What Drives Leftist Ideological Hatred?

From Spengler, at Pajamas, "Why Liberals Really, Really Hate Us":

They really, really hate us. George Orwell wrote a morning “Two Minutes Hate” session into the daily life of his dystopia in 1984. One blogger notes that 2,000 of Rachel Maddow’s facebook fans wished that Ted Cruz would fall into an open elevator shaft. What would he have made of the hyperventilating hatred that liberals display against conservatives? Over at National Review, Katherine Timpf reports on a hate manifesto published by the chair of University of Michigan’s Department of Communications. Republicans “crafted a political identity that rests on a complete repudiation of the idea that the opposing party and its followers have any legitimacy at all.” wrote Prof. Susan Douglas. “So now we hate them back,” she explains. “And with good reason.”

In fact, they have their reasons to hate us. They are being silly. We know they are being silly, and they know we know, and they can’t stand it. It isn’t quite how we repudiate the idea that the opposing party has any legitimacy at all. But we can’t stop giggling.

“Reductio ad absurdum” does not begin to characterize the utter silliness of liberals, whose governing dogma holds that everyone has a right to invent their own identity. God is dead and everything is permitted, Zarathustra warned; he should have added that everything is silly. When we abhor tradition, we become ridiculous, because we lack the qualifications to replace what generation upon generation of our ancestors built on a belief in revelation and centuries of trial and error. Conservatives know better. G.K. Chesterton said it well: “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.”

The antics of the “small and arrogant oligarchy” that controls the temples of liberal orthodoxy have turned into comic material that Monty Python couldn’t have dreamed up a generation ago. There are now dozens of prospective genders, at least according to the gender studies departments at elite universities. What do the feminists of Wellesley College do, for example, when its women become men? The problem is that no-one quite knows what they have become, as a recent New York Times Magazine feature complained:

Some two dozen other matriculating students at Wellesley don’t identify as women. Of those, a half-dozen or so were trans men, people born female who identified as men, some of whom had begun taking testosterone to change their bodies. The rest said they were transgender or genderqueer, rejecting the idea of gender entirely or identifying somewhere between female and male; many, like Timothy, called themselves transmasculine.

Use the wrong terminology and you’re burned for a bigot. There used to be jokes such as: “How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, and it’s not funny.” You can’t tell that sort of joke about  Wellesley because the LGBTs never will agree on the lightbulb’s gender. There are rare cases of babies born with ambiguous genitalia, to be sure. There also are a few individuals obsessed from early childhood with the idea that they were born in the wrong body. They have difficult lives and deserve sympathy (but not public mandates for sex-change operations). Gender ambiguity in its morphological infinitude as a field of personal self-development, though, has become the laboratory for cutting-edge liberal thinking, the ultimate expression of self-invention. LGTB Studies (or “Queer Studies”) departments have or soon will be established at most of America’s top universities, classifying, advocating and defending an ever-expanding number of newly-categorized gender identities...

Yep. It's out of control.

Funny, too, how I just blogged about the transgender movement taking over women's colleges --- because if you don't capitulate you're a hater!

BONUS: "Marquette Suspends Professor John McAdams for Exposing Leftist Totalitarian Faculty."

'The Interview' Billboards Come Down

And along with them, America's pride.

At ABC-7 Los Angeles:

Hollywood billboards for "The Interview" taken down after Sony cancels release http://t.co/klgKXYnHtK pic.twitter.com/UHBGCuQYbm

— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) December 18, 2014

Cuban-Americans Voice Disgust Over Obama's Communist Normalization (VIDEO)

At CNN:

Obama's Cuba Normalization is a Victory for Communism!

Well, it's like I've been saying all along.

But of course it takes an unreconstructed '60s-era New Left Marxist to actually spill the beans.

From former SDS-er and pro-Hanoi stooge Tom Hayden, at the Nation, "Why the US-Cuba Deal Really Is a Victory for the Cuban Revolution":

For those actually supportive of participatory democracy in Cuba, as opposed to those who support regime change by secret programs, the way to greater openness on the island lies in a relaxation of the external threat.

Despite the US embargo and relentless US subversion, Cuba remains in the upper tier of the United Nations Human Development Index because of its educational and healthcare achievements. Cuba even leads the international community in the dispatch of medical workers to fight Ebola. Cuba is celebrated globally because of its military contribution to the defeat of colonialism and apartheid in Angola and southern Africa. Now a new generation of Cuban leaders who fought in Angola is coming to power in the Havana and its diplomatic corps. For example, Rodolfo Reyes Rodríguez, Cuba’s representative to the United Nations, today walks on an artificial limb as a result of his combat in Angola.

When few thought it possible, Cuba has achieved the return of all five prisoners held for spying on right-wing Cubans who trained at Florida bases and flew harassment missions through Cuban air space. The last three to be released served hard time in American prisons, and are being welcomed as triumphant heroes on the streets of Havana. Three of the Cuban Five served in Angola as well.

Tens of thousands of Americans, from the veterans of the cane-cutting Venceremos Brigades to the steady flow of tourists insisting on their right to travel, deserve credit for steady years of educational and solidarity work and for pushing a hardy congressional bloc towards normalization.

President Obama has kept his word, despite relentless skepticism from both the left and the mainstream media. He is confounding the mainstream assumption that the Cuban right has a permanent lock on American foreign policy, especially after the Republican sweep in the November elections.

In this case, Obama’s extreme emphasis on diplomatic secrecy worked to his advantage. For over a year, leaders in both countries have conducted regular private debates and consultations, which resulted in the detailed normalization plan released in both capitals today. No one was more important on the American congressional team than Senator Patrick Leahy. Their tight discipline held until the final moment.

It is known that the private US-Cuba conversations about Alan Gross and the Cuban Five were the most difficult. The United States has never acknowledged that Gross was a de facto spy of a certain type, having traveled five times to Havana to secretly distribute advanced communications technology to persons in Havana’s small Jewish community before he was arrested in 2009. Also problematic for American officials immersed in decades of Cold War thinking was the task of wrapping their minds around the idea that the Cuban Five were political prisoners and not terrorist threats...

Criminy!

He's a bald-faced liar! No one --- and I mean no one, not even the far-left New York Times --- has suggested that Gross was a spy. He was, in fact, a pawn in Obama's Manchurian campaign to give Cuban Communism the ultimate bailout.

And that's why Hayden's praising Obama to high heaven. Barack Hussein's striking a blow for the international Marxist proletariat!

Here's Discover the Networks on Hayden's pro-Communist agitation:

During the Vietnam War, Hayden traveled many times to North Vietnam, Czechoslovakia, and Paris to strategize with Communist North Vietnamese and Viet Cong leaders on how to defeat America's anti-Communist efforts. He came back from Hanoi proclaiming he had seen "rice roots democracy at work." According to people who were present at the time, including Sol Stern, later an aide to Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein, Hayden offered advice on conducting psychological warfare against the U.S. He arranged trips to Hanoi for Americans perceived as friendly to the Communists and blocked entry to those seen as unfriendly, like the sociologist Christopher Jencks. He attacked as "propaganda," reports of the torture of American soldiers, and labeled American POWs returning home "liars" when they described the brutal treatment they had received in Communist prisons.

On the domestic front, Hayden advocated urban rebellions and called for the creation of "guerrilla focos" to resist police and other law-enforcement agencies. For awhile he led a Berkeley commune called the "Red Family," whose "Minister of Defense" trained commune members at firing ranges and instructed high-school students in the use of explosives. Hayden was also an outspoken supporter of the Black Panther Party, calling that organization "our Vietcong." In 1968 Hayden was arrested as a member of the "Chicago Seven" for inciting a riot at the Democratic National Convention.

You know, it's not clandestine any longer. Obama and the Obama Democrats are finally --- literally --- out in the open with their hardline support for Communism.

It's just out there for everyone to see:

Obama's Cuba move is all about fulfilling long-time far-left, Marxist, progressive dreams while slamming America in the process.

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) December 18, 2014

Sony Pictures Has No Further Plans to Release 'The Interview'

This is no temporary cancellation. Sounds like Sony's going to deep six the film.

At LAT, "Sony Pictures has 'no further release plans' for 'The Interview,' studio says"

Sony Pictures Entertainment has canceled the Christmas Day release of "The Interview" after the nation's major theater chains said they would not screen the film.

