Jew Hatred at the United Nations

From Lorrie Goldstein, at the Toronto Sun, "Jew hatred at the U.N. no surprise" (via Blazing Cat Fur):

To put it simply, the United Nations contains a nest of Jew-hating vipers.

Jew hatred at the UN flies under the false flag of condemning Israel for human rights violations, while all but ignoring them everywhere else.

This effort is spearheaded by Mideast dictatorships, whose goal has always been to delegitimize the Jewish state, the same goal as the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign and Israeli Apartheid Weeks.

In the latest instalment, a now-passed UN Security Council resolution slammed Israel unfairly and selectively on the settlement issue in the Occupied Territories last week.

President Barack Obama has been criticized by Israel’s supporters over the US abstaining from voting on the resolution (rather than vetoing it), which allowed it to pass.

But this Security Council resolution is just the latest example of the UN’s war against the Jews masquerading as legitimate criticism of Israel...

More.

Will X. Walters, Plaintiff in San Diego Gay Pride Nudity Case, Dead of an Apparent Suicide (VIDEO)

What a waste.

At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Man who lost gay pride nudity case against SDPD dies of apparent suicide":

A man who unsuccessfully sued San Diego police over his public nudity arrest at a gay pride festival was found dead Wednesday night at his Hillcrest apartment in an apparent suicide, authorities said.

The death of Will X. Walters comes about two weeks after a federal jury delivered the verdict in favor of police.

Walters’ attorney, Chris Morris, said Walters was shocked by the Dec. 13 verdict and immediately left the downtown San Diego federal courthouse after it was announced.

Morris said he hadn’t heard from Walters since and had tried to reach him in the days that followed. Friends also tried checking on him, the lawyer said.

San Diego police were called to the apartment by a neighbor late Wednesday.

His time of death was not known. The county Medical Examiner’s Office said the death remained under investigation.

“Will Walters was a valiant warrior for his cause, and he will be missed by those who knew him and the community he fought for,” Morris said Thursday...

Maybe he should have just paid the fines, or whatever, and let it go.

This case isn't worth taking your life. But apparently, his identity as a homosexual man was everything and he wanted that fully validated, or else. I'll bet the guy was a pushy in-your-face advocate for same-sex marriage and all that. Homosexual activists are like that.

More (via Memeorandum).

'The first time I ever smoked pot I also had sex...'

Well, I'm sure that was nice. Especially the sex, heh.

At Nerve, "Love in a Time of Cannabis" (via Instapundit):

I was in high school, she was older and asked if I was cool. I nodded. She showed me how to hit the bong then laid me down on the bed and showed me how to please her. Forever after, I’ve associated sex and weed. They go together like music and dancing. It’s the perfect substance for romance. Your body becomes hypersensitive and alert. Everything’s light, funny, wonderful and weird...

More.

Obama Administration Sanctions Russia on Election Hacking

O doesn't look too pleased at that photo. If looks could be translated into policy, the U.S. would've been a lot tougher on Moscow these last few years. Alas, Obama's like a paper tiger. He looks tough while being a pushover in practice. Frankly, Russia's been eating our lunch, from Ukraine to Syria.

These sanctions are completely political, designed more to delegitimize the incoming Trump administration than to penalize Russia.

God, how much longer until this scum of an administration is shown the door?

At WSJ, "U.S. Punishes Russia Over Election Cyberattacks; Moscow Vows Retaliation":

U.S. punishes Russia over election hacking with sanctions, expulsion of 35 diplomats https://t.co/5AduSeZ9rI pic.twitter.com/tEWhJKRYur

— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 29, 2016

President Barack Obama sanctioned Russian government intelligence agencies and expelled 35 suspected Russian intelligence operatives from the U.S. in what he called a partial response to Russia’s alleged use of cyberattacks to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.

Russia threatened to retaliate, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying “the principle of reciprocity applies here.” He said Russian President Vladimir Putin would formulate a response that would create “considerable discomfort in the same areas” for the U.S., according to the Interfax news agency.

The sanctions designate Russia’s military intelligence agency, known as the Main Intelligence Directorate, or the GRU, for “tampering, altering or causing the misappropriation of information” with the purpose or effect of interfering with the election. The measures also designate Russia’s main security agency, the Federal Security Service, for assisting the GRU in those activities.

The administration also sanctioned three Russian companies it accused of providing material support for the GRU’s cyber operations and four top Russian officials who run the military intelligence agency.

At the same time, the State Department expelled 35 Russian intelligence operatives allegedly serving under diplomatic cover from the Russian embassy in Washington and the Russian consulate in San Francisco. The officials and their families were given 72 hours to leave the U.S. after the State Department said they “were acting in a manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status.” The deadline is noon on Sunday.

The State Department also notified Russia that as of Friday Moscow would be denied access to two Russian government-owned compounds in the U.S. One is a dacha, or summer retreat, for Russian embassy officials on the eastern shore of Maryland, and the other is a dacha compound for New York-based Russian diplomats on Long Island, a U.S. official said. The White House accused Russia of using the recreational compounds for “intelligence-related purposes.”

The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation also released a joint analysis report, titled “Grizzly Steppe,” giving additional technical details about the election hacking.

Mr. Obama said the steps were “in response to the Russian government’s aggressive harassment of U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election” and followed repeated warnings to Moscow.

“These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.

Russia has denied involvement in the election hacks.

Mr. Peskov said Thursday the new U.S. measures were a display of the Obama administration’s unpredictability and aggressive foreign policy. He said the White House wanted “to ruin once and for all Russian-American relations, which were already at rock-bottom, and apparently, strike a blow against the foreign-policy plans of the future administration,” according to Interfax.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on her Facebook page that the Russian Foreign Ministry would make an official announcement regarding countermeasures against the U.S. on Friday. She said “the American people have been humiliated by their own president.”

The administration’s announcement could reignite the debate between the White House and President-elect Donald Trump, who has challenged the accuracy of the U.S. intelligence assessment attributing the hacks to Russia and called it “ridiculous.” Mr. Obama called Mr. Trump on Wednesday ahead of the announcement...

More.

Bears Ears National Monument and Gold Butte National Monument

The Obama regime is really going on an end-of-year administrative blitz, especially on the environment.

So craven and dishonest. Why not push these initiatives during the first administration, or before the 2014 midterms? Of course O's regime knew they'd be unpopular and the Democrats would face massive backlash.

Anyway, at Memeorandum, "Statement by the President on the Designation of Bears Ears National Monument and Gold Butte National Monument."

And at LAT:

President Obama designates two new national monuments in the West https://t.co/SYKbJj8aXF pic.twitter.com/2vslGHuwdJ

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 28, 2016

More, at Western Journalism, "Utah Lawmakers Vow to Fight Obama’s Creation of National Monuments."

