Free Speech or Islamofascist Suppression?

At IBD, "After Attack In Texas, Will It Be Free Speech or the Thugs' Veto?":

After a Muhammad cartoon event was attacked in Texas, the intelligentsia pointed the finger at the organizers. Let's get one thing straight: This event was not about guns, civility or Islam. It was about free speech.

Activist Pamela Geller is no stranger to saying things that horrify the politically correct. She protested the World Trade Center mosque and bought bus-sign ads describing what's really written in the Quran. Last weekend, she and writer Robert Spencer's American Freedom Defense Initiative organized a contest for the best Muhammad cartoon drawing with a $10,000 prize in Texas in response to the Islamofascist newsroom massacre of cartoonists in Paris at the French paper Charlie Hebdo earlier this year.

And to no one's surprise in a nation whose leaders consider rising Islamofascist terror groups "junior varsity" and where extremist depravities are viewed as "workplace violence" or dismissed as reactions to bad filmmaking rather than organized terror, a couple of Islamofacists from North Phoenix, Ariz., shot up the Garland, Texas, cartoon conference, wounding a security guard before an off-duty traffic cop took the pair down and saved the country from another massacre.

Since then, it's been Charlie Hebdo all over again, given the media's failure to understand that this is about the threat that radical Islam poses to free speech.

Incredibly, the left wasted no time blasting Geller and Spender, blaming them for the murderous behavior of the gunmen.

CNN's Alisyn Camerota attacked Geller as anti-Islamic, cherry-picking various news clips to make her case, despite Geller asserting that she wasn't.

"Civilized men can disagree," Geller told CNN. "Savages will kill you when they disagree."

Why she should be on the hot seat instead of the would-be attackers and their enablers is beyond us.

But the finger-pointing at Geller kept coming.

"Free speech aside, why would anyone do something as provocative as hosting a 'Muhammad drawing contest'?" tweeted New York Times' Rukmini Callimachi.

Free speech aside? From the newspaper of record?

Callimachi didn't seem to understand that the entire event — as Geller's participants repeatedly said in the pre-shooting film clips of the event posted on her blog — was explicitly about free speech, which is now under attack by Islamofascists and which can be demonstrated only by extreme means, such as cartoons.

And that's the heart of the matter. Agree with Geller or not, there can be no compromise on free speech. The attack on her event underscored the fragility of America's free speech, the basis for all of America's freedoms.

Also from Ms. EBL, "Blaming the Victims of Jihadi Terror: Leftist Media calling Pam Geller, AFDI, and Jihad Watch 'hate groups'."

#FreeSpeech Matters http://t.co/VuNE0Estco #garlandshooting #ISIS #texasattack #PamelaGeller @rsmccain @DanaTheBlaze pic.twitter.com/wBagWBGP37

— JeSuisEBL (@MsEBL) May 4, 2015

Rush Limbaugh Really, Really Likes Marco Rubio

Well, I'm glad.

I have a sense Rubio might catch on with the general electorate --- and here's to hoping he gives the big GOP frontrunners a run for their money.

From Aaron Blake, at the Washington Post:

On his radio show Tuesday, Rush Limbaugh devoted plenty of time to praising Rubio in what can only be described as glowing terms. Yes, he said he wasn't happy about the "amnesty" thing, but he also seems to have pretty quickly moved past it. He even volunteered some excuses for Rubio.

More.

NYPD Officer Dies After Being Shot in Face by Black Thug With Long Rap Sheet

Don't expect nationwide protest marches against black thug murderers killing cops. Doesn't fit the left's evil narrative.

At WSJ, "New York City Police Officer Shot In Face Dies":

Brian Moore, who died Monday after being shot in the face attempting to stop a suspect, was hailed by Police Commissioner William Bratton as “an exceptional young officer” who ascended to an elite anticrime unit since joining the New York Police Department in 2010.

“I did not know this officer in person in life. I have only come to know him in death,” Mr. Bratton said outside Jamaica Hospital Medical Center after visiting with Officer Moore’s family and colleagues.

Mr. Bratton called the 25-year-old, who came from a family of police officers, including his father, “an extraordinary young man—a great loss to his family, a great loss to this department and a great loss to this profession and to this city.”

Officer Moore made 159 arrests since joining the force and received medals for Excellent Police Duty and Meritorious Police Duty, the NYPD said.

Hundreds of officers lined up outside the hospital to honor Officer Moore when his body was taken to the city medical examiner’s office in Manhattan.

Family members leaned in to touch the ambulance as it pulled away. Flags at the city’s police headquarters were lowered to half-staff.

Officer Moore had been in a coma since undergoing surgery for injuries suffered after he was shot through the glass of his unmarked police car Saturday. He was taken off life support Monday.

He was in plain clothes on Saturday, patrolling in an unmarked police car with his partner, when he was shot by a suspect who they saw tugging at the waistband of his pants, authorities said.

Demetrius Blackwell, a 35-year-old man with a long criminal record, has been charged with attempted murder and is being held without bail....

The incident that led to Officer Moore’s death occurred Saturday night near 104th Road and 212th Street in Queens Village neighborhood of Queens.

According to a law-enforcement official, Officer Moore, who was with his partner, Erik Jansen, saw Mr. Blackwell, identified himself as a police officer and asked “Do you have something in your waistband?”

Mr. Blackwell replied, “Yeah, I got something,” took a gun from his waistband and fired at the officers, striking Officer Moore, the official said. Officer Jansen wasn’t injured.

Mr. Blackwell was arrested about two hours later, near the crime scene...

More from CBS News New York, "Mayor De Blasio Speaks on Death of NYPD Officer Brian Moore."

Also at NYDN, "Suspected cop shooter has long rap list, including 8 years in prison for attempted murder."

'The Only Thing Better Than Dessert...'

Here's the smokin' Danish fashion model Nina Agdal, for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Gun Salutes for Princess Charlotte

The royal baby is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, Princess of Cambridge.

At the BBC, "Royal baby: London gun salutes mark birth of princess."

'Clinton Cash' Campaign Scandal: 'How Could This Have Happened?'

From Megan McArdle, who is increasingly becoming one of the more perceptive analysts around.

At Bloomberg, "What the Clintons Haven't Learned":

Tuesday will be the unveiling of what can be breathlessly awaited only in campaign season: a book on the Clinton Foundation, and allegations of a torrent of sleazy foreign cash that has poured into its coffers. I'm already on record as saying that the author, Peter Schweizer, might struggle to meet the burden of proof to show that the Clintons absolutely and unquestionably did something wrong. On the other hand, there's a lower burden of proof for "raises unsettling questions that will dog Hillary Clinton through a tough campaign," and that may already have been met.

The great mystery that remains is how this could have happened. The Clintons have known for a long while that Hillary would be running in 2016. And they ought to have known that accepting foreign donations, from folks who wanted things from the State Department, would become a problem for her candidacy. They certainly should have been aware that funneling all of her State Department e-mails through a private server, and then destroying them, would create terrible optics for her campaign and fuel any subsequent scandals. Why, then, did two such tenacious, wily campaigners proceed with this nonsense?

It looks to me like the answer is that they somehow didn't know the things that they should have known. They certainly act surprised. The campaign machine that used to blast away at incipient scandals with the white-hot fury of a thousand suns now lets them fester for weeks before offering a lame response: Hillary's press conference about the e-mails gave critics more fodder, and Bill's non-response response to questions about foundation finances is even worse. The former president told NBC that he has to keep giving high-priced speeches all over the world because "I gotta pay our bills." Coming from a man reputed to be worth tens of millions, who gave his daughter a multi-million-dollar wedding, this seems a bit ... off.

Which makes me wonder if the famed Clinton campaign skills aren't a little bit out of date...

More.

Hateful Leftists Try to Change the Subject to 'Islamophobia' After #Garland Jihad Attack

The attacks on Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer erupted immediately last night on Twitter, showing the radical left's true colors. One of these days jihadists will succeed with their own Charlie Hebdo-style attack on U.S. soil, and the left will demonize the victims for their alleged "hateful" ideas. The only hate involved is on the left, however. Depraved leftists hate anyone who challenges their ideological, politically correct shibboleths. If you speak out, you must be destroyed --- by any means necessary, it turns out.

