Grantland Grovels Before the Transgender Community's Thought Police of the Left's Ministry of Truth

Look, sometimes the left's virtually murderous backlash is too much for publishers (or producers, etc.) to withstand.

So it's no surprise that we have the obligatory (and ideologically correct) "rebuttal" piece on the pages of the website, saying Caleb Hannan's journalism "figures to be a permanent exhibit of what not to do, and how not to treat a fellow human being." The piece is written by Christina Kahrl, an ESPN reporter who's on the board of directors at GLAAD. According to GLAAD's website, Kahrl's an "out trans* woman" who was "elected into the inaugural class of the Gay & Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame in 2013." (She's officially approved to enforce sanctions against ideologically incorrect thought criminals.)

This essay by @ChristinaKahrl on Dr. V's @Grantland33 story is mind-bogglingly important. http://t.co/S9viG6vVM7
— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) January 20, 2014

So proud to call @ChristinaKahrl an @espn colleague … http://t.co/1JicbSuWEs
— Kate Fagan (@katefagan3) January 20, 2014

calling this a "well-written" piece by a "curious reporter, nothing more" reads like a defense, but it's exactly the problem
— Amanda Hess (@amandahess) January 21, 2014

Young white man's career more important than trans woman's life. Where have we heard something similar before?
— Sarah Jaffe (@sarahljaffe) January 20, 2014

"It never occurred to us," and other great moments in white cis male privilege.
— allisonkilkenny (@allisonkilkenny) January 20, 2014

And then there's the official apology from Grantland's editor Bill Simmons, "The Dr. V Story - A Letter From the Editor: How 'Dr. V's Magical Putter' came to be published." As always, read the whole thing. Simmons is torn, anguished even. Deep down, you can tell, he still thinks publishing was the right thing to do. Over a dozen editors and copy editors read the final draft, as well as a handful of lawyers. No matter. He bows down low to the commissars of correctness, issuing the classic apology invoking the "mistakes were made" line (abominable mistakes, mea culpa, mea culpa!). Most important, the apology's appropriately spruced up with copious abject groveling to appease the blood-starved enforcers. Grantland's crime was that it got on the wrong side of the homosexual community's transgender mob. These are the same people who told Phil Robertson of "Duck Dynasty" to "get in line."

Here's Simmons:

Whether you believe we were right or wrong, let’s at least agree that we made an indefensible mistake not to solicit input from ANYONE in the trans community. But even now, it’s hard for me to accept that Dr. V’s transgender status wasn’t part of this story. Caleb couldn’t find out anything about her pre-2001 background for a very specific reason. Let’s say we omitted that reason or wrote around it, then that reason emerged after we posted the piece. What then?

Before we officially decided to post Caleb’s piece, we tried to stick as many trained eyeballs on it as possible. Somewhere between 13 and 15 people read the piece in all, including every senior editor but one, our two lead copy desk editors, our publisher and even ESPN.com’s editor-in-chief. All of them were blown away by the piece. Everyone thought we should run it. Ultimately, it was my call. So if you want to rip anyone involved in this process, please, direct your anger and your invective at me. Don’t blame Caleb or anyone that works for me. It’s my site and anything this significant is my call. Blame me. I didn’t ask the biggest and most important question before we ran it — that’s my fault and only my fault.

Anyway, we posted the piece on Wednesday morning. People loved it. People were enthralled by it. People shared it. People tweeted it and retweeted it. A steady stream of respected writers and journalists passed along their praise. By Thursday, as the approval kept pouring in, we had already moved on to other stories and projects.

So what happened on Friday afternoon...

You can guess what happened. The left's totalitarian thought police got wind of the story and the jig was up. (Keep reading.)

And the bottom line? Well, the Grantland editors "made one big mistake." They failed to run the piece by the transgender lobby's Ministry of Truth. Frankly, as Simmons remarks, it "never occurred to us" to get the transgender commissars' permission slip. Had they done so, they'd have had the GLAAD commissars approving every word, with the handy politically correct GLAAD manual of pre-approved style thought.

And now Simmons is scarred for life:

To my infinite regret, we never asked anyone knowledgeable enough about transgender issues to help us either (a) improve the piece, or (b) realize that we shouldn’t run it. That’s our mistake — and really, my mistake, since it’s my site. So I want to apologize. I failed.

Really. Infinite. As in infinity? That's a long time, although I'm surprised that the "Dr. V" piece itself hasn't already been incinerated in the Ministry's official memory whole for published ideological crimes against the people. (I think, actually, it's being left up as Grantland's OFFICIAL WARNING, to permanently remind writers of the boundaries of the acceptable, of how "to treat a human being" according to official diktats of the totalitarian homosexual left.)

Added: A Memeorandum thread. Plus, at the Other McCain, "The #JusticeForDrV Madness: ESPN Offers Belated ‘Condolences’? Really?"

Lying Liar Wendy Davis Called Out for Lies

This was big yesterday, via TPNN, "Democrat Wendy Davis, Candidate for Governor of Texas, Caught in Major Lies."

And now here's Robert Stacy McCain, "Let’s Slut-Shame @WendyDavisTexas!":

Smitty already took a whack at the Wendy Davis piñata today, and that’s probably enough Wendy Davis bashing for the week.

She’s so far down in the polls as to be hopelessly doomed. She will lose to Greg Abbott in November without any further help from us.

However, the point of mocking progressive celebrity women is not because such mockery will contribute to their electoral defeat. No, the purpose of deriding Democrat women is to inspire feminists to frothing rage over the alleged sexism of conservatives.

Heh. I love the frothing.

So, Abortion Barbie is a liar? I'm shocked -- shocked, I tell you!

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 20, 2014

Hmmm. @WendyDavisTexas: "My language should be tighter" http://t.co/1qFp97J6Yw Yeah. She's been loose with that, too.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 20, 2014

To be clear: My last tweet was not meant to imply @WendyDavisTexas is a cheap dishonest two-timing floozy. Obviously, she's not cheap.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 20, 2014

And I love Robert Stacy McCain.

.@RSMcCain You're positively incorrigible, lol.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 20, 2014

Seattle Seahawks' Richard Sherman Angry Michael Crabtree Rant

Here's the video, "Richard Sherman rant on Michael Crabtree!! 2014 NFC Championship."

And at Twitchy, "‘Insane’: Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman goes off during post-game interview with Erin Andrews [Vine]."

Richard Sherman needs to ingest some of that legalized weed and just chillax.

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) January 20, 2014

Plus, "‘Candid response’: Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews offers reaction to Richard Sherman sideline interview; Update: ‘Loved the emotion!’."


And at USA Today, "Could postgame rant by Seahawks' Richard Sherman become Super distraction?"

Alfonzo Rachel: Live MLK's Dream, And Get Called 'White Man's Whore' For It

ZoNation, via Theo Spark:

A Messy Divorce for Chris Christie and MSNBC

I saw something on this earlier, at Politico, "Chris Christie aide slams MSNBC’s hurricane-fund ‘assault’."

And now over at the New York Times, "For Christie and MSNBC, a Messy Divorce Plays Out in Public View":

It was a match made in moderately minded Northeast Corridor heaven.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey needed a TV network that would burnish his bipartisan bona fides and showcase his gleefully contrarian style. MSNBC craved a Republican who cut against the party grain and lit up the screen with his everyman-ish, Springsteen-loving spontaneity.

An on-air romance blossomed, forged over chummy strolls along the Jersey Shore and heart-to-hearts in the studio about everything from overeating to education, embodying the aisle-crossing aspirations of this partisan era.

Now, the improbable relationship between a governor with his eyes on the White House and a network determined to break into the top tier, up to now so beneficial to both, has curdled in a spectacularly public fashion.

Mr. Christie is confronting the worst crisis of his career, stemming from his aides’ role in shutting down approach lanes to the George Washington Bridge. The governor’s predicament is a ratings bonanza for MSNBC, whose left-leaning viewers are eating up every development in the sordid scandal.

Over the weekend, Mr. Christie, who has appeared on MSNBC many times since taking office, angrily denounced it as a “partisan network” that is “almost gleeful in their efforts attacking” him. Christie aides have called it a “feeding frenzy.”

