The Ebola Anti-Hysteria Hysteria

From Holman Jenkins, at the Wall Street Journal:

People are irrational in their assessment of risks, blah, blah. Yes, we can find here and there examples of Americans overreacting to Ebola. But more in evidence has been media’s own anti-hysteria hysteria. This week a Bloomberg Radio host rudely and repeatedly (and uncharacteristically) hushed a Wall Street analyst for suggesting we still have things to learn about how the virus is transmitted. Guess what? This is true. What’s more the virus is subject to forces of natural selection, so even our broadly reliable generalizations about transmissibility are hardly written in stone.

The media, as if citing an iron law, keep telling us that (to use the New York Times formulation) “people infected with Ebola cannot spread the disease until they begin to display symptoms, and it cannot be spread through the air.”

Sorry, each clause of that sentence is subject to caveat, and the whole thought needs to be preceded with the words “government scientists believe . . . .”

Acknowledging these realities is not tantamount to saying an uncontained breakout is likely or possible in the United States. A person deliberately infected and sent among us in an act of bioterrorism wouldn’t be able to infect any sizable number of people given what we know about Ebola. The average American is in far more danger from a ham sandwich or the neighborhood salad bar. Yet much sense was spoken on PBS on Wednesday night by Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, who said: “I would like not to call it irrational. When people are just learning about something, something that they regard as a threat, and they haven’t integrated all of this information still into their thought process, their sense of anxiety obviously increases.”

Oh, so it's not irrational to worry about the spread of Ebola? And that's coming from an infectious disease expert? Well, what do you know? I thought No More Mister had laid down the final word about the Ebola hysteria, which is of course that it's all a Republican plot to make President Obola look bad just before the midterms! See, "YOU'LL HAVE TO DO THE PANICKING FOR US, DOUG."

You know, because it's only the evil Fox News hacks that are making people "panic." Good to know, Steve M. Obviously this Dr. William Schaffner is a tea party shill!

Giants Defeat Royals 11-4 in Game 4 of #WorldSeries

Pretty impressive victory. I recall looking at the Royals bench yucking it up in the early innings. Heh, never a good idea to get cocky.

The series is tied a two game apiece.

Final Score #SFGiants win 11-4, tie the #WorldSeries 2-2 Pence 3-for-5 3 RBI Sandoval 2-for-5 2 RBI Petit (W) pic.twitter.com/EL7azDfabA

— #OctoberTogether (@SFGiants) October 26, 2014

#sfgiants come back with huge burst of runs, tie Series at 2-2: http://t.co/mb0tyRwwtf

— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) October 26, 2014

Bruce Bochy to Stick with Ryan Vogelsong for Game 4 of the #WorldSeries

After watching the Kansas City Royals just destroy both the Angels and the Orioles, I'm not surprised now that the Giants are down 2-1 in the World Series. I've got a grudging admiration for Kansas City, the problem is, they're just not my team. And as a Californian I'd obviously prefer San Francisco, especially considering their own fairy tale victories in the National League playoffs. It's been some great baseball this year.

But pitching is killing the Giants. No one can beat Madison Bumgarner, but after that it's anyone's guess if the Giants got game, even with home-field advantage.

So we'll see. Game 4 is starting right now.

In the meanwhile, here's Bill Shaikin, at LAT, "Royals getting harder to deal with, beat Giants and lead World Series":

Vogelsong and the #SFGiants try to tie up the #WorldSeries in Game 4 at 5 PT. http://t.co/C2cW85bk3j #OctoberTogether pic.twitter.com/gwImxsJoMK

— #OctoberTogether (@SFGiants) October 25, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO — Zack Greinke asked out of Kansas City four years ago. He was in the prime of his career. He would not sign a new contract with the Royals because he wanted to win and, as he told anyone who asked, he did not believe the Royals could win.

Greinke has taken his talents to the Milwaukee Brewers, to the Angels, and to the Dodgers. He has yet to pitch in the World Series.

And just look at the team he jilted now. The Royals are halfway to the World Series championship.

Alcides Escobar, one of the players the Royals acquired for Greinke, got two hits and scored two runs Friday. Lorenzo Cain, another of the players in the trade, drove in a run and made two splendid catches in right field. And Kansas City got four hitless innings out of its splendid bullpen to close out a 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants in Game 3 of the World Series.

The Royals lead the Series, two games to one. The record of the largely anonymous underdog Kansas City squad this postseason: 10-1.

"There's no intimidation on this team," Cain said. "No one's intimidated. It's just a baseball game."

The only pitcher to beat the Royals in the postseason: Giants ace Madison Bumgarner. Although another loss would put the Giants on the verge of elimination, Manager Bruce Bochy said he would stick with Ryan Vogelsong for Game 4 — even though Bumgarner said he would be willing to start on short rest.

"It's not like he pushed real hard," Bochy said.

More.

Bumgarner can of course start Game 5, and it's a good thing too. No matter what happens, the Giants will head back to Kansas City, where the Royals may well be able to finish them off.

Ezra Levant Eviscerates Craven Leftist Whitewashing of Islamic Terrorism

Ezra's on fire here.

The dude's a national treasure, and you can see how dangerous he is to the leftist paradigm of supine acquiescence to the Islamic takeover of the Western democracies.

The Scene from 'Fury' That Drives Pansy-Assed Progs Into the Arms of Their Metrosexual Mommies

If you think "Fury" represents the vision of war that victimizes its soldiers, turns them into hulking carcasses of PTSD, consigning them to a life of depression, ever sulking from their committal of human rights "abuses," then you might be a pacified progressive, brain-addled pansy-assed leftist loser --- like the sorry specimen of a man David Edelstein, at the spineless far-left outlet the Vulture, "David Ayer Represents the Best and Worst of American Filmmaking With His WWII–Set Fury."

Exhibit A in this pussified case study of the pathetic progressive pacifist oeuvre: Edelstein's response to the summary execution scene in which Don "Wardaddy" Collier (Brad Pitt) forces Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) to shoot a f-king Nazi in the back. Watch, "I Cant Do It":



And here's Edelstein at the review:

The scarred, leather-faced tank commander, Don “Wardaddy” Collier (an aggressively deglamorized Brad Pitt), butchers a solitary German officer rather than take him prisoner [in the opening scene]. A short time later, he not only decides to shoot an SS man who surrenders to him, but he forces — in an excruciatingly prolonged scene — a jittery clerk-typist, Private Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), to pull the trigger. “Don’t make me do this!” weeps Ellison as Collier slaps him and wrestles him into position to fire a bullet into the head of a man who has pulled out photos of his wife and children and is begging for his life. And then — blam!

"Weeps Ellison." OMG terrible. Just terrible!

An American master sergeant deep into enemy territory --- in Germany in 1945! --- who actually kills Germans! And one who actually makes his grunts kill Germans --- lest they kill him! The horrors!

Remember, leftists turn soldiers into victims. The actual fighting of enemies is "dehumanizing." Never mind that World War II's campaign against the Nazis is probably the closest you're going to get of good fighting evil in the history of modern warfare. The old saw goes "War is hell" for a good reason. And more than any other war movie in recent times --- and some are saying more than any other war movie ever made --- "Fury" displays the unvarnished truth of men in combat, and the nobility of fighting for what's right, even in the face of impossible odds.

I've read a lot of reviews of this film --- pretty much everything that's been written on it, frankly --- and plenty of reviewers are horrified by the sheer brutality of David Ayer's production, using such words as "psychotic" to describe Brad Pitt's "Wardaddy" (John Anderson, at the Wall Street Journal, "‘Fury’ Fueled by Fear") or "hot air" to describe "Wardaddy's" view that "Ideals are peaceful — history is violent" (Ty Burr, at the Boston Globe, "‘Fury’ takes on WWII, with Brad Pitt in command").

