Bolstered by GOP Electoral Wins, Oil, Gas and Coal Lobbyists Plan Fresh Push Against Climate Rules

At WaPo, "Fossil-fuel lobbyists, bolstered by GOP wins, work to curb environmental rules":

Oil, gas and coal interests that spent millions to help elect Republicans this year are moving to take advantage of expanded GOP power in Washington and state capitals to thwart Obama administration environmental rules.

Industry lobbyists made their pitch in private meetings last week with dozens of state legislators at a summit of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an industry-financed conservative state policy group.

The lobbyists and legislators considered several model bills to be introduced across the country next year, designed to give states more power to block or delay new Obama administration environmental standards, including new limits on power-plant emissions.

The industry’s strategy aims to combat a renewed push by President Obama to carve out climate change as a top priority for his final two years in office. The White House has vowed to continue using executive authority to enact more environmental limits, and the issue is shaping up to be a major flash point heading into the 2016 presidential election.

With support from industry lobbyists, many Republicans are planning to make the Environmental Protection Agency a primary political target, presenting it as a symbol of the kind of big-government philosophy they think can unify social and economic conservatives in opposition...

More.

Obama Launches 'Profanity-Laced' Tirades Against the Media (VIDEO)

From Ed Morrissey, at Hot Air, "Compton: Obama goes on profanity-laced tirades against the media that loves him."

Fewer Law School Graduates Pass California Bar Exam

Apparently, legal academics want to know why, but the entire piece avoids one explanation: it's likely more under-qualified minorities took the exam than in previous years.

At LAT, "Fewer law school graduates pass bar exam in California":

For the first time in nearly a decade, most law school graduates who took the summer California bar exam failed, adding to the pressure on law schools already dealing with plummeting enrollments, complaints about student debt and declining job prospects.

The 48.6% pass rate in California is a drop of nearly 7 percentage points from the previous year; nearly 8,500 people took the test in July. The last time the passage rate dipped below half was in 2005.

Many other states showed similar declines this year. It's unclear why the recent passage rates are so low, but they fell by at least 5 percentage points in 20 states.

The decrease in the number of law school graduates who pass the bar could make it more difficult for schools to attract applicants. As a result, administrators might have to offer further incentives to prospective attorneys, experts say.

Some schools have reduced tuition and increased scholarships, and some have cut staff. Still others are offering dual degrees in an effort to help graduates find jobs.

"Law school deans are in a particularly difficult situation these days," said Derek Muller, a professor at Pepperdine University who writes on the business of law.

The bar exam is offered twice a year, in July and February. The number of people who take the July test is traditionally far greater than in February. About 45% of test-takers passed the California bar in February.

Many academics say the drop isn't a concern — at least not yet. "We live in a sound-bite society, but one year does not make a trend," said Gilbert A. Holmes, dean of the University of La Verne College of Law...

More.

Rolling Stone's 'Rape Fantasies'

Via Instapundit, "Street Artist Sabo Blasts Lena Dunham, Bill Clinton in Fake Rolling Stone Covers."

And at American Digest, "Advance look at the cover of Rolling Stone's 'Rape Fantasies' Issue."

Los Angeles Fire May Have Been Arson

An update, at the Los Angeles Times, "Downtown fire may have been intentionally set":

Los Angeles fire officials said they are “inclined” to believe a fire that engulfed a massive residential development project downtown was intentionally set.

But until arson investigators can enter the wreckage, it’s impossible to determine the cause, which could take several days.

“Certainly one of the things we lean toward is 'was it intentionally set?'" LAFD Deputy Chief Joseph Castro said at a news conference Monday afternoon...

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "Massive Fire in Downtown Los Angeles Possibly Torched by Far-Left Radicals."

ADDED: "L.A. fire: Damage to 110 Freeway estimated at $1.5 million, at least."

Massive Fire in Downtown Los Angeles Possibly Torched by Far-Left Radicals

Here's the fire, at LAT, "L.A. fire: Huge blaze engulfs tower, melts signs, bursts windows."

And see Gateway Pundit, "BREAKING: TWO MASSIVE FIRES IN DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES! May Be Arson."

I hope everyone has Injustice and Revolution insurance because #LosAngeles is on fire #LAfire pic.twitter.com/d0Nc0QYXvo

— JAGO (@AirJago) December 8, 2014

Just driving through the #LAfire apocalypse. https://t.co/0DM70u3U42

— JAGO (@AirJago) December 8, 2014

Max Blumenthal 'gets his point across about the Jewish state being fundamentally evil with a couple of propaganda paragraphs that might as well have been published on Stormfront...'

From David Steinberg, at Pajamas Media, "NY Times Publishes Op-Ed by Anti-Semite Max Blumenthal."

Wild. Man.

Notre Dame's 'White Privilege Seminar' Designed to 'Disrupt Personal, Institutional, and Worldwide Systems of Oppression...'

It's not really an academic class. It's a training seminar for radical, race-mongering activists.

At the College Fix, "NOTRE DAME ‘WHITE PRIVILEGE’ CLASS PROMISES ‘PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION’."

Rolling Stone Roundup on the Fallout

In no particular order.

At JustOneMinute, "If You Were An Early Reader of the WaPo UVA Rape Expose..."

And from Megan McArdle, "Rolling Stone's Rape Story Fails Victims."

Richard Bradley, "Aftermath." (A list of those who need to come clean and apologize for the hoax.)

At the New York Times, "Rolling Stone Cites Doubts on Its Story of University of Virginia Rape":

Sabrina Rubin Erdely "could not be reached for comment."

Also at BuzzFeed, "Rolling Stone Quietly Changes Its Rape Story Apology."

Plus, from Twitchy, "Feminist refuses to abandon the sinking ship Rolling Stone rape story."

From Ed Morrissey, at Hot Air, "WaPo media critic: Fire everyone associated with Rolling Stone’s UVa rape story."

And Glenn Reynolds on Politico's "fake but accurate" piece, "THE INEVITABLE “FAKE BUT ACCURATE” SPIN: “Ultimately, though, from where I sit in Charlottesville, to let fact checking define the narrative would be a huge mistake”."

73 Years After Pearl Harbor, Sacrifices Continue

Today's the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

At the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, "73 years after Pearl Harbor, the sacrifices for country continue":

On Saturday, flags flew at half-staff throughout Franklin County in honor of a newly fallen soldier -- Army Spc. Joseph "Joey" Riley of Grove City, Ohio. The death of the paratrooper and grandson of a World War II veteran -- who had been a popular local football player before he joined the Army 2 1/2 years ago, -- was a reminder that on this 73rd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, brave U.S. service members are still putting their lives in jeopardy overseas...

More.

Melissa Harris-Perry, MSNBC Race-Mongering Hack: Arson and Looting 'Not Necessarily Violence...'

She's a bleeding idiot:



PREVIOUSLY: "With No Conception of the Importance of Property Rights to Liberty, Leftists Shocked at Condemnations of Ferguson Arson and Looting as 'Violent Protests'."

Berkeley Michael Brown Protest Turns Violent

Dirtbags, losers, and poseurs.

At the San Francisco Chronicle, "Police use tear gas on Berkeley protesters."

Update: Police use tear gas on Berkeley protesters, six arrested after rowdy night http://t.co/ayvO9KgBqs pic.twitter.com/pnOQCSXasj

— SFGate (@SFGate) December 7, 2014

Also at the Los Angeles Time, "Berkeley protest ends in vandalism, clashes with police."

GOP Challenger Bill Cassidy Defeats Democrat Incumbent Mary Landrieu in #LASen

This is big.

Sen. Mary Landrieu’s defeat to Rep. Bill Cassidy gives GOP ninth pickup this cycle http://t.co/UUhkCP1lhm pic.twitter.com/I9AeXBuD3B

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 7, 2014

Good evening. Senator Landrieu has lost re-election in #LASen

— AoSHQ Decision Desk (@AoSHQDD) December 7, 2014

Wow this is a slaughter.

