National Review's Newtown Symposium

For some reason NRO's editors thought it smart to put Charlotte Allen's not-enough-men essay first in its recent symposium on the massacre. I don't know. As the father of a husky 11-year-old boy, I doubt I'm the best advocate for a bunch of husky (11 or) 12-year-old boys "gang rushing" a grown man wielding a semi-automatic rifle shooting fragmenting bullets. Megan McArdle made the "gang rush" argument as well (about which here). There may be some circumstances during a mass shooting that such virtual human sacrifice defense methods succeed in dragging down the shooter, or bowling him over, or whatever, but it defies common sense for a rational-thinking child to summon up that much foolish bravado. If anything, I suspect someone would sooner jump between the line of fire to save a dear friend, as what happened during the Aurora shooting. That "gang rush" thing sounds more like a bum rush at this point.

That said, this was actually an excellent symposium: "Newtown Answers."

A couple I like especially, for example, from Jim Daly:

As parents, we must help our children navigate a corrosive culture. We can do this by encouraging and championing a strong moral foundation. Morals help to maintain order in the culture. It’s become en vogue in some circles to consider that morality is relative, that good and bad are subjective. But as we were reminded this past Friday, nothing could be further from the truth.

The best news in the darkest of times is that God has not given up on us. He is in the middle of the mayhem. He now holds these precious little children in His arms. And as we mourn we must hold tightly to the hope and promises of His Word, that He truly is “Our Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.”

From David French:

Thousands of years ago, a man named Job faced the horrible, violent death of his children. He begged God for reasons for his calamity. He pled his case at great length and with great eloquence. Yet when God finally answered, the response was not what Job hoped. The God of the universe answered Job by essentially declaring that He was God, and Job was not. So Job literally placed his hand over his mouth and trusted in the God who he could not fully understand.

Our lives are full of the inexplicable — virtuous men die at evil hands, good men fail while bad men succeed, and justice is forever elusive — but like Job, we must trust our Creator, the God who gave us life and loved us enough to send a Savior. When all words fail, we trust, we pray, and we rely on a promise:

“Blessed are those who mourn; for they shall be comforted.”

May God fulfill that promise for the victims and families of Sandy Hook Elementary School.

From Father Gerald Murray:

The Feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28 is a reminder that violence and mass murder have been part of the human condition since the Fall of Man. Innocent boys were slaughtered by the evil Herod. The senseless act of violence at Sandy Hook Elementary School is a shocking instance of the ever-present possibility that a man will choose to do unimaginable crimes. We are stunned by such murderous hatred, which is diabolical in nature and gravely offends our natural instincts and our religious convictions. What can console us and reassure us?

Sympathy and kindness towards the grieving are important and necessary, but man cannot restore what has been destroyed. The only true and lasting consolation that the Church can offer to those who mourn the untimely death of their loved ones is the Divinely revealed truth that this life is but a preparation for life eternal in Heaven. Those who die are in the hands of a Good God.

May the knowledge of God’s goodness console those who now live in such great sorrow, yet are sustained by the hope of being reunited one day with their loved ones in Heaven.

And the essay by Emily Stimson stands alone, so I'd rather not block quote it. Go read it all at the symposium.

And again, why the editors placed Charlotte Allen's up front is a mystery. She's written response to her critics, for what it's worth: "Newtown & My Critics." (via Memeorandum).

NewsBusted: 'Liberal Comedians Don't Make Fun of President Obama...'

Via Theo Spark:

'Scream & Shout'

At the recommendation of my oldest boy, Will.i.am and Britney Spears:

RELATED: At London's Daily Mail, "Going out with a bang! Britney Spears is sensational in backless bodice dress as she leads stars on X Factor red carpet."

Brianna Keilar Has it Rough

She's on assignment in Waikiki. Beautiful:

Waiting for POTUS in Hawaii. twitter.com/brikeilarcnn/s…
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) December 22, 2012

NRA Calls for Armed Officers in Schools

It's the news of the day, and folks on Twitter couldn't resist hammering away at how bizarre this press conference was. I tuned in late, but watching the video, I thought somebody hacked this clip when that first Code Pink protester put up his banner. And then you get the obligatory Medea Benjamin scream-fest. It's unreal. LaPierre just stands there dumbstruck. It was a metaphor for the NRA's response to the outrage. I'm personally disgusted by the left's despicable demonization and rank opportunism, but I doubt the press conference changed many minds. Jonathan Tobin has more on that: "The NRA Should Have Stayed Silent."

And here's this, from the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON—The nation's most powerful gun-rights lobby called Friday for armed security guards in schools, saying that children had been left vulnerable in their classrooms.

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said that "the monsters and the predators of the world" have exploited the fact that schools are gun-free zones. Other important institutions—from banks to airports to sports stadiums—are protected with armed security, he said, but this country has left students defenseless.

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," Mr. LaPierre said at a news conference Friday morning.

The comments were the most extensive statements the NRA has made since the Dec. 14 killings at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children and six adults dead. The gunman also killed his mother and himself. The organization issued a statement earlier this week expressing shock and sadness over the shootings.

In the aftermath of the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School, much of the national conversation has focused on gun-control measures. But on Friday, Mr. LaPierre said that time should not be wasted on legislation that won't work.

Mr. LaPierre said that the media rewards monsters who would shoot school children by giving them the attention that they crave, and he suggested that some other deranged individual already is planning the next attack.

"The truth is that our society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters, people that are so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons that no sane person can ever possibly comprehend them," Mr. LaPierre said.

The shootings have led to calls for a variety of new gun laws, including the reinstatement of an assault-weapons ban similar to one that was in effect from 1994 to 2004. The White House also has urged Congress to pass a ban on high-capacity magazines and to require background checks for all gun purchases.

Continue reading.

My immediate impression was doubtful that a nationalized armed schoolhouse security regime would be effective. On Twitter Melissa Clouthier made a number of stinging critiques, but she was especially acute on the need for local school districts, with parents, deciding what's best for their own children and their own circumstances:

BTW, the @nra asking for Department of Education version of the TSA is absurd. JUST NO. Let districts decide, i.e. parents.
— Melissa Clouthier (@MelissaTweets) December 21, 2012

And from Joshua Treviño:

Still, what LaPierre proposes is a TSA-style solution. Far better to let school districts simply adopt their own policies as they see fit.
— Joshua Treviño (@jstrevino) December 21, 2012

I'll have more later, as always...

Ushangi Davitashvili Kisses Bust of Soviet Dictator Josef Stalin

In Tbilisi, Georgia, at the Wall Street Journal, "Photos of the Day: Dec. 21."

This Mr. Davitashvili might as well be a progressive Democrat in Atlanta, Georgia. Today's Democrat Party, the party of Barack Obama, sure loves them some communism. It's not speculation any more. The left under Obama is a neo-communist consortium of all the hardline factions. See: "Communist Party USA Pulls Out the Stops for Democrat Class Warfare."

FLASHBACK: "No Enemies on the Left? Progressives for Barack Obama."

Althouse Not Down With the Left's 'Civility Bullshit'

I expect the Loomis meltdown is winding down by now (he's back on Twitter, hilariously), but folks are still getting in a few good laughs.

It turns out Althouse had some concise yet excellent comments the other day:

As for Loomis, I lean heavily toward academic freedom, freedom of speech, and the comprehension of metaphor, but against the hypocrisy that for purposes of this blog goes under the tag "civility bullshit" and against the appropriation of a child massacre for diversion and propaganda.

Well, they're double-talking neanderthals, but what else is new? Robert Stacy McCain reacts to Althouse, "Occupy Althouse? (The Zero-Sum Error)."

Hmm. "Occupy Althouse"? An interesting thing.

More later...

