President Obama Wipes Away Tears While Describing 'Overwhelming Grief' of Newtown Massacre

It is overwhelming grief.

And perhaps a day like today would be a day to put aside politics and instead get closer to loved ones and God, but no, the left's mass-shooting exploitation chorus is kicking it into high gear.

Here's the take at The Right Scoop, "President gives emotional statement on mass shooting, hints at possible gun control legislation."

And at Twitchy, "In wake of Conn. school massacre, President Obama calls for ‘meaningful action’; Anti-gun zealots turn on White House for not politicizing shooting to their liking; Michael Bloomberg demands a plan."

And this curation's been updated, "Execrable ghoul David Frum mocks victims of Conn. school shooting; Update: Eric Boehlert, Piers Morgan join in; Update: Michael Moore swoops in; Update: Celebrity ghouls crawl out." Plus, "Anti-gun vulture Michael Moore swoops in, says NRA hates freedom, wants children dead."

Expect updates...

PREVIOUSLY: "Report: More Than Two Dozen Dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut."

Report: More Than Two Dozen Dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut

The numbers are still unconfirmed, but CBS News Connecticut had this, "BREAKING NEWS: 27 Dead, Including 14 Children, In Elementary School Shooting."

Added: From Robert Stacy McCain, "CONNECTICUT SCHOOL SHOOTING."

More from the Hartford Courant, "AP: 27 Dead, Including 18 Children, At Sandy Hook School Shooting In Newtown."

And from Dana Loesch:

Awful. Some families have less babies to take home from school today. My heart is sick and sad.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) December 14, 2012

Well, this is totally unexpected:

Assault weapons ban "a commitment" of President Obama's, spokesman says. on.cnn.com/Zq1uF7
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) December 14, 2012

Now at Twitchy, "Execrable ghoul David Frum mocks victims of Conn. school shooting; Update: Eric Boehlert, Piers Morgan join in; Update: Michael Moore swoops in; Update: More celebrity ghouls crawl out."

10:55am Pacific: At PBS: "State Police Briefing on Newtown, Conn. Elementary School Shooting." And at CBS News, "Conn. school shooting: Student says teacher saved him."

11:12am Pacific: At Twitchy, "Disgusting: Lefty celebs crawl out to politicize Newtown, Conn., tragedy."

I'm stepping out for a few hours. More blogging later this afternoon.

Meanwhile, check Instapundit for updates.

Susan Rice Bemoans Partisanship in Whiney Withrawal as Secretary of State Nominee

It's all partisan politics with these people, all the time. And keep in mind it was moderate Senator Susan Collins who was the most implacable opponent to Rice's confirmation in the Senate. (And it was a chorus of leftist Democrats and journalists who've been leading the weeks-long opposition to Rice, but the White House never lets the truth get in the way of an epic smear against the right.)

And Rice took to the pages of the Washington Post to explain her withdrawal? She's a backbench bureaucrat. Nobody needs an op-ed to figure out what happened. Democrats are just horrible people. We watch it roll before out eyes every day. See: "Why I made the right call." (At Memeorandum.)

Hit by ObamaCare, Anthem Blue Cross to Hike Premiums 25 Percent for Individual Policy Holders

The Los Angeles Times reports on the price hikes by California insurance providers in response to ObamaCare, "Blue Shield of California seeks rate hikes up to 20%."

I have Anthem Blue Cross, which is mentioned:

Health insurer Blue Shield of California wants to raise rates as much as 20% for some individual policyholders, prompting calls for the nonprofit to use some of its record-high reserve of $3.9 billion to hold down premiums.

In filings with state regulators, Blue Shield is seeking an average rate increase of 12% for more than 300,000 customers, effective in March, with a maximum increase of 20%.

Some consumer advocates and healthcare economists say Blue Shield shouldn't be raising rates that high when it has stockpiled so much cash. The company's surplus is nearly three times as much as the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Assn. requires its member insurers to hold to cover future claims.

"Blue Shield is sitting on a huge surplus that is beyond what is required or necessary," said Laurie Sobel, a senior attorney for Consumers Union in San Francisco. "It should be used to hold down rate increases when it hits these extraordinary levels."

California officials can take into account an insurer's amount of surplus, among many other factors, when determining whether they think a rate increase is reasonable. Both the California insurance commissioner and the state Department of Managed Health Care are reviewing the company's proposed premiums, but neither agency has the authority to reject changes in rates.

Some other states limit how much surplus can be held by nonprofit health plans. Other regulators press nonprofit insurers to return more money to consumers and the community overall since their stated mission is to serve the public good. Washington's insurance commissioner has said the two big nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans there hold enough surplus to allow a portion of it to be used to reduce rates.

At Blue Shield of California, based in San Francisco, reserves have jumped 77% since 2006 from $2.2 billion to $3.9 billion in September. That has outpaced the company's 19% growth in annual revenue since 2006.

Blue Shield said its reserves have nothing to do with rate increases, and that money has been put aside for the future benefit of its policyholders.

"Reserves are needed to ensure our members' claims can be paid no matter what," said Blue Shield spokeswoman Lindy Wagner. "We need them to protect against uncertainties like a pandemic or another crisis."

The company also expects higher costs from an influx of new customers under the federal healthcare law in 2014.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime change in the healthcare market that will bring a lot of volatility, and we need higher reserves for that," Wagner said.

Even with these proposed rate increases, Blue Shield said, it expects to lose money in the individual insurance market in 2013.

The insurer said its medical costs for this segment of the business grew 10.6% and what it actually pays is rising 12.5% after adjusting for its portion after customer deductibles. The state's largest for-profit health insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, cited a similar jump in medical costs in seeking rate hikes as high as 25% for some individual policyholders, effective in February.

California regulators expect to finish their reviews of various company rate filings in the coming weeks.

Understand that the Democrats had not a single clue about what they were doing in 2009. They just rammed through this monstrosity greased with lies. WyBlog has more, "Remember when Obamacare was gonna save us thousands on our health insurance? Me neither..."

Steven Crowder's Family Under Police Protection

Crowder tweeted last night:

Right now I have a former police officer, heavily armed at my house protecting my wife. The threats are severe. Prayers appreciated.
— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) December 14, 2012

And at The Other McCain, "Left’s ‘Tent Truthers’ Claim Union Attack on AFP in Lansing Was an ‘Inside Job’."

Plus, from Dana Loesch, "Everything About This Article Is Idiotic."

Illiterate Rap Fans Flood Michelle Malkin's Timeline With Racist Misogyny

I was on Twitter when this was going down.

At Twitchy, "Rapper The Game and fans attack ‘racist,’ ‘bitch,’ ‘hoe’ Malkin and Fox News; clog Twitter with bad English, threats."

Are you threatening me, fool? NOTED. RT @therealgreeley @thegame @meekmill fuck this @michellemalkin bitch up
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) December 14, 2012

Background here: "‘Jesus Piece’: Have you seen the cover of The Game’s new album?," and "Fox News, Michelle Malkin brace for mass exodus of viewers as The Game urges boycott."

