102 BCE.

yugadi celebrates the arrival of the next kaliyuga year, 5112.

the GoI, in its idiocy, has chosen a nonsensical calendar, the saka era, which 'celebrates' a saka invasion of india. yes, of course, it was chosen by pseudo-secular 'eminent historians' who ignored the more prevalent vikram samvat. of course the hindu calendar would have been completely untouchable for them. 

why pick the stupid saka era? why not just stick with the common era?

this is like indian toll free numbers are 1-600-something or 1-800-six digits. just to be cranky and different from what the rest of the world does. 

the saka era is a dumb, irrational calendar. 

so it's best to celebrate the makara sankranti (jan 14th) or the yugadi (i forget exactly when this is). 

btw, the beginning of the kaliyuga in 3102 BCE was marked by an unusual celestial configuration of various planets: thus it marked a real event. and indian astronomers actually observed this event, which means india already was an advanced civilization by then. (note: whites couldn't believe the indian calendar was so accurate going back 5000 years -- they were sure that somebody had manufactured the astronomical tables (which of course, hoax-making and fabrication, is the white way) until they realized that it would have taken a supercomputer for people to calculate, with the precession of the axes, the tables for 5000 years ago. ergo, 3102 BCE was actually observed and the events noted down.)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: HJS Keralam <sanatandharma2025@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 10:40 AM
Subject: Fwd: New Year - Jan 1st or Yugadi ?
To:

Namaskaram,

 

O Hindus, why do you live as a Hindu and lose your soul just by imitating western lifestyle? Avoid celebrating New Year on Jan 1st. Instead observe New Year on Chaitra Shuddha Prathama, ie. Yugadi.

 

Please forward this link to all Hindus and create an awareness about the importance of celebrating 'Yugadi' / 'Gudi Padwa' as New Year and not Jan 1st.

http://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/festivals/gudhipadwa/newyear.php

 

 

O Hindus, live as true Hindus atleast for a day. Celebrating Jan 1st as New Year means getting converted for a day.

 

O Hindus, wake up from the deep clutches of the westerners and unite!!!

 

 

 

 

the thomas hoax: "truth by repeated assertion" and the continuing predation by the church

dec 30th, 2009

the bbc and that pseudo-historian william dalrymple said in a documentary that "thomas *could* have come to india". 

yes, by that token, the moon *could* be made of green cheese. and jesus *could* have existed. and mao *could* have been a good human being. 

dalrymple believes that history is what was made up, not what actually happened.

a detail: i am not quite sure who was persecuting thomas of canaan and company, but i suspect it was real chrisists -- they had codified the ideology at the council of nicae circa 345 CE, and they treated everybody who didn't accede to their "greatest story ever sold" was treated as a heretic and burned at the stake. given the date of thomas of kanaa's flight, so close to the council of nicae, it is probable that the was chased to india by those who had manufactured the bible and created the dogma. 

the point about julian is well taken. there is no value to "interfaith dialog" because these christists are liars -- they have always lived a lie, with the only intention being imperial conquest. christism is a mask for white imperialism. nothing more. 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ishwar Sharan

The two articles below by V. Sundaram and B.R. Haran have been edited and revised with photos and links added to them. they are now reproduced at Bharata Bharati. Together they form a very comprehensive review of the St. Thomas in India history hoax. They may be bookmarked and kept for future reference by students of Indian history. 

The St. Thomas in India fable is a matter of Indian history. This point should never be forgotten. A people who have had their history mutilated or stolen from them have no national identity. The attempt to impose this spurious communal fable on Indians by the Catholic Church is an attempt to steal the Indian identity. It should be resisted at all costs.

The St. Thomas history hoax and and the wicked men behind it are not going to go away, and it would be prudent for Hindus to keep the relevant historical references available and at hand for reference.

• St. Thomas in India: An IAS officer revisits a 400-year-old history hoax - V. Sundaram
• St. Thomas in India: Thiruvalluvar 'baptised' to betray Hindus - B.R. Haran
• The Myth of St. Thomas and the Mylapore Shiva Temple - Ishwar Sharan (this is a new posting of the 1st 1991 edition of the book). 

