Journalist Shaming in China

Show trials.

Chinese Communist Party show trials.

At the New York Times, "Caijing Journalist’s Shaming Signals China’s Growing Control Over News Media":

HONG KONG — When the Chinese Ministry of Public Security arrested nearly 200 people at the end of August for “spreading rumors,” one of the most prominent targets was Wang Xiaolu, a reporter for the respected business magazine Caijing.

Mr. Wang was compelled to confess on television before going to trial. Dressed in a green polo shirt and looking downcast, he told viewers of China Central Television, the main state network, that he had gathered information using private sources “through abnormal channels,” then added to this his “own subjective views.” The article in question, Mr. Wang said, was a “sensational” and “irresponsible” report on the stock market.

That the state would take aim at a publication like Caijing came as a surprise to many. The magazine has a strong reputation for hard-hitting investigations and pushing the boundaries of what the government might deem permissible. Yet it has steered clear of prohibited topics like the Falun Gong movement.

“I know how to measure the boundary lines,” Caijing’s founder, Hu Shuli, told The New York Times in 2005. “We go up to the line — and we might even push it. But we never cross it.”

So the public shaming of one of its journalists has raised fears about prospects for journalistic freedom within China — and the direction of Caijing itself.

The publication was set up in 1998 by Ms. Hu, a former propaganda writer for the Communist Party publication Workers’ Daily, and it took an aggressive journalistic approach from the beginning. The cover of the first issue focused on a property company with a rocketing share price that had been suspended from trading after overstating its profits. A few insiders were tipped off beforehand and managed to unload their shares.

In an editorial on the future of journalism in China, Ms. Hu wrote, “By simply reporting the story and pointing out places where the system failed to protect small investors, we incited a stir. Government watchdogs immediately criticized Caijing.”

Caijing, a biweekly magazine with a circulation of 225,000, has continued chasing the same types of stories. Exposés by Caijing — which means finance and economics in Chinese — have covered such topics as illegal securities trading, stock price manipulation and falsified profits. Some of the reports have prompted regulatory investigations.

But for a business-focused publication, it has also ventured further into less traditional territory.

In 2003, Caijing was one of the few Chinese media outlets to report critically on the SARS crisis. The government tried to control the story, said David Bandurski, an editor at the China Media Project based at the University of Hong Kong.

“Some media, Caijing and Southern Metropolis Daily, decided they were going to report,” Mr. Bandurski said. “Hu Shuli was going into West China with her hazmat suit. Around the time of SARS, April 2003, was the beginning of what they think of as the media spring. Official guidance totally fell apart.”

In 2008, Caijing reported on how construction standards had been ignored and public money was wasted in Sichuan, leading to the collapse of many schools during an earthquake. Other publications were punished for covering the collapsed schools, but Caijing was not.

Mr. Bandurski said the importance of economic reform to the government meant elites wanted strong financial reporting. Caijing seized the opportunity.

But it also occasionally crossed the line, from Beijing’s point of view. Wang Boming, who helped obtain financing for the publication when it started, told The New York Times in 2005 that people from the magazine had been called to perform “self-criticism.”

Mr. Wang, who is president of the Stock Exchange Executive Council, or S.E.E.C., and helped establish the stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen, is now editor in chief at the magazine. Caijing is owned by S.E.E.C. Media, a company listed in Hong Kong, which sells advertising.

Ms. Hu resigned as editor in November 2009 after a dispute with the publishers. Caijing had come under growing pressure from government censors, and Ms. Hu and others at the magazine had complained that S.E.E.C. Media was too stingy with the budget.

Ms. Hu left along with most of the editorial team. She went on to form Caixin Media, a news group focused on finance.

Caijing, observers say, has stayed at the forefront of financial reporting and has performed better than many expected. But the confession of Wang Xiaolu has some questioning whether free rein for Caijing, Caixin and publications like them is coming to an end, either because of government pressure or because journalists are trying to protect themselves.

“I think it is a crackdown on media and a step-up of censorship,” said Mr. Cheng, a stock market investor in his 40s who wanted to be referred to only by his surname because of safety concerns. “I can see that because of what happened to Caijing magazine, many media don’t want to be the first one to report important news. Like the day before yesterday, China Securities Regulatory Commission started another action to further restrict loans for stock trading, but I can see that no media wanted to be the first one to report this.”

Luo Changping, a former deputy managing editor at Caijing, said people he knew who work at Caijing or have worked there are upset. And although anyone going into journalism in China knows the constraints they will work under, standards are changing, he added.

“Maybe a few years ago, the line was higher,” he said. “But now it’s dropping lower on everyone. Many journalists are saying that nowadays, there is no media that is safe. Everyone lives in a comparatively dangerous situation.”

He said even Mr. Wang’s confession was vague on exactly what he had done wrong.

“Everything he did was just his usual reporting work,” said Mr. Luo. “And we are all saying that a big part of journalists’ job is ‘privately gathering information.’ ”

Still more.

The Timothy Hunt Witch Hunt

A great piece, from Jonathan Foreman, at Commentary:

In 1983, the British biochemist Timothy Hunt discovered cyclins, a family of proteins that help regulate the life of cells. Eighteen years later, in 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Between June 8 and June 10 of this year, the 72-year-old Hunt went from being a universally respected and even beloved figure at the top of the scientific establishment to an instant pariah, condemned everywhere for antiquated opinions about women’s role in science that he does not, in fact, hold.

In only 48 hours, he found himself compelled to resign his positions at University College London and at the august Royal Society (where Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke once fought petty battles) after being told that failure to do so would lead to his outright firing.

The Timothy Hunt affair represents more than the gratuitous eye-blink ruination of a great man’s reputation and career. It demonstrates the danger of the extraordinary, almost worshipful deference that academia, government institutions, and above all the mainstream media now accord to social media. It is yet more evidence of the way moral panic and (virtual) mob rule can be accelerated and intensified by the minimalism of Twitter, with its 140-character posts and its apparently inherent tendency to encourage snap judgments, prejudice, and cruelty.

Fortunately, the story did not end on June 10. In the weeks following the initial assault, some of Hunt’s most ardent persecutors have been exposed as liars or blinkered ideologues, abetted by cynical hacks and academic rivals on a quest to bring him down or use him as grist to a political mill. Hunt’s partial rehabilitation has largely come about thanks to the dogged investigations of Louise Mensch, the British novelist and former conservative member of parliament who lives in New York City and is herself a powerful presence on Twitter. Mensch was alarmed by what she calls ‘the ugly combination of bullying and sanctimony” in the reaction to remarks made by “an evidently sweet and kind” older man.

She did some checking on Twitter and soon found that the two main witnesses for the prosecution contradicted each other. Then she began a more thorough investigation of Hunt’s offending comments and the lack of due process involved in his punishment by various academic and media institutions. The results of her exhaustive research, published on her blog, Unfashionista.com, encouraged an existing groundswell of support for Hunt from scientists around the world but most important from Hunt’s own female colleagues and former students.

As a result, the false picture of Hunt as a misogynist opposed to the equal participation of women in science has mostly been dispelled. Hunt, who is married to a distinguished immunologist named Mary Collins, has ceased being the science academy’s equivalent of George Orwell’s Emmanuel Goldstein—the object of the Two Minutes Hate in 1984—on Twitter. Indeed, one of the Britain’s most respected female scientists, Dame Athene Donald, master of Churchill College, Cambridge, has publicly lamented the wrecking of Hunt’s reputation by “sloppy journalism fueled by self-righteous fervor.”

Nevertheless various senior figures continue to insist that whether or not Hunt’s remarks were jokes or correctly reported, he is deservedly a symbol of the sexism that allegedly pervades science. At the time of this writing, moreover, he has not been restored to the positions from which he was expelled or forced to resign...

More.

And at Louise Mensch's blog, "The Tim Hunt Reporting Was False. Royal Society, Please Give Him Due Process."

Orwell's two-minute hate is here. "Death! Traitor! Death! Traitor!"

That's the left for you.

Romee Strijd on Becoming a Victoria's Secret Angel

Watch, at the Victoria's Secret YouTube page, "Dutch supermodel Romee Strijd talks about how she was discovered, being cast for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and her journey to becoming an Angel."

Dangerous Rip Currents at SoCal Beaches

Careful if you're heading out for a swim down at the beach.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Labor Day bummer: Rip currents, swells close an L.A. County beach."

Also at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Dangerous Rip Currents Have Lifeguards on High Alert."