The action came as U.S. intelligence officials confirmed widespread speculation that the North Korean government was behind the devastating cyber attack, which has hobbled Sony Pictures and spread fear throughout the entertainment industry. "The Interview" depicts the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Federal investigators began briefing some legislators that the rogue state gave the order to pilfer Sony's computer system, leading to a massive leak of sensitive data, including emails, financial documents and even the salaries of Sony's top stars.

The studio said it has no plans to release the controversial movie in the future, either in theaters or via home video on-demand. "Sony Pictures has no further release plans for the film," a studio spokesman said on Wednesday...

More.

VIDEO: Montage of Barack Obama Apologizing for America

I caught this segment last night on Hannity's:

Marquette Suspends Professor John McAdams for Exposing Leftist Totalitarian Faculty

This is just wow.

Professor McAdams is a political scientist and the publisher of the Marquette Warrior blog.

At Truth Revolt, "Marquette Suspends Conservative Professor for Exposing Totalitarian Leftist Faculty."

This part's the killer:

Once McAdam's blog post went viral, [Teaching Assistant Cheryl] Abbate and several professors signed a petition to have McAdams disciplined for his public dissent. Shortly thereafter, McAdams received the following letter of suspension from Marquette Dean Richard Holz...

Here's the offending blog post: "Marquette Philosophy Instructor: 'Gay Rights' Can't Be Discussed in Class Since Any Disagreement Would Offend Gay Students." And see, "Reprisal: Marquette Warrior Under 'Investigation' by University."

More: From Inside Higher Ed, "Ethics Lesson."

Added: At Instapundit, "HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Professor Suspended for Blogging."

Transgender Movement Upends Feminism at America's Women's Colleges

Well, women's colleges were established as bastions of women's empowerment in a sea of patriarchal oppression. But with "gender fluidity" all the rage, some feminists on women's campuses are getting brushed aside as the newest social victims --- the "transgendered" --- gain credibility and power across the country.

What a trip.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Women's colleges lead push to redefine gender rules":

At a women's college, gender should be the easiest qualification for entry.

That's no longer the case. Women's colleges across the country are reconsidering their admission policies to adapt to a changing world in which gender norms are being challenged and more transgender students are seeking to enroll. It's a complicated calculus for many colleges, prompting concerns that these new considerations could affect the nature of single-gender schools.

Pressured by proactive student groups, some of the nation's 40-plus women's colleges are debating enrollment changes but also how to accommodate students who identify as men, such linguistics questions as the use of feminine pronouns, and whether school mission statements should be rewritten.

Mills College in Oakland last summer became the first in the nation to adopt a written policy on admitting transgender students, setting off a wave of self-examinations at many colleges. The latest to deal with the issue was Scripps College in Claremont.

Trustees there approved a new policy this month to admit applicants identified as female on their birth certificates. The school also will admit those who self-identify as women, which could include those born male who identify as female. The policy is effective for students applying for fall 2016.

College officials said the changes mostly reflect current practice and that the campus has graduated transgender students in the past, including some who transitioned while in school. Scripps, they insist, still will be a women's college.

"Colleges and universities have always led the way in policy discussions about social justice and expanding access," said Scripps President Lori Bettison-Varga. "It's not a surprise that students who we charge with thinking critically about institutions in general would be having these conversations at women's colleges right now. We're laying the foundation for a broader discussion about what it means to be a women's college in the 21st century."

Many alumnae agree but are troubled by the implications.

In a letter to the trustees, more than 100 alumnae raised several concerns, chiefly that these changes are part of a "systematic erasure of the female identity from women's colleges."

"Trans students argue that gender neutral language should be used to encompass their presence," the letter said. "But are we not, by erasing feminized language from our documents and rhetoric, erasing the female identities from a women's college? What could be more ironic?"

Yes, what could be? Indeed, the student body president at Mills is a transgendered male, Skylar Crownover, who transitioned after taking a course in "introduction to queer studies."

As the Times' piece point out:

Women's colleges began as a counter to a patriarchal social structure that excluded women from higher education. In the 1960s, these campuses became symbols of women's empowerment, graduating future judges, senators, business tycoons and astronauts.

The threat, argue some critics, is that the presence of trans men — and their potential to adopt the trappings of male privilege — may once again relegate the voices of women to the back of the classroom. Trans men have taken leadership roles at women's colleges, including the current student body president at Mills.

The alumnae coalition at Scripps unsuccessfully asked trustees to allow more time for those opposed to make their case. The group had advocated a more restrictive policy to admit only students who identify as female at the time of application.

"For many alumnae, the approval of the new admissions policy at Scripps is not just disappointing. It is heartbreaking," said Kelsey Phipps, a Washington, D.C. attorney and advocate in the LGBTQ community who graduated from Scripps in 2001. "With its decision to admit male-identified students, many alumnae who believe deeply in women's education feel abandoned by the college.... In the end, no argument, logic or passion could derail that hurtling train. We were steamrolled."

"Heartbreaking."

Well, I'm just all shaken up over here.

Who's Behind the Sony Hack Attack?

Here's a great piece from Wired, "The Evidence That North Korea Hacked Sony Is Flimsy":

Nation-state attacks aren’t generally as noisy, or announce themselves with an image of a blazing skeleton posted to infected computers, as occurred in the Sony hack. Nor do they use a catchy nom-de-hack like Guardians of Peace to identify themselves. Nation-state attackers also generally don’t chastise their victims for having poor security, as purported members of GOP have done in media interviews. Nor do such attacks involve posts of stolen data to Pastebin—the unofficial cloud repository of hackers—where sensitive company files belonging to Sony have been leaked. These are all hallmarks of hacktivists—groups like Anonymous and LulzSec, who thrive on targeting large corporations for ideological reasons or just the lulz, or by hackers sympathetic to a political cause.

More.

Also, at Twitchy, "MSM reporting that North Korea is behind the Sony hack. But where’s the evidence?":

Good post skeptical about alleged North Korea hack of Sony (TLDR: likely revenge/lulz motivation): http://t.co/PPQobRgnff
— mcantelon (@mcantelon) December 18, 2014

Obama's Cuba Deal: A Victory for Tyranny and Oppression

From Senator Marco Rubio, at the Wall Street Journal, "A Victory for Oppression: President Obama’s policy is bad news for the Cuban people living under a dictatorship, and it sends a dangerous message to the world":

The announcement by President Obama on Wednesday giving the Castro regime diplomatic legitimacy and access to American dollars isn’t just bad for the oppressed Cuban people, or for the millions who live in exile and lost everything at the hands of the dictatorship. Mr. Obama’s new Cuba policy is a victory for oppressive governments the world over and will have real, negative consequences for the American people.

Since the U.S. severed diplomatic relations in 1961, the Castro family has controlled the country and the economy with an iron fist that punishes Cubans who speak out in opposition and demand a better future. Under the Castros, Cuba has also been a central figure in terrorism, narco-trafficking and all manner of misery and mayhem in our hemisphere.

As a result, it has been the policy and law of the U.S. to make clear that re-establishing diplomatic and economic relations with Cuba is possible—but only once the Cuban government stops jailing political opponents, protects free speech, and allows independent political parties to be formed and to participate in free and fair elections.

The opportunity for Cuba to normalize relations with the U.S. has always been there, but the Castro regime has never been interested in changing its ways. Now, thanks to President Obama’s concessions, the regime in Cuba won’t have to change...

A victory for tyranny. That's the Obama way.

But keep reading.

Charles Krauthammer: 'Is There No Tyrant In the World Obama Will Not Appease...?'

For nothing.

Obama got nothing from Cuba. No concessions. Not on rights. Not on speech. Not on economic liberalization. Nothing.

Here's the inimitable Dr. K:

The Sony Hack Attack is Cyberwarfare

From Abe Greenwald, at Commentary, "This Is Cyberwar, Not Tabloid Fodder":

The Sony hacking story has largely been treated as a juicy showbiz gossip scandal. We’re probably going to regret that.

If North Korea is behind the computer hacks and threats to terrorize theaters showing The Interview, it confirms a new era of rogue-state terrorism, one for which there’s no counterterrorism blueprint. According to the New York Times, Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema has killed its scheduled New York premier of the anti-Kim Jong-un comedy. The Hollywood Reporter says that the country’s top five theater chains have pulled out of showing the film. Time says the movie’s stars, James Franco and Seth Rogen, have called off their publicity tour. A spate of film executives are backpedaling for their lives as their emails are picked through and published to viral derision. The Times’s Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes write that the theater threat “opens a new range of worry for Hollywood.”

