Sunday, September 8, 2013

Radical Feminist Takeover at Harvard Business School

You've heard it a thousand times: radical leftist ideology strives fundamentally for the total reengineering of society, the complete makeover of social relations, by any means necessary, including coercion and force.

But we don't often have perfect case studies of this at the highest levels of institutional power and prestige, especially at Harvard University, a private university where the normal decelerating processes inhibiting disruptive social change would be least in play.

So read this piece at the New York Times as a window to the programmatic world of the leftist institutional subversion. Importantly, mentioned at the top of the piece is Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust, a gender-drenched radical historian pushing an extreme-left program, including booting the university's ROTC program from campus.

See, "Harvard Business School Case Study: Gender Equity":
The country’s premier business training ground was trying to solve a seemingly intractable problem. Year after year, women who had arrived with the same test scores and grades as men fell behind. Attracting and retaining female professors was a losing battle; from 2006 to 2007, a third of the female junior faculty left.

Some students, like Sheryl Sandberg, class of ’95, the Facebook executive and author of “Lean In,” sailed through. Yet many Wall Street-hardened women confided that Harvard was worse than any trading floor, with first-year students divided into sections that took all their classes together and often developed the overheated dynamics of reality shows. Some male students, many with finance backgrounds, commandeered classroom discussions and hazed female students and younger faculty members, and openly ruminated on whom they would “kill, sleep with or marry” (in cruder terms). Alcohol-soaked social events could be worse.

“You weren’t supposed to talk about it in open company,” said Kathleen L. McGinn, a professor who supervised a student study that revealed the grade gap. “It was a dirty secret that wasn’t discussed.”

But in 2010, Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard’s first female president, appointed a new dean who pledged to do far more than his predecessors to remake gender relations at the business school. He and his team tried to change how students spoke, studied and socialized. The administrators installed stenographers in the classroom to guard against biased grading, provided private coaching — for some, after every class — for untenured female professors, and even departed from the hallowed case-study method.

The dean’s ambitions extended far beyond campus, to what Dr. Faust called in an interview an “obligation to articulate values.” The school saw itself as the standard-bearer for American business. Turning around its record on women, the new administrators assured themselves, could have an untold impact at other business schools, at companies populated by Harvard alumni and in the Fortune 500, where only 21 chief executives are women. The institution would become a laboratory for studying how women speak in group settings, the links between romantic relationships and professional status, and the use of everyday measurement tools to reduce bias.

“We have to lead the way, and then lead the world in doing it,” said Frances Frei, her words suggesting the school’s sense of mission but also its self-regard. Ms. Frei, a popular professor turned administrator who had become a target of student ire, was known for the word “unapologetic,” as in: we are unapologetic about the changes we are making.

By graduation, the school had become a markedly better place for female students, according to interviews with more than 70 professors, administrators and students, who cited more women participating in class, record numbers of women winning academic awards and a much-improved environment, down to the male students drifting through the cafeteria wearing T-shirts celebrating the 50th anniversary of the admission of women. Women at the school finally felt like, “ ‘Hey, people like me are an equal part of this institution,’ ” said Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a longtime professor.

And yet even the deans pointed out that the experiment had brought unintended consequences and brand new issues. The grade gap had vaporized so fast that no one could quite say how it had happened. The interventions had prompted some students to revolt, wearing “Unapologetic” T-shirts to lacerate Ms. Frei for what they called intrusive social engineering. Twenty-seven-year-olds felt like they were “back in kindergarten or first grade,” said Sri Batchu, one of the graduating men.

Students were demanding more women on the faculty, a request the deans were struggling to fulfill. And they did not know what to do about developments like female students dressing as Playboy bunnies for parties and taking up the same sexual rating games as men. “At each turn, questions come up that we’ve never thought about before,” Nitin Nohria, the new dean, said in an interview.

The administrators had no sense of whether their lessons would last once their charges left campus. As faculty members pointed out, the more exquisitely gender-sensitive the school environment became, the less resemblance it bore to the real business world. “Are we trying to change the world 900 students at a time, or are we preparing students for the world in which they are about to go?” a female professor asked.
Well, naturally. These Harvard hacks are Stalinist bureaucrats implementing five-year plans. They're infantilizing fully-grown adults and attempting to crush their individuality and creativity in order to squeeze them into their self-described Utopian one-size-fits-all laboratory boxes. It's obscene.

Now, it's a long piece and folks need to read it all.

Part of the program's reengineering is the focus on women faculty members, who are considered badly disadvantaged relative to men, who've often had long careers in real world business, compared to most of the women who were academics. Administrators have bored down on improving the teaching ability of these women, recall with those private coaches and by jettisoning the famed HBS case-study method in favor of scripted "Field" groupings that assign students into problem-solving teams to avoid the kind of cold-calling case teaching made famous by John Houseman's character, Professor Kingsfield, in "The Paper Chase." Inexplicably (really, administrators can't say why), faculty evaluations improved dramatically for the female members of the school. (Perhaps teaching evaluations went up along with student grades, you know, with those "stenographers" installed in every classroom like Communist Party apparatchiks to equalize student performance in the classic mode of egalitarian leveling.)

But of note more than anything is that so much of the problems at HBS are the things that can't be easily controlled by administrative fiat. There's a huge hierarchy of wealth and prestige among students attending. Surely if administrators could destroy these inequalities they would, but the sources of such difference originate outside the confines of the campus laboratory. Women students realized that much of their success would be climbing these social ladders and making connections beyond the classroom.

The article implies that this isn't such a great thing but in the real world, outside of such rarified laboratories, it's called "networking." Moreover, women are judged on their physical attractiveness, which proves that even the most determined gender feminist administrators will always contend with that most sublime human lottery known as the gene pool. And one of the most successful women of the class, Brooke Boyarsky, was something of an ugly duckling who figured out that to succeed she had to both blow off hopes of winning the hotness factor sweepstakes while simultaneously losing 100 pounds as she made her way through the program, eventually turning herself the woman who everyone wanted to emulate. In other words, she grew personally and adapted, just like anyone does in any challenging environment. The article doesn't credit the administration's gender equality enforcement as the basis for Ms. Boyasky's success. It was her own willingness to break out personally and open up about painful issues of social acceptance. She gave a speech at the concluding Baker Scholars Luncheon, where only the top 5 percent of the class are invited. Her theme was to discuss how she developed the courage to overcome painful obstacles to change.

But again, Ms. Boyarsky's successes aren't credited to the gender equality experiment. It looks more like she simply bucked herself up and stood tall against the competition. That's what happens in a place you'd expect to be predicated on excellence, like Harvard.

In any case, one more thing really sticks out about story, and that's the situation with Professor Frances Frei, who is described at the beginning of the piece as sparking "student ire" for her militant stand as "unapologetic about the changes we are making." There's more on Professor Frei deeper into the article, at the beginning of the section titled, "A Lopsided Situation":
Even on the coldest nights of early 2013, Ms. Frei walked home from campus, clutching her iPhone and listening to a set of recordings made earlier in the day. Once her two small sons were in bed, she settled at her dining table, wearing pajamas and nursing a glass of wine, and fired up the digital files on her laptop. “Really? Again?” her wife, Anne Morriss, would ask.

Ms. Frei been promoted to dean of faculty recruiting, and she was on a quest to bolster the number of female professors, who made up a fifth of the tenured faculty. Female teachers, especially untenured ones, had faced various troubles over the years: uncertainty over maternity leave, a lack of opportunities to write papers with senior professors, and students who destroyed their confidence by pelting them with math questions they could not answer on the spot or commenting on what they wore.

“As a female faculty member, you are in an incredibly hostile teaching environment, and they do nothing to protect you,” said one woman who left without tenure. A current teacher said she was so afraid of a “wardrobe malfunction” that she wore only custom suits in class, her tops invisibly secured to her skin with double-sided tape.

Now Ms. Frei, the guardian of the female junior faculty, was watching virtually every minute of every class some of them taught, delivering tips on how to do better in the next class. She barred other professors from giving them advice, lest they get confused. But even some of Ms. Frei’s allies were dubious.
That passage does a lot of explanatory work. Notice that without any fanfare the piece slips in the bit about Professor Frei's wife, Anne Morris, with which she has "two small sons." It's all so casual to be unexceptional, that is, if you're a New York Times correspondent or a faculty member at Harvard University.

Professor Frei's pictured second from right at the photo below (from the article), although I'm sure readers would figure out so much on the basis of (an obvious) stereotypical assessment as to which of these four best fits the model of the crusading queer feminist smashing the hetero-normative gender hegemonies of America's hetero-patriarchical social order. Seriously, a chunky butch lesbian dressed like a man? No wonder the woman's generating all that "student ire." She ramming the "radicalism of the women’s movement" right down the throat of every business student in the program.

 photo hbs-web-3_zps2dbcd181.jpg

Professor Frei's administrative style might be called "jackboot helicopter mentoring." She uses loaded feminist terminology such as the purported "incredibly hostile environment" to justify an authority profile in which she literally controls faculty outcomes herself, from "watching virtually every minute of every class" to barring "other professors" from giving advice to female faculty members, lest they be "confused" by their mansplaining troglodyte colleagues. (And I love how she considers herself a "guardian," an image of control that could be ripped perfectly from the totalitarian system of Plato's "Republic.")

