Postmodern Reaction to Obama in Cairo

I thought I'd put up a mirror entry to my earlier post, "Neocon Reaction to Obama in Cairo."

So, what's happening on the radical left? How are the postmodernists framing President Hussein Obama's speech to the Muslim world. Well, a good start can be found in Rachel Maddow's positively orgasmic response to the president's speech:

So, let's take a look around the leftosphere and the liberal media for some of the postmodern commentary.

The Mahablog, for example, loves how Obama elevates everyone else's interests above our own:

With the Bush Administration, everything always was about them. I dimly remember a news story (if you can find this and link to it, I’d be grateful) in which Condi Rice was in the Mideast, meeting with representatives of several Mideastern countries. She dictated to them what the United States expected from them, adding something to the effect of “this is what we want for you.” Someone spoke up and countered, “What about what we want for ourselves?”

Well, there you have it: The U.S. can't be expected to have its own preconditions for peace in the Middle East. And of course, it's "the Bush administration" who's the bad guy!

Hilzoy piles on:

Bush took dishonesty in the Middle East to hallucinatory extremes, we had not been honest brokers, or willing to speak the truth, for some time before he came on the scene.

But wait! Here comes Lorelei Kelly at Huffington Post, "Our President in Cairo: Muslims Listened. Did America?":

For the past 8 years, our bad attitude made us really unpopular. Unappeasable, we became like the schoolyard bully -- you give him your lunch money and he still beat you up. President Obama is out to change this reputation.

But let's check around further:

* Carl at The Reaction is blinded by "Obama's Defining Moment": "Wow. I mean, wow. He invokes among the most holy of passages written in the Koran and challenges the Muslim world to live up to it."

* Faiz Shakir at Think Progress? How dare Republicans take issue with the speech?, "Inhofe Rips Obama As ‘Un-American,’ Suggests He’s On The Side Of Terrorists."

* John Amato at Crooks and Liars? Jewish neocons don't count, "A Memo to Krauthammer: President Obama's Speech Was Not Meant for You!

* Brian at Incertus demonstrates a pathetic ignorance President Obama's moral equivalence (and the implications thereof).

* Gershom Gorenberg, focusing on "the settlements myth," says its all "Benjamin Netanyahu's fault."

* Matthew Yglesias just attacks purveyors of "the settlements myth" as liars: "... it’s too bad that The Washington Post thinks its readers need to get commentary on this issue from the slipshod and dishonest Charles Krauthammer.

* And for the academic perspective on "going Palestinian," see Marc Lynch, "My First Take On The Speech."

Interestingly, Code Pink actually protested Obama's visit. At least Medea Benjamin's not ashamed to admit her allegiances lie with Hamas, pictured below:

When Hamas kingpin Khaled Meshal was asked about Obama's address, he refused to renounce the violent destruction of Israel.

Gee, what a great president we have!

See also, "Obama Overture to Hamas Suggests Inevitability of Terror Group's Dominance Among Palestinians."

More at Memeorandum.

A Blogger's Who’s Who: Wikio's Top 100 Political Blogs

Allahpundit's a little pissed he didn't make the cut at Wikio's latest top political blog rankings. Patterico is sympathetic, "There’s something farcical about a list that omits Hot Air and Ace of Spades, but includes Oliver Willis." Maybe. Patterico's #46 so who's to complain? Others are noticing Wikio, in any case. Here's the scoop, at The Note, "Who’s Who in the Political Blogosphere?" American Power is #71:

It’s crowded out there in the political blogosphere -- and there are as many ways to judge influence as there bloggers who stand ready to judge politicians.

But here’s an interesting tool I recently came across: From Wikio.com, it’s a ranking of political blogs -- emanating from everywhere from living rooms, mainstream media organizations, and the White House.

The rankings are compiled based on links from other blogs -- with extra weight given to blogs that rank higher via Wikio’s formulas, and based on how recently an item is published. Blog rolls aren’t taken into account, so only fresh postings impact the rankings. Wikio: About Us

One of the intriguing aspects of this list is that it puts everyone in the same pot. The list has mainstream media blogs -- from ABC News, CNN, The New York Times, and others -- alongside well-known partisan bloggers -- Michelle Malkin, FireDogLake -- and even government-run bloggers, like WhiteHouse.gov’s.

We got a sneak peek at the latest rankings -- due to be published Friday -- below. It’s a fun list to analyze: Huffington Post has the top spot, with the liberal Center for American Progress’ Think Progress and the conservative National Review’s The Corner right behind ...