Bitches and Hoes and Feminism

At the Other McCain, linking to the Patriarch Tree, at Medium:

Don't preach ME any sermons! https://t.co/00077MJbeS @AmPowerBlog pic.twitter.com/AsH0cyMtqZ

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) December 29, 2016

Izabel Goulart at St. Barts

At London's Daily Mail:

Victoria's Secret model Izabel Goulart shows off her super toned in St. Barts https://t.co/c90yeG8jw9 pic.twitter.com/e7FuIdQ5Ac

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) December 29, 2016

Also, at WWTDD, "Izabel Goulart in a Bikini."

Plus, at Egoastic!, "Izabel Goulart Red Hot Bikini Paddle Ball and Other Fine Things to Ogle."

At the Crossroads Café

I'm visiting with my sister in Yucca Valley, and my cousin (Hillary) and her family are in town, so we mosied over to the Crossroads Café in Joshua Tree.

It's apparently very progressive around these parts, as can be seen from the signage on the windows. (Joshua Tree National Park is right there, which attracts all kinds of hippies and leftists.)

I doubt they're not going to serve Trump supporters, though. You've got the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center just up the road a bit. Lots of folks are going to be anti-Obama, if not downright #MAGA enthusiasts.

At the Safe Spaces cafe, in 29 Palms. pic.twitter.com/1NFggqJUqt

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 28, 2016

RELATED: At RWN, "Outrage After Hawaii Cafe BANS Trump Voters." (Via Memeorandum.)

'Watership Down' Author Richard Adams Dead at 96

Well, that's a long and lustrous life.

I wish we all could live that long.

Still though, we're losing so many in 2016. It's a great year, actually, but the obits are mounting.

I read "Watership Down" for a book club at my college, and it was great. Adams declaims any larger moral to the story, but the moral is clearly to stand and fight for what you believe, and that good will prevail over evil.

At NYT:

Richard Adams has died at 96. He became one of the world’s best-selling authors with his debut, “Watership Down." https://t.co/7fgkGyzsq0

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 27, 2016

Charlotte McKinney Dream Hotel Photo Shoot

I hope to be seeing more of Ms. Charlotte in 2017.

At Egotastic!, "Charlotte McKinney Dream Hotel Wicked Hot Lingerie Shoot."

Obama's Parting Betrayal of Israel

From Ambassador John Bolton, at WSJ:

"Obama's Parting Betrayal of #Israel" - read my latest op-ed in the @WSJ: https://t.co/y9yV45JFxK

— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) December 27, 2016

The Midnight Push to Empty Out Guantanamo

From Congressman Ed Royce, at WSJ:

.@RepEdRoyce: The midnight push to empty out Guantanamo https://t.co/0piYOdDtPj via .@WSJ

— Montgomery Granger (@mjgranger1) December 27, 2016

Carrie Fisher Dead at 60

I'm not that big a "Star Wars" fan. I remember, back in 1977 when the original "Star Wars" came out, my Uncle Doug had rounded up a bunch of us kids in my family and took us to see the movie.

It was of course fabulous, and we all had a great time; and then I saw "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Return of the Jedi" when they came out, as these were basically obligatory.

But that's about it. I don't have all the movies on CD, and haven't even seen all the more recent updates in the franchise.

It just seems like Carrie Fisher's death has some kind of social significance. It's weird, I guess.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Carrie Fisher, child of Hollywood who blazed a path as 'Star Wars' heroine, screenwriter and author, dies at 60."

And at the Other McCain, "CARRIE FISHER DIES AT AGE 60":

"Good-bye, Princess Leia — and may the Force be with you!" https://t.co/HhDIgt9wBF

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) December 27, 2016

Her death came while the latest film in the Star Wars saga, Rogue One, was No. 1 at the box office. She won critical praise for her performance in the original Star Wars film (“Episode IV: A New Hope”), which I first saw in 1977 at Atlanta’s Phipps Plaza theater immediately after its original release. Many of her best scenes were Princess Leia’s exchanges of sarcastic lines with the outlaw pilot Han Solo, memorably played by Harrison Ford, which recalled the classic romantic pairings of Hollywood’s Golden Age — Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, etc.

Baked Alaska

Well, apparently there's an "Alt-Right Civil War," which involves some apparently controversial headlining changes to the so-called "DeploraBall," which is some gala for the Internet cult of rightists supporting Donald Trump.

It's weird, whatever it is.

Here's the headline at Mediaite, via Memeorandum, "Alt-Right in Civil War After Prominent Leader Disinvited From Pro-Trump ‘DeploraBall’."

And see the Ralph Retort, "DEPLORABALL DUSTUP: Baked Alaska Out, MILO In, Accusations Flying From All Parties."

You know, once the Daily Stormer gets involved, I'm outta here.

These aren't my kind of folks, actually.

ICYMI: Epic tweets from @bakedalaska (before the fake/co-opted MAGA3X crew deleted them) https://t.co/wuBy4zdw5P pic.twitter.com/oZf78tCCCx

— ᴰᴶ TB • #AnimeRight (@TRIGGERBAITmk2) December 27, 2016

Israel Prepares to Build More Settlements

Heh.

I can dig it.

At the New York Times, "Defying U.N., Israel Prepares to Build More Settlements":

JERUSALEM — Undeterred by a resounding defeat at the United Nations, Israel’s government said Monday that it would move ahead with thousands of new homes in East Jerusalem and warned nations against further action, declaring that Israel does not “turn the other cheek.”

Just a few days after the United Nations Security Council voted to condemn Israeli settlements, Jerusalem’s municipal government signaled that it would not back down: The city intends to approve 600 housing units in the predominantly Palestinian eastern section of town on Wednesday in what a top official called a first installment on 5,600 new homes.

The defiant posture reflected a bristling anger among Israel’s pro-settlement political leaders, who not only blamed the United States for failing to block the Council resolution, but also claimed to have secret intelligence showing that President Obama’s team had orchestrated it. American officials strongly denied the claim, but the sides seem poised for more weeks of conflict until Mr. Obama hands over the presidency to Donald J. Trump.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lashed out at Security Council countries by curbing diplomatic contacts, recalling envoys, cutting off aid and summoning the American ambassador for a scolding. He canceled a planned visit this week by Ukraine’s prime minister even as he expressed concern on Monday that Mr. Obama was planning more action at the United Nations before his term ends next month...

Still more.

Shop Today's Deals

*Bumped.*

At Amazon, Deals of the Day.

The deals include Up to 80 Percent Off on New York Times Best Sellers on Kindle.

Not bad.

BONUS: Ian Toll, Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942, and The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944.

Bella Thorne Santa Costume

At London's Daily Mail, "'It was the happiest and saddest year!' Bella Thorne smiles through the pain in a Santa costume as she reflects on a tumultuous 12 months."

Obama's Disgraceful and Harmful Legacy on Israel

I'm just counting down the days 'till Obama's gone. It's going to be a beautiful new day on January 20th.

