Ted Cruz Defeats David Dewhurst in Senate GOP Runoff

William Jacobson has been covering this race consistently, and he's got the results: "Texas Runoff Results (Update – AP and others call race for Cruz!)."

And check this out: "Ted Cruz serves Chick-fil-A at victory party."

Cruz has Chick-Fil-A at victory party #txrunoff #txsen instagr.am/p/NxCunHAvz9/
— Jane Cummins (@janecummins) August 1, 2012

Way to celebrate! (Freakin' fascists can shove it!)

And I think MSM folks can put the "tea party's dead" meme to rest.

See the New York Times, "Tea Party Favorite Wins Texas Runoff":

HOUSTON — Ted Cruz, an insurgent backed by the Tea Party, defeated the candidate favored by Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday in a runoff election for the Republican Senate nomination that revealed a wide rift in Texas between the party establishment and restless, anti-incumbent activists on the right.

With the come-from-behind victory, he is heavily favored to win the Senate seat being vacated in November by Kay Bailey Hutchison and appears likely to become a star of the national conservative movement.

Mr. Cruz, 41, is the latest conservative rebel to bring down an established party leader, tapping into simmering anger and anti-incumbent frustration within the Republican ranks nationwide.

These dissident triumphs include, in this year’s primaries, the defeat of Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana by Richard E. Mourdock and Deb Fischer’s win over a veteran Republican for the Senate nomination in Nebraska. They also echo Marco Rubio’s Senate victory in 2010 over a sitting Republican governor, Charlie Crist of Florida.

Mr. Cruz, who is Cuban-American, has drawn comparisons to Mr. Rubio, another 40-something Cuban-American who quickly became an icon of fiscal and religious conservatives around the country. Mr. Cruz’s rapid ascent has already shaken up the Texas Republican Party.

“Mr. Cruz’s success shows that the center of the state party has moved decisively to the right,” said James Henson, a political scientist at University of Texas. “The Republicans are in much more treacherous terrain, not because of threats from Democrats, but threats from within the party.”

More at that top link.

Milton Friedman Would Have Turned 100 Today

At Reason, "Vid: Happy 100th Birthday to Milton Friedman!"

And see Stephen Moore at the Wall Street Journal, "The Man Who Saved Capitalism" (via Memeorandum):

It's a tragedy that Milton Friedman—born 100 years ago on July 31—did not live long enough to combat the big-government ideas that have formed the core of Obamanomics. It's perhaps more tragic that our current president, who attended the University of Chicago where Friedman taught for decades, never fell under the influence of the world's greatest champion of the free market. Imagine how much better things would have turned out, for Mr. Obama and the country.

Continue reading.

Also at Instapundit, "DON BOUDREAUX: Milton Friedman, a centennial appreciation."

Added: More from Michelle Malkin, "Celebrating Milton Friedman at 100."

Lovely Photos: Kate Beckinsale in White

She's fabulous, at Celebslam, "In beautiful people news ... Kate Beckinsale" (via Linkiest).

Latest Obama Campaign Ad Defames Mitt Romney as a 'Felon'

Stephanie Cutter's original smear of Mitt Romney as a "felon" has already been denounced as reprehensible. You'd think the campaign would move on. But no, here comes a new web ad which demands that Romney "come clean," as if he's a two-bit criminal. See the Weekly Standard, "Obama Campaign Brings Up 'Felons' in Latest Ad."

More at Memeorandum.

The screencap with "felon" is at the post.

Stephanie Cutter's Twitter feed is here. Click through and protest her repugnant smear campaign against the GOP nominee. Just tell her politely that lies and defamation have no place in this campaign.

Missy Franklin's Priceless

I was thinking this last night. That smile is spectacular.

At the Wall Street Journal, "A Priceless Gold for Missy Franklin":

LONDON — Here she is, The Amateur. It's a quaint notion these days, deemed unrealistic by most, crazy by some. How does a world-class modern athlete—thriving in a potentially lucrative sport—escape the seductive grasp of professionalism, with its paychecks and sponsors and perquisites?

Isn't pro the way to go? Who among us would not bite the apple? Who could resist the Wheaties box, the lime-colored sports car and the fresh-built mansion with a private screening room serving hot-buttered popcorn?

Especially if we were 17.

But so far Missy Franklin has resisted. She is the exception, not because she wanted to make some kind of grand statement about sports, but because she likes who she is right now. She's the teenage superstar happy to still be a teenager—living in the town she grew up, swimming for her high school team, getting coached by the same coach who has guided her since she was a 7-year-old Starfish.

She hasn't crossed that bright line. Franklin is due to graduate high school in 2013, and she says she wants to swim in college, where NCAA rules prohibit her from taking the cash.

But wowzers, it's gonna be so much cash.

Because Franklin is suddenly cast in one of the most high-profile, remunerative roles in sport: the Olympic sensation. Monday night in London, Franklin won her first gold medal, in the 100-meter backstroke. Now the 6-foot-1 Franklin isn't a could-be from Colorado with the size 13 feet, a future star on the rise.

She's here, fully arrived, the bona fide thing.

Well, she deserves to cash in at some point. But she's so wholesome it's ridiculous.

Continue reading.

Chick-fil-A Just Latest Example of How Progressives Threaten Freedom of Religion

At the Heritage Foundation, "Chick-fil-A Latest Example of How Same-Sex Marriage Threatens Religious Freedom" (via Bad Blue).

There's a number of examples of progressive anti-religious hatred at the post.

Plus, a link to the Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance.

PREVIOUSLY: "Atheist for #LGBT Rights Says Chick-fil-A 'Harms Mor Gays'."

Palestinians Accuse Mitt Romney of 'Racism'

Pot calling the kettle black, and no surprise either.

At Telegraph UK, "Mitt Romney: Israelis richer than Palestinians because of 'hand of providence'."

Mitt Romney was accused of racism after he appeared to suggest that Israelis were richer than Palestinians because of their cultural and religious superiority.

Struggling to regain momentum after a troubled trip to London, where he criticised Olympic preparations, the Republican presidential candidate has stirred up further ill-feeling. He ended the Israeli leg of his world tour on Monday facing Palestinian charges that he promoted "extremism, violence and hatred".

As he prepared to stoke yet more controversy on Tuesday in Poland with a speech hostile to Russia, Mr Romney demonstrated what critics see as a penchant for causing offence abroad at a fundraising breakfast in Jerusalem.

Attempting to bestow praise on his Jewish audience, he told them that Israel was more prosperous than the Palestinian territories because of its culture and the "hand of providence", seen by some Palestinians as a reference to God.

"As you I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognise the power of at least culture and a few other things," he said.

Horrible. Just horrible. An utter abomination. How could you, Mitt Romney?!!

They're Black Flash Mobs, CBS. Get It Right. These Are Black Criminal Flash Mobs

It's the criminal gang demographic whose race shall not be uttered.

At CBS: "Flash mob caught on tape stole $3K in designer jeans, store owner says." It's not just "20 teenagers." It's "20 black teenaagers." You can call 'em out like that, go ahead. Take a chance and be called as RAAAAACIST!! Everything's racist nowadays, so live a little.

Also at Gateway Pundit, "Flash Mobbery Chicago… Youth Mob Loots Clothing Store – Makes Off With $3,000 in Jeans (Video)."

Even Gateway's keeping their race under wraps. Don't want to be slurred as "Hateway," I guess. The progs are going to do it anyway. They don't care about civil rights and black progress. They care about power and social destruction of decency, of law and order. The freaks.

