Update on Brianna Wu

Following-up from last October, "Brianna Wu Goes Into Hiding — #GamerGate."

See Milo Yiannopoulos, at Breitbart, "The Wacky World of Wu: The Tortured History of GamerGate's Self-Styled Feminist Martyr."

Well, this definitely clears a number of things up. Turns out, for example, Brianna Wu used to be John Flynt.

More:

In October, Brianna Wu failed to attend a scheduled recording of an internet radio show hosted by the present correspondent in which she was to answer charges that she was responsible for whipping up a media frenzy about GamerGate supporters, accusing them of crimes to which she cannot possibly have linked them to the satisfaction of any law enforcement agency.

Wu later claimed to be “on the run” and “in fear of her life” while continuing to conduct media interviews from her home. She has since positioned herself as what some call a “professional victim,” soliciting pity and crowdfunded donations on the back of ever-more outlandish and implausible claims of real-world persecution on social media. But there has not been a single arrest or prosecution on the basis of any complaint she has made, either to the police or to the FBI, about the harassment she says she has received.

Rialto Police Officer's Son Mauled by K-9 Belgian Malinois, Has Leg Amputated

The neighbor busted down the gate and tried to break the dog's death grip.

At LAT, "Son of Rialto officer has leg amputated at ankle after attack by police dog."

Chicago Law School Professor Eric Posner: 'Students today are more like children than adults and need protection...'

This is bizarre.

See, "Universities Are Right — and Within Their Rights — to Crack Down on Speech and Behavior."

Read it at the link.

Also, from Noah Rothman, "No, professor, you shouldn’t treat the oversize toddlers in your classroom like ‘children’," and the College Fix, "SPEECH CODES ARE GREAT BECAUSE STUDENTS ARE BRAIN-IMPAIRED IDIOTS, LAW PROF SAYS."

Islamic State Lays Siege to Key Base at al-Baghdadi, Iraq

See Noah Rothman, at Hot Air, "That ISIS attack on an Iraqi military base was a lot worse than the Pentagon let on":

It sounded like a close call when the story broke. Little did we know how close it truly was.

On Thursday, the Pentagon disconfirmed reports that a successful ISIS assault on the al-Baghdadi district of Anbar Province culminated in an assault on the al-Asad Airbase. That 25-square mile facility houses 320 U.S. Marines and other American military personnel who are tasked with advising the Iraqi Security Forces in their fight against ISIS.

According to a Navy spokesperson, early reports that indicated the base had been surrounded and under assault were inaccurate. Only “ineffective indirect fire” near that base had been reported, the Navy insisted. Despite the fact that this facility has come under mortar and rocket attacks in the past, this particular assault was not a threat to American servicemen and women.

A CBS News report published on Friday morning indicated, however, that this attack was more threatening and coordinated than the Pentagon initially conceded. No fewer than eight militants and at least three suicide bombers penetrated al-Asad before they were dispatched by ISF troops. According to CBS News, however, American soldiers were deep enough inside the base at the time of the attack that they were in no immediate danger.

More.

VIDEO: Alabama Policeman Fired, Arrested After Slamming Indian Grandfather to Ground

At the Birmingham News, via Memeorandum, "Alabama police fire, arrest the officer who badly injured Indian grandfather during sidewalk stop."

Watch: "Video shows Alabama police throwing grandfather from India to the ground."

David Carr, New York Times Columnist, Dies at 58

It's pretty bizarre, but he died just hours after appearing with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras in a panel discussion, including Edward Snowden by live feed, on the documentary "Citizenfour."

I liked Carr's columns, and routinely blogged his stuff. Some of my commenters objected --- mainly because they object to anything from the far-left Old Gray Lady. But I'm like Althouse when it comes to leftist media bias: you go to political war with the mainstream journalism that you have.

In any case, at the New York Times, "David Carr, Times Critic and Champion of Media, Dies at 58," and "David Carr, a Journalist at the Center of the Sweet Spot."

Also at Memeorandum.

Canada's Sun News Shuts Down

Kind of abruptly, at that.

At BCF, "Sun News Network Is No More."

Also, see Kathy Shaidle, at Pajamas, "Canada’s Sun News Goes Off the Air."

Runaway School Bus in Minnesota

Wild.

It's the End of Sex as We Know It

From Mark Hemingway, at the Federalist.

I great piece.

American Express-Costco Divorce Shakes Up Credit-Card Industry

This is interesting, at WSJ, "Costco Cards Account for One Out of Every 10 AmEx Cards in Circulation":

American Express Co. and Costco Wholesale Corp. are ending their 16-year relationship, a surprise move that pummeled AmEx’s stock price and will trigger a major upheaval in the card industry.

The unusual partnership, in which Costco exclusively accepted AmEx cards, had driven a significant chunk of business to the New York card company. In addition, AmEx and Costco issued a credit card together that could also be used at other merchants. When the arrangement ends next year, millions of customers will be forced to use a different credit card when shopping at the wholesale store.

The failure to agree on new terms was a fresh blow to AmEx, which was already falling short of some sales targets. American Express Chief Executive Ken Chenault said the move, affecting roughly one in 10 AmEx cards in circulation, would eat into the company’s results in the next two years.

On Thursday, AmEx’s shares dropped $5.53, or 6.4%, to $80.48, its largest one-day percentage decline since August 2011.

The move sets up a race among credit-card firms to team up with the fast-expanding wholesale club, which sells everything from car tires to smoked salmon...

More.

Putin's Latest Victory

At WSJ, "The Minsk accord ratifies a Russian satrapy in Ukraine":

The last time the Kremlin signed an agreement to end the war in Ukraine—as recently as September—it promised to withdraw “military equipment as well as fighters and mercenaries” from the war zone, ban offensive operations and abide by an immediate cease-fire. In exchange the Ukrainian government granted unprecedented political autonomy to its rebellious eastern regions.

Moscow and its proxy militias in Ukraine have been violating the so-called Minsk Protocol ever since. Russian troops and equipment have poured across the Ukrainian border to support the separatists. Together they have seized an additional 200 square miles of territory, rained deadly rocket fire on the port city of Mariupol and encircled thousands of Ukrainian troops defending a strategic railway link in the village of Debaltseve.

So what better time for Vladimir Putin to agree to another cease-fire that consolidates his military gains, extracts additional political concessions from Kiev, puts off further Western sanctions, and gives President Obama another diplomatic alibi not to supply Ukraine’s demoralized and ill-equipped military with desperately needed defensive weapons?

That’s our read of the deal reached in Minsk on Thursday between Mr. Putin and Petro Poroshenko, with Germany and France acting as handmaids to the Ukrainian president’s forced capitulation. In theory the agreement requires the departure of “mercenaries” from eastern Ukraine, the creation of a buffer zone between the two sides, and a pullback of heavy weapons from the front lines. It also calls for a cease-fire to begin Sunday morning, local time.

But these are all but identical to the commitments Moscow has already broken, and nobody should be surprised if separatists and their Russian patrons use the next 48 hours to press their advantage in Debaltseve. Worse is that the agreement forces Kiev to fork over additional gifts to the breakaway regions, including an independent police force and the resumption of pension and salary payments for state employees. Ukraine must settle for a promissory note from Mr. Putin that he will allow Ukraine to regain control of the border with Russia.

All of this gives the Kremlin the benefits of establishing a de facto satrap without having to foot the costs of sustaining it or assume political responsibility. It turns eastern Ukraine into another of Russia’s “frozen conflicts,” akin to those it has with Moldova over Transnistria or Georgia over Abkhazia, with an option of taking the conflict out of the freezer at will. Merely the threat of doing so will give Mr. Putin a whip hand over Kiev should it continue to seek closer ties to the European Union and NATO.

