Everybody Beat Up on Ezra Klein Day

Almost like "Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day."

It's not quite that big a blog burst for Ezra Klein, but not bad, not bad.

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary, "Bad History: Vox and Alexander Hamilton."

And from Ron Fournier, at National Journal, "How Obama Became the Superhero of Excuses."

Pretty good so far. Plus, we had Althouse beating up on the baby Ezra yesterday.

Maybe it's the beginning of a trend lol?

Admiral William McRaven University of Texas Commencement Speech

It's the University of Texas at Austin.

Via Erika Johnsen, at Hot Air, "Video: Admiral McRaven’s top ten tips for college graduates":

Through the prism of Navy SEAL training, a.k.a. ultimate badassery, Admiral William McRaven offered a few words of wisdom to University of Texas graduates earlier this week:

And boy, check the whining at the comments there. Too long a video to give a listen? Ironically exactly opposite of Admiral McRaven's message.

Added: More from Linkmaster Smith, "Adm. McRaven: Mandatory Palate Cleanser."

Sabine Jemeljanova and India Reynolds

Two of my favorite British lovelies.

At Egotastic!, "Sabine Jemeljanova Dives Into Battle with India Reynolds."

Depraved Leftists Run Interference for Obama on #VeteransAdministration

The depraved left rallies to protect the scandal plagued White House, at the O'Reilly Factor:




PREVIOUSLY: "Anatomy of a Scandal — #VAScandal #VeteransAdministration," and "When Leftists Cheered the Veterans Administration."

When Leftists Cheered the Veterans Administration

From James Taranto, "Socialist Supermodel: Not long ago, the left raved about the VA" (at Memorandum).

Man, that's a brutal takedown of the idiot leftists, especially far-left hypocrite Paul Krugman.

BONUS: From Matthew Vadum, at the American Spectator, "OBAMA’S VA DEATH PANELS = YOUR FUTURE UNDER OBAMACARE."

The Real Reasons GOP Insurgents Are Losing the Primaries

A little different spin than what you're getting from most the mainstream source, including PBS talking heads at the clip.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Tea Party Agonistes" (via Google):

The media's latest political line is that the Republican establishment has finally crushed the tea party. The truth, as usual, is more interesting. The tea party has already changed the GOP on policy, and mostly for the better, but it is suffering this year because the candidates and operatives acting in its name have been motivated more by personal than policy agendas. That's a shame because the GOP needs the tea party to prevent it from lapsing back into the do-little caucus of the George W. Bush-Tom DeLay years.

Marco Rubio (Fla.), Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Pat Toomey (Pa.)—those are three Senators elected with tea party support in 2010. Yet they are now part of the Senate GOP mainstream, tugging the conference in a more reform direction. So is Rand Paul on domestic policy. And don't forget New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte, who breaks with Mr. Paul on foreign policy but is making her mark as one of the Senate's smarter young conservatives.

These Senators won with the help of the tea party wave in 2010, but they also won because they were men and women of accomplishment. The tea party rode these candidates as much as they rode the tea party.

Now consider Matt Bevin, Greg Brannon and Steve Stockman. They are among the tea party champions this year who have lost by large margins in GOP Senate primaries. They didn't lose because the GOP primary electorate has suddenly been captured by "moderates," or some mythical establishment in the Burning Tree locker room.

They lost because they were inferior candidates who differed little from their GOP opponents on policy but seemed less capable of winning in November. GOP voters sensibly opted for the conservatives with the better chance to retake the Senate from Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer.

Far more than 2010, the tea party this year has also been hijacked by Washington-based groups that have personal axes to grind. That's especially true in Kentucky, where a cabal of former aides to former Senator Jim DeMint force-fed Mr. Bevin's challenge to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

This wasn't about policy business; it was strictly personal revenge to oust Mr. McConnell as leader and establish the Senate Conservatives Fund, FreedomWorks, RedState and certain talking radio heads as the main GOP power brokers. Mr. Bevin was a weak candidate who attacked Mr. McConnell for supporting the 2008 bank rescue only to have supported it himself while he was in private business. On Tuesday he got about 36% of the vote.

More.

Shailene Woodley Says 'No' to Lesbian Revolutionary Feminism — #RadFem

At the New York Times, "Who Is a Feminist Now?":

In a recent interview with Time magazine, the actress Shailene Woodley was asked if she considered herself a feminist.

“No,” said Ms. Woodley, 22. “Because I love men, and I think the idea of ‘raise women to power, take the men away from the power’ is never going to work out because you need balance.”

It was a somewhat surprising response from an actress known for portraying strong-willed women in films like “The Spectacular Now,” “Divergent” and “The Fault in Our Stars,” to be released soon.

“She’s hardworking and talented, and the fact that she can open a movie is feminism in action,” said Melissa Stack, a screenwriter who wrote “The Other Woman” (a film Ms. Woodley called “really neat” in Time for “creating a sisterhood of support for one another versus hating each other”).

Ms. Woodley has a reputation for being outspoken about environmental causes and has aired her support in numerous interviews. But the online backlash to her comment about feminism came quickly.

Jennifer Weiner, 44, a novelist, took to Twitter to write, “Dear Young Actresses: Before you sound off on feminists and how you’re not one, please figure out what feminism is.” Zerlina Maxwell, 32, a political analyst, chimed in with, “Here’s another actress rejecting a feminist label she can’t define properly.”

Open letters addressed to Ms. Woodley showed up on The Huffington Post and on YouTube.

“My reaction was, ‘Oh, no, not again’,” said Sarah Marian Seltzer, 31, who wrote one such retort, “Dear Shailene Woodley,” for the website the Hairpin. “There is this pattern of celebrities immediately saying, ‘No, I’m not a feminist, I love men,’ and there’s not a chance for a follow-up learning experience for anyone.”

Ms. Woodley’s age is a likely factor in her distance, said Leonora Epstein, 28, who co-wrote the generational guide “X vs. Y: A Culture War, a Love Story.” Ms. Epstein said that, “She’s technically a millennial, but a young one, and it makes me wonder if they grew up with less oppression, and therefore never felt they needed a tool like feminism to fight or empower.” ...

Isn't this classic? All the so-called "genuine" feminists attacking Ms. Woodley because she refuses to endorse the PC definition of feminism as infinite oppression. That, and of course Ms. Woodley rejects "PIV is always rape." In other words, she's not a lesbian revolutionary socialist.

More here, in any case.

And at the Other McCain, "Anonymous, Paranoid and Unverifiable: Radical Feminism’s Anti-PIV Madness."

Nancy Pelosi and the #Democrat Party Now Resorting to Vile, Anti-Semitic Imagery to Attack Private Citizens

At Director Blue.

Pelosi Forgets Linda Sanchez's Committee Assignments During #Benghazi Announcement

At the Washington Free Beacon.

Pelosi should retire, the old bag.

Also at Politico, "Nancy Pelosi names Democrats for Benghazi panel."

Anatomy of a Scandal — #VAScandal #VeteransAdministration

At Politico, "Anatomy of a Veterans’ Affairs scandal":

It began in 2012 when scattered reports of mismanagement at VA hospitals started to emerge across the country, from vets contracting Legionnaires disease at a VA hospital in Pittsburgh to the deaths of several vets after an Atlanta VA hospital lost track of patients to a November 2013 report on CNN that the nation’s soldiers were dying in a Columbia, S.C., VA hospital as they waited for routine gastrointestinal tests.

But the scandal occupying Obama and Congress today first came to light, albeit unnoticed by the national press, in December last year, when Dr. Sam Foote, a doctor of internal medicine at the Phoenix VA, retired and began meeting with Arizona Republic reporter Dennis Wagner with detailed allegations that patients were placed on a secret waiting list and several died while awaiting care.

