Thursday, January 17, 2013

Transsexuals Row: 'One of these days, not too far away, the entire bourgeois bien-pensant left will self-immolate entirely leaving behind nothing but a thin skein of smoke smelling slightly of goji berries. Please let that day come quickly...'

From Rod Liddle, at Spectator UK, "How Moore, Burchill and Featherstone all had a lovely bitch fight" (via BadBlue)::

‘Women … are angry with ourselves for not being happier, not being loved properly and not having the ideal body shape — that of a Brazilian transsexual.’ — Suzanne Moore

One of these days, not too far away, the entire bourgeois bien-pensant left will self-immolate entirely leaving behind nothing but a thin skein of smoke smelling slightly of goji berries. Please let that day come quickly. In the meantime let us simply enjoy ourselves watching them tear each other to pieces, mired in their competing victimhoods, seething with acquired sensitivity, with inchoate rage and fury, inventing more and more hate crimes with which they might punish people who are not themselves.

That quote above comes from the very talented feminist writer Suzanne Moore. It is a sentence from a piece she wrote for the New Statesman. You would not believe the trouble it has caused. The Twittersphere immediately started roaring like a pre-menstrual velociraptor, there were demands for an apology and a rebuttal, there was a somewhat robust defence of the original sentence and then, as a consequence, a government minister called for the editor of an august — well, not quite august, more like late June — national newspaper to resign. The debate is still howling around. It may be — in terms of national importance — nothing more than 5,000 bald women and bald quasi-women arguing over a comb. But it gives you an insight into the metro left’s bizarre psychosis. Oh, and it’s fun, it’s fun. It’s certainly that.
Continue reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "The Observer Caves to Transsexual Mob, Pulls Julie Burchill Column Slamming 'Bed-Wetters in Bad Wigs'."

Also, "The 'Bonkers' Radical Left — The Suzanne Moore-Julie Burchill Uproar," and "Why Are Trans People So Angry?"

Reports: 35 Hostages Killed in Algeria

From Al Jazeera on Twitter, "BREAKING: 35 hostages and 15 hostage takers killed in Algeria as they tried to move from one plant location to another."

And Telegraph UK has live updates, "Algerian gas field crisis: 35 hostages 'killed by air strikes'."

And France 24 has background on Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings:


Expect updates...

ADDED: At Jawa Report, "Algeria: Some Hostages, Including Americans, Escaped Captors; Unconfirmed Report: Several Hostages & Their Kidnappers Killed In Algerian Airstrike; FRANCE 24: Hostages Forced To Wear 'Suicide Belts'?"

Also, updates at the Guardian UK, "Fears for hostages as Algeria launches raid." And at the New York Times, "Hostages’ Fate Is Unclear as Algeria Mounts Rescue Attempt."

More, at background analysis at the New York Times, "U.S. Sees Hazy Threat From Mali Militants."

Here's this from the Guardian, "David Thomson of France24 flags images circulating on jihadist web sites that glorify Mokhtar Belmokhtar, believed to be behind the raid on the Amenas facility":



I'm updating on Twitter as well:



And at London's Daily Mail, "'Al-Qaeda have got me': Trapped oil worker's desperate phone call to family from Algerian gas siege where '35 hostages were killed'."

12:11pm Pacific: Bad Blue links. Thanks!

Also, Hillary Clinton spoke on the crisis, via CNN, "Algeria: Military operation against hostage-takers still happening." I'll link the video of her statement later, but she didn't say much.

12:56pm Pacific: The Other McCain has a report and links, "Crisis in Algeria: More ‘Arab Spring’ Consequences; U.S. Hostages Seized."

And I just updated on Twitter:



1:22pm Pacific: At Reuters, "'We'll kill infidels,' Algeria gunmen told hostage."

And at Foreign Policy, "White House: We don't know if American hostages in Algeria are alive or dead."

3:26pm Pacific: From Christiane Amanpour:



We're still waiting for news on the number of Americans killed, not to mention those of other nations. Say a prayer for the families.

PREVIOUSLY:

* "Obama White House is Missing in Action in Mali."

* "Militants Seize U.S. Hostages at BP Plant in Algeria."

* "Islamists Holding Americans Hostage in Algeria."

* "Britain's Defense Chiefs Warn Against Escalation in Mali."

* "War in Mali: France Boldly Goes Where the U.S. Fears to Tread."

* "French Mission in Mali 'Is Not Without Risk'."

* "Behind France's Botched Hostage Rescue in Somalia."

* "French Hostage Crisis in Somalia."

* "French Pilot Killed in Mali Helicopter Raid."

Obama White House is Missing in Action in Mali

This is exactly what I was thinking all day yesterday, as we were being subjected to Obama's excruciating child exploitation gun-grab horror show.

At the Wall Street Journal, "MIA in Mali":
French troops have launched a ground offensive to stop Islamists from overrunning the North African state of Mali, and Britain, Canada and other African nations have lent a hand. Notably missing? France's oldest ally, the U.S.A.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday that "what we have promised them is that we would work with them, to cooperate with them, to provide whatever assistance we can to try and help" French forces. "We have made a commitment that al Qaeda is not going to find any place to hide," he added. Then the White House stepped in and blocked any immediate U.S. help, according to a report in Wednesday's Journal.

The French have a right to be angry. France doesn't want U.S. ground troops, but it does need planes to deploy soldiers and refuel strike aircraft, as well as intelligence from U.S. drones and satellites.

Administration officials are offering various lousy not-for-attribution excuses. U.S. law bars direct assistance to a government formed by a military coup, as in Mali, but that shouldn't preclude helping a fellow NATO member. Others say the U.S. shouldn't get involved because these Islamists aren't targeting the U.S., but that's also what everyone said in the 1990s about Afghanistan.

An Islamist takeover in Mali would threaten more than Africa. Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) and another regional Islamist force, Ansar Dine, took control of northern Mali after the military coup in March. Pentagon officials say AQIM works closely—on recruiting and tactics—with the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia's al Shabaab. The U.S. says all three are terrorist organizations. In late September, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blamed the attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi on "violent extremists" possibly linked to AQIM. On Wednesday, another group took dozens of Westerners, including Americans, hostage at a gas facility in Algeria.

Some who oppose U.S. help for the French say Mali is only in trouble because the West intervened in Libya. But the U.S. has been trying to stem the Islamist rise in northern Africa for several years by training and arming local militaries. This support backfired in Mali when U.S.-trained officers led the coup. The mistake wasn't the NATO-led intervention against Moammar Gadhafi, but the West's later near-total disengagement, which created a vacuum that terrorists filled.

Despite White House spin that al Qaeda is defeated, the reality is that it is an evolving threat that reconstitutes itself when and where it can. As al Qaeda was pushed out of South Asia and Iraq, it found new havens in Yemen and most recently in northern Africa.
Continue reading.

I hit on this a bit in my previous entry, "War in Mali: France Boldly Goes Where the U.S. Fears to Tread."


Dana Loesch Destroys Piers Morgan in CNN Gun Debate

Dana is far more knowledgeable on these issues, and it shows:


More at RCP, "Piers Morgan vs. Gun Rights Advocate Dana Loesch."