Also take note of Julian's Gods by Rowland Smith.... (deleted). There are many studies of Julian but Smith's is definitely the best and most sympathetic.

Julian was the last Pagan emperor of Rome. He tried to restore the Old Religion and failed. He also tried "interfaith dialogue" with the Christian  bishops and failed there too. He was killed by a Christian officer who has since been canonized by the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church has also canonized Constantine though he is one of the most evil and murderous kings to have ever ruled in Europe. Julian faced many of the problems we face today which is why he should be studied.

IS

rajeev on rediff/india abroad on the year that was

dec 30th, 2009

http://rajeev2007.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/2009-a-year-beset-with-problems-for-india/

airline security and abdul the nigerian: hitchens tells it like it is

dec 29th, 2009

RajeevSrinivasa 

on the money as usual for hitchens RT

@hitchbitch

: The truth about airplane security measures. (SLATE, 12.28.2009) 

http://bit.ly/56RKRF

hans 'cant find' $34 billion. guess where it went

dec 29th, 2009

surely china's national newspaper and china's national magazine as well as 'asia times' would have gotten bits of this. 

RajeevSrinivasa 

chinese can't find $34 billion. surely some of it is in the swiss accounts of indian 'intellectuals' and 'leaders'?

http://bit.ly/5igzAk

NGOs with their hands in the cookie jar: even UPA govt admits it

dec 30th, 2009

via ram narayan.

This report says that CAPART (Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology) of the Minstry of Rural Development of GOI has blacklisted 833 NGOs for irregularities including misappropriation of funds. 

CAPART's website is at http://capart.nic.in/  and a list of the blacklisted NGOs (actually there are 834) can be found athttp://capart.nic.in/bla/bla.htm and a list of NGOs for which further assistance has been stopped (which numbers 1332) can be seen at http://capart.nic.in/fas/fas.htm 

It's important that we all carefully go through the lists in order to ensure that we do not deal with any of them. 

Ram 

http://www.hindustantimes.com/833-NGOs-blacklisted-for-misappropriati... 

HINDUSTAN TIMES 

833 NGOs blacklisted for misappropriation of funds: CAPART 

Press Trust Of India 
New Delhi, December 20, 2009 

As many as 833 NGOs and voluntary organisations have been blacklisted by an autonomous body under Rural Development Ministry after they were found indulging in misappropriation of funds. 

The Ministry has conveyed information about the matter to the Standing Committee on Rural Development, which tabled its first report on Demands for Grants in Parliament on Thursday. The Committee was headed by Sumitra Mahajan. 

Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), an autonomous body functioning under Rural Development Ministry, blacklisted a total of 833 NGOs and voluntary organisations on November 9. 

Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of such blacklisted organisations followed by Bihar and Tamil Nadu. 

The Ministry informed that these NGOs were blacklisted for their indulgence in irregularities including misappropriation of funds, the committee said. 

Of the 833 NGOs and voluntary organisations which were blacklisted, 192 were from Andhra Pradesh, 125 from Bihar, 83 from Tamil Nadu, 75 from Karnataka, 72 from Uttar Pradesh, 42 from Rajasthan and 35 from Kerala. 

Thirty-two such organisations were from Orissa, 26 from West Bengal, 24 from Maharashtra, 23 from Delhi, 20 from Haryana, 18 from Manipur, 15 from Madhya Pradesh, 13 from Gujarat, 10 from Nagaland, eight from Jharkhand, five each from Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh, three from Jammu and Kashmir, two from Pondicherry and one each from Arunchal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya and Uttaranchal. 

arvind panagariya: how over-eager india screwed up in copenhagen

dec 29th, 2009

this business of india's unilateral concessions has to stop. it is simply idiotic, eg. the unilateral 'no first-strike policy'.

once again, china pulled a fast one on india's easily-tricked negotiators. these people neither have a long-term strategy, nor are they taught game theory.

long-term bilateral relationships can be modeled as a repeated prisoners-dilemma game. it has been demonstrated that the best strategy is "tit for tat". that is, if the other party cooperates, you cooperate the next time. if the other party betrays you, then you betray them the next time.

however, india's 'strategy' is: co-operate all the time, regardless of being betrayed. this ends up being a great strategy for china, because they keep betraying india, and there is no consequence to them. and they always win in the prisoners-dilemma, because the best outcome is if one betrays and the other party cooperates.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Comments-Analysis/Prime-ministers-Copenhagen-gamble/articleshow/5393612.cms?curpg=2

The end of influence: US owes China 3/4 of China's GDP

dec 29th, 2009

note: not the alleged 'south asia expert' stephen cohen of brookings.

