So Feminists Hate Makeup?

I had no idea.

Here's my tweet from last night after seeing Jessica Valenti retweeted in my timeline:

.@JessicaValenti's avi is all glamour and lipstick. Too bad millions of baby girls won't be born to enjoy the same feminine milestones.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) July 3, 2013

Valenti got a kick out of it.

Well this a new one: make abortion illegal because every girl should experience lipstick https://t.co/uw1y8k3s5U

— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) July 3, 2013

Depending on your browser, you might be able to see all the responses in the Twitter timeline. Here's a few choice attacks from all the feminist psycho-vituperation:

@AmPowerBlog Because all women can aspire to is wearing make-up and making babies. Congratulations, you've reached maximum sexist claptrap.

— Megan Taros (@journotics) July 3, 2013

@AmPowerBlog @JessicaValenti Ah, feminine milestones! Like the first time a man told me "good women" submit to a man's authority? Yeah...

— Ellen Fulton (@drbfg) July 3, 2013

@JessicaValenti @AmPowerBlog too bad millions of idiot men still think they can dictate what women should do in the year 2013

— ＡＵＴＯＥＸＥＣ．ＫＡＴ (@papierhache) July 3, 2013

@AmPowerBlog @JessicaValenti no, saying that women should be forced to give birth to daughters and enforce patriarchal gender roles for them

— ＡＵＴＯＥＸＥＣ．ＫＡＴ (@papierhache) July 3, 2013

@AmPowerBlog @JessicaValenti but keep on "praying little girls live" while abortion restrictions would make sure mothers die, you ass

— ＡＵＴＯＥＸＥＣ．ＫＡＴ (@papierhache) July 3, 2013

@AmPowerBlog @JessicaValenti no, i am angry because you're an idiot man who feels entitlement to deny women agency over their own bodies

— ＡＵＴＯＥＸＥＣ．ＫＡＴ (@papierhache) July 3, 2013

@AmPowerBlog too bad millions of millions of people die in murders and accidents and you aren't one of them

— Count Fistula (@0157) July 3, 2013

@AmPowerBlog You do not care about life. Don't pretend u do. U are obsessed with controlling women. Shut it

— MarieMackinnon (@MarieMackinnon) July 3, 2013

And a little backup from the guys:

@AmPowerBlog @journotics say 'wearing a flower in your hair' maybe she'll get it then. Or maybe not.

— barackcastro (@obamaislazy2) July 3, 2013

@AmPowerBlog hard to believe they don't see themselves as waging the war on women. I'm embarrassed for them

— barackcastro (@obamaislazy2) July 3, 2013

@AmPowerBlog Of course not.Today's feminist is about inserting a urinary catheter & blabbering for 13 hours about chopping babies into bits.

— Vern Demerest (@TxAv8r) July 3, 2013

@MarieMackinnon @AmPowerBlog Same BS rhetoric from a science denying low information Feminut who thinks women are just about vaginas

— Doug Hagin (@DaleyGator) July 3, 2013

The inspiration for my feminist trolls, or Ms. Valenti at least:

"Set the foundation with the powdered ashes of Susan B. Anthony" Feminist Makeup Tutorial http://t.co/V42jMjIFtR

— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) June 20, 2013

#ObamaCare Delayed Until 2015

Technically, it's the mandate requiring that employers provide their workers with health insurance that's taking a hit, but since that's really the heart of ObamaCare --- and the Supreme Court ruled as well that individuals who don't buy insurance on their own must pay a tax --- we're really seeing the entire 2009 healthcare cluster-k being repudiated by the Obama White House. This gives Democrats a lifeline to save their sinking asses in the 2014 election, but since the Democrats are in effect admitting their own incompetence (and deception) the Republicans will have an even more powerful hammer to crush the idiot Democrat-Socialists a year from November.

At Twitchy, "Report: WH will delay Obamacare employer mandate until 2015."

And at the New York Times, "Obama Administration to Delay Health Law Requirement Until 2015":

Never. Be. Implemented. RT @whitehouse It's. The. Law. #ObamaCareInThreeWords, pic.twitter.com/TnzsUWyIYq

— Em (@lamblock) July 2, 2013

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that it would delay for a year, until 2015, the Affordable Care Act mandate that employers provide coverage for their workers or pay penalties, responding to business complaints and postponing the effective date beyond next year’s midterm elections.

“We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively,” Mark J. Mazur, an assistant Treasury secretary, wrote on the department’s Web site in disclosing the delay. “We recognize that the vast majority of businesses that will need to do this reporting already provide health insurance to their workers, and we want to make sure it is easy for others to do so.”

Under the 2010 law, employers of more than 50 full-time employees were required to provide them with health insurance starting next year or face fines. Numerous reports had suggested that some companies with payrolls at or just over that size were complaining that they would have to cut some jobs or switch some full-time workers to part-time employment.

The change does not affect other central provisions of the law, in particular those establishing health care marketplaces in the states — known as exchanges — where individual Americans without health insurance can shop from a menu of insurance policies. Under those provisions, subsidies are available for lower-income individuals who qualify.

However, it will be difficult for officials running the exchanges to know who is entitled to subsidies if they are not able to confirm whether employers are offering insurance to their employees. Enrollment in the exchanges is to begin on Oct. 1, and they are to take effect on Jan. 1.

Much of the administration’s public effort, especially at the Department of Health and Human Services, has been directed toward spreading the word to uninsured Americans, especially younger and healthier individuals whose participation is needed to help keep down the price of premiums for everyone else. About 15 percent of Americans are uninsured, so most individuals are unaffected, at least initially.

Behind the scenes, however, the administration has been fielding questions and criticism from businesses about the mandated reporting requirements — especially the Treasury Department, which has responsibility, given its oversight of the nation’s tax reporting system.

Mr. Mazur wrote that the one-year delay “will allow us to consider ways to simplify the new reporting requirements consistent with the law." He added, “Second, it will provide time to adapt health coverage and reporting systems while employers are moving toward making health coverage affordable and accessible for their employees.”

Within the next week, he added, the Treasury will issue official guidance to insurers, self-insuring employers and other parties that provide health coverage. Formal rules will be proposed later this summer, he added.

Don't #StandWithWendy Davis

It turns out Kirsten Powers ain't standing with the idiot Wendy Davis.

Weird that a lot of the same women who cheer Wendy cry at the death of a cat: I Don’t Stand With Wendy Davis http://t.co/DMjZKfOxPn

— David Kahane (@dkahanerules) July 2, 2013

Also at Memeorandum.

FRC Launches 'Voice of the Voiceless'

According to the group's information page:

The mission of Voice of the Voiceless is to defend the rights of former homosexuals, individuals with unwanted same-sex attraction, and their families. We also support the faith-based community and work actively in the United States to defend the constitutional rights of all Americans to share their views of homosexuality in the public forum. We support similar international efforts and provide assistance, whenever possible, to individuals and organizations abroad who align with our mission and goals.

And there's a related Facebook page as well, "Ex-Gays Protecting Traditional Marriage."

Via Memeorandum, where the regressive homosexuals are working overtime on demonizing FRC.

Stay classy, progs. Because we know you people are the model for happy families.

Two Homosexual Men Convicted for Making Hardcore Child Pornography With Adopted Son From Russia

Hey, another day, another news item from the left's program of unicorns and rainbows on the homosexual equality frontier.

Yay progs!

At the Other McCain, "Two Gay Men Used Russian Surrogate Mother to Create Boy for Sex Abuse Ring."