More than anything, pacified leftists are terrified that people might in fact consider the unflinching moral clarity of an earlier era far superior to the criminal cowardice of the left's contemporary reign of political correctness.

See the review at The Truth About Guns, for example, "Movie Review: Fury":

Here’s the long and short of it: Fury is probably the best Hollywood WW2 movie since “Saving Private Ryan.” It has courage. It has heart. It is intentionally upsetting. It has unrelenting battle scenes that will have you on the edge of your seat and more than slightly repulsed at the carnage. It has an underlying message of resistance to evil, devotion to faith and ethics that viewers can accept or ignore. The film works as Grand Guignol just as well as it works as a religious statement.

Fury left me deeply moved and more admiring than ever of the Greatest Generation. More than anything, it left me shaking my head about the nation we have become, and how we became such a pale imitation of what we once were.

Word, brother. Mother f-king Word.

Google Executive Breaks Space-Jump Record

So, how long until Felix Baumgartner suits up to reclaim the world record, heh?

At the New York Times, "Parachutist’s Record Fall: Over 25 Miles in 15 Minutes: Alan Eustace Jumps From Stratosphere, Breaking Felix Baumgartner’s World Record."

iOWNTHEWORLD is Now iOTWReport

Be sure to update your feeds and links.

Go to IOTWReport.

And don't miss this hilarious comedy sketch, "Why taking a dump in a Kohl’s dressing room is never a good idea."

New York Hatchet Jihad

The Islamic jihadists keep coming and coming, and progressive keep denying and denying. The sooner people call it for what it is --- Islamic jihad --- the more lives that will be saved.

At the New York Times, "Attacker With Hatchet Is Said to Have Grown Radical on His Own."

He grew radical "on his own"? Okay, although for some strange reason he was attracted to jihadi terrorist groups like al Qaeda and Islamic State. So, technically, he was "under the influence" of transnational Islamic terrorism. That's not quite the same thing as acting "on his own." Indeed, all these nuances are utterly stupid. These deluded crazies don't need to be rank-and-file cadres in large terrorist cells. They aren't radicalized in isolation. They're going to kill one way or the other. And there's going to be no other way to prevent such murders without aggressive anti-terrorist programs, the kind that are under assault from all the leftist political correctness.

Also at Pamela's, "NYC police commissioner: Hatchet attack was terror":

The fact is, there are no “lone wolves” in the global jihad.

Obama Criticized as More Concerned with Burnishing Legacy Than with Helping Democrat Candidates

Suck it Democrats.

Y'all backed this dirtbag inexperienced community organizer for POTUS. You're stuck with this failed cluster now, and that's YOUR legacy.

Suck it up.

At LAT, "Democratic candidates worry Obama is helping their rivals":

For months, the White House has insisted that President Obama would do all he could to help his party in the midterm election. Now that he’s started, some Democrats wonder whether he could help a little bit less.

In a rocky return to the campaign trail, Obama has served up campaign fodder for Republican opponents in a formal speech and in an off-the-cuff interview. He’s been heckled by immigration activists angry about his decision to delay executive action on deportation. On Sunday, he watched a chunk of his audience head for the exits — apparently to avoid traffic — before the end of his stump speech.

The slip-ups have even extended to the usually disciplined first lady, who campaigned in Iowa for Senate candidate Bruce Braley but repeatedly called the congressman by the wrong last name. After she went back Tuesday for a do-over, a White House news release got Braley’s name right but his title wrong.

Democrats have witnessed the performances, cringed and complained, offering a preview of the finger-pointing that might come if the party fares poorly in the Nov. 4 election.

“It doesn’t open up a new line of attack, but it freshens one right as voters are tuning in,” said a campaign advisor, one of several Democrats who would not be quoted by name while discussing the president’s effect on elections.

The focus of much of their frustration has been Obama’s off-message comments, which undermined a key strategy for many Democratic candidates — to distance themselves from the unpopular president.

Several Democratic strategists and campaign advisors noted Obama’s blunders were minor problems compared with the drag his sunken approval rating is putting on their candidates.

Still, they saw in the missteps a window into a president’s mind-set and his political operation. They blamed a White House political team disconnected from the tough realities of campaigning and a president better at selling himself than his party...

Ah, far-left Sturm und Drang  --- you gotta love it!

More at that top link.

Retracing the Steps of the New York Ebola Patient

Good luck with that.

At NYT.

Retracing the steps of the New York Ebola patient http://t.co/rMlqr5PVtg pic.twitter.com/ga1JviBp9p

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 25, 2014

Michelle Nunn: 'Fugly shemail Obama loving Democrat'

OMG I'm dying here.

This dude is crackin' me up!

@ChrisCoon4 @AmPowerBlog David Perdue he is my vote. I ain't voting for no Fugly shemail Obama loving Democrat

— Thomas Kayler (@KCSI_RW) October 25, 2014

Terry Keenan Dies at 53

I remember when she used to appear on Lou Dobbs' show years ago, on CNN. Cute as a button.

She was my age --- in other words, way too young to go. RIP.

At Fox News, "Former Fox News anchor Terry Keenan dies at 53, according to Hollywood Reporter."

Have Dems Lost Millennials?

No, but it's not looking good for the idiot Democrat-progs.

At the Hill, "Millennial voters a new worry for Dems":

Disenchantment among millennial voters is the latest worry for Democrats fighting to hold their Senate majority.

Young voters rallied to President Obama’s side when he first ran for the White House in 2008, and then defied predictions that their enthusiasm would drop off in 2012.

But there is no guarantee they will turn out for Democrats at the polls next month.
Plagued by unemployment and economic anxiety, 18- to 34-year-olds feel a sense of disappointment in the party it helped boost in previous elections, political observers say.

Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and former spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), said the promise of “hope and change millennials invested in has hit a brick wall.”

Manley said that this in turn has made young voters “very cynical about the political process and less likely to vote than they had in the past.”

Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, agreed that winning over young voters is an issue for Democrats.

“Obama in 2008 had been successful at exciting millennials about political institutions they distrusted and giving them faith in an economy that really wasn’t delivering on the American dream,” Zelizer said.

Since then, Zelizer added, Obama “seems like politics as normal while the economy continues to crawl.”

“Democrats have failed to really lock in their support,” he said.

A poll released earlier this year showed a significant decline in the number of Democratic-leaning millennials who planned to vote in the midterm elections.

The survey, conducted by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, found that young voters are increasingly turned off by the political environment.

It revealed that a mere 23 percent of Democratic-leaning millennials said they would vote in the midterm elections. That was down from the 31 percent who said they would vote in the 2010 midterm elections. (Only 24 percent actually showed up at the polls that year.)

At the same time, the poll indicated that 32 percent of conservative-leaning millennials said they would vote in the election.

“We’ve seen a growing disenchantment with Democrats generally,” John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Institute of Politics, said in an interview.

While millennials were an important part of the Democratic coalition in recent election cycles, that same coalition appeared to be “fractured” now — something that should concern Democrats, Della Volpe said.

Sensing a weakness, Republicans have pounced...

Well, Republicans shouldn't get cocky. It's a pox on both houses, as far as I'm concerned. But the fault lies with young voters themselves.

Recall, there's no youth movement today to speak of, as I wrote last weekend, "Where Is the Anti-War Movement?" That said, the problems facing young people nowadays are no less daunting than those facing youth in the '60s and '70s, with the obvious exception of the draft. On the economy, for example, there's simply no expectation that today's youth will enjoy a higher standard of living than their parents. Perhaps that's not enough to get voters out in the streets and to the polls, but it's nevertheless going to take major social change to bring about the kind of structural reforms that will trigger lasting improvements in the quality of life for young people. One place to start with be with restoring basic liberty, on the economy in particular. Democrats, of course, won't do that, so Millennials may decide to give the idiot Democrat-progs the boot once and for all. Indeed, that's the gist of it from the Hill article. So continue reading.