Obama's Remarks at Daniel Inouye Memorial Service

As soon as the NRA's press conference ended, CNN switched over the the memorial service for the late Senator Daniel Inouye. I just kept watching, and I'm thinking, "Jeez, Obama's sure adding a lot of personal history to his commemorative thoughts. He's just going on and on..."

I guess I wasn't the only one.

At Twitchy, "Narcissist in chief: Obama maintains laser-like focus on himself at Inouye memorial." And Weasel Zippers has video, "Narcissist-In-Chief Uses Sen. Inouye’s Funeral To Talk About Himself For 10 Minutes…"

Obama Expected to Name Sen. John Kerry as Secretary of State Nominee

On television, CNN has all kinds of reporting, loaded with shameless plaudits.

But see the Los Angeles Times, "Obama to nominate Kerry to be next secretary of State."

A traitor at Secretary of State. Perfect.
— Melissa Clouthier (@MelissaTweets) December 21, 2012

Also at Memeorandum.

I'll have more on this...

Kelly Brook Calendar 2013

This lady is absolutely amazing.

At Popaholic, "Kelly Brook’s 2013 Calendar Preview Video Is Shwingtastic Awesomeness!"

And the Sun UK, "Kel's bells! Model bares her boobs in her sexiest video ever."

Boehner's Budget 'Plan B' Collapses

Here's the key bit from the Wall Street Journal's editorial, "Teetering on the Cliff":

The Speaker's miscalculation was that, just as in 2011, he thought he could get into a room with the President and negotiate a grand bargain. His intentions were good but he misjudged the all-or-nothing ideological nature of this Presidency. After the debacle of 2011, Mr. Obama could have treated the negotiations as the art of the bipartisan deal that could set the stage for immigration reform and other second-term achievements. Flush with victory, he could have at least made a gesture on entitlements.

Instead, he has treated the talks as an extension of the election campaign, traveling around the country at rally-style events at which he berates Republicans for not accepting his terms of surrender. Grant gave Lee more at Appomattox.

Plan B was Mr. Boehner's attempt to salvage some political dignity and a policy victory or two in return for conceding on tax rates. The bill wasn't even technically a vote to raise taxes because the rates are set to rise automatically on January 1 if Congress does nothing. The bill also kept the estate tax at 35%, rather than going up to 55% as now scheduled, and it made the tax cuts on lower incomes permanent.

With a narrow deal on taxes, Mr. Boehner figured he could live to fight another day on spending

More at that top link. And a CBS News report, "House votes on Boehner's 'Plan B'."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Boehner cancels House vote as 'Plan B' falls short of GOP support."

'Time Magazine' Honors Andrew Breitbart

I'm surprised. Not that Andrew didn't deserve it, but that Time would deign to give it up.

At Big Journalism, "TIME Magazine Honors Andrew Breitbart in End of Year Issue."

Andrew is missed, sorely missed. Click through at the link to read it all.

Power Grab!

O'Reilly's talking points memo:

Lots more at Memeorandum.

'There are circumstances in which I think I’d advocate for someone’s firing, even for things they said...'

Well, it's no surprise, but this idiot progressive Bijan Parsia, in the comments at Loomis' latest Lumberjack ball-buster, advocates getting conservative academics fired for speech with which he disagrees:

Did Erik call, in any meaningful way, for anyone to be jailed for political advocacy? Are a few tweets sufficient? What actions were the tweets either intended or likely to trigger?

Contrariwise, people didn’t just tweet back: “I hope you get fired.” Or “I think you should be fired”. Or “You don’t deserve to be a professor.” They did things like call the FBI and the University (indeed, they called Erik’s ultimate boss). There were people calling for that as well (e.g., in this comment).

I don’t know that there were any direct calls for Erik’s firing from blog proprietors and there were a round of posts (e.g., Instapundit’s) saying that Erik wasn’t making threats, etc.

Given e.g., Malkin’s history, I’m not so convinced that the intended effect of all this wasn’t exactly what happened.

Now, with the possible exception of the call to the FBI (really?!) and some arguably defamatory statements, none of this is illegal. Nor, I think, should it be. There are circumstances in which I think I’d advocate for someone’s firing, even for things they said. I want those to be relatively rare, of course. Probably even exceedingly rare. I prefer them to be cases where there is a direct job connection.

An interesting case is Brad Delong’s explorations as to whether John Yoo’s tenure should be revoked.

(Personally, I think even if the case is reasonable, it wouldn’t be worth pursuing because of the potential backlash and precedent.)

Look, there's one standard for free speech. You're either for it or you're against it. Professor Parsia (yeah, a professor; follow the link at his login creditials) would like John Yoo's tenure revoked. He cites Brad DeLong. I don't care to follow the links, although I'm pretty sure what the outrage is. Hint: think "enhanced interrogations."

These people are authoritarian tools, progressive tools. I made the case against such hypocritical idiots yesterday: "Smirking Spectator? Guilty as Charged."

And Robert Stacy McCain has an update on Loomis the Lumberjack: "‘Candyass Blogger’ Update: Free Speech Absolutists Who Banned Mr. Althouse UPDATE: ‘These Are Historical Dildos’."

Hey, speaking of the "Candyass Blogger," remember this? "Althouse Slams Robert 'Porn Guy' Farley!" Douchebag.

Suzy Favor Hamilton's Double Life

Pretty wild.

At The Smoking Gun, "U.S. Olympian's Secret Life as Las Vegas Escort."

And both the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times have reports, among many others, no doubt.

She's on Twitter as well, speaking quite candidly:

As crazy as I know it seems, I never thought I would be exposed, therefore never hurting anybody.
— Suzy Favor Hamilton (@favorhamilton) December 20, 2012

That's very difficult, but she's handling it.

Pre-Christmas Blizzard Batters the Midwest

An ABC News report:

And at the New York Times, "A Reminder of What Midwest Winters Are About."

Well, it's a white Christmas at least. I'm sending a prayer out to all those who're traveling.

Invincible Ignorance

One of the best essays I've read all week, from Thomas Sowell, at the American Spectator:

Must every tragic mass shooting bring out the shrill ignorance of “gun control” advocates?

The key fallacy of so-called gun control laws is that such laws do not in fact control guns. They simply disarm law-abiding citizens, while people bent on violence find firearms readily available.

If gun control zealots had any respect for facts, they would have discovered this long ago, because there have been too many factual studies over the years to leave any serious doubt about gun control laws being not merely futile but counterproductive.

Places and times with the strongest gun control laws have often been places and times with high murder rates. Washington, D.C., is a classic example, but just one among many.

When it comes to the rate of gun ownership, that is higher in rural areas than in urban areas, but the murder rate is higher in urban areas.

The rate of gun ownership is higher among whites than among blacks, but the murder rate is higher among blacks. For the country as a whole, handgun ownership doubled in the late 20th century, while the murder rate went down.

The few counterexamples offered by gun control zealots do not stand up under scrutiny.

Continue reading.

If You're Doing Any Last Minute Shopping

There's still some holiday specials all day today, at Amazon.

Greg Gutfeld Calls Out Professor Adolph Reed, Jr.

Professor Reed's essay is indeed a caricature of the worst of leftist political correctness. It's that bad: "The Puzzle of Black Republicans."

I read Professor Reed's book back in the day, "Stirrings In The Jug: Black Politics In The Post-Segregation Era." And I'm sure he gained tenure long ago, so a little correction to Gutfeld's snark. He sure does love that "Adolph" comparison, though. Heh.

More at Legal Insurrection, "I would never be so insulting as to accuse the NY Times of tokenism."

Bill O'Reilly Slams Bob Beckel on Marine Jailed in Mexico

This is interesting:

And at Fox News, "Reps call for national travel boycott of Mexico over jailed Marine."

Fabian Thylmann and His Revolutionary Porn Business Model

Well, there's obviously no slack in demand.

