Justin Bieber Arrested for Drag Racing, DUI, in Miami Beach

TMZ has been all over this story, via We Smirch.

See also London's Daily Mail, "What a performance! Justin Bieber waves for cameras as he is released on $2,500 bail after spraying cops with F-word during DUI arrest."

And at LAT, "Justin Bieber arrested on suspicion of DUI after drag race, police say," and "Justin Bieber's Miami Beach arrest is more culmination than aberration":

Justin Bieber's arrest after police say he drag-raced on a Miami Beach street and failed a sobriety test arrives less as a shock than a kind of inevitable conclusion: the culmination of nearly two years of chafing against the burden of his own celebrity.
"It's hard to hear all this news about @JustinBieber," talk show host Ellen DeGeneres tweeted Thursday. "I hope he makes his way to adulthood without him or anyone else getting hurt."

The singer's brief incarceration Thursday morning — not to mention a grinning mug shot that seems sure to redefine Bieber in the public imagination — comes less than two months after "The Fast and the Furious" star Paul Walker was killed in a fiery single-car accident in Valencia.

In the last year, Bieber, 19, has been dogged by numbingly constant tales of his bad-boy behavior — reported visits to strip clubs and a brothel in Brazil, urinating in a mop bucket at a New York restaurant and leaping from a van to physically confront paparazzi in London — all in an apparent turn away from his carefully manicured teen star image.

And in what until now had been Bieber's most egregious violation of celebrity protocol, Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies served a felony search warrant at his Calabasas home earlier this month looking for evidence that Bieber allegedly tossed eggs at a neighbor's home, causing $20,000 in damage (the performer's friend, rapper Lil Za, was arrested during the search on drug possession charges).

While Bieber largely refrained from commenting on his tabloid foibles and whatever growing pains he may be experiencing, a recent concert documentary, "Justin Bieber's Believe," chronicles the star's bumpy transition from apple-cheeked tween heartthrob to a headstrong pop stalwart with a burgeoning awareness of his shelf life as the Top 40's harem-pants-wearing pied piper.

"A lot of people want me to fail," Bieber is shown saying in "Believe."

RELATED: At the Other McCain, "Available: Girlfriend, Slightly Used."

Apple Reflects On 30 years of Macintosh

At the Verge.

'New Wave Sucks'

From Vancouver's DOA, "Something Better Change."

So punk. We used to love this.

i was walkin', walkin' around...
walkin' around, around downtown...

i saw some people stompin' around sayin' new wave sucks, like shit...
i saw some people stompin' around sayin' new wave sucks, like shit...

lots of plastic [f-king] people...
building a plastic steeple...
lots of plastic [f-king] people...
building a plastic steeple...

new wave sucks new wave sucks new wave sucks, new wave sucks, new wave sucks like shit...
new wave sucks, new wave sucks, new wave sucks like shit...
new wave sucks, new wave sucks, new wave sucks like shit...

Cannibal Rat Ghost Ship Lyubov Orlova Heading for Britain

At the Mirror UK, "GHOST ship crewed only by CANNIBAL rats feared to be heading for Britain."

And iOWNTHEWORLD, "Ghost ship full of diseased rats could be about to crash into British coast':

Sounds like a DNC cruise has gone off course.

Dinesh D'Souza Charged With Campaign Finance Fraud

D'Souza came out with the movie "2016: Obama's America" a couple of years ago. I think I was on Twitter and someone sent the YouTube link with the exhortation, "Watch this before they take it down!" And I did. The whole thing was uploaded! And then just like that, as soon as I'd seen it, the clip was pulled. Heh. I thought it was great. William Jacobson was a little harsh in his analysis, "Legal Insurrection 2016." But D'Souza pegged Obama pretty good. Perhaps that's why he's going down now.

At NYT, "Dinesh D’Souza Is Charged With Using Straw Donors":

Dinesh D’Souza, a best-selling conservative author and filmmaker, was indicted on Thursday on charges that he used straw donors to illegally donate to a 2012 Senate campaign.

 Mr. D’Souza is an outspoken political commentator who directed “2016: Obama’s America,” a scathing anti-Obama documentary released in the final months of the president’s re-election campaign.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said that Mr. D’Souza encouraged others to give $20,000 to a Senate candidate and reimbursed them for the donations. Election law prohibits such arrangements and caps donations at $5,000 per donor to any one candidate.

The Senate candidate was not identified in the indictment. Mr. D’Souza donated to only one federal candidate in 2012, giving $5,000 to Wendy Long, a New York Republican who lost her challenge to Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, a Democrat.

“Mr. D’Souza did not act with any corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever,” his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said in a statement. “He and the candidate have been friends since their college days, and at most, this was an act of misguided friendship by D’Souza.”

Prosecutors also charged Mr. D’Souza with causing the unidentified candidate’s campaign to unwittingly file false campaign documents. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan.

It is not clear from the court documents what led investigators to Mr. D’Souza in a fund-raising case involving relatively small donations, in a race that ended in a blowout win for Ms. Gillibrand. Ms. Long raised about $785,000 in the race.

Not clear, eh.

Yeah, well, read between the lines. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula can tell you about getting on the wrong side of this administration.

More at Memeorandum. Lots more.

Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball: GOP Has Roughly 50-50 Shot to Gain Six Seats Needed to Retake Senate

Sabato et al. aren't quite as optimistic for GOP chances as Sean Trende, but if you're a Democrat, there's little upside.

See, "Senate 2014: A Coin-Flip":

Just look at Map 1. We now favor Republicans in four Democratic-held seats: Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia, as well as — in a ratings change — Arkansas, where Sen. Mark Pryor (D) appears to be at least a slight underdog to Rep. Tom Cotton (R) in a reddening state. Assuming Republicans can win those, they have roughly even odds to win in three other states where there are Democratic incumbents: Alaska, which we’ve long classified as a Toss-up, and Louisiana and North Carolina, which we’re switching back to Toss-ups after having them in that category for much of last year. It’s possible that the race for the Senate will come down to these three Toss-ups, with the party that wins at least two of the three controlling the Senate. And that doesn’t even mention the lower-tier races in lighter shades of Red and Blue that adorn the map below, most of which are currently held by Democrats.

Be sure to read it all at the link.

Leftists Freak Out Over Mike Huckabee's Totally Accurate Comments on Democrats' View of Women

Here's the background, in a surprisingly neutral headline, at LAT, "Republican Mike Huckabee wades into 'war on women'."

And Dave Weigel basically gets it right, "Mike Huckabee: Democrats Want Women to Think "They Can't Control Their Libido"."

But here's the regressive cookie-cutter clown Brian Beutler, at Salon, "Mike Huckabee offers his expertise on the female sex drive."

Frankly, Huckabee's comments were hardly controversial:



And what do you know, from Noah Rothman, "NBC, CNN Reporters Pounce on Huckabee's ‘Libido’ Comments; Forced to Issue Corrections."

More at Hot Air, "Media, White House erupt at Huckabee for saying something about Democrats and women’s libidos":

Does it really matter what he said? The liberal thought process on this works this way, I think: “Known social conservative + something about women + something about sex and birth control = outrage.” Right? It’s basically Pavlovian. Which is why even many Republicans who sympathize with social conservatism rub their temples at the thought of nominating a loud-and-proud social con as nominee. You don’t want biased, soft-headed media lefties setting the parameters for who you can nominate, but on the other hand, if you know your guy’s going to spend the campaign tapdancing around soundbite landmines — sometimes justifiably, sometimes not — why bother?

This is, as anyone who reads at a third-grade level will tell you, a shot at Democrats for practicing an especially narrow form of identity politics, not at women.

Yep. Also at the Weekly Standard, "Journalists Distort Mike Huckabee Quote."