Here’s the Top 100:

1 The Huffington Post 2 Think Progress 3 The Corner 4 Political Ticker - CNN 5 The Daily Dish 6 Political Punch 7 Michelle Malkin 8 Instapundit.com 9 Talking Points Memo 10 Political Animal 11 Firedoglake 12 Daily Kos 13 Crooks and Liars 14 fivethirtyeight 15 NewsBusters 16 The Caucus - New York Times blog 17 Gateway Pundit 18 Power Line 19 White House.gov Blog Feed 20 Michael Goldfarb - The Blog - The Weekly Standard 21 The Plank 22 AMERICAblog 23 Reason Magazine - Hit & Run 24 The Volokh Conspiracy 25 Balloon Juice 26 Washington Wire - WSJ.com 27 Marginal Revolution 28 Swampland 29 Glenn Greenwald 30 The Note 31 Atlas Shrugs 32 Hullabaloo 33 Wonkette 34 Eschaton 35 Political Wire 36 Jihad Watch 37 Lynn Sweet 38 The Jawa Report 39 George's Bottom Line 40 Political Radar - ABC Blog 41 The Next Right 42 forward movement 43 Don Surber 44 MyDD 45 JammieWearingFool 46 Patterico's Pontifications 47 iowahawk 48 The Blog 49 Stop the ACLU 50 Redstate - Conservative News and Community 51 Townhall.com 52 FP Passport 53 The Washington Note 54 TalkLeft 55 JustOneMinute

56 Ross Douthat 57 Outside the Beltway 58 Sweetness & Light 59 The Nation Blogs 60 Riehl World View 61 DownWithTyranny! 62 Flopping Aces 63 Oliver Willis 64 Gay Patriot 65 The Buzz Florida Politics 66 Global Voices Online 67 Michael J. Totten 68 jillstanek.com 69 Roger L. Simon 70 Moonbattery 71 American Power 72 PollingReport.com 73 Capitol confidential 74 GamePolitics.com 75 The Brad Blog 76 YID With LID 77 Debbie Schlussel 78 Confederate Yankee 79 The Club for Growth 80 The Belmont Club 81 Newshoggers 82 Soccer Dad 83 Say Anything 84 News Hounds 85 Founding Bloggers 86 the albany project 87 The Liberty Papers 88 The Anonymous Liberal 89 Mother, May I Sleep with Treacher? 90 Jack and Jill Politics 91 Burnt Orange Report 92 PoliGazette 93 The Radio Equalizer: Brian Maloney 94 Obama HQ 95 The LRC Blog 96 ScrappleFace 97 Sister Toldjah 98 The Strata-Sphere 99 The Sideshow 100 Naked Politics Ranking by Wikio.

Obama Visits Buchenwald

From the Washington Post, "Obama Tours Former Nazi Concentration Camp":

President Obama on Friday toured a former Nazi concentration camp that his great-uncle helped liberate, accompanied by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, perhaps the camp's most famous prisoner.

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U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Buchenwald concentration camp survivor Elie Wiesel and International Buchenwald Committee President Bertrand Herz walk through the former Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany. Obama is visiting the site after his stop in Cairo, where in his speech to the Muslim world he made an appeal against Holocaust denial.

See also, Atlas Shrugs, "Elie Wiesel to Obama: The World Hasn't Learned."

Photo Credit: New York Post.

Added: Elie Wiesel video, at the link. And CNN has video as well:

The transcript, from the Elie Wiesel foundation, is here.

Democrats Play Politics With War Appropriations

Pathetic is the first word that comes to mind: "Democrats Postpone Action on War Bill":

Worried by their prospects in the House, Democrats postponed final action on a nearly $100 billion wartime spending bill until next week so as to buy more time for talks among lawmakers and the return of President Barack Obama from overseas.

The administration remains confident it can navigate between the conflicting pressures from the right and left. But for this confident young White House, which so prides itself on juggling many balls at once, the delay is a humbling reminder of just how complex the low-profile appropriations process can be.

Obama himself faces growing criticism for piling on new requests and not doing more to support his demands. Privately, officials now concede that the budget calendar put them at a disadvantage, forcing the new administration to submit its funding requests in April, even before its policies could be fully formed.

This was most embarrassingly true in the case of Obama’s plan to close the Guantanamo detention center. But in a single stroke, the same appropriations bill affects wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a new alliance with Pakistan, the threat of pandemic flu, and complex civil liberties issues, such as whether the public should have access to damaging photos of post-Sept. 11 detainees held by the U.S. military.