GOP is Killing It With Latest Attack Ads

Actually, the RNC is killing it, and the Romney campaign is there hammering it too.

Via Nice Deb:

And at Astute Bloggers, "THE MOST POWERFUL POLITICAL AD SERIES IN DECADES CONTINUES: THESE HANDS IN OHIO."

Democrats Come Out for Homosexual Marriage in Party Platform

And just a few months ago Obama was still in favor of the traditional, biblical definition of marriage between one man and one woman.

Weasel Zippers reports: "DNC Panders Uncontrollably to Far-Left Base, Makes Gay Marriage an Official Plank of Party's Platform..."

And at the New York Times, "Democrats Draft Gay Marriage Platform."

The party of freaks.

#NBCFail: Twitter Suspends Reporter Guy Adams for Criticizing Olympics

In his last tweet, he published an NBC executive's phone number, and that got him suspended. But still, folks are saying it was NBC complaining that did it, not the tweet, which included a phone number that was not private. Adams was coming down on 'em brutally, but you'd think the big wigs could take it.

See Independent UK, "#NBCFail: Online backlash as Twitter locks out Independent reporter - The Independent’s Los Angeles correspondent Guy Adams has account frozen after criticising US TV network." (Via Mediagazer.)

And here's his response, "Guy Adams: I thought the internet age had ended this kind of censorship - I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended."

It's to the point, so read it at the link.

Drone Pilots, Waiting for a Kill Shot, 7,000 Miles Away

At the New York Times, "A Day Job Waiting for a Kill Shot a World Away":

HANCOCK FIELD AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, N.Y. — From his computer console here in the Syracuse suburbs, Col. D. Scott Brenton remotely flies a Reaper drone that beams back hundreds of hours of live video of insurgents, his intended targets, going about their daily lives 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan. Sometimes he and his team watch the same family compound for weeks.

“I see mothers with children, I see fathers with children, I see fathers with mothers, I see kids playing soccer,” Colonel Brenton said.

When the call comes for him to fire a missile and kill a militant — and only, Colonel Brenton said, when the women and children are not around — the hair on the back of his neck stands up, just as it did when he used to line up targets in his F-16 fighter jet.

Afterward, just like the old days, he compartmentalizes. “I feel no emotional attachment to the enemy,” he said. “I have a duty, and I execute the duty.”

Drones are not only revolutionizing American warfare but are also changing in profound ways the lives of the people who fly them.

Colonel Brenton acknowledges the peculiar new disconnect of fighting a telewar with a joystick and a throttle from his padded seat in American suburbia.

When he was deployed in Iraq, “you land and there’s no more weapons on your F-16, people have an idea of what you were just involved with.” Now he steps out of a dark room of video screens, his adrenaline still surging after squeezing the trigger, and commutes home past fast-food restaurants and convenience stores to help with homework — but always alone with what he has done.

“It’s a strange feeling,” he said. “No one in my immediate environment is aware of anything that occurred.”

RTWT.

Rush Limbaugh: Olympics Opening Ceremony a Collectivist Gift to Obama

The transcript is here: "Collectivist Gift to Obama: Olympic Opening Ceremony Honors National Health Care!" (via Memeorandum.)

RELATED: At Independent UK, "David Cameron calls Conservative MP Aidan Burley 'idiotic' after Twitter comments dismissing Olympic Opening Ceremony as 'leftie multicultural crap' - The backbench MP had tweeted 'Thank God the athletes have arrived! Now we can move on from leftie multi-cultural crap'."

Objectifying Women is Human Nature

According to a new research report, at Scientific American, "Our Brains See Men as Whole and Women as Parts" (via Instapundit).

James Holmes Charged With 142 Counts, Including 24 Counts of First Degree Murder

At the Los Angeles Times, "James Holmes charged with first-degree murder in theater shootings."

Also at USA Today, "Insanity defense looks likely in Holmes' case."

Pamela Geller's Victory for Freedom of Speech

Pamela recently prevailed over New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority in the court case over her Freedom Defense Initiative advertisements.

She talks about it on Sun TV, "VIDEO: PAMELA GELLER ON MICHAEL COREN SUN TV ON FIRST AMENDEMENT WIN."

At the second half of the clip, Michael Coren talks about his recent episode mocking Saudi Arabia, discussed at Blazing Cat Fur: "Canadian anchor appears on screen in full veil to mock niqab-only TV!"

Islamic Jihad Takes Over the Resistance in Syria

It's a big story, even bigger with the appeasement-paper-of-record reporting, "As Syrian War Drags On, Jihadists Take Bigger Role":

BEIRUT, Lebanon — As the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s government grinds on with no resolution in sight, Syrians involved in the armed struggle say it is becoming more radicalized: homegrown Muslim jihadists, as well as small groups of fighters from Al Qaeda, are taking a more prominent role and demanding a say in running the resistance.

The past few months have witnessed the emergence of larger, more organized and better armed Syrian militant organizations pushing an agenda based on jihad, the concept that they have a divine mandate to fight. Even less-zealous resistance groups are adopting a pronounced Islamic aura because it attracts more financing.

Keep reading.

And the far left-wing Guardian UK reports as well, "Syria: foreign jihadists could join battle for Aleppo":

Scores of foreign jihadists have crossed into Syria from Turkey in the past two weeks, some of them telling Syrians that they are planning to travel to Aleppo to join a decisive battle against regime troops.

Syrian residents and a Turkish smuggler interviewed by the Guardian say many of the men have come from the Caucasus, while others had arrived from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Gulf Arab states.

According to locals who have dealt with them, the new arrivals embrace a global jihadist worldview that sets them apart from most leaders in the armed Syrian opposition and is stirring deep discontent among the rebel leadership.

This reminds me of Caroline Glick's piece the other day. Frankly, the Obama administration won't resist a Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Syria, so don't expect a big push back against the rising jihadist presence in the country. As Caroline noted:

With Syria's civil war still raging throughout the country, the world media is rife with reports about Syria's Christians fleeing their towns and villages en masse as Islamists from the Syrian opposition target them with death, extortion and kidnapping.

The administration has kowtowed to Russia, while Islamists mount a murderous campaign of ethnic cleansing. And it's not just because of the Obama regime's cluelessness (although there's plenty of that). If the Islamists take over in Syria the administration can claim a hat trick: Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria.

Candice Swanepoel in Muse Magazine

She's "Candy Cane."

More pics at Egotastic.

Anderson Cooper Crosses the Line

From the Center for Security Policy:

Anderson Cooper closed one of five segments of his weeknightly CNN show that he recently devoted to attacking principally Rep. Michele Bachmann with a genuflection towards an iconic newsman, Edward R. Murrow. He deployed against her the gauntlet Murrow threw down to Sen. Joseph McCarthy in March 1954: “The line between investigating and persecuting is a [very] fine one.” If anyone has stepped over that line, however, it is Cooper himself, rather than the Minnesota congresswoman.

Night after night during the week of July 16th, the host of “Anderson Cooper 360” failed to meet even the most basic standards of investigative journalism. The irony is that, in his ill-concealed persecution of Mrs. Bachmann, Cooper has serially engaged in precisely the practices he pillories her and others for allegedly using, by his account, to destroy the reputation of the Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Muslim-American woman named Huma Abedin. Let us count the ways...

Continue reading.