Up Close and Personal with Gang Members of El Salvador: Inside the Prison That's So Dangerous Even the Guards Won't Go In

These are Obama's homies.

They're welcome right here in the U.S. of A.

Remember those "unaccompanied minors"?

Here they are, at London's Daily Mail, "Inside Penas Ciudad Barrios prison that is so dangerous even guards will not go in."

How Social Media Is Ruining Politics

Ouch.

What a harsh attack on social media, heh.

At Politico, "It is turning out to be more encompassing and controlling, more totalizing, than earlier media ever was":

Twice before in the last hundred years a new medium has transformed elections. In the 1920s, radio disembodied candidates, reducing them to voices. It also made national campaigns far more intimate. Politicians, used to bellowing at fairgrounds and train depots, found themselves talking to families in their homes. The blustery rhetoric that stirred big, partisan crowds came off as shrill and off-putting when piped into a living room or a kitchen. Gathered around their wireless sets, the public wanted an avuncular statesman, not a firebrand. With Franklin Roosevelt, master of the soothing fireside chat, the new medium found its ideal messenger.

In the 1960s, television gave candidates their bodies back, at least in two dimensions. With its jumpy cuts and pitiless close-ups, TV placed a stress on sound bites, good teeth and an easy manner. Image became everything, as the line between politician and celebrity blurred. John Kennedy was the first successful candidate of the TV era, but it was Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton who perfected the form. Born actors, they could project a down-home demeanor while also seeming bigger than life.

Today, with the public looking to smartphones for news and entertainment, we seem to be at the start of the third big technological makeover of modern electioneering. The presidential campaign is becoming just another social-media stream, its swift and shallow current intertwining with all the other streams that flow through people’s devices. This shift is changing the way politicians communicate with voters, altering the tone and content of political speech. But it’s doing more than that. It’s changing what the country wants and expects from its would-be leaders.

What’s important now is not so much image as personality. But, as the Trump phenomenon reveals, it’s only a particular kind of personality that works—one that’s big enough to grab the attention of the perpetually distracted but small enough to fit neatly into a thousand tiny media containers. It might best be described as a Snapchat personality. It bursts into focus at regular intervals without ever demanding steady concentration...

That's pretty good. RTWT.

Sarah Palin Floats Nomination as Energy Secretary in Potential Trump Administration (VIDEO)

I suppose that's better than nomination as treasury secretary, heh.

Watch, at CNN yesterday, "Sarah Palin Recommends Herself for Energy Secretary."

And here's the full interview, "Sarah Palin on State of the Union: Full Interview."

Interesting too that the public debate has Donald Trump not only as the hypothetical GOP nominee, but as winning the White House altogether. Folks are looking ahead realistically, and it's big.

Las Vegas Police Officer Attacked in 'Ambush-Style' Shooting

A report, at Fox News 5 Las Vegas, "Officer wounded in east Vegas Valley ambush shooting."

Also at Breitbart Texas, "Another Cop Shot in Ambush-Style Attack."

And watch, at ABC News 13 Las Vegas:

Edward Rothstein Reviews Timothy Snyder's Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

This is pretty fascinating, especially the conclusion at Rothstein's review, at the Wall Street Journal, "The Frying Pan and the Fire."

And here's Snyder's book, at Amazon, Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning.

I'm not familiar with Snyder's work, oddly enough. He's got another important work on the Holocaust, with a comparative focus, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.

If I read both, I expect I'd start with the most recent volume first and work backwards. And I would do so with the requisite circumspection. Apparently, as Rothstein points out, the trend in recent historiography is to posit the Holocaust as just one more case of genocide, something not that particularly unique, but instead the starting point for a genre, a genre of promoting "tolerance" at that. And when you push tolerance as a stand-alone ideology, you're more likely to end up in an altogether different place. More like the gulags than modern enlightened democracy.

But then, that's up for the reader to decide. So, go for it. Click through at the links and have at it.

Germany Begins to Feel Backlash Over Migrant Policies

Well, news reports yesterday were talking about how the migrants were welcomed with "open arms."

Maybe those arms aren't so open after all.

At WSJ, "Germany Feels Backlash for Welcoming Migrants":

Praise for Germany’s handling of the thousands of refugees pouring into the country is giving way to domestic and international criticism of Berlin’s open-arms policy.

The criticism, though still muted, could spell trouble for German Chancellor Angela Merkel once the outpouring of sympathy that has greeted the migrants since late last week subsides and Berlin resumes its push to distribute them more broadly across Europe.

The chancellor’s decision on Friday night to let thousands of migrants traveling through Hungary into the country “sends a completely wrong signal in Europe,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told public television Saturday. “This must be corrected.”

Leaders of the Christian Social Union, Bavaria’s ruling party and an ally of Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats, unanimously criticized the decision as wrongheaded during a telephone conference on Saturday, Andreas Scheuer, the party’s secretary-general said.

Anti-immigration politicians in Germany, France and the U.K. also assailed the policy, saying that it was pulling even more refugees toward the continent and that German plans to divert some to other countries in Europe should be resisted. By Sunday afternoon, some 13,000 migrants had crossed from Hungary into Austria in the 36 hours since German and Austrian authorities bowed to pressure to grant entry to the crowds of asylum seekers stranded in Hungary.

“A welcoming culture is an expression of naive and illusory thinking,” a spokesman for Alfa, a recently founded opposition party in Germany, said Sunday. “What we need, instead, is realism and a sense of proportion. We shouldn’t go beyond providing the basics for asylum seekers, like food and shelter, because it will attract more people.”

In France, far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, speaking at her party’s annual gathering in Marseille on Sunday, said: “Germany has a heavy responsibility for inciting at the level of the European Union a passive acceptance of this crisis. Germany is probably thinking about its declining demography. It is probably looking to lower salaries again and recruit slaves through mass immigration.”

Germany, where federal police said they expected a total 17,000 migrants to arrive from Hungary over the weekend, was working to distribute them across the country. Officials said about 7,000 migrants arrived in Munich on Saturday, followed by another 6,000 people by Sunday afternoon. He said he expected an additional 4,000 people to arrive by day’s end. In addition, some trains carrying migrants have been redirected to other German cities...

To be fair, German culture has changed. But this migrant episode is indeed a test of how far Germany's come from the nightmare of the World War II years.

Still more.

Swimwear Sensation Jessica Gomes Flaunts Spectacular Body on New Cover of Women's Health Australia

She looks great.

At London's Daily Mail, "Scorching hot: Jessica Gomes flaunts incredible figure in busty black and white bikini on cover of Women's Health."

BONUS: "VIDEO: Jessica Gomes Sexy Swimsuit Outtakes - Sports Illustrated Swimsuit."

Kristen Keogh's Got Your Labor Day Forecast

It might just be a tad warmer tomorrow, but still lovely, in the mid-80s.

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

China Navy Operating Off Coast of Alaska

This was a kind of show-of-force for President Obama, who was in Anchorage for his climate change summit earlier in the week.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Five Chinese Navy Ships Are Operating in Bering Sea off Alaska."

Also, "Chinese Navy Ships Came Within 12 Nautical Miles of US Coast":

Chinese navy ships off Alaska in recent days weren’t just operating in the area for the first time: They also came within 12 nautical miles of the coast, making a rare foray into U.S. territorial waters, according to the Pentagon.

Pentagon officials said late Thursday that the five Chinese navy ships had passed through U.S. territorial waters as they transited the Aleutian Islands, but said they had complied with international law and didn’t do anything threatening.

“This was a legal transit of U.S. territorial seas conducted in accordance with the Law of the Sea Convention,” said Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban.

U.S. officials said there was no known official communication to the U.S. from the ships.

The passage was seen as significant as Beijing has long objected to U.S. Navy vessels transiting its territorial waters or operating in international waters just outside.

China’s Defense Ministry confirmed that its navy ships had sailed to the Bering Sea for training after joint exercises with Russia in late August, but said the activity was routine and not aimed at any particular country.

U.S. officials said earlier that they were tracking the five ships in the area, where they hadn’t seen the Chinese navy operating before, but they didn’t say how close the ships had come to U.S. territory.

The foray, just as President Barack Obama was visiting Alaska, threw a fresh spotlight on China’s expanding naval power and ambitions on the eve of a lavish military parade in Beijing. It also came just three weeks before China’s President, Xi Jinping, begins a state visit to the U.S. already clouded by tensions over alleged cyberattacks on the U.S. and China’s island-building in the South China Sea.