Then again, nobody should be surprised if this cease-fire collapses as quickly as the last one did. The eagerness with which France and Germany proved willing to renegotiate a cease-fire that Mr. Putin had already broken only shows that future violations will carry no real price. So he will continue to alternate between brute force and fake diplomacy, as his political needs require...

More.

Voters Want Ground Troops in Obama's War on Islamic State

From Andrew Malcolm, at IBD, "Voters' verdict: Obama's ISIS action plan is not good enough":

On Wednesday, President Obama sent a draft authorization for use of military power against ISIS. But already Americans say such a half-hearted assault on terrorists is not good enough.

As a political symbol (and to spread the blame when something goes wrong), Obama has asked Congress for authority to do what he's already been doing since September -- bomb ISIS as part of an international coalition and train and arm Kurds, Iraqis and Syrians.

This is authority the Nobel Peace Prize winner did not seek before attacking Libya in 2011, a successful war that also succeeded in turning that country into a lawless land of terrorist groups and marauding militias that killed four Americans in Benghazi.

But in a brief Wednesday afternoon statement on his authorization request (Scroll down for full C-SPAN video of that statement), Obama ended up saying as much about what he does not want to do.

"The resolution we’ve submitted today does not call for the deployment of U.S. ground combat forces to Iraq or Syria," Obama maintained. "It is not the authorization of another ground war, like Afghanistan or Iraq."

However, a new Rasmussen Reports poll also out Wednesday reveals for the first time that a majority of Americans are now sufficiently concerned about ISIS' barbarism and terrorist threat that it supports the use of ground combat troops again in Iraq as part of an international effort.

The poll of 800 likely voters found that 52% want to do more than Obama, 28% do not and 20% don't know.

The numbers show steady growth in support of ground troop deployment since September when 48% liked that idea and 36% were opposed. A key element in that support is involvement of other countries, especially Muslim ones.

A December Rasmussen survey found fully 79% agreeing with military experts (and disagreeing with Obama) that air assaults alone would be insufficient to defeat ISIS and U.S. ground troops would be necessary at some point.

Voters disagree by party, but not as sharply as you might expect--with 67% of Republicans favoring a ground troop commitment while a near majority of Democrats (45%) agree.

Coming just weeks after Obama boasted of withdrawing all American combat troops from Afghanistan and just four years after pulling all U.S. forces from Iraq, the Democrat is loathe to commit them again. Remember last summer when he openly confessed he had no ISIS strategy?

But some 2,500 are already back in Iraq. Obama stressed their mission is training. But they're armed and combat would seem inevitable. Canadian snipers recently engaged and dispatched an ISIS mortar crew firing on coalition forces...

Obama's the endless nightmare in the Oval Office. Americans are just counting down until they can be rid of this national embarassment.

Keep reading.

And see U.S. News, "Public Doubts Obama's ISIS Strategy."

'Radical Brownies' Spread Message of Social Justice in Oakland

I blogged about these poor children in January, "'Social Justice' Preschoolers March in 'Black Lives Matter' Protest in Oakland."

And now see CBS News Bay Area.

Also at Independent Journal Review, "Instead of Selling Cookies, California’s ‘Radical Brownies’ Spread ‘Black Lives Matter’ Messages."

Krauthammer: Obama Selfie Video is 'Distasteful'

The president's a national disgrace.

Netanyahu Speech to Congress Could Threaten U.S.-Israel Relations

Oh, the drama.

At LAT, "Israelis wonder whether Netanyahu is risking too much in Obama tussle":

Has Bibi gone too far this time? That's the question a lot of Israelis are asking.

Even in a country where chutzpah is not necessarily viewed as a political liability, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's escalating tussle with the Obama administration is beginning to overshadow other election issues — and heightening fear of long-term damage to Israel's most vital friendship.

In the face of a rare public rebuke from President Obama amid the furor over the Israeli leader's planned address to a joint session of Congress next month, Netanyahu — universally known by his nickname, Bibi — yet again brushed aside criticism and declared that he would use the speech to warn against the dangers of a nuclear deal with Iran.

A bit of nose-thumbing at Washington is a long Israeli tradition. But what began weeks ago as a seeming breach of protocol — House Speaker John A. Boehner inviting Netanyahu to address lawmakers without first clearing it with the White House, and the prime minister pressing ahead despite Obama's evident displeasure — has grown into what some veteran diplomatic observers are describing as a full-blown threat to the staunch support that Washington has long offered Israel in the international arena.

"This is the sort of thing that leaves scars," former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Itamar Rabinovich said Monday, speaking on Israeli radio. "I fear that this sets the prime minister and the U.S. administration on a collision course."

With Israel's election campaign in full swing, and the prospective speaking date falling only two weeks before the March 17 vote, Netanyahu's election opponents have cried campaign foul since plans for the speech were unveiled.

In the latest salvo, Zehava Galon of the left-leaning Meretz party asked the main electoral body to block live broadcasts of the speech by Israeli media. Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog, Netanyahu's main opponent, called the planned address a "strategic" mistake.

The Netanyahu camp has denied any political motive for the speech. Netanyahu struck a conciliatory note Tuesday evening, with his office announcing that he had offered condolences over the death of U.S. hostage Kayla Mueller, who had been held captive by Islamic State militants. In the same statement, the prime minister appeared to be trying to lower the temperature on the speech controversy.

"This is not a personal disagreement between President Obama and me," the prime minister was quoted as saying. "I deeply appreciate all that he has done for Israel in many fields. Equally, I know that the president appreciates my responsibility, my foremost responsibility, to protect and defend the security of Israel. I am going to the United States not because I seek a confrontation with the president, but because I must fulfill my obligation to speak up on a matter that affects the very survival of my country." ...

More.

Cut-and-Run Obama Shuts Down Yemen Embassy

From Michelle Malkin, "“Success story” update! Cut-and-run Obama shuts down Yemen embassy."

Also at the Washington Post, "A major setback in the fight against al-Qaeda: CIA scales back in Yemen."

When Obama says the "tide of war is receding" he means the U.S. is ceding the battlefield to the enemy.

Obama Wants Political Cover for His Planned Strategy of Military Defeat

At WSJ, "The War Irresolution: Obama wants Congress to endorse his hesitant anti-ISIS strategy":

Napoleon famously said that in warfare if you vow to take Vienna—take Vienna. President Obama ’s version of that aphorism might be—on the way to Vienna stop to summer in Salzburg, only use air power, and if the fighting isn’t over in a couple of years call the whole thing off.

How else to interpret the amazing draft of a resolution that Mr. Obama sent to Congress Wednesday requesting an authorization to use military force against Islamic State? The language would so restrict the President’s war-fighting discretion that it deserves to be called the President Gulliver resolution. Tie me down, Congress, please. Instead of inviting broad political support for defeating ISIS, the language would codify the President’s war-fighting ambivalence.

The draft is especially notable for its disconnect between military ends and means. The preamble contains a long and accurate parade of horribles about the “grave threat” posed by Islamic State. These include “horrific acts of violence” against women and girls, the murder “of innocent United States citizens,” and its intention “to conduct terrorist attacks internationally, including against the United States, its citizens, and interests.” Really bad guys.

But then the resolution proceeds to inform these killers about the limits of what the U.S. will do to defeat them. Mr. Obama wants Congress to put into statutory language that it “does not authorize the use of the United States Armed Forces in enduring offensive ground combat operations”; and that “the use of military force shall terminate” in three years “unless reauthorized.”

The time limit alone is reason to oppose the resolution, as we’ve seen in Afghanistan. Mr. Obama’s deadline on U.S. operations there has given the Taliban confidence to wait us out. A time limit also tells our coalition allies that the U.S. commitment against ISIS could end no matter the state of war at the time. Mr. Obama has said himself that degrading and destroying ISIS may take years, yet his draft would force the next President to seek a new authorization in 2018.

