Colorado Democrat Rep. Joe Salazar: Women Don't Need Guns If They 'Feel Like They’re Going to Be Raped'

From Dana Loesch, at Red State (via Instapundit):

This is the real “war on women” I’ve talked about: the progressive insistence that women disarm. Women, according to Rep. Salazar, are hysterical things which shoot indiscriminately at any and everything.

Take it From Calvin Coolidge on Taxes and Spending

Following up on yesterday's post, "The Calvin Coolidge Comeback."

Here's Amity Shlaes, at WSJ, "The Coolidge Lesson on Taxes and Spending":

Only Reagan could fix this.

That's the intuitive reaction to the surge of spending and budgetary challenges in Washington today. It's hard to think of another Republican with the fortitude to push back against the outlays, to make government smaller, to lower taxes. And to show that such moves can yield prosperity.

The "only Reagan" assumption is too narrow—especially when it comes to the fiscal challenge. For while Reagan inspired and cut taxes, he did not reduce the deficit. He did not even cut the budget. But if you look back, past Dwight Eisenhower and around the curve of history, you can find a Republican who did all those things: Calvin Coolidge.

A New Englander and former Massachusetts governor, Coolidge came to Washington as vice president and moved into the White House only in 1923 after the sudden death of President Warren Harding. He later won the office himself and served until 1929. The 30th president cut the top income-tax rate to 25% (lower than the 28% of the historic Reagan cut of 1986). Coolidge reduced the national debt and balanced the budget. When he departed the White House for his home in Northampton, Mass., he left a federal budget smaller than the one he found.

Three factors gave Silent Cal the ability to cut as he did, each suggesting a governing approach that would be useful today...

Continue reading.

Abraham Lincoln Was Gay?

When school started a couple of weeks back, I mentioned to my classes that research shows that college students have little historical grounding in our founding institutions. I also mentioned that a lot of young people don't keep up with the news, that they're not informed about current events and how politics affects them. But then in one of my classes a young man piped up about how he really loves politics, and that he'd won awards in high school for the debate team, or some such thing. In any case, I was reminded of the Ron Paul libertarians and perhaps even the more whacked Paulbots. I was talking about the Gettysburg Address last week, which is cited in my textbook's discussion about the different definitions of democracy, and the student got going about how Lincoln was a gay atheist who ran concentration camps for some group or another. I ignored the atheist part, since almost all of Lincoln's most famous addresses are deeply grounded in God and divine provenance. But that gay bit was funny and some of the other students were practically gasping. And interestingly enough, Joan Rivers mouthed the gay smear on late-night TV a couple of days ago. See NewsBusters, "Joan Rivers: 'Abe Lincoln Was Gay'."

Anyway, I looked it up the other day and found this at USA Today, "200 years later, a more complex view of Lincoln":

* Lincoln the homosexual: A gay man in the White House?

Some writers, such as the late sex researcher and gay rights activist C. A. Tripp (The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, 2004) have argued that Lincoln was sexually attracted to men.

Lincoln's long friendship with Joshua Speed, a young store owner in Springfield, Ill., when Lincoln arrived there at age 28 in 1837, has attracted the most attention. Lincoln, whose worldly possessions at the time fit in two saddlebags, accepted Speed's invitation to save money by sharing the double bed in the room he was renting, according to many of the biographies, including David Herbert Donald's Lincoln.

Most historians don't think they were lovers. As Donald points out, bed-sharing was not unusual at the time because of financial necessity. Many boys grew up sharing a bed with one or more brothers.

Burlingame says speculation persists about a Speed diary and letters in which he wrote explicitly about a relationship with Lincoln. Burlingame doesn't buy it; nor does Berry, who says Lincoln wasn't homosexual, but homosocial.

"He cried too much to be a man's man, but he was a guy's guy," Berry says. "He liked nothing more than to sit around the stove, telling jokes and stories."

I have Donald's, Lincoln, and reading the USA Today piece reminded me about him sharing a bed at one point. But I can see how libertarians might attack Lincoln as a homosexual, since the paleocons deride him as a tyrant already, and they might want to smear him. But progressives might think a homosexual Lincoln is flaming cool. Barack Hussein likens himself to Lincoln and has sworn in twice on the Lincoln inaugural Bible. So if Lincoln was switch hitting, leftists can argue that Obama's not the first homosexual president after all.

(And I need to check back with the student on the concentration camp part. I was overwhelmed with the homosexual allegations and attacks on Lincoln the tyrant are pretty common already. But camps? More on that later...)

Al Jazeera Criticized for Lack of Independence After Arab Spring

Al Jazeera's been in the news big time since Al Gore sold his failed Current TV to the network. But also important is the proposed expansion of Al Jazeera's programming in the U.S. It's controversial, although I don't care that much because I doubt the network will do very well. More interesting is the epic hypocrisy in the news of radical feminist Naomi Wolf negotiating a deal with Al Jazeera. James Taranto has some choice words on that:

"Naomi Wolf, the author and activist, is in early-stage talks with the global news network Al Jazeera," reports Politico. In a way this makes sense: Wolf is a hysterical critic of America's antiterrorism efforts. In 2007 she published a book called "The End of America," in which she claimed that the Bush administration was taking us down the road to fascism.

Still, the first thing one thinks of upon hearing this news is the irony of a leading "third wave" (i.e., hypernarcissistic) feminist joining a pro-Islamist news network. Is she going to wear a veil? Probably not, but it turns out she doesn't mind if Muslim women do. She spelled it out in a 2008 Sydney Morning Herald article...

Continue at the link.

And there's a full report on the network at Der Spiegel, "After the Arab Spring: Al-Jazeera Losing Battle for Independence":

For over a decade, the Arab television broadcaster Al-Jazeera was widely respected for providing an independent voice from the Middle East. Recently, however, several top journalists have left, saying the station has developed a clear political agenda.

Aktham Suliman's wristwatch was always ahead. Although he lived in Berlin, it always showed him the time in Doha, the capital of the emirate of Qatar -- which is also the home of Al-Jazeera, the television news network that had been employing Suliman, born in Damascus, as a correspondent for Germany since 2002.

"Doha time was Jazeera time," he says. "It was an honor to work for this broadcaster."
One and a half years ago, Suliman, 42, re-set his watch to German time, having become disenchanted with Al-Jazeera. And it wasn't just because the broadcaster seemed less interested in reports from Europe. Rather, Suliman had the feeling that he was no longer being allowed to work as an independent journalist.

Last August, he quit his job. "Before the beginning of the Arab Spring, we were a voice for change," he says, "a platform for critics and political activists throughout the region. Now, Al-Jazeera has become a propaganda broadcaster."

Suliman is not the only one who feels bitterly disappointed. The Arab TV network has recently suffered an exodus of prominent staff members. Reporters and anchors in cities like Paris, London, Moscow, Beirut and Cairo have left Al-Jazeera, despite what are seen as luxurious working conditions in centrally located offices. And despite the fact that the network is investing an estimated $500 million (€375 million) in the US, so as to reach even more viewers on the world's largest television market -- one in which its biggest competitor, CNN, is at home.

Al-Jazeera has over 3,000 staff members and 65 correspondent offices worldwide -- and viewers in some 50 million households throughout the Arab world. But it also has a problem: More than ever before, critics contend that the broadcaster is following a clear political agenda, and not adhering to the principles of journalistic independence.

Such accusations have been leveled against Western broadcasters as well, of course. But the charge would place Al-Jazeera on a par with Fox News -- which pursues the agenda of conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch in the US -- rather than CNN.

Continue reading.

Daisy Watts for ZOO Magazine

She's on Twitter:

Last chance to buy @zoo this week with me on the cover ;) twitter.com/daisywatts/sta…

— Daisy Watts (@daisywatts) February 18, 2013

And the video's here, "Daisy Watts' Peachy, Booby and Sexy Lingerie Video For ZOO Magazine in HD."

Conservatives Not Forgiving Mark Sanford

At Twitchy, "Mark Sanford: ‘None of us go through life without mistakes’; Many conservatives not in forgiving mood."

