British Parliament Rejects Military Action Against Syria

This is big.

At WSJ, "U.K. Parliament Rejects Syria Action":

LONDON—The U.K. vote against military strikes in Syria is a tough blow to Prime Minister David Cameron's domestic political fortunes.

Since taking office in 2010, he has on numerous occasions been undercut not just from opposition parties, but also from rebel elements within both his own Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, the junior member of the U.K.'s governing coalition.

That was the combination that once again hurt Mr. Cameron late Thursday. The government lost a vote—by a tally of 285 to 272—that would have supported in principle military intervention in Syria, where Western governments have said President Bashar al-Assad's regime carried out a deadly chemical-weapons attack on civilians last week. Members of all major parties—including Mr. Cameron's Tories—opposed the measure.

Mr. Cameron said it is clear that the British Parliament, reflecting the view of the British people, doesn't want to see the U.K. get involved in military action and "the government will act accordingly."

The outcome marks a significant moment in British politics—it is highly unusual for a prime minister to be defeated on foreign policy and raises the prospect of whether the U.K.'s role on the world stage going forward.

It is also a rare setback for U.S.-U.K. relations that will spur questions about the so-called "special relationship" between the two nations. In recent decades, the U.K. has rarely if ever parted ways with the U.S. on such a significant strategic issue.

While the government doesn't require parliamentary approval to take military action, it would now be politically difficult to do so. A further parliamentary vote had been due to take place early next week on whether the U.K. should be directly involved in that action. A spokesman for the prime minister confirmed that the U.K. now won't take part in the Syrian action.

The outcome of the U.K. vote could make it more difficult for President Barack Obama and other Western allies—already weary from years of difficult military intervention in the Middle East—to convince their own publics of the need for intervention in Syria.

Mr. Cameron's defense secretary, Philip Hammond, said the U.S. "will be disappointed that Britain won't be involved." Mr. Hammond, speaking in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp., said he still expected other countries to continue to look at a response.

The setback also raises questions about Mr. Cameron's authority. The prime minister, who wasn't required to hold a parliamentary vote but chose to, had personally laid out his case at length to parliament earlier in the day about why military action was needed and why it would be justified, citing humanitarian grounds and the need to prevent the use of chemical weapons in the future.

Still more at that top link.

Lisa Kennedy Montgomery

That's former MTV VJ "Kennedy," who is interviewed by Ed Driscoll, at PJ Media, "Interview: Former VJ Kennedy Looks Back at the Golden Age of MTV Through Rose-Colored Glasses."

Michelle Malkin Eviscerates Democrat 'Rank, Steaming Hypocrisy' on Congressional Authorization for Syria Strike

Another phenomenal segment on Hannity's last night:



More at BuzzFeed, "Obama and Biden Have Said Military Action Without Congressional Approval Is Unconstitutional."

Obama-Democrat Racism

From Arnold Ahlert, at FrontPage Magazine, "Obama: Back to the Racist Future":

America is enduring an ever-increasing spiral of heinous black-on-white violence. Less than a week after 22-year-old Australian baseball player Christopher Lane was allegedly executed by three “bored” wannabe gang-bangers, 88-year-old World War II veteran Delbert “Shorty” Belton was allegedly beaten to death by two 16-year-old black American teens, Demetrius Glenn and Kenan D. Adams-Kinard, both of whom have histories of violent crime. In Poughkeepsie, NY, 20-year-old Javon Tyrek Rogers has been charged with first degree murder and first degree burglary in the killing of 99-year-old Fannie Gumbinger. On August 13, two black male youths and their female accomplice were charged with robbing and killing 27-year-old David Santucci in Memphis, TN. Despite these and other incidents, President Obama, Democrats, and the usual gaggle of racial arsonists remain conspicuously silent. That is no accident. All of them have a vested interest in turning back the clock on race relations and they have all played a role in where we are today.

Despite their selective caution in bringing race politics into cases such as those mentioned above, President Obama and his race agitator allies have no problem whatsoever with rushing to judgment and rashly injecting themselves into highly sensitive and controversial situations. Recall when Cambridge police arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Obama said it was self-evident that the department “acted stupidly” for arresting someone at their own house, ceding to the narrative that the police likely only arrested Gates because he was black and therefore suspicious. In fact, the police only arrested Gates because he embarked on an enraged tirade and became belligerent and disorderly.

In the Trayvon Martin case, Obama contended a son of his would look like Martin, or that he himself could have been Martin “35 years ago.” In his second speech regarding Martin, Obama did comment on the reality of runaway violence committed overwhelmingly by black American males, but then excused the behavior because “some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history.”

Meanwhile, the president’s solutions for stemming the violence implied that “the system” was to blame and that it needed to be fixed. Obama urged his followers to ”work with law enforcement about training at the state and local levels in order to reduce the kind of mistrust in the system that sometimes currently exists” and “to examine some state and local laws to see if it–if they are designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case, rather than diffuse potential altercations.”

Perhaps the president could explain how “mistrust in the system” caused two black 16-year-olds to douse a 13-year-old white boy with gasoline and set him on fire in Kansas City in March of 2012. Or why a group of black neighbors brutally assaulted Matthew Owen with with bats, brass knuckles, a chair, a paint can and other objects “for Trayvon” in Mobile, AL in April of 2012. Or why six “bored” black youths beat a 46-year-old white Ohio man so savagely last August that they may face additional charges in the man’s death this past July. Or why 18-year-old De’Marquise Elkins allegedly murdered 13-month-old Antonio Santiago. Or why three 15-year-old black teens brutally beat up a 13-year-old white teen on a Florida school bus earlier this month.

None of those incidents, or the disturbing phenomenon of black flash mob attacks on whites that regularly occur in cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago, Milwaukee, or Washington, D.C. had anything to do with the “system,” nor did they merit a single word of condemnation from the president, or any other the demagogues who usually seek to turn any incident of white on black crime into a national conversation — a one-sided conversation that is invariably an indictment of an irredeemably racist America itself.

These race agitators, however, never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity to put the blame exactly where it belongs, namely, on the legions of violent thugs who commit murder and mayhem without the slightest hint of remorse. As for the poverty and dysfunction that allegedly underpins this mayhem, it’s about time the Democratic Party owned up to the reality that no one has facilitated that history more than Democrats themselves, courtesy of Great Society programs that incentivized the destruction of the nuclear family, and an out-of-wedlock birth rate in the black American community that has now reached 73 percent.

Furthermore, Democrats can’t plead ignorance about those consequences. They were warned by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who wrote ”The Negro Family: The Case for National Action” in 1965. “There is one unmistakable lesson in American history,” Moynihan said, “a community that allows a large number of men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring rational expectations about the future–that community asks for and gets chaos.” Naturally, Moynihan was excoriated and his report was dismissed as “racist propaganda.”

Nearly 50 years later, nothing in that regard has changed. Even as the chaos and social disintegration occurring on a routine basis in many black American communities continues, anyone who challenges the Democratic contention that black Americans are largely victims of forces beyond their control — all of which require big-government solutions implemented by Democrats — is branded a racist. But few things are more racist, hypocritical and immoral than the political party that founded the KKK espousing a mode of governance that has robbed millions of black American youths of their dignity, integrity and, ultimately, their decency, while they themselves look the other way and lead lynch mobs against racial scapegoats.

Still more at that top link.

The Economist on Race Relations in America

Probably the best thing I've read on the 50th anniversary.

