Ta-Nehisi Coates' Insidious, Invidious 'Case for Reparations'

I have not read the article at the Atlantic, "The Case for Reparations."

According to William Jacobson, it's a 15,000 word essay, and frankly wading through it doesn't seem like an enjoyable prospect. Perhaps I'll read it at the newsstand.

Meanwhile, I have watched this video, an interview with Bill Moyers:



What strikes me about Coates is his infantile psychology. He clearly has no compelling answer to the question of black progress in America. If the United States is so implacably racist, if we are doomed (damned) to perpetual white supremacy, how is it possible that Barack Obama could have become president of the United States? Or, how is it possible that Oprah Winfrey could have become perhaps the most powerful woman in the television industry at one time? How is it possible that over the past 50 years we've had a consistent and compelling story of the expansion of a large and prosperous black middle class? How is it possible that the entertainment industry today -- from music to films -- is filled with prominent and influential black leaders?

Are we where we need to be? Definitely not. But to constantly harp on this point that America is not discussing race at a "deep" level is nothing but a despicable lie. And it's a lie that's perpetuated by America-hating hypocrites like Bill Moyers. If anyone should appreciate and understand our progress on race relations it's Bill Moyers. He was President Lyndon Johnson's press secretary. Johnson was the civil rights president. He took the case to the nation that "we will overcome." He made the case to the nation that we can't "take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, 'you are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe that you have been completely fair."

They're shameless, inveterate liars.

Ta-Nehisi Coates' whole existence is a lie. He's a walking ball of contradictions and deceit. A contributing writer at the Atlantic Monthly, he's a regular columnist at the New York Times who turned down a permanent job at that newspaper. And he also just completed a "dazzling two years" as the MLK Visiting Scholar in Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Really? I mean really?!! America is so racist, America is so supremacist, that there must have been some kind of mistake made somewhere to give this black man all the benchmarks of a highly successful if not privileged life. I mean blow me down! How is that possible? Does Ta-Nehisi need even more "reparations" to elevate him to an even higher level of success and prestige in American life? The self-conscious psychological denial here is practically violent. It's obtrusive and obstreperous. It's assaulting my sense of decency and propriety. Seriously. I mean who will now have to pay this "case for reparations" proposed by this walking shell of far-left hypocrisy? This hulk of hatred who looks at any white person as a ghost of the Klan?

He's evil. And Bill Moyers is evil. They're evil not just for their lies --- epic, hateful historical lies --- they're evil for the statist, collectivist, redistributionist order that they're working diabolically to impose over our nation's model of equality of opportunity. No level of civil rights progress is enough, because there's no level of social and economic equality that's good enough for the radical left. The fact is freedom has to be abolished in the name of equality. That's the endgame. For when everyone is equal --- when you abolish this ever present system of white supremacy --- no one will be free. Everyone will be crushed under the jackboot of leftist egalitarianism.

That's why I'm not interested in wading through this long, long piece at the Atlantic. It's not like I've haven't heard it before. All we ever hear about these days is "racism" and "diversity" and "white privilege" and "ethnic appropriation" and ... well the list goes on. The American dream is alive and well for any American to seek it and enjoy its blessings. There remains poverty not because of intractable racism but because the left has an investment in perpetuating an underclass. The Democrat Party has an investment in racial failure, for when racism recedes from the spotlight, the party's reason d'etre evaporates. Unfortunately, the left has been marching through the institutions of power and everyday Americans are being blindsided by a Gramscian Marxian collectivist order designed to break American exceptionalism and replace it with an endless regime of racist victimology. And the real racists are those now running these institutions. Look at any public school system in America today, and when you see diversity initiatives what lies beneath is totalitarianism.

The "case for reparations" is just recycled race-baiting far-left hatred and recrimination. Ta-Nehisi Coates is a mountebank and a huckster. Any decent conservative with half a brain would eat him alive. His only response would to scream racism in the desperate hope of preserving his insidious, invidious reparations scam.

'Dr. Monica Wehby presents a very big problem for #Democrats...'

From Dan Calabrese, at Best of Cain, "Democrats' war on women: The character assassination of Dr. Monica Wehby."

Will Ferrell vs. Chad Smith Drum-Off

Via Louise Mensch:

“Do you play for the Luke Warm Chili Peppers?” Will Ferrell v. Chad Smith in awesome drum-off: http://t.co/o06aZlz93m pic.twitter.com/W0I9OEQH3e

— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) May 23, 2014

So this happened... http://t.co/7HVJcFe7jn pic.twitter.com/bKWr5iEOze

— Kerrang! Magazine (@KerrangMagazine) May 23, 2014

Click through at Mashable for the video.

The 'Little Pink Pill' for Female Sexual Dysfunction

This is interesting, at ABC News, "'Little Pink Pill' for Women Sparks Big Sexism Controversy."

Surge by UKIP Throws British Labour Into Crisis

At Telegraph UK, "Surge by Ukip throws Labour into crisis for general election":

Ed Miliband's hopes of winning 2015 general election severely undermined by Nigel Farage's success in the local elections.

Ed Miliband's hopes of winning next year’s general election were seriously undermined by the UK Independence Party’s surge in the local and European elections on Friday.

Nigel Farage proclaimed that Ukip had become a “serious player” in British politics after it managed to win council seats in traditional Labour strongholds – and areas which Mr Miliband must secure if he is to become prime minister.

Previously, Ukip’s major advances had largely been at the expense of the Conservatives, who also continued to suffer in the latest polls.

The development saw Labour MPs openly attacking their leader with members of the shadow cabinet at odds over how to counter the emerging Ukip threat.

More at the Independent UK, "Local elections 2014: Ukip makes major gains as Labour takes Tory flagship Hammersmith and Fulham."

RELATED: At Cambrian Dissenters, "EU Election Earthquake - Tribal Voters Need Help to Cross the Rubicon," and the Mellow Jihadi, "The socialist dragon that must be slain!"

Bar Refaeli Wicked Hot for Spain's Elle Magazine

At Egotastic!, "Bar Refaeli Covered Topless and Just Wicked Wicked Hot in Elle Spain."

Vincent Harding Dies: Advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr., Wrote Anti-American Speech Attacking the Vietnam War

At the Los Angeles Times, "Vincent Harding dies at 82; historian wrote controversial King speech":

Exactly a year before the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down in Memphis, he delivered a speech that alienated ordinarily sympathetic politicians, liberal commentators and even some of his fellow leaders in the civil rights movement.

In a blistering address at Riverside Church in New York City, King denounced the Vietnam War, likened U.S. bombings to Nazi atrocities, and called for unilateral withdrawal. The problems eroding America, he said, were "the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism," and as a Christian, he had to "speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation."

King advisor Vincent G. Harding, a historian and lay minister who wrote what is said to be the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's most controversial address, died Monday in a Philadelphia hospital from the effects of a heart aneurysm, according to the University of Denver's Iliff School of Theology, where Harding taught for many years. He was 82.

Years after King's April 4, 1967, speech, Harding recalled its explosive reverberations. Other black leaders, he said, were concerned about offending President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had pushed through landmark advances in civil rights.

"All the keepers of the conventional wisdom, especially in the New York Times and the Washington Post, simply vilified and condemned Martin," he said in a 2007 interview with Sojourners magazine. "They spoke about the fact that he had done ill service, not only to his country, but to 'his people'."

The Riverside speech — known as "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" — was pilloried by 168 newspapers, said commentator Tavis Smiley, who produced an hourlong PBS special on it in 2010.

It "led to the demonization of King," Smiley told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution that year. "The speech caused black leaders to turn against him. It got him disinvited by LBJ to the White House. He couldn't get a book deal. It's fascinating, given the adulation and adoration we have for MLK today." ...