Video at that link and at Legal Insurrection, "Just Say NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Executive Accused of Slapping Toddler is Fired

At ABC News, "Executive Charged With Slapping Toddler on Plane Gets Slapped With Pink Slip."

The boy's adopted and he's a beauty. The executive called him the "n-word." Are you kidding me? Ask to sit somewhere else. I would have changed seats. Sheesh.

Bulgaria Seeks Sanctions Against Hamas

At the Times of Israel, "Bulgarian FM to EU colleagues: Sanction Hezbollah":

Presenting evidence from Burgas bombing probe in Brussels, Nikolay Mladenov urges Europe to finally blacklist the Shiite group as a terror organization.

A senior Bulgarian official on Monday called on the European Union to adopt harsher measures against Hezbollah in light of his country’s finding that the Lebanese Shiite group was responsible for a terror attack that killed five Israelis and a local bus driver in the coastal town of Burgas last summer.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the EU’s foreign ministers in Brussels, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov implicitly but unmistakably urged the union to designate Hezbollah a terrorist group.

Asked whether the EU should blacklist Hezbollah, he responded: ”Given the fact that we’ve already made quite firm statements about where we believe the responsibility for that attack lies, I think the answer is quite obvious.”

Mladenov was scheduled to present to the union’s Foreign Affairs Council a detailed report on the Bulgarian police investigation into the July 18 attack in the Black Sea resort town.

On February 5, Bulgaria announced that Hezbollah bombed the bus, with its investigators describing a sophisticated attack carried out by a terrorist cell that included Canadian and Australian citizens. Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said one of the suspects entered the country with a Canadian passport, and another with one from Australia. “We have well-grounded reasons to suggest that the two were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah,” Tsvetanov said.

In an op-ed in the New York Times on Monday, the US National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon urged the EU to act against Hezbollah. “Now that Bulgarian authorities have exposed Hezbollah’s global terrorist agenda, European governments must respond swiftly,” he wrote. “They must disrupt its operational networks, stop flows of financial assistance to the group, crack down on Hezbollah-linked criminal enterprises and condemn the organization’s leaders for their continued pursuit of terrorism.”

More at the link.

Israeli Soldier Mor Ostrovski, 20, Posts Crosshairs Photo of Palestinian Child to Instagram

Oh, great.

You know? Let's not give Mondoweiss and the rest of the left's Israel-hating anti-Semites any more, er, ammunition.

At Guardian UK, "Israeli soldier posts Instagram image of Palestinian child in crosshairs of rifle":

An Israeli soldier has sparked outrage by posting a photograph appearing to show the back of a Palestinian boy's head in the crosshairs of his sniper rifle on a social networking site.

The context of the picture, posted on the personal Instagram site of Mor Ostrovski, 20, could not be verified but the aggressive message is clear. The minarets and Arabic architecture of the village captured in the background suggest the boy and the town are Palestinian. Ostrovski is an Israeli soldier in a sniper unit.

The Israeli military said the soldier's commanders were investigating the incident. His actions "are not in accordance with the spirit of the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] or its values", a spokesperson said.

Ostrovski, who has closed his Instagram account, told the army he did not take the picture but found it on the internet.

Breaking the Silence, an organisation of veteran Israeli combat soldiers campaigning to raise awareness about life in the West Bank, condemned the image. "This is what occupation looks like. This is what military control over a civilian population looks like," one member wrote on the group's Facebook page.

The image has been heavily criticised online. Electronic Intifada, a news site focused on Palestinian issues, described the photograph as "tasteless and dehumanising". The site published several other images from Ostrovski's Instagram page, including snaps of the soldier posing with heavy-duty guns.

These soldiers need to understand that the war over the information battlespace is right up there with the ground war against Hamas and its progressive allies. Don't be stupid. Don't give ammunition to our enemies on the left.

More stupid examples at that top link.

Burger King Twitter Account Hacked

Whoa, this is nasty.

At Twitchy, "Oh dear: Burger King’s Twitter account hacked; Updated."

And Sarah Rumpf comments:

I'm honestly surprised it has lasted this long this morning (over an hour so far). But hey, if companies and politicians want to keep delegating social media to 17 year old interns, then the rest of us will continue to be entertained by stories like this.

No doubt. Also at the Los Angeles Times, "Burger King's Twitter account hacked, made to look like McDonald's."

#Benghazi Cover-Up: No, Progressives Couldn't Care Less That Four Americans Died

Leftists don't care about the truth, but we already knew that. I'm just reminded of how reality is distorted into a cartoon by this post on "John McCrankypants" at the loser-blog His Vorpal Sword.

And here's the clip:

Also at Reuters, "McCain claims ‘massive cover-up’ on Benghazi" (via Memeorandum).

Shovel Ready

Flashback to 2009, "Shovel Ready":

And BCF links to my previous entry, "Shocker: L.A. Times Front-Page Story Slams Surging Insurance Premiums Caused by ObamaCare." Thanks!

More, the Rhetorican links as well, "Bucking the narrative: Prof. Douglas catches the L.A. Times Slamming Surging Insurance Premiums Caused by ObamaCare…on its front page!" Thanks!

Shocker: L.A. Times Front-Page Story Slams Surging Insurance Premiums Caused by ObamaCare

There's really no way to sugarcoat this, although the editors tried at the front page of the hard-copy newspaper this morning ("costly at first...").

But there's no getting around things at the website, "States worry about rate shock during shift to new health law":

WASHINGTON — Less than a year before Americans will be required to have insurance under President Obama's healthcare law, many of its backers are growing increasingly anxious that premiums could jump, driven up by the legislation itself.

Higher premiums could undermine a core promise of the Affordable Care Act: to make basic health protections available to all Americans for the first time. Major rate increases also threaten to cause a backlash just as the law is supposed to deliver many key benefits Obama promised when he signed it in 2010.

"The single biggest issue we face now is affordability," said Jill Zorn, senior program officer at the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, a consumer advocacy group that championed the new law.

Administration officials have consistently downplayed the specter of rate increases and other disruptions as millions of Americans move into overhauled insurance markets in 2014. They cite provisions in the law that they say will hold down premiums, including new competitive markets they believe will make insurers offer competitive rates.

Exactly how high the premiums may go won't be known until later this year. But already, officials in states that support the law have sounded warnings that some people — mostly those who are young and do not receive coverage through their work — may see considerably higher prices than expected.

That is because of new requirements in the law aimed at making insurance more comprehensive and more affordable for older, sicker consumers.

Insurance regulators in California, which has enthusiastically embraced the law, cautioned the Obama administration in a recent letter about "rate and market disruption."

Oregon's insurance commissioner, another supporter of the law, said new regulations could push up premiums for young customers by as much as 30% next year. He urged administration officials to slow enactment of the new rules.

A leading advocate for consumers in their 20s, Young Invincibles, sounded a similar caution, suggesting in a letter to administration officials that additional steps may be needed to protect young people from rising premiums. Young Invincibles mobilized in 2010 to help pass the healthcare law.

And regulators in Massachusetts, which was the model for Obama's law, recently warned that although many residents and small businesses in the state "will see premium decreases next year, a significant number will see extreme premium increases."

The law does include many new protections for consumers. Even those now sounding alarms emphasize the importance of those provisions, including guaranteed coverage for Americans with preexisting medical conditions.

"For most people, this will be a dramatic improvement," Zorn said.

No it won't. Younger people are just getting reamed. And the predicted savings aren't going to materialize, because the law mandates lower premiums on those who use health services most: the elderly. Here's the key bit:

The healthcare law also includes a new tax and new fees on insurance companies that the industry says it will pass on to consumers.

The provision that will prevent insurance companies from charging older consumers more than three times what they charge young consumers has generated particular concern among regulators. In many states, insurers now can charge five times as much or more to people in their 50s and 60s.