At Der Spiegel, "Harnessing the Internet: The German Porn King's Revolutionary Model":

When German national Fabian Thylmann was arrested, he became known as the king of the porn industry. His sex company operates like a modern corporation, silently and digitally. He has become a major presence on the Internet, much like Amazon and Wikipedia.

Interesting.

The guy's happily married as well.

Some of those photos at the story are NSFW.

The 50 Hottest WAGs of 2012

A photo slideshow, at the Los Angeles Times.

We Know How to Stop School Shootings

From Ann Coulter:

In the wake of a monstrous crime like a madman's mass murder of defenseless women and children at the Newtown, Conn., elementary school, the nation's attention is riveted on what could have been done to prevent such a massacre.

Luckily, some years ago, two famed economists, William Landes at the University of Chicago and John Lott at Yale, conducted a massive study of multiple victim public shootings in the United States between 1977 and 1995 to see how various legal changes affected their frequency and death toll.

Landes and Lott examined many of the very policies being proposed right now in response to the Connecticut massacre: waiting periods and background checks for guns, the death penalty and increased penalties for committing a crime with a gun.

None of these policies had any effect on the frequency of, or carnage from, multiple-victim shootings. (I note that they did not look at reforming our lax mental health laws, presumably because the ACLU is working to keep dangerous nuts on the street in all 50 states.)

Only one public policy has ever been shown to reduce the death rate from such crimes: concealed-carry laws.

Their study controlled for age, sex, race, unemployment, retirement, poverty rates, state population, murder arrest rates, violent crime rates, and on and on.

The effect of concealed-carry laws in deterring mass public shootings was even greater than the impact of such laws on the murder rate generally.

Someone planning to commit a single murder in a concealed-carry state only has to weigh the odds of one person being armed. But a criminal planning to commit murder in a public place has to worry that anyone in the entire area might have a gun.

You will notice that most multiple-victim shootings occur in "gun-free zones" -- even within states that have concealed-carry laws: public schools, churches, Sikh temples, post offices, the movie theater where James Holmes committed mass murder, and the Portland, Ore., mall where a nut starting gunning down shoppers a few weeks ago.

Guns were banned in all these places. Mass killers may be crazy, but they're not stupid.

She nails it.

Continue reading.

Christmas Shopping

I was out with my wife this afternoon, Christmas shopping, but not for a new Cadillac ATS.

The company's been doing major promotions at the Irvine Spectrum, and pictured are a silver and red 2013 ATS. Folks might remember how Cadillac was running a major ad campaign during the Olympics, seen here. And the Los Angeles Times had a very favorable review back in October, which I've been meaning to post, "Car review: Cadillac makes a right turn with 2013 ATS":

This single, lonely aspect of the ATS is all that matters to trunkfuls of self-proclaimed automotive cognoscenti gathering in car clubs and Internet chat rooms across the country. Their amusement will overflow at the latest challenger to BMW's decades-long hold on the sports-sedan scepter.

Not so fast. Despite its flaws, the thrill of the ATS' drive is an impressive feat, and the car itself is a massive step in the right direction. Which is good, because frankly, it has to be.

This is Cadillac's first post-bankruptcy baby, a look at what General Motors' luxury division can do when it starts with a clean sheet of paper to design a car with global ambitions. It may come with an American accent, but it needs to speak to buyers in China and Europe as well. Much of Cadillac's image and future hinges on how well the ATS, which starts at $34,885, resonates at home and abroad.

So it's a good thing that this car's two strongest suits, its handling and its design, translate into every language.

More at the link.

And for the record, my wife and I had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, shopped at the Apple Store, and bought some See's candy.

I'll have more Christmas blogging later. My grading's all done, although I have a few more presents to buy. Then I can enjoy the holiday and chill well into January.

California Auditor Uncovers Misuse of Funds, Lack of Competence in State Government

Well, what do you know?

At the O.C. Register, "Much tax money lost to theft, malfeasance":

As the Romans said, "Who watches the watchmen?" They meant: Government watches out for crime and corruption in private society. But who will do so for the government itself? In the early days of America, government was small, and the people could keep a close eye on it themselves. But nowadays government is so gigantic, especially at the national level and for the state of California, that the people get only glimpses of what's really going on.

California at least has the state auditor, currently Elaine M. Howle. On Dec. 11, she issued a report, "Investigations of Improper Activities by State Agencies and Employees." It's shocking reading for anyone who believes that government is a sober, clean operation that deserves more of the taxpayers' money. No actual names of culprits were provided.

It should be shocking, these revelations, but it's business as usual in the once-Golden State.

RTWT

Annual Company Christmas Party

My older sister sent me this chain email, and it was forwarded to her from some Democrat friends of the family. Must be hitting close to home:

Company Memo

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: October 1, 2012
RE: Gala Christmas Party

I'm happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take place on December 23rd, starting at noon in the private function room at the Grill House. There will be a cash bar and plenty of drinks! We'll have a small band playing traditional carols... feel free to sing along. And don't be surprised if our CEO shows up dressed as Santa Claus! A Christmas tree will be lit at 1:00 PM. Exchanges of gifts among employees can be done at that time; however, no gift should be over $10.00 to make the giving of gifts easy for everyone's pockets. This gathering is only for employees!

Our CEO will make a special announcement at that time!

Merry Christmas to you and your family,
Patty

*****

Company Memo

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: October 2, 2012
RE: Gala Holiday Party

In no way was yesterday's memo intended to exclude our Jewish employees. We recognize that Hanukkah is an important holiday, which often coincides with Christmas, though unfortunately not this year. However, from now on, we're calling it our "Holiday Party." The same policy applies to any other employees who are not Christians and to those still celebrating Reconciliation Day. There will be no Christmas tree and no Christmas carols will be sung. We will have other types of music for your enjoyment.

Happy now?

Happy Holidays to you and your family,
Patty

*****

Company Memo

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: October 3, 2012
RE: Holiday Party

Regarding the note I received from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous requesting a non-drinking table, you didn't sign your name. I'm happy to accommodate this request, but if I put a sign on a table that reads, "AA Only", you wouldn't be anonymous anymore. How am I supposed to handle this?
Somebody?

And sorry, but forget about the gift exchange, no gifts are allowed since the union members feel that $10.00 is too much money and the executives believe $10.00 is a little chintzy.

REMEMBER: NO GIFTS EXCHANGE WILL BE ALLOWED.

*****

Company Memo

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
To: All Employees DATE: October 4, 2012
RE: Generic Holiday Party

What a diverse group we are! I had no idea that December 20th begins the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which forbids eating and drinking during daylight hours. There goes the party! Seriously, we can appreciate how a luncheon at this time of year does not accommodate our Muslim employees' beliefs. Perhaps the Grill House can hold off on serving your meal until the end of the party or else package everything for you to take it home in little foil doggy baggy. Will that work?

Meanwhile, I've arranged for members of Weight Watchers to sit farthest from the dessert buffet, and pregnant women will get the table closest to the restrooms.

Gays are allowed to sit with each other. Lesbians do not have to sit with Gay men, each group will have their own table.

Yes, there will be flower arrangement for the Gay men's table.

To the person asking permission to cross dress, the Grill House asks that no cross-dressing be allowed, apparently because of concerns about confusion in the restrooms. Sorry.

We will have booster seats for short people.

Low-fat food will be available for those on a diet.

I am sorry to report that we cannot control the amount of salt used in the food . The Grill House suggests that people with high blood pressure taste a bite first.

There will be fresh "low sugar" fruits as dessert for diabetics, but the restaurant cannot supply "no sugar" desserts. Sorry!

Did I miss anything?!?!?
Patty

*****

Company Memo

FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Fucking Employees
DATE: October 5, 2012
RE: The Fucking Holiday Party

I've had it with you vegetarian pricks!!! We're going to keep this party at the Grill House whether you like it or not, so you can sit quietly at the table furthest from the "grill of death," as you so quaintly put it, and you'll get your fucking salad bar, including organic tomatoes. But you know, tomatoes have feelings, too. They scream when you slice them. I've heard them scream. I'm hearing them scream right NOW!
The rest of you fucking wierdos can kiss my ass. I hope you all have a rotten holiday!