As I've been reporting, it's a daily barrage of progressive contempt and abuse for decency, values and the law. But seriously. Two Los Angeles homosexuals use a Russian surrogate mom to create a baby boy rape toy. That is Democrat values there for you, perfectly.

And come to think of it, LGM's Scotty Lame-ieux needs to update his essay on "the liberal agenda."

Dude, no worries.

There's so much more ahead for the progressive left. Unicorns, rainbows, and homosexual baby boy bondage! Proletarian child pornographers unite!

Hawthorne Police Gun Down Rottweiler After Owner Films SWAT Operation

I like this headline at RT, "Cops arrest California man for filming them and then kill his dog (VIDEO)."

London Daily Mail, "Heartbreaking moment cops shot and killed dog who leapt at officers when owner was being arrested for FILMING them."

The video's all over YouTube, but I think this comment pretty much sums things up:

Several issues here. The very first thing is the guy that has involved himself into a situation that he should have avoided. He should have stayed quiet and watched, not commented while videotaping. He was looking for an issue and found it from a more than willing police force. The dog was an unfortunate victim of stupid actions on the owners part and the police force. STFU and let the officers do their job (which seldom happens) and this crap wouldn't happen. I feel sorry for the dog.

Added: At the Los Angeles Times, "Police fatally shoot Rottweiler; dog's owner alleges retaliation."

UnitedHealth, Nation's Largest Health Insurer, Will Leave California's Individual Insurance Market

You know, because ObamaCare was supposed to increase competition and drive down rates, or something.

Ezra Klein hardest hit, after Obama that is.

At the Los Angeles Times, "UnitedHealth to exit individual insurance market in California":

The nation's largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group Inc., is leaving California's individual health insurance market, the second major company to exit in advance of major changes under the Affordable Care Act.

UnitedHealth said it had notified state regulators that it would leave the state's individual market at year-end and force about 8,000 customers to find new coverage. Last month, Aetna Inc., the nation's third-largest health insurer, made a similar move affecting about 50,000 existing policyholders.

Both companies will keep a major presence in California, focusing instead on large and small employers.

The moves illustrate how different companies are responding to a major overhaul of the health insurance market for millions of consumers. Starting Jan. 1, the federal healthcare law forces insurers to accept all individual applicants regardless of their medical history and provide a comprehensive set of benefits with limits on patients' out-of-pocket spending.

Healthcare experts said some national insurers aren't interested in playing by those new rules in states where their presence in the individual market is relatively small and more profits can be made by tending to the employer market.

"The business model of health insurance is fundamentally changing and some companies are willing and able to adapt," said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms. "Given the limited market share those carriers had, UnitedHealth and Aetna have made the calculation that it required too much of an investment to change their strategy in California."

A spokeswoman for UnitedHealth said "our individual business in California has always been relatively small … [and] over the years, it has become more difficult to administer these plans in a cost-effective way for our members."

The departure of another big-name insurer raised concerns about the effect of reduced competition on California consumers.

"I don't think this is a good result for consumers," said California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. "It means less choice, less competition and even more consolidation of the individual market with three big carriers."

The whole point to ObamaCare was to make insurance affordable precisely to those individuals not covered by the employers' market. It's failing.

Added: From Foxmuldar's Blog, "Obamacare Impact: Another Insurer Leaves California Market."

Germany's Sabine Lisicki Ends Serena Williams' 34-Match Winning Streak

From Helene Elliott, at the Los Angeles Times, "Serena Williams' Wimbledon loss is latest, biggest tennis shocker":

WIMBLEDON, England — Serena Williams insisted her round-of-16 loss to Germany's Sabine Lisicki wasn't a shock, because Lisicki is a good grass-court player with a "massive, massive serve" and was vastly underrated as the 23rd seed. In many ways, that made sense.

What triggered gasps throughout a sport thrown off-kilter by a flood of upsets last week was how unaggressive Williams often was. Overwhelmingly favored to win her sixth Wimbledon and 17th Grand Slam title, she was so ineffective at crucial moments, and so tentative, that "shocking" is the only fitting description for her performance, if not the result itself.

Lisicki's big serve and even bigger store of feistiness were her key weapons Monday in a 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 triumph at Center Court. Although Lisicki lost 14 straight points and nine straight games at one stage — she dropped the final six games of the second set and the first three games of the third — she bounced back decisively to end Williams' 34-match winning streak.

"I went into this match feeling that I could win," said Lisicki, who lives in Bradenton, Fla. "I just was fighting for every single point no matter what was happening out there."

Williams, the defending champion, didn't play like the woman who owns 16 Grand Slam titles and had lost only twice this year. She had a chance to seize control when she led 3-0 and 15-0 in the third set but hit a couple of forehands long and gave Lisicki an opening. Lisicki broke her twice and held serve in a 10-point game to pull even at 4-4 before breaking a rattled Williams again for a 5-4 lead.

"I think that I didn't play the big points good enough," Williams said with admirable honesty. "I didn't do what I do best. I think I had a little hesitation, and that explains it.

"I definitely had my opportunities and I didn't take them. Maybe I backed off a little bit at some points. If I'm going to be successful, I'm never going to do it backing off."

She got whooped by a cracka!

More at that top link.

'I was offended because I believe as a Christian woman it is my prerogative to display my faith any way I like so long as it is not harming anyone else...'

Because outwardly expressing your faith in Christ is hateful. Hateful!

At Campus reform, "Public university allegedly orders student to remove cross necklace because ‘it might offend others’":

A student at a public university in California is alleging school officials ordered her to remove a cross necklace while she was working at an orientation fair because they feared others find the religious symbol offensive.

Nineteen year-old Audrey Jarvis, an employee of Sonoma State University’s (SSU) Associated Students Productions (ASP), told FOX News her supervisor initially ordered her to remove the necklace because “it might offend others, it might make incoming students feel unwelcome, or it might cause incoming students to feel that ASP was not an organization they should join.”

In a second encounter, her supervisor reportedly told her to hide the cross under her shirt or remove it.

Jarvis, identifies as devout Catholic, said she was in “complete shock” and “thrown for a loop” by her supervisor’s instructions.

“I was offended because I believe as a Christian woman it is my prerogative to display my faith any way I like so long as it is not harming anyone else,” Jarvis told FOX News. “I was very hurt and felt as if the university’s mission statement – which includes tolerance and inclusivity to all – was violated.”

More at that top link.

Don't Say the N-Word!

Unless you're a black mofo!

Or, well, unless you're a cracka like racist T-Bogg at Firedoglake!

More here, at Twitchy, "Replete with delete: Sarah Silverman deletes tweets explaining why she deleted N-word tweets."

Immigration Reform Won't Make Social Security Solvent

From Byron York, at the Washington Examiner:

On May 8, the chief actuary of Social Security, Stephen Goss, sent a letter to Republican Gang of Eight leader Marco Rubio saying reform would have a positive effect on Social Security's finances in the next ten years. But that was easy. Most immigrants are well below retirement age; they won't collect Social Security benefits for many years. All they'll do for a long time is pay into the system.

But what about the long term? Goss promised to develop a 75-year analysis of the legislation "as quickly as possible." As it turned out, Goss delivered that long-term estimate on June 28, which just happened to be the day after the Senate passed the bill. It was never part of the debate.

According to Goss, the bill's long-term benefits are also positive -- but just barely, and not in a way that will strengthen the Social Security system as Graham and others claim.

