Andrew Getty, Heir to J. Paul Getty Fortune, Found Dead in 'Potential Homicide' in Los Angeles

Here's the breathless headline at Forbes, "Andrew Rork Getty Found Dead in Potential Homicide as the Getty Family Tragedy Continues."

I must say, though, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that "foul play" is so far being ruled out. See, "Andrew Getty's death does not appear to involve foul play, authorities say."

Comedy Central Backs Daily Show's Trevor Noah After Questionable Tweets

This dude's a real piece of work.

At LAT.

I doubt Comedy Central's going to be able to stay with this f-ker too much longer. He's definitely racist and radioactive.

And see Jon Gabriel, at Ricochet, "‘Daily Show’ Names New Host, Outrrrage Ensues."

Also at Twitchy, "New ‘Daily Show’ host Trevor Noah deletes tweet responding to controversy surrounding his hiring [screenshot]." Man, the dude must have been up all night hitting that delete key, lol!

Still more at NewsBusters, "New Daily Show Host Joked U.S. Worse Than Apartheid South Africa."

Plus, from the idiots at Salon, "Trevor Noah in our crazy birther age: Right-wing rage at “The Daily Show” is about to get very, very ugly."

Yes, because to be rightfully upset with voluminous misogyny and anti-Semitism is so "right-wing."

Jodie Gasson in Brilliant Yellow

At Egotastic!, "Jodie Gasson Yellow Bikini Striptease."

The New Intolerance

I just don't care to debate these homosexual rights issues so much these days. The left, frankly, is winning. The turning point was the Windsor decision a couple of years ago. The crowning moment will be this June when the high court announces a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. It is what it is.

Unfortunately, with all that comes power to the radical left to discriminate against people of faith. The real hatred and intolerance in America today is found on the extremist secular, Marxist collectivist left. Homosexual rights, especially the homosexual right to same sex marriage, is the nail in the coffin for traditional marriage.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Indiana isn’t targeting gays. Liberals are targeting religion":

In the increasingly bitter battle between religious liberty and the liberal political agenda, religion is losing. Witness the media and political wrath raining down upon Indiana because the state dared to pass an allegedly anti-gay Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The question fair-minded Americans should ask before casting the first stone is who is really being intolerant.

The Indiana law is a version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that passed 97-3 in the Senate and that Bill Clinton signed in 1993. Both the federal and Indiana laws require courts to administer a balancing test when reviewing cases that implicate the free exercise of religion.

To wit: Individuals must show that their religious liberty has been “substantially burdened,” and the government must demonstrate its actions represent the least restrictive means to achieve a “compelling” state interest. Indiana’s law adds a provision that offers a potential religious defense in private disputes, but then four federal appellate circuits have also interpreted the federal statute to apply to private disputes.

The federal RFRA followed the Supreme Court’s Employment Division v. Smith ruling in 1990 that abandoned its 30-year precedent of reviewing religious liberty cases under strict scrutiny. Congress responded with RFRA, which merely reasserted longstanding First Amendment protections.

In 1997 the Supreme Court limited RFRA’s scope to federal actions. So 19 states including such cultural backwaters as Connecticut, Rhode Island and Illinois followed with copy-cat legislation, and Indiana is the 20th. Courts in 11 states have extended equally vigorous protections.

Indiana was an outlier before the new law because neither its laws nor courts unambiguously protected religious liberty. Amish horse-drawn buggies could be required to abide by local traffic regulations. Churches could be prohibited from feeding the homeless under local sanitation codes. The state Attorney General even ruled Indiana Wesleyan University, a Christian college which hires on the basis of religion, ineligible for state workforce training grants.

In February, 16 prominent First Amendment scholars, some of whom support same-sex marriage, backed Indiana’s legislation. “General protection for religious liberty is important precisely because it is impossible to legislate in advance for all the ways in which government might burden the free exercise of religion,” they explained.

That hasn’t stopped the cultural great and good from claiming Indiana added the religious defense in private disputes as a way to target gays. If this is Indiana’s purpose, and there’s no evidence it is, this is unlikely to work.

The claim is that this would empower, say, florists or wedding photographers to refuse to work a gay wedding on religious grounds. But under the RFRA test, such a commercial vendor would still have to prove that his religious convictions were substantially burdened.

And he would also come up against the reality that most courts have found that the government has a compelling interest in enforcing antidiscrimination laws. In all these states for two decades, no court we’re aware of has granted such a religious accommodation to an antidiscrimination law. Restaurants and hotels that refused to host gay marriage parties would have a particularly high burden in overcoming public accommodation laws.

In any event, such disputes are rare to nonexistent, a tribute to the increasing tolerance of American society toward gays, lesbians, the transgendered, you name it.

The paradox is that even as America has become more tolerant of gays, many activists and liberals have become ever-more intolerant of anyone who might hold more traditional cultural or religious views...

Yes, that's the paradox, isn't it?

More.

And see Memeorandum.

Buy Books

Okay, I'm off for my long teaching Tuesday at the college.

Shop around at Amazon for some books. May I suggest Victor Davis Hanson, The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - From Ancient Greece to Iraq.

Plus, Shop Amazon's Easter Shop.

More blogging tonight.

As China Expands Its Navy, the U.S. Grows Wary

This is interesting.

We were just talking about China's naval build-up in my World Politics class yesterday.

At WSJ, "Washington is divided over whether Beijing should be viewed as naval partner or potential adversary":

China’s navy chief, Adm. Wu Shengli, strolled the Harvard University campus in a tweed blazer and slacks during a visit to the U.S. last fall, joking with students and quizzing school officials about enrolling some of his officers.

A few days earlier, he became the first Chinese navy chief to attend a 113-nation naval forum in Rhode Island, where he hailed U.S.-China military ties and discussed working together on global maritime challenges.

Shortly after his U.S. visit, Adm. Wu took another trip—this time to the Spratly Islands, an archipelago in the South China Sea where his country appears to be building a network of artificial island fortresses in contested waters. It was his first known visit to facilities U.S. officials fear could be used to enforce Chinese control of nearly all the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

As Adm. Wu seeks closer exchanges with the U.S. in his quest to build a modern global navy, Washington faces the dilemma of dealing with China as both a partner and a potential adversary challenging U.S. naval dominance in Asia. “I would say that he doesn’t want to build a navy that’s equivalent to the U.S.,” said Adm. Gary Roughead, the retired U.S. Chief of Naval Operations. “He wants to build a navy that surpasses the U.S.”

Adm. Wu, navy chief since 2006, is one of the architects of China’s maritime expansion, sending ships and submarines deep into the Indian and Pacific oceans, launching China’s first aircraft carrier and overseeing operations to assert control of waters claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations.

He also has become China’s point man for cinching closer U.S. military ties, a priority of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Adm. Wu met his counterpart, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, four times over the past two years, forging guidelines on how Chinese and U.S. vessels can safely interact.

Adm. Wu now wants deeper exchanges, including help developing aircraft carrier operations and improving education for his naval officers. He says such exchanges would allow China to better work alongside the U.S. to maintain global security, according to people who have spoken with him.

Adm. Greenert and other senior U.S. Navy officials also advocate closer engagement to encourage China to embrace international norms. Some in the Pentagon and Congress, however, worry Adm. Wu’s real mission is absorbing American know-how to advance territorial gains and boost China’s ability to thwart U.S. intervention.

Adm. Wu has been described by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI, as the “most vocal and successful advocate for a greatly expanded mission” for the Chinese navy since Adm. Liu Huaqing, who first proposed turning China into a sea power in the 1980s.

He is also a so-called princeling, as offspring of senior Communist Party figures are known, and said by defense officials to have strong backing from President Xi—another princeling—who has put sea power at the core of his vision for China. That may explain why Adm. Wu, 69 years old, has kept his post so long. He said during his U.S. visit he expected to retain the job until 2017.