Drive drunk and die,
The Bitch from Hell!!!

*****

Company Memo

FROM: Joan Bishop, Acting Human Resources Director
DATE: October 6, 2012
RE: Patty Lewis and Holiday Party

I'm sure I speak for all of us in wishing Patty Lewis a speedy recovery and I'll continue to forward your cards to her. In the meantime, management has decided to cancel our Holiday Party and give everyone the afternoon of the 23rd off with full pay.

Happy Holidays!
Joan

Jake Tapper Joins CNN As Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent

That's great news. I've been recently posting ABC News World Tonight segments with Tapper. He's an excellent journalist who defies the goon stereotype of the Democrat Media Complex.

CNN reports (via Memeorandum):

Accomplished Washington journalist Jake Tapper, who has served the last four years as ABC’s senior White House correspondent and is a best-selling author, joins CNN as anchor of a new weekday program and CNN’s chief Washington correspondent, it was announced today by Ken Jautz, executive vice president of CNN/U.S.

Tapper has been a widely-respected reporter in the nation’s capital for 14 years and his most recent book, The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, is currently on The New York Times best seller list. In his new role at CNN, he will be a key Washington, D.C. anchor and correspondent for CNN.

“We are thrilled to have Jake join CNN and take the helm of a brand new weekday program,” said Jautz. “Jake is an exceptional reporter and communicator, and we look forward to developing a program that takes advantage of all of his strengths, his passion and his knowledge of national issues and events.”

More at the New York Times, "Jake Tapper Leaves ABC News for CNN."

No word yet if Zucker's giving Soledad the boot. One can hope in the meantime.

Added: From ABC News President Ben Sherwood, "ABC News Announces New Correspondent Assignments in Washington D.C. Bureau."

It's Jonathan Karl and Martha Raddatz. I met Karl at CPAC in 2011. He seems fairly independent, although I don't know his reputation. I was talking with Dave Weigel when all of a sudden Karl walked up. So who knows? Maybe they're all a bunch of JournoListers not to be trusted. You can't be too sure about these people. I mean Martha Raddatz? Well, I think she did a better job moderating the vice presidential debate than Candy Crowley the following week for the national security debate between Obama and Romney. I still shake my head at Crowley's abjectly terrible performance. Nope. You can't be too trusting with these people. The blogosphere's the independent press nowadays, the fourth branch, so to speak. Conservative patriots can't let their guard down. Things are bad enough already. Sheesh.

More later ...

Evil Exists in This World

Michelle Malkin discusses the Obama administration's responsibility for increasing gun violence, as well as the partisan reaction --- and overreaction --- to the massacre in Newtown:

I'll have more later...

Smirking Spectator? Guilty as Charged

Folks must be sure to read this piece at Popehat, "Professor Loomis and the NRA: A Story In Which EVERYONE Annoys Me." (At Memeorandum.)

What defenders of Erik Loomis conveniently overlook is his long history of violent death-wish rhetoric spewed at his political opponents. Should he be fired for this? Of course not. But that's not to say I'm not amused by the whole thing, a fascinating spectacle, to be sure. Here's the quote I'm referencing:

I support, without qualification, people writing about Professor Loomis. I find his expression contemptible. But I also find the efforts to get him fired or arrested contemptible, and I find it highly regrettable that some blogs are, at the most charitable interpretation, acting as smirking spectators to that effort. The effort is not without cost, even if neither the police nor the University take action. Trying to get a professor fired for clearly protected speech promotes and contributes to the culture of censorship in higher education that FIRE fights and that Greg Lukianoff exposed persuasively in his recent book "Unlearning Liberty."

Perhaps I'd be more bothered by efforts to get Loomis fired if I hadn't been on the receiving end of identical efforts by his co-bloggers at Lawyers, Guns and Money and by his ideological allies in the progressive ASFL fever swamps. Indeed, I almost fell off my chair laughing at this mewling piece of "free-speech" grandstanding at Crooked Timber, "Statement on Erik Loomis." You'll notice in the comments that Scott Eric Kaufman "signs" the statement in solidarity, which is about as hypocritical as one can be ---- considering that the f-ker tried to get me fired, not for threatening him, but for simply pointing out that he loves using profanity in his teaching. There was some history of flame wars before that, but my post nailing Kaufman bragging about dropping f-bombs during lectures really must have hit a nerve. The next thing you know the guy was libeling me at my college (smearing me as a pornographer and sexual harasser), posing as a concern troll with the most demonic intentions imaginable. None of these same academic and progressive idiots said a word in my defense at the time, because they all hate me with the passion of the 1000 burning suns. But when one of their own idiots gets caught in the crossfire (metaphor) ---- and Popehat does indeed slam Loomis as an anti-free speech lunkhead --- they get all stiffer than a black-stallion steroid-pumped homosexual erection. These people are the epitome of double-standards and partisan posturing --- an example of hypocrisy also hammered at the Popehat post.

Here's my post on SEK: "The Lies of Scott Eric Kaufman — Leftist Hate-Blogger Sought to Silence Criticism With Libelous Campaign of Workplace Harassment."

And as regular readers know full well, Walter James Casper III used his blog, with his co-bloggers, to post my contact information and exhort his readers to contact my college. See: "Intent to Annoy and the Fascist Hate-Blogging Campaign of Walter James Casper III." And don't miss: "Roundup on Progressive Campaign of Workplace Intimidation and Harassment."

When you see the idiot progs get all bent out of shape like a bunch of homos, be reminded of Michelle Malkin's comments:

So, it’s come to this: Advocating beheadings, beatings, and mass murder of peaceful Americans to pay for the sins of a soulless madman. But because the advocates of violence fashion themselves champions of non-violence and because they inhabit the hallowed worlds of Hollywood, academia, and the Democratic Party, it’s acceptable?

Blood-lusting hate speech must not get a pass just because it comes out of the mouths of the protected, anti-gun class.

No one is as vile as these people. Loomis is just roadkill in the partisan wars, and he won't be the last on either side. Is it decent or fair? Perhaps not, but not so many people are as stupid as Loomis the Lumberjack. No one's as stupid to violently rattle off the death chants while still an untenured assistant professor at a research university. "Dim bulb" is charitable.

Meanwhile, Robert Stacy McCain's having a field day with Loomis, to the hilarious benefit of the conservative 'sphere. See: "#Metaphor: Academics Sign Their Own Death Warrants by Defending Loomis."

Screw these people. They reap what they sow. When they start calling out the workplace harassers among their own partisans maybe I'll give a f-k about stooges like Loomis.

BONUS: From Glenn Reynolds:

I KNOW I HAVEN’T: Don’t get too excited about Professor Loomis. “Professor Loomis’ vivid tweets are not actionable threats. That is to say, they aren’t ‘true threats’ outside the protection of the First Amendment.”

That’s right. They’re just hate-filled “eliminationist rhetoric” of the sort that lefties are always accusing people on the right of, but seem to engage in rather a lot themselves. Not a firing offense, but certainly worthy of widespread mockery.

RTWT.

Do You Believe the NRA's 'Grip on Congress' is Threatened?

I got a pretty good laugh out of this front-page story at yesterday's Los Angeles Times, "Gun lobby's grip on Congress threatened":

WASHINGTON — The gun-control debate sharpened Tuesday as President Obama backed an effort to revive the assault weapons ban spearheaded by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is poised to have a powerful new role as the head of the Senate committee overseeing gun laws.