Marcy Wheeler's Pro-Union Thuggery — And a Raging Homosexual's Blast From the Past!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

First Rule of Defeating Leftists: Don't Call Them 'Liberals'

I'm 41 posted an excellent entry the other day, "The Blogger’s Rules For Defeating Liberals."

However, I cringed with all the references to "liberals." These goons are not "liberal." They're progressive collectivists (as the most hardened of them self-identify) or, frankly, simply radical leftists.

Zilla has more:

I can’t stand to see them called “liberals” because there is nothing “liberal” about them. Words matter, as they say. Call ‘em what they really are: LEFTISTS. The edit to the [blog] title is from me, because I don’t want to see the freaks called by their preferred misnomer at any place that I have editorial control over.

When referring to "liberals," the proper meaning makes reference to those early thinkers evoking the ideology of individual liberty and limited government, most importantly John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and Adam Smith. The Democrat Party until roughly John F. Kennedy espoused a form of "modern liberalism" that by default drew on America's constitutional foundations in liberty but increasingly sought an expanded role for the state in promoting economic equality and social welfare. Yet, the left today is almost completely unrecognizable from the Cold War liberalism of Kennedy and Harry Truman. Today's left is a quasi-Marxist, state-collectivist ideological apparatus, intent to delegitimize private property and wealth accumulation and to elevate extreme ethnic tribalism as the blunt cudgel of radical redistributionist class warfare. President Obama is the chief class warrior and national divider in this mode, the perfect vessel of the vengeful fever swamp ghouls of the Democrat Party.

Zilla might not even be this charitable, although that's the pretty well-understood ideological bastardization of "liberalism" over the last couple of generations. Today's leftists are the Orwellian zombies who spout tolerance but practice extreme racism, anti-Semitism and viewpoint intolerance. These ghouls preach "peace" and "respect" as the highest principles but instead practice union thuggery and anti-speech bullying and lawfare as standard operating procedures. And more than ever, the left phantasmagorically operates under a false consciousness of objective lies as progressive truth. The "tent trutherism" coming out of Lansing is just the latest manifestation, but President Obama's 2012 campaign will perhaps be remembered by traditional historians as the most dishonest (and morally reprobate) in post-modern history, marked especially by a media empire in service to state power, with journalists effectively functioning as party apparatchiks for the endlessly voracious tax-and-spend regime of the soul-crushing collectivist machine.

That's why people should simply refuse to call these people "liberals." They are precisely the opposite of the great classical liberals, and are indeed the very kinds of tyrants for which the latter developed theories to frustrate, prevent, and destroy.

Union Violence in the Age of Obama

From Michelle Malkin, "'There Will Be Blood': Union Violence in the Age of Obama":

Yesterday [Tuesday], Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed right-to-work legislation into law. The death threats against him are pouring in. The Left is blaming the conservative victims of union violence, as usual. The progressive climate of hate is always our fault. Today’s column sets the Democrats’ call for blood in the context of Obama-era union violence and incitement.

He helped build that.

Read it all at the link. The thug violence in Lansing is not an aberration. It's not an isolated case. The attack on Crowder --- and the racist attack on the hot dog vender --- is just the latest example left-wing bullying and malevolent muscle. This is what they do. This is who they are.

Angry Atheism Drove Nativity Scenes From Santa Monica

An awesome commentary, from Rabbi Michael Gotlieb, at the Los Angeles Times, "Santa Monica Ban on Religious Displays Leaves Us All Poorer":

Today's atheism is different from the atheism of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Nietzsche, Russell and Voltaire did not gloat over the presumed death or nonexistence of God. There was no triumphalism in their assertions. While not enamored of organized religion, they did not view it as a singular force for evil.

Things have changed. Outspoken, angry 21st century atheists like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens have sought to eradicate God and organized religion from the planet; faith-based religion in any form is unacceptable to them. When studying these modern-day thinkers, the late Herbert Marcuse's lament proves fitting and prescient: "We, no matter the side, become fanatical in our own anti-fanaticism."

Today's atheists hold that religion educates children and adults to hate in the name of their pious doctrines. Religion, they tell us, encourages followers to engage in God-directed slaughter and conquest of innocents. Its mission is to convert skeptics — or worse, subdue nonbelievers — until the whole world buckles.

The truth is, they're partly right. There have always been people who commit evil in the name of God and religion. They do indeed give religion and God a horrible name. Such behavior is perverse, inexcusable and, of course, sinful.

But today's atheists are as extreme in their convictions as the fire-and-brimstone believer. The resolute follower knows beyond any doubt that God exists, whereas the atheist knows beyond any doubt that God is a figment of the imagination. I'm reminded of the aphorism: To the believer there are no questions; to the atheist, there are no answers.

As a Jew and a rabbi, my speaking out in support of Christians who wish to display a Nativity scene on public land can potentially carry more weight than a priest or minister speaking out. The reason is simple: It's not my religious narrative. More important, faithful Christians do not threaten me. If anything, I'm inspired by them. By definition, different people from different faiths view God and religion differently.

In the meantime, Santa Monica, where I live and serve a congregation, is less festive, bright and accepting this Christmas season. And given my city's current municipal policy — one that forbids the use of public.

So true. One more example of progressives making everybody less well off.

But read the whole thing.

Modern Workplace Distractions

These are office and work-station distractions. Things are a little different in my profession. In the classroom much of my job is working to minimize distractions, keeping students on task. The technology is everywhere. Students must put it away or you'll have multitasking nightmares.

But see the Wall Street Journal, "Workplace Distractions: Here's Why You Won't Finish This Article":

In the few minutes it takes to read this article, chances are you'll pause to check your phone, answer a text, switch to your desktop to read an email from the boss's assistant, or glance at the Facebook FB -1.43% or Twitter messages popping up in the corner of your screen. Off-screen, in your open-plan office, crosstalk about a colleague's preschooler might lure you away, or a co-worker may stop by your desk for a quick question.

And bosses wonder why it is tough to get any work done.

Distraction at the office is hardly new, but as screens multiply and managers push frazzled workers to do more with less, companies say the problem is worsening and is affecting business.

While some firms make noises about workers wasting time on the Web, companies are realizing the problem is partly their own fault.

Even though digital technology has led to significant productivity increases, the modern workday seems custom-built to destroy individual focus. Open-plan offices and an emphasis on collaborative work leave workers with little insulation from colleagues' chatter. A ceaseless tide of meetings and internal emails means that workers increasingly scramble to get their "real work" done on the margins, early in the morning or late in the evening. And the tempting lure of social-networking streams and status updates make it easy for workers to interrupt themselves.

"It is an epidemic," says Lacy Roberson, a director of learning and organizational development at eBay Inc. EBAY -0.25% At most companies, it's a struggle "to get work done on a daily basis, with all these things coming at you," she says.

Office workers are interrupted—or self-interrupt—roughly every three minutes, academic studies have found, with numerous distractions coming in both digital and human forms. Once thrown off track, it can take some 23 minutes for a worker to return to the original task, says Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, who studies digital distraction.

