REPORT: Oregon Shooter Chris Harper-Mercer Worshiped Satan, Claimed 'I Serve Darkness'

He was evil. An evil far-left murderer.

At People Magazine, "'I Serve Darkness': Oregon Gunman Wrote About Obsession with Satan in Reported Manifesto, Says Source."

People Magazine hasn't confirmed the existence of the Satan-worshiping report, although Mercer did leave behind written statements. Here's a lengthy piece at the New York Times, "In Note Left Behind, Gunman ‘Did Not Like His Lot in Life,’ Officials Say."

More at the New York Post, "Oregon gunman singled out Christians during rampage."

Hateful. Demonic. Leftist.

BONUS: Watch this video, at KOIN 6 News Portland, "Sheriff: Umpqua CC shooter had 13 weapons." The dude had serious mental infirmities. He was loner who sat in his room all day, lurking on his computer. Apparently the local sheriff knows more about the shooter's writings, but isn't speaking about them now.

Russia and the U.S. in Syria: A Prelude to War?

From Noah Rothman, at Commentary, "A Prelude to War?":

World War I didn’t begin in Europe. It started in Africa.

By the time the shooting erupted in 1914, in fact, a retrospective analysis of the conditions that led to war had lent credence to the conclusion that a great clash was almost inevitable. Germany’s perceived “encirclement” and that resurgent nation’s belief that they had been unfairly cut off from their share of colonial possessions in Africa led Berlin to embrace bellicosity. Germany forcefully protested France’s subjugation of a Moroccan rebellion and subsequent occupation of that territory in 1911 — a territory that Germany coveted. Paris’s move prompted Italy to declare suzerainty over the state of Libya, leading to a war with the Ottomans for control of that North African nation. After the Turks had lost control of the North African coast, the race was on to divide the spoils of the Ottoman Empire’s Balkan possessions, culminating in the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. By the onset of August Crisis in 1914, the world had already been at war for the better part of three years.

As the study of the First World War has fallen out of fashion in the United States, the presumption that the United States entered the stalemated war immediately following the sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-boat has become prevalent. In fact, the United States would enter the war 23 months after that galvanizing attack. Such was Woodrow Wilson’s commitment to his 1916 pledge to keep America out of Europe’s war. An internationalist and an anti-imperialist, Wilson was burned by his experience intervening in the Mexican Revolution (which led to an even greater civil conflict and the rise of Pancho Villa’s bandit raids into the Southern United States). But as Germany’s position in Europe deteriorated and it prepared for a more robust anti-shipping campaign that almost certainly meant more Lusitantias, Berlin sought to electrify Mexican revanchism with the ill-fated Zimmermann Telegram. The alliance that was meant to squeeze the United States on two fronts had the precise opposite effect. Reluctantly, Congress followed Wilson into war.

Today, another great and embittered power is on the march. Ruled by a rancorous cabal of ambitious men who are all but consumed with a desire to reacquire lost grandeur, it is Russia that threatens the peace. It is Russia that is taking advantage of long-simmering conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa to advance its interests. It is Russia that is pressing its luck on the outer fringes of Europe. Nearly 100 years to the month after the August crisis, another civilian transport was targeted and destroyed by forces loyal to a revanchist European nation.

Then as now, a great power conflict was virtually unthinkable. By 1914, it had been over 40 years since the last major European war. Then as now, the sun long ago set on La Belle Époque, but its lingering effects were pleasant enough to mollify the public. Then as now, few would predict that an Earth-shattering calamity that would forever change millions of lives was just around the corner.

To understand the dire state of affairs in Syria, one need only observe the behavior of American policymakers.  Administration officials were caught off guard by the brazenness of Russia’s intervention into the five-year-old Syrian civil war, the commencement of which was announced by a Russian three-star general who boldly marched into the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and gave the United States one hour to clear the airspace around the city of Homs. Russian bombers were soon targeting not the Islamic State but CIA-armed and trained rebel forces. The effects of Russia’s bold maneuver will be swift. The risk of NATO and Russian air assets with limited military-to-military contacts all shooting at different targets in the same theater increases the risks of accidental confrontation exponentially. If there was a conflict, there are few mechanisms in place to prevent it from escalating. The United States may soon find itself forced out of theater merely because to continue to operate in Syria is too dangerous...

Boy, that's melodramatic.

Come out from under the covers, and keep reading.

President Obama Says Vladimir Putin is 'Acting Out of Weakness' in Syria

Yeah. Right.

Actually, Obama's being humiliated by Putin.

At WaPo, "President Obama says Putin is acting out of weakness rather than strength."

And at Gateway Pundit, "Obama: Putin Acted “Out of Weakness” By Moving Military to Syria (VIDEO)."



PHOTO CREDIT: Ray Filitto on Facebook.

Charles Cooke Presses Mark Halperin and Mika Brzezinski on Their Vague Threats to the Second Amendment (VIDEO)

See Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit.

And watch, "Mark Halperin Insists U.S. Must Do Something About Gun Violence But Can't Offer Solutions."

Why Do Mass Shooter Tragedies Always Seem to Happen in Gun-Free Zones?

Dana Loesch talks to John Lott, Jr., at the Blaze TV, "John Lott, Jr., on Gun Rights in Wake of Shooting."

Plus, Lott is the author of More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws.

Oregon Shooter Chris Harper-Mercer Was Discharged from Army, Had History of Mental Health Problems (VIDEO)

The shooter has roots in L.A. County's South Bay, including attending a school for kids with emotional and behavioral problems, the Switzer Learning Center in Torrance. See Robert Stacy McCain, "Reports: Chris Harper Mercer, 26, Identified as #UCCShooting Gunman."

And now there's more details about this individual's psychologically-troubled background. At the Oregonian, "Shooter Chris Harper-Mercer was discharged from Army, experienced apparent mental health issues":

A darker picture emerged Friday of slain Umpqua Community College shooter Chris Harper-Mercer as a deeply troubled, anti-religion, anti-government recluse obsessed with guns.

The U.S. Army discharged him just five weeks into basic training in 2008. Records indicate he graduated in 2009 from a high school catering to troubled and special-needs students. Multiple media sources reported Friday he left behind an angry note that is now in the hands of investigators.

The Los Angeles Times said Harper-Mercer's note was several pages long and talked about his anger and depression.

Sofia Camarena of Long Beach, California, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that she used to date Harper-Mercer's father."I used to change Chris' diapers when he was a baby," she said, upset after learning that he was the shooter in Thursday's massacre and was himself dead. "He was born with problems. He was hard to discipline. If you told him 'no,' he would scream like you had just hit him."

Camarena said that she had heard Harper-Mercer's mother was having "a hard time" with him and that he attended a special school.

Camarena said she last saw Harper-Mercer when he was 18 and she had asked him how he was doing.  "He said he was doing good," said Camarena, whose son went on to marry Harper-Mercer's step-sister.

There are a number of indications that Harper-Mercer had mental health or behavioral issues. His screen name on some social media sites was "lithium love." Lithium is used as a psychiatric medication.

Harper-Mercer graduated from The Switzer Learning Center in 2009, according to a graduation listing in The Daily Breeze newspaper. Switzer Center is a private, nonprofit school in Torrance, California, geared for special education students with a range of issues from learning disabilities, health problems and autism or Asperger's Disorder, according to the school's website.

"They take in students that are referred to them by the surrounding school districts," said Thomas Buescher, former chairman of the Switzer board. Enrollment typically ranges between 90 and 100, Buescher said. Two-thirds come from a nontraditional household, like a group home or foster home, according to Buescher, who said a high proportion also come from low-income homes.

A neighbor told The New York Times that Harper-Mercer's mother had told a neighbor, "My son is dealing with some mental issues," and was intolerant of roaches that had infested the building.