The Social Security Administration's most recent estimate says the system will become insolvent in 2033. Under the Gang bill, according to Goss' estimate, even with all those new immigrants paying taxes, the system will become insolvent in 2035. Not much difference there. And after that, when the immigrants hit retirement age and begin collecting benefits, they will increase Social Security's deficit.

Of course, the immigrants will have children, who will also pay into the system. Put it all together, according to Goss, and immigration reform will add about $2 trillion in tax revenues in the next 75 years, while costing about $1.5 trillion in benefits. That's a net plus, but not much of a boon, since it is stretched out over more than seven decades -- and certainly not when one considers the tendency of federal programs to grow in cost.

So even with reform, the nation's entitlement programs are on as shaky ground as before.

Well, it helps a little. Why be niggardly about it? (Via Instapundit.)

Pamela Geller Smacks Down Michael Ghouse on Hannity's

At Atlas Shrugs, "HANNITY VIDEO: PAMELA GELLER V. MICHAEL GHOUSE SMACK DOWN DEBATE ON EGYPT / MORSI SITUATION."

Ecuador's Second Thoughts on #Snowden

That idiot Snowden's getting hung out to dry.

At the Guardian UK, "Rafael Correa not considering Snowden asylum: helping him was a 'mistake'."

And two videos, "Snowden asylum "economic suicide" for Ecuador," and "US warns Ecuador over Snowden case."

And at WikiLeaks, "Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow." (Via Memeorandum.)

Obama Urges Morsi to Be 'Responsive' to Protesters

At Fox News:

President Obama has urged Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to respond to issues raised by hundreds of thousands of protesters who have called for the Islamist leader to be removed from office.

The White House released a statement Tuesday saying that Obama told Morsi in a telephone conversation Monday that "the United States is committed to the democratic process in Egypt and does not support any single party or group." The statement went on to say that Obama "encouraged [Morsi] to take steps to show that he is responsive to [protesters'] concerns, and underscored that the current crisis can only be resolved through a political process."

The call from Obama came on the same day that Egypt's powerful military warned it will intervene if Morsi doesn't "meet the people's demands," giving him and his opponents two days to reach an agreement in what it called a last chance. Hundreds of thousands of protesters massed for a second consecutive day Monday calling on Morsi to step down.

Continue reading.

Is America Ready to End Prohibition?

Kennedy explains how beer sales remain so highly regulated in the U.S.

Arizona Firefighters Lacked Proper Escape Route

At LAT:

The 19 wildland firefighters killed in Arizona appeared not to have established an escape route to a safe site large enough for the entire group, a forestry official said Monday.

Safety protocols require crews to have a place to go in case fire overtakes them. That did not happen in the Yarnell Hill fire Sunday. The bodies of 19 members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew were found in or near their emergency fire shelters, leading officials to believe they were overrun by the wind-driven flames.

"Obviously it wasn't a big enough open field … if they had to deploy their shelters," said Art Morrison, a spokesman with the Arizona State Forestry Division.

"They were too close to heavy fuels, so they got overrun," he said.

Being overtaken by a fire you are striving to extinguish is a firefighter's worst nightmare, but it is not uncommon: Of the more than 1,000 fatalities among wildland firefighters since 1910, about 63% occurred during "burnover," when a fire front engulfed crews.

On Sunday, the grass fire had run through half of the Arizona town of Yarnell when the unpredictable winds shifted. About 4:30 p.m., fire managers lost radio contact with the crew.

The firefighters had been cutting lines at the front of the fire, the most perilous place to be, officials said. Placing a crew at the head of a fire is a rare tactic.

Continue reading.

More at the Arizona Republic, "Yarnell Hill Fire: Seeking answers in wake of tragedy."

Also, "Yarnell Hill Fire: In small town, 'it affects every single person'," and "Yarnell Hill Fire: Fallen firefighters were in prime of their lives."

VIDEO ABOVE: "2008: Firefighters trapped in 'burnover' find safety in their emergency shelters."

Added: At WSJ, "Sudden Turn in Flames Doomed Firefighters: Officials Say 19 'Granite Mountain Hotshots' Were Killed in Burn Over; Arizona Blaze Still Raging."

Obama Looks to Limit Damage Over EU Bugging

At Guardian UK, "Barack Obama seeks to limit EU fallout over US spying claims."

President says NSA will assess espionage allegations as France and Germany demand answers and warn of delay to trade talks.

Barack Obama has sought to limit the damage from the growing transatlantic espionage row after Germany and France denounced the major snooping activities of US agencies and warned of a possible delay in the launch next week of ambitious free-trade talks between Europe and the US.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and French president, François Hollande, demanded quick explanations from Washington about disclosures by the Guardian and Der Spiegel that US agencies bugged European embassies and offices. Berlin stressed there had to be mutual trust if trade talks were to go ahead in Washington on Monday.

Hollande went further, indicating the talks could be called off unless the alleged spying was stopped immediately and US guarantees were provided.

The diplomatic row came as Edward Snowden – the fugitive National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower, who faces espionage charges in the US and is holed up in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport – applied for asylum in Russia. Snowdenhe used his first public statement to attack the US for revoking his passport and accused it of bullying countries that might grant him asylum.

Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, said on Monday: "If he wants to go somewhere and someone will take him, go ahead. If he wants to stay here, there is one condition – he must stop his work aimed at bringing harm to our American partners, as strange as that sounds coming from my mouth. "Russia never gives anyone up and doesn't plan to give anyone up. And no one has ever given us anyone."

Continue reading.

Doris Kearns Goodwin and the 150th Anniversary at Gettysburg

An idiot and plagiaristic fraud.

She's interviewed by CBS News' Chip Reid at the clip.

But be sure to read this piece at Breitbart, "Doris Kearns Goodwin at Gettysburg: A Few Inappropriate Remarks."

Walid Phares: 'We Are Watching the Real Arab Spring...'

Via Jawa Report:

Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to Close

Thinking offhand, I saw Iggy Pop, the Psychedelic Furs, and Siouxsie and the Banshees at the Santa Monica Civic.

The place was cool, but it's closing now.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to close after 55 years as cultural mecca."

And at LA Weekly, "RIP Santa Monica Civic Auditorium: Former Punk Haven Finished Holding Concerts":

Due to a combination of obsolescence and budget cuts, the landmark venue -- located at Pico and Main -- is finished hosting concerts, though the auditorium will still have some city events.

This news has gone largely under the radar. But that's a shame, because artists like Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and Queen performed classic shows there in the '70s, and in the following decades the spot helped propel the national punk movement, hosting acts like X, The Misfits, The Cramps, Bad Religion, and Black Flag.

SUV Flips, Crashes on Northbound Interstate 5 at Laguna Freeway SR-133

Just got back from having dinner with my wife, down in Aliso Viejo. Turns out this Dodge SUV had traffic all backed up coming down the on-ramp merging onto I-5. I don't ever remember a car caught between the side rail and a lamppost. Maybe that saved a life. I didn't see any paramedics, although they might have taken off already. My oldest son took the photograph from the passenger's seat.

Allen West Hammers Lady Gaga's Homosexual National Anthem!

Awesome!

At Twitchy, "Allen West calls out Lady Gaga for ‘reprehensible’ version of National Anthem."

Gaga’s nat’l anthem defiling is reprehensible. She & all who cheer her should apologize 2 all serving & retired members of the Armed Forces.