Cooper even goes after Frank Gaffney at this clip:

PREVIOUSLY: "Huma Abedin Gets Police Protection After Being Threatened." And make sure to see Nonie Darwish at that link.

Why the Right Wing Blogosphere Doesn't Cover Islam — UPDATE! 'Weasel Zippers' is Mystery Blogger

At Atlas Shrugs, "The Right's Dirty Little Secret."

Actually, it's a big dirty secret.

I could not help but notice, over the past few years, the right wing blogosphere's silence on jihad and Islam. When I started blogging back in 2004-2005, there were literally scores of counter-jihad blogs in an already crowded field. Seven years later, it is a paltry few, save for Jihadwatch, Creeping Sharia, and political bloggers like Logan's Warning, IOTW, American Power blog, Zilla, .....

It's an excellent essay. Continue reading.

IOTW has this: "Creeping Silence – How the Elite Right-Wing Blogosphere is Selling You Out." Big Fur Hat offers some clues as to the mystery blog cited at Pamela's post. Actually, I don't think it's Weasel Zippers. Sounds more like Red State to me, but frankly, I don't care. I'm not a big monetized blogger. I blog for myself and I blog what I believe, which is freedom and American moral leadership in the world. That kind of stuff is actually politically correct even for some on the right, so I don't worry about it after a while. I keep plugging away to take advantage of my right to freedom of speech while I still have it.

Photo: "Pamela Geller Book Signing!" And it's not Robert Stacy McCain either. He pisses off everybody!

UPDATE: Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch confirms the report at iOWNTHEWORLD. According to Robert:

Big Fur Hat over at iOwntheWorld has figured it out: the blogger being discussed below is Weasel Zippers. Zip and I had once been friendly and actually had been planning to meet again for lunch when he wrote me and asked me to stop linking his posts at Jihad Watch, because then when Pamela Geller would link my posts, a link to his site would show up at Atlas Shrugs, and he didn't want to have anything to do with her because of her exposure of Rick Perry's Islam curriculum. When I responded incredulously, he grew progressively more abusive, finally ending up by repeating the Leftist/Islamic supremacist smear that I was responsible for the Norway murders. He still does cover jihad issues at Weasel Zippers, but not in a way that would trouble anyone who buys the propaganda line, purveyed by both Leftists and Fox, that Islam is a Religion of Peace that has been Hijacked by a Tiny Minority of Extremists.

Check Robert's post for the links.

I think I mentioned it at the time, but I was going easy on the right-side blog wars during the GOP primaries. I'd been there done that in 2008, and losing friends during the nomination period isn't worth it. Apparently Weasel Zippers, and Ace of Spades, got into it with Pamela over the Rick Perry curriculum --- and hard feelings remain. I actually blogged the curriculum story and it checked out. See: "Is Rick 'Perry Pro-Sharia'?" Follow the links. Pamela was facing a huge backlash at the time. I had little expectation that Perry was going anywhere, and so I focused on other candidates. I wanted Michelle Bachmann, in any case, who is back in the news for seeking an investigation on Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the Obama administration. So folks know where my loyalties stand.

That said, if there's been a de-linking campaign against Pamela's it's been a pretty big fail. Her blogs still ranks among the top sites on the right side and she continues to pound the opposition with outstanding coverage. I link her sight regularly, and that ain't enough.

And a funny thing is that Weasel Zippers got hacked last night on Wordpress, and Zip's switched the site over to the old Blogspot address until he gets things taken care of. Strange coincidence, I guess. Someone's not digging the Zip, and it's a bummer he had to deal with it. I read Weasel Zippers pretty regularly too. It's more of a rapid-fire aggregation blog than a commentary site. But it's first rate, in my opinion. I'm sorry to hear of the conflict. I know Pamela and Robert personally, and I communicate with Zip. As always, I"m about getting the truth out, even if it ruffles some feathers. Still, t'was a good idea laying low during the primaries. It's hard out there for a neocon!

Obama Worse Than Carter

For sure.

Obama's one of the worst presidents in history --- if not the worst.

At The Hill, "Cheney: Obama worse than Carter, ‘one of our weakest presidents’." (Via Memeorandum.)

PHOTO CREDIT: IMAO, "The Cruelest Anti-Obama Billboard Ever Erected." They say it's not a Photoshop, but who cares? It's brilliant!

Atheist for #LGBT Rights Says Chick-fil-A 'Harms Mor Gays'

From Randall Reynolds on Twitter and Tumblr:

Amazing isn't it? So far progressive have produced not a shred of evidence that Chick-fil-A discriminates. Indeed, in his interview that kicked off the faux-controversy, Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy never even mentioned homosexuality or gay marriage. All he said was "guily as charged" when asked if he supported the traditional conception of marriage, and he mentioned biblical foundations for the family. Mark Steyn had the perfect report at his piece, "The Tolerance Enforcers: They’re ever more intolerant of anything less than total ideological homogeneity." And see J.D. Dyer, at Patheos, "Chick-Fil-A Is neither Hateful, Intolerant, nor Anti-Gay":

The premise behind the political anger being stirred up against Chick-Fil-A is basically from kindergarten: if you don't agree with me, you're hateful and you hate me. But in the world of adult responsibility, the very basis for freedom of conscience—intellectual and religious freedom—is freedom of contradictory expression. What demagogues today call "hatred" and "intolerance" is actually the essence of freedom: people being able to hold and advocate their own views, unmolested, no matter how much others dislike those views.

RTWT. And also Larry Schmidt, in the letters at USA Today:

It seems as if people on the left don't approve of free speech unless it is in line with their beliefs. They call for boycotts of companies that espouse opinions other than their own. This has got to stop. This is the United States of America, where everyone has the right to free speech.

Right.

Now, if the left could just curtail the right to freedom of speech they'd be cooking. And believe me, they're working on it!

Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators

From Campbell Brown, at WSJ:

By resisting almost any change aimed at improving our public schools, teachers unions have become a ripe target for reformers across the ideological spectrum. Even Hollywood, famously sympathetic to organized labor, has turned on unions with the documentary "Waiting for 'Superman'" (2010) and a feature film, "Won't Back Down," to be released later this year. But perhaps most damaging to the unions' credibility is their position on sexual misconduct involving teachers and students in New York schools, which is even causing union members to begin to lose faith.

In the last five years in New York City, 97 tenured teachers or school employees have been charged by the Department of Education with sexual misconduct. Among the charges substantiated by the city's special commissioner of investigation—that is, found to have sufficient merit that an arbitrator's full examination was justified—in the 2011-12 school year...

Continue reading.

And that's just New York.

My union's just as bad. See: "Teachers' unions should be ashamed -- Powerful lobby helped defeat bill to protect children."

Democrat union perverts. That's who you have controlling the schools. Society is FUBAR.

NBC Olympics Delay and Streaming Bring Complaints on Twitter

At NYT, "Olympic Viewers Have a New Reason to Complain, and the Means to Do It."

That's a good piece.

Twitchy has been on top of the controversy, "#NBCFail: Network’s Olympic disaster earns global social media mockery; NBC exec Schiller disses “whining”."

Jordyn Wieber's Tearful Failure in Women's All-Around Gymnastics Final

So much emotion. It's more fascinating than sad, frankly.

At the New York Times, "Americans Excel, but Wieber Is Out for All-Around":

When the 17-year-old Wieber — who has been described on different occasions as steady as a rock, as sure as a machine and as mentally tough as the great Nadia Comaneci — learned she was the odd woman out, she burst into tears.