The requirement was a top priority of the influential AARP. It is designed to make insurance more affordable to a group that often most needs insurance. But as rates come down for older people, they may increase for consumers in their 20s, regulators worry.

If that happens, young, healthy people could elect not to get health insurance and pay the small penalty in the law for not having coverage. That, in turn, would leave an older, sicker population in the insurance pool, a phenomenon that typically inflates premiums.

It sucks. People are waking up, even if it's just a little. The push for greater "equality" is destroying not only liberty, but the quality of life for millions of Americans. That's the price for voting for this f-king amateur politician soaking in communist ideology. Gawd, what a disaster for this nation.

The Calvin Coolidge Comeback

It's a review of Amity Shlaes' Coolidge biography, from David Resler, at Forbes, "Amity Shlaes Tells The Story of Calvin Coolidge, Another 'Forgotten Man'":

In her award winning book, “The Forgotten Man,” Amity Shlaes offered a refreshing alternative to conventional wisdom about the Great Depression. Her forgotten man was not Roosevelt’s man at the “bottom of the economic pyramid” but William Graham Sumner’s forgotten man whose toils toward self improvement form the foundation of economic progress. He is the quiet innovator and adventurer who ultimately foots the bill for the Progressive social agenda. We now also recognize him as the man who President Obama famously discredited during last year’s re-election campaign.

In one sense, Shlaes new book “Coolidge” represents a prequel to “The Forgotten Man.” More importantly, however, we rediscover a man who throughout his career championed the cause of Sumner’s forgotten man but whose reward for doing so was to become himself a president whom history books have also largely “forgotten.” Shlaes sees Coolidge as “a rare kind of hero: a minimalist president, an economic general of budgeting and tax cuts.” She then thoroughly and persuasively documents that judgment.

In both books, Shlaes’ captivating portrayals of her forgotten men resonate. We come to identify with Coolidge because he embodied the timeless virtues of honesty and personal responsibility to which we all aspire. We also see Coolidge as wholly a product of his time. At the time of his birth –on Independence Day 1872 in a rural Vermont town — the Industrial Revolution had not yet transformed the U.S. economy from its agrarian roots. Some three fourths of the U.S. population in 1870 lived in a rural area and the 1880 Census showed that more than 60% of the rural population lived on farms. The experiences and life lessons that would form Coolidge’s character were those shared by most other Americans of the day. My own grandparents, born that same decade on farms in Ohio, embraced those same values and not surprisingly became Coolidge Republicans. While such voters could readily identify with Coolidge, they also admired and rewarded the leadership skills that conventional historians seem to have overlooked.

Life on America’s farms and in rural villages during the final three decades of the nineteenth century demanded self-discipline, sacrifice and perseverance. Shlaes notes that Coolidge himself saw “perseverance as the key” to success. Just as perseverance defined Coolidge’s work ethic, “parsimony” in both word and deed seems to have defined his life’s mission.

Continue reading.

And at Amazon, Coolidge.

BONUS: On Twitter, Melissa Clouthier's asking "Who's your favorite president"?

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

Ammunition Shortages

There have been reports here and there of ammunition shortages since I reported on the Orange County gun show, "Long Lines, Ammunition Shortages at Orange County Gun Show."

But now here comes USA Today, "Gun dealers report shortages of ammunition" (via Memeorandum)":

Retailers say much of the demand is from gun owners who are stockpiling in case certain weapons are banned.

Gun shops are running low on ammunition from a run by customers fearful of potential gun-control legislation, according to gun retailers and customers.

Prices have more than doubled over past year in some shops, retailers are putting limits on the amount a customer can buy, and some common types of ammunition, such as .22-caliber long rifle shells, are hard to get.

More at the link.

And this gives me a chance to post my favorite photo from the show (here's the one showing the lines for ammunition):

The Myth of Climate Change Consensus

At IBD, "Global Warming Consensus Looking More Like a Myth."

The Minority Youth Unemployment Act

A must-read editorial, from the Wall Street Journal, "A higher minimum wage will hurt Obama's most loyal supporters."

Ashley Judd for Senate?

The actress is contemplating a run against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The New York Times reports, "Kentuckians Don’t Rule Out a Star as a Potential Senator":

ASHLAND, Ky. — It would seem like a Republican fantasy: a famous actress, who has been described by her own grandmother as a Hollywood liberal, is floated as a Senate candidate in one of the country’s most conservative states, where she does not even live.

That is how Republican operatives gleefully seized on reports that the movie star Ashley Judd, who campaigned for President Obama, might challenge Mitch McConnell, the most powerful Republican in the United States Senate, when he is up for re-election next year.

“Ashley Judd — an Obama-following, radical Hollywood liberal” is how an attack ad put it, produced by a group led by the Republican strategist Karl Rove.

How serious could such a candidacy be? Plenty, it turns out.

“I would actually be surprised if she didn’t run right now,” said Representative John Yarmuth, Democrat of Kentucky. “She’s done everything a serious candidate would do.”

But even as Ms. Judd moved this week from a Republican chew toy to an increasingly likely candidate, Democrats in Kentucky fought publicly over whether she would be a viable challenger in 2014 to Mr. McConnell, or a serious liability.

Some Democratic strategists said her views were too far left of Kentucky voters, warning that she would drag down other Democrats on the state ballot.

“I say we place in peril our control of the State Legislature,” said Dale Emmons, a strategist who advised the last unsuccessful Democratic challenger to Mr. McConnell, in 2008.

He added, “Her Siamese twin will immediately be Barack Obama,” who lost Kentucky by 23 percentage points in November.

Another Kentucky-based consultant, James Cauley, said he began hearing fears from Kentucky officials last month when Ms. Judd attended the Bluegrass Ball in Washington during the inauguration, where she confirmed she was “taking a close look” at a run.

“People started saying, ‘Oh my God, she is serious,’ ” said Mr. Cauley, who managed Mr. Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign in Illinois. “One state legislator asked me to go to the White House and talk to Barack.”

Mr. Cauley demurred. He and the president are not close.

More at that top link.

And I wouldn't discount anything. Name recognition is a huge asset. Sure, Obama lost the state by double-digits, but we're in a strange era of celebrity politics. I just wouldn't discount this woman's chances.

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

Bill Whittle's Afterburner: 'The Shooters'

Via Theo Spark:

Katie Price Slams Kelly Brook as a 'Heffer'

Well, the last time I posted on Ms. Brook I mentioned that she'd gained weight.

It turns out I wasn't imagining it.

See London's Daily Mail, "'I'm FLABbergasted at how big she is!' Katie Price labels Kelly Brook a 'heffer' in astonishing attack."

But see, "Katie who? A defiant Kelly Brook dazzles in midnight blue at pre-BAFTA dinner in first appearance since Price's 'heffer' remark."

Sports Illustrated is Racist! ABC News Joins the Politically Correct Attack Mob

At NewsBusters, "ABC: Are Some Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Pictures Racist?"

PREVIOUSLY: "New Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Attacked as Racist."

Who is David Bowie?

At the Guardian UK, "As a blockbuster exhibition, David Bowie is, gets under way at the V&A, Sean O'Hagan dissects the pop icon's influences – and reveals the ideas behind four of his key alter egos":

"From the very beginning, I always saw David as a star in the way that James Dean or Marilyn Monroe or Judy Garland were stars. He was an actor, essentially. He soaked up whatever was in the air to create his characters, then he became those characters in his songs and his performances, and even offstage. Sometimes, you'd have Ziggy Stardust in the taxi with you and you didn't know what to do with it and it was pretty powerful."

Mick "Woody" Woodmansey is recalling the heady and sometimes unsettling time when he had a brief supporting role in the making of pop history. From 1970 to 1973, he played drums in the Spiders for Mars, the band that helped David Bowie redefine what it was to be a pop star, what a pop song and a live performance could express. He was there behind his drum kit, dressed in a pink lamé top and matching trousers, when Bowie, in a multicoloured jumpsuit and red wrestling boots, sang Starman on Top of the Pops on a Thursday evening in July 1972. For a generation in waiting, the "starman" was David Bowie himself: alien, decadent and liberating.