And it bears noting that HBS is considered the premiere business school in the nation, but here you have top administrators who are essentially cultural Marxists whose main goal is smashing the capitalist-embedded systems of male domination, gender apartheid, and alleged epidemic cultures of sexual harassment. It all boggles the mind. Reading the stories of female students who arrived at HBS after very successful undergraduate careers and business experience, it makes sense that they asked themselves if they "had made a bad choice." One is Neda Navab, the "daughter of Iranian immigrants" who'd "been the president of her class at Columbia, advised chief executives as a McKinsey & Company consultant and trained women as entrepreneurs in Rwanda." She was shocked to find, in 2011, that a women's seminar on learning how to raise one's hand to be recognized was considered conducting "an assault on the school’s most urgent gender-related challenge."

No kidding. Behold regressive leftism at its most infantilizing manifestation.

I personally would be very hesitant to recommend any student for Harvard Business School, to say nothing of any major radically-submerged institution of higher education. But at least with the Harvard case study we have hard proof that fish indeed rot from the head down.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Disgusting Alex Jones Misogynist Attack on @Alyssa_Milano

So, on Twitter this afternoon Becca Lower tweets her post on Alyssa Milano's sex tape. It's a Funny or Die joint (and not really a "sex tape"). But I checked Google to find a YouTube copy and up pops this vile segment featuring the despicable Infowars assclown Alex Jones.

I'd rather not repeat all the misogynist slurs he flings at the lovely Ms. Milano, who for all her "liberal" views is a nice lady and an ambassador for Major League Baseball. She's cool on Twitter too.

In any case, Robert Stacy McCain long ago befriended Ms. Milano on Twitter. I suggested he might defend the lady's honor with a smackdown of the woman-hating Infowars ghoul. And so he has, "@Alyssa_Milano Releases Sex Tape as ‘Social Statement’ (Alex Jones Is Nuts)." To wit:


“War whore”? Alex Jones is a despicable conspiracy theorist who spent years pushing 9/11 Truther nonsense. At the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Alex Jones spotted Michelle Malkin at a protest and he started shouting “neocon” and a bunch of other stuff, which incited some protesters to start chanting, “Kill Michelle Malkin.”

If it hadn’t been for Charlie Martin and Jim Hoft being there to defend her, who knows what might have happened?

I’ve hated that dangerous kookball ever since, and the fact that Alex Jones is now smearing a liberal like Alyssa Milano (while, characteristically, ranting about the “New World Order”) goes to show just how little Alex Jones’s paranoid anger has to do with actual politics.

Alex Jones is worse than those idiot liberals who were raging because Alyssa Milano appeared on Fox and Friends this week.

If anybody needs rational arguments against the Syria intervention, I’ll be happy to provide them, but you’re not going to get any rational arguments from Alex Jones about anything.
More at the link.

And follow R.S. McCain on Twitter.

#Angels Owner Arte Moreno Threatens to Abandon Anaheim Stadium, Move Team

I missed these stories earlier this week, at LAT, "Anaheim OKs Angels lease talks amid mention of team's ability to move," and "Angels' owner has means to move team, Anaheim City Council told."

And then reading the sports page today I saw this, "Letters: Where will Arte Moreno go?":
After reading about Arte "I have the means to move the team elsewhere" Moreno and the lease negotiations with the city of Anaheim, it sure makes me glad I'm a Dodgers fan. It would seem the one angle Mr. Moreno has forgotten about is the fans. You know, the ones who give him 3-million-plus attendance every year, while all they've gotten from him is a lousy, overpriced team and lower beer prices 10 years ago.

There once was a time he was an owner to be admired, but now at least when it comes to Angel Red, maybe we are seeing his true colors.

David Parsons
Fontana
Pretty well said, especially the part about the 3 million fans. I've been an Angels fan since I was about 10 years old. Needless to say I'd be bummed if Moreno picked up stakes.

In any case, the City of Anaheim as made a generous offer on a lease agreement, covered in Bill Shaikin's commentary at LAT, "Angels' Arte Moreno could pay off in a big way for city of Anaheim."

Below is your humble blogger before the game earlier this summer, "#Angels Beat #Cardinals in Spectacular 6-5 Walk-Off Win on 4th of July." Here's hoping to many more like that right here in the O.C.

Angel Stadium photo photo-30_zpscf2c77b7.jpg

Britain Sold Nerve Gas Chemicals to Syria

Oh, a little lax security controls there, you think?

Here's the front-page story at tomorrow's Daily Mail, "Britain sent poison gas chemicals to Assad: Proof that the UK delivered Sarin agent to Syrian regime for SIX years":
British companies sold chemicals to Syria that could have been used to produce the deadly nerve agent that killed 1,400 people, The Mail on Sunday can reveal today.

Between July 2004 and May 2010 the Government issued five export licences to two companies, allowing them to sell Syria sodium fluoride, which is used to make sarin.

The Government last night admitted for the first time that the chemical was delivered to Syria – a clear breach of international protocol on the trade of dangerous substances that has been condemned as ‘grossly irresponsible’.
Britain Syria Chemicals photo BTln3tpCMAAsElk_zps70bb5562.jpg

More from earlier this week at the Independent UK, "Revealed: UK Government let British company 
export nerve gas chemicals to Syria."

And at the Daily Record, "Revealed: Britain sold nerve gas chemicals to Syria 10 months after 'civil unrest' began."

Fabulous Alessandra Ambrosio in Stunning Strapless Gown as New Face for Always

She's spectacular.

At London's Daily Mail, "Purple reigns: Alessandra Ambrosio stuns in strapless violet gown with large side split as she's revealed as new face of Always."

 photo 175983c9-ad6e-4d57-9c4c-d312dba0d6f8_zpsb9749eb6.jpg

'I Hate White People' — New York Man Left Brain-Dead After Racial Hate Crime in Union Square

At Gateway Pundit, "HORROR! NYC Race Crime Leaves 62 Yr Old Victim Brain Dead" (via Memeorandum):
[Jeffrey] Babbitt [62 yrs old] was minding his own business as he walked through the crowd near the chess boards in Union Square when a man made a hateful announcement and began his rampage, witnesses said.

“He said ‘the next white person who walks by I’m going to [expletive],’” one woman said. “His fist went in and the man’s head bobbed and he hit the ground and you could hear his skull hitting the ground.”
No comment from Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama, or any of the other prominent dishonest cowards AG Holder referenced above. They don’t care about race relations. They only care about race exploitation.
And at NewsBusters, "NY Man Left Brain Dead By Attacker Shouting 'I Hate White People' - Will Media Report It?"



Well, it's all black privilege racism these days.

A couple of local news stories and that'll be it, because Justice for Trayvon!

More at Memeorandum.

Barack Hussein Obama Planned Syria Chemical Weapons Attack as Pretext for War?

I'm just asking

The premise, in any normal presidency, would be outlandish.

But this administration is not normal. This administration is so shifty, so dishonest, you simply cannot blithely dismiss any reasonable hypothesis of Obama's deceit as conspiracy. This is especially true since the treasonous Obama "enemedia" has covered for this juvenile narcissist traitor since Day One.

So, with that let's leave it to Pamela Geller, who is second to none in debunking this administration's lies and treason against America.

Here, "Did the White House Help Plan the Syrian Chemical Attack?":
Yossef Bodansky’s sources reveal that on August 13 and 14, there was a high-level meeting in Turkey that included the al-Qaeda Syrian rebels, along with U.S., Turkish, and Qatari officials, in which the Obama regime planned a bombing campaign after a “war-changing” moment that was set to occur within days. This “war changing” moment, of course turned out to be the gassing of 1429 people, including hundreds of children, to be blamed on Bashar al-Assad.
Read it all. (Via Memeorandum.)

Obama's America photo 2016_review_rect_zpsfadb03f7.jpg

We may never know the full truth. This current regime is itself a conspiracy on the American people, from Obama's Marxist-Kenyan roots, to the cover-up of his Weather Underground ties, to his hidden academic transcripts, to the Rashid Khalidi tape and Barack Hussein's backing of the terrorist PLO and Hamas, to President "Community Organizer's" ties to ACORN criminals and mobs, to the Fast and Furious gun-running murders, to the deaths of our American diplomats in Benghazi, to the backing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, to the...

This list is f-king endless!

Caitlin Heller Viral Twerking Video

At the New York Post, "Girl sets herself on fire in twerk fail."



Well, you think she shoulda locked the door, lol!