It's All About 'Race, Class, and Gender' at America's Colleges and Universities

I must have been extremely lucky back in college. In the course of both my undergraduate and graduate training in political science, I was taught by mostly mainstream scholars with mainstream areas of expertise.

I was thinking about this last month when Eric Loomis had his big Twitter meltdown, and Robert Stacy McCain featured a guest post from Badger Pundit, "He’s a Lumberjack, and He’s OK: The Wobbly Scholarship of Erik Loomis, Ph.D." Loomis earned his Ph.D. with a dissertation entitled, "The Battle for the Body: Work and Environment in the Pacific Northwest Lumber Industry, 1800-1940." He apparently dealt with homosexual lumberjacks and castrated Marxists --- some bizarre subject material, no doubt of such "marginalized" significance that his committee thought it fine and dandy. The history profession has been intensely focused on social history in recent decades, weeding out the work of earlier traditional historians who are now dismissed as racist, sexist, or what have you.

Loomis finished in 2008, nine years after I graduated from UCSB. I wrote my dissertation on the domestic sources of "under-balancing" in Interwar Europe, entitled "Political Structures, Public Opinion, and the Limits of Great Power Balancing: The Western Democratic Response to German Expansionism, 1933-1941." (Abstract here.) In security studies there were a considerable number of scholars working on the margins of the specialty, bringing in diverse perspectives and methods. But for the most part things were --- and still are --- pretty traditional. Consequently, I've dealt more with race, class, and gender issues (in the humanities and social sciences) through teaching and working on campus committees (and blogging). It's a far left-wing paradigm in the academy, and the cumulative effects have been to rob students of enormous amounts of fundamental knowledge about history, politics, and society.

In any case, Hoover Institution scholar Peter Berkowitz has his latest on the collapse of mainstream, traditional learning in higher education, at RCP, "Failing History: Colleges Neglect Core U.S. Principles."

It's going to take a lot of work to turn things around, and time is of the essence.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Obama at the Gun Rack

The lead editorial from tomorrow's Wall Street Journal:
President Obama isn't one to shy away from policy ambition, so it was telling on Thursday that he thought it necessary to caution that "there is no law or set of laws that can prevent every senseless act of violence completely" when he wheeled out his vast gun-control agenda. Some of the new laws he desires are reasonable and may do modest good. Others are counterproductive or unworkable in practice or legally dubious, sometimes all three.

After Newtown, the most important policy goal ought to be keeping firearms away from the mentally unstable and other people who pose a danger to society. There Mr. Obama moved the needle by appealing for better mental health care, even if it seemed like something of an afterthought. The gun-control lobby believes mass shootings and the broader matter of U.S. gun violence (which are not the same problem) can be solved by regulating firearms alone.

Mr. Obama's raft of suggestions was wise to focus on mentally troubled young people. Disorders of the mind and perhaps of brain chemistry usually manifest in adolescence or early adulthood, and the focus of a reformed system should be identifying them as sickness emerges. The Administration wants to fund a $75 million project to support innovative state programs to identify high-risk kids and train more mental health professionals specialized in treating youths.

A good place to start is Colorado, which is showing more restraint than Washington on guns and more wisdom on mental health. States that develop so-called assisted outpatient treatment laws and programs are showing progress in mitigating violence among the mentally ill.

It was also useful for Mr. Obama to mention the federal health privacy law known by the acronym Hipaa, even if he claimed that there was "confusion" about what it requires. There is no such confusion. Hipaa's onerous mandates often prevent health-care providers and college counsellors from communicating with each other and law enforcement about troubled patients, which Congress would be wise to relax and reform.
Continue reading.

List: Obama's 23 Executive Actions on Gun Violence

At the Wall Street Journal.

Militants Seize U.S. Hostages at BP Plant in Algeria

I posted on this story as it was breaking this morning.

And now there's this from the Wall Street Journal, "Militants Grab U.S. Hostages: About 40 Foreigners Taken in Algeria; Islamists Claim Responsibility, Blame French":
Militants with possible links to al Qaeda seized about 40 foreign hostages, including several Americans, at a natural-gas field in Algeria, posing a new level of threat to nations trying to blunt the growing influence of Islamist extremists in Africa.

As security officials in the U.S. and Europe assessed options to reach the captives from distant bases, Algerian security forces failed in an attempt late Wednesday to storm the facility.

A French effort to drive Islamist militants from neighboring Mali that began with airstrikes last week expanded on Wednesday with the first sustained fighting on the ground. France's top target, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, claimed responsibility for the Algeria kidnappings, calling it retaliation. The claim couldn't be verified, although AQIM has its origins in Algeria and operates across a swath of Africa.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. would take "necessary and proper steps" in the hostage situation, and didn't rule out military action. He said the Algeria attack could represent a spillover from Mali.
More at the link.

I'll be updating regularly on developments in Africa.

Obama Unveils Sweeping Push on Gun Control (VIDEO)

At the Wall Street Journal, "Obama Unveils Gun-Control Push":

President Barack Obama on Wednesday unveiled an aggressive set of gun-control measures as he launched a push for the most sweeping changes to firearms laws in nearly two decades and called on the American public to join his fight.

The president—rolling out his plan at a White House event where he was joined on stage by children who wrote him in the aftermath of the shooting spree last month at a Connecticut elementary school—urged Congress to ban certain types of semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. He also called for universal background checks for all gun buyers—a measure that would eliminate a loophole in the law that allows individuals to buy guns from nonlicensed sellers without a check.

Mr. Obama acknowledged that many of the proposals will be difficult to get through Congress, but he said he would use "whatever weight this office holds" to get gun laws changed and urged citizens across the country to reach out to lawmakers to bring about changes to gun laws.

He said the killings of 20 first-graders and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., demands action. "This is our first task as a society—keeping our children safe. This is how we will be judged. And their voices should compel us to change," Mr. Obama said as parents of some of the children killed stood by him. He added, "I will put everything I've got into this…but the only way we can change is if the American people demand it."

The president also unveiled 23 executive actions he signed after his remarks, including requiring the federal government to trace weapons recovered in criminal investigations and providing incentives to schools to hire health counselors and police officers. All told, the president's actions and proposals would cost about $500 million, according to a senior Obama administration official.

Banning certain types of weapons and high-capacity magazines, among other steps, will face a battle in Congress. National Rifle Association officials have predicted that Congress won't pass legislation to ban high-capacity magazines and a group of semiautomatic rifles often called assault weapons, and many lawmakers have said many of the president's recommendations will face strong opposition.

The president sought to blunt criticism from gun-rights groups. He said he respects the country's "strong tradition of gun ownership" but that the recent spate of mass shootings required action. "We can respect the Second Amendment while keeping an irresponsible law breaking few from inflicting harm on a massive scale,'' he said.
Continue reading.

As always, there's a huge response at Memeorandum.

PREVIOUSLY: "Governor Rick Perry Responds to President Obama's Executive Orders on Guns."