From Bill Kristol, at the Weekly Standard:

For all eight years of the Obama administration, Democrats have made believe that Barack Obama is a firm and enthusiastic supporter and defender of the Jewish state. Arguments to the contrary were not only dismissed but angrily denounced as the products of nothing more than vicious partisanship. Obama's defenders repeatedly used the trope that "Israel should not be a partisan issue," as if Obama's views and actions were beyond reproach. A whole corps of Jewish leaders, some at the major organizations and many from Chicago, showed far greater loyalty to Obama than to the tradition of true nonpartisanship when it came to Middle East policy.

All of those arguments have been ground into dust by Obama's action Friday allowing a nasty and harmful anti-Israel resolution to pass the United Nations Security Council. Just weeks before leaving office, he could not resist the opportunity to take one more swipe at Israel—and to do real harm. So he will leave with his record on Israel in ruins, and he will leave Democrats even worse off.

It's pretty clear that he does not care. Obama has gotten himself elected twice, the second time by a decreased margin (the only time a president has been reelected by fewer votes than in his first term), but he has laid waste to his party. In the House, the Senate, the state governorships, and the state legislatures, the Democrats have suffered loss after loss. Today's anti-Israel action will further damage the Democratic party, by driving some Jews if not toward the Republicans then at least away from the Democrats and toward neutrality. Donald Trump's clear statement on Thursday that he favored a veto, Netanyahu's fervent pleas for one, and the Egyptian action in postponing the vote show where Obama stood: not with Israel, not even with Egypt, but with the Palestinians. Pleas for a veto from Democrats in Congress were ignored by the White House...

RTWT.

Rep. Maxine Waters: I'm gonna fight Donald Trump 'every inch of the way...' (VIDEO)

She's a vile woman.

A spiteful, combative, and repulsive black bitch of a congresswoman.

Watch, at Free Beacon, "Rep. Waters Refuses to Meet With Trump to Find Common Ground on Policies."

Just wow.

Thomas Sowell's Final Column for Creators Syndicate

At 86, he's retiring.

See, "Farewell."

George Ciccariello-Maher Has 'Protected' His Twitter Account

This isn't the first time I'd heard of Professor George Ciccariello-Maher.

He's about as far-left as they come. I think I came across his page after trolling through Taryn Fivek's page. (Remember her? Emma Quangel?) She's always linking to the most crazy stuff happening on the left, for example, "J20 Resist! Protest Trump's Inauguration in Washington D.C."

Anyway, he's trying to weasel out of his comments calling for a "white genocide," although killing off the white race is pretty much standard fare for hardcore leftists. Drexel, his university, is right to distance itself from his commentary.

See Inside Higher Ed, "Drexel Condemns Professor's Tweet." (At Memeorandum.)

The dude's protected his tweets now, although I think just yesterday they were viewable. He's worried about getting fired. He should be.

More from Sierra Marlee, at RWN, "Drexel U RESPONDS to Prof’s Tweet “All I want for Christmas is White Genocide”."

Here's Mr. White Genocide, George Ciccariello-Maher, celebrating Fidel Castro. pic.twitter.com/5tjDvYxMy9

— Craig R. Brittain (@CraigRBrittain) December 26, 2016

And a sample of the dude's far-left commentary:

Dear Neoliberal Democrats: This is Your Mess, Own It https://t.co/2wOHsbwzIA pic.twitter.com/9LZvfI5yCQ

— US Uncut (@USUncut) November 9, 2016

Pipeline to America: When America's Doors Shut

Following-up, "Pipeline to America: Traversing the Rio Suchiate."

Here's the final entry in the series, published yesterday, Christmas Day, "They gambled, and lost: Dozens of migrants braved thousands of miles of jungles, seas and bandits to reach the U.S. Then they were sent home."

Dozens of migrants braved thousands of miles of jungles, seas & bandits to reach the U.S. Then they were sent home. https://t.co/xiHvdjmcH4 pic.twitter.com/xub7mRRRVH

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 24, 2016

Pipeline to America: Traversing the Rio Suchiate

Following-up, "Pipeline to America: Crossing the Darién Gap."

Here's the third entry in the series, published on Christmas Eve, "Traversing the Rio Suchiate: Navigating the River of Dreams; Between Africa and the U.S., an illicit river crossing in Latin America."

The illicit journey from Africa to the U.S. runs through a Guatemalan river where risks are high https://t.co/z0KpKkZJy7 pic.twitter.com/oBBxuQZtJo

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 23, 2016

Pipeline to America: Crossing the Darién Gap

I meant to post this full series at the Los Angeles Times.

Here's the initial entry from the 22nd, "Pipeline to America: Africans, Asians, Haitians — Migrants from Across the Globe Risk Everything to Cross Into the U.S."

Pretty extraordinary reporting. I'm blown away at the lengths --- the dangers --- to which migrants will go to get to the "promised land" of the United States.

Here's the second report in the series, "Crossing the Darién Gap: Migrants from around the globe are forging a grueling path to the U.S. — through the heart of the rainforest."

Migrants from around the globe are forging a grueling path to America — through the heart of the rainforest https://t.co/SvzhBUdtNv pic.twitter.com/qYPVf0FIsr

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 23, 2016

Anti-Semitism in British Universities

From Professor Michael Curtis, at the New English Review:

The most troubling manifestation was a conference titled Legitimacy, Responsibility, Exceptionalism, to held in 2015 at Southampton University, that was intended to question the legal and moral right of the state of Israel to exist. The organizers were all well-known critics, even haters, of Israel, and advocates of boycott of Israel, as were almost all the expected participants.

The main organizers were Oren Ben-Dor (Southampton University law school) a constant anti-Israeli critic, and George Bisharat (U of California, Hastings School of Law) who favors a one state solution and compares Israel presence to a rapist. Ben Dor, former Israeli, has criticized the Israeli actions in Lebanon in 2006 and in Gaza in winter 2009. He has supported boycotts of Israel, written about alleged “apartheid” of Israel, and the bias in the Israeli educational system. In a barely comprehensible article in 2012, Ben-Dor referred to ‘pathologies pertaining to Jewish thinking and being.”

Though 929 academics supported a petition for the conference to be held at Southampton, as the result of strong protests the University cancelled it on the grounds that it gave legitimacy to antisemitism. However, the conference with the same cast of characters is now to be held in March and April 2017 at University College, Cork, Ireland, part of the National University of Ireland.

The list of speakers, including die-hard critics of Israel speaks for itself. The presence as speakers of individuals such as Richard Falk, Ilan Pappe, Azmi Bishara, and Hatem Bazian suggests the objective of the conference. It is not to discuss the problems of the Middle East in any objective fashion. It is to emphasize the illegitimacy of the state of Israel. It is to link the alleged suffering of Palestinians to the foundation and nature of Israel, and in essence to argue for the nullification of Israel’ existence...

If you're on the left, you're not right.

The left's hatred of Israel is simply mind-boggling to me, but it's rife throughout the ideological space of leftists Britain, the U.S., and all over the world, as evidenced by the vote last week at the Security Council, which as 14 votes to delegitimize Israeli settlements, and one abstention (the U.S.).

