Tyranny and Indifference

A great piece, as usual, from Bret Stephens, at Wall Street Journal (and Google):

The power of indifference is something I first understood from Havel himself after interviewing him, over a beer, in the gardens of Prague's Czernin Palace. The occasion was a June 2007 conference of international dissidents that he co-chaired with Israel's Natan Sharansky. I asked him about his views on the war in Iraq. He had once supported it, but now he was more tentative. The rationale, he said, had not been "well-articulated." The timing of the invasion was "questionable." As in the 1960s, the U.S. risked becoming an emblem of William Fulbright's "arrogance of power."

Then Havel stopped himself and, as he seemed wont to do, put the train of his thought in reverse. "The world," he concluded, "could not be indifferent forever to a murderer like Saddam Hussein."

Here was the nub of the matter when it came to the invasion of Iraq. Never mind the faulty human or technical intelligence concerning weapons of mass destruction: The real WMD, better known as Saddam Hussein, was always hiding in plain sight. Over the course of 25 years he and his henchmen gassed, assassinated, machine-gunned and otherwise murdered somewhere between one million and two million people. That's a big number, the equivalent of a dozen or so Hiroshimas.

Yet because most of the victims were Kurds, Shiites, marsh Arabs, Iranians and Kuwaitis, the question was why it should matter to the West—anymore than, say, the butcheries in the Congo matter. Opponents of the war argued that it should not: that there was no emergency; that no supreme national interest was at stake; that humanitarian interventions needed to be carried out consistently or not at all. Failing those tests, they concluded, guaranteed that the war was folly from the start.

If Havel's now-celebrated career means anything, however, it is to beware that facile conclusion. In his great 1978 essay, "The Power of the Powerless," written just as his career as a dissident had begun in earnest with his signing of the Charter 77 manifesto, he warned against "the attractions of mass indifference" and the "general unwillingness of consumption-oriented people to sacrifice some material certainties for the sake of their own spiritual and moral integrity." Havel feared that one's indifference to the question of the freedom of others would ultimately result in a well-fed indifference to the question of one's own freedom.

"A big danger of our world today is obsession," he told the conference the day of our interview. "An even bigger danger is indifference."

All this was Havel's way of saying that political extremism—whether of the Leonid Brezhnev, Kim Jong Il, Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden variety—would flourish if free people did not actively resist the temptation to acquiesce to it in the name of "peace," or some other go-along-to-get-along slogan.

And remember, while progressives praise folks like Havel, he's right up there with Christopher Hitchens when it comes to standing down progressive terror enablers.

Have We Lost Faith In the Free-Market System of Entrepreneurial Capitalism?

Asks Jeb Bush, at Wall Street Journal, "Capitalism and the Right to Rise" (via Memeorandum).

Americans still favor capitalism, obviously, but the increasing affinity to socialism is startling --- and I'm not just talking about the Occupy asshats. Both Gallup and Pew recently found strong support for socialism, especially among young people.

And the reactions to the Jeb Bush piece are strong among the idiots of the neo-communist blogosphere, for example, here's epic airhead Barbara O'Brien at Mahablog:

Jeb’s got an op ed in today’s Washington Post about how American capitalism is being strangled by taxes and regulations. This is total bullshit, of course, but the wingnuts eat this stuff up. I’m thinking Jeb’s taking steps to shine up his “conservative” credentials and get his name in circulation.

That would be "Wall Street Journal," you stupid piece of scum. And your ignorance is what's "bullshit." Take my state, please. We're drowning in regulations and taxes and people have almost completely lost confidence in government --- and that would be Democrat government, from top to bottom.

But wait! There's more of teh stupid, from Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog:

"The right to rise"? In a sane America, if we wanted to use the phrase "the right to rise" at this moment in history, we'd use it to talk about people who can't rise because they can't sell a house and move to where jobs are because the fat cats won't allow serious levels of mortgage modification to stabilize the housing market; we'd talk about people who can't rise and find work because we refuse to make a serious effort to engage in the sort of Keynesian public-works stimulus that would put money in people's pockets that they would later give to struggling merchants in exchange for food, clothing, and consumer goods; we'd talk about people who can't rise because they've been laid off as teachers or cops as we refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for needed services; we'd talk about students who will struggle to rise for decades because they bear a crushing burden of student loans and no job prospects.

It's all stupid but I've highlighted the most stupid passage of all. We haven't passed a "serious" Keynesian stimulus? Steve, you're on crack, mofo!

The 2009 stimulus authorized $787 billion in government spending, i.e., over 3/4 of a $1 trillion --- and according the president's own White House Council of Economic Advisers, the failed stimulus programs has cost taxpayers a whopping $278,000 per job! Shoot, might as well have turned the stimulus into a big fat freakin' welfare program!

Moreover, being a classically gargantuan bureaucratic program, the money was wasted on pork barrel and already-existing government contracts --- not the new projects the stimulus was ostensibly designed to promote. And not only that: Frankly, whatever jobs have been created would have likely come about without the stimulus and the resultant residual net drag to growth through the additional debt burden placed on the economy. Way to go Steve M.!

 And more! The deeper problem is that Keynesianism's simply discredited, and has long been so. See Allen Metlzer, "Four Reasons Keynesians Keep Getting It Wrong":

Those who heaped high praise on Keynesian policies have grown silent as government spending has failed to bring an economic recovery. Except for a few diehards who want still more government spending, and those who make the unverifiable claim that the economy would have collapsed without it, most now recognize that more than a trillion dollars of spending by the Bush and Obama administrations has left the economy in a slump and unemployment hovering above 9%.

Read it  all --- and weep, you ASFL progressive d-bags!

'You are a pyromaniac in a field of straw men...'

George Will decimates Robert Reich, with humor no less, via Big Journalism:

Favorite Ads of 2011

And not so favorite, at New York Times, "Reliving the Best (and Worst) Ads of 2011."

Surfing or Suicide? Nathan Fletcher Survives 'Broken Skulls' in Tahiti

A great piece.

And especially interesting is how the editors embedded the video at the website. This story was on the front page in traditional dead-tree format, but online the newspaper basically blogged it.

At Los Angeles Times, "A surfer's defining moment in a wall of water":

The view from inside a wave, a big one, can be hazy.

Surrounded by spray and a pounding drone, surfers get tunnel vision, all senses devoted to reaching the far end of the barrel. As Clark said: "You're so focused on harnessing and managing that power so you can deal with it, ride it, survive it."

When Fletcher was towed into his second ride at Teahupoo — by a faster Jet ski this time — it was clear he had landed in the jaws of a behemoth.

The wave reached an estimated 37 feet, but it wasn't so much the height as the thickness and ferocious power, a churning locomotive. After a bottom turn, he spotted a narrow slot, a path to safety, but his board kept twisting sideways.

"I was battling the whole time," he said. "Just thinking that I had to make it because I was scared."

The sheer volume of water running up the face of the wave threatened to suck him up and over. Yet, until the last moment, Fletcher thought he had a chance to emerge unscathed.

"Then I realized I wasn't going to make it."

The lip overhead — nearly as heavy as the wave itself, a frightening trademark of Teahupoo — collapsed with merciless force, sending his board flying, wrenching his body underwater. "This is it," he thought. "I've had some good waves, a good life." Then, just as quickly, he popped to the surface.

"I grabbed my head," he recalled. "I was like, is that thing still on there?"

Back on shore, the crowd was buzzing about his epic ride and wipeout, but the whole thing felt so surreal that he didn't pay much attention. Wasn't everyone catching big ones that day?

Hot New 'Dark Night Rises' Trailer With Anne Hathaway

I love this franchise.

See London's Daily Mail, "First look: Anne Hathaway's Catwoman gets her paws onto Batman as she goes on the prowl in Dark Knight Rises trailer."

Obama Youth Alienation Forces MTV to Drop 'Choose or Lose' Campaign Slogan

At New York Times, "For Election Year, MTV Drops ‘Choose or Lose’ Slogan":

After nearly 20 years of “Choose or Lose,” MTV is changing the name of its election season campaign.