— AoSHQ Decision Desk (@AoSHQDD) December 7, 2014

Nothing from Orleans parish yet mind you, but this is total devastation. Think the elevator from The Shining.

— AoSHQ Decision Desk (@AoSHQDD) December 7, 2014

Orleans now coming in.

— AoSHQ Decision Desk (@AoSHQDD) December 7, 2014

And with it, the gap closes a little bit. Cassidy 170822 Landrieu 123100

— AoSHQ Decision Desk (@AoSHQDD) December 7, 2014

Why we had the parishes to watch- When we planned tonight we assumed a closer race. Typically, you can gauge the race with those three.

— AoSHQ Decision Desk (@AoSHQDD) December 7, 2014

But in a race of total destruction like this, just enjoy the map : )

— AoSHQ Decision Desk (@AoSHQDD) December 7, 2014

And Cassidy crosses the 100k margin.

— AoSHQ Decision Desk (@AoSHQDD) December 7, 2014

'It is hard to read an article like this and avoid the conclusion that we live in a culture that hates women, just hates us...'

This is pretty mind boggling, from Chloe Angyal, a "senior columnist at Feministing, with a Ph.D. in pop culture," praising Sabrina Rubin Erdely's rape hoax story at Rolling Stone.

At RCP, "MSNBC Panelist: "We Live In A Culture That Hates Women (VIDEO)."

I'll be on @MHPshow tomorrow. I'll stand by what I said last week: we live in a culture that hates women. Hates us, hurts us, silences us.

— Chloe Angyal, PhD (@ChloeAngyal) December 7, 2014

.@ChloeAngyal You're clearly not too bright.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 7, 2014

.@ChloeAngyal "I've got a Ph.D. in pop culture." Well, that really says it all, doesn't it?

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 7, 2014

It takes utter defeat a long time to sink in on the left. And especially in this woman's case. She's obviously special.

With No Conception of the Importance of Property Rights to Liberty, Leftists Shocked at Condemnations of Ferguson Arson and Looting as 'Violent Protests'

It's not just the far-left nutjobs at MSNBC who justify the anarchy in Ferguson as "social justice."

See the New York Times, "Police Killings Reveal Chasms Between Races":

FERGUSON, Mo. — In the decade that Ashley Bernaugh, who is white, has been with her black husband, her family in Indiana has been so smitten with him that she teases them that they love him more than her.

So Ms. Bernaugh was somewhat surprised by her family’s reaction after Darren Wilson, a white police officer here, killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager. Forced into more frank discussions about race with her family than ever before, Ms. Bernaugh, 29, said her relatives seemed more outraged by the demonstrations than the killing, which she saw as an injustice.

“They don’t understand it’s as prevalent as it is,” Ms. Bernaugh said, referring to racial discrimination. “It’s just disappointing to think that your family wants to pigeonhole a whole race of people, buy into the rhetoric that, ‘Oh, these are violent protests.’ ”

It is as if Ms. Bernaugh, a nonprofit organizer living in the St. Louis suburb of Florissant, is straddling two worlds. In one, her black mother-in-law is patting her on the back, saying she is proud of her for speaking out against Mr. Brown’s killing. In the other, her white family and friends are telling her to quiet down because “you don’t know the whole picture.”

Isn't that just perfect?!!

Continue reading.

Chinese Beverly Hills

At LAT, "HOW ARCADIA IS REMAKING ITSELF AS A MAGNET FOR CHINESE MONEY":

Most Los Angeles architects are lucky if they complete two or three houses by their early 30s.

Thirty-one-year-old Philip Chan, who runs a firm in Arcadia called PDS Studio, has already seen more than 75 of his residential designs built across the San Gabriel Valley.

He's still not the best-known designer in Arcadia. That title belongs to Robert Tong, 54, founder of the equally prolific firm Sanyao International.

A growing architectural rivalry between the two men is a key part of a construction wave that is radically remaking Arcadia. Blocks that were once sleepy, with single-story ranch houses from the 1940s set comfortably back from the street, are now lined with bloated villas pushed near the front of their lots as if clamoring for attention.

Chan and Tong, whose names are featured in San Gabriel Valley real estate listings as prominently as Frank Gehry's is on the Westside, tailor their showy Mediterranean-style houses to appeal to wealthy Chinese buyers, many looking to park some of their money here or to enroll their children in American schools.

In the last year alone, more than 90 houses have sold for more than $2.5 million in Arcadia, a city of 56,000 that sits just east of Pasadena at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Prices in Arcadia are up more than 39% from their peak in 2007 before the housing downturn. The city, now 60% Asian, has become more expensive than Calabasas, the suburban enclave that is home to Justin Bieber and the Kardashians. It's become known as the "Chinese Beverly Hills."

What's happening in Arcadia is less about big new houses and startling sales figures than how new patterns of immigration are transforming the architecture of Southern California. New arrivals from China are not victims of change, as they were when Southern California's original Chinatown was razed in the 1930s to make way for Union Station.

This time around they're the ones with the economic power. The architectural landscape is being remade not to displace them but as a magnet for their money...

Interesting.

Keep reading.

Sabrina Rubin Erdely Still Has Rolling Stone Hoax Story Pinned to the Top of Her Twitter Feed

She does indeed --- and she hasn't tweeted for a week.

She's in some deep sh*t.

Rolling Stone contributing editor @SabrinaRErdely still has false #UVA rape story pinned on her Twitter account… pic.twitter.com/a3WvWJLpHI

— Mike Liberation (@mikeliberation) December 6, 2014

Downfall of the Social Justice Warriors

Heh.

On Twitter:

The parallels between the downfall of the SJW "reign of rape terror" (culminating in the RS fraud) and that of Robespierre are delicious.

— Josh Smith (@ThisIsJoshSmith) December 7, 2014

Hayley-Marie Coppin

Some Rule 5 for the evening, at Egotastic!, "Hayley-Marie Coppin in Pink Lingerie."

Police Kill White Male Suspect in Hollywood

At LAT, "Police shoot and kill man they say had knife in crowded Hollywood intersection popular with tourists."

Only a "white male," so forget about protests. Only #BlackLivesMatter. http://t.co/jmyoXp7yOA

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 6, 2014

Sheikhs vs. Shale: The New Economics of Oil

At the Economist:

THE official charter of OPEC states that the group’s goal is “the stabilisation of prices in international oil markets”. It has not been doing a very good job. In June the price of a barrel of oil, then almost $115, began to slide; it now stands close to $70.

This near-40% plunge is thanks partly to the sluggish world economy, which is consuming less oil than markets had anticipated, and partly to OPEC itself, which has produced more than markets expected. But the main culprits are the oilmen of North Dakota and Texas. Over the past four years, as the price hovered around $110 a barrel, they have set about extracting oil from shale formations previously considered unviable. Their manic drilling—they have completed perhaps 20,000 new wells since 2010, more than ten times Saudi Arabia’s tally—has boosted America’s oil production by a third, to nearly 9m barrels a day (b/d). That is just 1m b/d short of Saudi Arabia’s output. The contest between the shalemen and the sheikhs has tipped the world from a shortage of oil to a surplus...

Keep reading.

Erik Wemple on Rolling Stone's UVA Rape Story Debacle

A nice piece -- and a forthright excoriation of leftist media bias rarely seen in the mainstream press.

Heads should roll at Rolling Stone.

At WaPo, "Rolling Stone's disastrous U-Va. story: A case of real media bias."

American Hostage Luke Somers Killed During Rescue Attempt in Yemen

Well at least they tried to rescue the poor f-ker.

Damn.