Singer George Michael Dies of AIDS at 53

Here's the Santa Monica Observer, the only media outlet I found that accurately reported George Michael's death yesterday, "Singer George Michael Succumbs to HIV/AIDS at 53, at Home in England."

The Observer got so much traffic the server almost crashed.

Singer George Michael Succumbs to HIV/AIDS - Santa Monica Observer https://t.co/FTSL9H5Bmn pic.twitter.com/YXgbZcsVh9

— SM ObserverNewspaper (@SMObserved) December 25, 2016

Leftists were upset that people were even mentioning AIDS:

If you want to keep faith this Christmas, do not search 'George Michael AIDS' on Twitter. Outrageous claims/comments/judgements circulating.

— Leon Ward (@LeonjWard) December 25, 2016

Check out my mentions if you want to see how despicable people can be.

— Paul Kidd (@paulkidd) December 26, 2016

I blocked 200+ trolls, and I deleted the tweet that was energising them (life’s too short). Humanity is disappointing today.

— Paul Kidd (@paulkidd) December 26, 2016

If you speculate that #GeorgeMichael died of #HIV, you’re basing that on your own biases, not facts. You’re a garbage person.

— Paul Kidd (@paulkidd) December 26, 2016

There was one other rather honest piece about Michael's death, from Alison Boshoff, at Daily Mail, "ALISON BOSHOFF: How sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll took their toll on troubled genius George Michael":

Michael, who wrote and performed pop classics including Careless Whisper, Praying For Time and Faith, said himself that he suffered from two afflictions –'grief and self-abuse'.

He would smoke enormous amounts of marijuana – up to 25 joints a day at some points in his career.

He also struggled with depression, following the death of his lover Anselmo Feleppa from an HIV-related illness in 1993, and his mother, of cancer, in 1997.

His drug use included a dependency on sleeping pills and a dabble with designer drug GHB. In 2008, Michael was caught smoking crack cocaine in a public toilet.

He was in the habit of cruising for sex with strangers – an activity he declared he had started in his teens. He told friend Piers Morgan that he had up to 500 sexual partners in seven years – which works out, staggeringly, at one every five days.

Yet Michael had no apologies for his lifestyle. Life fast, die young:

I HAVE NEVER AND WILL NEVER APOLOGISE FOR MY SEX LIFE ! GAY SEX IS NATURAL, GAY SEX IS GOOD! NOT EVERYBODY DOES IT, BUT.....HA HA!

— George Michael (@GeorgeMichael) May 13, 2011

Britney Spears is 'Alive and Well'

Well, I'm glad.

At CNN, "Britney Spears is 'alive and well' despite death hoax."

And at PuffHo, "Don’t Worry, Britney Spears Is ‘Alive And Well’."

Good morning! May you all have a blessed day 😊 pic.twitter.com/jJoIckBZET

— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) December 19, 2016

WaPo's Top 10 Books of 2016.

I'm loaded up on books to read at the moment, but I found some new offerings at this piece.

Especially interesting is Svetlana Alexievich's, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets.

Top 10 Books of 2016. https://t.co/9bGZqeQ0sG

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 25, 2016

How the Berlin Christmas Market Attack Changed Germany

At Der Spiegel, "Terror in Berlin: How the Attack Has Changed the Country":

In the hours of uncertainty following the attack on the Christmas market at Berlin's Breitscheidplatz square on the evening of Dec. 19, two methods of viewing the incident quickly became apparent. There was the reflexive, impetuous reaction and the reflective, circumspect approach.

The impetuous took to their computers almost before the truck driver had finished cutting his deadly swath through the Christmas market stalls. Regardless of what was really going on in Berlin, those occupying a certain niche on the web were certain: "Islam-terror" had reached Berlin and a "Merkel Mohammedan" had killed innocent people. Muslims, it was claimed, were dancing for joy in the streets of immigrant neighborhoods like Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg and Berlin-Neukölln. Dec. 19, 2016 was the "beginning of the end" of the Christian West, they said, symbolized by the Christmas tree that had been run over in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

In those minutes -- during which the impetuous transformed hunch into certainty and certainty into rage -- the circumspect were just beginning to comprehend what had just happened on Breitscheidplatz. They saw the dead and injured next to a truck, which had been turned into a murder weapon. They knew absolutely nothing for sure. They knew it would take several days for even the most urgent questions to be answered with certainty -- and weeks, if not months, to clear up the underlying questions. And there was time needed to mourn the dead.

"Pray?! Do Something!!" the impetuous tweeted. They aren't interested in facts. Emotions are enough.

Even before the attack, bridging the gap between the circumspect and the impetuous had become difficult. The sexual assaults committed by immigrants on New Year's Eve in Cologne, the attacks in Ansbach and Würzburg, the Islamist bomb-maker arrested in Chemnitz, and the rape-murder apparently committed by a refugee in Freiburg: These were the milestones of the divide. Now, everyone is certain who is to blame: the establishment political parties, the populists, the lying press, the scaremongers, the do-gooders and the right-wingers. The two sides of the divide no longer have much to say to each other.

The Berlin attack has now demonstrated just how little overlap there is between these two parallel worlds. When it became known, in the late evening of Dec. 19, that the police had arrested a suspect from Pakistan, the parallel worlds seemed to be reconciled for a moment. The impetuous had already known that only a Muslim refugee could be the killer. And now the circumspect had actually caught one. Finally, they expressed what had long been obvious to the other side: that we are in a "state of war" and that it is naïve to "always see only the good in people."

But then, during the course of the day on Tuesday, the authorities began to have doubts about their suspect, and in the afternoon they announced: "We have the wrong man." The impetuous were able to explain this away in seconds. The political-journalistic PC-cartel, they believed, simply wasn't willing to accept the truth.

According to one version that was bouncing around one corner of the Internet, some scapegoat would undoubtedly be found. A user on a right-wing website wrote: "There must be a radical right-winger somewhere that this can be pinned on." The fact that investigators quickly identified a man from Tunisia as the alleged attacker did not change the truth as perceived by the impetuous.

Such is reality in this not-particularly-festive Christmas season. In the conspiracy-theory-filled world occupied by one side of the gap, mistakes aren't mistakes but cynically calculated moves. Whereas attacks at other times and in other places -- New York, Paris, London -- brought people together, many people this time chose to view the Berlin attack from their own ideological trench...

Well, to reach for initial conclusions usually results in being upbraided by hoity-toity leftists mewling, "That's not who we are."

And then, it's always the "impetuous" ones who're proven correct.

No wonder the radical left is in retreat worldwide. Hopefully it's just the beginning of a decadal rout that marginalizes leftists for generations.

But keep reading.

Germany Reflects on Compassion in a Dangerous World

It's a tough call, but truly Germany's going to have to roll back some of its "welcoming" compassion.

Germans are so compassionate they're going to die for it.

At WSJ, "At Christmas, Germany Reflects on Compassion in a Dangerous World."