As for ground troops, Mr. Obama is asking Congress to endorse a military strategy that his own generals have said may be deficient. In a letter to Congress elaborating on the draft authorization, Mr. Obama says his draft “would provide the flexibility to conduct ground operations” in “limited circumstances, such as rescue operations” or “the use of special operations forces to take military action against ISIL leadership.” He says the resolution would only bar “long-term, large-scale ground combat operations” as in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But then get ready to parse the meaning of “enduring” and “offensive” ground operations. Is enduring more or less than a year? Or a month? We’d guess that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders takes the under.

“Offensive” is even more subject to interpretation. Does that mean ground troops are acceptable as long as they shoot in self-defense? Or that they can do everything but take territory? Winning a war is hard enough without such legal complications.

Mr. Obama’s draft language fairly describes his current war strategy. But a flawed military strategy that is ambiguous is better than a flawed strategy written into law. Mr. Obama’s strategy can be changed by the next President—unless it is codified by a flawed authorization.

Mr. Obama’s language could also get worse as it moves through Congress. Many Democrats and GOP libertarians want even more specific limits on ground troops, a shorter time limit, and a geographic limit on where the U.S. can fight.

Yet the flaws in this half-hearted war strategy are already clear. ISIS continues to hold nearly all of the territory it did when Mr. Obama announced his plans in September. One exception is the town of Kobane in Syria, where Kurdish troops drove out the jihadists with U.S. bombing help. But Kobane now resembles Dresden after World War II—a bombed out, empty shell.

Many ISIS commanders have been killed, and they have been forced to move more furtively. But they were still able to stage an attack on the Kurdish oil city of Kirkuk in the last month. And they are conducting widespread assassinations against Sunni tribal leaders who resist them and ought to be allies of the U.S.-led coalition.

ISIS is also using its staying power against U.S. bombing to burnish its credentials as the jihadist vanguard. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that U.S. intelligence officials now say foreign fighters are joining Islamic State “in unprecedented numbers,” including 3,400 from Western nations out of 20,000 from around the world...

Still more.

Behind NBC's Decision to Suspend Brian Williams

At the New York Times, "Frantic Efforts at NBC to Curb Rising Damage Caused by Brian Williams":

Hours before Brian Williams took the anchor’s chair for the nightly newscast on Feb. 4, a sense of dread began to spread through the Rockefeller Plaza offices of NBC News.

The military newspaper Stars and Stripes had just published an article in which Mr. Williams acknowledged that he had exaggerated an account of a helicopter journey in Iraq. Worse, Mr. Williams had written a weak apology, reading it first to the newspaper, then posting it on Facebook. None of his superiors knew about it.

Alarmed, the news operation immediately began scrambling to contain the damage, according to people with knowledge of the events of the last week. A team was quickly assembled to draft a statement that Mr. Williams could read during his “NBC Nightly News” show that evening to address the issue. But the Facebook post boxed them in. The explanations had to match.

Mr. Williams went on the air hours later and delivered the statement, including an apology.

That was the start of a week of rapidly cascading events that besieged both Mr. Williams and the network. Interviews with people with knowledge of the process, as well as former employees who spoke to people at NBC, portray a news division operating in crisis mode as it investigated its own celebrity anchor and assessed whether he could salvage his position.

Control of the situation quickly passed to Stephen B. Burke, chief executive of NBCUniversal. Thursday afternoon, Mr. Burke called the first of a series of secret meetings, this one at the conference room in the executive suites on the 51st floor. Those present included Patricia Fili-Krushel, chairwoman of NBCUniversal News Group, and Deborah Turness, the president of NBC News. Mr. Williams did not attend.

Mr. Burke acted decisively, according to one person, telling his colleagues to gather the facts so that they could make an expeditious but fair decision. He decided to hold meetings at 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. each day until the issue was resolved.

Mr. Burke sought advice from Mr. Williams’s predecessor, Tom Brokaw, who canceled a vacation in the Virgin Islands to offer his feedback. The two shared uncertainties about the best approach, with Mr. Brokaw expressing concerns about how the episode would affect NBC News employees, according to one person with knowledge of the discussions. Mr. Burke also consulted David L. Cohen, an executive vice president at NBCUniversal’s parent company, Comcast, who was busy on an issue with much higher financial stakes — Comcast’s attempt to gain regulatory approval for a $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable.

During the next week, NBC News buckled down as both Mr. Williams and the network came under scrutiny, people with knowledge of the events said. An internal investigation and high-level meetings continued through the weekend, including one Saturday morning at Mr. Williams’s Manhattan apartment, at which it was decided that Mr. Williams would have to temporarily step aside. It culminated Tuesday morning, when Mr. Burke told Mr. Williams that he was being suspended without pay for six months.

“This has been a painful period for all concerned,” Mr. Burke said in a statement on Tuesday...

The dude's toast.

Keep reading.

Triple Slaying Arouses Fear of Far-Left Hate Crimes Against Muslims

Fear of murderous far-left anti-Muslim rampages after an atheist progressive murdered three Muslims in North Carlolina.

At the Los Angeles Times, "North Carolina triple slaying arouses fear of hate crimes against Muslims."

Well, according to the Times, it was all about not enough parking spots, or something.

But see Patrick Poole, at Pajamas, "Killer of 3 NC Muslim Students Was Hardcore Anti-Religion Atheist Progressive."

And on Twitter:

The Chapel Hill murderer was an atheist. People are DESPERATE to blame his atheism. But the police now say his motive was parking dispute.

— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) February 11, 2015

People are going to see what they want to see. It's never about religion or ideology unless the perp is a conservative. You never hear the end of it in that case.

The Case Against the Case Against the Crusades

From Ross Douthat, at the New York Times:

The Crusades as an epoch-spanning phenomenon aren’t in and of themselves a great stain on Christian history: They’re a phenomenon in Christian history that includes many stains and sins and great crimes, but also involves many admirable figures and heroic moments, many great tragedies, and many individuals and incidents that simply resist any kind of manichaean reading. Contemporary Christians should reject and disavow the great crimes that some Crusaders committed as they should reject and disavow the un-Christian hatreds that motivated them. But we are under no obligation to reject and disavow the entire multi-century struggle with an armed and equally-militant foe as merely the manifestation of some irrational religious “phobia,” let alone accede to analogies that cast an entire civilization’s worth of kings and theologians and soldiers as the moral equivalent of Osama Bin Laden.

Keep reading.

Hat Tip: Instapundit, "Obama is a historical illiterate."

Ukraine Fighting Continues Ahead of Key Meeting

At WSJ, "Leaders Are Due to Meet for High-Stakes Summit to Negotiate a Cease-Fire."

More Foreign Fighters Traveling to Syria to Join Civil War

At WSJ, "Counterterrorism Officials Worry Fighters Could Carry out Attacks When They Return Home":

WASHINGTON—The number of foreign fighters traveling to Syria to join in the country’s civil war is increasing despite months of bombardment by the U.S. and its allies, stoking worries among counterterrorism officials they could carry out attacks when they return home.

Officials from the National Counterterrorism Center, Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation plan to tell the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday that more than 150 U.S. citizens or permanent residents have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria to join extremist groups. Previously, officials had said about 100 Americans had fallen into that category. They are part of a larger group of 3,400 Westerners who have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria, the officials plan to say.

Meanwhile, more than 20,000 foreign fighters from over 90 countries have traveled to Syria, according to prepared testimony by Nicholas Rasmussen, the Counterterrorism Center’s director. That is up from previous U.S. estimates of about 19,000 foreign fighters.

The rate of fighters traveling to Syria is unprecedented, exceeding the rate of such travel to conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen or Somalia, Mr. Rasmussen plans to tell the committee.

Have you no decency, Huffington Post? No decency at all?

From Ashe Schow, at the Washington Examiner, "The Ernst-Truthers of the Huffington Post" (via Instapundit).