RajeevSrinivasa 

'the end of influence' brad delong and stephen cohen(!). uncle sam agonistes, in decline. from 'foreign policy'.

http://bit.ly/6SoQrt

in case you were wondering: how to identify a man carrying a hidden hand-gun

dec 29th, 2009

thought you might appreciate this pointer.

some candidates for the darwin awards: too bad they remain in the gene pool

dec 29th, 2009

excessive dependence on your GPS systems can be injurious to your health.

"GPS almost did 'em in and GPS saved 'em. It will give you options to pick the shortest route. You certainly get the shortest route. But it may not be a safe route." 

— Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evingertalking about a couple who ended up trapped in the snow for three days when their SUV's navigation system directed them down a remote forest road in Eastern Oregon (they were rescued when their GPS-equipped cell phone finally got a strong-enough signal to contact 911). 

Kolkata High Court: Muslim youth 's forced marriage to minor Hindu girl is legal

dec 29th, 2009

this is not 'elopement', it is abduction, forced marriage, and statutory rape of a minor. 

at least one of these is, if i am not mistaken, non-bailable offence.

yet if a mohammedan does this to a hindu girl, it is perfectly okay. 

why aren't the NGO harpies and the Natl Commission for Women up in arms?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Radha Rajan
Date: Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 11:45 PM
Subject: Kolkata High Court: Muslim youth 's forced marriage to minor Hindu girl is legal
To:


Kidnapping and then marrying an underage Hindu girl is 'legal' because the sharia says so? Since when have Hindu victims been judged by muslim law? And where are our pulpit thumping Arnabs and Sagarikas and the Hashmis and Roys and Pandeys and azmis? What, no bellowing, no thundering, no haranguing? Give me my dose of self-righteous anger Arnnab and co. I am sure all your channels will send your investigating journos who will find evidence that the girl was a major after all and turned 18 the exact minute when the as....married her. RR  

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Youth-gets-bail-in-elopement-caseKolkata/articleshow/5345745.cms

Breaking News:

Youth gets bail in elopement case Kolkata: TNN 17 December 2009, 07:04am IST KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted the anticipatory bail plea of a 26-year-old youth from Murshidabad who had been accused of kidnapping and marrying a 15-year-old girl. Sairul Sheikh, a resident of Bakultala in Behrampore, had been accused of kidnapping and forcibly marrying Anita Roy. A division bench of Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and Justice S P Talukdar allowed Sheikh's plea after his lawyers Joymalya Bagchi and Rajib Lochan Chakraborty submitted that the marriage was legal under Muslim Personal Law. Holding the marriage legal, the court granted Sheikh's anticipatory bail application. Anita's mother Jyotsna had lodged a complaint with Behrampore PS that her daughter had been missing since October 14. On October 15, she came to know that son Sairul had "kidnapped and married" her minor daughter. tnn

Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted the anticipatory bail plea of a 26-year-old youth from Murshidabad who had been accused of kidnapping and marrying a 15-year-old girl.

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new narrative on china: poor, misunderstood, lonely, well-meaning superpower

dec 29th, 2009

i love this new positioning, the latest after 'peaceful rise'.

and equally meaningless. the truth is "predatory, imperialistic, racist, unethical, nasty, fascist nation". 

the fact is china speaks out of both sides of its mouth. when convenient, it claims it is a poor developing country. but its aspirations are those of a developed country. eg. in copenhagen it kept claiming it is a poor developing country, which is a nice smokescreen for the fact that it is THE BIGGEST CARBON EMITTER, and that it is building new coal-powered electric power plants at the rate of one a week. and then it got an agreement that prevents anybody from monitoring its emissions! thus, running with the hares and hunting with the hounds. clever, these people. 