“There is a difference between treating this matter seriously and seeking out the truth and irresponsibly using hearsay and conjecture without confirming the facts,” Colin Reed, a spokesman for Mr. Christie, said on Sunday. Feelings are frayed on both sides. Mika Brzezinski, a co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who makes no secret of her affection for Mr. Christie, seemed taken aback by the governor’s harsh critique.

“I was a little surprised when he took a jab at us,” she said in an interview on Sunday.

“I don’t think it’s legitimate to say this is a partisan attack,” she added. “I think this is a very real story, with legs.”

Right.

Just like how Benghazi is a Republican witch hunt, or whatever the f-k it is they're saying over there. I rarely watch the network, it's so bad. As for Christie, he got in bed with them. Screw him. No one told him the MSNBC progs were playing him for the fool? Perhaps they did, but he got so full of himself --- and the national limelight as "the one" to overcome the partisan polarization --- he just couldn't help himself. It's gotta be a harsh wake-up call.

Matthew McConaughey and Jered Leto in 'Dallas Buyers Club'

My oldest son and I saw the film last night at the Irvine Westpark 8 Cinema.

I've been wanting to see it, and it turns out that McConaughey won the SAG "Best Actor" award and Jared Leto won the SAG award for "Best Supporting Actor. See, "SAG Awards 2014: The complete list of winners and nominees." (More here, "SAG Awards 2014: 'Hustle' cast wins, tightens race to Oscars.")

We went to the 10: 15 showing, and the theater was completely empty except for me and my son. It's fun to have an entire big screen showroom to yourself. I was dancing in the aisles during the preview, lol.

In any case, the film's not for everyone (which helps explain why the theater was empty). It's a very explicit look at the homosexual scene in 1980s Dallas. I personally don't believe the term "homophobe," because the left throws around the word to slur conservatives indiscriminately, but McConaughy's character --- the real-life AIDS patient Ron Woodruff who started the "Dallas Buyers Club" after rejecting the conventional and corrupt AZT drug trials of the day --- is a macho gay-hating cowboy bullrider who nearly partied himself to the grave by the time he found out he'd contracted HIV. But as he interacts with others similarly afflicted --- especially Jared Leto's transgendered "Rayon" --- Woodruff is humanized by the experience and develops a tremendous compassion to help others. It's a great movie, but again, if you're not open minded to cinema as art and performance (and history, in this instance), then it's not going to be for you. (And of course, I don't approve of homosexuality whatsoever, although despite what people might think from blogging, I have never had problems with friends or acquaintances IRL who did the flippy-floppy.)

So, watch it when you get the chance. Jennifer Garner's also in the movie. She's a sweetie.



There's a review, with links, at Contact Music, "Matthew McConaughey Stuns In 'Dallas Buyers Club'."

And FWIW, from Patrick Mulcahey, Puff Ho, "Not Buying Dallas Buyers Club."

Shifting Marijuana Attitudes Could Spur More Legalization

Actually, shifting attitudes will spur more legalization. It's only a matter of time. But then, it's also only a matter of time before we witness the devastating social fallout. It ain't gonna be pretty.

At the Los Angeles Times, "As marijuana attitudes shift, this may be a year of legalization":

SEATTLE — The new year is shaping up to be one of the marijuana movement's strongest ever.

The first legal pot storefronts in America opened to long lines in Colorado 20 days ago. Washington state is poised to issue licenses for producing, processing and selling the Schedule I drug — once officials sift through about 7,000 applications.

Signature gatherers have been at work in at least five states, including California, to put marijuana measures on the ballot in 2014. On Wednesday, organizers announced they had gathered more than 1 million signatures in favor of putting a medical marijuana measure before voters in Florida, a high-population bellwether that could become the first Southern state to embrace pot.

"Florida looks like the country as a whole," said Ben Pollara, campaign manager for the Sunshine State's effort. "If Florida does this, it is a big deal for medical marijuana across the country."

RTWT.

Folks were also getting a laugh out of Matt Drudge yesterday:

POT BOWL! http://t.co/gtMloG2LEF

— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) January 20, 2014

Or, as Robert Stacy McCain noted:

Really: Seattle vs. Denver? It's the Sinsemilla Super Bowl!

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 20, 2014

Cut Two Years Ago, Peyton Manning to Return to Super Bowl

From Bill Plaschke, at LAT, "The Peyton Manning of old spurs a new Denver Broncos feat":

DENVER — As the clock ticked to zeros amid a roaring sea of rattling orange, Peyton Manning took off his helmet and ran away from the celebration.

Before even shaking his fist into the air, he shook hands with the defeated New England Patriots.

As his Denver Broncos teammates danced into the raucous Sports Authority Field locker room after a dominating 26-16 victory in the AFC championship game, Manning walked quietly through the madhouse with the most unusual of posses.

He was accompanied by his two brothers. They hugged and posed for photos. Peyton would not stand in the middle.

It was long after the quarterback's brilliant 400-yard game Sunday returned him to his third Super Bowl that one could confirm this was really about Peyton Manning. That moment finally occurred when he was sitting alone, facing his locker, shirtless.
Only then could one see the long scar running down the back of his neck.

Manning, 37, is back in the Super Bowl just two years after many thought he would never be back in football. Manning is taking the Broncos to the biggest sporting event in America just two years after being cut by the Indianapolis Colts after missing a year because of neck surgery. Manning is headed for what could be not only his most glorious football moment, but perhaps his last football moment, as he may be forced to retire depending on a postseason neck exam.

It was an unseasonably warm afternoon chilled with such emotion that Manning's close friend and tight end Jacob Tamme wept on the field, his father Archie teared up in the locker room, and his teammates set the record for superlatives.

Said receiver Demaryius Thomas: "To do what he just did in a conference championship game? Now, that's amazing."

Said defensive tackle Terrance Knighton: "All the years going against him, all he's been through, he is just unbelievable."
Start spreading the news. The New York Super Bowl is Manning up.

"You do take a moment to realize that we've done something special," said Manning later...

Continue reading.

It's gonna be a great game.

Vanity Fair Retrospective: 50th Anniversary of Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue

The February issue was going all Rule 5 or something.

See, "The Girls of Winter."

Plus, "The Luckiest Photographer on Earth":

For 38 years, Walter Iooss has photographed the world’s most beautiful women—from Cheryl Tiegs to Kathy Ireland, to Petra Nemcova—in exotic waterside locales for Sports Illustrated’s annual Swimsuit Issue. His new book, Heaven, showcases his iconic images as well as never-before-seen pictures from the shoots. Here, Iooss flips through the pages and relives his favorite moments for VF.com.

Nice work if you can get it.

From the National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Here's the report, "Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey."

It's a serious thing, although that's just the executive summary. Leftist Sarah Lennox was tweeting it out last night to argue (unsuccessfully) from authority. She was trying to attack and shame me as "hetero-privileged." I smacked that back down hard and after a few more interactions, she left the field bloodied:

@Sarah_LNX You're now attacking me as privileged? That's rich. Who are you to judge my privilege. Check my TL. My grandparents were slaves.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 19, 2014

In any case, Robert Stacy McCain had this earlier, "Journalist @CalebHannan Exposes Sociopath and Is Accused of Transphobia." And on Twitter:

@timsimms You're nuts. Dr. V was a lying con artist, and the sex-change was directly material to the scam. @calebhannan

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 19, 2014

And in a bizarre twist, ESPN issued a statement? At BuzzFeed, "ESPN Responds to Criticism of Grantland’s 'Dr. V' Story."

PREVIOUSLY: "Secretive Trans* Woman 'Dr. V' Kills Herself (Himself?) After Being Outed by Journalist Caleb Hannan."

Former Pro Scott Hostert Picks Up Skateboarding After 35 Years

My mom tipped me off to this article in the Los Angeles Times, which was buried way down inside the newspaper, at the Saturday wellness feature: "Middle-aged skateboarders defy family skeptics, and falls.

I laughed because my old skateboarding pals posted this picture of Scott Hostert on Facebook, at the Big O group page. I used to work at Big O Skatepark when I was in high school. Spent nearabouts every day at the park while it was open during its roughly three year run.

Hostert was on the Sims Skateboards pro team back in the day. That's me (at bottom left) just sitting, watching the action, next to the park's capsule pool, one of the greatest skatepark pools of that era.



Big O built a water slide sometime around 1981, and that was the beginning of the end for the park. The novelty wore off fast. And the water slide not only leaked all over the skateboarding pipes and pools, but it ended up being a death trap as well. See this old Los Angeles Times article, "Water Slide Victims Settle for More Than $300,000."