In 1965, Harding, then chair of the history and sociology department at Atlanta's Spelman College, wrote an open letter about Vietnam to King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

"I raised the question as to whether or not we could, in conscience, keep still about what was going on in Vietnam," Harding recalled in 2007, describing the war's origin as an "anti-colonial struggle."

King and other black leaders wrestled with the question for two years.

"Down deep within all of it," Harding said, "was America's racist attitude, which essentially said, 'It's all right, King, for you to talk about colored things but, when it comes to foreign policies, that's our business. We really don't want to hear anything from you about it because that's our business."

More.

Shoot, Noam Chomsky would have had nothing on MLK's anti-Americanism. Indeed, Life Magazine denounced King at the time, calling the Riverside speech "a demogogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi."

Frankly, I never liked MLK's views on Vietnam, and the record here tarnishes an otherwise noble legacy on civil rights. Clearly, those who then attacked MLK as a tool of global Communism were on firm ground when they referenced Dr. King's bankrupt anti-Americanism on Vietnam.

At the video, Vincent Harding is interviewed by Tavis Smiley, and notice how the far-left '60s radicalism bleeds through. These are the kind of people who have destroyed the moral firmament of America. They have created a cut-and-run ideology in which America is always questioning the rightness of its cause. Tavis Smiley himself has compared Vietnam to Afghanistan, a move besmirching American national security policy and the war on terror as a "racist imperialist paradigm." In short, what people thought was the extreme radicalism of MLK in the 1960s has become the mainstream of the Democrat Party left today. It's a shame that we're not honest enough as a nation to recognize the roots of treasonous national destruction in the coterie of advisers, speechmakers and friends who influenced the 20th century's greatest leader on civil rights.

Thomas Piketty Cooked the Data in 'Capital in the Twenty-First Century'

Well, what do we have here?

At Legal Insurrection, "Report: Thomas Piketty’s numbers are off."

They're "off" --- to say the least. Shoot, they're "manufactured" is probably closer to the truth.

At Instapundit, "LEFTY WISH-FULFILLMENT BOOK ALL FAKED-UP? THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE. The Financial Times Isn’t Just Saying Piketty Made A Mistake — They’re Saying He Manipulated Data."

Piketty admits he made "some improvements" in the data:

The central theme of Prof Piketty’s work is that wealth inequalities are heading back up to levels last seen before the first world war. The investigation undercuts this claim, indicating there is little evidence in Prof Piketty’s original sources to bear out the thesis that an increasing share of total wealth is held by the richest few.

Prof Piketty, 43, provides detailed sourcing for his estimates of wealth inequality in Europe and the US over the past 200 years. In his spreadsheets, however, there are transcription errors from the original sources and incorrect formulas. It also appears that some of the data are cherry-picked or constructed without an original source.

Contacted by the FT, Prof Piketty said he had used “a very diverse and heterogeneous set of data sources ... [on which] one needs to make a number of adjustments to the raw data sources.

“I have no doubt that my historical data series can be improved and will be improved in the future ... but I would be very surprised if any of the substantive conclusion about the long-run evolution of wealth distributions was much affected by these improvements,” he said.

Right.

I'd be "very surprised" if the rest of his flimflam socialist tome doesn't keep falling apart at the seams.



More from Erika Johnson, at Hot Air, "Financial Times: We’ve found some, ahem, “serious inconsistencies” in Thomas Piketty’s numbers." And at Memeorandum.

13 Ukraine Troops Killed in Rebel Attack Near Donetsk

I saw this photo online yesterday. The hand sticking out from under the blanket is so grim.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Pro-Russia militants wage deadly offensive as Ukraine election nears."

Michelle Knight Discussing 10-Year California Abduction: 'I need a break! I need a break!!'

Very emotional, at London's Daily Mail, "'I am here for you...': Michelle Knight sobs as she defends California 'kidnap victim' accused of exaggerating story."

She frantically waves off the camera, "I need a break!"

Watch it at CNN, "Stop doubting California woman on kidnapping, Michelle Knight says."



And at yesterday's Los Angeles Times, "Neighbors in disbelief over decade-old Santa Ana kidnapping," and "Santa Ana kidnapping case sparked by domestic violence report."

Also, "Man kidnapped, raped, held girl for 10 years, police say."

Investigative Project on Terrorism Places Full-Page Ad in the New York Times

Had some leftist heads exploding too, lol.

I saw the ad online yesterday while teaching. Didn't have much time to dwell on it and click through, but I thought, "Well, good for them."

See, "STILL HERE. STILL FREE. BUT FOR HOW LONG?" (Via Debra Burlingame.)



And Raya Jalabi is not happy, at the Guardian, "Why would the New York Times stoop to running an Islamophobe's ad?"

And from the "unrelenting" Israel-hater Richard Silverstein, "NY Times Publishes Steve Emerson Full-Page Islamophobic Ads."

Added: From Blazing Cat Fur, "More Muslim whining: New York Times publishes Islamophobic ad by anti-Islam group."

GoPro Video of Kevin Richardson, the 'Lion Whisperer'

I've never seen this, despite the video being viewed over 15 million times on YouTube.

Via Debra Burlingame.



RELATED: At ABC News, "1-Minute Video Shows Why GoPro's IPO May Be Hot."

'So why does Amanda Marcotte have this homicidal impulse, this horrifying hatred of the mere thought of having babies?'

Well, she's not normal, for one thing. But then again, radical progressivism isn't normal, so chalk it up to ideological disease.

At the Other McCain, "‘Trigger Warning’: How Feminism Promotes Harmful Stereotypes."

BONUS: Here's Murderin' Mandy's latest screed at Salon, "How right-wingers are amping up their war on science."

Because "scientific" leftists are all about protecting the global environment by killing more babies.

Socially 'Progressive' Norway Brings Back Racist 'Human Zoos'

Norway is the model country for social progressivism, which of course explains why folks there are bringing back the racist Kongoslandsbyen ("Congo Village"), apparently to widespread enthusiasm.

At Global Post, "Norway reopens racist 'human zoo' to remind people about racism":

Two artists have recreated a “human zoo” in Oslo, just in time for the 200th anniversary of Norway’s constitution. The project is modeled after an actual historical event — a really, really racist one — and not surprisingly, it’s generated a lot of controversy.

The “Congo Village,” or Kongoslandsbyen, was a fake tribal village built in Frogner Park for the 1914 Oslo World Fair. Visitors could pay to gawk at 80 African men, women and children — apparently Congolese — living in thatched huts, wearing traditional garments and doing “indigenous” things.

In just five months it attracted 1.4 million visitors, or roughly half the population of Norway. A newspaper at the time described it as “exceedingly funny” while another enthused, “it’s wonderful that we are white!”

Today a “human zoo” is nearly unthinkable. Which is exactly why Norwegian-Sudanese artist Mohamed Ali Fadlabi and Swedish-Canadian artist Lars Cuznor decided to rebuild one. To their surprise, very few Norwegians seemed to know about this aspect of Norway’s history.

Cuznor and Fadlabi felt that rebuilding the Congo Village was a way to spark discussion about colonialism, racism and equality in Norway. They secured co-funding from the Norwegian government and recruited international volunteers (of all races) to perform in the fake village.

The resulting display, called “European Attraction Limited,” is meant to challenge Nordic beliefs of moral superiority by confronting visitors with evidence of Norway’s racist past.

“Norwegians have been propagating this self-image of a post-racial society and it's been internalized that it's a good, tolerant society,” Cuznor told Reuters. “It's great branding and it’s self-perpetuating but it's a false image.”

But not everyone’s a fan. As Ugandan academic Bwesigye bwa Mwesigire wrote for The Guardian, “human zoos” were common in Belgium, Germany, France and the United States and depicted Africans (and other non-western peoples) as “uncivilised, primitive and animistic.” This helped justify colonial policies while providing Europeans with crude entertainment.