Sexy Girls in Halloween Costumes

At Toasted on the Inside.

The 'Colorado Model' Goes Thud

This is just ticklish.

From Kim Strassel, at WSJ, "Republicans are poised to make big gains in the state Democrats thought would be a national model for liberal governance":

Alamosa, Colo.

The political class is so focused on what Democrats may lose Nov. 4 that it has largely missed what the party already has lost. So much for the much-vaunted “Colorado Model.”

Nothing has buoyed the progressive left more in recent years than a self-satisfied belief in that blueprint, Exhibit A in their promise of a new Democratic majority. The party poured money into the Centennial State, building an activist infrastructure honed to outspend and attack Republican candidates. These messages were aimed at what was described as an ascendant coalition of liberal whites moving to the state, and minorities—who would join to keep Colorado blue for decades.

It seemed to be working. Democrats, beginning in 2004, would ultimately take from Republicans the state legislature, the governorship, both U.S. Senate seats, key House districts and a variety of statewide offices. The media pronounced a new Democratic dominance of the Mountain West, and the left promised exportation of its model far and wide.

Or not. If Colorado is serving as a model for anything these days, it’s the risks of Democratic overreach. Sen. Mark Udall has trailed GOP Rep. Cory Gardner in every poll since September. Gov. John Hickenlooper is trailing Republican Bob Beauprez in poll averages. Republicans are poised to take back the state Senate. Democrats recently pulled funding from the only Colorado U.S. House seat they had targeted, that of GOP Rep. Mike Coffman.

The party’s biggest mistake was thinking its recent electoral victories—based largely on a superior campaign game—translated into a mandate for liberal governance. Colorado long has been, and remains, a pragmatic state. It’s a place that for decades gave Republicans the state legislature and Democrats the governor’s mansion. It loves its political independents, folks like former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who it elected in 1992 as a Democrat and re-elected in 1998 by an even bigger margin as a Republican.

No surprise, the state hasn’t appreciated Mr. Obama’s ideological agenda. Some 22,000 residents just found out they’re losing health insurance; some 200,000 more face cancellations next year. Residents are worried about Ebola and the terror threat, frustrated by falling incomes, disturbed by Washington scandals. The president’s approval rating—in supposedly liberal-ascendant Colorado—is 40%...

More.

American Bridge, Media Matters Smear Outfit, Achieves Epic Fail with Despicable Attack on David Perdue

American Bridge, according to the Center for Public Integrity, is a far-left super PAC whose key principal is David Brock of Media Matters. See, "PAC Profile: American Bridge 21st Century":

American Bridge 21st Century was started by former journalist and liberal activist David Brock, who staffed the super PAC with former Hill staffers and employees of his nonprofit, Media Matters for America.

Media Matters describes itself as a “progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.” American Bridge’s mission is similar, with a strong focus on opposition research to help Democratic candidates and other allied super PACs.

It's worth noting then how badly these losers screwed up today with their ill-considered attack on Georgia Senate candidate David Perdue.

Here's their tweet, which links Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed, followed by the latter's tweets and retractions, and related posts. F-king scumbag losers:

Presented without comment. #gasen http://t.co/DE1zZkRy7a https://t.co/IoyNQNdnkr
— American Bridge (@American_Bridge) October 24, 2014

#GASen Watch A Republican Senate Candidate Sign A Young Woman’s Torso http://t.co/DQNzp8Piup
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) October 24, 2014

staff try to block camera as David Perdue signs a young woman’s torso and says “no pictures on this.” Video: http://t.co/DQNzp8Piup
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) October 24, 2014

if you think the tracker was excited to capture this David Perdue footage, you are right http://t.co/DQNzp8Piup
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) October 24, 2014

“No pictures on this.” #GASen http://t.co/DQNzp8Piup
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) October 24, 2014

no pictures brian RT @brianbeutler: Send the Pulitzer directly to @EvanMcSan c/o BuzzFeed's DC bureau http://t.co/DQNzp8Piup
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) October 24, 2014

.@American_Bridge Perdue tracker footage missed Perdue signing girl’s insulin pump, says GOP. Vid backs them up: http://t.co/jPqhAFDhWY
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) October 24, 2014

UPDATE: Perdue footage from @American_Bridge did not capture the whole story in that #GASen signing http://t.co/jPqhAFDhWY
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) October 24, 2014

Another angle on the Perdue signing, not captured by Republicans, backs up Perdue’s explanation for torso signing. http://t.co/jPqhAFDhWY
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) October 24, 2014

http://t.co/jPqhAFDhWY pic.twitter.com/qiz8GFOlZG
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) October 24, 2014

http://t.co/jPqhAFDhWY pic.twitter.com/9jOSgsmKb8
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) October 24, 2014

.@American_Bridge tells BuzzFeed News they will be pulling down the Perdue tracker video
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) October 24, 2014

#FF RT @morningmoneyben: "If they claim it's a torso, get more than one source-o." #unfollow
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) October 24, 2014

American Bridge posted this video as it was recorded without commentary. We regret any confusion it caused.
— American Bridge (@American_Bridge) October 24, 2014

Boy, Evan McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) screwed the pooch on that Perdue hit piece. And @American_Bridge is total fail. #DavidPerdue #DEMS
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) October 24, 2014

RT @famblog: Buzzfeed hack falsely claims David Perdue signs woman’s torso http://t.co/5eSayYVXwR #tcot #tgdn pic.twitter.com/dwBjDk8g7i
— ┌П┐(•_•) (@exposeliberals) October 24, 2014

Dems accuse David Perdue of signing girl’s “torso.” Was signing insulin pump - Hot Air http://t.co/o9hZXKLAhD
— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) October 24, 2014

Seriously, Evan McMorris-Santoro's nothing but a leftist political hack with a byline. This isn't journalism. It's character assassination, brought to you by David Brock's Democrat-allied Media Matters for America, and sleazily enabled by the BuzzFeed political assassination unit.

And to think, Perdue was signing a kid's insulin pump to help raise awareness for diabetes. Nothing's too scuzzy for the desperate and depraved Democrats these days. Absolutely nothing.

'Citizenfour'

So, I guess it's appropriate that Glenn Greenwald's mug flashed before my eyes this morning, after I got back from dropping off my kid at school, pulled out the L.A. Times, and sat down to take a dump. Yep, if there's ever a leftist piece of fecal refuse it's Greenwald.

Kenneth Turan has the review of the Laura Poitras documentary, "Review 'Citizenfour' a compelling look at Edward Snowden's actions."

China's Nuclear Subs Alter the Global Strategic Balance

The question is when do we really start worrying about China's challenge to American strategic preeminence? Back in the late-1990s, lots of policy and scholarly work pumped up the China challenge, but it's only now that Beijing's truly giving the U.S. a run for its money. Recall, just a week or so ago folks were getting all fired up about China's GDP numbers surpassing America's, although some might have been over-stating the case (by using purchasing power parity).

Still, China is growing and competing against America for global military and economic leadership. The day of reckoning won't be anytime soon, and fortunes can change, but it pays to look at more micro-economic foundations of power, particularly in the military realm.

With that, here's the Wall Street Journal, "Deep Threat: China’s Submarines Add Nuclear-Strike Capability, Altering Strategic Balance":

One Sunday morning last December, China’s defense ministry summoned military attachés from several embassies to its monolithic Beijing headquarters.