Well, the left is all about misogynist hatred, so this is no surprise.

Lilly Aldridge for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit

Photos at SI's swimsuit page.

Taya Kyle Expected to Testify at Trial of Husband's Alleged Murderer

At CBS This Morning:



Also at Dallas Morning News, "Chris Kyle's widow Taya will be among first witnesses in 'American Sniper' trial."

So, John McAdams Hasn't Updated the Marquette Warrior Since Last Wednesday...

... Because the university is revoking his tenure and canning his ass --- for a blog post!

The Marquette Warrior is apparently in legal limbo.

See Conor Friedersdorf, at the Atlantic, "Stripping a Professor of Tenure Over a Blog Post."

Make sure you follow the links, especially to Cheryl Abbate, who left Marquette's philosophy graduate program after McAdams' alleged "misogynist" attacks. See the loooong post, "Gender Based Violence, Responsibility, and John McAdams." She really goes after iOTW Report, claiming that the blog should be shut down because the "rape culture" comments. Yeah, how's that working out for ya?

Look, I'm sympathetic to the women on the receiving end of all these so-called misogynist attacks --- the GameGate dust-up hasn't been one of my hottest topics, mainly because I can't see how folks like Anita Sarkeesian deserve the abuse. But then, there's a lot of inside baseball in the gamer culture, so I leave the coverage to those better up on the issues --- Milo Yiannopoulos, for example. Or see Robert Stacy McCain, "The #GamerGate Hate Hoax."

Meanwhile, the FIRE has come to Professor McAdams' defense, "The Travesty of Due Process at Marquette."

BONUS: From Megan McArdle, at Bloomberg, "Free Speech and Ivory Towers."

Caroline Wozniacki for Sports Illustrated

At London's Daily Mail, "Caroline Wozniacki gets the deuces flowing by revealing her stunning picture in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2015 edition," and "In her teeny tiny tennis whites! Caroline Wozniacki displays her athletic figure in an array of bikinis for Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue."

Brian Williams Suspended from #NBC for Six Months Without Pay

He's washed up.

As Ace of Spades HQ says, "WarCock!"

And, "So Brian Williams Has Been Suspended, Without Pay, for Six Months."

More at the New York Times, "Brian Williams Suspended From NBC for 6 Months Without Pay."

(And at Memorandum.)

Shop Amazon

I'll be on campus teaching all day.

Shop Amazon until later.

Obama: Murdered Paris Jews Were Just Random Victims (VIDEO)

From Pamela Geller, at Atlas Shrugs, "VIDEO Obama: Murdered Paris Jews Were Just Random Victims."

O's moral equivalence gets tiring, and fast.

'Timbuktu'

The most beautiful moment in this film is the wonderful singing scene featuring Fatoumata Diawara.

My God I almost fell out of my seat.

You can hear her at the trailer, "Timbuktu Official Trailer 1 (2014)."

Once she's found out by the jihadists, however, you'll cry as she screams while being whipped. Forty-lashes was her punishment from the sharia court. No music allowed, praise be Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

I visited Laemmle's Royal Theatre last Tuesday to catch the show, the same day that Moaz al-Kasasbeh was burned alive.

Unfortunately, I can't wax ecstatic about the movie, as do so many of the MSM reviewers. The peace and happiness of the residents of Timbuktu is overtaken by the horror of Islamic jihad. The filmmakers try to use satire to make the terrorists look like bumblers, but sheer stupidity doesn't prevent them from wreaking death on the people in the community. It's pretty depressing. The problem is ISLAM. Until Muslims of the world abandon their religion, convert to Christianity or Judaism --- or Buddhism, for goodness sake --- then no amount of lush storytelling will transcend the existential horror.

See Joe Morgenstern, "‘Timbuktu’ Review: Artful Cry Against Thug Theocracy: Jihadists impose Shariah law in a West African village, suppressing joy in the process." And also Betsy Sharkey, at the Los Angeles Times, "'Timbuktu' a compelling exploration of extremism's absurdities," a mistake ridden review, pathetically. (Fatoumata Diawara does not play "La chanteuse ... roaming the streets, singing, laughing, taunting passersby, remnants of a black chador dragging in the dust behind her.")

Thankfully, A.O. Scott takes off the gloss, at the New York Times, "A Fury Arrives. Hypocrisy, Too: ‘Timbuktu,’ an Abderrahmane Sissako Film About Radical Islam."

The Dangerous Lie That 'Bush Lied'

From Judge Laurence Silberman, at the Wall Street Journal, "Some journalists still peddle this canard as if it were fact. This is defamatory and could end up hurting the country":

In recent weeks, I have heard former Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier on Fox News twice asserting, quite offhandedly, that President George W. Bush “lied us into war in Iraq.”

I found this shocking. I took a leave of absence from the bench in 2004-05 to serve as co-chairman of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction—a bipartisan body, sometimes referred to as the Robb-Silberman Commission. It was directed in 2004 to evaluate the intelligence community’s determination that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD—I am, therefore, keenly aware of both the intelligence provided to President Bush and his reliance on that intelligence as his primary casus belli. It is astonishing to see the “Bush lied” allegation evolve from antiwar slogan to journalistic fact.

The intelligence community’s 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) stated, in a formal presentation to President Bush and to Congress, its view that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction—a belief in which the NIE said it held a 90% level of confidence. That is about as certain as the intelligence community gets on any subject.

Recall that the head of the intelligence community, Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet, famously told the president that the proposition that Iraq possessed WMD was “a slam dunk.” Our WMD commission carefully examined the interrelationships between the Bush administration and the intelligence community and found no indication that anyone in the administration sought to pressure the intelligence community into its findings. As our commission reported, presidential daily briefs from the CIA dating back to the Clinton administration were, if anything, more alarmist about Iraq’s WMD than the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate.

Saddam had manifested sharp hostility toward America, including firing at U.S. planes patrolling the no-fly zone set up by the armistice agreement ending the first Iraq war. Saddam had also attempted to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush —a car-bombing plot was foiled—during Mr. Bush’s visit to Kuwait in 1993. But President George W. Bush based his decision to go to war on information about Saddam’s WMD. Accordingly, when Secretary of State Colin Powell formally presented the U.S. case to the United Nations, Mr. Powell relied entirely on that aspect of the threat from Iraq.

Our WMD commission ultimately determined that the intelligence community was “dead wrong” about Saddam’s weapons. But as I recall, no one in Washington political circles offered significant disagreement with the intelligence community before the invasion. The National Intelligence Estimate was persuasive—to the president, to Congress and to the media.

Granted, there were those who disagreed with waging war against Saddam even if he did possess WMD. Some in Congress joined Brent Scowcroft, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and former national security adviser, in publicly doubting the wisdom of invading Iraq. It is worth noting, however, that when Saddam was captured and interrogated, he told his interrogators that he had intended to seek revenge on Kuwait for its cooperation with the U.S. by invading again at a propitious time. This leads me to speculate that if the Bush administration had not gone to war in 2003 and Saddam had remained in power, the U.S. might have felt compelled to do so once Iraq again invaded Kuwait.

In any event, it is one thing to assert, then or now, that the Iraq war was ill-advised. It is quite another to make the horrendous charge that President Bush lied to or deceived the American people about the threat from Saddam.

I recently wrote to Ron Fournier protesting his accusation. His response, in an email, was to reiterate that “an objective reading of the events leads to only one conclusion: the administration . . . misinterpreted, distorted and in some cases lied about intelligence.” Although Mr. Fournier referred to “evidence” supporting his view, he did not cite any—and I do not believe there is any...

Keep reading.

Greek Prime Minister Rejects Extending Bailout and Seeks Loan to Keep Country Afloat

Hmm...

It's not going too well for the Greek Che Guevara.

At Euronews, "Greece needs a bridge loan not a bailout according to its new prime minister: A defiant Alexis Tspras has laid out his plans to dismantle what he calls Greece's 'cruel' austerity programme."