At WSJ, "Luke Somers Raid in Yemen: How It Went Wrong; Hostages Were Mortally Wounded After Militants Were Alerted to Rescue Attempt."

More at Memeorandum.

Plus, at CNN, "American hostage killed in rescue mission."

'The New York City protests are being coordinated by hardcore far-left activists...'

Bill O'Reilly nails it.

From last night's Talking Points Memo, "Who Is Organizing the Racial Protests Breaking Out Across America? (VIDEO)."

PREVIOUSLY: "Video: New York Streets Flooded with Race-Mongering, Communist-Backed Protesters."

Nigella Lawsom Makes Saucy Return to 'The Taste'

She looked great!

At London's Daily Mail, "'I had no idea so much décolletage was on display - mortified!' Nigella Lawson makes a VERY saucy return to The Taste thanks to her low-cut dress."

One last thing: I had no idea quite so much décolletage was on display; mortified. On top of everything else

— Nigella Lawson (@Nigella_Lawson) December 5, 2014

How to Finally Kill #ObamaCare

A great piece from Randy Barnett, at USA Today.

This is some freakin' serious stuff.

CNN's Erin Burnett Chirps About How Far-Left 'Die-In' at New York's Macy's is 'Funny' (VIDEO)

It's not funny at all.

It's criminal trespass and disturbing the peace, at minimum. These idiot commies should be prosecuted. But the clueless Erin Burnett thinks it's freakin' hilarious!

She should be taken out at flogged, the worthless scumbag.

Victoria's Secret Exotic Traveler

Coming up next week!

'CBS Evening News' Covers Rolling Stone Rape Story Debacle

Here's the segment, "Rolling Stone backs away from U.Va rape story."

A pretty lame report, actually. It downplays the leftist lies that lead to hoaxes like this, and pumps up the meme that fewer women will report rapes because they'll be "attacked" as liars.

Well, thank the idiot hate-mongering leftists for that.

New York Racial Violence Protesters Lay Siege on Apple Store

Different day. Same bullshit moral bankruptcy.

.@USATODAY Moral reprobates and leftist idiots. But I repeat myself.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 6, 2014

Protesters storm the Apple store on Fifth Avenue and stage "die-in" http://t.co/yrnrPBRR92 pic.twitter.com/uJg67mCzsM

— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) December 6, 2014

On the Way Out, Mary Landrieu's Fighting Dirty, Peddling Lies and Racial Animosity

Well, she's a Democrat. They're dirty disgusting liars and political hacks.

From John Fund, at National Review, "Landrieu’s Ugly Exit."

Also at RCP, "Louisiana Senate Runoff: Cassidy Up 20 Points."

Social Justice Kills

Via Twitter:

Because #SocialJustice hurts everyone. pic.twitter.com/mUVP8ycGX7

— StacyFace (@StacyOnTheRight) November 28, 2014

Orion Flight Test

At NASA, "NASA’s New Orion Spacecraft Completes First Spaceflight Test."

Also at NYT, "First Flight Test Is Successful for NASA’s Orion Spacecraft."



More video, "Liftoff of Orion"; "Orion Splashdown"; and "Orion From the Recovery Ship."

Yesterday's Best of Music 2014 Link was Bad

Sorry about that.

I appreciate the readers who've purchased items through American Power's Amazon shopping links. I don't pimp for dollars much around here, but I appreciate the cash earned through the Amazon sales program. Thanks again.

There's still time for Cyber Week shopping too!

Rolling Stone Apologizes for UVA Rape Story

This is not a good week for the rape-hysteria industry, to say the least.

Check Ashe Schow, who's been all over this:

Talk about a Friday news dumb, @RollingStone: http://t.co/cMndKwx1oZ

— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) December 5, 2014

“One of my biggest fears... is that people will be unwilling to believe survivors in the future” http://t.co/qlkAeTTrHR cc: @AsheSchow

— CamEdwards (@CamEdwards) December 5, 2014

FLASHBACK: "If false, Rolling Stone story could set rape victims back decades” http://t.co/IwFMkOSONI

— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) December 5, 2014

Don't become a fucking reporter if you're not willing to let the facts get in the way of a great story.

— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) December 5, 2014

Also, worth noting that the Rolling Stone fauxpology puts the blame entirely on “Jackie" and none of it on itself. Because why not?

— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) December 5, 2014

Rolling Stone editor says trust in gang-rape accuser “misplaced” http://t.co/kh7g21OnP0

— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) December 5, 2014

This was not a good week for real victims of rape

— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) December 5, 2014

@AsheSchow This is what happens when you have journalists who think it's more important to push an agenda than checking facts

— Yeyo (@facerealitynow) December 5, 2014

FIFY RT @AmandaMarcotte: Oops. My bad. Sorry about accusing everyone of being rape truthers. That was childish & incorrect.

— F. Bill McMorris (@FBillMcMorris) December 5, 2014

Really, this is something else. Just wow. Virtually every "rape" meme spouted on the left is easily and furiously debunked. And then the hysterical rape "epidemic" mongers spout about how actually checking facts and debunking false leftist narratives is "rape denialism."

The left as a movement continues its historic descent into conspiracies, hysteria, and irrelevance. Man, it's been a rough six years for the so-called "coalition of the ascendant."

Video: New York Streets Flooded with Race-Mongering, Communist-Backed Protesters

Remember, at base this is a revolutionary communist movement. I'll never let this point slide.

Via CBS News New York, protesters hoisting signs from the Revolutionary Communist Party. And of course the Asian woman interviewed is wearing the obligatory Arafat keffiyeh, signifying the "revolutionary" struggle for "Palestinian" liberation. They're all a bunch of idiots and poseurs:

'Peak Oil' Debunked, Again

Love!

At the Wall Street Journal, "The world relearns that supply responds to necessity and price":

It has been 216 years since Thomas Malthus gave birth to the idea that mankind’s appetite for natural resources would outstrip nature’s capacity to supply them. There have since been regular warnings that the world is running out of soybeans, helium, chocolate, tunsgsten, you name it—and that population growth has become unsustainable. The warnings create a political or social panic for a while, only to be proved wrong.

The latest reckoning with reality is the end of the obsession with “peak oil,” which for years had serious people proclaiming that we were entering an era of permanent fossil fuels scarcity. It didn’t work out that way.

That’s a central lesson from this year’s dramatic fall in the price of oil, which reached $69.49 a barrel of Brent crude on Thursday from a June high of $112.12. As recently as early November, when oil hovered at $80, OPEC officials warned they would intervene to hold the price at $70. But Saudi officials conspicuously refused to support an output cut at last week’s OPEC meeting, and Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi has made clear that he’d be comfortable with lower prices.

The short-term Saudi calculation is to drive oil prices down to squeeze their geopolitical adversaries and higher-cost producers. That goes especially for their adversaries across the Persian Gulf in Iran, which depends on oil exports for over 40% of its revenues, and where the regime had designed its budget based on $100 oil.

The Saudis also hope to slow the explosive growth of U.S. production, which, thanks to the tapping of domestic shale resources through the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, has risen to some nine million barrels a day from five million in 2008. By some estimates, the price of oil needs to be as high as $90 a barrel for oil extracted from “tight” deposits such as shale, though oil market research firm IHS believes most tight oil wells have a break-even cost of between $50 and $69 dollars a barrel.

But even if the Saudi move slows U.S. drilling, the International Energy Agency forecasts that U.S. production will still surpass Saudi Arabia’s output of 9.7 million barrels a day, and overtake Russia’s 10.3 million, perhaps sometime next year. This would make America the world’s largest oil producer, which it was from the dawn of the oil age through 1974. Thanks to the fracking boom, the U.S. surpassed Russia as the world’s largest natural-gas producer in 2013.