I would have been about 16 years old in the photograph, and going into my senior year in high school.

Not sure when, but I plan to get a new skateboard soon, and all the requisite safety gear, and head out to some of the great new skateparks that have opened up these days. I won't be looking to rekindle my former glory. Mostly, I just want to get some exercise and feel young again. I'll keep you posted.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

President Obama Believes Marijuana is Less Dangerous Than Alcohol

Of course he does.

From the New Yorker, "GOING THE DISTANCE: On and off the road with Barack Obama."

Image Credit: The People's Cube, "Another Newsweek Cover: The First Stoned President."

Ana Ivanovic in Epic Upset Over Serena Williams at Australian Open

The hot Serbian just decimated Serena. One of the best ladies' matches I've seen in a long time.

At LAT, "Serena Williams upset by Ana Ivanovic at Australian Open," and NYT, "Serena Williams Diplomatic in Australian Open Defeat to Ana Ivanovic":

MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams sat before a bank of television cameras, below a gaggle of reporters, in both an unfamiliar and impossible position. There were no right answers, only questions. Lots of questions.

Most centered on her back and a previously undisclosed injury and how it may have impacted her fourth-round contest of the Australian Open against Ana Ivanovic on Sunday. Answer truthfully, that she nearly withdrew from two matches, and Williams risked a public lambasting for not giving Ivanovic enough credit. The alternative was to lie — and be perceived as holding back.

Williams, as best she could, opted for diplomacy. When pressed, she admitted to back pain, to taking pain medication and to needing a few days off. But she tried (mostly) to steer the conversation back toward Ivanovic, a former No. 1 who all but went missing in recent seasons.

Ivanovic, a Serbian, recorded the upset, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, to advance to the quarterfinals. She put Williams on the defensive, controlled the rallies, ably returned serves, smacked 33 winners and attacked Williams’s backhand as if to say she had found a weakness. Ivanovic deserved much credit, and a welcome back.

And yet, it was difficult to ascertain how much credit Ivanovic deserved.

Difficult even for Williams, who said: “I don’t want to blame anything. I feel like Ana deserves all the credit. It’s not like I gave her the match.”

But, she added, “I almost didn’t play.”

For almost a year now, Williams had won professional tennis matches at an improbable 96 percent clip. Since her exit from last season’s Australian Open, she had played 80 matches, and before Sunday, she had won 77 of them.

Ivanovic had never beaten her, and had made one Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance since her French Open triumph in 2008. Yet Ivanovic said she could sense early she had a chance, at 2-2 in the first set.

For the first week of the tournament, Williams collected broken records.

She set one for most match wins in women’s singles at this tournament (with 61) and another for most women’s singles matches played (70).

All the while, she eyed an even bigger milestone: an 18th Grand Slam singles championship. That would have put Williams in even rarer company, tied with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for second-most all-time, within sight of Steffi Graf and her historic 22 titles in the open era.

To conquer Williams, opponents must return well, for her serve remains her primary weapon. Ivanovic said Williams’s serve did not seem as fast on Sunday, and while Williams garnered 13 aces, she did seem to lack some of her usual zip. Ivanovic dominated, in particular, William’s second serve, winning 59 percent of those points.

Williams cruised through the first three rounds of this Australian Open behind a succession of swift victories. She did not drop a set.

Yet she looked off on Sunday, even as she took the first set. She did not bend well on the backhand side, and she moved sluggishly. After she missed a return early in the second set, she bent over in apparent pain...

Forget all the baloney about "diplomacy" and "holding back." Williams got her butt kicked, and hard. Ivanovic was on fire. Outstanding tennis. And no there's no spin that can disguise poor play and poor sportsmanship. Williams had it handed to her.

And at the video at top, that's Chrissy Evert for ESPN with the Ivanovic interview.

Serena's press conference is here, "Serena Williams Falls to Ana Ivanovic in Australian Open."

Cuomo's Version of Liberal Tolerance

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary.

Also at Blazing Cat Fur, "VIDEO: Governor Cuomo: Pro-Life People Have 'No Place in the State of New York'."

And to think, I used to respect Cuomo's father, Mario. But peel off a few layers and all leftists are ultimately totalitarians.

Judge Jeanine Pirro Opening Statement Slams Hillary Clinton on Benghazi

Via Fire Andrea Mitchell.

In an Age of Lessening Privacy, Some Family Secrets Persist

Yeah, well. Life's a bitch sometimes.

At the New York Times, "Secret Histories":

After Itzhak Goldberg’s father died in 1995, at age 86, his mother gave him a watch in a red case. The 18-karat gold Patek Philippe was a rare indulgence for his father, a Polish Holocaust survivor who married, moved to Israel and ran a produce business.

As Mr. Goldberg wrote in the online magazine Tablet, when he opened the box, he was stunned to find, tucked in the folds of the guarantee booklet, a tiny, yellowing photograph of two beautiful young women he didn’t recognize. His mother was startled but made no comment. For 17 years, out of deference to her, Mr. Goldberg, now a clinical professor of radiation oncology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, did nothing. But after his mother died, he went looking for the truth.

“I knew my father wanted me to find that photograph,” he told me recently. “He was saying, ‘This is a part of my life, and I want you to know about it after I pass away.’ ”

One truism about contemporary life is that there are no more secrets. In the age of selfies, sexting, Twitter and Facebook, people are constantly spilling every intimate detail of their lives. Video cameras trace our every move; our cellphones know where we are at all times; Google tracks our innermost thoughts; the N.S.A. listens in when we dream. Everything is knowable, if you just know where to look.

But that idea is flawed. Secrets endure. Especially in families...

It's the "age of knowing." (I think that's from an AndroGel commercial, but it rings true in the contemporary culture, as I pointed out last night.)

But continue reading.

Jimmy Fallon With Alessandra Ambrosio and Doutzen Kroes for Vanity Fair

I read the full piece in hard copy. Jimmy Fallon's taking over "The Tonight Show" and the production is moving back to New York after 42 years in Los Angeles (or Burbank, blah blah). He's a great guy and the show should be great. I'll check it out.

Meanwhile, I must admit the cover's pretty killer.

See, "VF Cover Star Jimmy Fallon: 'I Could Have Been a Supermodel'," and "Jimmy Fallon: Lorne Michaels Advised Me on Who to Date (and Not Marry)."

Secretive Trans* Woman 'Dr. V' Kills Herself (Himself?) After Being Outed by Journalist Caleb Hannan

Well, the story's not quite what you'd imagine from the hysterical leftist outrage. Simply, context matters. When you live a lie, bad things are bound to happen.

First, the hysteria, at Autostraddle, "Dr. V Is Dead, Caleb Hannan Is Celebrated: Why We Can’t Accept Lazy, Transmisogynistic Journalism."

Also from far left Melissa McEwan, at Shakesville, "Careless, Cruel, and Unaccountable." And from the precious boys at The League of Ordinary Gentlemen, "Caleb Hannan, Gender Identity and Journalistic Ethics."

Look, these people lost my sympathy (and respect) at "Transmisogynistic." Society's FUBAR, doubly so, and never hesitate to lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of the left's Gramscian cultural collectivists.

Not sure what to say other than this is the strangest story I've ever worked on. http://t.co/3x9FXS2dy1
— Caleb Hannan (@calebhannan) January 15, 2014

OMFG, subject of sports "journalist" @calebhannan's story killed herself after he told her he'd out her as trans http://t.co/Nmb8nB2Glv
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) January 18, 2014

If you want #JusticeForDrV continue to call out media's giant trans* exploitation problem. She was not the first.. http://t.co/Z94h6WIXXu
— GenderTerror.com (@Wolferfly) January 18, 2014

Hannan's main argument seems to be "yeah, I seem to have killed this woman, but that makes me a great reporter, plus she's a bitch, so."

— Sady Doyle (@sadydoyle) January 17, 2014

The lukewarm response outside of the trans* community is bewildering. It physically hurts to think about. #JusticeForDrV

— Gersande (@gersandelf) January 19, 2014

Whatever. Just do yourself and favor and see Hannan's piece at Grantland, which is probably 5,000 words but should be read in its entirety: "Dr. V’s Magical Putter."