Companies are experimenting with strategies to keep workers focused. Some are limiting internal emails—with one company moving to ban them entirely—while others are reducing the number of projects workers can tackle at a time.

Last year, Jamey Jacobs, a divisional vice president at Abbott Vascular, a unit of health-care company Abbott Laboratories, ABT -0.24% learned that his 200 employees had grown stressed trying to squeeze in more heads-down, focused work amid the daily thrum of email and meetings.

"It became personally frustrating that they were not getting the things they wanted to get done," he says. At meetings, attendees were often checking email, trying to multitask and in the process obliterating their focus.

Part of the solution for Mr. Jacobs's team was that oft-forgotten piece of office technology: the telephone.

Mr. Jacobs and productivity consultant Daniel Markovitz found that employees communicated almost entirely over email, whether the matter was mundane, such as cake in the break room, or urgent, like an equipment issue.

The pair instructed workers to let the importance and complexity of their message dictate whether to use cellphones, office phones or email. Truly urgent messages and complex issues merited phone calls or in-person conversations, while email was reserved for messages that could wait.

Continue reading.

Cal State Fullerton Locked Down While Police Search for Armed Men

When I got home yesterday afternoon, a little after 4:00pm, the high-speed chase was on TV.

See the Los Angeles Times, "Fullerton campus on lockdown after robbery, high-speed chase."

Also, "Cal State Fullerton lockdown: search focuses on Mihaylo Hall."

Hayden Panettiere Bikini Pics!

Very nice.

At London's Daily Mail, "Newly-single Hayden Panettiere shows Scotty what he's missing in stunning bikini photoshoot."

Mark Steyn on Breakdown in America

A great interview, with Michael Coren:

It's Hard Out There for Off-Season Sports Fans

From Bill Dwyre, at the Los Angeles Times, "Baseball off-season can be tough on fans who see favorite players jump ship":

The most intriguing game that baseball plays is not hitting and pitching. It is musical chairs.

This is the sport's funny season. But unlike golf, where the funny season was simply a time for Freddie Couples to make more money for Christmas shopping, baseball's is real and serious.

So serious, as a matter of fact, that we actually might feel sorry for baseball writers.

They spend seven months a year, on expense account, watching a warm-weather game from the best seats in the house, with hot dogs nearby. Then, when the season ends and it's time to rest and re-introduce themselves to family, the real work begins. The stadiums are replaced by cellphones embedded in ears and daily dealings with lawyers, agents, rationalizing general managers and Scott Boras.

Great newspapers should pay them reasonable salaries for the season and a hefty supplement for the funny season. A Boras Bonus.

The pawn in all this is the fan. He is wired to be loyal to his local heroes. He is encouraged to purchase the jersey of his favorite player ($79.95 at the stadium store) and be sure to get his tickets early. This will be the year, he is told. The team is there for his viewing pleasure. Of course, next year, the team will be there again for his viewing pleasure. It will just be a vastly different team.

To be clear, this isn't an attempt to identify good guys or bad guys. This isn't a anti-greedy-player or anti-greedy-owner rant. In the airheaded, overused term of the day, baseball's situation is what it is.

The news comes daily. Fingers point in all directions.

Michael Young is now a Philadelphia Phillie? He had Texas Ranger carved into his heart. The pride of Bishop Amat High spent 12 years as Mr. Ranger RBI. If you were an Angels fan and saw him at the plate with another Ranger on base, you just jotted down a run in your scorecard.

Kevin Youkilis is now a New York Yankee? Has he really joined the evil empire, as did Johnny Damon a few years ago, leaving Boston Red Sox fans speechless and suicidal. Sure, Youkilis made a brief stop with the Chicago White Sox, but he was Boston through and through. Expect jersey burnings around Fenway.

We just got used to Mike Napoli as a Ranger, after a nice run of being the power behind the plate for the Angels. But nope. Throw away that jersey. Napoli is now a Red Sox.

Ah, and so is Shane Victorino. It never seemed quite right to see him in a Dodgers uniform. He was a Phillie, a tough-guy-in-a-tough-city player. Now he is a Bostonian.

Albert Pujols, the best of the best, after all those years in Cardinals red, the modern-day Stan Musial, both in performance and local image, in an Angels' uniform? Good for Southern California, but weird nevertheless.

Yeah, and Pujols had a rough start last season. It takes a while getting used to new lineups.

More at the link.

'Chasing Ice'

There was a blurb on this at Memeorandum. Your daily dose of climate change propaganda. Some beautiful pictures, but at this point folks need to make themselves experts on the science. You simply can't trust anyone in the MSM to report on this objectively.

Michigan Stuns Labor as Blue Model Continues to Unravel

From Walter Russell Mead:

Labor’s clout is in steep decline in the Middle West. In a move that was unimaginable just ten years ago, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a pair of “right-to-work” bills into law, dealing a serious blow to unions in one of the states that gave birth to the modern labor movement in America. The Wall Street Journal:

Gov. Snyder’s willingness to sign the legislation—a reversal of his previous position that right to work was a divisive issue that he would prefer to avoid—highlights the diminution of union clout both in Michigan and nationally.

The UAW once had more than one million members in the U.S., and as recently as 2004 had 654,000 active members. Now, after years of cuts by Detroit’s big auto makers and their parts makers, the UAW’s national membership is down to roughly 380,000 members, according to Labor Department filings. In Michigan, about 17.5% of workers were union members in 2011, according to Labor Department figures.

Besides the realities of declining union membership, this development more broadly suggests deep splits and ambivalence in American politics: At the national level, Democrats are running strong, but in many states something different is happening. Michigan was long seen as a great example of the blue social model. The high wage, unionized automobile industry supported the state economy and promoted the development of a mass blue collar middle class. It was a great social achievement, and Americans were not wrong to love it, but it has been in gradual yet inexorable decline for more than a generation.

Today’s blue model liberals face a challenge. Can they find a path that actually restores states like Michigan and cities like Detroit to the kind of health they knew back when the blue model actually worked?

Continue reading.

Mead suggests that "red state conservatives have yet to show that they can deliver something better," although right-to-work states, across the country, enjoy far more robust employment sectors than do the states of the bankrupt blue state model. See Heritage: "Simple truths about Right-to-Work."

Please Contribute to Blazing Cat Fur Defense Fund

Well, yet more in the ongoing freedom to blog series: It turns out my good friend BCF --- a.k.a Arnie, Kathy Shaidle's husband --- is being sued by serial litigant Richard Warman, a so-called "human rights activist" and actual member of the white supremacist Stormfront group.

See, "Blazingcatfur Legal Defense Fund Raising Drive."

There's a PayPal widget at that link. It's a dreadful feeling opening up that letter of service, so no doubt Arnie deeply appreciates all the help he's getting.

And don't miss Mark Steyn with the background, "Warman sues Blazing Cat Fur for linking to 'far-right' hate site."

Provocative North Korean Rocket Launch

At Fox News, "Defiant North Korea releases photos from its 'provocative' rocket launch."

And there's an ABC News video report here, "North Korea Missile Launch Successful."