All this is a useful reminder, as IHS’s Daniel Yergin told us the other day, that “technology responds to need and to price.” It was the same story in the 1970s, when the world responded to OPEC’s embargoes by exploiting new resources in Alaska and the North Sea, and again in the 1980s and 1990s, when offshore drilling became technologically feasible and economically profitable at ever-greater depths. And expect more from where that came, as the frackers continue to figure out how to drive down costs, and if new shale deposits in places such as Mexico, Ukraine and Argentina start to be exploited...

More.

Activists Seek 'New Civil Rights Movement' After Police Killings

Well, this is a big surprise.

At LAT, "Police killings prompt activists to seek 'new civil rights movement'":

The chants are angry, but simple: "I can't breathe!" "Hands up, don't shoot!" "Black lives matter!" They have echoed from the American heartland to the coasts in the wake of two recent grand jury decisions that cleared white policemen in the deaths of unarmed black men.

Now, activists are counting on the rage behind those words to spur a movement that would force the country to confront the interlocked issues of race and policing and press the government to automatically take control of cases of alleged police abuse.

"They're asking for something simple. They want to be treated the same," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said of protesters Thursday as he sought to calm a city where many were seething over a grand jury's decision not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, a white officer, in the death of Eric Garner.

Largely peaceful demonstrations broke out in New York soon after Wednesday's announcement of the Staten Island grand jury's decision. Protesters blocked major roads and gathered at landmark sites, including Times Square and Grand Central Terminal. Police made 83 arrests, mainly for minor offenses.

More large demonstrations erupted Thursday night in New York and throughout the nation, including in Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh and Chicago. As night fell in New York, helicopters thundered over lower Manhattan while protesters gathered in Foley Square, near the courthouse and police headquarters.

"It was a murder on video and there was no justice," said Mickey Thomas, a 21-year-old Hunter College student. "I definitely think we've had enough. I feel like there is a new civil rights movement."

Ida Dupont, a Pace University sociology professor specializing in criminology, said she too thought the Garner incident was an "open and shut case" with the video.

"It was so ridiculous to me that I had to be here today to show my outrage," Dupont said.

"I've been talking to my students about it," she said. "All the young people know something is seriously wrong."

Unfortunately, at base this is a revolutionary communist movement, which just ain't gonna fly after six years of the Obamunist!

It's Time to Hold the Protesters Accountable

From Ron Christie, at the Daily Beast:

Peaceful protest is fine. But burning, rioting, and looting are disgraceful—and they make for real-life victims we somehow never hear about.

As Americans gathered last week to give thanks, I remained perplexed by the destructive reaction by thousands who protested the decision of a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, not to indict a police officer for using lawful but deadly force to stop a teenager from assaulting him. Note that I did not indicate the race of the police officer or his assailant; physical and DNA evidence supported the claim that the teen had assaulted the officer and struggled for his gun. After charging at the officer, the teen was sadly but subsequently killed by the officer who feared for his life.

Agitators in the grievance and race-hustling industry—primarily embodied by Al Sharpton—were quick to portray the events in Ferguson as a modern-day Selma or Birmingham following the verdict. Last Sunday, Sharpton claimed the fight for justice was not over for Michael Brown, noting: “You won the first round, Mr. Prosecutor, but don’t take your gloves off. Justice will come to Ferguson.”

Never mind that the 12 jurors heard hours of testimony, studied DNA and forensic reports, and deliberated for several months before rendering their verdict. Justice was never the true goal of Sharpton and his ilk—instead they successfully constructed the false narrative that a white police officer executed a black teenager—a gentle giant—in cold blood.

And yet, what of the justice for those in Ferguson whose lives have been destroyed by the felonious activities of those who rioted, pillaged, and brought shame upon themselves for their wickedness? Just after the grand jury decision was announced, Louis Head, Brown’s stepfather, shouted “burn the bitch down” and other expletives. Rioting, shoplifting, and violent confrontation with the police took place shortly thereafter. Head, Sharpton, and thousands of protesters represent the worst of Ferguson—those seeking to advance a political agenda that America is an evil and racist country while accepting no personal responsibility for the violence and destruction they helped unleash.

More than 25 structures in Ferguson were burned, damaged, or destroyed in the wake of senseless mayhem following the grand jury verdict. Who will pay for the damage sustained by Sam Chow, an immigrant to United States 11 years ago who opened a restaurant in Ferguson in 2009 that sustained major damage in the riots? The pictures of destruction to Chow’s business are as heartbreaking as they are senseless.

Same with Natalie DuBose, an entrepreneur who opened Natalie’s Cakes and More in Ferguson after saving money following bake sales to start her own business. After the riots, her business was completely destroyed. While she is getting back on her feet through the generosity of strangers who have contributed more than $250,000, a more pointed question must be asked in the aftermath of Ferguson: Why do predominately black mobs get a free pass to riot and steal in response to a political outcome they disagree with?

Newark, Baltimore, and Philadelphia are just a handful of cities in the Northeast that have never fully recovered from damage sustained in riots in the late 1960s. Same with South Central Los Angeles in the aftermath of the verdict in which motorist Rodney King was beaten by police who were initially acquitted of charges in 1992. Rioting and looting ensued shortly after the verdict and racial tensions were tense across the United States for years to follow.

The case in Ferguson differs from King’s in that King never punched or charged police officers in their confrontation. Evidence led the grand jury not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in his use of force with Michael Brown as the facts indicated Brown had initiated and escalated physical contact with an armed police officer. The administration of justice dictated that the officer not be charged, given the lack of evidence to sustain a conviction at trial.

And yet, the temptation to stick with the narrative that Brown’s death is the new civil-rights struggle for justice in the 21st century is undercut by the substitution of facts to fit a political narrative for those seeking moral clarity. Where is the outrage of Sharpton regarding the death of Zemir Begic? You’ve never heard of Begic? The young immigrant who fled violence in Bosnia was driving home with his fiancée 20 miles away from Ferguson when a pack of black teens beat him to death with hammers early Sunday evening. Moral clarity would dictate that civil-rights and other civic leaders would speak out against such a senseless act of violence. The silence is deafening...

More.

Racial Protests Spread Across Country

At the Wall Street Journal, "Protests Spread Across Country Day After Eric Garner Grand-Jury Decision: Thousands of Demonstrators Gather in Lower Manhattan."

Also, "Social Media Help Fuel Protests After New York Officer Not Indicted Over Death of Eric Garner: Demonstrations in Wake of Grand-Jury Decision Are Echoed in Washington, Atlanta, Other Cities."

Franklin Foer, Leon Wieseltier Out at the New Republic

Mediagazer has the news of the big shakeup at the New Republic.

But don't miss this take from John Podhoretz, at Commentary, "You’ll Never Guess What Happened to This Magazine! Click Here for More!"

'What Breitbart News found after an investigation that lasted more than a month is that the details of Dunham's rape claim cannot be verified and that those details point to an innocent man who has had to hide his Facebook page and hire an attorney...'

This is just bizarre, at Big Journalism, "'LIKE HOLOCAUST DENIALISM': SLATE WRITER SLAMS BREITBART OVER DUNHAM INVESTIGATIVE PIECE."

Also, "INVESTIGATION: LENA DUNHAM ‘RAPED BY A REPUBLICAN’ STORY IN BESTSELLER COLLAPSES UNDER SCRUTINY."

Killing My Own Kid

This is awesome.

At Hot Air, "Video: The freaky deaky 'killing my own kid' prank."

The Global Shakeout from Plunging Oil

From Daniel Yergin, at the Wall Street Journal, "New supply—rather than demand—is dominating the market, and OPEC has been caught by surprise":

The decision by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countrieson Thursday not to cut production reflects a profound shift in the world oil market. The demand for oil—by China and other emerging economies—is no longer the dominant factor. Instead, the surge in U.S. oil production, bolstered by additional new supply from Canada, is decisive. This surge is on a scale that most oil exporters had not anticipated. The turmoil in prices, with spasmodic plunges over the past few days, will likely continue.