The piece continues with a video from that performance.

Continue reading here.

I just love Bowie. He stopped touring for health reasons and I have no idea if he's planning any concerts. I can't help but thinking his new release is a swan song of some sort, although I hope not.

RELATED: At the Hollywood Reporter, "BBC to Screen Feature-Length David Bowie Doc."

Sequester

At the clip, the idiot freshman Congressman Joaquín Castro blames the pending budget cuts on GOP "hostage taking." What a little progressive parrot.

And see the fear-mongering at the New York Times, "The Real Cost of Shrinking Government" (via Memeorandum):

These cuts, which will cost the economy more than one million jobs over the next two years, are the direct result of the Republican demand in 2011 to shrink the government at any cost, under threat of a default on the nation’s debt. Many Republicans say they would still prefer the sequester to replacing half the cuts with tax revenue increases. But the government spending they disdain is not an abstract concept. In a few days, the cuts will begin affecting American life and security in significant ways.

The left refuses to look in the mirror. The clip begins with a moment from the 2012 debates where Mitt Romney firmly places the politics of sequestration at the administration's doorstep. The president then denies that these cuts will happen. The world will not end, in any case, but it's not like this had to happen in the first place. The administration played hard on the fiscal cliff talks. The Dems got tax increases but said that wasn't going to be enough. They still want more spending. We're pushing toward a national debt of $17 trillion. When the left starts taking the enormous bloat of the federal government seriously perhaps we'll finally get a handle on things. But I'm not holding my breath.

Also from Pejman Yousefzadeh, at Richochet, "Some Facts about Sequestration that the New York Times Fails to Understand."

Jennifer Love Hewitt Gets in Shape!

This is the best she's looked in quite awhile, at Celebslam, "More of those 'Jennifer Love Hewitt' pics."

I love this shot.

Jordan Downs' Project Fatherhood

When I read Joseph Stiglitz's piece at the New York Times, "Equal Opportunity, Our National Myth," I thought, "Okay, I agree. We have these enormous problems. It might not be as bad as you say --- where's the comparative historical data for advancement, for example? --- but no doubt we have problems. But does more government expansion --- so much more --- always have to be the answer? What about helping to change the cultures of poverty that prevent social mobility?"

Then a later I read this piece at the Los Angeles Times, and thought, "Okay, if only we had more of this, a lot more?" See, "REMAKING JORDAN DOWNS: The father of all support groups":

It started in 2009 on a patch of grass outside the Jordan Downs gym. A group of ex-Crips gave haircuts and grilled hamburgers, hoping families and fathers would show up, relax and begin to talk.

"Growing up the way we did, during the time we did, a lot of the dads might as well have been in some other world," says Andre "Low Down" Christian, one of the leaders. "It's a big reason why things ended up as rough as they did here."

He tells of getting into a fight and tracking down his father for advice. His father gave him brass knuckles and a sawed-off shotgun.

"There had to be a better way of looking at being a dad," he says. "That's what we wanted people to think about."

Those initial weeks in front of the gym, five people came. The local fire station donated steaks and a barbecue. Time passed. Twenty arrived. Then 25.

John King, the Los Angeles Housing Authority official who oversees the community center, was already trying to change the culture in Jordan Downs as preparations were made to rebuild the 700-unit apartment complex. He offered his support and told the men to use his conference room.

By the summer of 2011, backed by a $50,000 grant from the nonprofit Children's Institute, the loose amalgamation of men became something more formal. Now they had a name, Project Fatherhood, and were part of a regional network of meetings the institute sponsored, focusing on men and their kids.

The Watts group has the feel of an urban barbershop: full of jokes and jealousy, grace and anger. Early on, two street toughs entered the room as the men spoke. Wearing trench coats, not saying a word, they walked around the oval of tables, suspiciously checking out the scene.

"They were wondering what exactly was going on with these older dudes," says the UCLA professor, Jorja Leap, who, assuming the toughs were carrying shotguns, followed the fathers' lead and didn't say a word. "They had to see for themselves what this meeting was about. Was it a threat to them? When they found out what we were doing, they gave their OK."

Project Fatherhood became part of the fabric of Jordan Downs. As the Wednesdays piled up, the men grew comfortable talking about their problems. They "were carrying deep troubles, questions and fears about being dads," Leap says. "Problem was, they didn't have many examples of good fathering, so they were coming up with answers from scratch."

RTWT.

But in the public community colleges, I see first hand the kind of investments the state is making in public education. I'm sure we could do more, but it all costs, and the economy can't support increasing "investment." On the other hand, when students are attending classes, they're not bringing anywhere near the needed social requisites for success in college education. And they come to us without those skills, from the K-12 system. More government spending isn't the solution to all of the problems Stiglitz identifies. But he's a big government progressive. Talking about the culture for people like that is "racist." In turn that consigns generations of Americans to poverty. Start changing the culture --- combined with making equal opportunity truly available --- and you'll see more upward mobility. We should be talking about it. From the president on down, we should be talking about it.

The New #CPAC Schedule is Here!

I'm not joking with "The Jerk" headline at top.

Rachel Maddow starts out her sensational report on CPAC 2013 with a Steve Martin clip. She then cherry picks a few of the more offbeat panels to highlight --- wait for it! --- just how filled with fringe freaks are the CPAC conferences.

Robert Stacy McCain had more on this propaganda earlier, "Another Controversial CPAC Scandal!™":

How long have I been covering the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)? Forever, it seems, and every year the liberal media find some reason to denounce CPAC as extreme, fringe, controversial.

From my perspective, the biggest CPAC controversy this year is that they moved it from the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in northwest D.C. — near the Adams-Morgan district and a short taxi ride from downtown — to the new Gaylord National Harbor resort, eight miles south of town in Prince George’s County, Md.

I could think of a dozen arguments against this move, and have heard only one argument in favor of it: They got a great rate.

Well, so much for my CPAC controversy. The really big controversy according to liberal Sarah Reese Jones is this:

CPAC: White Supremacists and Wayne LaPierre are Welcome, but GOProud is Banned

Students of propaganda techniques should ponder how Jones manages to suggest that Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association is somehow as controversial as “white supremacists.”

But wait a minute: Who are these “white supremacists” being welcomed at CPAC? Looking over the announced schedule, I don’t see any, unless Sarah Reese Jones is using the liberal definition of “white supremacist” as “someone who didn’t vote for Obama.”

Continue reading.

The real conspiracy is how the progressive collectivists have perverted the culture to fool a majority of Americans that the left's Marxist agenda is mainstream. But they thrive on propaganda and Maddow's show is one of the left's top propaganda outfits.

What is 'Natural Born'?

I'm not sure why it's important, but William Jacobson feels he must respond to attacks from "birther" conspiracy-mongers. I guess these are not infrequent, as William explains, "This will be dealt with."

Read it all at the link above. The email William posts in pretty fascinating:

JACOBSON: First you display your inexcusable contempt for the law by keeping the fact of Obama’s ineligibility from your readers, for whatever discreditable reasons. Now you double down and defend and promote the candidacies of two more ineligibles, Rubio and Jindal. (The reason the Democrats have to paint Rubio and Jindal as crazies is because they know that thanks to people like you, the Republicans would actually put up an ineligible candidate.) What is wrong with you? Don’t you have any respect for the Constitution? Or for a government of laws? You enable, aid and abet lawbreakers. You are a Professor of Law and your conduct is so egregious you are an indelible stain on the profession.

Debate me, defend your conduct in any public setting. Or defend in writing your enablement of Obama and promotion of other ineligible candidates. You can’t, can you? There is no honorable defense, is there? No. You and your ilk are largely responsible for Obama’s tremendously destructive foreign and domestic policies of the past four years. Had you and your colleagues in the Conservative MSM spoken up four years ago, the Federal Courts would have removed Obama and avoided so much damage done and so much damage yet to be done.

Such lawlessness. Such dishonesty. Such cowardice.