See, "Chasing the dream":

HIS name adorns schools, streets, bridges and colossal biographies. Almost as soon as they can talk, American children are taught to revere Martin Luther King. His message was a simple clarification of America’s founding promise, that “all men are created equal” and have a right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. That means everyone, he explained. He put it best on August 28th 1963, ad-libbing before a crowd in Washington, DC: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”

In the 50 years since then, America has changed beyond recognition (see article). Under Jim Crow, blacks in the South risked lynching if they tried to register to vote. They were forced to use separate and inferior water fountains and schools. They were locked in lowly occupations: in 1940, 60% of black women with jobs were domestic servants.

Now, African-Americans are more likely to vote than any other racial group, at least if Barack Obama is on the ballot. White bias against non-white candidates is hard to detect. The governor of lily-white Massachusetts is black; Mr Obama won more of the white vote in 2008 than John Kerry did in 2004. In King’s day, inter-racial love was illegal in many states. Today, 15% of new marriages cross racial lines; for black men, the number is 24%. In King’s day, segregation was the law in the South and the norm in the North. Today, “all-white neighbourhoods are effectively extinct”, finds a recent study by Edward Glaeser and Jacob Vigdor, and segregation is declining in all 85 of America’s largest metropolitan areas. No one today finds it odd to see blacks running big cities (Washington, Philadelphia, Denver) or big companies (Merck, Xerox, American Express) or playing God on the silver screen (Morgan Freeman). Black earnings shot up after the civil-rights revolution, both in absolute terms and relative to white.

Progress, interrupted

Yet in recent years economic progress has stalled. Between 2000 and 2011, black median household income fell from 64% to 58% of the white figure. The wealth gap is even more alarming. Because mortgaged homes make up more of poorer people’s wealth, the gap widened dramatically after the housing bubble burst. In 2005 white families’ median net worth was 11 times that of blacks; in 2009 it was 20 times. On other measures, too, blacks fare poorly. Many struggle in school: the average black 17-year-old reads and manipulates numbers about as well as a white 13-year-old. Many fall foul of the law: by the age of 30-34 one black man in ten is behind bars; the figure for white men is one in 61. And the traditional black family has collapsed since King’s day. In the 1960s many thought it a crisis that nearly 25% of black children were born out of wedlock. Today it is 72% (for whites, 29%), and most of these children are being raised by mothers who are truly alone, not cohabiting.

Continue reading.

Don't care much for the proposal for "prison reform." Otherwise, an excellent leader.

'A Communist is the enemy of all mankind, an idolator of evil, the acolyte of a mass-murder cult. Never condescend to “debate” such creatures. No wise man debates a rabid dog...'

Well, I had this one at the sidebar blog-item finder, but I couldn't stop laughing at the end of this entry, when Mr. Ross Pannebecker, in an email to Robert Stacy McCain, writes:

Being a communist does not make you a bad person, any more than being a capitalist does.

Seriously?

Yep. But read it all at the link.

Lulz.

Behati Prinsloo

The new gal for Victoria's Secret.

We're getting close (or, well, closer) to that time of year.



More at London's Daily Mail, "'Big personalities and big hair': Angels Behati Prinsloo and Erin Heatherton reveal what REALLY goes on behind the scenes at a Victoria's Secret show." And at New York Daily News, "'Secret' to stunner Behati Prinsloo's style? Go braless!"

'I Have Not Made a Decision' on Syria

The president's interview on PBS last night (via Memeorandum):

Syrian Electronic Army Hacks New York Times, PuffHo, and Twitter

Here's Rusty Shackleford, "World's Smallest Violin: NYT, HuffPo Hacked by Syrians."

And following the links takes us to WSJ, "NYT, Twitter and HuffPo Attacked by Syrian Electronic Army."

Some of this took place during 12:45pm World Politics class. I was trying to load the New York Times and I knew the site had been hacked again.

Here's the story at the Old Gray Lady, "Times Site Is Disrupted in Attack by Hackers."

Nidal Malik Hasan Sentenced to Death

A just and overly-deserved sentence.

At Astute Bloggers, "NIDAL HASAN GETS THE DEATH SENTENCE."

A Better Way to Honor Dr. King's Dream

From John McWhorter, at the Wall Street Journal:

On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, we will hear a good deal about how life in this country for black Americans has not changed as much as Martin Luther King Jr. might have wished. We will hear little to nothing about the role that certain strains of black progressive ideology have played in delaying the realization of King's dream.

"It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro," King announced from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963. He was right, and America knew it. The following year, segregation was outlawed with the Civil Rights Act. The year after, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.

It is easy to forget what an awesome moral landmark it was for an oppressed group to force the larger society to outlaw barriers to its success. But the victory of the 1964 and 1965 laws had an even greater impact than prohibiting segregation and racial discrimination in voter registration: It changed the culture. Personal racist sentiment rapidly became socially proscribed. The Norman Lear sitcoms of the early 1970s, in which bigoted whites were regularly held up to ridicule, would have been unthinkable just 10 years before.

But "the struggle," as civil-rights veterans term the fight against racial discrimination, was hardly over. Practices and attitudes change slowly. As a black man, I can attest that as late as 1986 I was transparently denied a summer job at a restaurant in New Jersey simply because of my skin color.

However, in the decades since the March on Washington, black America has been taken on a detour by too many self-described progressive black thinkers and leaders, whose quixotic psycho-social experiment they disguise as a continuation of the civil-rights movement. With segregation illegal and public racism considered a moral outrage, we black Americans are now told that we will not truly overcome until Americans don't even harbor private racist sentiment, until race plays not even a subtle role in America's social fabric.

In other words, our current battle is no longer against segregation or bigotry but "racism" of the kind that can be revealed only by psychological experiments and statistical studies.

This battle is as futile as seeking a world without germs. "We have come to the nation's capital to cash a check," King said. But the preacher was talking about being freed from "the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination"—not asking whether Americans are aware of skin color or are more likely to associate black faces with negative words in an experiment.

Along these lines, the term "institutional racism," which the Black Power movement injected into the lexicon in the late 1960s, is more damaging to the black psyche than the n-word or any crude jokes about plantations or food stamps. The term encourages blacks to think of society—in which inequality, while real, is complex and faceless—as actively and reprehensibly racist in the same way that Archie Bunker was. The result is visceral bitterness toward something that can't feel or think.

Equally distracting is the notion that America needs a "conversation" about race, one in which whites submit to a lesson from blacks about so-called institutional racism. "Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening," King told us in his speech. What we awaken to now is the rudeness of idle talk, of those who blow off steam by demanding a "conversation" that will not bear fruit—look no further than President Clinton's national effort on that front in the late 1990s—and in any case wouldn't provide greater opportunity to any poor person.

The "conversation" idea is fundamentally passive because it assumes that what black people need most is for white people to think better of them and more about them. So why does it command such allegiance among blacks? Because it channels the idea that our most urgent task is to speak truth to power, rather than to help black people who need it. Too many suppose that the two tasks are still the same as they were in 1963, when the reality is now quite different...

A great piece.

Continue reading.

And see WSJ's editorial on Obama's speech yesterday on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, "Government and Segregation: A history note for President Obama: Bull Connor was not a libertarian."

U.S., U.K. Face Delays in Push to Strike Syria

Well, it was looking like a headlong rush to war there for a second.

But see the Wall Street Journal:

President Barack Obama declared that the Syrian government carried out a deadly chemical weapons attack on civilians last week and must pay the price, capping a day of stalled diplomacy that suggested any military strikes could be delayed.

Mr. Obama cautioned that he hasn't yet decided whether to launch an attack, saying in an interview with PBS that he wants to send a shot across Syria's bow without drawing the U.S. into a long conflict.

Syria and Iran warned Wednesday of regional chaos should the U.S. launch strikes on Syria, and threatened to retaliate against Israel.