Here's some of the key bits, but again, RTWT:

Here is what I now know about Dr. Essay Anne Vanderbilt, inventor of the Oracle GX1 putter.

She was born a boy on July 12, 1953, in Philadelphia. She was given the name Stephen Krol, a person who has not received degrees from MIT or the University of Pennsylvania. She has been married at least twice, and the brother of one of Krol’s ex-wives says Dr. V has two children, possibly more. She was once a mechanic at a Sunoco station that she also may have run in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She filed and subsequently dropped a lawsuit against Sunoco. She moved to Arizona at some point after marrying her second wife in 1997. She ended up in Bonney Lake, Washington, a short time later. She filed a “petition for change of name” on October 14, 2003, in the Pierce County, Washington, District Court. She scratched out an unsuccessful first attempt at writing “Essay” on that petition. She wrote “OLD NAME DOES NOT MATCH ME” where the court paperwork asked why she no longer wanted to be known as Stephen Krol. She worked as general manager at Trax Bar and Grill, an LGBT bar in Kent, Washington. She was the subject of three separate harassment claims from her time there, including one from a male coworker who said she made “inappropriate comments about her breasts and genitalia.” She moved to Arizona again sometime later. She met Gerri Jordan. She built a putter. She met Gary McCord. She told me the focus should be on the science and not the scientist.

What little else I know about Stephen Krol in the years before and after he changed his name comes from people who knew him, but didn’t know him well. My attempts to get in touch with members of his family and his ex-wives were unsuccessful. Some people didn’t pick up or return my calls. Others, like Ewa Kroll, whose name showed up alongside his in searches and whose relationship to Stephen I still haven’t been able to parse, hustled me off the phone as quickly as possible. “I have not talked to him for years,” she said. “I’m just going to have to say ‘good-bye’ now.”

The darkest discovery was something that occurred after Krol had decided to live as Dr. V. In 2008, she tried to kill herself with an overdose of prescription drugs and carbon monoxide poisoning from closing herself in a garage with her car running. A police report offered some explanations for why she might have tried to take her own life — Yar’s business was slow and Dr. V’s romantic relationship was on the ropes. She had recently fought with her girlfriend, Gerri Jordan, president of Yar Golf. Jordan told police that she and Dr. V were in a monogamous relationship and that they had gotten into an argument two days before. She had found Dr. V in the passenger seat of her car after the suicide attempt and tried to keep her awake. Jordan had also presumably been the first person to read the suicide note Dr. V had taped to the window of the car door, which read in part, “Tell Gorgeous Gerri that I love her.”

♦♦♦

What began as a story about a brilliant woman with a new invention had turned into the tale of a troubled man who had invented a new life for himself. Yet the biggest question remained unanswered: Had Dr. V created a great golf club or merely a great story? ....

The last time I heard from Dr. V she warned me that I was about to commit a hate crime. But before that, I received a voice mail from Jordan.

Neither of them had contacted me in months, since I had sent an email trying to confirm what I had discovered, and Jordan wrote back to deny everything. “Your attack tale should be published in the National Enquirer,” Jordan wrote, “right next to the article on Martians … If I am to believe your diatribe, what you are telling golfers is that the most scientifically advanced Near Zero MOI putter, and the science of the Inertia Matrix was invented by a lesbian auto mechanic.”

Now, Jordan’s message said she was calling to propose a deal. When I phoned her back, Jordan explained the offer. I could fly to Arizona and meet with Dr. V at her attorney’s office, where she would show me proof of her degrees from both MIT and the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. V then got on the phone and added another detail. Once I saw the documents I would have to sign a nondisclosure agreement barring me from revealing any of the details I’d learned about Dr. V’s past.

The “deal” was one I could not accept, and when I explained this Dr. V got upset. “What is your intention?” she asked. “Are you being paid by someone to destroy Yar?” Dr. V’s anger made it so that what she said came out fast and with almost no interruption. I tried to record everything she said and ask the occasional question, but it was like yelling into a wind tunnel. When she finally had said her piece, she handed the phone back to Jordan. “Well, I guess you’re just going to print what you’re going to print,” Jordan said. “Try to lead a decent life. Have a good one.” Then she hung up.

A few days later, Dr. V sent one final email. It had her signature mix of scattered punctuation and randomly capitalized words. Once upon a time I had brushed off these grammatical quirks, but now they seemed like outward expressions of the inner chaos she struggled to contain. “To whom this may concern,” it read. “I spoke with Caleb Hannan last Saturday his deportment is reminiscent to schoolyard bullies, his sole intention is to injure or bring harm to me … Because of a computer glitch, some documents that are germane only to me, were visible to web-viewers, government officials have now rectified this egregious condition … Caleb Hannan came into possession of documents that were clearly marked: MADE NON-PUBLIC (Restricted) … Exposing NON-PUBLIC Documents is a Crime, and prosecution of such are under the auspices of many State and Federal Laws, including Hate Crimes Legislation signed into Law by President Obama.”

Over the course of what was now eight months of reporting, Dr. V had accused me of being everything from a corporate spy to a liar and a fraud. She had also threatened me. One of the quotes I was able to type down during our last conversation was this: “You have no idea what I have done and what I can do.” It’s not all that menacing when transcribed, but her tone made it clear she believed she could harm me. Yet despite all that, the main emotion I felt while reading her desperate, last-ditch email was sadness. Although there were times when I had been genuinely thrilled with the revelation that Dr. V’s official narrative didn’t line up with reality, there was nothing satisfying about where the story had ended up. People had been hurt by Dr. V’s lies, but she was the person who seemed to be suffering most.

Not long after she sent her email, I got a call from a Pennsylvania phone number that I didn’t recognize. It was Dr. V’s ex-brother-in-law, who represented the closest I had gotten to finding someone who could tell me what she’d been like in her previous life. “Well, there’s one less con man in the world now,” he said. Even though he hated his former family member, this seemed like an especially cruel way to tell me that Dr. V had died. All he could tell me was what he knew — that it had been a suicide. A few weeks later a police report filled in the details.

Around 11 a.m. on October 18, Jordan walked into the home office she shared with Dr. V and found pieces from her business partner’s jewelry collection laid out on a desk next to some handwritten letters. Each letter explained which friend or family member was to get which piece of jewelry in case of Dr. V’s death. Jordan then noticed that Dr. V’s car was missing. At first, Jordan explained to the police, she didn’t think much of the missing vehicle. Jordan prepared some breakfast and then drove to her nearby apartment. When Jordan arrived and reached her bedroom, she found Dr. V lying on the floor curled in a fetal position with a white plastic bag over her head; an empty bottle of pills sat on the kitchen counter.

Writing a eulogy for a person who by all accounts despised you is an odd experience. What makes it that much harder is that Dr. V left so few details — on purpose, of course. Those who knew her in her past life refused to talk about her. Those who knew her in the life she had created were helpful right up to the point where that new life began to look like a lie. The only person who can provide this strange story with its proper ending is the person who started it. The words she spoke came during our last conversation, when she was frantically trying to convince me of things I knew couldn’t possibly be true. Yet though they may have been spoken by a desperate person at one of the most desperate times in a life that had apparently seen many, it’s hard to argue with Dr. V’s conclusions. “Nobody knows my life but me,” she said. “You don’t know what the truth is.”

Everything's a "hate crime" nowadays.

Oh brother. See more of the leftist outrage at Mediagazer.

Music Review: The Eagles at the Inglewood Forum

I was watching L.A.'s Eyewitness News on Wednesday night, and reporter Leanne Suter couldn't contain her glee at the show, "Forum in Inglewood officially reopens with Eagles show."

Sports fans will recall the Inglewood Forum as the home of the Lakers for many years. I saw my first arena concert there in 1979, when Foreigner played (the original Foreigner, of course, with the great Lou Gramm).

My wife and I have seen the Eagles in concert a couple of times in recent years (we took our boys to see the band last year at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas). And no doubt Glenn Frey and Don Henley have got this traveling show tuned in tight as a button.

Here's Randall Roberts at the Los Angeles Times, "Live review: The Eagles christen the Forum, take it easy":

Throughout the history of Southern California rock, two bands have loomed largest in America's popular imagination: the Beach Boys and the Eagles.