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary, "After Garland, Don’t Change the Subject to Islamophobia":

Almost immediately after the news of last night’s shooting in Garland, Texas broke many in the chattering class started to blame the intended victims of the attack. The group that had sponsored a contest to draw pictures of the Prophet Muhammad and two of the controversial speakers at the event were quickly depicted as having invited violence by their willingness to offend Muslims. But whether or not you agree with Dutch politician Geert Wilders or American activist Pam Geller, the failed attempt to slaughter them or those who chose to hear their words illustrated one of their main contentions. You can offend any other religion with impunity but dare to speak rudely or even truthfully about Islamist intolerance and you’d better pay for heavy security and/or hope the police are doing their job (as, thank Heaven, they were in Texas). That, and not whether or not Wilders or Geller are right about some things or even anything, remains the only question to discuss when it comes to talk about Islamophobia.

Let’s specify that not all Muslims, especially here in the United States, are violent or intolerant. Most are hard working, decent people and deserve the same respect as any other American.

But there is a reason why humorists fear to skewer Islam or its holy book the same way they do Catholics or Mormons. You can mock Christian symbols, call it art and then expect cultural elites to lionize you and denounce those who are offended as fascists. You can stage an opera rationalizing Palestinian terrorism and the murder of Jews and be lionized as a courageous defender of artistic freedom and call those who denounce your bad taste Philistines. Write a play wittily trashing the Mormon faith and you can become immensely rich. None of those activities are particularly commendable but they are safe. But speak ill of Islam and you take your life into your hands.

Talk about Islamophobia in the United States is misleading since there is little or no evidence that the years that followed 9/11 or even now after the rise of ISIS that Muslims have suffered discrimination or violence. To the contrary, anti-Semitic attacks have always far outnumbered those despicable incidents in which Muslims were targeted. But the attempt to distract us from Muslim intolerance also misses the point.

You may say it is bad that some people are drawing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad specifically to offend Muslims who believe such drawings are forbidden. But the problem is that unlike other faiths that have learned to express outrage about those who show them disrespect without violence, a great many Muslims throughout the world still take it as a given that they are entitled to kill those who commit what they call blasphemy. The attacks on the Danish newspaper that first thought to publish Muhammad cartoons and then Charlie Hebdo illustrated this distorted principle...

Keep reading.

Fresno Man Arrested on Suspicion of Beating Wife Because She Posted Selfie on Instagram

Wouldn't want others to share his wife's beauty, or something.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Police: Fresno man attacks wife over Instagram selfies."

The wife desperately tried to delete the selfies but it was too late. The man "lunged at her, choked her and threatened to kill her," pretty much what leftists do when you expose their hatred.

Despite the Risk on Europe, the Coalition Led by David Cameron Should Have a Second Term

At the Economist:

Why Britons should give the Conservative-led coalition another term in office http://t.co/xDzCprzukd pic.twitter.com/NOrlOeduhP

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) May 4, 2015

Ben Carson's Legacy Among Blacks Fades

He's one of America's most accomplished black leaders, although his star is fading in the black community --- over his attacks on Obama.

An interesting piece, at WaPo, "As Ben Carson bashes Obama, many blacks see a hero's legacy fade."

Also, "Ben Carson announces presidential campaign."

Police Audio: Shooting at Mohammed Cartoon Art Show in Garland, Texas

At Telegraph UK.

Plus, at Rebel Media, "Garland TX Mohammed Cartoon Contest Shooting: First report," and "Garland Texas Mohammed Cartoon Contest Shooting (Video 2)." Also, "Garland TX Mohammed Cartoon Contest Shooting (Video 3)."

Magomed Abdusalamov

It's a wonder there aren't more stories like this, considering boxing's essential brutality.

At the New York Times, "Meet Mago, Former Heavyweight."

Background at USA Today, "Boxer Mago Abdusalamov remains in ICU, on life support."

Two Suspects Open Fire, Shot Dead at AFDI 'Draw Muhammad' Event in Garland, Texas

At Pamela Geller, "Multiple shootings, possible bomb at AFDI/Jihad Watch free speech event in Texas":

This is a war. This is war on free speech. What are we going to do? Are we going to surrender to these monsters?

Two men with rifles and backpacks attacked police outside our event. A cop was shot; his injuries are not life-threatening, thank Gd. Please keep him in your prayers.

The bomb squad has been called to the event site to investigate a backpack left at the event site.

Also at Jihad Watch, "Update – Multiple shootings, possible bomb at AFDI-Jihad Watch free speech event in Texas," and "“Allahu Akbar!!!!! 2 of our brothers just opened fire at the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) art exhibition in texas!”"

Also, "Cowardly Daily Mail blacks out Muhammad cartoons in story on shooting."

More, at the Dallas Morning News, "2 killed by police after opening fire outside Muhammad art event in Garland." (At Memeorandum.)

Now at the Other McCain, "TERROR IN TEXAS: Gunmen Attack @PamelaGeller Event in Garland UPDATED: ISIS Takes Credit? ‘May Allah Accept Us as Mujahideen’."

Downplaying the Radical Left's Black Revolutionary Violence

Actually, I disagree with Bryan Burrough's argument that #BlackLivesMatter activists aren't endorsing armed resistance against America's law enforcement. Maybe the dude's not on Twitter. I've repeatedly posted on the Ferguson activists, in Missouri and New York, advocating cop killing and the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary overthrow of capital. The deaths of New York City police officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were the direct result of leftist anti-cop agitation, including New York protesters chanting "What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!"

The fact is leftist cop-killing agitation is all over the place. It's not isolated to a few so-called "fringe" elements. As urban riots continue around the country, expect to see leftists target more police officers for murder.

Here's Burrough, at LAT, "Today, a softer response to police violence than in 1960s and '70s":

Among the first black leaders [in the 1960s] who called for retaliation was Robert Williams, an NAACP man in North Carolina who, after confrontations with the Ku Klux Klan, urged blacks to arm themselves in a 1962 book called “Negroes With Guns.” After fleeing to Cuba, Williams called for black servicemen to kill their white superiors during the Cuban missile crisis.

A far more prominent advocate was Malcolm X, who made police a focus of his demands for a bloody black revolution in American streets. After his assassination in 1965, Malcolm's baton was picked up and carried forward by angry militants such as Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who popularized the term “Black Power.”

But it was the Black Panther Party, formed in 1967 by a pair of Oakland college students, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, who led a broad segment of black America into something approaching open conflict with urban police. The Panthers were initially a kind of neighborhood watch for Bay Area blacks; when they saw a white cop stop a black motorist, they would approach with guns drawn, demanding that the cop respect the black man's civil rights. Time and again they angrily confronted police — first in Oakland, later around the country — in incidents that, when broadcast, introduced an entirely new paradigm to the strained relations between black Americans and police officers.

Panther rhetoric was stunningly inflammatory. It was the Panther newspaper that spread the term, “Off the Pig.” “The only good pig,” one New York Panther told startled white newspapermen, “is a dead pig.” At one point the Panther chief of staff, David Hilliard, announced that killing policemen wasn't enough: “We will kill Richard Nixon,” he announced at a rally.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, attacks on urban policemen paralleled the rise in violent rhetoric. From 1964 to 1969, assaults on Los Angeles patrolmen quintupled. In Detroit they rose 70% in 1969 alone. Emboldened, a group of white militants calling themselves Weathermen went underground in 1970 and began plotting attacks on policemen in solidarity with the Panthers. Only after an accidental bomb explosion killed three of its members that spring did the group disavow murderous violence.

A Panther offshoot, the Black Liberation Army, or BLA, emerged in 1971, launching a series of attacks on police in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco; four were killed. The BLA remained a threat through 1972, when three of its members carried out perhaps the most gruesome assassination of police officers in New York history, shooting to pieces two officers, one of them black, on an East Village sidewalk. The group was finally eliminated after a series of attacks and shootouts in 1973, one of which resulted in the capture of its last leader, Joanne Chesimard, now known as Assata Shakur. After another group of militants freed her from a New Jersey prison in 1979, Shakur escaped to Cuba, where today she remains the highest-profile U.S. fugitive still under the protection of the Castro government.

Compared with what we experienced during the 1970s, even the Baltimore riots are tame. Kids are throwing rocks and looting, while most adults are telling them to go home...

Right. Tame.

Last week's riots were Baltimore's worst since 1968.

Frankly, thank god no one was killed.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



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

More at Lonely Con, "Saturday Funnies," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Round Up..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – That Was Then."