CBS News This Morning Broadcast From the House Ways and Means Committee Chamber

When I turned on CBS, I thought they were at the Supreme Court talking about the homosexual agenda. But upon closer look it didn't look like the Supreme Court at all. But then, near the end of the show, Norah O'Donnell came back on with this segment, "Ways and Means Committee: A look back in time."

The discussion of Wilbur Mills reminded me of my Congress seminar in graduate school. They used to call the powerful committee chairmen the "Old Bulls" of Congress, and none were more powerful than Mills. Folklore had it that even President Johnson and to grovel before the Ways and Means Chairman in order to get anything passed on Capitol Hill, including Medicare.

Draft Army Handbook Wades Into Divisive Afghan Issue

Both fascinating and troubling, at the Wall Street Journal:

* * *

Cultural Awareness:

Flashpoints/Grievances Some U.S. Troops Have Reported Regarding Afghanistan National Security Forces:

To better prepare [coalition forces] for the psychologically challenging conditions in Afghanistan, familiarize yourself with the following stressors some U.S. troops have reported concerning [Afghan security forces] behavior during previous deployments. Bear in mind that not all [coalition] troops have reported such experiences or beliefs.

Some ANSF are profoundly dishonest and have no personal integrity
ANSF do not buy-into war effort; far too many are gutless in combat
Incompetent, ignorant and basically stupid

Bottom line: Troops may experience social-cultural shock and/or discomfort when interacting with [Afghan security forces]. Better situational awareness/understanding of Afghan culture will help better prepare [coalition forces] to more effectively partner and to avoid cultural conflict that can lead towards green-on-blue violence.

* * *

*****

WASHINGTON—American soldiers should brace for a "social-cultural shock" when meeting Afghan soldiers and avoid potentially fatal confrontations by steering clear of subjects including women's rights, religion and Taliban misdeeds, according to a controversial draft of a military handbook being prepared for troops heading to the region.

The proposed Army handbook suggests that Western ignorance of Afghan culture, not Taliban infiltration, has helped drive the recent spike in deadly attacks by Afghan soldiers against the coalition forces.

"Many of the confrontations occur because of [coalition] ignorance of, or lack of empathy for, Muslim and/or Afghan cultural norms, resulting in a violent reaction from the [Afghan security force] member," according to the draft handbook prepared by Army researchers.

The 75-page manual, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, is part of a continuing effort by the U.S. military to combat a rise in attacks by Afghan security forces aimed at coalition troops.

But it has drawn criticism from U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the top military commander in Afghanistan, who aides said hasn't—and wouldn't—endorse the manual as written. Gen. Allen also rejected a proposed foreword that Army officials drafted in his name.

"Gen. Allen did not author, nor does he intend to provide, a foreword," said Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. "He does not approve of its contents."

Gen. Allen hadn't seen the proposed foreword until a portion of the handbook was called to his attention by the Journal, Col. Collins said. Military officials wouldn't spell out his precise objections. But the handbook's conclusion that cultural insensitivity is driving insider attacks goes beyond the view most commonly expressed by U.S. officials.

The version reviewed by the Journal—marked "final coordinating draft" and sent out for review in November—was going through more revisions, said Lt. Gen. David Perkins, commander of the Army's Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., whose Center for Army Lessons Learned wrote the manual.

The proposed foreword was prepared by Army staff for Gen. Allen's eventual consideration, and the general's concerns will be taken into account as the military moves ahead with more revisions, he added.

The proposed handbook embraces a hotly debated theory that American cultural ignorance has sparked many so-called insider attacks—more than three dozen of which have claimed the lives of some 63 members of the U.S.-led coalition this year. The rise in insider attacks has created one of the biggest threats to American plans to end its major combat missions in Afghanistan next year and transfer full security control to Afghan forces in 2014.

Afghan leaders say Taliban infiltrators are responsible for most insider attacks. U.S. officials say the attacks are largely rooted in personal feuds between Afghan and coalition troops, though not necessarily the result of cultural insensitivity.

Last year, the U.S.-led coalition rejected an internal military study that concluded that cultural insensitivity was in part to blame for insider killings, which it called a growing threat that represented "a severe and rapidly metastasizing malignancy" for the coalition in Afghanistan.

The study was reported last year by The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. military at the time said the study was flawed by "unprofessional rhetoric and sensationalism."

The 2011 report—"A Crisis of Trust and Cultural Incompatibility"—is now a centerpiece of the draft handbook's advice to soldiers heading to Afghanistan, and it is listed under the draft's references and recommended reading. The report's findings also informed the current manual for troops in Afghanistan, which was released in February, according to Gen. Perkins.

U.S. Army officials didn't make the current version of the manual available for review.

No doubt there is a cultural disconnect, which is why many conservatives have been calling for withdrawal for some time.

The full piece is also at Current.Mil-Tech.News.

And see Atlas Shrugs, "NEW ARMY MANUAL ORDERS SOLDIERS NOT TO CRITICIZE TALIBAN, PEDOPHILIA, 'ANYTHING RELATED TO ISLAM' OR 'ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS'."

Marcy Wheeler and the Americans for Prosperity Self-Sabotage Tent Conspiracy

This is one of the more classic cases of partisan hatred blinding an otherwise intelligent person into abject imbecility, if not progressive insanity.

"Emptywheel" is Marcy Wheeler, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, which just goes to show that even high-powered credentials are no guarantee against epic self-beclownment.

William Jacobson reports, "The Epistemic Closure of progressives to their violent union thugs." At the screencap union thugs are taking down the AFP tent:

Even more pathetic is how many other unhinged progs jumped on board, at Memeorandum, "Breitbart Folks Appear to Fake Violence in Lansing." Hilariously, lame-blogger Steve M. at No More Mr. Nice Blog sucks it all up, downplaying the vicious union thug attack on Steven Crowder as insignificant.

It's too easy with these people. This is the left. This is what they do. Just own it people. You folks won last month. Let's see if you can keep your majority. As it turns out, it's not going too well at the state level.

IBD/TIPP Poll: Fiscal Cliff Sinks Dems' Hopes After Obama Re-Election

From Investor's Business Daily, "IBD/TIPP Poll: Fiscal Cliff Deflates Democratic Hope":

Democrats stopped basking in the afterglow of President Barack Obama's re-election victory and abruptly lowered their outlook on the economy this month, as fears of the "fiscal cliff" dominate year-end headlines, according to the latest IBD/TIPP poll released Tuesday.

The Economic Optimism Index dropped to a year low of 45.1 in December from 48.6 in November, the second straight decline, with sentiment among Democrats falling by 8.2 points to 65.6.

Republican economic sentiment, which hit a record low right after the Nov. 6 vote, dipped 1.1 points to a new low of 23.7 in December. Readings below 50 indicate pessimism.

"Consumer confidence is driven largely by party affiliation," said Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelli gence, which conducted the poll.

Given the wide partisan disparity, a truer indicator could be how independents feel, he added. They turned slightly gloomier too, slipping to 42.3 from 44.