— Allen West (@AllenWest) July 1, 2013

And watch it here, "Lady Gaga Changes National Anthem: 'Land of the Free, and the Home for the Gay...'"

Egyptians React to Army's Ultimatum — the Brotherhood is Finished!

At the New York Times:

As our colleagues David Kirkpatrick, Kareem Fahim and Ben Hubbard report, the head of the Egyptian military, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, gave President Mohamed Morsi 48 hours “to respond to the people’s demands” or the armed forces would move to impose its “own road map for the future.”

Reaction to the general’s warning, in a statement read aloud on state television, was swift, both online and on the streets of the capital, Cairo, where supporters and opponents of the president were still massed, one day after huge protests.

Foreskin Equality Now!

Here's the Facebook page for Foreskin Pride's NYC Annual Pride March - Intactivist Contingent.

And watch the group's (NSFW) video --- a beauty of a calling card! --- "Foreskin Pride Salute - World Premiere - Vancouver, August 5 2012."

Pants optional!

Intactivists, including representatives from Intact America, will gather in the New York City Pride March to SPREAD THE WORD that EVERY person has the right to an intact body. Intact America is proud to honor those in the gay rights movement who stand with us in the fight to end the brutality of circumcision.

Progress!

PREVIOUSLY: "Homosexual Marriage is War on Society," and "After #DOMA Ruling, Much Work to Be Done for Statutory Rape Equality."

Rhian Sugden Rule 5

How about a Monday babe blogging break from all the homosexual licentiousness!

Via Twitter:

More here, "Happy Canada Day."

And lots more a the Page 3 homepage.

March of Protest: Wave of Anger Sweeping Cities Worldwide

At the Economist, "The Protests Around the World: Politicians Beware":

A FAMILIAR face appeared in many of the protests taking place in scores of cities on three continents this week: a Guy Fawkes mask with a roguish smile and a pencil-thin moustache. The mask belongs to “V”, a character in a graphic novel from the 1980s who became the symbol for a group of computer hackers called Anonymous. His contempt for government resonates with people all over the world.

The protests have many different origins. In Brazil people rose up against bus fares, in Turkey against a building project. Indonesians have rejected higher fuel prices, Bulgarians the government’s cronyism. In the euro zone they march against austerity, and the Arab spring has become a perma-protest against pretty much everything. Each angry demonstration is angry in its own way.

Yet just as in 1848, 1968 and 1989, when people also found a collective voice, the demonstrators have much in common. Over the past few weeks, in one country after another, protesters have risen up with bewildering speed. They have been more active in democracies than dictatorships. They tend to be ordinary, middle-class people, not lobbies with lists of demands. Their mix of revelry and rage condemns the corruption, inefficiency and arrogance of the folk in charge.

Nobody can know how 2013 will change the world—if at all. In 1989 the Soviet empire teetered and fell. But Marx’s belief that 1848 was the first wave of a proletarian revolution was confounded by decades of flourishing capitalism and 1968, which felt so pleasurably radical at the time, did more to change sex than politics. Even now, though, the inchoate significance of 2013 is discernible. And for politicians who want to peddle the same old stuff, the news is not good.

Actually, most of these protests are against leftists and Islamists. If there's going to be a revolution it should be towards decency and good government. Lord knows there's a dearth of that right now, not least of which in the United States, where foreskin equality protesters have taken to the streets in recent days.

But RTWT at that top link.

National Organization for Marriage Slams California Attorney General Kamala Harris

NOM's not going to do much good as far as California's homo-marriage is concerned. Their rant isn't going to vacate the Court's decision sending Prop. 8 back to the Federal District Court, where the ruling of retired homosexual Judge Vaughan Walker has now overturned the will of the California majority. But I think there's going to be a backlash at the political class and its contempt for not just the majority, but for the rules of the game, and for the basic procedural due process guarantees. So, in that sense, let it rip. You gotta out these progressive degenerates with all you've got.

But read it all, "Meet Kamala Harris (and the Future We Must Avoid)" (via Memeorandum):

Marriage in California has now died for lack of a defense.

Most of us would consider such actions cynical, shameful and despicable. Clearly, they undermine public confidence in the legitimacy of the legal system. Yet Kamala Harris tells us that, "it's a great day" because, "it means those people who want to deny same-sex couples the benefits of equal protection and due process under the United States constitution cannot do so simply because they don't like the notion."

In other words, the more than 7 million Californians who exercised their sovereign right to amend their state constitution — an act that the California Supreme Court ruled overwhelmingly was a proper and legal use of the constitutional amendment process — don't matter because she, Kamala Harris, has determined that it was the wrong thing to do and she was not going to let them get away with this "notion." In the world of Kamala Harris, we are banished to the sidelines, not even fit to participate in civil discourse.

Continue reading.

Homosexual Marriage is War on Society

Hey, meet your progressive masters, the butch bungee jumping badass drill ass mofos!

From Star Parker, at Townhall, "Same-sex Marriage is War on Religion":

The preamble of our Constitution tells us that its purpose is to secure the “blessings of liberty.”

What is a blessing? The first definition in my Webster’s New World Dictionary says that a blessing is “a statement of divine favor”.

How can we secure divine favor in a nation for which the divine is unconstitutional? A prideful nation by definition must be a nation that rejects the idea of a blessing.

In the pride that precedes destruction in America of 2013, we reject that there are truths that don’t come out of a laboratory. We reject that that there are truths that parents get from their parents and pass on to their children.

We reject that there are truths that, when children learn them from their parents, and embrace them and become responsible for them, they become adults.

So now we live in society in which there is nothing that distinguishes a child from an adult, that distinguishes responsible from irresponsible.

Who suffers the most?

First and foremost, children. Because they are deprived from learning and taking seriously the very rules of life’s road that are critical to live successfully.

Even more so, children from minority families....

Let there be no doubt that same-sex marriage is about much more than marriage. It is a deliberate and conscious assault on religion and all traditional values.

We have only two options. Turn back to where we belong or watch the continuing collapse of our country.

Student Loan Rates Double Today

At USA Today, "Millennials' ball-and-chain: Student loan debt."

And at Instpundit, "ON FOX & FRIENDS, I talk about the higher education bubble and student loans."

Bestiality Becomes 'Lifestyle Choice' in Germany

Well, yeah.

The choices are endless. We're on the new frontier of equality.

Go progs!

At London's Daily Mail, "Bestiality brothels are 'spreading through Germany' warns campaigner as abusers turn to sex with animals as 'lifestyle choice'."

Everything's a lifestyle choice.

If it feels good do it!

Kaitlyn Hunt at New York City Gay Pride Parade — #FreeKate

Of course!

She's at the forefront of statutory rape equality!

At the Other McCain, "Kaitlyn Hunt’s Big Gay Pride Day: Is ‘Jailbait Rights’ Now Mainstream?":

The Hunt family continued their campaign to make their 18-year-old daughter America’s Most Famous Sex Offender™ by taking her to New York for Sunday’s 44th annual Gay Pride Parade. Because defending Kate’s right to have gay sex with 14-year-olds isn’t all about lawyers and petitions, you know. It’s also about marching in parades and sightseeing in Manhattan and riding around in limousines.

You go, Kate! Statutory rape equality now!

That, and foreskin equality!

Don't miss those "foreskin pride" photos at the link!

PREVIOUSLY: "After #DOMA Ruling, Much Work to Be Done for Statutory Rape Equality."

Worries Swirl Over California's Initiatives

Following up on my previous article, "Prop. 8 Ruling Worries Direct Democracy Activists."