Hat Tip: Memeorandum.

Speech Reveals Obama's Middle East Sympathies

From the Los Angeles Times, "Do Obama's words reveal his Middle East sympathies? A close examination of the speech underscores how Obama, four months into his presidency, is still introducing himself - and what he stands for - to Americans and the world":

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama left some fuzzy edges to his biography. He affirmed strong support for Israel but implied a strong empathy for Palestinians. His personal story played up his introduction to the black church, leaving his father's Islamic roots in the shadows.

It was a narrative designed to ease any voter concern about Obama's background and counter false Internet rumors that he was a Muslim.

But now, with Thursday's speech in Cairo, Obama is laying bare more of his sympathies and inclinations in the volatile area of Middle East politics.

Obama spoke, for example, of Palestinian "resistance" -- a word that can cast Israel as an illegitimate occupier. He drew parallels between Palestinians and the struggles of black Americans in slavery and of black South Africans during apartheid. Both references made some allies of Israel uneasy.

Moreover, in his defense of Israel's legitimacy, Obama cited the Holocaust and centuries of anti-Semitism, but not the belief of some Jews that their claim to the land is rooted in the Bible and reaches back thousands of years.

A close examination of the speech underscored how Obama, four months into his presidency and five years after stepping onto the national stage, is still introducing himself - and what he stands for - to Americans and the world.

Actually, the Times is being way too objective here.

Check out Caroline Glick at National Review, "The End of America’s Strategic Alliance with Israel?":

From an Israeli perspective, Pres. Barack Obama’s speech today in Cairo was deeply disturbing. Both rhetorically and programmatically, Obama’s speech was a renunciation of America’s strategic alliance with Israel ....

The only silver lining for Israelis from the president’s speech in Cairo and his general positions on the Middle East is that Obama has overplayed his hand. Far from bending to his will, a large majority of Israelis perceives Obama as a hostile force and has rallied in support of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against the administration. This public support gives Netanyahu the maneuver room he needs to take the actions that Israel needs to take to defend against the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran and to assert its national rights and to defend itself against Palestinian terrorists and other Arab and non-Arab anti-Semites who wish it ill.

Read Glick's entire piece, here. More analysis at Memeorandum.

Inside Baader-Meinhof

Jacob Laksin, at City Journal, reviews, Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F.:

The Weather Underground, a leftist terrorist group from the 1970s, played a bit role in last fall’s presidential election through the association of unrepentant former Weatherman Bill Ayers with his fellow Chicagoan, Barack Obama. That kind of connection would have come as no surprise in Germany, where the Weather Underground’s far more deadly counterpart, the Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, continues to cast a shadow over the country’s politics.

In 1985, German journalist Stefan Aust published the definitive book on the RAF, The Baader-Meinhof Complex. His book has since been turned into a successful feature film of the same name, which was nominated last year for a foreign-language Oscar and is slated for U.S. release this summer. Aust, a former editor of Der Spiegel, has now reissued his earlier work, changing the title to Baader-Meinhof and updating it with information that has come to light since the end of the RAF’s reign of terror in West Germany 30 years ago. The new edition deserves attention, and not just because Anthea Bell’s deft translation preserves the dynamic, detail-rich prose that made Aust’s original read like a real-life thriller. Dense with insights into the psychology of terrorism, this history of West Germany’s struggle against RAF radicals also serves as a cautionary tale for the West in its war against the modern threat of jihadist terror.

The full review is here.

I blogged previously on the film, "Shattering Myths on Domestic Radicals: 'The Baader Meinhof Complex'."

Fausta: "Reading Sotomayor’s Thesis"

Fausta Wertz offers an interesting entry, "Reading Sotomayor’s Thesis":

I spent this rainy afternoon at Princeton’s Mudd archives ... reading Sonia Sotomayor’s 1976 senior thesis, La Historia Cíclica de Puerto Rico: The Impact of the Life of Luis Muñoz Marín on the Political and Economic History of Puerto Rico, 1930-1975.

Since I was born and raised in Puerto Rico and I am very familiar with the island’s politics in the 1970s, I thought it would be interesting to read what she had to say.

Read the whole thing, here. More at Memeorandum.

Sugar Daddy Dating

This unusual post comes courtesy of the Google ads at Three Beers Later.

Who knew that the rage in dating services is now young hotties seeking "established men" as "successful and generous benefactors to fulfill their lifestlyle needs"?