Bwa Mwesigire adds, “We are not in a post-racial world. Fadlabi and Cuzner can’t exonerate themselves because they mean well. Indeed, if they are serious about creating discussions of racism they ought to think deeper about the likelihood that their project may entrench the same prejudices they claim to fight.”

And Muauke B. Munfocol, a DRC-born Norwegian, questions the decision of the Norwegian government to sponsor a human zoo, rather than put its money toward more constructive forms of dialogue...

Right.

Human zoos were common 100 years ago, but for some reason the socialist paradise Norway decides to bring them back? So hateful. So typically regressive.

Leftism is a disease. Racist, imperialist, and fundamentally evil. As much as I admire the Scandinavian countries, stories like this remind us always --- always --- that nothing impedes human improvement like the statist abomination of far-left leftist regressivism.

2014 Vans Pool Party

One of my buddies scored me a ticket, but not one for my youngest son --- and there's no way I was going without my kid. Maybe next year.

At Trans-World Skateboarding, "VANS POOL PARTY MASTERS & LEGENDS."

The Masters dudes are my generation. I skated with all these cats, some of them in their mid-fifties today. Chris Miller was ripping it as if he wasn't a day over 18. Amazing.



More video, "Vans Pool Party 2014 Finals," and "Vans Pool Party 2014 Highlights."

And at Thrasher Magazine, "Vans Pool Party 2014 Photos."

U.S. Climber Survives 70-Foot Fall Into Mountain Crevasse in Himalayas

The dude was all busted up.

At London's Daily Mail, "The moment climber found himself trapped inside Himalayan crevasse: Terrifying video shows US professor seriously injured in 70-foot fall."

And CBS News: "American rescued after surviving fall in Himalayas."

Al Qaeda Terrorists at Guantanamo Treated Better Than Our Vets

At Astute Bloggers, "HEADLINE OF THE YEAR."

That is pretty good, heh. Brutal even.

Added: Here's the video: "Report: Gitmo Terrorists Receive Better Medical Care Than US Veterans."

Sherpas and Mount Everest

At WSJ, "Death at 19,000 Feet: Sherpas, Fate and the Dangerous Business of Everest."

Paul McCartney Hospitalized in Tokyo

He's going to be okay.

At USA Today, "Paul McCartney expected to make 'complete recovery'."

Everybody Beat Up on Ezra Klein Day

Almost like "Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day."

It's not quite that big a blog burst for Ezra Klein, but not bad, not bad.

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary, "Bad History: Vox and Alexander Hamilton."

And from Ron Fournier, at National Journal, "How Obama Became the Superhero of Excuses."

Pretty good so far. Plus, we had Althouse beating up on the baby Ezra yesterday.

Maybe it's the beginning of a trend lol?

Admiral William McRaven University of Texas Commencement Speech

It's the University of Texas at Austin.

Via Erika Johnsen, at Hot Air, "Video: Admiral McRaven’s top ten tips for college graduates":

Through the prism of Navy SEAL training, a.k.a. ultimate badassery, Admiral William McRaven offered a few words of wisdom to University of Texas graduates earlier this week:

And boy, check the whining at the comments there. Too long a video to give a listen? Ironically exactly opposite of Admiral McRaven's message.

Added: More from Linkmaster Smith, "Adm. McRaven: Mandatory Palate Cleanser."

Sabine Jemeljanova and India Reynolds

Two of my favorite British lovelies.

At Egotastic!, "Sabine Jemeljanova Dives Into Battle with India Reynolds."

Depraved Leftists Run Interference for Obama on #VeteransAdministration

The depraved left rallies to protect the scandal plagued White House, at the O'Reilly Factor:




PREVIOUSLY: "Anatomy of a Scandal — #VAScandal #VeteransAdministration," and "When Leftists Cheered the Veterans Administration."

When Leftists Cheered the Veterans Administration

From James Taranto, "Socialist Supermodel: Not long ago, the left raved about the VA" (at Memorandum).

Man, that's a brutal takedown of the idiot leftists, especially far-left hypocrite Paul Krugman.

BONUS: From Matthew Vadum, at the American Spectator, "OBAMA’S VA DEATH PANELS = YOUR FUTURE UNDER OBAMACARE."

The Real Reasons GOP Insurgents Are Losing the Primaries

A little different spin than what you're getting from most the mainstream source, including PBS talking heads at the clip.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Tea Party Agonistes" (via Google):

The media's latest political line is that the Republican establishment has finally crushed the tea party. The truth, as usual, is more interesting. The tea party has already changed the GOP on policy, and mostly for the better, but it is suffering this year because the candidates and operatives acting in its name have been motivated more by personal than policy agendas. That's a shame because the GOP needs the tea party to prevent it from lapsing back into the do-little caucus of the George W. Bush-Tom DeLay years.

Marco Rubio (Fla.), Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Pat Toomey (Pa.)—those are three Senators elected with tea party support in 2010. Yet they are now part of the Senate GOP mainstream, tugging the conference in a more reform direction. So is Rand Paul on domestic policy. And don't forget New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte, who breaks with Mr. Paul on foreign policy but is making her mark as one of the Senate's smarter young conservatives.

These Senators won with the help of the tea party wave in 2010, but they also won because they were men and women of accomplishment. The tea party rode these candidates as much as they rode the tea party.

Now consider Matt Bevin, Greg Brannon and Steve Stockman. They are among the tea party champions this year who have lost by large margins in GOP Senate primaries. They didn't lose because the GOP primary electorate has suddenly been captured by "moderates," or some mythical establishment in the Burning Tree locker room.

They lost because they were inferior candidates who differed little from their GOP opponents on policy but seemed less capable of winning in November. GOP voters sensibly opted for the conservatives with the better chance to retake the Senate from Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer.

Far more than 2010, the tea party this year has also been hijacked by Washington-based groups that have personal axes to grind. That's especially true in Kentucky, where a cabal of former aides to former Senator Jim DeMint force-fed Mr. Bevin's challenge to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

This wasn't about policy business; it was strictly personal revenge to oust Mr. McConnell as leader and establish the Senate Conservatives Fund, FreedomWorks, RedState and certain talking radio heads as the main GOP power brokers. Mr. Bevin was a weak candidate who attacked Mr. McConnell for supporting the 2008 bank rescue only to have supported it himself while he was in private business. On Tuesday he got about 36% of the vote.

More.

Shailene Woodley Says 'No' to Lesbian Revolutionary Feminism — #RadFem

At the New York Times, "Who Is a Feminist Now?":

In a recent interview with Time magazine, the actress Shailene Woodley was asked if she considered herself a feminist.

“No,” said Ms. Woodley, 22. “Because I love men, and I think the idea of ‘raise women to power, take the men away from the power’ is never going to work out because you need balance.”

It was a somewhat surprising response from an actress known for portraying strong-willed women in films like “The Spectacular Now,” “Divergent” and “The Fault in Our Stars,” to be released soon.

“She’s hardworking and talented, and the fact that she can open a movie is feminism in action,” said Melissa Stack, a screenwriter who wrote “The Other Woman” (a film Ms. Woodley called “really neat” in Time for “creating a sisterhood of support for one another versus hating each other”).

Ms. Woodley has a reputation for being outspoken about environmental causes and has aired her support in numerous interviews. But the online backlash to her comment about feminism came quickly.

Jennifer Weiner, 44, a novelist, took to Twitter to write, “Dear Young Actresses: Before you sound off on feminists and how you’re not one, please figure out what feminism is.” Zerlina Maxwell, 32, a political analyst, chimed in with, “Here’s another actress rejecting a feminist label she can’t define properly.”

Open letters addressed to Ms. Woodley showed up on The Huffington Post and on YouTube.