The flotilla apparently traveled east from somewhere near Russia and entered the Bering Sea, navigating north of the Aleutian Islands before transiting south, where they undertook the “innocent passage” through U.S. waters between two islands, a defense official said.

That principle allows military ships to transit foreign territorial waters if they don’t conduct threatening activity. The Chinese didn’t give prior notification to the U.S. before doing so, but under international law, they don’t need to.

The Chinese don’t always acknowledge those laws, however, according to U.S. defense reports. For example, Beijing claims that U.S. warships should request permission before making their own “innocent passage” in Chinese territorial waters.

During fiscal years 2012 and 2013, the Pentagon challenged this notion, deploying U.S. naval ships through Chinese territorial waters without notifying Beijing first. According to those reports, the U.S. did not make the same challenge during fiscal 2014. There is no data available for the current fiscal year.

U.S. officials believe China is building a “blue-water” navy capable of operating far from its shores, while also developing missiles and other capabilities designed to prevent the U.S. Navy from intervening in a conflict in Asia.

Many of those capabilities, including a new antiship ballistic missile, were put on display for the first time on Thursday during the parade to mark the surrender of Japanese forces at the end of World War II.

Some U.S. military experts saw the Chinese transit through the Aleutians as a positive step, in that they had adhered to the “innocent passage” principle...

Well, China aspires to be the world's dominant power, the hegemon, and to do so it needs to challenge the U.S. All of this maneuvering off U.S. territory is par for the course. We should be really worried, however, when China begins to deploy more and greater military hardware than our side. We're not at that threshold, yet. See, for example, the U.S. Naval Institute, "Report: Chinese Develop Special "Kill Weapon" to Destroy U.S. Aircraft Carriers." And from just this week, at Free Beacon, "China Shows New intermediate-Range Missile Capable of Targeting Ships."

Orange County Prepares for El Niño

We could have massive flooding over the winter rainy season, or so they say.

At the Orange County Register, "Canyon country already busy preparing for winter storms":

Joanne Hubble, unofficial public information officer for Orange County’s canyon country, is in a field helping locals sort stacks of sandbags, bales of rice plants – not hay, mind you, because horses eat hay – and piles of rebar.

Why rebar? The steel bars go deep into the ground and, hopefully, will hold the makeshift dams when storms hit this winter.

That’s right, when – not if – storms hit, according to meteorologists. In an era of climate change, weather is weird.

While most of the county busies itself with drought, Hubble and her canyon neighbors prepare for an onslaught of rain. Even if you simply live near a slope, warn meteorologists, you should be ready for what some call mudslides...

Keep reading.

But see also, "Are we ready for El Niño?"

Alana Blanchard at the Beach in Maldives

Photos from the Maalifushi luxury resort in the Maldives.

Must be nice, heh.

On Instagram, here and here.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



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

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Taken For a Ride."

Susan Sarandon, Far-Left Hollywood Moonbat, Carried Timothy Leary's Ashes in Burning Man Ceremony (VIDEO)

I guess you just gotta giggle at the news.

Susan Sarandon's a freak Hollywood hippy moonbat, heh.

At USA Today, "Susan Sarandon carried LSD guru Timothy Leary's ashes in a Burning Man ceremony":

BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. — Timothy Leary, the late father of LSD, was memorialized at Burning Man after a fantastic procession and burning of his ashes in the Black Rock Desert.

It was a spectacle that not even he probably could have imagined, as actress Susan Sarandon led a march with his ashes into a temporary church built as an art installation in the desert for the week-long festival.

The church was scheduled to burn as part of the event on Saturday after the "man", a giant wooden structure, burned.

"I think he'd be so happy. I think he would have loved the chaos (of Burning Man). He would have loved it," said Sarandon, one of Leary's closest friends. "And all these people honoring him with LSD."

When Leary died in 1996, several of his friends, including Sarandon, received some of his ashes. His friends sent most of his ashes to outer space in 1997, but Sarandon kept some.

"When I went to Burning Man last time, that's when I thought I'd bring him back here," Sarandon said.

She described him as a creative man, full of ideas. He was also hopeful for youth and "worshipped women," Sarandon said.

This year, Sarandon worked as part of the building crew for Burning Man artist and Northern California-based photographer Michael Garlington, whose work Sarandon admires greatly.

Known best for his "photo chapel" at Burning Man two years ago, Garlington debuted the "Totem of Confessions" at Burning Man last week.

This year's structure was a gothic cathedral-style piece plastered in Kafkaesque photo collages of animals and people. Much of it was gilded in gold.

On Thursday, dozens of participants were standing in line to see the inside of the 60-foot high structure, which had a confession booth and eerie peephole rooms.

When the parade of people surrounding Leary's ashes came through and separated the crowd, everyone turned to watch.

"I feel so privileged to be here. This is a great opportunity," said Orgon Hunter, who built a Burning Man art piece this year, "High Witness Tower 1963," inspired by Leary's time living in Mexico. "Tim is someone I respect a lot. He was a great thinker, just really great, genius. This would have brought him great joy."

Still more.

And at Vanity Fair, "See Susan Sarandon Take On Burning Man."

President Obama Wins Iran Nuclear Deal in Congress as Senator Barbara Mikulski Votes Yes (VIDEO)

The Iranian media is cheering Barbara Mikulski's vote to approve the Obama administration's treasonous nuclear deal. At Tehran's Press TV, "34th Senate vote in favor of JCPOA gives Obama power to veto rejection by Republicans."

Here's the background on the vote in Congress, at the Washington Post, "Obama secures votes to protect Iran nuclear deal." Mikulski's generally been a reliable pro-Israel vote in the Senate, but she's retiring, and no doubt the White House put the screws in to get her capitulation on this evil gift to the tyrannical regime in Iran.

So, watch Dennis Prager demolish the left's arguments for this monstrosity of an agreement, for Prager University:

Here's More Hot Bella Hadid for Your Summertime Pleasures

Following-up, "Bella Hadid's Sexy GQ Photo Shoot."

Here's more from GQ:



BONUS: Did you know Bella Hadid is Gigi Hadid's sister? Previously at American Power, "Gigi Hadid."

Playboy Playmates During a Hot Summer Day

Well, it's still summer, dang!

Via Playboy, "The last days of summer are leaving so Playboy's Playmates Amanda Cerny, Gemma Lee Farrell, Bryiana Noelle, Kennedy Summers, Shelby Chesnes and Crystal Hefner are making sure your nights always stay hot."

Confederate Flags Raised Again in South Carolina

Well, no doubt the Confederate flag debate has simmered down by now. I've personally disassociated with so-called conservatives who champion that symbol of Southern heritage. I appreciate the sentiments of pride, but not the denial of the flag's uglier symbolism. The only people making the hardline "heritage" argument are Marxists and radical libertarians, not true conservative patriots.

Stogie at Saberpoint's backed off his brusque attacks on dissenters from the Marxist/radical libertarian line. I see his last big post on this was from August 18th, "George Zimmeran's [sic] Painting of the Confederate Flag." (But see also from August 14th, "The Civil War Absolutely Was Not About Slavery: Must-Read Book Tells Why.")

It's a stupid, childish lie that the Civil War wasn't about slavery, as I've shown here repeatedly. And all any half-rational person has to do is read Bruce Levine's magnificent book, The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution That Transformed the South.

In any case, because there's always going to be disagreement over this, you'll never see the blatant in-your-face displays of the flag go away, especially in the South, and even in South Carolina, where the murders of the nine black Charleston parishioners will forever be a stain on that state's history.

So, here's the New York Times with a reminder of how that culture endures, with NASCAR.

See, "Confederate Flags Crash Nascar’s Plan for a Homecoming":

Confederate flags crash @NASCAR's plan for a homecoming http://t.co/rJ12sqrIUY pic.twitter.com/10jRw5OS71

— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 6, 2015

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Throwback paint schemes on racecars and retro logos and signs welcomed Nascar fans when they arrived at Darlington Raceway this weekend for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 Sprint Cup race. The marketing campaign was designed to make one of the most storied tracks on the circuit look like the early 1970s all over again.

Fans were more than happy to complete the picture, much to Nascar’s dismay. The Confederate flags they raised on R.V.s across the infield and outside the track dotted the sky above Darlington on Friday morning, as they have for decades here. The Southern 500, after all, was long known for playing “Dixie” as its anthem and used to feature a character named Johnny Reb — a man dressed as a Confederate soldier who stood atop the winning car with a rebel flag.

As those Confederate flags waved once more on Friday, Nascar faced its recurring quandary: How could a sport so closely associated with its Southern roots broaden its appeal nationally without alienating that base?