Foote also sent letters in February to Rep Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) Sen. John McCain, (R-Ariz.) Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, (D-Ariz.) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, according to the Arizona Republic.

On April 9, Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, attempted to nudge the issue into the spotlight when he held a hearing and said that his investigators had evidence the Phoenix VA kept two sets of records in order to conceal prolonged waits for appointments - a fake set to show timely care and real records reflecting the appalling delays.

The following day on April 10, the Arizona Republic published a report detailing Foote’s allegations, along with the moving story of a 71-year-old Navy veteran Thomas Breen who died of bladder cancer after repeated attempts by he and his family to schedule an appointment at the hospital.

“They (administrators) just don’t respect any rules at all,” Foote told the Republic. “They just don’t care. … They beat me to the ground. I retired just exactly so I could do this.”

McCain and Jeff Flake quickly added more fuel to the fire by releasing a joint statement calling for a Senate investigation. But the story remained a local one.

Veterans groups, however, began to step up the pressure. On April 16, Concerned Veterans for America organized a protest in Phoenix about the VA problems that drew 150 people, according to the Republic.

Then, on April 23, CNN aired a bombshell report on the Phoenix VA called “A Fatal Wait” by the investigative team led by Griffin. The broadcast revealed internal e-mails showing that top management at the hospital in Arizona knew about the practice of shredding evidence of veterans requesting appointments to make it seem as though the waiting times were shorter.

“Drew Griffin and his team have been persistent in their reporting on, and digging into, the VA scandal for over a year now, and their pieces have found a home on AC360 as part of the Keeping them Honest franchise,” CNN President Jeff Zucker said in a statement to POLITICO. “This story is one of many great pieces coming out of our investigative unit, and it demonstrates the breadth of reporting CNN is capable of; we are glad this story has gotten the national attention – and action - our vets deserve.”

Keep reading.

Sarah Palin Slams the Left's Disgusting Double Standards — #WarOnWomen

A great interview from last night's Hannity:

Ann Coulter Defends Pat Sajak's Global Warming Tweet

Background at Twitchy, "Pat Sajak trolling the Left was a thing of beauty," and "Pat Sajak has global warming alarmists figured out … sort of."

Here's the Google link to the left's overblown response.

And Brianna Keilar has the interview:

Fully Automatic Wolverine Claws

Heh, this is cool.

At TechCrunch, "Crazy Dude Builds Fully Automatic Wolverine Claws In His Garage."

North Carolina #Democrat Clay Aiken Wanted to Punch Ann Coulter in the Face

Stay classy Dems.

At Sooper Mexican, "War On Women!! Guess Which Democrat Candidate Deleted a Tweet Saying He Wanted to Punch the Face of a Conservative Woman!!"

Aiken's already a longshot. But this pickup by Sooper Mexican could help deflate the hateful Democrat's campaign before it even takes off.

More at Memeorandum.

The #NBA Makes Its Case Against #DonaldSterling

The dramatic front-page story at today's Los Angeles Times, "NBA makes its case against Clippers owner Donald Sterling."

This morning's @LATimes hard copy. #DonaldSterling. #NBA pic.twitter.com/DlrKh9N9GC

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 21, 2014

More, "NBA confident about its case against Donald Sterling," and "NBA alleges Sterling-led Clippers tried to cover up scandal."

Republicans Beat Back Tea Party Challengers

I helped my kid with homework last night and also prepped for today's international relations class. So I'm still getting up to speed on the election results from yesterday.

But here's USA Today, "Tea Party challengers fall short in primaries":

Sen. Mitch McConnell decisively shut down a primary challenge to his 30-year tenure as the Republican choice for Senate in Kentucky. The Associated Press called the race for McConnell minutes after the last polls closed in the state Tuesday evening.

McConnell's primary victory over businessman and Tea Party challenger Matt Bevin was one of several for the mainstream GOP Tuesday in primary races around the country that have at times suggested the party is at war with itself. In Georgia, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Idaho, Tea Party-backed candidates also lost to establishment favorites.

McConnell raised more than twice as much money as Bevin, which he used to hammer his rival with attack ads. He also got a boost from his Kentucky colleague Sen. Rand Paul, also a Tea Party favorite.

Even before Tuesday's voting, McConnell's campaign had turned its focus to well-funded Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes. Grimes, Kentucky's secretary of State, won her primary Tuesday with little opposition.

McConnell will need to bring Bevin's supporters into his fold as he takes on Grimes, says political scientist Ernest Yanarella of the University of Kentucky. "I suspect the Tea Party may prove to be sore losers. They could very well just sit out the Senate election itself and that would certainly be bad news for him." ...

In a crowded field in the Georgia Republican Senate primary, businessman David Perdue and U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston advanced to a July 22 runoff. Coming up short: Reps. Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey and former secretary of State Karen Handel, who had been endorsed by conservative firebrand Sarah Palin.

Georgia Democrats nominated Michelle Nunn, daughter of former Georgia senator Sam Nunn, whose name and fundraising strength have given Democrats hope for a competitive race in a traditionally red state.

Like the Kentucky race, a split between Republican factions was on the ballot in Oregon, where surgeon Monica Wehby defeated state Rep. Jason Conger in the race to oppose incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley. Wehby was backed by 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and Conger had been endorsed by Rick Santorum, the 2012 candidate who beat Romney in Iowa.

Incumbents held off Tea Party challenges in Pennsylvania, where seven-term Rep. Bill Shuster defeated retired Coast Guard Capt. Art Halvorson, and in Idaho, where eight-term Rep. Mike Simpson defeated lawyer Bryan Smith...

Also, "How GOP incumbents beat Tea Party rebellion."

More at Legal Insurrection, "Primary Night: McConnell wins (KY), Perdue-Kingston Runoff (GA), Wehby (OR)."

Dems tried to destroy Monica Wehby with vicious smears alleging she stalked her ex-husband. At Politico, "Second harassment accusation vs. Monica Wehby," and "Monica Wehby wins Oregon GOP Senate nomination."

More Republicans Than #Democrats See Military Service as Asset for Presidential Candidates

Naturally, leftists despise the military. But see Pew Research:

Republican and Republican leaners respond strongly to military experience: 58% say they would be more likely to support a candidate with military experience, the top positive trait for Republicans of the 16 tested in the survey. Military experience also tops the list for Democrats and Democratic leaners, but they are not as enthusiastic as Republicans: 31% say they would be more likely to support a candidate who has served in the military, while 62% say this wouldn’t matter to them. While a positive for both Democrats and Republicans, military experience is not easy to find among the list of much-talked-about potential 2016 candidates.

Recall what Democrats really like in their candidates:

Boko Haram Suspected in Latest Nigerian Terror Attack

Because that hashtag activism is just working wonders.

At Telegraph UK, "Nigeria bomb blast: death toll expected to rise as 118 fatalities confirmed":

Boko Haram Islamist militants suspected in twin attacks in Jos which leave at least 118 dead.

Back-to-back bomb blasts killed at least 118 people and wounded 45 in the crowded business district of the central Nigerian city of Jos on Tuesday, emergency services said, in an attack that appeared to bear the hallmarks of the Boko Haram insurgents.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the militant group Boko Haram, which has set off bombs across the north and centre of Nigeria in an increasingly bloody campaign for an Islamic state, was likely to be the prime suspect in what would rank among their deadliest single attacks in five years of insurrection.

Boko Haram grabbed world headlines by abducting more than 200 schoolgirls on April 14 from the northeastern village of Chibok. Britain, the United States and France have pledged to help rescue them.