The youth cable channel’s coverage will be labeled “Power of 12,” a nod to both the election year and the notion that 18- to 29-year-olds have a lot of political power if they choose to wield it.

The name change is, in part, a statement about the cynical mood of the youth voting bloc. While young people turned out in unusually high numbers to support Barack Obama in 2008, MTV’s research into “Choose or Lose” found that many felt they had lost anyway.

“They were so passionate,” said Stephen K. Friedman, the president of MTV. “And then they hit this wall of the economy.”

RTWT.

No doubt NYT's spinning this administration's historic collapse as delicately as possible.

Gingrich Lead Evaporates With Just Two Weeks Until Iowa Caucuses

Scholars of the primaries will remember the run-up to 2012 as the most fluctuating pre-primary season in a long time. We've seen the rise and fall of one candidate after another, briefly challenging Mitt Romney for frontrunner status for the Republican nomination. As I noted at my Pajamas piece last week, things would likely change. But I'm surprised at how quickly Newt's surge has deflated. I guess Mitt really does have the momentum at this late date. The question now is how quickly he'll be able to wrap up the nomination. Remember, it's an elongated season, so surprise victories in the early states can still change the dynamics of the race. Especially interesting will be watching what happens to Ron Paul.

See Gallup, "Gingrich's Lead Over Romney Among Republicans Collapses." Also, at CNN, "CNN Poll: Gingrich lead gone, dead even with Romney" (via Memeorandum).

Suspect Burned 73-Year-Old Doris Gillespie Over Debt

This is literally grisly.

At Los Angeles Times, "New York man says he set woman on fire over debt":

NEW YORK — As Deloris Gillespie went up the elevator to her fifth-floor Brooklyn apartment, her killer was waiting.

Surveillance video from inside the small elevator shows that he looked something like an exterminator, with a canister sprayer, white gloves and a dust mask perched atop his head like a pair of sunglasses. The sprayer was full of flammable liquid.

When the elevator opened Saturday afternoon, the man sprayed the 73-year-old woman, who crouched to the floor to try to protect herself, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said. The attacker sprayed Gillespie in the face and continued to spray her "sort of methodically" over her head and parts of her body as her bags of groceries draped off her arms, Browne said.

Then, Browne said, the attacker pulled out a barbecue-style lighter and ignited a rag in a bottle. He waited a few seconds, then backed out of the elevator and tossed in the flaming bottle.

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Pictured: Woman, 73, who was doused in gasoline and burned to death in elevator 'over handyman's $2,000 debt'."

Jang Sung Taek May Prevail in North Korean Succession Struggle

This is fascinating.

At Los Angeles Times, "Powerful uncle may overshadow anointed son":

North Korean media extolled Kim Jong Eun on Monday as the “great successor” and the “outstanding leader of our party, army and people.”

But it’s not so simple. The young man is likely to be overshadowed by a powerful uncle, Jang Sung Taek.

Jang, 65, is married to Kim Jong Il’s younger sister and has spent three decades in the ruling Workers’ Party, holding key positions in the military and secret police and running North Korea’s special economic zones. His family members also hold powerful jobs with the military.

In contrast, the chosen successor has a thin resume. He attended a German-language public high school in Bern, Switzerland, where he was registered as the son of a North Korean diplomat. His classmates described him as crazy about basketball and computer games.

Until September 2010, when the overweight young man with a dimpled face was named a four-star general, he was almost entirely unknown to the North Korean public. Even the exact spelling of his name was a state secret.

More at the link.

And see New York Times, "Young Heir Faces Uncertain Transition in North Korea." (Via Memeorandum.)

It's Time for Senate Democrats to Stop Procrastinating and Join House Republicans to Get America Back to Work

At Los Angeles Times, "Boehner rejects tax cut deal":

House Speaker John A. Boehner escalated a year-end showdown over President Obama's payroll tax cut by rejecting a Senate-passed compromise — jeopardizing the $1,000 average annual benefit for 160 million working Americans and risking the blame if taxes rise.

The Republican-controlled House was expected to vote down the Senate's two-month extension of the tax break Monday in a largely symbolic demonstration that the stopgap deal is unacceptable. The tax break expires Dec. 31. "How can you do tax policy for two months?" Boehner (R-Ohio) said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We should do this for the full year as the president asked for."

The speaker's dismissal of the deal reached by the Senate's Republican and Democratic leaders presents another example of his willingness to cater to the GOP's conservatives and tests his grip on the often-unwieldy Republican House majority.

House members are being called back to Washington as Republicans try to kick-start negotiations with Democrats by either amending the bill or launching formal talks on compromise. But they could end up shadowboxing. The Senate has left town and Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he would refuse to engage in further talks until the House approved the short-term extension that passed the Senate on Saturday by a bipartisan margin, 89 to 10.

Harry Reid is the biggest loser.

I can't wait until November for when the freakin' Democrat-Socialists get the freakin' boot at the ballot box.

Also, at National Journal, "Why This Congressional Chaos Is Not About to End."

The Basis of Left and Right, Part 4

The series continues at Power Line, "THE BASIS OF LEFT AND RIGHT, PART 4: MORAL REASONING (OR KANT VS. ARISTOTLE AGAIN)":

Here we come close to affirming the practical notion that the left and right need each other as a counterweight or completing factor. But on closer look their positions are asymmetrical: the postulates of liberalism will always make it the initiating force in political life, while conservatism will always be its cautionary handmaiden. While liberals are congenitally discontent with the pace and extent of reform, they always have a general sense of what should come next, best expressed in Samuel Gompers’ famous one-word policy: “More.” More reform, more legislation, more equality. Conservatives, by contrast, do not have a clear or uniform outline of the good society; instead, conservatives have serious divisions among themselves about what the good society should be. It is not simply a matter of opposing “less” to the liberals’ “more.” Conservatives have deep theoretical differences over the relationship of liberty and virtue, and while liberalism has a similar theoretical argument (between “communitarians” and individualists), it is not as pronounced and politically relevant as the split on the right. I’ll add here that the theoretical and practical tensions within conservatism are a source of the movement’s strength; conservatism’s infighting leads to a certain amount of self-renewal that is largely missing in liberalism.

Well, there's certainly some self-renewal in the left's practical politics in the post-Cold War age. Communism as a goal is pushed more aggressively than ever, among people who had normally been the institutional foundation of what previously was the mainstream liberalism of John F. Kennedy and others. That is, to the extent that the left is seeking a revival of the animating revolutionary ideologies of the early twentieth century, there appears certainly a renewal. Indeed, it's the resurrection of the most murderous ideological developments in the history of mankind. And now there's the added malevolence of the left's accommodation to fascism with its support for millenarian Islamist fanaticism and the shift of historic anti-Semitism from the right to the left of the spectrum in the manifestation of the "new anti-Semitism." These are developments that Hayward might want to address in his continuing iterations of the series.

My previous entries in the series are here.

'Unrestrained Public Grief' at Death of Kim Jong Il

Public grief? Glenn Greenwald was whining about it the other day with reference to the week-long public ceremonies for Ronald Reagan in 2004. The popular outpouring for Reagan might as well have been cooked up in some North Korean propaganda office. So, what to make of this video, at Telegraph UK:

Local television pictures appear to show North Korean officials reacting with unrestrained grief to the news of Kim Jong Il's death.

It's not just the state commissars who're publicly grieving for Dear Leader. See Blazing Cat Fur, "Oh those poor people. Forced to feign love for the little prick."

Hey, maybe Glenn Greenwald should find a gay lover in Pyongyang! Loosen the Communist Party's control of information and then those 3,000 word blog posts might find an audience!

As Last Troops Exit Iraq, Obama Spikes the Political Football

At Black Five, "Gloating About Something He Had Little to Do With":

Remember, this is someone who voted against funding for our soldiers in combat in Iraq. Also remember that this plan that has now been executed, i.e. our withdrawal from Iraq, was one negotiated by the previous administration before he ever took office.

But that doesn’t at all keep him from using the event as a campaign ad.