Calls for federal gun restrictions were mounting following last week's shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. — even from lawmakers who had rejected them in the past. The National Rifle Assn. and its allies have successfully kept such efforts at bay for years, but the slayings of 20 children have roiled the politics of gun control and now challenge the gun lobby's hold on Capitol Hill.

I doubt it. The president's task-force on firearms is supposedly designed to freeze the politics of gun control. But even if it doesn't I don't think there's much support for gun control beyond a couple of token measures to make the left's extremists happy. We'll see. A good indicator going forward will be the direction the NRA takes in its press conference on Friday. The group exists to protect the rights of gun owners. It's not going to take all these pathetic attacks lying down. Word has it that the group's going to hammer mental health failures and the pop culture's glorification of violence. This oughta be good.

U.S. Policy is Making Syria Into an Anti-Western, Antisemitic Islamist State

From Barry Rubin, at PJ Media, "Proof of a Scandal":

In his article “The Revolt of Islam in Syria” (Jerusalem Post, December 12), Jonathan Spyer — senior fellow at the GLORIA Center — points out compelling information about the new Western-backed leadership in Syria.

The bottom line: if this is Syria’s new government, then Syria now has an Islamist regime.

This is happening with the knowledge and collaboration of the Obama administration and a number of European governments. It is a catastrophe, and one that’s taking place due to the deliberate decisions of President Barack Obama and other Western leaders. Even if one rationalizes the Islamist takeover in Egypt as due to internal events, this one is U.S.-made.

As Spyer points out, U.S. and European policy can be summarized as follows:

To align with and strengthen Muslim Brotherhood-associated elements, while painting Salafi forces as the sole real Islamist danger. At the same time, secular forces are ignored or brushed aside.

The new regime, recognized by the United States and most European countries as the legitimate leadership of the Syrian people, is the Syrian National Coalition, which has also established a military council.

Spyer’s detailed evidence for these arguments — much of which comes from raw wire service reports, for which praise is due to Reuters in this case — is undeniable. And if we know about these things, there is no doubt that the highest level of the U.S. government does as well.

Why is this happening? Because Obama and others believe that they can moderate the Muslim Brotherhood and this will tame the Salafists, despite massive evidence to the contrary. This is going to be the biggest foreign policy blunder of the last century, and the cost for it will be high. It should be stressed: such a strategy is totally unnecessary; the alternatives have been ignored; and the real moderates are being betrayed...

Continue reading.

Well, they don't call him President Clusterf-k for nothing.

Obama Makes Gun Control Top Priority

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Obama makes gun control top priority."

And Jake Tapper's report from last night's World News Tonight:

They've launched a task force so that will defuse some of the urgency, although I don't doubt that Obama would love to confiscate Americans' guns. He's just the authoritarian asshat to do it.

Gun Sales Surge After Newtown

At the Jackson Clarion Ledger, "Gun sales spike, armored backpacks promoted after Newtown shootings."

And from CNN last night, an interesting segment:

More at Bloomberg, "Guns Out of Stock at Wal-Mart as Magazine Prices Surge on." (At Memeorandum.)

Obama Invokes Newtown Massacre to Attack GOP on Fiscal Cliff Negotiations

From Bryan Preston, at PJ Media, "Disgraceful: Obama Invokes Newtown Massacre to Pressure Republicans to Go Along with His Tax Hikes":

This has to be one of the lowest moments of a very low presidency. Why should the Newtown killings bring any sort of “perspective” to a spending crisis that Barack Obama has created?

More at that top link, and watch Krauthammer rip into the disgusting one, at the Right Scoop, "Krauthammer: Obama invoking the massacre of children to say GOP needs to accept his terms is a SACRILEGE!"

The Post-Newtown Witch Hunt

From Michelle Malkin's syndicated column:

In the aftermath of the horrific Newtown school massacre, Americans from all parts of the political spectrum agree that we need to pay more attention to mental health issues. Public death threats and incitements to violence must be taken seriously. The incendiary witch hunt against law-abiding, peaceful gun owners is neither noble nor effective. It’s just plain insane.

Over the past week, I’ve witnessed a disturbing outbreak of off-the-rails hatred towards gun owners and 2nd amendment groups. Whatever your views on guns, we can all agree: The Newtown, Conn., gunman was a monster who slaughtered his own mother, 5 heroic educators, and 20 angel-faced schoolchildren. He ignored laws against murder. He bypassed Connecticut’s strict gun control regulations and he circumvented the Sandy Hook Elementary School’s security measures. Every decent American is horrified and heartsick by this outbreak of pure evil.

But tens of millions of law-abiding men and women own and use guns responsibly in this country. The cynical campaign to demonize all armed men and women as monsters must not go unanswered. What’s most disturbing is that the incitements are coming from purportedly respectable, prominent, and influential public figures.

Consider the rhetoric of University of Rhode Island Professor Erik Loomis. He teaches “U.S. environmental history, the Civil War, late 19th and early 20th century America, labor history, and the American West” in the university’s history department. Online, however, Professor Loomis is a militantly unhinged foe of all things conservative.

This week, the nutty professor took to Twitter to rail against law-abiding gun owners and the National Rifle Association. “Looks like the National Rifle Association has murdered some more children,” Professor Loomis fumed. “Now I want Wayne LaPierre’s head on a stick,” he added. (LaPierre is Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the NRA.) Professor Loomis was just warming up.

“F**k the National Rifle Association and its policies to put crazy guns in everyone’s hands,” Professor Loomis tweeted. “You are g*dd*mn right we should politicize this tragedy. F**k the NRA. Wayne LaPierre should be in prison,” he spewed. “Can we define NRA membership dues as contributing to a terrorist organization?”

Continue reading.

Michelle cites numerous other examples of leftist loons chanting death to conservatives, and she writes:

So, it’s come to this: Advocating beheadings, beatings, and mass murder of peaceful Americans to pay for the sins of a soulless madman. But because the advocates of violence fashion themselves champions of non-violence and because they inhabit the hallowed worlds of Hollywood, academia, and the Democratic Party, it’s acceptable?

Blood-lusting hate speech must not get a pass just because it comes out of the mouths of the protected, anti-gun class.

The politics of the shooting are just getting going, if the Memeorandum feed is any indicator. [Added: Byron York indicates that things have gotten so bad that President's Obama's announcement of a commission to study gun violence is a way to "freeze" the politics and defuse the push for gun control legislation on the Hill: "Obama, Reid slam brakes on gun control."]

Meanwhile, Badger Pundit dug up Professor Loomis' dissertation abstract, and boy, what a find. Robert Stacy McCain has this, "He’s a Lumberjack, and He’s OK: The Wobbly Scholarship of Erik Loomis, Ph.D."

Expect updates...

PREVIOUSLY: "University of Rhode Island Condemns Violent Labor Historian Erik Loomis."

University of Rhode Island Condemns Violent Labor Historian Erik Loomis

The letter is posted to the main page at the university's website:

Statement From President David M. Dooley:

We appreciate your comments about a faculty member's recent personal social media posts. See URI President's Dooley's response.

My good friend Professor Daniel Nexon is not pleased, "Academic Administrative Fecklessness." But I'll disagree just a bit. As I noted previously, Loomis' timeline was practically splattered with blood from all the violent tweets and retweets he'd been sending out. It looked literally as if he'd blown a gasket, losing complete control of his faculties. At that point it became no longer a free speech issue but a public safety issue.

And it's not just on Twitter. Loomis' oeuvre featured death to conservatives as a supplementary byline. I've blogged on this for some time, for example, "Erik Loomis, University of Rhode Island History Professor, Calls for 'Decades-Long Fight to the Death' Against Conservatives." And on Loomis' Twitter threats, see "Obama and Progressives Exploit Child Killings to Advance Far-Left Agenda."

And see the search entry for "death threat connoisseur" Erik Loomis at Twitchy.

Added: At The Other McCain, "University President Repudiates Professor’s Violent Anti-NRA Messages."