'Little Drummer Boy (Peace on Earth)'

Sweet Christmas music, via Blazing Cat Fur:

Kelly Brook 'Through the Keyhole' (BONUS CALENDAR PHOTOS)

At the Sun U.K., "KELLY Brook has admitted that she thinks she looks rough in the morning during an appearance on Through The Keyhole: The model, 37, is known for her gorgeous hourglass figure."

And at Egotastic!, "Kelly Brook Amazing 2017 Calendar."

She's still got the best body going. Hands down she's hot.

Merry Christmas!

My Calender is on Sale now!! @CalendarsUK Great Christmas Gift 😜🎅🏻🎄 pic.twitter.com/AOyq7TGOL0

— Kelly Brook (@IAMKELLYBROOK) December 16, 2016

Black Bear Boom in Three Rivers, California

Lots and lots of black bears are moseying into town, and some folks have used the occasion to ask whether to reintroduce grizzly bears to California.

I don't know if that's gonna work, although grizzlies are actually native to the Golden State. The state's "bear flag" features a California grizzly bear.

Interesting, in any case.

At LAT, "A black bear boom has a California town wondering how residents would get along with grizzlies."

Glenn Reynolds and Helen Smith (and Family) Wish You Merry Christmas!

At Instapundit, "MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE REYNOLDS-SMITH HOUSEHOLD!"

And see Glenn's very moving holiday essay, at USA Today, "Finding the good in my dad's final days."

Did Reince Priebus Just Compare Donald Trump to Jesus?

Professor Daniel Drezner about popped a vessel at this:

OMFG. https://t.co/XjJsaCc2o6 pic.twitter.com/Ng725lrY2m

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 25, 2016

Mollie Hemingway responds:

I get that not everybody is Christian but you should really know that Christians celebrate this good news at this time each and every year. https://t.co/CSsWMv4oI1

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) December 25, 2016

At the Bustle, "Did Reince Priebus Just Compare Donald Trump To Jesus? Probably Not, But It Sure Sounded Like It."

And at BuzzFeed. The "new king" is Jesus, not Donald Trump:

People are arguing about whether Republicans just compared Trump to Jesus https://t.co/cyknbSgPAo pic.twitter.com/Gq2M5nRDMY

— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) December 25, 2016

Baltimore Ravens QB Joe Flacco Bought Each of His Nine Offensive Lineman an Oculus Rift Virtual Reality System

That's a Merry Christmas!

At the Washington Post, "Some NFL players went all out with gifts for teammates."

Two-Hour Delivery with Amazon Prime

That's actually pretty impressive.

Normally I don't need my stuff shipped that fast, but if you're an Amazon Prime member, you can get your last-minute gift items delivered today.

Here's the Deal of the Day, Ninja Coffee Bar Brewer, Glass Carafe, Silver (Certified Refurbished).

I'll post some book links a little later.

I've got to take my son to work and head over to CostCo to buy food for our Christmas dinner, tri-rip roast and lobster (plus baked potato).

More later.

Obama, Trump, and the Turf War That Has Come to Define the Transition

It's been an unusual transition, at least for Donald Trump's tweeting, heh.

(But obviously much more than that. I don't ever recall an outgoing administration dissing the notion of concurrent "co-presidencies," but Ben Rhodes, Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor, did just that a few days ago.)

In any case, at the New York Times (via Memeorandum):

Obama and Trump have been polite. But they've become leaders of what amounts to dueling administrations. https://t.co/p7mniK63pU

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 24, 2016

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump and President Obama have been unfailingly polite toward each other since the election. But with Mr. Trump staking out starkly different positions from Mr. Obama on Israel and other sensitive issues, and the president acting aggressively to protect his legacy, the two have become leaders of what amounts to dueling administrations.

The split widened on Friday when the Obama administration abstained from a United Nations Security Council vote that condemned Israel for Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and allowed the resolution to pass. A day earlier, Mr. Trump had publicly demanded that Mr. Obama veto the measure, even intervening with Egypt at the request of Israel to pressure the administration to shelve the effort.

“As to the U.N.,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter after the vote, “things will be different after Jan. 20.”

It was the latest in a rapid-fire series of Twitter posts and public statements over the last week in which Mr. Trump has weighed in on Israel, terrorism and nuclear proliferation — contradicting Mr. Obama and flouting the notion that the country can have only one president at a time.

That longstanding principle has largely collapsed since the victory by Mr. Trump, who campaigned on a strategy of breaking all the rules and has continued to speak in unmodulated tones.

“In some ways, Trump is neutering the Obama administration,” said Douglas G. Brinkley, a professor of history and a presidential historian at Rice University in Houston. “They’ve avoided personally attacking each other, but behind the scenes, they’re working to undermine each other, and I don’t know how the American people benefit from that.”

For its part, the Obama administration on Tuesday announced a permanent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along wide areas of the Arctic and the Eastern Seaboard, invoking an obscure provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, to claim that Mr. Trump had no power to reverse it.

White House officials asserted a similar privilege in their decision not to veto the Security Council resolution. Israel’s aggressive construction of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, they said, puts at risk a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr. Trump’s opposition to the measure, and the likelihood that his administration will reverse the position, played no part in the decision, they said.

“There’s one president at a time,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser. “There’s a principle here that the world understands who is speaking for the United States until January 20th, and who is speaking for the United States after January 20th.”

Ben Rhodes? What an idiot.

I saw the guy on cable news and he looked like a dork.  Just having to declare there's "only one president at a time" illustrates just how weak the outgoing administration is.

DLTDHYOTWO.

Israel's 'Illegal Settlements' Aren't Actually Illegal

That's the thing about the radical left and foaming far-left anti-Semites: they spew lies which then become treated as fact.

See David M. Phillips, at Commentary, "The Illegal-Settlements Myth":

The conviction that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal is now so commonly accepted, it hardly seems as though the matter is even open for discussion. But it is. Decades of argument about the issue have obscured the complex nature of the specific legal question about which a supposedly overwhelming verdict of guilty has been rendered against settlement policy. There can be no doubt that this avalanche of negative opinion has been deeply influenced by the settlements’ unpopularity around the world and even within Israel itself. Yet, while one may debate the wisdom of Israeli settlements, the idea that they are imprudent is quite different from branding them as illegal. Indeed, the analysis underlying the conclusion that the settlements violate international law depends entirely on an acceptance of the Palestinian narrative that the West Bank is “Arab” land. Followed to its logical conclusion—as some have done—this narrative precludes the legitimacy of Israel itself.

These arguments date back to the aftermath of the Six-Day War. When Israel went into battle in June 1967, its objective was clear: to remove the Arab military threat to its existence. Following its victory, the Jewish state faced a new challenge: what to do with the territorial fruits of that triumph. While many Israelis assumed that the overwhelming nature of their victory would shock the Arab world into coming to terms with their legitimacy and making peace, they would soon be disabused of this belief. At the end of August 1967, the heads of eight countries, including Egypt, Syria, and Jordan (all of which lost land as the result of their failed policy of confrontation with Israel), met at a summit in Khartoum, Sudan, and agreed to the three principles that were to guide the Arab world’s postwar stands: no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel. Though many Israelis hoped to trade most if not all the conquered lands for peace, they would have no takers. This set the stage for decades of their nation’s control of these territories....