An earlier run-up in sentiment was first led by Democrats in September, when the successful presidential convention boosted re-election prospects and brightened their views on the economy. The index advanced further in October as Mitt Romney's strong debate performance lifted Republican sentiment.

But the election brought the index back down. A separate survey Tuesday also found it devastated hopes among small-business owners worried about regulation and ObamaCare costs.

The National Federation of Independent Business' sentiment gauge dropped 5.6 points to 87.5 last month, the lowest since March 2010. The share of small businesses positive about the economic outlook fell from a net 2% to a deeply pessimistic -35%.

Clueless Caroline Loves Her Some Uruguayan Homosexuals

Professor Caroline Heldman tweeted on the vote of Uruguay's lower house for homosexual marriage. I'm thinking BFD, right? So I tweeted her, and she tweets back calling U.S. marriage traditionalists "knuckledraggers":

@ampowerblog Knuckle draggers in the states indeed!
— Caroline Heldman (@carolineheldman) December 12, 2012

Not so sure about this lady's intelligence. I was being facetious. And Uruguay is hardly the model of progressive politics. But that's lame-brain leftism for you.

And recall from 2009: "Professor Caroline Heldman Clueless on Politics of Town Halls."

CARTOON CREDIT: Legal Insurrection.

Anne Hathaway Wardrobe Malfunction at New York Premier of 'Les Misérables'

At the Los Angeles Times, "Anne Hathaway gets revealing at NYC premiere of 'Les Miserables'."

And London's Daily Mail, "'They saw everything!': Anne Hathaway left 'devastated' after she's embarrassingly pictured without underwear."

Well, she should probably wear some undies to cover up those private parts.

Added: "'Les Miserables' | New York premiere," and "Did Matt Lauer go too far with Anne Hathaway upskirt quip?"

Plus, "Anne Hathaway strikes a blow for an underwear-free America."

'Who's Paying Your Salary?'

I actually flipped over to MSNBC late last night and caught part of this, and it was bizarre.

At NewsBusters, "Unhinged Chris Matthews Berates Conservative Guest 13 Times: 'Who's Paying Your Salary?'"

Taxes Are Already Higher Than You Think

From Edward Prescott and Lee Ohanian, at the Wall Street Journal:

President Obama argues that the election gave him a mandate to raise taxes on high earners, and the White House indicates that he won't compromise on this issue as the so-called fiscal cliff approaches.

But tax rates are already high—much higher than is commonly understood—and increasing them will likely further depress the economy, especially by affecting the number of hours Americans work.

Taking into account all taxes on earnings and consumer spending—including federal, state and local income taxes, Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, excise taxes, and state and local sales taxes—Edward Prescott has shown (especially in the Quarterly Review of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, 2004) that the U.S. average marginal effective tax rate is around 40%. This means that if the average worker earns $100 from additional output, he will be able to consume only an additional $60.

Research by others (including Lee Ohanian, Andrea Raffo and Richard Rogerson in the Journal of Monetary Economics, 2008, and Edward Prescott in the American Economic Review, 2002) indicates that raising tax rates further will significantly reduce U.S. economic activity and by implication will increase tax revenues only a little.

High tax rates—on both labor income and consumption—reduce the incentive to work by making consumption more expensive relative to leisure, for example. The incentive to produce goods for the market is particularly depressed when tax revenue is returned to households either as government transfers or transfers-in-kind—such as public schooling, police and fire protection, food stamps, and health care—that substitute for private consumption.

Continue reading.

Actually, other economic research says tax rates are considerably higher than that, particularly in California. See: "Ezra Klein: Yesterday's Revenue Can't Support Tomorrow's America."

The Face of Britain's Decline

From Dave Blount, at Right Wing News, "Leanna Broderick":

Even as once great Britain’s eyes go dim, life is still good for the freeloaders who are bleeding it to death...

Continue reading.

Democrats Seek Delay of ObamaCare Medical Device Tax

Hey, suck it up idiot progs.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Senate Democrats Seek Delay in Medical-Device Tax":

A group of 17 Democratic U.S. senators and senators-elect have signed a letter urging for a delay in implementing a tax on the medical-device industry that is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, said two people familiar with the matter.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, was addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and said the “the medical device industry has received little guidance about how to comply with the tax–causing significant uncertainty and confusion for businesses.” It requested a delay be included in the bill Congress is negotiating to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.

The Democrats’ support could give new momentum to the industry’s intense lobbying campaign to repeal or delay the 2.3% tax on device sales, which companies say will hurt profits and lead to U.S. job losses. However, they face a battle because other Democrats, as well as the White House, oppose any postponement.

And see Geoffrey Norman, at the Weekly Standard, "Special Treatment."

'Deck the Halls'

Via Theo Spark:

Reader Comment

I get some comments on Blogger for some reason, despite having moved to Disqus. I publish if they're not troll spammers:

My dad, Sgt. George W. Engram, Jr. Enlisted at the age of 34 and was assigned to the 320th. He never talked much about his active duty until I pinned him down and asked about it so I could fill out that section in the family bible. I'm glad I did. He died in 1995, but I know he would be glad to know that their contributions are appreciated.

-- Michellle on "The 320th Antiaircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion on D-Day."

You're 'Going to Die Painfully...'

This is why they're called thugs.

At Twitchy, "You’re ‘going to die painfully’: Gov. Snyder faces threats, death wishes over Mich. right-to-work bills; Update: Threat to kill Snyder’s family appears."

Bill Whittle at David Horowitz's Restoration Weekend 2012

This is fifteen minutes long and I only first found time for it yesterday during office hours. It's well worth it when you have a chance.

Big Labor Eliminationism in Lansing

From James Taranto, at WSJ, "'There Will Be Blood'."

As union violence escalates, Mich. House Dems delete tweet promising 'there will be blood' bit.ly/T56BoJ
— TwitchyTeam (@TwitchyTeam) December 11, 2012

As the Michigan House debated a right-to-work measure today, a member of that august body warned of--or perhaps threatened--violence. "We're going to pass something that will undo 100 years of labor relations and there will be blood, there will be repercussions," WWJ-AM quotes Rep. Doug Geiss, a Detroit-area Democrat, as saying. "We will re-live the battle of the overpass."

The station offers a refresher in labor history: "The battle of the overpass was a bloody fracas in 1937 between union organizers and Ford Motor Co. security guards. [United Auto Workers organizer] Walter Reuther was famously thrown down a flight of stairs and another union organizer was left with a broken back."

So far this time there are no reports of violence or threats by management (unless you count Geiss, who is after all supposed to represent taxpayers, as part of "management" vis-à-vis government employees). But union leaders have echoed the violent rhetoric. WWJ quotes Terry O'Sullivan of the Labor International Union of North America, as saying at a rally, in reference to elected officials who support the right to work: "We are going to take you on and take you out."

MLive.com, a Michigan news site, reports that union thugs "tore down a large tent maintained by American's [sic] For Prosperity Michigan, which reserved the space to support the right-to-work legislation"

More at the link.

Also at Instapundit, "ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC: Hoffa Predicts ‘Civil War’ in Michigan."