Mr. Obama's comments capped a day in which the U.S. and British push to gain approval for military strikes appeared to meet with resistance and possible delays. They also appeared to moderate U.S. officials' earlier signals that an attack could be mounted "in coming days" in response to what they call clear-cut indications that Syria used chemical weapons in attacks around Damascus early on Aug. 21. Activists and residents say more than 1,000 people died in the attacks.

The current Syria debate recalled the positions of the U.S. and U.K. in 2003, when the countries built a case for going to war with Iraq, arguing that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, and ultimately invaded without a U.N. Security Council resolution. The U.S. was heavily criticized for entering into what became a yearslong campaign based on false intelligence.

American and British officials argue that the case of Syria is different, instead drawing parallels to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization attacks on Kosovo. The U.S. has said it isn't planning a ground invasion, but officials have suggested they could mount strikes against key military bases of President Bashar al-Assad from ships in the Mediterranean Sea. The intention of any strike, they have said, isn't to topple Mr. Assad but to diminish his military capability.

Late Wednesday in the U.K., Prime Minister David Cameron's government agreed to demands by politicians to hold a separate vote to approve any military action in Syria, reflecting a domestic desire to avoid a repeat of the country's swift backing for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The vote is expected early next week.

The process to be followed by British officials won't automatically affect the timing of any U.S. action.

A senior administration official said that while the U.S. and U.K. are coordinating closely, domestic British considerations won't necessarily slow the U.S. decision on military action. "We're making our own decisions in our own timeline," the official said.

In the U.S., House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) sent a letter to President Obama demanding a clear explanation of any military action against Syria before it starts, and criticizing the president's level of consultation with lawmakers. Separately, 116 House lawmakers—98 Republicans and 18 Democrats—signed a letter to Mr. Obama, demanding he seek congressional authorization for a military strike.

Mr. Boehner's letter called on Mr. Obama to inform Americans and members of Congress of his objectives, policy goals and overarching strategy in Syria before the first missiles are launched, according to a copy reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Continue reading.

More at the Los Angeles Times, "Syria resolution dies at U.N., and British lawmakers balk."

RELATED: See Noah Shachtman, at Foreign Policy, "Exclusive: Intercepted Calls Prove Syrian Army Used Nerve Gas, U.S. Spies Say."

If We Attack, Kill Assad

From the always provocative Bret Stephens, at the Wall Street Journal, "Target Assad":

Should President Obama decide to order a military strike against Syria, his main order of business must be to kill Bashar Assad. Also, Bashar's brother and principal henchman, Maher. Also, everyone else in the Assad family with a claim on political power. Also, all of the political symbols of the Assad family's power, including all of their official or unofficial residences. The use of chemical weapons against one's own citizens plumbs depths of barbarity matched in recent history only by Saddam Hussein. A civilized world cannot tolerate it. It must demonstrate that the penalty for it will be acutely personal and inescapably fatal.

RTWT.

A great piece, although it doesn't answer the $64,000 question: why are we siding with al Qaeda? See Robert Fisk for that, "Does Obama know he’s fighting on al-Qa’ida’s side?"

No Republicans Speak at Ceremony Marking 50th Anniversary of March on Washington

This is sickening.

Sickening and reprehensible.

Event organizers claim they invited "a long list of Republicans to come," but for some reason that list didn't include Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, currently the only black senator in the upper chamber of Congress.

At the Wall Street Journal, "At 50th Anniversary of March, No GOP Speakers."

The idea that only Democrats are the sole rightful owners of MLK's legacy is deeply offensive, indeed, it's anti-American. #Freedom #History

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 28, 2013

No elected Republicans will speak at today’s event marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, but that hasn’t stopped GOP officials from honoring the occasion.

A parade of current and former elected officials issued remarks calling for greater racial equality and praising the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader who delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech 50 years ago today.

Former President George W. Bush, who was invited but missed the event because he is still recovering from heart surgery, issued a statement calling on “every American to help hasten the day when Dr. King’s vision is made real in every community – when what truly matters is not the color of a person’s skin, but the content of their character.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.), who earlier this year retraced the 1965 march from Birmingham to Selma, Ala., called for Americans to “rededicate ourselves to ensuring equality for every American.” And South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the only black senator, described himself as “living my mother’s American Dream.”

Wednesday’s event on the National Mall is not overtly political, but the early undertones were hard to ignore. A number of Democrats are set to address the crowd, including Mr. Obama and former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Labor leaders also talked about the importance of mobilizing large groups of American workers – a key theme 50 years ago. And some speakers stressed the importance of preserving voting rights for all Americans.

Mr. Bush was invited to attend the event, but he declined because he recently underwent surgery to place a stent in a blocked heart artery. Mr. Scott was not invited to speak, but a spokesman said, “The senator believes today is a day to remember the extraordinary accomplishments and sacrifices of Dr. King, Congressman John Lewis and an entire generation of black leaders.”

Also, at Red Alert Politics, "Nation's only black Senator not invited to speak at March on Washington." (At Memeorandum.)

Krauthammer: Today's Civil Rights Challenges are 'Social Issues ... Breakup of the Family and the Terrible Education That Young People in the Ghettos are Subjected to ...'

A great segment from this afternoon's Fox News All Stars:



More at iOWNTHEWORLD, "Krauthammer – The Civil Rights Movement Is Intellectually Bankrupt."

PREVIOUSLY: "President Obama Speech on 50th Anniversary of March on Washington."

President Obama Speech on 50th Anniversary of March on Washington

He's was heavily laying on his hip-hip accent, because, you know, Barack Hussein's all about bein' down with the brothas.

At LAT, "Obama honors King, pushes political agenda on anniversary":

WASHINGTON – President Obama tried to reassemble a “coalition of conscience” to take up his economic agenda for the middle class on Wednesday as he honored Martin Luther King Jr. and the marchers who fought for civil rights 50 years ago.

“In the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it,” Obama said.

The president spoke at a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the 1963 protest that became the most iconic moment of the civil rights movement. Obama, the first African American president, spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial,  where King described his dream of racial equality as many black Americans still struggled to vote.

He noted that “no one can match King’s brilliance” but called on all citizens to keep up the fight for more opportunity. “The arc of moral universe may bend toward justice,” he said quoting King. “But it doesn’t bend on its own.”

Obama has often cited King as an inspiration and a touchstone. The president’s speeches regularly quote King, or crib from his writings. The president has a bust of King and a copy of the program from the original march in the Oval Office. Obama took the oath of office this year using a Bible owned by King. The gestures have cemented a symbolic connection between the two most recognizable black leaders in U.S. history.

But Obama’s relationship with  the civil rights movement and King’s legacy has been complex. Obama, whose mother was white and father Kenyan, has wrestled with this racial identity and his connection to the movement that defined a generation of black political life.

He has identified as part of the Joshua generation, the label given to the children of movement’s founders charged with carrying on the legacy, but he has also criticized the civil rights movement, saying it is fractured.

Obama on Wednesday repeated some of that critique. Over the years, legitimate outrage over discrimination devolved into “excuse-making for criminal behavior,” Obama said. “What had once been a call for equality of opportunity … was too often framed as a mere desire for government support. … As if poverty was an excuse for not raising your child.”

Continue reading.

And see "Obama: ‘Because they kept marching, America changed’."

Also, at NYT, "Where King Stood, Obama Reframes a Dream," and "Guardians of King’s Dream Regroup in Washington."

Hamptons McMansions

Look, excess is great, if you can afford it.

At NYT, "Hamptons McMansions Herald a Return of Excess":

BRIDGEHAMPTON, N.Y. — Porsche ads clog the local radio here, houses are renting at close to the million-dollar range — for the summer — and Uber, an app that lets you order car service, reports that its new Hamptons luxury S.U.V. business is booming, $50 minimum fares and all.