If the Jos attack was the handiwork of Boko Haram, it would show their growing reach in Africa's top oil producing and most populous country, striking out beyond their heartland in Nigeria's semi-arid and weakly governed northeast. Several bombs have exploded outside that region over the past month.

It was also likely calculated to stoke civil strife in Nigeria's most combustible ethnic and sectarian tinder box. Jos and the surrounding Plateau state have seen thousands killed in tit-for-tat violence between largely Christian Berom farmers and Muslim Fulani cattle herders over the past decade.

Also at Atlas Shrugs, "2 Islamic Bomb Blasts in Mainly Christian Area in Nigeria Kill at Least 118."

'Whatever happened to Vox and FiveThirtyEight?'

At Althouse.

I've never even clicked on the new 538, and I've read and linked Vox exactly once. I just don't care about these sites and they're not generating very much buzz, except among those noting how they're not generating very much buzz, like Althouse.

Veterans Administration Scandal Explodes

Looks like this is the big story of the day, at the New York Times, "Obama Faces New Test in Mismanagement at Veterans Hospitals."

And see John Fund, at National Review, "Lessons of the VA Scandal":

If our government has any obligation to fulfill its many promises on health care, it should be first and foremost to the men and women who served in our armed forces. But the scandal over hidden waiting lists at a growing number of veterans’ hospitals (seven so far) — wherein dozens of veterans died while waiting months for vital treatment, and the VA covered up the lengthy wait times — should make everyone wonder whether we can place our trust in a government-managed health-care system. The Dayton Daily News reported on Sunday that its investigation of a database of claims paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that the words “delay in treatment” were used 167 times. The VA paid out a total of $36.4 million to settle the claims. There could well be many more cases of “death by delay” at the VA that never came to light.

Are there lessons in the VA scandal for the rest of us if Obamacare survives and even expands?

RTWT.

More at Memeorandum.

Old School

I'm in meetings for our political science interviews on campus today. More blogging tonight.

I saw this blurb on my buddy Skatemaster Tate's Facebook page:

The War After the War — #GWOT

At National Journal, "Inside America's Shadow War on Terror—and Why It Will Never End":

The muezzin's call to predawn prayers had not yet woken the seaside Somali town of Barawe when a lone figure stepped out of a two-story villa near the water's edge. In the darkness of a walled compound, he smoked a cigarette, the glow of ash rhythmically illuminating his face. It was an effect that was heightened by the night-vision goggles focused on him. When the man stepped back inside, the commander of Navy SEAL Team Six, his own face hidden under black grease, directed his commandos to take up their positions and storm the villa. The date was Oct. 5, 2013, and inside was a Kenyan named Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, or Ikrimah—the leader of al-Shabaab suspected of masterminding the gruesome killing of non-Muslims at Nairobi's Westgate Mall.

Two hours later and nearly 3,000 miles away, a Libyan named Nazih Abdul-Hamad al-Ruqai, or Anas al-Libi, was returning from dawn prayers as the sun began to rise over Tripoli. His sedan pulled up to a comfortable house in an upscale suburb of the capital and was suddenly boxed in from the side and the front by two white vans with darkened windows. Commandos from the Army's elite Delta Force counterterrorism unit leaped out, one training his gun on al-Libi from the front as another broke the window, pulling the terrorism suspect out of the car and bundling him into one of the vans before both vehicles and a third that had been hidden sped off. The entire operation, caught on a surveillance camera and posted on YouTube, took 60 seconds.

President Obama wants deeply to convince Americans that the time of perpetual war is over. "America is at a crossroads," he said last year in a speech that was meant to reassure a weary public that the post-Sept. 11 era of invasion, regime change, and nation-building was nearly done. "Beyond Afghanistan, we must define our effort not as a boundless 'global war on terror,' but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America."

Indeed, even after the last U.S. combat troops leave Afghanistan this year, the shadow war against jihadi terrorists that began on Sept. 11, 2001, will rage on, executed by comingled military, intelligence, and law-enforcement capabilities using legal authorities that blur distinctions between uncommon criminals and enemy combatants. Terrorism suspects caught in the hard stare of the U.S. counterterrorism network will still be arrested by U.S. law-enforcement agents overseas; snatched off the streets of lawless cities by U.S. special operations forces; eviscerated by CIA drone strikes in remote areas far from any declared war zone; and interrogated under the rules of warfare before being read their Miranda rights and prosecuted in federal courts. And that life-and-death struggle will continue to play out largely in secret.

Continue reading.

Macklemore Celebrates EMP Museum Opening with Blatantly Anti-Semitic Costume Attire

So, "One Love" songmakers are raving anti-Semites as well?

Makes sense. Leftism is an evil ideology of hate.

At BuzzFeed, "Macklemore Causes Controversy With Costume That Resembles Jewish Stereotypes."

And at the Daily Dot, "Macklemore performs surprise show in offensive costume."

Super unsurprised that Seattlites didn't think Macklemore's Jewish costume was offensive http://t.co/FJyzzgFnPp

— Michael Barthel (@michaelbarthel) May 18, 2014

Yes, "super unsurprised" (no doubt).

Climate Science in Chaos

Lots of links.

At Power Line, "WHY GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISM ISN’T SCIENCE," and "THE NEXT CLIMATE SCANDAL?"

Following the links takes us to Roy Spencer, "The Bullying of Bengtsson and the Coming Climate Disruption Hypocalypse."

Climate science in chaos due to shortage of scary synonyms http://t.co/zKkmiAIGAT #TCOT pic.twitter.com/k4FhB7RjsX

— The People's Cube (@ThePeoplesCube) May 17, 2014

BONUS: At Astute Bloggers, "THE DEBATE IS OVER: MAN-MADE GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE IS BULLSHIT."

Charles (Chic) Burlingame Prayer Card Displayed at National September 11 Memorial and Museum

Debra Burlingame said she was pleased with the terrific ceremony she attended at the September 11 Museum. Her brother's prayer card is among the items found in the wreckage at the Pentagon.

See the New York Daily News, "Prayer card belonging to pilot among 9/11 items collected at newly dedicated museum."

It's the prayer card from their funeral for their mother, Patricia Ann Burlingame.

True Liberals Must Debunk the Left's Campus Bigots

From Professor Michael Curtis, at the American Thinker, "Liberals Must Refute the Leftist Bigots on Campus":

Tis the season of Commencement discontent. Let me count in alphabetical order the number of universities affected by the growing intolerance of bigots on campuses in North America.  Among them are Azusa Pacific, Brandeis, Brown, California, Concordia, Haverford, North Carolina, Rutgers, Smith, and Swarthmore.  Withdrawals by individuals to be honored or invited to speak, whether due to university action or voluntary, are now as familiar as leftist indoctrination of university students.

There is always an excuse, a feeble excuse, for the protests, whether the rationale is an action or a supposed action by the person to be honored, or some controversial words written or spoken. Among those absurd excuses are: the attempts by administrators to restore order when a protest was disrupting campus life, criticism of some features of Islam, International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies that predated the tenure of the recipient towards developing countries, police racial profiling in New York City, views on immigration policy, disapproval of abortion.

The objects of the intolerance are not extreme political activists, but prominent and distinguished members of the professions and society. They should be named. Robert L. Birgeneau, a former Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley who is in fact admired for liberal social views. Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, the first woman to hold this position and one of the most powerful women in the world. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Somali-born activist who has made critical and controversial remarks about the religion of Islam and the ideology of Islamism from which she has herself suffered. Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State and Provost at Stanford. Charles Murray, distinguished author known for controversial views on race class, and intelligence. Raymond Kelly, former New York City Police Commissioner. Robert Zoellick, former president of the World Bank.  These multiple incidents today are reminiscent of the event in 1983 when Jeanne Kirkpatrick, political scientist and former US Ambassador to the United Nations, was denied a platform at Berkeley.

