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:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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":

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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!

Public Rejects Minority Preferences: Implications for Sotomayor and the Democrats

A new Pew survey shows Americans rejecting affirmative action programs when defined as "giving preferential treatment" to women and minorities:

With the Supreme Court expected to soon rule on a case involving job discrimination claims by white firefighters, and Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor's decision in a lower court ruling on the case drawing scrutiny, there is renewed focus on public opinion about affirmative action programs and overall efforts to improve the position of minorities in this country. The public has generally been supportive of such efforts, but is decidedly opposed to the idea of providing preferential treatment to minorities.

In the most recent Pew Research Center values survey, released May 21, just 31% agreed that "we should make every effort to improve the position of blacks and minorities, even if it means giving them preferential treatment." More than twice as many (65%) disagreed with this statement. That balance of opinion has fluctuated only modestly through the 22-year history of the values survey.

The values survey revealed continuing racial differences in attitudes about this issue. Majorities of both African Americans (58%) and Hispanics (53%) favor preferential treatment to improve the position of blacks and other minorities; just 22% of whites agree.

Check the rest of the article. White Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents oppose race preferences by a margin of 66 percent! Yo, GOP cross-party outreach opportunity!

Also, compare and contrast the findings in Pew to today's Gallup poll, "Majority of Americans Favor Sotomayor Confirmation."

Just 54 percent of Americans support the nomination of Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. The findings show less support for her nomination than was true for John Roberts, although she's favored slightly more than was Samuel Alito. Interestingly, less than a majority, 49 percent, agrees that Sotomayor's views are "in the mainstream."

More at Memeorandum.

American Power Hate Mail: "Neocons are Homosexual"

It's been some time since I've gotten any "American Power Fan Mail."

But I just got some "hate mail" in the comments right now. I had this asshole blocked with Haloscan on my previous blog, but Blogger's comments come right through unless moderation is enabled.

This despicable slur can be found at my earlier post, "The Left's Misogynistic Hatred:"

All neocons are gay.
They follow a gay ideology.
They are the vanguards of gayness.

"Duh troops" are fighting for the very "freedom" of homo "rights" and other degenerate "rights". It is a homosexual war to turn the musilman sheep herder into a capitalist metrosexual. Such a war is gay.

Donald Douglas is the gayest blogger ever.
Anyone who uses the words "John Galt" is a homo.

This is the empirical, objective truth. No bias.

Your wife and child are in your head. Never any mention of them on "Burkean reflections". They suddenly appeared when Sullivan-the-Gay negged your "Chosen" Israel, and the hawt jewish males who inhabit it, the neocon's world's most precious resource. Your "fambly": they're fake. They don't exist. Neocons are homosexual.

You are a dark skinned tanning bed queen Donald. You are a cuban cabana boy, a bathhouse turk. Anything but a white-racist anglo-saxon man, the heart of any true conservatism.

Geez, this is almost as good as Michelle Malkin's hate mail!

Scott Roeder Charged With First-Degree Murder

From Fox News, "Accused Abortion Doctor Shooter Charged With First-Degree Murder":

This undated booking photo released Tuesday, June 2, 2009 by the Sedgwick County Jail shows Scott Roeder, 51, who made his first court appearance Tuesday in Sedgwick County District Court in Wichita, Kan. Roeder was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in the death of late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, asking the judge by video when he would see his court-appointed lawyer. (AP Photo/Sedgwick County Jail)

Scott Roeder was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in the shooting death of late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in church.

The 51-year-old Roeder appeared at a brief 4 p.m. EDT hearing in a Wichita, Kan., court via video from jail in the doctor's killing.

Roeder is accused of gunning down Tiller on Sunday as the doctor served as an usher at his Lutheran church in Wichita.

Roeder also is charged with aggravated assault for allegedly threatening two people who tried to stop him.

The Kansas City Star reported that Roeder's mental health and anti-government activities were factors in a custody battle in 2003 involving a girl in Pennsylvania.

Earlier Tuesday, Roeder's former wife said his family life began unraveling more than a decade ago when he got involved with anti-government groups, and then became "very religious in an Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye way."