I can't comment on Jindal et al.'s eligibility just yet, but if folks are making a natural born case against Obama then they're accepting as fact that he was born in Hawaii (which would confer automatic eligibility under the 14th Amendment) but that it takes two American parents for a child to be considered natural born (and that's apparently regardless of the same birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment). I always thought the question of Obama's birth certification by the State of Hawaii a bit fishy, and Obama hasn't helped matters by refusing to release his full authenticated birth certificate (with vital medical information, witnesses, etc.) rather than the cheap-ass computer print-out claiming "certification of live birth." (Obama is all about hiding who is he, on his academic transcripts, as another example; the left fears the truth, while the right has obsessed over it.) No matter. The courts ruled against challenges to Obama's eligibility and after awhile it gets to be a bit like Captain Ahab. In any case, William must be facing a lot of hostility because he's researching it and will post his findings for the record. A quick search turned up some information, which is interesting, no matter how you view the issues: "Birther Claims Debunked: Two Citizen Parents." What's also interesting is that this president has engendered so much hatred, so much conspiracy theorizing, that no matter how deranged it is, there's some kind of weird legitimacy to the movement in the sense that Obama really is "post-American" in his ideological outlook and Marxist orientation to the state and political culture. It's definitely a unique manifestation. It's what drives most of our polarization. The question is centrally about the meaning of being an American and living under the law and according to a traditional set of values that are exceptional. The left has abandoned that exceptionalism. The president is the standard bearer for the destruction of that decency and history. All of this was inevitable when the Democrat Party ended up nominating Obama and when the American people bought the lies and elected him. We'll be digging out from this monstrosity for decades, if we ever fully recover.

As for the citizenship thing, at this point it's moot, in any case. Barack Hussein ain't going anywhere. So I'll be interested to see what happens with Jindal and the others. Stay tuned as far as that goes.

'Take It Easy'

My wife and I caught Showtime's "History of the Eagles" last night. It's worth your time if you get the chance. And it was even more fun since my wife just got an invitation from the MGM Grand to see the Eagles live in Las Vegas on March 23rd. We saw the Eagles at the Honda Center in Anaheim in 2010 and Don Henley at Harrah's Rincon in 2011. But this time we'll be talking our two sons to the show.

In any case, when Travis Tritt made this video for his cover of the Eagles' "Taking It Easy," he asked the original band members to appear, and it turns out that they enjoyed being together again and decided to make their comeback. The Showtime documentary covers all of that and more. A great American band.

Rand Paul on Fox News Sunday: Can Obama Kill Americans on American Soil With Drone Strikes?

A great segment with Senator Paul:

As always, it's more about the left's hypocrisy with me, although I just can't reconcile killing Awlaki's 16-year-old kid.

Also at Fox News, "Graham, Paul split on U.S. drone strikes, impact of upcoming $85B spending cuts." And more video here, "Sen. Rand Paul : I'll Decide in 2014 on a Presidential Run." Plus, at Reason, "Rand Paul: Not Running for President Except to Win, America Ready for Libertarian Republican."

You Might Be a Democrat

More cartoons, via The Looking Spoon on Twitter:

#YouMightBeADemocrat if you enjoy the support of the Communist Party twitter.com/TheLookingSpoo…
— The Looking Spoon (@TheLookingSpoon) February 17, 2013

Also, from Trevor Loudon, "“On the Current Marxist Revolution”."

Sunday Cartoons

Via Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Econocide."

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

And at Jill Stanek's, "Stanek Sunday funnies 2-17-13."

Raphael Golb Created 82 Sock Puppets, Harassed Scholars Who Ignored His Father's Work, and Was Charged With 51 Counts of Identity Theft, Aggravated Harassment, Criminal Impersonation, Forgery and Unauthorized Computer Use at NYU

This is an amazing story, and especially relevant, consider the left's depraved war of lawfare and intimidation against conservatives. The dude was pissed off that scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls --- the Dead Sea Scrolls! --- were ignoring his dad's scholarly contributions so he waged a criminally-obsessed online jihad against them. Sounds familiar, I know.

See the New York Times, "Online Battle Over Sacred Scrolls, Real-World Consequences":

Between 2006 and 2009, he created more than 80 online aliases to advance his father’s views about the Dead Sea Scrolls against what he saw as a concerted effort to exclude them. Along the way, according to a jury and a panel of appellate court judges, he crossed from engaging in academic debate to committing a crime.

What he accomplished through this manner of intellectual warfare is, like the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves, a topic on which opinion is passionately diverse, with no shortage of bad blood.

“This has nothing to do with scholarly debate,” said Lawrence H. Schiffman, vice provost of Yeshiva University and a widely published authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls, who became the prime target of Mr. Golb’s online activities. “It has to do with criminal activity.

“Fraud, impersonation and harassment are criminal matters,” he continued. “This was actually designed to literally end my career.”

Mr. Golb’s father, Norman Golb, 85, a professor of Jewish History and Civilization at the University of Chicago, placed the wrong squarely on the other side. “The D.A. took a scholarly quarrel and makes a case against Raphael Golb and not against what those other people are doing, which was worse,” he said. “The vindictiveness, the anger, the ugliness, that’s O.K. because it comes from the other side.” ...

*****

In 2006 and 2007, when several American museums announced exhibits of the scrolls, Raphael Golb was incensed that his father’s theory had not been acknowledged in the shows. “They teach scorn for my father,” Mr. Golb said, accusing rival academics of “indoctrinating students in a culture of hatred.”

“This is a system where they suppress people by excluding them,” he added.

At the time, the younger Mr. Golb was researching a book about French secularism and working just enough as a real estate lawyer to pay his bills. He also received money from his parents. The Internet offered ways for him to argue his father’s case. He wouldn’t have to use his real name, which others “would simply use to smear my father,” he said. Instead, he could post under an alias — or four, five or six. He began posting comments on the museums’ Web sites, complaining that the exhibits were one-sided.

He started a blog; then another and another, each under a different name. The aliases begot other aliases, known on the Internet as sock puppets: 20, 40, 60, 80. The sock puppets debated with other posters, each time linking to other sock puppets to support their arguments, creating the impression of an army of engaged scholars espousing Norman Golb’s ideas. Using the alias Charles Gadda (from the Italian writer Carlo Emilio Gadda), Raphael Golb published articles on the citizen news Web site NowPublic and linked to them in comments and blog posts written under other aliases. The writings all championed Norman Golb as an honest scholar bucking a well-financed, self-serving conspiracy.

He acted as an online troll, stirring up controversy. “Was it appropriate for a scientific institution to allow a group of Christian academics to impose their agenda on an exhibit of ancient documents taking place under its auspices?” he asked of an exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum, in an Oct. 6, 2007, article. That article, he said, drew 16,000 views.

“They saw this happening and they were furious, because I was sabotaging their Internet campaign,” Raphael Golb said of the museums. His father’s rivals, he suspected, used sock puppets to answer his comments.

“It became a kind of war,” he said. “It was very ugly. But I was glad it was happening. I was like, this is great. This draws more attention to my father’s work.” To a family member he wrote, “they are faced with a dedicated, in-the-know adversary who is out to get them, and there’s simply nothing they can do about it.”

One of Mr. Golb’s targets was a graduate student named Robert R. Cargill, who created a virtual tour of Qumran for the San Diego museum.

Norman Golb posted an article on the Web site of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago complaining that the film’s script ignored his theory.

Raphael Golb went further, sending pseudonymous e-mails to Mr. Cargill’s professors at U.C.L.A.

“I said this person should be compelled to answer the published criticisms of his work at his Ph.D. defense,” Raphael Golb said. Some of the e-mail messages suggested that Mr. Cargill, who describes himself as agnostic, was a fundamentalist Christian and an anti-Semite.

Mr. Cargill, who is now 39 and an assistant professor of classics and religious studies at the University of Iowa, remembered Mr. Golb’s campaign as a frontal assault meant to thwart his career.