Obama Wants to Kill the Opportunity Scholarship Program, Thus Torpedoing Hopes of Inner-City Blacks

And blacks still love this president, despite his every move demonstrating how he mostly exploits race to keep his corrupt crony Democrats in power.

See Stephen Moore, at WSJ, "President Obama, Are You Listening? The president wants to zero out a program that is saving poor kids from bad schools—the kind of reform that could work in Baltimore too":

The scenes of Baltimore set ablaze this week have many Americans thinking: What can be done to rescue families trapped in an inner-city culture of violence, despair and joblessness?

There are no easy answers, but down the road from Baltimore in Washington, D.C., an education program is giving children in poor neighborhoods a big lift up. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which George W. Bush signed into law in 2004, has so far funded private-school tuition for nearly 5,000 students, 95% of whom are African-American. They attend religious schools, music and arts schools, even elite college-prep schools. Last month at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, I met with about 20 parents and children who participate in the program. I also visited several of these families in their homes—which are located in some of the most beaten-down neighborhoods in the city, places that in many ways resemble the trouble spots in Baltimore.

These families have now pulled together to brace for a David vs. Goliath fight to save the program. For the seventh straight year, President Obama has proposed eliminating this relatively tiny scholarship fund, which at $20 million accounts for a microscopic 0.0005% of the $4 trillion federal budget.

The parents and students point out that the scholarship program has extraordinary benefits—they use phrases like “a godsend for our children,” “a life saver” and “our salvation.” One father, Joseph Kelley, a tireless champion of the program, says simply, “I truly shudder to think where my son would be today without it.” (He and his son, Rashawn Williams, are pictured at home nearby on this page.)

Virginia Ford, whose son escaped the public schools through a private-scholarship to Archbishop Carroll, now runs a group called D.C. Parents for School Choice. She tells me that “kids in the scholarship program have consistently improved their test scores, have higher graduation rates, and are more likely to attend college than those stuck in the D.C. public schools.”

The numbers back her up. An Education Department-funded study at the University of Arkansas recently found that graduation rates rose 21 percentage points—to 91%, from 70%—for students awarded the scholarship vouchers through a lottery, compared with a control group of those who applied for but didn’t get the scholarships. For all D.C. public schools, the high-school graduation rate is closer to an abysmal 56%.

“If you’ve got a program that’s clearly working and helping these kids, why end it?” asks Pamela Battle, whose son Carlos received a voucher and was able to attend the elite Georgetown Day School. He’s now at Northeastern University in Boston. She says Carlos “almost surely wouldn’t have gone to college” without the voucher. “We send all this money overseas for foreign aid,” she adds, “why not save the kids here at home first?”

Amazingly, these energized parents are opposed by almost every liberal group, even the NAACP, and nearly every Democrat in Congress—including Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District of Columbia in Congress but opposes a program that benefits her own constituents.

There is little question what stirs this opposition. The teachers union sees the program as taking away union jobs, and it is so powerful that the Democratic establishment falls in line. “It is so sad that our public schools aren’t doing what’s best for the kids,” laments Ms. Ford, but instead are looking out for “the adults.”

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program turns conventional politics upside down. President George W. Bush created the program and invited several of the parents, including Ms. Battle, to the White House. “I got to meet President Bush and his wife, who was so lovely,” she recalls about the meeting.

Mr. Obama won’t even meet with these parents...

Underline that a million times: President Obama won't meet with the parents of the kids he wants to throw under the bus of inner-city crime, unrest, and poverty.

And yet, blacks love the Democrats.

Our political system is seriously f-cked up.

More at the link.

After Urban Riots, a Long Road to Revival

From Christopher Caldwell, at the Wall Street Journal, "In troubled American cities, such as Baltimore, neighborhoods devastated by unrest seldom come back":

The Woodberry Kitchen, near Druid Hill Park in northwestern Baltimore, is among the best restaurants in the mid-Atlantic. It shares a renovated cotton mill with an art gallery and a glassblowing studio. Washingtonians flock there. The restaurant website recommends taking the highway, but there is a shortcut for those willing to creep northward along Fulton Avenue in West Baltimore.

I suspect few patrons take that shortcut twice. The jazz bandleader Cab Calloway and the Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall grew up in the neighborhood, but it has, to put it mildly, gone downhill since then. This is Sandtown, where dozens were arrested this week in the rioting that followed the death in police custody of 25-year-old Freddie Gray (on Friday, charges were filed against the officers involved). Unless you have been to the worst parts of Detroit or Camden, N.J., you are unlikely to have seen anything like Sandtown.

More shocking, perhaps, is how little distance separates sophisticated, 21st-century Baltimore—where you can dine on wood-roasted Delaware River rockfish with pak choi and koshihikari rice—from the left-behind, boarded-up Baltimore that Americans have been watching on television with alarm.

The country can only hope that this week’s damage remains limited to one wild night. The fate of Baltimore and other troubled American cities often depends on how the violent parts get rebuilt after rioting. In most cases, riot-torn neighborhoods don’t get rebuilt at all.

Baltimore missed the boom of the 1990s. It has lost 120,000 residents in the last quarter-century. It has a murder rate (37 per 100,000) that only New Orleans, St. Louis and Detroit can match. A decade ago, under Democratic mayor (and now presidential candidate) Martin O’Malley, reforms drove the rate down, but they required policing so aggressive as to be unsustainable. In 2005, there were 108,000 arrests in a city of 622,000 residents. Less than half of Sandtown’s working-age residents work.

The city, which is two-thirds black, has a black political establishment that has been entrenched for a generation. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and her police commissioner, Anthony Batts, called last fall for a federal civil-rights probe of their own city. The notion, heard on some talk shows, that the city’s leaders want to keep black residents down can be dismissed.

In the wake of urban unrest, well-positioned neighborhoods eventually attract private and public capital for rebuilding. Both Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles have suffered riots that were orders of magnitude greater than this week’s in Baltimore. Washington’s U Street corridor, nearly destroyed by the revolt that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968, is again a lively business hub.

But it took a very long time. U Street didn’t see the first stirrings of revival until the 1990s. And businesses were replaced, not restored. U Street was once the premier black downtown in the U.S.; now it is a place for hipsters to drink microbrews and smoke hookahs. That’s better than nothing, but U Street isn’t the hub it was. It is a new hot spot on the site of the riots rather than any sort of resolution of the problems that the riots revealed.

The legacy of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which followed the acquittal of four policemen videotaped beating the black motorist Rodney King, is similarly mixed. A 2009 poll found that 68% of the city’s African-Americans and 76% of its Latinos had a favorable view of the city’s police department, formerly denounced for its paramilitary tactics.

But here, too, the process took time, with the lost economic activity amounting to as much as $3.8 billion. A 20-year retrospective in the Los Angeles Times showed that the unemployment rate in the neighborhood is now higher and median income lower than at the time of the riots.

Less prominent cities tend to languish after riots...

More.

Web of Problems Led to Baltimore Rioting

At WSJ, "Longstanding troubles include a steep drop in manufacturing jobs, drug use, abandoned houses and crime":

BALTIMORE—To 18-year-old high school senior Diondre Jackson, the causes of Monday’s rioting here go much deeper than boiling anger over the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray from spine injuries he suffered while in police custody.

The spasms of looting and destruction in predominantly African-American parts of the city sprang from long-festering distrust of police among young blacks, he said, along with what he called weakened family structures and inadequate leadership in the community.

“There’s nobody to tell them right from wrong,” he said of young rioters. “A lot of them don’t have parents. When there’s no leadership to raise a child, how can you expect the child to act civilized and adultlike?”

Cleaning up the damage will be far easier than addressing the complex web of problems that has weighed on inner-city Baltimore for decades, including a steep drop in well-paying manufacturing jobs, the scourge of drugs, high crime rates and what some call a prison pipeline that leaves many young black men with records that lock them out of jobs.

At Mr. Gray’s funeral Monday, several speakers highlighted these problems. The Rev. Jamal Bryant spoke of self-empowerment but also about the forces that he said have made some African-Americans feel “boxed in”: housing discrimination, high incarceration rates, poor schools.

Former Mayor Kurt Schmoke said that when he graduated from high school in 1967, the region’s largest private employer was Bethlehem Steel Corp. By the time he became mayor 20 years later, Johns Hopkins University and its health system had risen to No. 1, a perch they maintain.

Just since 1990, the number of manufacturing jobs in the Baltimore metro region has fallen to 55,000 from 131,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the same span, employment in education and health services has jumped to 258,000 from 146,000.