"The anti-tax stuff came first, and then it grew and grew. He became very anti-abortion," said Lindsey Roeder, who was married to Scott Roeder for 10 years but "strongly disagrees with his beliefs." He moved out in 1994, and the couple divorced in 1996. They have one son, now 22.

"He started falling apart," Lindsey Roeder told The Associated Press on Monday. "I had to protect myself and my son."

This morning's Los Angeles Times featured a front-page story on Roeder, "Suspect in Kansas Abortion Doctor's Slaying Reportedly Belonged to Anti-Government Militia."

But check Michelle Malkin on the dearth of media attention on the William Long military recruiting murder, "Obama Condemns Muslim Attack on Arkansas Army Recruiters … Not."

Michelle links to Newsbusters, "To the Media, Some Murders Matter More Than Others." More at Memeorandum.

The Left's Misogynistic Hatred

The server's knocked out at The Activist Conservative, with all the hits to its screen-cap piece, "The Playboy Article — Screenshots below the fold. Not edited for content."

The shot below's from Gateway Pundit, with a link to Michelle Malkin. Playboy took down its hate-piece within hours.

Classical Values posts some of the best commentary I've yet read on all of this:

While this sort of viciousness would not be surprising at a far-left site or at the sort of angry radical gay blogs that heaped abuse on Carrie Prejean, what's remarkable is that it occurred at Playboy. (Misogyny goes mainstream!)

I have to say, for a variety of reasons I'm surprised.

I'm also surprised that they'd include Peggy Noonan (who's seen by many conservatives as a sellout) with people far to her right. (I can't think of a better reminder of the hang-together-or-hang-separately principle.)

Moreover, the timing is a bit off. The left has power, both in the White House and Congress, while conservatives have been dispirited, disunited, and largely disillusioned. Such tactics right now are completely unnecessary. I guess the angry left just can't stop being angry.

However, there's a lot more to this than anger. Many conservatives are angry too, but there is simply no right wing counterpart to the misogynistic hatred routinely displayed towards conservative women.

Nor are conservative men subjected to anywhere near the same type of personal attacks on their hairstyles, clothing, or personal anatomy that conservative women have to endure. Over the years I have seen such abuse directed against Margaret Thatcher, Kathleen Harris (during the Florida vote count), and of course we all remember what happened to Condoleezza Rice (whose additional crime was being a black conservative). While rape advocacy is a new escalation, in many ways, this misogyny springs from identity politics. Conservative women are seen as traitors to their sex, and thus no holds are barred. Not even hate speech of the sort the left would call "eliminationist rhetoric." So, while it's certainly sick and twisted, the rape advocacy piece in Playboy is in many ways a very logical culmination.

If the left keeps stuff like this up, the right won't have to do anything to win.

Also, don't miss Ed Driscoll, "Hefnerpalooza Update." See also Memeorandum.

Right Wing News: The 10 Hottest Liberal Women In Politics

You've got to love John Hawkins' classy post, "The 10 Hottest Liberal Women In Politics."

Who knew Janeane Garfalo could look, well, sexy? And how about John on Maureen Dowd: "Great hair, elegant, spicy. You got to give Modo her due: she's a fine looking woman."

Now, if she'd just write her own copy!

Hat Tip: Little Miss Attila and Memeorandum.

Barack "Tutankhamen" Obama to Show Empathy for Muslim World!

A new CNN polling report finds that just one in five Americans holds a favorable view of the Muslim world.

Meanwhile, the Muslim world hearts them some Barack "Tutankhamen" Obama! According to the Los Angeles Times:

A souvenir shop in Cairo, where Obama will speak Thursday, hawks a T-shirt with the slogan “Obama: New Tutankhamen of the World.” Aides says he will deploy a diplomacy of personality that rests on the hunch that the best way to make friends for his country is by winning them over himself.

When President Obama takes the podium in Cairo this week for his much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world, he'll stand before them as an American leader born of an African Muslim father and raised partly in Indonesia, as well as a politician who cut his political teeth in an Illinois political culture that has a sizable Muslim population.