To the foreigners’ surprise, the Chinese said that one of their nuclear-powered submarines would soon pass through the Strait of Malacca, a passage between Malaysia and Indonesia that carries much of world trade, say people briefed on the meeting.

Two days later, a Chinese attack sub—a so-called hunter-killer, designed to seek out and destroy enemy vessels—slipped through the strait above water and disappeared. It resurfaced near Sri Lanka and then in the Persian Gulf, say people familiar with its movements, before returning through the strait in February—the first known voyage of a Chinese sub to the Indian Ocean.

The message was clear: China had fulfilled its four-decade quest to join the elite club of countries with nuclear subs that can ply the high seas. The defense ministry summoned attachés again to disclose another Chinese deployment to the Indian Ocean in September—this time a diesel-powered sub, which stopped off in Sri Lanka.

China’s increasingly potent and active sub force represents the rising power’s most significant military challenge yet for the region. Its expanding undersea fleet not only bolsters China’s nuclear arsenal but also enhances the country’s capacity to enforce its territorial claims and thwart U.S. intervention.

China is expected to pass another milestone this year when it sets a different type of sub to sea—a “boomer,” carrying fully armed nuclear missiles for the first time—says the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI.

China is hardly hiding its new boomers. Tourists could clearly see three of them at a base opposite a resort recently in China’s Hainan province. On the beach, rented Jet Skis were accompanied by guides to make sure riders didn’t stray too close.

These boomers’ missiles have the range to hit Hawaii and Alaska from East Asia and the continental U.S. from the mid-Pacific, the ONI says.

“This is a trump card that makes our motherland proud and our adversaries terrified,” China’s navy chief, Adm. Wu Shengli, wrote of the country’s missile-sub fleet in a Communist Party magazine in December. “It is a strategic force symbolizing great-power status and supporting national security.”

Continue reading.

Chinese subs can't run silent, run deep, so we won't be seeing a replay of the "Hunt for Red October" anytime soon. The U.S. is far ahead on silent, underwater sonography technology.

Evening News Shows Ignoring 2014 Midterms but Pumped Up Democrat Takeover Prospects in 2006

And ABC World News Tonight is the freakin' worst, the Democrat (Stephanopoulos) d-bags

At NewsBusters, "TV News Blacks Out This Year’s Bad Election News for Democrats."

And at Fox News, Judith Miller just trashes Obama-shill Lynn Sweet's leftist "no bias" talking points. I mean the numbers aren't even close. And millions still tune into the network news broadcasts every night, so this Lynn Sweet line about how viewer news habits have changed is just pure bullshit. Shame on Fox for even giving that Chicago-shilling hack the airtime.

Wheelie Motorcycle Riders Taunt CHP Officer on Freeway

The video is the ultimate in rebellion against law enforcement. Oh, how many times when I was a young kid did I wish this was me waving off a highway patrolman? Pure gold.

Watch, "COP CHASES BIKERS THEN BIKER MAKES COP LEAVE."

And at LAT, "CHP probes video of motorcyclists shooing, taunting pursuing officer."

The Senate Remains Too Close to Call

Republicans will probably take enough seats to win the majority, but the folks at Sabato's Crystal Ball are erring on the side of caution.

A great piece, "Senate Forecast: Cloudy With a Good Chance of a Republican Majority."

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau: Canadian Terrorist's Journey to Jihad

At the Wall Street Journal, "Ottawa Shooter’s Journey to Terror: Canadian Sought Passport to Travel to Syria Before Attack; Earlier Years Marked With Petty Crimes":

Three weeks before Michael Zehaf-Bibeau killed a Canadian soldier and thrust the government into a terrified lockdown on Wednesday, he came to Ottawa to get a passport so he could travel to Syria, police said. On Tuesday, he prayed and slept in a downtown hostel for the homeless where he had been staying.

A number of details about Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau emerged Thursday that began to fill in a picture of a middle-class suburban youth who grew estranged from his family—last week he had lunch with his mother, Susan Bibeau, a federal civil servant he hadn’t seen in five years—and descended into a string of petty crimes. What authorities couldn’t yet answer was why that led to the attack.

“I think the passport figured prominently in his motives,” said Bob Paulson, the commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Investigators learned of his plans to travel to Syria from his estranged mother on Wednesday, the RCMP said, after the shooting and his own death.

Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau was on the radar of Canadian intelligence and deemed a man “down on life,” according to one person familiar with the investigation. But he wasn’t on a list of 90 Canadians deemed “high-risk” travelers because of their potential for terror links abroad, according to the RCMP.

He may have had links, however, to one such person. Investigators said they are probing a possible connection to a Vancouver-area man who is believed to have traveled to Syria. That man is Hasibullah Yusufzai, according to a U.S. official.

In July, Mr. Yusufzai became the first person charged in Canada under a law passed last year making it illegal to travel to another country to try to commit an act of terrorism. Mr. Yusufzai had left Canada by the time the charges were laid, and his relatives have denied the accusation. Mr. Yusufzai, a 25-year-old Afghan immigrant, attended the same Vancouver-area mosque as Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau, according to Aasim Rashid, religious director for the B.C. Muslim Association.

In a statement sent to the Associated Press, Ms. Bibeau said of her son’s actions: “We have no explanation to offer.”

Ms. Bibeau’s statement was cosigned by Bulgasem Zehaf, whom she characterized as her husband although the two divorced in 1998, according to court documents.
Canadian intelligence briefings indicate that the couple’s son had some form of mental illness, according to another person familiar with the investigation.

A U.S. official said that Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau didn’t appear to have been active in any local terrorist cells or radical mosques. Investigators believe that he was probably inspired by Islamic State militants, rather than taking direction from them, this official said...

More.

Barack Obama, Bewildered Bystander

From Charles Krauthammer, at the Washington Post:

The president is upset. Very upset. Frustrated and angry. Seething about the government’s handling of Ebola, said the front-page headline in the New York Times last Saturday.

There’s only one problem with this pose, so obligingly transcribed for him by the Times. It’s his government. He’s president. Has been for six years. Yet Barack Obama reflexively insists on playing the shocked outsider when something goes wrong within his own administration...

More.

Obama's the biggest dirtbag loser, which is sayin something, since Democrats have such a deep bench.

New York Doctor Contracts Ebola

At the New York Times, "Craig Spencer, Doctor in New York City, Is Sick With Ebola."

Desperate Democrats and the Stages of Leftist Grief

On progressive death and dying.

A great post, from Noah Rothman, at Hot Air, "Circular firing squad: Democrats ready to dump on Obama if they lose the Senate":

While the race for control of the U.S. Senate is not over yet, and Democrats are aggressively defending embattled incumbents as well as supporting capable candidates in traditionally Republican states like Kentucky and Georgia, the situation is looking grim for the president’s party.

While the Senate is not yet in Republican hands, Democrats are engaging in the stages of grief right before our eyes as the last remaining bulwark propping up the nearly spent Obama presidency crumbles...

More.

And see also, the Wall Street Journal, "A Catastrophic GOP Victory":

A President can use his veto pen, but he also has to pick his spots lest he become the main obstructionist. A shrewd GOP leadership would be able to make at least incremental progress toward the party’s goals of faster economic growth, rising incomes, and more health-care choice.

The media know all of this, which may be the real reason so many are so eager to portray a GOP victory as defeat even before the votes are counted. Their real worry is that Republican gains in the House, and a sweep in the Senate, would represent a repudiation of six years of liberal governance. Their fear is that a GOP Congress might even succeed.

Heh, I'm feeling the exquisite early pangs of schadenfreude.

Kat Von D Attacks CBS-2 News Crew in West Hollywood

Kat Von D is Katherine von Drachenberg, who's basically a dirtbag famous for being famous.