Transgender Students Get New Options in California

Dan Riehl snarked on Twitter earlier, "Yay school choice!"

At WSJ, "School Districts Grapple With Newly Enacted Law That Spells Out Rights":

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—School districts in California are grappling with a newly enacted, first-of-its-kind law that spells out rights for those students who don't identify as being the gender of their birth.

California law AB 1266, the first such statewide legislation in the country, grants students who identify themselves as transgender the right to choose the sports teams and extracurricular activities—as well as the bathrooms and locker rooms—that correspond to their gender identities. Backers of the measure say transgender children have been subject to bullying in such settings and have thus taken to avoiding using the restroom or participating in athletics.

There are no firm estimates of how many such students might attend California schools, and no specific guidelines for determining if a youngster should be considered transgender.

Signed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown last summer and taken effect this month, AB 1266 is now facing a closely watched repeal effort by opponents, who argue that students of different biological sexes should remain separated.

"Forcing boys and girls to share the same bathroom, locker room and shower facility is in itself bullying," said Tim LeFever of Privacy for All Students, a Sacramento-based group leading the repeal effort. By passing the law, Mr. LeFever said, legislators demonstrated a "real lack of sensitivity for other individuals."

Repeal advocates believe they have compiled enough signatures from registered voters to qualify a measure for the statewide ballot in November. Those signatures must be verified by officials by Feb. 24. Should the measure qualify, the policy would be put on hold until after the vote.

Some districts are moving to comply with the new law. Sacramento Unified School District enacted a new policy regarding transgender students before the holidays. Lawrence Shweky, coordinator for the integrated support services department, said that since the start of the year, several transgender students in the district have come forward and begun using bathrooms and other facilities that correspond with their genders. No issues had arisen so far, Mr. Shweky said.

The school district is still working on its process for determining if a student is transgender. One option might require some kind of formal evaluation. "The way the law is written, it is kind of left up to school district," Mr. Shweky said. "We haven't arrived yet at the process."

The California School Board Association has advised its members that certain state and federal laws extend rights to transgender students regardless of the fate of AB 1266. The association also noted that new bylaws issued by the governing body for California high-school sports allow students to participate on the sports teams that match their gender identities.

Other states make similar accommodations. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education enacted policies in 2012 allowing transgender students the right to use the pronouns and facilities of the sexes they identify with.

California's law was modeled after policies in place in the Los Angeles and San Francisco school districts. Judy Chiasson, the program coordinator for human relations, diversity and equity at the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the district hasn't had any problems giving transgender students access to the facilities they identify with.

Kane Atticus Tajnai, a 17-year-old senior at Gunderson High School in San Jose, changed his gender identity to male from female this year. Before the start of the school year, he told his teachers and school administrators the he no longer wanted to be referred to as Kathryn. The new policy "did help in giving me the confidence to say, 'I can come out,' " he said...

Unhinged Leftists Escalate 'Google Bus' Protests to Home of Driverless Car Designer Anthony Levandowski

This isn't legitimate political protest. It's ideological harassment and intimidation. And for what? Because the guy commutes 45 miles to work at Google? Because he works on self-driving cars? The horrors.

I mean, they not only launched an insane protest at the guy's home, but they doxed his street address and photo online at Indy Bay?

Behold the Luddites of today's sociopathic left. At the Los Angeles Times, "'Google Bus' protests escalate as activists target employee's home":

SAN FRANCISCO -- Bay Area protests against technology companies got very personal on Wednesday when activists blocked the driveway of a Google employee's home.

Calling themselves the Counterforce, the protesters showed up on Anthony Levandowski’s doorstep to call attention to the Berkeley resident's work for the military and Google’s “surveillance” techniques.

Levandowski, who works for Google’s X laboratory, where he helped develop Google’s self-driving cars, was recently featured in the New Yorker magazine. In the article, he talked about his 43-mile commute in a Google self-driving car from Berkeley to the Google campus in Mountain View.

Protesters said they rang his doorbell to alert him that they planned to protest Levandowski's work with the defense industry developing “war robots," (Google recently bought Boston Dynamics, a military robotics contractor) and a condo project being built on land he owns in Berkeley.

Then they held a banner in front of his house that read “Google’s Future Stops Here.” They also placed fliers on the windshields of cars that said: “Anthony Levandowski is building an unconscionable world of surveillance, control and automation. He is also your neighbor.”

The protest to block Levandowski’s “personal commute” lasted 45 minutes. The protesters then went to block a Google bus at the BART station on Ashby Avenue in Berkeley.

And they issued a warning in an anonymous post on local news site Indybay.

“Our problem is with Google, its pervasive surveillance capabilities utilized by the NSA, the technologies it is developing, and the gentrification its employees are causing in every city they inhabit. But our problem does not stop with Google. All of you other tech companies, all of you other developers and everyone else building the new surveillance state--We're coming for you next.”

And here's Berkeley City Councilman Gordon Wozniak, "It’s one thing to protest against a corporation by demonstrating beside a bus, but going after an individual at his home is a bad escalation." You think?

And at Arstechnica, "Protesters show up at the doorstep of Google self-driving car engineer." From the comments:

Viva La Revolution!

*sigh*

Singling out employees does not change corporate culture. Stalking and attacking individuals is a sure fire way to lose public support. And this odd fixation against self driving cars just strikes me as strange.

Yeah. Strange, and f-king unhinged. Luddite freaks.

Wendy Davis Campaign Supporters Mock Greg Abbott's Disability

Oh boy. Can it get any worse for Wendy Davis, the lying sleazebag Democrat?

CAUGHT ON TAPE: @WendyDavisTexas Supporters, @BGTX Mock Greg Abbott's Disability: http://t.co/X3xP9d9Zvu #TeamWendy #TxGov #tcot

— Moira Fitzgerald (@Moira1987) January 23, 2014

And previously, at Town Hall, "Email from Texas Liberal Group Mocks Greg Abbott's Disability."

Germany Reveals Rainbow Uniforms for the 2014 Olympics

Rainbow-colored uniforms? Not the "spirit of Munich" that I recall.

The uniform’s designer, Willy Bogner, says that the inspiration for the look was not political, but simply a nod to “the great atmosphere” of the 1972 Summer Games in Munich.

Via Noah Pollak:

Germany's olympic uniforms vastly, vastly uglier than U.S. uniforms http://t.co/rQngot9w7t

— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) January 23, 2014

Because nothing shouts progressive creds better than the colors of the rainbow. #Fail. I'll take Ralph Lauren any day.

.@NoahPollak OMG LMAO! Where's Ralph Lauren when you need him, lol!

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 23, 2014

@NoahPollak Here's Lauren from London Olympics: http://t.co/X4Xgc33SKB

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 23, 2014

Oh My! Kelly Brook at British National Television Awards

I've been jonesing for some fresh Kelly Brook blogging, heh.

At London's Daily Mail, "Kelly Brook makes a fashion faux pas by falling victim to the glare of the camera as she goes bra-less in plunging thigh-split gown at 2014 NTAs."

Faux pas? She can faux pas me all day, lol.

Also at Egotastic!, "Kelly Brook See-Through Top and Panties Flashing Signals Serious Drool Time on the Red Carpet."

Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Julian Assange and 'Paranoid Libertarianism'

Louise Mensch calls this story a "bombshell," from Sean Wilentz, at the New Statesman, "Would you feel differently about Snowden, Greenwald, and Assange if you knew what they really thought?"