While the Beach Boys presented a more wholesome lifestyle involving fun (fun, fun), surfing, and chasing girls, the Eagles sold more records, attracted more groupies, preferred dusk to midday and smoked more pot. Or, as Glenn Frey said during the Eagles' return to the Forum on Wednesday: "The Beach Boys were pioneers. The Eagles were settlers."

Playing the first of six nights at the beautifully renovated Inglewood arena, the band presented a three-plus hour retrospective dubbed "History of the Eagles," a sort of concert companion to the band's 2013 documentary of the same name. Over the night, Frey, Don Henley and bandmates guided fans through the peaks and valleys of their catalog -- "Hotel California," "Lyin' Eyes," "Take It to the Limit" and more -- offering everything your average Eagles fan would want to hear, with plenty of bonus Joe Walsh wildness.

Theirs is a fascinating history, one that unfolded over the evening with instrumental clarity, pretty harmonies and many guitar solos. Delivering steady, stoned ballads and relatively revved up rockers with fellow members Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit and, for some of the night's best moments, founding member Bernie Leadon, the Eagles presented a valid argument that the best of their hits warrant continued exploration.

The messages that the Eagles spread about California life were, after all, some of the most prominent of the era. Delivered over FM airwaves at the peak of terrestrial radio's power and ingrained into the minds of anyone living through the 1970s and '80s, the Eagles' best songs captured a California settling into itself, more concerned with its valleys and hanging out than surf and sun.

The cover of "Hotel California" alone is one of the defining California images of the '70s, an updated version of orange crate art that exudes warmth and mystery. For better or worse, the Eagles helped to further characterize the region in the cultural imagination (and helped propel the careers of both David Geffen and Irving Azoff)...

There's still more at the link.

Roberts fails to mention guitarist Steuart Smith, who replaced Don Felder in 2001. Smith plays some of the band's most iconic lead solos, for example, teaming up with Joe Walsh on "Hotel California." Stay with that video at top all the way through. It's a decent amateur mobile recording and shows the jumbotron images during the song's guitar solo. Great stuff.

More at Billboard, "The Eagles Reopen The Forum in L.A. With a Nostalgic Night of Hits."

'Aquarius - Let the Sunshine In'

William Jacobson had this posted at the sidebar the other day, at Legal Insurrection.

What a blast (enjoyably so).

The Fifth Dimension - Aquarius - Let The Sunshine In http://t.co/PVvNIFkmD1 Heh. Via @LegInsurrection #Music

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 15, 2014

Denver's Peyton Manning and New England's Tom Brady Go Head-to-Head This Weekend

From CBS News, yesterday morning.



RELATED: From Jayson Jenks, at the Seattle Times, "Does NFL Have Its Manning-Brady 2.0?"

#ObamaCare Exchanges See Little Progress on Uninsured

At the Wall Street Journal, "Early Estimates Suggest That Majority of Sign-Ups Already Had Health Plans" (via Google):

Early signals suggest the majority of the 2.2 million people who sought to enroll in private insurance through new marketplaces through Dec. 28 were previously covered elsewhere, raising questions about how swiftly this part of the health overhaul will be able to make a significant dent in the number of uninsured.

Insurers, brokers and consultants estimate at least two-thirds of those consumers previously bought their own coverage or were enrolled in employer-backed plans.

The data, based on surveys of enrollees, are preliminary. But insurers say the tally of newly insured consumers is falling short of their expectations, a worrying trend for an industry looking to the law to expand the ranks of its customers.

About 48 million Americans were uninsured in 2012. The health law is expected to cut 25 million from that total by expanding state-run Medicaid programs and the pool of privately insured people who buy through state marketplaces, also called exchanges.

Only 11% of consumers who bought new coverage under the law were previously uninsured, according to a McKinsey & Co. survey of consumers thought to be eligible for the health-law marketplaces. The result is based on a sampling of 4,563 consumers performed between November and January, of whom 389 had enrolled in new insurance.

One reason for people declining to purchase plans was affordability. That was cited by 52% of those who had shopped for a new plan but not purchased one in McKinsey's most recent sampling, performed in January. Another common problem was technical challenges in buying the plans, which 30% mentioned.

Health Markets Inc., an insurance agency that enrolled around 7,500 people in exchange plans, said 65% of its enrollees had prior coverage. Around 10% were dropping out of employer coverage, either because the employer stopped offering its plan or because they could qualify for subsidies on the marketplaces. Fifteen percent had previous individual plans canceled, and 40% decided to switch into coverage bought through an exchange from previous individual plans.

At Michigan-based Priority Health, only 25% of more than 1,000 enrollees surveyed in plans that comply with the law were previously uninsured, said Joan Budden, chief marketing officer.

The trend underscores a central test for the health law, whose marketplaces are meant to steer a broad cross section of new paying customers to private insurers.

"One of the intents of the law was to address the uninsured problem in our country," said David M. Cordani, chief executive of insurer Cigna Corp. Cigna doesn't yet know what coverage its health-marketplace enrollees previously held.

Many health plans and providers are looking for the expansion of coverage to fuel growth. Insurers need to draw healthy uninsured people to offset costs, given that plans can no longer deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

People have until the end of March to choose plans under the law, so more of the uninsured could still flock to the marketplaces.

"We are in the middle of a sustained six-month open-enrollment period, and we have seen a strong interest in the product overall across the range of demographics so far," said Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. which is overseeing the rollout. "We are ramping up outreach activities so that more Americans learn how they can now benefit from affordable health insurance."

More at that top link.

And from Ed Driscoll, "Krauthammer: ‘Stop the Bailout — Now’."

Illiterate Athletes a Symptom of Nationwide Problem

From Luke DeCock, at the Charlotte News & Observer, "North Carolina now a national symbol of dysfunction in college athletics":

As bad as things are at North Carolina, the truth is, North Carolina is far from alone. This time, everybody else is doing it.

We’ve been told a million times that it’s OK for athletic departments, bowls and television networks to make billions of dollars on the backs of these kids, primarily basketball and football players, because “they get a free education.”

Well, what if they don’t?

What if they’re admitted unprepared for college, given just enough help to stay eligible, and then given the boot when their time is up, no better prepared for real life, no better educated than they were when they first arrived on campus?

That’s not compensation. That is, as McAdoo put it, “a scam.”

The exploitation of college athletes, unpaid employees in an industry that generates billions of dollars, is crooked enough even when they get the education they’re promised. If they’re just being shuffled along, ignored or put deliberately into sham classes, it’s not only intellectually dishonest, it borders on fraud.

More at that top link.

I've been aggressive in covering this story because it hits so close to home. Athletes are the least prepared and least successful students in my classes. I've complained about it for years on campus, but even lowly community colleges have a huge investment in big-time sports programs. And LBCC is a large community college with a big athletic program. Needless to say, blacks are the very least prepared of all my students. It's such a problem, and so frustrating, I pull my hair out every semester. But there's little discussion institutionally, and little sympathy with the faculty on the matter.

Month One of the Anti-Israel Academic Boycott

From William Jacobson, at Legal Insurrection, "Propagandists with Ph.D.s.":

The pushback from a wide segment of American civil and political society has been breathtaking for so short a period of time. Beyond expectations.

But don’t become complacent. You really need to understand who is behind this movement.

Researching the numerous articles I have written this past month has been an eye-opener — and that from someone whose eyes were already wide open as to the nature of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement. The hatred of Israel among the academic boycotters is beyond anything you can imagine.

The hatred of Israel is visceral, and beyond reason. Everything good about Israel is turned into a negative.

RTWT.

New Revelations in François Hollande Scandal

At the Guardian UK, "Hollande visits Trierweiler in hospital as fresh affair allegations are published":

Actress linked to president denies pregnancy rumours as French magazine Closer claims affair with Julie Gayet began in 2011.

And at Jewish News One, "New Hollande affair claims surface."

50 Ways to Celebrate Michelle Obama's Birthday

From Doug Powers, at Michelle's, "ABC has news you can use: 50 ways to celebrate Michelle Obama’s birthday":

At first I thought I was participating because after dinner during dessert I told my kids they had to give up more of their pie so others (me) could have more, but unfortunately that’s on on ABC’s list of approved ways to celebrate.

I’m looking for ABC News’ 2006 article “60 ways to celebrate Laura Bush’s birthday,” but so far I’ve turned up nothing.