At CBS Los Angeles, "Caught On Video: Kat Von D Attacks CBS2 News Camera After Fire at WeHo Tattoo Shop."

Ebola Death Panels?

At Instapundit, "BOY, RON KLAIN JUST STARTED YESTERDAY AND THEY’RE ALREADY TALKING ABOUT EBOLA DEATH PANELS: Some U.S. hospitals weigh withholding care to Ebola patients."

Democrats love death panels, so it'll be no surprise when Ebola patients are denied treatment.

Behati Prinsloo Lingerie Shoot for Victoria's Secret October 2014

At Egotastic!, "Behati Prinsloo Downright Sprung Upright for Victoria’s Secret Lingerie."

Dana Loesch's New Book, Hands Off My Gun: Out Now!

Dana's new book is the must-have conservative tome for the holidays.

Buy it: Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm America.

When 'Tolerance' Becomes Illiberal

At the O.C. Register:

Gay rights advocates have won a sweeping and deserved victory in the court of public opinion – and done so at a breathtaking pace. They ought not to tarnish that triumph by employing a type of victor’s justice that calls into question how far their professed loyalty to tolerance really runs.

Well, they're not really about tolerance at all, but RTWT.

Shia LaBeouf Interview with Jimmy Kimmel

Stay with this. Shia's freakin' hilarious.



Also, "Shia LaBeouf Removed His Tooth," and "Shia LaBeouf on Fighting Brad Pitt."

Game Theory Explains #GamerGate

Game theory and Darwinian evolution.

Pretty amazing.

From Clark, at Popehat, "Gamer Gate: Three Stages to Obit."

Look for Leftists to Rewrite the 1990s as Hillary Gears Up for 2016

At the Wall Street Journal, "An Affair to Remember":

As Hillary and Bill Clinton prepare for another White House ramble, the country is fated to endure more than a few 1990s flashbacks, often including attempts to whitewash the real history. The latest character to re-emerge is Monica Lewinsky, the former intern who is doffing her beret to reinvent herself as an anti-cyberbullying activist.

In a speech this week at a Forbes magazine conference that went viral on the Web, Ms. Lewinsky describes herself as a “survivor” of online abuse—she became “the creature from the media lagoon.” As the worst abusers, she cited Matt Drudge and the New York Post, which gave Ms. Lewinsky a term of tabloid endearment as “the portly pepperpot.” Another culprit was “a politically motivated independent prosecutor,” or Ken Starr.

The problem is that Ms. Lewinsky was actually the victim of the Clinton lagoon, as White House operatives tried to destroy her reputation when the scandal broke. The real bullies weren’t online but in the West Wing...

Keep reading.

Behind the Scenes, a Tank Expert Kept 'Fury' Authentic

At War is Boring, "Former British Army soldier David Rae got to play a German commander, too":

“You’re not going to see a tank film again,” Rae explained. “There’s not much shelf-life left on these machines.” Fury is these old war wagons’ last chance to show off. Rae was there to make sure they showed off right.

Ottawa Parliament Attack is 'New Face of Terror'

Once again, the inimitable Charles Krauthammer.



Also at Instapundit, "CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Homegrown Radicals Like Ottawa Gunman ‘New Face of Terror.’ They should be mocked and shamed like the pathetic, gullible losers that they are."

3-Month Old Baby Killed in Jerusalem Terror Attack

At the Times of Israel, "Baby killed as car rams crowd in Jerusalem terror attack," and "Baby killed in Jerusalem terror attack laid to rest."

Also, video at Israel Matzav, "And again: 'Palestinian' terrorist drives into crowd near light rail station, murders 3-montth old girl."

Charlie Cook Isn't Quite as Whacked as the Kos Kook

Well, Charlie's predicting no 14-seat GOP pickup in the Senate, like the Kos Kook from the other day, "'Democratic Armageddon'."

Indeed, it's no sure thing for the Republicans. See, "Kansas and Georgia Change the Equation on Senate-Majority Math":

Republicans still have the edge for a Senate majority, but this fight has a lot more uncertainty than the computer models suggest.

No matter the size of the GOP gains, the Democrats are going to get hammered. It's not going to be pretty.

Victoria's Secret Very Sexy Scandalous

Scandalous.

Evidence Supports Officer's Account of Shooting in Ferguson

At the Washington Post.

Via Instapundit, with snark, "IT’S LIKE WE WERE SOLD A FALSE NARRATIVE BY A MEDIA EAGER TO ENABLE DEMOCRATS’ ELECTION-YEAR RACE-BAITING OR SOMETHING."

And at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Source: Darren Wilson says Michael Brown kept charging at him." (Via Memeorandum.)

Kelly Brook 2015 Calendar (PHOTOS)

Freakin' glorious.

At Egotastic!, "Kelly Brook Boobtastic Hotness Seeps Through Her 2015 Calendar."

'Somewhere out there online, Neal Rauhauser must be lurking in the shadows of #GamerGate...'

From Robert Stacy McCain, "A #GamerGate Oddity."

The Hunter Biden Chronicles of Cronyism and Corruption

From Michelle Malkin:

Crony influence-peddling=Hunter Biden’s life story. Where r critics of elitist privilege now? http://t.co/NSUtkRtlhv pic.twitter.com/aKplWWPIE2

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) October 22, 2014

Everything you need to know about Beltway nepotism, corporate cronyism and corruption can be found in the biography of Robert Hunter Biden. Where are the Occupy Wall Street rabble-rousers and enemies of elitist privilege when you need them? Straining their neck muscles to look the other way.

The youngest son of Vice President Joe Biden made news last week after The Wall Street Journal revealed he had been booted from the Navy Reserve for cocaine use. His drug abuse was certainly no surprise to the Navy, which issued him a waiver for a previous drug offense before commissioning him as a public affairs officer at the age of 43. The Navy also bent over backward a second time with an age waiver so he could secure the cushy part-time job.

Papa Biden loves to tout his middle-class, “Average Joe” credentials. But rest assured, if his son had been “Hunter Smith” or “Hunter Jones” or “Hunter Brown,” the Navy’s extraordinary dispensations would be all but unattainable. Oh, and if he had been “Hunter Palin,” The New York Times would be on its 50th front-page investigative report by now.

Despite the disgraceful ejection from our military, Hunter’s Connecticut law license won’t be subject to automatic review. Because, well, Biden.

Biden’s bennies are not just one-offs. Skating by, flouting rules and extracting favors are the story of Hunter’s life.

Pretty rich, but keep reading, heh.

What We Know About Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, Gunman in Ottawa Terror Attack

At Toronto's National Post, "Alleged Ottawa shooter apparently had criminal past in Quebec, was repeatedly brought in on drug charges."

And at the Blaze, "Here’s Everything We Know About Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the Gunman Identified in the Canada Shooting."



PREVIOUSLY: "Ottawa Terrorist Attack."

Holiday Shopping at Amazon

Get started with some shopping for the kids, at Amazon, 2014 Holiday Toy List.

Bonus: And for mom and dad, Snow Sports.

Texas Democrat Wendy Davis: She's All About 'Dildos, Cripple-Shaming, and Killin' Viable Infants'

Seriously.

Man, it's come to this?!!

At Twitchy, "Keep digging, Wendy! Tapped-out Team Davis reduced to playing the dildo card."

Dildos, cripple-shaming, and killin' viable infants: @WendyDavisTexas is in touch with Texas values.

— Neal Dewing (@Neal_Dewing) October 20, 2014

'Hot Shots' Calendar Under Fire for Photo Shoot on U.S. Military Base

Heh, some of my favorite British hotties.