Governor Rick Perry Responds to President Obama's Executive Orders on Guns

The last paragraph is especially good:
"In fact, the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally. The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president."
The entire statement is here: "Statement by Gov. Perry on President Obama’s Executive Actions." Via Joshua Treviño on Twitter.

Anna Kendrick's Risqué Love Tweet to Ryan Gosling

At London's Daily Mail, "'Apparently that's inappropriate!' Anna Kendrick's admission that she pleasured herself while watching Ryan Gosling goes viral."

She tweeted:
'Ugh - NEVER going to a Ryan Gosling movie in a theater again. Apparently masturbating in the back row is still considered "inappropriate".'

Anna Kendrick

Obama Exaggerates Deficit Savings, Avoids Real Fix

At IBD, "New Math: President Obama Exaggerates Deficit Savings":
At his press conference this week, President Obama made it seem as though the job of getting the government's deficits under control is nearly done.

"The consensus is we need about $4 trillion to stabilize our debt and our deficit," he told reporters, "which means we need about $1.5 trillion more."

Obama claimed to have already cut spending $1.4 trillion, and this, combined with $600 billion in tax hikes he got as part of his fiscal cliff deal plus interest savings, "adds up to a total of $2.5 trillion."

All that's needed now to finish the job, he said, is "closing some additional loopholes (and) doing some additional cuts." Sounds easy enough. In fact, Obama said he's already put forward a plan to do that.

But a closer look at the numbers shows that Obama is exaggerating how much deficit reduction he's actually achieved, and is being decidedly Pollyannaish about the nation's still massive long-term budget gap and what will be needed to close it.
O was lying through his teeth through that entire press conference. It was disgusting.

But continue reading at IBD.

Republicans Talking Impeachment Over Guns

At The Week, "Could Obama be impeached for taking action on gun control?"

Islamists Holding Americans Hostage in Algeria

Things are getting bad out there, really bad.

At USA Today, "Militants claim 7 Americans among hostages in Algeria."

Heading Toward Civil War in America

Here's some Glenn Beck while I read around for some of the responses to the administration's gun-grab exploitation show this morning.

Kathryn Bigelow: 'Zero Dark Thirty' and the Hunt for Osama bin Laden

The Los Angeles Times asked Ms. Bigelow to respond to criticism of her film. See, "Kathryn Bigelow addresses 'Zero Dark Thirty' torture criticism."

The Times' background story is here, "Kathryn Bigelow defends 'Zero Dark Thirty' torture scenes."

'I am so glad I am not a young woman in America in 2013. If you are not a slut, any real social life is tough...'

From Pamela Geller's essay, "New York Times Declares Victory in Feminism's War on Love and Romance."

And then head back over to The Other McCain, ICYMI, "Nobody Really Likes @LenaDunham, and Deep Down Inside She Knows It, Too." (And by the way, I watched the second season's premiere of "Girls." It's slut culture, grind culture, and Lena Dunham takes her clothes off, a lot...)

See also Weasel Zippers, "Hollywood Obamabot Vows to Not Get Married Until “All Gay People Can Get Married”…"

Lena Dunham

IMAGE CREDIT: London's Daily Mail, "So much for keeping it real! Girls star Lena Dunham gets a glossy makeover for new magazine shoot."

The Interview interview is here: "Lena Dunham":
"I think that I may be the voice of my generation—or, at least, a voice of a generation," declares Hannah, the aspiring writer protagonist of Lena Dunham's new series, Girls, which premieres this month on HBO and revolves around a group of four young women living in New York as they fumble their way through twenty-something life in the greater post-recessionary Manhattan area.
We're doomed.

Why Are Trans People So Angry?

The Other McCain weighed in on the angry transsexuals debate and notes it's a case of "competitive victimhood." See, "Transsexual Bullies Successfully Censor Feminist Writers Who Criticized Them." (And don't miss the rousing comments section therein...)

And then Christine Burns, who says she's an "equalities expert," whatever that is, offers some common sense on why trannies are so angry, at Just Plain Sense, "Mending Fences":
The Guardian is seen by many trans people (rightly or wrongly) as prone to transphobia … a belief reinforced when it carries reports critical of one trans clinician whilst being blind to the clinical abuse of hundreds or thousands of other trans people. Again, the only balance in this latest controversy has come from trans writers.

I don't say whether it is fair or not for trans people to see the world this way. I'm too far from everyday discrimination myself to know for certain how I'd feel if I were being called an abomination.

I don't say that being abusive or making threats is ever an acceptable way to conduct an argument. Heavens, over the years I've had enough threats myself. It's not nice.

But I do have the perspective to understand why people might get that angry. Why they may lose it. Why cries of 'victim' by the people who've abused you may sound just a tad ironic.
The Guardian's about as far left a mainstream newspaper/website as you'd imagine, so this idea that it's "prone to transphobia" is a little much. I think it was the reaction to some rather, er, penetrating commentary that set these buggers off.

In any case, Blazing Cat Fur has more on that, "'...people who identify themselves as 'transgendered' are psychotic or simply unhappy...'" You could say the same thing about "troll rights" harassment stalkers, but that'll be for another day.

Previous posts on the trannies are here and here.

Stand and Fight

Via Althouse, "'NRA airs new TV ad criticizing Obama on eve of White House gun announcement'."


And lots of reactions at Memeorandum, FWIW

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Prosecutor's Husband Slams Family, Others Blaming His Wife for Death of Aaron Swartz

At Guardian UK, "Aaron Swartz: husband of prosecutor criticises internet activist's family":
IBM executive married to district attorney tweets anger after family suggests overzealous prosecution contributed to his death.

The husband of the US district attorney involved in the Aaron Swartz prosecution has publicly criticised the activist's family for accusing his wife of complicity in the suicide, amid claims the aggressive litigation was driven by their desire for a test case.

Tom Dolan, an IBM executive married to Carmen Ortiz, used his Twitter account to attack the family of Swartz, who died on Friday. One tweet, posted on his @TomJDolan feed, said: "Truly incredible that in their own son's obit they blame others for his death and make no mention of the 6 month offer."

His comments, made three days after Swartz's death, attracted outrage on social media. The account has since been deleted.

When asked about Dolan's tweet and whether it was appropriate, Christina Sterling, a spokeswoman for Ortiz, told the Guardian she had "no comment" to make at this time.

Swartz, 26, who helped create Reddit, had been facing charges of breaking into Massachusetts Institute of Technology's computer system to access academic articles from the JSTOR digital library with the intention of making them freely available.

His family have accused prosecutors and MIT officials of contributing to his death by pursuing a harsh array of charges for "an alleged crime that had no victims". His death, and what critics have denounced as an over-reaching prosecution, have prompted calls for changes to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and for a halt to such prosecutions.

If he had been found guilty of the charges, Swartz faced up to 35 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines, although it has emerged that negotiations between his lawyers and prosecutors had included a potential plea bargain of six months in prison.

Condemnation of prosecutors over the litigation against Swartz continued on Tuesday. A petition to the Obama administration to remove Ortiz from office reached 28,188 signatures, past the crucial 25,000 signatures needed for a White House response.