President "I didn't know" has a statement about Michelle's 50th birthday. #RedNationRising #MakeDCListen #tcot #tgdn pic.twitter.com/HboTNhZ0Bx
— Diann Russell (@DiannyRants) January 17, 2014

You Cannot Be Serious! Covered California Richard Simmons #ObamaCare Dance Off Debacle

I mean let's get real. Someone on staff of California's ObamaCare exchanges thought that a Richard Simmons dance off video would encourage young people to sign up? This is literally the worst thing I've ever seen associated with promotion of the ACA. It's positively radioactive. Clips of Simmons doing the spread eagle will no doubt make their way into political ads for 2014. Heads should be rolling even as we speak.

I can't in good conscience embed the video, so see how long you can hold out without gagging at the link, "Tell a Friend - Get Covered: Richard Simmons Dance Off."

This was on Greta's this afternoon, "ObamaCare Unplugged."

And at Twitchy, "Covered California’s ‘Richard Simmons twerk-a-thon’ tries to reach uninsured Millennials."

.@TwitchyTeam The most dorky thing ever, and produced by the so-called "cool" Democrats. #Fail
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 18, 2014

This is your government on LSD http://t.co/Dx3nYpx80U
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 17, 2014

Whoever thought Richard Simmons was the way to get young people to sign up for Obamacare needs to get fired. Stat. http://t.co/CU3vwlvNER
— Francesca Chambers (@fran_chambers) January 17, 2014

More at the Blaze, "Yes, California, Your Tax Dollars Were Used to Finance a Richard Simmons Pro-Obamacare Dance-a-Thon," and at Hot Air, "Video: Who’s up for an ObamaCare enrollment dance-off featuring Richard Simmons?"

And at AoSHQ, "That Should Do the Trick: Obamacare's Six Hour Internet Telethon to "Get Covered" Features Contortionist, Guy Whose Expertise is "Drunk Cooking," and of Course... Richard Simmons."

OUT: Footie Pajama Guy

IN: Richard Simmons, Disco Contortionism, and cocaine-fueled gay nightmares

University of North Carolina Suspends Athlete Illiteracy Research by Mary Willingham

I've covered this story quite a bit.

And now Business Week reports, "Scandal Bowl: UNC Suspends Research by Academic Fraud Whistle-Blower":

The most outrageous scandal infecting the business of big-time college sports just took a turn for the much worse. The University of North Carolina, famed for its outstanding academics and championship-winning basketball team, announced late Thursday that it had suspended research on athlete literacy by Mary Willingham.

A campus tutor employed by the university, Willingham has done more than anyone else to shed light on classroom corruption at Chapel Hill related to keeping sports stars eligible to play. The shadow cast on her research speaks volumes about the university’s unwillingness to come to terms with the undermining of academic standards in the service of athletics.

Keep reading.

And see Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today, "Higher education, lower standards."

The Myth of the Poor, Oppressed Jihadist Never Dies

From Michelle Malkin, "John Kerry, Jihad Coddler":

The myth of the poor, oppressed jihadist never dies. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is the latest Obama administration official to peddle this odious narrative. Cue John Lennon’s cloying “Imagine,” don your plaid pajamas, and curl up with a warm cup of deadly naivete.

While meeting with Catholic Church officials at the Vatican in Rome on Monday, Kerry expounded on their “huge common interest in dealing with this issue of poverty, which in many cases is the root cause of terrorism or even the root cause of the disenfranchisement of millions of people on this planet.” In other words: If only every al-Qaida and Taliban recruit had a fraction of Kerry’s $200 million fortune, they’d all be frolicking peacefully with infidels on jet skis sporting “Coexist” bumper stickers.

This wasn’t a one-off. Kerry delivered a similar Kumbaya-style discourse at the Global Counterterrorism Forum last fall: “Getting this right isn’t just about taking terrorists off the street. It’s about providing more economic opportunities for marginalized youth at risk of recruitment.” Naturally, the Foggy Bottom apple doesn’t fall far from the Pennsylvania Avenue terror-excusing tree.

President Obama subscribes to the very same “midnight basketball” theory of counterterrorism. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Obama asserted that jihad “grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.”

The chronic cluelessness of the root-cause apologists of jihad never ceases to amaze. Britain’s MI5 reported in 2011 that two-thirds of the U.K’s jihad suspects were from middle-class backgrounds, “showing there is no simplistic relationship between poverty and involvement in Islamist extremism.” Thorough reviews of the empirical evidence shows, as the RAND Corporation reported, that “(t)errorists are not particularly impoverished, uneducated or afflicted by mental disease. Demographically, their most important characteristic is normalcy (within their environment). Terrorist leaders actually tend to come from relatively privileged backgrounds.”

Here’s a refresher cheat sheet...

Continue reading.

Emily Ratajkowski Photoshoot by Dominic Petruzzi

At Egotastic!, "Emily Ratajkowski Pictures: Hot and Bothered."

Customer Kills Gunman Who Burst Into Store Threatening to Kill Everyone

Down in Alabama.

At Breitbart.

And at WSFA TV in Montgomery, "Names released after customer kills gun-wielding man in Dallas Co. store."

This is local coverage. The national lamestream media won't touch it.

Lucy Pinder 2014 Official Calendar

Egotastic! had a preview last year, "Lucy Pinder Topless 2014 Calendar."

And check Lucy on Twitter.



BONUS: From Joblo Media, "Lucy Pinder is the one of the sexiest of 2014."

President Obama Speech on NSA Reforms: Draping the Banner of Change Over Surveillance Status Quo

The full speech is here, "President Obama Speaks on U.S. Intelligence Programs."

I went back to bed and missed it, although I've seen numerous clips on CNN by now.

And here's the big story at the Wall Street Journal, "Obama Says NSA's Mass Collection of U.S. Phone Data Will End: President Also to Require Court Order for Search of Information."

Folks'll be talking about this all weekend, and I already need to dump my browser tabs with more on this, but I'm intrigued how Glenn Greenwald took to the Guardian today to denounce the administration. Greenwald left the newspaper in a cloud over his partner's arrest as a courier for stolen documents. Greenwald's no longer a "journalist" in the traditional sense. He's now joined the rogue's gallery of hackers and cyberterrorists as a full blown danger to public safety. He's a traitor who'd face arrest if he stepped foot back in the United States.

In any case, here's his piece, "Obama's NSA 'reforms' are little more than a PR attempt to mollify the public." (Also at Memeorandum.)

.@ggreenwald returns (briefly) to @commentisfree: 'Obama's NSA 'reforms' are little more than a PR attempt' http://t.co/ZvMD8x6eAm
— GuardianUS (@GuardianUS) January 17, 2014

And here's Greenwald on the far-left Alex Wagner's show on the socialist MSNBC network.

Hiroo Onoda Dies: WWII Japanese Soldier Spent 29 Years Holding Out in Philippines Jungles

He came home a hero to a country overtaking be affluence and pacifism.

At the New York Times, "Hiroo Onoda, Soldier Who Hid in Jungle for Decades, Dies at 91" (at Memeorandum):

Hiroo Onoda, an Imperial Japanese Army officer who remained at his jungle post on an island in the Philippines for 29 years, refusing to believe that World War II was over, and returned to a hero’s welcome in the all but unrecognizable Japan of 1974, died Thursday at a Tokyo hospital, the Japanese government said. He was 91.

Caught in a time warp, Mr. Onoda, a second lieutenant, was one of the war’s last holdouts: a soldier who believed the emperor was a deity and the war a sacred mission; who survived on bananas and coconuts and sometimes killed villagers he assumed were enemies; who finally went home to the lotus land of paper and wood that turned out to be a futuristic world of skyscrapers, television, jet planes, pollution and atomic destruction.

Japanese history and literature are replete with heroes who have remained loyal to a cause, especially if it is lost or hopeless, and Lieutenant Onoda, a small, wiry man of dignified manner and military bearing, seemed to many like a samurai of old, offering his sword as a gesture of surrender to President Ferdinand E. Marcos of the Philippines, who returned it to him.

And his homecoming, with roaring crowds, celebratory parades and speeches by public officials, stirred his nation with a pride that many Japanese had found lacking in postwar years of rising prosperity and materialism. His ordeal of deprivation may have seemed a pointless waste to much of the world, but in Japan it was a moving reminder of the redemptive qualities of duty and perseverance.