Although these distinguished people would exemplify the diversity that universities claim to foster, their offence was that they did not agree, or were thought not to agree, with the protestors. They have offended the ideological conformity of the protesting intolerant bigots who would be numbed by hearing views other than their own. The arrogance and close-mindedness of the protestors prevents them from listening to alternative points of view.

The goal of inquiry and research at colleges is to search for truth and challenge accepted points of views. But the dominant mode of protests and of much teaching in the social sciences and humanities is a form of leftist fascism, preventing speech with which one disagrees. The politically correct norm at present is not conservative or status quo views, but rather the opposite, radical intolerant ones. Do those intolerant protests help the growth of social justice?  Both practical activity and highly perverse intellectual argument suggest an answer.

The impetus to leftist politicization occurred in 1964 when the radicals in the University of California Free Speech Movement occupied the administration building in Berkeley, the first such “conquest” in the country. It led to the reshaping of curriculum in an overtly radical direction, and hiring of faculty who leaned towards those changes. It has also led to incredible ignorance, stupidity, and bigotry.

The case at hand is that of the several hundred students at Smith today whose protests led to the withdrawal of Christine Lagarde from Commencement. Their absurd message was that the IMF “was a primary culprit in the failed developmental policies implanted in some of the world’s poorest countries. This led directly to the strengthening of imperialist and patriarchal systems that oppress and abuse women worldwide.” The young women at Smith were not informed about or thought it unimportant to mention the “oppression and abuse” of hundreds of women, not by the IMF, but by honor killings every year in Muslim countries.

The current protestors have taken to heart the answer, even if they cannot take time from their protests to read the actual text, given in 1965 by Herbert Marcuse, who taught for a number of years at Brandeis, in his essay Repressive Tolerance. Among his more engaging conclusions was that, “the objective of tolerance would call for injustice towards prevailing policies, attitudes, opinions.”  This logically meant rigid restrictions on teachings and practices with which he disagreed in educational institutions. Perhaps Marcuse did not specifically suggest the shouting down or forbidding of intellectual opponents, but his advocacy of repression or limitation of expression has been taken by the present day bigots to its logical conclusion.

Many objective studies have indicated the host of problems on campuses today: the highly disproportionate number, by very large margins, of far leftist members of university faculty, and sometimes administration; raucous and highly active leftist student groups; one sided teaching if not indoctrination in class and in texts used in many of the social sciences and in history courses; a preponderance of radical campus guest speakers; the incessant activity of radical Islamic campus organizations.

Sixty-five years ago Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote The Vital Center, a book aiming to support liberal democracy against the ideologies of communism and fascism. Though it is not directly relevant to today’s campus intolerance, the book is pertinent for its practical suggestion to “restore the balance between the individual and community.” There is an urgent need for a balance today in campus behavior and for a vigorous response to the changes in recent years in that behavior. Free speech and free thought are being limited by the actions of leftists, many of whom are aging radical revolutionaries left over from the 1960s, and the students they have indoctrinated. The desirable features of intellectual diversity, essential for any real university, are declining. It would be reasonable to argue that this issue of intellectual diversity is as important, and perhaps now more important, than the issues of racial and gender diversity.

A distinction must be drawn between the radical leftists on one hand and true liberals, a group that on the issue of intellectual freedom would include conservatives today. Liberals have to make their voices heard on campuses. They must proclaim themselves as supporters of real tolerance on campuses, the right of speakers who are not leftists to be heard, that ideological indoctrination by faculty and choice of textbooks should be criticized, that conservative faculty or speakers should not be confronted by a hostile environment, that speech codes that ban politically oriented speech be abolished, and even that administrators should question the self-perpetuation of their radical faculty and appoint real liberals and even conservatives...

Not hard.

Just let them speak. As soon as leftists utter a sound the bullshit sirens will be sounding in overtime. These people are nothing but hateful buffoons who wither at calm, cool and collected reason.

More.

Hot New Dining Trend: No Reservations and Four-Hour Waits at Trendy D.C. Restaurants

I'll pass, thank you.

At the Washington Post, "No reservations? This restaurant trend has become harder to swallow."

Tom Sietsema sees ageism and inhospitality when restaurants force guests to line up and wait.

The Emerging American Junta

At Director Blue, "AMERICAN JUNTA: An Illustrated Tale of Societal Decline."

#Mexico Divided: Stark Photos Show Urban Wealth and Poverty Side-by-Side

Recall my son's country project on Denmark?

Well, whereas the Danes have the greatest economic equality in the world, as measured by the Gini coefficient, Mexico is plagued by some of the world's worst economic inequality.

London's Daily Mail chronicles some of that, "Mexico divided: Stark unaltered photographs capture middle class affluence side-by-side with extreme urban poverty."

More, at Distractify, "These Images Of Poor And Rich Neighborhoods Side By Side Are NOT Photoshopped. How Can This Be?!"

Soldiers Fight to Save the A-10 Warthog

This is cool, via Business Week:

Here's why U.S. soldiers are fighting to save the Air Force's A-10 Warthog: http://t.co/5AF2dM0Oe1 pic.twitter.com/LNvlsqyUCa

— Businessweek (@BW) May 19, 2014

Britain Goes Halal

Don't miss this utterly mind-boggling entry at Bare Naked Islam, "First restaurants, then government schools, then supermarkets, now British universities are force-feeding their students barbarically-slaughtered halal meat without them being told."



But it couldn't happen here (wink wink).

You know, because ritual slaughtered meat is yummy, or something.

California Chrome Has Nasal Strip Problem at Belmont

It's always something.

At the Washington Post, "California Chrome’s Triple Crown could be derailed by nasal strips," and "California Chrome faces many obstacles in Triple Crown bid."

Governor Jerry Brown Blames Climate Change for California Wildfires

Governor Moonbeam is back.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Gov. Jerry Brown presses message on climate change."

The Left's 'White Privilege' Attack: 'An Attempt to Shut Down Argument...'

I looked for this clip earlier, but found it at the left-wing racist sites Crooks and Liars and Raw Story.

But it's up now at Independent Journal Review, "‘Fantastic!’: Watch This Army Colonel’s Takedown of ‘White Privilege’ Leave Fox Anchor Speechless."

“All of us have worked, all of us have achieved something. That is how we measure character, that’s how we measure what the value of a person is, not some arbitrary category imposed by some ponytailed grad students who have taken too many gender study seminars.”

PREVIOUSLY: "Harvard's Kennedy School Adds 'Checking Your Privilege 101' to New Student Orientation," and "Stephanie M. Baran: 'White Privilege' Speaker Pushes #Marxism to Defeat Racism in America."

A Dishonest Rewrite of the Duke Lacrosse Case

From Dorothy Rabinowitz, at the Wall Street Journal:

In the outpouring of praise for William D. Cohan's new book "The Price of Silence"—a work, remarkably enough, being celebrated as a model of evenhandedness, scrupulous objectivity, etc.—one essential has gone overlooked. Namely, the central point of this tale about the Duke lacrosse case and accusations against three players of rape and assault at a house party. It takes no close reading to see that the book is meant to recast the story so as to nullify the outcome Americans thought they knew—that the players were exonerated and had been falsely accused. In Mr. Cohan's portrayal, the workings of decency and justice were undone by malign forces—among them, it would seem, the ability to hire defense attorneys.

The book's pro forma declarations that the accused were, yes, exonerated come surrounded by a far stronger drumbeat of doubt that their exoneration could conceivably have been just. No surprise the accused beat the charges, Mr. Cohan is regularly at pains to make clear: These were white sons of privilege, from families who could pay for their excellent defense lawyers.