Is There Any 'Global Warming' We Can Trust?

See NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT, "Dellers on Temperature Adjustments, Cowton & More."

"Dellers" is James Delingpole, on whom brainless harpie Babs O'Brien lets loose an hysterical ad hominem attack: "Joy in Rightieville Over a Faux Climate Change Scandal."

If Babs had one scientific bone in her body I suspect she'd realize it's leftists who're anti-science.

Nothing is "settled" in scientific research. But when your mind is so closed off to the possibility of diversity --- including diversity of opinion --- there's no need to even discuss why surface temperature measurements might in fact be flawed.

Leftist regressivism is a religion. It's not about facts. It's a about faith.

Jim Clifton, Gallup CEO: I Might 'Suddenly Disappear' After Exposing Obama's 'Big Lie' on Unemployment

He'll be lucky if he "makes it home tonight."

At Gateway Pundit, "Gallup CEO: I May “Suddenly Disappear” for Telling Truth About Obama Unemployment Rate (Video)."

Plus, "Gallup CEO: 13 Million Jobs Lost - Only 3 Million Created Under Obama (VIDEO)."

The Roots of Obama's Appeasement

From Victor Davis Hanson, at National Review:

Members of the Obama administration have insisted that the Taliban are not terrorists. Those responsible for the recent Paris killings are not radical Islamists. The Muslim Brotherhood is largely secular. Jihad is a “legitimate tenet of Islam.” And “violent extremism,” “workplace violence,” or “man-caused disaster” better describe radical Islamic terrorism. Domestic terrorism is just as likely caused by returning U.S. combat veterans, according to one report by a federal agency.

What is the point of such linguistic appeasement?

The word “appeasement” long ago became pejorative for giving in to bullies. One side was aggressive and undemocratic; the other consensual and eager to avoid trouble through supposedly reasonable concessions.

But appeasement usually weakened the democratic side and empowered the extremist one.

The architect of appeasement — for example, Neville Chamberlain, former prime minister of Great Britain — was predictably a narcissist. Chamberlain believed that his own powers of oratory, his insights into reason, and his undeniably superior morality would sway even a thug like Adolf Hitler.

President Obama currently is convinced that his singular charisma and rare insight into human nature will convince the Taliban to peacefully participate in Afghan politics. Obama will supposedly also win over the Iranian theocracy and show it how nonproliferation is really to everyone’s advantage.

“Reset” diplomacy with Putin was supposed to lessen tensions — if, after the 2012 election, Putin just had more exposure to a flexible statesman of Obama’s wisdom.

Throughout history, without the vanity of the conceder, there would never have been appeasement.

Appeasement also always subordinates the interests of vulnerable third parties to the appeaser’s own inflated sense of self. When Chamberlain and the French prime minister Edouard Daladier signed the 1938 Munich Pact, they worried little about the fate of millions of Czechs who lost their country — and less about millions of Poles who were next in line for Hitler’s Blitzkrieg.

Reset diplomacy with Russia in 2009 was not much concerned about the ensuing danger to Crimeans or Ukrainians. When the Taliban takes over, hundreds of thousands of reformist Afghans will die.

Obama sees a deal with Iran as a way to cement his legacy as a breakthrough statesman. In comparison, the long-term consequences of a nuclear Iran on the security of tiny Israel or on the stability of the largely Sunni Arab Middle East are future and more abstract concerns for others.

Even major concessions never satisfy aggressive powers. It is a traditional Western liberal delusion — brought on by our wealth, leisure, and the good life — that autocrats appreciate magnanimity rather than see it as timidity to be exploited further...

More.

'Up on Cripple Creek'

Listened to The Band yesterday on satellite radio, while out to visit my mom in the high desert north of Palm Springs.

Holly Williams Reports on Difficulties in Defeating Islamic State

For CBS Face the Nation:

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."




Also at Lonely Conservative, "Saturday Funnies," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

More at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies, " and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's Sunday Funnies."

  Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Target Practice."

Charlotte McKinney Sunday Rule 5

This lady is crazy hot, at Egotastic!, "Charlotte McKinney Is Super Busty In White for Manhattan Shindig."

And at iOTW Report, "2 American sisters arrested for nude photos at Cambodia’s Angkor Temple."

More at the Other McCain, "Rule 5 Sunday: Wax Ecstatic."

See the lovely Rachel Alexander, at Right Wing News, "Leftist With Violent History Threatens to Kill Sheriff Arpaio, is Promptly Arrested."

At Maggie's Farm, "Don't Go There: 'WONG FOOK HING BOOK STORE'."

More from Ms. EBL, "Fifty Shades Dakota Johnson Rule 5."

Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart: Kenda Perez."

And Drunken Stepfather, "Jennifer Lawrence Naked With Snake of the Day," and "KENDALL JENNER AND CARA DELEVINGNE EROTICA FOR LOVE MAGAZINE OF THE DAY."

At WWTDD, "Miley Cyrus Topless With Patrick Schwarzenegger."

See also Odie's, "Wheel of Fortune ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

Knuckledraggin', "GODDAMN, LOOK AT THEM TITTIES!!!"

GCeleb, "Ashley Benson and Juicy Melons."

Still more at the Last Tradition, "Rule 5 Sunday - Helena Christensen."

Dana Pico, "Rule 5 Blogging: Jordan!"

90 Miles From Tyranny, "Morning Mistress."

Over to Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……is a horrible climate killing refrigerator, you may just be a Warmist."

A View From the Beach, "Shame on the Anti-Vaxxers (Jenny McCarthy Nude)."

Also, at Goodstuff's, "GOODSTUFFs BLOGGING MAGAZINE: TITBITS (176th Issue)."

Now over at Gator Doug's, "WRAPPING UP BROOKE ADAMS APPRECIATION WEEK."

Proof Positive, "Friday Night Babe: Linsey Godfrey!"

Crazy Uncle Bubba has "Saturday Short Shorts!!"

At the Hostages, "Welcome to Monday."

Drop your links in the comments if I've missed your Rule 5.

Until then...

New Data Shows That 'Vanishing' of Polar Ice Caps is Not the Result of Runaway 'Global Warming'

From Christopher Booker, at Telegraph UK, "The fiddling with temperature data is the biggest science scandal ever" (via Gateway Pundit and Memeorandum):

When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records – on which the entire panic ultimately rested – were systematically “adjusted” to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified.

Two weeks ago, under the headline “How we are being tricked by flawed data on global warming”, I wrote about Paul Homewood, who, on his Notalotofpeopleknowthat blog, had checked the published temperature graphs for three weather stations in Paraguay against the temperatures that had originally been recorded. In each instance, the actual trend of 60 years of data had been dramatically reversed, so that a cooling trend was changed to one that showed a marked warming.

This was only the latest of many examples of a practice long recognised by expert observers around the world – one that raises an ever larger question mark over the entire official surface-temperature record.

Following my last article, Homewood checked a swathe of other South American weather stations around the original three. In each case he found the same suspicious one-way “adjustments”. First these were made by the US government’s Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). They were then amplified by two of the main official surface records, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Giss) and the National Climate Data Center (NCDC), which use the warming trends to estimate temperatures across the vast regions of the Earth where no measurements are taken. Yet these are the very records on which scientists and politicians rely for their belief in “global warming”.

Homewood has now turned his attention to the weather stations across much of the Arctic, between Canada (51 degrees W) and the heart of Siberia (87 degrees E). Again, in nearly every case, the same one-way adjustments have been made, to show warming up to 1 degree C or more higher than was indicated by the data that was actually recorded. This has surprised no one more than Traust Jonsson, who was long in charge of climate research for the Iceland met office (and with whom Homewood has been in touch). Jonsson was amazed to see how the new version completely “disappears” Iceland’s “sea ice years” around 1970, when a period of extreme cooling almost devastated his country’s economy.