But the danger is larger and graver than that.

In February, hackers laid digital waste to Sheldon Adelson’s Sands casino, forcing the Sands to temporarily disconnect from the Internet. It was a massive undertaking that wiped out or compromised millions of files. Bloomberg reports that “recovering data and building new systems could cost the company $40 million or more” (a figure coincidently close to the $44 million Sony sunk into The Interview). Why did hackers target Adelson? The cyberterrorists who hit him call themselves the “Anti-WMD Team.” They are based in Iran, and claim retaliation for Adelson’s hawkish remarks about the Islamic Republic. Here’s the rub, via Bloomberg:

The security team couldn’t determine if Iran’s government played a role, but it’s unlikely that any hackers inside the country could pull off an attack of that scope without its knowledge, given the close scrutiny of Internet use within its borders. “This isn’t the kind of business you can get into in Iran without the government knowing,” says James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

So, if the evidence is pointing in the right direction, dictatorships are tanking our enterprise, holding us hostage, and essentially turning us into their offshore subjects.

This isn’t a gossip story or an industry problem. It’s war. Moreover, it’s a war we don’t know how to fight...

More.

Christmas Countdown

Hey, Amazon's got "12 Days of Deals" --- so if you're doing any Christmas shopping, it's much appreciated when you click through at AmPow's Amazon links!

Kim Jong-un Assassination Scene from 'The Interview'

At iOTW REPORT, "Kim Jong Un Assassination Scene."

And a full video clip, at the Verge, "Watch the Kim Jong-un assassination that was too gory for Sony to approve."

PREVIOUSLY: "Theater Chains Pull 'The Interview', Press Appearances Canceled Amid Threats (VIDEO)."

Val Prieto on Obama's Cuba Normalization Debacle

At Babalú:

This is a major setback for the opposition and dissident movements in Cuba. The Obama administration, by making this "deal", has confirmed that they are OK with the repression, brutality, incarceration, and murder the Castro regime foists upon the opposition. And I will once again say what I have been saying since day one of this farce of a presidential administration, for the record: faced with the fact that he is, by far, the worst President this nation has ever seen, and with no true positive legacy, Obama is relying on the low hanging fruit of the Cuban embargo to placate the left. Look for President Executive Action to undermine codified US Cuba policy.

Continue.

PREVIOUSLY: "Communist Obama Normalizes Relations with Communist Cuba."

Communist Obama Normalizes Relations with Communist Cuba

He's such an asshole.

At the Wall Street Journal, "U.S. Moves to Normalize Cuba Relations as American Is Released: Alan Gross, Held in Cuba for 5 Years, Headed to U.S. on Government Plane."

It's a bad deal that rewards tyranny and terror. And of course it's our terror-enabling president who clinched this disastrous double-dealing debacle.

More at Memeorandum.

Terror in Sydney: ISIS Has Called for 'Lone-Wolf' Islamist Attacks Around the World

At WSJ:

The long reach of Islamist terror hit another Western city on Monday with a siege in downtown Sydney, and we should expect more like it as Islamic State (ISIS) tries to mobilize adherents across the world.

Iranian-born Man Haron Monis, a self-styled sheikh with a long criminal history, held dozens of hostages in a cafe while claiming to have bombs on the premises. Police stormed the restaurant and killed Monis after negotiations failed; two hostages died and four were injured.

News reports say Monis targeted the Lindt Chocolate Cafe days after he lost the appeal of his conviction for harassing families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. He also had more than 40 charges pending for sexually assaulting women while posing as a “spiritual healer,” and as an accessory to the murder last year of his ex-wife, who was stabbed and burned.

The cafe Monis attacked is part of Martin Place, a pedestrian mall near local government offices, the U.S. Consulate and major commercial towers. In September police arrested ISIS sympathizers said to be planning a public beheading there as a “demonstration killing.” Monis initially forced hostages to hold an Islamist black flag in the cafe window, then demanded that police provide him with a flag of ISIS, according to Australian media reports.

Monis’s apparent affection for ISIS is shared by a disturbing number of other Australians. Some 70 have had their passports confiscated recently for fear they may travel overseas to fight for ISIS. One such sympathizer stabbed two Melbourne police officers in September and was shot dead. Days before, an ISIS spokesman had called for “lone-wolf” attacks world-wide, including in Australia, and authorities in Canberra raised the country’s threat level to high from medium. This summer an estimated 150 Australians joined ISIS in the Middle East, including a former Sydney resident who posted photographs of his 7-year-old son holding a severed head.

Jihadists haven’t mounted a catastrophic attack in Australia, though not for lack of trying. In the past decade authorities Down Under have uncovered plots against military facilities, a sports arena and the electric grid. Terrorists have had more success targeting Aussies overseas, killing nearly 100 in attacks on the Indonesian resort island of Bali and Jakarta’s Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels. Eleven Indonesians died in a 2009 car bombing at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.

Australia has been America’s staunchest ally in fighting terrorism, deploying troops to Afghanistan, Iraq and now Iraq again. As a liberal democracy with large immigrant communities and Indonesia’s population of 250 million on its doorstep, Australia understands the stakes of the West’s long war against Islamist extremism.

The threat from ISIS in particular needs to be understood as extending far beyond the territory it controls, because ISIS successes in the Middle East could motivate radicals everywhere...

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "Sydney Hostage Siege."

Islamophobia!

Via iOTW REPORT:

Theater Chains Pull 'The Interview', Press Appearances Canceled Amid Threats (VIDEO)

At BuzzFeed.

More at Mediagazer.

Britney's Back!

She's so sweet.

At Women's Health, "Britney Spears' SICK Abs Cover The Latest Issue of Women's Health: See Pics!":

She's workin' our first issue of the new year like only the Queen of Pop can.

Also at

TMZ, "Britney Spears -- My Women's Health Cover is the Real Deal ... Here's Proof - VIDEO!"

Fear of a Bourbon Shortage Puts Enthusiasts Over a Barrel

I think the fears are overblown.

Interesting piece, in any case.

At WSJ, "Whiskey Lovers Stock Basement Bunkers; Searching for Elmer T. Lee."

Scores of Children Among 130 Dead in Taliban Attack on Pakistan School

The Taliban are warming up for retaking Afghanistan as President Obama declares an end to combat operations in that country.

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Massacred in their classroom: More than 100 children killed as Taliban gunmen storm Pakistani school."

And at LAT, "Gunmen wearing uniforms of security forces, some strapped with suicide vests, go from classroom to classroom, firing at children as some students cower under their desks."

Democrats Divided on Their Path to 2016

From Karen Tumulty, at the Washington Post:

In the six weeks since their repudiation in the midterms, Democrats have seen the opening of fissures within their once-disciplined ranks, marking the start of an internal struggle between now and the 2016 election over the ideological identity and tactical direction of the party.

The tension — shown in high relief during the messy final days of the congressional session — is in some ways a mirror image of the stresses within the Republican Party, which has been divided between its tea party and establishment factions in recent years.

In the case of both parties, the argument pits the more populist, purist elements of the base against the more pragmatic center.

For Democrats, “it is a conflict that was looking for an occasion,” said William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who was a policy adviser to former President Bill Clinton. “The election provided the occasion.”

Having lost big in November, two wings within the party have been trading recriminations over which was more to blame while jostling for position to be the face of the Democrats going into 2016.

They are personified by former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, the presumptive presidential front-runner by virtue of her stature and fame, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the anti-Wall Street clarion favored by many on the left to challenge Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

If the loss of the Senate intensified strains within the party, the $1.1 trillion spending bill that passed Saturday night raised two issues that acted as matches to gasoline. One was a provision rolling back portions of the 2010 financial regulatory law known as the Dodd-Frank Act. The other loosened campaign donation limits, allowing the wealthy to give three times the current maximum to the national political parties. That means even more clout for rich donors and the interests they represent.

In both instances, the question was not whether Democrats supported the individual provisions — they generally do not. It was whether individual members considered them so egregious as to merit blowing up a wide-ranging deal to which Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) had been a party and for which President Obama was personally lobbying.