“When this kind of disappointment happens, you can’t say anything,” said Martha Karolyi, the United States women’s national team coordinator. “It’s almost like when someone passes away. What to say? Anything you say, the situation is the same.

Watch here: "2012 Trials Day 2: Jordyn Wieber Key Routines."


BONUS: From Robert Stacy McCain, "The Olympic Princess Fantasy."

University of Colorado Stands by Dr. Lynne Fenton, Psychiatrist Who Treated Aurora Suspect James Holmes

At the Los Angeles Times, "Colorado school officials stand by Holmes' psychiatrist's record."

And check Robert Stacy McCain, "Did University of Colorado ‘Student Mental Health Service’ Director Blow It?"

Mitt Romney Takes Aggressive Stand Against Iran Nuclear Weapons

I checked yesterday for Maeve Reston's report, at Los Angeles Times, and it wasn't up yet. Here it is now, "Romney takes hard line on Iran in Israel speech":

PHOTO CREDIT: Bonney Kapp on Twitter.

Dennis Prager on Left's Fascist Attacks on Chick-fil-A

This ran a few days ago.

If you disagree with progressives, they will try to destroy you:

And in case you missed his book: Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph.

Theo's Sunday Hotties

You'll be taking your eyes off the Olympic Games with these ladies.

See: "Sunday Totty..."

Plus, "Bonus Babe..." and "Bedtime Totty..."

In Israel, It Was the Way Romney Said It

From Barry Rubin, at PJ Media, "Mitt Romney Captures Jerusalem":

Speaking to an often-cheering group of about 400 people in Jerusalem, Governor Mitt Romney gave a speech less notable for what he said than for the fact that the audience believed he was sincere in saying it.

At a beautiful outdoor setting with the Old City in the background, Romney declared his strong support for Israel, using phrases often heard from American presidents. He also proclaimed his view that Jerusalem is Israel’s eternal capital. The difference, of course, is that those listening were less inclined to think that when President Barack Obama said similar things to AIPAC meetings he was describing his own views and policies.

Continue reading.

Enjoy the Sports, Expose the Politics: How to Enjoy the Olympics

Here's an entry at Astute Bloggers: "I DON'T THINK THIS YEAR'S OLYMPICS ARE MUCH FUN TO BOTHER ABOUT."

And along the same lines, blogging on the anti-Semitic politics of the IOC, Glenn Reynolds wrote: "I don’t care about the Olympics. They’re a sham and a scam, a mixture of corruptocrats and worse."

So I thought about it. I do care about the Olympics. As a boy, the Olympics helped build my love of sports and the spirit of competition. I have really strong memories, especially of 1972, when so many athletes just rocked the world with their performances. I was mesmerized by it. And of course, the murder of the Israelis was my introduction to Middle East politics. I was only twelve, but the image of the Black September terrorist, looking over the ledge at the Olympic gardens, is indelible. Stormbringer has thoughts on that, "I REMEMBER THE MUNICH OLYMPICS":

I remember looking at the image of Palestinian terrorists in the Munich Olympic village, on TV and on the covers of the news magazines. The Munich Olympics were supposed to be a celebration, another step further in the rehabilitation of Germany's standing as a member of the world community.

Instead we got horror. We saw the face of international terrorism, and an atrocity against humankind unfold before our very eyes.

We could barely comprehend what we were looking at. It was to the 1970s what 9/11 was to the 00's - a game-changer...

Keep reading.

Stormbringer casts shame on the IOC, as we all should.

But I keep thinking back to the great athletic moments of 1972. Mark Spitz, especially, but also others, like Olga Korbut, who captured the world's heart with her performance and emotion during competition --- and frankly showed us the human side of the Soviet Union during a high period of Cold War conflict:

And there are other memories, from other Olympics, that stay with you. I think Greg Louganis at Seoul in 1988 is one of those, a spectacular sports achievement. So I can't completely dismiss the games, despite all the horrible political correctness and anti-Semitism. I just try to enjoy the sports and, now more than ever, expose the hatred and double-standards the drive the politics behind the scenes.

Note: As this post goes live, NBC just broadcast American Dana Vollmer's world record swim in the 100m butterfly. The smile on her face summarizes the joy of the competition for so many. More on that at the New York Times, "American Swimmer’s Four-Year Comeback Is Completed in Last Stretch."

Newsweek Circles its Final Swirls Down the Drain

The 1988 presidential campaign is memorable for how the MSM attacked George H.W. Bush as a wimp. Could he beat the "wimp factor," a Newsweek cover story proclaimed in 1987? Bush went on to win the election, over a candidate who perfectly demonstrated Democrat wimpiness by staging a photo-op in a tank: "Compared with the dashing WWII pilot Bush, the little Dukakis came off a clown, and the photo op blew up in his face."

And for some reason, the bright lights at Tina Brown's Newsweek thought it'd be a good idea to do it again, featuring a Michael Tomasky cover story, "Mitt Romney: Too Wimpy for the White House?" (Via Memeorandum.) And clearly, reading the article, the wimp analogy doesn't work. Indeed, Tomasky ties himself into contortions trying to make the comparison to Bush 41. Soon he's reduced to admitting that Romney's "more weenie than wimp," which is followed by a gratuitous reference to WaPo's bullying hit piece from May --- which reported the hugely important news that Romney cut off a classmates locks decades ago. Yeah, I know. The Newsweek wimp factor attacks are just plain lame --- lame in 1987 for Bush 41, and lame for Romney now. Polls already show that most people won't change their personal perceptions of the candidates. And for the undecided, a rash hit piece is frankly going to make jack's worth of difference. Mostly, by now we're just being made to watch Newsweek take its last breaths, something Ed Driscoll notes quite well, "Newsweek Pretty Much Just Phoning It In Now." (Via Memeorandum.)

It's too bad too. At one time I used to enjoy reading Newsweek, but it jumped the shark a long time ago. Sad.

PREVIOUSLY: "Newsweek Projected to Lose at Least $22 Million This Year."

FLASHBACK: "Newsweek's Arizona Shooting Cover Story Wraps 'Assassin' in American Flag."

It's a death rattle for this magazine, not worth the $1 that businessman Sidney Harman paid for the rag.

Mitt Romney in Israel: Stopping Iran Nukes 'Must Be Our Highest National Security Priority'

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Romney's Remarkable Speech in Jerusalem."

It's remarkable, indeed.

The New York Times reports, "In Jerusalem, Romney Delivers Strong Defense of Israel."

Also at the Right Scoop, "FULL SPEECH: Mitt Romney Speaks in Israel."

Plus more at Memeorandum.

Syria's Lightly-Armed Rebels No Match for Armed Forces of Bashar al-Assad

At Telegraph UK, "Syria's rag-tag rebels will be mauled by President Assad's firepower, but they can fight an effective guerrilla war":

Like rebels in Libya, the poorly armed Syrian fighters who are attacking President Assad's armoured forces can learn from their mistakes and become a fearsome force.

RNC 'Again' Advertisment Hammers Obama on 'Stimulus' Programs

Via Right Wing News:

And the press release from the RNC: "Republican National Committee Airs TV Ad “Again”."

BONUS: Just scroll through Michelle's archives for "stimulus." What a Democrat boondoggle.

13th Victim: Ashley Moser, Mother of 6-Year-Old Victim Veronica Moser-Sullivan, Miscarries After Being Shot in Colorado Massacre

At Telegraph UK, "Colorado Batman shooting claims its 13th victim."