An insightful and occasionally amusing package of the sports journalism you need today, delivered to your inbox by New York Times reporters and editors.

“I’d say we’re always looking to make sure we’re satisfying our core fans and our long-term fan at the same time as we are growing to a new audience,” Jim Cassidy, Nascar’s senior vice president for racing operations, said Thursday during a telephone interview. “It’s a balance.”

And Darlington Raceway, as much as any track on the circuit, epitomizes the struggle Nascar has faced in trying to find that balance with an event that holds a special place in racing history.

The Southern 500 was first held at Darlington on Labor Day weekend in 1950. For 53 years, it was an iconic stop on the schedule, revered by some as much or more than the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 among the most important races of the year. That was until 2004, when Nascar changed the schedule to give the Labor Day weekend date to its sister track in Fontana, Calif., in the coveted Los Angeles market.

The Southern 500 was suddenly gone.

“It’s one of those things: Be careful what you wish for,” said Kyle Petty, the longtime driver who is now an NBC broadcaster. “We wished for a bigger sport, we dreamed of a bigger sport. We dreamed of Chicago and Kansas and Dallas, Tex., and L.A., and we dreamed of those markets when we were running North Wilkesboro and Darlington and Rockingham and Martinsville and places like that.

“And then all of the sudden you have those markets, but there’s a sacrifice to be made to be in those markets. And I think Nascar looked at it and said, let’s change some of this stuff around. I give them credit for changing it at the time to try to make something happen. But I give them huge credit for realizing what we had was just as special and coming back to it.”

Darlington retained one race each season, the date shifting on the schedule several times. The Southern 500 name was brought back in 2009 as well. But it was not until after the California experiment failed and the Labor Day event was shifted to Atlanta for four years that Nascar finally gave Darlington back its Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend this year. It was hard to gauge enthusiasm going into the weekend; the race was not a sellout at the 58,000-seat track.

“I think our great race fans in South Carolina support this racetrack,” said the track president, Chip Wile. “Certainly, we want to make a big splash in our return to Labor Day weekend, and I think we’ll do that.”

But officials are determined not to make a scene at the same time with Confederate flags in clear view during the race broadcast. After all, the Nascar chairman, Brian France, had declared that Confederate flags were no longer welcome at tracks after a mass shooting at a church in Charleston in June. When the series shifted to Daytona in July, track officials came up with an exchange program. They offered American flags to replace the Confederate flags there...

Still more.

UCLA's Josh Rosen: 'The Chosen One' (VIDEO)

The Bruins had a great opening day yesterday.

 At LAT, "Josh Rosen's debut is stellar, UCLA defense staunch in 34-16 win over Virginia," and "UCLA defeats Virginia, 34-16, with Josh Rosen in starring role."

Plus, from Bill Plaschke, "Josh Rosen's debut as UCLA quarterback illuminates why he is the chosen one":

It's only one game. He's only 18. The sample size is small. The season is long. Afterward, his coach understandably attempted to slow the buzz by pushing his outstretched palms downward in a suppressing motion.

"Let's just do this, OK?" pleaded Jim Mora, pushing down, down, down. "OK?"

OK ... not. Forget it. Not gonna work. No amount of rationalizing will pick all those jaws off the Rose Bowl floor. No chunks of common sense will stop the rubbing of eyes, the nudging of neighbors, the emptying of lungs that filled the Arroyo Seco with stunned surprise.

Nothing, it seems, can quiet the roaring hope that freshman quarterback Josh Rosen brought to UCLA football Saturday in his debut, season-opening 34-16 victory over Virginia.

Sorry, coach, but the kid was unbelievable, OK?

Rated as one of the nation's best high school quarterbacks, he exceeded even the wildest dreams of Bruins fans. Everyone figured he would be good. Few had any idea that this quickly, he would be this good.

Rosen completed passes over defenders, around defenders, and occasionally just torched the ball through defenders. He threw while on the run, while falling on his back, and sometimes, splendidly, while just standing 6-feet-4 inches tall in the pocket.

While getting hammered in the stomach, he completed a screen pass that led to the first touchdown. With his team leading by a point, he threw an absolutely perfect 30-yard pass over the middle of the Virginia defense for the second touchdown. Finally, while being thrown to the ground, he found an open 310-pound nose guard on a screen pass for a third touchdown.

"Hit me right between the numbers," chortled Kenny Clark.

He was precise. He was powerful. He was inspirational, slapping hands and backs and telling his teammates, "This game is slower than I thought."

"I heard that and I'm like, 'Oh-kay?"' said receiver Eldridge Massington.

In all, Rosen set the UCLA first-year freshman quarterback record with 28 completions in 35 attempts for 351 yards. He tied the record with three touchdown passes.

His debut was at least equal to the brilliant debut of his predecessor, Brett Hundley, and his aura reminded one of Cade McNown, who led UCLA to 20 consecutive victories in the late 1990s. Rosen might have unkempt blond hair and a scraggly kid mustache, but his swagger is solid.

Sorry, coach, but your own players and coaches couldn't help themselves.

"Sometimes we're looking at each other like, 'OK, how did he do that?' " said Thomas Duarte, who caught that 30-yard touchdown pass in traffic...

Keep reading.

Should Offensive Speech Be Banned?

Of course not, but that doesn't stop the radical left from trying.

Here's Greg Lukianoff, for Prager University:

How Apple is Preparing for the End of the iPhone Affair

Pretty interesting.

At Telegraph UK, "The launch of the iPhone 6s, fourth generation Apple TV and iPad Pro is impending, but it's Apple's battles with the likes of Netflix and Spotify which will prove pivotal to the company's future success..."

Syrian Refugees Are Coming to America — Shoot, Right Here in the O.C.!

If you check this Sooper Mexican post, via Instapundit, it turns out all these Syrian "refugees" aren't as wholesome as the establishment media makes them out to be. See, "JOURNALISM: How Mainstream Media and Social Media Present COMPLETELY Different Views of Syrian Immigrant Crisis."

But hey, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

And you migrants and refugees? No fear thee downtrodden masses the world, the O.C. is opening hearts and homes for you!

At the O.C. Register, "Syrian refugees are coming here, too, and aid groups are getting ready":

As hundreds of thousands of Syrians make their way across Europe, some by foot, local agencies are preparing for some of those people to land here.

“We are expecting a wave of Syrian refugees in Orange County,” said Nahla Kayali, founder and executive director of Access California Services, an Anaheim nonprofit that provides services largely to Muslim refugees and immigrants.

“We don’t know when they will come. But we are getting ready to receive them.”

In the past month, Access California Services has helped at least 30 Syrian refugee families moving to Orange County, providing everything from financial aid and school supplies to mental health services.

Kayali said most of those families spent several years in other countries before receiving refugee status from the United Nations and finding their way here.

Kayali and her staff met Friday to discuss the possibility of helping hundreds of Syrian refugees during the next year, or even within the next few months.

She said the agency might hire more caseworkers and mental health professionals to provide trauma counseling and therapy to help those individuals and families heal, integrate and thrive.

“We’re looking to hire members of the local Syrian community,” Kayali said. “We want people who can be culturally sensitive, understand their situation and speak the same language.”

Since the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011, more than 4 million Syrians have fled abroad. The United Nations has described it as the largest refugee crisis in almost 25 years. In addition, 7.6 million people within Syria have been displaced from their homes.

For several months, Turkey and Jordan have borne much of the impact. But in recent weeks, European nations have been grappling with the issue, dealing with refugees who are trying to flee by land and sea. On Friday, Germany and Austria agreed to accept some refugees who are crowding the Hungarian border.

The stories of tragedy and strife continue to bombard media and social media sites.

Aylan Kurdi, the 3-year-old Syrian Kurdish boy whose lifeless body washed ashore at a Turkish resort, has become the symbol of the refugees’ tragic situation.

Aylan, his brother and their mother drowned during a treacherous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. Their goal was to land in Canada. Only Aylan’s father survived.

Glen Peterson, director of World Relief Garden Grove, said the heart-rending image of Aylan reminded him of families with little children that walk into his office daily.

“I read that the boy’s father had great hopes of finding safety for his wife and two children outside Syria,” he said.

In the past year, Peterson said, he has helped hundreds of families relocate in Orange County from unsettled countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. Peterson said motivation is simple – safety and opportunity for their children.

Although Orange County organizations should start preparing to receive incoming refugees, efforts also should be made to prevent refugees from fleeing the country, said Hussam Ayloush, national chairman of the Syrian American Council.