In Mr. Cohan's revisionist history we find a new moral hero—none other than Mr. Nifong, the prosecutor who brought the case and was disbarred for his actions during the investigation. "The Price of Silence" gives us a man mistreated and misunderstood, ruined for his efforts to do justice.

Such is the book's view of the prosecutor whose prime activity, upon taking the case, consisted of nonstop media interviews in which he denounced the evil of this racist sex assault by the lacrosse players—"hoodlums," as he referred to them—whose guilt, he emphasized, was unquestionable.

That this protracted pretrial outpouring might be unwise—in addition to being a clear violation of the requirement that prosecutors make no statements prejudicial to a fair trial—did not apparently trouble Mr. Nifong, who relished his turn on the national stage. Mr. Cohan rationalizes this bizarre prosecutorial behavior as a strategy to pressure members of the lacrosse team who had attended the party to tell what they knew—to break their "wall of silence."

In Mr. Cohan's interviews as he promotes his book, we hear much the same. Along with the author's repeated dark assertions that "something happened in that bathroom," we also hear, ominously, that "we will never know" the facts because "nobody in that bathroom is talking." District Attorney Nifong's career may have been undone but its spirit lives on...

Keep reading.

Rabinowitz is a national treasure. Here's one of her pieces from back in 2007, "The Michael Nifong Scandal."

More at KC Johnson's blog, "Rabinowitz Eviscerates Author Cohan."

Catholic School Boys Compete for Up-Skirt Photos of Hot Teachers

Boys will be boys, as they say.

Via EBL, at Batshit Crazy News, "Teenage boys take #upskirt photos of female teachers at California Catholic High School School."

It's wrong. It's humiliating and harassment. But it's the kind of misbehavior the generations grew up with. Indeed, I'm surprised this is news, considering it's not some politically incorrect attack on LGBTQ rights, or something.

The Audacity of Protesting Anti-Semitism

From Tom Wilson, at Commentary.

Read it at the link.

An astounding statement on leftist anti-Jewish eliminationist ideology.

Irina Shayk Topless for #BringBackOurGirls

Now this is interesting, at BroBible, "Irina Shayk Posts Topless #BringBackOurGirls Selfie, Pisses The Entire World Off":

Hashtag activism is fucking annoying, but even more annoying is when celebrities use them as a platform to heighten their own self image. What about when they use it as an excuse to take their clothes off?

Well, I'd be less annoyed with Selma Hayek topless.

That would be something, heh.

Former Princeton President Blasts Haverford College Students in Commencement Address

I would have loved to have been there.

At NBC 10 Philadelphia, "Haverford Graduation Speaker Calls Students 'Immature'."

And at the Philadelphia Enquirer, "Haverford commencement speaker's rebuke of graduates draws criticism, praise":

The stunning move by a commencement speaker at Haverford College on Sunday to use the celebratory occasion to lambaste students who had protested against another speaker drew a standing ovation but also sharp criticism.

William G. Bowen, former president of Princeton, called the protestors’ approach both “immature” and “arrogant” and the subsequent withdrawal as a speaker of Robert J. Birgeneau, former chancellor of the University of California Berkeley, a “defeat” for the Quaker college and its ideals.

Bowen’s remarks to an audience of about 2,800, plus nearly 300 graduates, added a new twist to commencement speaker controversies playing out increasingly on college campuses. Bowen — one of three speakers who received an honorary degree — faced no opposition, but chose to address the issue, calling it “sad” and “troubling.”

The controversy arose over Birgeneau’s leadership during a 2011 incident in which UC Berkeley police used force on students protesting college costs. A group of more than 40 students and three Haverford professors — all Berkeley alums — objected to Birgeneau’s appearance, noting that many of them had participated in Occupy protests as well and wanted to stand in solidarity with Berkeley students.

They wrote a letter to Birgeneau, urging him to meet nine conditions, including publicly apologizing, supporting reparations for victims, and writing a letter to Haverford students explaining his position on the events and “what you learned from them.” Birgeneau declined and withdrew.

“I am disappointed that those who wanted to criticize Birgeneau’s handling of events at Berkeley chose to send him such an intemperate list of “demands,” said Bowen, who led Princeton from 1972 to 1988 and last year received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama. “In my view, they should have encouraged him to come and engage in a genuine discussion, not to come, tail between his legs, to respond to an indictment that a self-chosen jury had reached without hearing counter-arguments.”

Bowen’s remarks stung some students and professors, who criticized his decision to chide graduates on their day in a forum where they had no opportunity to respond.

More.

The piece quotes Haverford English Professor Maud McInerney, one of the faculty members who attacked Birgeneau (and a Berkeley Ph.D. recipient), who moans, "It was an ambush."

Oh, those poor babies.

'Public Mistreatment'

At Neo-Neocon, "More on the Abramson story: what’s this “public mistreatment” bit?":

To me, the most curious phrase in the newest Sulzberger statement about Jill Abramson is this one [italics mine]:

During [Abramson's] tenure, I heard repeatedly from her newsroom colleagues, women and men, about a series of issues, including arbitrary decision-making, a failure to consult and bring colleagues with her, inadequate communication and the public mistreatment of colleagues…

So, did Abramson put some writer or editor in the stocks? Institute public floggings at the Times? Did she administer a series of public tongue-lashings? Or just criticisms? Is there a rule at the Times that, in order to avoid offending egos and tender sensibilities, an executive can only say negative things about an employee in private? And if this “mistreatment” perpetrated by Abramson was indeed, “public,” could Sulzberger mention more specifically (without naming the recipient of the mistreatment) what she allegedly said or did, so we could get an idea of what sort of offense he might be talking about? ...

Kinda funny, but the notion of "public mistreatment" isn't obscure on college campuses. Indeed, if a professor wants to discipline a student, it's best to do it away from the rest of the class, because any "public" humiliation could be grounds for a civil rights complaint. Some of my white male colleagues have totally given up on the idea of classroom discipline at all, lest they be attacked as "racist."

It's out of control.

PREVIOUSLY: "Why Student Behavior Matters."

Black Flag Settles Ownership Lawsuit

The band members from various iterations of Black Flag have settled a trademark lawsuit.

At the O.C. Weekly, "Black Flag Refuse to Surrender Their Ideals":

The dust has settled in the ongoing Black Flag legal beef, and the lawyers have demarcated the remnants of what was once called the best punk band on the West Coast, if not the entire universe.

The long and short of the settlement announced April 21 is that Black Flag's name and four black bars logo belong exclusively to Greg Ginn, the band's founder, guitarist and main songwriter. This all stems from a trademark-infringement suit filed last year by Ginn against his former band mates—Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Dez Cadena and Bill Stevenson—who had begun touring as FLAG last year, performing the band's classics and peddling Black Flag merchandise. Henry Rollins was lumped into the legal action as well; according to the lawsuit, Rollins colluded with FLAG members to "fraudulently" trademark Black Flag under his name after discovering Ginn's trademark period had lapsed.

"The problem with FLAG was they didn't come in the front door, and they used slandering Greg to promote themselves to drive up ticket sales," explains Black Flag's current lead singer, Mike Vallely, an '80s skate-mag celebrity and longtime Greg Ginn collaborator who fronted the band for 2003 reunion shows, then went on to manage them....

As it stands now, when Black Flag are on the bill, it's Ginn on guitar, Vallely out front, and a pair of session players from Ginn's north Texas hometown filling in on bass and drums. They will play a "classics" set, with the songs arranged to allow Greg to roam instrumentally. FLAG can tour as FLAG, though there are no plans for them to do so at press time. Nobody other than Ginn will see a dime from authentic Black Flag merch.

Here's "Flag" doing the Goldenvoice 30th anniversary show, "Black Flag -- Nervous Breakdown, Fix Me, I've Had It, Wasted @ GV30."