The Colorado cinema massacre has claimed its 13th victim as a pregnant mother who survived the attack suffered a miscarriage following surgery.

Ashley Moser, 25, was eight weeks pregnant when she was hit once in the stomach and twice in the neck during the mass shooting.

Her six-year-old daughter Veronica Moser was among the 12 people killed and 58 injured when gunman James Holmes opened fire during a screening of Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colorado on July 20.

Miss Moser, who is expected to be paralysed, lost her baby after undergoing surgery related to her injuries.

In a statement her family said: "Ashley is recovering from an additional surgery she had this morning. Tragically, the extreme trauma she sustained also caused a miscarriage.

That's an unfathomable amount of pain and tragedy.

Continue reading at the link.

Also at Newsmax, "Unborn Baby Is Latest Victim of Theater Shooter." And the Los Angeles Times, "Colorado shooting victim miscarries; her 6-year-old girl was killed."

RELATED: Robert Stacy McCain has more, "Did University of Colorado ‘Student Mental Health Service’ Director Blow It?"

Mayor Edwin Lee Warns Chick-fil-A on Coming to San Francisco — Lying Fascist Repsac3 Denies It, Shills for Left's Anti-Free Speech Thugs

So far all the reports out indicate that San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee has warned Chick-fil-A about opening a store in the city.

See the San Franscisco Chronicle, "Mayor Ed Lee warns Chick-fil-A against coming to San Francisco":

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has joined in the growing chorus condemning Chick-fil-A for the national chicken chain’s much-publicized anti-gay views.

After mayors in Boston and Chicago recently expressed their disapproval with Chick-fil-A and its intolerance, Lee followed suit and took to his Twitter account late yesterday, firing off two successive tweets. The first one conveys his disappointment with the chain’s lack of values, and the second one takes it up a notch, suggesting that Chick-fil-A don’t even think about opening in San Francisco.

The mayor's tweets are embedded at the report.

It's clearly threatening. And the Los Angeles Times agrees, "San Francisco is the third city to tell Chick-fil-A: Keep out":

First Boston. Then Chicago.

The next city to tell Chick-fil-A to keep out? San Francisco.

Edwin M. Lee, mayor of the progressive city, tweeted Thursday night: "Very disappointed #ChickFilA doesn't share San Francisco's values & strong commitment to equality for everyone."

He also added a warning to his subsequent tweet: "Closest #ChickFilA to San Francisco is 40 miles away & I strongly recommend that they not try to come any closer."

Until Thursday, San Francisco had stayed mum on the debate, which began when Chick-fil-A's president, Dan Cathy, went on the record as saying his Atlanta-based chicken chain operated on biblical values and opposed same-sex marriage.

Pretty straightforward, obviously.

But not for fascist hate-blogger Walter James Casper III, a.k.a Repsac3, who attacks Aaron Worthing on Twitter with denials of the threat:

@AaronWorthing not seeing the def of threat (other than cite of "true threat" which is about bodily harm). More of a pointer?
— J. Casper (@repsac3) July 27, 2012

@zanshi1 what the mayor said wasnt a threat. It was speech. There was nothing official or threatening about it. Boston & Chi, threats
— J. Casper (@repsac3) July 27, 2012

The despicable hater Repsac3 is lying again, no surprise.

A threat does not have to warn of physical harm. "Threat" could be financial injury, for example. In other words, a threat is any kind of caution, as Dictionary.com points out:

threat   [thret]
noun
1. a declaration of an intention or determination to inflict punishment, injury, etc., in retaliation for, or conditionally upon, some action or course; menace: He confessed under the threat of imprisonment.
2. an indication or warning of probable trouble: The threat of a storm was in the air.
3. a person or thing that threatens.

There's nothing there about a threat requiring violence. But that doesn't matter to Walter James Casper III. He lies about everything.

And he organizes his hate campaigns with others online:

@EvanHurst Just occurred to me you may need an e-mail address to pass along the Chickfila article: repsac3blogs@gmail.com Thanks again...
— J. Casper (@repsac3) July 29, 2012

That's something I've mentioned previously, regarding Repsac's intimidation and stalking campaign against this blog. See: "Intent to Annoy and the Fascist Hate-Blogging Campaign of Walter James Casper III."

He's a liar and an Internet predator. People should avoid him, block him on Twitter, and report him to the proper authorities.

PREVIOUSLY: "Repsac3, Hate-Addled Internet Predator, Screams 'Liar' at Virtually Entire World on Politicization of Colorado Shooting."

Just Half of American Voters Identify Obama as Christian

And the number of Americans identifying Obama as Muslim has increased since 2008.

See Pew Research, "Little Voter Discomfort with Romney’s Mormon Religion: Only About Half Identify Obama as Christian":

The new survey on religion and politics finds that nearly four years into his presidency the view that Barack Obama is Muslim persists. Currently, 17% of registered voters say that Obama is Muslim; 49% say he is Christian, while 31% say they do not know Obama’s religion.

The percentage of voters identifying Obama’s religion as Christian has increased since August 2010, from 38% to 49%, while there has been little change in the percentage saying he is Muslim (19% then, 17% today). Still, fewer say Obama is Christian – and more say he is Muslim – than did so in October 2008, near the end of the last presidential campaign. The increase since 2008 is particularly concentrated among conservative Republicans, about a third of whom (34%) describe the president as a Muslim.

Overall, 45% of voters say they are comfortable with Obama’s religion, while 19% are uncomfortable. Among those who say Obama is Christian, 82% are comfortable with Obama’s religious beliefs. Among those who describe him as a Muslim, just 26% are comfortable with his beliefs.

RELATED: "The Obama Administration Has Lost its Senses on Muslim Brotherhood."

Caroline Glick argues the administration's selling out U.S. interests to the Islamists.

Also at Atlas Shrugs, "'HALF OF AMERICANS DO NOT KNOW THE PRESIDENT’S RELIGION' .... DUH."

BONUS: At Politico, "Eric Cantor defends Michele Bachmann."

Rosie Jones Kicks Off London Summer Olympics for 'Loaded' Magazine UK

That's the spirit.

See: "Forget the Olympics, Loaded gets Rosie Jones to celebrate the summer."

Also at Egotastic, "You Know Who Knows How to Celebrate the Olympics Properly? Rosie Jones..."

Hope Solo Bashes Brandi Chastain on Twitter

Fox Sports has screencaps.

And see Christine Brennan, at USA Today, "Hope Solo wrong to criticize Brandi Chastain TV commentary":

LONDON – U.S. soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo has had the most bizarre couple of weeks. She simply cannot stay out of the headlines.

After a positive drug test that was explained away as an honest mistake and some risqué quotes appearing in a national magazine about sneaking celebrities into the Beijing Olympic Village, Solo now has outdone herself by unleashing a Twitter barrage against American soccer icon Brandi Chastain, the hero of the 1999 World Cup.

Chastain, now an NBC commentator at the Olympics, was critical of the U.S. defense and goalkeeping in the Americans' first game, a 4-2 come-from-behind victory against France. As the USA fell behind 2-0, she definitely was not alone in her commentary about what appeared to be a confused U.S. defensive effort at the beginning of the game.