“We’re working with President (Barack) Obama and the Congress to establish no-fly zones in liberated parts of Syria, to protect civilians from airstrikes,” said Ayloush, who is also director of the Los Angeles branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Anaheim.

“That is one of the main reasons millions of refugees are fleeing the country.“

The Syrian American Council also is working to increase the number of Syrians allowed into the United States as refugees. Currently, the U.S. quota for refugees from all countries has been set at 70,000.

Since the war began in Syria in 2011, only about 1,500 refugees from Syria have been resettled in the United States...

Hey, more Muslims coming to the U.S.? That's right down Obama's alley! They can get in line behind all the Hondurans, Guatemalans, and El Salvadorans ... you know, the vulnerable "unaccompanied minors" we were made to feel sorry for last summer. Well, they're all settled in now, with no pressure on them to go back home, despite leftist claims that these were just temporary refugees with no claims to permanent residency in the U.S.

So hey, rejoice!

No more sad stories like Aylan Kurdi. This is America. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled jihadis!

Bella Hadid's Sexy GQ Photo Shoot

Here: "Go on set with up-and-coming model Bella Hadid as she sends summer off with a bang."

Kate Moss Goes for Vogue Italia

At Egotastic!, "KATE MOSS ARTSY FOR VOGUE ITALIA."

The Political Establishment's Terrified by Donald Trump's 'Tangible American Nationalism'

I don't know if Noah Rothman's a neoconservative, despite his recent move over to Commentary Magazine, the bastion of neocon opinion and onetime home for writers such as Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol, and Nathan Glazer, among others. Norman's son John is the current editor at the magazine.

Rothman started slamming Donald Trump earlier this summer, almost as soon as the frontrunner uttered his words about Mexican illegal alien criminals and rapists. And he's been on a campaign against Trump at the magazine ever since.


I'm reminded of all this by Mark Ellis's post at Pajamas, "Trump for Neocons."

It turns out that the Weekly Standard, the other major neoconservative opinion magazine, founded by William Kristol, is out with a new issue offering all kinds of coverage of the "Donald Trump Phenomenon," with much of it glowing. Even William Kristol acknowledges the tipping-point significance of the Trump campaign, even if he can't fully wrap his arms around it. See, "Up from Trumpism."

Ellis at Pajamas is impressed with the wall-to-wall Trump coverage at the new Weekly Standard, which includes an essay by Christopher Caldwell, "What’s the Deal with Trump?" But see the particularly good piece from Julius Krein, "Traitor to His Class":

Donald Trump is not a serious candidate. Donald Trump is not a serious man. The truth of these statements is supposed to be self-evident. But one begins to wonder, are they true?

Trump’s popularity, while beyond doubt, is treated not as a legitimate expression of popular will but as a mass psychosis to be diagnosed. It would seem to be the duty of every American pundit today to explain the inexplicable and problematic rise of Donald Trump. The critical question, however, is not the source of Trump’s popularity but rather the reason his popularity is so shocking to our political culture. Perhaps Trump’s candidacy threatens a larger consensus that governs our political and social life, and perhaps his popularity signifies a profound challenge to elite opinion.

Why is Donald Trump so popular? Explanations range from mere celebrity, to his adoption of extreme positions to capture the most ideologically intense voters, to his explosive rhetoric. These explanations are not entirely wrong, but neither are they entirely right.

To begin with, his positions, as Josh Barro has written in the New York Times, are rather moderate. As Barro points out, Trump is willing to contemplate tax increases to achieve spending cuts. He supports some exceptions to abortion bans and has gone so far as to defend funding Planned Parenthood. He has called for protective tariffs, a position heretical for Republicans, who are typically free traders. Although opposed to Obamacare, he has asserted that single-payer health care works in other countries. Even on the issue of immigration, despite his frequently strident rhetoric, his positions are neither unique—securing the border with some kind of wall is a fairly standard Republican plank by now—nor especially rigid.

With respect to his rhetoric, whether one characterizes his delivery as candid or rude, it is hard to ascribe his popularity to colorful invective alone. Chris Christie, who never misses an opportunity to harangue an opponent, languishes near the bottom of the polls. Or ask Rick Santorum, as well as Mitt “47 percent” Romney, whether outrageous comments offer an infallible way to win friends and influence voters. Trump’s outré style, like his celebrity, helps him gain attention but just as certainly fails to explain his frontrunner status.

Most candidates seek to define themselves by their policies and platforms. What differentiates Trump is not what he says, or how he says it, but why he says it. The unifying thread running through his seemingly incoherent policies, what defines him as a candidate and forms the essence of his appeal, is that he seeks to speak for America. He speaks, that is, not for America as an abstraction but for real, living Americans and for their interests as distinct from those of people in other places. He does not apologize for having interests as an American, and he does not apologize for demanding that the American government vigorously prosecute those interests.

What Trump offers is permission to conceive of an American interest as a national interest separate from the “international community” and permission to wish to see that interest triumph. What makes him popular on immigration is not how extreme his policies are, but the emphasis he puts on the interests of Americans rather than everyone else. His slogan is “Make America Great Again,” and he is not ashamed of the fact that this means making it better than other places, perhaps even at their expense.

His least practical suggestion—making Mexico pay for the border wall—is precisely the most significant: It shows that a President Trump would be willing to take something from someone else in order to give it to the American people. Whether he could achieve this is of secondary importance; the fact that he is willing to say it is everything. Nothing is more terrifying to the business and donor class—as well as the media and the entire elite—than Trump’s embrace of a tangible American nationalism. The fact that Trump should by all rights be a member of this class and is in fact a traitor to it makes him all the more attractive to his supporters and all the more baffling to pundits...

Still more.

And note one more thing about the Bill Kristol piece cited above: He admits that Trump could end up being a flash-in-the-pan, and he notes, "His fall may be sudden or protracted, complete or partial. Conceivably he won’t fall at all."

Vanessa Ruiz, Anchor for NBC 12 News in Phoenix, Defends Spanish Pronunciation of Words (VIDEO)

Heh, you gotta love this.

And she handles it beautifully. Watch: "News Anchor Shuts Down Haters Giving Her Sh*t For Her Spanish Accent."

And at the New York Times (where else?), "Arizona News Anchor Is Drawn Into Debate on Her Accent and the Use of Spanish":

PHOENIX — An Arizona news anchor defended her pronunciation of Spanish words during English broadcasts, saying she delivers them the way the language is intended to be spoken.

In a broadcast on Monday, Vanessa Ruiz, who works for 12 News here, waded into the running debate over the use of Spanish that has divided Americans in different ways for years, and has been percolating on the campaign trail.

Ms. Ruiz, who was raised in a bilingual household, said some viewers had questioned her way of pronouncing Spanish words. Sandra Kotzambasis, the station’s news director, said viewers were asking why Ms. Ruiz “rolled her Rs.”

In the broadcast, Ms. Ruiz said, “Some of you have noticed that I pronounce a couple of things maybe a little bit differently than what you are used to, and I get that, and maybe even tonight you saw a little bit of it.

“I was lucky enough to grow up speaking two languages, and I have lived in other cities, in the U.S., South America, and Europe,” she continued. “So yes, I do like to pronounce certain things the way they are meant to be pronounced. And I know that change can be difficult, but it’s normal and over time I know that everything falls into place.”

The use of Spanish in the United States has been contested in a range of ways over the years, from objections to its use in the Pledge of Allegiance; to casual conversation on school buses, such as in Nevada; and in a New Mexico supermarket accused of having singled out Spanish-speaking employees with an “English-only” policy, according to some of the cases pursued by the American Civil Liberties Union.

It has most recently reached into the political stage among rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, such as when Donald J. Trump said this week that Jeb Bush should “really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.”

The United States has more than 55 million Hispanics and, according to the 2011 American Community Survey, 38 million residents age 5 and older who speak Spanish at home. But questions about the use of Spanish persist.

In Arizona, where the Hispanic population is at 30 percent and is growing, the conversation about language has included questions over the English fluency of candidates for public office. It has surfaced regularly in schools, notably in a state law banning, with some exceptions, b ilingual education.

In July, an appeals court agreed to give challengers a chance to void a state law designed to end an ethnic studies program in Tucson’s school district, where 60 percent of the children enrolled were of Mexican or other Hispanic descent. A former state school superintendent championed the law, taking particular issue at a popular district’s Mexican-American studies program.