Arabella Drummond

For Front Magazine, "ARABELLA DRUMMOND IS A HUMAN DOUBLE RAINBOW."



BONUS: "TEN SEXY GIRLS… BUMMING AROUND."

Mercedes S550: Could One Day Be the Best Car in the World

My dad always drove a Mercedes, but nothing like this.

Just watching the video I'm jonesin' to go out and get one right now, lol.

But see Dan Neil, at WSJ, "Mercedes S550: A Technological Tour de Force":


THE REDESIGNED 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-class, the serene, cetacean presence you see before you, this sack of krill, is probably the world's most technologically rich automobile.

The company's new flagship sedan/limousine/state car requires the services of 60 onboard computers, up to 100 servo motors (operating, among other things, the powered door and trunk closures, seat-belt tensioners, and the elaborate articulation of the seats), and more than 500 LED lighting units, from its taillamps to its (amazing, game-changing) headlamps. Under the flat, brooding instrument binnacle are two high-res, 12.3-inch TFT screens, arrayed cinema style in a single, broad bezel that, at night, floats in a pool of suffused LED backlighting, like something signed out from the Starfleet motor pool. Holy mother of awesome.

Gorden Wagener, Mercedes-Benz head of design, told me that the new S-class was the "best car in the world." I am not ready to make such a pronouncement, and I'd be unlikely to do so anyway about a car that looks like it was swallowed by a manatee. But the S-class is unquestionably a tour de force, a showy, almost arrogant display of auto-making genius (assuming it all holds together). The important thing here is Stuttgart's willingness to invoke "best car" verbiage, which historians associate with icons such as the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, Duesenberg SJ, Mercedes-Benz 300SL, Bugatti Veyron and—a late entry on the list—Tesla. Cheeky monkeys.

For four decades and five generations of the S-class, the car has traditionally been the company's technology icebreaker, introducing now-fundamental systems such as stability control and ABS braking, adaptive cruise control and adaptive body-roll control. In that time, S-class product planning has also become increasingly a victim of its own rhetoric, with each generation obliged to blow buyers' minds anew, sometimes with trivial, half-baked "technologies" (the shambolic first edition of the infrared night-vision system comes to mind).

This new car represents a genuine break with the past on several fronts, and they are, in descending order of importance: active safety; cabin materials and construction; in-cabin electronic functions and amenities. Indeed, the sheer weight of innovation in this car—more than 2,000 patents flutter in its slipstream—is itself theatrical, a message to consumers and competitors alike: A giant has awakened. Checkbooks, run for your lives.
Oh yes, the checkbook.

That's why my dad always bought pre-owned. And if I get one someday I'll probably go pre-owned as well.

In any case, continue reading. Clearly astounding, if not the best in the world.

Electronic Eitquette in the Classroom

On the first day of classes I post the department's policies on electronic equipment on the projection screen during classes. (I didn't write the policies and I don't make students apologize to class if their cellphones ring.) It helps keep kids focused, or at least for a time. I've already had a few of the more "popular type" of young ladies texting and goofing off in class. And it's only been two weeks!

Last semester I had a woman who looked at her phone all semester, had it stashed right behind her purse on the top of her desk. I don't think she was doing well in class, and I probably docked her some "progressional points" on her semester grades (which are basically freebie extra credit points for students who behave themselves).

In any case, technology in the classroom's a net negative in my experience. Some students will used their laptops appropriately, taking notes and accessing their textbooks during lectures. But otherwise I've long railed against the distractions of cellphones. It's interesting how many students have to "go to the bathroom" these days, or those who just step out routinely to take a call. Most of all, though, the focus of the students is not on what's being taught but on their social lives. And for young students around 18 and 19 years-old, that social life obsession --- fueled by ubiquitous social media applications --- is the bane of their personal and professional development.

In any case, there's more on this from Evan Selinger, at the Wall Street Journal, "Should Students Use a Laptop in Class?":
There's a widely shared image on the Internet of a teacher's note that says: "Dear students, I know when you're texting in class. Seriously, no one just looks down at their crotch and smiles."

College students returning to class this month would be wise to heed such warnings. You're not as clever as you think—your professors are on to you. The best way to stay in their good graces is to learn what behavior they expect with technology in and around the classroom.

Let's start with the million-dollar question: May computers (laptops, tablets, smartphones) be used in class? Some instructors are as permissive as parents who let you set your own curfew. Others are more controlling and believe that having your phone on means your brain is off and that relying on Google for answers results in a digital lobotomy.

Professors are united, though, in the conviction that the classroom is a communal space and that students share the responsibility for ensuring that nobody abuses it by diminishing opportunities to learn. An instructor who lets you squander your tuition by using class time to fuss with your iPhone is likely to have zero tolerance for distracting activities that make it hard for the rest of the class to pay attention.

One of my colleagues has resorted to a severe policy that he calls the "Facebook rule," which turns the classroom into a wild west of bounty hunters and social media outlaws. Students are encouraged to earn extra credit by busting classmates who use their computers for activities like social networking, shopping or gaming during his lectures.

Other professors prefer imposing the scarlet letters themselves. One colleague became so fed up with a student who played games whenever the class went to a computer lab that he installed speakers on the offender's machine. Halfway through the class, the speakers got turned on and everyone stared as the post-apocalyptic sound track started blaring.

Ultimately, rule-breakers are their own worst enemies. Students may be savvy enough to text the occasional query to partners-in-crime during exams. But it is only a matter of time before the mute button isn't pushed and the whole class gets to hear your "I'm sexy and I know it" ringtone.
This guy's a riot.

Continue reading.

The part about student emails is hilarious, but I cut my students a lot of slack there. Learning professionalism takes time. I just draw the line on excessive distractions and disruptions in the classroom.

My Military, Mine!

Neener-neener-neener!

Poor baby.

From the hilarious hashtag on Twitter, #WarofChoice:

Obama's Military photo BTghXm-CcAAPhDU_zps62fd60c6.jpg

And at Twitchy, "Whose military is it anyway? President Obama claims it for himself — again — at G20 summit [video]."

The Libertarian Case Against Intervening in Syria

It's Nick Gillespie on C-SPAN, via Reason.

Unfortunately, he's mischaracterizing Charles Krauthammer's positions at this shorter clip below (full interview at that top link). And his overall critique might as well have been cribbed off Lawyers, Bungholes and Murderers, to say nothing of the racist misogynist TBogg at Hammering Jane Hamsher's skeezy stink hole.



More Gillespie here, FWIW, "3 Reasons Not to Go to War with Syria."

Black Sabbath Concert Review

From the band's performance Tuesday night at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, from Randall Roberts, at LAT, "Review: Black Sabbath visit hell at a sweaty L.A. Sports Arena":


If you listened very closely on Tuesday night during Black Sabbath's return to the city, you could hear the Big Bang of heavy metal echoing through the sweat-drenched Los Angeles Sports Arena.

It was buried in the slow, menacing guitar lines of guitarist Tony Iommi, and propelled by Geezer Butler's cavernous bass lines. And it was in the unholy yowl of Ozzy Osbourne, 64, shuffling along the stage like a retired vampire in search of a blood nurse, who long ago moved beyond a parody of himself to become a virtual trademark in black.

Performing songs from the band's first decade (before Osbourne was booted from the group for drug-fueled debauchery, replaced by Ronnie James Dio), Sabbath offered distorted rock music as simple yet as inarguably useful as your basic table or chair. That they all wore black is understood.
More at that top link.

The band played the MGM Grand last Sunday. I tweeted from the hotel:



When we were checking out on Monday we saw a couple of tween girls with Black Sabbath t-shirts in the elevator on the way down. Turns out the parents let the girls attend on their own. I saw them and said, "So, how was it"? The kids just smiled and Dad said he'd given his tickets to them. Pretty cool.

My wife and I had two tickets on offer from MGM, by the way, but chose instead to be comped four nights at the hotel. Maybe another time, if Ozzy's still rocking, that is.

Oh, that video at top's from Birmingham, England, 2012, at the Black Sabbath YouTube page. High quality. They're really tuned in.

14 Principled Anti-War Celebrities We Fear May Have Been Kidnapped

From John Ekdahl, hilariously, at BuzzFeed.

Sheryl Crow tops the list:
LAST KNOWN PRE-2009 COMMUNICATION:
“I think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic retributions that will follow. I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies.”
— Sheryl Crow
Cheryl Crow photo 81612855-sheryl-crow_zps3d176b4e.jpg

Sabine

She's lovely.

Sabine Jemeljanova photo BTAIJR3IEAAd-Is_zpsa49e119e.jpg

Via Twitter.

Public Support for War in Syria Lower Than for Any Other Conflict in Last 20 Years

Well, the public's ball-busting President Blurred Lines.