On Saturday in the USA's 3-0 win against Colombia, Chastain singled out U.S. defender Rachel Buehler, who had committed a first-half turnover. Solo didn't like it, not one bit. So she told her 471,673 followers on Twitter all about it, taking four different shots at one of the great names in U.S. soccer history, who happened to just be doing her job commentating on the team she helped to make famous.

It all seems so silly...

Continue reading.

I feel bad 4 our fans that have 2 push mute, especially bc @arlowhite is fantastic.@brandichastainshould be helping 2 grow the sport #fb
— Hope Solo (@hopesolo) July 28, 2012

More at Google.

Obama Runs 'The Choice' Ad During London Olympic Games

This clip ran yesterday around Noon while I was watching the London games. I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

But it's boilerplate Democrat class warfare. O slams Romney's plans for "tax cuts for the wealthy," what else? And doesn't say a word about his failed policies for the past four years. There's the lame talk about helping the "middle class," as well, as if his administration even cares about them. Folks like that are frankly "clinging" to their guns and religion, as polls show over and over again. For some reason, though, people like O personally, while disliking his policies. He's like a snake charmer I guess. See LAT, "Obama outranks Romney on likability, polls show":

WASHINGTON — The economy is in the tank and hopes for quick improvement are dim. Most people don't like the direction the country is headed and many blame President Obama. And his GOP rival scores better on the top issues. So why isn't Obama doing worse in the polls?

One likely reason: Voters like him more than Mitt Romney.

Obama's job approval ratings long ago plummeted from his halcyon postelection days. But the president's favorability — the catchall measure that pollsters say reflects voters' gut feelings about a politician — has been resilient. Despite a recession, a sluggish jobless recovery, an oil spill, an unpopular healthcare law and a string of ugly tussles with Congress, Obama's favorability is 54%, according to a recent USA Today-Gallup poll. Respondents were essentially divided on Romney, who had a 46% favorability rating. When asked about likability, respondents favored Obama, 60% to 30%.

Included in that barometer is a group of personal traits more consequential than just being nice. Obama gets high marks on honesty and trustworthiness. And most voters say he shares their values and cares about people like them.

And, by some accounts, voters really like the president. Two-thirds of voters surveyed recently by the Wall Street Journal and NBC said they liked Obama personally.

Romney, the unofficial Republican nominee, was personally liked by 47%.

"Basically, it looks like Romney's personality is holding him back and Obama's likability is helping him," said Jeffrey M. Jones, managing editor for the Gallup Poll. "It seems frivolous, but it matters."

Well, maybe that'll help him.

I personally like someone who doesn't mind putting his hand over his heart during the national anthem, but hey, O's got that soulful smile and down home swagga, so that's something, at least.

The Obama Administration Has Lost its Senses on Muslim Brotherhood

Well, it's lost its senses on just about everything involving decency and common sense, so it's no surprise.

See Caroline Glick, "The Muslim Brotherhood's American Defenders."

RELATED: At FrontPage Magazine, "Caroline Glick Joins David Horowitz Freedom Center."

And Glick is speaking Monday in Los Angeles, "Caroline Glick: Israel on the Eve of U.S. Elections."

Don't Cross the Progressive Forces of Hatred

Mark Steyn's commentary on the left's assault on Chick-fil-A, "Don't cross the forces of tolerance."

To modify Lord Acton, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but aldermanic power corrupts all der more manically. Proco "Joe" Moreno is Alderman of the First Ward of Chicago, and last week, in a city with an Aurora-size body count every weekend, his priority was to take the municipal tire-iron to the owners of a chain of fast-food restaurants. "Because of this man's ignorance," said Alderman Moreno, "I will now be denying Chick-fil-A's permit to open a restaurant in the First Ward."

"This man's ignorance"? You mean, of the City of Chicago permit process? Zoning regulations? Health and safety ordinances? No, Alderman Moreno means "this man's ignorance" of the approved position on same-sex marriage. "This man" is Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A, and a few days earlier he had remarked that "we are very much supportive of the family – the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives" – which last part suggests he is as antipathetic to no-fault divorce and other heterosexual assaults on matrimony as he is to more recent novelties such as gay marriage. But no matter. Alderman Moreno does not allege that Chick-fil-A discriminates in its hiring practices or in its customer service. Nor does he argue that business owners should not be entitled to hold opinions: The Muppets, for example, have reacted to Mr. Cathy's observations by announcing that they're severing all ties with Chick-fil-A. Did you know that the Muppet Corporation has a position on gay marriage? Well, they do. But Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef would be permitted to open a business in the First Ward of Chicago because their opinion on gay marriage happens to coincide with Alderman Moreno's. It's his ward, you just live in it. When it comes to lunch options, he's the chicken supremo, and don't you forget it.

Continue reading.

Well, they're despicable fascists. More here.

A Homosexual Civil Union Ends in Abduction

This is interesting, at the New York Times, "Which Mother for Isabella? Civil Union Ends in an Abduction and Questions":

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Lisa A. Miller and her daughter, Isabella, started their fugitive lives here in the fall of 2009, disguised in the white scarves and long blue dresses of the Mennonites who spirited them out of the United States and adopting the aliases Sarah and Lydia.

Now 10, Isabella Miller-Jenkins has spent her last three birthdays on the run, “bouncing around the barrios of Nicaragua,” as one federal agent put it, a lively blond girl and her mother trying to blend in and elude the United States marshals who have traveled to the country in pursuit.

She can now chatter in Spanish, but her time in Nicaragua has often been lonely, those who have met her say, long on prayer but isolated. She has been told that she could be wrenched from her mother if they are caught. She has also been told that the other woman she once called “Mama,” Ms. Miller’s former partner from a civil union in Vermont that she has since renounced, cannot go to heaven because she lives in sin with women.

Isabella’s tumultuous life has embodied some of America’s bitterest culture wars — a choice, as Ms. Miller said in a courtroom plea, shortly before their desperate flight, “between two diametrically opposed worldviews on parentage and family.”

Isabella was 7 when she and Ms. Miller jumped into a car in Virginia, leaving behind their belongings and a family of pet hamsters to die without food or water. Supporters drove them to Buffalo, where they took a taxi to Canada and boarded a flight to Mexico and then Central America.

Ms. Miller, 44, is wanted by the F.B.I. and Interpol for international parental kidnapping. In their underground existence in this impoverished tropical country, she and Isabella have been helped by evangelical groups who endorse her decision to flee rather than to expose Isabella to the “homosexual lifestyle” of her other legal mother, Janet Jenkins.

In a tale filled with improbables, an Amish Mennonite sect known for simple living and avoiding politics has been drawn into the high-stakes criminal case: one of its pastors is facing trial in Vermont on Aug. 7 on charges of abetting the kidnapping.

The decade-long drama touches on some of the country’s most contentious social and legal questions, including the extension of civil union and marital rights to same-sex couples and what happens, in the courts and to children, when such unions dissolve.

In this case, the passions of any divorce were multiplied by Ms. Miller’s born-again conversion to conservative Christianity and her denouncing of lesbianism as an addiction. Ms. Miller repeatedly prevented Isabella’s court-ordered visits with Ms. Jenkins until an exasperated Vermont judge said he would transfer custody.

Man, they left the hamsters to die? That's harsh.

And it's more than an "addiction." It's a perversion. It's too bad Ms. Miller got involved in it in the first place. Things aren't likely to come out too well, no matter what happens. It'll be especially bad if the child has to grow up in that homosexual lifestyle after all. A tragedy.