“Any time someone hears the name Robert Cargill, they hear, he’s anti-Semitic,” Mr. Cargill said. “Let’s say I’m applying for a job and I’m in a pool of 10 finalists. When they do background checking, they see this Cargill looks like he’s being criticized as anti-Semitic. We don’t know if it’s legitimate, but it’s safer to go with someone else.”

The e-mails kept coming. According to papers filed by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, from June 2007 to June 2009, Mr. Golb’s aliases Steve Frankel, Carlo Gadda, Don Matthews, David Kaplan, Emily Kaufman, Jesse Friedman and Robert Dworkin sent dozens of e-mails to hundreds of people at U.C.L.A., all attacking Mr. Cargill. “The volume of defendant’s alias creation,” the court papers read, “and his planning with others, speaks to the deliberate intent in conducting defendant’s operation.”

Mr. Cargill fought back. A typical e-mail message or blog post has an Internet protocol address that identifies the computer used to create it. Using simple software that identified the I.P. addresses, he traced the e-mails and blog posts of 82 aliases to the same few computers. Beneath one of Mr. Golb’s pseudonymous comments, he posted a message, using the pseudonym Raphael Joel, a combination of Mr. Golb’s first name and his brother’s. The message was: We know who you are....

*****

Raphael Golb was naked and asleep when police officers came to his apartment early on the morning of March 5, 2009, arresting him on 51 charges of identity theft, aggravated harassment, criminal impersonation, forgery and unauthorized use of the computers in an N.Y.U. library. He had been up all of the previous night writing comments or blog posts under his various aliases. The officers seized Mr. Golb’s computers and led him handcuffed from his building. Waiving his rights to a lawyer and to remain silent, Mr. Gold denied sending any bogus e-mail messages, telling the investigators that Dr. Schiffman had filed a false complaint “out of maliciousness toward my father.” He added, “I find the guy a bit nauseating, to tell the truth.”

Mr. Golb later rejected a plea deal that would have kept him out of jail.

At his trial in September 2010, Mr. Golb admitted to all of his writings, but defended his use of pseudonyms as a time-honored vehicle for criticism and debate — and a staple of Internet culture. He wasn’t trying to defraud anybody or gain anything, his lawyers argued; he just wanted his father’s views represented. If he was guilty of slander or libel, his victims could sue him in civil court.

“I’m not saying anybody here acted well,” Mr. Kuby said. “I just don’t think anybody acted criminally.”

This should be interesting to some of our friends on the right, especially Robert Stacy McCain, "Deranged Cyberstalker Bill Schmalfeldt Charged With Deranged Cyberstalking." And discussed there is Lee Stranahan, who's been quite busy of late. For example, "My Statement About Criminal Harassment Charges Against Bill Schmalfeldt." Also, "Bill Schmalfeldt’s Double Dip Harassment Part 1," and "Bill Schmalfeldt’s Creepy Obsession With Photos Of My Wife (NSFW)."

And Lee tweeted some of Schmalfeldt's deranged ravings:

Exhibit Y | breitbartunmasked.com/the-stranahans…
— Lee Stranahan (@Stranahan) February 16, 2013

And I'll tell you, I'm eternally thankful that all the Internet harassment and stalking I beat back never escalated to this level. Either way, folks should know that if you're out here standing up for decency and right, the despicable left knows no depths of viciousness, deceit and dishonor. You will fight for your life because the left will attempt to destroy you. Recall that Stranahan had to move away at one point and relocate, to protect the safety of his family. And Robert Stacy McCain did the same. It's hard out there for a righteous mofo, but remember that this Rafael Golb dude --- whether you think he's right or wrong, and I think he went overboard --- is looking at an almost certain 6 months behind bars, so be assured that when lines get crossed on the Internet --- and they do get crossed --- people go to jail.

As California Goes, So Goes the Nation

On unchecked immigration, that is, from Mexico and lands beyond.

At the New York Times, "California Eases Tone as Latinos Make Gains":

LOS ANGELES — A generation ago, California voters approved a ballot initiative that was seen as the most anti-immigrant law in the nation. Immigrants who had come to the country illegally would be ineligible to receive prenatal care, and their children would be barred from public schools.

But the law, which was later declared unconstitutional by the federal courts, never achieved the goal of its backers: to turn back the tide of immigrants pouring into the state. Instead, since the law was approved in 1994, the political and social reality has changed drastically across the state. Now, more California residents than ever before say that immigrants are a benefit to the state, according to public opinion polls from the Public Policy Institute of California.

As Congress begins debating an overhaul of the immigration system, many in California sense that the country is just now beginning to go through the same evolution the state experienced over the last two decades. For a generation of Republicans, Gov. Pete Wilson’s barrages on the impact of immigration in the 1990s spoke to their uneasiness with the way the state was changing. Now many California Republicans point to that as the beginning of their downfall.

Today, party leaders from both sides, and from all over the state, are calling for a softer approach and a wholesale change in federal policies.

The state’s changing attitudes are driven, in large part, by demographics. In 1990, Latinos made up 30 percent of the state’s population; they will make up 40 percent — more than any other ethnic group — by the end of this year, and 48 percent by 2050, according to projections made by the state this month. This year, for the first time, Latinos were the largest ethnic group applying to the University of California system.

Towns that just a decade ago were largely white now have Latino majorities. Latinos make up an important power base not only in urban centers like Los Angeles, but also in places that were once hostile to outsiders. There are dozens of city councils with a majority of Latino members, a Mexican-American is the mayor of Los Angeles and another is the leader of the State Assembly. Nearly all of the 15 California Republicans in Congress represent districts where at least a quarter of the residents are Latino.

“The political calculus has changed dramatically,” said Manuel Pastor, a demographer and professor of American studies at the University of Southern California. “Immigrants are an accepted part of public life here. And California is America fast-forward. What happened to our demographics between 1980 and 2000 is almost exactly what will happen to the rest of the country over the next 30 years.””

They may or may not be accepted, but they're certainly not fully assimilated. There's a lot of Latinos who barely speak English, if they do at all, especially in the ethnic enclaves where folks don't have to interact with the outside world. Victor Davis Hanson continues to be the best on this, in his book, for example, Mexifornia.

More at that top link.

Catholics React to Pope Benedict's Resignation

From Peggy Noonan, at the Wall Street Journal, "A Faith Unshaken but Unsettled":

It is disquieting, the resignation of the pope. "We are in uncharted territory," said a historian of the church. An old pope is leaving but staying within the walls of the Vatican, and a new one, younger and less known, will come before Easter.

In a week's conversation with faithful and believing Catholics, I detected something I've never quite heard before, and that is a deep, unshaken, even cheerful faith accompanied by a certain anxiety, even foreboding. I heard acceptance of Pope Benedict's decision coupled with an intense sympathy for what is broadly understood to be his suffering, from health problems to the necessity that his decision was a lonely one, its deepest reasoning known only to him. There was a lot of speculation that attempting to run the Vatican in the new age of technology, of leaks and indiscretions and instant responses, would have been hard on him.

So here are some things Catholics have been telling me...

RTWT.

Erick Erickson Brings Down the Hammer on GOProud's #CPAC Bashing

Everyone's all abuzz about the upcoming CPAC conference, especially as it turns out that the event sponsors have renewed the ban on GOProud's official participation. I wasn't so impressed with the GOProud idiots in 2011 when I was there, especially since they acted just like any other radical progressive group with regard to the political controversy. Now lots of the libertarian conservatives are whining about how mean the CPAC honchos are, or whatever, although I couldn't care less about making the tent bigger for these homosexual bullies.

In any case, here's Erick Erickson's smackdown, "This is Too Much For Me."

Read it at the link.

A lot of this is deja vu for me, but it's interesting nevertheless.

Blast in Crowded Market Kills Dozens in Pakistan

At the New York Times, "Explosion in Crowded Market Kills Dozens in Pakistan":

KARACHI, Pakistan — A devastating explosion ripped through a crowded market in the western city of Quetta on Saturday, killing at least 63 people and wounding at least 180, the police said.