In July 2011, Ortiz said in a statement about the case: "Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars. It is equally harmful to the victim whether you sell what you have stolen or give it away."
More at the link.

Here are the tweets:

Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz

Via BetaBeat, "IBM Exec Husband of Aaron Swartz Prosecutor Takes to Twitter to Defend His Wife."

RELATED: As I highlighted earlier, Swartz was a cowardly Chomsky-loving radical in the mold of the depraved Anonymous and WikiLeaks criminals. He was a regular guest blogger at communist Henry Farrell's Crooked Timber, and this post lays out his far left-wing program: "Toward a Larger Left."

And you know, I'm sure most people, after they're gone, would love have the support of the criminal hactivists, like how Anonymous showed its love for Swartz: "Anonymous hacks MIT after Aaron Swartz's suicide."

They're all a bunch of cowards. Progressives, anarchists, the Think Progress goons and they're readers ... they're all a bunch of cowards and communists. Fuck 'em.

PREVIOUSLY: "Can We Just Not Get All Sentimental About Aaron Swartz, to the Effect of Martyring the Dude, or Anything Like That?"

Fabulous Jessica Chastain Photos From Golden Globes After-Party

She changed into something a little more comfortable for the post-awards parties.

At London's Daily Mail, "She’s got legs appeal: Jessica Chastain shows off her slim pins in a little black dress following her Golden Globe win."

And ICYMI: At The Astute Bloggers, "GUARANTEED NOT HALAL: ZERO DARK THIRTY'S JESSICA CHASTAIN."

BWHAHA! MSNBC Race-Baiter Touré Deletes Tweets After Attacking James O'Keefe as 'Disrespectful'

Liars and hypocrites.

That's all they are. Liars and hypocrites. And, well, collectivists too, which is why they lie so much, backing up their lies with disgusting double standards.

See Twitchy, "Boo hoo: Touré whines that O’Keefe disrespected him by including him in exposé of anti-gun hypocrites."



Checking back at Twitchy, Touré denies that he deleted his tweets, but I don't see them in his timeline.

A leftist gun-grabbing hypocrite who lies about deleting his own tweets attacking those calling him out for his hypocrisy. Man, trying to follow the left's lies and cover-ups is like following a Rube Goldberg contraption. They keep you off busy and off balance!

PREVIOUSLY: "'Citizens Against Senseless Violence'."

Whoops! Chrysler Opening New Jeep Factory in China After All

Oh boy, virtually the entire "mainstream" political class attacked Mitt Romney for his alleged malicious lies on (bailed out) Chrysler Corporation's off-shoring manufacturing jobs to China. The Washington post had the classically idiot "fact check." See, "4 Pinocchios for Mitt Romney’s misleading ad on Chrysler and China.?" And from Jill Lawrence, at National Journal, "Romney Ad Wrongly Implies Chrysler is Sending U.S. Jobs to China." Lawrence is one of the "journalists" who announced that O's visage belongs on Mt. Rushmore.

Well, our "fourth branch" of government failed yet again in fulfilling its basic responsibility to provide the people with clear and accurate information so that they can hold government accountable. See the Wall Street Journal, "Chrysler Looks to Restart Jeep Production in China":

Chrysler Group LLC majority owner Fiat SpA F.MI -1.32% has struck a deal with Guangzhou Automobile Group 2238.HK -2.18% to restart Jeep production in China, a major step toward expanding the brand in the world's largest auto market.

The Jeep was first launched in China in 1983, and although production there ended in 2009 when Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, the brand remains well recognized. Today, Jeep sells three models in China—the Grand Cherokee, Wrangler and Compass—all imported.

Fiat said Tuesday it had signed a "framework agreement" to expand its partnership with Guangzhou to build more Fiat models, as well as to add Jeep production to China. Fiat already jointly builds the Fiat Viaggio, a midsize sedan, with the state-owned Guangzhou and imports several other models, including the subcompact 500.

The company didn't offer an exact time frame for Jeep production in China, saying only that any models built there will be for the Chinese market exclusively. At this point, it's unclear what models are being considered.

Chrysler and Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne has targeted Jeep, along with Italy's Alfa Romeo, as two brands with the potential to grow globally. With new models and localized factory production, Mr. Marchionne aims to expand Jeep's presence in Europe, Russia and China.

"The expansion of the agreement with our GAC partners will allow us to unleash the potential of both our Fiat and Chrysler Group brands in China," said Jeep chief Mike Manley, who is also chief operating officer for Fiat and Chrysler in Asia. He said the next-generation Jeep midsize sport utility vehicle, the Liberty replacement, will also be sold in China.
And remember Stephanie Cutter, Team Obama's chief propaganda minister? She attacked Mitt Romney as a liar all year, but she's the one who'd been lying. I know. We knew that already. But the lies just keep coming, don't they? See the Obama for America clip here. And you know, Chrysler and GM were in the tank with the lies as well. Mitt Romney was right. Team Obama claimed a "fact-based" campaign. What they actually achieved was an Orwellian nightmare that leveraged them back into power on deceit and demonization.

Britain's Defense Chiefs Warn Against Escalation in Mali

At Independent UK, "Top brass warn No 10: Avoid Mali escalation":

War in Mali
Defence chiefs have warned against Britain becoming enmeshed in the mission against Islamists in Mali, pointing out that any action could be drawn-out and require significantly greater resources than have so far been deployed.

The most senior commanders are due to make their apprehension clear at a meeting of the National Security Council with the Prime Minister today. They have the backing of the Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond.

Following three days of French air strikes in Mali, the Islamists launched a counter-offensive yesterday showing they are not a spent force. They attacked government positions in the central town of Diabaly after crossing a river in small groups under cover of darkness. British resources are already stretched, with two RAF transport aircraft having to be diverted from Afghanistan to carry French equipment equipment to Mali. There is a shortage of such aircraft and they are being used to their full capacity. One of the Boeing C-17 Globemasters, hailed by David Cameron yesterday as "our most advanced and capable transport plane", broke down a few minutes later in Paris, en route to Africa.

Some of the military top brass took part in operations in another West African country, Sierra Leone, where prompt action by the then-Brigadier David Richards, now the Chief of the Defence Staff, stopped rebel fighters from taking over the capital, Freetown. But a more protracted campaign was needed, including the rescue of British soldiers kidnapped by one guerrilla group, the West Side Boys.

Defence sources pointed out that the French had already had to revise their original plans for intervention after meeting more resistance than expected. François Hollande's government has sent extra troops and asked for help from the US and Denmark as well as the UK. About 1,800 other soldiers will be sent by Mali's neighbours. Defence sources dismissed reports that British military instructors were being sent immediately to Mali's capital, Bamako, and that unmanned drones were on stand-by.

Mark Simmonds, the Africa minister, last night ruled out a deployment of British troops alongside French forces in Mali. In a statement to the Commons he said Britain's role would be "limited" to logistical support.

"The Prime Minister has made categorically clear that the initial supporting deployment will be for a period of one week," Mr Simmonds said.

"He has also made clear that there will be no combat troops from the UK involved and we have no plans to provide more military assistance."
Well, because people could get killed, or something.