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2009/12/28/yiyi-lu-the-lonely-rising-power/?mod=chinablog

why isn't anybody manufacturing new narratives for india? isn't that what the bureaucracy is supposed to do? something along the lines of the "good superpower" (as opposed to the "bad superpower", china)?

'chindia' is garbage: new book

dec 28th, 2009

another india-china war possible, says new book: 'chindia' is first-class bullshit.

http://bit.ly/4YB5VQ

chanakya said it best long ago: your neighboring power is by definition your enemy.

now that china swallowed the buffer state tibet, it is naturally india's enemy.

in fact china is india's worst enemy. pakistan is a chinese project: they use pakistan

as a force multiplier by giving them say $100 m worth of nuclear and other materials.

pakistan uses its fundamentalists to convert this into $1000 m worth of hassle for india.

great return on investment for china.

then there are all the insurrections -- in the northeast and in nepal and in the

so-called 'maoist' areas.

then there is the 'string of pearls' strategy -- cocos islands in burma, hambantota in

sri lanka, gwadar in baluchistan -- all ports for china to encircle india.

if india were to ensure that there is some pain to china in its conspiracy against india,

it would desist. the hans are well-behaved if there is some pain applied to their bottoms.

hans show how much they care for limeys or mohammedans: they execute one akmal shaikh

dec 28th, 2009

why aren't the pakistanis or NDTV weeping buckets and hurling abuse? what, vishnu 'swiss-minaret-rage-boy' som sleeping?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126205777951008533.html

World's First Production Hybrid Motorcycle in India

The world's first production hybrid motorcycle is being sold to the Indian market.

the jews screwed us over in 1971:Pakistan

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/opinion_print/Opinions/Columns/16-Dec-2009/Forced-surrender-in-1971

cross-posting the link thanks to Frum's blog. This guy is a retired 'commodore' (would you believe) - now probably wearing baggy and sucking up to *good* taliban

Dogs pissing on the boots of their war criminal masters - delicious irony indeed!

more thoughts on nd tiwari

dec 25th, 2009

this guy at 85, i bet he couldn't really do any damage to the nymphets.

there was a great japanese novel (translated as saha-sayanam in malayalam) by i think yasunari kawabata, about old japanese men who pay to sleep -- just sleep -- with young teenage girls (who are drugged).

i doubt if tiwari could manage any more than that.

but as san said, this is what the kkkangress has been doing since the beginning: old goats screwing young women and the country. the First Prime Minister started this trend -- apparently he was one randy guy; his daughter (i have this on authority of kerala christist m o mathai who was her private secretary, and who, according to him, used to um... bonk her too) was another randy one. surely the grandson and great-grandson are continuing in the same vein.

i get it -- that's why they are/were such intellectual giants. heard the expression -- pardon my french -- "bonked her brains out"? apparently the guys had the reverse effect -- their brains (um... using the term loosely) fell out during/after vigorous bonking.

i saw tiwari once some years ago. he didn't appear to have much by way of brains then. i guess he lost them the same way. 

merry christmas to all malayalis

dec 25th, 2009

i have decided to be a pseudo-secular for a day. i shall speak like a psec.

==== start psec speech ======

merry christmas to all malayalis, because christmas is a festival for all malayalis. it doesn't belong to christists alone.

merry ramadan to all malayalis, because ramadan is a festival for all malayalis. it doesn't belong to mohammedans alone.

happy onam to all malayalis, because onam is a festival for all malayalis. it doesn't belong to hindus alone.

==== end psec speech =====

capiche?

anything hindu is public property. what's christist or mohammedan is theirs.

merry christmas. how a tree can torch your living room in under 60 seconds.

dec 25th, 2009

and that would be poetic justice for having cut the tree down in the first place.

http://www.wired.com/video/christmas-tree-torches-room-in-under-60-seconds/9472298001?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wired/index+(Wired:+Index+3+(Top+Stories+2))

N D Tiwari Caught in Bed with 3 Naked Girls

Senior Kaangress partyman N D Tiwari has been caught with his pants down, doing to 3 young girls what his party has long been doing to the country:



Maybe he can claim he was trying to do a "Gandhi" and test himself by sleeping next to young naked women. Apparently, one or more of Tiwari's girls is pregnant. It's too bad India doesn't have the equivalent of a Maury Povitch show.