Since 2008—when fear of “peak oil,” after which global output would supposedly decline, was the dominant motif—U.S. oil production has risen 80%, to nine million barrels daily. The U.S. increase alone is greater than the output of every OPEC country except Saudi Arabia.

The world has experienced sudden supply gushers before. In the early 1930s, a flood of oil from East Texas drove prices down to 10 cents a barrel—and desperate gas station owners offered chickens as premiums to bring in customers. In the late 1950s, the rapidly swelling flow of Mideast oil led to price cuts that triggered the formation of OPEC.

And in the first half of the 1980s, a surge in oil from the North Sea, Alaska’s North Slope and Mexico caused prices to plunge to $10 a barrel. That posed a much greater crisis for OPEC than today: Over those same years, global demand fell by more than two million barrels a day owing to a deep recession, greater conservation and the switch to coal from oil for electricity generation. This time world oil demand is still growing, but weakly.

For the past three years, oil prices hovered around $100 a barrel as disruptions in Libya, South Sudan and elsewhere, and sanctions on Iranian exports, eerily balanced out the production increases from the U.S. and Canada. But the slower global economic growth that became apparent a few months ago was accompanied by weaker demand for oil, just when Libya suddenly quadrupled output to almost a million barrels a day. The result: Prices weakened in September and then tumbled.

OPEC’s decision last week reflects the conviction of its “have” nations—the Persian Gulf countries, with very large financial reserves—that cutting output would mean losing market share, particularly to Iran and to what they see as Iran-dominated Iraq. Instead, they have adopted a strategy of leaving it to the market for now; OPEC is waiting, in the words of Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, for the oil market “to stabilize itself eventually.”

It is now clear that the new U.S. production is more resilient than anticipated. There has been a widespread view that at around $85 or $90 a barrel extracting “tight” oil from shale would no longer be economical. However, a new IHS analysis based on individual well data finds that 80% of new tight-oil production in 2015 would be economic between $50 and $69 a barrel. And companies will continue to improve technology and drive down costs...

Still more.

PREVIOUSLY: "Energy Quakes as OPEC Stands Pat."

Victoria's Secret Brought Its Annual Spectacular to London for First Time on Tuesday

A Wall Street Journal video, "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Hits London."

Also at Victoria's Secret, "VS Live: Before the Fashion Show Promo":

The 2014 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show airs Tuesday, December 9 at 10/9c, on CBS, but you can get the excitement started an hour earlier by streaming our live pre-show coverage with the Angels and special guests. It all starts at 9/8C. In the meantime, watch this mash-up of some of our favorite moments from previous years.

Charles Krauthammer: New York's Eric Garner Decision 'Totally Incomprehensible'

From the incomparable Dr. Krauthammer, on yesterday's Special Report All-Star panel:

Israel in Trouble

Via Theo Spark, "A World Without Israel: Is Our Ally in Trouble?"

Fabulous Nina Agdal in Lingerie

Via Egotastic!, "Nina Agdal Fills Out a Bra and Other Fine Things to Ogle."

Japanese Unearth Remains, and Their Nation’s Past, on Guadalcanal

At the New York Times:

GUADALCANAL, Solomon Islands — Using a trowel to dig into the shadowy floor of the rain forest, pausing only to wipe away sweat and malaria-carrying mosquitoes, Atsushi Maeda holds up what he has traveled so far, to this South Pacific island, to find: a human bone, turned orange-brown with age.

Mr. Maeda, 21, was looking for the remains of missing Japanese soldiers at the site of one of World War II’s most ferocious battles. Others have done this work before him, mostly aging veterans or bereaved relatives. But he was with a group of mostly university students and young professionals, nearly all of them under 40 and without a direct connection to the soldiers killed here.

They had come to honor their countrymen, many of whom were no older than they are when they fell on the battlefield. The group was also searching for answers. “These young men who died here believed they were defending their family and loved ones,” said Mr. Maeda, a university junior in religious studies. “We need to rediscover their sacrifices and learn from them.”

As the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches, there has been a surge in interest among young Japanese about the disastrous war that their nation has long tried to forget.

It is a phenomenon that crosses political lines, encompassing progressives who preach the futility of war as well as conservatives who question the historical record of Japan’s wartime atrocities. What these young people have in common is an urgent sense that they learned too little about the war, both from school, where classes focus on earlier Japanese history, and from tight-lipped family members, who prefer not to revisit a painful time.

Driving this nationwide pursuit into the past has been China’s hostility toward Japan over control of disputed East China Sea islands, known in China as the Diaoyu and in Japan as the Senkaku. Despite recent diplomatic maneuvering to ease tensions, anxiety about China’s rise remains strong in Japan.

“For the first time since 1945, Japan is facing a small but real possibility of conflict,” said Yurie Chiba, a magazine editor who organizes talks by veterans, has written about the new interest in World War II and argues that Japan must never go to war again. “This makes people want to learn more about those who fought in the war, to rediscover how horrible war can be.”

Continue reading.

The Cost of a False Narrative of Oppression

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary:

At a different moment in time, the decision of a Staten Island grand jury not to an indict a white police officer for using a choke hold on Eric Garner, an African-American who later died after being taken into custody, would not be much more than a local news item in New York. But coming as it did on the heels of the much-publicized decision of another grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri not to indict another white cop in the shooting death of another black man, teenager Michael Brown, the Staten Island deliberations were immediately dragooned into service by mainstream media talking heads, African-American leaders, and President Obama to reinforce a narrative of oppression of blacks by white police.


Though each of these two decisions appear to stand on their own as being reasonable interpretations of the law, together they appear to justify the upsurge in demonstrations around the country protesting police behavior and asserting that blacks are being systematically victimized. But whatever one may think of these rulings or of the police, those who are hyping this story need not only to think carefully whether the story they are telling is true but also whether the net effects of their campaign against the police will hurt minorities far more than it help them.

The facts in the Staten Island case seem to be as straightforward as the Ferguson, Missouri incident were muddled. The confrontation was caught on a video taken by a cell phone and showed that a chokehold was employed. The New York City Police Department has banned chokeholds for use but they are not illegal. The grand jury clearly believed that the tragic result was not the result of a crime but observers may well wonder about the use of excessive force or why an unarmed man resisting arrest for a petty crime wound up dying in this manner.

But no more than in the Ferguson incident, the facts in that case are not really the point of the protests, the president’s statement, or what is being said about the case on the cable news networks. As awful as each of these stories may be, the willingness of the media to seize on every instance in which a white police officer kills a black civilian in order to make a point about race says more about the need of the left to fuel fears about racism for political advantage than a true flaw in the justice system or American society...

And that's a profoundly sad statement on the priorities of far-left politics in America.

Continue reading.

Walter James Casper Gets His Guy Fawkes Mask On!

Whoa!

Guy Fawkes is too well fed!

Reppy, man, you gotta lay off those major food binge-runs over to Mastic Sports Deli!

Obama Administration Exploits #Ferguson to Undermine Race Relations and Rule of Law

From David Limbaugh, at Town Hall:

I wish there were a way to address the Ferguson controversy without generating further controversy. But that's not an easy task.

I have believed for some time that the Obama administration has fanned the flames of racial tension in this country rather than attempt to extinguish them, despite its claims to the contrary. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, in my view, have been the main culprits, which is exceedingly unfortunate, considering the opportunity their historic roles present for making great strides toward racial harmony.

The question is: Do these gentlemen truly want to promote racial harmony?

If President Obama were trying to alleviate racial tensions, would he have accused the police department in Cambridge, Massachusetts, of "acting stupidly" in arresting a friend of his, Harvard professor Henry Gates? The statement was stunningly inappropriate because he took sides reflexively without benefit of all the facts and because presidents have no business weighing in on such local matters. Does anyone doubt that race was at the forefront of Obama's mind?