The conflicting views of Adm. Wu mirror a deeper debate over whether China and the U.S. can reconcile their competing strategic interests in Asia and forge a genuinely cooperative military relationship in the 21st Century...

Hmm... I think the U.S. oughta be careful about not giving away the store.

More.

RELATED: At War is Boring, "China’s Third Aircraft Carrier Could Be Nuclear."

Eloi Vasquez, UC Berkeley Soccer Player Killed on I-10, Left USC Frat Party 'Drunk and Confused'

He was hit by a car running across the freeway.

If universities would deal with the underage alcohol crisis (rather than the manufactured rape crisis) we'd be truly on the way to saving an untold number of lives.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Missing UC Berkeley soccer player was struck, killed on 10 Freeway."

And at London's Daily Mail, "UC Berkeley soccer star who went missing after leaving frat party 'drunk and confused' was actually KILLED by a car two days ago."

Today we lost a beloved member of the #CalFamily, Eloi Vasquez. We send thoughts & prayers to his family & friends. pic.twitter.com/Pq0VAEanJU

— Cal Bears (@CalAthletics) March 30, 2015

Oxnard Woman Allegedly Wielding Knife Shot Dead by Police, Leftists Cry Racism!

Check the hashtag "#MeaganHockaday" and you'll find all the usual bullshit about "#BlackLivesMatter."

And notice the supreme irony in the "racism" allegations against the Oxnard Police Department, whose chief is Jeri Williams, a black woman who's been with the force since 2001.

See the video at KEYT-TV Santa Barbara, "Woman Shot and Killed By Oxnard Police Officer."

Hot Gallery of Sexy Busty Girls

Actually, this is more for you to start your week.

At Toasted, "End Your Week With Some Sexy Busty Girls: 38 Images."

Hat Tip: Linkiest.

Stolen Tips, Dine and Dash, Counterfeit Money: O.C. Restaurant Workers Confront Crime on Front Lines

This is mind-boggling.

Sure glad I don't have to deal with it, but then, I'm sad that these folks do.

At the O.C. Register, "Pilfered tips, dine and dash, fake cash: It's tough out on the restaurant front lines":

For workers on the front lines of Orange County’s bustling hospitality industry, things can get downright inhospitable. Even dangerous.

Kerry Soderstrom, a former waitress at a bar in downtown Huntington Beach, recalls the trio – two men and a woman in their 20s – who caught her eye one night. She had a feeling they were getting ready to skip out on their $50 food and booze bill.

Sure enough, when Soderstrom was busy helping another customer, they bolted. She gave chase and confronted them in a darkened parking garage.

“I felt panic and an instant need to catch them to avoid having to be held personally responsible for their bill with the bar,” said Soderstrom, who now works at an investment bank. “At the time I really didn’t consider the danger of actually pursuing them into the parking structure, which looking back now it could have been very dangerous.”

That turned out to be the case a week ago for a 28-year-old waitress at the Mexico Lindo restaurant in Anaheim. When she confronted four people who left without paying, they ran over her legs with their car and fled, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department deputies.

Rowshaid Pellum, 24, of Cerritos, along with Santeea Ralph, 23; Markeisha Williams, 18; and Shyteice Miles, 19, all of Long Beach, have been arrested in connection with the incident.

Also last week, Francisco Cardenas, 26, pleaded guilty to felony assault and misdemeanor petty theft for attacking a 55-year-old retired police officer after trying to grab a tip jar at a Starbucks in Huntington Beach.

Dine-and-dash crime isn’t that common in Orange County, service workers say. But when it happens, police and other officials say, wait staff should avoid heroics and report the theft to police.

“They should never chase after someone else,” said Russ Bendel, president of the Orange County Restaurant Association and owner of the Vine restaurant in San Clemente. “It’s better to bite the bullet.”

The problem, though, is that though it’s illegal for restaurant operators to withhold tips from servers to cover dine-and-dash bills, the practice is still fairly common, said Maria Myotte, a spokeswoman for Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, which represents 13,000 hospitality workers nationwide.

“A lot of servers get negative paychecks,” she said. “The environment is such that it’s their personal responsibility for that money.”

Tip jars have become ubiquitous at checkout counters, making easy targets for thieves looking to grab some quick cash.

In the case of the attempted Starbucks theft on March 7, Scott Fahey was placing money in the tip jar at a walk-up window at Brookhurst and Adams Avenue in Huntington Beach when Cardenas rode up on a bicycle and tried to grab the container.

Fahey, 55, refused to release the jar, which held three $1 bills and change. He said Cardenas punched him and bashed him in the head with a metal sign. Cardenas fled when Fahey reached for his Glock 26 and warned Cardenas he would shoot...

It's bad all over, dang.

Keep reading.

4-Year Old Girl Sneaks Out, Grabs the Bus, for Late-Night Slushie

Unreal.

At MyFox 11 Los Angeles, "4-Year-Old Girl Sneaks Out at 3 A.M. to Get Late-Night Slushie."

Late-night? Actually, it's early morning, but I'll go with it at the headline, lol.

George Stephanopoulos' Gotcha Interview with Indiana Governor Mike Pence

Leftists are gleeful with Stephanopoulos' gotcha questions, but Gov. Pence handles the interview with aplomb.

Watch: "Indiana Gov. Mike Pence Says Religious Freedom Law 'Absolutely Not' a Mistake."

Jamie Foxx Accused of Transphobia After Bruce Jenner Joke at #iHeartRadioMusciAwards

Oops!

You just cannot joke about this stuff. Man, they'll come down on you like a ton of communist bricks!

At San Francisco Chronicle, "Jamie Foxx Joke About Bruce Jenner at #iHeartRadioMusicAwards Draws Ire."

Foxx took "another jab at the former Olympian, saying, 'Look, I'm just busting your balls while I still can'."

Queen Elizabeth to Dissolve Parliament — It's the Twelfth Time She's Done It

Interesting bit of comparative politics. There's very little power in the British monarchy, but the ability to dissolve parliament remains a significant one, much more than a formality.

At Sky News, "Not Just Theatre: Queen to Dissolve Parliament."

Ayaan Hirsi Ali — From Selma to Tunis: When Will We March Against the Segregation of Our Own Time?

From Ms. Hirsi Ali, at Huffington Post:

"Multiculturalism should not mean that we tolerate another culture's intolerance." http://t.co/BCxfNUqdHv via @HuffPostPol

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali (@Ayaan) March 23, 2015

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



And at Paco Enterprises, "Sunday Funnies," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

More at Theo's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Leader of the Tee World."

The Revolutionary Communist Roots of #BlackLivesMatter

Radical leftists are cheering the shooting of the decorated Boston police officer, "Leftists Celebrate on Twitter Over Boston Cop Shooting."

One of the radicals linked there is Lamont Lilly, a member of the revolutionary communist organization Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST). Lilly's tweets advocate anti-capitalist violence, "no justice, no peace." See, for example, "Fuck peace. We want justice," and "Anti-Racist. Anti-Capitalist. Anti-Sexist. Anti-Imperialist. Simply means you're PRO-HUMAN!"

And the FIST publication, Red Flag, advocates the systematic murder of law enforcement officers of the "capitalist police state." See, "How Will We Defeat the Police State."

And here's this from another article there, entitled "What Do Communists Stand For? Smashing the Low Wage Capitalist State":

Socialism Did Not Fail: And no it hasn't been a big failure everywhere its ever been tried. The Soviet Union, the first attempt to build socialism, went from being an impoverished agrarian country, to being an industrial power house. It doubled the life expectancy of the people. It produced more steel and tractors than any other society. It provided electricity, running water, housing, and medical care to everyone within its borders. The Soviet Union defeated the Nazis and Hitler. The Soviet Union was the first country to enter outer space.

The Soviet Union collapsed in the 1980s, when it was privatizing things. It collapsed when it was introducing capitalist market reforms, and moving away from socialism, led by leaders who repudiated the revolutionary ideology of Marxism-Leninism.