The question of the legal status of the West Bank, as well as Jerusalem, is not so easily resolved. To understand why this is the case, we must first revisit the history of the region in the 20th century.

Though routinely referred to nowadays as “Palestinian” land, at no point in history has Jerusalem or the West Bank been under Palestinian Arab sovereignty in any sense of the term. For several hundred years leading up to World War I, all of Israel, the Kingdom of Jordan, and the putative state of Palestine were merely provinces of the Ottoman Empire. After British-led Allied troops routed the Turks from the country in 1917-18, the League of Nations blessed Britain’s occupation with a document that gave the British conditional control granted under a mandate. It empowered Britain to facilitate the creation of a “Jewish National Home” while respecting the rights of the native Arab population. British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill later partitioned the mandate in 1922 and gave the East Bank of the Jordan to his country’s Hashemite Arab allies, who created the Kingdom of Jordan there under British tutelage.

Following World War II, the League of Nations’ successor, the United Nations, voted in November 1947 to partition the remaining portion of the land into Arab and Jewish states. While the Jews accepted partition, the Arabs did not, and after the British decamped in May 1948, Jordan joined with four other Arab countries to invade the fledgling Jewish state on the first day of its existence. Though Israel survived the onslaught, the fighting left the Jordanians in control of what would come to be known as the West Bank as well as approximately half of Jerusalem, including the Old City. Those Jewish communities in the West Bank that had existed prior to the Arab invasion were demolished, as was the Jewish quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

After the cease-fire that ended Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, Jordan annexed both the West Bank and East Jerusalem. But, as was the case when Israel annexed those same parts of the ancient city that it would win back 19 years later, the world largely ignored this attempt to legitimize Jordan’s presence. Only Jordan’s allies Britain and Pakistan recognized its claims of sovereignty. After King Hussein’s disastrous decision to ally himself with Egypt’s Nasser during the prelude to June 1967, Jordan was evicted from the lands it had won in 1948.

This left open the question of the sovereign authority over the West Bank...

Keep reading.

And be sure to watch that Danny Ayalon video above. It's so crystal clear it's ridiculous.

PREVIOUSLY: "Obama's 'Dangerous Parting Shot' on Israel."

Obama Administration Accused of 'Stabbing Israel in the Back'

Following-up, "Obama's 'Dangerous Parting Shot' on Israel."

More backlash against the evil Obama regime, at Free Beacon, "Obama Joins the Jackals."

Obama's 'Dangerous Parting Shot' on Israel

Following-up from yesterday, "Obama Administration Abstains as U.N. Votes to Condemn Israel Over Settlements (VIDEO)."

The left-wing Washington Post takes the hateful, anti-Israel Obama regime to task, "The Obama administration fires a dangerous parting shot":

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S decision to abstain on a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements reverses decades of practice by both Democratic and Republican presidents. The United States vetoed past resolutions on the grounds that they unreasonably singled out Jewish communities in occupied territories as an obstacle to Middle East peace, and that U.N. action was more likely to impede than advance negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

The measure, approved 14 to 0 by the Security Council Friday, is subject to the same criticism: It will encourage Palestinians to pursue more international sanctions against Israel rather than seriously consider the concessions necessary for statehood, and it will give a boost to the international boycott and divestment movement against the Jewish state, which has become a rallying cause for anti-Zionists. At the same time, it will almost certainly not stop Israeli construction in the West Bank, much less in East Jerusalem, where Jewish housing was also deemed by the resolution to be “a flagrant violation under international law.”

By abstaining, the administration did not explicitly support that position, which has not been U.S. policy since the Carter administration. In explaining the vote, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power pointed out that the council was sanctioning Israel even while failing to take action to stop a potential genocide in South Sudan or the slaughter in Aleppo, Syria. Yet in failing to veto the measure, the Obama administration set itself apart both from previous administrations and from the incoming presidency of Donald Trump, who spoke out strongly against the resolution...

The Obama's regime's just has hypocritical --- and just as evil --- as the United Nations.

But keep reading.

Tucker Carlson Eviscerates Far-Left Nutjob Lauren Duca (VIDEO)

Mediate has the headline, via Memeorandum, "Teen Vogue Writer Battles Tucker Carlson: 'You're Actually Being a Partisan Hack'."

And at Hot Air, "“You should stick to the thigh-high boots”: Tucker Carlson vs. Teen Vogue writer":

On this slow pre-holiday news day, kindly enjoy the celebrated cable-news food fight du jour. This interview was booked, I assume, in the belief that it’d be what I’ll call a “bop-bag segment,” in which the host brings on a guest who’s not as practiced as he is at political debate, especially on television, and ends up knocking him/her down repeatedly for the entertainment of the hometown fans. Duca came to play, though. I think Dave Weigel’s basically right that Carlson started goofing on “Teen Vogue” halfway through only because she wasn’t as much of a pushover in the first half as the audience might have liked. (The audio cuts out on Duca’s parting shot, in which she calls him a “sexist pig” for his crack about her sticking to writing about boots.) The give and take makes for good TV; Fox News should book her more often. If CNN can have a stable of dedicated spinners for Trump like Kayleigh McEnany and Jeffrey Lord, surely Fox can spare 10 minutes a day for an anti-Trumper like Duca to have slapfights with Eric Bolling and Sean Hannity...

Click through for the exit question.

Lauren Duca's a nutjob (and an airhead). Tucker takes her to task for tweeting "Eat Shit, @realDonadTrump" (now deleted) and Duca accuses him of being childish, pfft. (She also calls him a "sexist pig," but the audio cuts out at the end.)

Things Will Be Different at the United Nations

Following-up, "Obama Administration Abstains as U.N. Votes to Condemn Israel Over Settlements (VIDEO)."

Less than a month from now.

Things will be different.

As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2016

Hailey Baldwin LOVE Advent 2016 (VIDEO)

I fell behind on my LOVE posting last night.

Here's Hailey Baldwin to catch up:

One-Day Shipping Available Today

I don't know if anyone's that hard up for last minute gifts, but Amazon's got one-day shipping available.

And some suggestions...

Dore Gold, Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos, and The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City.

Caroline Glick, The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East.

Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, O Jerusalem!

Joshua Muravchik, Making David into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel.

Yossi Klein Halevi, Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation.

Martin Gilbert, Israel: A History.

Jed Babbin and Herbert London, The BDS War Against Israel: The Orwellian Campaign to Destroy Israel Through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.

Roger Hardy, The Poisoned Well: Empire and Its Legacy in the Middle East.

Pat Condell: The United Nations is an Embarrassing Disgrace and Insult to Humanity (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Obama Administration Abstains as U.N. Votes to Condemn Israel Over Settlements (VIDEO)."

This video's four years old.

Mr. Pat appears a little leaner around the jowls, but his commentary's as biting as ever.