“There are jobs going begging,” said Mr. Schmoke, a Democrat who is now president of the University of Baltimore. But he said they are out of reach for many city residents.

“They are jobs that require a level of literacy that is higher than the parents or grandparents of these people needed to obtain,” he said, adding that improving public schools is critically important.

Another challenge many residents face in finding employment is a criminal record, often for low-level drug offenses, Mr. Schmoke said. He noted that a task force led by Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, a Republican, is looking into making expungement easier.

“An arrest for marijuana possession when you’re 18 should not be a cross you bear for the rest of your life,” Mr. Schmoke said.

Drugs have long plagued the city. During the 1990s homicides topped 300 a year, fueled by a crack cocaine trade concentrated in black neighborhoods. Heroin addiction is also a long-standing problem.

Online court records show Mr. Gray had a number of arrests, mostly for drug-related offenses, some of which resulted in conviction.

He was arrested on April 12 after running from a police officer when the two made eye contact in an area known for drug-dealing, officials have said. When they caught him, officers allegedly found a switchblade in his pants pocket and loaded him into a transport van.

A family lawyer has said that while Mr. Gray was in police custody, his spine was nearly severed at his neck and three vertebrae were broken. Mr. Gray died of his injuries on April 19. Six police officers have been suspended with pay, and five have given statements to police. None has commented publicly on the case...

More.

Baltimore's Indictments and How Not to Fix America’s Cities

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary:

Baltimore got the celebration this afternoon that many in Ferguson, Missouri longed for last summer and fall. The decision of Baltimore’s State’s Attorney to indict all the police officers connected with the death of Freddie Gray while in their custody turned demonstrations about the case into street parties today. The announcement that the cops had been charged with the most serious charges possible and faced decades in prison was exactly what the city needed to restore the peace that was disrupted by violent riots earlier in the week. But even as the nation sighs in relief at the prospect of calm in Baltimore, the upcoming trial and the ongoing debate about the significance of the case may raise more questions than can be answered by the indictment of six officers. If, as may happen, the officers are not convicted, the prospect of violence will be great. Nor is it likely that much light will be shed in the debate about the future of troubled urban areas like Baltimore or law enforcement in the rush to jail the cops in the case that has given new life to a largely misleading narrative of racism.

Unlike in Ferguson, protesters need no longer demand that police accused of a role in the death of a young black man be arrested and indicted. State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby immediately became a media heroine when she gave demonstrators and pundits calling for quick justice what they wanted during the course of a lengthy address that blasted the accused for their conduct.

Mosby handled her press conference ably. But the haste with which the state’s attorney charged the officers and her choice to avoid using going through the grand jury process, leaves open the possibility that her decision had more to do with politics and the need to keep the peace than justice. The multiplicity of charges as well as the second-degree murder count also makes it likely that she is hoping to offer a plea to some of the officers in order to convict others. The guilty should be punished severely. Yet it remains to be seen whether she has overcharged the police. But just as the accused are entitled to a presumption of innocence, so, too, must the country hope that the evidence exists to support the accusations of murder. If not, then Mosby is earning temporary applause that will eventually blow up in her face as well as that of the rest of the city...

More.

Also at Weasel Zippers, "Alan Dershowitz: #Baltimore Prosecutor Overcharged Officers, Identified With Protesters, Saying “You’re at Forefront of This Cause and as Young People, Our Time Is Now.”

Freddie Gray's Death Ruled a Homicide, Six Officers Charged

At the Baltimore Sun, "Six officers charged in death of Freddie Gray":

The six Baltimore police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray – who died last month after being injured in police custody – have been charged criminally, State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced Friday.

Mosby's announcement on the steps of the War Memorial Building was greeted with cheers and applause. Mosby said she told Gray's family that "no one is above the law."

Word traveled quickly of the charges against the officers. In West Baltimore, cars honked their horns. A man hanging out of a truck window pumped his fists and yelled; "Justice! Justice! Justice!"

At the corner where Gray was arrested, 53-year-old Willie Rooks held his hands up in peace signs and screamed, "Justice!"

Meecah Tucker, 23, wearing a T-shirt that read, "I Bleed Baltimore," said: "If it was one of us doing that against a police officer, it would be first-degree murder."

In Gilmor Homes, the neighborhood where Gray lived, things were quiet Friday, with a police helicopter circling overhead. At the intersection of North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue, the focus of rioting Monday and demonstrations all week, traffic moved through with many motorists honking their horns.

Warrants were issued for the arrest of all six officers. It wasn't immediately clear where the officers were Friday morning.

Also at Ms. EBL's:

Cops Indicted #FreddieGray Death http://t.co/1wRXnNb1me #BaltimoreUprising #BaltimoreRiots @rsmccain @LilMissRightie pic.twitter.com/SIn6zvafal

— JeSuisEBL (@MsEBL) May 1, 2015

'Nothing Matches the Hysteria' for Mayweather-Pacquiao Title Bout

Profiles of the 1 percent, heh.

Mostly leftist 1 percenters, at that.

At LAT, "Celebrities fight for the best tickets to Mayweather-Pacquiao":

Saying yes to Robert De Niro was easy.

The Oscar-winning actor will get a prime seat for Saturday night's main event. So will Clint Eastwood, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

As the clock ticks down to the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao bout — the most-anticipated fight in decades — promoters are scrambling to accommodate a flood of ticket requests from celebrities, business tycoons and superstars from other sports.

"They can't all sit in the front row," said Dena duBoef of Top Rank Inc., which represents Pacquiao. "Tickets and seating are probably the biggest nightmare for this fight."

Most of the 16,800-seat arena at the MGM Grand has been divvied up among the resort and the two fighters' camps, with only 500 seats made available for public sale.

There will be about 900 ringside spots, depending on the final configuration. That isn't enough for all the A-list names and high rollers who want to be near the action.

"Nothing matches the hysteria we're seeing," said Stephen Espinoza, a Showtime executive who controls some of Mayweather's allotment.

Promoters are still mixing and matching names, pondering whom to put where, especially in the first few rows. As longtime Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman said: "Absolutely there is a pecking order."

Star-studded crowds are as much a part of boxing as uppercuts and smelling salts.

Mayweather versus Pacquiao has become a red-carpet event if only because it took years of negotiation to get the boxers — perhaps the greatest of their generation — into the same ring.

"This has been a long time coming," Oscar winner Jamie Foxx says in a promotional TV spot.

The MGM Grand declined to comment for this story, as did numerous celebrities expected to attend. The Times received a list of ticket requests from boxing executives who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss seating details.

De Niro, Eastwood, Damon and Affleck made the cut for the first few rows, the executives said. So did Michael J. Fox and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Will Smith and Jimmy Kimmel are expected to be there, but one Oscar winner was placed farther back and decided not to attend, said an executive not authorized to give the actor's name. UFC fighter Ronda Rousey, quarterback Tom Brady and nearly a dozen NFL team owners were still waiting for their exact seat locations.

Celebrities will share the floor section with the likes of Jesse Jackson and hip-hop mogul Sean Combs. The MGM Grand has offered prime seats to its best customers — gamblers who carry a minimum $250,000 credit line in the casino — said Bob Arum, chief executive of Top Rank Inc.

Over the last few weeks, the longtime boxing executive has stopped short of making promises to big-name actors and directors, telling them instead: "We'll put you on the list."

The situation is delicate because boxing and the entertainment industry enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship. No one complained when pop star Justin Bieber — a regular in Mayweather's entourage — barged onstage at a recent pre-fight news conference.

A singer with more than 63 million Twitter followers can generate buzz and boost pay-per-view revenue. Espinoza said that Bieber "adds to the s

In return, celebrities parlay their fame into great seats. They get a close-up view, a chance to hear the thud of each body blow and some free publicity.

More.

Also, "Will the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout affect future of boxing in the U.S.?"

California Latinos Lag 'Far Behind' in College Achievement

Over half the students at my college are Hispanic, so you can get a sense of the challenges we're dealing with.

At the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "Latinos in California lag ‘far behind’ in college enrollment, graduation rates":

While nearly 60 percent of Latinos in the state between the ages of 25 and 64 are foreign born, even those who are native born were much less likely than the state average — 18 percent vs. 31 percent — to have at least a bachelor’s degree, the report found.