At Gallup, "U.S. Support for Action in Syria Is Low vs. Past Conflicts":

Gallup Syria photo or4phnoltuez9suofma11a_zps3ee690f3.png
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' support for the United States' taking military action against the Syrian government for its suspected use of chemical weapons is on track to be among the lowest for any intervention Gallup has asked about in the last 20 years. Thirty-six percent of Americans favor the U.S. taking military action in order to reduce Syria's ability to use chemical weapons. The majority -- 51% -- oppose such action, while 13% are unsure.
Continue reading.

Public support is up from May, in light of allegations of WMD use by Syria's Assad. But clearly, Americans are burned out on international conflict.

Yeah, and that no doubt explains why Barack "Blurred Lines" Hussein is on the verge of abandoning his Syria strike plans altogether.

How embarrassing. And I mean for Americans to have this idiot in the Oval Office.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Neocon Elizabeth O'Bagy's Controversial Op-Ed at the Wall Street Journal

Here's the lady's commentary, which was out last weekend at WSJ, "On the Front Lines of Syria's Civil War."

Folks should read that first, before diving into the controversy, which has unusually steep policy implications.

While Ms. O'Bagy is identified at the op-ed as "a senior analyst at the Institute for the Study of War," it turns out she's also affiliated with the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), an anti-Assad political action committee with a pending application for 501(c)(3) non-profit status at the IRS. Foreign Policy cited the lady's credentials in June as the "political director at SETF." And here's the group's press release, "SETF Welcomes Dr. Elizabeth O'Bagy to DC Staff."

Recall that the Institute for the Study of War is Kimberly Kagan's neoconservative foreign policy think tank. It's pretty interesting that O'Bagy's piece was cited by Secretary of State John Kerry and Senator John McCain during hearings this week. But the pushback was enough for the Institute to publish an addendum to Ms. O'Bagy's biography at the website:

 photo photo-29_zps02709ce7.jpg
Press Advisory- September 6, 2013:

The Institute for the Study of War employs Elizabeth O’Bagy as a senior analyst on its Syria portfolio.  She also has a role in the Syria Emergency Task Force that she wishes to clarify.  She states:

“The Syrian Emergency Task Force has filed with the IRS to register as a 501 (c) 3, and has been an important subcontractor for the United States and British governments in providing aid and assistance to the Syrian people. I work with the Syrian Emergency Task Force in an advisory capacity on a number of humanitarian aid and governance building contracts. I am hired on a contractual basis in my role as the Political Director and Humanitarian Aid Coordinator, but do not receive a salary from the organization. In this role with the Task Force, I have worked on a number of contracts with the United States Department of State to provide an evaluation of the current aid and assistance programs inside Syria and provide guidance on how to better implement these programs.

“The Syrian Emergency Task Force does have a registered 501 (c) 4 and does engage in political advocacy. However I do not work with this office and I do not lobby on their behalf. My role within the organization has been limited to humanitarian efforts funded through the United States Department of State and the British Foreign Office.”

Kimberly Kagan, President of the Institute for the Study of War, writes, “I have great confidence in Elizabeth O’Bagy and her work.  She has written numerous, fully documented reports on the Syrian opposition.  Her nuanced arguments, the evidence on which she bases them, and the citations of her sources are available for all to examine.”
As far as I can tell, Ms. O'Bagy's a Ph.D. candidate at Georgetown University. She's young, 26 years-old. All this seems to bother Jerome Corsi, who writes at WND, "Obama relying on student's spin on Syria?"

Corsi's a spinmeister himself, so take that FWIW. He does link to an interesting Reuters piece out Thursday, "Kerry portrait of Syria rebels at odds with intelligence reports."And see the commentary at Wintery Knight, "Intelligence reports show Islamic extremists dominate Syrian opposition."

There's also a Memeorandum thread with the salacious headline, "Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Draws Scrutiny Over Writer's Ties to Syrian Rebel Advocacy Group."

So who's right?

Ms. O'Bagy's traveled frequently to Syria, as recently as one month ago. The territorial division of control among rebel groups she describes sounds both logical and realistic. But the appearance of outside militants aligned with al Qaeda wasn't a factor over a year ago, when the administration would've had less worry over arming terrorists. At this point it's hard to believe that "moderates" still dominate the opposition. Indeed, recall what Edward Luttwak wrote a couple of weeks ago:
The war is now being waged by petty warlords and dangerous extremists of every sort: Taliban-style Salafist fanatics who beat and kill even devout Sunnis because they fail to ape their alien ways; Sunni extremists who have been murdering innocent Alawites and Christians merely because of their religion; and jihadis from Iraq and all over the world who have advertised their intention to turn Syria into a base for global jihad aimed at Europe and the United States.
That sounds more like it, although perhaps more "on-the-ground" research reports will clear things up. But that's not my problem. It's Obama's and his bomb-happy allies in the Senate. And so far I don't think they're making the sale.

ADDED: Here's Daniel Greenfield's report that indicates that the Free Syrian Army forces under General Idris is riddled with Islamists, "The Wall Street Journal’s Misleading Report on the 'Moderate' Syrian Opposition."

And don't miss Rusty Shackleford, "Study: Red Unicorn, Rainbow Brigades Dominate Syrian Opposition."

Dr. Benjamin Hafensteiner!

This is great.

At the Daily Star, "WATCH: Man pretending to be university professor gets caught in the act."



HAT TIP: Pepper_10 on Twitter.

Huge Constituent Backlash at John McCain Town Hall

Well, I guess Syria's not at the top of the list for Arizona voters.

At the Blaze, "VOTERS EXPLODE ON JOHN MCCAIN AT PHOENIX TOWN HALL: ‘WE DIDN’T SEND YOU TO MAKE WAR FOR US’."



More video at Time, "Syrian Woman Confronts John McCain at Town Hall."

Victor Davis Hanson Brings Down the Hammer on America's Juvenile and Narcissistic So-Called Commander-in-Chief

Wow!

Here's an explosive follow up to my previous entry, from Victor Davis Hanson, at National Review, "If It Wasn't Syria, It Would Have Been Something Else":
How did Obama get himself into this mess? It was bound to happen, given his past habits. All we are seeing now is the melodramatic fulfillment of vero possumus, lowering the rising seas, faux Corinthian columns, hope and change, the bows, the Cairo speech, and the audacity of hope. Hubris does earn Nemesis.

1) His inclination is to damn straw men, blame others for his self-inflicted errors, and spike the ball when he should keep quiet and become modest (cf. the bin Laden raid). So in Syria we heard the same old, same old: A host of bad guys, here and abroad, wants to do nothing. Obama alone has the vision and moral compass to restore global and U.S. credibility through his eloquence; but the world disappointed him and is now at fault for establishing red lines that it won’t enforce: He came into the world to save the world, but the world rejected him.

After five years of this, the world caught on, and sees juvenile and narcissistic petulance in lieu of statesmanship—and unfortunately a sinister Putin takes great delight in reminding 7 billion people of this fact almost daily. In terms of geostrategic clout, Obama has nullified the power of his eleven aircraft-carrier battle groups, Putin through his shrewd insight and ruthless calculation of human nature, has added five where they didn’t exist.

2)  Obama thinks in an untrained manner and for all the talk of erudition and education seems bored and distracted—and it shows up in the most critical moments. Had he wished to stop authoritarians, prevent bloodshed and near genocide, and foster true reform in the Middle East, there were plenty of prior, but now blown occasions: a) the “good” war in Afghanistan could have earned his full attention; b) the “bad” Iraq War was won and needed only a residual force to monitor the Maliki government and protect Iraq airspace and ensure quiet; c) the green revolution in Iran was in need of moral support; d) Qaddafi could have been continually pressured for further reform rather than bombed into oblivion; e) postwar Libya needed U.S. leadership to ensure that “lead from behind” did not lead to the present version of Somalia and the disaster in Benghazi; e) long ago, the president could have either kept quiet about Syria or acted on his threats when Assad was tottering and the resistance was less Islamist; f) he could have warned the one vote/one time Muslim Brotherhood early on not to do what everyone in the world knew it would surely do; g) he need not have issued tough serial deadlines to Iran that we have not really enforced and probably have no intention of enforcing.

Instead, Obama relied on his rhetoric and talked loosely, sloppily and inconsistently from crisis to crisis, the only common denominator being that he always took the path of least resistance and thus did nothing concretely to match his cadences. Usually to the degree he made a decision, he made things worse with empty, first-person bombast.

3) Obama cannot attract top talent. Those from prior administrations who are gifted and worked for him or who were promoted by him—Robert Gates, David Petraeus, Paul Volcker, Richard Holbrooke, James Mattis, Stanley McChrystal—either were treated badly, not fully utilized, or ended up regretting their experience. Instead a host of mediocrities are recruited on the basis of either their partisanship, loyalty or demonstrated past lightness—an Eric Holder, Joe Biden, Susan Rice, Timothy Geithner, Chuck Hagel, etc.