All in good taste, of course.

I wrote on this earlier, "War in Iraq Officially Over."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "As last U.S. troops exit Iraq, they leave a troubled land behind." It's a good piece, despite the typically negative headline.

Republicans Will Destroy Ron Paul If He Wins Iowa

From Timothy Carney, at Washington Examiner, "GOP will take off the gloves if Ron Paul wins Iowa":

The Republican presidential primary has become a bit feisty, but it will get downright ugly if Ron Paul wins the Iowa caucuses.

The principled, antiwar, Constitution-obeying, Fed-hating, libertarian Republican congressman from Texas stands firmly outside the bounds of permissible dissent as drawn by either the Republican establishment or the mainstream media. (Disclosure: Paul wrote the foreword to my 2009 book.)

But in a crowded GOP field currently led by a collapsing Newt Gingrich and an uninspiring Mitt Romney, Paul could carry the Iowa caucuses, where supporter enthusiasm has so much value.

If Paul wins, how will the media and the GOP react? Much of the media will ignore him (expect headlines like "Romney Beats out Gingrich for Second Place in Iowa"). Some in the Republican establishment and the conservative media will panic. Others will calmly move to crush him, with the full cooperation of the liberal mainstream media.

Well, it's certainly going to be interesting.

Continue reading at the link.

IMAGE CREDIT: Conservative Network, "Who Wrote The Ron Paul Newsletters? Ron Paul Wrote Them – Clear Proof." Also, "Ron Paul Is A Lying Scumbag Politician With Borderline Sociopath Tendencies."

Obama Hawaiian Vacation to Cost Taxpayers $4 Million

At The Foundry, "Obama’s $4 Million Hawaii Vacation."

Also at Lonely Conservative, "Obama’s Hawaiian Vacation Estimate to Cost More than $4 Million."

Israel Completes Second Part of Prisoner Swap

At New York Times, "Israel Releases Second Batch of Prisoners,"

At the Palestinian presidential compound in Ramallah, music blared and hundreds of Palestinians waved flags, waiting for the buses to arrive.

Palestinian youths threw stones at Israeli troops at a checkpoint as the release began. The soldiers responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. There were more than a dozen injuries reported among the Palestinians and one soldier hurt.

Previously: "Gilad Shalit and the Price Freedom in Israel."

North Korea's Kim Jong Il Has Died

At Los Angeles Times, "North Korea says leader Kim Jong Il has died."

And at Hot Air, "Breaking: Kim Jong-Il dead."

The obvious concern is with the transition. The Times reports that Kim's third son, Kim Jong Eun, will take power in a pre-arranged transition.

I'll update with more information. At the video is footage from a Pyongyang military parade in September. You'll see Kim Jong Eun at the clip, on the reviewing stand to the far left of his father.

Added: Some reactions are coming in:

* Althouse, "Kim Jong-il... I didn't even know he was ill."

* Atlas Shrugs, "The bastard is dead. If he hadn't starved his people to death, they would have the strength to dance in the streets."

* Blazing Cat Fur, "Not Castro But Close...Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ Dictator, Dead at 70."

* Doug Powers (at Michelle's), "North Korea’s Kim Jong Il Dies."

* Doug Ross, "May He Bake on a Spit for Eternity."

* Lisa Graas, "“Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il Dead at 69."

* Neo-Neocon, "Kim Jong Il Dies."

* The Other McCain, "Kim Jong’s Illness Finally Takes Him."

* Weasel Zippers, "Hell Has A New Occupant: North Korea’s Kim Jong Ill Dead…"

Also, the New York Times is now reporting, "Kim Jong-il, North Korean Leader, Dies: 69-Year-Old Was Ill Since Reported":

Mr. Kim is believed to have been born in Siberia in 1941, when his father, Kim Il-sung, was in exile in the Soviet Union. But in North Korea’s official accounts, he was born in 1942, in a cabin, Abe Lincoln-like. The cabin was in a secret camp of anti-Japanese guerrillas his father commanded on Mount Paektu, a holy piece of land in Korean mythology. The event, the official Korean Central News Agency would often say, was accompanied by the appearance of a bright star in the sky and a double-rainbow that touched the earth.

Little is known of his upbringing, apart from the official statement that he graduated in 1964 from Kim Il-sung University, one of the many institutions, buildings and monuments built to commemorate his father. At the time, North Korea was enmeshed in the cold war, and the younger Kim watched many crises unfold from close up, including North Korea’s seizure of the Pueblo, an American spy ship, in 1968. He appeared episodically at state events, rarely speaking. When he did, he revealed that he had a high-pitched voice and little of his father’s easygoing charisma.

The world did not hear his voice until 1992 when he issued a one-liner while overlooking an enormous Armed Forces Day parade: “Glory to the heroic People’s Army!”

In his youth and middle age, there were stories about his playboy lifestyle. There were tales of lavish meals at a time his country was starving — his cook wrote a book after leaving the country — and his wavy hair and lifted heels, along with a passion for top-label liquor, made him the butt of jokes.

There was also speculation that he had been involved in the 1983 bombing of a South Korean political delegation in Burma, and that he had known of, and perhaps had ordered, the kidnapping of Japanese citizens. Nothing was ever proved.

Washington put North Korea on its list of state sponsors of terrorism after North Korean agents planted a bomb that blew up a South Korean passenger jet in 1987 — under instructions from Mr. Kim, according to one of the agents, who was caught alive.

Mr. Kim campaigned for power relentlessly. He bowed to his father at the front porch each morning and offered to put the shoes on the father’s feet long before he was elected to the Politburo, at age 32, in 1974, said Hwang Jang-yop, a former North Korean Workers’ Party secretary who had been a key aide for the Kim regime before his defection to Seoul in 1997.

“At an early age, Kim Jong-il mastered the mechanics of power,” Mr. Hwang said.

It was not until 1993, as the existence of the Yongbyon nuclear plant and North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions became publicly known, that Mr. Kim appeared to be his father’s undisputed successor. That year, he became head of the National Defense Commission, the North’s most powerful agency, in charge of the military.

Progressives Demonize Christopher Hitchens Upon His Death

You see, Christopher Hitchens committed the ultimate sin for the neo-communist left: Once one of them, he turned on progressives with a vengeance in his denunciation of the left's treasonous and enormously self-serving opposition to the Iraq war.

Progressive asshat John Cook has this at Gawker, "Christopher Hitchens’ Unforgivable Mistake." It's a bilious screed that simply ridicules Hitchens without substantively rebutting his arguments.

And also Glenn Greenwald, "Christopher Hitchens and the protocol for public figure deaths" (via Memeorandum).

And progressive hate master Thers, at Pile 'o Shit on Fire:

Hitchens seems to have had a gift for making anyone who ever met him personally forgive him for talking horseshit. Well, fuck him anyhow.

Stay classy, Thers, you f-king idiot. And that goes double for your morally impaired buddies at LGM.

Bonus: DougJ at Balloon Juice almost quit the blog after John Cole issued a fatwa against "ugly corpse-kicking bullshit in this thread." Thers obviously didn't visit the thread.

The Death of Free Speech the 'Canadian Way'

I'm not really up on all of the personalities, but the realities of progressive attacks on political speech are all too real to me.

See Kathy Shaidle, "(Making Someone's Life a) Living Hell Is the Best Revenge."

I'll be checking Kathy's site frequently (or more frequently than I already do) with anticipation of her big announcement. Meanwhile, she links to this cowardly defense of the Canadian Human Rights Commission's "Section 13" --- which is the Canadian left's vile bureaucracy that's mounting a jihad against free speech up north by attacking and prosecuting conservatives who speak the truth, because as we all know, truth is the new "hate speech." See Bernie Farber and Marvin Kurz, "Hateful Words Can Hurt." And a key passage at the piece:

Another argument against Section 13 is that, unlike libel law, truth is no defence. But can it ever be “true” that victims of hate speech deserve hatred and contempt? Should someone be entitled to use a tribunal hearing to “prove” that, say African Canadians are inferior, that Jews are rapacious, or that all gays are pedophiles?