It happened with a simple command. As related in a memoir after he came home, Lieutenant Onoda’s last order in early 1945 was to stay and fight. Loyal to a military code that taught that death was preferable to surrender, he remained behind on Lubang Island, 93 miles southwest of Manila, when Japanese forces withdrew in the face of an American invasion.

After Japan surrendered in August, thousands of Japanese soldiers were scattered across China, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. Many stragglers were captured or went home, while hundreds went into hiding rather than surrender or commit suicide. Many died of starvation or sickness. A few survivors refused to believe the dropped leaflets and radio announcements saying the war had been lost.

Lieutenant Onoda, an intelligence officer trained in guerrilla tactics, and three enlisted men with him found leaflets proclaiming the war’s end, but believed they were enemy propaganda tricks.

More at that top link.

Also at Althouse, who embeds a poll on what this story means (and the New York Times' spin on it). I commented:

Take honor and duty along with some batshit crazy Japanese kamikaze ideology, and you get crazy old coots like Onoda. Japan loved it because they lost the freakin' war and this dude held out for 29 years while everyone else was porking their geishas and sucking down too much sake! For the fatherland!

And don't miss the comments at the post.

Plus, great photos at London's Daily Mail, "Japanese soldier who refused to surrender after WWII and spent 29 years in the jungle has died aged 91."

Crisis in South Sudan

At the Big Picture:

Political disputes last month created a volatile situation in the young nation of South Sudan. Violence has spread killing more than 1,000 and has driven hundreds of thousand from their homes. Talks continue and UN peacekeepers were mobilized to try to stop the crisis from escalating further.

Be sure to click through.

Neiman Marcus Hacking Breach Went Undetected for Six Months

I like to have a lot of cash on me most of the time anyway, but after this last wave of breaches, I'll be using my card even less frequently

At NYT, "Breach at Neiman Marcus Went Undetected From July to December":

The computer network at Neiman Marcus was penetrated by hackers as far back as July, and the breach was not fully contained until Sunday, according to people briefed on the investigation.

The company disclosed the data theft of customer information late last week, saying it first learned in mid-December of suspicious activity that involved credit cards used at its stores. It issued another notice on Thursday, elaborating slightly.

The latest notice said that “some of our customers’ payment cards were used fraudulently after making purchases at our stores. We have taken steps to notify those affected customers for whom we have contact information.”

The company apologized again, and said it did not believe the customers’ Social Security numbers or birth dates — key pieces of personal data — had been compromised.

Neiman Marcus defended its decision not to disclose anything until last week, saying it waited to confirm evidence. The company said nothing about when the attack began and when it was contained.

Keep reading.

And keep an eye on your bank accounts for unauthorized activity. Sheesh.

Marissa Mayer Seeks to Regain Her Touch

At NYT, "Bumps on a Road to Revival for Yahoo":

SAN FRANCISCO — It looks as if the Google pixie dust isn’t so easy to spread around.

Marissa Mayer’s arrival at Yahoo as chief executive a year and a half ago was widely hailed as an opportunity to infuse the struggling Internet pioneer with the smarts and cachet that had helped her succeed as a top executive at Google. She was one of the earliest employees at Google, with a reputation for inventiveness and attention to detail. If anyone could fix Yahoo, it was believed, it was Ms. Mayer.

But the announcement on Wednesday that she had tossed out her top lieutenant, Henrique de Castro, was her first public acknowledgment that turning around Yahoo would be far more difficult than has sometimes been suggested by the media attention she has received.

“That was Marissa’s first big hire,” said Robert Peck, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. “You can imagine how difficult it would be to admit a mea culpa.”

Bringing on Mr. de Castro, who was also a longtime Google executive, was just one of many prominent moves Ms. Mayer has made, including buying the blog site Tumblr for $1.1 billion, hiring the television host Katie Couric to be the anchor of a new online news operation and starting an online food magazine.

While Ms. Mayer took the public spotlight — for example, she personally introduced Yahoo’s new consumer technology site at a trade show in Las Vegas this month — Mr. de Castro was charged with the less sexy but equally vital task of reviving Yahoo’s advertising business. While that would be a herculean task for anyone at a company whose fortunes have been declining for a decade, Mr. de Castro was particularly ill suited for the job, according to ad-industry executives, analysts and people who worked with him at Google and Yahoo. When Ms. Mayer hired him, the choice mystified people both inside and outside the company. And tension quickly developed between the two leaders, according to the company insiders, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to not upset business relationships.

Mr. de Castro, a former consultant at McKinsey, was fond of using spreadsheets but was weak in his knowledge of Google’s products, said a person who worked with him at Google.

Additionally, he was not a charismatic salesman willing to schmooze with Madison Avenue marketers to persuade them to spend their ad dollars on Yahoo instead of on rivals like Facebook and Google.

“Henrique wasn’t as market-facing as his predecessors or competitors,” said Amanda Richman, president of investment and activation at Starcom USA, which buys billions of dollars of ads a year on behalf of big consumer brands like Kraft and Kellogg’s.

Mr. de Castro did not respond to phone and email messages on Thursday...

Keep reading.

More at Re/Code, "Exclusive: Yahoo’s Editor-in-Chief Jai Singh Departs Company."

'12 Years a Slave' Remains the Film to Beat

At LAT, "Oscar nominations 2014: The complete list."

And see the Hollywood Reporter, "Oscar Nominations: '12 Years a Slave' Remains the Film to Beat (Analysis)":

At long last, our questions have been answered! Or have they?

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its nominations for the 86th Oscars on Thursday morning, and while some are undoubtedly feeling disappointed by the choices (i.e. the campaigns behind Inside Llewyn Davis and the brothers Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Saving Mr. Banks and Emma Thompson, Lee Daniels' The Butler and Oprah Winfrey, Rush, Robert Redford and Tom Hanks), many have major cause for celebration (i.e. American Hustle and Gravity, which led the field with 10 noms each, plus Nebraska and The Wolf of Wall Street, which outperformed most people's expectations). Now, as we head into the second phase of one of the most wide-open and competitive Oscar races in recent memory, the question, of course, is what does it all mean?

My take...

Even though it scored one nom fewer than Hustle and Gravity, 12 Years a Slave remains the film to beat among the nine best picture nominees. It has what most of the others lack -- namely, gravitas, social significance and relevance to the present day, plus the support of most of the key constituencies in the Academy (actors, directors, writers, film editors, etc.). It basically got everything that it could have realistically hoped for, save for noms for best cinematography (Sean Bobbitt hasn't worked much in this country before) and best original score (Hanz Zimmer being snubbed is bizarre and perhaps attributable only to the fact that he had several other scores in contention, as well, including Rush and Man of Steel, which may have split his support). And, as a result of its strong showing, I suspect that most of the Academy members who have heretofore resisted seeing the film for fear of being too disturbed by its content -- a not inconsiderable number, from what my fellow Oscar bloggers and I have been able to gauge on the circuit -- will reconsider that position and adopt a more conscientious one...

It's a great movie, and taking the Golden Globe "Best Picture" award certainly can't hurt.

Continue reading.

Imperial, Lawless Obama Threatens More Unilateral Action

From David Limbaugh, at the Washington Examiner.

David Limbaugh: Imperial, lawless Obama threatens more unilateral action http://t.co/WzbjCH4ygK pic.twitter.com/RnY0dv5E08

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 16, 2014

And get Limbaugh's book, The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama's War on the Republic.

BBC Spent Tens of Thousands to Cover Up Network's Green Propaganda Training for Top Executives

That's tens of thousands of pounds, which are still trading at almost 2-to-1 against the dollar.

See London's Daily Mail, "BBC's six-year cover-up of secret 'green propaganda' training for top executives."

And now over at IBD, "Dems Want Networks to Manipulate Climate Coverage Like BBC":

Junk Science: Senate Democrats want TV networks to promote climate-change hysteria and follow the lead of Britain's state broadcasting company, which sent its top executives to a green propaganda training seminar.

The mainstream media, long a house organ for Democrats, are about to come under pressure by Senate Democrats led by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who are gathering signatures from colleagues on a letter to the networks telling them they're ignoring global warming, according to a report in the National Journal.

They are seeking to impose sort of a climate change "fairness doctrine" designed to ignore inconvenient truths about climate researchers getting stuck in Antarctic ice that was supposed to have melted in favor of the gospel according to Al Gore.