I love Keith Morris, but Black Flag isn't Black Flag without Greg Ginn.

Los Angeles @Dodgers: Out of Sight Is Out of Mind

The Dodgers have never been my favorite home team, but they had a very enjoyable season last year and I was looking forward to 2014. And then along came that cursed Time-Warner cable contract. Now 70 percent of the greater L.A. market can't get the Dodgers on their cable box. It's definitely hurting the team.

Here's Jim Peltz, at the Los Angeles Times, "Dodgers have faded from view on TV; will they fade from fans' hearts?"

And from Bill Plaschke, there's plenty of blame to go around, "Dodgers are out of sight, could become out of mind":

This is the worst season to be a Dodgers fan thanks to Time Warner #SportsNetFaiLA

— Taryn L (@InTransit74) May 12, 2014

The issue has been well-documented and there is clearly enough blame for everyone, greed by some, gluttony by others, villains everywhere.

The Dodgers are the biggest bad guys because, by taking $8.35 billion from Time Warner Cable and insisting on starting their own channel — SportsNet LA — they made it nearly impossible for that channel to find distribution at a price that Time Warner Cable could accept. The Dodgers could have signed a new deal with Prime Ticket for slightly less money but with a much higher probability that pay-TV operators would have continued carrying the existing channel. They would not have had their own channel, but at least that channel would have been seen.

The next villain is Time Warner Cable, which seriously overpaid, perhaps because it seriously misjudged the Los Angeles fan culture and thought this transition would be similar to the quick implementation of the Lakers channel a couple of years ago. Wrong. The Dodgers are not as big as the Lakers, and the Dodgers fans are not the Lakers fans, who lost their minds and used their wallets and essentially forced the pay-TV operators to carry the channel after only a few missed games. There is no such mass fleeing from the likes of DirecTV. The onus is now on Time Warner Cable to sell what is essentially an overpriced product.

"We sold the rights to a gigantic corporation, it's their job to market the rights and get the distribution," Guber said in the recent interview. "We are not happy that they haven't been able to get the full distribution in our own market that they promised. That's their job. They made the bet."

The final villains are the pay-TV operators who have shunned the Dodgers, if only because they are still charging consumers the same prices as last season when they carried the Dodgers. The contracts are surely murky and complicated but, bottom line, I no longer receive the Dodgers on my television yet my pay-TV operator has yet to give me a refund.

"It's unfortunate most providers have not yet decided to give it to our fans even though they're still charging them for last year's Dodgers coverage," said Stan Kasten, Dodgers president, in an interview Saturday.

It's all unfortunate, such that during the last month I heard several respected local sports authorities wonder whether the Clippers had actually become bigger than the Dodgers. It sounds crazy. It will never happen. But right now, which team has more buzz? There was also fallout felt when Magic Johnson surfaced as a possible new owner of the Clippers. A year ago, the support for his Guggenheim group would have been unquestioned. Now, not so much, with people wondering if that would mean the Clippers would also soon disappear.

If you own a sports team in Southern California, you can refurbish a lineup and a stadium and championship hopes, but none of that matters if that team is not on television. Period.

Or so it would seem.

Salma Hayek Stages Mini-Protest at Cannes to #BringBackOurGirls

Well, it's makes for good copy, I guess.

At Fox News, "Salma Hayek supports kidnapped Nigerian girls on red carpet."



As always, I'm with Staff Sergeant Old School.

Vile at Vassar? Typical Leftist Racist Hatred, Actually

Here's the editorial at the New York Daily News, "Vile at Vassar (via Legal Insurrection).

The whole piece is vital, so read it all at the link.

Here's the vile Nazi propaganda poster posted by SJP Vassar:



More at the Times of Israel, "Vassar’s SJP sort of apologizes for anti-Israel, Nazi cartoon."

Here's the cowardly and dishonest "apology" from the group, "An Apology from the SJP Vassar General Body."

And back over to Legal Insurrection, "Vassar removes Wall of Truth raised to protest anti-Israel campus climate (Updates)."

Events at Vassar tell you all you need to know about the ideological left today. Note that 39 Vassar professors backed the Israel boycott on campus, and the cowards they are, none of them would stand up for their beliefs when called out by William Jacobson.

Leftism is pure evil, deceit and cowardice. That's all they have. Well, that and ignorance too. Our job is to fight the ignorance, since leftists will always fail when confronted with truth.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



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

BONUS: At Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Checkmate."

Cartoon Credit: Theo Spark.

Stephanie M. Baran: 'White Privilege' Speaker Pushes #Marxism to Defeat Racism in America

At Progs Today, "CAUGHT ON TAPE: WPC14 Speaker Promotes Marxism As a Way to Defeat Racism in America (Video)."

She calls for a "full-scale revolution" as the "only way" to beat racism.

Oh brother. This chick's a bleedin' loon, a "fun person, adjunct, Ph.D candidate, fiery intersectional feminist, marxist, cat/animal lover, vegetarian" (via Twitter).



And she's got a publication apparently based on her Master's thesis from DePaul University, "Parsing White Supremacy: An Exploratory Study of Political Thought and Beliefs." (Unimpressive. She's dredging up and recycling some really old political science research there, on "symbolic racism," for example.)

I would just love --- love! --- for this shrinking Marxist violet to go face-to-face with Kurt Schlichter. Man would that be delicious.

PREVIOUSLY: "Harvard's Kennedy School Adds 'Checking Your Privilege 101' to New Student Orientation."

BONUS: She blogs at Feministing?

Oh my goodness. Robert Stacy McCain would make Marxist mincemeat out of her, lol. See, "Feminism: Love as Oppression and Heterosexuality as Subordination."

California Chrome Wins #Preakness Stakes

Here's the full video, on YouTube, "2014 Preakness Stakes + Post Race."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "California Chrome wins Preakness; one victory from Triple Crown," and "California Chrome does it again in Preakness."

A great story, and more at the New York Times, "Top Horse, From a Place Winners Aren’t Made: Favorite for Preakness Was Bred on a California Ranch."

Pinch Sulzberger Responds to Backlash Over Jill Abramson's Ouster

In denial.

At NYT, "After Criticism, Times Publisher Details Decision to Oust Top Editor":

Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher of The New York Times, released a statement Saturday afternoon detailing his decision to fire the newspaper’s executive editor, Jill Abramson. He was responding to a growing controversy over accusations by Ms. Abramson’s supporters that gender played a role in her dismissal.

The decision to remove her, announced on Wednesday, “has been cast by many as an example of the unequal treatment of women in the workplace,” Mr. Sulzberger wrote. Instead, the statement said, it “was a situation involving a specific individual who, as we all do, has strengths and weaknesses.”

The statement by Mr. Sulzberger came three days after he told a shocked newsroom that Ms. Abramson had been replaced by her No. 2, Dean Baquet. During the announcement, Mr. Sulzberger delivered brief remarks and said, “There is nothing more that I want to say about this.” But Saturday’s statement, which was about 500 words long, is the second public comment that he has made since her ouster.

Driving Mr. Sulzberger’s increasingly public posture has been an escalating debate over pay equality and the treatment of women. Two articles in The New Yorker have said that Ms. Abramson’s base salary when she took the job in 2011 was lower than that of her male predecessor, Bill Keller. On Sunday, NBC’s “Meet the Press” is scheduled to have a round table on “the equal pay debate” and is expected to discuss Ms. Abramson.

On Saturday, Mr. Sulzberger said, as he did in an earlier public statement, that Ms. Abramson’s pay package in her last year in the job was 10 percent higher than Mr. Keller’s.