MORE: From Robert "Che" Farley, who clearly advocates bloody eliminationist politics, "Intimidation." These assholes have no clue.

Robert H. Bork, 1927-2012

The great conservative jurist has died.

I've cited Judge Bork many times in my writings on the gay marriage debate, and he's the model for judicial restraint when I discuss the Supreme Court and constitutional interpretation in class. William Jacobson laments that Bork will be remember for the wrong reasons, "Robert Bork, R.I.P."

And at the New York Times, "Robert H. Bork, Conservative Jurist, Dies at 85" (via Memeorandum):

Robert H. Bork, a former solicitor general, federal judge and conservative legal theorist whose 1987 nomination to the United States Supreme Court was rejected by the Senate in a historic political battle whose impact is still being felt, died on Wednesday in Arlington, Va. He was 85.

Judge Bork’s death, of complications of heart disease, was confirmed by his son, Robert H. Bork Jr.

Judge Bork, who was senior judicial adviser this year to the presidential campaign of Gov. Mitt Romney, played a small but crucial role in the Watergate crisis as the solicitor general under President Richard M. Nixon. He carried out orders to fire a special prosecutor in what became known as “the Saturday Night Massacre.” He also handed down notable decisions from the federal appeals court bench. But it was as a symbol of the nation’s culture wars that Judge Bork made his name.

It is rare for the Senate in its constitutional “advice and consent” role to turn down a president’s Supreme Court nominee, and rarer still for that rejection to be based not on qualifications but on judicial philosophy and temperament. That turned Judge Bork’s defeat into a watershed event and his name into a verb: getting “borked” is what happens to a nominee rejected for what supporters consider political motives.

The success of the anti-Bork campaign is widely seen to have shifted the tone and emphasis of Supreme Court nominations since then, giving them an often strong political cast and making it hard, many argue, for a nominee with firmly held views ever to get confirmed.

Till the end of his life, Judge Bork argued that American judges, acting to please a liberal elite, have hijacked the struggle over national values by overstepping their role, especially in many of the most important decisions on civil rights and liberties, personal autonomy and regulation of business.

He advocated a view of judging known as “strict constructionism,” or “originalism,” because it seeks to limit constitutional values to those explicitly enunciated by the Framers and to reject those that evolved in later generations. He dismissed the view that the courts had rightly come to the aid of those neglected by the majority. By contrast, he felt that majorities, through legislatures, should be empowered to make all decisions not specifically addressed in the Constitution.

He most famously took issue with the Supreme Court’s assertion in the 1960s and ’70s that the Constitution implicitly recognizes a right of privacy that bars states from outlawing abortion or the use of contraceptives by married couples.

That position along with his rejection of court-mandated help to minority groups led a coalition of liberal groups to push successfully for his Senate defeat, motivated in no small part by their sense that he cared more about abstract legal reasoning than the people affected by it. They contended that his confirmation would produce a radical shift on a closely divided Supreme Court and “turn back the clock” on civil and individual rights.

Judge Bork, who was 60 at the time, was sitting on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, often a steppingstone to the Supreme Court, when President Ronald Reagan announced on July 1, 1987, that he was nominating him to the high court to replace Lewis Powell, a moderate justice who was retiring. Within an hour of the announcement, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat, set the tone for the bruising contest to come when he said in a speech:

“Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, school children could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is — and is often the only — protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy.”

Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.

Added: At Althouse, "Robert Bork has died."

Chuck Hagel Under Fire as Possible Defense Sec. Nominee

It's no surprise that he's O's favorite for Defense. They're like brothers in their Israel bashing.

The New York Times reports, "Comments on Israel by Top Contender for Defense Secretary Are Scrutinized."

And see Bret Stephens, at the Wall Street Journal, "Chuck Hagel's Jewish Problem."

Also at Pamela's, "Jew-Hater for Defense?"

Libya Inquiry Sharply Critical of State Department

At The Hill, "Benghazi probe faults 'systemic failures' at State Department":

An independent review of the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi made public Tuesday night faults “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels” of the State Department.

The report by the Accountability Review Board says the local mission's reliance on Libyan guards and militia members was “misplaced” and that the Libyan government's response was “profoundly lacking.” However it “did not find reasonable cause to determine that any individual U.S. government employee breached his or her duty.”

The report also confirms that there was no peaceful protest ahead of the attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, as the Obama administration initially said in the days after the attack.

“The Board concluded that there was no protest prior to the attacks, which were unanticipated in their scale and intensity,” the report says.

In a letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she accepted the report's 29 recommendations, all but five of which are unclassified. She said her department has already taken additional steps to beef up security at U.S. diplomatic posts around the world, including instituting periodic reviews of the 15 to 20 high-threat posts.

Of course she accepts the findings.

If she didn't accept them I doubt she would have taken to fainting so conveniently. She would have been up on Capitol Hill denouncing the politicization of the administration's foreign policy. But now she's just quietly accepting the recommendations, laying low while she eases out of office, keeping the road open to her 2016 presidential bid. How corrupt.

More at Legal Insurrection, "Benghazi Report — No protest, deteriorating security conditions ignored."

PREVIOUSLY: "Benghazi Reveals Obama Is a Coward and Disgrace."

NBC's Richard Engel Says Captors Were Assad Loyalists

At the Wall Street Journal, "Freed Reporter Links Captors to Assad":

BEIRUT—Richard Engel, the NBC News foreign correspondent freed with colleagues Monday after five days of captivity in Syria, on Tuesday said he believed his kidnappers were Shiite militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad who planned to exchange the U.S. news team for prisoners held by the rebels.

NBC said on Tuesday that Mr. Engel and his production team returned unharmed to Turkey, from where they had crossed into northwestern Syria on Thursday.

Read the whole thing.

Kate Upton Strips for Antarctic Photo Shoot

I know folks were doing Rule 5 roundups over the weekend but I wasn't in the mood. Since then most of the big news has been dealing with the gun control debate, save perhaps the fiscal cliff negotiations. Emotional, but tedious (especially the endless gun control mindlessness).

In any case, Egotastic has this, "Kate Upton Bikini Pictures Melt the Antarctic; You Really Must See These." And Page Six at the New York Post, "PHOTOS: See Kate Upton’s sexy bikini shoot in Antarctica."

BONUS: Pirate's Cove remained on full-speed Rule 5 coverage, "If All You See…is a wonder planet healing bike, you might just be a Warmist." And, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup."

Erik Loomis Implosion: Do You Need a Ph.D. in Historical Dildology?

Robert Stacy McCain rips Professor Erik Loomis, who, before deleting his Twitter feed, was bragging about the awesomeness of dildo history. See, "Herbert Marcuse, Wile E. Coyote and the Auto-Beclownment of Erik Loomis, Ph.D":

The epic saga of University of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of History Erik Loomis shall live long in blogospheric lore. Twitchy is taking a victory lap over the professor’s unfortunate metaphorical seppuku: He had to delete his Twitter account, but not before Tweeting this:

“I love teaching books on the history of sexuality. I talked about dildos in a completely appropriate way in class today.”

Yeah: The taxpayers of Rhode Island (and the parents of university students) are paying Erik Loomis to teach kids the history of dildos.

Do you need a Ph.D. to do that? Where do you get a doctoral degree in Historical Dildology? Are there federal research grants available?

Humor aside, Instapundit exposes Loomis’s pretzel logic:

The anti-NRA syllogism seems to work this way: (1) Something bad happened; (2) I hate you; so (3) It’s your fault.

This is how people “think” when the object is not to find truth, but to justify their own prejudices. This is the dangerous logic of scapegoating. The characteristic viciousness of the Left stems from a radical certainty of their own moral and intellectual superiority and, by the obverse, the inferiority of the Right...

More at the link.

My previous entries on that violent idiot are here.