"It is beyond my comprehension that you have ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, that their Sunday shows have discussed climate change in 2012, collectively, for all of eight minutes," Sanders said, citing analysis by the leftist George Soros-linked Media Matters for America, which promotes media bias while claiming to fight it.

"Sunday news shows are obviously important because they talk to millions of people, but they go beyond that by helping to define what the establishment considers to be important and what is often discussed during the rest of the week," he said.

Certainly the Obama administration believes that, having sent U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice out to lie about the Benghazi terrorist attack on five Sunday talk shows.

What Sanders wants is for the major networks to become a forum for uncontested green propaganda as the British Broadcasting Corp. has become on the other side of the pond...

So disgusting.

Protesting Hollande, Truck Driver Dumps Tons of Horse Manure Outside French Parliament Building

You gotta love it!

At London's Daily Mail, "The stench of scandal: Activist unloads tonnes of horse manure in front of France's parliament building in protest at Hollande."



Also, "Trois c'est le crowd! The awkward moment when Francois Hollande was pictured locking eyes with First Lady... inches away from 'mistress' AND the mother of his children."

And at Mirror UK, "'One pill too many' put France's First Lady Valerie Trierweiler in hospital, it is claimed."

28 Things That People With Big Boobs Can Simply Never Do

A breast GIF bomb, at BuzzFeed.

Ohio Killer Executed with New Drug Cocktail, Dude Gasps While Dying, Leftists Freak Out

You know, you might gasp when your veins are flooded with poison like that. And it took longer than expected? Okay, the f-ker's dead, alright.

Maybe if they just lined the guy up before a firing-squad that would be it. But no, it's gotta be all humane and sh*t.

At the Columbia Dispatch, "Killer struggles, gasps repeatedly under new 2-drug combination" (via Memeorandum).

And at NPR, "Ohio Killer's Execution Takes Almost 25 Minutes."

But Brooke Baldwin's report says the dude died within 10 minutes. I'm sure that 15 minute discrepancy is just a editing error (har, har).

But see the ever reliable (and leftist) New York Times, "Ohio Execution Using Untested Drug Cocktail Renews the Debate Over Lethal Injections":

Dennis McGuire took 15 minutes to die by lethal injection Thursday morning at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville for the 1994 rape and murder of a 22-year-old pregnant woman named Joy Stewart.

Eyewitness accounts differ slightly on how much Mr. McGuire, 53, struggled and gasped in those final minutes. But because the execution took unusually long and because Ohio was using a new, untested cocktail of drugs in the procedure, the episode has reignited debate over lethal injection.

States have been scrambling in recent years to come up with a new formula for executions after their stockpiles were depleted or expired when European manufacturers of such previously used drugs as pentobarbital and sodium thiopental stopped selling them for use in executions. No consensus has formed on what available drugs should be used.

Mr. McGuire was given midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a powerful analgesic derived from morphine, just before 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, the first time that any state has used that combination. The drugs were selected by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction after the state’s supply of pentobarbital expired in 2009, said JoEllen Smith, the department’s spokeswoman. A federal court had approved their use, she said.

A reporter for The Columbus Dispatch, one of the witnesses at the execution, described Mr. McGuire as struggling, gasping loudly, snorting and making choking noises for nearly 10 minutes before falling silent and being declared dead a few minutes later. An Associated Press report described him as snorting loudly and making snoring noises, but did not say he struggled or made choking sounds.

“Whether there were choking sounds or it was just snorting, the execution didn’t go the way it was supposed to go,” said Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham Law School and an expert in lethal injection cases. “Usually, lethal injection takes about four or five minutes, if done properly.”

Death penalty opponents had been watching the case closely, both because of the new drug cocktail and because some anesthesiologists said there was a danger they would produce a condition called air hunger, in which the gasping victim is unable to absorb oxygen.

“A different procedure was used in the last four executions, depending on which state they were in,” Ms. Denno said. “It certainly increases the likelihood or the risk that there will be some sort of problem.”

But death penalty proponents said the episode was being sensationalized.

“Some of the witnesses say he was heard to make snoring noises,” said Kent Scheidegger, legal director for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. “O.K., I’ve made snoring noises. What’s not disputed is he got a large dose of sedative. We’ve gotten namby-pamby to the point that we give murderers sedatives before we kill them.”

Yeah, namby-pamby is the left's calling card.

And 10, 15, or 25 minutes? Hey, real accurate reporting you media hot shots. Sheesh.

More at Newsy, "Ohio Murderer Executed With New 2-Drug Cocktail."

IDF Takes Out Concealed Rocket Bunker in Gaza Overnight

Background here, "Israel Strikes in Gaza After Rocket Attack on Ashkelon."

Woman Denied the Right to Breastfeed in Victoria's Secret Store

Because nursing an infant goes against the luscious hottie look of Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio (who's a mother herself), and Candice Swanepoel?

I love VS, but this is ridiculous, at the Blaze, "THE SHOCKING THING A VICTORIA’S SECRET EMPLOYEE TOLD A MOTHER WHO WAS TRYING TO BREASTFEED HER BABY":

An Austin, Texas, mom said she felt humiliated when, after spending $150 at a Victoria’s Secret store, she was told by an employee she couldn’t breastfeed her son in a fitting room but could, however, do so in the alley instead.

Ashley Clawson told KTBC-TV she asked the employee Monday if she might be able to use a private dressing room to nurse her 4-month-old and considers the refusal a violation of Texas law.

“[She] said ‘no, you cannot nurse your son in our fitting room, but you can go outside to the alley and nurse him there. No one usually goes there,’” Clawson recounted of the incident to the news station.

Clawson didn’t end up taking the Victoria’s Secret employee up on her alley offer.

Afterward, she said she called her husband and, when she got home, took to social media.

“I have to blast Victoria’s Secret at the Domain for telling me I wasn’t aloud [sic] to nurse my very hungry, fussy son in their fitting room after I spent a fair amount in their store. She actually told me to go outside and walk down an alley where no one ‘usually’ goes and nurse him. Seriously?!? Lost a customer for sure,” Clawson wrote on Facebook.

There's video at the link.

They should fire the employee, issue an apology, and give the women a year's supply of lingerie. We'll see...

Washington Free Beacon Hilarious @MSNBC 'Land of Nod' Video

It's good.

Russell Johnson Dies: Starred as 'The Professor' on 'Gilligan's Island'

Wow. An icon from another age.

Who didn't love "Gilligan's Island"?

At LAT, "Russell Johnson, who played The Professor on 'Gilligan's Island,' dies at 89." And at Instapundit:

R.I.P. RUSSELL JOHNSON, aka “The Professor.” “Born in rural northeastern Pennsylvania, Johnson graduated from a private boarding school for orphaned children before joining the Air Force, flying dozens of combat missions in World War II — including one that turned him into a real-life castaway in the Philippines in 1945. Johnson’s B-25 bomber was shot down by heavy flak; he broke both his ankles during the mission, and received the Purple Heart.”

Also, Dave Madden, who played Reuben Kincaid on "The Partridge Family," has died as well. Blazing has more, "The Professor & Reuben Kincaid Have Died."

Senator Tom Coburn to Retire With Two Years Remaining on Term

Something's up with this, at WaPo, "Oklahoma US Sen. Tom Coburn to retire after current session, giving up last 2 years in office":

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma US Sen. Tom Coburn to retire after current session, giving up last 2 years in office.

Also at BuzzFeed, "Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to Retire at End of 2014."

It says he recently underwent prostate surgery, and Coburn's a physician himself, although he says health reasons were not the basis for his decision.

Added:

Coburn "retirement is not likely to alter the Senate’s balance of power." http://t.co/mXq8N7vGUX #Congress #TomCoburn

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 17, 2014

Three Suspects in Glendora Blaze Could Face Federal Charges

Seems weird for January, but there's a massive high-pressure system over the Southland and the Santa Ana winds have swooped down to bring record temperatures. And we were miraculously relieved of these criminal whackjobs in the fall, but evil must work its ways.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Wildfire near L.A.: Officer nabs suspects, 'knew something was off'," and "Wildfire near L.A.: Suspects could face federal charges."

USFS gave 3rd #ColbyFire suspect a ride out of fire area before Glendora police arrest: http://t.co/vjfqrNG2C5 pic.twitter.com/sRr5SeEMzS

— L.A. Times: L.A. Now (@LANow) January 16, 2014