Truth is no defense? God, that's so pathetically f-king stupid it makes me wanna puke. Hello? It doesn't matter if the truth is painful or not --- it's still the truth. And notice how these idiots Farber and Kurz omit example of real conservative free speech. Did you point out that Islamists proselytize death to the Jews? Lock up that man for that, er, "hate speech"! These progressive asshats and their totalitarian minions will dictate what thoughts are acceptable. It's already happening, of course, all around us. The world is upside down, in a big way. The biggest lies in today's world are the inventions of the left. That the war in Iraq was a "debacle." That the science of climate change is "settled." That Israel, the Middle East's original democracy, is an "apartheid state." The list goes on. The common denominator is that progressives can't win debate on the merits, so they use totalitarian methods to attack their opponents and shut down debate --- despite their narcissistic chest-thumping to the contrary.

See also Closet Conservative, "OMGWords Caused the Holocaust AIYEEEE We're ALL GONNA DIE!!!," and Scaramouche, "The Ceej is Dead and Gone But Its Pro-Censorship Zombies Live On."

Kate Beckinsale in Flaunt Magazine

Well, first let me give a big shout out to Teresa who's got a fabulous roundup: "Kate Beckinsale - Rule 5."

And speaking of the lovely Kate, see London's Daily Mail, "Flaunt it! Kate Beckinsale shows off her endlessly long legs in hotpants and boots on sexy cover." And at Flaunt, "Kate Beckinsale in the Revolving Ballroom by the Sea."

And here's the Flaunt video:

In lieu of a full-on Rule 5 roundup, see The Pirate's Cove, "If All You See…is a massive carbon footprint delivered by Santa, you might just be a Warmist."

I'll have more Rule 5 with additional linkage to Rule 5 bloggers in upcoming posts.

Meanwhile, there's a Full Metal Reach-Around at The Other McCain, "FMJRA 2.0: Toys In The Attic."

Breathtaking New Photographs of WWII's Battle of the Bulge

Another great photo-spread from London's Daily Mail, "Vivid new Battle of the Bulge photos offer never-before-seen look at the war-weary soldiers braving the frigid weather as they fight off Nazi Germany's last major offensive of World War II." (Via Memeorandum.)

Movie Review: 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'

At the Hollywood Reporter, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Film Review":

Emotional fluency and literary pretense go hand in hand in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, an affecting, well acted tale of 9/11 trauma and a boy's effort to piece things together after his father's death. A self-conscious prestige project with weighty thematic elements, a tony literary pedigree and top-tier actors, director Stephen Daldry's fourth film is dominated by the performance of a 13-year-old with no previous acting experience, Thomas Horn, who enables his character's pinball intellect and inchoate emotions to pulse through every scene. While the subject matter will keep some prospective viewers away, many who do come will be emotionally wrenched by the treatment of loss and the interplay between parents and child, indicating good commercial prospects in most markets.

I can only think of one other big screen epic of this sort, "World Trade Center," and I'm surprised we haven't had more. And "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is another film that's on my list of movies not to miss.

Unbelievable Brutality in Egypt's Crackdown on Protesters

Telegraph UK has the story, "Female protestor's beating sparks Egypt outrage."

Protesters clashed with Egypt's security forces in central Cairo yesterday after the humiliating police beating of a veiled woman in Tahrir Square triggered widespread outrage in the country's pro-democracy movement.

At least ten people have been killed in three days of violence as Egypt's generals launched a clumsy and often brutal attempt to end weeks of protests against their rule.

Amid the fresh bloodshed and chaos that turned the centre of the city once more into a familiar scene of mayhem and anger, one incident, captured on film, stoked tensions more than any other. Footage, widely broadcast on the internet, showed helmeted officers charging towards a veiled woman among the protesters in Tahrir Square earlier in the weekend. Dragging her along the ground, they beat her with their clubs and aimed kick after kick at her limp body.

Pulling her veil over her head to expose her bra, one man stamps on her breasts. Nearby, other security officers jump on the body of a man who had tried to help her as furious protesters throw stones to scare them off. Other footage showed an army officer apparently firing his pistol at the demonstrators.

Max Fisher at the Atlantic comments on the indecency of the attack on the woman, "A Photo That Encapsulates the Horror of Egypt's Crackdown." And see the full coverage at New York Times, "Video Shows Egyptian Soldiers Beating and Shooting at Protesters."

California Unemployment Rate Falls to 11.3 Percent! Break Out the Champagne!

I'm being facetious.

But I can't help it. Look at this ridiculously enthusiastic headline at the Los Angeles Times: "California's Jobless Rate Falls for Fourth Month in a Row! The State Unemployment Rate Declines to 11.3% in November, a Sign That the Labor Market is Slowly Recovering!"

That's the real headline. All I've added is the exclamation point! But seriously. You'd think it's HAPPY DAYS AGAIN! by the looks of the newspaper, and remember I still get the rag in hard copy!

And it only takes a quick glance at Google to see that the state's still mired in depression-like conditions in many parts for state, the California Central Valley, for example. See the Turlock Journal, "Good news, bad news in local unemployment rates":

The latest figures from the Economic Development Department reflect some good news for Stanislaus County and some not so heartening news.

Stanislaus County posted an unemployment rate of 15.5 percent in November, just slightly up from the revised October rate of 15.3 percent. This marked the third month in a row that the county has had an unemployment rate below 16 percent, something that has been a rarity during these troubled economic times.

A small uptick in November's unemployment rate hasn't been seen since November 2007, and bucks the trend of the past few years, said EDD labor market analyst Nati Martinez.

In November 2007, the unemployment rate went from 8.2 percent to 8.8 percent. In 2008, it rose from 11.2 percent to 12.1 percent in November. In November 2009, the rate grew from 15.9 percent to 16.7 percent and last year it jumped from 16.1 percent to 17.2 percent in the same time frame, according to the EDD.

Stanislaus County's November unemployment rate for this year was well below the year-ago estimate of 17.2 percent.

However, the gains reflected in the EDD's report are tempered by the fact that less people are reporting that they are looking for work. Stanislaus County's labor force, which stood at an estimated 237,300 in October, fell to 233,200.

I added the italics, since for all the "great" news about declining unemployment --- nationwide and in California --- the fact is huge numbers of people are discouraged and remain so unhappy about their prospects that they've simply given up looking for a job. When that happens, they drop off the statistics for the "active" labor force, and in fact the unemployment rate improves. As always, official unemployment statistics systematically undercount the unemployed.

More on all of this later. When the national unemployment rate falls to 6 percent I'll pop a bottle of champagne. And 8 percent in California would be worth a little celebration.

RELATED: At New York Times, "As Wars End, Young Veterans Return to Scant Jobs."

Russia Seizes Radioactive Materials Bound for Iran

At Washington Post, "Russian customs seize radioactive metal from Iranian's luggage bound for Tehran."

Also, at San Francisco Chronicle, "Iran's endgame is long overdue":

The International Atomic Energy Agency released documents last month that finally removed nearly all doubt that Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons. And yet, as the world angrily reacts, all we hear from Russia and China, Iran's consistent defenders, is shameful bleating.

In fact, two days after the atomic energy agency released its report, Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's nuclear-energy corporation, announced that Russia was prepared to begin building new civilian nuclear reactors in Iran. Then Russia's U.N. ambassador declared: "The sanctions track in the Security Council has been exhausted." 

He offered instead the ludicrous observation that "negotiations should continue with Iran." A couple of weeks earlier, a new WikiLeaks disclosure showed that China has been facilitating shipments of ballistic-missile components from North Korea to Iran. And China's foreign ministry offered similar sophistry: resolve the problem with "dialogue and negotiations."

Even after all that has happened, those two states are still threatening to wield their veto in the Security Council. So it's imperative that the United States and Europe act on their own.

Israel's defense minister told CNN last month that Iran is less than a year away from completing work on a bomb. Some American officials say Israel's estimates are often exaggerated. Still, the fact remains that this dance with Iran has been under way for almost 10 years. It's well past time to bring it to a close.