Nowhere than in the present crisis is this unfortunate trend more telling: Pro-war John Kerry has opportunistic anti-war baggage, pontificates rather than persuades, and freelances into serial embarrassments; Martin Dempsey, to his credit, cannot square the circle of being an honest man assigned to say things he knows simply cannot be true, and so pleads the military’s version of the Fifth; Chuck Hagel has not recovered from the confirmation hearings, and just wishes Syria would go away; anything that a surprisingly quiet Joe Biden says on the crisis will probably be incoherent and incendiary, and surely contradictory of some past statement; Susan Rice astutely outsourced this crisis; Hillary Clinton whose “what difference does it make?” fingerprints are all over the Syrian and Libyan fiascos wisely got out of town ahead of the posse.

What is now the least bad choice between terrible and even more terrible alternatives? If the congressional vote is yes, the choice is cynically wasting a few American lives for a possible point, or killing lots more people for a more possible point. Not good choices.
Merciless. But so true.

America's in a bad spot right now. The Worst. President. Ever.

Russian Power Bolstered by Obama Foreign Policy Weakness

From J. Michael Waller, at IBD, "Obama's Weakness Provokes an Aggressive Russia, Say Analysts":
While President Obama is conferring with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 economic summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, current and retired senior American intelligence officials fear he is blind to a growing threat from a resurgent Russia.

These officials say that Moscow continues to probe America's skies and seas with bombers and submarines, both to assert itself and to see just how far Russia can push Obama. In June 2012, Russian strategic nuclear bombers broke protocol and conducted maneuvers in the Arctic without alerting the U.S.

A month later a Russian Tu-95 Bear-H strategic bomber, capable of carrying nuclear-armed cruise missiles, entered American airspace off Alaska and California. Then in August, a stealthy Russian Akula-class attack submarine, designed to hunt and sink American subs, patrolled for weeks off Texas, Louisiana and Florida.

Intelligence officials have raised a litany of concerns about Russian behavior that, when taken together, form what they see as an alarming pattern:

Aggressive spying on the U.S. and allied governments at Cold War levels;

Systematic espionage, including ultrasophisticated cybercampaigns, against private businesses to steal their proprietary information;

Accelerated strategic weapons modernization to enhance the ability to blackmail the U.S. and its allies with thermonuclear destruction.

Despite its own sagging economy and massive U.S. defense cuts, Russia is upgrading its Soviet-era weapons and building new systems superior to America's. At the sprawling Sevmash shipyards in the Arctic port of Severodvinsk, Russian workers are busy building the world's most advanced nuclear missile-firing, Borei-class submarines. To the south, at the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant in Russia's Udmurt Republic, technicians assemble Bulava ballistic missiles to be launched from those subs. Their purpose: to deliver high-tech thermonuclear warheads to incinerate American cities.

The Borei-class submarines will be armed with between 16 and 20 of the latest Bulava missiles, each capable of carrying between six and 10 nuclear warheads.

"The one thing that keeps Russians in the big boys' club is their strategic nuclear force," former CIA director Michael Hayden told American Media Institute. "It's not at all surprising that's something that continues to receive investment."

"The president has to communicate to the Russians that he's tougher than he appears to be in public," argues Robert W. Stephan, a former 20-year CIA veteran.

Instead, the Russians see a pattern of weakness under Obama, analysts say.
There's more at the link, but it's hardly necessary to keep reading. Barack Hussein has degraded American standing, capability, and credibility across the international system.

For more on that see strategic analyst John Arquilla, at Foreign Policy, "Mitt Romney Was Right."

Blurred Red Lines

At the Wall Street Journal, "Harry Truman, please call Obama":

Blurred Red Lines photo BTWw3QdIIAAyoLh_zps89648416.jpg
President Obama isn't easy to follow up San Juan Hill, or for that matter even Capitol Hill. Rather than walk point on national security, he prefers to blend in with the enlisted men and women. Consider his astonishing statement on Wednesday at a press conference in Stockholm about his comments last year drawing a "red line" on the use of chemical weapons by Bashar Assad in Syria.

"First of all, I didn't set a red line," the President said. "The world set a red line. The world set a red line when governments representing 98% of the world's population said the use of chemical weapons are abhorrent and passed a treaty forbidding their use even when countries are engaged in war.

"Congress set a red line when it ratified that treaty. Congress set a red line when it indicated that—in a piece of legislation titled the Syria Accountability Act—that some of the horrendous things that are happening on the ground there need to be answered for."

Then the President further blurred his own red lines by explaining whose credibility is at risk in the Syria vote in Congress: "Point number two, my credibility is not on the line. The international community's credibility is on the line. And America and Congress's credibility is on the line because we give lip service to the notion that these international norms are important"....

Mr. Obama still hasn't figured out after five years in office that America is the only enforcer of world order, and thus that there is no substitute for the President of the United States. Mr. Obama can't default to "the international community," whatever that is, much less to Congress. He has to lead. If he loses on Syria, it will be because he hasn't.
PREVIOUSLY: "Rush Limbaugh Slams Barack Hussein's 'Psychopathic' Blame-Shifting on Syria 'Red Lines'," and "'My Credibility is Not On the Line...'"

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Rush Limbaugh Slams Barack Hussein's 'Psychopathic' Blame-Shifting on Syria 'Red Lines'

No doubt truly deranged.

As I said earlier, the president's out of his depth. Seriously. The dude's losing it.

At the Daily Rushbo, "RUSH: Obama Walking Back From ‘Red Line’ Comments May Be ‘Psychopathic’."


'I'd like to know what rock the staff at the NYTimes has been hiding under for the last two years. It's a happy place. I'm guessing there are ponies and rainbows there too...'

That's Rusty Shackleford, at Jawa Report, mocking the nation's newspaper of record on its big "scoop" today on the "smuggled" al Qaeda snuff video.

See, "NYT on Syrian Rebels: What an incredible smell you've discovered!"

Here's the report at the Times, "Brutality of Syrian Rebels Posing Dilemma in West."

And here's the thing: We're to the point where mainstream media outlets are now providing cover for Barack Hussein's disastrous foreign policy by denying massive al Qaeda infiltration among Syria's rebel forces.

Look at the headline at the CNN, clip, for example, "Does execution video prove Syrian rebels to be extremists?"

It's almost embarrassing. The Times' video has blackened out images of the actual executions by gunfire, as if this is something that's unprecedented. But as Rusty notes at My Pet Jawa:
For literally dozens of similar videos of rebels murdering people in Syria, just scroll through our Syria archives. Unfortunately there are so many of these same type of snuff videos coming out of Syria that our archives can't store them all, only the ones from the past 6 months or so.
Here's one right here:



In any case, check Robert Spencer (an expert whether these folks are actually "extremists"), "Brutality of Syrian jihadists shows futility of U.S. intervention." (Via Memeorandum.)

Who's Neville Chamberlain?

I was talking about the levels-of-analysis problem in international relations yesterday, in my World Politics course. I mentioned that at the level of the individual decision-maker, political leaders are often influenced by historical analogies. And then I gave the example of policymakers often basing foreign policy decisions on the "need to avoid another Munich." I then asked my students if they were familiar with the Munich Crisis and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. I've got 45 students in the class and not one raised their hand. It's not unusual, that kind of historical illiteracy. I understand it and I take it in stride (students are in college to learn).

Still, I reflected on this. It was weird. Seems to me that understanding the significance of Munich, and its consequence in turning the term "appeasement" into a harsh opprobrium, is something students should know before the go to college. Or, more broadly, "Munich" is just one more essential lattice step in the complex construction of cultural literacy.



Years ago, just starting out at college, I read parts of Telford Taylor's, "Munich: The Price of Peace." I checked it out at the Orange Coast College library, although I wish I had my own copy. What a classic.

In any case, here's an article on the appeasement analogy, from Fredrik Logevall and Kenneth Osgood, at World Affairs, "The Ghost of Munich: America's Appeasement Complex":
Although the United States was not party to the 1938 agreement, Americans have nonetheless fixated on it for seven decades. “Munich” and “appeasement” have been among the dirtiest words in American politics, synonymous with naïveté and weakness, and signifying a craven willingness to barter away the nation’s vital interests for empty promises. American presidents from Harry Truman on have feared the dreaded “Munich analogy”—and projected an air of uncompromising toughness lest they be branded as appeasers by their political opponents...

Emily Gets Her Gun

It's out.

Emily Miller's new book has been published, Emily Gets Her Gun: ...But Obama Wants to Take Yours.

I've posted numerous video clips of this lady. She's very smart and quick on her feet. And she's well armed, of course. And that makes her a powerful (and self-empowered) patriot of the first rank.



And from yesterday on Fox News, "Emily Gets Her Gun' - Emily Miller on Fox and Friends - Gretchen Carlson - Fox News - 9-4-13," and "Emily Gets Her Gun - Emily Miller on Lou Dobbs - Fox Business - 9-4-13."