Now here's this at the Wall Street Journal, "Supreme Court's Dismissal of State's Gay-Marriage Ban Raises Concerns That the Move Sets Precedent Limiting Voter Power" (via Memeorandum and Google):

LOS ANGELES — Even as gay-rights advocates in California spent the weekend celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing the resumption of same-sex weddings in the state, activists and government experts across the political spectrum were raising concerns the ruling weakens the power of voters to make law through the state's ballot-initiative process.

"You'd be hard pressed to find someone more enthusiastic about the outcome of the Supreme Court decision," California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said in an interview Friday. As mayor of San Francisco, Mr. Newsom oversaw an administration that married thousands of gay couples in 2004—marriages ruled void by the state Supreme Court later that year. "But I do think the decision raises legitimate questions that are very problematic in the future," said Mr. Newsom, a Democrat.

Proposition 8, a ballot initiative approved by California voters in 2008, banned gay marriage in the state. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that its proponents weren't able to defend the law in court because they lacked the legal standing. Chief Justice John Roberts said that under federal precedents, the initiative sponsors were merely "bystanders" with no standing to appear in court.

The state's top officials, Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris, both Democrats, had declined to defend Proposition 8, arguing it was unconstitutional.

Some proponents of the ballot-initiative process—a central if often troublesome element of California's political system—say they worry that the decision undercuts ballot initiatives' purpose: giving voters power to circumvent state officials and make laws directly.

Others argue that it is the judiciary's job to keep the legislative process in check—and to stop laws that are unconstitutional, even if they are supported by a majority of voters.

"Nobody ever imagined that the people on their own could pass any sort of legislation without some sort of judicial review," said Rick Jacobs, founder of the Courage Campaign, a progressive political-advocacy group in the state. "All the Supreme Court did was underscore that."

But some advocates of the proposition system argued that the Supreme Court, by refusing to grant the backers of Proposition 8 the standing to defend the law, effectively gave state officials veto power over voter-backed initiatives if they are challenged in federal court, simply by declining to defend those initiatives.

"It's troubling because often initiatives are passed for the very reason that the state legislature or governor don't support a particular law," said Richard L. Hasen, a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine. Mr. Hasen, like some others worried about the implications for the state's ballot initiative system, said he supports gay marriage.

"On a personal basis I'm glad Kamala and Jerry didn't support Prop 8," said Charles Moran, chairman of the California Log Cabin Republicans and an openly gay political consultant based in Los Angeles. "But I'm not happy it set a bad precedent. This could have some long-term impacts on elective politics.…Anytime somebody has a statewide ballot initiative I think there's a new question that has to be asked: Will this pass the smell test of the attorney general and the governor?"

Crocodile tears.

Nothing will change. California's a socialist basket case, but hey, the progs got homosexual licentiousness under the law!

#TheyFeelPain - Shocking New #Inhuman Video Out Today From Live Action

This is the trick, just keep exposing the real-time death program of the pro-abortion left, via Lila Rose on Twitter.

Egypt's Army Issues Ultimatum to Morsi

At the New York Times, "Leader Given 2 Days to Satisfy Protesters or Face Takeover."

And see Mandy Nagy, at Legal Insurrection, "BREAKING: Egyptian Military Gives Morsi 48-Hour Ultimatum."

19 Firefighters Killed in Arizona Wildfire

At the Los Angeles Times, "Arizona wildfire kills 19 firefighters."

Also at the Arizona Republic, "19 firefighters die in Yarnell Hill Fire."

Public Approval of Supreme Court Falls to All-Time Low

At Rasmussen:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 28% believe the Supreme Court is doing a good or an excellent job. At the same time, 30% rate its performance as poor. That’s the highest-ever poor rating. It’s also the first time ever that the poor ratings have topped the positive assessments. Thirty-nine percent (39%) give the court middling reviews and rate its performance as fair....

Overall, 39% of voters now believe the court is too liberal, while 24% believe it is too conservative.

Via Althouse.

CARTOON CREDIT: Catholic Culture, "The Supreme Court on Gay Marriage: A Quandary of Confusion."

Julian Assange Involvement in Edward Snowden’s Case is 'Sideshow'

It's an interesting interview.

At Politico, "Lawyer for Edward Snowden's dad: Julian Assange a ‘sideshow’."

Gettysburg and the Eternal Battle for a 'New Birth of Freedom'

From Allen Guelzo, at WSJ:

The Civil War was in its third year when Abraham Lincoln was invited to deliver his "few appropriate remarks" at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg. For most of those three years, the war had not gone well for the Union he had been elected to lead as president. A breakaway Confederacy of 11 Southern states had seceded, playing on their declared right to self-determination and fighting off every effort by Union forces to subdue their uprising.

Lincoln understood that their appeal to self-determination was dubious at best. The self-determination the Confederate states desired was the freedom to protect the legalized slavery of 3.9 million black people, purely on the basis of their race, in defiance of what the Declaration of Independence had to say about equality.

And having taken that step away from equality, the Confederacy had kept moving further and further away until its entire life came to resemble a European aristocracy. The Confederacy established an internal passport system for all persons, levied a steeply graduated income tax, appropriated private property for military use, and nationalized Southern industries—iron-making, clothing for military uniforms and even railroads. Even among whites, a disdainful hierarchy of thousand-bale cotton planters and poor white sandhillers emerged.

"The admiration for monarchical institutions on the English model, for privileged classes, and for a landed aristocracy and gentry, is undisguised and apparently genuine," marveled the British journalist William Howard Russell in 1861. King Leopold I of Belgium, in 1863, hoped that the Civil War would "raise a barrier against the United States and provide a support for the monarchical-aristocratic principle in the Southern states."

No wonder, then, that Lincoln exulted when the Confederate army under Robert E. Lee met with a climactic defeat by Union forces at the small Pennsylvania crossroads town of Gettysburg in July 1863. In Lincoln's mind, there was a symbolic coincidence in receiving the news of the Gettysburg victory on the Fourth of July. It was, he told a crowd of well-wishers in Washington, as though a bright line had been drawn between "the first time" in 1776 that "a nation by its representatives, assembled and declared as a self evident truth that all men are created equal," and 1863, when "the cohorts of those who opposed the declaration that all men are created equal" had "turned tail" and run.

Continue reading.

Afghan Security Forces Defuse Would-Be Suicide Bomber Before He Blew Himself Up in Jalalabad

This is freakin' rad.

At London's Daily Mail, "The real Hurt Locker: Moment a brave Afghan soldier defused suicide vest while hog-tied terrorist was STILL WEARING IT."

And at Thomson Reuters, "A member of the Afghan bomb disposal unit approaches a suicide attacker after his vest was defused in Jalalabad province."

Jimmy Kimmel Skit Whaps Paula Deen With a Stone

Jimmy Kimmel was on a roll the other night.

Also at Newsmax, "Jimmy Kimmel Black Eye Skit Mocks Paula Deen's Apologies (Video)."

Nationwide Protests Grip Egypt

These are mondo massive protests.

At WSJ, "Widespread Opposition Protests Grip Egypt: Biggest Demonstrations Since Mubarak's Ouster Urge Morsi to Step Down, Call Early Elections; a Crowded Tahrir Square":

CAIRO—Egyptians took to the streets on Sunday for nationwide protests against President Mohammed Morsi, presenting a massive popular opposition that rivaled the size of demonstrations that toppled President Hosni Mubarak more than two years ago.