“Equal pay for women is an important issue in our country — one that The New York Times often covers,” Mr. Sulzberger wrote. “But it doesn’t help to advance the goal of pay equality to cite the case of a female executive whose compensation was not in fact unequal.”

Ms. Abramson has not made any public statement since her dismissal, and has not responded to messages and emails seeking comment. Her first remarks on her dismissal could come on Monday, when she is scheduled to give the commencement address at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, N.C.

Whatever. It was handled badly.

ICYMI, see Jonathan Tobin's response earlier, at Commentary, "Judge the Times the Way It Judges Others":

It is a terrible thing to see any veteran journalist get turned out on the street in this kind of manner and I don’t think anyone—except perhaps for Thomas—would be justified in exulting about has happened to Abramson. But for the Times itself, I have no compassion or sympathy. The Times deserves to be judged and condemned as the classic example of liberal hypocrisy.

Ain't it the truth.

The Atlantic Takes Down Racist Photoshop of Antonin Scalia — #LiberalRacism

Following-up from my post earlier today, "Racism at @TheAtlantic: Leftist Hypocrisy in Action."

The editors took down Robinson Meyer's racist Photoshop, although the dude's tweet is still live:

You Should Read Antonin Scalia’s Opinions On Net Neutrality But Also I Made You This Photoshop http://t.co/ZOxLGWprKX pic.twitter.com/1X9gva9mpH
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 16, 2014

I called him out and tweeted the editors. Damned idiots finally wised up to their hypocrisy.

.@yayitsrob Are you racist? http://t.co/ONX4AoZbRi
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

.@yayitsrob I mean really? You're RTing posts about "Euro masculinity"? https://t.co/PjoU3Tl5TQ
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

.@yayitsrob You made the Photoshop yourself? Racist much? https://t.co/kVGahAM8Nh
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

@AmPowerBlog Did you read the post? Scalia sets up an extended (and very useful, I think) analogy between Internet service & pizza delivery.
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2014

.@yayitsrob You idiot. What if Sotomayor compared the offerings of a Mexican restaurant? Would you P-shop her with menudo and tacos?
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

.@Instapundit Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) bragging about creating his racist Photoshop: https://t.co/kVGahAM8Nh
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

.@Instapundit @MichelleMalkin @DLoesch Racism at @TheAtlantic: Leftist Hypocrisy in Action http://t.co/yrWxLRZOdq cc. @yayitsrob
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

.@yayitsrob Yes, I read it. And there's still no excuse for your disgusting racism: http://t.co/ONX4AoZbRi @MichelleMalkin @TwitchyTeam
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

.@yayitsrob If you decide to leave up your P-shop you know that's a badge of racist shame, right? http://t.co/ONX4AoZbRi @TwitchyTeam
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

@AmPowerBlog Thanks for the comments. I’ll talk to my editor about it.
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) May 17, 2014

.@yayitsrob Okay. Tell him if Sotomayor had "an extended discussion" comparing Mexican restaurants to telecommunications, you'd be attacked.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

.@yayitsrob That is, you'd be attacked if you P-shopped her like you did Scalia, regardless of the "extended discussion" in the dissent.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

I'm tweeting to all @TheAtlantic editors to see if they have a response to this racism: http://t.co/ego7zQQVjA @BigFurHat @BlazingCatFur
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

I did tweet all the editors.

Then, while out with my family I noticed they'd taken down their racist image. I didn't know that Sotomayor is of Puerto Rican descent (Jeanette Victoria mentioned it in the comments at the post). Had I known I'd have tweeted some Puerto Rican dishes she could've been daydreaming about in a racist Atlantic Photoshop of the first Latina Supreme Court justice. It's amazing to me that Robinson Meyer and the Atlantic editors never gave their racism a second thought. Must be white privilege, or something. Whatever. You've got to hold 'em to their own standards. Go Alinsky on the bastards. If you don't they'll continue to get away with the most disgusting racist hypocrisy imaginable. Seriously. Their leftist hypocrisy is genuinely evil. I'm sick of these scumbags. Sheesh.

Maite Perroni for GQ Mexico.

She's lovely.

At Egotastic!, "Maite Perroni is Super Sexy in GQ Mexico May 2014."

'The audiences have also been mostly elderly. The theater comes equipped with a defibrillator, and managers used to keep a supply of disposable underwear, in case of accidents...'

What a story, at the Los Angeles Times, "THE FABULOUS PALM SPRINGS FOLLIES NEARS LAST HURRAH IN PRIME FORM":

It was 10 minutes before showtime and Joni Naber was putting the final touches on her costume — a blue explosion of tassels and sequins that wasn't doing a very good job of covering her body.

"Come here and feel this!" she called out, grabbing a reporter's hand and placing it squarely on her midriff.

Her abdominals felt tight and smooth, like a piece of molded plastic.

"It's a corset," the 77-year-old former USO dancer explained with a grin.

In the cramped dressing room of the Plaza Theatre, 10 other showgirls were prepping for a matinee show. "Stop flirting with the reporter," one called out.

Naber is a dancer in the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, the musical revue and local institution that for the last 23 years has featured performers who could all claim AARP membership. The current cast ranges in age from 55 to 84...

The crowds have been streaming back in since the end of the run was announced. Alas, sounds a bit too late.

Did Led Zeppelin Filch the Opening Notes of 'Stairway to Heaven' from Relatively Forgotten California Band?

Posted the song here, "'Stairway to Heaven'."

And here's Business Week, "Stairway to Heaven: The Song Remains Pretty Similar":

Weary from touring, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page retreated in 1970 to a stone cottage in Wales, called Bron-Yr-Aur, with no power or running water. Legend has it King Arthur fought his last battle nearby. Not far off is the mountain Cader Idris where, it’s said, those who spend a night at its summit are fated to die, go mad, or become poets. At Bron-Yr-Aur, by candlelight, Page constructed the bones of what may well be the most popular, and valuable, rock ’n’ roll song of all time, Stairway to Heaven. This included the introductory finger-picked section that launched a million guitar lessons.

Back in England that winter, Page laid out the budding epic for the band at another house, Headley Grange, where the magic continued around a fire fueled on one occasion by a section of stairway banister. As Page plucked, singer Robert Plant seemed to channel another world as he wrote the lyrics. To Page, who has referred to the song as “my baby,” it was Zeppelin’s crowning achievement. “Stairway crystallized the essence of the band,” he told then-teenage rock writer Cameron Crowe in a March 13, 1975, Rolling Stone interview. “It was a milestone for us. Every musician wants to do something of lasting quality, something which will hold up for a long time, and I guess we did it with Stairway.”

For generations of middle-class youth, the song is the 8-minute soundtrack of adolescent romance—or at least the anticipation of it. Stairway is slow dancing, the last song played at high school proms, sweet-16 parties, and summer camp mixers across a broad swath of the late 20th century.

Stairway’s stature—financially, culturally, and musically—is towering. By 2008, when Conde Nast Portfolio magazine published an estimate that included royalties and record sales, the song had earned at least $562 million. It was so profitable in part because Led Zeppelin refused to release the song as a single, forcing fans to shell out for the entire album, which is untitled but known as Led Zeppelin IV. In the U.S., the album has sold more copies (23 million, according to the Recording Industry Association of America) than any save Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits (1971-75). To this day, Warner Music Group cites the song in its annual reports as an example of its publishing portfolio.

For live audiences, Stairway’s power starts with its introductory notes. “Can you think of another song, any song, for which, when its first chord is played, an entire audience of 20,000 rise spontaneously to their feet, not just to cheer or clap hands, but in acknowledgment of an event that is crucial for all of them?” Observer critic Tony Palmer wrote in a 1975 profile. Dave Lewis writes in Led Zeppelin: The Complete Guide to Their Music that “Stairway has a pastoral opening cadence that is classical in feel and which has ensured its immortality.”