“What we saw over the last couple of days is an example of a debate that is probably going to go on for a while in the party,” said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and former aide to Reid.

Proponents of the legislation argued that they had succeeded in preventing even more provisions weakening Dodd-Frank from being inserted in the bill. And at any rate, they said, the legislation was far better than anything Democrats could expect should they allow the debate to continue into next year, when Republicans will be in control of the House and Senate.

But Warren urged her colleagues to hold the line, particularly against the banks whose political influence she accused her own party of abetting.

“Enough is enough with Wall Street insiders getting key position after key position and the kind of cronyism we have seen in the executive branch,” she said in a fiery speech on the Senate floor. “Enough is enough with Citigroup passing eleventh-hour deregulatory provisions that nobody takes ownership over but that everybody comes to regret. Enough is enough.”

So strident was her opposition that it drew comparison with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who had led the charge against the bill from the right based on opposition to Obama’s immigration policies.

Democratic leaders denied any symmetry.

Cross your fingers in the hopes that Fauxcahontas runs. She'll get a national vetting the likes of which was denied to the voters of Massachusetts. And of course, Hillary Clinton actually losing the Democrat nomination for a second time would be priceless. Heh.

Businesses Won't Serve Homosexuals on Non-Existent Right to Same-Sex Marriage

Well, some business folks are standing up for basic decency --- that is, the basic decency not to be bullied by the homosexual ayatollahs.

At NYT, "Can’t Have Your Cake, Gays Are Told, and a Rights Battle Rises":

LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Jack Phillips is a baker whose evangelical Protestant faith informs his business. There are no Halloween treats in his bakery — he does not see devils and witches as a laughing matter. He will not make erotic-themed pastries — they offend his sense of morality. And he declines cake orders for same-sex weddings because he believes Christianity teaches that homosexuality is wrong.

Mr. Phillips, whose refusal two years ago to make a cake for a gay male couple has led to a court battle now getting underway, is one of a small number of wedding vendors across the country who are emerging as the unlikely face of faith-based resistance to same-sex marriage.

The refusals by the religious merchants — bakers, florists and photographers, for example — have been taking place for several years. But now local governments are taking an increasingly hard line on the issue, as legislative debates over whether to protect religious shop owners are overtaken by administrative efforts to punish them...

There it is: "punish them" for sticking to their constitutionally protected religious beliefs.

Once again, the radical left nihilists are destroying the fabric of good will and decency in this country.

More.

How Real is 'Homeland'?

This is great, at the Daily Beast:

CIA Agents: How Real Is 'Homeland?' http://t.co/Wad5yMHYx5 pic.twitter.com/OJJTUH9eeX

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) December 15, 2014

I See Charles C. Johnson's Struck a Nerve

Seen on Twitter:

Fuck @ChuckCJohnson and everything he stands for. http://t.co/bWC3UoZRWL

— Michael Mirasol (@flipcritic) December 15, 2014

Politico also had a write up as well.

'There are no lone wolves in the jihad war...'

From Pamela Geller, at Atlas Shrugs, "DEFENDING THE WEST: The Islamic propaganda offensive; Exclusive: Pamela Geller declares, ‘There are no lone wolves in the jihad war’":

Islamic supremacists and their leftwing lapddpgs didn’t even wait for the bodies to be counted in the latest jihad slaughter in Sydney before the propaganda putsch began — “fear of reprisals” (which never happen), “islamophobia” and “backlash-o-phobia.”

I wrote this column this past weekend — before a Muslim terrorist in Sydney, Australia  stormed a popular Chocolate shop/cafe. It rings truer still now, in the wake of the Sydney jihad bloodshed.

RTWT.

Plus, "Photos: LOOK at the Faces of the Victims of #SydneySeige Jihad Terrorist."

Sydney Hostage Siege

Memeorandum has a huge roundup.

And at the link, from the New York Times, "Sydney Hostage Siege Ends With Gunman and 2 Captives Dead as Police Storm Cafe."

And see Andrew Bolt, at Sydney's Daily Telegraph, "Sydney hostages forced to hold Islamic flag," and "Hostage taker with Islamic flag gives Wendy Bacon a pleasant vision of a green future."

More, "Gunman and two hostages killed."



Plus, see James Taranto on the left's wet response down in Sydney, "‘He Must Have Loved Ones, Too’: Pathological altruism in Sydney."

Washington's Disfunction Is the New Normal

Hey, fine by me.

I'm looking for Republican control of the both the executive and the legislature in 2017. Then we can finally begin to reverse the collectivist damage suffered during the Obama interregnum.

From Dan Balz, at the Washington Post, "In Washington, political dysfunction and grim outlooks are the new normal":

The November elections brought significant changes to Washington and to many states. What they did not produce was any greater sense of optimism on the part of the public about the state of American politics. If anything, they produced the opposite.

A new report from the Pew Research Center lays out the evidence in clear and unrelenting detail. The survey of attitudes at the close of the year offers a reminder to political leaders, and especially prospective presidential candidates, that among their biggest challenges ahead will be finding ways to begin to restore faith and confidence in the political system.

Four in 5 Americans say the country is more politically divided than in the past. Although that is no worse than it was two years ago, it is far gloomier than it used to be. Scroll back to the early days of President Obama’s tenure in the White House, and the differences between then and now are particularly stark.

During George W. Bush’s second term as president, a period of rancor and division because of the Iraq war, almost 7 in 10 Americans said the country was more divided than it had been.

After Obama’s election in 2008, there was a brief thaw in attitudes. At that moment, as many people said the country was not more divided than in the past as said it was, hardly a consensus that the country was heading toward a period of greater unity, but at least a sign of optimism.

That disappeared quickly. Today, perceptions of political division are even more negative than during the worst days under Bush, and there is minimal confidence that things will change for the better anytime soon.

Just 1 in 5 surveyed by Pew say they think the country will be less divided in five years than it is today. More than a third say the country will be even more divided, and the rest say it will be no different.

Seven in 10 say the failure of Republicans and Democrats to work together over the next two years will hurt the country a lot; another 16 percent say it will hurt some. And more than 4 in 5 say it will hurt them personally...

More.

Johnny Football's Deflating Debut

Heh.

This is something else.

At WSJ, "Johnny Manziel’s Starting Debut for Cleveland Ends With a 30-0 Loss to Cincinnati."

Hawaiian Surfer Garrett MacNamara Returns to Nazaré for Giant Waves

At NBC News:

Death Wishes Pour In for Dick Cheney

From the ever so classy progs, via Twitchy:

'Curl up and die': Death wishes pour in for Dick Cheney after MTP appearance http://t.co/ysscGTtBsH

— TwitchyTeam (@TwitchyTeam) December 14, 2014

Mexico's Child Laborers

LAT's been running a very compelling series on Mexico's economy --- and its transnational economic interdependence with the U.S., which hasn't always been a force for good.

Here, "Children harvest crops and sacrifice dreams in Mexico's fields."

Beauty and Small-Town American Exceptionalism

From Salena Zito, at RCP, "Hardworking, Small-town American Exceptionalism":

BEDFORD, Pa. - Michael Corle's exhausting work ethic, coupled with devotion to family and heritage, unites the edgy energy of the young with the values and traditions of rural ancestors.

He's a throwback to our entrepreneurial past, with a vision that exists in the moment.

Corle is a designer, father, teacher and proprietor of Locality, a gallery with a distinctive mix of contemporary art and more primitive pieces that he intentionally does not refinish or repurpose. “I want to preserve their authenticity, so the drawer that is worn because of years of being open and shut by constant use, retains that part of its history,” he said, explaining his genuine passion to retain the remnants of a past life.

Corle loves flaws: “(The) telltale signs of use, the natural aging of things, that kind of providence and hand-of-time is really unique.”

A descendant of German and Scots-Irish farmers who settled here in the late 1750s, he is married to Jade, a Pittsburgh native of black, Italian and Polish background; partners in life, work and family, they met while attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1999.

In 2007 they left the city life they loved in Pittsburgh and moved into the century-old home where Corle's father was born — literally in the living room — to create a destination where emerging or established artists from Central and Western Pennsylvania could showcase their craft.

On a brilliant Sunday afternoon their storefront window is a mix of kitschy old-time Christmas decorations that look like they came straight from Ozzie and Harriet's attic, all draped over a stunning primitive cabinet.