Oh, and the key thing here is that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice, not an innate condition --- something that's going to rile the hate-addled progressives throughout the day.

Continue reading.

Hollywood Reflects on Film Violence in Wake of Colorado Massacre

At the Los Angeles Times, "Hollywood trying to avoid villain role in film violence."

I doubt we'll see much change in the industry. And I doubt consumers want it.

Target Launches $5 Million Campaign for Education

Target put together some excellent clips for this advertisement, which has been running throughout the Olympic Games. The amazing responses to being accepted are genuine and beautiful. They remind me of being accepted to graduate school. It's an amazing thing, a feeling of incredible accomplishment.

The press release is here.

Ryan Lochte Wins Men's 400m Individual Medley

It would have been a lot more interesting without NBC's tape delay --- the all day tape delay, seriously. I'd been reading about Phelps' collapse since morning time. But nothing really illustrates how bad it was than watching the race itself. See: "It's Ryan Lochte's time in 400 IM."

And here's Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "London Olympics: Without burning desire, Michael Phelps flames out":

LONDON — The torch wasn't exactly passed. The torch was fumbled and dropped and floating alongside the thrashing Michael Phelps before Ryan Lochte cradled it in his giant grip and sprinted to the wall.

Lochte became the best swimmer in the United States on Saturday night, but it didn't happen the way it was supposed to happen. He didn't steal the title in a dramatic duel with one of the greatest of Olympians. He casually picked it off the weary flotsam of a shrugging hero who seems less interested and more confused with every lap.

Ryan Lochte shined, but the bigger story was Michael Phelps' sinking.

Keep reading. It's a brutal commentary.

Nancy Pelosi Claims Republicans Exploiting Jews as Excuse for Tax Cuts

Truly bizarre.

At the Weekly Standard, "Pelosi: Republican Jews 'Being Exploited'."

God, that's really terrible, but typical for this brain-dead woman.

RELATED: At iOWNTHEWORLD, "Known racist, anti-Semite, to become a senior adviser to Nancy Pelosi." Well, that makes sense.

Jeff Bezos Pledges $2.5 Million in Support of Same-Sex Marriage

It's not like he doesn't have the money or anything.

At Los Angeles Times, "Jeff Bezos pledges $2.5 million to help same-sex marriage in Washington."

PREVIOUSLY: "Conservatives Block Homosexual Marriage Law in Washington State."

Kristen Stewart Cheating Scandal

This story's been developing all week, with Robert Pattinson moving out of the couple's home, at Telegraph UK: "Robert Pattinson 'leaves Kristen Stewart' after her affair."

And here's this at Radar Online, "Kristen Stewart Cheating Scandal: Rob Pattinson Wants ‘Man To Man’ Talk With Married Director":

Robert Pattinson isn't only heartbroken over his girlfriend Kristen Stewart cheating on him, he's curious about what really happened and RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned he wants to go straight to the source, Rupert Sanders.

Devastated after photos were released late Tuesday night revealing that Kristen, 22, had an affair with the married director, 41, Rob moved out of the Los Feliz home he once shared with Kristen on Thursday.

"Rob wants to have a man to man chat with Rupert to find out exactly what happened between him and Kristen," a source close to the Twilight star exclusively told RadarOnline.com.

It's a pretty sordid deal all around.

See also Daily Mail, "Kristen Stewart 'to write Rupert Sanders' wife Liberty Ross letter of apology' for 'momentary indiscretion' with director husband," and "Not so sweet and innocent: How Kristen Stewart 'took Rupert Sanders's young daughter for ice cream TWO months ago'."

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

Chicago Has Highest Murder Rate of World's 'Global Cities'

At 5 NBC Chicago, "The Deadliest Global City" (via Steve Bartin).

This is why national media hacks don't cite Chicago amid all their cries for gun control, a point that eludes idiot progressive Roy Edroso at the Village Voice.

Bob Costas Keeps Promise, Honors Israeli Athletes With Moment of Silence During Opening Ceremonies

At the Hollywood Reporter, "Bob Costas Fulfills Promise to Call Out IOC Over Refusal to Honor Munich Massacre."

He's a good man.

More at Israel Matzav, "Video: Bob Costas' moment of silence."

USS Somerset is Christened

The Somerset is the third and final Navy ship to honor those fallen on 9/11. It's named after the passengers of Flight 93 who brought the plane down in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, PA.

See the Los Angeles Times, "USS Somerset -- third and final 9/11 tribute ship -- is christened."

Flight 93, which originated in New Jersey, was the only plane that did not reach its intended target; investigators believe the terrorists were aiming for the White House or the U.S. Capitol.

“The men and women of Flight 93 … thought they were going to San Francisco to work, to play, to learn; to live their lives in peace while others guarded them,” Navy Rear Adm. David Lewis told the Associated Press. “Instead they found themselves in a war, on the front lines, in the opening battle. It was a new kind of war, one with new rules, maybe no rules at all. They had no preparation, no training, no guidance.

“And they performed superbly.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

The Left's Orwellian Assault on Chick-fil-A

From Arnold Ahlert, at FrontPage Magazine:

One of the more blatant displays of progressive thuggery is playing itself out in Boston and Chicago. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino threatened to keep fast food franchise Chick-fil-A from opening any restaurants in that city because he doesn’t want any business operating there “that discriminates against a population.” In Chicago, Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno announced that he will pursue the same course in his district for the same reason. “If you are discriminating against a segment of the community, I don’t want you in the 1st Ward,” Moreno told the Chicago Tribune. Such “tolerance” is based on an effort to deliberately mischaracterize as anti-homosexual what Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy said about traditional marriage. That mischaracterization has been aided and abetted by a media more than willing to amplify the distortion.

Continue reading.

Previously entries at the link.

Right-Wing Attack on 'You Didn't Build That' is Racist!

Yeah, well, everything's RAAAAACIST if it involves hammering "The One."

Matt Welch has the epic rebuttal, "Liberal Columnist: Obama's "black dialect" Explains Why "You didn't build that" Outrages People."

Mike Huckabee Slams Left's 'Hate Speech' on Chick-fil-A

Huckabee interviews Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage:

Previous entries are here.

RELATED: At Fox News, "Philadelphia to Consider Resolution Condemning Chick-fil-A." These people are not too smart.

Red Arrows Olympics Ceremony Flyover

This is cool.

At Telegraph UK, "Inside Red Arrows cockpit as it conducts London 2012 Olympics fly-past."

More video, inside the cockpit, here.

Sarah Palin Supports Chick-fil-A — Progressives Respond With Vile Misogynist Attacks: 'C*nt-fil-A'

William Jacboson had this earlier, at Legal Insurrection, "Sarah Palin visits Chick-fil-A, civility and new tone ensue on Twitter."

And here's the update, "Palin stops at Chick-fil-A, left responds with misogyny and sexism."

BONUS: Now we have the leftist mayor of D.C. joining the progressive hate-attacks, "Gray opposes Chick-fil-A expansion; calls it ‘hate chicken’" (via Memeorandum).

And Doug Powers has some progressive backtracking at Michelle's, "Rahm Emanuel’s office: He never said he’d block Chick-fil-A from opening here, just that their values aren’t Chicago’s" (via Memeorandum).

Fascism doesn't fly, it turns out.

Keep a spotlight on progressive hate. It's all they have.

Added: From Marooned in Marin, "Corrupt DC Mayor Attacks Chick-Fil-A As "Hate Chicken," Use 9/11 Anniversary To Promote 'Peace & Tolerance'."

