It is evidently not just dentists who benefit from children eating too much candy. The prison system, too, apparently, gets a boost from bon-bons.

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In anticipation of tomorrow’s meeting among U.S. diplomats, their Russian, Chinese, and European counterparts, and Iranian officials, analyst Michael Rubin points out in today’s New York Daily News that “engagement is a tactic, not a strategy.” He urges President Obama to realize that, while military action against Iran should be a last resort, the United States should begin making military preparations.

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There’s a lot of chatter on the internet about Obama’s governing style, especially the manner in which he’s approaching decisions on Afghanistan.  Michael Gerson reports in the Washington Post, for example, that some military men are impressed by the president’s deliberate approach to military decisions.  Others fret that the debate is too public, allowing an enemy to try to influence the outcome by sudden, violent actions.

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The latest laundry list:

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Lawyers seek arrest of Israeli defence minister in UK for alleged war crimes. This time the British judge refused to issue an arrest warrant because Barak is a top government official. But what if he were a low level commander? I shudder to think. In a carefully reasoned article Barak M. Seener explains the strategy of Targeting Israelis via International Law which has received a major boost by the publication of the Goldstone report.

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From The Politico: “Liberal allies of President Barack Obama aren’t just getting mad at conservative attacks on his agenda. They are getting even in a way calculated to hit conservatives where it counts: their pockets. Former GOP House leader Dick Armey, former New York lt. gov. and conservative activist Betsy McCaughey and even Fox News’s Glenn Beck have all seen their financial livelihoods threatened by political activists - who in several cases managed to make good on the threats.”

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The way the world goes after Israelis for war crimes, you’d think no one is ever killed in conflicts anywhere else in the world.

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This week’s Reuter’s reports are triggering additional concerns over Iran’s forthcoming missiles tests: the new long range “rockets” can reach Israel, other targets in the region and US bases. The question at hand is: Are Iranian missiles’ strategies new, are Tehran’s plans coming out of the blue? In this memo I invite analysts and commentators to go back in time and rediscover Iran’s strategic plans evolving for years, if not decades. In my mind I’d ask a different question: why are we surprised? In fact a small number of experts on Iranian strategies have been warning about the long standing Khomeinist doctrine on ballistic missiles for years. I have modestly been calling attention on this menace for years, decades. Here are some of my previous warnings.

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The invasion of Kosovo by Islamist radicals, including assaults on moderate Muslims (see here, here, and here) now includes threats of a “religious war” against Albanian Christians, some of whom have left Islam for the Catholic faith of their ancestors.

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Bakir Izetbegovic, the leader of the SDA and a son of the late extremist Muslim leader, Alija Izetbegovic, who invited al-Qaeda into Bosnia, is the main organizer in smuggling of illegal weapons into Bosnia says Galijasevic and notes that the former SDA leader Hasan Cengic, who is very close to the radicals in Iran, control the black market for weapons.

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“Well then, you must write a book.”

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“This is historic because it is the first document signed by a group of international lawmakers addressing the Iranian regime’s human rights atrocities against the Iranian people,” said US Representative Sue Myrick (NC-09), who is also the Co-Chair of the US Bipartisan House Caucus on Counter Terrorism. “We are keeping a close watch on the Iran nuclear weapons situation, but this will not cause us to forget the human rights atrocities committed by the Iranian regime.  We say to the Iranian people who continue their fight for freedom, ‘We have not forgotten you. We stand with you”. At the signing session which took place inside the US Congress, MEP Jaime Mayor Oreja, who serves as the Vice President for the EPP at the European Parliament, said “it is the first time that legislators from both sides of the Atlantic are coming together to address the threats of Jihadi terror. We are pleased to have accomplished this first step and other important steps will follow.” Oreja oversees the European Ideas Network (EIN), the Policy Think Tank of the EPP.

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Look up the word, “overachiever” in the dictionary. You will see a picture of President Pleaser, Barack Obama. I do not remember, in my lifetime, a Chief Executive so consumed with making everyone happy as this guy! He is not just trying to make some changes for the country, he is trying to overhaul every major aspect of it. Take a chill pill, big O…

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     From a strictly legal standpoint, the United States, on behalf of the state of California, has every right to seek the return of a fugitive from justice.  But everyone knows that in matters of the law, many other considerations affect how strenuously cases get pursued.  There would be no plea bargaining if this were not the case nor would there have been a presidential pardon for another fugitive, Marc Rich.  Like one of his best films, Chinatown, the case of Roman Polanski is convoluted and the request that the Swiss government apprehend and extradite him adds one more layer to the conundrum.  In 1977, Polanski  pled guilty to having sex with a minor - statutory rape.  He was placed under psychiatric observation where he remained for 42 days, at which time he was judged to be sane, competent and suitable for sentencing.  Although the plea bargain was supposed to count the days in observation as time served, Polanski suspected that the judge was about to betray him and rather than face a prison sentence, he fled the country to France.  A documentary film which aired last year confirmed that there were improprieties between the judge and a prosecutor but the judge is now dead.