It goes on like that, even going so far as to praise Cuba and North Korea as spectacular successes of the communist model. Whatever. Reality is always upside down in the left's collectivist worldview, and that's from the Obama White House down to the #BlackLivesMatter activists killing cops in the streets. I've written about this before, so by now it's abundantly clear what this movement's all about, although the treasonous, leftist MSM refuses to report the truth. See, "List of Demands from 'Black Lives Matter'."

Eric Foner, Columbia University Professor and Communist Apologist, Calls for 'Third Reconstruction'

According to Discover the Networks, "Eric Foner was an anti-American 1960s radical, and as a historian is an apologist for American Communism."

Ain't it the truth.

Well it turns out Professor Foner's got a piece up at the New York Times (where else?) calling for a "Third Reconstruction."

See, "Why Reconstruction Matters."

And at the Nation, "Toward a Third Reconstruction."

The "Second Reconstruction" was allegedly during the civil rights movement, when the federal government exerted enormous power over the states to protect black rights, from public accommodations to voting --- to protect blacks from the Democrats and the Ku Klux Klan. (Y'all of course know about the first Reconstruction, when Republicans protected blacks from the Democrats and the Ku Klux Klan.) Well, far-left socialist regressives want to take us back to those bleak times again. Racist Democrat Party times. I imagine leftists want to bring back lynching too.



Via Memeorandum.

PHOTO: "The Lynching of Bennie Simmons," at Wikimedia Commons.

Suspect Angelo West Identified in 'Point Blank' Assassination Attempt on Decorated Boston Cop (VIDEO)

At Twitchy, "‘Nearly assassination-style’: Boston police shooting suspect identified as ‘career criminal’ Angelo West, age 41."

The black mofo suspect wasn't about to go back behind bars.

See Kevin Cullen, at the Boston Globe, "Three strikes and he was out on streets again":

Angelo West wasn’t going back to prison.

That’s what this was about. Pure and simple.

When members of the Boston police gang unit stopped the car he was driving on Humboldt Avenue on Friday evening, he knew that the .357 Magnum he was carrying was a ticket back to Cedar Junction in Walpole, and he wasn’t going out like that.

So he came out of the car, without a word, put his gun to the face of John Moynihan, and pulled the trigger. Then he ran off, turning back to fire at Moynihan’s colleagues.

Did he really think he would get away?

Who knows. Luckily, police officers are much better shots than habitual felons like West and he died as he would have had them die.

There was an extraordinary scene as police officers combed the area for spent shell casings and other evidence as Moynihan underwent surgery at Boston Medical Center. Some people got in their faces, calling them pigs, screaming about another black man shot to death by police.

Given the facts in this case, and that, according to Police Commissioner Bill Evans, the entire fatal encounter, showing West put the gun to Moynihan’s face without provocation, is caught on camera, you’d think the people screaming at the cops might have waited, oh, I don’t know, maybe a few hours, before concluding that Angelo West is the next Michael Brown, the next Eric Garner, the next Tamir Rice.

But he isn’t. Angelo West is somebody who routinely armed himself with guns and previously had fired a shot that nearly killed a cop. His death on Humboldt Ave. was more the inevitable conclusion to a violent, lawless life than it is the latest example of police being too quick to fire on young black men...

More.

And here's video of depraved leftists taunting police, "VIDEO - Protesters Caught on Video Taunting Police After Boston Cop Remains in Coma from Shooting."

Behold today's cop-killing left. #BlackLivesMatter only if they're used to kill police.

ANSWER L.A. Protest 'Shuts Down' Marine Recruitment Center That Was Closed on Saturdays

This was last weekend, but I just saw this hilarious tweet from the communist idiot Ryan Endicott:

@AnswerLA shuts down recruitment station to say NO! To #USimperialism $ for #jobs & #education not #occupation pic.twitter.com/QRgEHaHuEx

— Ryan Endicott (@RyanEndicott) March 21, 2015

Only one small problem here. According to CBS News Los Angeles, who checked with local Marine officials, none of the nearby recruiting offices "were open" on Saturday. See, "Dozens of Anti-War Protesters March Through Hollywood."

But hey, it's all about the narrative with the ghoulish far-left communists, heh.

Air Canada Flight 624 Crashes in Halifax

It's almost like I don't wanna fly anymore, all these accidents lately. Sheesh.

At Toronto's National Post, "Air Canada flight 624 crash lands during blizzard in Halifax, sending at least 23 to hospital":

Dominic Stettler, 31, of Wolfville, N.S., said people on board the plane responded with level heads.

“I think we hit a power cable, there was a lot of sparks,” he said. “We hit the ground, we came up and then we slid on the runway for quite a long time. We just kicked the doors out and jumped onto the wing and then ran because we just wanted to get away from the airplane in case of explosions or anything.”

Stettler said people were helping each other after they got off the plane.

“A woman offered me her jacket because I was shivering and pulled me into a tight warm hug and we just sat there for a while. It was kind of special actually,” he said.

Plus, at RT, "Air Canada flight 624 crash lands at Halifax Airport, loses wing, passengers safe," and Ruptly, "We ran because fuel was pouring out of plane - Air Canada passenger."

'Climate change threatens the future of the planet...'

The "twentysomething generation" is the stupidest generation, apparently.

Check LAT's essay from New Yorker John Cubelic, which features the quote at the headline, "I'm twentysomething, I vote, and I won't take seriously any candidate who doubts climate change."

The dude's cocksure of the "consensus" on climate change (not global warming, remember, since environmentalists have to move the goalposts in order to keep the ruse going), and he says that if candidates don't back his statist agenda --- and allegedly those of his generation --- they'll lose his vote in 2016.

The fact is we don't know if "Climate change threatens the future of the planet." And closing off debate on the question to ram home an authoritarian environmental agenda certainly isn't going to make things better. Cubelic spews the classic leftist "shut up denialist" anti-humanist agenda. People are going to die, on genocidal levels, if these ghouls are not stopped. See, ICYMI, "Earth Hour Celebrates Ignorance, Poverty, and Backwardness."

Plus, if you haven't yet, be sure to read Robert Zubrin's awesome book, Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism.

Police Shut Down Zumiez Skateboarding Event at Stonewood Center in Downey

I got a giggle at this story.

Skateboarders weren't teen heartthrobs when I was a kid, heh.

At the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "2,000 flock to Downey mall to see pro skateboarders; event canceled."

And CBS Los Angeles, "Police Called, Mall Shut Down as 2,000 Teens Turn Out for Pro Skateboarders' Appearance."

Shaneka Monique Torres, 'Bacon-Rage' Woman

The woman's looking at seven years behind bars, but it's an injustice.

Obviously, institutional racism can be the only explanation for her shooting up a McDonald's that forgot to put bacon on her bacon cheeseburgers. #BlackLivesMatter and all that.

At London's Daily Mail, "Woman found guilty of shooting up McDonald's after bacon was left off her burger twice in 24 hours and faces at least seven years in prison."

Death of the Lads Mags?

Well, not quite yet, but Britain's radical feminists are definitely on a roll.

At the Independent UK, "Loaded magazine bids farewell":

Campaigns to obscure the covers of lads’ mags in the name of feminism hit the industry hard in the past couple of years, especially when big retailers like the Co-op got on board, but that’s not what killed off Loaded and Nuts. Both represent an ideology which has become markedly unpopular. “Laddishness” is dying out; the whole concept has become desperately uncool. Even mainstream online porn has been shifting to focus on shared pleasure rather than straightforward female objectification.

Don't believe it for a second.

Lads mags have been shutting down for political reasons, after enduring the assault from the left. When you remove magazines from the marketplace, by covering them and placing them out of sight, market share takes a hit. Nuts reported at the time that they had a good run and didn't need the hassle. It's not quite as bad in the U.S., but it's bad. Protect your freedoms assiduously.