At Telegraph UK:

'Hot Shots' calendar under fire for photo shoot on US military base http://t.co/REfxvtnHCa (Pic: Hot Shots/Facebook) pic.twitter.com/peeVzH86hy

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) October 21, 2014

Also at Free Beacon, "PICTURES: Unauthorized Models Infiltrate U.S. Army Compound."

Batgirl, Mr. Incredible Knockdown Fight in Hollywood

Well, that's L.A. for you.

At LAT, "Mr. Incredible, Batgirl brawl in Hollywood; Freddy Krueger keeps peace."

Joni Ernst Brings Back Hogs in New Campaign Spot

Remember from earlier this year, "'I'm Joni Ernst. I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm. So when I get to Washington, I’ll know how to cut pork...'"

And now at National Journal, "New Joni Ernst TV Ad Goes Back to Her Hog-Castrating Roots."

First-Person Reporting on Ottawa Terror Attack from Inside Canadian Parliament

It's Josh Wingrove, from Toronto's Globe and Mail, on Twitter.

Still in lockdown. Am safe. Check @globeandmail for video of the attack on Parliament Hill. Ignore any cursing you hear from me.

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 22, 2014

Ottawa Terrorist Attack

A huge story today.

At Toronto's National Post, "CPL. NATHAN CIRILLO IDENTIFIED AS SOLDIER AMBUSHED AND KILLED AT OTTAWA WAR MEMORIAL."

Also, "Ottawa attack timeline: At 9:56 a.m., motionless body seen outside Library of Parliament," and "Firsthand accounts of fatal Ottawa shooting: ‘There was a very real sense that nothing will ever be the same again’."

And at the Globe and Mail, "Potential flaws in parliamentary security pointed out in 2012 report," and the New York Times, "Canadian Soldier Dead After Attack Near Parliament in Ottawa."



Expect updates...

CDC Is Awash in Social-Justice Ideology

So lame.

From Heather Mac Donald, at City Journal, "Infected by Politics":

The public-health establishment has unanimously opposed a travel and visa moratorium from Ebola-plagued West African countries to protect the U.S. population. To evaluate whether this opposition rests on purely scientific grounds, it helps to understand the political character of the public-health field. For the last several decades, the profession has been awash in social-justice ideology. Many of its members view racism, sexism, and economic inequality, rather than individual behavior, as the primary drivers of differential health outcomes in the U.S. According to mainstream public-health thinking, publicizing the behavioral choices behind bad health—promiscuous sex, drug use, overeating, or lack of exercise—blames the victim.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Communities Program, for example, focuses on “unfair health differences closely linked with social, economic or environmental disadvantages that adversely affect groups of people.” CDC’s Healthy People 2020 project recognizes that “health inequities are tied to economics, exclusion, and discrimination that prevent groups from accessing resources to live healthy lives,” according to Harvard public-health professor Nancy Krieger. Krieger is herself a magnet for federal funding, which she uses to spread the message about America’s unjust treatment of women, minorities, and the poor. To study the genetic components of health is tantamount to “scientific racism,” in Krieger’s view, since doing so overlooks the “impact of discrimination” on health. And of course the idea of any genetic racial differences is anathema to Krieger and her left-wing colleagues.

Local public-health programs are just as committed to “social justice.” The National Association of County and City Health Officials promoted a seven-part PBS documentary, Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making us Sick?, to trigger community dialogues about health equity. NACCHO’s Health Equity and Social Justice initiatives seek to “advance the capacity of local health departments to tackle the root causes of health inequities.”

During the height of the AIDS epidemic, the public-health profession abjured any focus on abstinence as a means of stopping the spread of the disease. This silence was contrary to decades of public-health response to venereal disease, which stressed individual responsibility, as well as contact tracing, to prevent further infections.

The American Journal of Public Health recently published a study coauthored by Columbia University professor and longtime police critic Jeffrey Fagan arguing that young black men who have been stopped and questioned by the New York Police Department suffer from stress and anxiety. The more times an individual gets stopped, Fagan claims, the more stress he may feel. The study did not consider whether individuals who have been stopped numerous times by the police may be anxious because they are gang members operating in a world where retaliatory shootings are common. Nor did it compare the stress of stop subjects with the stress once experienced by law-abiding residents of high-crime neighborhoods before the NYPD brought violent crime down 80 percent.

The public-health profession has a clear political orientation, so it’s quite possible that its opposition to a visa and travel moratorium is influenced as much by belief in America’s responsibility for the postcolonial oppression of Africa, and suspicion of American border enforcement, as it is by a commitment to public-health principles of containment and control...

Remember, if the Ebola doesn't kill you, leftism will.

Sill more at that top link.

Jeanne Shaheen Won't Say She Voted for Obama, Audience Erupts in Laughter

From last night's New Hampshire Senate debate:

Renée Zellweger?

I thought she was nice looking. She had a nice face. And she went and did this?

At People, "Renée Zellweger to PEOPLE: 'I'm Glad Folks Think I Look Different'."

Yes, Renee Zellweger looks pretty much unrecognizable these days http://t.co/7PtlHAqFJ5 pic.twitter.com/rv2dOiEUwE

— Page Six (@PageSix) October 21, 2014

British War Brides

An interesting piece, from Duncan Barrett, at the Los Angeles Times, "British war brides faced own battles during 1940s."

GOP Bullish with Two Weeks to Go

I can dig it.

At the Hill.

Also, "Obama political missteps boost GOP midterm chances."

'Democratic Armageddon'

Ah, the left's bunker mentality breaks out into the open.

It's gonna be a bloodbath --- and leftists better run for their lives.

At Twitchy, "No biggie: Lefty site Daily Kos predicts ‘Democratic Armageddon’ in Senate."

(Honestly, though, I think this Kos kook is off his rocker, perhaps a bit too spooked by the bad poll tidings. Republicans should clear the six seats needed to take the majority. I seriously doubt they'll achieve a Senate pickup in the double digits, however.)

Americans' Gloom Marches Into Second Decade

From Elizabeth Williamson, at the Wall Street Journal.

A 'Dark Winter' of Ebola Terrorism?

Coming to America?

From Marc Thiessen, at the Washington Post:

The world is experiencing virulent outbreaks of Ebola and Islamist radicalism.

What if the two threats converge into one?

In June 2001 — a few months before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — a group of leading Democratic national security experts gathered at Andrews Air Force Base to carry out a national security exercise called Dark Winter. Hosted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Dark Winter simulated a biological attack on the United States in which terrorists release smallpox virus in three shopping malls in Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Atlanta....

So what about Ebola?

Unlike smallpox, which is hard to come by, the Ebola infection is raging right now in parts of Africa where Islamist extremists could have easy access. As physician Scott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute points out, with Ebola, “Mother Nature has created the perfect bioweapon in many respects, as long as the attacker has suicidal aspirations.” Ebola has up to a 21-day incubation period — more than enough time for terrorists to infect themselves and then come here with the virus. In a nightmare scenario, suicide bombers infected with Ebola could blow themselves up in a crowded place — say, shopping malls in Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Atlanta — spreading infected tissue and bodily fluids.

Think it can’t happen? If an Ebola-infected Liberian, Thomas Eric Duncan, was able to fly to Dallas, what is to stop an Ebola-infected terrorist from doing the same? And if our health-care system was unable to handle a single Ebola patient, imagine what would happen if 50, 100 or more Ebola patients started showing up at U.S. hospitals. Already we have seen schools closed in Dallas and Cleveland and a ship denied entry in Mexico and Belize. It would not require a attack on the level of Dark Winter to cause mass disruptions to our way of life and our economy.

Personally, I'm just not that worried about it.