Planet of the Apes Marathon!

HBO Family Channel is showing some of the original "Planet of the Apes" films this month. I watched the first three films yesterday: "The Planet of the Apes," "Beneath the Planet of the Apes," and "Escape from the Planet of the Apes."

It was good. I'm sure feminist heads explode at Nova, the beautiful primitive woman who's a love interest for Charlton Heston.

Sir Lord Thomas has a Rule 5 roundup of Nova photos: "OH NOVA!!!"

The Paulbots Are Back!

This is just like old times!

I  had some guy commenting at my post, "Why Ron Paul Can't Win," mouthing the same old lines about getting the "facts" straight and all that. And it was just yesterday that Lisa Graas was ribbing me on Twitter about how the Paulbots were going to be coming after me. I laughed a little bit.

But I was seriously ROTFLMFAO seeing Lisa's post, "“To the Paul Supporters”." The links there take us to yet more damaging revelations on the racist newsletters, and then Lisa adds a post script: "P.S. to the Paul supporters":

Saying NU-UH, doesn’t make the facts above go away. Shouting, “LIAR!” – doesn’t make the facts above go away. Giving a link to a Ron Paul denial doesn’t make the facts go away. Shouting neocon, shill, warmonger, hit piece, or any other word in your vocabulary, doesn’t make the above facts go away.

Saying this is old news, doesn’t make the above truth go away. If a candidate for president built wealth for two decades off of being racist, voters deserve to know.

Saying this was debunked years ago, doesn’t make the truth above go away. The above facts debunk any supposed debunking from Ron Paul.

Sitting there and spouting off any other rhetoric while you ignore the evidence, does not make the evidence go away.

Calling this a joke or an act of desperation does not make the above facts go away.

Spewing a quote about how racism is about collectivism doesn’t make the above facts untrue.

Lisa's linking to the Conservative News Network, "Who Wrote The Ron Paul Newsletters? Ron Paul Wrote Them – Clear Proof."

And Pamela has a post as well, "BOMBSHELL! RON PAUL'S RACIST NEWSLETTERS." And then checking the comments, we see this from the commenter posting as "This Site Sucks":

Fuck off troll!

And then the very next comment:

This is R I D I C U L O U S ! ! Sure he wrote some of the newsletters. They were his. He has NEVER denied that. He just denied writing some of the NONSENSE that you vile people are accusing him off... You ready to bomb Iran already? What are you waiting for?

And the next...

Well, you get the picture.

Obama Applauds Vote to Extend Payroll Tax Cut

At ABC News, "Obama ‘Pleased’ About Payroll Tax Cut Extension," and New York Times, "Senate Votes to Extend Payroll Tax Cut" (via Memeorandum):

Boycott Chiquita Bananas!

Sounds crazy, but this is serious business.

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Follow @BloodBananas and @Boycott Chiquita on Twitter for all your Boycott Chiquita Banana News."

And at Instapundit, "BOYCOTTING CHIQUITA BANANAS over Conflict Oil."

Rooney Mara's Hot Punk Lisbeth Salander in 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'

At Los Angeles Times, "Dressing the goth-punk heroine of 'Dragon Tattoo'."

Britney Spears Engagement Party Photos

At London's Daily Mail, "A bit too much revelry? Britney Spears emerges from engagement celebration looking a little worse for wear."

Let the lady have some fun, sheesh.

The Basis of Left and Right, Part 3

The next installment from Steven Hayward, at Power Line, "THE BASIS OF LEFT AND RIGHT, PART 3: EQUALITY":

The Marxist-inspired radical who sees property as the ultimate illegitimate convention to be swept away need not concern us here. Of more interest and relevance is the moderate liberal who argues two related and compelling points: first, from a view harmonious with conservatism’s bias for social stability, large inequalities in wealth, or a static distribution of wealth, undermine society’s social cohesion. As a consequence, second, unequal wealth distribution should be measured by its utility to all classes (Rawls’ argument). Both of these concepts elude convincing and unequivocal empirical demonstration, let alone obvious policy responses. But one can observe the least amount of friction between left and right when policy choices regarding opportunity are on the table.

This leads inevitably to an important corollary of the right-left split over the nature of equality, concerning the efficacy of government itself, not only on direct distributional questions, but also on subsidiary matters regarding the “playing field” of opportunity. Liberals believe in using government—through regulatory and ameliorative means—to correct market failures, which liberals perceive as occurring on a wide scale. Conservatives are much more prone to wariness about government failure, often going so far as to attribute political intervention as the final cause of all market failures—often with good reason: the role of multiple government mistakes in bringing about the housing bubble and subsequent crash is hard to minimize. The arguments about the nature and reasons for both government failure and market failure are serious and extensive, but suffice it here to note that the extreme libertarian position ironically shares in common the same utopian expectation as Marxism: the belief in the possibility of the withering away of the state.

Again, it's a great discussion. My problem is that the idea of the "modern liberal" is a concoction of progressives to hide their statist, inherently totalitarian, ideological convictions. High-brow theory can explain all these minute nuances of theory and ideology, but in practice the deceit of left-wing politics always ends with the destruction of human agency and individual liberty. The left is the cancer of modern societies.

Michele Bachmann Hates Muslims?

Politico reports, "Paul on Bachmann: 'She hates Muslims'."

And lots more at Memeorandum.

Also, on Bachmann attacking the Gingrich campaign for alleged vote-buying in South Carolina? At The Other McCain, "‘Shorter Ace: Bitches Lie’."

Typhoon Kills Hundreds in Southern Phillipines

At Telegraph UK, "Hundreds die as tropical storm Washi sweeps across Philippines":

At least 430 people have died and hundreds more have gone missing after the tropical storm Washi swept across the southern Philippines.

Officials said 20,000 soldiers had been mobilised in a huge rescue and relief operation across the stricken north coast of the island of Mindanao. The major ports of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan were worst hit, and an estimated 100,000 people had to flee their homes.

Lawrence Cruz, mayor of Iligan, said: "It's the worst flood in the history of our city. It happened so fast, at a time when people were asleep."

Television pictures showed dramatic pictures of a family escaping out of the window of their home in the town as the flood waters rose, and rescue workers in orange vests shepherding survivors to safety. Water levels rose three feet in less than an hour, forcing thousands on to their rooftops to try to escape.

Ron Paul's Ground Game in Iowa Could Be Decisive

I mentioned this possibility at my essay this week at PJ Media.

See New York Times, "Paul’s ‘Ground Game,’ in Place Since ’08, Gives Him an Edge":

ANKENY, Iowa — It was four years ago that Ross Witt, a soft-spoken electrical engineer at John Deere, overcame his natural discomfort with knocking on hundreds of his neighbors’ doors during dinnertime as a precinct coordinator for Ron Paul’s campaign.

But when Mr. Paul dropped out of the national race in June 2008, Mr. Witt did not stop, because, in a sense, neither did Mr. Paul: Mr. Witt and many other supporters here joined the Iowa branch of an independent political group Mr. Paul established after the race. They carried on his libertarian message, and picked local organizers. And when Mr. Paul announced that he was running for president this year, Mr. Witt and others jumped back onto his campaign, a force more motivated and efficient than before.

Alone among the Republican field, Mr. Paul, a Texas congressman, has a built-in network from 2008 that gives him a decisive organizational edge. Iowa Republicans say that advantage is an important reason some polls show him within striking distance of a victory in the Jan. 3 caucuses, with a battle-tested ground game poised to take advantage of a lack of passion for the rest of the candidates, a stark contrast to 2008, when evangelicals rallied around Mike Huckabee.

“This isn’t a year-and-a-half campaign,” Craig Robinson, a former Iowa Republican Party political director during the caucuses four years ago, said of Mr. Paul’s organization. “This is a five-year campaign.”

More at the link.

RELATED: At ABC News, "Ron Paul Takes Swipes at GOP Rivals, Says Michele Bachmann ‘Hates Muslims’." (Via Memeorandum.)

Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers on 'The Kudlow Report'

Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers discusses the U.S. role in the European debt crisis:

And see John Gizzi, at Human Events, ""Exclusive: IMF Chief Lagarde, Rep. McMorris Rodgers in Sitdown," and at Telegraph UK, "Christine Lagarde: European financial crisis is too serious for eurozone countries to solve alone."

National Review Writers Dissent on Editors' Stealth Mitt Romney Endorsement

William Jacobson has this, "One brave soul at National Review stands up for Newt." And from Pundette, "Andy McCarthy dissents." Linked at the latter's is Jonah Goldberg The Editorial — My Take, " and Mark Steyn, "Include Me Out."

 Here's Steyn on Bachmann:

Congresswoman Bachmann has fought a principled, conservative campaign with only one significant misstep — her overreach on the Gardasil business. Again, that shouldn’t be a disqualification. Nor should having more chiefs of staff than she has foster children (I speak as a guy who believes citizen-legislators shouldn’t have chiefs of staff, anyway). To be sexist about it, President Bachmann at her best would be another Thatcher and at her worst another Merkel — and Chancellor Merkel currently presides over the least worst Western economy. What’s not to like? Go, Michele!

I like it!

BONUS: Linkmaster Smith links to my essay from yesterday the state of the race: "Sean Hannity Flummoxed By Michelle Malkin."

Gingrich of Freddie Mac

An editorial, at Wall Street Journal.

Check that link. The piece reviews the allegations of corruption against Gingrich, and takes issue with the Speaker's defense of the mortgage institution as an essentially "conservative" GSE, a "government-sponsored enterprise."

The Journal's editors roll their eyes at Gingrich's elaborate defense of his actions, and then say:

Where to begin? One problem is the lack of candor. In Thursday's Sioux City debate, Mr. Gingrich repeated his claim that he had never done a favor for Fan and Fred. But as Speaker in 1995, according to news reports at the time, Mr. Gingrich helped to kill an effort by then House Budget Chairman John Kasich to impose user fees on Fannie and Freddie. The fees were intended to offset the cost advantage provided to the companies by their implicit government guarantee.

Mr. Gingrich also knows that many Republicans were fighting against furious opposition, and at great political risk, to reform Fan and Fred in the early and mid-2000s. The heroes included then Congressman Richard Baker, Senator Richard Shelby and Bush White House aide Kevin Warsh. We were at the barricades too, and Mr. Gingrich was never seen in the rear of the reform camp, much less on the front lines. The Georgian could only have been on the payroll because Freddie thought he could help influence other Republicans against reform.

As for the destructive duo's business model that Mr. Gingrich said he didn't want to change, this was precisely their problem. Far from a private-public partnership, they were private companies with a federal guarantee against failure. Their model was private profit but socialized risk. This produced riches on Wall Street and for company executives. But taxpayers bore the risk of loss—to the tune of $141 billion so far. Why does the historian think they were called "government-sponsored enterprises"?

More at the link.

Occupy Wall Street: A Movement Custom-Designed to Make Democrat-Socialists Look Like a Bunch of Freaks

See Noemie Emery, at Weekly Standard, "Occupational Therapy":

"God, I love ’em,” wrote Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post not long after the glorious dawning of Occupy Wall Street, saying that the protests “arise at just the right moment and are aimed at just the right target” to grow into something quite big. Apparently, the stench from McPherson Square (the Washington, D.C., equivalent of Zuccotti Park in Manhattan) had not yet wafted the two blocks north to the Post building, for he was back a week later to praise it again, along with his stablemate E.J. Dionne and many other liberals who read into the Occupy movement numerous virtues that never existed, while wholly ignoring the vices that are only too real. And why would these clean, polite, well-mannered people, for whom an overdue library book would most likely seem like a major infraction, embrace a collection of ne’er-do-wells who are causing a public-health crisis in the midst of their city? Because they and the rest of the left are desperate for any kind of jolt to jump-start their party, which has been in a coma since the air seeped out of Obamamania sometime in 2009.

So what if the occupiers have no idea what they want, and no plans for getting it? “Liberals need a tea party, damn it,” writes Jonah Goldberg, and thus “have embraced the movement in principle with the understanding that they’ll worry about the details later, if at all.” For similar reasons, labor and assorted left-wing organizations are also circling, hoping to connect to the “99 percent” the occupiers say they are speaking for. They hope to repeat the success of the civil rights and the Tea Party movements. But there are reasons this may not work out.
The problem with Occupy is that it involves occupation, which gets it off to a very bad start. The Tea Party asked people to show up for a few hours on weekends, march, listen to speeches, perhaps call upon members of Congress, pick up their trash, and go home. Occupy by contrast asks people to leave their homes (should they have them) and live in a tent in a park for an indefinite period, for goals that are hard to explain.

What kind of people move into a tent for an indefinite period? Those without strong connections to professions or to other people, without obligations, routines, and responsibilities; without children or clients or jobs. This self-selects against the 90 percent of the population that is productive and grounded, that supports itself and works hard, not to mention the part of the population that votes. Even before the camps were heavily infiltrated by homeless and/or criminal elements, the composition was tilted to those on the fringes, frequently by choice as well as necessity, which made it more like a cultural event such as Woodstock than like the Depression-age Hoovervilles, which were peopled largely by those who once had middle-class standing and were then down on their luck....

The civil rights and Tea Party movements addressed specific concerns—a cosmic injustice, and fiscal policies believed to be ruinous—that had means of redress through political remedies, which they pursued by legal, nonviolent means. The Occupy forces by and large have problems that do not admit of political solutions. The civil rights and Tea Party movements sprang from the middle of middle America; Occupy Wall Street from the fringe. Its happy embrace of a “communal”—and rag-tag and dirty—lifestyle was bound to alienate that much larger part of society that likes soap and water; clean clothes, sheets, and towels; indoor plumbing and sleeping in beds. The people who claimed to speak for the 99 percent who aren’t rich managed to repel the 98 percent who want order and cleanliness.

Emery mentions New York Magazine's John Heilemann, who published a piece about those holding out for a resurgence of Occupy in the spring and summer. Turns out there's some planning to occupy the national party conventions: "Yes, tent cities teeming with lice, rape charges, and piles of excrement (200 pounds of it in Santa Cruz, California) are just the thing to rally swing voters."

Yep, that's exactly the movement that James Walter "Occupy" Casper III endorsed with his exhortation: "Occupy wherever you are." Freakin' scumbag.

Criminal Hatesac3's even more stupid than the doltish union idiot at the video. Man, Cavuto reams her a new one. That's gotta hurt.

Winning!

The Basis of Left and Right, Part 2

Steven Hayward's series continues, at Power Line, "THE BASIS OF LEFT AND RIGHT, PART 2: (HUMAN) NATURE, CONVENTION, AND LIBERTY":

The left-right divide begins to become more comprehensible when differing understandings of individual liberty and its political postulates are probed further. The starting point of liberalism offered here (individuals should be free to pursue their self-chosen purposes) leads liberals to challenge conventions that constrain individual autonomy—to “question authority” in the popular graffiti. The logical consequence of the imperative to expand the domain of individual autonomy naturally compels liberalism to be reformist, to embrace progress as the essential process to accomplish reform, and to employ reason to guide the progressive reform process. Above all, the imperative of individual autonomy necessarily places the principle of equality at the center of liberal thought. Conventional social structures that maintain artificial or arbitrary inequalities between individuals attract the most ire from reform liberalism, because such inequalities constrain or reduce the sum total of individual self-fulfillment across society. These four postulates of liberalism find their apotheosis in the impressively argued synthesis of John Rawls.

I wrote previously on the series here. It's going to take a bit more development to resolve some of the tensions I discussed there, although by mentioning equality Hayward is getting closer to the true nature of today's left.

Glenn Reynolds Interviews Joel Kotkin: 'Myths and Realities of the American Cities and Suburbs'

Kotkin sounds very optimistic about things, which is somewhat surprising given some of his other writings I've read. See his piece about the decline of California, for example, "The Golden State is Crumbling."