Would you feel differently about Snowden, Greenwald, and Assange if you knew what they really thought? - http://t.co/aSsLxjD4Mt

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

- http://t.co/aSsLxjD4Mt @20committee @eclecticbrotha @TheWarRoom_Tom - good Snowden hypocrisy quotes here

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

Never thought I'd be tweeting this but vital New Statesman #Snowden piece http://t.co/aSsLxjD4Mt

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

The most important story I have read so far this year. #Greenwald #Snowden and #Assange FSB backing, links. http://t.co/aSsLxjD4Mt

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

Evidence is now coming thick and fast that #Snowden was a Russian asset pre-leaks, and that @ggreenwald has knowingly falsified his stories.

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

I cannot resist an "I told you so." #Greenwald #Snowden #Rusbridger

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

Apologies for all who couldn't click on my archive links. Bombshell New Statesman story on FSB/Snowden asset here. http://t.co/obCzjq0Bgr

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

It contains: anti-immigrant rants from 40 year old lawyer @ggreenwald demanding "assimilation" http://t.co/obCzjq0Bgr

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

It contains: hard evidence @ggreenwald and @arusbridger knowingly published a false story: http://t.co/obCzjq0Bgr

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

It contains: #Snowden's chat room rants against "national security leakers" and the elderly: http://t.co/obCzjq0Bgr

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

.@ggreenwald immigrants -"endless hordes of people [who] pour over the border in numbers far too large to assimilate...& have no ability to"

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

.@ggreenwald immigrants a threat "to middle class suburban voters." Blames quotes on youth, was 38 year old lawyer at time

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

#Snowden: "Someone who leaked classified shit deserves to be shot in the balls". Real quote. http://t.co/obCzjq0Bgr

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

Greenwald-istas keep tweeting "there's no evidence". The New Republic/New Statesman story cites comprehensive evidence, quotes included.

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 20, 2014

How Erin Andrews Deals With Crazed Football Players and Preps for the Super Bowl

Via Erin on Twitter:

Thanks to @ELLEmagazine for visiting the football field w/ me! http://t.co/gXSegV6uGJ http://t.co/qSIu7re5ov

— Erin Andrews (@ErinAndrews) January 23, 2014

Glenn Beck's Got Some Rethinking to Do...

I've said many times on this blog that I don't hate.

I had to say that explicitly, because I was always being attacked as a "hater" by idiot leftists, like Repsac3 and his horde of deranged nihilists. There's a difference between vehemently opposing the left's radical Gramscian agenda and "hating liberals." There's also a difference between "hating" someone and choosing not to associate with someone because they don't share your values. I mean, honestly. At this point how many Muslims am I going to be hanging out with? Muslims would literally have to renounce their entire religious belief system before we'd get along, since the Koran commands the faithful to kill the infidels. But hey, call me a "hater" because I choose to avoid people like that. And "hating" homosexuals? Talk about feeding into the phony regressive meme about "homophobia." Frankly, if you're not baring your butt cheeks for same-sex leftists you're a "hater"! And liberals? Well, liberals aren't liberal, a point I've made here over and over again. Beck needs to really think through his points carefully. I don't hate liberals. I don't like Marxists and choose not to be around them because they stand against everything that's right and decent in this world. They stand against me. Is that hard to understand?

In any case, see iOWNTHEWORLD, "Glenn Beck – 'If you hate a person because they are a liberal I don’t want to have anything to do with you'," and Robert Stacy McCain, "Glenn Beck’s #LGBT Agenda?"

The Last Generation of the West and the Thin Strand of Civilization

From VDH, at PJ Media:

What do I mean about the “thinning strand of civilization”?

A shrinking percentage of our population feeds us, finds our energy, protects us, and builds things we count on. They get up each morning to do these things, in part in quest for the good life, in part out of a sense of social obligation and basic humanity, in part because they know they will die if idle and thrive only when busy, and in part simply because “they like it.”

We can stack the deck against them with ever higher taxes, ever more regulations, ever more obligations to others, and they may well continue. But not if we also damn them as the “1%” and call them the agents of inequality and the fat cats who did not build what they built or who profited when they should not have.

You cannot expect the military to protect us, and then continually order it to reflect every aspect of postmodern American sensitivity in a risky premodern world. Filing a lawsuit to divert a river’s water to the sea during a drought is a lot easier and cleaner than welding together well-casings at sea. Last week, an off-duty armed correctional officer in Fresno intervened in a wild carjacking, shooting and killing the gang-member killer and thus limiting his carnage to one death and two woundings rather than five or six killings — at the very moment Harvey Weinstein — of guns-blazing Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction fame and profits — promised to destroy the NRA. These contrasts say everything about the premodern, the postmodern and the innocent who pay the tab in-between.

Each day when I drive to work I try to look at the surrounding communities, and count how many are working and how many of the able-bodied are not. I listen to the car radio and tally up how many stories, both in their subject matter and method of presentation, seem to preserve civilization, or how many seem to tear it down. I try to assess how many drivers stay between the lines, how many weave while texting or zoom in and out of traffic at 90mph or honk and flip off drivers.

Today, as the reader can note from the tone of this apocalyptic essay, civilization seemed to be losing.

Asian Americans Up in Arms Over 'Racist' Television Typecasting

I can't even believe this is a thing, in this day an age.

At London's Daily Mail, "How I Met Your Mother creators apologize for using 'yellowface' to make their white actors appear Asian for a fantasy sequence."

And from Kai Ma, at Time, "Dear How I Met Your Mother: ‘Asian’ Is Not a Costume."

Dear @CBS, this is yellowface. My race is not a costume. #HowIMetYourRacism pic.twitter.com/dr6dQUwbzC

— Suey Park (@suey_park) January 15, 2014

'Domino'

Yesterday I prepared my syllabi for the spring semester, which starts February 3rd. On the way to the office I was grooving to some "Domino," from Van Morrison at the Sound L.A.





Here's the playlist from the drive-time:

Roadhouse Blues
The Doors
10:42 AM

What Is Life
George Harrison
10:37 AM

Make Me Smile
Chicago
10:32 AM

Let It Rain
Eric Clapton
10:27 AM

Spirit In the Sky
Norman Greenbaum
10:23 AM

Sugar Magnolia
Grateful Dead
10:19 AM

I Heard It Through the Grapevine
Creedence Clearwater Revival
10:09 AM

Domino
Van Morrison
10:05 AM

Funk #49
James Gang
10:01 AM

Kids Today No Less Likely to Get Ahead Than Their Parents Were

Well, this definitely goes against the meme that "this generation will be worse off than their parents," an argument I was hearing back in college.

At WaPo, "Economic mobility hasn’t changed in a half-century in America, economists declare":

Children growing up in America today are just as likely — no more, no less — to climb the economic ladder as children born more than a half-century ago, a team of economists reported Thursday.

Even though social movements have delivered better career opportunities for women and minorities and government grants have made college more accessible, one thing has stayed constant: If you are growing up poor today, you appear to have the same odds of staying poor in adulthood that your grandparents did.

The landmark new study, from a group led by Harvard’s Raj Chetty, suggests that any advances in opportunity provided by expanded social programs have been offset by other changes in economic conditions. Increased trade and advanced technology, for instance, have closed off traditional sources of middle-income jobs.

The findings also suggest that who your parents are and how much they earn is more consequential for American youths today than ever before. That’s because the difference between the bottom and the top of the economic ladder has grown much more stark, but climbing the ladder hasn’t gotten any easier.

Those findings add up to a surprising take on the status of the iconic American Dream, and they cast Washington’s roiling debate about the consequences of economic inequality in a new light.

The paper suggests that “it is not true that mobility itself is getting lower,” said Lawrence F. Katz, a Harvard economist and mobility scholar who was not one of the paper’s authors but has reviewed the findings. “What’s really changed is the consequences of it. Because there’s so much inequality, people born near the bottom tend to stay near the bottom, and that’s much more consequential than it was 50 years ago.”