And he will talk, aides say, about those roots he shares with the Muslim world.

It is a politics of biography rapidly becoming synonymous with the Obama presidency. The message he hopes to deliver to Muslims, outlined by advisors ahead of the president's departure Wednesday for the Middle East, will draw on the same storytelling instincts Obama has employed with great success at home.

Now, as Obama attempts to forge new relations with a Muslim community that is at best suspicious of American motives, he relies on a diplomacy of personality that rests on the hunch that the best way to make friends for his country is by winning them over himself.

"The fact is that the president himself experienced Islam on three continents before he's been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world," said Denis McDonough, Obama's deputy national security advisor for strategic communications. The president sees a fundamental need, McDonough said, to change "how we engage our allies."

So when Obama arrives in the region Wednesday, advisors say, he won't be carrying detailed policy proposals, but rather an appeal focusing on common experience and mutual respect.

That is, he'll be carrying "empathy."

President Tutankhamen wouldn't want to alienate the 32 percent of Muslims in Nigeria and Pakistan who support suicide bombings to defend Islam; nor the 37 percent in Indonesia. Nor would President Tutenkhaman want to alienate the 55 percent of Palestinians who support continued suicide bombings against Israel.

At that's not even counting President Tutenkhamen's U.S. Muslim consituency: Old "Pres Tut" wouldn't want to offend the 25 percent of young American Muslims who support suicide bombings in defense of Islam.

But no worries, he's going to make friends in the Islamic world by winning them over with "empathy."

And by the way: According to Wikipedia, "Tutankhamun was one of the few kings worshiped as a god and honored with a cult in his own lifetime."

Well, as they say, "The light of the New Age is here."

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JammieWearingFool has more, "'Obama: New Tutankhamun of the World'."

Dick Cheney on Same-Sex Marriage

Here's a couple videos of Dick Cheney. In the first video, the former vice president said "freedom means freedom for all." But he qualifies that by arguing that regulating marriage is properly handled a the state level.

The second video shows Cheney's interview, with his daughter, on Greta Van Susteren "On the Record." Here's the transcript:

VAN SUSTEREN: You bring up sort of the social issues, and of course, today, I couldn't help but notice you were asked the question about -- of gay marriage, and you said that it wasn't -- that you weren't in favor, at least -- as I understand your answer, in favor of federal statute, but it should be state by state by state. Did that mean you're in favor of gay marriage within state by state?

D. CHENEY: Well, if that's what the people of the state want to do, that's fine by me. I mean, I don't, I ...

VAN SUSTEREN: How would you vote on it?

D. CHENEY: I made the announcement at the outset that I believe equal rights means equal rights for everybody and that people ought to be able to enter into any kind of relationship they want, but that the states ought to retain the ability to regulate and determine what's marriage and what the legal status of those unions are. It should not be a federal issue.

VAN SUSTEREN: President Obama is in favor of civil unions, not in favor of gay marriage. Are you saying you're in favor -- if you were, you know, hitting the button in the voting booth, that you would be for your state having gay marriage, or would be you be ...

D. CHENEY: Well, I look at it, obviously, in personal terms. And my daughter, Mary, is in a -- you know, I think a very commendable relationship with somebody she's known for a long time, and I'm strongly supportive of that.

Leftists are giddy. See Huffington Post and Memeorandum.

Tiller's Killing Reignites Abortion Debate?

At the paper's website, the Washington Post's headline reads, "Killing Reignites Abortion Debate."

Clicking the link we find, "Slaying Raises Fears on Both Sides of Abortion Debate."

Either way, the leftist media and the radical netroots are pushing hard to get massive mileage from the George Tiller tragedy. Contrary to the Washington Post, the abortion debate was hot all of last year, when President Obama said he didn't want his daughters "punished" with a baby; when his deathwish record on Born Alive Infanct Protection legislation was circulated widely; and when Pastor Rick Warren asked him "when does life begin?" (and he responded that it's "above my pay grade").