Yep, it's true, "Established Men, Where the Beautiful and Successful Meet":

San Francisco Puts Homeless Shoe-Shiner's Dreams on Hold

The San Francisco city bureaucracy provides a case study in how regulation kills the entreprenuerial economy. And in the case of Larry Moore, who's been homeless for six years, and hasn't had a drink of booze in 11 months, the city's policy is practically criminal:

Larry Moore wears a tie as he shines shoes at the corner of New Montgomery and Market.

He sleeps under a bridge, washes in a public bathroom and was panhandling for booze money 11 months ago, but now Larry Moore is the best-dressed shoeshine man in the city. When he gets up from his cardboard mattress, he puts on a coat and tie. It's a reminder of how he has turned things around.

In fact, until last week it looked like Moore was going to have saved enough money to rent a room and get off the street for the first time in six years. But then, in a breathtakingly clueless move, an official for the Department of Public Works told Moore that he has to fork over the money he saved for his first month's rent to purchase a $491 sidewalk vendor permit.

"I had $573 ready to go," Moore said, who needs $600 for the rent. "This tore that up. But I've been homeless for six years. Another six weeks isn't going to kill me."

The bureaucrat told Moore that she found out about his business after reading about his success in this paper.

Along Market Street, Moore's supporters are indignant. Nothing happens when mentally ill men wander the street talking to themselves and drunkards pee in the alleys. Yet Moore creates a little business out of thin air, builds up a client base, and the city takes nearly every penny he's earned.

Christine Falvey, spokeswoman for Public Works, said the department's contact with Moore was meant to be "educational."

"We certainly don't want to hamper anyone's ability to make a living," Falvey said. "Our education efforts are actually meant to support that effort by making our streets an enjoyable place for people to visit."

That is unlikely to mollify Moore's clients.

"Nothing like kicking someone when they are down," ranted attorney Loren Lopin, one of Moore's clients who donated $100 to help him get housing. "I am pissed."

More at the link.

Hat Tip: Memeorandum (where no leftists will touch this story with a ten-foot shoe-brush.)

Photo Credit: San Francisco Chronicle.

Neocon Reaction to Obama in Cairo

Here's Liz Cheney on President Obama's speech to the Muslim world. In 2005, Ms. Cheney was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State For Near Eastern Affairs for the George W. Bush administration. And she has been closely identified with neoconservative foreign policy:

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But check some other (generally) neoconservative voices as well:

* Abe Greenwald at Commentary, "Obama Obliges Ahmadinejad."

* Atlas Shrugs, "Obama to Ummah: "America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam" Usama: Called for "Long War Against Infidels."

* Rachel Abrams at Weekly Standard, "More Speech, In Brief."

* Dan Riehl, "Obama's Ich Bin Ein Muslim Speech."

* Max Boot at Commentary, "Obama in Cairo."

* Flopping Aces, "Obama’s Cairo Speech: So Many Apologies So Little Time."

* Peter Feaver, "Obama in Cairo - A Modest Step Forward."

* Michael Goldfarb at Weekly Standard, "A History of Violence."

* Ira Stoll at Commentary, "Awful."

* Israel Matzav, "Obama: Hamas and Hezbullah Are No Longer Terrorists," and "Obama's Moral Equivalence of the Day."

* Jennifer Rubin at Commentary, "Re: Obama in Cairo."

* Michelle Malkin, "Rainbows and Unicorns and a World Without the J-Word."

* Peter Wehner at Commentary, "The Not So Golden Mean."

* Power Line, "Obama's Cairo Speech, A First Take."

* Stephen Hayes at Weekly Standard, "The Speech."

* Debbie Schlussel, "The Obama Apologist Speech to Islam & Al-Azhar; CAIR and Faux-Conservative Ignoramus Loved the Speech."

* Yid With Lid, "How Obama's Cairo Speech Threw Israel Under the Bus."

I want to give a special shout out to Melanie Phillips, one of my favorite neocons, and her post, "Obama in Cairo":

So in conclusion, yes, there was some positive stuff in this speech – but it was outweighed by the United States President's shocking historical misrepresentations, gross ignorance, disgusting moral equivalence between aggressors and their victims, and disturbing sanitising of Islamist supremacism.

In short, deeply troubling.

I don't see anything yet from Jules Crittenden, Charles Krauthammer, or William Kristol.

Interestingly, Captian Ed thought the speech was "suprisingly good."

But for conclusive proof that Obama bombed with the neoconservative right, check Dan Frookim at the Washington Post, "Obama's Post-Neocon Appeal to Islam."