Americans have always placed great faith in economic mobility, the idea that any child born into poverty can grow up to be middle class, or that a middle-class kid can grow up to be rich.

As the country struggles through the slow recovery from recession and decades of middle-class stagnation, politicians including President Obama and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) have lamented that mobility is getting worse; that it is getting harder to climb out of poverty or into wealth.

Previous research has suggested that that might be true, particularly work by Bhash Mazumder, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago who found mobility declined as inequality increased in the 1980s.

Chetty and his colleagues — Nathaniel Hendren of Harvard, Patrick Kline and Emmanuel Saez of the University of California at Berkeley and Nicholas Turner of the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis — examined millions of anonymous earnings records and found that mobility has not changed appreciably since the 1970s.

(The authors looked at records for parents at a set age and for their children once they reached adulthood. For the most recent generation of children, many of whom have not yet started working, they measured college attendance, which correlates with higher earnings).

Incorporating results from a previous study dating back to the 1950s, the authors concluded that “measures of social mobility have remained remarkably stable over the second half of the twentieth century in the United States.”

Keep reading.

We need to be talking less about inequality and more about expanding the economy, so that all quintiles see their economic fortunes rise.

Benghazi and the Smearing of Chris Stevens

From Gregory Hicks, former Deputy Chief of Mission in Libya, at WSJ, "Shifting blame to our dead ambassador is wrong on the facts. I know—I was there":

Last week the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued its report on the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya. The report concluded that the attack, which resulted in the murder of four Americans, was "preventable." Some have been suggesting that the blame for this tragedy lies at least partly with Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in the attack. This is untrue: The blame lies entirely with Washington.

The report states that retired Gen. Carter Ham, then-commander of the U.S. Africa Command (Africom) headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, twice offered to "sustain" the special forces security team in Tripoli and that Chris twice "declined." Since Chris cannot speak, I want to explain the reasons and timing for his responses to Gen. Ham. As the deputy chief of mission, I was kept informed by Chris or was present throughout the process.

On Aug. 1, 2012, the day after I arrived in Tripoli, Chris invited me to a video conference with Africom to discuss changing the mission of the U.S. Special Forces from protecting the U.S. Embassy and its personnel to training Libyan forces. This change in mission would result in the transfer of authority over the unit in Tripoli from Chris to Gen. Ham. In other words, the special forces would report to the Defense Department, not State.

Chris wanted the decision postponed but could not say so directly. Chris had requested on July 9 by cable that Washington provide a minimum of 13 American security professionals for Libya over and above the diplomatic security complement of eight assigned to Tripoli and Benghazi. On July 11, the Defense Department, apparently in response to Chris's request, offered to extend the special forces mission to protect the U.S. Embassy.

However, on July 13, State Department Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy refused the Defense Department offer and thus Chris's July 9 request. His rationale was that Libyan guards would be hired to take over this responsibility. Because of Mr. Kennedy's refusal, Chris had to use diplomatic language at the video conference, such as expressing "reservations" about the transfer of authority.

Chris's concern was significant. Transferring authority would immediately strip the special forces team of its diplomatic immunity. Moreover, the U.S. had no status of forces agreement with Libya. He explained to Rear Adm. Charles J. Leidig that if a member of the special forces team used weapons to protect U.S. facilities, personnel or themselves, he would be subject to Libyan law. The law would be administered by judges appointed to the bench by Moammar Gadhafi or, worse, tribal judges.

Chris described an incident in Pakistan in 2011 when an American security contractor killed Pakistani citizens in self-defense, precipitating a crisis in U.S.-Pakistani relations. He also pointed out that four International Criminal Court staff, who had traveled to Libya in June 2012 to interview Gadhafi's oldest son, Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi, were illegally detained by tribal authorities under suspicion of spying. This was another risk U.S. military personnel might face.

During that video conference, Chris stressed that the only way to mitigate the risk was to ensure that U.S. military personnel serving in Libya would have diplomatic immunity, which should be done prior to any change of authority...

Continue reading.

Bill O'Reilly on Income Inequality

From last night's talking points memo.

'Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a riot...'

Chilling.

From the New York Times, "Ominous Text Message Sent to Protesters in Kiev Sends Chills Around the Internet":

As my colleague Andrew Kramer reported, protesters and journalists standing in the vicinity of fighting between the riot police and demonstrators in Kiev on Tuesday received an ominous text message on their phones: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

Keep reading.

“Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance” - Chilling govt text message in Kiev http://t.co/J4khEitYBx

— Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) January 22, 2014

And at Instapundit, "MORE ON UKRAINE: Ukraine opposition say they’ll brave bullets after talks with Yanukovich fail. Check out the accompanying picture, which some on Twitter say evokes Warsaw, 1943."

Mozaffar Khazaee, Former Pratt & Whitney Engineer, Tried to Smuggle F-35 Blueprints to Iran

Well, we're definitely in some intense period of hardcore geopolitics. This sounds like a throwback to the Cold War.

At LAT, "Engineer accused of trying to send F-35 fighter jet papers to Iran":

Customs agents in Long Beach were shocked after opening boxes labeled "House Hold Goods" bound for Iran and finding thousands of documents outlining secret information on the military's $392-billion fighter jet program.

The treasure trove of technical manuals, specification sheets and other proprietary material was being sent by Mozaffar Khazaee, a former engineer with military jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, to the city of Hamadan in northwest Iran, authorities said.

A federal grand jury indicted Khazaee, 59, Tuesday on two counts of interstate transportation of stolen property. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count.

The criminal case casts a pall over foreign-born workers handling sensitive government information, experts said. But they noted that some of the more notorious cases have involved U.S. citizens such as Edward Snowden, the analyst who leaked National Security Agency secrets.

In an affidavit summarizing the evidence against Khazaee, a special agent from the Department of Homeland Security said the government uncovered 44 boxes of material that contained technical data on military engines and the largest weapons program in history: the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

"The documents contained language regarding the technical specifications of the JSF engine program, as well as diagrams, blueprints and other documentation relating to the inner workings of the jet's engine," the affidavit by special agent Breanne Chavez said.
"Several of the documents also bore markings indicating that they were the property of at least three defense contractors," it said. The companies are only identified as A, B and C.

Matthew C. Bates, spokesman at Pratt & Whitney, confirmed his company is part of the investigation, prompted by the seizure Nov. 26.

Keep reading.

The Wendy Davis Meltdown

I held off on blogging about Wendy Davis' bizarre (and pathetic) meltdown, but it's getting so bad I'm expecting her to drop out of the race any time now.

Twitchy's been all over the story, but see especially, "‘Does she even LISTEN to herself?’ Wendy Davis has ‘obscene’ Twitter meltdown."

Also at AoSHQ, "Wendy Davis: These Despicable, Sexist Allegations That I Am a Gigantic Liar Constitute a New War on Women on My Womanhood and Also on My Gigantic Lies." And at Red State, "Documents Show A Texas Court Ordered Wendy Davis to Stay Away From Drugs and Alcohol."

And at Neo-Neocon, "More from the Wendy Davis campaign: Greg Abbott; what does he know of struggle?"

Still more, from Louise Mensch:

Wow. The @WendyDavisTexas restraining order makes eye-popping reading. Truly horrible. http://t.co/qoiykuPTs2 #txgov

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 23, 2014

Cannot see Wendy Davis characterizing this as "lies" is going to stand up. http://t.co/Mx2cjaxBAl

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 23, 2014

"He gave me the opportunity to be a university student." Wendy Davies in 1996 - crediting then husband, not herself http://t.co/8y8vxQXstt

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) January 23, 2014

And Dana Loesch on Megyn Kelly's tonight:

Older Americans Find Community at McDonald's

Older Korean-Americans in New York, especially.

Here's the initial story from last week, at NYT, "Fighting a McDonald’s in Queens for the Right to Sit. And Sit. And Sit."