PREVIOUSLY: "#Savage Union Thugs Attack Conservative Steven Crowder in Lansing, Michigan."

#Savage Union Thugs Attack Conservative Steven Crowder in Lansing, Michigan

At Fox News, "Fox News contributor punched in face at pro-union protests in Michigan."

And at The Other McCain, "BREAKING VIDEO: MI Union Thugs Greet Right-to-Work Law With Thuggery and Cupcakes, But Mostly Thuggery." All the video at that link.

And from Bob Belvedere, "The Naked Face of Leftism: Thug America":

This is exactly the kind of behavior the Left wants to see. Ever since Leftism came into being in the mid-18th Century, they have believed a necessary first step in bringing about Revolution is to sow Chaos in all areas of the society. They want the populace to break into tribes of competing grievance groups. To achieve this, the Left needs many groups from various fields it can count on to do it’s dirty work — bureaucrats, elected officials, academics, etc. These minions of the Masterminds lay the ground work by sabotaging all of the institutions of the Society from within and without, working to pervert and, thus weaken, the existing Culture.

At some point, however, the Leftist Masterminds need to move to the next phase of the march to Revolution: violence. We have entered that phase in the last few years in The United States Of America. Barack Hussein Obama and his comrades have encouraged and nurtured and unleashed forces designed to tear this country apart.

Well, yes, it's classic mob violence.

These are monstrous progressive freaks. More from Dana Loesch, "Donors offers $$$ For Info Leading to Arrest Of Union Thug **UPDATED ONE THUG IDENTIFIED" (at Memoerandum).

IMAGE CREDIT: Instapundit.

Ka Pasasouk, Suspect in Northridge Murders, Got Probation Instead of Prison During Recent Criminal Court Hearing

Lovely.

Our wonderfully humane criminal justice system put this dude up for probation despite a string of previous convictions and court hearings.

At the Los Angeles Times, "D.A.'s office admits letting slaying suspect avoid prison":

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office admitted Monday that its prosecutors erred in allowing a suspect — now accused in the killing of four people in Northridge — to receive drug treatment instead of prison time during a September court hearing.

The suspect, Ka Pasasouk, was in Van Nuys Superior Court after being arrested on suspicion of drug possession. He was on probation at the time, and the L.A. County Probation Department had urged that he be sent back to state prison for "long-term detention" because of his lengthy criminal record.

But prosecutors told the judge that Pasasouk was eligible for a drug diversion program under Proposition 36. The judge ordered him to drug treatment rather than prison.

Two months later, authorities alleged, Pasasouk killed four people outside a home in Northridge.

The district attorney's office said it completed an investigation Monday into how that hearing was handled.

"The review shows that the office inadvertently erred in indicating the defendant was eligible for a Proposition 36 drug program," said district attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons in a statement. "Training issues raised during the review will be addressed by the District Attorney's office countywide."

Gibbons would not comment further or say whether any prosecutors were being disciplined.

Pasasouk is accused of fatally shooting four people Dec. 1 outside a home in the 17400 block of Devonshire Street.

Officials identified the dead as Amanda Ghossein, 24, of Monterey Park; Jennifer Kim, 26, of Montebello; Robert Calabia, 34, of Los Angeles; and Teofilo Navales, 49, of Castaic.

Detectives have not revealed any information about a possible motive. But law enforcement sources told The Times that the killings appeared to have stemmed from a dispute over personal property, including a computer.

Proposition 36 was a voter-approved ballot measure meant to send some nonviolent drug offenders into drug rehab rather than prison.

Progressive crime policy getting people killed. Who would have thunk it?

Continue reading.

Worker Liberation in Michigan

At the Wall Street Journal:

The economic policy drift in Washington is antigrowth, but here and there in the states are glimmers of hope and change. The best news of late is in Michigan, which is poised this week to pass a landmark right-to-work law.

You can tell this is a big deal based on the fury of Big Labor's reaction. Union activists plan to descend on Lansing Tuesday to protest, including many from out of state. State police will have to be on duty to ensure that legislators can get through what is likely to be a loud and abusive cordon of activists who want to block the vote.

This thuggishness is a deliberate and familiar union political strategy: Cause as big a ruckus as possible in hopes of making right to work seem radical when it's already the law in nearly half the country.

We hope Republicans and Governor Rick Snyder aren't intimidated, because they have the moral and policy high ground. Union activists want voters to believe that right-to-work laws deny union organizing rights, or ban collective bargaining. President Obama peddled this distortion on Monday in Redford, Michigan, claiming that "what we shouldn't be doing is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages and working conditions."

Right to work does no such thing. It empowers individual workers. As allowed under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, right to work merely lets individual workers choose for themselves if they want to join a union. The laws prevent closed union shops, which coerce individual workers to join unions and to pay union dues. A teacher who opts out under right to work, for example, could save several hundred dollars in annual union dues that go to political causes he may not even believe in...

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!!

Boy, that sounds awful scary, if you're a union boss, that is.

More at the link.

Oh, and speaking of scared, here's Rich Yeselson at the American Prospect, "This Is Not Wisconsin. It's Worse" (which as this post was scheduled, was drawing enough traffic to crash the site, so see Digby's Hullabaloo).

Shopping Daiso

My son needed to pick up a case for his pencils last week, at Daiso Irvine. It's a Japanese "dollar store" except everything's priced at $1.50 or less.

The O.C. Weekly reports, "Daiso Is Dollar Shopping, Japan-Style."

Bill O'Reilly Confronting Evil

An outstanding "Talking Points Memo" from yesterday's O'Reilly Factor. And both Mary Katharine Ham and Juan Williams are excellent:

Epic Loser Walter James Casper III 'Isn't a Very Effective User' of Twitter

Via Robert Stacy McCain:

@ampowerblog The troll to whom you refer isn't a very effective user anyway: 10,000+ messages, < 300 followers.
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) December 10, 2012

Alas, "troll rights" harassment stalker Repsac3 is only "effective" in his own mind, the f-king narcissistic #p2 asshole.

PREVIOUSLY: "Cyber-Stalking Harassment Troll Bill Schmalfeldt," and "Obama Administration Pushing for Implementation of U.N. Resolution 16/18 Prohibiting Criticism of Islam."

A Breakthrough Against Leukemia Using Altered T-Cells

I love this story, at the New York Times, "In Girl’s Last Hope, Altered Immune Cells Beat Leukemia":

PHILIPSBURG, Pa. — Emma Whitehead has been bounding around the house lately, practicing somersaults and rugby-style tumbles that make her parents wince.

It is hard to believe, but last spring Emma, then 6, was near death from leukemia. She had relapsed twice after chemotherapy, and doctors had run out of options.

Desperate to save her, her parents sought an experimental treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, one that had never before been tried in a child, or in anyone with the type of leukemia Emma had. The experiment, in April, used a disabled form of the virus that causes AIDS to reprogram Emma’s immune system genetically to kill cancer cells.