But if there was any doubt, Obama removed it when "the main message" he chose to impart from the Trayvon Martin matter was implied in this bizarre statement: "My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."

Fast-forward to the present and we learn that just days after the grand jury decided not to indict police officer Darren Wilson based on his shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the White House tweeted its endorsement of an article by Christopher Emdin, Ph.D., a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. The piece, "5 Ways to Teach About Michael Brown and Ferguson in the New School Year," appeared on The Huffington Post less than two weeks after the shooting incident and before all the facts were in and the grand jury was impaneled. In his introductory paragraphs, Emdin advises teachers and parents not to ignore these types of events: "Bringing the events in Ferguson to the classroom is not only best teaching practice but a way to establish powerful expectations for the academic year."

Parts of the article appear innocuous, such as the suggestion that teachers ask students what they have heard or know about Brown in order to "spark a powerful discussion that sets the tone for the school year." The teachers can use information gathered by the class to help "students unearth the facts, fiction, and mistruths in media coverage of the events in Ferguson."

Keep reading.

'It's said that Apple's Steve Jobs got away with never having license plates on his leased Mercedes by trading it in every few months, before the 90-day limit expired...'

I'm sure that was sweet.

The rest of us, who're supposed to affix license plates within 3 months, can't just go for the quarterly trade-in.

At LAT, "Why so many cars in California don't have license plates."

This is What Prosecutors Think Happened in Ferguson

Cool graphics, at the Independent UK, "Michael Brown shootings: This is what prosecutors think happened in Ferguson."

This is what prosecutors think happened in Ferguson when Michael Brown was shot http://t.co/L2CoOOlv20 pic.twitter.com/4ltNxnuWAr

— The Independent (@Independent) November 25, 2014

Angelina Jolie and Louis Zamperini

Interesting.

I'm looking forward to seeing this film.

Yesterday, at Vanity Fair, "Read Angelina Jolie’s Moving Reflection on Showing Unbroken to Louie Zamperini Before His Death":

Universal hosted a luncheon today at the the Metropolitan Club in Midtown Manhattan to celebrate Unbroken, director Angelina Jolie’s harrowing retelling of the story of W.W. II hero Louie Zamperini. Zamperini, a bombardier in the Pacific theater, survived a plane crash and nearly two grueling months stranded at sea, only to be captured by the Japanese and held in a P.O.W. camp for two and a half years. He passed away this past July, but Jolie, who became close with Zamperini while making the film, did have a chance to show him the finished product, a moment that she captured rather poignantly during a Q&A today...

Keep reading.

Orange County Register, Riverside Press-Enterprise Lay Off 100 Employees

I drive by the O.C. Register everyday on the way home from work. I always wonder how long the newspaper's marquee building will be there.

Perhaps not too much longer.

At LAT:

Freedom Communications, the parent company of the Orange County Register and the Riverside Press-Enterprise, is laying off about 100 non-newsroom employees Wednesday.

Former casino executive Richard Mirman, who became the Register’s publisher in October, sent a memo to employees Wednesday morning explaining that the cuts are part of an attempt "to 'right size' the business back to appropriate levels."

More.

Southern California Storm Breaks Records: Flood Watches in Effect

It's very nice to have sustained rainfall.

At LAT, "California rain: 'Six straight hours of rain,' and drought continues."

Another day of this and the weather's going to take a big dent out of that drought.

FDA Could Soon Rescind Ban on Blood Donations from Homosexual Men

Pray you'll never need a blood transfusion.

At WaPo, "Government could ease 31-year-old ban on blood donations from gay men."

RELATED: At NYT, "The AIDS epidemic in America is rapidly becoming concentrated among poor, young black and Hispanic men who have sex with men."

Well, hopefully these fellows won't be looking to make blood donations.

'Do We Achieve World Order Through Chaos or Insight?'

At Der Spiegel, "Interview with Henry Kissinger":

Henry Kissinger seems more youthful than his 91 years. He is focused and affable, but also guarded, ready at any time to defend himself or brusquely deflect overly critical questions. That, of course, should come as no surprise. While his intellect is widely respected, his political legacy is controversial. Over the years, repeated attempts have been made to try him for war crimes.

From 1969 to 1977, Kissinger served under President Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, first as national security advisor and then as secretary of state. In those roles, he also carried partial responsibility for the napalm bombings in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos the killed or maimed tens of thousands of civilians. Kissinger also backed the putsch against Salvador Allende in Chile and is accused of having had knowledge of CIA murder plots. Documents declassified just a few weeks ago show that Kissinger had drawn up secret plans to launch air strikes against Cuba. The idea got scrapped after Democrat Jimmy Carter was elected in 1976.

Nevertheless, Kissinger remains a man whose presence is often welcome in the White House, where he continues to advise presidents and secretaries of state to this day.

Little in Kissinger's early years hinted at his future meteoric rise in American politics. Born as Heinz Alfred Kissinger in Fürth, Germany in 1923, his Jewish family would later flee to the United States in 1938. After World War II, Kissinger went to Germany to assist in finding former members of the Gestapo. He later studied political science and became a professor at Harvard at the age of 40.

Kissinger recently published his 17th book, a work with the not exactly modest title "World Order." When preparing to sit down with us for an interview, he asked that "world order" be the topic. Despite his German roots and the fact that he reads DER SPIEGEL each week on his iPad, Kissinger prefers to speak in English. After 90 minutes together in New York, Kissinger says he's risked his neck with everything he's told us. But of course, a man like Kissinger knows precisely what he does and doesn't want to say...

Keep reading.

And here's the book, World Order.

What the New York Times Won't Tell You About Ferguson

From Heather Mac Donald, at National Review, "Finding Meaning in Ferguson":

The New York Times has now pronounced on the “meaning of the Ferguson riots.” A more perfect example of what the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan called “defining deviancy down” would be hard to find. The Times’ editorial encapsulates the elite narrative around the fatal police shooting of unarmed Michael Brown last August, and the mayhem that twice followed that shooting. Unfortunately, the editorial is also a harbinger of the poisonous anti-police ideology that will drive law-enforcement policy under the remainder of the Obama administration.

The Times cannot bring itself to say one word of condemnation against the savages who self-indulgently destroyed the livelihoods of struggling Ferguson, Mo., entrepreneurs and their employees last week. The real culprit behind the riots, in the Times’ view, is not the actual arsonists and looters but county prosecutor Robert McCulloch. McCulloch presented the shooting of 18-year-old Brown by Officer Darren Wilson to a St. Louis county grand jury; after hearing three months of testimony, the grand jury decided last Monday not to bring criminal charges against Wilson. The Times trots out the by now de rigueur and entirely ad hoc list of McCulloch’s alleged improprieties, turning the virtues of this grand jury — such as its thoroughness — into flaws. If the jurors had indicted Wilson, none of the riot apologists would have complained about the length of the process or the range of evidence presented.

To be sure, most grand-jury proceedings are pro forma and brief, because the evidence of the defendant’s guilt is so overwhelming, as Andrew McCarthy has explained. Here, however, McCulloch faced a dilemma. His own review of the case would have shown the unlikelihood of a conviction. Physical evidence discredited the initial inflammatory claims about Wilson attacking Brown and shooting him in the back, and Missouri law accords wide deference to police officers who use deadly force against a dangerous suspect. Not initiating any formal criminal inquiry against Wilson was politically impossible, however, especially since the eyewitness accounts that corroborated Wilson’s version of events would have remained unknown. (Not surprisingly, the six black witnesses who supported Wilson’s story did not go to the press or social media, unlike the witnesses who spread the early lies about Wilson’s behavior.) So McCulloch used the grand-jury proceeding as a way to get the entire dossier about the case into the public domain by bringing a broad range of evidence before the grand jury and then releasing it to the public after the proceeding ended — a legal arrangement.