But see this interesting piece from doctoral candidate Stacy Torres, a today's op-ed pages, "Old McDonald's":

THERE’S an old Italian saying, “A tavola non si invecchia,” which means: At the table, you don’t grow old. All of us, of whatever age, need to socialize in public places to feel connected and alive.

That sense of shared conviviality was notably absent recently when police officers removed loiterers, many of them elderly Korean-Americans, from a McDonald’s restaurant in Queens. The slew of comments that followed a report of the dispute were unsympathetic to those who whiled away their hours there.

One New York Times reader commented, “It is only in the inner city that McDonald’s and Starbucks are the gathering places for the unwashed, elderly, incompetent and infirm. I suppose this is the price for being a city dweller. These people ruin everything!” Others offered proposals to “solve” the problem by making the seating uncomfortable or removing it altogether, suing the elderly customers or playing blaring rap music to drive them away.

Older patrons may test the limits of public dawdling, but this phenomenon — call it loitering or community building — is essential for the survival of many people 65 and older. According to the last census, seniors constitute 12 percent of New York City’s population. Many of them are single, sometimes far from family, and have lived in their localities for decades, their entire lives even. For the past four years, I have studied how neighborhood public places help older Manhattan residents avoid isolation and develop social ties that offer support, ranging from a sympathetic ear to a small emergency loan.

Like the teenagers who linger over sticky tabletops at Burger King and McDonald’s, these older people have reached a time when their lives do not revolve around work and family. In the absence of those, these public places can anchor routines and provide a sense of structure and belonging.

A Manhattan bakery I observed had served as a de facto senior center for decades. The owner allowed customers to linger; many stopped in more than once a day. The bakery hummed with conversation: It felt more like a social club than a business, with a cup of coffee being the modest price of admission.

Yet the elderly are often now hindered by the loss of neighborhood places that have closed because of gentrification and rising retail rents. When that West Side bakery was shuttered, its patrons were forced to regroup in other neighborhood locales, including a nearby McDonald’s.

For retirees on fixed incomes who may have difficulty walking more than a few blocks, McDonald’s restaurants remain among the most democratic, freely accessible spaces. Much of the appeal lies in the fact that, as an elderly patron said to me, “you can sit all day and nobody bothers you.” At the branch I observed, the tolerance for older New Yorkers also extended to the homeless, people who appeared mentally unstable and teenagers who congregated after school — even when they occasionally flung ice cubes at one another.

An afternoon at McDonald’s opens up a world of people-watching opportunities. One elderly regular I observed sat an entire day and greeted a changing cast of passers-by, acquaintances and friends — a welcome alternative to sitting alone in her apartment with worsening dementia.

Ray Oldenburg, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of West Florida, calls these gathering spots “third places,” in contrast to the institutions of work and family that organize “first” and “second” places. He sees bookstores, cafes and fast food joints as necessary yet endangered meeting points that foster community, often among diverse people. The Yale sociologist Elijah Anderson likens public settings such as Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia to a “cosmopolitan canopy,” where people act with civility and converse with others to whom they might never otherwise speak.

The care-taking performed by such places extends to all kinds of groups. A professor of sociology at Princeton, Mitchell Duneier, has found a Chicago cafeteria that supports older working-class African-American men in this way. I have interviewed people who tell me they don’t like senior centers because “they’re depressing”; in these cafes, they can form emotional attachments with a wider mix of people.

I'm convinced my dad would have lived longer had he not lost his mobility, which essentially forced my sister to move my dad move into a retirement home. He lasted there not even six months and then was placed in a hospice where he died. He was old and lonely. He stopped eating enough to keep his weight on. So, I can see why older people like to gather, to have some coffee and see others similarly situated. To see some friends and happy faces. It's a lifeline. And there but for the grace of God go I.

Keep reading.

Obama's Tanking Approval Numbers Could Help Republicans Nab 9 or 10 Senate Seats in November

Look, Republicans need six seats to retake the Senate. I'm on record predicting a blowout in the upper chamber. And now here comes Sean Trende with an extremely harsh analysis for Democrat election fortunes this fall. At RealClearPolitics, "Obama's Job Approval Points to 2014 Trouble for Democrats" (via Memeorandum).

Read it at the link. Trende constructed nifty graphs indicating the vulnerability of Democrat seats depending on the president's approval rating. If Obama's in the low 40s in November, "Republicans can win 54 or 55 seats."



Image Credit: "I didn't build that Republican Senate majority," via the People's Cube.

Disturbing Images: Photo Archive Is Said to Show Widespread Torture in Syria

At the New York Times, "If Genuine, Evidence of Mass War Crimes":

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Emaciated corpses lie in the sand, their ribs protruding over sunken bellies, their thighs as thin as wrists. Several show signs of strangulation. The images conjure memories of some of history’s worst atrocities.

Numbers inscribed on more than 11,000 bodies in 55,000 photographs said to emerge from the secret jails of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, suggest that torture, starvation and execution are widespread and even systematic, each case logged with bureaucratic detail.

This collection of images was identified as having been part of a voluminous archive of torture and execution maintained by the Syrian government and smuggled out by a police photographer who defected and was given the code name Caesar.

So far, only a few photographs have actually been released by lawyers commissioned by the Qatari government, an avowed opponent of Mr. Assad, and the claims about their origins could not be independently verified.

If genuine, the trove is new visual corroboration that Mr. Assad’s government is guilty of mass war crimes against its own citizens, just as it appeared to regain some international standing. The photographs were released as delegates from the Syrian government and the opposition began gathering in Switzerland for long-awaited talks to find a political solution to end almost three years of civil war.

As always, the question is what's going to happen? Clearly, Assad must go, to use President Obama's cheap phrase. But how? The U.S. won't topple him. Neoconservative Robert Kagan is quoted at the piece:

Mr. Assad’s enemies say they hope the leak, first reported in The Guardian and on CNN, will cause enough revulsion in the West to prevent any deal that might leave him in place, or perhaps prod the West into more muscular steps to remove him, just as the disclosure of the Serbian massacre at Srebrenica in 1995 moved NATO to launch airstrikes in the Balkans.

But even the most determined advocates of Western intervention say the images may dramatize the moral cost of inaction but are unlikely to change the policy, especially given the American aversion to another entanglement in the Middle East.

“I feel like we have had at least one or two Srebrenica moments in Syria already,” said Robert Kagan, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who has pushed for American action. “The White House has completely hardened itself to whatever horrendous news might come out of Syria because the president doesn’t want to get involved.”

Continue reading.

And the "Problem From Hell" lady, Ambassador Samantha Power, is fully aware of the latest revelations, but of course can't do a thing to stop the systemic slaughter:

Reports & smuggled-out pics of horrifying, seemingly systemic prisoner executions by Syrian regime. Pure inhumanity. http://t.co/HkOY4RHUIR

— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) January 22, 2014

No one wants U.S. intervention in Syria, and so Assad, whose regime has emerged as the bloodiest in decades, will continue in power, and the country will continue its spiral into what is the most deadly bastion of international terrorism since Iraq in 2006.

#ObamaCare Is Now Beyond Rescue

Megan McArdle is by far the most intelligent and well-informed commenter on the tectonic disaster of the ACA.

Freakin' must-read from @AsymmetricInfo: Resolved: #ObamaCare Is Now Beyond Rescue http://t.co/ogVzJliGbe

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 22, 2014

Chief Executive Lex Fenwick Out at Dow Jones

I saw something earlier about how the Wall Street Journal is getting a makeover, so I'd guess this is related. At the New York Times, "Lex Fenwick, Dow Jones Chief, Resigns in Shift by News Corp.":

Lex Fenwick, the hard-driving chief executive who stumbled in his efforts to transform Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has resigned effective immediately as the company rethinks its strategy.