One of the first examples of these “adjustments” was exposed in 2007 by the statistician Steve McIntyre, when he discovered a paper published in 1987 by James Hansen, the scientist (later turned fanatical climate activist) who for many years ran Giss. Hansen’s original graph showed temperatures in the Arctic as having been much higher around 1940 than at any time since. But as Homewood reveals in his blog post, “Temperature adjustments transform Arctic history”, Giss has turned this upside down. Arctic temperatures from that time have been lowered so much that that they are now dwarfed by those of the past 20 years.

Homewood’s interest in the Arctic is partly because the “vanishing” of its polar ice (and the polar bears) has become such a poster-child for those trying to persuade us that we are threatened by runaway warming. But he chose that particular stretch of the Arctic because it is where ice is affected by warmer water brought in by cyclical shifts in a major Atlantic current – this last peaked at just the time 75 years ago when Arctic ice retreated even further than it has done recently. The ice-melt is not caused by rising global temperatures at all...

More.

Plus, "Climategate, the sequel: How we are STILL being tricked with flawed data on global warming."

So Radical Lesbian Rosie O'Donnell Can't Make Her Same-Sex Marriages Work?

I seriously could't care less about Rosie O'Donnell, but the Other McCain has one more hilarious entry in the ongoing follies of radical left's culture wars.

O'Donnell's not doing so great on the homosexual marriage front, as if that were a surprise.

See, "The Tragedy of Lesbian Divorce":

Notice that this is O’Donnell’s second lesbian wife. Her first marriage to longtime girlfriend Kelli Carpenter ended in 2007. Carpenter now has her own second wife, and the four O’Donnell-Carpenter children seem closer to Kelli than to Rosie. Nobody in the world of media is allowed to say a word about the unnatural weirdness of all this — two boys and three girls without fathers, one of them (Kelli’s youngest) conceived by artificial insemination — because equality!

And let me emphasize the "no fathers" point. Homosexual families are inherently anti-child, since the absence of a father in the household provides a built-in disadvantage to childhood development.

'The Years of Persecution 1933-1939'

I picked up Saul Friedlander's, Nazi Germany and the Jews: Volume 1: The Years of Persecution 1933-1939, back in 1998, or thereabouts.

I was working on my dissertation at the time, so I don't think I read it cover-to-cover. But for some reason, I picked it up again last weekend and started reading, and kept on going. I finished it up early this morning.

I've got a couple of other books in progress, but I'm going to dive back into Volume II as well, Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945: The Years of Extermination.

The spring semester starts up next week at my college, however, so I doubt I'm be able to fully rip through this time, cover-to-cover. But we'll see.

It's been a great, long and relaxing winter break. I've done a lot of reading. If feels like an accomplishment.

Massive Data Hack at Anthem Health Insurance Could Expose Millions

Target, Sony, and now Anthem --- of just the most recent examples.

Digital data storage just isn't that safe, frankly.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Anthem hack raises fears about medical data."

Also at CBS This Morning, "Anthem insurance data breach could be one of largest hacks in history," and "Why hackers target health providers like Anthem Insurance."

BONUS: At the New York Times, "Protecting Yourself From the Consequences of Anthem’s Data Breach," and at USA Today, "Anthem data breach: How to protect yourself."

Obama's Meeting with Muslim Leaders Included President of Hamas-Tied ISNA, Other Islamic Supremacists and Subversives

These are the secret meetings. The White House refused to release the names of the Islamists who met with Barack Hussein.

See Pamela Geller, at Atlas Shrugs.

Also, on Megyn Kelly's a few days ago, "White House Won’t Reveal Which Muslim Leaders Attended Obama’s Secret Meeting."

Harvard Bans Sexual Relationships Between Professors and Undergrads

Hmm...

Just how common is sex between professors and undergrads?

At the New York Times, "New Harvard Policy Bans Teacher-Student Relations":

Harvard University has adopted a ban on professors’ having sexual or romantic relationships with undergraduate students, joining a small but growing number of universities prohibiting such relationships. The move comes as the Obama administration investigates the handling of accusations of sexual assault at dozens of colleges, including Harvard.

The ban clarifies an earlier policy that labeled sexual and romantic relationships between professors and the students they teach as inappropriate, but did not explicitly prohibit professors from having relationships with students they did not teach.

Harvard said Thursday that the change had been made after a panel reviewing the institution’s policy on Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education, determined that the university’s existing policy language on “relationships of unequal status did not explicitly reflect the faculty’s expectations of what constituted an appropriate relationship between undergraduate students and faculty members.” It said the policy had been revised “to include a clear prohibition to better accord with these expectations.”

The change was recommended by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Committee on Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedures. It was made public Monday in a document revising the division’s sexual harassment policy.

Besides banning sexual and romantic relationships between professors and all undergraduates, the policy also bans such relationships between teaching staff, such as graduate students, and the students who fall under their supervision or evaluation.

 “Our rule is that if you are supervising, evaluating or grading someone, you should not have a sexual relationship with that person,” said Alison Johnson, a history professor who led the committee...

Still more at that top link.

And at the Harvard Crimson, "Professors Praise New FAS Sexual Harassment Procedures," and "Two College Students Dismissed for Sexual Misconduct."

Again, hmm... It's going to be another tool of feminists to destroy the lives of young men.

Lucy Collett at Zoo Today

Heh, as always, I love the accents, "Lucy Collett returns in naughty underwear for a new shoot!"

Parents of Journalist Austin Tice, Kidnapped in Syria in 2012, Slam Obama Admin's Terrorist Hostage Policy (VIDEO)

Clarissa Ward reported on the missing journalist last September, at CBS This Morning, "Family of kidnapped journalist Austin Tice calls for his release."

Debra Tice, mother of Austin, is heartbreaking at the clip above. After James Foley and Steven Sotloff were murdered, she said "It was such a gut punch, because we never imagined that that would happen to an American..."

And now they no longer doubt that that could happen to their own son --- and they're speaking out against President Obama's disinterest and inaction.

At CBS News, "Gov't handling of kidnapped Americans 'appalling'":

WASHINGTON -- Parents of a missing journalist detained in Syria and the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders are calling on the White House to help bring the journalist home safely and to improve U.S. policy on hostage cases.

Marc and Debra Tice of Houston said Thursday that they are taking part in meetings for a White House policy review on how to handle hostage cases. Their son, Austin Tice, has been missing since 2012 - 906 days by his mother's count.

"After almost two-and-a-half years ... we feel like we need to let everybody know that our son is missing - and will you please help us get him home?" Debra Tice pleaded during a news conference at the National Press Club.

On Feb. 16, the family plans to launch an online campaign with support from USA Today, McClatchy Newspapers and other media companies, placing online ads with the message "Free Austin Tice." The parents are asking supporters to sign a petition to President Barack Obama to do more to bring Tice home.

Austin Tice disappeared in August 2012 while covering the civil war in Syria. Tice is a former Marine who has reported for The Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, The Associated Press, CBS and other outlets. He was one of the few journalists reporting from Damascus when he vanished. In 2012, Tice and the staff of McClatchy Newspapers won the prestigious George W. Polk Award for war reporting.

The circumstances surrounding his disappearance are still a mystery. It's not clear what entity is holding him, but it is not believed to be the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Syrian government, the family said. The parents said they have been told by "credible sources" that Austin Tice is alive, reasonably well treated and that they need to be patient.

"There's a general confidence that he will come home safely," Marc Tice said. "That's about as much detail as we have."

The family has grown frustrated, though, with the U.S. government's coordination and sharing of information. Each agency has its own agenda, they said.

"It is appalling to us" that no single U.S. government entity is responsible for pursuing the safe return of Americans taken hostage abroad, said Debra Tice. "That has to change."