The Times is silent about that evidence, of course. Blood and DNA traces demonstrated that Brown had initiated the altercation by attacking Wilson while Wilson was inside his car. Brown then tried to grab Wilson’s gun, presumably to shoot him. Such an assault on a law-enforcement officer is nearly as corrosive to the rule of law and a stable society as rioting. But to the mainstream media, it is apparently simply normal behavior not worth mentioning when a black teenager attacks a cop, just as it was apparently normal and beneath notice that Brown had strong-armed a box of cigarillos from a shopkeeper moments before Wilson accosted him for walking in the middle of the street. Amazingly, anyone who brought up that earlier videoed felony was accused of besmirching Brown’s character, even though the robbery was highly relevant to the encounter that followed (and showed that Brown did not have much character to besmirch in the first place, something his sealed juvenile records would likely have confirmed).

Even if we ignore the exculpatory evidence, it is absurd to blame the riots, as the Times does, on McCulloch’s management of the grand jury or the way he announced the verdict. There would have been rioting if the grand-jury proceeding had lasted one day, so long as it failed to indict Wilson for murder. It is unlikely that the rioters even listened to, much less carefully parsed, McCulloch’s post-verdict press conference, which the Times finds biased. It is equally absurd to imply that the grand jury’s decision not to indict resulted from unprofessional behavior on McCulloch’s part or from prejudice that somehow infected the proceedings. Not indicting officers for good-faith shootings in the course of their duty is the norm, not the exception. There have been no indictments of Missouri officers for shootings since 1991. Houston grand juries have cleared officers of shootings 288 consecutive times. The Brown verdict was par for the course and not the result of some flawed, partial process.

The Times then goes into blazing hyperbole about the reign of terror inflicted “daily” on blacks by the police in Ferguson and nationally. The Times coyly cites “news accounts” — i.e., its own– claiming that the police in Ferguson “systematically target poor and minority citizens for street and traffic stops — partly to generate fines.” The Times has no evidence of such systematic targeting, proof of which would require determining the rate at which blacks and whites violate traffic and other laws and then comparing those rates to their stop rates. Studies elsewhere have shown that blacks speed at higher rates than whites. Blacks likely also have lower rates of car registration and vehicle upkeep, for economic reasons. Moreover, if authorities are using traffic fines in order to generate revenue, they would presumably “target” the people most likely to be able to pay those fines, not the poorest residents of an area.

Even more fantastically, the Times claims that “the killing of young black men by police is a common feature of African-American life and a source of dread for black parents from coast to coast.” A “common feature”? This is pure hysteria, likely penned by Times columnist Charles Blow. The public could perhaps be forgiven for believing that “the killing of young black men by police is a common feature of African-American life,” given the media frenzy that follows every such rare police killing, compared to the silence that greets the daily homicides committed by blacks against other blacks. The press, however, should know better. According to published reports, the police kill roughly 200 blacks a year — most of them attacking the officer. In 2013, there were 6,261 black homicide victims in the U.S. The police could eliminate all fatal shootings without having any significant impact on the black homicide death rate. The killers of those black homicide victims are overwhelmingly other blacks, responsible for a death risk ten times that of whites in urban areas. In 2013, 5,375 blacks were arrested for homicide, which is greater than the number of whites and Hispanics combined (4,396), even though blacks are only 13 percent of the national population.

The Times trots out the misleading statistic published by ProPublica last month that young black males are 21 times more likely to be shot dead by police than young white males — a calculation that overlooks that young black men commit homicide at nearly ten times the rate of young white and Hispanic males combined. That astronomically higher homicide-commission rate means that police officers are going to be disproportionately in black neighborhoods to fight crime, where they will more likely encounter armed shooting suspects. If the black crime rate were the same as the white crime rate, the victims of police shootings would most certainly also be equal among the races. Asians are minorities, which, according to the Times’ ideology, should make them the target of police brutality. But they barely show up in police-shooting data because their crime rates are so low.

For the years 2005–2009, a significant portion of victims in the ProPublica study — 62 percent — were resisting arrest or assaulting an officer as Michael Brown did. The cop hatred that activists and press organs like the Times do their best to foment significantly increases the chances of such aggressive and dangerous behavior...

Wow.

Keep reading.

Democrats Paved the Way for Their Own Decline

Yeah, Obama built that.

 From Charlie Cook, at National Journal:

Governing is about making choices and facing consequences. Implicitly, to focus on certain things is to de-emphasize other things. The modern Democratic Party was effectively born during President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, reacting and dealing with the Great Depression. While books have been filled with the multitude of things that Roosevelt and his New Dealers did, if you boiled it down to its essence, it was helping people get back on their feet after the great stock-market crash of 1929 and the deep depression that resulted. In 2008, we faced the Great Recession, and like other financial meltdowns, it was deep and painful. At the tail end of the George W. Bush administration and in the early Obama years, financial markets were stabilized (the overwhelming majority of the Troubled Asset Relief Program funds have been repaid, with many of the investments yielding profits for Uncle Sam), and the Obama administration should be applauded for rescuing the automobile industry. But while those actions can be legitimately seen as a good start, we then saw a grand pivot to the environment and health care, with grave consequences for the party. At another time and in different fashion, both are important priorities, but the focus on these issues has effectively decimated the Democratic Party in specific areas and among specific voter blocs. The evidence is the difference in the partisan makeup of the Congress that will be sworn in next month, compared with the one from eight years ago.

RTWT.

It's gotta hurt.

Cyber Week

It's not just Monday.

Keep shopping all week at Amazon, Shop Amazon Cyber Monday Deals Week.

Why Was Miriam Carey Killed?

This is pretty intense, at the Washington Post, "How Miriam Carey's U-turn at a White House checkpoint led to her death."

And from Instapundit, "BECAUSE THEY’RE PROTECTORS OF THE POWERFUL, THE CAPITOL POLICE AND SECRET SERVICE GOT LESS BLOWBACK FOR THIS SHOOTING OF AN UNARMED BLACK WOMAN."

Ferguson Becoming a Revolutionary Tourist Wonderland

At IBD, "Ferguson's Potemkin Protests":

Key Ferguson fact: Nearly all the protesters arrested were from out of town http://t.co/eD4M6OV69O pic.twitter.com/Uk20vs6YCC

— IBDeditorials (@IBDeditorials) December 2, 2014

Revolutionary Tourism: As shattered glass, car fires and protests blight Ferguson, an interesting fact is emerging: Nearly all of the arrestees hollering revolution are from other cities. Obviously, this isn't about Michael Brown.

In the latest batch of radicals busted over the weekend for disturbing the peace in Ferguson, 15 of the 16 didn't even live in Ferguson. They were from places as far away as Chicago and New York.

It's no anomaly, either, but a pattern.

Police said that of the 51 protesters arrested in the protests of Aug. 19 and 20, 50 were from places like New York, Des Moines and Chicago.

They come from groups like the ANSWER Coalition, the New Black Panthers, the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Organization for Black Struggle and the Soros-linked U.S. Human Rights Network.

So any talk about riots and mayhem in Ferguson being a spontaneous uprising or a grass-roots civil society effort by Ferguson's locals is nonsense...

More.

Sisters in India Beat Up Three Men for Harassing Them

Via the BBC:

'Share the Wealth' Failing to Sell

From Michael Barone, at RCP, "Nobody Is Pushing Thomas Piketty's Policies to Combat Economic Inequality":

Last spring, you may remember, the French economist Thomas Piketty was all the rage in certain enlightened circles. His book "Capital" shot up to the No. 1 spot on bestseller lists, and many economists praised his statistics showing increased income and wealth inequality. Piketty argued that, absent a world war, returns to capital will exceed economic growth, inevitably producing growing inequality in the 21st century.