More at the Guardian UK, "Loaded magazine to close after 21 years."

PREVIOUSLY: "Radical Feminists Take Down Nuts Magazine, Leading British 'Lads Mag'." (More at the "Lads Mags" search.

And at the Other McCain, "British Left’s War on ‘Page Three Girls’."

Earth Hour Celebrates Ignorance, Poverty, and Backwardness

Most excellent.

From Professor Mark Perry, at AEI:

In 2009, Canadian economist Ross McKitrick was asked by a journalist for his thoughts on the importance of the annual one-hour event in energy self-flagellation and green nitwitery known as Earth Hour, which takes place today, March 28, at 8:30 p.m. Here is his excellent response (my emphasis)...

Keep reading.

San Francisco Sheriff's Deputies Used Prisoners for 'Gladiator-Style' Matches

Those San Francisco progs! What will they think of next?!!

They're denying it now, of course.

At LAT, "Lawyer for deputies accused of staging gladiator-style inmate fights denies allegations."

The Black Book of the American Left Volume 4: Islamo-Fascism and the War Against the Jews

The new volume of David Horowitz's collected works is out: The Black Book of the American Left Volume 4: Islamo-Fascism and the War Against the Jews.

Don't miss all of Horowitz's books at Amazon.

Secrets of 'Tormented' Germanwings Pilot Coming Into Focus

This guy was all f-ked up. He'd even planned for something "spectacular' to happen, to make him famous. We'll, he's famous now. Infamous, in fact.

Very sad.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Germanwings copilot had health, psychological problems, reports say":

Additional evidence emerged Saturday to suggest copilot Andreas Lubitz had health issues that should have prevented him from being allowed anywhere near the controls of the Germanwings A320 Airbus that he apparently deliberately flew into a mountain in the southern Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 people aboard.

As well as medical findings, one of the copilot’s former girlfriends came forward to tell a German newspaper that Lubitz, 27, told her, while they were dating last year, that he planned a spectacular gesture to make sure everyone would “remember” him. She described Lubitz as a “tormented” person who knew how to hide secrets.

The German newspaper Bild spoke to the young woman, identified only as Maria W, 26, and said she dated Lubitz for five months in 2014 during which time he said: “One day I will do something that will change the whole system and then everyone will know my name and remember it.

“I never knew what he meant, but now it makes sense,” the woman was quoted as saying.

She revealed that the pilot had suffered nightmares and that their relationship ended because his behavior scared her.

“At night, he would wake up and scream: 'We’re going down!'”

She said if Lubitz did indeed deliberately bring down the plane, “it is because he understood that because of his health problems, his big dream of a job at Lufthansa as captain and as a long-haul pilot was practically impossible.”

More.

And at the Other McCain, "German Co-Pilot Commits Mass Murder":

You might think that this incident seven years ago — when Lubitz was 21 and “depression” interrupted his training — would have caused someone to question his fitness to be a commercial pilot. Oh, but that would be discrimination against the mentally ill, which is unacceptable. Misguided ideas about “human rights” thereby result in putting a murderous psychopath in the cockpit so he can kill 149 innocent people by flying into a mountain at 400 miles an hour.

“You only hear the screams in the final seconds.”

 Yeah, well, wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of the regressive enablers of death, or anything.

Speaking of which, don't miss the broad-brush smears over at No More Mister, "ISLAMOPHOBES FIND A GERMANWINGS STORY THEY LIKE":

No reputable media outlet has reported on any possible motivation for the downing of Germanwings Flight 9525 apart from the claim that copilot Andreas Lubitz was suffering from a significant level of depression -- so elements of the Islam-hating right are now just turning him into a Islamist terrorist, based on evidence that appears to be nothing more than wishful thinking on their part.

And who would be the "Islam-hating right" to which No More Mister smears?

Well, Jim Hoft, a.k.a., "Gateway Pundit." That's it. Oh, actually, there's also Debbie Schlussel, of whom no one --- and I mean literally no one on the right --- considers one of their own partisans. She's simply a nutbag.

But hey, the idiot Steve M.'s got his "Islamophobe" meme and he's going with it!

With So Many Mexicans in the U.S., Mexico Soccer Team No Longer Plays in Mexico

This is an amazing story. Hilarious even. Although it's sad for poor Mexicans who don't even get to see their own team play soccer. But it's hilarious for leftists, since once again their program of "compassionate" immigration policy is shown for what it is: The Reconquista.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Mexico's national soccer team finds a great home venue -- in the U.S.":

Last year, Mexico played more games in the U.S. — eight — than the U.S. national team played domestically. Since February 2010, Mexico has played 30 of its 50 non-tournament games, called friendlies, in this country — many before sellout crowds.

This isn't to say the U.S. team isn't popular here. According to Adidas, the uniform provider for the Mexican national team, the U.S. and Mexico sold nearly an equal number of team jerseys in this country last year. Most second- and third-generation Mexican-Americans rate the U.S. as their second-favorite team.

Mexico is first....

The U.S. has a Mexican American population of more than 35 million, accounting for more than 65% of a U.S. Spanish-speaking marketplace that is increasingly attractive to advertisers. The most popular team is the Mexican national team, which is why SUM has been able to get major corporations such as Wells Fargo, Unilever, Allstate, Castrol, Makita and Home Depot to sponsor U.S. tours.

Not surprisingly, the Mexican team's favorite cities are ones with huge expatriate populations such as Phoenix, Houston, Dallas and Los Angeles, where they regularly pack huge football stadiums.

In Southern California, Mexico drew more than 90,000 to the Rose Bowl for a meaningless midweek exhibition with New Zealand in 2010. A year later an overwhelmingly pro-Mexico crowd of 93,420 was in Pasadena for the Gold Cup final with the U.S. Some of the U.S. players were extremely unsettled at being the visiting team in their own country. The American national team hasn't played Mexico in Southern California since then.

The team's owner openly disses Mexican nationals. Not enough lucre. Well, at least he's not a communist. That's the only good takeaway from this story. He's not a scummy, decrepit Marxist-Leninist revolutionary America-basher, like most of the idiot stateside Mexican leftists who're going to the games.

The Left's Evil, Hypocritical Boycott of Indiana

This was the outrage du jour yesterday, "Indiana Religious Freedom Law Sparks Fury" (via Google and Memeorandum).

But according to the Washington Post, "19 states that have ‘religious freedom’ laws like Indiana’s that no one is boycotting."

Government has to show a "compelling governmental interest" before it can trample religious freedom. That's all that's required. The Indiana law is in line with the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. See the Weekly Standard, "Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Explained." More often than not public accommodations are made for disadvantaged groups. The important thing is that in certain circumstances protections for religious observance will outweigh the goals of state attempts to force equality. And that's why the left is outraged. They want to trample freedom of conscience. They cannot stand a free people making moral choices for themselves. Leftists want state power to force compliance without exception. It's hateful and bigoted. But that's the essences of far-left regressivism.

Dashboard Video Contradicts Actress Taraji Henson's Claim That Son Was Racially Profiled

Despicable lying douchebag leftists always go for the racist allegations first, only to eat shit later.

Watch, at the Los Angeles Times, "Actress Taraji Henson apologizes to Glendale police for racial profile claims."

The cop was super nice!

Here's Henson's earlier allegations, "'Empire' actress Taraji P. Henson says son was racially profiled at USC."

Illinois National Guardsmen Planned Islamic State Terror Plot

Move along. Nothing to see here.

At IBD, "Islamic State In Illinois Planned Another Ft. Hood":

An Illinois National Guardsman sought to fight with Islamic State as his cousin plotted to kill scores at an Illinois National Guard facility. If they had succeeded, would President Obama call it workplace violence?

President Obama's "JV" terrorist team has metastasized to the point where its franchisees have spread across continents and oceans, with the FBI investigating ISIS-related activities and plots in all 50 states, including a very dangerous one in the commander in chief's home state of Illinois.