Jedediah Bila on Red Eye

Via Ms. Bila on Twitter.

Ambassador John Bolton is a guest as well.

Megyn Kelly Broke Down in Tears During Monday's Fox News Coverage of Newtown Massacre

I think most people have broken down at some point. It's an emotional story.

At Gateway Pundit, "FOX News Host Megyn Kelly Breaks Down in Tears During Moving Sandy Hook Segment (Video)."

I don't know how well I would hold up if something happened to my family. But I know I'd need to be strong for my wife if anything happened to our boys. She wouldn't be able to hold up very long. In any case, the Rekos family story is at London's Daily Mail, "'The life was sucked out of us': Parents of first grader Jessica Rekos reveal moment they found out she was dead - and how they went home and lay in her bed for hours."

ObamaCare Medical Device Tax Will Deal Crushing Blow to Orange County Businesses

My previous report is here, "Democrats Seek Delay of ObamaCare Medical Device Tax."

And here's this at the Orange County Register, "A prescription that kills innovation":

No state will be more adversely effected than California by the 2.3 percent tax increase on medical devices, which the Obama administration expects to raise nearly $3 billion over the next decade.

Indeed, while the United States is the world leader in medical devices and diagnostics, the Golden State is by far the nation's leader, accounting for a fifth of total U.S. sales and employment.

The threat of the federal tax hike on medical devices will be especially damaging to Orange County, which is the hub of California's medical device and diagnostics sector. The sector accounts for more than $11 billion in economic activity within the county, according to life-science association BIOCOM Southern California. The average O.C. salary for those employed in the sector is $108,799.

The Medical Device Manufacturing Association points out that the Obamacare tax hike will be levied on a company's total revenues, regardless of whether it makes a profit.

That means that many companies will owe more in taxes than they generate from their operations.

As MDMA President and CEO Mark Leahy recently told lawmakers in the Nation's Capital, "We are already seeing the negative impact this onerous policy is having on jobs and innovation, and America's med-tech innovators can't afford to find out what implementation of the device tax would bring."

That's why we urge senators Feinstein and Boxer to add their voices to those of their fellow Democratic senators to delay, if not repeal altogether, the scheduled implementation of the innovation-killing tax hike on life-saving medical devices.

Clueless freakin' progs.

'Speaking out is one thing, calling for someone to be killed is another thing entirely...'

Professor Erik Loomis has deleted his Twitter account, but the backlash against him isn't slowing down.

Loomis' problem isn't just the one tweet calling for Wayne LaPierre's head on a pike. It's his entire personal footprint online. He's showed himself over and over again to be a vocal advocate for violent responses to political opponents, even retweeting specific calls for murder. Reading back over at the comments at Campus Reform, Sarah Spooner Curran, a moderate, explains how Loomis crossed the line:

Another embarrasement from RI. And another democrat wolf trying to wear sheeps clothing. Why does he go straight for the divisive card, suggesting that all NRA members must be republicans? I thought a college prof would be more thoughtful, as an RI taxpayer I do not want him teaching my children hate. A terrible thing happened, but I think we first must look at mental health issues and reforms before storming the doors of the nra, looking to lay blame on them. Mentally ill people need help, and parents need resources to help them. We need to also consider as a society how much we want to restrict ourselves, and while I agree that I see no need for a person not in the service/police to ever have a semi automatic weapon, I am not willing to say we should ban all gun ownership. I have a family member who is an avid sportsman, and is a member of the nra, and is the furthest thing from a "terrorist". URI needs to take a long hard look at mr loomis, for speaking out is one thing, calling for someone to be killed is another thing entirely.

There's lots more comments at the link, including some who've contacted the university's administration. Considering how Lawyers, Guns and Money is implicated, no doubt there's some karmic burn at work here. These people dish out the most vicious hate day after day and act with impunity, and now it's coming back to bite on Loomis, and hard. It doesn't look good for him at this point. He deleted his Twitter account and all kinds of people are contacting his university. The police visited him. It can't be fun, but you reap what you sow and in this case he's got a long trail of violent comments, advocating murder of his opponents. That's over the line for most people.

Again, check that Twitchy curation to recall the depravity, "University of Rhode Island professor’s retweet: Murder anyone who thinks teachers should be armed; Update: Police met with prof."

Plus, there's a Memeorandum thread linking Leslie Eastman at Williams Jacobson's College Insurrection, "Rhode Island prof demands NRA chief's “head on a stick” (Update - deletes Twitter account)." Also at Legal Insurrection, "Violent rhetoric for we, but not for thee (Update – Twitter account deleted)."

See Instapundtit as well, "MORE WITH THE anti-gun anger issues," and "ELIMINATIONIST RHETORIC."

More at The Other McCain, "Is It ‘Metaphor’ to Suggest Erik Loomis Should Be Sodomized by Orangutangs? UPDATE: Is Professor ‘Head on a Stick’ Now Under State Police Protection?"

Well, I suspect he got a warning from the police, although the way it's going I wouldn't be too careful about some right-wing crazies showing up in that neck of the woods. Some folks might not take too kindly to Loomis' threats. The guy should be more careful.

Expect updates...

Obama and Progressives Exploit Child Killings to Advance Far-Left Agenda

Let's be clear about some things.

The response on the left to Newtown has been unanimous. Before the facts were known ghouls from every segment of the far-left political establishment went to work, exploiting the dead --- before families had even collected their loved ones --- and pushed to confiscate the guns of law-abiding citizens and to strip them of their constitutional rights to bear arms. This is not the odd left-wing wacko. This is the entire Democrat establishment from the president on down. And the politics is getting as extreme as I've seen in some time, and that's saying a lot considering how bad things have gotten since Barack Hussein's election in 2008.

Radical historian Erik Loomis is doubling-down on his attacks on the NRA and is upping the ante with calls to repeal the Second Amendment:

The NRA pushes for policies that make it complicit in mass murders in the US and Mexico. Repeal the 2nd Amendment.
— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) December 18, 2012

It turns out that Loomis is getting some hard push-back after his calls for the assassination of the NRA president, discussed here. And now this idiot has written a post so stupid that it genuinely calls into question this man's qualifications, and his sanity, "On Metaphors and Violence." Loomis is blaming everyone else for his outrageous F-Bomb Twitter tirade. His tweets were filled with all kinds of violent agitation, retweeting calls for death to gun rights supporters, as this Twitchy curation shows, "University of Rhode Island professor’s retweet: Murder anyone who thinks teachers should be armed; Update: Police met with prof." Pretty much all of Loomis' violent tweets at that link, plus an apt observation:

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the need for access to mental health services. We hope Loomis seeks the help he so obviously needs.

For sure.

But again, it's the hardline progressive agenda that's the source of such violent ideological outbursts. Here's IBD's commentary on the president's statements at the Newtown vigil, "Obama Call For Change Exploits School Massacre":

By using the massacre in Newtown, Conn., to fire up the left's anti-liberty agenda, President Obama and other prominent liberal Democrats are taking Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's infamous maxim — "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste" — to new depths.

At a Sunday night prayer vigil in Newtown, the president delivered words that on their face appear soothing, hope-filled and decisive — exactly what's expected of presidential leadership. "These tragedies must end," he said. "And to end them, we must change."

But when Obama repeats that single-worded slogan from his presidential campaign, we know what kind of "change" he wants.

Instantly after the attack, New York City Rep. Jerry Nadler declared war on the National Rifle Association: "We have to go to war against the people who enable the gun violence, the people who stop us from keeping guns out of the hands of mentally unstable people, of felons, and that means the NRA leadership."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, proposing a massive package of federal gun-control measures, appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday and declared, "We don't need people carrying guns in public places."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is introducing an assault weapons ban, and second-ranking Senate Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois announced there will be Senate hearings on gun control.