The resignation was announced on Tuesday by Dow Jones’s parent company, News Corporation, which is controlled by the billionaire Rupert Murdoch.

Mr. Fenwick’s departure came after News Corporation’s leadership decided that the Dow Jones division needed to change direction, said a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity.

News Corporation’s chief executive, Robert Thomson, felt that the company, which was spun off from Mr. Murdoch’s more profitable film and television businesses, needed to offer more flexibility to customers, and was keen to change course quickly, this person said.

Mr. Fenwick’s plan had been to unify a number of Dow Jones products — offering a fast-moving news wire along with other financial databases — and charge customers one price for them all. The new venture, called DJX, was seen by many inside the company as a misstep, said two people, because the high-priced product offered little choice and was unpopular.

Numerous customers blanched at the price increases, and many complained that the product was inferior to the data terminals offered by Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters.

“We’re reviewing the institutional strategy of Dow Jones with an eye toward changes that will deliver even more value to its customers,” Mr. Thomson said. “As part of that, we’re planning improvements to DJX.”

Mr. Fenwick, who once ran Bloomberg L.P., was with the company for less than two years. He was rumored to have set up a boxing ring in Bloomberg’s London offices to energize the sales staff. An internal company newsletter from last year described him as “The Lex-ionnaire” and pictured him, head shaved clean, wearing his trademark tailored purple suit.

He will be replaced on a temporary basis by William Lewis, News Corporation’s chief creative officer and a former editor in chief of Britain’s Telegraph newspaper group, the statement said. Mr. Lewis helped oversee News Corporation’s response to a British investigation of the phone hacking scandal in 2011.

Current and former executives who worked with Mr. Fenwick say he has a history as a gifted salesman with a record of expanding businesses. But they have also described him as a brash and demanding boss.

Nearly a dozen senior executives left the company during Mr. Fenwick’s tenure, according to a study published by the analyst Ken Doctor at Harvard’s Nieman Journalism lab.

More at Romanesko (which is the reference above, after all), "WALL STREET JOURNAL MEMO: NEWSROOM CHANGES MEAN ‘A FASTER-MOVING, DIGITAL-FIRST NEWS OPERATION’."

Is Nick Clegg's Angry Wife Miriam Behind His Battle with Lord Rennard?

At Telegraph UK:

Miriam Clegg was left 'furious' by Lord Rennard's failure to apologise to his alleged victims and influenced her husband's decision to confront the peer.

Miriam Clegg helped shape her husband’s decision to take on Lord Rennard after being left “furious” by the Liberal Democrat peer’s failure to apologise to his alleged victims, sources have said.

Nick Clegg was supported by his wife, a City lawyer, in his decision to call for the peer to be barred from rejoining the House of Lords following allegations that he sexually harassed female activists.

Mrs Clegg is understood to have raised concerns with her husband that the party had “let down” female activists by failing to take their concerns seriously.

Lord Rennard, the Lib Dems’ former chief executive, was suspended from the party after defying the Deputy Prime Minister’s calls for him to apologise.

Mrs Clegg usually avoids taking a public position on political matters. The party declined to comment on her position.

Well, it's a huge scandal.

More at Telegraph, "Nick Clegg will face 'bloodbath' in court, Lord Rennard allies warn.

Also, "Lord Rennard suspended after sexual harassment allegations," and "Lord Rennard scandal: It was 'just what men did’ in my day – but that's not the case these days."

Obama's Socialism Has Been Tried Before and Failed

Thomas Sowell, at IBD, via Twitter:

Fact-Free Left Turns Blind Eye To Socialism's Past http://t.co/d9APG7Jtin #IBDEditorials via @IBDinvestors

— HH (@hch242) January 22, 2014

Putin Freaks Out, Ask Obama for Help on Olympics Security

Well, Barack Got Osama, so there's that.

But see the New York Times:

U.S. and Russia Discuss Olympic Security http://t.co/qqbSIBkKd1

— The Caucus (@thecaucus) January 22, 2014

PREVIOUSLY: "Russia Raids Terrorists Ahead of Sochi Olympics."

CNN Covers the Florida Way of Life™

I saw this yesterday at the Other McCain, "Florida, the Crazy State: Brevard Students Rally to Defend Gay Teen Porn Star," and "Gay Teen Porn Star Robert Marucci’s Mom Endorses the Florida Way of Life™ UPDATE: Brevard Lifts School Suspension."

And also at CNN, "A Florida high school senior says he was expelled after the school learned he had acted in a porn film."

And Brooke Baldwin says, "I'm just pushing all those moral issues to the side." Yeah, because it's the Florida Way, or something. Who'd want to knock that?

Russia Raids Terrorists Ahead of Sochi Olympics

At Business Week, "Russia Mounts Security Sweeps to Choke Insurgency Near Sochi":

Two counter-terrorism operations were under way in Dagestan, a Muslim-majority region on the Caspian, east of Sochi, said Alexander Polyakov, a spokesman for the National Anti-Terrorist Committee. Russian forces also embarked on a third mission, with an insurgent leader killed in a shootout, Interfax reported, citing unidentified security officials.

Russian authorities are pushing to dispel concerns about deteriorating security in the region before the games in Sochi begin Feb. 7. The operations in Dagestan come on the heels of renewed threats against the Olympics made in a video released three days ago by Islamic extremists, who also claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in Volgograd that killed more than 30 people last month.

“As you understand, such videos do attract attention,” Polyakov said by phone, adding that security experts were studying the recording. He said he couldn’t comment on a Fox News report that Russia and U.S. security forces are searching for four potential female terrorists in Sochi.

Continue reading.

Also at Debka File, "Would-be bombers may already be inside Russia’s anti-terror “ring of steel” for the Sochi Olympics," and at WaPo, "Terrorist search in Sochi before Olympics sets nerves jangling despite Putin’s safety promise."

Russia Warns Against Escalating Violence in Ukraine

At LAT, "Russia vows it will not allow breakup of protest-racked Ukraine":

MOSCOW -- Russia will not allow the breakup of neighboring Ukraine and, if invited, is ready to mediate the violent conflict between street protesters and the leadership of the former Soviet republic, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

“Russia will do its utmost to help prevent [the breakup of Ukraine] and to stabilize the situation,” Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow, without elaborating on what actions Moscow might take. “Ukraine is our neighbor, partner, friend and brother and there can be no two opinions.”

With the divisions in Ukraine rooted in part over the question of whether to tie the country’s future more closely to Russia or the West, Lavrov lashed out at Western Europeans he accused of interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs by supporting protesters in the streets of Kiev, the capital.

“We would prefer some of our European colleagues not to behave so unceremoniously in connection with Ukraine's crisis, when members of a number of Europe's governments without any invitations dashed to [Kiev’s Independence Square] to take part in anti-government demonstrations in the country with which they have diplomatic relations,” he said. “It is simply improper and it is heating up the situation.”

The protests in Kiev began in November when President Viktor Yanukovich refrained from signing a trade and association agreement with the European Union. They had largely been peaceful in recent weeks but erupted into violence Sunday.

Dozens of people have been injured on both sides in three days of clashes between protesters and riot police. Grushevsky Street, which houses government buildings, has been turned into a virtual war zone, with hundreds of protesters hurling bricks, cobblestones, flares and Molotov cocktails, and several thousand police responding with stunning noise grenades, rubber bullets and water cannons.

Lavrov argued that Europeans would not tolerate such violence in their nations.

Continue reading.

Thailand Puts Capital on Lockdown

At WSJ, "Thailand Declares State of Emergency for Bangkok: Measure Takes Effect Wednesday and Will Continue for 60 Days":

BANGKOK—The Thai government declared a state of emergency in its capital in response to antigovernment protests that have paralyzed the city and stirred up increasingly violent attacks.