In addition, only 29 percent of 12th-grade Latino graduates completed all of their coursework to make them eligible for UC or Cal State entrance, compared with 47 percent of white students and 65 percent of Asian students, according to the report.

The obstacles Latinos face are many. A good number are low-income, they are often the first generation in their family to go to college and many attend low-performing schools that do not adequately prepare them for college, [Michele] Siqueiros [president of the Campaign for College Opportunity] said. They are grappling with these challenges as students today share a greater burden in funding their education than before in light of a decline in state contributions...

More.

'F*ck Her Right in the Pussy' — Black Thug Disrespects CNN's Poppy Harlow on Live Televsion

At Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Fuck her right in the pussy Philly ‘protester’ to CNN VIDEO."

Michael Jackson Impersonator Busts a Move in #Baltimore

Watch, at WMAR ABC 2 News Baltimore, "Man busts a move like Michael Jackson to raise money for Freddie Gray's family in Baltimore."

And at the Baltimore Sun, "Michael Jackson impersonator hopes to make a better day."

Michelle Keegan World's Sexiest Woman 2015

At FHM UK, on Twitter, "Video proof that Michelle Keegan (@MichKeegan) deserves the #100Sexiest crown."

Also at ABC News, "Michelle Keegan: FHM's Sexiest Woman in the World."

Ta-Nehisi Coates: Black People in Baltimore Are Subjected to Violence All the Time

He's an extremely talented writer. Sure, he overstates his case most of the time, but he pushes all the right buttons with eloquence. That's why he's god-like on the radical left.

At the Atlantic, "The Clock Didn't Start With the Riots":

When I was going to school, I thought about every little article that I wore when I walked out the house. I thought about who I was walking with. I thought about how many of them there were. I thought about what neighborhoods they were from. I thought about which route I was going to take to school. Once I got to school I thought about what I was going to do during the lunch hour—was I actually going to have lunch or was I going to go sit in the library. When school was dismissed I thought about what time I was going to leave school. I thought about whether I should stay after-school for class. I thought about whether I should take the bus up to my grandmother’s house. I thought about which way I should go home if I was going to go home. Every one of those choices was about the avoidance of violence, about the protection of my body. And so I don’t want to come off as if I’m sympathizing or saying that it is necessarily okay, to inflict violence just out of anger, no matter how legitimate that anger is.

Smart kid.

Keep reading (via Memeorandum).

New Information Released by Baltimore Police: Additional Stop Made by Paddy Wagon Transporting #FreddieGray

Watch, at CNN, "Police: Van carrying Gray made additional stop."

Bill O'Reilly: 'The truth is, we don't know what happened' to #FreddieGray

A righteous Talking Points Memo, via Nice Deb, "O'Reilly Gets it Right: Baltimore Rioting is Leading to Madness (Video)."

Are Cops Racist?

Buy Heather Mac Donald's book at Amazon, Are Cops Racist?

Also, Shop Mother's Day Savings in Amazon Exclusives .

I'm teaching all day.

More blogging tonight.

Baltimore in Flames

From Heather Mac Donald, at City Journal, "While the city burns, liberals place blame everywhere but where it belongs: on criminality and on family breakdown":

The apologetics began almost as soon as the fires were lit in Baltimore yesterday, heralding a night of violence and looting that would leave 24 police officers injured and 19 buildings torched, including a $16 million senior center providing affordable housing and a CVS drugstore providing crucial medications for elderly customers. Society “refuses to help [young blacks] in a serious fashion,” Michael Eric Dyson announced on MSNBC. “We’re only there when they riot.” Mika Brzezinski observed on Morning Joe: “This was an extremely, desperately poor city. This was bound to happen.” We were seeing an “uprising of young people against the police,” the result of a “combination of anger and disparity,” said professional talking head Wes Moore. Neill Franklin, a former Baltimore police officer and member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, blamed the drug laws.

In other words, the looters and arsonists were pushed to the breaking point by racism, poverty, and police brutality, the latter exemplified by the still unexplained death of Freddie Gray in police custody. The rioters’ means may have been regrettable, but they were engaged in a profound, if fiery, cri de coeur against the social injustice in which we all play a part.

Bunk. What happened last evening in Baltimore was simply a larger and better-covered version of the flash mobs that have beset American cities for the last half-decade, in which black youths gather via social media to steal from stores and assault whites. In May 2012, for example, students from Mervo High School in Northeast Baltimore crammed into a 7-Eleven store that was offering free Slurpees as a promotion. The teens grabbed all the merchandise they could get their hands on—$6,000 worth in total—and fled from the store. The manager tried to close the door to prevent the thieves from escaping and was viciously beaten. On St. Patrick’s Day that same year, a flash mob converged on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The Baltimore Sun reported that by the time the rampage ended, “one youth had been stabbed, a tourist had been robbed, beaten and stripped of his clothes, and others had been forced to take refuge inside a hotel lobby to escape an angry mob.” Last April, a bicyclist in Baltimore was attacked by a group of black teens who knocked him off his bike and pummeled him.

Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Washington D.C., among other cities, have all grappled with similar violence. None of it deserves a righteous political gloss. Nor does the violence last night, which began with an invitation sent out over social media to convene at a local mall and “purge” it.

Perhaps if the media had not shrunk from reporting on the flash mob phenomenon and the related “knockout game”—in which teenagers tried to knock out unsuspecting bystanders with a single sucker punch—we might have made a modicum of progress in addressing or at least acknowledging the real cause of black violence: the breakdown of the family. A widely circulated video from yesterday’s mayhem shows a furious mother whacking her hoodie-encased son to prevent him from joining the mob. This tiger mom may well have the capacity to rein in her would-be vandal son. But the odds are against her. Try as they might, single mothers are generally overmatched in raising males. Boys need their fathers. But over 72 percent of black children are born to single-mother households today, three times the black illegitimacy rate when Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote his prescient analysis of black family breakdown in 1965.

Baltimore councilman Brandon Scott came closest to the truth last night in a city news conference when he angrily called on adults to “get out there and stand up for your neighborhood . . . . Adults have to step up and be adults and control our future.” True enough. But primary responsibility lies with children’s own two parents. Pace Dyson, “we” have spent trillions of dollars since the 1960s trying to help black youth. A social worker and a government check are no substitute for a father and mother, however.

Still more.

From Rodney King to Freddie Gray

From Jonathan Capehart, at WaPo, "Two riots, 23 years apart: From Rodney King to Freddie Gray":

On this day, 23 years — April 29, 1992 — the City of Angels erupted in what would be six days of rioting after four police officers were acquitted of charges of assault and excessive force against Rodney King.

In March 1991, King was in a car with two other men on a Los Angeles freeway when they were stopped by police. But they then led the cops on a high-speed chase that ended with King being viciously beaten by five white police officers. What made the attack a national story was that it was captured on videotape. For the first time, we saw with our own eyes what African Americans had been protesting for decades: excessive force by police.

And still, those officers were set free, which proved too much for the community to take. Fifty-three people died and as many as 2,000 people were injured during the Rodney King Riots, including Reginald Denny whose vicious bearing after being pulled from his truck was caught on camera. There was an estimated $1 billion in property damage. Thank God that was not the fate of Baltimore on Monday. But there is a straight line that connects Los Angeles 1992 to Baltimore 2015.

The sense of oppression and injustice at the hands of police that sparked the Rodney King riots are at the root of the Freddie Gray riot. Gray died on April 19, one week after suffering a nearly severed spine while in police custody. How it happened remains unexplained. An investigation is underway, but the excesses of the Baltimore Police Department are well-known. That’s why Gray’s mysterious death was a spark that ignited kindling that had piled up for years. Nothing excuses the violence that happened in Baltimore, but knowing this history certainly explains the anger that fueled the riot and the peaceful protests that preceded it...

Whatever pervasive injustice blacks face in America (real or imagined), it never justifies the kind of anarchy and evil wanton violence that inevitably accompanies the rioting. Just ask Reginald Denny.

More.

U.S. Growth Nearly Stalls Out

At WSJ, "U.S. Economic Growth Nearly Stalls Out: Businesses slash investment, exports tumble and consumers show caution as GDP expands at 0.2% pace":

WASHINGTON—The U.S. economy slowed to a crawl at the start of the year as businesses slashed investment, exports tumbled and consumers showed signs of caution, marking a return to the uneven growth that has been a hallmark of the nearly six-year economic expansion.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, expanded at a 0.2% seasonally adjusted annual rate in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The economy advanced at a 2.2% pace in the fourth quarter and 5% in the third.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected growth of 1% in the first three months of this year, though many were braced for a surprise to the downside.