That said, we'd no doubt be screwed if one of these terrorist war-game nightmares played out with Barack Obola in office. The White House remains multiple steps behind the curve. Americans would dying in mass numbers and all President Contagion would do is appoint some corrupt-o-czar to provide a political fix, public health be damned.

Desperate Democrats Flip-Flop, Now Say They're All About Ebola Travel Bans

Desperate, dirtbag losers.

At NewsMax, "Democrats in About-Face, Now Calling for Ebola Travel Bans."

And at the Weekly Standard, "Hagan Flip-Flops on Ebola Travel Ban."

Also at Twitchy, "‘Whatever wins': Sen. Jeanne Shaheen latest Democrat to flip-flop on Ebola travel ban":

The "always evolving" Democrats doing whatever is politically expedient. Integrity is secondary.

Word.

Republican Senate Chances Keep Rising

From Chris Cillizza, at the Washington Post, "Republicans chances of winning the Senate keep getting better":

The likelihood of a Republican Senate takeover continues to increase with all three major election models giving the GOP at least a six in ten probability of winning the six seats the party needs to win take back control.

Two of the three models have moved in Republicans' direction over the past week.  FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver's model, gives Republicans a 62 percent chance at the majority, which is up from 58 percent last week, while LEO, the New York Times Senate model, now shows a 69 percent probability of a GOP win -- up from 64 percent last week.  (The Washington Post's Election Lab model show Republicans with a 94 percent chance at the majority last Monday and a 93 percent chance today.)

The trend lines in both the LEO and FiveThirtyEight models highlight movement over the past week toward Republicans -- with a slight tick back toward Democrats in the last few days...

All leftist outlets. All of them, which means it's even worse for the Democrats than Cillizza lets on. It's going to be a bloodbath on November 4th. I can't wait!

Shia LaBeouf at Interview

Here, "SHIA LABEOUF":

I found God doing Fury. I became a Christian man, and not in a fucking bullshit way—in a very real way. I could have just said the prayers that were on the page. But it was a real thing that really saved me. And you can't identify unless you're really going through it. It's a full-blown exchange of heart, a surrender of control. And while there's beauty to that, acting is all about control. So that was a wild thing to navigate. I had good people around me who helped me. Brad [Pitt] was really instrumental in guiding my head through this. Brad comes from a hyper-religious, very deeply Christian, Bible Belt life, and he rejected it and moved toward an unnamed spirituality. He looked at religion like the people's opium, almost like a Marxist view on religion. Whereas [Fury writer-director] David [Ayers] is a full subscriber to Christianity. But these two diametrically opposed positions both lead to the same spot, and I really looked up to both men. It was nice to have conversations with Brad about the family he came from and what he was using to get through the day. People don't know this about Brad: He's a very thoughtful actor. That's not a motherfucker who just shows up and does the job. He puts a lot in, so you get a lot out. He's hard on himself, very hard. I think every great artist is bipolar to some degree. To be great you have to have self-criticism, which, in that moment, becomes some sort of bipolar thing. You go from "That was fucking great" to "I'm fucking shit." And Brad has a bipolar element to the way he deals with his work. We have a lot of similarities that way.

Hispanics Sour on Obama, May Sit Out Elections

Man, the entire far-left base is just saying screw it to Barack Obola.

At LAT, "Latinos, angry with Obama, may sit out midterm vote, hurting Democrats":

Leaving church on a recent Sunday, Jose Trujillo paused to consider the upcoming midterm election and two of the hottest Senate and gubernatorial races in the country, blazing away right here in Georgia.

Trujillo hasn't paid much attention to either contest, but it's not his flooring business that's kept him too busy to care, or his infant daughter who's taken away his interest. Rather, he cited President Obama and his failure to overhaul the nation's vexing immigration laws.

"Obama promised too much and never delivered," Trujillo, 44, said, gently rocking 1-year-old Dorothy in his arms outside Iglesia Des Dios Vivo church in Gainesville, a center of Georgia's booming Latino population. Why bother voting, Trujillo asked, "when the politicians never listen to what the people say?"

As Democrats struggle to hold the Senate, limit their losses in the House and maybe gain a few governor seats Nov. 4, they are counting on strong support from Latino voters, a rapidly growing part of the electorate and a big reason states like California, Nevada and Colorado have gone from red to blue in their presidential preferences.

But Latino voting tends to drop in midterm elections and, as Trujillo's sentiment suggests, that may prove all the more so next month, given deep frustration with the president.

He drew a record Latino turnout in 2012, but since then has repeatedly deferred action after pledging to push through comprehensive changes in immigration law, acting without Congress if necessary. For many, that failing seems to trump anything positive Obama has accomplished.

"All the air has been let out," said Matt Barreto, a University of Washington political scientist who conducts extensive polling among Latinos nationwide...

The Democrats are screwed, heh.

More at that top link.

New Hampshire Pumpkin Riot

Crazy.

It's a white riot, heh.

At LAT, "Riot breaks out at New Hampshire pumpkin festival."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Mrs. Doubtfire."

More at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES," and Theo Spark, "Cartoon Round Up..."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

Where Is the Anti-War Movement?

One of the themes in my classes is how young people today are at a deep, relative disadvantage in terms of political power, especially compared to the elderly. It's a really complicated topic, actually, worth some serious scholarly introspection. For example, to what extent has technology-increased prosperity, especially for young people, who are so connected to mobile technology, in fact demobilized the youth demographic from consequential political action? Further, Barack Obama's presidency may have in fact set back the prospects for the improvement of life chances for young Americans, because they were used as cogs in the Democrat Party electoral machine. In fact, once the maw of the Obama-Democrats' electoral machine achieved critical mass, it spit out young people as so much spent fuel, as nothing more than human refuse. Look at the student loan debt crisis and you get an idea of how totally screwed are today's youth by Democrat Party indifference to generations of indebted student lumpen-proletarians.

But then again, leftist propaganda of race, gender and social welfare entitlement is a powerful narcotic for young people, who've been made so stupid by their gadgets that they simple don't realize when the leftist powers-that-be are f-king them up the ass.

In any case, that's why I'm fascinated with '60s-era folk and antiwar music, which I love to listen to. I love the idealism, for example, of Peter, Paul and Mary, "'Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly ... Before they're forever banned?'" But where is the comparable social protest movement today? If you look at that playlist the Sound L.A. had going this morning, much of that music is iconic and representative of the revolutionary social change of the times. Peter, Paul and Mary sang at the March on Washington in 1963, but oddly it was their music that activists played in 2003 at the Iraq war protests. I'm not as plugged into pop musical trends nowadays to know --- and sure, folks like Rage Against the Machine, for example, certainly capture the angst of contemporary generations --- but it seems to me that political change is not in fact a driving factor in today's youth culture. At least with punk rock in the '70s and '80s you had intense, even anarchic, anti-government tendencies geared toward mobilization, even if that was basically anti-statism. Today purportedly revolutionary folk rock bands are simply shills for Democrat Party power and corruption. The '60s aren't calling, brother.

In any case, this paradox of increasing youth evisceration and impoverization (amid what's often flippantly referred to as a new age of Democrat progressivism) vis-à-vis the dire absence of a genuine revolutionary, anti-establishment movement will continue to bedevil American politics in the years ahead. Who will once again lead the next generation, screaming "Fight the system. Fight back!"???

And with that, for your reading enjoyment, check out Richard Seymour, at the Guardian UK, "The anti-war movement's dilemma – and how to resolve it," and his really excellent and complicated interview at the New Left Review, "Where Is The Anti-War Movement?"