Witnesses said Harper-Mercer singled out the religious during the shooting. He reportedly asked students and staff their religion and shot those who answered they were Christians.

The U.S. Army confirmed Friday it discharged Harper-Mercer just halfway through his 10 weeks of basic training in 2008. "A review of Army records indicate that Christopher Sean Harper-Mercer was in service at Ft. Jackson, S.C., from 5 November-11 December 2008 but discharged for failing to meet the minimum administrative standards to serve in the U.S. Army," said Lt. Col. Ben Garrett.

Garrett declined to elaborate on what those "minimum administrative standards" were.

There's also evidence Harper-Mercer tried to engage with the world...

Still more.

And here's the Los Angeles Times, "Oregon gunman left hate-filled note and long struggled with mental issues, sources say."

13 Weapons Recovered in Umpqua Community College Massacre

Unlike President Obama and radical gun-control leftists, I'm waiting for more information to come in before politicizing the issue.

That said, we actually know a lot about the killer, and as it's been in most recent cases of horrific mass murder, the suspect fits no easy ideological template. Indeed, you'd think the guy was an immature, confused emo-prog, but then he claimed to be a "conservative Republican" in a dating site profile. That's obviously impossible, considering the proof coming out that Chris Harper Mercer hated Christians. Leftists hate Christians, and they're willing to kill them to prove it.

I'll have more.

Meanwhile, at the Los Angeles Times, "Oregon college shooting updates: Gunman Chris Harper Mercer described as 'hate-filled':

13 weapons recovered in college shooting

Law enforcement officials said 13 weapons were recovered from Umpqua Community College and the gunman's residence.

Six were found at the school.

Seven were taken from the apartment of Chris Harper Mercer, 26.

All were purchased legally, officials said.

Mercer opened fire at the college Thursday morning, killing 9 people. He was killed in a gunfight with police.

Also, at the Daily Beast, "Umpqua Gunman Chris Harper Mercer Hated Religion Online."

Amber Lee's Got Your Weekend Weather

We're getting into Indian summer.

It's still very hot in Southern California.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Charles Krauthammer: Obama's Syria Debacle (VIDEO)

From the irreplaceable Dr. Krauthammer, at WaPo, "Obama's Syria Debacle":

“Russia hits Assad’s foes, angering U.S.”

— Headline, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 1

If it had the wit, the Obama administration would be not angered, but appropriately humiliated. President Obama has, once again, been totally outmaneuvered by Vladimir Putin. Two days earlier at the United Nations, Obama had welcomed the return, in force, of the Russian military to the Middle East — for the first time in decades — in order to help fight the Islamic State.

The ruse was transparent from the beginning. Russia is not in Syria to fight the Islamic State. The Kremlin was sending fighter planes, air-to-air missiles and SA-22 anti-aircraft batteries. Against an Islamic State that has no air force, no planes, no helicopters?

Russia then sent reconnaissance drones over Western Idlib and Hama, where there are no Islamic State fighters. Followed by bombing attacks on Homs and other opposition strongholds that had nothing to do with the Islamic State.

Indeed, some of these bombed fighters were U.S. trained and equipped. Asked if we didn’t have an obligation to support our own allies on the ground, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter bumbled that Russia’s actions exposed its policy as self-contradictory.

Carter made it sound as if the Russian offense was to have perpetrated an oxymoron, rather than a provocation — and a direct challenge to what’s left of the U.S. policy of supporting a moderate opposition.

The whole point of Russian intervention is to maintain Assad in power. Putin has no interest in fighting the Islamic State. Indeed, the second round of Russian air attacks was on rival insurgents opposed to the Islamic State. The Islamic State is nothing but a pretense for Russian intervention. And Obama fell for it.

Just three weeks ago, Obama chided Russia for its military buildup, wagging his finger that it was “doomed to failure.” Yet by Monday he was publicly welcoming Russia to join the fight against the Islamic State. He not only acquiesced to the Russian buildup, he held an ostentatious meeting with Putin on the subject, thereby marking the ignominious collapse of Obama’s vaunted campaign to isolate Putin diplomatically over Crimea.

Putin then showed his utter contempt for Obama by launching his air campaign against our erstwhile anti-Assad allies not 48 hours after meeting Obama. Which the U.S. found out about when a Russian general knocked on the door of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and delivered a brusque demarche announcing that the attack would begin within an hour and warning the U.S. to get out of the way...

"Démarche." I love that word. It means that a state is issuing or taking a dramatic military or diplomatic step, usually implying some threat of force. You used to read about Nazi Germany issuing démarches in the military buildup to World War II. Now the Russians are issuing them in the Middle East, warning the U.S. to just stand aside. "Our moves are a fait accompli."

But keep reading.

We're being utterly humiliated. It's actually kind of sad at this point.

Visit the Halloween Shop at Amazon

October's here. Time to get ready for trick or treat.

Here, Shop Amazon - Halloween Shop.

Plus, Shop Books in Horror.

Also, Books from R.L. Stine.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Stares Down United Nations in Rebuke to Iran Nuclear Deal (VIDEO)

At Town Hall, "Chilling: Netanyahu Glares at UN Delegates for 45 Seconds for Their 'Deafening Silence' on Iran Deal."

Chilling:

Dana Loesch: 'Gun Free Zones are Criminal Protection Areas...'

Here's Dana on "The Kelly File" last night:



And see her big write-up on Oregon's policy on gun free zones, "After UCC Tragedy, White House Calls For Stronger Gun Laws."

Don't Miss Mark Levin's Plunder and Deceit

I picked up my copy, at last.

Maybe commenter Art Deco will pick up a copy as well. He wasn't too pleased with Morton Kondracke and Fred Barnes' biography of Jack Kemp.

Check out Levin's book on Amazon, Plunder and Deceit: Big Government's Exploitation of Young People and the Future.

Up to $120 Off the New Canon EOS M3 Mirrorless Camera

Amazon's really pushing this promotion, Shop - Up to $120 Off on Canon's New EOS M3 Mirrorless Camera.

Plus, pre-order Anthony Beevor's, Ardennes 1944: The Battle of the Bulge.

And thanks again to all my readers who've been shopping through AmPow's Amazon links. I'm having a lot of fun with it, and every little bit helps.

Epic Troll Jon Hendren Hijacks HLN Segment on Edward Snowden, Goes on About Edward Scissorhands

Well player, sir.

Well played.

At USA Today, "Genius gives TV interview on Edward Snowden, only talks about Edward Scissorhands."

Edward Snowden: 'Can you hear me now?'

The traitor's on Twitter:

Can you hear me now?

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 29, 2015

Also, from James Bamford, at Foreign Policy, "What @Snowden Told Me About the NSA’s Cyberweapons."

Ana Cheri, Playboy's Miss October 2015

Watch, at Playboy's YouTube page, "Behind The Scenes of Miss October 2015 Ana Cheri - Playboy."

Plus, "Today we're announcing that Ana Cheri will take the title of Miss October 2015 and becomes our newest Playmate of the Month."

Larry Flynt, Founder of Hustler Magazine, Calls Out Mainstream Media Cowards

This is amazing!

Bill Whittle interviewed Larry Flint:



The full interview is here, "Larry Flynt's Unfiltered Thoughts on Politics, the Press and Free Speech!"

Question & Answer with Molly Nocheck

She's one of the organizer's of FIRE's Student Network Conference.

This is interesting.

Watch, "Fighting 'Bodily and Mental Harm' Speech Restrictions."

The 'Modern Man' Is the Man Who Has Been Castrated

He's a eunuch, like Brian Lombardi, at the New York Times, "27 Ways to Be a Modern Man."