By early evening, legions of protesters had crowded into Cairo's Tahrir Square and filled several city blocks in front of Ittihadiya Palace, the president's main residence, demanding that Mr. Morsi step down and call early elections.

In most protest areas, the atmosphere was ebullient. Families walked with children in tow, some with their faces painted, munching on snacks and waving Egyptian flags. Passing motorists honked their horns, lending a festival aspect to the marches despite weeks of concern over the potential for violence.

Parts of the capital that would normally be starting a workday Sunday were largely quiet. Protesters marched through streets that were almost empty of cars. Shops and restaurants in Cairo remained closed.

Although the main protests remained peaceful, the nation's Health Ministry said five people were killed and more than 400 injured around the country, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo were set ablaze. People inside the building were seen firing at protesters.

Demonstrations of comparable size were reported throughout the country, with streams of Egyptians flooding streets in the coastal city of Alexandria, southern Egypt and the heavily populated Nile Delta region. Smaller protests were held by Egyptian expatriates in Sydney, Paris, Washington and other capitals.

The size of the demonstrations—with the numbers of protesters estimated from hundreds of thousands into the millions—exceeded any of the protests that have taken place since Mr. Mubarak stepped down in February 2011. The massive turnout stood alongside Mr. Morsi's repeated claims that most Egyptians stood behind the country's first-ever elected president.

Continue reading.

And at the New York Times, "Video and Images of Anti-Morsi Protests."

Lady Gaga Changes National Anthem: 'Land of the Free, and the Home for the Gay...'

They're bringing on the backlash.

At Twitchy, "‘Disrespectful’: Lady Gaga ripped for changing the words to the national anthem."

And at the Washington Times, "Lady Gaga amends national anthem: ‘Land of the free, and the home for the gay’."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Cartoons."

Also at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

CARTOON CREDIT: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Sour Kraut."

RELATED: "Our Hapless, Powerless President Can't Do Jack About Edward Snowden's Global Jetsetting."

Julian Assange Interview on ABC's 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos'

He just lies through his teeth at this clip.

HAT TIP: Memeorandum.

Traditional Sunday Rule 5

And by traditional, I mean traditional testosterone-driven male ogling of the feminine sex. All the gay "sweetness and light" is driving me crazy.

This is Miss Tori Lee at left.

And see Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup – Pre July 4th!" and "If All You See……is a horrible fossil fueled vehicle being washed with precious non-renewable water, you might just be a Warmist."

Also at Gator Doug's, "DaleyGator DaleyBabe Jessa Hinton."

At Proof Positive, "Women of PETA XXXIV -- Because the world needs more naked, nearly naked and vegetable clad vegetarians!"

Now over at Randy's Rountable, "Thursday Nite Tart: Erica Redling."

At Zion's Trumpet, "It's Rule 5 Friday."

And going directly to Wine, Women and Politics, "Bonus Babes."

Also at Odie's, "Blonde Curtains ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

From Animal Magnetism, "Rule Five Friday – Animal’s Manifesto, Part Ten." And at Bob Belvedere's, "Rule 5 Saturday: Chloe Vevrier."

And 90 Miles From Tyranny, "Rule 5 Sunday With Links." And from Dana Pico, "Rule 5 Blogging: The IDF again!"

Soylent Green has "Afternooner: Hot Wheels," and "Your AM Angel."

And at Drunken Stepfather, "PAULINA GRETZKY IS STILL IN A BIKINI OF THE DAY."

Also, at Pitsnipes and Gripes, "Random curves." Plus the Right Way has "Friday Babe."

Check Egotastic! too, "India Reynolds Stacks Her Stacks Up Against Courtnie Quinlan in the Battle of the Boobtastic."

Wrapping it up is Theo, "Bedtime Totty..."

Add your links in the comments and I'll update!

Supreme Court Denies Petition to Halt Homosexual Marriages in California

I commented on this previously, "'Tonight it is chaos and lawlessness, and anyone who is concerned about the rule of law ought to be deeply troubled by what happened here...'"

And now at the Los Angeles Times, "Supreme Court rejects bid to halt same-sex marriages in California," and the Hill, "Report: High court rejects petition to halt gay marriages in Calif." (Via Memeorandum.)

Party time!

Toronto Gay Pride Week 2013

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Toronto Gay Pride Week 2013 Kicks Off with a Jew-Bashing Lecture."

Well, the left's disgusting and deathly agenda is all of a piece, isn't it?

More, "Let the games begin..."

Also, "King and Queen" and "Its only just begun..."

Plus, "Which one is Justin?" and "Random Strange."

Still more, "More stuff but the dog is cool," "Socialism," and "Pride floats fall into two categories Crappy and Crappier."

Finally, "I think this is the Chief" and "TDSB of course."

That's quite a bit. Check back at BCF for more.

How Will Homosexual Marriage Supporters Argue Against Polygamy?

Well, WND has this, "Next Up, Polygamy?"

Actually, proponents of polygamist marriage aren't holding back at all.

At Reason, "So How About That Polygamy? Time to Talk About It?":

Will Wilkinson, blogging at The Economist, makes an argument that as with prostitution, our criminalization of polygamy often does the opposite of what’s intended and increases the victimization of women and children because of its shadowy status in culture:

If a man can love a man, a woman can love a woman and a man. And if they all love each other... well, what's the problem? Refraining from criminalising families based on such unusual patterns of sentiment is less than the least we can do. If the state lacks a legitimate rationale for imposing on Americans a heterosexual definition of marriage, it seems pretty likely that it likewise lacks a legitimate rationale for imposing on Americans a monogamous definition of marriage. Conservatives have worried that same-sex marriage would somehow entail the ruination of the family as the foundation of society, but we have seen only the flowering of family values among same-sex households, the domestication of the gays. Whatever our fears about polyamorous marriage, I suspect we'll find them similarly ill-founded. For one thing, what could be more family-friendly than four moms and six dads?

There you go.

You're going to be seeing a lot of arguments like this. Americans have to hunker down and avoid the left's culture of depravity. It's nearly all enveloping, but a backlash is coming. I guarantee it.

And see from 2009, "How Does Gay Marriage Affect Me?"

Added: From William Jacobson, "Polygamy – another love that now dares speak its name again."

Who Are the True Defenders of the West?

"If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons." --- Winston Churchill, comments to his personal secretary John Colville the evening before Operation Barbarossa.

I'm struck by Melanie Phillips' last line in her response to Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer's reply to her original screed on the Home Secretary's ban:

You’d never think from this, would you, that I wrote the book Londonistan, and have been viciously and repeatedly attacked for ‘Islamophobia’ on account of my warnings against Britain’s systemic failure to acknowledge the religious nature of the Islamic jihad against the west. You’d never realise from this, would you, that in my piece about the banning order I specifically condemned the UK government for allowing into the country inflammatory Islamic extremists while banning Ms Geller and Mr Spencer. No, all this is simply brushed aside -- because I do not think common cause should be made with thugs and neo-Nazis....

It would be comic, were it not a tragic illustration of the west’s inability correctly to identify just who are its enemies and who are its true defenders.

The implication is that by snobbishly dismissing the EDL as a bunch of hooligans and Nazis she's able to seize the high ground over Pamela and Robert. It's an amazing piece of sophistry, especially coming from one of such purportedly high British pedigree. No doubt Ms. Phillips is aware of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's comments on June 21, 1941, the night before Nazi Germany embarked on its fateful strategic gambit to invade Soviet Russian in Hitler's final bid for Lebensraum.

