Shirley Temple and Bill Bojangles Dancing the Stairs

Shirley Temple Black, child prodigee turned diplomat, who starred in a series of films that lifted the spirits of millions during the hard days of the Depression, has died at 85

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson dances the stairs with Shirley Temple from "The Little Colonel" (1935).

"Mrs. Black," as we knew her here in Northern California, used to attend the odd Hoover Institution dinner, where she seemed a quiet, dignified, and very gracious old lady — hard to square with the adorable little girl we're all hearing about in the tributes today. Yet long, long ago, in a different America, she was just that: the happy, talented child who cheered millions up at a time when it cost a dime to see a movie — and, with the Depression on, lots of people had to count those ten cents carefully.

(Source) 

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• Hollywood legend turned diplomat Shirley Temple dies at 85

ROMANTIC REALISM: ON THE TOWN (NEW YORK, NEW YORK)

The Legendary Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Jules Munshin are featuring in de 1949 MGM film, On the Town, another icon of Romantic Realism. Music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

The best known line of this song is, "New York, New York, a helluva town. The Bronx is up but the Battery's down".

Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Jules Munshin are starring in the slightly hedonistic yet romantic MGM film shot in 1949, On the Town. The music was written by Leonard Bernstein and the lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

Russian Police Kill 4 Jihadists in North Caucasus

The Chechen warlord Doku Umarov is reported to have been killed by Russian special forces. The claim is made by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov who posted the message on his Instagram account

Doku Umarov has urged his followers to attack the Olympic Games. No proof has been submitted to verify his death (more on log Jan. 24, 2014). 

UPDATE: There were two Islamic terror attacks right before the games in Volgograd followed by counter-terror probes and ops, one that that lead to the death of seven Muslim supremacists. One of the Muslim bus bombers in Russia said, "Leave orphans". Despite this the media reassures us there is “no indication the shooting was connected with the Olympic Games.” It’s not that the media isn’t credible, it’s that they aren’t normal.

Russian police killed four suspected militants, law enforcement officials said on Monday, in a shootout at a house in the North Caucasus, highlighting regional security concerns near the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. The gun fight broke out on Saturday after police surrounded a private house used by militants in the province of Dagestan, which lies some 600 kilometers (380 miles) from Sochi on the other end of the Caucasus Mountain chain. There was no indication the shooting was connected with the Games. President Vladimir Putin, who has invested personal and political prestige to ensure the Games’ success, ordered security forces on high alert after a suicide bomber killed at least 37 in the southern Russian city of Volgograd in December. (Source)

EU Czar Rehn Still Believes in Euro's "Big Bazooka"

This week's verdict by Germany's Constitutional Court is a blistering attack on the ECB, its LTRO policy (Euro equivalent of QE) and its Euro rescuing schemes

Easily missed due to the media's europhile obfuscation the wider public as well as the markets generally missed the impact of this verdict. 

UPDATE: The European Central Bank still has a "big bazooka" with plenty of ammunition to preserve the euro despite a German constitutional court statement that its bond-buying plan is probably illegal, EU economics chief Olli Rehn said on Monday. Rehn also urged the ECB to act to ensure that abnormally low inflation in the euro zone rises towards the bank's target of just below two percent. Speaking at a Reuters Summit on the Euro Zone, the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs said it was right that a European court, not a national court, should have the final say over the ECB's actions. (Source)

Frontal Postmodern Attack on America's Melting Pot

The principle of E Pluribus Unum, one nation under the Constitution, is under full frontal attack by postmodern multiculturalism, which seeks to replace it with sectarianism

From melting pot to fruit salade, from assimilation to tribalism, from Constitution to balkanization.

Historian Victor Davis Hanson recently gave one of the finest and most memorable presentations on the subject of immigration. America could be on "a path to Armageddon," given the blend of relativism, racial preferences, and nullified immigration laws, warned Hanson in an interview with Mark Levin, [link opens in pop-up, interview begins at 51:00].