Modern man feels powerfully, dreams passionately, can't achieve an erection in the presence of a living woman. #caring @petersuderman

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) October 1, 2015

Bouthaina Shaaban, Advisor to Syria President Bashar al-Assad, Says Russia's Airstrikes Coordinated with Damascus (VIDEO)

Following-up from yesterday, "Russia's First Airstrikes in Syria Hit U.S.-Backed Rebels Fighting Bashar al-Assad (VIDEO)."

Erin Alice Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Casting Call (VIDEO)

Watch, at Sports Illustrated's YouTube page, "Erin Alice Casting Call - Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2016."

Ellie Gonsalves Perfect Body Video

Watch, "Ellie Gonsalves Workout - Model - Building a Perfect Body - AUSTRALIA."

Palestinian Flag Flies at the United Nations (VIDEO)

Well, if the world body just says Palestine's a state, then the international collective left will just say it's so, a fait accompli.

At the Christian Science Monitor, "Palestinian flag flies at UN for first time."

And watch, at CNN:

Inland Empire Woman Burned by Exploding E-Cigarette Wins Nearly $2 Million from Distributor (VIDEO)

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Donald Trump Holds Strong at 23 Percent in Latest USA Today/Suffolk University Poll

You know, folks keep saying Trump's support is tanking, that he's shooting himself in the foot, blah, blah.

But frankly, he keeps chugging along, in this case running almost twice as strong as his nearly rivals.

At USA Today, "Poll: Donald Trump still on top as outsiders Fiorina, Carson rise":

WASHINGTON — Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has strengthened his lead at the top of the USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll while two other outsider candidates, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, have gained ground over rivals with electoral experience.

Jeb Bush, who  was second to Trump two months ago in the USA TODAY survey, has tumbled to single digits and fifth place. The third-place finisher last time, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, suspended his campaign  this month.

"Unfortunately, I'm leaning toward Trump, only because he's a non-political figure," said Ginger Mangam, 58, a customer service representative from Little Rock who was among those surveyed. Asked about his lack of electoral experience, she replied, "I don't think it's a problem; I think it's a message."

Anthony Edelen, 37, a small-business owner from Vermillion, S.D., likes what he hears from Trump and Fiorina. "I just want somebody who is going to move our country in a direction different from where it is currently," he said in a follow-up interview.

The shifting landscape underscores an electorate that is fed up with politics-as-usual and willing to embrace contenders who promise to shake things up. Some presidential hopefuls with significant political experience — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham among them — have failed to gain traction and  score at 1% or below, a standing that may make it harder for them to raise money and command a spot on stage in televised debates.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has risen to fourth place, backed by 9% of those surveyed.

The poll of 380 likely Republican primary voters, taken Thursday through Monday, has a margin of error of +/- 5 percentage points. The full sample of 1,000 likely voters has an error margin of +/-3 points...

Still more.

I'd be blogging a lot more polls but most of them keep finding the same thing: Donald Trump floats in the mid-20 percent range consistently, regardless of whatever latest controversy the leftist media tries to gin up.

Dana Loesch Slams Far-Left Ghoul 'Pin Head' on 'The Kelly File' (VIDEO)

Following-up from the other day, "Dana Loesch's Birthday Today, and She's Standing Strong."

She contacted the FBI about this ghoul, who's a typical leftist anti-gun extremist.

Here's Megyn Kelly's interview with Dana from Tuesday:



RELATED: At Twitchy, "Awful: Somebody made a DISGUSTING video of Dana Loesch shooting herself in the head [video]."

BONUS: At Mediaite, "Dana Loesch Speaks on Threat Video: Always Gun-Haters That 'Want You to Die by a Gun'."

Naked Man Who Terrorized Drivers in Victorville Has Schizophrenia, Was on Drugs (VIDEO)

Well, clearly the dude had problems.

Serious problems.

Watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Mom: Naked, Bloodied Teen Has Schizophrenia, Was on Drugs."

PREVIOUSLY: "Naked Man Terrorizes Drivers in Victorville (VIDEO)."

Kelly Gissendaner Executed, Georgia's First Woman Put to Death Since 1945

At the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Gissendaner executed":

Before the drugs that were to kill her were administered, Kelly Gissendaner asked her lawyer to be sure her children knew that she left this world singing "Amazing Grace."

She cried and sang with joy until the powerful sedative took over and she closed her eyes.

Then she drifted off and minutes later died, punishment for her part in the murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner, in 1997.

For the next few minutes, the only sounds were sobs from one of her attorneys.

Two doctors checked her for signs of life and nodded to the warden that she was dead.

And it was then that warden Bruce Chatman announced to witnesses that it was done.

“The court-ordered execution of Kelly Rene Gissendaner was carried out,” he said before the curtains on the window to the death chamber were drawn.

More, "Gissendaner executed early Wednesday morning."

SDSU Students Face Possible Expulsion for Flying U.S. and Military Flags on Campus (VIDEO)

At ABC News 10 San Diego, "SDSU students facing possible expulsion for refusing to remove American, military flags from balcony."

And the update:



Seems to me this is more a matter of college policy on hanging objects over the balcony, rather than a restriction of free speech rights. But hey, maybe the case will go to court and clarify the rights of students to fly the American flag? Remember, the Supreme Court already ruled that students can't wear American flag shirts to high schools on Cinco de Mayo, so it's not like speech rights aren't at issue.

More at Campus Reform, "Military students at SDSU forced to take down American flag under threat of expulsion."

Lexi Oliver Fretz, Mother of Baby at Center of Planned Parenthood Investigation, is Strongly Pro-Life

Leftists have gone on a lying spree in a desperate attempt to discredit and destroy the Center for Medical Progress, the group behind the investigation of Planned Parenthood's baby-part harvesting operation, as well as the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, the organization which provided the footage of the baby kicking its foot in the video segment, "Human Capital - Episode 3."

Lots of leftist deception at Memeorandum, especially, Raw Story, "'This wasn't an abortion': CNN forces anti-Planned Parenthood group to admit Fiorina was wrong."



Also at Fusion, "The latest anti-Planned Parenthood video uses an unrelated photo of a stillborn infant." And idiot asshole Scott Lemieux, at Lawyers, Guns, and Money, at Memeorandum, "Fake but Inaccurate."

The key to this deception is a selective account of views of the mother of the infant in "Human Capital -Episode 3," Lexi Oliver Fritz. All these far-left reports are claiming that Ms. Fretz didn't consent to the use of her son's image in the investigative videos, and the taping of the clip itself was allegedly illegal. What the despicable leftists are not reporting, because they can't, is that Ms. Fretz is strongly pro-life, and in fact has spoken with the relevant parties and does not object to the continued use of her deceased son's image in the investigative coverage.

See Live Action, "MSNBC’s attempt to tarnish undercover Planned Parenthood videos backfires." It's a long post, which includes an interview in which the mother indicates she didn't give consent for her son's image to be used, but then says she's fine with it now, and that she's strongly pro-life. At issue is an interview Ms. Fretz gave with Thomas Roberts yesterday at MSNBC, seen here, "MSNBC Got a Big Surprise While Pushing the Abortion Agenda." And as noted at the entry:

MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts interviewed Lexi Fretz, a photographer and mother who shared images of her son Walter, born prematurely at 19 weeks, on Facebook. One of the photos of Walter was used in a Center for Medical Progress video, depicting what a child at approximately 19-20 weeks looks like.

Lexi’s photos of her son have now saved countless lives and helped change people’s minds about abortion.

In an interview with Live Action in March, Fretz said:

For someone who survived so few minutes outside of me, he’s left such an impact, more than I ever could. For someone so tiny, he’s touched so many. I hope he keeps educating the world and the masses as to what the preborn looks like on the inside – that it’s not just a blob – it’s not a clump of cells.

But Roberts must not have been aware of this. He asked Fretz, “How do you feel about Walter’s picture being used to discredit Planned Parenthood?”