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To all who have any interest in the First Amendment and its guarantees of freedom of religious expression and freedom of speech please read the following report from the Family Research Council.

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Iran is back in the news. It clearly decided to follow the North Korean strategy of forcing the world’s hand. It told the IAEA what the Western intelligence services claim they knew but pretended not to know so that they can claim that negotiations with Iran is a viable option or serious sanctions a real possibility. The result? The usual suspects Obama, Brown and Sakozy got in front of the camera to tell Iran it better start behaving or else. Missing from the line up were Russia and China. In other words, Obama’s good will gesture towards Russia, i.e., throwing Eastern Europe to the bear, failed to achieve the intended result.

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Long after his alliteration for the Nixon Administration and his words for the first plaque on the moon, at his best he was the best columnist in America for 20 years. his ability to make a point, whether it was politics or language or whatever, in 750 words was unequalled. He died today. We will not see his like again.

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“Once again you will notice that the owner of the land and the writer for the TH is Jewish so we would have never gotten any real reporting in all aspects of Vallejo interests.”

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The Salt Lake Tribune is running a “clarification” at the top of the web version of this article that appeared in the newspaper a few days ago.

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Some years back I wrote an essay for Time magazine. When I met with the editor, he told me that wanted “a forehead slapping piece.” When I meekly replied that I did not know what this meant, he explained that he wanted the “reader to exclaim ‘Wow, why did I not think about that?!’” The editor was much less keen to find out  whether the idea could be well supported. All this came to mind when I read an article in a recent issue of Newsweek by a journalist, one Jonathan Tepperman. Time magazine would have loved his essay.

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Here what happened which got next to no coverage, except — thanks — in the Washington Post.

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BELGRADE — Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic and his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman have signed an agreement to abolish visas between the two countries.

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The president took time out from his busy schedule of having no strategy for Afghanistan to go to the United Nations and blather on incessantly while luxuriating in moral equivalency as he sat mere feet from the Iranian terrorist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Libyan terrorist Moammar Khadafi.

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At a dinner party a while back I encountered someone who proudly proclaimed, in the context of the conversation we were having, that she was a member of the ACLU.

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Everyone in the country seems to have their panties in a wad over the current healthcare issue. It’s hard to go an hour of the day without someone speaking out for or against it. What you hear is pretty well determined by where you happen to be standing at any given time. Move ten feet in any direction and you are fairly certain to hear an opposing viewpoint.

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Tom Friedman must believe Ahmadinejad and his fellow thugs are illiterate or stupid. How else can he write?

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Perhaps no controversy in recent years illustrates more clearly the dismal state of American civics education than the controversy pertaining to Barack Obama’s birthplace. People who are woefully ignorant of Article 4, Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States again are locked in mortal combat with people who are woefully ignorant of Article 2, Section 1 of the same document. The only good outcome that one can hope for in this struggle is that they both lose. 

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It’s not enough for most people to know what the unemployment rate is and whether it’s going up or down. It’s not enough for investors and entrepreneurs living during some of the strangest times in American financial history. And it’s not enough for citizens trying to decide whether the policy proposals now in Washington are worthy of their support. If you fall into any of these categories, you need to know more about the labor market than the headline numbers. In particular, you need to know the JOLT.

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As President Obama steps up his rhetorical attempts to take credit for an improving economy, it seems proper for BuzzCharts to take a moment to review the data — and a little history.

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Given everything on his plate as president of the United States, why does Barack Obama feel the need to take on a second job — chairman of the Democratic National Committee? Officially speaking, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine chairs the DNC. But, as is customary when a party controls the White House, its true head is the president. But there should be a certain amount of delicacy in how the White House exerts its explicit partisan political power.

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Losing is never easy, especially in politics. It means the public just didn’t buy what you were selling, always a bitter pill.

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As I have reported, the UN report on Gaza was designed to benefit those seeking to isolate Israel and, essentially, replace the old Arab boycott.  According to Gal Beckerman, the boycotters are making progress: “Palestinian-Led Movement To Boycott Israel Is Gaining Support ‘Our South Africa Moment Has Finally Arrived,’ Says One Leader.” (hat tip: David aka Soccerdad)  In the same vein, the Israeli foreign ministry informs us that UK boycott is coordinated with Goldstone report

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Those working for the Harvard Crimson must have a weakness for “courageous” holocaust deniers. They published an ad by a well known Holocaust denial groups raising questions about then-Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s account of World War II and the existence of Nazi gas chambers.

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Consider:

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