Beyond banning assault weapons, Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat Charles Schumer mulled limiting clips to 10 rounds and acting to keep guns from the mentally unstable. Schumer's laughable idea of compromise with the right is to "admit that there is a Second Amendment right to bear arms" — which would be kind of hard to deny since the Supreme Court's 2008 Heller decision confirmed it.

All this amounts to an attempt to take political advantage of the butchery of children. But Anders Breivik's slaughter of 69 attendees of a youth camp in heavily gun-controlled Norway last year shows the ineffectiveness of gun-ban laws, as does the violent crime in the big U.S. cities — such as Bloomberg's New York and Emanuel's Chicago — with the strictest gun control.

Indeed, as criminologists Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser found in an exhaustive 2007 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy study of gun laws and violence rates in the U.S. and Europe, "many high gun-ownership nations have much lower murder rates" than low gun-ownership-countries.

As the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin notes, "liberals' religious-like faith in government and in the ability of legislation to control and even perfect the human condition" is no protection against mass murderers, whose crimes do "not seem to be affected by the economy or by law enforcement strategies."

As you can see, the gun control fanatics are having an orgiastic outburst of gun confiscation fervor. I've been posting on freaks such as MSNBC's Ed Schultz and the stupid faux conservative David Frum. And Sunday's "Face the Nation" was a veritable who's who of fanatical anti-gun zealots.

Their program has the imprimatur of the man at the top of the left's political hierarchy, and the sick exploitation lobby goes down from the MSNBC journalists spouting editorial points while purportedly reporting the news, to the academic grandstanders among the left's professoriate, to the Democrats in Congress hot off the news pushing for new legislation, to the left's ghouls on Twitter trying to silence reasonable comments on the right to bear arms, and to the ASFL fever-swamp bloggers pathetically pushing the left's disgusting talking points.

This is a truly depraved time in this country. The threat to liberty and goodness is on the left. The country needs to mourn after these tragedies. And we need to think about how mental health services intertwine with the right to bear arms. But blanket calls to ban guns and strip Second Amendment rights from law-abiding Americans is pure political extremism, sick and reprehensible left-wing political extremism.

Added: At Twitchy, "Rhode Island professor Erik Loomis deletes his Twitter account."

The epitome of an Adult Sick Fuck Loser. Pray the dude gets the help he needs before he goes off on someone.

Radical History Professor Erik Loomis Calls for Assassination of NRA's Wayne LaPierre

This idiot gets more violent every time.

At Campus Reform, "Professor calls for assassination of NRA CEO."

Dear Republicans, Do you know the definition of family values? It's not having our kids FUCKING SHOT AT SCHOOL!! Fuck the NRA.
— Erik Loomis (@ErikLoomis) December 14, 2012

Also at the College Fix, "PROFESSOR’S TWEETS SEEK NRA CEO’S ‘HEAD ON A STICK’."

Loomis is yet another objectively bad person, a leftist literally pocked through with visceral hatred. (And right at home with his fellow ASFLs* at Lawyers, Guns and Money.)

PREVIOUSLY: "Erik Loomis, University of Rhode Island History Professor, Calls for 'Decades-Long Fight to the Death' Against Conservatives." He's obviously not kidding.

* "Adult sick-fuck loser" (cf. Amy Alkon).

Half-Mast

I was down in Huntington Beach yesterday, taking my Honda Odyssey to the dealer for an oil-change. The Ford dealership on Beach Boulevard had a big, beautiful flag flying at half-mast in honor of the victims of Newtown.

Drew Barrymore's Baby Joy

Imagine a child movie star you're seen grow up and have her own children, a beautiful woman and a beautiful child.

Now open your eyes.

It's a lovely story, at People Magazine. We need some more loveliness right now.

See: "Drew Barrymore Introduces Daughter Olive."

Says Barrymore, "It's like the biggest crush I've ever had in my life. I dance, I sing, I jump up and down. I do anything!"

"This is the place where it feels right. I was thinking back the other day to all the milestones I've had in this magazine. It was a very positive, introspective moment. I'm ready to try to be the best parent I can be. As life gets shorter, the stakes get higher. And this is the most important thing I will ever do."

Union Thug Was Attacking Crowder Before Fists Flew in Viral Video

At Legal Insurrection, "Union member was taunting and confronting Steven Crowder prior to sucker punch."

More at Twitchy, "Steven Crowder promises more damning video of union thug violence."

No amount of evidence will satisfy the deranged progressive mob, but if stories like this are able to gain mainstream attention, and that's a big if, then Americans for once will get the genuine inside dope on these fiends.

Progressives suck.

Mental Illness and the Gun Control Debate

A thought-provoking essay from Robert Leider, at the Wall Street Journal, "Breaking the Gun Control Stalemate."

Read it at the link.

It doesn't make sense for gun control proposals to ignore the history of mental illness in all the recent shooting massacres. If progressives go after guns without mental health reforms, they'll have no credibility. And mind you, I'm being charitable as it is. I'm taking the president at his word, and Senators Feinstein and Schumer. Democrats will go for a big play on firearms. Of course, confiscating guns is what the left's program is all about. They don't give a s*** about the mentally ill except as a hammer to beat opponents. Once they get their legislation going it'll be all about screwing the "evil" gun lobby.

But again, I think Leider's piece is interesting. I just doubt far-left partisans will be as rational about things.

California Democrats Face the Supermajority Challenge

I don't see what's the problem. It's been a Democrat state for a while now. But come January there'll be no real legislative constraints. They'll be able to do what they want, which will be finding more and more ways to levy taxes on an overburdened populace. It's going to be interesting to see if Californians hold up against the onslaught.

At the New York Times, "With a Supermajority, California Democrats Begin to Make Plans":

LOS ANGELES — The Democratic Party has controlled the California Legislature for a nearly unbroken stretch of 42 years. Yet control goes only so far: it takes two-thirds of the Legislature to enact a host of important legislation in this state, meaning that even the diminished Republican Party has been able to easily frustrate Democratic ambitions.

But with a swell of electoral victories in November, the Democratic Party has now crossed that boundary and controls two-thirds of both the Senate and the Assembly, giving it the kind of unfettered power that no party has had here for 80 years.

This does not appear to be a passing advantage. Even Republicans say that changes in electoral demographics mean that, with the exception of a few brief lapses caused by vacancies, Democrats could hold a supermajority at least through the end of the decade.

Yet in the “be careful what you wish for” department, Democrats are beginning to confront the struggles and complications that come with being in charge of the store. This authority came at least two years earlier than most Democrats had projected. And it is unleashing years of pent-up Democratic desires — to roll back spending cuts, approve a bond issue to rebuild the state’s water system, amend the state’s tax code, revamp California’s governance system — that had been largely checked by the Republican minority.

At the same time, it is stirring concerns from Democrats, among them Gov. Jerry Brown, that the situation may inspire an overreach that could make the party’s reign brief. By contrast, some Democrats argue that handled correctly, the next two years could provide an opportunity to lock in long-term control.

Continue reading.

I don't think the "restraint" forces will have much of a chance. When has restraint been the order of the day in the past? Politics come January is going to be all about ways to change the state's tax system, to find more ways to confiscate the people's money and fund a bloated, tyrannical state bureaucratic monster. Meanwhile, California will continue to lag in all the leading indicators of economic and demographic well-being. The West Coast dystopia.

NBC's Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel Missing in Syria

He's a fascinating reporter.

I always notice his interesting speaking style, and he's very knowledgable on the issues.

London Daily Mail reports, "NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel missing in Syria since last Thursday."

And at Twitchy, "Rumor mill: NBC News reporter Richard Engel missing in Syria?; Update: NBC can’t reach Engel this morning." The network's trying to enforce a news blackout, presumably to keep Engel safe, but that's not going over so well: "NBC News tries, fails, to eliminate tweets about Richard Engel’s disappearance."

I'll be updating on this story as information becomes available. And I'll be praying.