The latest reading on the economy came hours before Federal Reserve officials released their policy statement, in which they said slower growth reflected, in part, “transitory factors.” The Fed gave no new explicit clues on the timing of interest-rate increases, but the slower growth made the timing a bit more uncertain.

The first-quarter figures repeat a common pattern in recent years: one or two strong readings followed by a sharp slowdown. First-quarter GDP growth had averaged 0.6% since 2010 and 2.9% for all other quarters. That has worked out to moderate overall expansion but no growth breakout.

“This is another quarterly number which confirms the long-term slow-growth thesis, but there are good odds we get a bit of a bounce later in the year from stabilized business spending and the housing markets, which are setting up quite promising,” Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott, said in a note to clients.

Last year, economists pinned much of the blame for a bad first quarter—GDP shrank 2.1%—on unusually harsh weather. This year, multiple factors appear to be at work, including another bout of blizzards, disruptions at West Coast ports, the stronger dollar’s effect on exports and the impact of cheaper oil.

Better weather, a return to normal at port terminals and steadying investment could boost growth later this year.

“We expect the economy will rebound in [the second quarter] and beyond, similar to last year,” said Michelle Girard, economist at RBS Securities.

But not all the factors behind the slowdown appear temporary. A stronger dollar and cheaper oil could persist, keeping exports and energy-sector investment at bay.

As well, rising inventories kept the U.S. economy out of recession, contributing 0.74 percentage point to GDP in the first quarter. A second-quarter repeat is unlikely.

Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank, said producers probably will allow inventory positions to run off rather than building them up even more. “This tells us that current-quarter growth is likely to run around 2.5%, not the 4% snapback we had previously been anticipating,” he said.

U.S. households will have to pick up spending to help the economy grow. Wednesday’s report showed consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of economic output, decelerated to a 1.9% pace in the first quarter, down from 4.4% growth in the fourth quarter.

Rather than using savings from cheaper gasoline to buy more goods and services, Americans have been setting money aside for a rainy day. The personal saving rate at 5.5% in the first quarter was the highest since 2012. The figure was 4.6% in the fourth quarter.

Another key driver of the economy, business spending, also has faltered of late. Nonresidential fixed investment—which reflects spending on software, research and development, equipment and structures—retreated at a 3.4% rate, compared with a 4.7% rise in the fourth quarter.

Energy companies in particular are feeling the effects of cheaper oil. Business investment in structures fell 23.1%, led by a 48.7% contraction for mining sector spending on shafts and wells, Commerce said.

A stronger dollar, meanwhile, has made domestically produced goods more expensive overseas and foreign products cheaper inside the U.S. Combined with disruptions at West Coast ports, trade was constrained. In the first quarter, exports fell at a 7.2% rate, compared with 4.5% growth in the fourth quarter. Imports rose 1.8%, compared with 10.4% in the fourth quarter...

Also at Gateway Pundit, "OBAMA vs. REAGAN on GDP GROWTH — NOT EVEN CLOSE."

Two-Headed Calf Born to Cow at Florida Farm

Trippy.

At ABC News Los Angeles, "COW GIVES BIRTH TO TWO-HEADED CALF IN FLORIDA."

Freddie Gray Was 'Trying to Injure Himself...'

At WaPo, "Prisoner in van said Freddie Gray was ‘trying to injure himself,’ document says":

Fox is all over the Wash Post story, CNN hasn't mentioned it

— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) April 30, 2015

BALTIMORE — A prisoner sharing a police transport van with Freddie Gray told investigators that he could hear Gray “banging against the walls” of the vehicle and believed that he “was intentionally trying to injure himself,” according to a police document obtained by The Washington Post.

The prisoner, who is currently in jail, was separated from Gray by a metal partition and could not see him. His statement is contained in an application for a search warrant, which is sealed by the court. The Post was given the document under the condition that the prisoner not be named because the person who provided it feared for the inmate’s safety.

The document, written by a Baltimore police investigator, offers the first glimpse of what might have happened inside the van. It is not clear whether any additional evidence backs up the prisoner’s version, which is just one piece of a much larger probe.

Gray was found unconscious in the wagon when it arrived at a police station on April 12. The 25-year-old had suffered a spinal injury and died a week later, touching off waves of protests across Baltimore, capped by a riot Monday in which hundreds of angry residents torched buildings, looted stores and pelted police officers with rocks.

Police have said they do not know whether Gray was injured during the arrest or during his 30-minute ride in the van. Local police and the U.S. Justice Department both have launched investigations of Gray’s death...

More.

Also at Twitchy, "Rick Leventhal also heard that Freddie Gray threw himself into walls of van," and Instapundit, "FIFTY SHADES OF FREDDIE GRAY: The Washington Post reports that a prisoner sharing a Baltimore police transport van with Freddie Gray could hear Gray “banging his head” against the van walls and believes Gray was “intentionally trying to injure himself”."

New York Protesters March for Freddie Gray

A live blog, at the Guardian UK, "Freddie Gray protests sweep US from Baltimore to New York – live updates."

And at the New York Times, "Hundreds March in Manhattan to Protest the Death of Freddie Gray":

“Freddie Gray, Michael Brown. Shut it down, shut it down...”

VIDEO: Baltimore Restaurant Owner Fights Off Looters

Via Truth Revolt:

Iran Seizes Marshall Islands-Flagged Cargo Ship

At the New York Times, "U.S. Sends Destroyer After Iran Detains Ship":

WASHINGTON — The United States Navy sent a destroyer toward the Persian Gulf on Tuesday after Iran took control of a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship it accused of trespassing in territorial waters, American military officials said.

The ship, the Maersk Tigris, with 24 crew members, was intercepted by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps patrol boats on Tuesday morning while traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, a Pentagon official said. The Iranian forces fired shots across the ship’s bow, the official said, after its captain declined an order by the forces to divert farther into Iranian waters.

The official said the ship was traveling through “an internationally recognized maritime route.” After being fired on, it issued a distress call, prompting the United States Navy to direct a destroyer, the Farragut, to the area and to put aircraft on standby to monitor the situation.

The episode threatened fragile negotiations over reining in Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but American officials were quick to play down its significance, correcting initial reports out of Iran that it had seized a United States ship. The Marshall Islands, in the Pacific, have been independent of the United States since 1986 but have a “free association” relationship with the country.

Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said the ship was traveling through Iranian territorial waters that are, by international agreement, open to foreign ships making an innocent passage. He said it was “inappropriate” for Iran to have fired warning shots, but he added that it was too early to know whether Iran’s intervention was a violation of international navigation freedom. Iran has in the past threatened to block the strait, a route for much of the world’s oil.

An American military official said Tuesday that the Farragut was about 60 miles away from the site of the episode, and that as of the afternoon there had been no communication between the United States Navy and Iran.

A Maersk spokesman said that the ship was a charter vessel, not a Maersk-crewed ship. A spokesman for the charter company, Rickmers Shipmanagement, said that the crew members were all Eastern European or Asian, and that the ship had been headed to a port near Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, from Jidda, Saudi Arabia. It was carrying general cargo, “anything from food to machinery to electronics,” he said.

The Rickmers spokesman, Cor Radings, said the captain had said that the ship did not stray into Iranian waters outside the international maritime route. “She was stopped by the Iranians and instructed to go to a rendezvous point in Iranian waters,” he said. “Since then we’ve lost contact with the ship.”

More.

Supreme Court Justices View Homosexual Marriage with Doubt

Well, oral arguments aren't a particularly good predictor of how the Court will rule.

And Justice Anthony Kennedy's the flaming leftist who wrote the majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, which many observers claimed foreshadowed a Court ruling establishing a right to same-sex nuptials.

So, while I take this with some skepticism, it's nevertheless pretty ticklish how the homosexual rights attorneys got all beat up during the arguments yesterday. It's good to keep the leftist ghouls guessing. They've been freakin' aggressive with entitlement this last few years. Damn.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Supreme Court weighs gay marriage; Justice Kennedy unexpectedly expresses doubt":

Gay rights lawyers went to the Supreme Court hoping to find a majority of justices ready to support a historic ruling that would declare same-sex couples had an equal right to marry nationwide.