There are problems with Piketty's -- or anyone else's -- statistics. Reliance on U.S. income tax returns overlooks the fact that tax cuts encourage people to realize income and misses non-taxable income such as welfare and Social Security payments.

Still, there has clearly been a boom in the incomes and wealth of the top 1 percent here and worldwide. Piketty sees this as a threat to democracy. Liberal economists and pundits hoped that his revelations would finally get politicians to support policies like Piketty's 80 percent tax rate on high incomes and progressive tax on great wealth -- and get the masses to vote for them.

So far it hasn't happened here or just about anywhere.

You didn't see any campaign ads calling for Piketty taxes this fall. You didn't even see any ads hailing Democrats for having raised taxes on high earners in early 2013. Democratic candidates in seriously contested races didn't come close to advocating such policies.

You may have heard some Democrats bemoaning income inequality. The idea that the rich get richer while everyone else doesn't gets pretty wide agreement in the polls. So does the Democrats' one redistributionist policy -- raising the minimum wage.

As a policy to address inequality, though, it's rather pathetic. About half of minimum wage earners are not in the lowest fifth households in income. Even fewer are their own household's primary earner. Almost all economists agree that when the minimum wage is raised, some employees lose their jobs.

It is only slightly hyperbolic to say that an increased minimum wage is a transfer of income from fast-food customers to fast-food workers minus those who are replaced by kiosks. That's not a very effective way to sock it to the top 1 percent.

Even after the election, some Democrats argue that they didn't hit the issue hard enough. One Democrat's advice to President Obama, according to Politico, "is focus on income inequality, and talk about and propose things, and just be a fierce advocate of addressing the economic divide. That will leave people after two years saying the Democratic Party really stands for something."

"Propose things" -- but what? A recent Congressional Budget Office report shows that when you measure federal taxes paid minus federal transfers received (welfare, food stamps, Social Security, etc.), the top 20 percent of earners pay an average of $46,500. The next 20 percent pay an average of $700. The bottom three-fifths get back more than they pay. Plus, the U.S. already relies more heavily on the income tax for revenues than any other advanced economy nation.

In other words, America already has lots of economic redistribution. American voters evidently sense that more redistribution would sap economic growth. They're willing to throw a little to minimum wage earners, but they don't want to kill the geese laying the golden eggs.

Well, it's all crashing down for the idiot leftists, and it ain't over yet.

More.

Not Working for the Working Class

From Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today:

Working class white people don't like President Obama much. According to the latest Gallup poll, only 27% approve of him. That's 21 percentage points down since he took office in 2009.

A standard talking-point is that these voters don't like Obama because they're racist. But that assumes that the key word in "white working class" is "white." In fact, the key word is "working." After all, Obama isn't any blacker than he was in 2009.

A few Democratic pundits seem to get this. Writing in Mother Jones, Kevin Drum observes: "So who does the WWC take out its anger on? Largely, the answer is the poor. In particular, the undeserving poor. Liberals may hate this distinction, but it doesn't matter if we hate it. Lots of ordinary people make this distinction as a matter of simple common sense, and the WWC makes it more than any. That's because they're closer to it. For them, the poor aren't merely a set of statistics or a cause to be championed. They're the folks next door who don't do a lick of work but somehow keep getting government checks paid for by their tax dollars."

So if Democrats want to win back the white working class — and they kind of need to, if they want to win elections, because it's an enormous demographic — maybe they need to start thinking about honoring and encouraging work, rather than talking about race or class.

I doubt this is going to sink in much with the Democrat race-grievance establishment. But sooner or later someone will come along and say, "Hey, we can't win elections. We need to moderate our message." They did that back in the 1990s, when Bill Clinton was elected as a "moderate." He could at least talk the talk. After the midterms the Democrats have doubled down on far left-wing extremism. So it could be awhile, heh.

More.

Emily Ratajkowski Christmas Lingerie

Holy cow!

She's so lovely.

At Egotastic!, "Emily Ratajkowski Officially Opens the Christmas Lingerie Season."

Cyber Monday at Amazon: Camera, Photo, and Video

At Amazon, Shop Amazon - Cyber Monday Deals in Camera, Photo & Video.

Also, at CBS News, "Cyber Monday's potential impact after drop in Thanksgiving weekend sales."

GoFundMe Shuts Down Mad Jewess Woman's Darren Wilson Page

Pathetic.

At the Mad Jewess, "The Mad Jewess Opened @GoFundMe Campaign For #DarrenWilson, @GoFundMe Shut It Down":

This is why I hardly do anything like this on the net. If you are a right-winger or God forbid, a white cop defending his life, you will get nowhere on the net. This is why we should go “Ferguson” on all of the Fed buildings if we all had half a brain.

Also at Fire Andrea Mitchell, "GoFundMe removes conservative blogger’s fundraising page for Darren Wilson."

Penny Mordaunt's Naughty Cock Speech

At Telegraph UK, "Penny Mordaunt's naughty cock speech" (VIDEO):

It has been revealed that Penny Mordaunt, who is a Royal Navy reservist as well as Conservative communities minister, made a spoof speech to the House of Commons.

Ms Mordaunt, 41, used the word "c**k" six times and "lay" or "laid" five times during an address to Parliament on March 26, 2013.

Ostensibly the speech was delivered to highlight issues around the welfare of chickens, however Ms Mordaunt - who was made a minister in the communities department after she delivered the speech - has now disclosed that the real reason for making her address was a forfeit issued during a dinner in the officers' mess.

The MP for Portsmouth North said: "Some of my Marine training officers in Dartmouth thought it would be a good idea to break my ladylike persona by getting me to yell particularly rude words during the most gruelling part of our training.

"They failed but during our mess dinner at the end of the course, I was fined for a misdemeanour. The fine was to say a particular word, an abbreviation of cockerel, several times during a speech on the floor of the Commons, and mention all the names of the officers present."

While she fulfilled the wager, she has been criticised by Labour MPs for making a mockery of the Parliamentary system.

Enough With the Ferguson Pandering

At Blazing Cat Fur:

By embracing the 'need for change' premise promoted by Al Sharpton and company, the media is complicit in spreading the lie that America is racist and blacks are mistreated.

Theo's Monday Mopsies

Check out the babes at Theo Spark's.

Dark Days Ahead for #ObamaCare

From Elise Viebeck, at the Hill:

The Obama administration is facing a slew of healthcare challenges as the winter holidays approach.

While this fall has been a far cry from last year, when HealthCare.gov was melting down, 2014 has brought wholly unexpected problems to the fore for federal health officials and the White House.

Take the conflict surrounding Jonathan Gruber, the ObamaCare consultant whose suggestion that a "lack of transparency" and voters' "stupidity" helped the law pass, went viral.

Though Democrats have sought to distance themselves from Gruber, his remarks have become a new flashpoint in debate over healthcare reform, invigorating GOP critics as the party prepares to take control of the Senate.

Gruber has agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Dec. 9, in a final hearing for outgoing chairman and relentless administration antagonist Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

The gathering, also set to include Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner, is sure to prove a distraction for the White House as officials try once again to keep a lid on opposition to the law.

Here are four additional challenges that the administration faces on healthcare this winter...

Keep reading.

Natasha Barnard

Some video, "Natasha Barnard's Sexy Outtakes for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit."

Also at Sports Illustrated.

Race Relations After Ferguson

Norah O'Donnell, a precious, pampered establishment leftist, sitting in for Bob Schieffer yesterday at "Face the Nation."

Ta-Nehisi Coates is interviewed. His name is pronounced to ryhmye with "Tallahassee."

"We have to get back to foundations" (of racism and theft of Native American land). These idiots will never move into the 21st century.

Here: "Will Ferguson change policing and race relations in America? (VIDEO)."