But what if those opening notes weren’t actually written by Jimmy Page or any member of Led Zeppelin? What if the foundation of the band’s immortality had been lifted from another song by a relatively forgotten California band?

You’d need to rewrite the history of rock ’n’ roll...

Yeah, well, a little late now, don't you think?

But keep reading, in any case.

Racism at @TheAtlantic: Leftist Hypocrisy in Action

Here's the piece up this morning at the Atlantic: "Antonin Scalia Totally Gets Net Neutrality."

And they illustrate it with a Photoshop of Justice Scalia daydreaming about pizza?

If it had been an article about Sonia Sotomayor Photoshopped with her daydreaming about menudo and tacos it'd be a major racist scandal. Because CONSERVATIVES are racist?!!

It's all about hypocrisy with the left.

Do as I say not as I do.

It's bad. Indeed, it's evil. For when the left can destroy people's lives for the tiniest microaggression but then freely post a blatantly racist Photoshop of a Supreme Court justice, you're heading down the road to tyranny.

.@Instapundit So, @TheAtlantic can get away with an ethnic attack on Scalia? Nice photo there: http://t.co/L9BfNq5KuK pic.twitter.com/EVkWiCwshF

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

Video of Alleged Heisman-Winning Rapist Jameis Winston Stealing Crab Legs

What's the psychology here? It's not like the guy couldn't afford them. Is it entitlement? Black privilege?

Whatever. Wouldn't want to be racist and criticize the guy for stealing or anything. Indeed, he wasn't even charged with a crime.

At Sports Illustrated, "Watch video footage of Florida State QB Jameis Winston shoplifting from Publix," and the Miami Herald, "Video footage shows FSU star Jameis Winston stealing crab legs."



And remember, this is the guy who allegedly got away with rape.

More at USA Today, "As incidents mount for Jameis Winston, so does concern":

Winston's supermarket episode almost immediately became the butt of jokes. An Alabama grocery store advertised "Jameis Winston King Crab Legs" the day after a press conference that included multiple questions about whether the QB also took butter. Stetson fans held up crab legs in its game against FSU on Tuesday. And Taiwanese animators created a video showing Winston using Heisman moves to elude security officers on Segways.

Those close to the quarterback say the citation, for which he has performed 20 hours of community service, is the honest mistake of a college kid adjusting to the intense spotlight. If he wasn't aware of its glare, he should be now, they say.

"We hope so," Antonor Winston tells USA TODAY Sports. "Not only him. I think it should show the university and us, I think we probably kind of dropped the ball on that a little bit."

Florida State declined to make Winston available for an interview about the incident, but after it was reported he released a statement through his attorney, Tim Jansen, in which he accepted responsibility for a "moment of youthful ignorance."

Youthful ignorance? Nah. More like black racist privilege.

My Son's 6th Grade Country Report

My boy picked Denmark. And of course I spent time with him researching the country and helping with the written paragraphs.

I'm impressed. Denmark boasts the world's highest level of income equality, as measured by the Gini coefficient (financed the world's highest tax rates). And Danes have the highest rate of meat consumption per capita in the world. It's basically your Scandinavian dream country. Modern, cultured and environmentally correct. I'm not planning a trip to Europe anytime soon, but after helping with this project, I'm way more inclined to consider a Copenhagen stopover.

My kid's 6th grade class project. #Denmark pic.twitter.com/84ebIAL09r

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

In any case, here's the copy on the country's background:

Denmark is located in Scandinavia, in the northernmost part of Europe. The geography of Denmark is mostly flatland. The country's highest point being roughly 173 meter above sea level. There are over 400 islands. Some of its best-known landmarks include the Tivoli Gardens amusement park in Copenhagen and the Little Mermaid Statue, at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen. Denmark's natural resources include oil, natural gas, gravel, sand, limestone, chalk, and clay. Denmark is self-sufficient in oil. Denmark has a temperate climate with mild winters and cool summers. The country averages about 28 inches of rainfall per year. Denmark is a predominantly Protestant nation and Easter and Christmas are the country's biggest holidays. Danes celebrate three days of Christmas. Other religious holidays are also important throughout the year. The capital city of Copenhagen, population of over 1 million people, is a popular visitors' attraction. The city is rich in historical sites and palaces, as well as arts and culture, like museums and the opera. The Copenhagen zoo is popular as well. The original Legoland park is located in the city of Billund, to the west in Jutland. Danes are the world's greatest meateaters! Denmark boasts the highest consumption of meat per person in the world. Meat and fish are the main foods. Danes like to eat open sandwiches, called smørrebrød, with lots of toppings, as well as meatballs with all kinds of trimmings. Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Nina Agdal is probably the world's most famous Dane at the moment, although Prince Hamlet, from Shakespeare's play, remains as popular as ever. Because it is cool in Denmark most of the time, Danes wear a lot of layers in the clothing, as well as denim jeans, sweaters and scarves.

And you gotta love Denmark's immigration policy, via Der Spiegel, "Putting a Price on Foreigners: Strict Immigration Laws 'Save Denmark Billions'":

Denmark's strict immigration laws have saved the country billions in benefits, a government report has claimed. The Integration Ministry report has now led to calls among right-wing populists to clamp down further on immigrants to increase the savings...

The report has led to jubilation among right-wing politicians: "We now have it in black and white that restrictions (on immigrants) pay off," said DPP finance spokesman Kristian Thulesen Dahl. The DPP will almost certainly exploit the figures in future negotiations over the Danish economy.

But the report has sparked outrage from opposition parties like the centrist Social Liberal Party, which dismissed it as undignified and discriminatory. The party's integration spokeswoman, Marianne Jelved, said: "A certain group of people is being denounced and being blamed for our deficit, being made into whipping boys." She added: "We cannot classify people depending on their value to the economy. That is degrading in a democracy that has a basic value of equality."

Still, the announcement has not come as surprise. The right-wing populist DPP, which has been working with the ruling center-right coalition government of Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen since 2001, has in the past made its aims very clear: a complete halt to immigration into Denmark from non-Western countries. "A Somali who is no good for anything, that is simply not acceptable," said DPP leader Pia Kjærsgaard. Similarly, center-right liberal Prime Minister Rasmussen has also said anyone who would be a burden on Denmark is not welcome in the country.

Right-wing populists have even demanded a ban on satellite dishes so that TV stations like al-Jazeera and Al Arabiya cannot be beamed into Danish living rooms. There have also been suggestions to exempt migrants from the minimum wage -- supposedly to make it easier for foreigners to gain access to the labor market.

The small Scandinavian country already has the strictest immigration and asylum laws in Europe. For example, foreign couples are only allowed to marry if both partners are at least 24 years old. The number of asylum seekers and relatives of immigrants seeking entry into Denmark dropped by more than two-thirds within nine years as a result of the tough laws....

In November, the government agreed to stricter laws and made the entry of immigrants' spouses more difficult. Only those who collect enough "points" may come to Denmark in the future -- with points being determined by factors such as academic qualifications and proof of language proficiency. In addition, the equivalent of €13,000 must be deposited with the state in the form of a bank guarantee to cover any future public assistance. Socially deprived areas with a disproportionately high number of immigrants will be subject in future to a so-called "ghetto strategy" designed to prevent high concentrations of foreigners in public housing areas. Migrants will be assigned housing, and three-year-old children who do not speak Danish well enough will be required to attend state child care.

Some immigrants have already turned their back on Denmark voluntarily. Increasing numbers of Somalis are moving away, especially to the UK, the Jyllands Posten reported on Thursday, because of discrimination.

Hmm, racism as state strategy. And leftists say we're the world's most evil country, lol!