The Generic Republican Will Beat Obama

Reliapundit and I are having a friendly exchange on our favorite GOP candidates. He's fully on board for Romney. I like Romney too, especially for the electability argument. I don't care for Newt but I'd obviously vote for him enthusiastically over the Usurper. I think around the time of the Horowitz West Coast Retreat I mentioned that Michele Bachmann was my favorite candidate and I was going to support her so long as Sarah Palin stayed out of the race. And I haven't changed my positions. I'm just not making that big of a deal out of it. I think the generic Republican will beat Obama, with the exception of Ron Paul. And apparently, Rush Limbaugh thinks so too. And Michelle Malkin responds:

Kelly Brook Wishes You a Merry Christmas!

Boy, she's working it for the holidays!

Previously: "Kelly Brook Without Makeup."

'Police Oppression'

More Angelic Upstarts:

I just cant take much more of this oppression
I’m going out of my head and its getting that impression
I’m gunna go out for a walk
I’m gunna sit down and have talk
There asking me how, and they’re asking me why, have you ever seen grown men cry?

police police police oppression, police police police oppression

really find it hard even walking round the streets
hey i know u son ill knock u off ur feet
same number a million times before,
shut ur mouth son or ill knock u on the floor

police police police oppression, police police police oppression

I just cant take much more of this oppression
I’m going out of my head and its getting that impression
I’m gunna go out for a walk
I’m gunna sit down and have talk
There asking me how, and they’re asking me why, have you ever seen grown men cry?

police police oppression police police oppression

Lying in the cells is really no fun
Cutting the bricks learning some tricks
Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies
Is being different really a crime?

police police police oppression
police police police oppression
police police police police police...

Britney Spears Engaged

Good for her.

She excited!

See MTV: "Britney Spears Is Engaged."

Also, at London's Daily Mail, "Vegas, baby! Delighted Britney Spears and Jason Trawick head to Sin City to celebrate engagement."

Doom: Newspapers to Go Extinct Within Five Years, USC's Annenberg School Predicts

At L.A. Weekly, "Newspapers Dead Within Five Years, USC Predicts."

Pirelli Calendar 2012

Via Kathy Shaidle:

BONUS: At London's Daily Mail, "She's at it again: Veteran exhibitionist Kate Moss never tires of stripping for Pirelli calendar":

Since it's inception in 1964, Pirelli has instructed leading photographers to capture the world's most beautiful women on film for the exclusive calendar solely as a gift for royalty, celebrities and VIP customers.

Muslim Countries Target Free Speech

Well, Muslims worldwide are squelching debate at home, but Professor Jonathan Turley focuses on efforts at the United Nations to "criminalize intolerance," with the blessing of none other than U.S. President Barack Obama.

At Los Angeles Times, "Criminalizing intolerance":

This week in Washington, the United States is hosting an international conference obliquely titled "Expert Meeting on Implementing the U.N. Human Rights Resolution 16/18." The impenetrable title conceals the disturbing agenda: to establish international standards for, among other things, criminalizing "intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization of … religion and belief." The unstated enemy of religion in this conference is free speech, and the Obama administration is facilitating efforts by Muslim countries to "deter" some speech in the name of human rights.

"While the resolution also speaks to combating incitement to violence, the core purpose behind this and previous measures has been to justify the prosecution of those who speak against religion." Although the resolution also speaks to combating incitement to violence, the core purpose behind this and previous measures has been to justify those who speak against religion. The members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC, have been pushing for years to gain international legitimacy of their domestic criminal prosecutions of anti-religious speech.

This year, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton invited nations to come to implement the resolution and "to build those muscles" needed "to avoid a return to the old patterns of division." Those "old patterns" include instances in which writers and cartoonists became the targets of protests by religious groups. The most famous such incident occurred in 2005 when a Danish newspaper published cartoons mocking the prophet Muhammad. The result were worldwide protests in which Muslims reportedly killed more than 100 people — a curious way to demonstrate religious tolerance. While Western governments reaffirmed the right of people to free speech after the riots, they quietly moved toward greater prosecution of anti-religious speech under laws prohibiting hate speech and discrimination.

The OIC members have long sought to elevate religious dogma over individual rights. In 1990, members adopted the Cairo Declaration, which rejected core provisions of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights and affirmed that free speech and other rights must be consistent with "the principles of the sharia," or Islamic law. The biggest victory of the OIC came in 2009 when the Obama administration joined in condemning speech containing "negative racial and religious stereotyping" and asked states to "take effective measures" to combat incidents, including those of "religious intolerance." Then, in March, the U.S. supported Resolution 16/18's call for states to "criminalize incitement to imminent violence based on religion or belief." It also "condemns" statements that advocate "hostility" toward religion. Although the latest resolution refers to "incitement" rather than "defamation" of religion (which appeared in the 2005 resolution), it continues the disingenuous effort to justify crackdowns on religious critics in the name of human rights law.

The OIC has hit on a winning strategy to get Western countries to break away from their commitment to free speech by repackaging blasphemy as hate speech and free speech as the manifestation of "intolerance." Now, orthodoxy is to be protected in the name of pluralism — requiring their own notion of "respect and empathy and tolerance." One has to look only at the OIC member countries, however, to see their vision of empathy and tolerance, as well as their low threshold for anti-religious speech that incites people. In September, a Kuwaiti court jailed a person for tweeting a message deemed derogatory to Shiites. In Pakistan last year, a doctor was arrested for throwing out a business card of a man named Muhammad because he shared the prophet's name.

Ah ha!

Truth. The new "hate speech.

But continue reading at the link.

Haley Taking Flak for Romney Endorsement

At Politico, "Nikki Haley's Mitt Romney endorsement catches flak":

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Nikki Haley’s attempt to boost Mitt Romney is threatening her own support here at home.

Romney’s campaign is using the South Carolina governor’s endorsement to build his acceptance among the tea party base that’s never been comfortable with his candidacy, especially in a state where Newt Gingrich has been running even stronger than elsewhere.

But the people in that base who propelled Haley to the governor’s mansion last year see the endorsement of the more moderate Romney as abandoning them — and giving them another reason to turn away from a governor whose approval rating has dropped to 34.6 percent.

Immediately after Haley announced her support Friday morning on “Fox and Friends,” her Facebook page lit up with accusations that the first-term governor was selling out her principles. Rush Limbaugh followed with a blistering broadside against her on his radio show Friday, leading a charge of conservatives nationally, in addition to locally, who accused her of selling out.

Tea party leaders in the state suggested that Haley will pay for Friday’s move with a primary in 2014 – provided she doesn’t win herself a spot on the ticket or another post in a Romney administration, as tea partiers and Republican operatives say must be the explanation for the decision.

“The overwhelming sense that I get from talking to people is deep betrayal,” said Karen Martin, the founder and organizer of the Spartanburg tea party, who has not endorsed a candidate. “She’s not going to be able to come back from this with the tea party. If there’s anybody credible who will run against her, I believe the tea party will support them whole-heartedly.”

I'll have more on this later. I'm kinda surprised by the endorsement as well, except as one of Romney's perceived electability. Via Memeorandum.

And here's Rush Limbaugh, "Nikki Haley Endorsement: Tea Party Attempts to Replace GOP Establishment."

Michele Bachmann Fired Up After Sioux City Debate: Bus Tour to Rekindle Campaign as Iowa Caucuses Near

Dave Wiegel discusses Michele Bachmann's thrashing of Ron Paul, "Was this the Moment That Ron Paul Lost Iowa?" And here's the video:

And I posted the video of Bachmann hammering Speaker Gingrich already. And she was on CNN earlier this afternoon. Responding to Wolf Blitzer, Bachmann said that Gingrich was "memory challenged" regarding Bachmann's command of the facts. Actually, she is a bit off at times, but I'm getting a kick out of her aggressive new approach ahead of the caucuses. The Washington Post has more on that, "Hoping for a caucus comeback, Michele Bachmann sets out on a bus tour of Iowa’s 99 counties":

ORANGE CITY, Iowa — Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann said she did not want “to trash anyone” on Friday and then called her leading rivals ideologically unfit to win the nomination as she began a bus tour she hopes will yield a caucus comeback.