In truth, leftists have turned Tiller's death into a one-way superhighway to baby-killing. Debate? What debate? The memes are all about the "evil" O'Reilly, "forced-childbirth" extremists, and the "vindication" of the DHS report. Indeed, it's apparent now that leftists are using Tiller's killing to argue for RELAXING EXISTING LAWS TO ACHIEVE MORE LATE-TERM ABORTIONS!

Words fail me here. I'll let these images speak instead:

More at Memorandum, and here.

Muslim Terrorist Kills U.S. Military Recruiter: Where's the Outrage?

Well, where's the outrage on the left today? In what looks like an ideologically-driven attack on U.S. military personnel, Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, a convert to Islam who was "upset with the military," is alleged to have killed one and injured another at a U.S. Army Navy Career Center in Little Rock.

Check USA Today and KATV-TV for the story. Interestingly, the KATV story notes, "the gunman targeted the military but was not believed to be part of a broader scheme."

Well, don't bet Abdul Hakim wasn't part of a "broader scheme." The fact is that the antiwar left has been targeting military recruiting stations for years. Unlike the unhinged leftists in response to the George Tiller murder, conservative bloggers were very measured in their response to the Little Rock shootings. As Say Anything noted this morning:

... we could jump to the conclusion that this man was motivated by a hatred for the military (or something along those lines) and then blame groups like Code Pink and Media Matters and MoveOn.org for fanning anti-military, anti-Iraq war passions for years. We could, much as the left has with people like Bill O’Reilly in the George Tiller murder claim that those groups have blood on their hands.

But we won’t. Because that’s stupid. This murder, whatever the motivation (it’s not clear at this point), was committed by a murderous thug who acted of his own volition. Not because he was compelled to by liberal dissent.

Murder is murder. Let’s mourn the dead, condemn the guilty and move on.

But check Snooper Report as well:

Where's the outrage from the Leftinistra? Where are the condemnations that we on the Right expressed for the murder of Tiller the Baby Killer?

For years this kind of activity from the Leftinistra has been going on and absolutely no condemnation from them has ever been expressed that I know of. Why is that?

So far, I have only read mentions of this incident from the Right.

Well, conservatives were waiting for more information. This Ain't Hell even began with a disclaimer:

Notice how, unlike some bloggers on the Left jumped to conclusions over yesterday’s shooting, I’m not speculating on the motivations of this shooter or his relationship to any other group of recruiter-haters until the facts are in - I caution commenters here to do the same.

Michelle Malkin adds this:

I wonder if the Justice Department will send marshals to beef up protection at recruiting centers — especially given the past targeting of military centers on campuses and elsewhere across the country.

See also, "OUTRAGE!!! Left-Wing Terrorists Target Military Recruiters!!!."

American Idols

Check out Dan Neil's piece at today Los Angeles Times, "When Cars Were America's Idols":

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible

1960 Chevrolet Impala 4-Door Hardtop

If you were to walk up to a typical New York executive in the 1960s -- think Don Draper in AMC's "Mad Men" -- and tell him that General Motors Corp. would be in bankruptcy by 2009, he would have thought you were delusional, or perhaps a Communist. GM was more than just the world's largest and most admired corporation; it was the final vindication of the American Way, the perfected and even divinely inspired example of democratic capitalism that stood opposed to the airless atheism and nullity of the Soviet system.

Or imagine that you were somehow able to drag Nikita Khrushchev from the United Nations podium into the street to confront -- no, behold -- a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. Nearly 19 feet long from its Jayne Mansfield-like bumpers to its rocket-like tail lamps, a lyric in steel and mirrored chrome, as bright and beautiful as a ripe plum is sweet, and yet just ever so slightly obscene. Khrushchev would have dropped his shoe.

Surely a company, a country, that could produce such an object would last forever.

Read the full article, here. See the Times' photo gallery, here.

Retro Cars Photo Hat Tip: Libby Spencer.

Israel Day Parade: "Close Guantanamo, Re-Open Auschwitz"

Phyllis Chesler reports on New York's Israel Day Parade, " “Close Gitmo, Re-Open Auschwitz” and Other Brazen Signs at the Israel Day Parade":

The sign about re-opening Auschwitz was held by a perpetually smiling, bearded man. He seemed as smug and happy with himself as did the well-fed, well-groomed members of Neturi Karta who take money from Amadinejad to protest the state of Israel.