One of those FBI investigations involved the arrest Wednesday of Hasan Edmonds — a supply specialist with the Illinois National Guard, who had trained at the Joliet Armory since 2011 — at Chicago's Midway International Airport as he prepared to board a plane to Detroit and then to Cairo via Amsterdam, with the goal of joining the Islamic State.

Two hours later, authorities picked up his cousin, Jonas Edmonds, who had planned to wear Hasan's uniform and attack the facility in the same manner that Maj. Nidal Hasan did at Fort Hood, Texas.

The cousins had scouted out the armory on Tuesday, with Hasan Edmonds picking up a copy of the facility training schedule. The plan was for Jonas Edmonds to carry out the assault using AK-47s and grenades.

As they cased the National Guard facility on Tuesday, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune, the cousins from Aurora, Ill., discussed where soldiers would be stationed inside, which rooms and areas to avoid, and the firepower required to carry out the assault. The plot was uncovered when an FBI source made connections with Hasan Edmonds on Facebook, inquiring about his plans to travel overseas to join the Islamic State.

We are mindful of the fact that not all IS recruits and sympathizers are so careless in revealing their intentions. It may be a cliche, but we have to be right all the time while terrorists only have to be right once.

If successful, the planned assault on the Joliet Armory might have mirrored the terrorist attack by Nidal Hasan, whose Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at the Army base near Killeen, Texas, killed 13, including a pregnant soldier, and wounded 32, as he shouted "Allahu Akhbar!"

The Obama administration would dismiss the attack as "workplace violence," just as they dismissed the Islamic State as a "JV" terrorist team...

More.

New Kendra Sunderland Photos

I guess the chick is going full porn star at this point. She's seen at the photos making molds for adult sex toys.

At Egotastic!, "OSU Library Girl Kendra Sunderland Nekkid for Molding of Her Adult Toys."

FLASHBACK, "Kendra Sunderland, Former Oregon State University Student, Arrested After Making Porn Video in Campus Library."

U.S. Raises Pressure on Israel Over Palestinians

Unprecedented.

Barack Hussein is throwing Israel to the wolves at the U.N. on Palestinian statehood.

At WSJ, "White House leaves open the possibility of letting the United Nations set a deadline for a Palestinian state":

The U.S. exerted new pressure against Israel by leaving open the possibility of letting the United Nations set a deadline for a Palestinian state, in what would be a departure from using American veto power to protect its close Mideast ally.

The prospect of a U.N. Security Council resolution arose Friday when French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Paris would introduce a measure setting a deadline for a negotiated settlement of the conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, possibly within two years.

On dozens of occasions in recent decades, the U.S. has lobbied against approval of such resolutions, using its veto authority as a permanent member of the Security Council as a last resort. In response to past resolutions concerning the Middle East, the White House has echoed Israel’s contention that U.N. action cannot substitute for direct negotiations.

But the White House took a markedly different tack on Friday. Press secretary Josh Earnest said the Obama administration was aware of Mr. Fabius’s comments. “But we have not yet actually seen a text of a resolution so I’d reserve comment on a hypothetical resolution,” he said.

While he didn’t indicate whether the U.S. would actively favor such a resolution, the absence of any dissuasion was telling. White House officials didn’t elaborate on the Obama administration’s position...

Keep reading.

At Least 17 Dead as al-Shabaab Lays Waste to Somali Hotel

The tide of war keeps receding.

Reports elsewhere say victims were beheaded.

At NYT, "Official: Al-Shabab Siege at Somali Hotel Ends, 17 Dead."

And at Euronews, "Militants launch deadly assault on Mogadishu hotel."

'Girl Crush'

Hmm... This is interesting.

From Randall Roberts, at LAT, "Big Town's 'Girl Crush' rankles puritanical country radio."



The lyrics video is here.

Virginia Postrel Joins Glenn Reynolds

They're talking about education. It's quite interesting and informative.

Ellen Pao Loses Historic Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Against Kleiner Perkins

I've been seeing articles about this case for weeks.

For example, at LAT last week, "Win or lose, discrimination suit is having an effect on Silicon Valley."

Well, she lost.

At the San Francisco Chronicle, "Kleiner Perkins prevails in Ellen Pao sex-bias case":

Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers did not discriminate against former junior partner Ellen Pao for her gender, nor fire her because she filed a high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit against the firm, a jury found on Friday.

A six-man, six-woman San Francisco Superior Court jury sided in favor of Kleiner Perkins on all claims after more than two days of deliberation and more than four weeks of testimony that was closely watched by Silicon Valley and around the country as tensions over the lack of diversity in the technology industry have swelled.

The verdict was a major victory for Kleiner Perkins, for which the trial had revealed an at times unflattering portrait of a firm that had fallen from its glory days as an early investor in companies such as Google and Amazon.

Pao filed suit against Kleiner Perkins in 2012 for $16 million in damages for gender discrimination and retaliation, plus unspecified punitive damages. She alleged that Kleiner Perkins had promoted male partners over equally qualified women at the firm, including herself, and then retaliated against her for raising concerns about the firm’s gender dynamics by failing to promote her and finally firing her. Pao, now interim CEO of the message board site Reddit, was fired after seven years at the firm following her 2012 lawsuit...

Keep reading.

How the Left is Shutting Down Debate on Campuses Across the Country

From Kim Strassel, at WSJ, "The Campus Climate Crusade":

Conservative thought on campus these days is rare, though for some it’s still not rare enough. Witness the growing campaign by politicians, unions and environmentalists to intimidate into silence any academic or program that might challenge liberal ideology.

Congressional Democrats have grabbed most of the attention here, with their recent attempt to cow climate skeptics. Richard Lindzen, an emeritus professor of meteorology at MIT and a Cato Institute scholar, earlier this month described in these pages how House Rep. Raul Grijalva was targeting seven academics skeptical of President Obama’s climate policies, demanding documents about their funding and connections. A trio of Senate Democrats is working to muzzle more than 100 nonprofits and companies that have questioned the climate agenda, with a fishing expedition into their correspondence.

Largely unnoticed is that the congressional climate crusaders didn’t come up with this idea on their own. For several years a coalition of liberal organizations have been using “disclosure” to sully the names of conservative professors and try to shut down their programs. Their particular targets are academics who benefit from funding from the Koch Foundation, which has for decades funded free-market professors and groups on U.S. campuses.

Giving money to universities, and earmarking it for certain purposes, is common, though the left has largely cornered the market. Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer and his wife several years ago pledged $40 million to Stanford to start the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy. The Morningside Foundation, established by the family of the late T.H. Chan, last year gave Harvard $350 million to fund work on, among other things, gun violence and tobacco use. The Helmsley Charitable Trust has given money to several schools to advance Common Core.

Apparently the only kind of thought not allowed is that which might “undermine,” according to UnKochMyCampus, “environmental protection, worker’s rights, health care expansion, and quality public education.” Stopping such research is the mission of this organization, which is spearheaded by Greenpeace, Forecast the Facts (a green outfit focused on climate change), and the American Federation of Teachers.

The group’s website directs student activists to a list of universities to which Koch foundations have given money, and provides a “campus organization guide” with instructions for how to “expose and undermine” any college thought that works against “progressive values.” Students are directed to first recruit “trusted allies and informants” (including liberal faculty, students and alumni) and then are given a step-by-step guide on hounding universities and targeted professors with demands for records disclosure and with Freedom of Information Act requests. The AFT and the National Education Association devoted nearly a full day at a conference this month to training students on the “necessary skills to investigate and expose” any “influence” the Kochs have at universities.

This week Michigan State University released documents to student activists who had targeted political-theory professor Ross Emmett, director of the Michigan Center for Innovation and Economic Prosperity. His crime? Using Koch grant money to fund a reading group, called the Koch Scholars, that brings together students to discuss competing political economy ideas. The first two weeks were devoted to Marx, though the activists apparently couldn’t tolerate an equal discussion of capitalism.