Timothy M. Hogan, the executive director of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, has worked on some state laws involving the use of Spanish in public schools. “My observation is people generally feel threatened by use of communication that they are unfamiliar with,” he said. “Underlying all of that is the implied threat to the vanishing majority.”

Ms. Ruiz was born in Miami, grew up in Colombia, and studied in Spain before a career in journalism that has taken her on international assignments. She joined 12 News in July.

She followed her comments on air with a statement posted on the station’s website: “Let me be clear: My intention has never been to be disrespectful or dismissive, quite the contrary. I actually feel I am paying respect to the way some of Arizona’s first, original settlers intended for some things to be said.”

Still more.

Pre-Order Garry Kasparov's New Book, Winter is Coming

Such an ominous title.

At Amazon, Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped.

Planned Parenthood in Pullman, Washington, Hit by Arson Attack (VIDEO)

This is not good, especially if anyone was hurt, but if it prevents Planned Parenthood from killing more babies, then I'm not going to sweat it.

Some people are going to meet leftist terrorism with more terror. Yep, I said it: Planned Parenthood deserves to be scared.

At the Spokesman-Review, "Planned Parenthood fire determined to be arson." (Via Memeorandum.)



More responses at Memeorandum.

Political Scientist Virginia Page Fortna, Carrying 9-Week-Old Baby, Kicked Out of APSA Conference Exhibit Room

I don't care about radical leftist political correctness and feminist collectivism, but if you're a political scientist attending the premiere academic conference, you should be able to cruise around the hotel, and visit the exhibit room (where you get lots of free stuff, especially books) without being expelled (and stigmatized).

So, needless to say, I'm down with Columbia University political scientist Virginia Page Fortna, who got the boot from the exhibit room at the APSA conference in San Francisco.

Our longtime blogging adversary Charlie Carpenter, formerly of Lawyers, Guns, and Money, has a report, at Duck of Minerva, via Instapundit, "WHY DOES THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION hate babies?"

And here's Professor Fortna:



CORRECTION: That's a "nine-week old" baby Professor Fortna has, not a "nine-month-old" baby. I just noticed the error while reading Steven Hayward, "APSA AFTER-ACTION REPORT."

Plus, see Inside Higher Ed, "Poli-Sci's Baby Ban."

What's Fueling Donald Trump's Surge

Well, by the look of the New York Times' website, you'd think The Donald was popping Viagra to keep up the pace, heh.

See, "Donald Trump's Staying Power."

Seriously, though. The immigration issue's got to be the biggest catalyst for his campaign. Here, "YouGov Poll: 64 Percent Want to Build Security Fence on Mexican Border."

BONUS: From Victor Davis Hanson, at Pajamas, "How Illegal Immigration Finally Turned Off the Public":

If there were not a Donald Trump, he would likely have had to have been invented.

Unhinged Leftist Demands for Gun Control Spur Sales of Firearms

Folks are arming up against the zombie left gun-control fanatics.

At USA Today, "Renewed calls for gun control laws spur sales":

WASHINGTON — Renewed calls for more restrictive gun laws, following a succession of fatal shootings in the United States, immediately appear to be generating a boost for the gun industry.

Newly released August records show that the FBI posted 1.7 million background checks required of gun purchasers at federally licensed dealers, the highest number recorded in any August since gun checks began in 1998. The numbers follow new monthly highs for June (1.5 million) and July (1.6 million), a period which spans a series of deadly gun attacks — from Charleston to Roanoke — and proposals for additional firearm legislation.

While the FBI does not track actual gun sales, as multiple firearms can be included in a transaction by a single buyer, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System's numbers are an indicator of a market upswing in the face of growing anxiety about access to guns...

Losing the War of Ideas

From Caroline Glick, at FrontPage Magazine, "The West's ideological delusions are now too dangerous to ignore":

We have arrived at the point where the consequences of the West’s intellectual disarmament at the hands of political correctness begins to have disastrous consequences in the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

Speaking last month at the memorial service for the five US marines massacred at a recruiting office in Chattanooga, Tennessee, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said, “The meaning of their killing is yet unclear, and what combination of disturbed mind, violent extremism, and hateful ideology was at work, we don’t know.”

US Vice President Joe Biden claimed, the “perverse ideologues...may be able to inspire a single lone wolf, but they can never, never threaten who we are.”

Both men were wrong, and dangerously so.

The meaning of the killings was no mystery.

Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez shot his victims down in cold blood because he was a jihadist. He wrote of his devotion to the Islamic war for global domination on his blog. He downloaded messages from Anwar Awlaki, the American al-Qaida commander killed in a drone attack in Yemen in 2011.

Awlaki’s most prolific follower to date was US Army Major Nidal Malik Hassan who massacred 13 soldiers and wounded 32 in his November 2009 assault at Ft. Hood, Texas. Yet, just as the Obama administration denies to this day that Hassan operated out of devotion to the cause of Islamic global supremacy through genocidal war, so Carter pretended away Abdulazeez’s obvious motive. And Biden stood before those whose lives were shattered by jihad last month and told them that jihad was not a threat to their way of life.

Ideas are the most powerful human force. And the idea of jihad that the Obama administration will not discuss is perhaps the most powerful idea in the world’s marketplace of ideas today.

The notion of jihad is fairly simple. It asserts that Islam is the only true religion. All other faiths are wrong and evil. It is the destiny of the one true faith to reign supreme. The duty of all Muslims is to facilitate Islam’s global rise and dominion.

How this duty is borne varies. Some take up arms.

Some engage in indoctrination. Some engage in subversion. And some cheer from the sidelines, providing a fan base to encourage those more directly engaged. What is most important is the shared idea, the creed of jihad.

The jihadist creed is a creed of war. Consequently, its adherents cannot live peacefully with non-jihadists.

By definition, those who subscribe to a jihadist world view constitute a threat to those who do not share their belief system.

Rather than contend with the idea of jihad, the West, led by the US, insists on limiting its focus to the outward manifestations of jihadist beliefs.

Physical bases of jihadists in places like Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen are targeted to kill specific people – like Awlaki. But the ideas that inspire them to action are ignored or dismissed as irrelevant and interchangeable with other ideologies, like Zionism and fiscal conservatism.

Unlike the Americans, the jihadists understand the power of their idea. And they invest hundreds of millions of dollars to propagate it. MEMRI recently reported that Islamic State (IS) runs at least three production companies. They disseminate professional- quality videos daily. The videographers, composers and singers who produce these films are IS members, no different from its beheaders, sex traders and chemical weapons purveyors.

Like IS’s battle successes and its sex slave industry, these videos have already had a profound impact on the shape of the Islamic world and the threat jihadist Islam constitutes for its opponents worldwide.

From Nigeria to Egypt to the Palestinian Authority to Pakistan, in Europe, the US and South America, jihadist armies and individual Muslims are embracing the idea of the caliphate – the ultimate aim of jihad – and pledging or weighing the option of pledging loyalty to IS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

As a result, the never reasonable notion that you can limit war against jihad to the physical bases of IS and other terrorist groups while ignoring the idea that motivates their actions has become downright deadly...

Keep reading.

Main Migrant Routes to Europe

At the Economist, "Migration in Europe: Looking for a home":

Asylum-seekers, economic migrants and residents of all stripes fret over their place.

The Most Breathtaking Whale Photos

This is just wow.

At 500px ISO, "The Stories Behind the Most Breathtaking Whale Photos on 500px."

American Jack Sock Collapses, Retires from Match Against Ruben Bemelmans at U.S. Open (VIDEO)

At USA Today, "American Jack Sock, overcome by heat, retires from U.S. Open":

NEW YORK — For the second straight year, American Jack Sock was done in by the heat and cramps at the U.S. Open on Grandstand.

Leading 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 1-2 against world No. 107 Ruben Bemelmans, Sock suffered  cramps on the court, bringing the match to a halt. Sock, the No. 28 seed, had been given a point penalty because of his incapacity to serve at break point down at 1-1, handing the game to Bemelmans.

The trainer came out and assisted a grimacing Sock to the ground, who then motioned that he would opt out of the match.

Petra Kvitová Rule 5

Here's some hot Petra Kvitová action. She's playing at the U.S. Open right now, against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

She's lovely.

Through to the third round and my shoes glow in the dark :) #usopen15 #petrainnyc pic.twitter.com/fAk5pTidjk

— Petra Kvitova (@Petra_Kvitova) September 4, 2015

Gotcha Questions: Hugh Hewitt Reponds to #DonaldTrump's Criticism (VIDEO)

I don't think they're "gotcha questions," although they're specific questions, and a lot of candidates are unprepared for those. Yeah, perhaps the names of all the key terror leaders are a bit arcane, but this is the presidential race you're talking about, so there.