'Take Me Home, Country Roads'

Lisa Graas tweeted out a version of this last night. Peaceful.


The Wikipedia entry is here.

'Citizens Against Senseless Violence'

This is great, via Blazing Cat Fur, "This Home Is Proudly Gun Free":


Added: From Michelle Malkin, "What I most admire about James O’Keefe…"

Los Angeles Times: 'Pedophilia Now Seen By Many Experts as Deep-Rooted Predisposition That Does Not Change'

Oh brother.

Here we go. Civil rights for pedophiles.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Taking a different view of pedophilia":
As a young boy, Paul Christiano loved the world of girls — the way they danced, how their spindly bodies tumbled in gymnastics.

In adolescence, as other boys ogled classmates, he was troubled to find himself fantasizing about 7- to 11-year-olds.

His desires remained stuck in time as he neared adulthood. Despite a stable home life in suburban Chicago, he was tortured by urges he knew could land him in prison.

"For having these feelings, I was destined to become a monster," he said. "I was terrified."

In 1999, Christiano was caught buying child pornography. Now 36, he said he has never molested a child, but after five years of state-ordered therapy, the attraction remains.

"These people felt they could snuff out the desire, or shame me into denying it existed," he said. "But it's as intrinsic as the next person's heterosexuality."

In the laboratory, researchers are coming to the same conclusion.

Like many forms of sexual deviance, pedophilia once was thought to stem from psychological influences early in life. Now, many experts view it as a sexual orientation as immutable as heterosexuality or homosexuality. It is a deep-rooted predisposition — limited almost entirely to men — that becomes clear during puberty and does not change.

The best estimates are that between 1% and 5% of men are pedophiles, meaning that they have a dominant attraction to prepubescent children.
More at that top link. 

And then see The Other McCain, "Rush Limbaugh Is Right: The Academic Pro-Pedophile Movement Is a Real Danger," and Maggie's Notebook, "Academia Normalizing Pedophilia With Minor-Attracted Person: Hebephiles, Ephebophiles and Pedophiles."

Hey, if it feels good do it, right? See, "Hate-Blogger™© W. James Casper and the Pro-Pedophilia Movement."


Liberals Are the Cancer Cells in the Destruction of the Metaphysical Body of the Republic

This is an amazing essay, from Tom Hoffman, at American Thinker, "We Await our Caesar":
Great civilizations are grand metaphysical enterprises that transform the physical landscape in accordance with the underlying belief system. The appearance of liberal ideology can be best understood as a metaphysical virus that spells the doom of the metaphysical body politic. The great institutions and traditions that conservatives seek to preserve and pass on to their children are looked upon as a problem and a source of inequity by the liberal ideologue. Conservatives are doomed to fail when confronted with an enemy that does not share their value system. The system itself is the enemy to the liberal/progressive.

The spiritual organism that is a grand civilization lives out a destiny as do all organisms. In old age we are less able to fend off disease. The great civilizations were all victims of their own success; they died of old age, a shadow, if that, of their former greatness. The glorious Roman Republic succumbed to the same cultural rot that we today are experiencing. Caesar was able to manipulate a demoralized mass of city dwellers to topple the aristocracy long since grown corrupt in exchange for food and games. The modern welfare state is the reflection of that Roman rot in our time...

As far as the body politic is concerned, liberals are the cancer cells, the change agents bent on destroying an order that is perceived as unfair. There are no clear alternative visions other than utopian longings. They are as destructive and shortsighted as was Robespierre. They leave only destruction behind...
Read it all.

The 'Bonkers' Radical Left — The Suzanne Moore-Julie Burchill Uproar

Well, I can't beat this headline, from Dan Hodges, at Telegraph UK: "The Suzanne Moore-Julie Burchill uproar shows how utterly bonkers parts of the radical Left are at the moment." Here's the key bit:





The Left detests a traitor. Or rather, there’s nothing the Left loves more than embarking on a witch-hunt for a traitor. Which is why Suzanne Moore found herself strapped firmly into the progressive ducking stool last week, after writing an article for the New Statesman that contained the line “We are angry with ourselves for not being happier, not being loved properly and not having the ideal body shape – that of a Brazilian transsexual”. This single sentence, in a piece that otherwise sought to take a chainsaw to sexism and gender prejudice, saw Moore facing demands to apologise for what Pink News called her “recent transphobic outburst”.

No sooner had Moore been officially found to be in league with the devil than it was Julie Burchill’s turn. Burchill had defended her friend in a typically understated Observer piece, including a hot contender for most un-PC line of all time: “a gaggle of transsexuals telling Suzanne Moore how to write looks a lot like how I'd imagine the Black and White Minstrels telling Usain Bolt how to run would look”. This resulted in Lib Dem minister Lynne Featherstone demanding Burchill’s sacking, which was a very sensible response. What we all need at the moment is government ministers appointing newspaper columnists.

Next it was Owen Jones’s turn. The horny-handed tribune of the workers dared to suggest on Twitter there were probably more appropriate candidates for progressive outrage than Moore or Burchill, and was promptly vilified for his own treachery. Then, just as the whole thing was starting to resemble a surreal feminist/LGBT Marx brother’s sketch, in rushed gay rights activist Peter Tatchell shouting “Make that three hard-boiled eggs!” Actually, I couldn’t quite make out what Peter’s take on the whole issue was, but what I do know is he spent the next hour or so vainly trying to convince people he hadn’t become the new Bernard Manning.

I’ve got to be honest; I’ve found the spectacle of the cream of the progressive movement re-enacting the final scene from Reservoir Dogs strangely exhilarating. It’s like watching a grainy video from the 1970s, with Norman Mailer sitting in some run down cinema in Greenwich Village, swearing at Germaine Greer, and screaming “You damn harpies!” at every women in the room.

It’s also quite illustrative of some of the problems affecting the radical Left at the moment: not least the fact that a significant fraction of the radical Left is utterly bonkers. I’ve got my differences with Suzanne Moore – as a man I don’t actually feel collective responsibility for the breast-implant scandal, for example – but anyone who claims Moore is prejudiced is jumping an exceedingly large shark.
That's a lot of inside baseball --- or, er, cricket, be that as it may --- but by Jove I think he's got it!

And this idiot Michael Rowe above must really be searching the #Transsexual tweets, or something, because within seconds he was in my timeline attacking me as a "clueless neocon." What fun!

EXTRA: Hodges links to Paris Lees, so folks will for a moment understand why transsexuals are so damned unreasonable. See, "AN OPEN LETTER TO SUZANNE MOORE."

Man Uses His Arm to Catch Giant Tarpon in Florida

He lost that fish, but this is an awesome video:


And see London's Daily Mail, "The catcher, caught: Incredible moment angler's ARM is swallowed by a fish he tried to grab it by hand."

'Chuck Hagel hates Jews...'

From Caroline Glick, "Chuck Hagel - It's the anti-Americanism, stupid":
Chuck Hagel hates Jews. Or should I say, he hates Jews who think that Jews have rights and that their rights should be defended, in Israel by the government and the IDF, in America by Israel's supporters.