Fretz replied, “Well, my husband and I are actually extremely pro-life so we were a little shocked at first and surprised […] but we are extremely proud of our son and the path that the Lord has put us on, just to help. I mean, he has saved many, many unborn lives.”

Fretz then shared stories of people walking out of abortion appointments, or finally learning what a preborn child looks like thanks to Walter’s photographs. She also told Roberts – who kept referring to Walter as ‘stillborn’ – that Walter was born alive, with a beating heart, and lived for a few moments.

Roberts then said:

I know that Walter’s story is very precious for you and your family. This has been really distorted out of context in this larger political conversation. Have you felt betrayed in any way by Walter’s life being used and mischaracterized in such heavy — and in some ways mischaracterized political debates?

Fretz replied:

I was a little surprised at first. Not being directly asked. But at the same time, […] our lives are in God’s hands. Me and husband are trusting God and the ultimate perfect plan and if this is happening, we are trusting that He is going to take care of us and use Walter for His good.

Roberts again pressed Fretz, asking her if anyone from CMP reached out to ask for permission to use Walter’s image in the “anti-abortion video”. Fretz confirmed that no one had asked for permission. Roberts repeated again that no one from CMP had reached out to tell Fretz that CMP would be using Walter’s image to attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. Fretz confirmed this.

Then Roberts asked Fretz if she expects an apology from CMP and Fretz shocked him with her reply:

No. I have talked to them directly and we’ve cleared the air and my husband and I are fine that it’s being used.

That’s when Roberts ended the interview.

But the best moment from the interview with Fretz was her quote about being pro-life. She told Roberts, and all MSNBC viewers:

I just believe that every child should have a chance, a chance to be alive, to make a difference. We have so many little lives being lost and thrown away each day and I wish so much that my son was here. We miss him and the short time we had was precious with him. But I know his purpose; his purpose was to help to educate the world as to what a child really looks like. You know, you say fetus, baby, whatever you want to call it, he was very much alive. And I just believe that every, every little baby should have a chance.

As they say, context is everything.

And note, Ms. Fretz deceased son, Walter, is said to have been a premature baby, and thus was not in the stainless steel bowl as a part of a fetal harvesting operation. If that's so, then the Center for Medical Progress needs to correct the record.

Note further, though, that none of this changes the facts of the investigation at Planned Parenthood's Mar Monte mega-clinic, in San Jose, California. Technician Holly O'Donnell of StemExpress, the biotech company that partnered with Planned Parenthood in northern California, indicated in the videotape statement that she witnessed born-alive infants with hearts beating at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. Further:

O’Donnell also tells how her StemExpress supervisor instructed her to cut through the face of the fetus in order to get the brain. “She gave me the scissors and told me that I had to cut down the middle of the face. I can’t even describe what that feels like,” she says.

So, perhaps Carly Fiorina did not fully appreciate the totality of "Human Capital - Episode 3," particularly that the kicking infant was apparently not an aborted baby at a Planned Parenthood clinic. If so, it's unfortunate, since a reasonable mistake on Fiorina's part has become the foul fodder of a diabolical campaign of far-left deception to smear the investigators behind the Planned Parenthood investigation. It's especially unfortunate, because this debate is not the debate we should be having, which is whether the American public supports Planned Parenthood's genocidal program of extermination of society's most vulnerable. See, "PLANNED PARENTHOOD CLINIC CUT THROUGH DEAD BABY’S FACE TO GET HIS INTACT BRAIN."

Still more at Memeorandum.

Photo Credit: Steve Ertelt, "BREAKING: House Votes Again to De-Fund Planned Parenthood After it Sells Aborted Baby Parts."

Russia's First Airstrikes in Syria Hit U.S.-Backed Rebels Fighting Bashar al-Assad (VIDEO)

So, Putin's air campaign hits the purported "U.S.-backed rebels"?

As Instapundit would say, "unexpectedly!"

Oh, and can you say "proxy war"?

At Foreign Policy, "Russia’s First Strikes in Syria Hit U.S. Ally, Not Islamic State":

Moscow says its enemy is ISIS, but the initial phase of its air war in Syria hit American-backed rebels battling Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad.

Barack Obama’s administration said Wednesday that it doesn’t know whom Russia is bombing inside Syria. Rebel leaders on the ground there say they know precisely whom Moscow is targeting — and it isn’t the Islamic State.

Instead, Russia’s first airstrikes in Syria — which dominated the final day of the United Nations General Assembly session — appear to have struck a rebel group that likely was vetted by the CIA, uses U.S.-made weapons, and has publicly backed the international coalition fighting the Islamic State. The group is also part of the ad hoc alliance of militias battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which means that the early phase of Moscow’s military intervention will strengthen Assad at least as much as it will weaken the Islamic State.

Jamil al-Saleh, a defected Syrian army officer who is now the leader of the rebel group Tajammu al-Aaza, told AlSouria.net that the Russian airstrikes targeted his group’s base in al-Lataminah, a town in the western Syrian governorate of Hama. That area represents one of the farthest southern points of the rebel advance from the north and is therefore a crucial front line in the war. An alliance of Syrian rebel factions, including both the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front and groups considered by Washington to be more moderate, successfully drove Assad regime forces out of the northern governorate of Idlib and are now pushing south into Hama.

Tajammu al-Aaza released a video of the airstrike and its aftermath before Saleh’s statement. Syrian security sources also confirmed that a Russian airstrike took place in al-Lataminah. The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, released a video of what it said was one of the strikes.

U.S. officials were quick to criticize the strikes, which they said had hit targets that didn’t appear to be linked to the Islamic State. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said at the Pentagon that the strikes were in areas “where there probably were not ISIL forces,” using an alternate acronym for the group. White House spokesman Josh Earnest, for his part, told reporters that it was “too early for me to say exactly what targets they were aiming at and what targets were actually hit.”

The strikes come amid a flurry of diplomatic maneuvering at the United Nations, where Moscow and Washington have traded potshots about who is to blame for the rise of the Islamic State and who should take the lead in fighting the group...

Still more.

And see the Wall Street Journal, "U.S. Rebukes Russia Over Syria Strikes."

Lies, Carly Fiorina, and Abortion

From Ross Douthat, at the New York Times.

Plus, from Mollie Hemingway, "A Quick and Easy Guide to the Planned Parenthood Videos."

At this point, folks are going to believe what the want to believe. But let's face facts, if you're defending Planned Parenthood, you're defending the cruel extermination of human life. You're defending the devil's work and you've got to mount diabolical deceptions to do it.

Still more at CBS News This Morning, "Planned Parenthood showdown in Congressional hearing."

The Simon-Ehrlich Wager 25 Years On

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "As the famous environmentalist bet showed, Malthusians are always wrong..."

Ralph Lauren Stepping Down as CEO

I love Lauren's fashion.

At WSJ, "Ralph Lauren Hands Reins to an Outsider."

The Jack Kemp Model for Republicans

From Morton Kondracke and Fred Barnes, at WSJ, "GOP candidates in 2016 would do well to echo his message of growth, prosperity and hope":

Jack Kemp never became president, but the country desperately needs a leader like him now. When Kemp died in 2009, two themes dominated tributes to his career as a star quarterback, congressman, cabinet secretary and candidate for vice president and president. Conservatives called him one of the most influential politicians of the 20th century who never made it to the White House. He was “among the most important Congressmen in U.S. history,” as a Wall Street Journal editorial put it. Liberals declared that the Republican Party needed, but didn’t have, a Kemp: a leader who cared about the poor, who wanted to make the GOP attractive to minorities and working-class voters, who never went negative and regularly worked across party lines.

Both evaluations were accurate. And both are relevant as the GOP struggles to find its 2016 presidential candidate. Republican voters—Democrats and independents, too—are looking for someone who, instead of raging at the status quo, will shake up Washington, make the economy grow again and restore hope in America’s future. A candidate working from the Kemp model could do all of that.