The family is advocating for a new U.S. policy that would provide a single point of accountability, responsible to the president, to pursue the safe return of hostages. They also are pushing the government to improve information sharing among government agencies and with families and to create protections for the hostages' interests and assets at home, such as online profiles, bank accounts and housing.

"We want to make sure that when Austin comes back, he has a life to come back to," Marc Tice said...

And see McClatchy, "Family of journalist missing in Syria campaigns anew for his return."

'Vacation Cutting' — More Than 500,000 Women and Girls at Risk of Female Genital Mutilation in U.S.

The Islamization of America proceeds apace.

At the Los Angeles Times, "More than 500,000 in U.S. could be at risk of female genital excision":

Nearly 507,000 women and girls in the United States could be at risk of female genital excision, including 57,000 in California, a new study has found.

That is more than twice the number that were thought to be at risk in 2000, the last year for which estimates are available.

Analysts at the Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit research organization in Washington, attributed the preliminary findings released Friday to an increase in immigration from countries where the practice is common, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Somalia.

It is unclear how many families continue the practice after moving to the U.S., but community activists say there is anecdotal evidence of girls being sent back to their parents’ home countries for “vacation cutting” and of traditional cutters traveling to the U.S. to circumcise girls in this country.

To estimate the number who may have undergone the procedure or be at risk, the research group used data collected by the Census Bureau for the 2013 American Community Survey to determine the number of women and girls whose families originate in countries where female genital excision is practiced. It then applied the prevalence rates in those countries to the numbers in the U.S.

The methodology is similar to that used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a study that found about 168,000 women and girls were at risk of genital excision in the U.S. in 1990, said Mark Mather, the group’s associate vice president for U.S. programs.

Campaigners have been urging the government to update its estimate, and the CDC is expected to release new figures this year.

“What’s happening around the other side of the world has implications for families here in the U.S.,” Mather said. “We’re seeing more and more of this with immigration and economic ties. Issues that most people might not have considered before may be emerging in their small towns and communities.”

California is the state with the highest at-risk population, followed by New York (48,000) and Minnesota (44,000), the Population Reference Bureau found.

“California historically has been a very important gateway state for immigrants, and I think that’s reflected in the numbers,” Mather said.


That is also true for many of the other states with high at-risk populations. But Mather said he would expect to see more of these families spreading across the U.S. in the coming years.

Turns out those Ethiopian, Egyptian, and Somalian immigrants aren't assimilating as fast as we'd like, or something.

More at the link.

Female genital mutilation is illegal in the U.S., although the Obama administration doesn't enforce the law, especially since Barack Hussein privileges Islamic values above universal human rights.

Voters Criticize Obama's Response to ISIS 'War Crimes'

At iOTW Report.

It's "what response?" at this point.

PREVIOUSLY: "'People Committed Terrible Deeds in the Name of Christ...'"

Islamic State Claims U.S. Hostage, Kayla Mueller, Killed in Airstrike

At the Los Angeles Times, "Jordanian airstrike kills U.S. hostage, purported militant statement says":

A purported statement from Islamic State militants said Friday that a Jordanian airstrike had killed an American aid worker who was being held hostage in the northeast Syrian city of Raqqa, an extremist stronghold.

There was no immediate confirmation of the report from Washington or means of verifying whether the militant claim was true.

In a message posted on social media, Islamic State purportedly declared that midday “crusader” airstrikes on Raqqa resulted in the death of the hostage. The post also gave the woman’s name, email address, phone number and a home address in Arizona.

It had been publicly known for months that a U.S. aid worker identified by the militants as Kayla Jean Mueller was being held.

News media had withheld Mueller's name out of concern for her safety. The 26-year-old woman did not appear in any of the hostage videos that Islamic State released in recent months.

“The crusader criminal air force struck a site outside of Raqqa city today at noon during Friday prayers, and the strikes lasted for one hour,” the purported Islamic State message said. “And we have confirmed the death of the American hostage by the bombs that fell on the site.”

In the purported post, Islamic State blamed the woman’s asserted death on the Jordanian air force, which has reportedly been conducting airstrikes on Islamic State targets in recent days.

“The losing Jordanian Air Force kills an American hostage,” read the headline of the message, sent via a Twitter account associated with Islamic State.

The group also posted a photograph of a bombed-out building compound identified as the site where the woman had been held. The message said nothing about other victims...

 More. (Also at Memorandum.)

Various reports have questioned the authenticity of Islamic State's claim, although Jordan today did indeed conduct airstrikes on ISIS jihadis inside Syria. See USA Today, "Jordan pounds Islamic State targets inside Iraq, Syria."

Kerrie McMahon

At Egotastic!, "Irish Model Kerrie McMahon Shows Off Killer Bikini Body Along the Southern California Beach Line."

Well, it's definitely been beach weather this last few days, heh.

Obama: 'We are summoned to push back against those who would distort our religion for their nihilistic ends...'

From Pamela Geller, at Atlas Shrugs:

Our religion? What religion is that? Islam is not my religion, Mr. President. Is it yours?

Obama’s speech today at the prayer breakfast continues to send shockwaves through this country.

Contrary to his claims that Christians were slaughtering in the name of Christ, we see none of that. Nowhere do you see Christians beheading, setting alight, or crucifying non-Christians while screaming “Christ is greatest!” Obama had the unmitigated gall to bring up the Spanish Inquisition and what was done at the end of that 800-year-old war, as well as the Crusades (which Obama mentioned as well), which was against the Muslim hordes close to 1000 years ago. Had it not been for Charles Martel beating back the Muslim armies, Europe would look like the hellhole that much of the Middle East looks like today.

Obama freely brought up Christianity’s ancient history, but did not mention Islam’s 1400-year bloody history of jihadi war, land appropriations, cultural annihilations and enslavements. He failed to mention the 1,400 jihad against the Jews raging still today against Israel and Jews across the world. And of course he did not discuss the religion’s bloody jihad now. On the contrary, he falsely claimed it was being “hijacked.” Hijacked, how? Jihadists are citing Quran chapter and verse. They are using Muhammad as their “perfect example.” Obama never said Christianity had been hijacked a thousand years ago. But he did make the outrageous claim that Jim Crow and slavery were sanctioned in the name of Christ.

Jesus did not behead, kill, rape or steal from conquered people, calling the theft righteous booty. Jesus did not marry a six-year-old. Mohammed did. And he slaughtered untold numbers, with his mujahadeen raping and pillaging every bloody step of the way.

Those of us who saw this coming back in 2008 and 2009 were excoriated, ridiculed, and marginalized for speaking the truth about Obama’s past. In 2007 I wrote an article for Israel National News entitled, “Op-Ed: Obama, the Muslim Thing, And Why It Matters.” Before Obama’s election, anyone who used his middle name Hussein was labeled a racist-anti-Muslim-Islamophobic-bigot. And yet the first call he made to a foreign “leader” after he was inaugurated was to terror leader Mahmoud Abbas. The first interview he gave was with al Arabiya television. His first world tour was an apology tour to the Muslim world, culminating in a speech from the leading Islamic university in Cairo, Al Azhar. He invited the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group to his speech in Cairo, despite the fact that it had been banned for decades. Then President Mubarak and his cabinet, America’s 30-year ally in that troubled region, could not attend Obama’s speech because of the terror presence.

It’s why I wrote my 2010 book, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America.

And now eight years later, with the global jihad roiling the world thanks to Obama’s support and sanction, he deigns to tell us what our religion is.

President Dawah. The more jihad rages, the more Obama proselytizes for Islam. Muslim countries like Jordan are taking a much harder line than the USA. It’s outrageous...

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "'People Committed Terrible Deeds in the Name of Christ...'"

The Genocidal Nature of Jew-Hatred at U.C. Davis

At Blazing Cat Fur.