**********

UPDATE: I found Charles Krauthammer's response, "A Concoction of Canards for Cairo Crowd":

Obama says he came to Cairo to tell the truth. But he uttered not a word of that. Instead, among all the bromides and lofty sentiments, he issued but one concrete declaration of new American policy: "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," thus reinforcing the myth that Palestinian misery and statelessness are the fault of Israel and the settlements.

**********

UPDATE II: See also the lead editorial at tomorrow's Wall Street Journal, "Barack Hussein Bush."

Plus, check out Three Beers Later, "A few slight corrections, Mr. President...", and Tom the Redhunter, "President Obama's Speech to the Muslim World."

Barack "Tutankhamen" Obama Tours the Pyramids!

Via Allahpundit, "New 'Tutankhamen of the World' Visits Pyramids":

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See also, "Barack "Tutankhamen" Obama to Show Empathy for Muslim World!

Jihad Returns to America

From Robert Spencer's new essay at FrontPage Magazine:

According to a well-informed source, Carlos Leon “Corey” Bledsoe, who changed his name to Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad after he converted to Islam, is from Memphis, Tennessee. He was a student at Tennessee State University, where he majored in business. After becoming a Muslim in 2004 at the age of 19, he quit college and embarked upon a path that ultimately led him to Yemen, where another American convert to Islam, John Walker Lindh, learned Arabic and Islam before moving on to Afghanistan, where he fought alongside the Taliban and Al-Qaeda against American troops before his capture in 2002.

Muhammad went to Yemen hoping to study with a jihadist imam, Yahya Hajoori. It is not clear at this point whether he actually studied directly with Hajoori, or with one of his students. Interestingly enough, he apparently traveled to Yemen on a Somali passport, and was jailed for a time in Yemen for doing so. In light of the recent involvement of Somali immigrants to the United States in the jihad in Somalia, it is significant that Muhammad would have this passport. Apparently this and more about Muhammad did not escape the notice of American law enforcement officials: when he returned to the U.S. from Yemen, the Joint Terrorism Task Force began to investigate him. Unfortunately, he appears to have been able to stay at least one step ahead of investigators.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media and the U.S. government have given this murder very little attention. After the murder of abortionist George Tiller last week, Barack Obama expressed his sorrow and indignation, and Attorney General Eric Holder ordered U.S. Marshals to protect abortion clinic. But so far Obama has said nothing about the murder of Private William Long, and no one has made any move to protect military recruitment centers. And NBC was sadly typical in breezing past Muhammad’s motive for committing this murder, and failing to mention his religion at all. During coverage of the murder on the Today show last Tuesday, NBC’s Ann Curry said nothing about the jihad doctrine or about Muhammad’s religion at all, failed to mention his trip to Yemen, and explained the murders by saying only that Muhammad was “upset with the military.” She acknowledged that he had “political and religious motives,” but didn’t mention what his religion was – nor did she give his name. By contrast, according to Newsbusters, “both ABC and CBS mentioned the conversion and the Yemen trip.”

Some analysts have opined that Muhammad was committing what has been described as “sudden jihad syndrome” – that is, something made him snap, and his murder was unpremeditated. However, Fox News reported Tuesday night that Muhammad was not acting alone. His act was part of a larger jihad plot to attack military personnel.

This was certainly not be the first act of jihad violence on American soil, or anything approaching the most deadly. But given the inadequacies of the response of the government and the mainstream media, it will almost certainly not be the last.

The full essay is available here.

David Carradine Dies: "Kung Fu" Star Found New Audience in "Kill Bill" Role

Actor David Carradine has died. The BBC has the full report, "Kung Fu Star Carradine Found Dead." "Kung Fu" aired from 1972–1975. My parents often let me and my sisters stay up to watch the show. It was always a special occasion. I loved that program. It was so idealistic, and so different from traditional Western folklore. I especially liked David Carradine himself. He seemed to really embody the spirit of peace that was found in Kwai Chang Caine."

See also, the New York Times, and Memeorandum. Also blogging: Dan Collins and Moe Lane.

Obama's Address to the Muslim World

President Obama gave his long-awaited speech to the Muslim world yesterday.

The mainstream spin is here, "Obama Calls for Alliances With Muslims." The text of the speech is here.

Here's the video, "Our Progress Must Be Shared":

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I'll have updates on the reaction later. Meanwhile, check out Gateway Pundit, "Obama Speaks to Muslim World - Apologizes For America & Imposing Democracy." See also, Memeorandum.

Rule 5 Rescue: For the Ladies!