“My reaction was, ‘Oh, no, not again’,” said Sarah Marian Seltzer, 31, who wrote one such retort, “Dear Shailene Woodley,” for the website the Hairpin. “There is this pattern of celebrities immediately saying, ‘No, I’m not a feminist, I love men,’ and there’s not a chance for a follow-up learning experience for anyone.”

Ms. Woodley’s age is a likely factor in her distance, said Leonora Epstein, 28, who co-wrote the generational guide “X vs. Y: A Culture War, a Love Story.” Ms. Epstein said that, “She’s technically a millennial, but a young one, and it makes me wonder if they grew up with less oppression, and therefore never felt they needed a tool like feminism to fight or empower.” ...

Isn't this classic? All the so-called "genuine" feminists attacking Ms. Woodley because she refuses to endorse the PC definition of feminism as infinite oppression. That, and of course Ms. Woodley rejects "PIV is always rape." In other words, she's not a lesbian revolutionary socialist.

More here, in any case.

And at the Other McCain, "Anonymous, Paranoid and Unverifiable: Radical Feminism’s Anti-PIV Madness."

Nancy Pelosi and the #Democrat Party Now Resorting to Vile, Anti-Semitic Imagery to Attack Private Citizens

At Director Blue.

Pelosi Forgets Linda Sanchez's Committee Assignments During #Benghazi Announcement

At the Washington Free Beacon.

Pelosi should retire, the old bag.

Also at Politico, "Nancy Pelosi names Democrats for Benghazi panel."

Anatomy of a Scandal — #VAScandal #VeteransAdministration

At Politico, "Anatomy of a Veterans’ Affairs scandal":

It began in 2012 when scattered reports of mismanagement at VA hospitals started to emerge across the country, from vets contracting Legionnaires disease at a VA hospital in Pittsburgh to the deaths of several vets after an Atlanta VA hospital lost track of patients to a November 2013 report on CNN that the nation’s soldiers were dying in a Columbia, S.C., VA hospital as they waited for routine gastrointestinal tests.

But the scandal occupying Obama and Congress today first came to light, albeit unnoticed by the national press, in December last year, when Dr. Sam Foote, a doctor of internal medicine at the Phoenix VA, retired and began meeting with Arizona Republic reporter Dennis Wagner with detailed allegations that patients were placed on a secret waiting list and several died while awaiting care.

Foote also sent letters in February to Rep Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) Sen. John McCain, (R-Ariz.) Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, (D-Ariz.) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, according to the Arizona Republic.

On April 9, Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, attempted to nudge the issue into the spotlight when he held a hearing and said that his investigators had evidence the Phoenix VA kept two sets of records in order to conceal prolonged waits for appointments - a fake set to show timely care and real records reflecting the appalling delays.

The following day on April 10, the Arizona Republic published a report detailing Foote’s allegations, along with the moving story of a 71-year-old Navy veteran Thomas Breen who died of bladder cancer after repeated attempts by he and his family to schedule an appointment at the hospital.

“They (administrators) just don’t respect any rules at all,” Foote told the Republic. “They just don’t care. … They beat me to the ground. I retired just exactly so I could do this.”

McCain and Jeff Flake quickly added more fuel to the fire by releasing a joint statement calling for a Senate investigation. But the story remained a local one.

Veterans groups, however, began to step up the pressure. On April 16, Concerned Veterans for America organized a protest in Phoenix about the VA problems that drew 150 people, according to the Republic.

Then, on April 23, CNN aired a bombshell report on the Phoenix VA called “A Fatal Wait” by the investigative team led by Griffin. The broadcast revealed internal e-mails showing that top management at the hospital in Arizona knew about the practice of shredding evidence of veterans requesting appointments to make it seem as though the waiting times were shorter.

“Drew Griffin and his team have been persistent in their reporting on, and digging into, the VA scandal for over a year now, and their pieces have found a home on AC360 as part of the Keeping them Honest franchise,” CNN President Jeff Zucker said in a statement to POLITICO. “This story is one of many great pieces coming out of our investigative unit, and it demonstrates the breadth of reporting CNN is capable of; we are glad this story has gotten the national attention – and action - our vets deserve.”

Keep reading.

Sarah Palin Slams the Left's Disgusting Double Standards — #WarOnWomen

A great interview from last night's Hannity:

Ann Coulter Defends Pat Sajak's Global Warming Tweet

Background at Twitchy, "Pat Sajak trolling the Left was a thing of beauty," and "Pat Sajak has global warming alarmists figured out … sort of."

Here's the Google link to the left's overblown response.

And Brianna Keilar has the interview:

Fully Automatic Wolverine Claws

Heh, this is cool.

At TechCrunch, "Crazy Dude Builds Fully Automatic Wolverine Claws In His Garage."

North Carolina #Democrat Clay Aiken Wanted to Punch Ann Coulter in the Face

Stay classy Dems.

At Sooper Mexican, "War On Women!! Guess Which Democrat Candidate Deleted a Tweet Saying He Wanted to Punch the Face of a Conservative Woman!!"

Aiken's already a longshot. But this pickup by Sooper Mexican could help deflate the hateful Democrat's campaign before it even takes off.

More at Memeorandum.

The #NBA Makes Its Case Against #DonaldSterling

The dramatic front-page story at today's Los Angeles Times, "NBA makes its case against Clippers owner Donald Sterling."

This morning's @LATimes hard copy. #DonaldSterling. #NBA pic.twitter.com/DlrKh9N9GC

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 21, 2014

More, "NBA confident about its case against Donald Sterling," and "NBA alleges Sterling-led Clippers tried to cover up scandal."

Republicans Beat Back Tea Party Challengers

I helped my kid with homework last night and also prepped for today's international relations class. So I'm still getting up to speed on the election results from yesterday.

But here's USA Today, "Tea Party challengers fall short in primaries":

Sen. Mitch McConnell decisively shut down a primary challenge to his 30-year tenure as the Republican choice for Senate in Kentucky. The Associated Press called the race for McConnell minutes after the last polls closed in the state Tuesday evening.

McConnell's primary victory over businessman and Tea Party challenger Matt Bevin was one of several for the mainstream GOP Tuesday in primary races around the country that have at times suggested the party is at war with itself. In Georgia, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Idaho, Tea Party-backed candidates also lost to establishment favorites.

McConnell raised more than twice as much money as Bevin, which he used to hammer his rival with attack ads. He also got a boost from his Kentucky colleague Sen. Rand Paul, also a Tea Party favorite.

Even before Tuesday's voting, McConnell's campaign had turned its focus to well-funded Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes. Grimes, Kentucky's secretary of State, won her primary Tuesday with little opposition.

McConnell will need to bring Bevin's supporters into his fold as he takes on Grimes, says political scientist Ernest Yanarella of the University of Kentucky. "I suspect the Tea Party may prove to be sore losers. They could very well just sit out the Senate election itself and that would certainly be bad news for him." ...

In a crowded field in the Georgia Republican Senate primary, businessman David Perdue and U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston advanced to a July 22 runoff. Coming up short: Reps. Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey and former secretary of State Karen Handel, who had been endorsed by conservative firebrand Sarah Palin.

Georgia Democrats nominated Michelle Nunn, daughter of former Georgia senator Sam Nunn, whose name and fundraising strength have given Democrats hope for a competitive race in a traditionally red state.

Like the Kentucky race, a split between Republican factions was on the ballot in Oregon, where surgeon Monica Wehby defeated state Rep. Jason Conger in the race to oppose incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley. Wehby was backed by 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and Conger had been endorsed by Rick Santorum, the 2012 candidate who beat Romney in Iowa.

Incumbents held off Tea Party challenges in Pennsylvania, where seven-term Rep. Bill Shuster defeated retired Coast Guard Capt. Art Halvorson, and in Idaho, where eight-term Rep. Mike Simpson defeated lawyer Bryan Smith...