Obama Administration Abstains as U.N. Votes to Condemn Israel Over Settlements (VIDEO)

President Obama and his administration are working feverishly to sow as much evil as they possibly can before leaving office next month. The only consolation --- and it's a big one, thank God --- is that the incoming Trump regime will be like firecrackers in reversing every piece of blasted sod initiatives from this morally regressive refuse-stain of a presidency.

And if I haven't made myself clear enough, well, just get steamed a little yourself at the black-bark piece of human refuse Samantha Power's comments during her speech to the Security Council today. Behold human evil as it erupts in all its wicked hatred and bile:



Here's the story, at WSJ, "U.N. Censures Israeli Settlement Expansion as U.S. Declines to Block."

Benjamin Netanyahu's Christmas Message (VIDEO)

I love Benjamin Netanyahu.

His messages always make me feel so good and proud, and so welcomed in Israel.

I'm planning at trip to Israel, in fact. I'm not sure when. I have two trips on the agenda. I don't know if I can make it one big trip or not. I want to go to France, to Normandy, and I want to visit Auschwitz, in Poland. Then I want to go to Israel. That might be two trips, but we'll see. I'm not sure if my wife wants to go. She's not comfortable traveling outside of the U.S., and I don't blame her. But I'm not worried. Maybe this summer I'll be able to do some traveling. The time is right, financially as well as family-wise. I want my sons to go, especially my young son, who hasn't traveled a lot yet.

In any case, enjoy the prime minister's message, via the Conservative Treehouse:

'Listen children all is not lost, all is not lost. Oh no, no...'

CNN's going to run the Chicago documentary on January 1st. I keep seeing the ads for it, "CHICAGO’S AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY NOW MORE THAN EVER: THE HISTORY OF CHICAGO PREMIERES ON CNN ON JANUARY 1."

As noted at Wikipedia:

Second only to The Beach Boys in Billboard singles and albums chart success among American bands, Chicago is one of the longest-running and most successful rock groups, and one of the world's best-selling groups of all time, having sold more than 100 million records.

According to Billboard, Chicago was the leading US singles charting group during the 1970s. They have sold over 40 million units in the US, with 23 gold, 18 platinum, and 8 multi-platinum albums. Over the course of their career they have had five number-one albums and 21 top-ten singles. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 8, 2016 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York...

"Saturday in the Park" is one of my favorite all-time songs. I don't listen to it enough, come to think of it.

When Native Americans Were Arms Dealers — And Powerful, Formidable Warriors

I posted a bunch of links about the American West and Native Americans last night: "Two-Day Free Shipping Before Christmas."

I didn't know of this book, however, from David Silverman, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America.

It's reviewed at the Los Angeles Times, "When Native Americans were arms dealers: A history revealed in 'Thundersticks'":

In the years after the American Revolution, Seminole Indians built an arsenal of weapons acquired from Cuban and British traders that allowed them to defend their lands as an alternate and well-armed Underground Railroad in what was then Spanish-controlled Florida. To the horror of Deep South elites, the Seminoles shielded and supplied guns to Panhandle communities of Black Seminoles, small villages peopled by plantation runaways, intermarried tribal members and freed slaves of the tribe themselves.

“Together they resolved to keep white Americans and their slave catchers out of Seminole territory,” historian David Silverman writes in “Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America.” “An alliance of militant Indians and black maroons supported by European resources was the materialization of a nightmare that had haunted white southerners ever since the seventeenth century.” ...

For the most part, Silverman avoids anthropological explanations for Native American tribes’ fascination with guns — save for the book’s title, which comes from a literal translation of the Narragansett word for gun, pésckunk. To explain the indigenous arms race that once gripped the continent, Silverman uses military history and political economy to chip away at Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel” narrative, in which Europeans with superior weapons technology marched triumphantly through the Americas.

Instead, Silverman uncovers a history in which Indians quickly cornered a gun market, shocking European and American militaries with the breadth and superiority of their arms, most of them made in Britain or France. This indigenous arsenal explains why the Seminoles were able to repel the U.S. Army over three wars, spanning 1816 to 1858. Unable to best the tribe on the battlefield, the American military resorted to scorched-earth techniques — burning Seminole villages to the ground, destroying cattle herds — to starve the Seminoles and drastically reduce their population.

In contrast to a military that relied on the bureaucracy of purchase orders and shipping caravans to distribute its arms, the Seminoles’ decentralized backwoods armory lay scattered across the humid peninsula in dry, bark-lined underground caches. The tribe made  dugout canoe runs to Cuba to restock guns while raiding Florida sugar plantations for their lead-lined vats, which were melted down for ammunition. As the wars raged on, tribal leaders set up pseudo peace talks with military officials as a ruse to have their younger warriors sneak off into the bushes to buy guns from the opportunistic traders who followed U.S. military campaigns. Most notorious, tribal warriors seized muskets from the battlefield dead.

Among North American tribes of the colonial period, the Seminoles were far from alone in one-upping colonial powers to master a multinational supply network of arms. Silverman calls this phenomenon “a gun frontier,” a nimble, intertribal network of trade that created an arms race on the American continent, often decades before the arrival of sizeable numbers  of Euro-American settlers...

As you'll notice, the Seminoles don't appear to be the weakling victims of which the left always portrays American Indians. The tribe held off and defeated the U.S. army for half a century. While not all tribes had the capabilities and organization, Silverman's not the only one to document the fearsome fighting power of Native Americans. I linked yesterday S.C. Gwynne's, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, which also offers a powerful counter-narrative placing Native Americans at the center of hegemony for vast sections of the American frontier. It's important to keep this narrative in mind when you read stories of the "genocide" against American Indians, which is the left's dominant victim's narrative (and which is a lie).

2-Year-Old Boy Found Standing in the Rain Wearing Only a Soiled Diaper, Surrounded by a Pack of Dogs

Actually, the pack of dogs was "protective" of the child.

A policeman found the boy and "scooped" him up, then drove around the neighborhood to find his house with the front door wide open and the dogs in the living room.

What a sordid, even horrific, story.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Toddler in soiled diaper found surrounded by pack of dogs in Victorville park."

I've Finished Shelby Steele's, Shame

A great book and a quick read.

And most heartily recommended, Shelby Steele, Shame: How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country.

In any event, I started Steven E. Schier and Todd E. Eberly yesterday, Polarized: The Rise of Ideology in American Politics. It's great. Also a small volume, I expect to read it in just a couple of days.

That's not the case with Robert J. Gordon's, The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War. It's a great book but a hefty tome! I'm currently on Chapter 7: "Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Illness and Early Death."

Finally, I still have a ways to go on Exodus. I need to finish that up so I can start another novel. I read more non-fiction nowadays, but I still love a good novel.

I'll have more book blogging later today.

Sasha Abramsky, The American Way of Poverty

I'm just now seeing this.

I used to study U.S. anti-poverty policy in great detail. With the appointment Dr. Ben Carson as H.U.D. Secretary, perhaps we'll have a real discussion of poverty in America.