PREVIOUSLY: "Swastikas Painted on U.C. Davis Jewish Fraternity House: Leftist BDS Anti-Semitism Suspected (VIDEO)."

'A 400-foot chunk of electrified rail sliced through an SUV, punctured its fuel tank and pierced the first and part of the second car of a commuter train, investigators said Wednesday...'

The third rail apparently caused the gas tank to explode, consuming the car in fire.

Man, what a tragedy.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Investigators scour N.Y. train wreckage; death toll stands at 6."

Also, "Train engineer pulled emergency brake when he saw SUV on tracks."

'As someone who has spent several months in southern Afghanistan covering the U.S. infantry, walking foot patrols and occasionally coming under fire, I cringed when I saw the story about Williams...'

Yeah, it's pissed off a lot of good people who've paid their dues.

From Dan Lamothe, at the Washington Post, "Why war reporters can’t stand the Brian Williams scandal":

Brian Williams Must Resign -- if Mr. Williams does not resign or get fired, I will not link again to NBC This... http://t.co/qT0XBxXs9K
— Michael Yon (@Michael_Yon) February 5, 2015

Obama Slamming Christians, Protecting Islam

Yep, that's what he's all about.

Made me sick listening to Obama slam Christians, while protecting Islam. There are no limits to his own evils. #tcot pic.twitter.com/fAIROdoHni
— Wolf♔H&U♔Raven (@WolfSpirit2013) February 5, 2015

PREVIOUSLY: "'People Committed Terrible Deeds in the Name of Christ...'"

Sen. Tom Cotton Unloads on Brian McKeon, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy: Guantanamo Bay Prisoners 'Can Rot in Hell'

At the Hill, "Senator says Gitmo detainees can 'rot in hell'."

'People Committed Terrible Deeds in the Name of Christ...'

This is just one more iteration of the president's moral equivalence, and worse, his refusal to name the religion, today, that is committing unspeakable atrocities in the name of faith.

At the Weekly Standard, "Obama: 'People Committed Terrible Deeds in the Name of Christ'."

And Laura Ingraham is interviewed at Gretchen Carlson's show, on Fox News, "Pres Obama: People Committed Terrible Deeds In Name of Christ - ISIS - Laura Ingraham."

We've had almost a month of non-stop, high-profile Islamic jihad, death and terror. And our president is talking about the "terrible deeds" committed in the name of Christ? Who buys this anymore? I mean, who besides the hardcore Islamo-enabling partisan left, like the ghoulish John Amato at Crooks and Liars?

Among likely Republican and Democrat caucus-goers in Iowa, there's little disagreement on the need for more aggressive military action against the threat. See USA Today, "New Iowa Poll finds surge in GOP focus on terrorism":

When polled on a list of specific actions, Republicans and Democrats align on two points: more aggressively pursuing terrorists in this country and abroad to prevent more attacks, and cutting back on surveillance programs that collect data on phone calls of ordinary Americans.

On pursuing terrorists, 91% of Republicans and 70% of Democrats want more aggressive action. The desire to curtail surveillance is nearly equal at 60% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats.

I guess they didn't talk to the horrible, horrible ghouls at Crooks and Liars.

Hayat Boumeddiene Calls for New Terrorist Attacks on France?

Well, she was whisked away through a terrorist network out of France, so why not?

At Telegraph UK, "Hayat Boumeddiene 'appears in Islamic State film'":

Hayat Boumeddiene, widow of Paris killer Amedy Coulibaly and dubbed France's most wanted woman, appears in Isil film calling for more attacks against native country, report says.

A young woman seen in an Islamic State propaganda video may be Hayat Boumeddiene, widow of one of the gunmen behind the Paris killings, it has been reported.

The video, titled Blow Up France 2, was released on Tuesday by French-speaking Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters and features a militant calling for new attacks in France.

A woman clad in camouflage clothing and holding a weapon is seen standing next to the speaker.

"French authorities are investigating the possibility this woman could be Hayat Boumeddiene," a security source told CNN. French authorities have not confirmed her identity.

Boumedienne's husband, Amedy Coulibaly, was killed by police on January 9 after he had killed four Jewish hostages in a kosher supermarket and a policewoman.

More.

Brian Williams Lied About Helicopter Being Shot Down in Iraq

I first saw this story yesterday at Legal Insurrection, "Did NBC News Anchor Brian Williams lie about Iraq incident?"

He did indeed.

And the story has become the outage of the day at Memeorandum. Plus an update at LI, "Dan Rather was Brian Williams before Brian Williams became Dan Rather."

I stopped watching both ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News at least a decade ago. Most of ABC's news operation is composed of leftists and former Bill Clinton administration lackeys. I'm holding out hope for the network's new anchor David Muir. My wife likes ABC, so sometimes I'll watch it. I haven't watched Brian Williams since forever. At one time I thought he was going to be a savior of the dying breed, an old-style newsman to rescue a floundering format in the age of cable and the Internet. But not so, it turns out. He's leftist and opines on the air, and gets called out by new media. I can't stand that. And he's openly blustery and pompous. Peter Jennings he's not be a million miles.

In any case, Erik Wemple nails it with this headline and story, "The Brian Williams scandal is an NBC News-wide scandal." (At Memeorandum.)

And Alisyn Camerota reports at CNN, "Williams apologizes for 'bungled attempt' to thank vet."

BONUS: At AoSHQ, "OMG!"

Vindicating Chris Kyle

At the Wall Street Journal, "Islamic State proves the late sniper was right about the ‘savage’ enemy":

‘Savage, despicable evil. That’s what we were fighting in Iraq.” Those were among the words the late Chris Kyle, of “American Sniper” fame, used to describe the enemy he and fellow veterans of the Iraq war faced. After seeing images this week of Islamic State jihadists murdering a caged Jordanian pilot by burning him alive, can there be any real doubt that Kyle was right?

Of course not.

But keep reading.

Jordan's King Abdullah to Personally Suit-Up Against Islamic State?

He's a fighter pilot and he's taking al-Kasasbeh's murder personally.

From Mary Katharine Ham, at Hot Air, "Too good to check: Angry Jordanian king may personally suit up against ISIS":

If he’s trained as a pilot, this feels less like silly Putinesque staged bravado and more like a Jordanian John Wick after vengeance. Or, maybe that’s just how I’d like to imagine it because it’s nice to imagine a leader of a country so righteously enraged by the brutal killing of his citizens and so skilled in the kicking of ass that he decides to engage in it personally. Even if it’s not the most practical of foreign policies to have each president enter the Octagon with these barbarians, I long for a modicum of the clarity that animates the impulse.

Via Memeorandum.

Charles Krauthammer: Obama's 'Completely Uninterested' in Rolling Back Islamic State

As I was saying about Obama's "bloodless" foreign policy. He gets more excited when illegal DREAMers are visiting the White House.

Emily Ratajkowski in New Teaser Advertisement for Italian Lingerie Brand Yamamay (VIDEO)

Lovely.

Hanna Davis on Cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue 2015

At SI, "2015 SI Swimsuit cover model Hannah Davis surprised with reveal."

And at London's Daily Mail, "How low can they go! Hannah Davis is named Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition's cover girl of the year in one of the magazine's most revealing shots yet."

Mike Morell: 100,000 Troops Needed to Stop Islamic State

From the former CIA deputy director, at yesterday's CBS This Morning.

There might not be much public support for a huge deployment, but it's not like President Obama has even tried to rally public support against the horror of Islamic State. His legacy is ending wars not actually fighting them.

The 'Population Control' Solution for Climate Change

The solution for "population control," to say nothing of "climate change," is economic growth in the developing world. Economies move through a "demographic transition" as they advance through periods of development. This is basic developmental economics, and it's not new. Leftists are pushing "solutions" to problems that have long been solved. But then, there's a reason we call them "regressives."

In any case, at Truth Revolt, "Population Control Being Pushed as Solution for Global Warming."