Also, "How GOP incumbents beat Tea Party rebellion."

More at Legal Insurrection, "Primary Night: McConnell wins (KY), Perdue-Kingston Runoff (GA), Wehby (OR)."

Dems tried to destroy Monica Wehby with vicious smears alleging she stalked her ex-husband. At Politico, "Second harassment accusation vs. Monica Wehby," and "Monica Wehby wins Oregon GOP Senate nomination."

More Republicans Than #Democrats See Military Service as Asset for Presidential Candidates

Naturally, leftists despise the military. But see Pew Research:

Republican and Republican leaners respond strongly to military experience: 58% say they would be more likely to support a candidate with military experience, the top positive trait for Republicans of the 16 tested in the survey. Military experience also tops the list for Democrats and Democratic leaners, but they are not as enthusiastic as Republicans: 31% say they would be more likely to support a candidate who has served in the military, while 62% say this wouldn’t matter to them. While a positive for both Democrats and Republicans, military experience is not easy to find among the list of much-talked-about potential 2016 candidates.

Recall what Democrats really like in their candidates:

Boko Haram Suspected in Latest Nigerian Terror Attack

Because that hashtag activism is just working wonders.

At Telegraph UK, "Nigeria bomb blast: death toll expected to rise as 118 fatalities confirmed":

Boko Haram Islamist militants suspected in twin attacks in Jos which leave at least 118 dead.

Back-to-back bomb blasts killed at least 118 people and wounded 45 in the crowded business district of the central Nigerian city of Jos on Tuesday, emergency services said, in an attack that appeared to bear the hallmarks of the Boko Haram insurgents.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the militant group Boko Haram, which has set off bombs across the north and centre of Nigeria in an increasingly bloody campaign for an Islamic state, was likely to be the prime suspect in what would rank among their deadliest single attacks in five years of insurrection.

Boko Haram grabbed world headlines by abducting more than 200 schoolgirls on April 14 from the northeastern village of Chibok. Britain, the United States and France have pledged to help rescue them.

If the Jos attack was the handiwork of Boko Haram, it would show their growing reach in Africa's top oil producing and most populous country, striking out beyond their heartland in Nigeria's semi-arid and weakly governed northeast. Several bombs have exploded outside that region over the past month.

It was also likely calculated to stoke civil strife in Nigeria's most combustible ethnic and sectarian tinder box. Jos and the surrounding Plateau state have seen thousands killed in tit-for-tat violence between largely Christian Berom farmers and Muslim Fulani cattle herders over the past decade.

Also at Atlas Shrugs, "2 Islamic Bomb Blasts in Mainly Christian Area in Nigeria Kill at Least 118."

'Whatever happened to Vox and FiveThirtyEight?'

At Althouse.

I've never even clicked on the new 538, and I've read and linked Vox exactly once. I just don't care about these sites and they're not generating very much buzz, except among those noting how they're not generating very much buzz, like Althouse.

Veterans Administration Scandal Explodes

Looks like this is the big story of the day, at the New York Times, "Obama Faces New Test in Mismanagement at Veterans Hospitals."

And see John Fund, at National Review, "Lessons of the VA Scandal":

If our government has any obligation to fulfill its many promises on health care, it should be first and foremost to the men and women who served in our armed forces. But the scandal over hidden waiting lists at a growing number of veterans’ hospitals (seven so far) — wherein dozens of veterans died while waiting months for vital treatment, and the VA covered up the lengthy wait times — should make everyone wonder whether we can place our trust in a government-managed health-care system. The Dayton Daily News reported on Sunday that its investigation of a database of claims paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that the words “delay in treatment” were used 167 times. The VA paid out a total of $36.4 million to settle the claims. There could well be many more cases of “death by delay” at the VA that never came to light.

Are there lessons in the VA scandal for the rest of us if Obamacare survives and even expands?

RTWT.

More at Memeorandum.

Old School

I'm in meetings for our political science interviews on campus today. More blogging tonight.

I saw this blurb on my buddy Skatemaster Tate's Facebook page:

The War After the War — #GWOT

At National Journal, "Inside America's Shadow War on Terror—and Why It Will Never End":

The muezzin's call to predawn prayers had not yet woken the seaside Somali town of Barawe when a lone figure stepped out of a two-story villa near the water's edge. In the darkness of a walled compound, he smoked a cigarette, the glow of ash rhythmically illuminating his face. It was an effect that was heightened by the night-vision goggles focused on him. When the man stepped back inside, the commander of Navy SEAL Team Six, his own face hidden under black grease, directed his commandos to take up their positions and storm the villa. The date was Oct. 5, 2013, and inside was a Kenyan named Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, or Ikrimah—the leader of al-Shabaab suspected of masterminding the gruesome killing of non-Muslims at Nairobi's Westgate Mall.

Two hours later and nearly 3,000 miles away, a Libyan named Nazih Abdul-Hamad al-Ruqai, or Anas al-Libi, was returning from dawn prayers as the sun began to rise over Tripoli. His sedan pulled up to a comfortable house in an upscale suburb of the capital and was suddenly boxed in from the side and the front by two white vans with darkened windows. Commandos from the Army's elite Delta Force counterterrorism unit leaped out, one training his gun on al-Libi from the front as another broke the window, pulling the terrorism suspect out of the car and bundling him into one of the vans before both vehicles and a third that had been hidden sped off. The entire operation, caught on a surveillance camera and posted on YouTube, took 60 seconds.

President Obama wants deeply to convince Americans that the time of perpetual war is over. "America is at a crossroads," he said last year in a speech that was meant to reassure a weary public that the post-Sept. 11 era of invasion, regime change, and nation-building was nearly done. "Beyond Afghanistan, we must define our effort not as a boundless 'global war on terror,' but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America."

Indeed, even after the last U.S. combat troops leave Afghanistan this year, the shadow war against jihadi terrorists that began on Sept. 11, 2001, will rage on, executed by comingled military, intelligence, and law-enforcement capabilities using legal authorities that blur distinctions between uncommon criminals and enemy combatants. Terrorism suspects caught in the hard stare of the U.S. counterterrorism network will still be arrested by U.S. law-enforcement agents overseas; snatched off the streets of lawless cities by U.S. special operations forces; eviscerated by CIA drone strikes in remote areas far from any declared war zone; and interrogated under the rules of warfare before being read their Miranda rights and prosecuted in federal courts. And that life-and-death struggle will continue to play out largely in secret.

Continue reading.

Macklemore Celebrates EMP Museum Opening with Blatantly Anti-Semitic Costume Attire

So, "One Love" songmakers are raving anti-Semites as well?

Makes sense. Leftism is an evil ideology of hate.

At BuzzFeed, "Macklemore Causes Controversy With Costume That Resembles Jewish Stereotypes."

And at the Daily Dot, "Macklemore performs surprise show in offensive costume."

Super unsurprised that Seattlites didn't think Macklemore's Jewish costume was offensive http://t.co/FJyzzgFnPp

— Michael Barthel (@michaelbarthel) May 18, 2014

Yes, "super unsurprised" (no doubt).

Climate Science in Chaos

Lots of links.

At Power Line, "WHY GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISM ISN’T SCIENCE," and "THE NEXT CLIMATE SCANDAL?"

Following the links takes us to Roy Spencer, "The Bullying of Bengtsson and the Coming Climate Disruption Hypocalypse."

Climate science in chaos due to shortage of scary synonyms http://t.co/zKkmiAIGAT #TCOT pic.twitter.com/k4FhB7RjsX

— The People's Cube (@ThePeoplesCube) May 17, 2014

BONUS: At Astute Bloggers, "THE DEBATE IS OVER: MAN-MADE GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE IS BULLSHIT."

Charles (Chic) Burlingame Prayer Card Displayed at National September 11 Memorial and Museum

Debra Burlingame said she was pleased with the terrific ceremony she attended at the September 11 Museum. Her brother's prayer card is among the items found in the wreckage at the Pentagon.