The treatment very nearly killed her. But she emerged from it cancer-free, and about seven months later is still in complete remission. She is the first child and one of the first humans ever in whom new techniques have achieved a long-sought goal — giving a patient’s own immune system the lasting ability to fight cancer.

My god that is so wonderful. Research is closing in on a cure, or so it seems. And that's in American hospitals, it should be noted.

RTWT.

'The idea is to intimidate all of us into silence...'

Yes it is, at Patterico, "Stacy McCain on Cyberstalking."

RELATED: At Popehat, "Update On Defense of Patterico."

PREVIOUSLY: "Cyber-Stalking Harassment Troll Bill Schmalfeldt."

Early Tuesday Rule 5

Via Theo Spark:

More here.

Coping With Existential Angst

I think Robert Stacy McCain is much too modest, but if you're going to emulate someone, you'd hardly choose better than AoSHQ.

See: "The Neitzschean Existential Angst of Blogging in the Same Sphere as Ace."

Greg Gutfeld Slams 'Gangnam Style' Anti-American Rapper

You'll get a laugh, despite how serious this is:

PREVIOUSLY: "Obama Daughters Meet Psy the 'Gangnam Style' Troop-Kill Rapper," and "Joe Biden Photographed With Anti-American 'Gangnam Style' Rapper."

Victoria's Secret Model Erin Heatherton Shows Off Bikini Body During St. Barts Photo Shoot

Boy, seems like the folks at Victoria's Secret never take a time out.

A great pictorial, in any case, at London's Daily Mail, "A polka dot bikini has never looked go good! Erin Heatherton sizzles in playful look as she models Victoria's Secret swimwear in St Barts."

A Nation of Takers Hurtles Toward the Fiscal Abyss

From Bruce Thornton, at FrontPage Magazine:

The on-going negotiations over avoiding the tax hikes and spending cuts we call the “fiscal cliff” are the simply the latest act in a farce of self-serving political denial. For decades now both parties have overseen and nurtured the expansion of the entitlement state all the while ignoring the slow-motion economic implosion whose predictable end can be seen today in a bankrupt Greece currently surviving on EU handouts. But American voters and politicians are so marinated in expectations of endless federal and state largess that modest reductions in spending, such as those proposed earlier this year by Congressman Paul Ryan, are attacked as draconian “cuts” that will “shred” the safety net and throw millions into Dickensian penury.

And make no mistake. The “cliff” might not be reached in January, even without a deal. But it’s still waiting down the road. Baby Boomers, 75 million strong, are retiring at a rate of 200,000 a month, and they can expect to live on average until 84 if they make it to the retirement age of 65. The two big drivers of entitlement spending, Social Security and Medicare, weren’t designed to transfer money to retirees for so long, or pay for artificial knees and hips for Boomers who want to be active in their 70s and 80s. If left unreformed, spending just on Social Security and Medicare will eat up 14% of GDP in 40 years, necessitating even more federal borrowing than the 40 cents currently borrowed for every dollar the feds spend. That’s not a cliff, that’s an economic abyss.

Reining in entitlement spending, then, is the major problem that everybody needs to focus on. And a good place to start is Nicholas Eberstadt’s A Nation of Takers. Eberstadt’s grim documentation of the reckless expansion of what he calls the “vast and colossal empire of entitlement payments that it [the state] protects, manages, and finances,” and his analysis of the ill effects such transfers have had on the American character should be read by everyone serious about the fiscal threats to our way of life.

Redistributing wealth through programs like income maintenance, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and unemployment insurance has become the federal government’s most important function. This development would have astonished the Founders, who codified national security and defense as the national government’s primary role. And this momentous shift has led to an accelerating number of Americans on some sort of dole. In the early 1980s, 30% of Americans received at least one government benefit. By 2011 just over 49% were. The costs of this increase have accelerated as well. In 1960, entitlement spending by government at all levels was $24 billion in today’s dollars. In 2011, the cost was almost $2.2 trillion. As Eberstadt glumly prophesizes, we are heading for “the day in which entitlement spending comes to exceed all other activities of all levels and branches of the U.S. government.”

The costs of such profligacy, however, are more than economic. These wealth transfers have had deleterious effects on traditional American character. Observers of the American character traditionally had remarked on what Eberstadt describes as a “fierce and principled independence” and “proud self-reliance.” This independence extended to financial self-reliance as well. Americans “viewed themselves as accountable for their own situation through their own achievements in an environment bursting with opportunity,” Eberstadt writes, and had “an affinity for personal enterprise and industry” and a “horror of dependency and contempt for anything that smacked of a mendicant mentality.” Accepting help or handouts was considered “an affront to their dignity and independence.” These are the strengths of character and virtue that have created the richest, freest, and most powerful nation in world history. But the federal government’s ever- increasing handouts––which these days are not considered signs of shame, but deserved legal and civil rights––are eroding these virtues.

Yeah, those virtues have been circling the drain for some time. And the Obama-Socialists have been all too happy to apply the plunger to accelerate the flushing action.

IMAGE CREDIT: The People's Cube, "In Progressive America Virtue Has No Value."

Billy Corgan Interview on CBS News This Morning

A very interesting piece. Corgan is articulate and funny.

See: "Billy Corgan on 'The Smashing Pumpkins' New Album."

Morsi Imposes Martial Law in Egypt

At Weasel Zippers, "Egypt: Morsi Imposes Martial Law In Run Up To Constitutional Referendum…"

This RT video has the developments from over the weekend. And see Barry Rubin, "A Turning Point in Egypt: Not on Direction But on the Speed of Islamist Transformation."

Australian DJs Apologize

I've already weighed in on this, although AoSHQ has quite a different perspective, "Nurse Commits Suicide Because Evil, Murderous Radio DJs Pulled a Deadly Prank."

The apology video is here: "Aussie DJ: Any Role in Death Is 'gut-wrenching'."

George Will: 'Quite Literally, the Opposition to Gay Marriage is Dying...'

Well, I'm not whistling past the boneyard quite yet, but Will's not far off the mark on this. The question, which he raises, is whether enough states so far have used the democratic process to expand the homosexual right the marry. We still have roughly 42 states where marriage remains between one man and one woman, so it's still early despite appearances otherwise, and the Supreme Court isn't guaranteed to favor the radical left's agenda in any case. But if I were to bet, Will's thesis would get good odds.

Althouse has more, "'Conservative Pundits: Accepting Same-Sex Marriage Is Common Sense'." (At Memeorandum.)

PREVIOUSLY: "Kennedy and Scalia Likely at Odds on Homosexual Rights."

Kennedy and Scalia Likely at Odds on Homosexual Rights

Well, this is pretty much exactly what I argued on Friday.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Supreme Court showdown expected over gay rights decisions." Justices Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia, both 76 years-old, will be battling it out:

The two have much in common. Born in 1936, they graduated from high school in the early 1950s and excelled at Harvard Law School, where they were a year apart. They were Republicans who rose through the legal ranks. When appointed to the court, both bought homes in McLean, Va.

They agree on much. Both voted to strike down President Obama's healthcare law as an overreach by the government. Scalia joined Kennedy's majority opinion in the Citizens United case that freed corporate and union spending on political ads.