The decree was set to be imposed Wednesday and last 60 days, but protest leaders vowed to defy it and carry on with demonstrations aimed at forcing Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office.

Over the past week, unknown assailants have launched attacks on the protesters, killing one and injuring dozens. The unrest is also dragging on the economy, with Japanese auto companies, some of Thailand's most important investors, raising a red flag that future investment could be affected.

If the political upheaval persists, it will have an "increasingly significant impact" on foreign investors, according to Rajiv Biswas, chief economist, Asia-Pacific, for IHS Global Insight, a forecasting firm.

"Most investors feel that the political risks are so deep that there's no solution in sight," Mr. Biswas said. "They're unable to make decisions about long-term investment if they don't know who is going to be in power."

Officials said they would disclose details of the security measures Wednesday. Generally, emergency decrees give authorities powers to detain suspects without charge, censor media, impose curfews and ban political gatherings of more than five people, among other things.

The imposition of the emergency decree is the government's latest attempt to ensure that elections set for Feb. 2 will go ahead, and to restore control in parts of Bangkok that have been occupied, said Yuttaporn Issarachai, a political scientist at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University.

"People's rights are being threatened and it appears like the authorities are doing nothing about it," Mr. Yuttaporn said.

The protests have stretched on for two months, with numbers reaching as high as 150,000, mostly from Bangkok's middle classes. They have long opposed the populist policies and family dynasty of Ms. Yingluck and her brother, billionaire businessman Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed as prime minister in a coup in 2006.

Continue reading.

#ObamaCare Wreckage: Target Drops Health Insurance for Part-Time Employees

It's the MediCaid-ization of health insurance, c/o ObamaCare.

At Bloomberg, "Target to Drop Health Insurance for Part-Time Workers." And at WSJ, "Target Cuts Health Coverage for Part-Time Workers: Retailer Points to Insurance Options Available Through Public Exchanges" (at Google).

Here's the announcement at Target's homepage, "Talking Health Care with EVP of Human Resources Jodee Kozlak" (via Yid With Lid):

At Target, we have a longstanding commitment to our team members’ health and well-being. We have been researching and evaluating how the transforming health care landscape will impact our team members and our company. Along the way, we have been firmly committed to making the best decisions for our team members and Target.

The launch of Health Insurance Marketplaces provides new options for health care coverage that we believe our part-time team members may prefer. In fact, by offering them insurance, we could actually disqualify many of them from being eligible for newly available subsidies that could reduce their overall health insurance expense.

In addition, the majority of our part-time team members who have been eligible for our health insurance coverage don’t enroll. Today, less than 10 percent of our total team member population participates in our part-time plan.

As a result, and after much thoughtful consideration, we have decided to discontinue part-time health insurance coverage for our stores’ part-time team members, beginning April 1, 2014.

Well, their enrollment for part-timers of course would have surged due to the individual mandate, so low enrollment can't be a reason for the corporate policy shift. Frankly, Target's going to save money by dumping employees onto the exchanges, and in turn their workers will be left with substandard MediCaid-style insurance, waiting lists, doctor shortages, and substandard care. We'll be hearing lots more of these stories throughout the year. Great job Democrats. And good luck in November.

Don Henley Interview

At the Los Angeles Times, "Don Henley 'thrilled' with Forum, talks about Eagles concerts there":

A major concern in the concert business has been "What happens when the Eagles stop touring?" — a question that's also been posed of other veteran acts that generate top-grossing concert tours whenever they hit the road. But last year, for the first time, seven of the top 10 grossing tours were by relative newcomers — Beyonce, Pink, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, etc. What does that say to you about what's happening in music today?

These box office charts are relatively meaningless because they're computed based on the calendar year and some tours don't fit into that timetable. For example, our tour didn't begin until July of last year and we toured until Thanksgiving, then we took a break for the holidays. The tour commences again tonight, here in Los Angeles, and runs through mid-June. So our tour spans exactly half of two different years. In any case, the concert business seems to be healthy and there is room for acts from multiple generations, playing diverse styles of music. But it's reasonable to expect that someday, in the not-too-distant future, the "classic rock" generation of performers will cease touring. But not just yet — not while so many people still want to come to our shows and we're still making them happy...

RTWT.

Henley should say that the "classic rock" bands will keep touring as long as they're able to. They're not getting any younger. Looking at you Mick Jagger!

PREVIOUSLY: "Music Review: The Eagles at the Inglewood Forum."

Sean Hannity to Leave New York After Gov. Andrew Cuomo Rant Attacking Conservatives

At Instapundit, "THE EXODUS IS HERE: Sean Hannity to Leave New York After Andrew Cuomo’s Anti-Conservative Rant."

He's not kidding. Listen at the Right Scoop, "Hannity to Cuomo: I’m leaving New York and I’m taking all my money with me…"

New Video Shows Rob Ford Using Jamaican Patois in Obscenity-Laced Monologue at Fast-Food Restaurant

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Rob Ford Sews Up the Jamaican Vote."

And at the New York Times, "Video Shows Toronto’s Mayor Using Jamaican Patois in Obscene Rant About Police Surveillance."

Katy Perry for GQ

I'm actually behind on my Rule 5 blogging, as measured by the roundups. They take a lot time to aggregate and post. I love getting everybody linked up, however. So, until then, here's some lovely Katy.

At GQ, "The GQ Cover Story: Katy Perry" (via Memeorandum). Also, "Photos: Katy Perry's GQ Cover Shoot."

And at Egotastic!, "Katy Perry is Super Hot in GQ Magazine February 2014."



RELATED: At White House Dossier, "Katy Perry: I Might Have Delivered Wisconsin for Obama."

Just keep up with the hot-tease photos and we'll overlook it.

Ezra Klein Leaving Washington Post: Split Underscores Larger Tension in Era of 'Personal Brand Journalism'

I like the idea of the "personal brand." And it's especially cool when your brand is bigger than the biggest corporate media behemoths.

Ezra Klein's gonna be just fine, whatever he does.

At Politico, "Why The Washington Post passed on Ezra Klein":

Breaking: white dude journos like Ezra Klein, very excited to see what he does next.

— allisonkilkenny (@allisonkilkenny) January 21, 2014

The Washington Post would do anything for Ezra Klein. Well, almost anything.

For nearly five years, the Post has steered a bounty of financial resources to its star economics columnist and blogger. It has allowed him to have a contributor deal with MSNBC, a column with Bloomberg View, and to write long-form for The New Yorker. It has provided him with eight staffers to keep Wonkblog, his popular policy vertical, flowing with up-to-the-minute charts and analysis. The PR department has promoted him in profile upon profile.

But when Klein proposed the creation of an independent, explanatory journalism website — with more than three dozen staffers and a multiyear budget north of $10 million — the Post said enough is enough. Indeed, Jeff Bezos, the Post’s new owner, and Katharine Weymouth, its publisher, never even offered an alternative figure, sources familiar with the negotiations said.

Now, Klein is set to take his talents elsewhere. The Washington Post’s Wonkblog account tweeted the announcement Tuesday that he is leaving: “It’s official: Ezra is leaving the Post. Hoping for the best for him.”

As early as this week, Klein is expected to announce a new venture — described in a memo to Post staffers as a new “news organization” — that will look to staff more than 30 people on the editorial side alone. Meanwhile, the Post, which for four years has benefited immensely from housing the Ezra Klein brand — Wonkblog averages more than four million page-views a month — will lose its star columnist and its claim to some of the most widely read policy analysis on the Internet.