Art Hall, who runs the Center for Applied Economics at the University of Kansas School of Business, was forced last year to file a lawsuit to try to stop a state records request from student activists demanding his private email correspondence for the past 10 years. Mr. Hall’s sins? His center got a seed grant from the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation, and he testified against green energy quotas at the state legislature last year.

As for those defenders of academic freedom and integrity, the American Association of University Professors several years ago defended climate scientist Michael Mann against a conservative group’s demands for his records. Now the Kansas chapter of AAUP helped fund the students’ demand for Mr. Hall’s records...

You get the picture. And especially notice the sick but shameless leftist hypocrisy.

More.

Six of Ten Teen Crashes Involve Driver Distraction

I see people texting and driving constantly. Same for people talking on the phone. It's just the way it is nowadays.

Laws prohibiting texting or requiring "hands free" for talking on the phone don't work. People simply don't care. It's not just teens, of course. You can spot a distracted driver almost immediately. They drive slow and erratic. They're dangerous. I want to force these people off the road and give them a merciless physical thrashing.

In any case, at CBS News This Morning, "AAA: 58 percent of teen car crashes involve distractions."

And watch, from AAA, "Distractions and Teen Driver Crashes."

Shelby Steele — Shame: How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country

Professor Steele's new book, available at Amazon.

Plus, Shop Amazon - Children's Books for Easter.

More blogging tonight. Thanks for reading.

'Text Neck'

Mobile technology is hazardous to your health.

At CNN, "There is an epidemic and it is called 'text neck'."

Hey, I'm guilty too.

But then, I read a lot of books, usually reclining in a lounger or lying in bed. In other words, what people have been doing forever. I doubt all the new wireless and mobile technology is helpful for the intellectual development of young people. They need to read more. And I mean old fashioned books, newspapers, and magazines. "Long reads" as folks like to say.

PREVIOUSLY: "Texting Makes You Selfish."

The Bergdahl Desertion

At WSJ, "Obama wanted to ‘whittle away’ the killers at Guantanamo":

The United States Army intends to charge Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. That was Wednesday’s news, but the bigger story is the extravagant price the U.S. has paid because President Obama wanted to score political points.

Readers will recall that then-Private First Class Bergdahl went missing from his post in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan in June 2009. Fellow soldiers suspected desertion, though the Army conducted a risky manhunt to recover him. The sergeant was quickly captured by the Taliban and held for five years.

The Associated Press has reported that an internal Pentagon investigation in 2010 found “incontrovertible” evidence that he had walked away from his post. Journalists also uncovered an exchange of letters in which the soldier wrote to his father “the title of U.S. soldier is just the lie of fools,” that he was “ashamed to even be american,” and that “the future is too good to waste on lies.” Replied father Robert: “OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE!”

All of this would have been known to President Obama and National Security Adviser Susan Rice when the Administration decided to swap Sgt. Bergdahl for five Guantanamo Bay detainees—all top Taliban leaders—in May 2014. Mr. Obama even invited Sgt. Bergdahl’s parents to a Rose Garden ceremony to announce the swap, while Ms. Rice declared on a Sunday talk show that the soldier had served his country with “honor and distinction.”

At the time of the release, Mr. Obama said he had a sacred obligation as Commander in Chief to do everything possible to bring the sergeant home. Maybe so, but the President made his real motives clear when he noted that the transfer was part of “the transition process of ending a war” and that he wanted to “whittle away” the number of Gitmo detainees. That, he told NBC, “is going to involve, on occasion, releasing folks who we may not trust but we can’t convict.”

This is the language of a President more concerned with pursuing his ideological fixations, and fulfilling a misbegotten campaign pledge, than winning a war or securing the country.

The Bergdahl swap unleashed a torrent of criticism at the time, including from Senate Democrats, so it’s not surprising that the charges against the soldier are only being unveiled now, five months after the midterm elections. There was no Rose Garden ceremony, and Ms. Rice issued no statement that we saw.

Meanwhile, the war in Afghanistan shows no sign of ending, while an emboldened Taliban can look forward to getting their old commanders back after their obligatory year in Qatar ends in June. Sgt. Bergdahl will now face a court martial, but we already know that the White House is guilty of deserting its obligations to U.S. security.

More at Free Beacon, "Former Sergeant Who Served with Bergdahl: He’s Lucky No One is Talking About the Death Penalty."

PREVIOUSLY: "Bowe Bergdahl Charged With Desertion and Misbehavior."

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Intimates: Lily Aldridge

She's so sweet.



PREVIOUSLY: "Lily Aldridge is Maxim's April 2015 Cover Girl."

Kamala Harris Overreacts to 'Sodomite Suppression Act'

She's an idiot.

See the commentary at LAT, "Kamala Harris' (over)reaction to anti-sodomy initiative gives idea more power."

And the statement at the AG's office, "Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Issues Statement on Proposed Ballot Initiative."

PREVIOUSLY: "Signature Petition for 'Sodomite Suppression' Seeks 'Bullets to the Head' Measure for California Ballot (VIDEO)."

Bowe Bergdahl Charged With Desertion and Misbehavior

See WaPo for the report (via Memeorandum).

And Megyn Kelly blasts State Department spokeswoman Jen "Doe-Eyed" Psaki:

Team Harpy Apologizes to Joe Murphy

Team Harpy is Nina de Jesus and Lisa Rabey. Their apologies, published today, are here, "Apologies and retractions."

I'd never heard of these women, but Robert Stacy McCain posted on the controversy today, "Two Women Forced to Apologize for Calling Male Librarian ‘Sexual Predator’."

Ms. de Jesus, who appears to be a trans woman, is a freakin' hardcore leftist ideologue who rails against "settler colonialism" and believes that accusations of sexual harassment/predation need not be backed by evidence of wrongdoing. Moreover, the #TeamHarpy partisans are positively Orwellian, as Popehat points out.

I need to blog something else otherwise I'll be sucked into a netherworld of leftist hatred and evil. Kudos on this Joe Murphy dude for hammering these disgusting trans-SJW jackwagons.

New Footage Shows Terrified Tourists in Tunisia Terrorist Attack

Coming to America.

Watch, at Telegraph UK, "Dramatic video footage has emerged of terrified tourists caught up in the attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis in which 21 people were shot dead by two marauding terrorists."

Lily Aldridge is Maxim's April 2015 Cover Girl

At Maxim.

And London's Daily Mail, "'She's the sweetest girl I've ever met': Lily Aldridge smoulders in topless shoot as she discusses BFF Taylor Swift and being a sex symbol."

Joe Scaffido, Assistant Dean, Invites Islamic State 'Freedom Fighters' to Train Students at Cornell University (VIDEO)

Only in Obama's America.

At the New York Post, "Cornell dean says ISIS welcome on campus in undercover video."

There are literally no depths to which the left will not go to bring evil to this country.

Google's Blue-Chip Insider Access to the Obama White House

Hypocrisy thy name is Democrat.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Google Makes Most of Close Ties to White House":

WASHINGTON—As the federal government was wrapping up its antitrust investigation of Google Inc., company executives had a flurry of meetings with top officials at the White House and Federal Trade Commission, the agency running the probe.

Google co-founder Larry Page met with FTC officials to discuss settlement talks, according to visitor logs and emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt met with Pete Rouse, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, in the White House.

The documents don’t show exactly what was discussed in late 2012. Soon afterward, the FTC closed its investigation after Google agreed to make voluntary changes to its business practices. (See the FTC document on Google).

Google’s access to high-ranking Obama administration officials during a critical phase of the antitrust probe is one sign of the Internet giant’s reach in Washington. Since Mr. Obama took office, employees of the Mountain View, Calif., company have visited the White House for meetings with senior officials about 230 times, or an average of roughly once a week, according to the visitor logs reviewed by the Journal.

