Future Terrorism is expected to witness the expansion of various types of terror networks and forces existing today, including the social class warfare (Marxist) such as Maoism in Asia or neo Trotskyism in Latin America on the one hand. On the other hand the many separatist terror networks such the PKK in Turkey, Chechen in Russia, southern Philippines, Xingian Ughiur or in Kashmir s in India are expected to continue with their attempts short of political solutions found to these issues. But beyond these forms of Terror, the widest network projected to expand and threaten most democracies around the world is undoubtedly the Jihadi Global web indoctrinated by the Salafi ideology.

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Carl Djerassi fled with his mother from Nazi persecution in Austria and flourished in the United States as a chemist and a writer, an entrepreneur and a teacher. In early 1950s he was one of three scientists whose work on synthetic progestagen laid the foundation for the first oral contraceptive pill, which the Federal Drug Administration approved for use in in 1960. Forty-nine years later (2009), the 85-year-old professor emeritus from Stanford University wrote of his achievement for the Austrian newspaper, Der Standard.

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Tough two months for the once-vaunted Harlem political machine:  Founding member Percy Sutton dies; Ways & Means Chairman Charlie Rangel cited for House ethics violations; accidental Governor David Paterson chooses not to run for election in wake of scandal.

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The cliché that Washington is deadlocked and dysfunctional is only partially true. Congress and Obama get done those things favored by lobbies with deep pockets that have their hooks into both the GOP and a fair number of Democrats. Thus, despite all the hullabaloo about deficits, the government is about to provide $8.33 billion in loan guarantees to the nuclear industry, which adds to government liabilities, and hence increases the deficit.

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     As if it weren’t difficult enough to determine absolute cause for human criminal deeds, the field has now been extended to animals.  Investigations are under way to decide whether Tilly, the killer whale who drowned his trainer in Florida this week, committed a homicide or involuntary manslaughter. (please note the word laughter in the second syllable) One whale expert claims that if the 12,000 pound orca had intended to kill, the carnage would have been much more devastating, thus proving that Tilly was merely whaling around in a manner appropriate to his species and size.  Unfortunately, Tilly has two priors dating back to 1991, lending support to the profile of serial murderer whose crimes are possibly pre-meditated.  In this respect, Tilly is more deserving of capital punishment than Travis, the humanoid chimp who had the mitigating excuse of being on Xanax at the time he demolished a woman’s face and hands.  Travis was killed by the officer dispatched to the scene of the crime, thus precluding the possibility of our ever reaching “closure” on what motivated his anti-social outburst.

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Today we saw a breathtaking exercise in absurdity. The health care charade was nothing more than a political vogue-ing session in which each side struck a pose. But the Democrats lost today for 4 reasons: 1. Big majorities of Americans hate their bills; 2. Big majorities of Americans want the big government spending stopped; 3. The Republicans presented sound and responsible ideas; and 4. The president was rude, arrogant, and imperious. (Trying to shut up Senator John McCain, American hero, by reminding him that “the election’s over”? I’m sorry, but the President is an obnoxious jerk.)

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My erstwhile employer, Newt Gingrich, vents on the legislative process (i.e., why the process leading to the current health care bills shouldn’t be trusted): 

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A Facebook friend killed himself Friday. News came the way news does on Facebook, via a wall post.

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In his maiden voyage vote, the newest member of the Senate, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, voted the wrong way. Yesterday, he voted with the Democratic majority for the $15 billion “jobs” bill. Apparently, Senator Brown fell hook, line, and sinker for the Democrats’ line of BS that this WAS, in fact, a “jobs” bill.

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In a confrontation with a force like al Qaeda, whom the US is fighting in two major battlefields (Afghanistan and Iraq), and as allies are battling within a couple dozen countries on five continents, the guilty plea entered by a US Jihadist who admitted links to this Terror group and detailed his war mission against the homeland. This case deserves high level analysis. Najibullah Zazi is not just an “isolated extremist” caught in September 2009 while crossing a New York bridge with plans to bomb few tunnels - end of the story. Zazi’s “Jihad” story is way more than the impressive facts the Justice Department has already revealed. If we focus more on the journey of this determined Jihadist, we would discover that one of the “genomes” of homegrown Terror. In this essay, I’ll only follow the Government’s release:

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     After a juror has been selected for a trial, he or she is asked the following question:  Do you swear or affirm that you will try the matter in dispute and give a true verdict according to the evidence?  The juror is thus sworn in and further instructed not to talk about the case with other jurors except during their deliberations.  Now comes Judith De Marco, a juror in the attenuated Astor trial which ended in October, 2009, who claims that the verdict she rendered was based on fear and intimidation by another juror, not on her honest appraisal of the evidence.  A note had been sent to Judge Bartley during the trial indicating that one juror felt threatened by another but no investigation took place.  Instead, the judge coazed the jury to try harder, and after lengthy deliberations they reached the verdict of guilty.

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Just when you thought that this president could not get any more arrogant and any more outrageously political, he does. The latest takes the cake.