And of course, many in the white working class suffer from the same pathologies as the black underclass --- a point J.D. Vance raises in his book, Hillbilly Elegy --- so it's all the more vital from a public policy perspective.

In any case, see Sasha Abramsky, The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives.

Lauren Southern: Top 2016 Election Conspiracies (VIDEO)

Be sure to stay with this to the end. I'm not sure how Ms. Lauren can keep a straight face, but it's pretty funny.

And ICYMI, her new book, Barbarians: How The Baby Boomers, Immigration, and Islam Screwed my Generation.

Pipeline to America: Africans, Asians, Haitians — Migrants from Across the Globe Risk Everything to Cross Into the U.S.

Well, the more things develop, the more Donald Trump is proven correct.

Check out this sensational story, from the front page at today's Los Angeles Times, "Africans, Asians, Haitians: The sharp rise in non-Latin American migrants trying to cross into the U.S. from Mexico":

Haitians, Africans, Asians: Mexico’s border cities are getting overwhelmed with migrants headed to America https://t.co/eK7BYGLa85 pic.twitter.com/cdVZ3c3GLU

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 22, 2016

One morning in January, five men from Nepal showed up at the Casa del Migrante in Tijuana, looking for a bed for the night.

That’s odd, the shelter’s director, Father Patrick Murphy, remembers thinking.

This border city has been a gateway to generations of migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Mexico and Central America, people dreaming of a better life in the United States.

But Nepal was 8,000 miles away. What were they doing here?

Within months, Tijuana would be teeming with migrants from across the globe — from Haiti, India, Bangladesh and various parts of Africa — all hoping to reach the U.S.

In a surge Mexican officials are calling unprecedented, some 15,000 migrants from outside Latin America passed through Baja California this year — nearly five times the number seen in 2015.

More than a third of the detainees being held in California immigration holding centers in September were from outside Latin America, U.S. officials say.

As they traverse a circuitous and dangerous path up the spine of South America, Central America and Mexico, they have strained resources along the route and presented new challenges for securing America’s southern border.

And here's a personal story:

Emmanuel Ngunyi arrived in Tijuana on a flight from Mexico City, where he had spent a few days recovering from a tortuous journey that began with a flight from Cameroon to Ecuador and continued overland through half a dozen countries.

A member of Cameroon’s English-speaking minority, the 25-year-old had been jailed twice for supporting a banned secessionist movement. The second time was the worst, he said. His jailers tied him from a ceiling and raped him with a candle.

If he could make it to the U.S., he was convinced, “My life will be secure.”

Some countries were easy to get through, even without a visa. Officials were issuing permits to transiting migrants giving them a few days to cross their territory. But other places — Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama — had closed their borders to the migrants. He had to enlist the help of smugglers to cross vast stretches of jungle, swampland and mountains on foot.

In all, it took Ngunyi two months to reach Mexico and cost him nearly $10,000. It was mid-May when he landed in Tijuana, and the early morning chill made him shiver.

He tried to hire a taxi from the airport to the border, but got into an argument with the driver, who he said grabbed his phone and pushed him out of the car. So he decided to walk the last few miles.

There was a long line of people waiting to use the pedestrian crossing at San Ysidro. He walked to the front and told the first police officer he saw: “I want to request asylum in the United States.”

“Do you see people like you here?” the officer barked at him. He was sent to the back of the line.

When he made it to the front, he was escorted into the port of entry to wait for an interview with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The wait lasted most of the day, and he fell asleep on the tile floor.

At last, it was his turn to be questioned. An official asked his name, what country he came from, his address.

Then another official burst into the room. “No, no, no, we don’t have space for them,” he recalled her saying. “Back to Mexico. All of them back to Mexico.”

It was past midnight when Ngunyi found himself once again in Tijuana, the gate to America swinging shut behind him...

Interesting that these migrants are coming here. You know, they could always emigrate to Angela Merkel's Germany, before the Germans pull the welcome mat.

And stories like this are only going to bolster the GOP's case for securing the border. Donald Trump's got the pulse of the nation in this issue. It's why he's taking office on January 20th.

Still more.

Trump Should Quickly Rescind Obama's Drilling Ban

Well, that goes without saying.

But see Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "FASTER, PLEASE. Andrew McCarthy: Trump Should Quickly Rescind Obama’s Drilling Ban."

Background here, "Obama Bans Drilling in Parts of the Atlantic and the Arctic."

You know O's last regulatory rules are mostly out of spite. He's pissing in the ashes of his destruction.

Hannah Ferguson Reveals All During Her Body Painting Shoot (VIDEO)

This is too hot to embed!

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, "Hannah Ferguson Bears All In Body Paint Shoot."

Two-Day Free Shipping Before Christmas

If you're doing last-minute shopping at Amazon, today's your last chance for free two-day shipping.

So, what are you waiting for? Get cracking amigos!

Some suggestions for under the tree...

See Stephen Ambrose, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West.

William C. Davis, The American Frontier: Pioneers, Settlers, and Cowboys 1800–1899.

Robert Bunting, The Pacific Raincoast: Environment and Culture of an American Eden.

Elliott West, The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story.

Nathaniel Philbrick, The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.

Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America.

Bob Drury, The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend.

Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West.

Peter Cozzens, The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West.

Jim Downing, The Other Side of Infamy [BUMPED

Hey, select two-day shipping and have these wonderful books delivered before Christmas.

At Amazon, Jim Downing, The Other Side of Infamy: My Journey through Pearl Harbor and the World of War.

Also, Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice.

And Donald Stratton, All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor.

Lauren Southern, Barbarians

Well, I love her videos. I expect her book will be good too. Indeed, she's getting excellent reviews at Amazon.

See Lauren Southern, Barbarians: How The Baby Boomers, Immigration, and Islam Screwed my Generation.

Tomi Lahren: Hey MTV Losers, Donald Trump's a White Male, Get Over It

Here's the irrepressible Tomi Lahren, who's got clips from the childish MTV '2017 Resolutions for White Guys' video.

Watch, "Tomi Lahren - Resolutions from a White Female to MTV - Final Thoughts With Tomi Lahren."

Amazon: A Disrupter of All Things

From Barry Ritholtz, at Bloomberg, "Woe to Those Disrupted by Amazon":

The more I think about what Amazon actually is, the closer I come to this: It’s a self-funding incubator that ruthlessly kills the ventures that don’t work (remember the Fire mobile phone?), while pouring cash into the ones that hold promise. It’s a marketplace for new and used products, a place to hire people for services, a content company, a software maker, a gadget business, a cloud company and so on. Oh, and it’s an online retailer that just happens to be the world’s sixth-biggest company by market value -- about $365 billion.

I still am not sure exactly what Amazon’s core business is or what it will end up being. I just hope it never sees an opportunity in any business I have a vested interest in.

You have to read the whole thing to fully understand the lesson.

I love Amazon though. I'm not worried about it crushing any of my own business ventures, heh.