Inside, their children — Matthias, 5; Halina, 4; Eden, 2 — are dressed in their Christmas best, sitting on the planked hardwood floor and drawing pictures as customers from Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh and the Bedford area barter over artworks.

They often hold workshops at the gallery and at local schools. “What we wanted to do was to bring in all that we loved about Pittsburgh, its feel and vibe. ... We look at the concept of the community of an urban village,” Corle said.

Bedford has a lazy buzz to it that is hard to describe and even harder to resist. You just sort of want to be here to see what happens next, except that it is moving at a snail's pace; it is as uniquely American as going to New York City, just with the opposite velocity.

Small locally owned stores line the main thoroughfare of the town of 2,000. An alpaca-wool shop, two homemade-candy shops, an antiques arcade converted from an old five-and-dime, a free-trade shop, several taverns and a theater crowd the streets where George Washington once headquartered to plot his next move against the Western Pennsylvania farmers rising against the federal government at the height of the Whiskey Rebellion.

There is even the required commemorative plaque announcing that Washington slept here...

Beautiful. All-American.

But shush. Don't spread the word too far. The socialist destroyers of the collectivist left will swarm on Bedford like a plague of locusts should they catch word of such beauty and hard work.

More.

Dick Cheney's Answer of the Year

Via William Kristol, "2014 Answer of the Year."

The Flight from Reason on Campus

From James Ceasar, at the Weekly Standard:

The university is often said to be the first place in our society to look for the truth. Unfortunately, it is now one of the last places to find it.

Events surrounding a recent Rolling Stone article that chronicles an account of a gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity make clear how little the critical spirit operates today on our nation’s campuses. The story, which Rolling Stone no longer supports, begged to be treated with skepticism. Appearing in a magazine that trades in sensationalism—last year it put a glamour photo of the Boston marathon bomber on its cover—the narrative is so pat and faithful to a formula that common sense dictated caution. And most readers, one suspects, did feel at least a tinge of suspicion. Yet opinion leaders and campus activists across the nation quickly embraced the story as gospel truth, with some looking to convert it into a national movement to stem sexual violence.

At the epicenter of this event is the University of Virginia, where I have taught for over three decades. Jefferson’s campus became the site of rallies, demonstrations, constant social network exchanges, and endless meetings at all levels. A discourse or rhetoric began to develop that alternated expressions of rage with pleas for compassion. Apologies were issued all the way from the university’s Board of Visitors down to informal groups gathered on the campus grounds.

To be in the midst of an occurrence of this kind is to appreciate just how powerful is the force of the crowd. What took place resembled nothing so much as the behavior of a gentle mob, postmodern style. Anyone who expressed reserve about the article or who dared to apply the adjective “alleged” to the acts described faced the charge of being indifferent to sexual violence and rape. The penalty was to be written out of the community. Best, one observer cautioned, not to poke the beast.

Like many such crowds, this one sought its own victims to punish. Strangely, retribution against the seven alleged perpetrators was treated as less important than one might have thought, for this result would have placed the onus in the affair on these individuals and their criminal acts. From the moment of the first mass rally, speakers from the faculty and student body left no doubt that they were in search of much bigger game. Moving in a reverse pyramid from the specific to the more abstract, they decried the fraternity system, privilege (the “money-fraternity complex”), and the rape culture of the South, including Thomas Jefferson for his relations with Sally Hemings. The charges went higher and higher up the ladder of generality until the sex crime committed at UVA became a confirmation of the basic theory of privileged Western male oppression that is so widely subscribed to in the disciplines of cultural studies. The theoretical or ideological dimension that began to take hold, which relies on class profiling, accorded with the subtext of the Rolling Stone article that is directed less against sexual violence per se—of which Charlottesville has tragically suffered more than enough in recent years—than against sexual violence perpetrated by males belonging to society’s “upper tier.”

The abandonment of a critical spirit on our campuses is as much a failure of moral courage as of intellectual blindness. Every adult, if not every student, knows what happened at Duke eight years ago, where, under pressure from the same kind of academic crowd behavior, members of the men’s lacrosse team were tainted and criminally prosecuted for rape, under charges that ultimately proved baseless. Every professor in media studies and public opinion is fully aware of the spectacular hoaxes of modern journalism, from the gripping accounts of urban poverty by Janet Cooke in the Washington Post to the multiple fabrications of Stephen Glass in the New Republic. And scholars of literature and history cannot be ignorant of the psychology of false accusation, from the biblical story of Potiphar’s wife down to the rape charges by Tawana Brawley, cynically perpetuated by Al Sharpton. Yet, in the climate of the moment, none of the perspective that these teachers could have offered, even if they had wished to do so, was ever brought to bear. A crowd does not listen, particularly when it is convinced it is on the side of the angels...

More.

Senate Passes $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill

At LAT, "Senate approves $1.1-trillion spending bill after deadline battle":

Capping a week of high drama that exposed divisions in both parties and raised the specter of another government shutdown, the U.S. Senate gave final approval late Saturday to a $1.1-trillion spending bill that funds most government operations through next fall.

After Democrats beat back an effort by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to strip funding for President Obama's new immigration actions, senators voted 56-40 to send the spending bill to Obama's desk.

A procedural battle that pit Ted Cruz against many of his GOP colleagues required a rare weekend Senate session to resolve, and gave Democrats an opening to try to confirm a package of controversial Obama nominations that might otherwise have languished.

Earlier in the week, it was House Democrats who sought to derail the appropriations deal in protest of provisions that would undo components of the Dodd-Frank financial law...

More.

Also at Memeorandum.

Another Major Stormfront Barrels Toward Southern California

I love it.

At LAT, "Rain forecast for Monday as third Alaskan storm takes aim at L.A."

Plus, more video from the last storm:

Elizabeth Warren’s Government Shutdown

It's hard to find a more revolting Democrat dirtbag than Elizabeth Warren, and they've got a deep bench, so that's saying something.

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary:

The specter of a potential government shutdown is haunting Washington today. But it isn’t Ted Cruz and what the liberal mainstream media considers his gang of Tea Party obstructionists who are the principle threat to the passage of the so-called Cromnibus bill that will avert the possibility of a repeat of the 2013 standoff. Instead it is the darling of the liberal media, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is seeking to derail the compromise forged by House Speaker John Boehner and Democrats. Warren is calling on liberals to vote against the deal because among its provisions are measures raising the limits on campaign contributions and scaling back some of the onerous regulations on banks and Wall Street firms in the Dodd-Frank bill that have caused such havoc. But don’t expect the same media that labeled Cruz an arsonist to speak ill of Warren’s efforts to thwart efforts to keep the government funded.

Cruz has been loudly and frequently criticized both by liberals and some conservatives for deciding that his efforts to thwart the implementation of ObamaCare took precedence over the need to keep the government funded. Even those who sympathized him on the substance of this issue thought he was unreasonable in his insistence that voting for a compromise-funding bill made Republicans complicit with measures they opposed. The notion that principle ought to trump political reality and the necessity to avoid a standoff that could lead to a government shutdown (for which President Obama and his supporters were just as responsible as anything Cruz and the Tea Partiers did) was viewed as a disruptive approach that interfered with the responsibility of both parties to govern rather than to merely expound their views.

But the question today is why are those who were so quick to tag Cruz as a scourge of good government for his opposition to often messy yet necessary compromises to bills that require bipartisan support not putting the same label on Warren.

The reasons for this are fairly obvious. Most of the press clearly sympathizes with Warren’s rabble rousing on behalf of ineffective campaign-finance laws as well as a regulatory regime that has caused as much trouble as the problems it was supposed to solve. Warren’s rhetoric denouncing the rich and Wall Street is catnip for a press corps that shares her political point of view. By contrast, few in the media sympathized with Cruz’s last stand against ObamaCare, something that most in the president’s press cheering section viewed as a reactionary position that deserved the opprobrium they hurled at it.

Yet Warren’s attacks on the spending bill are no less extreme than anything Cruz was saying in 2013 or even now as he has ineffectively sought to rally conservatives to oppose the Cromnibus. Her claim that the Dodd-Frank changes were slipped into the bill in the middle of the night are false since they were negotiated with Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Barbara Mikulski, who is every bit the liberal that Warren claims to be. So is the notion that they are the product of a right-wing conspiracy is flatly false since, as the Washington Post notes, Democrats like Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and Rep. Nita Lowey voted for them in a stand-in alone vote last year.