Jake Tapper interviews Hewitt, at CNN, "Radio Host talks about his Donald Trump interview."

And the story made the local television news, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "O.C. Radio Hosts Stumps Trump With Series of Foreign Policy Questions."

EARLIER: "Trump Hammers Hugh Hewitt as 'Third-Rate Radio Announcer...' (AUDIO)."

'Illegals Go Home' Poster Lands North Carolina High School Teacher in Hot Water

Uh oh.

Not the kinda class project you're supposed to assign these days. In Mexifornia, that teacher'd be run out of town on a rail, if not lynched outright on the school grounds.

Dang.

At the Asheville Citizen‑Times, "Buncombe parents demand answers over anti-immigrant signs."

And at Truth Revolt, "Student-Made 'Illegals Go Home' Sign Lands Civics Teacher in Hot Water."

WaPo Reporter Christopher Ingraham Visits Red Lake County, Minnesota — And He Likes It!

I was reluctant to even read this Christopher Ingraham essay, it being at Ezra Klein's old "Wonk Blog," but it's a pretty interesting piece. I can appreciate reporters who are self-depreciating.

Click though at Instapundit, "BELTWAY REPORTER DISCOVERS AMERICA: I called this place ‘America’s worst place to live.’ Then I went there."

Chicken Stops Traffic on Oakland's Bay Bridge (VIDEO)

OMG this is a riot.

You gotta love the chick-crossed-the-bridge jokes.

At the San Francisco Chronicle, "Chicken stops traffic at Bay Bridge toll plaza."

At CBS News 5 San Francisco, "Fowl Play: Chicken Halts Traffic at Bay Bridge Toll Plaza."

Former Gov. Jan Brewer's Face Has Been Used in Online Ads for Anti-Aging Products (VIDEO)

Jan Brewer's a freakin' patriot.

And she's not pleased that her image is being used by online marketers.

Watch, at ABC News 15 Phoenix, "Gov. Jan Brewer threatening legal action over ads."

Courtney Knox's Sensationally Sexy Strip!

She's at Zoo Today.

And watch, Zoo's YouTube page, "Curvy Courtney may not have been modelling all that long, but her debut ZOO shoot is not to be missed. Hailing from the port of Plymouth, she certainly puts the naughty into all things nautical. And if seeing her strip doesn't make waves, we don't know what will! So it back, relax and admire Miss Knox..."

Hey, you gotta start somewhere.

Laughable New York Times Reporting on 'G.O.P Talk' on Illegal Immigration (Screen Shot)

Heh, you can see how the Old Gray Lady has juxtaposed these two articles on illegal immigration and the G.O.P. at the webpage.

Utterly laughable.



On the one hand, you've got that top story on Iowans allegedly wavering on robust border security, with the caption reading, "Farms and factories in eastern Iowa have long been a draw for immigrants, and many argue that a one-size-fits-all approach to immigration reform might not work." The implication, of course, is that all this bluster from Donald Trump and conservatives about the illegal onslaught is just so much more racist nativism. You know, down home folks in Iowa know better, and if you want our vote you better jettison all those bloviating "one-size-fits-all" policies. Indeed, the smaller print at the photo caption reads, "“I think there is less prejudice now that more of the Hispanics have come into the job market, the schools, and everything,” Michelle Coghill of Blue Grass, Iowa, said."

And then below that is the chaser, some catnip for collectivist leftists rubbing their hand together while attacking Republicans for the "Trumpification" of the G.O.P. Note the acid caption slamming the frontrunner, "Many think that Donald J. Trump’s harsh manner and attacks are endangering efforts to compete in the general election." How stupid can you be? I mean, the New York Times is now the mouthpiece for the Republican National Committee? You know, the G.O.P establishment surely knows what it takes to win the general election, right? Donald Trump and his supporters are just a bunch of ignorant flyover bigots.

The obvious and hilarious response is to highlight those inconvenient YouGov poll findings out today, showing almost two-thirds of Americans supporting a security wall along the Mexican border. Seriously, it's like Pinch Sulzberger and his "elite" reporters are just a tad bit out of step with public opinion.

And FWIW, go right to the reports at the Times, via Google, "Iowa Questions G.O.P. Talk on Immigration," and "Republican Donors Puzzle Over How to Stop Trump."

Truly ridiculous.

Europe's Slow-Motion Refugee Crisis Highlights Failures of Western Democracies

Well, I'm not sure if it's "slow motion," actually. But certainly there's a failure on the part of the Western democracies, and not just with slowing the refugee inflow, but in tamping down the Middle East jihadi threat in the first place. You reap what you sow.

At the New York Times, "Exodus of Syrians Highlights Political Failure of the West":

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Arresting images of desperation on the West’s doorstep have brought Syria, for the moment, back to worldwide attention: refugees cramming into train stations and climbing border fences; drowned Syrian toddlers washing up on beaches, a girl in polka dots, a boy in tiny shoes.

It was never any secret that a rising tide of Syrian refugees would sooner or later burst the seams of the Middle East and head for Europe. Yet little was done in Western capitals to stop or mitigate the slow-motion disaster that was befalling Syrian civilians and sending them on the run.

“The migrant crisis in Europe is essentially self-inflicted,” said Lina Khatib, a research associate at the University of London and until recently the head of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. “Had European countries sought serious solutions to political conflicts like the one in Syria, and dedicated enough time and resources to humanitarian assistance abroad, Europe would not be in this position today.”

The causes of the current crisis are plain enough. Neighboring countries like Lebanon and Jordan became overwhelmed with refugees and closed their borders to many, while international humanitarian funding fell further and further short of the need. Then, Syrian government losses and other battlefield shifts sent new waves of people fleeing the country.

Some of these people had initially thought they would stick it out in Syria, and they are different from earlier refugees, who tended to be poor and vulnerable, or wanted by the government, or from areas hard-hit early in the civil war. Now those departing include more middle-class or wealthy people, more supporters of the government, and more residents of areas that were initially safe.

One of those, Rawad, 25, a pro-government university graduate, left for Germany with his younger brother Iyad, 13, who as a minor could help his whole family obtain asylum.

They walked from Greece to save money, Rawad reported via text message, sleeping in forests and train stations alongside families from northern Syria who opposed President Bashar al-Assad.

People like Rawad and Iyad have been joined by growing numbers of refugees who had for a time found shelter in neighboring countries. Lebanon — where one in three people is now a Syrian refugee — and Jordan have cracked down on entry and residency policies for Syrians. Even in Turkey, a larger country more willing and able to absorb them, new domestic political tensions make their fate uncertain.

As the numbers of displaced Syrians mounted to 11 million today from a trickle in 2011, efforts to reach a political solution gained little traction. The United States and Russia bickered in the Security Council while Syrian government warplanes continued indiscriminate barrel bombing, the Islamic State took over new areas, other insurgent groups battled government forces and one another, and Syria’s economy collapsed.

For years, Yacoub El Hillo, the top United Nations humanitarian official in Syria, has been warning that with the Syrian crisis — the “worst of our time” — the international system of humanitarian aid has “come to the breaking point,” especially as protracted conflicts pile up around the world, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and elsewhere.

“This is the price of political failure,” he said in Beirut in March, declaring that the breakdown of the aid system results from the strategic stalemate over Syria. “This is a direct affront to international peace and security.”

He said that it cost the United States $68,000 an hour to fly the warplanes used to battle the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, while the United Nations has received less than half of the money it needs to take care of the half of Syria’s prewar population that has been displaced.

For neighboring countries alone, just $1.67 billion of the needed $4.5 billion for 2015 has been received. For those displaced in Syria, $908 million has been given of $2.89 billion needed. This week, World Food Program benefits were canceled for 229,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan.

“It is not really a question of money,” Mr. El Hillo said. “It is a question of in which pot the money is sitting.”

Few refugees have been accepted by the regional and global players that have supported combatants in the conflict. The Gulf Arab states and to a lesser extent the United States have armed and trained rebel groups, while Russia and Iran have armed and financed the Assad government, but those powers have devoted much less to humanitarian assistance. Politics also intrudes on aid, with the combatants trying to restrict aid to areas held by their opponents...

Still more.