See the New York Daily News, "Prayer card belonging to pilot among 9/11 items collected at newly dedicated museum."

It's the prayer card from their funeral for their mother, Patricia Ann Burlingame.

True Liberals Must Debunk the Left's Campus Bigots

From Professor Michael Curtis, at the American Thinker, "Liberals Must Refute the Leftist Bigots on Campus":

Tis the season of Commencement discontent. Let me count in alphabetical order the number of universities affected by the growing intolerance of bigots on campuses in North America.  Among them are Azusa Pacific, Brandeis, Brown, California, Concordia, Haverford, North Carolina, Rutgers, Smith, and Swarthmore.  Withdrawals by individuals to be honored or invited to speak, whether due to university action or voluntary, are now as familiar as leftist indoctrination of university students.

There is always an excuse, a feeble excuse, for the protests, whether the rationale is an action or a supposed action by the person to be honored, or some controversial words written or spoken. Among those absurd excuses are: the attempts by administrators to restore order when a protest was disrupting campus life, criticism of some features of Islam, International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies that predated the tenure of the recipient towards developing countries, police racial profiling in New York City, views on immigration policy, disapproval of abortion.

The objects of the intolerance are not extreme political activists, but prominent and distinguished members of the professions and society. They should be named. Robert L. Birgeneau, a former Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley who is in fact admired for liberal social views. Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, the first woman to hold this position and one of the most powerful women in the world. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Somali-born activist who has made critical and controversial remarks about the religion of Islam and the ideology of Islamism from which she has herself suffered. Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State and Provost at Stanford. Charles Murray, distinguished author known for controversial views on race class, and intelligence. Raymond Kelly, former New York City Police Commissioner. Robert Zoellick, former president of the World Bank.  These multiple incidents today are reminiscent of the event in 1983 when Jeanne Kirkpatrick, political scientist and former US Ambassador to the United Nations, was denied a platform at Berkeley.

Although these distinguished people would exemplify the diversity that universities claim to foster, their offence was that they did not agree, or were thought not to agree, with the protestors. They have offended the ideological conformity of the protesting intolerant bigots who would be numbed by hearing views other than their own. The arrogance and close-mindedness of the protestors prevents them from listening to alternative points of view.

The goal of inquiry and research at colleges is to search for truth and challenge accepted points of views. But the dominant mode of protests and of much teaching in the social sciences and humanities is a form of leftist fascism, preventing speech with which one disagrees. The politically correct norm at present is not conservative or status quo views, but rather the opposite, radical intolerant ones. Do those intolerant protests help the growth of social justice?  Both practical activity and highly perverse intellectual argument suggest an answer.

The impetus to leftist politicization occurred in 1964 when the radicals in the University of California Free Speech Movement occupied the administration building in Berkeley, the first such “conquest” in the country. It led to the reshaping of curriculum in an overtly radical direction, and hiring of faculty who leaned towards those changes. It has also led to incredible ignorance, stupidity, and bigotry.

The case at hand is that of the several hundred students at Smith today whose protests led to the withdrawal of Christine Lagarde from Commencement. Their absurd message was that the IMF “was a primary culprit in the failed developmental policies implanted in some of the world’s poorest countries. This led directly to the strengthening of imperialist and patriarchal systems that oppress and abuse women worldwide.” The young women at Smith were not informed about or thought it unimportant to mention the “oppression and abuse” of hundreds of women, not by the IMF, but by honor killings every year in Muslim countries.

The current protestors have taken to heart the answer, even if they cannot take time from their protests to read the actual text, given in 1965 by Herbert Marcuse, who taught for a number of years at Brandeis, in his essay Repressive Tolerance. Among his more engaging conclusions was that, “the objective of tolerance would call for injustice towards prevailing policies, attitudes, opinions.”  This logically meant rigid restrictions on teachings and practices with which he disagreed in educational institutions. Perhaps Marcuse did not specifically suggest the shouting down or forbidding of intellectual opponents, but his advocacy of repression or limitation of expression has been taken by the present day bigots to its logical conclusion.

Many objective studies have indicated the host of problems on campuses today: the highly disproportionate number, by very large margins, of far leftist members of university faculty, and sometimes administration; raucous and highly active leftist student groups; one sided teaching if not indoctrination in class and in texts used in many of the social sciences and in history courses; a preponderance of radical campus guest speakers; the incessant activity of radical Islamic campus organizations.

Sixty-five years ago Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote The Vital Center, a book aiming to support liberal democracy against the ideologies of communism and fascism. Though it is not directly relevant to today’s campus intolerance, the book is pertinent for its practical suggestion to “restore the balance between the individual and community.” There is an urgent need for a balance today in campus behavior and for a vigorous response to the changes in recent years in that behavior. Free speech and free thought are being limited by the actions of leftists, many of whom are aging radical revolutionaries left over from the 1960s, and the students they have indoctrinated. The desirable features of intellectual diversity, essential for any real university, are declining. It would be reasonable to argue that this issue of intellectual diversity is as important, and perhaps now more important, than the issues of racial and gender diversity.

A distinction must be drawn between the radical leftists on one hand and true liberals, a group that on the issue of intellectual freedom would include conservatives today. Liberals have to make their voices heard on campuses. They must proclaim themselves as supporters of real tolerance on campuses, the right of speakers who are not leftists to be heard, that ideological indoctrination by faculty and choice of textbooks should be criticized, that conservative faculty or speakers should not be confronted by a hostile environment, that speech codes that ban politically oriented speech be abolished, and even that administrators should question the self-perpetuation of their radical faculty and appoint real liberals and even conservatives...

Not hard.

Just let them speak. As soon as leftists utter a sound the bullshit sirens will be sounding in overtime. These people are nothing but hateful buffoons who wither at calm, cool and collected reason.

More.

Hot New Dining Trend: No Reservations and Four-Hour Waits at Trendy D.C. Restaurants

I'll pass, thank you.

At the Washington Post, "No reservations? This restaurant trend has become harder to swallow."

Tom Sietsema sees ageism and inhospitality when restaurants force guests to line up and wait.

The Emerging American Junta

At Director Blue, "AMERICAN JUNTA: An Illustrated Tale of Societal Decline."

#Mexico Divided: Stark Photos Show Urban Wealth and Poverty Side-by-Side

Recall my son's country project on Denmark?

Well, whereas the Danes have the greatest economic equality in the world, as measured by the Gini coefficient, Mexico is plagued by some of the world's worst economic inequality.

London's Daily Mail chronicles some of that, "Mexico divided: Stark unaltered photographs capture middle class affluence side-by-side with extreme urban poverty."

More, at Distractify, "These Images Of Poor And Rich Neighborhoods Side By Side Are NOT Photoshopped. How Can This Be?!"

Soldiers Fight to Save the A-10 Warthog

This is cool, via Business Week:

Here's why U.S. soldiers are fighting to save the Air Force's A-10 Warthog: http://t.co/5AF2dM0Oe1 pic.twitter.com/LNvlsqyUCa

— Businessweek (@BW) May 19, 2014

Britain Goes Halal

Don't miss this utterly mind-boggling entry at Bare Naked Islam, "First restaurants, then government schools, then supermarkets, now British universities are force-feeding their students barbarically-slaughtered halal meat without them being told."



But it couldn't happen here (wink wink).

You know, because ritual slaughtered meat is yummy, or something.

California Chrome Has Nasal Strip Problem at Belmont

It's always something.

At the Washington Post, "California Chrome’s Triple Crown could be derailed by nasal strips," and "California Chrome faces many obstacles in Triple Crown bid."

Governor Jerry Brown Blames Climate Change for California Wildfires

Governor Moonbeam is back.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Gov. Jerry Brown presses message on climate change."