ONGOING AND UPCOMING PROGRAMS AT HINDU UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA , JANUARY 2010

dec 25th, 2009

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: AbhinavDwivedi <abhinav@hua.edu>
Date: Fri, Dec 25, 2009 at 5:26 PM
Subject: ONGOING AND UPCOMING PROGRAMS AT HINDU UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA , JANUARY 2010
To: AbhinavDwivedi <abhinav@hua.edu>

Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays to you from all at Hindu University of America.

Please see the attached for the on going and upcoming programs at Hindu University of America.

ONGOING AND UPCOMING PROGRAMS AT HINDU UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA (www.hua.edu)

Register now for the Winter Semester (Jan 7, 2010)

Hindu University of America

113 S. Econlockhatchee Trail

Orlando, FL, 32825 USA

Phone: 407-275-0013

Fax: 407-275-0104

staff@hua.edu

www.hua.edu

Want to know more about?

· Living a healthy and happy life

· Yoga, Ayurveda, Jyotish,

· Meanings of Mandir, Pooja, Rituals, Stories

· Meaning of Gods and Goddesses

· Message of the Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana

· Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism

· Learn Sanskrit to Chant etc.

Take on line courses at HUA and learn from the comforts of your own home. Inquire:

HUA: staff@hua.edu 407-275-0013

407-275-0104 (fax)

Every Tuesday Morning 10 am

Yoga Class With Annabel Sowers

(An experienced yoga teacher)

Class Begins Jan 19, 2010

Cost: $10/class

More info:

HUA: staff@hua.edu 407-275-0013

--------------------------------------------------

Every Wednesday evening 6-7 pm

Yoga Class With Lourdes Cordero

(A certified experienced yoga teacher)

Cost: $10/class

More info:

HUA: staff@hua.edu 407-275-0013

Every Saturday Morning

7:00 am - 10am

Invitation to join for

Pranayama-Dhyana-Yoga

(Free of cost)

by Shri Durgashanker Nagda

Certified Yog Teacher of Patanjali Yog Peeth, Haridwar, India.

More info:

www.ashramom.org

321-422-4346.

HUA: Staff@hua.edu 407-275-0013

Learn Tabla $10/hr

Every Saturday 1-2pm

Call Rakesh 407-557-4222

Learn to quiet your mind and experience eternal bliss! Optional video.

Every Sunday starting at 5 pm

Life Bliss Satsang and Meditation

As taught by Paramahamsa Nithyananda,

For more info

Email: LifeBlissOrlando@yahoo.com

Phone: 321-396-BLIS

Every Saturday 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

LEARN HINDI

(Basic and Level 1)

NEXT SESSION BEGINS JAN 9, 2010

May Qualify for School/College level Credit

Instructor: Pandit Roop Sukhram

Creator of HINDUGURU learning kit.

Cost $80/- for 8 sessions

More info:

HUA: staff@hua.edu 407-275-0013

the wonder that was - central asia

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=545818

the link to this article was obtained from Brooks’ column today

I have always been fascinated with central-asia ever since I read Kilping’s Kim and other books about the Great Game (those written by Peter Hopkirk are particularly nice). With their large centers of Buddhism – I always thought that central-asia was really an aspect of the Indian civilization; but you can say the same thing for how the Persians or Greeks influenced it. Large cities founded on trade (in this case Silk Route trade) are always superlative, but never durable.

I like the Central Asians though– they kept the flame of ancient Greece burning, even as the Christian mobs were butchering the greek civilization. Not to mention that they were the amongst the first victims of Arab imperialism (I have some Uzbeki friends who hate the Arabs and Hans in equal measure)

The one thing the central Asians failed at – they never built large university systems. The best universities in the ancient world were of course in India. Takshasheela was made fully by the Hindu-Buddhist world, and also Nalanda and Odantapuri