Kemp was a pivotal political leader because, as the foremost exponent of supply-side economics, he persuaded his party and later Ronald Reagan to adopt his tax-cut plan, known as “Kemp-Roth.” The top tax rate on individual income dropped in 1981 to 50% from 70%. Then Kemp helped pioneer tax reform, and the top rate fell in 1986 to 28%. Middle-income taxpayers enjoyed similar cuts.

After an era of “stagflation” and malaise in the 1970s, Reaganomics produced more than two decades of prosperity, restored American morale, undermined the Soviet empire and converted much of the world, for a time at least, to democratic capitalism. Kemp deserves a significant amount of credit....

What Republicans need today, following the Kemp model, is big ideas, not demagoguery. They ought to be debating the best way to restore growth, prosperity and hope—what voters care about most—not insulting one another over appearances and poll standings.

Some candidates are trying. Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio have put forward interesting economic plans. Even Donald Trump says he will have a tax plan shortly. Mr. Bush’s tax reform initiative, with its top rate of 28%, is especially Kemp-like. Unlike Kemp, today’s Republicans can’t ignore deficits, debt and the need for entitlement reform, all drags on growth. But if they followed Kemp, they’d cut farm subsidies, ethanol requirements, sugar quotas, carried interest and other corporate welfare at the same time as they trim Social Security and Medicare benefits.

RTWT.

And be sure to buy the book, Jack Kemp: The Bleeding-Heart Conservative Who Changed America.

Here's what I wrote when Kemp passed away:

Jack Kemp, in my mind, was the premier Republican on race relations in American politics. No one spoke to the power of markets and opportunity to empower black Americans as he did. His agenda as HUD Secretary in the first Bush administration would still be light years ahead if its time if applied today. We need more conservatives like him. What a wonderful man, and a great loss to the nation.

'The Invasion of Europe'

I've been waiting for this video. Turns out Condell does just one video per month on average, at least according to the frequency of postings to his YouTube page. But no one speaks more forcefully on the pox of European Union corruption, and as the EU's institutional edifice has been collapsing like a house of cards, I've been checking over at his page for updates.

Here you go. The inimitable Pat Condell:

Black Book of the American Left Volume 5: Culture Wars

The new volume in David Horowitz's "Black Book" series it out December 10th. Pre-order today.

At Amazon, The Black Book of the American Left Volume 5: Culture Wars.

The basic facts of David Horowitz’s political odyssey, one of the most significant of the last forty years, are well known. A “red diaper baby” who grew up in what he has called “the ghetto of communism,” he became a leading Marxist “theorist” in the early 1960s and one of the godfathers of the New Left. But following America’s defeat in Vietnam, Horowitz began to reevaluate the damage these commitments had done to the country, in the process becoming one of the most important thinkers in the contemporary conservative movement.

The Black Book of the American Left is the result of those years, all that concerted intellectual effort. It collects all of Horowitz’s conservative writings over the past three decades—at once a sharp incision of the left’s agenda, an exploration of the routes conservatives might take in response to its permanent assault on America, and a unique trip log showing the evolving intellectual journey of one of our bravest and most original thinkers.

In the current volume, “Culture Wars,” Horowitz shows how today’s left uses culture as a battleground the way the old communist left used the economy. He focuses on the attacks on American values that began in the 1960s and have continued since—in Hollywood, in the “mainstream” press, and the publishing world--an effort at a wholesale reshaping of the national culture to reflect the agendas of the liberal political elites.

The triumph of “political correctness,” Horowitz believes, is merely an updated version of the communist “party line.” Today’s radical leftists who smuggle their opinions into everything from the Oscar ceremonies to the editorial pages are updated versions of the “useful idiots” (as Lenin called them) who parroted the propaganda of the Politburo in the past.

He analyzes in detail the other ways in which the left has prosecuted its culture war—by pushing multiculturalism (a direct frontal assault on the principle of e pluribus unum); by rewriting American history, at the high school and college level, to transform it into a narrative of violence and victimhood; by conquering and controlling the mainstream media; and by making “identity politics” and “gender” into weapons of cultural aggression.

We are in a Cultural War. You can hear the sounds of battle all around you. You can arm yourself and begin to fight back by reading Culture Wars.

Shakira Performs 'Imagine' for the Pope at the United Nations

Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles "Chic" Burlingame was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 (which crashed into the Pentagon on September 11), slams "Imagine" as "the anthem for anti-religious nihilists," on Facebook.

Indeed.

But then, Shakira sang it to welcome the Pope to the U.N., which when you think about it, makes sense, considering how the U.N. sows chaos around the world.

Here, "Shakira (UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador) performing Imagine (by John Lennon)." (Turn down your volume; it's loud.)

Ta-Nehisi Coates Wins MacArthur Genius Grant — Because Racism!

Notice the supreme irony here.

Ta-Nehisi Coates wins a huge "genius" award with a $625 thousand payout over five years — with no strings attached.

Boy, there's so much racism in this country it's impossible for a talented black man to be recognized, much less be rewarded with substantial financial remuneration.

America is such a terrible, terrible racist country that "genius" blacks can get rich constantly pointing that out!

At the Atlantic, "'Geniuses' Revealed."

'Summer'

From Calvin Harris:

MCAS Miramar Pre-Show with Blue Angels (VIDEO)

The air show's this weekend.

This was a special treat.

Watch, at ABC News 10 San Diego, "The Blue Angels blast into MCAS Miramar."

The Daily News Layoffs and Digital Shift May Signal the Tabloid Era's End

Well, I don't read NYDN, although it's another story with the New York Post.

It's just Mortimer Zuckerman right now, but you never know, heh.

At the New York Times.

This month’s disembowelment of The Daily News seems like something new: Perhaps the end of NYC’s tabloid era. http://t.co/2FSb6PsRtK

— James G. Cobb (@NYCjamescobb) September 28, 2015

NASA Detects Liquid Water on Mars (VIDEO)

Following-up from yesterday, "Life on Mars?"

At Bloomberg, "Scientists confirm that strange streaks on the Red Planet are formed by flowing water."

Naked Man Terrorizes Drivers in Victorville (VIDEO)

I'm not embedding this one. How disgusting. I don't know why people even dealt with this psycho. Just stay inside and call the police.

Oh, the police got there and tazed the fucker.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Graphic Video Captures Wandering Naked, Bloodied Man Suspected of Trying to Get Into Vehicles."

Donald Trump Announces Tax-Cutting Plan (VIDEO)

Following-up from earlier, "Trump Plan Cuts Taxes for Millions."

This is starting to sound even more bold and significant than I thought.

At CBS Evening News, "Trump announces tax plan: Presidential hopeful Donald Trump has unveiled his new tax plan. Major Garrett has the details."

St. Louis Cardinals Outfielder Stephen Piscotty Knocked Out in Collision with Teammate Peter Bourjos (VIDEO)

Here's a YouTube clip, "Cardinals player Stephen Piscotty knocked out by a collision!"

And at Fox Sports, "Cardinals rookie OF carted off field after violent collision."

More at the Post-Dispatch, "After win, Cards encouraged by news on Piscotty."

Mozart for Meditation

Classical music from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at Amazon.

Plus, Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 / Coriolan Overture CD.

This reminds me of Michael Walsh's book, The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West.

Jackie Johnson's Got Your Sizzling Weather

She's got your forecast, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles.

It's heating up, "Jackie Johnson's Weather Forecast (Sept. 28)."

Angels Acquire Dodgers Starter Mat Latos

He signed with the Angels organization today.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Angels sign Dodgers castoff Mat Latos.

I have no clue about this guy, but the Angels need pitching, and bad.