The Left's 'White Privilege' Attack: 'An Attempt to Shut Down Argument...'

I looked for this clip earlier, but found it at the left-wing racist sites Crooks and Liars and Raw Story.

But it's up now at Independent Journal Review, "‘Fantastic!’: Watch This Army Colonel’s Takedown of ‘White Privilege’ Leave Fox Anchor Speechless."

“All of us have worked, all of us have achieved something. That is how we measure character, that’s how we measure what the value of a person is, not some arbitrary category imposed by some ponytailed grad students who have taken too many gender study seminars.”

PREVIOUSLY: "Harvard's Kennedy School Adds 'Checking Your Privilege 101' to New Student Orientation," and "Stephanie M. Baran: 'White Privilege' Speaker Pushes #Marxism to Defeat Racism in America."

A Dishonest Rewrite of the Duke Lacrosse Case

From Dorothy Rabinowitz, at the Wall Street Journal:

In the outpouring of praise for William D. Cohan's new book "The Price of Silence"—a work, remarkably enough, being celebrated as a model of evenhandedness, scrupulous objectivity, etc.—one essential has gone overlooked. Namely, the central point of this tale about the Duke lacrosse case and accusations against three players of rape and assault at a house party. It takes no close reading to see that the book is meant to recast the story so as to nullify the outcome Americans thought they knew—that the players were exonerated and had been falsely accused. In Mr. Cohan's portrayal, the workings of decency and justice were undone by malign forces—among them, it would seem, the ability to hire defense attorneys.

The book's pro forma declarations that the accused were, yes, exonerated come surrounded by a far stronger drumbeat of doubt that their exoneration could conceivably have been just. No surprise the accused beat the charges, Mr. Cohan is regularly at pains to make clear: These were white sons of privilege, from families who could pay for their excellent defense lawyers.

In Mr. Cohan's revisionist history we find a new moral hero—none other than Mr. Nifong, the prosecutor who brought the case and was disbarred for his actions during the investigation. "The Price of Silence" gives us a man mistreated and misunderstood, ruined for his efforts to do justice.

Such is the book's view of the prosecutor whose prime activity, upon taking the case, consisted of nonstop media interviews in which he denounced the evil of this racist sex assault by the lacrosse players—"hoodlums," as he referred to them—whose guilt, he emphasized, was unquestionable.

That this protracted pretrial outpouring might be unwise—in addition to being a clear violation of the requirement that prosecutors make no statements prejudicial to a fair trial—did not apparently trouble Mr. Nifong, who relished his turn on the national stage. Mr. Cohan rationalizes this bizarre prosecutorial behavior as a strategy to pressure members of the lacrosse team who had attended the party to tell what they knew—to break their "wall of silence."

In Mr. Cohan's interviews as he promotes his book, we hear much the same. Along with the author's repeated dark assertions that "something happened in that bathroom," we also hear, ominously, that "we will never know" the facts because "nobody in that bathroom is talking." District Attorney Nifong's career may have been undone but its spirit lives on...

Keep reading.

Rabinowitz is a national treasure. Here's one of her pieces from back in 2007, "The Michael Nifong Scandal."

More at KC Johnson's blog, "Rabinowitz Eviscerates Author Cohan."

Catholic School Boys Compete for Up-Skirt Photos of Hot Teachers

Boys will be boys, as they say.

Via EBL, at Batshit Crazy News, "Teenage boys take #upskirt photos of female teachers at California Catholic High School School."

It's wrong. It's humiliating and harassment. But it's the kind of misbehavior the generations grew up with. Indeed, I'm surprised this is news, considering it's not some politically incorrect attack on LGBTQ rights, or something.

The Audacity of Protesting Anti-Semitism

From Tom Wilson, at Commentary.

Read it at the link.

An astounding statement on leftist anti-Jewish eliminationist ideology.

Irina Shayk Topless for #BringBackOurGirls

Now this is interesting, at BroBible, "Irina Shayk Posts Topless #BringBackOurGirls Selfie, Pisses The Entire World Off":

Hashtag activism is fucking annoying, but even more annoying is when celebrities use them as a platform to heighten their own self image. What about when they use it as an excuse to take their clothes off?

Well, I'd be less annoyed with Selma Hayek topless.

That would be something, heh.

Former Princeton President Blasts Haverford College Students in Commencement Address

I would have loved to have been there.

At NBC 10 Philadelphia, "Haverford Graduation Speaker Calls Students 'Immature'."

And at the Philadelphia Enquirer, "Haverford commencement speaker's rebuke of graduates draws criticism, praise":

The stunning move by a commencement speaker at Haverford College on Sunday to use the celebratory occasion to lambaste students who had protested against another speaker drew a standing ovation but also sharp criticism.

William G. Bowen, former president of Princeton, called the protestors’ approach both “immature” and “arrogant” and the subsequent withdrawal as a speaker of Robert J. Birgeneau, former chancellor of the University of California Berkeley, a “defeat” for the Quaker college and its ideals.

Bowen’s remarks to an audience of about 2,800, plus nearly 300 graduates, added a new twist to commencement speaker controversies playing out increasingly on college campuses. Bowen — one of three speakers who received an honorary degree — faced no opposition, but chose to address the issue, calling it “sad” and “troubling.”

The controversy arose over Birgeneau’s leadership during a 2011 incident in which UC Berkeley police used force on students protesting college costs. A group of more than 40 students and three Haverford professors — all Berkeley alums — objected to Birgeneau’s appearance, noting that many of them had participated in Occupy protests as well and wanted to stand in solidarity with Berkeley students.

They wrote a letter to Birgeneau, urging him to meet nine conditions, including publicly apologizing, supporting reparations for victims, and writing a letter to Haverford students explaining his position on the events and “what you learned from them.” Birgeneau declined and withdrew.

“I am disappointed that those who wanted to criticize Birgeneau’s handling of events at Berkeley chose to send him such an intemperate list of “demands,” said Bowen, who led Princeton from 1972 to 1988 and last year received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama. “In my view, they should have encouraged him to come and engage in a genuine discussion, not to come, tail between his legs, to respond to an indictment that a self-chosen jury had reached without hearing counter-arguments.”

Bowen’s remarks stung some students and professors, who criticized his decision to chide graduates on their day in a forum where they had no opportunity to respond.

More.

The piece quotes Haverford English Professor Maud McInerney, one of the faculty members who attacked Birgeneau (and a Berkeley Ph.D. recipient), who moans, "It was an ambush."

Oh, those poor babies.

'Public Mistreatment'

At Neo-Neocon, "More on the Abramson story: what’s this “public mistreatment” bit?":

To me, the most curious phrase in the newest Sulzberger statement about Jill Abramson is this one [italics mine]:

During [Abramson's] tenure, I heard repeatedly from her newsroom colleagues, women and men, about a series of issues, including arbitrary decision-making, a failure to consult and bring colleagues with her, inadequate communication and the public mistreatment of colleagues…

So, did Abramson put some writer or editor in the stocks? Institute public floggings at the Times? Did she administer a series of public tongue-lashings? Or just criticisms? Is there a rule at the Times that, in order to avoid offending egos and tender sensibilities, an executive can only say negative things about an employee in private? And if this “mistreatment” perpetrated by Abramson was indeed, “public,” could Sulzberger mention more specifically (without naming the recipient of the mistreatment) what she allegedly said or did, so we could get an idea of what sort of offense he might be talking about? ...

Kinda funny, but the notion of "public mistreatment" isn't obscure on college campuses. Indeed, if a professor wants to discipline a student, it's best to do it away from the rest of the class, because any "public" humiliation could be grounds for a civil rights complaint. Some of my white male colleagues have totally given up on the idea of classroom discipline at all, lest they be attacked as "racist."

It's out of control.