The Soviets after World War II would ultimately become the biggest threat to liberty in the West, but at that moment in 1941 nothing was more important than the defeat of the totalitarian Nazi regime. No country would be safe from Germany's insatiable racist hegemony. The fate of the British Isles and the Empire lay at the hand of Churchill's government. He wasn't about to stick up his nose and diss Stalin as some dirtbag cracker from the Georgian hinterland.

I think this comment at Blazing Cat Fur's thread really sums up:

Spencer and Geller are correct; Phillips is trying to distance herself based on Leftist character assassination, as if the Left does anything else. Phillips should have thought this through and realized she's just isolated herself by trying to distance herself.

She forgets; there's no distance. We all live in Dar al-Harb.

There may be some high principles at stake in this debate. There may be some reasonable claims about the need to keep distance from EDL. But for all of her erudition and past advocacy --- recall that Ms. Phillips has long been one of my favorite writers on the left's destruction of liberty, decency, and national security --- it's clear that she's made a serious lapse of judgment with her internecine war on Pamela and Robert, the premiere counter-jihadists in the U.S.

Pamela and Robert are the true defenders of the West. It's shameful that Ms. Phillips would so hastily throw them under the bus.

And with that, here's Pamela's response this morning, "MORE ELITISM":

Apparently Melanie Phillips can dish it out but she can't take it. She was shocked that both Robert and I would respond to her gratuitous attack on our work. She is calling her cop-out column "A hysterical and ignorant response."

What did she expect? That we wouldn't defend ourselves? She has attacked me before. She praised a blogger who wrote that I was "a lunatic blogger." Please go here and read it all. I did not respond, because lord knows that intercine warfare is the last thing we need. But the last shot she took was a step too far. Not now, when the stakes are so high and time is too short.

Hysterical and ignorant? Pathetic. More elitism. She says she doesn't want to engage in ad hominen attacks, so she lets others do the dirty work and then praises them.

Forgive me if I don't drop to my knees in thanks because she called us "anti-jihad" and not "anti-Muslim," "anti-Islam," or "islamophobic" like the enemy does. That's how low her bar is -- we are supposed to be grateful that she doesn't defame us.

She pats herself on the back for opposing our banning order, but so did some of our most vicious enemies. Are we to be grateful that she didn't support the ban? Really? Please, Mel, don't help me. With friends like you, we don't need Harry's Place.

As for the evidence she presents against the EDL, it is weak and unconvincing. The EDL was formed because the BNP was racist and anti-semitic. They purge BNP from their ranks. The EDL has a Jewish division (and an LBGT division, a Sikh division, etc.). Tommy has been arrested? So what? I never said these were Nancy boys. They aren't. And they don't play in the sandboxes of Oxford, Cambridge or The Spectator. He has paid his debt to society; how long will his troubled youth be held against him? He is, in his way, a more eloquent and impassioned voice against the islamization of his country than is Phillips.

The EDL has nothing racist or xenophobic about its platform. Phillips knows full well that the rare nazi salute at an EDL rally is most often the work of an infiltrator, a deliberate schemer attempting to smear the group. They are removed from the demo immediately. She ought to be more critical of those who seek to manipulate her good opinion.

Phillips says that the EDL targets mosques, but it doesn't. Actually Islamic supremacists fake attacks on mosques and try to pin them on the EDL, but Tommy Robinson has said: "Anyone who knows anything about our group knows there is no way we do anything like that. It’s just so blatant it’s not us."

Her reference to Vlaams Belang is really a low blow. First, because we attended a conference in 2007 that Filip DeWinter happened to be at (here). That is the extent of my relationship. I knew nothing of him or his group (I still don't) when I went to Brussels along with Bat Ye'or, David Littman, Dr. Aryeh Eldad (Israel), Robert Spencer, Dr. Andrew Bostom, Friends of Oriana Fallaci and the world's leading counter jihadists. Hundreds were there. So was DeWinter. So what? Melanie Phillips is now attaching herself to the libels of the execrable Charles Johnson. That tells you everything.

PREVIOUSLY: "Pamela Geller: 'With Friends Like These...'"

Also, "Free Speech Dies in UK: Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller Banned from Entering," and "Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer Banned From Britain."

Battle of Gettysburg Reenactment

KNXV-TV ABC15 Phoenix, "Thousands flock to witness reenactment of battle of Gettysburg."

And from Selena Zito, at the Pittsburgh Tribune, "Gettysburg: Where America got its chance to start over."

And a video at Telegraph UK, "Thousands take part in Gettysburg re-enactment."

'American Music'

From the band's January concert at the Observatory in Santa Ana. I looked into getting some tickets, but it was too late.

Why Humans Throw So Well

This is cool.

At the New York Times, "Scientists Unlock Mystery in Evolution of Pitchers":

No one knows whether Homo erectus, the early ancestor of both the Yankees and the Red Sox, threw the split-finger fastball.

But he could have, according to a group of scientists who offer new evidence that the classic overhand throw used by baseball players at all positions, and by snowball, rock and tomato hurlers of all ages, is an evolutionary adaptation dependent on several changes in anatomy. They first appeared, the researchers say, around 1.8 million years ago, when humans were most likely beginning to hunt big game and needed to throw sharp objects hard and fast.

No other primate throws with anything comparable to human force. Chimpanzees, who are much, much stronger, pound for pound, than human beings, can throw, as any zoo visitor knows. But the best an adult male can do is about 20 miles per hour. A 12-year-old human pitcher can easily throw three times that fast.

Clearly, the reason is not muscle strength, according to Neil Roach of George Washington University, first author of a report in the journal Nature released on Wednesday. Dr. Roach, who conducted the research as a graduate student at Harvard, and his colleagues there used motion-capture video to analyze the throwing motion of 20 college athletes, who hurled baseballs at a target about 100 feet away, with and without a brace that restricted shoulder motion.

They analyzed the structure of the shoulder and upper arm, the motion and the forces involved, and concluded, first, that muscles alone cannot account for how hard and fast humans throw. The shoulder and arm and the rest of the body involved in the throwing motion must be storing elastic energy, like the long tendon of a kangaroo when it hops, or the human Achilles’ tendon in running and jumping, they said.

“You’re storing energy in your shoulder,” Dr. Roach said, speaking from Africa, where he was heading to Lake Turkana to look at fossil footprints of human ancestors about a million and a half years old. The storage occurs in the cocking motion, when a thrower brings hand and ball back, preparing to throw. “It works just like a slingshot would. You’re actually stretching the ligaments.”

Several developments in anatomy allowed humans to throw this way, he said, including a waist that allows twisting and a relatively open shoulder, compared with those of other primates like chimpanzees.

Looking at the fossil record, Dr. Roach and colleagues put the moment at which these changes came together in one body at about 1.8 million years ago, when Homo erectus first appeared. “It’s possible that Homo erectus could throw as fast as we do,” Dr. Roach said.

More at that top link.

Kate Upton for Vogue Brazil

On Twitter:

#voguebrazil pic.twitter.com/4MuIGRQvkN

— Kate Upton (@KateUpton) June 27, 2013

And at London's Daily Mail, "Kate Upton the queen of curves brings smouldering glamour to Vogue Brazil in her 'favorite' photo shoot yet."

Obama Visits Fake Slave House, Gazes Through Trash Door

Historians have debunked this "slave house" visit.

And Blazing Cat Fur has more.

I commented on this earlier as well, with considerable contempt.