But there is no surer sign that the big-spending ways that characterized the pre-financial crisis era have returned to the Hamptons than the blue “Farrell Building” signs multiplying across the pristine landscape here, along with the multimillion-dollar houses they advertise. It is a process some are calling “Farrellization,” and not necessarily happily.

“We’re as busy as we’ve ever been,” said Joe Farrell, the president of Farrell Building, during a recent interview and tour of his $43 million, 17,000-square-foot home here. The estate, called the Sandcastle, features two bowling lanes, a skate ramp, onyx window frames and, just for fun, an A.T.M. regularly restocked with $20,000 in $10 bills.

To spend a day with Mr. Farrell — a local version of Donald Trump, without the history of debt, the lush hair or the insults — is to see just how fully the Hamptons have rebounded, along with the confidence, and the bonuses, of their wealthier summer visitors.

With a customer base composed largely of Wall Street financiers, Mr. Farrell has more than 20 new homes under construction, or slated for construction, at a time, making him the biggest builder here by far. He has plans for more, many of them speculative homes built before they have buyers...

Must be the life.

Continue reading.

'I am a member of The Macalester Alumni of Moderation (Mac Mods), an informal, e-mail-connected group that seeks to steer Macalester toward more intellectual diversity and balance and away from a leftist mindset and a seeming obsession with victimology...'

Well, maybe these email groups will be spreading past Macalester.

From Robert Spaulding, at the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, "My Alumni Weekend at Macalester."

Destroy the Heteropatriarchy!

I linked R.S. McCain's hilarious entry yesterday, "In Case You Missed It, @MileyCyrus Got Super-Skanky on the VMAs Last Night."

Linked there is "@Andrea_XX":

I have no idea why throwing bodyshaming/slutshaming at Miley is being allowed a free pass. It's the propagation of heteropatriarchal crap.
— andria (@andria_xx) August 26, 2013

And the lady writes at her blog:

I am this close to getting my Masters degree in Gender Studies and I hold a Honors BA in Social Justice and Peace Studies.

Love that "social justice and peace studies" bit, but man, she might revise the part about "hitting her up on Twitter."

Seriously. Robert's got the update, "‘And It Just Blew Up’":

Heteropatriarchal slut-shaming? Hell, I thought I was just making fun of a celebrity, until @Andria_XX enlightened me, and she had no idea what hit her when her Twitter timeline blew up with reactions to her Master’s degree in Gender Studies mini-lecture.

So now it’s “cyberbullying” and “rage tourism” of which I’m accused.

The accusations are at the lady's Storify post, "Rage Tourism at It's Finest."

(I hope someone tweets her the correction, that "it's" is a contraction and "its" a possessive pronoun.)

In any case, she wanted to make sure I saw her handiwork (and no doubt all the others she included at her post as well):

@AmPowerBlog @Pablo_1791 Never let the truth get in the way of a good cyberbullying! ""Rage Tourism At It's Finest"" http://t.co/5jCppyg59u
— andria (@andria_xx) August 27, 2013

All in a day's blogging, I guess.

A fascinating case study in deranged leftism, that's for sure.

Codename 'Apalachee'

Interesting.

This is from New York journalist Laura Poitras, who worked with Glenn Greenwald in breaking the Edward Snowden story. (Also reporting is Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark.)

At Germany's Der Spiegel, "How America Spies on Europe and the U.N.":

President Obama promised that NSA surveillance activities were aimed exclusively at preventing terrorist attacks. But secret documents from the intelligence agency show that the Americans spy on Europe, the UN and other countries.

I'm sure we'd have seen a worldwide earthquake of anti-Americanism had this come to light during the Bush administration. But outside a few wild America-bashers like Greenwald, and the obligatory libertarian warnings of encroaching tyranny, it's just back to business-as-usual these days. Nothing's going to change under this president. The people have to demand change and that means giving the lying scumbag Democrats the boot. (And keep in mind, it's the lies and hypocrisy --- I couldn't give a sh*t about bugging the U.N, just don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining.)

Continue reading.

Rep. Raul Labrador Slams Left's 'Message of Despair' on Race

Watch it, at NewsBusters, "Raul Labrador Schools Meet the Press Panel on King's Dream: Your Message is Despair Not Hope."

VIDEO: General Georges Sada Claiming Iraq Moved WMD to Syria in 2002

Via Israel Matzav, "Video: Saddam's top military adviser says Iraqi WMD's were moved to Syria."



And flashback to the New York Sun in 2006, "Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says."

RELATED: Mahdi Obeidi's largely ignored book from 2002, The Bomb in My Garden: The Secrets of Saddam's Nuclear Mastermind.

Katy Perry Grillz

I skipped the VMAs.

I was watching the Red Sox at Dodgers on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, and at 8:00pm we switched over to "Big Brother" on CBS.

But I saw Twitter lighting up throughout the evening, especially over Miley Cyrus.

R.S. McCain has that, "In Case You Missed It, @MileyCyrus Got Super-Skanky on the VMAs Last Night."

I'm just trippin' on Katy Perry's grillz, at London's Daily Mail, "Pushing the boundaries! Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus play dress-up as they battle to be the most outrageous on the MTV VMAs red carpet."

Tonight's custom #ROAR GRILL courtesy of the FAMED @tvjohnny shout out to @cstonethebreadwinner as well!!! http://t.co/N2eOY8JwVx

— Katy Perry (@katyperry) August 26, 2013

More here, "Has Miley gone too far? Cyrus strips to nude latex bra and hotpants to perform lewd dance with Robin Thicke at MTV VMAs."

And, "Call that demure? Lady Gaga makes half hearted attempt to cover up for MTV VMAs afterparty by putting a skirt on over her shell bikini."

'Moral Obscenity' — Secretary of State John Kerry Slams 'Undeniable' Syria Chemical Weapons Atrocities; U.S. Prepares Options for Military Intervention

There have been numerous allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria over past year, but for some reason or another, the administration is ramping up the bellicose rhetoric in preparation for some kind of armed response. I can't help but think this is insincere (at least on President Obama's part) and that airstrikes and other military actions would serve as a classic "diversionary war" scenario designed to lift the president's horrifically sagging public approval ratings.

Listen to tough-talking John "Ditch-My-War-Medals" Kerry in this State Department press conference below.

And at the Wall Street Journal, "U.S., Citing 'Moral Obscenity' in Syria, Weighs Response: Kerry Calls Attacks 'Undeniable'; U.N. Reaches Attack Site After U.S. Issued Caution Over Mission":

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians is a "moral obscenity," delivering the clearest indication yet that the Obama administration is preparing to attack President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

In a forceful statement delivered in Washington, Mr. Kerry called the attacks "undeniable" and said the administration has developed conclusive evidence that chemical weapons were used last week in the suburbs of Damascus, killing hundreds of civilians. Syria's delays in allowing international monitors to reach alleged attack sites implies its guilt, he said, adding that the U.S. and its allies are "actively consulting" on how to respond.

"Make no mistake: President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapons against the world's most vulnerable people," he said. "Nothing today is more serious, and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny."

Mr. Kerry's remarks represented the administration's opening statement as it contemplates military action, likely to consist of cruise-missile strikes on Syrian targets. A senior defense official said the strikes under consideration would be conducted from ships in the eastern Mediterranean using long-range missiles, without using manned aircraft.

"You do not need basing. You do not need overflight. You don't need to worry about air defenses," the official said. The goal of the strikes, the official said, would be to "deter and degrade" Mr. Assad's capabilities to prevent him from using chemical weapons again.