One top lobbyist at Google, Johanna Shelton, has had more than 60 meetings at the White House. In comparison, employees of rival Comcast Corp., also known as a force in Washington, have visited the White House a total of about 20 times since Mr. Obama took office.

“We think it is important to have a strong voice in the debate and help policy makers understand our business and the work we do to keep the Internet open, to build great products, and to fuel economic growth,” says Google spokeswoman Niki Christoff.

Jennifer Friedman, a White House spokeswoman, said the FTC “is an independent agency and we respect their independent decision-making.”

She added: “White House officials meet with business executives on a range of issues on a regular basis. These meetings help keep the White House apprised of outside perspectives on important policy issues. Our staff is cognizant that it is inappropriate to discuss issues relating to regulatory enforcement.”

Justin Cole, an FTC spokesman, said: “The FTC is an independent law enforcement agency. Its enforcement decisions are driven by the applicable law and evidence in each case.”

Google’s knack for getting in the room with important government officials is gaining new relevance as scrutiny grows over how the company avoided being hit by the FTC with a potentially damaging antitrust lawsuit. Last week, the Journal reported that the FTC’s competition staff concluded that Google used anticompetitive tactics and abused its monopoly power in ways that harmed Internet users and rivals.

The staff recommended a lawsuit, which would have triggered one of the highest-profile antitrust cases since the Justice Department sued Microsoft Corp. in the 1990s. FTC commissioners voted unanimously to end the probe.

Visitor logs and internal emails reviewed by the Journal describe meetings involving Google, senior White House advisers and top FTC officials between the staff’s recommendation in August 2012 and the vote in January 2013.

On Nov. 6, 2012, the night of Mr. Obama’s re-election, Mr. Schmidt was personally overseeing a voter-turnout software system for Mr. Obama. A few weeks later, Ms. Shelton and a senior antitrust lawyer at Google went to the White House to meet with one of Mr. Obama’s technology advisers.

By the end of the month, the FTC had decided not to file an antitrust lawsuit against the company, according to the agency’s internal emails.

It is unusual for White House aides to talk with officials at a company or agency about law-enforcement matters involving the company or agency. Officials in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division typically don’t meet with the White House during major investigations.

Google’s efforts in Washington also include a well-funded lobbying operation. Last year, Google spent $16.8 million on lobbyists, more than any other company except for Comcast, according to lobbying disclosures...

Keep reading.

Wind Turbines Bring Large-Scale Massacre of Birds at Altamont Pass

Gee thanks leftists.

You're destroying our natural wonders with your Utopian collectivist pursuit to eradicate carbons.

At CBS News San Francisco: "Environmentalists Worry About More Bird Deaths With Wind Turbines at Altamont Pass."

Signature Petition for 'Sodomite Suppression' Seeks 'Bullets to the Head' Measure for California Ballot (VIDEO)

That's a "bullet to the head" for homosexuals.

The "Sodomite Suppression Act." It's a serious thing.

At LAT, "Officials powerless to stop proposed anti-gay initiative":

Over the decades, California has chiseled out some of its most colorful laws at the ballot box.

There have been proposed initiatives seeking to allow public school children be able to sing Christmas carols, to require drug testing of state legislators, to outlaw divorce and to divide California into six states.

But the proposed initiative submitted by a Huntington Beach attorney that would authorize the killing of gays and lesbians by "bullets to the head" — or "any other convenient method" — is testing the limits of the state's normally liberal attitude on putting even the most extreme ideas on the ballot if enough signatures are collected.

The proposed initiative has been met by a firestorm of anger, yet there appears to be nothing that can stop it from being given a formal name and advancing to the signature gathering process.

For a fee of $200, Matthew McLaughlin submitted what he called the Sodomite Suppression Act to the state attorney general's office, which has little choice but to give it a ballot-worthy name, summarize its effects and set the clock running for gathering signatures.

"Mr. McLaughlin's immoral proposal is just the latest — and most egregious — example of the need to further reform the initiative process," Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) said.

Some of California's most controversial laws have been given life through the initiative process, though some lived only briefly. A 1996 initiative legalized marijuana for medicinal use, a law that still stands. Two years earlier, voters approved the so-called Save Our State initiative, which denied a public education and other benefits to those in the country illegally — a law that was quickly declared to be illegal.

Two lawmakers said they were so revolted by McLaughlin's submitted initiative that they have proposed a bill that would increase the fee for filing a ballot measure from $200 to $8,000.

"We live in California, the cradle of direct democracy, but we also need a threshold for reasonableness," said Low, who co-authored the legislation with Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica).

But to get on the ballot, McLaughlin and any supporters he has would have to collect more than 365,000 signatures in 180 days, a high bar even for well-financed efforts.

"In California, this has the same chance as a snowball's chance in hell," said Jaime Regalado, professor emeritus of political science at Cal State L.A.

Kurt Oneto, a Sacramento attorney who specializes in the initiative process, said Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris does not have the ability to turn down McLaughlin's proposed ballot measure, regardless of how she might feel.

"The state gets serious initiatives that are submitted and we get silly ones, and every now and then we get ugly ones like this," Oneto said. "I would submit this is probably the ugliest one I remember."

More.

America Isn't Better With #ObamaCare

From Katie Pavlich, at the Hill:

It’s been five years since the Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare, was passed and signed into law. This week, the White House is touting the legislation as a huge success and claiming the country is better off.

“FACT: We’ve seen the largest drop in the uninsured rate in decades since the ACA became law. #BetterWithObamacare,” the official White House Twitter feed sent out Sunday.

“More than 16 million Americans have gained health coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act. #BetterWithObamacare,” another tweet said.

First, it’s important to analyze this White House white lie. While more Americans do in fact have health insurance in the wake of ObamaCare, the administration fails to point out that citizens are required by law to do so or pay a fine.
This wasn’t the case in decades past. Times — and the law — have changed. The government criminalized the decision not to purchase healthcare, and the IRS has been tapped with enforcing the requirement. More people have health insurance because they’ve been forced into the system, not because they want insurance or because they have easier access.

Second, let’s review how ObamaCare was passed in 2010. It happened in the middle of the night through a change in Senate rules and without a single Republican vote. Then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is now infamous for saying, “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

She also wasn’t shy about the tactics used to get the legislation through Congress. “We will go through the gate and if the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole-vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get healthcare reform passed for the American people for their own personal health and economic security and for the important role that it will play in reducing the deficit,” Pelosi said in January 2010.

Although ObamaCare is still highly controversial, as Pelosi once admitted, its negative impact is clearer.

For example, having health insurance is not the same thing as having access to medical care or affordable coverage. The costs of health insurance premiums and deductibles have significantly increased, leaving families in even more dire financial situations. According to research from the Manhattan Institute, health insurance premiums for people living in a number of states across the country have gone up by more than 100 percent.

Overall, costs to the taxpayer have been enormous, with $2 billion spent on HealthCare.gov, which didn’t work properly for a year, and an estimated $2 trillion in addition to enforce ObamaCare over the next 10 years. Data from a Government Accountability Office report released in 2013 has been cited showing ObamaCare adds $6.2 trillion to the long-term U.S. deficit, a far cry from liberal claims that deficits would be reduced as a result of the law.

Further, and most detrimental, is the mass retirement of doctors...

One of the great public policy abominations ever inflicted on the American people.

Keep reading.

The French Are 'Dismayed' by How Much Obama Has Given Up in Iran Talks

The irrepressible Dr. Krauthammer, on yesterday's All-Star Panel.

The Left Opens Fire on Ted Cruz!

At great talking points memo at Bill O'Reilly's, including commentary from Monica Crowley and Kirsten Powers.

Watch: "Ted Cruz For President - O'Reilly Talking Points."

Ted Cruz Tilts 2016 GOP to the Right

Hey, I can dig it, especially if he slows down the RINO momentum.