'Tonight it is chaos and lawlessness, and anyone who is concerned about the rule of law ought to be deeply troubled by what happened here...'

That's John Eastman, Chairman of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage, quoted at the Los Angeles Times, "Prop. 8 backers make emergency effort to block same-sex marriages."

He needs to let this one go. And the Prop. 8 sponsors need to let this go too. The game was rigged. Use that against them in future battles, but let it go for now in California. See SCOTUS Blog, "Emergency stay of California same-sex marriages sought" (at Memeorandum).

Guardian and Observer Runs Front-Page Story on Secret European-U.S. Surveiliance Deal Sourced to Jew-Hating Conspiracy Theorist Wayne Madsen

Here's the cover image on Twitter:

OBSERVER FRONT PAGE: "Revealed: secret European deals to hand over private data to America" #skypapers pic.twitter.com/MTRmz9qrZq
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 29, 2013

Here's Michael Moynihan:

Holy shit. Guardian just did an NSA story sourced to insane crackpot Wayne Madsen. Is their Google broken? http://t.co/Mcb3vd0OdE
— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) June 29, 2013

And Louise Mensch calls out Madsen:

Guardian and Observer Weakend - run front page NSA story based on word of conspiracy theorist crackpot (Obama's gay, Israel caused 911)
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) June 29, 2013

And checking the Guardian's homepage, here's the headline at the link for the article, "Taken down: deals to hand over private data to America."

The piece is still available, however, at Democratic Underground (with a Che Guevara avatar adding a nice touch there), "GUARDIAN: Revealed: secret European deals to hand over private data to America":

At least six European Union countries in addition to Britain have been colluding with the US over the mass harvesting of personal communications data, according to a former contractor to America's National Security Agency, who said the public should not be "kept in the dark".

Wayne Madsen, a former US navy lieutenant who first worked for the NSA in 1985 and over the next 12 years held several sensitive positions within the agency, names Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain and Italy as having secret deals with the US.

Madsen said the countries had "formal second and third party status" under signal intelligence (Sigint) agreements that compels them to hand over data, including mobile phone and internet information to the NSA if requested.

Under international intelligence agreements, confirmed by declassified documents, nations are categorised by the US according to their trust level. The US is first party while the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand enjoy second party relationships. Germany and France have third party relationships.

And it's clear the Guardian's editors knew of Madsen's reputation as a conspiracy theorist, as the article makes mention of their source's controversial background:

In an interview published last night on the PrivacySurgeon.org blog, Madsen, who has been attacked for holding controversial views on espionage issues, said he had decided to speak out after becoming concerned about the "half story" told by EU politicians regarding the extent of the NSA's activities in Europe.

He said that under the agreements, which were drawn up after the second world war, the "NSA gets the lion's share" of the Sigint "take". In return, the third parties to the NSA agreements received "highly sanitised intelligence".

Madsen said he was alarmed at the "sanctimonious outcry" of political leaders who were "feigning shock" about the spying operations while staying silent about their own arrangements with the US, and was particularly concerned that senior German politicians had accused the UK of spying when their country had a similar third party deal with the NSA.

Although the level of co-operation provided by other European countries to the NSA is not on the same scale as that provided by the UK, the allegations are potentially embarrassing.

"I can't understand how Angela Merkel can keep a straight face, demanding assurances from Obama and the UK while Germany has entered into those exact relationships," Madsen said.

Read the whole thing at Southport - UK Front Pages.

And it turns out this Madsen dude's a regular on 9/11 truth central's Prison Planet with Alex Jones.

And according this pro-Israel website, the dude's a raving anti-Semite, "Wayne Madsen Promotes Classic Anti-Semitism on Iran’s PressTV," and "So Typical of Wayne Madsen’s Paranoia, Da Joos “Control” Obama and Romney." (Follow the links at those entries.)

I'll update with developments, but it's pretty telling that the far-left Guardian went ahead with a front-page story, with the hard copy print runs already rolling, while sourcing a hardcore 9/11 truther and Jew-hating conspiracy theorist. Well, come to think of it, that's not too different from Glenn Greenwald's ideological program, so there you go.

PREVIOUSLY: "Glenn Greenwald Speaks on NSA Surveillance at Socialism 2013 Conference."

Glenn Greenwald Speaks on NSA Surveillance at Socialism 2013 Conference

I think it's pretty telling that these people (Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill who introduces him) are addressing a conference of Marxists, who are by definition anti-American. Greenwald goes on about how the main responsibility of journalism is to piss off those in power. I'm amazed at how radical leftists reject the idea that there is nothing that government might keep secret in the name of carrying out national security programs. Certainly more honesty and transparency in government is needed, especially under this administration, which has done nothing but lie about what it's doing, but the left's cries of tyranny would be much more credible if they were joined by widespread protests against the Democrats and calls for impeachment of President Obama. Progressives pushed for impeachment of President George W. Bush, to say nothing of multiple calls for war crimes trials for the entire membership of the hated Bush-Cheney cabal. One those who called for that very thing, who now talks a tough game on civil liberties while refusing to walk the walk, is the idiot Kevin Gosztola at Firedoglake.

He's got an entry on this up this afternoon, "Glenn Greenwald’s Speech to the Socialism Conference [with Transcript]." (Via Memeorandum.)

Rosie Jones and India Reynolds Celebrate Wimbledon

At Egotastic!, "Rosie Jones and India Reynolds Play Tennis for Nuts."

Ground and Pound: #TrayvonMartin Was Waling on George Zimmerman MMA Style

Here's the comment from Patriot Lemonade on Twitter:

Witness puts #Trayvon on top of Zimmerman throwing MMA style Ground and Pound punches with #Zimmerman screaming for help. #ZimmermanTrial

And at Legal Insurrection, "ZIMMERMAN TRIAL BLOCKBUSTER — TRANSCRIPT — Eyewitness Good: Black guy in black hoodie on top punching down Mixed Martial Arts style":

The State seems to have suffered the most destructive of its own witnesses to date in calling Jonathan Good to the stand.Good was composed, coherent, and direct through his extensive testimony, the entirety of which was entirely consistent with the defense’s theory of lawful self-defense.

More at Legal Insurrection.

RELATED: "Tommy Christopher: ‘Cracker’ is a compliment, you guys!"

PREVIOUSLY: "#TrayvonMartin Supporters Keepin' it Classy on Twitter."

California Heat Wave

Record hot weather today. We just got back from having lunch at Subway with my wife down in Aliso Viejo. We're glad to get back home in the air conditioning. Man. I've got the Angels at Houston on and will be blogging throughout the evening.

See the Los Angeles Times, "Heat wave: It's 116 and rising in Palm Springs, Death Valley."

And a slideshow, "Heat wave in the Southland."

Hate-Fueled Psycho Alec Baldwin Gets a Pass From GLADD

This something else, at TMZ "GLAAD — Alec Baldwin Gets a Pass ... 'Cause We're Starf**kers."

And from Darleen Click, "It was never about “homophobia” or “sexism” or “racism” …":

It is about Leftism, and once a good member of the cult, you can do anything …

Also at BuzzFeed, "9 Ridiculous Quotes From Alec Baldwin’s "Apology" Interview."

And at GLADD, "ALEC BALDWIN SPEAKS OUT IN SUPPORT OF THE GAY COMMUNITY."

Screw em' both --- Baldwin and GLADD. It's not about rights. It's about power and the destruction of decency and morality. Screw 'em --- the bungee bunghole jumpers.