Cause Animale Nord, French 'Animal Rights' Group, Steals Homeless Man's Puppy in Act of Merciless Cruelty (VIDEO)

It doesn't matter what the issue is, hideous far-left ghouls will claim their ideology of "compassion" trumps all, and thus they're the ones to decide if a homeless panhandler gets to have a puppy or not.

Again, this is not some fringe outlier incident. This is the ideological left in action.

Just downright mean and hateful.

At PuffHo, "Public Outcry After Animal Rights Group Confiscates Homeless Man's Puppy."

Trump Plan Cuts Taxes for Millions

Millions! Millions could get tax cuts!

Reaganesque.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Middle class, businesses get break, but overseas profits would face a one-time 10% levy":

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump unveiled an ambitious tax plan Monday that he says would eliminate income taxes for millions of households, lower the tax rate on all businesses to 15% and change tax treatment of companies’ overseas earnings.

Under the Trump plan, no federal income tax would be levied against individuals earning less than $25,000 and married couples earning less than $50,000. The Trump campaign estimates that would reduce taxes to zero for 31 million households that currently pay at least some income tax. The highest individual income-tax rate would be 25%, compared with the current 39.6% rate.

Many middle-income households would have a lower tax rate under Mr. Trump’s proposal, but because high-income households generally pay income tax at much higher rates, his proposed across-the-board rate cut could have a positive impact on them, too. For example, an analysis of Jeb Bush’s plan—taxing individuals’ incomes at no more than 28%—by the business-backed Tax Foundation found that the biggest percentage winners in after-tax income would be the top 1% of earners.

Mr. Trump’s plan appears designed to help him, as the GOP front-runner, cement his standing as a populist—though that message is complicated by the fact that the billionaire, like other Republican leaders, would eliminate the estate tax.

“My plan will bring sanity, common sense and simplification to our country’s catastrophic tax code,” Mr. Trump said in an interview. “It will create jobs and incentives of all kinds while simultaneously growing the economy.”

But Mr. Trump will face a challenge in convincing skeptics that his aggressive tax cuts can be implemented without adding to the federal deficit.

To pay for the proposed tax benefits, the Trump plan would eliminate or reduce deductions and loopholes to high-income taxpayers, and would curb some deductions and other breaks for middle-class taxpayers by capping the level of individual deductions, a politically dicey proposition. Mr. Trump also would end the “carried interest” tax break, which allows many investment-fund managers to pay lower taxes on much of their compensation.

A significant revenue gain would come from a one-time tax on overseas profits that could encourage U.S. multinational corporations to return an estimated $2.1 trillion in cash now sitting offshore, largely to avoid U.S. taxes. His proposal would impose a mandatory 10% tax on all of that money, even if the money stays overseas, but allow a few years for the tax to be paid. The Trump campaign estimates that many companies would choose to bring their money back home, boosting jobs and investment in the U.S...

More, plus the unhinged leftist reaction at Memeorandum.

Plus, at Politico, "Trump: My tax plan is 'going to cost me a fortune'" (at Memeorandum).

Alexis Ren for Surfing Magazine

At Ms. Ren's website, "SURFING MAGAZINE'S SWIMSUIT ISSUE - MEET THE GIRLS: ALEXIS REN."

Also on Instagram.

Tex Mex Bacon Thick Burger 'Border War' Video

Via Theo Spark, "Carl's Jr. Tex Mex Bacon Thickburger "Borderball" Commercial."

Eniko Mihalik Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Casting Call (VIDEO)

Hey, you gotta love the swimsuit casting call.

At Sports Illustrated:

Tinder Decries L.A. Billboard Warning Users to Get Tested for STDs (VIDEO)

Heh, Robert Stacy McCain called it already, "‘Hit-It-and-Quit-It on Tinder’."

They want that billboard to come down.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Tinder demands removal of L.A. billboard that tells dating app users to get STD test":

Tinder has sent a cease and desist letter to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation after a billboard went up in Los Angeles last week that draws a link between dating apps and a growing rate of sexually transmitted diseases.

The foundation said the billboard's purpose is to raise awareness about the increasing STD rate and to encourage dating-app users to get regular screenings or a “free STD check.” The billboard features silhouettes of people and the words “Tinder, Chlamydia, Grindr, Gonorrhea.”

“In many ways, location-based mobile dating apps are becoming a digital bathhouse for millennials wherein the next sexual encounter can literally just be a few feet away—as well as the next STD,” Whitney Engeran-Cordova, the foundation’s public health division director, said in a statement.

“While these sexual encounters are often intentionally brief or even anonymous, sexually transmitted diseases can have lasting effects on an individual’s personal health and can certainly create epidemics in communities at large,” the statement continued.

But Tinder, a location-based dating app, has fired back, saying the ad wrongly associates the app with venereal disease.

“These unprovoked and wholly unsubstantiated accusations are made to irreparably damage Tinder’s reputation in an attempt to encourage others to take an HIV test by your organization,” Tinder attorney Jonathan Reichman said in a letter to the foundation.

The foundation responded that it would not remove the billboard. It also referenced a Vanity Fair article that attributed a boom in casual hookups to the emergence of dating apps like Tinder...

Hey, we've got you covered at AmPow. The Vanity Fair piece is here, "The Tinder Hookup Culture and the End of Dating."

Yep, goodbye dating and hello STDs!

There's still more at the Times, heh.

Asians to Be Top Immigrant Group by 2065

Look, we've had a huge surge of immigration over the last two decades, at least. It doesn't bother me, as long as people come legally and they learn to speak English. But no doubt we're reaching a tipping point. Irvine is a major ethnic enclave, especially for Asians. I don't love Chinese and Korean (or Japanese) drivers, but it's not the end of the world. The 99 Ranch Market is just across the way, so when I get coffee in the morning at the 7/11 just next door, sometimes, between the Asians and the Mexican day-laborers, there's hardly anyone speaking English. I just say hello, and hopefully they'll say hello back. If not, they're probably just off the boat.

In any case, USA Today has the general trends, "U.S. foreign-born population nears high."

And at the Los Angeles, "Asians to surpass Latinos as largest immigrant group in U.S., study finds":

Asians are likely to surpass Latinos as the nation's largest immigrant group shortly after the middle of the century as the wave of new arrivals from Latin America slows but trans-Pacific migration continues apace, according to a new study of census data.

The surge of immigration that has reshaped the American population over the last half century will transform the country for several decades to come, the projections indicate. Immigrants and their children are likely to make up 88% of the country's population growth over the next 50 years, according to the study by the Pew Research Center, which has tracked the effects of immigration on the country's population for the last several decades.

The foreign-born, who made up just 5% of the nation's population in 1965, when Congress completely rewrote the country's immigration laws, make up 14% today, the study found. They are projected to be 18% of the population by 2065.

Increasingly, that population growth will involve Asians. Unlike the Latino population, which mostly shares a common language, Spanish, and many cultural traits, the census category of Asian takes in a vast array of ethnic and language groups, including Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Indians and Pakistanis.

Already, Asian Americans make up about 6% of the nation's population, up from just 1% in 1965. By the middle of the century they will total 14%, the projections say.

Asians are expected to constitute 36% of the immigrant population by 2055, surpassing Latinos, who by then will be 34% of immigrants, the study indicates. Since many Latinos are third- or fourth-generation Americans, they will remain a larger share of the total population, close to one-quarter of all Americans by midcentury.

Currently, Americans have a more positive view of Asian immigrants than of Latinos, according to a survey Pew did along with the population projections.

Nearly half of American adults, 47%, said immigrants from Asia have had a mostly positive effect on American society. Only 26% said the same about immigrants from Latin America, with 37% saying they thought the effects of Latin American immigration had been mostly negative. Immigrants from the Middle East fared worse in public opinion, with just 20% saying their effect on the country has been mostly positive, and 39% saying their impact has been mostly negative.