This desire results from people's anger
Towards the system
Fight the system fight back
Fight the system fight back
People die in police custody
Why dont you go see if God can see them
Fight the system fight back
Fight the system fight back
We been shit on far too long
London wants is no freedom
Fight the system fight back
Fight the system fight back
Stand up fight for freedom
Stand up fight for your rights
Fight the system fight back
Fight the system fight back
Fight the system fight back

'Imagine There's No Global Warming'

Heh, this is good, via iOWNTHEWORD, "John Lennon Re-Imagine-d."

Imagine there's no warming
It's all just been a lie
CO2 is not a pollutant
The Polar Bears aren’t gonna die
Imagine if all the people
Livin' another day

Imagine there's no Kyoto
It isn't hard to do
Gas at 99 cents a gallon
And no carbon taxes too
Imagine all the people
Driving SUVs

You may say I'm a denier
But I'm not the only one
31,000 scientists
Say the world’s climate follows the sun

Imagine no politicians
I wonder if you can
No one to fear monger
No need to eliminate man
Imagine all the people
Drilling all over the world

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be more fun

'Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly ... Before they're forever banned?'

So, I go over to get a cup of coffee this morning, and the Sound L.A. has some folksy antiwar music playing on the radio, Peter, Paul and Mary, "Blowin' in the Wind." (The band released its version, a cover song, just three weeks after Bob Dylan, who wrote it, released his cut on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963).

All Along the Watchtower
Bob Dylan
10:09 AM

If You Really Love Me
Stevie Wonder
10:06 AM

Good Lovin'
Grateful Dead
10:01 AM

Wooly Bully
Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs
9:59 AM

Going Up the Country
Canned Heat
9:56 AM

Hoedown
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
9:51 AM

Gemini Dream
The Moody Blues
9:47 AM

Baby Blue
Badfinger
9:44 AM

Nobody
The Doobie Brothers
9:40 AM

Ring of Fire [Live]
Johnny Cash
9:37 AM

White Bird
It's a Beautiful Day
9:31 AM

Vehicle
The Ides of March
9:28 AM

Heart of Gold [Live]
Neil Young
9:25 AM

Blowin' In the Wind
Peter, Paul & Mary
9:22 AM

Bridge Over Troubled Water
Simon & Garfunkel
9:17 AM

San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers In Your Hair)
Scott McKenzie

Bwahaha! Black Americans Are Last Political Lifeline for Desperate Democrats!!

This is so pathetic. Really, it's come to this?

And yes, remember how Obama was supposed to be a president for all Americans, about how there's no black and white America, blah blah? That was all electoral hope-and-change bullshit. When the chips are down you just call in the race-baiting shock troops of the bereft, desperate Democrat (rat) Party.

At the New York Times, "Black Vote Seen as Last Hope for Democrats to Hold Senate":

WASHINGTON — The confidential memo from a former pollster for President Obama contained a blunt warning for Democrats. Written this month with an eye toward Election Day, it predicted “crushing Democratic losses across the country” if the party did not do more to get black voters to the polls.

“African-American surge voters came out in force in 2008 and 2012, but they are not well positioned to do so again in 2014,” Cornell Belcher, the pollster, wrote in the memo, dated Oct. 1. “In fact, over half aren’t even sure when the midterm elections are taking place.”

Mr. Belcher’s assessment points to an urgent imperative for Democrats: To keep Republicans from taking control of the Senate, as many are predicting, they need black voters in at least four key states. Yet the one politician guaranteed to generate enthusiasm among African Americans is the same man many Democratic candidates want to avoid: Mr. Obama.

Now, Democrats are deploying other prominent black elected officials and other surrogates, buttressed by sophisticated voter targeting efforts, to stoke black turnout. At the White House, the president is waging an under-the-radar campaign, recording video advertisements, radio interviews and telephone calls specifically targeting his loyal African-American base.

“Anybody who looks at the data realizes that if the black vote, and the brown vote, doesn’t turn out, we can’t win. It’s just that simple,” said Representative Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio, the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, referring to African-American and Latino voters. “If we don’t turn out, we cannot hold the Senate.”

African-Americans could help swing elections in Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and possibly Arkansas, a New York Times analysis of voter data shows, but only if they turn out at higher-than-forecast rates. They will also be important in Kentucky, where Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic Senate candidate, refuses to say if she voted for President Obama — a stance that black leaders including Ms. Fudge fear will depress turnout.

Republicans, who are expanding outreach to African-Americans in states like North Carolina and Georgia, have their own aggressive get-out-the-vote effort, mindful of the success of the Obama campaign, which turned out voters in record numbers.

Black voters made history in 2012, exit polling and census data show, when they turned out at a rate higher than whites to help re-elect Mr. Obama. But fewer voters go to polls in midterm elections. In 2010, a disastrous year for Democrats, blacks voted at a rate lower than whites, creating a “turnout gap.”

The numbers are significant. Although more than 1.1 million black Georgians went to the polls in 2012, only about 741,000 voted in 2010. In North Carolina, Democrats say there are nearly one million black registered voters who did not vote in 2010.

Mr. Belcher declined to discuss for whom he had written the memo, saying it was private, but the document was circulated by the Democratic National Committee. In the memo, he also argued that the turnout gap, more than any Republican Tea Party wave, was responsible for Democrats’ 2010 defeats. So the challenge for Democrats is to get midterm voters to the polls at presidential election-year rates.

“If you tell me in Georgia that, on the closing of the polls, the electorate is 32 percent African-American, I’m going to tell you we have probably elected a Democratic senator,” he said. “That’s not theory. It’s basic math.”

More.

Well, "big name surrogates" are supposed to be stepping up to the plate for the Dems. Maybe Al Sharpton can give it the old Crown Heights college try. That oughat mobilize the Wall Street-hating Democrat hordes.

Freakin' dirtbag losers. Crush the bastards.

Sylvie Meis

A lovely lady, at Egotastic!, "Sylvie Meis Lingerie Shoot for Hunkemoller Dessous in London."

Late Shifts in the Polls Probably Won't Help Desperate Democrats

Following up on my previous entry, "Democrats Now in Retreat as GOP on Verge of Historic Gains in House of Representatives."

Crush these mofos. Flatten them until they're bleeding out of the eye sockets.

At the Monkey Cage, "Why late shifts in the polls probably won’t help Democrats in Senate races":

All of the major Senate forecasting models, including ours at Election Lab, now rely heavily on averages of public polls.  This raises the question of whether those averages will be correct on Election Day, and whether any misses could affect which party manages to retain control of the Senate.  In particular, there is the question of whether polling misses might mean that the Democrats end up with a slim Senate majority after all.

There are reasons to be skeptical that this will happen.  It’s not just that we can’t easily predict whether the polls will over- or underestimate one party’s vote share, as discussed by Nate Silver and by Mark Blumenthal & Co.  And it’s not just, as Josh Katz and Sean Trende have found, that Senate polls already tend to be pretty accurate at this point in time — especially when candidates have a 3- to 4-point lead, as do Republican candidates in Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana.

The other key point is this: Late movement in Senate polls tends to be in the direction of the underlying fundamentals.  I discussed this movement in the polls in an earlier post, and it’s worth revisiting it now.

The analysis is pretty straightforward.  Estimate a simple model of Senate elections from 1980 to 2012 that relies on only a few factors: economic growth, presidential approval, whether it’s a midterm or presidential year, and how the state voted in the most recent presidential election. Then estimate an out-of-sample forecast for every Senate election between 1992 and 2012. Then compare the polls to that forecast.

Here is the gap between the polls and the forecast for the last 60 days of the campaign...

Continue reading.

Basically, public opinion polls should settle closer and closer to the prediction of the electoral model, hence early predictions of GOP gains are increasingly likely to hold true.

So crush their souls, the Democrat-progressive vermin. Flatten them like corpses in the mud.