As I mentioned before, it is not at all surprising that Obama appointed Hagel, and I see little  chance that the Senate will reject his appointment. Israel and its American friends however can take heart that Israel will not be Hagel's chief concern.

Hagel -- and Obama -- have bigger fish to fry than Israel. They are looking to take on the US military. They will slash military budgets, they will slash pensions and medical benefits for veterans in order to save a couple dollars and demoralize the military. They will unilaterally disarm the US to the point where America's antiquated nuclear arsenal will become a complete joke. And I don't see the military capable of stopping it. Anyone remember the F-22?

I find the whole Israel angle on Hagel irritating because of this. Yes, Hagel will be bad to Israel. But we can minimize the damage by diversifying our own arsenal and weaning ourselves off of US military handouts that only serve as work subsidies for US military contractors at the expense of Israeli ones. Moreover, for years that military aid has been a corrupting force on Israel's general staff. I've been advocating ending US military aid to Israel for more than a decade, but better late than wait until we find ourselves at war and out of spare parts because Hagel and Obama won't sign the requisition orders to Boeing and Lockheed.

Unlike Israel, the US military cannot minimize the damage that Hagel and Obama will cause. America's capabilities will suffer at the hands of the duly reelected Commander in Chief and his duly appointed Defense Secretary. The only chance to dodge that bullet was on Election Day and the American people blew it.

By making this a story about Hagel the anti-Semite, nice senators like Lindsey Graham and John McCain are obfuscating the main problem. The main reason Hagel shouldn't be appointed is not because he hates Israel. It is because he hates a strong America...
Continue reading.

Monday, January 14, 2013

The Observer Caves to Transsexual Mob, Pulls Julie Burchill Column Slamming 'Bed-Wetters in Bad Wigs'

Here's the main news report at The Guardian, "The Observer withdraws Julie Burchill column as editor publishes apology." And the allegedly offending column is available here, "Transsexuals should cut it out." I recommend reading the whole thing right away, but I can't resist posting the last two paragraphs, which I think is what drove the trannies over the edge:
To have your cock cut off and then plead special privileges as women – above natural-born women, who don't know the meaning of suffering, apparently – is a bit like the old definition of chutzpah: the boy who killed his parents and then asked the jury for clemency on the grounds he was an orphan.

Shims, shemales, whatever you're calling yourselves these days – don't threaten or bully us lowly natural-born women, I warn you. We may not have as many lovely big swinging Phds as you, but we've experienced a lifetime of PMT and sexual harassment and many of us are now staring HRT and the menopause straight in the face – and still not flinching. Trust me, you ain't seen nothing yet. You really won't like us when we're angry.
You see, there's nothing that progressives can't stand more than someone who not only refuses to toe the collectivist line, but who is more than ready to stand up and throw the abuse back in their faces, twice as hard. Julie Burchill, so witty and unwilted, scared the f-king shit out of them.

In any case, here's the editor's groveling apology, "Statement from John Mulholland, editor of The Observer."

And London's Daily Mail has a big write-up, "Observer removes controversial Julie Burchill article on transsexuals from website and issues apology after Twitter storm." It turns out that Lynne Featherstone, a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament and former Equalities Minister, called for Burchill's termination. Yep. The trannies got help from some thuggish progressive bully in the Commons. The Telegraph's David Hughes has more on that, nailing it with the headline, "Lynne Featherstone’s call for Julie Burchill to be sacked is a little creepy."

In any case, I'll read around to find some of the trannies in outrage online, but thank to Kathy Shaidle for the hat tip, "Paper pulls Julie Burchill column about transsexual bullies — after transsexual bullies complain."

War in Mali: France Boldly Goes Where the U.S. Fears to Tread

This is a devastating front-page report at the New York Times, "French Strikes in Mali Supplant Caution of U.S.":
BAMAKO, Mali — French fighter jets struck deep inside Islamist strongholds in northern Mali on Sunday, shoving aside months of international hesitation about storming the region after every other effort by the United States and its allies to thwart the extremists had failed.

For years, the United States tried to stem the spread of Islamic militancy in the region by conducting its most ambitious counterterrorism program ever across these vast, turbulent stretches of the Sahara.

But as insurgents swept through the desert last year, commanders of this nation’s elite army units, the fruit of years of careful American training, defected when they were needed most — taking troops, guns, trucks and their newfound skills to the enemy in the heat of battle, according to senior Malian military officials.

“It was a disaster,” said one of several senior Malian officers to confirm the defections.

Then an American-trained officer overthrew Mali’s elected government, setting the stage for more than half of the country to fall into the hands of Islamic extremists. American spy planes and surveillance drones have tried to make sense of the mess, but American officials and their allies are still scrambling even to get a detailed picture of who they are up against.

Now, in the face of longstanding American warnings that a Western assault on the Islamist stronghold could rally jihadists around the world and prompt terrorist attacks as far away as Europe, the French have entered the war themselves.

First, they blunted an Islamist advance, saying the rest of Mali would have fallen into the hands of militants within days. Then on Sunday, French warplanes went on the offensive, going after training camps, depots and other militant positions far inside Islamist-held territory in an effort to uproot the militants, who have formed one of the largest havens for jihadists in the world.

Some Defense Department officials, notably officers at the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command, have pushed for a lethal campaign to kill senior operatives of two of the extremists groups holding northern Mali, Ansar Dine and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Killing the leadership, they argued, could lead to an internal collapse.

But with its attention and resources so focused on other conflicts in places like Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya, the Obama administration has rejected such strikes in favor of a more cautious, step-back strategy: helping African nations repel and contain the threat on their own.

Over the last four years, the United States has spent between $520 million and $600 million in a sweeping effort to combat Islamist militancy in the region without fighting the kind of wars it has waged in the Middle East. The program stretched from Morocco to Nigeria, and American officials heralded the Malian military as an exemplary partner. American Special Forces trained its troops in marksmanship, border patrol, ambush drills and other counterterrorism skills.

But all that deliberate planning collapsed swiftly when heavily armed, battle-hardened Islamist fighters returned from combat in Libya. They teamed up with jihadists like Ansar Dine, routed poorly equipped Malian forces and demoralized them so thoroughly that it set off a mutiny against the government in the capital, Bamako.

A confidential internal review completed last July by the Pentagon’s Africa Command concluded that the coup had unfolded too quickly for American commanders or intelligence analysts to detect any clear warning signs.

“The coup in Mali progressed very rapidly and with very little warning,” said Col. Tom Davis, a command spokesman. “The spark that ignited it occurred within their junior military ranks, who ultimately overthrew the government, not at the senior leadership level where warning signs might have been more easily noticed.”