This is a special "reach-around" post for the ladies!

Here's my crew of bloggin' babes (in no particular order, as they're all hot!): Vinegar and Honey, Thoughts With Attitude, Kim Priestap, Five Feet of Fury, Amy Proctor, Blonde Sagacity, Great Satan's Girlfriend, Darleen Click, Fausta's Blog, Clueless Emma, Melanie Morgan, SWAC Girl, Ann Althouse, Nikki's Blog, Big Girl Pants, Maggie's Notebook, Betsy's Page, Hummers & Cigarettes, Paula in Israel, Gayle's Cyber Place, Villainous Company, Melissa Clouthier, HotMES, Little Miss Attila, Nice Deb, Vanessa's Blog, Cassy Fiano, Midnight Blue, The Anchoress, Insert Clever S.Logan Here, Dr. Sanity, Sister Toldjah, Pundit & Pundette, Pamela Geller, And So it Goes in Shreveport, No Sheeples Here!, Becky Brindle, Pondering Penguin, Right Wing Sparkle, Conservatism With Heart, Obi’s Sister, Right Truth, Gold-Plated Witch on Wheels, Natalie's Blog, The Jungle Hut, Wake Up America, and Michelle Malkin.

From the scientific journal, Evolution and Human Behavior, "Costs and Benefits of Fat-Free Muscle Mass in Men: Relationship to Mating Success, Dietary Requirements, and Native Immunity." Or, as the New Scientist puts it, "Hunks Get More Sex, But There's a Price to Pay":

Skinny men have new reason to celebrate. Well, kind of. Beefcakes may be able to attract women by rippling their muscles, but the downside of all that brawn is a poor immune system and an increased appetite, a new study finds.

Such evolutionary costs could explain why males of our species do not all look like He-Man, according to William Lassek, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who led the new study. "In some respects I was surprised at how big the costs were… something I hadn't anticipated," he says.

Many other studies have shown that women tend to prefer more toned men, and muscle-bound men tend to have more sexual partners than slender men, when other factors are controlled for.

Previous research has also suggested that musculature comes with a cost. Testosterone, a hormone that promotes secondary muscle growth, suppresses the immune system of all animals, including people.

Yet no one had examined both the positives and negatives of big muscles in a single population, says Lassek, who analysed data from more than 5000 men, aged 18 to 49, who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, between 1988 and 1994.

The beefier the man – measured by total fat-free mass, or arm and leg muscle mass – the more sexual partners he had, Lassek confirmed. The study also showed that more muscled men tended to lose their virginity at a younger age, compared to skinny men.

Ladies: Send me an e-mail, at my Blogger profile, to have your blog added to the roundup!

Photo Credit: Muscle and Fitness, "Jacked Like Jackman: Inside the Wolverine."

Democrats Don't Want "Common Ground" on Abortion

Peter Wallsten and Robin Abcarian, at the Los Angeles Times, take George Tiller's murder as an opportunity to blame conservatives for "a massive setback" on reaching an abortion compromise:

In calling last month for "common ground" on abortion, President Obama launched his search for an unlikely political sweet spot -- a popular stance on an issue that has long been dominated by extremes.

But the slaying Sunday of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller has raised the level of mistrust between the very factions that the White House has been trying to bring together.

The administration had already been struggling to soothe simmering tensions. Two days before Obama delivered his call for common ground at Notre Dame, the White House hosted a meeting of activists on both sides, and a subtle but telling disagreement over semantics arose between an Obama aide and a leading abortion foe. Now some activists say they have yet to see room for compromise.

Tiller's death is a "massive setback" in the search for common ground, said Cristina Page, a New York City author and abortion rights advocate. "It's sort of like having a family member murdered and then being asked to make nice with the assassin's family. It's unnatural."

What's really unnaturally, actually, is how pro-choice groups are welcoming Tiller's murder as the devil's kiss for their movement. The kllling gives them a darkly supernatural sense of resurgence in support of baby killings. Frankly, we could have been having this debate all year, on the merits. Instead, it's taken a diabolical gift of dread to bring the pro-choice movement back from outside the fringes of acceptable political discourse. As I noted earlier, "In truth, leftists have turned Tiller's death into a one-way superhighway to baby-killing."

Pro-choicers have eager enablers in the press, as well. Check out McClatchy's piece this morning, "Operation Rescue adviser helped Tiller suspect track doctor's court dates" (via Memeorandum).

