Bookworm Beat 9/12/2018 — the Benghazi tragedy and an illustrated edition

Today is the 6th anniversary of four American deaths in Benghazi. This round-up remembers that day and looks at some current news too — plus pictures!

Bookworm Beat BenghaziRemembering the men who died at Benghazi. Today is the six-year anniversary of the attack on the consulate in Benghazi. Four Americans died: Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone S. Woods, and Glen Doherty. While we still don’t know precisely what the goings-on at the consulate were in the months leading up to the attack, we know that:

Oh, and we know one more thing: Despite the above, Obama last week referred to those facts — all of which point to administrative malfeasance of the worst kind — as a “wild conspiracy theory.”

Now that you’ve been reminded who and what Obama and his administration were, if you don’t vote in November to help keep the Trump juggernaut going . . . well, shame on you!

Please, please, Mr. President, declassify the documents. It’s trite but accurate to say that, in matters of corporate and government secrecy, sunlight is the best disinfectant. It’s impossible to imagine that there is anything worse in the still-classified documents involving Spygate than we’ve heard to date from leaks and partisan summations.

Fortunately, though, it appears that Trump, with showmanlike timing, is planning on declassifying the Carter Page and Bruce Ohr documents. If they’re ugly for the president, they’re no worse than the stories already out there and we need to deal with truth, not innuendo; and if they’re ugly for the Deep State, then that’s something very important for the American people to know.

Hillary promotes debunked lie about Kavanaugh. Did you already know that Kamala Harris, working with Planned Parenthood, promoted a complete lie about Brett Kavanaugh? I first became aware of the lie because of a “most read” article in the San Francisco Chronicle, the headline of which claimed that Kavanaugh conflated birth control with abortifacients. I thought, “No way is he that dumb” and I was right. It turns out that the headline was a total lie, as even the Chron article (to which I will not link), concedes deep in the text:

Critics were already skeptical of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s track record on women’s reproductive rights, and the conservative judge only fanned the flames with his comments during Thursday’s confirmation hearing.

While responding to a question from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) about his dissent in the Priests for Life v. HHS case, Kavanaugh referred to contraception as “abortion-inducing drugs.” Kavanaugh sided with the religious organization, which did not want to provide employees with insurance coverage for birth control.

[snipping numerous paragraphs]

Critics may argue that Kavanaugh, in his Thursday statements, was simply borrowing the language of the religious organization. “Either way,” explains the Cut, “the use of the phrase was telling, bringing into the mainstream the slippery conflation of birth control and abortion.”

In other words, the first two paragraphs opening the article were a complete lie, but loony Leftists heard a dog whistle and they’re not going to let go of it.

And who is the looniest Leftist of all? Why Hillary, of course. Just today, despite the truth emerging from under the pillow the MSM was using to smother it, Hillary did what she always does — she doubled down on a substantive lie:

(For those looking for dog whistles here, my phrase “substantive lie” was a deliberate word choice. Lefties love to point out that Trump lies and they’re right. Like P.T. Barnum, he huffs and puffs all the time, but it’s always about things that are non-substantive to American politics and life. In the world of law, his lies are called puffery. In that same legal world, Obama’s and Hillary’s lies are called fraud.)

Newly released Strzok and Page texts look ugly. You’ve already read about Strzok and Page exchanging texts about manipulating the media through indirect channels. Now it turns out that they were planning to plant opinion pieces too:

There it is, brought to you by the same Deep State cadre behind the Benghazi tragedy.

California is America’s Venezuela. Venezuela was once a prosperous nation. Thanks to socialism, Venezuelans now eat rats, prostitute themselves to stay alive, and live in a police state. California is trying to go down that road and, outside of the rich blue enclaves (I’m fortunate enough to live in one), are making good headway, both with socialism and utter decay and degradation.

Speaking of socialism, let’s talk about Pope Francis. A man of God would look at the revelations about sexual abuse in the Church and, like Hercules, set about cleaning these Aegean stables. A socialist who sees the Church as a vehicle for advancing Marxist ideology would get defensive:

In a strange and almost tone-deaf homily delivered Tuesday morning, Pope Francis implored the hierarchy of the Catholic Church to pray and resist the “Great Accuser,” Satan, who seeks to expose sin in order to divide the faithful.

“In these times, it seems like the ‘Great Accuser’ has been unchained and is attacking bishops. True, we are all sinners, we bishops. He tries to uncover the sins, so they are visible in order to scandalize the people. The ‘Great Accuser,’ as he himself says to God in the first chapter of the Book of Job, ‘roams the earth looking for someone to accuse,’” Pope Francis said, according to an official report in Vatican news.

Perhaps it’s because today’s Benghazi attack anniversary are swirling in my head, but the Pope reminded me of someone….

Minnesota continues its slide into sharia law. I’ve been in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region in the not-too-distant past. Somalis are everywhere. Some are charming people gainfully employed as office workers, hotel clerks, construction workers, etc. The women wear hijabs, but otherwise dress in Western clothes.

However, for every Westernized Somali person I saw, I saw at least two manifestly non-Western Somalis, with all of the women in full burqas and some of the men in traditional dress, hanging around parking lots (especially at Target) or walking down the streets.

It’s the last mentioned Somalis who popped into my mind when I read this, about the Mall of Somalia . . . I mean, Mall of America:

Late last month, Ramin Parsa, a Christian pastor who fled Iran as a religious refugee, was arrested for privately sharing his faith testimony in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. He fled persecution in Iran and Turkey, only to find persecution in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

[snip]

Parsa, a pastor at Redemptive Love Ministries International in Los Angeles, Calif., traveled to Minnesota for two days to visit two different churches. He went to the Mall of America (MOA) on Saturday, August 25, with an elder from one of the churches, and with the elder’s 14-year-old son. Shortly after entering the mall, he struck up a conversation with two Somali-American women.

“Our conversation was casual. At first, we were not talking about the gospel,” Parsa recalled. “They asked me, ‘Are you a Muslim?’ I said, ‘No, I used to be a Muslim and I’m a Christian now.’ I was telling them the story of how I converted.”

A passerby could not stand the discussion, however. “Another lady told the guard, ‘This guy is harassing us!'” MOA security came and told Parsa to stop soliciting. “I said, ‘We’re not soliciting.’ But we just left,” the pastor explained.

The pastor and his friends went into a coffee shop, bought a latte, and came out. Parsa told PJ Media he thought that would be the end of it. He was sorely mistaken.

“When we came out of the coffee shop, three guards were waiting for us, and they arrested me right there,” the pastor recalled. “They came after me and arrested me, and said, ‘You cannot talk religion here.'”

Read the whole thing. It’s shocking, profoundly anti-American, and perfectly illustrates the dhimmitude that follows in sharia’s wake.

Would you be surprised to learn that the NY Times is hiding climate data? I, personally, am not surprised. It’s what I’d expect from the paper of Marxist record:

Please watch the video and, if you think it worthwhile, share it.

Did France’s gun control help the Nazis? As Instapundit would say, “yes, next question.” But if you want more facts, read this article analyzing Stephen Halbrook’s newest book, Gun Control in Nazi Occupied-France: Tyranny and Resistance — and then, if you’re feeling flush, think about buying the book.

By the way, for Bay Area locals, the publisher is our own Independent Institute, one of the best conservative/libertarian think tanks around.

Enough words. It’s picture time.