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President Obama’s various legislative initiatives have so unsettled the business world that it went Galt (on strike). Big business is making money by cutting expenses and investing elsewhere. Small businesses merely hoping to survive. Citizens who are not rushing to pay up debts, worry that what remains of their savings is about to be taxed away. Atlas Shrugged and the Road to Serfdom are best sellers and Democratic politicians are preparing to become unemployed.

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For my entire adult life, I have identified with the liberals in the Democratic Party. 

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Israel is finally firing back in the propaganda war against the Jews. 

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The San Francisco Bay Guardian reported a few days ago:

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     Amy Bishop, the trigger-happy professor who killed three of her colleagues in the Biology Department and seriously injured three others is sorry for what happened.  Her lawyer claims that she has no recollection of these very recent events but she’s sorry nonetheless.  It’s not clear whether Amy remembers killing her brother twenty-five years ago, or threatening other people with her shotgun, or being a suspect for sending a pipe bomb to the Harvard professor who didn’t like her Ph.D. thesis.  Tiger Woods is also sorry, very very sorry judging from the number of times he repeated that word in his press conference apologia.  Tiger didn’t kill three people but he performed a type of identity theft, pretending to be wholesome Tiger while all along he was prowling, jungle Tiger, swinging on and off the golf course.  Bernie Kerik, New York’s former top cop is - yes- he’s sorry too, for stealing money, lying to the president and the public about his job qualifications and behaving in a manner unbecoming to an officer of the LAW.

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On Thursday, Ben Bernanke followed in the footsteps of Barack Obama. The president announced that he is sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in order to withdraw in a year. The Fed announced a raise in interest rates insisting that it should not be interpreted as a change in monetary policy. One contradictory announcement is as believable as the other. Just as Obama delayed sending troops as long as he could so did Bernanke. Taliban progress forced Obama’s hand; A bad bond sale forced Bernanke’s hand. Why else would he raise rates when we are teetering on the edge of deflation and the price of dollar is rising in relation to the Euro? Last month Core Consumer Prices Fell for First Time Since 1982 as “prices fell for hotel rooms, home ownership costs, new cars, airfares and clothing” and given the current slack in the economy, are expected to continue to do so.

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I’ve been wondering.  Where is Al Gore?

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This stark and unchaing reality makes the Grammy classical awards materially irrelevant, even if one were to agree that Michael Tilson Thomas’s account of Mahler’s eighth symphony was the best thing to happen in the past musical year.

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When my wife was pregnant with our first son, 15 years ago, I considered myself a Chicago guy. I lived in Chicago and worked in Chicago at a big Chicago newspaper.

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Yesterday, the president touted the now-$862 billion economic “stimulus” on its one-year anniversary. He sung its praises to high heaven: “We have rescued this economy from the worst of this crisis. The American people are rebuilding a better future.”

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So is this what we are resigned to – those of us in search of fresh, new faces to boldly challenge entrenched politicians – a steady diet of excuse-making when our developing heroes mess up?

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Have to agree with the Palins on this. Introducing a Downs Syndrome character on a cartoon just to make a cheap shot at Sarah Palin is cruel, stupid and, worst of all for a supposedly comedic venture, NOT FUNNY. Shame on Seth McFarlane.

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During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Obama had the Midas touch. Everywhere he went, he drew big crowds of swooning, drooling fans. And that was just the media. Some of the throngs even passed out from utter exhilaration at being in the mere presence of “the one we’ve been waiting for.” Democratic politicians running down ticket clamored for him to alight in their district or state and sprinkle them with some pixie dust, hoping his magic would rub off on them.

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I got pretty close to the edge when one of my daughters transcribed her repertory and played it on the penny-whistle, but both she and the instrument survive in good nick and I am quietly coaching her two year-old tot to exact an appropriate revenge. All in good time…

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Three examples of the truth being revealed in the most interesting ways:

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Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich — the Energizer Bunny of Shamelessness — wants all 500 hours of FBI surveillance tape of his wiretapped phone conversations heard.

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Another day, another Jihadist terror attack. 10 died and 45 were wounded when a bomb blast ripped through Pune’s popular German Bakery located near Chabbad House and the OSHO Ashram. This time it seems that it was the Indian intelligence service which failed to connect the dots. The services should have known that initiating talks with Pakistan means that Jihadist opposed to the talk, more specifically, Lashkar El Taibe, will make an effort to scuttle with a terror attack. Hamas used the same strategy to scuttle Israeli/Palestinian talks for decades. Moreover, both the US (Defense Secretary Robert Gates did so personally) and the UK have recently warned India of an imminent terror attack. Part of the reasons for the warning may be found in a series of emails exchanged between a Lashkar El Taibe operative and the recently arrested Pakistani/American businessman David Headley, ne Daood Sayed Gilani. Headley visited Pune twice and stayed in the area of the bakery. Indian intelligence wonders whether the attack was Headley’ brain child and hopes to be given permission to interrogate him.

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