Instead during Tuesday’s arguments, they heard words of hesitation that suggested the outcome is less certain than many expected.

The most important and surprising doubts came almost immediately from Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who openly wondered whether the court should intervene in an institution so deeply rooted in history and religion.

The word that keeps coming back to me is millennia,” Kennedy said in the opening minutes of a 2 1/2-hour argument, prompting looks of concern from gay rights attorneys.

Kennedy’s apparent struggle over what is perhaps the court’s most important civil rights question in a generation was welcomed by state attorneys opposing gay marriage and by his four fellow conservative justices. They emphasized that marriage has been limited throughout American history to a man and a woman, and that the issue is better left to voters at the state level, rather than to federal judges.

Despite his comments, Kennedy — who will probably have the deciding vote — may still rule in favor of marriage rights for same-sex couples when the court announces its decision in June. Kennedy in the past had similarly voiced doubts during an argument, only to discard them when the time came to make a decision.

More important, Kennedy has written the court’s three important rulings in favor of gay rights, including an opinion two years ago that spoke glowingly of the “equal dignity” of same-sex couples who had married. It was that decision that led to a string of rulings by federal courts over the last year that invalidated states’ same-sex marriage bans as unconstitutional.

To the relief of gay rights advocates, Kennedy later in Tuesday’s argument returned to some of his more familiar themes about equality and at one point chided a Michigan state lawyer for insisting that marriage was chiefly about biology and procreation, and not recognizing the dignity derived from being in a committed couple.

“Same-sex couples say, 'Of course, we understand the nobility and sacredness of the marriage. We know we can’t procreate, but we want the other attributes of it in order to show that we too have a dignity that can be fulfilled,’” Kennedy said.

With an estimated 250,000 children that are being raised by same-sex couples across the nation, Kennedy also questioned the harm same-sex marriage bans have on such families.

Kennedy’s colleagues seemed less ambivalent about the question before them.

The court’s four most conservative justices, including Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., left little doubt they would vote to uphold the state bans on same-sex marriage. Roberts said gay rights proponents were seeking to redefine marriage.

“You're not seeking to join the institution,” he told attorney Mary L. Bonauto, who is representing two Michigan nurses who have been unable to marry and jointly adopt the four abandoned foster children they are raising. “You're seeking to change what the institution is.”

Roberts also warned that a ruling from the high court at this time would prematurely shut down the national debate over the issue.

But Bonauto emphasized that the rights of gays and lesbians were being compromised in many states and that it was unfair to tell gay couples to “wait and see.”

The four liberal justices said they saw no valid legal justification to deny marriage to same-sex couples, questioning how such recognition would harm heterosexual marriage.

“We are not taking anyone’s liberty away” by allowing gay couples to marry, said Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

They attacked the argument that marriage is intended chiefly to encourage child-rearing, and noted that many heterosexual spouses do not have children and a growing number of same-sex couples do, either through adoption or surrogacy.


Justice Stephen G. Breyer said the court had repeatedly ruled that Americans have a fundamental right to marry, and he questioned whether “purely religious reasons” can justify a ban on same-sex marriage.

“There is one group of people whom [some states] won't open marriage to,” Breyer said. “So they have no possibility to participate in that fundamental liberty. That is people of the same sex who wish to marry. And so we ask, why? And the answer we get is, ‘Well, people have always done it.’ You know, you could have answered that one the same way we talk about racial segregation.”

More.

Latest Updates on Baltimore Riots

At the Baltimore Sun, "Latest updates on Baltimore unrest and Freddie Gray case Live."

Baltimore 'Hero Mom' Berates Son for Participating in Riots

And wouldn't you know it, but far-left extremist Joan Walsh goes ballistic over the media's praise for the woman.

At Salon, "The hideous white hypocrisy behind the Baltimore “Hero Mom” hype: How clueless media applause excuses police brutality."

Walsh is a terrible human being.

The mom, on the other hand, deserves the accolades.



More here.

I Thought Gisele Bundchen Retired?

I saw this earlier, "Gisele Bundchen retires from the runway."

But now here's this, at Egotastic!, "Gisele Bundchen bares it all for Vogue Brazil."

Tailgating Camaro Driver Causes Huge Crash on New York Tollway

Almost unreal. Almost.

At Jalopnik, "Jackass Uses Road Rage and Idiocy to Cause Two-Car-Plus-Truck Wreck."

Baltimore Shows How Progressivism Has Failed Urban America

A phenomenal editorial, at WSJ, "The Blue-City Model":

You’re not supposed to say this in polite company, but what went up in flames in Baltimore Monday night was not merely a senior center, small businesses and police cars. Burning down was also the blue-city model of urban governance.

Nothing excuses the violence of rampaging students or the failure of city officials to stop it before Maryland’s Governor called in the National Guard. But as order starts to return to the streets, and the usual political suspects lament the lack of economic prospects for the young men who rioted, let’s not forget who has run Baltimore and Maryland for nearly all of the last 40 years.

The men and women in charge have been Democrats, and their governing ideas are “progressive.” This model, with its reliance on government and public unions, has dominated urban America as once-vibrant cities such as Baltimore became shells of their former selves. In 1960 Baltimore was America’s sixth largest city with 940,000 people. It has since shed nearly a third of its population and today isn’t in the top 25.

The dysfunctions of the blue-city model are many, but the main failures are three: high crime, low economic growth and failing public schools that serve primarily as jobs programs for teachers and administrators rather than places of learning.

Let’s take them in order...

Keep reading.

Hope Fades on Finding More #NepalEarthquake Survivors

Sad.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Hope of finding more Nepal quake survivors fades as toll tops 5,200":

Hope of finding survivors in rubble was fading fast Wednesday as the death toll from last weekend’s earthquake in Nepal surpassed 5,200. But after days of complaints about the shortage of aid, a somewhat stronger presence of foreign search-and-rescue teams and assistance convoys was evident in the capital and outlying districts.

A logjam of airplane traffic and passengers began to clear at Katmandu’s airport, where authorities said they had picked up 1.5 tons of trash from the overrun facility. Banks, restaurants and even souvenir shops began to reopen in the capital.

Thousands of people, though, continued to look for ways out of the Katmandu Valley, hitching rides on crowded buses and taxis. Many were returning home to remote villages to assess the effects of the disaster. State-run Radio Nepal said 200,000 people had already left the valley as of late Tuesday and another 200,000 may leave in the coming days.

That exodus could crimp the ability of private businesses and government offices to function. Government authorities ordered civil servants to return to work Thursday, though schools and many other institutions remained closed indefinitely.

Indian, Russian, French, Chinese and Nepalese search-and-rescue teams were working across the capital, trying to find survivors amid collapsed buildings. But four days after the magnitude 7.8 quake, chances of finding anyone alive were slim.

As the sun began to set, Deepak Damai stood on the edge of the Sobhavagbati Bridge in Katmandu, clutching a photo of his 5-year-old son and explaining his agony to a reporter from an Indian TV station. The boy and his mother were in their apartment on the third floor of a seven-story building that collapsed during Saturday’s quake.

Damai, who had been working in Dubai at the time, flew home Monday to search for his wife and son. He watched with despair as Nepalese rescue workers drilled through the layers of concrete, pulling out four bodies. “Those people also lived on the third floor,” he said, his lip trembling.

Rescue workers had dug out 27 bodies so far and still had three more levels to drill through. A police officer said they expected to find a large number of bodies on the lowest level, which had housed an athletic club.

About half a mile away, Indian, Russian and Nepalese teams were using dogs and listening devices to try to locate survivors from three collapsed buildings, including a church where 50 people had been worshiping at the time of the quake.

Subrate Charkrabortui, an Indian physician on the scene, was downbeat. One body had been pulled out Wednesday, he said.

“We could do much more if we had better equipment," he said. "But it is difficult to airlift all the heavy equipment necessary to lift buildings like this.”

More.

As Baltimore Residents Clean Up, National Guard Steps In

At WSJ, "Hundreds of troops fan out over city following a night of unrest in wake of Freddie Gray funeral":

BALTIMORE—Maryland National Guard troops fanned out here Tuesday and residents began to repair neighborhoods as the city’s mayor defended the response to a previous night of riots and looting fueled by the recent death of a black man in police custody.

As a 10 p.m. curfew came and went Tuesday, a line of police behind riot shields used pepper balls and smoke grenades to disperse a crowd of about 200 at North and Pennsylvania avenues. Protesters tossed bottles at police, but no immediate arrests or serious injuries were reported before the crowd quickly dispersed.