Mr. Kerry's statement came as United Nations inspectors faced gunfire from unidentified snipers as they set out to investigate reports of the chemical-weapons attack in a Damascus suburb.

The U.N. team turned back, but later in the day made it to Mouadhamiya, where one of the suspected chemical-weapons attacks took place. The team visited two hospitals, interviewed survivors and doctors, and collected samples, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement Monday.

Well, by themselves, I doubt cruise-missile strikes will enough to achieve U.S. objectives, so in one way or another Americans should expect a major escalation of the U.S. military presence in Syria.

More at the link, in any case (via Memeorandum).

Ho Hum: Another Israel-Hating Antiwar Leftist Bashes the Troops

You don't see as many pieces of this genre with Obama in office, but obviously the hard-left cookie-cutter template is still widely available.

From the vile POS Steven Salaita, an Associate Professor of English at Virginia Tech, at the equally-vile Salon.com, "No, thanks: Stop saying “support the troops”."

Folks can read it all at the link.

Professor Salaita is the author of Israel's Dead Soul, no doubt yet another anti-Semitic left-wing screed blasting Israel's right to exist. I've personally never heard of this idiot, but see the nice write-up at the Social Foundations of Education, "Meet Steven Salaita, Jihadist English Professor at Virginia Tech." Also, "Palestinian 'Literature Professor' Salaita Wants Academic Boycott of Israel; More Jihad Activity at Virginia Tech."

And it boggles the mind, but from some reason James Joyner thought a thorough fisking was in order, "Don’t Support the Troops?" Maybe there's some academic utility in it --- at least from James' perspective. But it's leftist ghouls like Salaita that got me blogging in the first place. Indeed, his attack on the troops as agents of "American imperial, torture, and global inequality" reminded me of Berkeley Bush-hater Kenneth Thiesen writing back in 2008, "Commentary: Why I Don’t Support the Troops":

“Support for the troops” has become political cover to support the wars...

But to decide whether U.S. troops deserve support you must analyze what they actually do in countries occupied by the U.S. The wars these troops are engaged in have the goal of maintaining and extending U.S. hegemony throughout the world. They are unjust, illegal, and immoral wars. Can you support the troops in these wars? Why is this any different from a German in World War II saying, “I oppose the wars launched by Hitler, but I support the troops of the German army which are making these wars possible.” When the Marines in Haditha massacred Iraqis, including women and children, would it have been correct to say I supported the Marines who killed those people, but not the massacre? This would be ridiculous, but no more so than supporting the troops engaged in the war that made the Haditha massacre possible in the first place.

The Haditha case was one of the worst leftist stab-in-the-back smears of the entire Iraq war. See Michelle Malkin on that, "Defining atrocity: Marines vs. the Haditha Smear Merchants," and "Al Qaeda and Haditha bombshell: What the MSM didn’t tell you."

But back to this pig Salaita. The guy's schtick is old and tired. And people of decency know that supporting the troops is simply the decent thing to do when Americans are at war fighting an enemy that is determined to exterminate not just the United States, but the Western way of life. Israel, of course, is at the front-line of that struggle, which makes this Salaita ghoul that much more sickening.

These people disgust me, even more now than in 2008 when I first responded to that prick Thiesen, "Supporting the Troops."

Video Purports to Show Execution of Truck Drivers in Syria

Here's our "allies" the al Qaeda rebels purportedly murdering three Syrian truck drivers.

At BCF, "Video Shows Jihadis From Al-Qaeda’s Islamic State In Iraq and Syria Stopping Truck Drivers On Side of Road, Executing Them for Being Alawites…"

PREVIOUSLY: "U.S. Says Syria Used Chemical Weapons."

UPDATE: The YouTube clip at BCF has been taken down for violating terms of content, but My Pet Jawa links to Live Leak. See, "al-Qaeda in Syria Obama's Freedom Fighters Murder Three Truck Drivers."

U.S. Says Syria Used Chemical Weapons

The Wall Street Journal reports, "U.S. Sets Stage for Bigger Syria Role":

The Obama administration hardened its stance against Syria and stepped up plans for possible military action, dismissing as too late the regime's offer to let United Nations officials inspect areas where the U.S. believes Damascus used chemical weapons last week.

The White House and Pentagon signaled the U.S. wasn't backing away from a possible showdown despite apparent efforts by the Syrian government to ease tensions by letting U.N. inspectors visit areas near the capital where hundreds were killed, allegedly by chemical weapons.

If he decides to act militarily, Mr. Obama would prefer to do so with U.N. Security Council backing, but officials said he could decide to work instead with international partners such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or the Arab League.

"We'll consult with the U.N. They're an important avenue. But they're not the only avenue," a senior administration official said.

In recent days, the Pentagon has moved more warships into place in the eastern Mediterranean and U.S. war planners have updated military options that include cruise-missile strikes on regime targets, officials said. The White House held high-level meetings over the weekend, but officials said late Sunday that Mr. Obama had yet to decide how to proceed.

The U.S. had urged the Syrians to let U.N. inspectors visit the areas that were bombarded on Wednesday in suspected chemical attacks that opposition groups said killed more than 1,000 people. But the U.S. concluded that evidence at the scene has since been compromised due to continued Syrian shelling and the likely dissipation of any poison gases.

As always, I wish we'd intervened two years ago. I don't expect any good outcome at this point.

More on that at Israel Matzav, "Too late for Obama to act on Syria."

And see strategist Edward Luttwak, at the New York Times, "In Syria, America Loses if Either Side Wins."

EXTRA: At Reuters, "As Syria war escalates, Americans cool to U.S. intervention: Reuters/Ipsos poll" (at Memeorandum).

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Good Medicine," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

CARTOON CREDIT: A.F. Branco.

National Go Topless Day

Well, one of my co-bloggers at Theo's posted on this, "Today is Go Topless Day 2013!"

However, following the links takes us to actually no women going topless.

We can't have that, so checking Google we find a post close to home, at Yo! Venice, "‘National Go Topless Day’ is Today in Venice Beach!" (And on Facebook here.)

I love Venice.

Skateboarding and topless women?

You can't beat that.

More Go Topless links at Twitter.

Black Thug Jovan Tyrek Rogers Charged with Murder in Killing of 99-Year-Old Fannie Gumbinger of Poughkeepsie, New York

Another "senseless" killing.

At Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Jovan Tyrek Rogers black thug kills 99-year-old Fannie Gumbinger."



More at Mad Jewess Woman, "#WhitePrivilege? Son of Obama Murders 99 Yr Old White Woman In Her Home."

Yeah, those mf's are all "sons of Obama." Damned murderers.

Fisking Idiot Leftist @BrianBeutler

The Other McCain returns to the lies of lying liar Brian Beutler.

See, "The Fisking of @BrianBeutler: Obsessed Obsessive Obsessions and Stuff Like That."

I don't know. Maybe Robert had a few Coronas, or some Twitter trolls got his dander up, because frankly just denouncing Beutler's lies alone gives too much attention to this despicable hack. But either way, behold the beauty of McCain's epic smackdown:

The “stop-and-frisk” thing is strictly an issue in New York, because of an NYPD policy that was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge. It has nothing to do with Oklahoma and even less to do with Sanford, Florida. Why Brian Beutler keeps bringing it up, I don’t know. Has the “stop-and-frisk” issue has been discussed by anyone at Fox News in the context of the Chris Lane murder? If it has, then why doesn’t he quote that discussion? In general, why are there no links or quotes in this column? Why can’t Brian Beutler be bothered to provide actual evidence of the phenomenon he presumes to critique? Why do liberals think it’s acceptable to assert controversial claims that they don’t bother to prove? How many bong-hits does Brian Beutler usually do before writing his columns? Seven. That’s now an established fact — because I just asserted it, see?