But one Special Operations Forces officer disagreed, saying, “This has been brewing for five years. The analysts got complacent in their assumptions and did not see the big changes and the impacts of them, like the big weaponry coming out of Libya and the different, more Islamic” fighters who came back.
Either way, it's the French who're putting troops in harm's way to stop the Islamist incursion. Unfortunately, France is not the United States, and I doubt they have either the political or military willpower to sustain a long deployment. Losing there means the sacrifice of Mali to the terrorists, and the aftermath of regime change will be a bloodbath. All the more reason to pull for the French, hardly the best of U.S. allies but amazingly right about what they're doing to beat back al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

French Mission in Mali 'Is Not Without Risk'

A report on French military operations in Mali, at Der Spiegel:

Simple, Free Image and File Hosting at MediaFire
And Germany, on Monday, unexpectedly became one of them. The government in Berlin has announced that it is prepared to provide cargo planes as well as medical personnel. Andreas Peschke, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Berlin, said that Germany did not want to "leave France alone in this difficult hour."

On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that several other allies, including the United States, Britain, Denmark and other countries in Europe, had offered assistance, though none have indicated a willingness to send troops and warplanes. The US has offered communications, transportation and intelligence support. Sources in Copenhagen on Monday told the German news agency DPA that Denmark was considering the provision of active support. Several African countries have pledged to send troops as well.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Sunday once again ruled out the deployment of German troops. "The involvement of a German fighting force is not up for debate," he said. Still, Berlin has voiced support for the French offensive. "France has acted and that was decisive, correct and deserves our support," German Defense Minster Thomas de Maizière said on German radio on Monday.

Germany also remains involved in a European Union effort to develop plans for a military training mission to Mali. On Sunday, Westerwelle said: "The development of plans for an EU training mission for the Malian military will continue. Whether and how Germany will participate will be decided when the plans are complete."

Widely Applauded

For now, Hollande hasn't just gotten support from abroad either. Despite his vow to scale back France's decades-long support of Francophone Africa, the move to block the Islamist advance has been widely applauded in France.

But the mission, which began last Friday after Islamists began moving south toward the Malian capital of Bamako, is not without its dangers. French forces have spent the last several days pounding Islamist strongholds in northern Mali, including near Gao and Kidal, the epicenter of the rebellion. But the Islamists are well armed, flush with weapons that flooded into the country from Libya and they managed to shoot down a French helicopter early in the offensive, killing the pilot. Currently, some 550 French troops are on the ground in Mali according to news reports.

In addition, the offensive puts the lives of eight French hostages, who are likely being held by their abductors in northern Mali, in danger. Furthermore, a second French commando, wounded in a failed French attempt over the weekend to rescue a Frenchman held hostage in Somalia since 2009, has died according to the Somali rebel group al-Shabaab on Monday. It is believed that the hostage too was killed.

Paris believes that the offensive against Islamists in Mali could put its citizens at even greater risk of attack from Islamist extremists. Indeed, Paris has ordered increased domestic security.

For now, though, Hollande has widespread domestic support and the backing of the international community. German commentators are also largely backing the move on Monday although many seem uncertain what response would be the most appropriate for Berlin.
Also, at Telegraph UK, "Al-Shabaab publishes alleged photograph of dead French commando." And Long War Journal, "Shabaab releases photos of French commando captured in failed rescue mission."

Mark Levin: 'We Have An Imperial President...'

Mark Levin unloads on President Obama following this morning's press conference, with Megyn Kelly:


More at The Other McCain, "Obama’s Festival of Lies":
The final press conference of Obama’s first term was a masterpiece of mendacity, a Mardi Gras parade of deliberate dishonesty ....

He doesn’t bother with tiny fibs or slight misrepresentations. No, by God, he tells massive whoppers that everyone understands to be false, but which he knows he can get away with because — like the favorite child of an over-indulgent mother — he has the smug sense of entitlement necessary to erupt in indignation if he is ever called on his lies: “How dare you notice my self-serving deceptions!”
PREVIOUSLY: "'I Can Barely Contain My Fury at What Is Going On...'."

Monday Morning Roundup of the Roundups

Let's get it started around here, with Angry White Dude, "HOME SWEET HOME – NO LIBERALS ALLOWED!"

Falcons
And Emily Esfahani Smith has a little roundup at Acculturated, "The Daily Scene."

More at Maggie's Farm, "Monday morning links."

Also at The Other McCain, "LIVE AT FIVE: 01.14.13," and Director Blue, "Larwyn's Linx: Enough--Guns, Active Shooters and Pharma."

And from William Teach at Pirate's Cove, "Typical: Hardcore Leftists Support Iran and Their Nuclear Ambitions."

And Ronn Torossian, at FrontPage Magazine, "Celebrating Anti-Israel Extremists."

Now, over at The Foundry, "Morning Bell: When the Government Fails Completely." And from Thaddeus Russell, at Reason, "The Last Leftist: The late Howard Zinn."

And from the "I Don't Think So Department," at The Nation, "Big Week for Gun Control, and the Debate Is Moving Left."

And in breaking news, at The Washington Examiner, "Obama: Conservative media ‘demonizes me’." And at Weasel Zippers, "Choom Gang Chairman: “I Like A Good Party”…"

Now for some hotties, at Egotastic!, "Paris Hilton Bikini Vacation Photos, Because Paris Hilton Demands Your Attention."

Also from Gator Doug, "DaleyGator DaleyBabe Paola Andrea Rey."

And Bob Belvedere, "Rule 5 Saturday (January 5th): Sammie Pennington." Plus, at Subject to Change, "Rule  5."

I'll have more later...

PHOTO CREDIT: AoSHQ.

The Truth About Aaron Swartz 'Crime' — Remove the Quotation Marks and It's Not So Hard

Alex Stamos, CTO of Artemis Internet, was an expert witness for Aaron Swartz. He wrote a post about Swartz's death, "The Truth about Aaron Swartz’s “Crime”." He also cross-posted it at i09, and was surprised that folks might have a different take on things:


And here's a sample of those "mean" comments:
Swartz is not at fault for sneaking into a supply closet to intentionally evade detection because the closet was unlocked?

What, so it's somehow normal and acceptable for anyone to just walk into an unlocked supply closet (with intent to evade detection) so they could access files in a manner that shouldn't be accessed?

If he were truly not breaking any laws or any of MIT's terms, then he wouldn't have gone to lengths (even minor lengths) to evade detection.

Not breaking any of MIT's or JSTOR's terms is irrelevant. Private companies' terms are not the same thing as the law. The subterfuge proves that, yes, he was committing fraud so he could access information in a manner he knew he shouldn't have, JSTOR and MIT's attempts to stop him prove that although they did not have any terms he was an unwelcome presence on their network. There was intent to commit a crime, there was subterfuge to avoid detection, and a crime was committed. Why is this so hard?
No, not hard.

It's only hard if your moral universe inhabits the same vicinity as Anonymous, WikiLeaks, or the New York Times.

PREVIOUSLY: "Can We Just Not Get All Sentimental About Aaron Swartz, to the Effect of Martyring the Dude, or Anything Like That?"

EXTRA: At the Times of Israel, "Activist’s death fuels debate over computer crime."

UPDATE: The Jawa Report links, "Thief, Terrorist Lover Lauded by MSM." Thanks!