She's a lying "Fauxcahontas" scumbag. That's why the leftist press lover her.

Keep reading.

Also at Politico, "Lindsey Graham: Elizabeth Warren’s ‘the problem’."

Saturday Rule 5

Here's an encore photo and paean to our Second Amendment friends of the opposite sex, especially Dana Loesch and her new book, Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm America.

Worst Storm in Years Hit San Francisco Bay Area

They got hit much harder than Southern California.

Via CBS News San Francisco:

The Other America

From VDH, at the O.C. Register (via Blazing Cat Fur):

Germany’s first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, supposedly once said that there was “a special providence for drunkards, fools and the United States of America.”

Apparently, late 19th century observers could not quite explain how the U.S. thrived when, by logic, it should not. That paradox has never been more true than today.

The U.S. government now owes more than $18 trillion in long-term debt. Even after recent income tax hikes for the very wealthy and huge cuts in the defense budget, the Obama administration will still run an annual budget deficit of nearly $500 billion.

No government official dares to trim Social Security or Medicare. Everyone knows that both programs are fiscally unsustainable.

More than 11 million undocumented immigrants are residing in the U.S. as federal immigration law is reduced to a bothersome irritant. A record 92 million American citizens ages 16 and older are not working.

Red-state and blue-state animosities reveal a nation more divided than at any time since the 1960s – or perhaps the pre-Civil War 1850s.

The permanent bureaucracy is awash in serial scandals. The IRS, VA, GSA, NSA, ICE and Secret Service have all deservedly lost the public trust.

Congress suffers from overwhelming public disapproval. President Obama’s approval rating hovers just above 40 percent.

Our new foreign policy could be characterized as managed decline. Three defense secretaries have retired or resigned under Obama. Two of them, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, wrote memoirs in which they blasted the administration. From Russia to the Pacific to the Middle East, the world seems to be descending into the law of the jungle as the U.S. withdraws from its role as a global overseer of the postwar order.

The Michael Brown shooting illustrates seeming racial divides not seen in 50 years. Al Sharpton once was seen as a social arsonist and tax delinquent. Now he appears to be the White House’s most influential adviser on racial matters.

Student-loan debt exceeds $1 trillion. Six years of college has become the new normal. More than a third of the students who enter college never graduate.

In such a depressing American landscape, why is the United States doing pretty well?

Put simply, millions of quiet, determined Americans get up every morning and tune out the incompetence of their government. Instead, these quiet Americans simply go to work, pursue their own talents, excel at what they do and seek to take care of their families.

The result of their singular expertise is that, even in America’s current illness, the nation soars above the global competition.
Only in America can you find the sort of innovation, talent, legal framework and can-do attitude needed to invent and refine hydraulic fracking and horizontal drilling. Just a few hundred thousand scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, oil riggers and skilled craftsman have revived the once-ossified oil industry for 320 million Americans.

The United States is not running out of fuels – as was predicted over the past 20 years. It instead has become the largest gas-and-oil producer in the world.

The epitaph for Silicon Valley is written each year. Its tech industry is copied the world over. Yet, seemingly each year a new American technical innovation sweeps the world.

Neither drought, nor cumbersome regulations, nor unfair trade practices have stalled American agriculture. U.S. farms – where less than 2 percent of the population resides – have never turned out so much safe, nutritious and cheap food that is feeding the world and earning America hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign exchange.

The U.S. military – in which fewer than 1 in 100 Americans serves – is facing record cuts. The Navy will have fewer ships than the American fleet of World War I. The Air Force and the Marine Corps are shrinking. Yet superb American forces continue to ensure that the United States and its allies remain safe. Neither Vladimir Putin’s Russia, nor the communist Chinese hierarchy, nor the Iranian theocrats are quite ready to take on the U.S. military.

America is not saved by our elected officials, bureaucrats, celebrities and partisan activists. Instead, just a few million hardworking Americans in key areas – a natural meritocracy of all races, classes and backgrounds – ignore the daily hype and chaos, remain innovative and productive, and dazzle the world.

Stocks Tumble After Weak Oil Forecast

At WSJ, "How Crude Oil’s Global Collapse Unfolded: Tracing the Plunge In Oil Prices Back to Texas":

Since the 1970s, Nigeria has sent a steady stream of high-quality crude oil to North American refineries. As recently as 2010, tankers delivered a million barrels a day.

Then came the U.S. energy boom. By July of this year, oil imports from Nigeria had fallen to zero.

Displaced by surging U.S. oil production, millions of barrels of Nigerian crude now head to India, Indonesia and China. But Middle Eastern nations are trying to entice the same buyers. This has set up a battle for market share that could reshape the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and fundamentally change the global market for oil.

On Friday, crude prices dropped to their lowest level in five years after the International Energy Agency cut its forecast for global oil demand for the fifth time in six months. That signaled to investors that the world economy would struggle in the coming year, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling by 315.51 points, or 1.8%, to 17280.83. That’s the Dow’s biggest weekly percentage loss in three years.

Since June, the IEA has cut its demand forecast for 2015 by 800,000 barrels, while it says U.S. oil output will rise next year by 1.3 million barrels a day.

The drop in global oil prices from over $110 a barrel to under $62 on Friday has been portrayed as a showdown between Saudi Arabia and the U.S., two of the world’s biggest oil producers. But the reality is more complex, involving Libyan rebels and Indonesian cabdrivers as well as Texas roughnecks and Middle Eastern oil ministers. It reflects both the surging supply of crude and the crumbling demand for oil.

And the oil-price plunge may not end soon. Bank of America Merrill Lynch says U.S. oil prices could drop to $50 in 2015.

The roots of the price collapse go back to 2008 near Cotulla, Texas, a tiny town between San Antonio and the Mexican border. This was where the first well was drilled into the Eagle Ford Shale. At the time, the U.S. pumped about 4.7 million barrels a day of crude oil.

In 2009 and 2010, the global economy improved, demand for oil increased and crude prices rose, creating a large incentive to find new supplies. In Cotulla and elsewhere, U.S. drillers answered the call. “There was, for lack of a better term, an arms race for oil, and we found a ton of oil,” says Dean Hazelcorn, an oil trader at Coquest in Dallas.


Today, two hundred drilling rigs blanket South Texas, steering metal bits deep underground into the rock. Once drilled and hydraulically fractured, these wells yield large volumes of high-quality oil; at the moment, the U.S. is producing 8.9 million barrels a day, thanks to the Eagle Ford and other new oil fields.

Americans aren’t pumping more gasoline or otherwise using up all that new crude, and under U.S. laws dating back to the 1970s, it has been almost impossible to export.

As a result, American refineries snapped up inexpensive crude from Texas and North Dakota, using it to replace oil from Nigeria, Algeria, Angola and Brazil, and almost every other oil-producing nation except Canada.

OPEC sent the U.S. 180.6 million barrels in August 2008, a month before the first Eagle Ford well; in September 2014, it shipped about half that, 87 million barrels. That is about 100 fewer tankers of crude arriving in U.S. ports. They went elsewhere.

For a long time, it seemed like the world’s growing appetite for oil would soak up all the displaced crude. By 2011 prices began to hover between $90 and $100 a barrel and mostly stayed in that range.

But earlier this year, another trend began to come into focus, catching Wall Street energy analysts and other market watchers by surprise. In March, many analysts predicted global demand for crude oil would grow by 1.4 million barrels a day in 2014, to 92.7 million barrels a day.

That prediction proved wildly optimistic...

More.

Feminists Try to Save the 'Rape Culture' Narrative

Good luck with that.

At the Other McCain, "As UVA Rape Story Falls Apart; Feminists Try to Save ‘Rape Culture’ Narrative."

ZoNation: Hands Up, Can't Breathe

Via Theo Spark:

Total Control with Joy Corrigan

At Maxim, "Joy Corrigan Can’t Sit Still."

Elizabeth Warren's 'Festival of Hypocrisy'

Here's Charles Krauthammer on Senator Warren's grandstanding for the 2016 presidential primaries.

Camarillo Springs Mudslides

More from the big "Pineapple Express" that tore through the Southland today.

At CBS News Los Angeles:

Bill Whittle's Firewall: The New Barbarism

He the best!