That's just one pull-away from Robert's fisking, but I picked up on that one because there's added context to Beutler's mewling about stop and frisk. It turns out that the dude was shot in 2008 by a couple of black thugs in D.C. who tried to rob Beutler of his cellphone. Beutler, an apparent tough guy, refused to give up his phone when confronted by these two black thugs and was promptly capped. Now, the interesting thing about this is that since then Beutler has used his status as a survivor of inner-city black crime as a sort of badge of humanitarian honor, giving him an enlightened perspective on all this that others less well-positioned (fortunate?) do not. You see, there's so much extra credibility in leftist race-baiting circles if, having been shot by a black criminal thug, one still clings to radical progressive views, in triumphant contravention to Irving Kristol's famous formula that a neoconservative is "a liberal who has been mugged by reality."

There's clear evidence of this in the fawning greeting CNN host Eric Deggans gives Beutler at this morning's segment of "Reliable Sources":



Here's the piece that Deggins lovingly cites during the segment, "What I learned from getting shot."

So Beutler was shot. Okay? BFD. All this proves is that sick leftist ideology has blinded this idiot to the real criminal pathologies of contemporary urban America.

And let me tell you: I've also been robbed at gunpoint. In 1991 I was working at the Chevron station at the corner of Ashlan and Blackstone in Fresno when some criminal gang thug stuck a Saturday night special in my left arm pit and said "give me the money." I didn't hesitate or act all tough. I gave the f-ker the money. Had I been shot, the angle of the gun would have sent a bullet into my heart and I would most likely be dead today. I was still a "liberal" back then, but I credit that experience as one brush with reality (of many) that would one day impel my own full abandonment of the sick and decrepit Church of Regressive Socialism.

In any case, folks should head back over to the Other McCain to read it all at the link.

Brian Butler's more recent piece on "the right's black crime obsession" is one of the most puerile pieces of progressive hackery I've ever read. Beutler's simply yapping incoherently in the mode of holier-than-thou leftist claptrap. I said so much to him personally on Twitter and never received a response. That's Beutler's SOP, to ignore conservative criticism that risks snapping that idiot back into the real world. Frankly, that's the only response available when your ideology's essentially a religious faith impervious to reason. Unfortunately, that's a faith-based sickness infecting the broader society. Our task as conservatives is to continue working to inoculate the rest of society that's so far has been spared from the plague.

Leftists Looking to Galvanize New Generation of Cultists

As I've been arguing, civil rights isn't really about civil rights anymore.

But see the New York Times, FWIW, "Following King’s Path, and Trying to Galvanize a New Generation."

WASHINGTON — Half a century after the emotional apex of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, tens of thousands of people retraced his footsteps on Saturday, and his successors in the movement spoke of the still-unmet promise of America, as he did, at the Lincoln Memorial.

The anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington was less a commemoration, speakers proclaimed, than an effort to inject fresh energy into issues of economics and justice that, despite undeniable progress in overcoming racial bias, still leave stubborn gaps between white and black Americans.

The speeches that carried over the Reflecting Pool, which 50 years ago jolted Congress to pass landmark laws, took hard aim at current racial profiling by law enforcement, economic inequality and efforts to restrict voting access.

Addressing generations too young to remember, the Rev. Al Sharpton, an organizer of Saturday’s event, warned young people against the hubris of believing one’s middle class success was achieved alone. “You got there because some unlettered grandmas who never saw the inside of a college campus put their bodies on the line in Alabama and Mississippi and sponsored you up here,” he said.

A lineup of civil rights heroes, current movement leaders, labor leaders and Democratic officials addressed a vast crowd that stretched east from the Lincoln Memorial to the knoll of the Washington Monument — well out of range of loudspeakers. Organizers expected 100,000, fewer than half the number who came in 1963 when efforts to dismantle segregation had seized the national attention, often because of racist violence in the South.

Speakers included Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who on Thursday sued Texas over a strict voter ID law; Representative John Lewis of Georgia, an organizer of the original 1963 march; and Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager who was shot and killed last year.

“I gave blood on the bridge in Selma, Alabama, for the right to vote,” Mr. Lewis said in a deep and sonorous rumble. “I am not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us.”

He and many others called the Voting Rights Act of 1965 a jewel of the civil rights movement that was under attack after the high court struck down the heart of it in June, opening the way for states including Texas and North Carolina to enforce new restrictions on voting access.

Mr. Holder, receiving a roar of welcome from the crowd, said that King’s struggle must continue “until every eligible American has the chance to exercise his or her right to vote unencumbered by discrimination or unneeded procedurals, rules or practices.”

Martin Luther King brought the moral authority of the civil rights movement to overthrow Jim Crow.

Today's regressive left --- and dredging up the March on Washington for the Obama cult is pretty regressive --- has completely squandered what little moral authority still lingers from those days a half century ago.

More here.

IMAGE CREDIT: The Obama Cult, on Twitter.

Serve and Volley is Dead

Yeah, it does seem like a long lost art.

At the Los Angeles Times, "What's happened to serve and volley in tennis?":

NEW YORK — The contrasts used to be one of the most attractive elements of tennis.

Pete Sampras standing at the net, Andre Agassi at the baseline trying to get the ball past his greatest rival.

Chris Evert, dainty but cruelly clever in the backcourt, against Martina Navratilova, who moved forward, fast as a whip, knocking a volley that Evert lunged at or just missed, eliciting a squeak of frustration from Evert.

Or John McEnroe, dancing on his toes, back and forth as Bjorn Borg stood at the back of the court and calculated the correct angle at which to whiz the ball past his rival — only to have McEnroe, with a flick of the wrist, gently drop the ball over the net, just in the spot where Borg couldn't reach it.

Billie Jean King still volunteers to coach players and teach them to serve and volley. She urged Serena and Venus Williams to learn that most difficult part of the game but couldn't persuade either of them.

As the U.S. Open tennis tournament, the final major of the year, begins Monday, it's more likely viewers will see an American man win — a longshot — than see more than a handful of serve-and-volley points.

That part of the game is gone, possibly forever.

"I don't think it's ever coming back, I really don't," said Sampras, who won 14 Grand Slam events, second only to Roger Federer. "It's difficult to learn to do, and it's hard to be successful with it at first, and kids and coaches don't like failure....

More at the link.

The French Question

I guess France is the new sick-man of Europe, after Greece, of course.

At the New York Times, "A Proud Nation Ponders How to Halt Its Slow Decline":

PARIS — For decades, Europeans have agonized over the power and role of Germany — the so-called German question — given its importance to European stability and prosperity.

Today, however, Europe is talking about “the French question”: can the Socialist government of President François Hollande pull France out of its slow decline and prevent it from slipping permanently into Europe’s second tier?

At stake is whether a social democratic system that for decades prided itself on being the model for providing a stable and high standard of living for its citizens can survive the combination of globalization, an aging population and the acute fiscal shocks of recent years.

Those close to Mr. Hollande say that he is largely aware of what must be done to cut government spending and reduce regulations weighing down the economy, and is carefully gauging the political winds. But what appears to be missing is the will; France’s friends, Germany in particular, fear that Mr. Hollande may simply lack the political courage to confront his allies and make the necessary decisions.

Changing any country is difficult. But the challenge in France seems especially hard, in part because of the nation’s amour-propre and self-image as a European leader and global power, and in part because French life is so comfortable for many and the day of reckoning still seems far enough away, especially to the country’s small but powerful unions.

The turning of the business cycle could actually be a further impediment in that sense, because as the European economy slowly mends, the French temptation will be to hope that modest economic growth will again mask, like a tranquilizer, the underlying problems.