Plus, the Wall Street Journal has a big piece, and it's not putting the wonder kid is a positive light, "Legal Case Strained Troubled Web Activist." (At Memeorandum.) Swartz was an extremely flawed activist, no MLK type whatsoever. He was a coward who refused to accept responsibility for his own criminal activity. Althouse has more on that:
He knew what he was doing was criminal, and he was a very intelligent man who chose to do it anyway and conceived of what he was doing as actively virtuous....

His crime was about making more information freely public, and yet he cringed at publicity about his own plight, even where his plight was something he invited into his life and believed in as an especially good thing to do. Why the shame? Why not expose yourself as a martyr to laws you oppose?
RTWT.

And William Jacobson is working the civil liberties angle, "Finding common ground in limited government — I am the NRA and EFF."

I am not indifferent to that angle, although Swartz's case isn't all that different to me than, say, Julian Assange's and WikiLeaks. I don't impute noble motives to these people. And pushing cyber-law reform can be accomplished without making martyrs of proven cowards.

Jodie Foster's Golden Globe Speech

Via Instapundit:
When I was in law school at Yale, she was an undergraduate and she went out with my roommate for a while. She seemed nice, but she’s matured since.

British Consumers to Face Higher Energy Bills in Wind Farms Boondoggle

At Telegraph UK, "Wind farm contracts to increase energy bills for families":
Wind Farms
Millions of families face higher energy bills because of a “shocking” catalogue of errors made by the Government when it awarded contracts for expensive offshore wind farms, MPs will disclose today.

Consumers could see bills rise in the coming years after “generous” deals worth £17 billion were agreed with energy firms delivering wind-generated power to homes, a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has warned.

Under a scheme agreed by Labour leader Ed Miliband during the last Labour government, but implemented by Coalition ministers, the contracts guarantee that the power firms will be paid even if they fail to deliver energy to households.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs the PAC, described the contracts as a “licence for the private sector to print money at the expense of hard-pressed consumers”. The warning on energy price hikes comes as temperatures across the UK are set to plummet in the coming days.

The Met Office has issued warnings of ice and severe cold weather, with snowfall predicted across central, northern and south-east England as well as parts of Wales and Scotland.
Continue reading.

Behind France's Botched Hostage Rescue in Somalia

Weasel Zippers reports, "The Mayhem In Mogadishu Behind the Failed French Somalia Rescue."

Sunday, January 13, 2013

'Les Miserables' Wins Three Golden Globes

The Los Angeles Times has lots of coverage: "Live updates: Jodie Foster talks it up; 'Les Miserables' wins big at Golden Globes."

Also, "Golden Globes: Can they bode some Oscar upsets?" Well, no doubt, or at least some upset Oscar hopefuls. Certainly if I were Kathryn Bigelow et at., I wouldn't be heading over to the Academy Awards with my hopes up or anything. Jessica Chastain won for Best Actress, but that's it for "Zero Dark Thirty." See, "Golden Globe Awards 2013: The complete list of winners and nominees."

BONUS: At the Astute Bloggers, "GUARANTEED NOT HALAL: ZERO DARK THIRTY'S JESSICA CHASTAIN."

Can We Just Not Get All Sentimental About Aaron Swartz, to the Effect of Martyring the Dude, or Anything Like That?

Look, I'm a big fan of John Donne, "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind...", and so forth. But all day yesterday you couldn't click on Memeorandum without somebody else weighing in on how angelic this Aaron Swartz was. I mean, sheesh. It's a wonder the dude was ever indicted in the first place. And it wasn't just folks on the left. I posted on Althouse's response to the news, which needed at least two blog entries. She's a law professor and law professors are interested in the law, so the legal facts around the case are compelling. And of course if the feds were playing especially hard against Swartz --- which seems to be the consensus, perhaps to make an example out of the guy, I'd say --- then we all have an interest in the liberty implications of his death. Be that as it may, I think the bipartisan outpouring for the, er, defendant, has more to do with the ignorance of this hacker's ideological program than the causes for which he stood. He wasn't libertarian. He was a social justice radical and his family's obituary goes to lengths to point it out. I tweeted earlier today to mock the Los Angeles Times, which had the most clueless heading with links to Swartz's obituary, and Daniel Greenfield responded back with the money tweet:


I'm not happy the man is dead, but when you see people like the radical Henry Farrell going gaga over him, as if he's a freakin' martyred saint, then you know there's some larger collectivist significance going on. Seriously. Say a prayer for the dude but save the Beatitudes for someone who's indeed worthy. This guy was being charged with felony counts and was looking at doing significant time.

FYIY, Patterico has more on the legal aspects of the case, and it's not to say that these are unimportant, "EXCLUSIVE: Attorney for Aaron Swartz: Prosecutors’ Arguments Were “Disingenuous and Contrived”."

And I'll update if I find more information on this man's radical past, which apparently was pretty substantial.

UPDATE: This just in from the New York Times, "Aaron Swartz, a Data Crusader and Now, a Cause." Whatever. People glorify the broken idealist, fighting the injustices of governmental or corporate power, or some kinda power, like the power of MIT's journal storage website, which no doubt was causing the impoverishment of the entire developing world, or something else even more nefarious as that. What else could it be? I'm in awe of the lost promise of this gone-too-young tech-cultural genius.

Gun Owners Against Illegal Mayors!

Now that's what I'm talking about!

For weeks my inbox has been flooded with the most disgusting child massacre exploitation spam ever, from this perverted left-wing group called "Mayors Against Illegal Guns." I even checked out the YouTube page, labeled "Demand a Plan," which features child exploitation videos exhorting law abiding Americans to support this corrupt leftist agenda to keep guns out of the schools, blah, blah.

Well people are pushing back. It turns out there's a new website exposing the roster of corrupt, criminal mayors shilling for the radical left's gun-grab agenda. Check out the rap sheets, including that of epic black urban boss thug Kwame Kilpatrick. Via Anne Sorock, at Legal Insurrection, "Mayors against Illegal Guns swindle with latest infographic."

Kwame Kilpatrick

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

William Warren

Also at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's Sunday Funnies," and Theo Spark, "Cartoon Round Up..."

More at Jill Stanek's, "Stanek Sunday funnies 1-13-13." And at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Gore-y Details."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

Left-Wing Journalists Shocked --- Shocked! --- at Drudge Report's Hitler/Stalin/Dear Leader Barack Hussein Juxtaposition

At the Washington Examiner, "Journalists react in shock to Drudge Report header featuring Hitler and Stalin."

Simple, Free Image and File Hosting at MediaFire


Look, totalitarians seize the citizenry's means of self-defense. Obama deserves the comparison. These people are his freakin' personality cult.

Snakes on a Plane!

Really.

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Did Someone Say Snakes?"


Also at Sydney's Herald Sun, "Seriously, snakes on a plane."

I imagine they'd say, "Crikey!"

Overweight Woman Falls Into Upper East Side Sidewalk

At London's Daily Mail, "Sidewalk COLLAPSES beneath overweight woman as she runs from the rain in New York City."


And on Twitter:


And here.

UPDATE: Hey, she says her weight saved her, at London's Daily Mail, "Being overweight SAVED my life: 400lb woman who fell through NYC sidewalk claims the fall would have killed a thinner person."