Related: See Ken Blackwell on the left's hypocrisy, "The Blood Libel of the New York Times":

There have been murders of abortionists -- this weekend’s killing in Wichita being the most recent. There have been bombers of gay bars. Whenever such crimes have occurred, every leader of a religious conservative organization -- without exception -- has denounced the crimes. Paul Hill went to Florida’s electric chair for murdering an abortionist. There was no voice of sympathy raised for him. Nor should there have been. Eric Robert Rudolph sits in federal prison for bombing an abortion facility and a gay bar. There are no appeals for clemency for him. Nor should there be.

The same cannot be said of the liberal elites. Bombers Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are lionized by liberals -- and they host future presidents in their home. They remain unrepentant for their crimes.

National Review also writes on the partisan reaction, indicating why renunciation of violence on the pro-life side is essential, "Murder Most Foul":

Almost everyone who calls himself a pro-lifer has condemned Roeder’s evil. All pro-lifers should make it clear that those who take up the gun, or tolerate it, have no place in their movement. Our only weapons should be persuasion, law, and prayer.

As we can see, in contrast to the radical abortion lobby, conservatives are taking the high ground in the aftermath of Tiller's death

Megyn Kelly Hammers Socialist Bernie Sanders on Single-Payer Health!

Via Gateway Pundit, "Megyn Kelly Shouts Down Bernie Sanders On Dem-Only Nationalized Health Care Plan":

Gateway Pundit adds this:

Megyn Kelly and Bill Hemmer reported on the Democrat-only meeting held yesterday with President Obama on nationalized health care. Dems want to ram this trillion dollar boondoggle through Congress before the August recess.

Like the Stimulus Bill, this will be another Democratic bill. They are excluding Republicans from the process. Then later they'll blame the GOP for not offering any ideas. And, the media will continue to play right along with their liberal cohorts in Congress.

That's how things work these days.

See more on the health debate at the Wall Street Journal, "Why the Health Care Rush? Democrats don't think their bill can stand public inspection."

See also the thread at Memeorandum.

Is Waterboarding Worse Than Abortion?

Check out Conor Friedersdorf and his essay, "A Question for War on Terror Hawks."

Friedersdorf basically equates the actions of one lone wacko with those of an international terrorist network that's responsible for the 9/11 attacks, as well as a number of other terrorist atrocities around the world in recent decades.

Why such equivalence? Friedersdorf wonders what the reaction would be had President Obama "declared two or three of these extremist pro-lifers" as enemy combatants? "Should President Obama have the prerogative to order the waterboarding of these uncharged, untried detainees?"

Folks can read the whole thing for a sense of Friederdorf's total unseriousness. But my friend Jan at Vinegar and Honey has written along these lines in her post, "It Will Never Make Sense To Me." Jan compares waterboarding and late-term abortions. Maybe Mr. Friedersdorf might like to respond to her questions:

There has been much discussion about the pros and cons of "water boarding" and whether or not it constitutes "torture." Also, of great concern are the "rights" of the recipients of the water boarding technique.

I know what the word "torture" means, as defined by a dictionary, and I know what the word conjures up in my own mind. What I really don't understand is what the difference might be if a "terrorist" is tortured by the water boarding method, as compared to an abortion, and especially, a partial-birth abortion performed on an innocent fetus, in terms of suffering.

Maybe what I'm really trying to reconcile in my own mind, is how the opponents of water boarding, who vehemently protest the cruelty of it, and diligently pursue "justice" and "protection of civil rights" for the recipients of it, justify the pain and suffering endured by the innocents who have done nothing, but are tortured in the most inhumane way during an abortion--while at the same time loudly protesting the mistreatment of some very bad people intent on killing us, one and all.I looked up a few things about both subjects. Perhaps, you will tell me what you think, after we compare the two.

Water Boarding

Water boarding as it is currently described involves strapping a person to an inclined board, with his feet raised and his head lowered. The interrogators bind the person's arms and legs so he can't move at all, and they cover his face. In some descriptions, the person is gagged, and some sort of cloth covers his nose and mouth; in others, his face is wrapped in cellophane. The interrogator then repeatedly pours water onto the person's face. Depending on the exact setup, the water may or may not actually get into the person's mouth and nose; but the physical experience of being underneath a wave of water seems to be secondary to the psychological experience. The person's mind believes he is drowning, and his gag reflex kicks in as if he were choking on all that water falling on his face.

Pain In The Unborn

“The neural pathways are present for pain to be experienced quite early by unborn babies.”– Steven Calvin, perinatologist, University of Minnesota.