Dream Team USA 2016

This would make lib's heads explode! Lol! pic.twitter.com/WvARbCFoT5
— hotpink (@hotpink100) November 19, 2013

Nuland in Pomo Diplomacy "Fuck the EU"

Моя бывшая коллега по работе в Брюсселе В.Нуланд всегда занимала активную гражданскую позицию http://t.co/xD0foh7LoR Особенно в отношении ЕС
— Dmitry Rogozin (@Rogozin) February 6, 2014

Translation: My former colleague in Brussels V.Nuland always took an active civic stance especially in regard to the EU

#tcot Angela Merkel: Victoria Nuland's remarks on EU are unacceptable: German chancellor condemns co... http://t.co/nfcnHw8xbP #teaparty
— † Lex B † (@Mr_Lexington) February 7, 2014 

"Fuck The EU" is now the new "Ich bin ein Berliner" - #Nuland, State Dept Official Caught on Tape http://t.co/Np2JybPw0M #Klitschko #EU #US — Lars Pellinat (@Lars9596) February 7, 2014 

Two senior American diplomats, thinking their conversation about the Ukraine was secure and private, were caught disparaging the European Union in a phone call that was apparently bugged, and U.S. officials say they strongly suspect Russia of leaking the conversation. The suspicions were aired Thursday after audio of the call was posted to the Internet and amid continuing criticism of the United States in Europe and elsewhere over NSA spying on foreign leaders and U.S. They also came as the Russia-hosted Winter Olympics opened under tight security to prevent possible terrorist attacks and highlighted distrust between Washington and Moscow that has thrived despite the Obama administration's attempt to "reset" relations with the Kremlin. 

The White House and State Department stopped just short of directly accusing Russia of surreptitiously recording the call between the top US diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. But both took pains to point out that a Russian government official was the first or among the first to call attention to the audio of the conversation that was posted on YouTube. The State Department said the incident marked a "new low in Russian tradecraft." White House spokesman Jay Carney pointed to the Russian official's tweet and Russia's clear interest in what has become a struggle between pro-Moscow and pro-Western camps in the former Soviet Republic. (Source)

<3 that pomo diplomacy.. We all ought to say that much more often... #FuckTheEU

Britain Bans French Nazi Salute 2.0 Comic

A new 'Nazi salute' is gaining momentum among anti-Semites, who pose for pictures in sensitive sites worldwide (photo galery). Though gaining notoriety in France, the gesture is as yet unknown to the wider public

The right hand and its fingers are stretched downwards along the body, while the left hand performs a "salute" movement on the opposite arm. Click for a step by step guide.

UPDATE: A controversial French comedian at the centre of the Nicolas Anelka anti-semitism row has been banned from entering the UK, the Home Office said. Dieudonné M’bala M’bala said he was planning visit London to support Anelka, who faces a possible five match ban for performing the comic’s “quenelle” salute, believed by some to be an anti-semitic gesture. The West Bromwich Albion footballer made the gesture after scoring against West Ham on December 28. “This gesture was a special dedication to my friend Dieudonné,” Anelka wrote afterwards on Twitter. (Source)

Scarlett Johansson's Commercial Banned From the Superbowl

Assisted by the controversy over Johansson's role as a brand ambassador for the Israeli-owned SodaStream, which operates out of a facility in the West Bank, the "uncensored" video now has more than 1.3m YouTube views

"Sorry, Coke & Pepsi" is the uncensored version of SodaStream's commercial for the Superbowl 2014 and is banned by Fox for mentioning the two competitors 

Scarlett Johansson's #SuperBowl. Platform for essential human values. pic.twitter.com/owqHcEFikE
— Anne Bayefsky (@AnneBayefsky) February 2, 2014

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Edward Snowden: From Patriot to Most Wanted

"He was politically conservative, a gun owner, a geek – and the man behind the biggest intelligence leak in history", writes The Guardian. The left try to paint him as a conservative turn coat who went 'good'. In fact, Edward Snowden was and is a protector of Liberty

The younger Snowden was into computers, kung fu – and even tried his hand at amateur modelling. Photograph: © TheTrueHOOHA (Source)

Both the Left and the Right are trying to picture Edward Snowden into someone he isn't. Snowden's personal history goes from fairly Conservative to a Neocon turned Libertarian to the point of supporting Ron Paul. But he can't have supported Paul's pacifist views, or he wouldn't have signed up for the army and said of Bush's policy on Iraq: "I wanted to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression". As he teamed up with Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian, the British Socialist flagship newspaper, the Left are trying to turn him into an anti American lefty. This is ludicrous.