At LAT, "Ted Cruz's entry into 2016 race puts pressure on Republicans":

Sen. Ted Cruz jumped into the 2016 presidential race Monday in the same way he intends to run his campaign: upstaging rival Republicans with a splashy, impassioned speech that sought to drag the national conversation further to the right than many in his party want to go.

The Texas senator’s chances of winning the White House are narrow, polls suggest. And his aggressive tactics and brash style during two years in the Senate — including nudging the GOP toward the 2013 government shutdown — have alienated many of the Republican leaders whose support he probably needs to become the nominee.

But in addition to raising his political profile, Cruz’s candidacy is certain to play a role in the GOP primaries as he becomes a spoiler and potential kingmaker, forcing establishment favorites — such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — to confront tea party preferences on immigration, same-sex marriage and social welfare programs.

Cruz's zeal for small government and a muscular national defense reflects the views of many Republicans. But GOP strategists acknowledge the divisive firebrand may drive the debate too far to the right for mainstream political tastes — just as many party leaders say he has done during his short time in Congress. He could force his 2016 opponents to embrace positions in the primary that they might regret when facing the Democratic nominee.

“He's going to raise important questions that other candidates are going to have to answer, especially on social issues,” said Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. “Are you pro-life? Pro-marriage? Ted Cruz has been very bold and he sort of puts pressure on people like Jeb and Rand [Paul] to speak about the issues.”

But Aguilar warned that Cruz's stances, such as his opposition to President Obama's program to defer deportation for millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, could alienate voters in the general election if embraced by other candidates.

Cruz, the son of a Cuban immigrant, makes no apologies for his goal to shake up the mainstream. He has said repeatedly that he wants to be seen as the “disruptive app” of GOP politics.

“It is the time for truth,” Cruz told an enthusiastic crowd of Liberty University students Monday. “It is the time for liberty. It is the time to reclaim the Constitution of the United States.”

It was no accident that he chose to launch his presidential bid at the religious campus founded by the late pastor Jerry Falwell. Not far from the historic Civil War site of Appomattox, Liberty University has been a popular destination for Republicans seeking to bolster their conservative credentials. It also boasts an alumni and donor network that extends far from the campus, nestled near the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains.

Cruz appeared onstage in a massive sports arena amid waving American flags and Christian rock music. He emphasized his family's personal struggles and Christian faith, calling on “courageous conservatives” to join him as he seeks to ignite the same grass-roots movement that propelled him to the Senate in 2012.

“The answer will not come from Washington,” he said. “It will come only from men and women across this country, the people of faith, the lovers of liberty.”

Still more at that top link

The Orwellian Obama Presidency

From Bret Stephens, at WSJ, "Under Mr. Obama, friends are enemies, denial is wisdom, capitulation is victory":

The humiliating denouement to America’s involvement in Yemen came over the weekend, when U.S. Special Forces were forced to evacuate a base from which they had operated against the local branch of al Qaeda. This is the same branch that claimed responsibility for the January attack on Charlie Hebdo and has long been considered to pose the most direct threat to Europe and the United States.

So who should Barack Obama be declaring war on in the Middle East other than the state of Israel?

There is an upside-down quality to this president’s world view. His administration is now on better terms with Iran—whose Houthi proxies, with the slogan “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, damn the Jews, power to Islam,” just deposed Yemen’s legitimate president—than it is with Israel. He claims we are winning the war against Islamic State even as the group continues to extend its reach into Libya, Yemen and Nigeria.

He treats Republicans in the Senate as an enemy when it comes to the Iranian nuclear negotiations, while treating the Russian foreign ministry as a diplomatic partner. He favors the moral legitimacy of the United Nations Security Council to that of the U.S. Congress. He is facilitating Bashar Assad’s war on his own people by targeting ISIS so the Syrian dictator can train his fire on our ostensible allies in the Free Syrian Army.

He was prepared to embrace a Muslim Brother as president of Egypt but maintains an arm’s-length relationship with his popular pro-American successor. He has no problem keeping company with Al Sharpton and tagging an American police department as comprehensively racist but is nothing if not adamant that the words “Islamic” and “terrorism” must on no account ever be conjoined. The deeper that Russian forces advance into Ukraine, the more they violate cease-fires, the weaker the Kiev government becomes, the more insistent he is that his response to Russia is working.

To adapt George Orwell’s motto for Oceania: Under Mr. Obama, friends are enemies, denial is wisdom, capitulation is victory...

Perfect. Devastating. Just too honest, my goodness!

Keep reading.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali — Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now

Ms. Hirsi Ali's book is out today, at Amazon.

Plus, Shop Amazon Sports & Outdoors - Up to 25% Off MSR, Therm-a-Rest, Platypus, SealLine, PackTowl and E-Case.

U.S. Marine Corps March Madness Recruiting (VIDEO)

At LAT, "Marines target March Madness in recruiting campaign."

The Yemen Meltdown

At WSJ, "The U.S. withdrawal is a victory for Iran and al Qaeda":

Another week, another victory for disorder in the Middle East. This time the meltdown is in Yemen, where this weekend the U.S. withdrew the remaining U.S. special forces from a base where they were waging a drone war against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The withdrawal comes amid growing chaos in the country after Houthi militants deposed the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled the capital, San’a, for Aden last month. The Houthis belong to the Zaidi offshoot of Shiite Islam and are receiving help from Iran. They are at war with Sunni jihadists, who struck back in bombings on Friday that killed 152 people in San’a and Saada province. An Islamic State affiliate claimed responsibility.

The U.S. retreat is a major loss in the fight against AQAP, which has been the al Qaeda branch most focused on hitting the U.S. mainland. The U.S. has a military base in Djibouti across the Gulf of Aden as well as naval assets in the region from which it can still strike targets in Yemen. But the loss of special forces on the ground is bound to hurt intelligence collection and thus the ability for accurate targeting. Chaos is a jihadist’s best friend.

As recently as September, President Obama hailed Yemen as an antiterror model. “This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years,” he said. That wishful thinking has now been exposed...

More.

Police Can't Corroborate Rape Allegations at University of Virginia

At CBS Evening News, "Police unable to corroborate U.Va rape allegations."

Also at CNN, "Police say investigators found no 'substantive basis' to support a University of Virginia female student's story that she was raped."

And from Ashe Schow, at the Washington Examiner, "Police investigating UVA rape story emphasize importance of police involvement."

Santa Barbara Woman Tests Negative for Ebola

At the Santa Barbara Independent, "Santa Barbara Health Officials Monitoring Possible Ebola Case: A Woman Who Recently Traveled to West Africa."

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Rookie of the Year 2015 — Kelly Rohrbach

Weekday hotness from Sports Illustrated:

Is Barbarity of Islamic State Pushing Public Opinion Toward Use of Ground Troops?

At Fox News, "Is the barbarity of ISIS changing U.S. public opinion?"

Referenced there is the child jihadi murdering the Israeli Arab, "Islamic State Video Shows Israeli Arab Murdered by Child Jihadi."

And at WaPo, "Support for using ground troops against the Islamic State is increasing."

Hillary Clinton Emails Shed Little Light

This is interesting, but will be entirely academic in the end.

I doubt much is going to come of the whole email thing, even though according this piece she lied about not using her private emails for public business.

At the New York Times, "In Clinton Emails on Benghazi, a Rare Glimpse at Her Concerns."

Taylor Swift Buys Domain Name TaylorSwift.porn

At Billboard:

Taylor Swift knew these domain names were trouble when they walked in.

The singer's team has purchased the web addresses TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult, prior to them becoming available to the public on June 1, according to CNN. It is unclear what she plans to do with them, if anything.

The move was prompted by nonprofit group Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers continuing to expand the number of generic top-level domains, beyond such popular ones as .com and .net.

A number of controversial domain names will be available in June, but public figures and companies are currently being given a window of time in which to register them before anyone else can.

Well, I can imagine what some less scrupulous types might have done with those domains.