An unborn child at 20 weeks gestation “is fully capable of experiencing pain... Without question, [abortion] is a dreadfully painful experience for any infant subjected to such a surgical procedure.”– Robert J. White, MD., Ph.D. professor of neurosurgery, Case Western Reserve University.

“At 20 weeks, the fetal brain has the full complement of brain cells present in adulthood, ready and waiting to receive pain signals from the body, and their electrical activity can be be recorded by standard electroencephalography (EEG)”– Dr. Paul Ranalli, neurologist, University of Toronto.

An unborn child has less legal protection from feeling pain than commercial livestock.

In a slaughterhouse, a method of slaughter is deemed legally humane only if “all animals are rendered insensible to pain by a single blow or gunshot or an electrical,chemical, or other means that is rapid and effective, before being shackled, hoisted,thrown, cast, or cut.” (Section 2 of the Humane Slaughter Act, 7 USC 1902).

By contrast, D&E abortions, performed as late as 24 weeks (well after the child begins to feel pain), involve the dismemberment of the unborn child by a pair of sharp metal forceps.(9) Instillation methods of abortion (performed even in the third trimester) involve the replacement of up to one cup of amniotic fluid with a concentrated salt solution, which the unborn child inhales as the salt burns her skin.The child lives in this condition for up to an hour. In neither of these techniques is the unborn child provided with any form of anesthesia(1013)http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/FetalPain091604.pdf.

Robert George writes in his essay, "Obama and His Pro-Life Apologists," something rather thought-provoking: President Obama knows that an unborn baby is human. He knows that the blood shed by the abortionist’s knife is human blood, that the bones broken are human bones. He does not deny that the baby whom nurse Jill Stanek discovered gasping for breath in a soiled linen bin after a failed attempt to end her life by abortion, was a human baby. Even in opposing the Illinois Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which was designed to assure that such babies were rescued if possible or at least given comfort care while they died, Barack Obama did not deny the humanity of the child. What he denied, and continues to deny, is the fundamental equality of that child—equality with those of us who are safely born and accepted into the human community."

The sad part of all of this, is that the President is not the only one who persists in defending the rights of the women who choose to abort, and the abortionists, but sadder, still, is the fact that they all put more value on the well-being, and lives of a terrorist, than they do on an innocent little child who has no one to come to his defense as a human being with the right to live.

Is water boarding worse than being burned alive, poisoned, or torn to pieces?

From Vinegar and Honey, "It Will Never Make Sense To Me."

Is NBC News Complicit in the Murder of Private Long?

Bill O'Reilly is being blamed for George Tiller's murder.

I'd say this is hard to believe, but that's what we get with a predominantly left-wing news media. On O'Reilly took on NBC in response to the allegations. Here's O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" from last night. He asks, "Is NBC News complicit in the murder of Private Long?" Well, no: "Didn't NBC News incite Mr. Muhammed to kill the soldier?The answer is no... the killer is a loon. The media had nothing to do with it... that's the truth. However, Private Long's situation will not be heavily debated on NBC News, because they are not much interested in the truth." Watch the video:

It turns out that yesterday's New York Times jumped on the blame-O'Reilly bandwagon, "Doctor’s Killer Is Not Alone in the Blame, Some Say." And as I've already noted, Tiller's death is having the effect of emboldening those who want to kill more babies.

A strange world ...

Rule 5 Rescue: Hot Latvian Blondes!

Man, I've got to give a big shout-out to JammieWearingFool! The guy's on fire with some hot Rule 5 blogging.

He's got an entry today on Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and local KTLA-TV news reporter Lu Parker. Says Jammie: The mayor "is schtupping yet another local newscaster." But I'd be remiss if I did without some of these hot Latvian blondes!

See, "Positive Energy: Blonde Parade Lifts Spirits in Gloomy Latvia."

This is also a chance to thank all my blogging buddies for their "reach-around" blogging: Ann Althouse, The Blog Prof, The Classical Liberal, Dana at CSPT, Dan Collins, Dan Riehl, The Daley Gator, Fausta, Fishersville Mike, Gateway Pundit, Generation Patriot, Glenn Reynolds, Jimmie Bise, Little Miss Attila, Moe Lane, Monique Stuart, No Sheeples Here!, Pamela Geller, Pirate's Cove, Private Pigg, Pundit & Pundette, The Rhetorican, Right Wing News, R.S. McCain, Saber Point, Stop the ACLU, Suzanna Logan, TrogloPundit, and William Jacobson.

Just send me an e-mail if I've left you off the roundup!