Orange County's Catherine Keefe, an Obama Supporter, Slams ObamaCare as 'Hurting My Family...'

A great personal essay, and eminently depresssing.

From Ms. Keefe, at the Washington Post, "I’m an Obama supporter. But Obamacare has hurt my family":

What Obamacare hasn’t eliminated is worry: We’re deeply concerned about our ability to get quality medical care from doctors we trust. The day may soon come when we can’t afford the plans our doctors accept, or we’ll have to wait hours to seen. Will the best doctors flock to a cash-only model? How long can a good doctor be satisfied with the $39.75 the insurance company paid her for my annual check up a few months ago?

We had thought that our work and businesses had paid us enough to live on in these older years — but we’re discovering we didn’t account for such dramatic increases in health care costs. Medical expenses already gobble up 20 percent of our income. In 2015, if we keep the same plans, our premiums will rise $95 a month. We have no choice to opt out of the required pediatric dentistry or maternity coverage we’ll never use, so we’ll eventually have to settle for less generous policies, with higher deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums. My husband isn’t required by law to insure his one employee, though he feels it’s the right thing to do. As costs continue to rise, we may have to direct him to buy his own health insurance at his own cost.

We’ve already started the dance of enrollment all over again and are having a hard time finding partners. As I write this, the “Find a Provider” link on the Covered California website offers 2014 health providers, but not 2015, even though we’re shopping for 2015 insurance policies. Ditto Blue Shield. Administrators at our medical group won’t say yet if they’ll remain with Blue Shield. At least this year, we think we know the steps to the dance. Let the music begin.

A bleedin' nightmare. ObamaCare has objectively made healthcare in American worse.

But RTWT.

'I Am the Walrus'

From last night, while picking up my son from work, at the Sound L.A.

Peace of Mind
Boston
5:55 PM

Hitch a Ride
Boston
5:51 PM

Shake It Up
The Cars
5:41 PM

You're All I've Got Tonight
The Cars
5:37 PM

Dangerous Type
The Cars
5:33 PM

I Am the Walrus
The Beatles
5:21 PM

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
The Beatles
5:19 PM

Come Together
The Beatles
5:15 PM

Runnin' Down a Dream
Tom Petty
5:10 PM

Free Fallin'
Tom Petty
5:05 PM

REFUGEE
TOM PETTY
5:01 PM

Non-employment: The Vanishing Male Worker

This is kinda sad.

At NYT, "The Vanishing Male Worker: How America Fell Behind":

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Frank Walsh still pays dues to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, but more than four years have passed since his name was called at the union hall where the few available jobs are distributed. Mr. Walsh, his wife and two children live on her part-time income and a small inheritance from his mother, which is running out.

Sitting in the food court at a mall near his Maryland home, he sees that some of the restaurants are hiring. He says he can’t wait much longer to find a job. But he’s not ready yet.

“I’d work for them, but they’re only willing to pay $10 an hour,” he said, pointing at a Chick-fil-A that probably pays most of its workers less than that. “I’m 49 with two kids — $10 just isn’t going to cut it.”

Working, in America, is in decline. The share of prime-age men — those 25 to 54 years old — who are not working has more than tripled since the late 1960s, to 16 percent. More recently, since the turn of the century, the share of women without paying jobs has been rising, too. The United States, which had one of the highest employment rates among developed nations as recently as 2000, has fallen toward the bottom of the list.

As the economy slowly recovers from the Great Recession, many of those men and women are eager to find work and willing to make large sacrifices to do so. Many others, however, are choosing not to work, according to a New York Times/CBS News/Kaiser Family Foundation poll that provides a detailed look at the lives of the 30 million Americans 25 to 54 who are without jobs.

Many men, in particular, have decided that low-wage work will not improve their lives, in part because deep changes in American society have made it easier for them to live without working. These changes include the availability of federal disability benefits; the decline of marriage, which means fewer men provide for children; and the rise of the Internet, which has reduced the isolation of unemployment.

At the same time, it has become harder for men to find higher-paying jobs. Foreign competition and technological advances have eliminated many of the jobs in which high school graduates like Mr. Walsh once could earn $40 an hour, or more. The poll found that 85 percent of prime-age men without jobs do not have bachelor’s degrees. And 34 percent said they had criminal records, making it hard to find any work.

The resulting absence of millions of potential workers has serious consequences not just for the men and their families but for the nation as a whole. A smaller work force is likely to lead to a slower-growing economy, and will leave a smaller share of the population to cover the cost of government, even as a larger share seeks help.

“They’re not working, because it’s not paying them enough to work,” said Alan B. Krueger, a leading labor economist and a professor at Princeton. “And that means the economy is going to be smaller than it otherwise would be.”

Keep reading.

Storm Slams Southern California

It's the so-called "Pineapple Express."

Whatever it's called, it's putting a serious dent in the California drought.

At LAT, "Live updates: Southland storm brings heavy rain, rockslides, flood warnings."

Plus, "Mudslides batter Southern California residents who suffered through fires," and "L.A. storm: Walkway falls on car; roof collapses."

Also at ABC7 Los Angeles ,"HEAVY RAIN PROMPTS FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR LA REGION."

The Left's War Against Justice and Peace

From David Horowitz, at FrontPage Magazine:

When rioters and “protesters” defend criminals and attack the police it is not a protest. It is an attack. When radicals and rioters defend the guilty and attempt to prosecute the innocent, it is not a protest. It is an attack. When they make race an issue when it is clearly not an issue, it is an attack. When whites are regarded as guilty before the fact and blacks guiltless even after the facts show they are guilty, it is not a protest; it is an attack. It is a calculated attack and the target is America, is us.

“No Justice, No Peace!” is the cry of modern lynch mobs. It means “Our Justice, Or Else” – or else we will burn your city down. Or else we will burn your system down. This is the agenda of the left in the streets and of their supporters in the White House and the Democratic Party:

“We are going to fundamentally transform the United States of America: your system of justice, your system of governance and your system of laws. If we can’t do that, we are going to burn it down.”

Conservatives need to stop dropping their jaws when progressives say “My mind is made up don’t confuse me with the facts” – and mean it. Conservatives need to recognize that the only facts that matter to progressives are the ones that justify their attacks. The mobs who have occupied our streets are not protesting injustice. They are a lynch mob demanding their due. They want officers of the law handcuffed and hung, and criminals (aka “political prisoners”) set free. They want honest juries disbanded, and racist judgments the rule.

Understand that our president and his chief civil rights officer, who are encouraging the “protests,” are racists, as is the Democratic Party which exerts monopoly control over every major inner city in America. Why else would Obama and Holder look to Al Sharpton, who is certainly the nation’s most prominent racist, as their chief adviser on race relations?

Al Sharpton is author of the fundamental transformation of the civil rights movement into a racial lynch mob, which took place decades ago. It probably began with the teenager Tawana Brawley, who accused white cops of raping her because she was afraid of being beaten by her mother when she failed to come home. Sharpton led the charge, whose self-appointed posses ruined these officers’ careers and lives. The progressive phrase of the day was: “Even if Tawana Brawley was lying, she was telling the truth.” (Because white men regularly raped black women – a bigger lie than Brawley’s own tall tale.)

Sharpton has made his career as a slanderer of whites in too many cases to list. Think only of the innocent Duke LaCrosse players whose careers and reputations he and his minions destroyed for a year while defending their criminal accuser who was black. Think of Paula Deen, who voted for Obama and gave millions of her self-made fortune to poor black children, but was falsely and successfully framed as a racist by Sharpton and Co., until her multi-million dollar empire lay in ruins. Nor are apologies ever necessary for black lynchers like Sharpton. There are probably more cases like this of whites who have been destroyed by black racists than there are of blacks being shot for being black by law enforcement officers. And there are surely a lot more cases of blacks being shot for being black by other blacks...

More.

Oh My! White Millennials Abandon Obama!

Now that's some hope and change!

At Gallup, "Obama Loses Support Among White Millennials":

President Barack Obama's job approval rating in 2014 among white 18- to 29-year-olds is 34%, three points higher than among whites aged 30 and older. This is the narrowest approval gap between the president's previously strong support base of white millennials and older white Americans since Obama took office.

Just look at this as a key barometer of how The One has alienated white America. If you can't keep the hipster Millenials, who can you keep?