The Minnesota congresswoman is lagging in the polls and trying to recapture the momentum she lost since summer. She set out on a 99-county bus tour that ferried her from restaurants to catering companies, from a sports bar to a bakery.

“Now is our chance for redemption,” Bachmann told supporters packed into The Dutch Bakery to hear her final sales pitch ahead of the Jan. 3 caucuses.

“I’m not here to trash anyone,” she said — and then criticized the two men leading the GOP race.

“Mitt Romney is the only governor in history of the United States to put into place socialized medicine,” she said.

On Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who has seen a surge in recent weeks, she said: “Newt has been backing the individual health care mandate for 20 years.”
“I am the only consistent constitutional conservative. I’m not a convenient conservative,” Bachmann told reporters in Sioux City.

Well, trashing is good. Recall she graciously poured water for her opponents previously. Now's the time to rope 'em in!

Amazon to Offer Free 1-Day Holiday Shipping Starting Saturday

Well, if you're doing some online shopping, Amazon's upping the stakes in the retail sales wars.

At Los Angeles Times, "Amazon's latest holiday offer: Free 1-day shipping starting Saturday":



I asked my wife for an Amazon gift card.

I don't need much. A few books and some See's candy, and a nice Christmas dinner, and I'm set.

Well, maybe a little Jim Beam too!

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley Endorses Mitt Romney

Well, what's amazing is Nikki Haley is touted as a "tea party favorite."

But Michelle Malkin calls Romney a progressive at the video. She calls Gingrich a progressive as well. It's an excellent discussion, and badly needed. Sean Hannity's a little flummoxed with Michelle. Should the grassroots be lining up behind Gov. Haley for a Romney endorsement? It's all about beating Obama, right?

Well, don't blame me. I'm backing Michele Bachmann.

See Tina Korbe, "South Carolina Tea Party darling Nikki Haley endorses and records robocall for Mitt Romney" (via Memeorandum).

Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011

Hitchens was perhaps today's most important public intellectual. Almost anything he published was worth consideration. But I was never a particularly big fan. He seemed to waver on so many issues, and his cancer, while sad, was a bit too public for me.

In any case, see the obituary at New York Times, "Polemicist Who Slashed All, Freely, With Wit." And also a reflection from Charles McGrath at the Times, "Spending An Afternoon in Christopher Hitchens’s Hospital-Room-Turned-Office."

And Joy McCann has the big roundup, "R.I.P. Christopher Hitchens." (Via Memeorandum).

Why Ron Paul Can't Win

From Kim Strassel, at Wall Street Journal. Strassel raises the interesting point that not that much has changed about Ron Paul from his earlier campaigns for the GOP nomination. The key significant difference is found not so much on the issues --- Paul has moderated a lot of his positions on domestic affairs --- but in the the candidate's seriousness:

Mr. Paul was largely written off in the past as an ideological crank, a man who ran primarily to have his views heard, and many political watchers have made the same mistake this time. But if there has been an overlooked theme in this race, it has been Mr. Paul's new seriousness about winning the nomination. The Ron Paul of 2012 is a different candidate from the Ron Paul of the past. Aware that his absolutist positions worry voters, the libertarian has been conducting a far more mainstream campaign.

Not that he's flipped on any major positions. The Paul campaign knows that its greatest opportunity is attracting voters who are dissatisfied with the other front-runners' policy timidity or lack of consistency. Mr. Paul is neither timid nor inconsistent, and it ought to make him a star....

Organizationally, the 2012 Paul campaign has also sloughed off its 2008 disdain of the establishment, and in Iowa at least Mr. Paul is engaging in retail politics, sitting down with party elders and activists. These are the efforts of a candidate newly willing to work within a certain framework, if it means a shot at the White House.

Except on foreign policy, where Mr. Paul does himself in. In discrete areas, Mr. Paul's "noninterventionist" approach resonates with those weary of war, or with the populist sentiment that we spend too much on foreign aid. And note that Mr. Paul has made small stabs at reassuring voters of his patriotism, as with a big national TV ad that highlighted his own military service and commitment to veterans.

But none of this has addressed voters' big concern over a Paul philosophy that fundamentally denies American exceptionalism and refuses to allow for decisive action to protect the U.S. homeland. Perhaps nothing hurt the candidate more in 2008 than his declaration that one reason terrorists attacked us on 9/11 is because "we've been in the Middle East."

Far from toning down such views, Mr. Paul has amped up the wattage, claiming this year that 9/11 prompted "glee" in a Bush administration looking for a pretext to "invade Iraq." He's condemned the Obama administration's killings of terrorists Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, and he insists the U.S. is "provoking" Iran.

Ron Paul's a freak. I posted on this last night: "Taking Ron Paul Seriously."

Added: From Linkmaster Smith at The Other McCain, "You See, Mr. Paul, History Does Not Support Scientific Experiments."

Senator McCain Slams Obama's Leadership on Iraq

At Weasel Zippers, "McCain Shreds Obama After He Takes Credit For Success of Iraq War: “History Will Judge His Leadership With The Scorn And Disdain It Deserves”…"

This is why I backed McCain in 2008. Good to hear him smack down the administration. We need to hear it.

PREVIOUSLY: "War in Iraq Officially Over."

Obama Justice Department Scapegoats Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio

I met Sheriff Joe, a couple of times, during my coverage of the immigration protests in 2010. He doesn't get emotional about these things.

At Los Angeles Times, "Pattern of civil rights abuses alleged in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Maricopa County."

"Don't come here and use me as a whipping boy for a national and international problem," he said. "We are proud of the work we have done to fight illegal immigration."

French Leaders Launch Outspoken Public Attacks on Britain

At Telegraph UK, "French leaders declare a war of words on Britain":

French leaders have launched outspoken public attacks on Britain, calling for the UK to lose its AAA credit rating and comparing its economy with that of Greece.

Christian Noyer, the governor of the Bank of France, said that Britain faced larger national debts, higher inflation and slower growth than France.

François Baroin, the finance minister, said Britain was “marginalised” and faced “a very difficult economic situation” because of Coalition policies.

The blunt remarks are the latest sign of Anglo-French tension following David Cameron’s refusal last week to back a new European treaty drawn up in response to the eurozone crisis.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, also provoked anger in France recently by suggesting it could be the next eurozone economy to experience a debt crisis. France and Germany want a new treaty to create a “fiscal union” of eurozone members, to control their deficits and reassure the markets.

Mr Baroin told the French parliament that the pact had been backed by every country in Europe, “with the singular, now solitary, exception of Great Britain, which history will remember as marginalised”.

Plus, from a couple of days ago at Der Spiegel, "The End of Old Europe: Why Merkel's Triumph Will Come at a High Price."

Spectacular Views from One World Trade Center

This is great, at London's Daily Mail, "Ninety floors... and counting: The breathtaking views from One World Trade Center (and there's still 14 storeys to go)."

New Focus in Manhattan Elevator Accident: Electrical Contractors Under Investigation

At New York Post, "City investigating electrical maintenance performed on elevator just hours before ad exec's tragic death":

Hours before her tragic death, contractors were performing electrical maintenance on the elevator that killed ad exec Suzanne Hart, city officials said today.

“This work has now become the focus of our investigation,” said Tony Sclafani, a spokesman for the city Department of Buildings.

The contracting company, Transel, has worked on elevators at dozens of prominent buildings around the city, includnig 1515 Broadway, 666 Fifth Avenue and the Plaza Hotel, its Web site says.

City investigators will review Transel’s maintenance protocols and are seeking a complete list of Transel clients. “Our inspectors will be conducting a sweep of elevators in these buildings,” Sclafani said.

Kelly Brook Without Makeup

She looks healthy, and not ashamed to be out without cosmetics.

At London's Daily Mail, "Kelly Brook is still stunning minus the make-up - even stepping off a plane at 6am."

PREVIOUSLY: "Kelly Brook – Official Calendar 2012."