The survey found that 59% of Americans said immigrants, overall, were not learning English in a reasonable amount of time...

Yeah, like I was saying, it'd be better if all these newcomers would learn the language, sheesh.

But keep reading.

Republican Discontent Isn't Easing Up

At the Wall Street Journal, "GOP Discontent That Helped Sink John Boehner Isn’t Easing Up":

WASHINGTON—The tug-of-war within the Republican Party that helped end Rep. John Boehner’s career is likely to intensify this year both on Capitol Hill and in the tumultuous GOP presidential race.

The House speaker’s announcement Friday that he would leave Congress on Oct. 30 isn’t expected to mollify either the House’s most conservative faction, which is determined to take an unyielding stance in the face of fiscal deadlines, or dissatisfied GOP primary voters rooting for outsiders who have pledged to uproot Washington politics. The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows political novices Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina leading the GOP race.

On Capitol Hill, tension is mounting between Republicans hoping to notch incremental progress in dealing with a Democratic president and hard-liners who say they would be willing to shutter the government. That struggle will play out both in House GOP leadership elections over the next few weeks and as lawmakers tackle several deadline-driven issues this winter, including a longer-term budget deal and the need to raise the federal borrowing limit, known as the debt ceiling.

Mr. Boehner’s resignation will ease the most pressing problem facing Congress: the expiration of the government’s current funding on Sept. 30. Lawmakers are expected this week to pass a stopgap spending bill keeping the government funded through Dec. 11.

He could also help his successor by pushing through other bills that could pass only with the help of Democrats, such as raising the debt ceiling or reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank, moves that would be unpopular with some in the House GOP but seen as necessary by others. Mr. Boehner, who leaves office Oct. 30, indicated Sunday he might do so. “I don’t want to leave my successor a dirty barn,” he said on CBS . “I want to clean the barn up a little bit before the next person gets there.”

Any issues left hanging after Mr. Boehner’s departure will pose an even greater problem for his successor, likely Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.). The new speaker will take the gavel at a time when the most popular Republican presidential candidates are echoing the criticisms of congressional GOP leaders that poisoned Mr. Boehner’s reputation and strategy with many Republican voters.

Keep reading.

Anne-Marie Slaughter on CBS 'This Morning'

Actually, CBS should be having Ms. Slaughter's husband on, Professor Andrew Moravcsik, who's out with a new piece at the Atlantic about stay-home dads (or almost stay-home dads, and how they help their wives' careers).

See, "Why I Put My Wife’s Career First." And note that he's a privileged Princeton professor, who's basically got his own European welfare state beneath him, including the personal wealth to afford a private nanny. The program he's proposing is totally unrealistic for most regular husbands in the United States. But ahh, that's progressivism for you.

Now, to Ms. Slaughter, who's got a new book out tomorrow, Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family.

Keurig K130 Brewing System

At Amazon, Brews one 8-ounce cup in under three minutes, Single-use water reservoir - Mug sensor - No accidental spills, No glass pots to clean, break or crack - Easy cleaning and maintenance - No coffee grounds or wet, messy filters.

Plus, The Original Donut Shop Regular, Keurig K-Cups, 72 Count.

And for your coffee reading companionship, James Jones, From Here to Eternity.

Excitement Builds in American League West Wild Card Race

At Sports Illustrated, "Astros close gap with Rangers to set up exciting finish to AL West, wild card."

Watch, "9/27/15: Keuchel's gem leads Astros to series win."

And the Angels remain 1/2 game back in the hunt. And they'll be in Arlington October 1-4 to close the season, a series with obvious playoff implications.

The Lovely Evelyn Taft's Forecast

She's really showing.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Evelyn Taft's Weather Forecast (Sept. 28)."

Life on Mars?

NASA's expected to make a major announcement. Is there evidence of water on Mars?

At CBS News This Morning, "Mars mystery solved? NASA to reveal major discovery."

And at the Guardian UK, "Water on Mars? The buildup to Nasa's 'mystery solved' announcement – live."

Dana Loesch's Birthday Today, and She's Standing Strong

Another day, another batch of death threats for Dana Loesch --- this time including a blood-spattering snuff video.

See the Blaze, "Anti-Gun Advocate Reimagines Dana Loesch’s NRA Ad With Shocking, Sick Ending — but He Surely Didn’t Expect TheBlaze TV Host to Respond Like This."

It's Dana's birthday today, so please go ahead and tweet her some birthday wishes. She's a good lady.

And here's her book, Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm America.

Lenin and Stalin Look-Alikes

Shoot, these guys would go over well right here in the U.S. of A.!

At the Wall Street Journal, "In Moscow, Lenin and Stalin Look-Alikes Jostle for Tourists’ Cash":

MOSCOW—In the shadow of the Kremlin, Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin clashed over how to divvy up the spoils of their little enterprise.

Lenin felt he wasn’t getting a fair share, while Stalin’s apparent grievance was his erstwhile comrade’s betrayal in forming a new alliance—with another Stalin.

A dozen or so impersonators—who specialize in duping dictators—work the crowds near Red Square, jostling for cash from tourists’ wallets. A photo with Ivan the Terrible, for instance, can cost anywhere from 200 rubles (about $3) to 1,000 rubles, depending on the visitor’s negotiating skills.

The dispute between the two leaders of the global proletariat late June ended in a scuffle, according to city officials and other impersonators, exposing the seamier side of capitalism around Moscow’s main tourist site.

Lenin impersonator Igor Gorbunov said the Stalin look-alike, Latif Valiyev, followed him into an underpass near Red Square and jabbed him in the back with an umbrella. Mr. Gorbunov went to a first-aid station before filing a complaint to police. Law enforcement looked into the incident, but Mr. Gorbunov later said he had forgiven Mr. Valiyev and withdrawn his complaint.

Mr. Valiyev denied having a conflict with his fellow dictator—and demanded payment to answer any further questions.

Look-alikes began to appear on Red Square in the mid-1990s as capitalism took hold and Russia opened up to tourists. “Fat Lenin” was the first, according to Sergei Solovyov, a 57-year-old Lenin impersonator, aka “Tall Lenin.” Six Stalins and eight Lenins, mostly known by their nicknames, now work the square.

“White Lenin” has a pale face; “Wooden Lenin” doesn’t say much; “Gay Lenin” stands with an impersonator of the poet Alexander Pushkin; “Drunk Lenin” likes a tipple.

Other famous political figures, such as Tsar Nicholas II, Karl Marx and even a President Barack Obama, have come and gone. But the favorite Bolsheviks have staying power.

“It’s hard work to be on your feet all day,” said Mr. Solovyov. “It’s also morally hard. People shout: ‘Burn in hell! What have you done with Russia?’”

Oh, I'm sure that have quite a few fans, not least of all, American neo-communist looking to earn some bona fides visiting the Lenin mausoleum.

Still more.

Outsiders Surge in New Poll

Especially Republican outsiders. I don't consider Bernie Sanders an outsider. His surge is based in his unabashed socialism, which is catching the Obama disaffecteds.

At WSJ, "Carson, Fiorina, Sanders Gain Ground in Their Parties’ Primary Races, Poll Shows":

Republicans Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina and Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders have gained significant ground in their parties’ presidential primary races in recent weeks, the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and real-estate developer Donald Trump continue to lead the fields for their parties’ nominations. But Mr. Trump is now essentially tied with Mr. Carson, and significant movement has occurred among candidates just behind them. Mr. Carson is backed by 20% of GOP primary voters, compared with 21% for Mr. Trump. Mrs. Fiorina and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, both have 11% support. Other Republicans register single-digit support.