The French are justifiably proud of their social model. Health care and pensions are good, many French retire at 60 or younger, five or six weeks of vacation every summer is the norm, and workers with full-time jobs have a 35-hour week and significant protections against layoffs and firings.

But in a more competitive world economy, the question is not whether the French social model is a good one, but whether the French can continue to afford it. Based on current trends, the answer is clearly no, not without significant structural changes — in pensions, in taxes, in social benefits, in work rules and in expectations.

RTWT.

And flashback, "THE EUROPEANIZATION OF AMERICA."

French Socialists Ponder How to Halt Country's Decline http://t.co/oSQIV4KgTn And Obama-Democrats Ponder How to Accelerate Ours. #Democrats

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 25, 2013

Britain and U.S. Move Toward Intervention in Syria

Okay.

We'll see how well that goes.

At the Guardian/Observer Sunday, "Syria: Cameron and Obama move west closer to intervention."

John Lydon and Louise Mensch on Question Time

My angry commenter cited this exchange the other day.

I love John Lydon:

'Dad, Rush Limbaugh and Me'

An interesting op-ed from Madeline Janis, at the Los Angeles Times.

Read it all. She admits to being a stereotypical leftist and she harangued her father for listening to Rush Limbaugh. (One of her biggest peeves is that he received government benefits --- the GI Bill, Social Security and Medicare --- but was still conservative, as if conservatives don't support any government role in social welfare, health and education, a common leftist fallacy.) But the conclusion caught my eye:

I suspect that our family dynamic wasn't unique, and that across America fathers and daughters and sons and mothers have learned to accommodate political differences and respect one another across the gulf. Our love for each other and our family helped my father and me transcend the enormous ideological divide between us.

It makes me wonder if there isn't something in these experiences that might help us, as Americans, transcend our political differences. Even if we don't have the same closeness as a family, Americans of all political stripes do share a love of country. And that could be a start, at least, at reaching across the gulf of ideology to work cooperatively and respectfully to solve the challenges facing the nation.

And that's another leftist fallacy, which ends up being a pernicious leftist lie, that "Americans of all political stripes share a love of country."

Leftists do not actually love this country. The left --- and that includes this presidential administration and the congressional Democrat Party --- are Democrat-Socialists marinated in class warfare rhetoric and Marxist welfare redistributionism. They don't love this country. They love what they think this country could be if they were able to fully impose their socialist program on Americans without opposition.

And that's the basis of our political differences, which are irreconcilable. That some people agree to go along to get along is a testament to our national attributes of decency and pragmatism. But America as a nation will continue to stagnate as long as people remain ignorant to the true nature of leftism. The next two elections are crucial in this regard. And the GOP needs to have candidates who aren't afraid to call it like it is, people like Michele Bachmann and Allen West. And when more people like this win office and implement basic policies of decency, probity, and prudence, we'll start to turn things around.

In any case, more at the letters to the editor, "More on 'Dad, Rush Limbaugh and Me'."

The Real Reason College Costs So Much

Allysia Finley interviews Ohio University President Richard Vedder, at the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Vedder is skeptical about the president's proposal to tie federal aid to graduation rates, among other performance metrics. "I can tell you right now, having taught at universities forever, that universities will do everything they can to get students to graduate," he chuckles. "If you think we have grade inflation now, you ought to think what will happen. If you breathe into a mirror and it fogs up, you'll get an A."

A better idea, Mr. Vedder suggests, would be to implement a national exam like the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) to measure how much students learn in college. This is not on Mr. Obama's list.

Naturally. Standards and accountability are racist.

But RTWT.

'United States of Obama' at Anniversary of March on Washington

A sick cult of black Obama worship.

Despicable.

At Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Obama flag face at MOW violates desecrates American flag."

And at Twitchy, "Pledge of aggrievance: ‘United States of Obama’ flag waves at March on Washington."

Black Teen Criminals Accused of Beating WWII Hero to Death

Black criminals.

Black teen thug criminals.

Folks need to get all the details in there.

Pictured: The teens accused of beating WWII vet to death in 'random attack' http://t.co/z67OfJ9pNu pic.twitter.com/l3fwMEbXyy

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMailUS) August 23, 2013

More at Expose Liberals, "Demetruis Glenn – black thug arrested in fatal beating of Delbert Belton," and "Kenan Adams-Kinard second suspect in fatal beating of Delbert Belton."

Also, "Kenan Kinard Facebook page and Twitter."

Damned criminal mf's.

'Legendary' Britney Spears at #MTV Video Music Awards 2001 #VMAs

In which the Los Angeles Times goes all BuzzFeed, "MTV Video Music Awards: 30 moments that make it a can't-miss event."

Interestingly, I saw the piece in the hard-copy edition of the newspaper, but it's ridiculously obsolete in conveying a story like this. See all the videos at the link.

12. Britney Spears and her snake (2001). Brit’s celebrated her last few months as a teenager in a big way with her sexiest song yet, “I’m a Slave for U.” From bursting out of a cage with a tiger to slinking around with a giant yellow python. There’s something about a pop princess shaking it with a giant snake that screams legendary.

R.S. McCain Hammers Lying Liar @BrianBeutler of Liar's Lair @Salon.com

I slammed the idiot leftist Brian Beutler on Twitter yesterday.

And now Robert Stacy McCain's taken the baton, "The Foul Stench of @BrianBeutler’s Truthlessness Has Become Intolerable."

.@RSMcCain I slammed @BrianBeutler yesterday: https://t.co/guzqM35xuG

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 24, 2013

.@AmPowerBlog Don't bother arguing with @/brianbeutler, he's a hired liar. http://t.co/oJOuWAEcA4

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) August 24, 2013

Simon Cowell Lauren Silverman Beach Stroll in South of France

Well, I guess he's not too worried about Ms. Silverman's demands for a reality show.

Must be the life, really.

At London's Daily Mail, "Those smiles say it all! Simon Cowell can't keep the grin off his face as he holds hands with pregnant lover Lauren Silverman during romantic beach stroll":

He's spoken out about how happy he is that his lover Lauren Silverman is pregnant.

And now Simon Cowell is fully showing just how ecstatic he is about it - by putting on a public display of affection with her during a romantic getaway in the South of France.

In fact the music mogul couldn't get the smile off his face as he held hands with Lauren while they walked along a beach on Saturday morning.

And Silverman looked equally as gleeful as she also grinned from ear to ear to show they're not just having a baby together but are also officially an item.

It is the first time the pair have been seen together since news of the pregnancy shocked the world. And it also marks the first time they've been reunited since her husband Andrew Silverman found out about their affair and they subsequently got a divorce.

Continue reading.

Imogen Thomas for Nuts

And she recently had a baby.

A pro-life babe.

Hello :-) @nutsofficial.... http://t.co/ndCppDk8Cf xxx pic.twitter.com/r399VBKPcQ
— Imogen Thomas (@Imogen_Thomas) August 20, 2013

And at Egotastic!, "Imogen Thomas Boobtastic Faptastic Lingerie Goodness."

Stop Playing the Victim, Baracky!

From lefty Kathleen Parker, at WaPo, "Obama’s race remarks exacerbate tensions":

If I had a son, he would look like Christopher Lane, the 22-year-old Australian baseball player shot dead while jogging in Oklahoma.

If I had a father, he’d look like Delbert Belton, the 88-year-old World War II veteran beaten to death in Spokane, Wash.

And yes, if I had a son, he’d look like the white teenager who police say drove the getaway car in the Oklahoma killing.

These are all true statements if we identify ourselves and each other only by the color of our skin, which increasingly seems to be the case. Even our president has done so.