Al-Qaeda Terrorists Behead 24 Bus Passengers in Syrian 'Rebel' Massacre

And the U.S. is backing these people?

Bare Naked Islam, "SYRIA: Obama-armed and funded al-Qaeda linked rebels force 24 civilian passengers off bus and behead all of them, including a mother and baby."

And Blazing Cat Fur has video, "Video Content Warning: Obama's Rebel Allies, Moderate Friends Of McCain, Chant Allahu Akbar Decapitate 2 Captives." (And yeah, definitely a content warning. Seems like the jihadis used to complete the beheadings faster in the old days. These monsters take breaks between slashes to whoop and holler. Ghastly terror.)

Also at Jihad Watch, "We're going to war for al-Qaeda: Senate panel approves resolution giving Obama authority to use military force in Syria."

Hothead Anthony Weiner's Meltdown at Brooklyn Bakery

One of these days Anthony Weiner will be long forgotten, but for the moment he keeps laying down the drama.

Video is here, "Anthony Weiner, NYC Mayor Candidate FIGHT, Jewish Heckler, calls him " JackASS " - FULL/ transcript." Also, "Anthony Weiner Discusses His Confrontation With Voter."

And at the New York Times, "Weiner vs. Heckler in a Brooklyn Bakery":
Just when Anthony D. Weiner seemed to be fading from public view — his poll numbers sagging, his entourage of supporters dwindling — he walked into a bakery in Brooklyn.

Mr. Weiner, a Democratic candidate for mayor, was nibbling on a cheese danish during a campaign stop on Wednesday when a man began hurling insults in his direction. The man said Mr. Weiner was a “scumbag” and went after Mr. Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, saying Mr. Weiner was “married to an Arab.” Several times, he called Mr. Weiner “disgusting” for sending lewd pictures to women online.

Mr. Weiner, still chewing, turned irate.

“You’re a perfect person?” he said, pointing his finger in the man’s face. “What rabbi taught you that you’re my judge?”

The man interjected. “You’re a bad example for the people,” he said. “Your behavior’s deviant.”

He advised Mr. Weiner to “stay out of the public, go home and get a job.”

Mr. Weiner, however, would not let up...
And so it goes...

More at the Other McCain, "Your Behavior Is Deviant,’ Jewish Voter Tells Disgraced Anthony Weiner."

'My Credibility is Not On the Line...'

What to say here, really?

The mind yet boggles once more over the unrivaled ineptitude of our so-called Commander-in-Chief.

Yesterday Barack Hussein O-Bomba denied he announced a "red line" on Syrian WMD.

RealClearPolitics has the video, "President Obama: 'My Credibility Is Not On The Line'."

And here's the clip, from August 21, 2012, showing Obama's "red line" press conference, at the totally obscure Telegraph UK.

I don't usually feel sorry for him, but the world's just too complex a place for this president. He's seriously losing it.


Yay, Obama Has Finally Demobilized the U.S. Antiwar Movement!

We're all neocon Bush-Hitler war-for-oil imperialists now.

At Twitchy, "Out: Anti-war; In: War is ‘cool’: Ace of Spades, one photo destroy anti-war Left hypocrisy."

Cool Wars photo OBAMAWARSAREAWESOME_zps4fa71754.jpg

And at Business Insider, "In One Chart, Here's Why The Anti-War Movement Collapsed."

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Freedom to Blog Update: September 4, 2013

No big long preamble needed.

Robert Stacy McCain has been sued by the Speedway Bomber Brett Kimberlin.



Click through for updates at the post.

And at Zilla of the Resistance, "Perpetually #ButtHurt Free Speech Hating #ConvictedTerrorist #SpeedwayBomber #BrettKimberlin Sues Bloggers – AGAIN."

Senator John McCain: Obama Should Have Acted Without Congressional Vote

Here's one time in recent years where I'm fully behind McCain ... or, well, I'm behind him on this idea of the president's disastrous deferral to the Congress. If you bluster about red lines and military consequences, you don't go hide behind the skirt of separation of power. Obama had all the authority to strike over the weekend, under the War Powers Act. These delays are making the United States look weak.

Here's a lengthy interview from today's CBS News This Morning:



And see Fox News, "McCain opposes Syria strike resolution." (Via Memeorandum.)

The Democrats' 'Smart Power' Lies in Ruins

A long, devastating indictment of the amateur years of Obama-Democrat foreign policy, from Jim Geraghty, at National Review.

National Security photo 9640275622_295b07d42b_z-1_zpsb757e48e.jpg

PHOTO CREDIT: White House Flickr.

Code Pink Protests Senate Hearing on Syria

At the Other McCain, "DIE, HIPPIES! Instead of Bombing Syria, Why Don’t We Bomb Code Pink Instead?"


Cleveland Kidnapper Ariel Castro Commits Suicide

My wife called him a coward. Last night we saw the news and she said, "He took the easy way out."

At the Los Angeles Times, "Ariel Castro, captor of Cleveland women, found hanged in prison."

And at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, "Ariel Castro hangs himself, defense attorney says prison denied request for suicide evaluation," and "After Ariel Castro death, attorney said survivors will not make statement."



Recognizing the Wrong People — Implications for U.S. Intervention in Syria

An essay on Diana West's book, American Betrayal, from Clare M. Lopez, which was apparently yanked from the Gatestone Institute's homepage after first being published.

At Diana's blog, "Clare Lopez: Recognizing the Wrong People."

It's not clear what happened, but I like how Ms. Lopez extrapolates from FDR's recognition of the murderous Soviet regime in 1993 to the foreign policy fiascos of the current, Muslim-infiltrated Barack Hussein administration:
As the world confronts the next horror of innocent Syrian men, women, and little children, hundreds of them apparently, killed in late August 2013 by a rocket barrage of the deadly chemical weapon, sarin, the U.S. and the world once again have the opportunity to react rationally, soberly, and with core U.S. national security interests uppermost in consideration. It seems most likely that the Iranian-and-Hizballah-backed regime of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad is responsible for this latest war crime, and the outcry to empower his al-Qa'eda- and Muslim Brotherhood-dominated rebel opposition has become overwhelming. U.S. naval forces are positioned near Syria in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, pending a White House decision on U.S. action. Yet, even as one side of this intra-Islamic sectarian civil war is getting the worst of it, with more than 100,000 casualties racked up so far, and no end in sight, with chemical weapons against civilians introduced into the conflict, there has never been a more critical need for rational, sober-minded thinking about where U.S. interests and responsibility lie. While a 2012 Presidential Intelligence Finding for Syria authorized the extensive clandestine CIA, financial, and Special Forces training support that has been channeled to Syrian rebels (jihadis and non-jihadis alike), in the months since then, any decision to expand that support, now that chemical weapons have been used against civilians in a large-scale attack, demands a significantly better informed assessment of the probable beneficiaries of such assistance than has been the case to date.

Any decision to deploy U.S. military force beyond a punishing strike against the specific Syrian base and military unit that carried out this chemical weapons atrocity must take into consideration the consequences of an al-Qa'eda and Muslim Brotherhood victory in the Syrian civil war. It is hard to see how enabling the replacement of Iranian proxies and Shi'ite jihadis in Syria with Sunni jihadis aligned with al-Qa'eda and the Muslim Brotherhood will advance either U.S. national security interests in the region or those of our closest allies, Israel and Jordan. Providing generous humanitarian assistance to civilian victims is urgent and right; but, before America recognizes any more totalitarian-minded enemies of genuine liberal democracy, it would do well to enlist common sense, good judgment, and a judicious measure of national self-interest. It is high time we stopped empowering those who wish us ill.
Previously on Diana West here.

'Model of the Year' Kate Upton on 'VANITY FAIR' 100th Anniversary Cover

Via Kate Upton and Vanity Fair on Twitter.

And here's the background on Ms. Upton as "Model of the Year."

Plus, an encore from Randy's Roundtable featuring lots of bodacious photos of the young lady.

Kate Upton photo kate-upton-cover-1_zps0b16c2aa.jpg

Smokin! Kelly Brook in New 'Juliet' Video from Lawson

Ravishing.

At Digital Spy, "Lawson, Kelly Brook star in new single 'Juliet' music video - watch."



And at London's Daily Mail, "Now that's a teaser! Lawson do their best to resist the charms of Kelly Brook in a preview from the video for new single Juliet."

Lawson's Wikipedia entry is here.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Senate Panel Expected to Vote on Syria

At LAT, "Draft Senate Syria resolution would limit use of force and time frame":


WASHINGTON – The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday will consider a newly drafted resolution to authorize military force against the Syrian government that specifically rules out any commitment of ground forces and would narrow the time frame for action to no more than 90 days.

The panel’s top Democrat, Chairman Robert Menendez (N.J.), and top Republican, Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.), reached an agreement on revisions to a resolution, which was sent to Congress by the White House on Saturday and was swiftly criticized by lawmakers in both parties as too broad.