The split, which has become a point of tension in the newsroom and the talk of the town in Washington, underscores a larger tension in the era of personal-brand journalism. Big media institutions go to great lengths to feed the egos (and pockets) of their growing stars, cultivating their image and reaping the rewards of high traffic. But when that brand becomes too expensive, or so big it threatens to outshine the institution itself, the institution is forced to let it go.

And seriously, I fail to see the white privilege racism here, but Allison Kilkenny's pretty much psycho like the rest of the leftist trans* freaks I've been dealing with.

Volokh Conspiracy Partners With the Washington Post

Via Ed Driscoll, "Volokh Conspiracy Takes the Boeing."

Check that link for the announcement, and here's Eugene Volokh at the Post, "In Brazil, you can always find the Amazon — in America, the Amazon finds you."

And flashback, to Right Wing News, "The Slow, Painful Coming Death of the Independent, Conservative Blogosphere":

Really, it’s simple: Get big or go home.

Yeah, well, partnering with the Washington Post is going pretty big. But read Volokh's entry. It's pretty funny how many assurances he gives that his blog will still have community, still have independence, etc. Indeed, he's not giving up Volokh.com in case "going big" ain't so hot after all. So, if you're a blogger, take heart. Diversity is strength. I personally don't trust (most) blogs that go all corporate. Smaller blogs keep the independent spirit alive. I mean, really. The Other McCain at the New York Times? I don't think so.

Crazed British Leftist Tries to Place Former Prime Minister Tony Blair Under Citizen's Arrest

This dolt was emboldened to attempt a citizen's arrest on Tony Blair by this stupid website called "Arrest Blair." The charge? "Crimes against peace." Yep. That's it. Reminds me of something my old stalker Repsac3 would be all about. Peace, love and all that. Imagine.

At London's Daily Mail, "Cheeky barman tried to put Tony Blair under a citizen's arrest for 'crimes against peace' while the former Prime Minister dined with his family in a trendy east London restaurant."

Also at Independent UK, "The day I tried (and failed) to arrest Tony Blair for war crimes: An encounter between the former Prime Minister and Shoreditch barman Twiggy Garcia."

Idiots. Bleedin' idiots.

Seahawks' Richard Sherman: Straight Outta Compton, So Don't Be 'Two-Faced' About It

Personally, I'd like to see more sportsmanship in the NFL.

Thus I'm not really down with Bill Plaschke's argument here, at LAT, "It's hypocritical to rip Seahawks' Richard Sherman for rant":

The national vilifying of the Seattle Seahawks' Richard Sherman for his taunting televised postgame remarks Sunday after the Seahawks' 23-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game cuts to the heart of sports hypocrisy.

Everyone wants to watch their heroes make incredible plays under pressure, but few can stomach the depths of the emotion required to make those plays. After cornerback Sherman literally single-handedly sent the Seahawks to the Super Bowl by tipping a pass away from San Francisco's Michael Crabtree in the end zone, he plumbed those depths.

"I'm the best corner in the game," Sherman screamed at Fox Sports interviewer Erin Andrews as a stadium rocked around him in celebration. "When you try me with a sorry receiver like [Michael] Crabtree, that's the result you're gonna get. Don't you ever talk about me."

When Andrews asked who was talking about Sherman, he shouted, "Crabtree!" and then added, "Don't you open your mouth about the best or I'm gonna shut it for you real quick." Throughout the country, mouths opened in shock. The reaction on social media was quick and decisive. Sherman was overwhelmingly ripped for being a loudmouth, a bad sport, and even a thug. Criticism mounted further when Sherman called Crabtree "mediocre" during a postgame news conference. He was also nationally ripped for giving the choke sign after the play, a taunt for which he was

penalized. On Monday, Sherman showed remorse for his actions in a text message to ESPN's Ed Werder in which he wrote, "I apologize for attacking an individual and taking away from the fantastic game by my teammates … that was not my intention."

But the damage has already been done. This bright and engaging kid who ranked second in his class at Compton Dominguez High before later graduating from Stanford is somehow America's new sports villain. He is the main reason why many folks will be cheering for the Denver Broncos in the upcoming Super Bowl. He is the latest example of everything that is wrong with the modern professional football player.

Yet the truth is, he is the example of everything that is wrong with some modern professional football fans.

Oh screw that.

People thought Sherman a thug because he was acting like a thug. The choke sign, the patting on the ass with the faux handshake, and then the Erin Andrews interview. Sorry. It was a bit much. The fans are the fans. I'm surprised Bill Plaschke would respond as he does.

RELATED: More responses to Sherman from Robert Stacy McCain, "David Zirin, Marxist Sports Blogger."

Obama, Socialism and the Unlearned Lessons of Castro's Revolution

At Cambrian Dissenters:

Personally I have never subscribed to the view that socialists/progressives are afflicted by some kind of mental illness; I have always put their blind obedience to a failed ideology down to immaturity, delayed adolescence or a lack of normal intellectual abilities. Judging by the fact that they are surrounded by a mountainous amount of incontrovertible evidence, I may have to reassess my attitude.

Even historical facts fail to convince supposedly intelligent people that the continuous, abject failure of their socialist/progressive ideology is an aberration and a stain on humanity...

Keep reading. And then check this Twitter exchange here, and R.S. McCain's here (with the same "psycho").

BONUS: Via iOWNTHEWORLD, "Leftist Paradise – Cuban Bus."

Obama's Legacy: Paranoid Conspiracy Theories Aren’t Crazy Anymore

From Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today, "Government conspiracy theories aren't crazy":

The problem with government is that to be trusted, you have to be trustworthy. And the problem with the Obama administration is that, to a greater extent than any since Nixon's, it is not. Do not be surprised if the result is that people mistrust those in authority, and order their lives accordingly. Such an outcome is bad for America, but bad governance has its consequences.

RTWT.

Women 'Duped' Into Shaving Their Legs by EVIL Capitalists!

Heh.

From Darleen Click, at Protein Wisdom, "First World Problems: Women ‘duped’ into shaving their legs by EVIL capitalists."

Portsmouth Middle School Warns Parents About Schoolkids Snorting 'Smarties'

Oh god this is gross --- and I love "Smarties"!

At London's Daily Mail, "Parents warned of alarming new trend of students snorting Smarties that can lead to NASAL maggots."

Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin.

Now I've seen it all: Kids are snorting Smarties candies..and attracting nasal maggots => http://t.co/TmaxU35WE5

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) January 20, 2014

Islamists Threaten Sochi Winter Olympics

At BCF, "Militant Islamist video threatens Winter Olympics."

And at Toronto's National Post, "Sochi terror fears grow as new Islamic militant video threatens to strike tourists at Olympics":

An Islamic militant group in Russia’s North Caucasus claimed responsibility Sunday for twin suicide bombings in the southern city of Volgograd last month and posted a video threatening to strike the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

There had been no previous claim of responsibility for the bombings, which killed 34 people and heightened security fears before next month’s Winter Games.

In the video, two Russian-speaking men warned President Vladimir Putin that “If you hold these Olympics, we will give you a present for the innocent Muslim blood being spilled all around the world: In Afghanistan, in Somalia, in Syria.”

They added that “for the tourists who come, there will be a present, too.”

More at London's Daily Mail, "Hunt for 'Black Widow' suicide bomber on the loose in Sochi: Wife of dead militant feared to be targeting Winter Olympics - along with THREE other female terrorists."

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Mystery! Is That 'Blurred Lines' Model Emily Ratajkowski at Bikini Photographer's Instagram?

OMG this is going to be great!

At London's Daily Mail, "EXCLUSIVE: Blurred Lines model Emily Ratajkowski scoops prestigious shoot in Sports Illustrated's 50th anniversary Swimsuit Issue."

And you know, Kate Upton's coming back for another encore. That's pretty good. They got a nice deal going over there at SI.