Barack Obama helped lead the way when he identified himself with the parents of Trayvon Martin, shot by George Zimmerman in the neighborhood-watch catastrophe with which all are familiar. Stepping out from his usual duties of drawing meaningless red lines in the Syrian sand, the president splashed red paint across the American landscape:

“If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

In so saying, he essentially gave permission for all to identify themselves by race with the victim or the accused. How sad, as we approach the 50th anniversary of the march Martin Luther King Jr. led on Washington, that even the president resorts to judging not by the content of one’s character but by the color of his skin — the antithesis of the great dream King articulated....

Nothing is fair about profiling, but one’s treatment by a stranger is not always necessarily linked to one’s racial or ethnic history. Sometimes it’s just . . . you.

The killings leading the news the past several days have been horrific in their apparent randomness. Were they racially motivated? Had the perps been white and the victims black, would Obama have identified with them? More to immediate concerns, did the president’s identification with Trayvon Martin nourish the killing passions of these youths?

Hard to say with any certainty, though one of those charged in the Oklahoma shooting apparently tweeted some messages this summer that unmistakenly convey racial animus toward whites. They might be dismissed as Twitter nonsense — but for the dead body.

We do know this much for certain: Had the races been reversed, the usual suspects would have had much to say. White teens beat up an elderly black veteran and leave him for dead? White teens shoot a talented black athlete visiting from another country?

Word.

Christian Air Force Veteran Relieved of Duties After Disagreeing with Homosexual Marriage

This is why they call it the "Gaystapo."

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Discrimination Complaint Filed After Christian Relieved of Duties Over Beliefs About Homosexuality."

Spending Billions, @ESPN Rules College Football Schedule

A big report at the New York Times, "College Football’s Most Dominant Player? It’s ESPN":

The nation’s annual rite of mayhem and pageantry known as the college football season begins this week, and Saturday will feature back-to-back-to-back marquee matchups.

At the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, last year’s national champions, the Alabama Crimson Tide, will battle the Virginia Tech Hokies in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic.

Earlier in the day in Houston, Oklahoma State will play Mississippi State in the Texas Kickoff Classic. And that night in Arlington, Tex., Louisiana State and Texas Christian will face off in the Cowboys Classic.

The games will not just be televised by ESPN. They are creations of ESPN — demonstrations of the sports network’s power over college football.

The teams were not even on each other’s schedules until ESPN, looking to orchestrate early-season excitement and ratings, went to work. The 2013 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic came together more than two years ago when one of the network’s programming czars noticed that Alabama was not scheduled to play this Labor Day weekend, brought the Tide on board and found a worthy opponent.

Far beyond televising games, ESPN has become the chief impresario of college football. By infusing the sport with billions of dollars it pays for television rights — more than $10 billion on college football in the last five years alone — ESPN has become both puppet-master and kingmaker, arranging games, setting schedules and bestowing the gift of nationwide exposure on its chosen universities, players and coaches.

A great piece.

Continue reading.

And it's a three-part series, so I'll probably update on Part II tomorrow, and so forth...

Added: The piece mentions ESPN's conflicts of interest, including backing out on a PBS documentary on concussions in the NFL. See LAT, "ESPN bows out of concussion project; NFL denies exerting pressure." And NYT, "N.F.L. Pressure Said to Lead ESPN to Quit Film Project."

'Fuckin' Problem'

Well, since we're discussing civil rights progress in the black community, how's about some A$AP Rocky with Drake, 2 Chainz & Kendrick Lamar?

[Hook: 2 Chainz, Drake, and Rocky]
I love bad bitches, that's my fuckin problem
And yeah I like to fuck, I got a fuckin problem
I love bad bitches, that's my fuckin problem
And yeah I like to fuck I got a fuckin problem
I love bad bitches, that's my fuckin problem
And yeah I like to fuck, I got a fuckin problem
If finding somebody real is your fuckin problem
Bring ya girls to the crib maybe we can solve it

[Verse 1: A$AP Rocky]
Hold up bitches simmer down
Takin' hella long bitch give it to me now
Make that thing pop like a semi or a nine
Oh baby like it raw with a shimmy shimmy ya
Huh, ASAP get like me
Never met a motherfucker fresh like me
All these motherfuckers wanna dress like me
Put the chrome to your dome make you sweat like Keith
Cause I'm the nigga, the nigga nigga, like how you figure?
Getting figures and fuckin bitches, she rollin' swishers
Brought her bitches, I brought my niggas, they getting bent up off the liquor
She love my licorice, I let her lick it
They say money make a nigga act nigger-ish
But at least a nigga nigga rich
I be fuckin' broads like I be fuckin' bored
Turn a dyke bitch out have her fuckin' boys, beast

[Hook]

[Verse 2: Drake]
I know you love it when this beat is on
Make you think about all of the niggas you've been leading on
Make me think about all of the rappers I've been feeding on
Got a feeling that's the same dudes that we speakin' on, oh word?
Ain't heard my album? Who you sleepin' on?
You should print the lyrics out and have a fucking read-along
Ain't a fucking sing-along unless you brought the weed along
Then ju.. (Okay, okay, okay)
Then just drop down and get yo' eagle on
Or we can stare up at the stars and put the Beatles on
All that shit you talkin' bout is not up for discussion
I will pay to make it bigger, I don't pay for no reduction
If it's comin' from a nigga I don't know, then I don't trust it
If you comin' for my head, then motherfucker get to bustin'
Yes Lord, I don't really say this often
But this long dick nigga ain't for the long talking, I beast

[Hook]

[Verse 3: Kendrick Lamar]
Yeah ho this the finale
My pep talk turn into a pep rally
Say she's from the hood but she live inside in the valley now
Vacate in Atlanta, then she going back to Cali
Got your girl on my line, world on my line
The irony I fuck 'em at the same damn time
She eyeing me like a nigga don't exist
Girl, I know you want this dick
Girl, I'm Kendrick Lamar
Aka Benz is to me just a car
That mean your friends need to be up to a par
See my standards are pampered by threesomes tomorrow
Kill 'em all dead bodies in the hallway
Don't get involved listen what the crystal ball say
Halle Berry, hallelujah
Holla back I'll do ya, beast

[Hook]

And since I mentioned Barack Hussein, here's a flashback to the ho's playlist in the White House, "President Obama's 'Rap Palate': Why Praise Violent, Misogynistic Hip-Hop Stars?"

That bitch got a problem, mf.

Leftists Go Nuclear Over Pro-Life Community Post at BuzzFeed

Talk about intolerance and ideological tribalism.

At Twitchy, "‘Shameful’ pro-life post forces BuzzFeed to question where to draw the line."

Following the links takes us to Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke at the New York Observer, "Amid Anger Over Anti-Abortion Post, Buzzfeed Says It’s Still Figuring Out Whether To ‘Draw Lines’." And here's the offending entry, "8 Outrageous Things Planned Parenthood Was Caught Doing."

Lefties haven't learned the fundamentals of the Streisand effect. Most people would've never heard of the pro-life community post, but now it's going viral and more people will be educated on the pro-death abortion cult's lies.

Way to go progs!

Thousands Gather to Mark Anniversary of March on Washington

At this point it's all about grievance. Objective, demonstrable progress toward racial equality doesn't matter so much, and we have plenty of evidence on progress toward racial equality today, like, er, the black man in the White House.

But see the Washington Post, "‘Keeping the dream alive’ - Thousands gather on Mall to mark anniversary."

William Allison, 92, came to today's march with same sign he marched with in '63 pic.twitter.com/qT3kL8VlEP via @HamilHarris #MarchonWashington

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 24, 2013

More, "March on Washington's 50th Anniversary."

50 Years Ago Democrats Believed In Tax Cuts

Astute Bloggers had this the other day.