The new language calls for the use of force “in a limited and tailored manner” against military targets in Syria for the purpose of responding to the Syrian government’s use of “weapons of mass destruction,” to deter the future use of such weapons and to degrade the nation’s capacity to use them in the future.

Congress’ authorization for the use of force would expire 60 days after it was approved, but the resolution would allow the president to extend the authorization by 30 days if he notified Congress that it was necessary and if Congress does not vote to forbid an extension.

The resolution also calls for the administration to provide within 30 days to key committees an “integrated” strategy toward achieving a settlement to Syria’s civil war.

“With this agreement, we are one step closer to granting the president the authority to act in our national security interest,” Menendez said in a statement.

Corker told CNN on Tuesday that the committee may vote on the revised proposal Wednesday.
And at the Hill, "Kerry seeks to convince reluctant lawmakers to back Syrian action."

And at BuzzFeed, "John Kerry Won’t Rule Out Ground Troops In Syria." (Via Memeoranum.)

Obama's Inept Foreign Policy

Here's this from Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today, "The president's Syria coalition (France) is dwarfed by the international coalition involved in the Iraq War."

But I think "inept" should read "clusterf-k." Must be a typo or something.

.341 BAC

Now this is something else, "When you read this girl's arrest story, you won't believe she's still alive." Via Instapundit.

I was joking around this weekend about having a "Jim Beam" hangover.


That was some end-of-summer partying, although not being arrested like the young lady I have no clue what my BAC would have been. I'm at the hotel with my wife, with no plans to get behind the wheel of a car. So, let it rip!

Well, maybe not. I don't know what got into this lady to drink what was essentially 8 shots of vodka in about 15 minutes, and she weighs just 100 pounds. That's a recipe for death. She didn't see it that way, it turns out. Something of a college binge-drinking badge of honor. As the piece indicates:
Point three four one. That was the blood-alcohol content of a woman named Samantha Lynne Goudie, 22, who tried to jump onto the field during a Northern Illinois–Iowa game and got arrested for public intoxication. Once her mom bailed her out of jail, she tweeted from the Twitter handle @Vodka_samm (yes, really):



Well, Ima disagree with how "epic" this is --- she could have gotten herself killed.

Here's this from the University of Oklahoma Police Department, "PPROXIMATE BLOOD ALCOHOL PERCENTAGE":
0.20 BAC: Feeling dazed/confused or otherwise disoriented. May need help to stand/walk. If you injure yourself you may not feel the pain. Some people have nausea and vomiting at this level. The gag reflex is impaired and you can choke if you do vomit. Blackouts are likely at this level so you may not remember what has happened.

0.25 BAC: All mental, physical and sensory functions are severely impaired. Increased risk of asphyxiation from choking on vomit and of seriously injuring yourself by falls or other accidents.

0.30 BAC: STUPOR. You have little comprehension of where you are. You may pass out suddenly and be difficult to awaken.

0.35 BAC: Coma is possible. This is the level of surgical anesthesia.

0.40 BAC and up: Onset of coma, and possible death due to respiratory arrest.
More at Bro Bible, "Girl Blows .341 After Trying to Jump on the Field During Iowa Game, Tweets #YOLO About It."

YOLO = YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE.

But you might want to live a little longer, sweetie.

Still More: At Iowa's Little Village, "AMID A DISAPPOINTING LOSS AT KINNICK STADIUM YESTERDAY, A VODKA-SOAKED STAR IS BORN."


Boxer Tommy Morrison Dead: WBO Heavyweight Champ Also Played Tommy Gunn in 'Rocky V.'

He was so young.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Tommy Morrison dies at 44; former heavyweight boxing champion."


Former heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Morrison, who starred in the 1990 movie "Rocky V" and later saw his fighting career shortened by a positive HIV test, has died. He was 44.

Morrison died Sunday night at a Nebraska hospital, his former manager, Tony Holden, told the Associated Press. The fighter's family did not disclose the cause.

In 1993, Morrison beat George Foreman for the World Boxing Organization heavyweight belt but soon lost it and a looming $7.5 -million payday to unheralded challenger Michael Bentt. Morrison later lost to another former distinguished heavyweight champion, Lennox Lewis.

"Tommy had a good left hook and quite a bit of ring savvy, and if his opponent was having a little bit of an off night, he'd win," said Bruce Trampler, the matchmaker for the boxing company Top Rank that promoted 27 of Morrison's 52 fights.

However, Morrison "was in obvious decline the last few years," Trampler said.

Nicknamed "The Duke," Morrison was born in 1969 in Gravette, Ark., and grew up in Oklahoma. He enjoyed a strong amateur career that was stopped short of a U.S. Olympic bid in a 1988 loss to Ray Mercer.

The 6-foot-2 boxer won his first 28 professional fights, including a victory over former champion Pinklon Thomas, and played Tommy Gunn opposite Sylvester Stallone in "Rocky V."


Monday, September 2, 2013

Illegal Marijuana Growers May Have Sparked Yosemite's Rim Fire

I've been meaning to post on this, for example, from the Los Angeles Times, "Yosemite fire grows to 348 square miles, 4th-largest in state history."

But see iOWNTHEWORLD, "Massive Yosemite blaze may have been sparked by illegal marijuana growers":


The massive forest fire that has scorched 348 square miles in and around Yosemite National Park may have been sparked by illegal marijuana growers, according to one fire official in Tuolumne County.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that Todd McNeal, chief of the Twain Harte Fire Department, told a community meeting that it was “highly suspect that there might have been some sort of illicit grove, a marijuana-grow-type thing.”

McNeal, who has 23 years of experience with Forest Service, the National Park Service and other agencies, said at the Aug. 23 meeting that investigators know the fire is human caused since there was no lightening in the area.
Well, that's really "lighting one up."

Obama Recklessly Gambles with American Credibility

He's reckless alright. And cowardly

From the editors at the Wall Street Journal, "Leading From Behind Congress":
President Obama's Syrian melodrama went from bad to worse on Saturday with his surprise decision to seek Congressional approval for what he promises will be merely a limited cruise-missile bombing. Mr. Obama will now have someone else to blame if Congress blocks his mission, but in the bargain he has put at risk his credibility and America's standing in the world with more than 40 months left in office.

This will go down as one of the stranger gambles, if not abdications, in Commander in Chief history. For days his aides had been saying the President has the Constitutional power to act alone in response to Syria's use of chemical weapons, and that he planned to do so. On Friday, he rolled out Secretary of State John Kerry to issue a moral and strategic call to arms and declare that a response was urgent.

But on Friday night, according to leaks from this leakiest of Administrations, the President changed his mind. A military strike was not so urgent that it couldn't wait for Congress to finish its August recess and vote the week of its return on September 9. If the point of the bombing is primarily to "send a message," as the President says, well, then, apparently Congress must co-sign the letter and send it via snail mail.

It's hard not to see this as primarily a bid for political cover, a view reinforced when the President's political consigliere David Axelrod taunted on Twitter that "Congress is now the dog that caught the car." Mr. Obama can read the polls, which show that most of the public opposes intervention in Syria. Around the world he has so far mobilized mainly a coalition of the unwilling, with even the British Parliament refusing to follow his lead. By comparison, George W. Bush on Iraq looks like Metternich.

But what does anyone expect given Mr. Obama's foreign-policy leadership? Since he began running for President, Mr. Obama has told Americans that he wants to retreat from the Middle East, that the U.S. has little strategic interest there, that any differences with our enemies can be settled with his personal diplomacy, that our priority must be "nation-building at home," and that "the tide of war is receding." For two-and-a-half years, he has also said the U.S. has no stake in Syria.
A great piece that should be on everyone's reading list.

Read it all at the link.

'The aim of the kafkatrap is to produce a kind of free-floating guilt in the subject, a conviction of sinfulness that can be manipulated by the operator to make the subject say and do things that are convenient to the operator's personal, political, or religious goals...'

Be sure to read this post from William Jacobson, "Kafkatrapping."

And here's a confession: I've never read Franz Kafka.

But follow that llink. You'll immediately understand "Kafkatrapping" in all of its regressive glory.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Kate Moss for Versace

Here's the huge billboard outside the Versace store at the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace, seen last night when I had to run over to the Apple store to pick a new charger for my son's laptop.

And see London's Daily Mail from June, "Maybe blondes DON'T have more fun? Kate Moss turns brunette as she poses in sexy skintight latex for new Versace campaign."

Kate Moss photo photo-28_zps874320d1.jpg

Patriots Release Tim Tebow

I first saw the news on Twitter.

But here's WaPo, "A door closes: Tebow cut by Patriots but remains in ‘relentless pursuit’ of his NFL dream":


FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — A Heisman Trophy, a riveting playoff game, an international following.

Tim Tebow won all that in his football career.

On Saturday, he lost his third NFL job in 18 months. It might be hard to find another.