But Kennedy, the libertarian, and Scalia, the social conservative, clash fiercely over the court's role in deciding moral controversies.

The two split 20 years ago when the court's conservative bloc was poised to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the ruling that legalized abortion. Though personally opposed to abortion, Kennedy switched sides in spring 1992 and cast a crucial vote to uphold a woman's right to choose. "Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code," Kennedy wrote.

In the past, Scalia has accused Kennedy of having "signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda." Scalia is likely to have the votes of fellow conservatives Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and probably Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to uphold state and federal laws that exclude gays from marriage.

But Kennedy has the much stronger hand. He ranks third in seniority after the chief justice and Scalia, and he has four liberal justices on his left. Because the senior member of the majority decides who writes the opinion, Kennedy could decide who writes the opinions if he votes with the liberals. And he could take the assignment for himself.

His past writings provide clues as to how he might see the issue.

In a New York case, the justices will decide whether the federal government can deny legally married same-sex couples the benefits that go with marriage. These include filing joint tax returns and receiving survivors benefits from Social Security.

Gay rights advocates challenged this exclusion in the Defense of Marriage Act as discriminatory, and they have won rulings from judges in New England, New York and Northern California.

Kennedy is likely to agree with the challengers, and he explained why in 1996, the same year Congress passed the marriage act. The court then faced a Colorado voter measure that repealed gay rights ordinances in several cities. Kennedy spoke for the court in striking it down. He said that the measure was "born of animosity" toward gays, he said, and that the Constitution "prohibits laws singling out a certain class of citizens for disfavored legal status or general hardships."

If Kennedy and the court strike down the federal benefits provision of the marriage act, it would be a major victory for gay rights, but it would not affect the 41 states where same-sex marriage is forbidden.

The California case on Proposition 8 could be far more significant because it involves the right to marry. Ted Olson and David Boies, the attorneys who led the challenge, plan to argue broadly that marriage is a fundamental right and that excluding gay couples from marriage denies them the equal protection of the law.

A Kennedy-Scalia clash from a decade ago gives a preview. When two gay men challenged a Texas anti-sodomy law, Kennedy wrote a glowing opinion taking their side. "They are entitled to respect for their private lives," he said, and "the state cannot demean" them by treating them as second-class citizens.

In a moment of high drama, Kennedy gave a professorial reading of his opinion on the last day of the court term in 2003. When he finished, Scalia's voice cut through the room as he delivered an angry dissent.

Kennedy's opinion left the laws against same-sex marriage "on pretty shaky grounds," Scalia said at the time. "If moral disapprobation of homosexual conduct is 'no legitimate state interest' … what justification could there possibly be for denying the benefits of marriage to homosexual couples?"

That's the question now before the court in the California case.

More at the New York Times, "Sidebar: Court Enters Same-Sex Fray With Uncharacteristic Speed" (via Memeorandum).

Obama Daughters Meet Psy the 'Gangnam Style' Troop-Kill Rapper

Utterly amazing, at Twitchy, "Killer photo op: Obama and daughters meet U.S. troop-slay rapper PSY."

Some of the dude's lyrics, via Weasel Zippers:

Kill those f-king Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives.
Kill those f-king Yankees who ordered them to torture.
Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers.
Kill them all slowly and painfully.

Lovely, isn't it?

Previously: "Joe Biden Photographed With Anti-American 'Gangnam Style' Rapper."

America Nears the Demographic Tipping Point

Ann Coulter's essay, how shall we say?, spilled the frijoles, at FrontPage Magazine, "'America reaches el tipping pointo'":

I apologize to America’s young people, whose dashed dreams and dim employment prospects I had laughed at, believing these to be a direct result of their voting for Obama.

On closer examination, it turns out that young voters, aged 18-29, overwhelmingly supported Romney. But only the white ones.

According to Pew Research, 54 percent of white voters under 30 voted for Romney and only 41 percent for Obama. That’s the same percentage Reagan got from the entire white population in 1980. Even the Lena Dunham demographic — white women under 30 — slightly favored Romney.

Reagan got just 43 percent of young voters in 1980 — and that was when whites were 88 percent of the electorate. Only 58 percent of today’s under-30 vote is white and it’s shrinking daily.

What the youth vote shows is not that young people are nitwits who deserve lives of misery and joblessness, as I had previously believed, but that America is hitting the tipping point on our immigration policy.

The youth vote is a snapshot of elections to come if nothing is done to reverse the deluge of unskilled immigrants pouring into the country as a result of Ted Kennedy’s 1965 immigration act. Eighty-five percent of legal immigrants since 1968 have come from the Third World. A majority of them are in need of government assistance.

Whites are 76 percent of the electorate over the age of 30 and only 58 percent of the electorate under 30. Obama won the “youth vote” because it is the knife’s edge of a demographic shift, not because he offered the kids free tuition and contraception (which they don’t need because it’s hard to have sex when you’re living with your parents at 27).

In 1980, Hispanics were only 2 percent of the population, and they tended to be educated, skilled workers who got married, raised their children in two-parent families and sent their kids to college before they, too, got married and had kids. (In that order.)

That profile has nothing to do with recent Hispanic immigrants, who — because of phony “family reunification” rules — are the poorest of the world’s poor.

More than half of all babies born to Hispanic women today are illegitimate. As Heather MacDonald has shown, the birthrate of Hispanic women is twice that of the rest of the population, and their unwed birthrate is one and a half times that of blacks.

That’s a lot of government dependents coming down the pike. No amount of “reaching out” to the Hispanic community, effective “messaging” or Reagan’s “optimism” is going to turn Mexico’s underclass into Republicans.

Any election analysis that doesn’t deal with the implacable fact of America’s changing demographics is bound to be wrong.

Perhaps the reason elections maven Michael Barone was so shockingly off in his election prediction this year was that, in the biggest mistake of his career, Barone has been assuring us for years that most of these Third World immigrants pouring into the country would go the way of Italian immigrants and become Republicans. They’re hardworking! They have family values!

Maybe at first, but not after coming here, having illegitimate children and going on welfare.

More at that top link.

Meanwhile, Coulter sent the progs into fevered apoplexy. See: "Ann Coulter Attacks Latinos In Column, As Conservatives Seek To Reach Out To Hispanic Voters."

Progressives Outraged That Kansas School Reforms Include 'American Exceptionalism'

Well, that's a shocker.

At Weasel Zippers, "Libs Outraged Nebraska Students to Be Taught … (Gasp) … “American Exceptionalism”…"

Following the links takes us to Mother Jones. The debate's also on the instruction of climate change theory, to which this commenter responds:

Climate change is real and its irrelevant who or what caused it. Get with the program and accept that regardless of time, we need to educate the next generation (the ones left to deal with it) on what we know about the science of weather and its global effects on their future living environment.

Get with the program. You'll be educated one way, the only way!

Besides, you'll wind up in a shallow grave no matter what happens, so shape up now and with luck the left's NKVD jackboots will give you some gravy with your rations before your number's up.