The attack occurred in a neighborhood dominated by Hazaras, a Shiite ethnic minority that has suffered numerous attacks at the hands of Sunni militant death squads in recent years.

A previous attack on Jan. 10, when a Sunni group bombed a snooker hall in Quetta, killed almost 100 Hazaras, prompting domestic and international outrage.

The police said that Saturday’s bomb was apparently set off by a remote-controlled device, possibly hidden in a rickshaw. The explosion caused a building to collapse and the death toll to rise sharply.

RTWT.

Reeva Steenkamp Hid From Oscar Pistorius: Details of Murdered Star's Last Moments

At New York Daily News, "Model girlfriend fled to bathroom as Oscar Pistorius shot her through the door: neighbor":

Details of the Valentine’s Day murder emerged as Pistorius sobbed inside a South African courtroom before prosecutors alleged the shooting of Reeva Steenkamp was a cold-blooded killing.

THE MODEL girlfriend of Olympic hero Oscar Pistorius spent her final minutes cowering behind a bathroom door after a late-night fight with her gun-loving boyfriend. The internationally acclaimed double-amputee sprinter pumped four bullets through the door and into the helpless blond beauty, a neighbor told a South African newspaper.

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Oscar Pistorius 'tried to resuscitate dying girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp after shooting her four times': Blade Runner carried model downstairs after she was shot."

Added: "Was Reeva's skull crushed with bloodied cricket bat 'found' at Blade Runner's House? Horrific new claims about model's death."

Rising Gun Ownership Among Women is Statement of Independence and Personal Power

To hear radical feminists, you'd think that guns are the biggest threat to the very existence of women. (See Amanda Marcotte's deluded rants here, here, here, and here.) But according to the New York Times, amazingly, it's women who are now an increasingly robust demographic for gun sales. They are feeling independent and empowered --- exactly the opposite of what radical feminists want for women.

See, "Rising Voice of Gun Ownership Is Female":

PAINESVILLE, Ohio — Mary Ann Froebe stood feet apart with knees slightly bent and aimed the .22-caliber Ruger semiautomatic.

“You’ve got some adrenaline running through you right now,” said Esther Beris, the coordinator of the northeastern Ohio chapter of A Girl and a Gun Women’s Shooting League. “It’s O.K., just relax.”

Ms. Froebe, 42, a small-business owner who described herself as a “virgin gun shooter,” concentrated and pulled the trigger. “It was awesome,” she said, her face flushed, after emptying the 10-round magazine. “The sense of control, of being in charge of me.”

In the debate over firearms regulations, the voices of gun owners have largely been those of men. But at firing ranges across the country, a growing number of women are learning to use firearms and honing their skills.

Women’s participation in shooting sports has surged over the last decade, increasing by 51.5 percent for target shooting from 2001 to 2011, to just over 5 million women, and by 41.8 percent for hunting, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

Gun sales to women have risen in concert. In a survey last year by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, 73 percent of gun dealers said the number of female customers had gone up in 2011, as had a majority of retailers surveyed in the two previous years.

Manufacturers have increasingly geared advertising toward women, marketing special firearms models with smaller frames, custom colors (pink is a favorite), and accessories like the “concealed carry” “salmon kiss” leather handbag offered by Cobra Firearms or the leopard shooting gloves and Bullet Rosette jewelry sold by Sweet Shot (“Look cute while you shoot!” is the company’s motto).

Women’s shooting clubs have also proliferated — not just in small towns like Painesville, but also in Atlanta, Houston, even Manhattan, where a women’s gun club meets regularly at a firing range in Chelsea, a neighborhood better known for art galleries.

On a recent Friday, Ms. Froebe and eight other women attended the Painesville shooting league’s inaugural Breakfast and Bullets gathering at Perkins Family Restaurant for brunch and then moved on to Atwell’s Shooting Range. There, Ms. Beris taught them how to hold and load a handgun safely and then coached them on the range.

Though they may share a fierce belief in the Second Amendment with their male counterparts, female gun owners often learn to shoot for different reasons, their interest in and proficiency with firearms not just a hobby or a means for self-defense, but a statement of independence and personal power.

Continue reading.

Van Jones Falls for Hilarous Fox News Meteorite Photoshop

This is funny. At Weasel Zippers, "Former Obama Czar Van Jones Falls For Blatant Hoax Smearing Fox News…"

And at Twitchy, "Hilarious: Van Jones falls for ridiculous Photoshop smearing Fox News as Russian meteor truthers."

.@weaselzippers @vanjones68 @stevensinger3 FOX News is already reporting on this hoax story => twitter.com/LeftyBollocks/…
— Lefty Bollocks (@LeftyBollocks) February 16, 2013

And flashback to 2009, at ABC News, "Controversial Obama Administration Official Denies Being Part of 9/11 “Truther” Movement, Apologizes for Past Comments."

Lefties like Rachel Maddow are all about attacking conservatives as conspiracy freaks, but the MSNBC idiots should stay focused on their own backyard.

Deneen Borelli to Dr. Ben Carson: 'The Black Liberal Establishment is Not Going to Be Happy With You...'

One of the highlights of Dr. Carson's town hall with Sean Hannity:

'No Human Being Is Illegal'

Folks might remember radical open-borders activist Jose Antonio Vargas, who was featured last year in Time Magazine's disgustingly lawless cover feature on American's so-called "undocumented immigrants."

Well the douche testified before Congress this week. The Washington Times reports, "Illegal immigrant tells Congress not to call him illegal."

And here's Katie Pavlich from this morning's Fox & Friends, shredding the idiotic logic that "no human being is illegal":

Paleocons Attack Rand Paul for Backing Israel's National Security Interests

iOWNTHEWORLD gets right down to the nub of the issue.

See: "We Have Our Answer – Rand Paul is not the Jew Hater His Dad Is."

And amazingly, MSNBC hack Rachel Maddow aligns herself with the crackpot paleo Jew-bashers in trying to other-ize Rand Paul as a crazed conspiracy-monger: "Maddow blasts ‘space cadet’ Rand Paul’s conspiracy theories."

The paleocon freaks are joined with the anti-Israel left in an unholy alliance of hate and anti-Semitism.

Everything's pretty f-ked up these days  — except Rand Paul, who's been righteously right-on in his recent speeches and commentary.

Another Jennifer Nicole Lee Bikini Booty Slip!

She does this every time, at London's Daily Mail, "Oops! Jennifer Nicole Lee reveals more than she bargained for as her tiny string bikini slips during dip in the pool."

PREVIOUSLY: "Yet Another Batch of Jennifer Nicole Lee Bikini Pics!", and "Oops! She Does it Again! Smokin' Jennifer Nicole Lee Bikini Malfunction in Las Vegas."

Bonus Saturday Rule 5: Sabine Jemeljanova

This young lady just popped up in my timeline, and as I'm doing some Saturday Rule 5, enjoy:

RT @nutsmagicmon: #ff @sabinejofficial twitter.com/NutsMagicMon/s… :)
— Sabine Jemeljanova (@SabineJofficial) February 8, 2013

Rule 5 — On Demand

Folks are sending me their Rule 5 links, so I might as well get with the program.

See First Street Journal, "Rule 5 Blogging: In Iraq," and Reaganite Republican, "Ooh-La-La! Miss France 2012 is Marie Payet."

More at Pirate's Cove, "If All You See……is a drought world by a fossil fueled vehicle, you might just be a Warmist."

And at Bob Belvedere's, "Rule 5 News: 16 February 2013 A.D.", and "Rule 5 Saturday,February 9: Saskia Howard-Clark."

Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart: Carly Foulkes." And Woodsterman, "The Brunette ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

More at Eye of Polyphemus, "Amanda Seyfried," and Laughing Conservative, "Nikki Cox."

And from Wirecutter, "Camel Toe." And Subject to Change, "Rule 5 Hotties."

Now over at 90 Miles from Tyranny, "Rule 5 - Girls with Guns."