The quarterback with two big problems — throwing the ball and reading defenses — was cut by the New England Patriots less than 12 weeks after they signed him and just five days before the season.

But, as Tebow sees it, this long journey is not over.

“I will remain in relentless pursuit of continuing my lifelong dream of being an NFL quarterback,” he tweeted.

Coach Bill Belichick gave the player whose profile was higher than his production what may have been his last chance when he signed him June 11, the day the Patriots’ three-day minicamp began. And Tebow is grateful.

He thanked Belichick, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and owner Robert Kraft, who said last Tuesday he was “rooting” for Tebow but would let Belichick make the decision.

In his tweet, Tebow thanked the “entire Patriots organization for giving me the opportunity to be a part of such a classy organization.”

The Patriots cut 12 other players and put safety Adrian Wilson on injured reserve. That left them with 51 players, two below the regular-season limit they had to reach by 6 p.m. EDT.

Belichick didn’t comment on Tebow’s release.

But NFL.com analyst and former NFL executive Gil Brandt wasn’t surprised.

“He has had a great career and I think it’s probably time for him to admit that he just wasn’t right up to NFL standards,” Brandt said. “I’m sure that whatever he does in life he’ll be a huge success.
No word there on whether being an outspoken evangelical hurt his chances.

But RTWT.

The Origins of 'London Calling'

At the Wall Street Journal, "The Sound of Going to Pieces."


Mick Jones: The initial inspiration for the song "London Calling" wasn't British politics. It was our fear of drowning. In 1979 we saw a headline on the front of the London Evening Standard warning that the North Sea might rise and push up the Thames, flooding the city. We flipped. To us, the headline was just another example of how everything was coming undone.
A fabulous interview.

More at the link.


Riot Grrrl Back From the Brink

At the New York Times, "Kathleen Hanna Returns With the Julie Ruin":


Donating her file cabinet, full of old journals, letters and zines to New York University’s Fales Library archive was a bittersweet move for Kathleen Hanna. A singer and founder of the riot grrrl band Bikini Kill and the feminist electro-pop act Le Tigre, Ms. Hanna had been a den mother to contemporary-girl culture for a generation, but she was still only a midcareer artist, too young to grapple with archiving her work. The donation helped legitimize the riot grrrl movement.

But Ms. Hanna, 44, had more personal reasons for securing her legacy: She wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be around.

Timing has played a big part in Ms. Hanna’s creative life since she emerged from the DIY scene in Olympia, Wash., in the early 1990s. The brief but influential riot grrrl movement seemed to arrive at just the right moment, during debates about workplace harassment and young women’s sexuality, fresh issues that still resonate today. But over the last few years, even with a ‘90s revival in full swing and her view in high demand, Ms. Hanna had all but disappeared from public life.

The reason for her absence, as she is just beginning to reveal, was illness, depression and artistic flux. “I’m still not sure, day to day, if I’m going to wake up and be really sick,” she said.

Late in 2010, after six years of a mysterious and debilitating illness that often left her too weak to move or speak, she was finally diagnosed with late-stage Lyme disease. She underwent two years of intensive therapy. Now on the mend, Ms. Hanna is returning in a big way.

She resurrected a 1997 solo project, Julie Ruin, as a band, the Julie Ruin; its debut album, “Run Fast,” is to be released Tuesday on TJR Records, a label formed by Ms. Hanna and her band mates. For the first time, the group is touring nationally, beginning with a sold-out show at the Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday. And a documentary about her, “The Punk Singer,” which has been making the festival rounds since it had its premiere to warm reviews at South by Southwest this spring, is due to be in theaters in November.

Seeing these projects come to fruition at once is stressful but empowering, Ms. Hanna said. “I am like somebody who maxed out their credit cards because they thought they were going to die,” she said, “and I lived.”

Walking through Chelsea recently, she could fret fretted about a girly bit of overshare. Whether some overwrought teenage poetry was on view, in her bubble-letter handwriting, at the Fales’s Riot Girl Collection, where Ms. Hanna donated her work in 2010. That material and others were anthologized in “The Riot Grrrl Collection,” an anthology published this summer. Ms. Hanna further tells her story — including sexual abuse and naming Nirvana’s hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit” — in the documentary, directed by Sini Anderson. Footage of her bopping onstage in her trademark high ponytail masked her illness; she announced a retirement of sorts from Le Tigre in 2005.

The Julie Ruin was reborn during her illness, as a way for Ms. Hanna to connect to her artistic identity. “I was like: ‘Is this who I am now, this sick person? This isn’t me,’ “ she said in an interview in a cafe not far from her Flatiron apartment, one of two homes she shares with her husband Adam Horovitz, a k a Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys. He encouraged her to sing as much as she could. “When I would practice and I would feel O.K., I saw me again,” she said.

She conceived the group as what she called her “dream band,” with players from different walks of her life: on bass, her Bikini Kill band mate Kathi Wilcox; on guitar, Sara Landeau, an instructor at the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, where Ms. Hanna occasionally teaches; on drums, her friend Carmine Covelli; and Kenny Mellman, Herb of the cabaret act Kiki & Herb, as a keyboardist and songwriter. They rehearsed casually around town and at Ms. Hanna’s New Jersey home — “I can’t call it jamming, because I hate that; I don’t jam,” she said — without considering where it would lead.

According to Ms. Wilcox, “When she approached me to join the band, she was sort of like, ‘We may never tour, we may never make a record, but we’re just doing this now for fun, because I need to.’ “
More at that top link.

David Frost Has Died

For a minute I was thinking, "And what am I supposed to remember about him?"

And then it came to me, the Frost/Nixon interview.

See the New York Times, "David Frost, Known for Nixon Interview, Dies at 74."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "David Frost: A self-producing, self-perpetuating brand of his own."



Tonya Harris, 34, Placed on Administrative Leave After Having Sex With 17-Year-Old 'Boy'

Hmm.

I guess this one's close to the line of impropriety (or propriety). I mean, really, the "boy" was 17. Maybe if they'd taken it to the bedroom it wouldn't have been as big a deal.

At London's Daily Mail, "Lunch lady, 34, 'had sex with 17-year-old school boy as others watched at alcohol-fueled house party'."

Tonya Harris photo article-2408391-1B90AB22000005DC-533_634x597_zps6503d74b.jpg

She was the "lunch lady" too. I'm sure folks can come up with a couple of good one-liners for that.

But see R.S. McCain for the other side of this issue, "Washington Post Publishes Jailbait Apologist (Ain’t I Done Told You So?)."

And seriously, this is so wrong even Scott Lameiux agrees, at Lawyers, Gays and Mofos, "#WaPoPitch: G. Todd Baugh Was Right!"

(And speaking of mofos, I been trolling Lameiux like a bat outta hell, the freakin' butt-pain regressive.)

Added: More from the Colorado Springs Gazette, "Affidavit: D-49 food service worker hosted alcohol-fueled parties for students."

'Severe Internet Addiction'

Well, speaking of addictions, I've gotta throw Mandy Nagy some linkage, at Legal Insurrection, "Severe Internet Addiction” – Is there any other type?"

RTWT.

Ima embed this video, with Mandy's comments:


If this video below is indicative of anything you’ve ever experienced (I know I’ve been there), maybe forcing ourselves to think about how much time we spend with the internet and our gadgets really isn’t such a bad idea.

FBI Ramps Up Surveillance of Syrians Inside U.S.

Well, you'd think we'd be having protests against the administration's "racial profiling" all over the country. Or, well, wrong administration. My bad.

At NYT, "F.B.I. Sharpens Scrutiny of Syrians in U.S.":
The F.B.I. has increased its surveillance of Syrians inside the United States in response to concerns that a military strike against the government of President Bashar al-Assad could lead to terrorist attacks here or against American allies and interests abroad, according to current and former senior United States officials.

The government has also taken the unusual step of warning federal agencies and private companies that American military action in Syria could spur cyberattacks, the officials said. There were no such alerts before previous military operations, like the one against Libya in 2011.

The authorities are particularly concerned because Iran — one of Mr. Assad’s closest allies — has said there will be reprisals against Israel if the United States attacks Syria. The Iranians have also shown a willingness to sponsor terrorist attacks on American targets, according to the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing operation.

“They’re not starting from scratch — the field offices know what they have in terms of sources and investigations, but this is a directive for them to redouble their efforts and check their traps,” one senior American official said.

Senior national security officials at F.B.I. headquarters in Washington have told the bureau’s field offices in recent days to follow up with sources who have ties to Syrians in an attempt to find talk or evidence of a retaliatory strike, the officials said. And Syrians implicated in continuing investigations will be put under even closer scrutiny, the officials said.

The Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I. have also sent out a classified bulletin alerting federal, state and local law enforcement officials of potential threats created by the Syria conflict, the officials said. A senior F.B.I. official declined to comment.
More at that top link.