PREVIOUSLY: "Why Student Behavior Matters."

Black Flag Settles Ownership Lawsuit

The band members from various iterations of Black Flag have settled a trademark lawsuit.

At the O.C. Weekly, "Black Flag Refuse to Surrender Their Ideals":

The dust has settled in the ongoing Black Flag legal beef, and the lawyers have demarcated the remnants of what was once called the best punk band on the West Coast, if not the entire universe.

The long and short of the settlement announced April 21 is that Black Flag's name and four black bars logo belong exclusively to Greg Ginn, the band's founder, guitarist and main songwriter. This all stems from a trademark-infringement suit filed last year by Ginn against his former band mates—Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Dez Cadena and Bill Stevenson—who had begun touring as FLAG last year, performing the band's classics and peddling Black Flag merchandise. Henry Rollins was lumped into the legal action as well; according to the lawsuit, Rollins colluded with FLAG members to "fraudulently" trademark Black Flag under his name after discovering Ginn's trademark period had lapsed.

"The problem with FLAG was they didn't come in the front door, and they used slandering Greg to promote themselves to drive up ticket sales," explains Black Flag's current lead singer, Mike Vallely, an '80s skate-mag celebrity and longtime Greg Ginn collaborator who fronted the band for 2003 reunion shows, then went on to manage them....

As it stands now, when Black Flag are on the bill, it's Ginn on guitar, Vallely out front, and a pair of session players from Ginn's north Texas hometown filling in on bass and drums. They will play a "classics" set, with the songs arranged to allow Greg to roam instrumentally. FLAG can tour as FLAG, though there are no plans for them to do so at press time. Nobody other than Ginn will see a dime from authentic Black Flag merch.

Here's "Flag" doing the Goldenvoice 30th anniversary show, "Black Flag -- Nervous Breakdown, Fix Me, I've Had It, Wasted @ GV30."

I love Keith Morris, but Black Flag isn't Black Flag without Greg Ginn.

Los Angeles @Dodgers: Out of Sight Is Out of Mind

The Dodgers have never been my favorite home team, but they had a very enjoyable season last year and I was looking forward to 2014. And then along came that cursed Time-Warner cable contract. Now 70 percent of the greater L.A. market can't get the Dodgers on their cable box. It's definitely hurting the team.

Here's Jim Peltz, at the Los Angeles Times, "Dodgers have faded from view on TV; will they fade from fans' hearts?"

And from Bill Plaschke, there's plenty of blame to go around, "Dodgers are out of sight, could become out of mind":

This is the worst season to be a Dodgers fan thanks to Time Warner #SportsNetFaiLA

— Taryn L (@InTransit74) May 12, 2014

The issue has been well-documented and there is clearly enough blame for everyone, greed by some, gluttony by others, villains everywhere.

The Dodgers are the biggest bad guys because, by taking $8.35 billion from Time Warner Cable and insisting on starting their own channel — SportsNet LA — they made it nearly impossible for that channel to find distribution at a price that Time Warner Cable could accept. The Dodgers could have signed a new deal with Prime Ticket for slightly less money but with a much higher probability that pay-TV operators would have continued carrying the existing channel. They would not have had their own channel, but at least that channel would have been seen.

The next villain is Time Warner Cable, which seriously overpaid, perhaps because it seriously misjudged the Los Angeles fan culture and thought this transition would be similar to the quick implementation of the Lakers channel a couple of years ago. Wrong. The Dodgers are not as big as the Lakers, and the Dodgers fans are not the Lakers fans, who lost their minds and used their wallets and essentially forced the pay-TV operators to carry the channel after only a few missed games. There is no such mass fleeing from the likes of DirecTV. The onus is now on Time Warner Cable to sell what is essentially an overpriced product.

"We sold the rights to a gigantic corporation, it's their job to market the rights and get the distribution," Guber said in the recent interview. "We are not happy that they haven't been able to get the full distribution in our own market that they promised. That's their job. They made the bet."

The final villains are the pay-TV operators who have shunned the Dodgers, if only because they are still charging consumers the same prices as last season when they carried the Dodgers. The contracts are surely murky and complicated but, bottom line, I no longer receive the Dodgers on my television yet my pay-TV operator has yet to give me a refund.

"It's unfortunate most providers have not yet decided to give it to our fans even though they're still charging them for last year's Dodgers coverage," said Stan Kasten, Dodgers president, in an interview Saturday.

It's all unfortunate, such that during the last month I heard several respected local sports authorities wonder whether the Clippers had actually become bigger than the Dodgers. It sounds crazy. It will never happen. But right now, which team has more buzz? There was also fallout felt when Magic Johnson surfaced as a possible new owner of the Clippers. A year ago, the support for his Guggenheim group would have been unquestioned. Now, not so much, with people wondering if that would mean the Clippers would also soon disappear.

If you own a sports team in Southern California, you can refurbish a lineup and a stadium and championship hopes, but none of that matters if that team is not on television. Period.

Or so it would seem.

Salma Hayek Stages Mini-Protest at Cannes to #BringBackOurGirls

Well, it's makes for good copy, I guess.

At Fox News, "Salma Hayek supports kidnapped Nigerian girls on red carpet."



As always, I'm with Staff Sergeant Old School.

Vile at Vassar? Typical Leftist Racist Hatred, Actually

Here's the editorial at the New York Daily News, "Vile at Vassar (via Legal Insurrection).

The whole piece is vital, so read it all at the link.

Here's the vile Nazi propaganda poster posted by SJP Vassar:



More at the Times of Israel, "Vassar’s SJP sort of apologizes for anti-Israel, Nazi cartoon."

Here's the cowardly and dishonest "apology" from the group, "An Apology from the SJP Vassar General Body."

And back over to Legal Insurrection, "Vassar removes Wall of Truth raised to protest anti-Israel campus climate (Updates)."

Events at Vassar tell you all you need to know about the ideological left today. Note that 39 Vassar professors backed the Israel boycott on campus, and the cowards they are, none of them would stand up for their beliefs when called out by William Jacobson.

Leftism is pure evil, deceit and cowardice. That's all they have. Well, that and ignorance too. Our job is to fight the ignorance, since leftists will always fail when confronted with truth.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

BONUS: At Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Checkmate."

Cartoon Credit: Theo Spark.

Stephanie M. Baran: 'White Privilege' Speaker Pushes #Marxism to Defeat Racism in America

At Progs Today, "CAUGHT ON TAPE: WPC14 Speaker Promotes Marxism As a Way to Defeat Racism in America (Video)."

She calls for a "full-scale revolution" as the "only way" to beat racism.

Oh brother. This chick's a bleedin' loon, a "fun person, adjunct, Ph.D candidate, fiery intersectional feminist, marxist, cat/animal lover, vegetarian" (via Twitter).



And she's got a publication apparently based on her Master's thesis from DePaul University, "Parsing White Supremacy: An Exploratory Study of Political Thought and Beliefs." (Unimpressive. She's dredging up and recycling some really old political science research there, on "symbolic racism," for example.)

I would just love --- love! --- for this shrinking Marxist violet to go face-to-face with Kurt Schlichter. Man would that be delicious.

PREVIOUSLY: "Harvard's Kennedy School Adds 'Checking Your Privilege 101' to New Student Orientation."

BONUS: She blogs at Feministing?

Oh my goodness. Robert Stacy McCain would make Marxist mincemeat out of her, lol. See, "Feminism: Love as Oppression and Heterosexuality as Subordination."

California Chrome Wins #Preakness Stakes

Here's the full video, on YouTube, "2014 Preakness Stakes + Post Race."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "California Chrome wins Preakness; one victory from Triple Crown," and "California Chrome does it again in Preakness."

A great story, and more at the New York Times, "Top Horse, From a Place Winners Aren’t Made: Favorite for Preakness Was Bred on a California Ranch."