And at Theo Spark, "Saturday Totties...", and "Bonus Totty..."

LAUSD's John Deasy Wants Test Scores to Count for 30 Percent of Teacher Evaluations

He'll be firing a lot of teachers. Basing teacher evaluations on student performance blames teachers for student learning problems over which they have little control.

At LAT, "Deasy wants 30% of teacher evaluations based on test scores":

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy announced Friday that as much as 30% of a teacher's evaluation will be based on student test scores, setting off more contention in the nation's second-largest school system in the weeks before a critical Board of Education election.

Leaders of the teachers union have insisted that there should be no fixed percentage or expectation for how much standardized tests should count — and that test results should serve almost entirely as just one measure to improve instruction. Deasy, in contrast, has insisted that test scores should play a significant role in a teacher's evaluation and that poor scores could contribute directly to dismissal.

In a Friday memo explaining the evaluation process, Deasy set 30% as the goal and the maximum for how much test scores and other data should count.

In an interview, he emphasized that the underlying thrust is to develop an evaluation that improves the teaching corps and that data is part of the effort.

"The public has been demanding a better evaluation system for at least a decade. And teachers have repeatedly said to me what they need is a balanced way forward to help them get better and help them be accountable," Deasy said. "We do this for students every day. Now it's time to do this for teachers."

Deasy also reiterated that test scores would not be a "primary or controlling" factor in an evaluation, in keeping with the language of an agreement reached in December between L.A. Unified and its teachers union. Classroom observations and other factors also are part of the evaluation process.

But United Teachers Los Angeles President Warren Fletcher expressed immediate concern about Deasy's move. During negotiations, he said, the superintendent had proposed allotting 30% to test scores but the union rejected the plan. Deasy then pulled the idea off the table, which allowed the two sides to come to an agreement, Fletcher said. Teachers approved the pact last month.

"To see this percentage now being floated again is unacceptable," the union said in a statement.

Fletcher described the pact as allowing flexibility for principals, in collaboration with teachers, first to set individual goals and then to look at various measures to determine student achievement and overall teacher performance.

"The superintendent doesn't get to sign binding agreements and then pretend they're not binding," Fletcher said.

I couldn't care less about these union hacks, but the district will only punish teachers for students who refuse to learn, who live in disfunctional families, and who are influenced by the norms of hip-hop gang-bang culture 100 times more than the long lost culture of scholarly commitment.

More at that top link.

Three-Pointers Have Fundamentally Transformed the NBA

I don't often watch basketball, but when I do, there's few plays more exciting that a nothin'-but-net three-pointer.

At LAT, "Three-pointers: NBA's convenant of the arc":

Steve Kerr vividly recalls being a 10-year-old kid, with a basketball tucked under his arm, staring up at the rim from behind an imaginary three-point line he had paced off in the driveway.

The basket looked a block away.

"I remember thinking, 'How does anybody ever make one of these?'" said Kerr, 47, who never could have dreamed he would end a 15-year NBA career as the league's most accurate three-point shooter.

That long shot — once dismissed as a publicity stunt — has fundamentally changed professional basketball. It has reshaped offensive and defensive philosophies at all levels, and significantly enhanced the value of players who can make shots from long range.

"You always want to have a knock-down three-point shooter or somebody who can actually have the ability to create a three-point shot for anybody else," said guard Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers, one of six competitors Saturday in the Three-Point Shootout, a highlight of NBA All-Star Weekend in Houston.

The three-pointer, first used by the NBA on a trial basis in the 1979-80 season, has morphed from a lightly used gadget to a cornerstone of the game. In that first season, teams averaged fewer than one three-point basket per game. Thursday night, for example, the Clippers made 16 three-pointers in a romp over the Lakers.

Three-point shooters were once specialists parked at the end of the bench who typically made brief appearances late in games. Occasionally, if they got hot at the right time, those sharpshooters might bring their team back from the brink of defeat.

These days, a player who can hit shots from downtown has undeniable upward mobility.

The NBA has a slew of power forwards in the 6-foot-10 range who can consistently drain long shots, thereby stretching defenses to their limits. That outside threat draws big defenders to the perimeter, and creates more room for guards to drive to the basket.

The NBA three-point line measures 23 feet 9 inches from the basket at the top of the free-throw circle and 22 feet at the corners, the spot most shooters prefer. To bump up scoring in the mid-1990s, the league briefly tried moving the line to a uniform 22 feet before returning to the current configuration. The three-point arcs in college (20-9) and high school (19-9) are closer to the basket.

"Where big players 30 years ago were confined to the low block, a lot of guys can shoot that shot now," said Mitch Kupchak, general manager of the Lakers. "Look at Pau Gasol. He's taken more threes in the last year or two than he took in the first eight or nine years of his career."

In the last 11/2 seasons with the Lakers, Gasol has made 15 of 53 three-point attempts. That approaches the total of his previous 11 seasons, in which he made 19 of 85.

The once-fluid pro game that was predicated on spacing and flow and movement is now more dominated by two groups of players: those clogging the middle and those sharking outside the arc and waiting to take their shot. Many experts believe that has had an impact on how well players perform in the area inside the arc but outside the key — the jump shot that once was a staple of the league.

"Very few players now can take one or two dribbles, pull up at 15 or 17 feet, and make shots," Lakers assistant coach Chuck Person said. Perhaps 15 or 20 players out of roughly 450 in the league, Person added, excel at the mid-range jump shot. "Teams just don't work on it anymore."

More at that top link.

I'm Thinking North Dakota or Montana Might Be Nice Places to Retire

Yeah, it's a while before I'll be able to retire, and then my wife will be working for some time after that. But we talk about it. Maybe California's a lost cause and it's time to start thinking about a nice place to live, lower taxes and a more traditional social environment.

A couple of weeks back Gallup mentioned North Dakota as one of the most conservative states in the union. See, "Alabama, North Dakota, Wyoming Most Conservative States." I'm not sure about Alabama, but Wyoming might be nice.

And what about Montana? Next to North Dakota it's got the lowest percentage of self-identified homosexuals, so my wife and I won't be bombarded with the radical left's depraved rim-station ideologies all the time. See, "LGBT Percentage Highest in D.C., Lowest in North Dakota." North Dakota's at 1.7 percent homosexual self-identification, and Montana's at 2.6 percent. Check the piece for the full results. Most of the Mountain States look excellent. And of course it's not just the numbers, but the culture. California's trending away from American exceptionalism. That's not cool. We're not quite like the Nation's Capital yet. But it's not for trying.

(Note: Nevada's a little on the homosexual high side, but it's a no income tax state, so in the end it'll be a balance of factors. It ain't teh gays so much as the crushing collectivist ideologies that they're so hopelessly identified with.)

What It Feels Like Being a Conservative on the Internet

This is funny, at Buzzfeed.

Saving America: Dr. Benjamin Carson on Sean Hannity's Show

Dr. Carson spoke last Thursday, when I was traveling. Here's his speech criticizing President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast, "Dr. Benjamin Carson Addresses National Prayer Breakfast, Criticizes Obamacare."

And here's the opening segment from tonight's Hannity, which was just awesome:

And the interview continues here, here, here (focus group!), and here.

Also, Hannity's earlier interview with Dr. Carson, "Hannity Interviews Dr. Ben Carson About National Prayer Breakfast Speech."

And see Star Parker, at WND, "BEN CARSON OWES NO APOLOGIES."

#Dorner Died of Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound

At NBC News 4 Los Angeles, "Sheriff's Officials: Dorner Died of Single Gunshot Wound to Head":

At a news conference Friday, sheriff's Capt. Kevin Lacey said the autopsy showed Dorner's cause of death to be a single gunshot wound to the head. He said he would not speak about the "manner of death."

"The information we have right now seems to indicate that the wound that took Christopher Dorner's life was self-inflicted," Lacey said.

Rifle found among #Dorner's weapons cache was inscribed with the word "vengeance." 4.nbcla.com/Up9zYN twitter.com/NBCLA/status/3…
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) February 16, 2013