More.

America's Worst Homosexual Power Couple

From Jamie Kirchick, at the Daily Beast, "The Rise and Fall of Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge, America’s Worst Gay Power Couple":

Contrary to the popular narrative, TNR did not “die” last week. Its demise as a thoughtful journal of liberal (in the classical sense of the word) thought was foreordained the day Hughes purchased the magazine. And the signs that he would destroy The New Republic as we knew it were clear for anyone willing to take off their ideological blinders. For behind the seemingly accomplished, smart, and creative prodigy that supposedly is Chris Hughes lies a deeply insecure man with few accomplishments to his name and a heavy burden to prove his self, not to mention net, worth. Hughes’s wealth and status owe little to his ingenuity as a supposed Facebook “co-founder” but rather his luck at being in the right place at the right time...

Heh.

RTWT.

Enhanced Interrogations Saved Lives

At the Wall Street Journal, "Ex-CIA Directors: Interrogations Saved Lives."

And ICYMI, "Andrea Tantaros is Awesome!"

LeBron James Puts Arm Around Duchess of Cambridge, Breaks Royal Protocol

At Telegraph UK, "Kate's reaction to LeBron James' royal protocol error" (VIDEO).

And the Los Angeles Times, "What did LeBron James do wrong while posing with the royal couple?"

People don't get it's not OK for LeBron James to slide his hand down Kate's waist not b/c she's a princess, but b/c she's a woman #feminism

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) December 9, 2014

Would it be OK for #LeBron to get all feely on another woman who didn't invite it, but Kate should suck it up because she's royal? WTF?

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) December 9, 2014

#LeBron doing *this* is not OK, not because Kate's a princess, but because she's a woman. #feminism pic.twitter.com/Pct1sY9kJY

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) December 9, 2014

Democrats Lost the South via Culture War and Elitism

They're such stuck up, contemptuous assholes.

From Timothy Carney, at the Washington Examiner.

The Death of OPEC

At Astute Bloggers, "$50 Per Barrel Oil Is Coming: 'OPEC No Longer Exists In Any Meaningful Sense'."

Andrea Tantaros is Awesome!

Ms. Tantaros' response to the left's CIA torture report is so dead on it's practically the last word you need to hear on the despicable Democrat traitors.

And this of course explains why the hate-addled, treasonous fever swamp progs have gone ballistic, at Memeorandum.

Here's the clip, on YouTube.

And here she is on Twitter, reporting on the left's predictably depraved attacks:

I can always tell when I'm hitting a nerve and some truth bc the lefty front groups send mass emails out for people to tweet me mean things.

— Andrea Tantaros (@AndreaTantaros) December 10, 2014

Americans will die bc of this memo while US becomes intel pariah. Progressives are children. They should never be trusted w natl security.

— Andrea Tantaros (@AndreaTantaros) December 10, 2014

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7

On sale, at Amazon, Shop Amazon - Save $25 on the all-new Fire HD 7.

How the Nation is Failing Today's Troops and Veterans

At the Military Times, "America's Military: A Force Adrift":

For many of the war-weary troops who deployed to combat zones over and over again for 13 years, the end of an era of war in Iraq and Afghanistan is good news.

But for Marine Sgt. Zack Cantu and other service members, it's a total morale killer. For many of them, particularly the young grunts and others in combat arms specialties, it's the realization that they may never go into battle for their country and their comrades.

"Most people in [the Marine Corps] are in because of the wars," said the 25-year-old Cantu, a former infantryman at Camp Pendleton, California. Cantu has retrained as a telephone system and computer repairer, a specialty more likely to survive as the service downsizes.

"Now, everyone's coming to the realization, 'It's probably not going to happen for me,'" he said.

The wars against America's enemies gave troops like Cantu a noble purpose. Their training had focus, their sacrifices were appreciated by a largely grateful nation. That gratitude was reflected from the White House to the citizen in the street, all of whom heaped praise upon military members for their service.

Congress lavished generous pay increases and expanded benefits on them while spending deeply to provide the gear and weapons they needed. Recruiters raced to grow the size of the services, and society vowed to never again undervalue the 1 percent of the country who stepped forward to keep them safe.

Today, however, that gratitude seems to be dwindling. The services have weathered several years of deep cuts in funding and tens of thousands of troops have been unceremoniously given the boot. Many still in uniform and seeking to retire from the military fear the same fate, as those cuts are not yet complete.

A Military Times survey of 2,300 active-duty troops found morale indicators on the decline in nearly every aspect of military life. Troops report significantly lower overall job satisfaction, diminished respect for their superiors, and a declining interest in re-enlistment now compared to just five years ago.

Today's service members say they feel underpaid, under-equipped and under-appreciated, the survey data show. After 13 years of war, the all-volunteer military is entering an era fraught with uncertainty and a growing sense that the force has been left adrift.

One trend to emerge from the annual Military Times survey is "that the mission mattered more to the military than to the civilian," said Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University who studies the military. "For the civilian world, it might have been easier to psychologically move on and say, 'Well, we are cutting our losses.' But the military feels very differently. Those losses have names and faces attached to [them]."

Keep reading.

U.S. Losing Global Influence

On Obama's watch.

At IBD, "Obama Blamed for Decline In U.S. Global Leadership: Poll."

It's Almost Showtime!

Tonight's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show!

ObamaCare’s Casualty List

At WSJ, "Three elections later, the law continues to be a political catastrophe for Democrats":

Mary Landrieu ’s defeat in Saturday’s Louisiana Senate runoff was no surprise, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored as inevitable. Ms. Landrieu was a widely liked three-term incumbent, and her GOP foe was hardly a juggernaut, yet she lost by 14 points after Washington Democrats all but wrote her off. Think of Ms. Landrieu as one more Democrat who has sacrificed her career to ObamaCare.

It’s hard to find another vote in modern history that has laid waste to so many political careers. Sixty Democrats cast the deciding 60th vote for the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010, but come January only 30 will be left in the Senate. That’s an extraordinary political turnover in merely three elections, the largest in the post-Watergate era. As it happens, the law has been nearly as politically catastrophic for Democrats as Watergate was for Republicans.

Three of the ObamaCare 60 died in office, while 19 declined to run for re-election. Some of the retirees left for reasons such as becoming Secretary of State ( John Kerry ), but others left because their own re-election prospects were hardly stellar. Think Chris Dodd of Connecticut in 2010 or Virginia’s Jim Webb in 2012. At least Democrats succeeded them.

Yet no fewer than eight of the retirees handed their seats to Republicans: They include Ben Nelson, of Cornhusker Kickback fame, who deprived his state of the pleasure of returning him to private life in 2010. After five terms, Jay Rockefeller was increasingly out of step with West Virginia, not least on ObamaCare. Max Baucus (Montana), Tim Johnson (S.D.) and Byron Dorgan (N.D.) would have had rough rides had they tried to stick around.

When they got the chance, voters dumped eight ObamaCare incumbents who dared to seek re-election. In addition to Ms. Landrieu, four are moderate-in-name-only Democrats who went along with President Obama ’s lurch to the left: Mark Begich (Alaska), Kay Hagan (North Carolina), Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor (Arkansas).

But conventional liberals like Russ Feingold (Wisconsin) and Mark Udall (Colorado) also lost in states Mr. Obama carried twice. In Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter left the GOP to vote for ObamaCare after Republican Pat Toomey announced he’d run against him in a primary. Specter, since deceased, lost the Democratic primary to Joe Sestak, who lost to Mr. Toomey in two degrees of ObamaCare separation.

Mr. Obama told Democrats at a March 2010 pep rally that he knew they faced “a tough vote” but was “actually confident” that “it will end up being the smart thing to do politically because I believe that good policy is good politics.” That month, New York Senator Chuck Schumer claimed on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “by November those who voted for health care will find it an asset, those who voted against it will find it a liability.”

Mr. Schumer has since recanted, calling ObamaCare a disaster for the party of government. Nancy Pelosi said his remarks were “beyond comprehension,” which for liberals like her happens to be true. Their goal is to expand the entitlement state whether the public likes it or not, figuring that sooner or later enmity will subside and new programs will acquire a constituency. So it has always been in the Entitlement Age—until ObamaCare...

More.

RELATED: At Politico, "The Dems' Final Insult: Landrieu Crushed."