In the prior Journal/NBC News poll, conducted in mid-July, Mr. Carson had only 10% support, compared with 19% for Mr. Trump. The retired neurosurgeon overtakes Mr. Trump in the new survey, conducted Sept. 20-24, when voters’ first choice is combined with their second.

No candidate in the race has enjoyed a swifter ascent than Mrs. Fiorina, who barely registered in the July survey. She has since taken the spotlight in the GOP race after a strong performance in a televised Sept. 16 candidate debate.

Some 28% of Republican primary voters picked her as their first or second choice in the September survey, up from 2% in the July poll.

By contrast, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush lost the most altitude since the prior Journal/NBC News survey.

Some 7% of Republican primary voters named Mr. Bush as their top pick for the GOP nomination, down from 14% in July and 22% in June.

Like Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Bush was an early front-runner whose pedigree and famous last name is proving to be as much of a liability as an asset. The former Florida governor boasts the biggest war chest in the field, but his continued slippage has donors nervous at a time when candidates with little or no experience in politics have stolen the spotlight.

Mr. Bush, however, said on Fox News Sunday that he remains confident he’ll win in New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary in February. He noted his campaign just began an advertising offensive.

“It is a marathon,” he said. “These polls really don’t matter.”

Still more.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



And at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – All Options Are on the Table."

Third GOP Debate Sets Off Wave of Anxiety

From Hadas Gold, at Politico, "The prospect of a reduction in the number of candidates on stage is a life-or-death matter for some campaigns":

The uncertain terms of the next Republican debate are setting off a wave of anxiety among middle and bottom tier campaigns, with several lashing out at the Republican National Committee for failing to provide clarity on how many candidates will appear on stage.

The campaigns fear the entry criteria for the Oct. 28 debate is being designed to reduce the number of candidates on stage for the third primetime debate -- a life-or-death matter for White House hopefuls on the bubble.

While the RNC doesn’t set the rules, it does have a voice in working with the networks running the debates. The committee has not said how many candidates will be allowed into the primetime debate, which will be held in Boulder, Colorado, and broadcast on CNBC. Nor are there any indications there will be an undercard event, as there have been in the first two debate showdowns of the primary season.

“With the next debate a month away, it is maddening that the RNC has yet to provide any guidance to campaigns regarding the criteria that they and CNBC plan to use to exclude candidates,” said Curt Anderson, an adviser to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who appeared in both undercards. In the spin room after CNN recent debate, Jindal spokesperson Gail Gitcho said they already had plans to speak with CNBC in order to keep Jindal on the stage.

Well, it's not just Jindal who's freaking, but keep reading.

Amber Lee's Got Your Low Pressure Forecast

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Watch, "Amber Lee's Weather Forecast (Sept. 27)."

We're Losing the War, Do Something

From Michael Ledeen, at Forbes:

We are living in revolutionary times, but we are burdened with counterrevolutionary leaders. The old order, the bipolar Cold War world, is pretty much gone, but the outlines of a new paradigm have not yet emerged. None of the leaders on “our” side of the world, aside from our president, has any sort of vision for the next stage, the new paradigm, and his vision is based on antipathy for American leadership. He will not challenge the Russian/Iranian/Chinese/North Korean/Cuban etc. war against us.

Ergo things are going to get worse, perhaps very much worse. The pols and pundits could help focus our minds by seeing the war being waged against us, and then figuring out how to win it...

Beautiful Model Nadia Menaz Killed Herself Because She 'feared her devout Muslim parents were going to force her into arranged marriage...'

From Susan Goldberg, at Pajamas, "Muslim Model Hangs Herself to Avoid Arranged Marriage."

And at the Mirror UK, "Model found hanged 'feared her devout Muslim parents were going to force her into arranged marriage'."

And Instapundit quips, "I’d criticize this sort of thing, with the arranged marriages, the honor killings, and so on, but 'that’s their culture'."

‘Birth Tourism’ Booming In Bay Area Despite Fed Crackdown

At CBS News 2 San Francisco, "Word on the street here is that the crackdown down south has pushed many of the operations up north."

Jonathan Papelbon Attacks Bryce Harper in Dugout Fight (VIDEO)

Not good to see, ever.

Watch, at WaPo, "Jonathan Papelbon goes after Bryce Harper in dugout."

Also on Twitter, "Jonathan Papelbon attacking Bryce Harper?"

A Realist Grapples with His Doubts on Intervention in Syria

From the far-left, Israel-bashing Harvard political scientist Stephen Walt, at Foreign Policy, "Could We Have Stopped This Tragedy?":

Unlike neoconservatives, who never admit error no matter how often they are wrong, I spend a fair bit of time thinking about whether my diagnoses of key world events have been off the mark. (For examples of this sort of “self-criticism,” see here, here, and here.) I’ll stand by the vast majority of what I’ve written in my scholarly work and my FP commentary, but I find it useful — indeed, necessary — to occasionally ponder whether I got something wrong and, if so, to try to figure out why.

Case in point: the increasingly awful situation in Syria. Ever since the initial protests broke out, I’ve believed this conflict was not of vital strategic interest to the United States and that overt U.S. intervention was likely to cause more harm than good. What has emerged since then is a relentless and gut-wrenching tragedy, but I’ve uncomfortably concluded that my original judgment was correct. And yet I continue to wonder.

To be sure, the Obama administration has not handled Syria well at all.

President Barack Obama erred when he jumped the gun in 2011 and insisted “Assad must go,” locking the United States into a maximalist position and foreclosing potential diplomatic solutions that might have saved thousands of lives. Second, Obama’s 2012 off-the-cuff remark about chemical weapons and “red lines” was a self-inflicted wound that didn’t help the situation and gave opponents a sound bite to use against him. The president wisely backed away from that position, however, and (with Russian help) eventually devised an arrangement that got rid of Assad’s chemical arsenal. This was no small achievement in itself, but the whole episode did not exactly inspire confidence. The administration eventually agreed to start a training program for anti-Assad forces, but did so with neither enthusiasm nor competence.

And consider what has happened since then. More than 200,000 people are now dead — that’s approaching 100 times as many victims as 9/11 — and numerous towns, cities, and villages have been badly damaged, if not destroyed. There are reportedly some 11 million displaced people either internally or out of the country, about half Syria’s original population. A flood of refugees and migrants has landed in Europe, provoking a new challenge to the European Union’s delicate political cohesion and raising the specter of a sharp increase in right-wing xenophobia. The carnage in Syria has also helped fuel the emergence and consolidation of the so-called Islamic State, intensified the Sunni-Shiite split within Islam, and put additional strain on Syria’s other neighbors.

Given all that, is it possible that those who called for swift U.S. intervention several years ago were right all along? If the United States, NATO, the Arab League, or some combination of the above had established a no-fly zone and stood ready to intervene with ground forces, might the Assad regime have fallen quickly and spared Syria and the world this bleak and open-ended disaster? Or might these steps have given outside powers greater leverage over the situation, put some serious teeth into the early diplomatic efforts, and made some sort of brokered political solution more likely?

Maybe.

We cannot replay the past to see where a different course of action would have led, but one cannot rule out a priori the possibility that a prompt, forceful, and committed international response would have produced a better outcome in Syria than what we observe today. If everything had gone just right, we might be viewing a pacified Syria as a big success story, much as proponents of humanitarian intervention now view NATO’s role in the Balkans in the 1990s...

Hmm... Not so easy for Walt to admit that he's wrong.

America's "vital national interests" have certainly been compromised by the administration's Syria disaster. At this point Walt and other leftists can only define "vital national interests" in existential terms, as the very survival of the United States. But that's not a very useful definition, and U.S. foreign policy has long taken a much larger stand on securing vital interests, which has included preventing hostile foreign powers from securing dominant spheres of interest in a region or country, like Russia in Syria.

But keep reading. Walt's not so open to correcting his errors after all.

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