Obama Hellbent of Pushing Personal Foreign Policy of Weakness and Treason

A righteous essay, from Phyllis Chesler, "The Situation":

The game was over the minute Americans elected President Obama for the second time. He then knew that he could implement, quite autocratically, despotically, some might even say, traitorously—his own personal foreign policy which consists of weakening America's importance in the world; humiliating Israel even further on the world stage; recognizing (communist) Cuba despite its enormous legacy of persecuting its own people and without demanding a single change; and financially arming (totalitarian) Iran so that the mad mullahs may wage further attacks against civilians, both in Israel, America, and throughout the Middle East.

Obama is a cold and calculating Doomsday machine. He is also a very angry man.

And yet, many Beautiful People share his point of view. Not one of them would agree with my opening paragraph. They would argue that most people are good and can change—even the leaders of a Death Cult; that we have to "give peace a chance;" that we cannot cruelly impose sanctions on a suffering populace—as if the mullahs actually plan to build hospitals and universities with this money.

They would further argue that America can't police the world—true enough; that delaying an Iranian nuclear holocaust by 15 years is a great accomplishment; that "black (male) lives matter" more—and that Arabs and Palestinians are like American black men who are, allegedly, being wantonly killed by white police officers; that jihadists who have killed American soldiers on American soil are really mentally ill loners with unfortunate access to guns; that the suffering of 60 million Christian, Muslim, and Yazidi refugees and displaced persons have little to do with Islamist terrorism; and, that we are not at war.

Yes, many educated and decent people really say and think and desperately want to believe all this. The alternative would mean that they would have to admit that there are radically evil people in the world who have declared war against Israel and America and against the values of Western civilization.

Obama may now believe that he can refuse to arm Israel with bunker-buster bombs. He may now think that by championing an anti-Zionist J Street that he "owns" (or has silenced) the Jewish-American street. He does not seem to care that the majority of Americans oppose this non-deal deal with Iran and the way he went about obtaining it, and that American media editorials from coast to coast are on record about this. He does not mind that he had to strong-arm Democrats into voting for a very bad deal.

Why should he? All despots--excuse me, all Beloved Leaders--know they have to break some eggs in order to make an omelet.

Continued frenzy over voting is now diversionary. Long ago, Obama chose to baldly bypass Congress when he went to the United Nations Security Council in order to lift sanctions. He cannot walk this back. Russia and China will be selling weapons to Iran as will Europe.

We must ensure that Obama does sell bunker-buster bombs to Israel. We must ensure that American sanctions are not lifted. In fact, we must work hard to impose even more American-only sanctions. Sanctions are the only reason Iranians bothered to talk to Secretary of State, John Kerry.

As former Navy Seal, Ken Stethem said at the anti-Iran deal rally in NYC: "People, this is a Paul Revere moment. Ride well."

Jackie Johnson's Got Your Labor Day Weekend Forecast

We have cool evenings and mild daytime temperatures, with some high pressure warming things up for the Monday holiday.

Should be just lovely.

YouGov Poll: 64 Percent Want to Build Security Fence on Mexican Border

Well, same thing, it's YouGov, which is an Internet panel poll. I don't trust 'em. Still, it's just obvious that the illegal immigration issue has the public's blood boiling. And Donald Trump just talking about it makes the issue resonate even more. On top of that is the left's murderous sanctuary city policies. This is getting to be the most amazing primary season ever.

At YouGov, "Build a fence with Mexico, not Canada."

And at Hot Air, "YouGov poll: 64% want a border fence with Mexico — including pluralities of Dems, blacks, and Hispanics."

Refugee Shelter Firebombed in Heppenheim, Germany (VIDEO)

Hmm... I guess that assimilation thing isn't working out too well over there.

At Deutsche Welle, "Five injured when refugee shelter in Heppenheim near Frankfurt catches fire."

Sweden is the Only European Country Favoring Non-EU Immigration

Well, that Nordic model up there is extremely politically correct. But I doubt Swedish openness will last too much longer, especially if folks up there in Stockholm start getting flooded with hundreds of thousands of refugees.

At the Independent UK, "Refugee crisis: Sweden the only European country with a majority favourable towards non-EU immigration."

Black Sabbath Announces Farewell Tour

Well, it's not like they haven't been touring recently.

But see the Sound L.A., "Black Sabbath: The End Tour Announcement."

My Old Kentucky Double Standard

Actually, this lady Kim Davis isn't the best standard bearer for religious liberty. What's key though is the left's genuinely evil double-standards. Leftists are truly diabolical.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Vilifying a county clerk while lauding other official disobedience":

So the most famous county clerk in America is now in jail. Kim Davis is the clerk for Kentucky’s Rowan County who says her Christian beliefs preclude her from issuing marriage licenses for gay couples. She maintains this position notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s June decision finding a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, and an August ruling by federal Judge David Bunning ordering her to issue these licenses.

On Thursday Judge Bunning said Ms. Davis would stay in jail until she changes her mind, adding that a fine would clearly not do the trick. Ms. Davis seemed prepared. “To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience,” she said in a statement.

Judge Bunning’s principle—that Americans, and especially government officials, do not get to pick which laws and orders they will follow—is certainly right.

Yet the Davis case also underscores a glaring double standard. In response to Judge Bunning’s decision to jail Ms. Davis, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “The success of our democracy depends on the rule of law, and there is no public official that is above the rule of law.”

We don’t recall President Obama insisting on “the rule of law” when his then Attorney General, Eric Holder, announced in 2011 that he wouldn’t defend challenges to what was then the law—the Defense of Marriage Act signed by President Bill Clinton—in the courts. Nor did we hear about upholding the law when mayors such as Gavin Newsom in San Francisco issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of state laws...

Oh, that's just the beginning of it. The left's sanctuary cities agenda is the biggest far-left lawbreaking scam in recent years, and it's getting people killed.

See also Sean Davis, at the Federalist, "Kim Davis Uproar Shows That Breaking the Law Is Only Okay When Progressives Do It."

Swimmer Dies After Rescue at Venice Beach

At 28-year-old man.

Watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Swimmer Pulled from Ocean Off Venice Dies."

And at the Santa Monica Mirror, "Swimmer Dies After Being Pulled from Surf at Venice Beach."

Hot Caroline Wozniacki Sports Illustrated Outtakes (VIDEO)

Well, she certainly looks fabulous in a bikini.

Here, "Caroline Wozniacki Swimsuit Photos Sports Illustrated."

But she washed out at the New York Open, at USA Today, "Petra Cetkovska stuns Caroline Wozniacki at US Open," and the Guardian UK, "US Open 2015: Caroline Wozniacki tumbles out to Petra Cetkovska."

Labor Day Weekend Special: Save Up to 25 Percent on Select Osprey Backpacks

At Amazon, Shop Outdoors Specials - Save Up To 25% On Select Osprey Backpacks.

And check out Ben Carson's new book, One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future.

Trump Hammers Hugh Hewitt as 'Third-Rate Radio Announcer...' (AUDIO)

I've listened to the audio, here: "Donald Trump and Hugh Hewitt Discuss Foreign Policy."

And shoot, I don't even know half of these terrorist honchos Hewitt's talking about, and he expects Donald Trump to be some split-second expert on Mohammad Al-Massari and Ayman al-Zawahiri?

Well, okay then.

And frankly, Trump's absolutely right that he'll no doubt be up to speed on all the terror identities by the time of the election. He's not a politician or a policymaker. I think it's perfectly reasonable for him to be working up the learning curve, and now look: He's going on the attack, which will only help him among those at the base who see Huge Hewitt as part of the establishment. I mean CNN's even tapped Hewitt as one of the debate moderators. Heh. Selling out much?

At Politico, "Trump rips into Hugh Hewitt after terror gaffe."

And at the Hill, via Memeorandum, "Trump blasts Hugh Hewitt as ‘a third-rate radio announcer’."

More at Gateway Pundit, "Trump Blasts Hugh Hewitt as “Third-Rate Radio Announcer” After Islamist “Gotcha” Question."

See all the links at Memeorandum.

Gallup: Trump Gains 16 Points in Net Favorability in Last Two Weeks

I think folks are starting to see Trump as a likely and credible GOP nominee.

From the Gallup Poll, "Trump's Image Up Sharply Among Republicans." (Via Memeorandum.)

And ICYMI, "Charles Krauthammer and Megyn Kelly Talk About Elections, Primaries, and Republicans."

Charles Krauthammer and Megyn Kelly Talk About Elections, Primaries, and Republicans

This is a great discussion.

And Krauthammer absolutely nails it on Donald Trump's decision to sign the Republican Party loyalty pledge.

WATCH: "Krauthammer explains why Trump is focusing on Bush."