Video of Hezbollah Abduction of Israeli Soldier Ehud 'Udi' Goldwasser

At the Times of Israel, "Here’s the evidence Hezbollah is a terror group, says soldier’s widow of 2006 attack footage."

Karnit Goldwasser, whose husband Ehud was killed along with fellow IDF reservist Eldad Regev by Hezbollah in the attack that sparked the Second Lebanon War in 2006, said Saturday that footage of the attack, released on Friday by Hezbollah, proves that it is a terrorist organization.

Goldwasser was speaking days after the European Union rejected an Israeli request to brand the Lebanese Shiite group a terrorist organization, saying it needed “tangible evidence” to do so. She said that the footage of the attack — which stops at the moment that Hezbollah gunmen, having crossed the border into Israel, converge on the soldiers’ stricken Hummer jeep and prepare to drag them out — constituted precisely such evidence. “If that’s not terror, what is?” she asked.

She noted that since the film is cut before Regev and Goldwasser are seen, it is not clear whether they were alive or dead when captured. “Maybe they captured them alive and killed them.”

Karnit Goldwasser added that Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah “has not seen the light of day” since the attack, and that she hoped his end would be “the same as [Osama] bin-Laden’s and Mughniyeh’s.” Imad Mughniyeh organized the cross-border attack and a series of other major Hezbollah terrorist actions. He was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.

What's interesting is how the Hezbollah forces are outfitted like army regulars, not as rag-tag terrorist irregulars. Hezbollah looks like the troops of a national military organization, which goes to tell you something about the nature of the threat to Israel along Lebanon's southern border. It's Iran's proxy army.

Neuroscience Ph.D. Program Can Be Isolating, Competitive, and Highly Demanding

At the Los Angeles Times, "Colorado suspect's field of study was rarefied and rigorous":

AURORA, Colo. — James Holmes inhabited an academic world so wondrous it could unlock the chemical code to human behavior, so complex that few outside the nation's brilliant cloister of neuroscientists could begin to comprehend it.

The graduate neuroscience program at the University of Colorado-Denver's Anschutz Medical Campus ranks among the top third of graduate programs in neuroscience — the study of the brain, its 100 billion nerve cells, and the connections among those cells that control thought and action.

"If I go to a bar and somebody asks me what I do, all I say is research," said David Cantu, who got his doctorate from the program. "If I'd tell people I was specializing in mitochondrial reactive oxygen species and how it pertains to cell deaths … people's eyes would start to glaze over."

It's the same program that Holmes, suspected of killing 12 patrons and injuring 58 at a movie theater last week, recently dropped after his first year.

Interviews with top directors of the university's graduate program, and others outside the school, provide a glimpse into the lives of those who choose such a rigorous course of study. The Colorado program has been largely shuttered to public view since Holmes' arrest July 20, a month after he announced plans to abandon his graduate studies there.

The interviews on that campus were conducted on the basis that Holmes not be discussed, but what emerges is a vivid portrait of the intense world in which the 24-year-old student lived over the last year.

In this rarefied and often high-pressure environment, students who are already near the best of their game are asked to exponentially expand their capabilities, frequently under stiff competition, and often in isolation.

Continue reading.

Holmes couldn't take the pressure, for a variety of reasons, and his academic problems seem to be the main cause of his psychological meltdown --- and the massacre.

PREVIOUSLY:

* "Suspect James Holmes Was Seeing Psychiatrist at University Before Massacre."

* "Suspect James Holmes No Easy Fit for Mass Murderer Profile."

* "Suspect James Holmes' Rapid Descent."

* "James Holmes' Academic Frustration and Social Isolation."

RELATED: The suspect's father Robert Holmes is a lead scientist at FICO with degrees from Berkeley and UCLA. He may have put a lot of pressure on James, who was adopted. See: "James Holmes Snapped After Failing Key University Exam. Couldn’t Live Up to His Brilliant Father." And "Did Colorado maniac snap after failing to meet expectations of brilliant academic father? Killer bought guns after failing key university exam."

BONUS: At WPTV News 5 (West Palm Beach), "James Holmes, theater shooting suspect: Psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Fenton had treated him in the past."

Munich and the Politics of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)

Ilya Somin has commentary, at Volokh (via Instapundit).

And see Benjamin Weinthal, at National Review, "Why Did the IOC Refuse to Honor the Munich Victims?"

PREVIOUSLY: At the Times of London, "No Munich tribute as Olympics open with dazzling ceremony."

EXTRA: At USA Today, "London Olympics pauses to honor dead Brits, not Israelis":

In the worst decision of the Opening Ceremony, the International Olympic Committee allowed one moment of silence to be held - just not the one that it should have permitted for the past 40 years.

After saying there would be no moment of silence to honor the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches who were killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the IOC permitted a video tribute to the 52 people who were killed in the suicide bombings in the London transit system the day after the city won the Games in 2005.

That was kind, and fitting, but it only served to highlight the extraordinarily bad judgment the IOC has shown in the matter of the Israelis, who were killed simply because they were Olympians living in the Olympic village...

No doubt. NBC didn't even play the terrorism tribute on U.S. television, perhaps attempting to avoid the controversy. See: "Here's the Opening Ceremony Tribute to Terrorism Victims NBC Doesn't Want You to See." (Via Memeorandum.)

London's Daily Mail is World's Most Visited Website

As regular readers know, I usually post from London's Daily Mail a couple of times a day. It's an awesome newspaper, boasting an ample pool of right-leaning articles and a ready supply of scantily-clad hotties. What more could you ask for?

Indeed, for the longest time I've been meaning to post Ed Driscoll's piece from a few months back, "Gray Lady Down: Has the London Daily Mail Overtaken the NY Times?"

Well, as the Guardian reports this morning, there's no need for that question mark. See, "Mail Online's 69% revenue growth suggests paywalls not the answer":

Been bored today? Chances are you logged into Mail Online. Seven clicks later, you remembered who you were. Mail Online is the biggest newspaper website in the world. Comscore says 6.5m unique browsers turn up daily, and as the parent company's trading statement showed today the money is beginning to roll in.

Read it all the link. But the key comparison there is to the Times of London, and now just clicking over to it we find that it's behind the paywall, which is too bad.

The Times' paywall model is probably maxed out, with little additional revenue growth expected. While at the Daily Mail growth has taken off with no limits in sight.

As for back stateside, both the New York Time and Los Angeles Times are using paywalls. I subscribe to LAT as the local paper, or I wouldn't be able to read it online otherwise. And the New York Times is prioritizing Google views, so if you cut and paste articles into your browser you can bypass the paywall, which at 10 views per month happens right away in my case.

Anyway, that's enough for now. Time to get back over to some of the hotties at Daily Mail!

Focus on Romney's Trip to Israel

At the New York Times, "Romney Faces Perils and Opportunities in Israel."

For Mr. Romney, the trip is a critical opportunity to show statesmanship, especially after a less-than-perfect London trip, and to highlight his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, whom he frequently describes as an “old friend.” But the perils include appearing critical of a sitting president from foreign soil.

For Mr. Netanyahu, a right-leaning leader whose relationship with President Obama has been rocky at best, the visit is a chance to ratchet up the pressure on the administration over the Iranian nuclear threat, but he must be careful not to be seen as partisan or meddling.

He's going to be fine.

Added: From the Times of Israel, "Romney can expect a warm welcome in Israel."