On Monday night, upheaval roiled the city when roaming groups of youths faced off with police just hours after the funeral for Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man who died earlier this month after police arrested him.

City officials said fires consumed 19 buildings and 144 vehicles, while at least 20 police officers were injured and 235 people arrested. On Tuesday, shop owners covered storefronts with plywood, and many residents swept debris from streets. The acrid smell of charred vehicles and buildings hung in the air.

Government offices, schools and businesses closed or scaled back hours of operation.Johns Hopkins University canceled classes in the city.

In an unusual move, the Baltimore Orioles announced the team would play a scheduled game at its Camden Yards stadium in Baltimore on Wednesday but close it to the public. A three-game series starting Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays was moved to Florida.

Baltimore officials focused Tuesday on containing the immediate threat of additional lawlessness, beginning a weeklong, citywide 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew. Schools were set to reopen Wednesday.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake defended her administration’s decision not to crack down heavily on a crowd of young people that clashed with police Monday afternoon before the confrontation spiraled into widespread mayhem that overwhelmed the city police force.

She said officers have to maintain safety while trying not to escalate tensions. “We worked very swiftly, and it’s a very delicate balancing act,” Ms. Rawlings-Blake said.

Gov. Larry Hogan said an influx of up to 2,000 Maryland National Guard troops, more than 400 state troopers and officers from other states would help ensure that chaos didn’t return to the city’s streets.

A person familiar with the governor’s thinking said Mr. Hogan believed Ms. Rawlings-Blake should have asked him to mobilize the National Guard earlier on Monday. The violence began at about 3 p.m. on Monday.

“Finally I believe around 6 o’clock, the mayor requested us to bring in the National Guard and declare a state of emergency,” Mr. Hogan said. “We did so immediately.”

Keep reading.

Also, "'This is our home. Now it's destroyed.' CVS employees in Baltimore react to their store being torched by looters..."

Weeklong Baltimore Curfew Takes Effect After #FreddieGray Riots

At the Baltimore Sun, "Weeklong Baltimore curfew takes effect after Freddie Gray protests":

pic.twitter.com/sanLPxKQWy

— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) April 29, 2015

Amid continued protests over the death of Freddie Gray, Baltimore readied Tuesday for the start of a citywide curfew.

The curfew — which will be in effect for at least seven days, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. — applies to everyone in the city, though exceptions are in place for emergency personnel, students traveling for classes and people commuting to or from work for essential functions.

Individuals may be stopped by authorities and asked to provide documentation to avoid arrest, according to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration. Violating the curfew is a misdemeanor.

The mayor's office said that "non-essential business operations" should be suspended during the hours the curfew is in effect. Restaurants, entertainment venues and bars should be closed between those hours, and patrons should plan enough time to travel before the curfew takes effect.

Employees traveling to or from work during the curfew should have a valid photo ID and a document from their employer stating their need to work during curfew hours, along with the dates and employee hours, according to the administration.

At the end of the week, Rawlings-Blake will determine whether the curfew should be extended.

The city already has a curfew that requires children younger than 14 to be indoors by 9 p.m. on school nights. Those older than 14 may stay out until 10 p.m. on school nights and 11 p.m. on weekends and over the summer.

Mayoral spokesman Kevin Harris said the citywide curfew — announced Monday — was set to take effect Tuesday night so police had time to ramp up enforcement efforts. Harris also said people needed reasonable notice before a curfew is enforced.

Riots on Monday followed a week of mostly peaceful protests over the death of the 25-year-old Gray in police custody. The protests boiled into violence Saturday, and it worsened Monday after Gray's funeral.

Also, "Critics question delay in calling out the Guard":

As the Maryland National Guard patrolled Baltimore streets for the first time in more than 45 years, some critics questioned why it took so long to deploy them.

Among those airing concern: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake did not return his repeated phone calls for more than two hours Monday as rioting spread across the city. He felt he couldn't call out the Guard without her.

Rawlings-Blake would not directly respond to his complaint, saying she would not engage in "political football."

Keep reading.

Mother's Day Technology Gifts

Enjoy shopping today, and stay safe, Shop Amazon - Mother's Day Gifts for the Techie.

Also, Shop Amazon Gift Cards - Last Minute Gift for Mom.

Have a beautiful day. I'll be teaching.

Blessings to you and your family, and thanks for using my Amazon links for shopping.

Stop Racism! Stop Treating Blacks Differently. Stop Giving Free Pass to Riots and Looting

Here's Chloe Valdary, for Prager University.

Filmmaker Who Survived #NepalEarthquake Recounts Terrifying Moments at Mount Everest

At Telegraph UK, "Survivor recounts terrifying moments of Mount Everest avalanche."

Also at LAT, "Nepal's government ill-equipped to handle earthquake disaster."

Rachel Williams — the Girl Who Broke the Internet — Makes Her Sexy Return!

Well, I don't know if she "broke the Internet," although she definitely set many male hearts aflutter.

At Zoo Today.

PREVIOUSLY: "Rachel Williams: Zoo's Great British Babe Search Winner 2013," and "Rachel Williams Awesome in Undies!"

U.S. and Japan Tighten Alliance in Face of Surging Threat from China

This is fascinating, although Japan's not a political pygmy, and folks should stop treating the Japanese as such.

Japan's a powerful country that could deploy a nuclear arsenal at virtually a moment's notice. Time to cut the cord, if anything.

In any case, at LAT, "Japan's Shinzo Abe visits U.S. to discuss new threat: China":

When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rises to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, it will represent a diplomatic sea change so great that it may seem incomprehensible to the lingering members of the "Greatest Generation."

To those who lived through World War II, Japan was once seen as such a menacing enemy that upon the emperor's surrender in 1945, America imposed a severely pacifist constitution to ensure that the Asian nation would never again become a world power.

Today, that world has turned upside down. And the U.S. and Japan are finding it necessary to draw even closer to confront a shared threat.

China, a battered and enfeebled American ally during the war, has become a juggernaut that increasingly asserts its economic and military power across Asia and beyond.

Consequently, Abe's unprecedented speech to Congress is expected to focus on the once-unimaginable idea of increasing Japan's military strength with an eye toward putting muscle behind the two countries' vision of an American-led order in Asia.

The 60-year-old prime minister will also urge support for a Pacific Rim free-trade deal led by the U.S. and Japan, the world's No. 1 and No. 3 economies, respectively. The 12-nation pact, which would bring together a number of China's large trading partners but not China, is seen as a form of economic containment aimed at the world's No. 2 economy.

Though the trade deal faces stiff resistance from America's trade unions and many Democratic lawmakers, the Republican-led Congress is moving to give President Obama greater power to resolve final sticking points with Japan. Administration officials said Friday that "substantial progress" has been made in negotiations, but that there won't be an agreement announced on the Trans-Pacific Partnership during Abe's visit.

At the center of the trip will be the first speech by a Japanese prime minister to a joint session of Congress. Abe's weeklong visit also includes a meeting with Obama and stops in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where Abe studied public policy at USC.

Timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Abe's trip will no doubt rekindle painful memories for some Americans and key allies.

Abe is expected to address Japan's history of military aggressions, a particularly sensitive subject for Beijing and Seoul.

Chinese and South Koreans have repeatedly criticized Japan for what they see as a glossing-over of wartime atrocities in Japanese textbooks, the honoring of war criminals at Japanese military shrines and the failure to adequately compensate so-called comfort women from Korea, China and other Asian countries forced into sexual servitude for Japanese troops.

Foreshadowing what he might say on his visit, Abe expressed "feelings of deep remorse over the past war" at a conference in Bandung, Indonesia, last week.

Korean American civic groups and others that oppose the congressional invitation to Abe will want to hear much more than that, and are planning protests on both coasts. But eager to focus on the future alliance, U.S. officials are not expected to dwell on the issue.

"As long as he says something regarding the past that seems sincere and contrite, people will take that and say it's enough," said Jeffrey Kingston, a professor of Asian studies and history at Temple University's Japan Campus. "Chinese and Koreans will be scrutinizing every comma, dot and word. He knows no matter what he says, he can't satisfy them. What he wants to do is say enough to satisfy Washington. And the mood coming out of Washington is quite positive."

To understand why, it helps to consider another Asian leader's speech last week to a different foreign legislature.

Keep reading.