My friend and colleague, Fern Sidman, covered the march for me. The photos, below, were taken by her. She reminds me that the March was also a tribute to the 100th anniversary of the city of Tel Aviv ....

Although the protestors were very few in number, (and the police plentiful), some of the protest signs were exceptionally vicious. I suggest that we take such signs seriously. They signify a coarsening of the atmosphere, a more brazen posture that not only means to intimidate but which actually intends to carry out the acts their signs depict.

Yes, racism exists, both among white folk and among peoples of color but Islamist martyrs of all colors do not plan to stop coming our way anytime soon. And, “color” has absolutely nothing to do with terrorism and other death cults. As I’ve written many times: Appeasement will not work. We don’t have enough money to keep bribing the villains. The Pakistani government has finally understood that the Taliban cannot be appeased, that they must be fought house to house, in tunnels, in hand to hand combat, and only by sacrificing many Pakistani soliders’ lives.

Actually, Ms. Sidman has posted at Right Truth, "News Brief: Salute to Israel Day Parade in New York City":

Thousands of supporters of Israel, both young and old gathered today in Manhattan to celebrate Israel's 61st birthday. A sea of blue and white filled fashionable 5th Avenue, as scores of synagogues, Jewish community centers and schools representing New York, New Jersey, Long Island, Connecticut, etc proudly carried thousands of Israeli flags while paying tribute to the eternal Jewish state. Shouts of "Am Yisroel Chai" (the people of Israel live) echoed through the East Side of Manhattan as marchers paid tribute to the 100th anniversary of the city of Tel Aviv ....

Also on hand were a small contingent of anti-Israel protesters whose signs and chants reflected their thinly veiled attempt to promulgate their essential message of rabid Jew hatred. Labeling Israel as an "apartheid state" and calling on the US to end all economic and military aid to the Jewish state, they also called for the total "liberation of Palestine" while excoriating Israelis as "Judeo Nazis". Other anti-Semitic signs conjured up images of the libelous propaganda once espoused by Adolf Hitler during the Nazi era. "Close Guantanamo Bay and Re-Open Auschwitz" read one sign, while another read, "Lock Up Your Kids: Pedophile Rabbis Are Everywhere." Members of the Revolution Muslim web site were on hand as well, carrying a banner that read, "Every Supporter of Israel is an Enemy Combatant".

Related: In case you missed it, check out some of the articles from Commentary's recent symposium, "Israel at Risk: A Commentary Special Report":

* Norman Podhoretz, "How Obama's America Might Threaten Israel."

* Mark Steyn, "Israel Today, the West Tomorrow."

* Jonathan Tobin, "An Ominous Turn in Elite Opinion."

Mitt Romney: Obama "Taking Us Far Too Far to the Left"

Here's Mitt Romney looking good for 2012, on Fox News Sunday: "The American people realize that this administration is taking us far too far to the left; and America is, fundamentally, a center-right nation":

CNN has the story, "Romney: President putting country in jeopardy," via Memeorandum.

Romney speaks quite movingly on the GM bankruptcy as well.

More on that news at the Wall Street Journal, "President Says U.S. a 'Reluctant Shareholder' As GM Seeks Fresh Start Through Chapter 11." See also, "New Era in Autos as GM Set for Bankruptcy."

Postcards from the 2009 MTV Movie Awards

Did you watch it? The 2009 MTV Movie Awards was quite a spectacle. The Los Angeles Times has a slideshow, "Best and Worst: 2009 MTV Movie Awards."

And via Ann Althouse, don't miss the video of Sacha Baron Cohen "dropping in unexpectedly" on Eminem.

MTV Shows

The Times' blurb:

Swooping in as Alter Ego No. 3, aka Bruno, in a pair of faux, oversized Angel wings, Cohen tumbles into the audience when the wire work goes wonky. The not so amused people who got a lap full of Bruno? Eminem and his entourage, who promptly got up and left the auditorium. Another fake feud?