Holiday Hangin' — Beers, Blogs, Books, Babes: What More Could a Guy Want?

Well, Milla Jovovich couldn't make it in person. Otherwise, I'm stylin'.

'Recovery Summer is a Democratic Bummer'

That has one hella ring to it.

At Yid With Lid, "CNN, Rasmussen and Gallup Agree, Recovery Summer is a Democratic Party BUMMER."

Why Won't Barbara Boxer Debate Carly Fiorina?

Because she'll get her butt kicked.

Readers will recall that I covered the GOP primary debate in the spring. Carly Fiorina is hot on the issues and totally polished. She doesn't get flustered at all. Barbara Boxer agreed to one debate previously, and according to George Skelton, she came up short and she's balking at another round. See, "Fiorina Comes Out Ahead on TV":

Boxer, bidding for a fourth term, has never been confronted by an opponent quite like Fiorina. The only one who could match Fiorina's communication skills was conservative TV commentator Bruce Herschensohn in Boxer's first Senate election in 1992.

But that was "the year of the woman," an aggressive organizing effort by Democrats and a ticket led by Bill Clinton. This year, two women are running, Democrats seem unorganized, and Jerry Brown is no Clinton. Voters are cranky and it's the year of the non-incumbent.

This probably will be Boxer's toughest race ever. Currently it's considered a tossup despite the state's Democratic tilt.

Sexiest Bikini Moments Caught On Screen

Celebrating the last holiday weekend of summer. More viddies at the link (c/o Linkiest):

The Myth of the Struggling Antiwar Movement

The old-fashioned understanding of the "antiwar" movement hardly explains the left's anti-everything protest agenda nowadays. But wouldn't you know it, the folks at Politico played right into the sweaty palms of America's domestic enemies with its whitewash of a report: "Anti-war groups battle for survival" (at Memeorandum). As longtime readers of this blog will recall, the hardline anti-American cadres are on the front lines of virtually every leftist protest rally in recent years. From the Stalinist backlash against Prop 8 supporters in 2008, to the Phoenix anti-SB 1070 march last May, the ANSWER Coalition and an assorted bunch of ragtag anarchists, reconquistas, 9/11 truthers, and gay rights ayatollahs have been at the forefront of the barricades. And of course we'll continue to have antiwar protests on every anniversary of our continued deployments, in March and October, for example, to mark the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I've covered some of the recent protests in Los Angeles, and it's always the same: An antiwar industry with nothing new to say. For background, be sure to read "The Politics of Peace: What's Behind the Anti-War Movement?" And especially this:

The irony of the modern “peace” movement is that it has very little to do with peace — either as a moral concept or as a political ideal. Peace is a tactical ideal for movement organizers: it serves as political leverage against U.S. policymakers, and it is an ideological response to the perceived failures of American society. The leaders of anti-war groups are modern-day Leninists. As Lenin used Russian war-weariness in 1917 to overthrow the Czar, so American street revolutionaries use reactions to the war on Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein as a way to foment radical political change at home ... Their aim is a “struggle” against “oppression” and “imperialism,” code words in the lexicon of revolutionary socialism. Not In Our Name (NION), a satellite of the Revolutionary Communist Party, decries the War on Terror as a Bush Administration ploy: “We will not stop until all of us are free from your bloodthirsty domination.”

The one thing that's correct at Politico is that the end of the "Bush regime" brought a fundamental change to the left. Yes, true revolutionaries don't care if Obama's in power. But folks like Code Pink are career oppotuntists. They've been milking their ties to the Democratic Party to weaken America from within. Funneling money to al Qaeda in Iraq and serving as the Obama administration's liaison to the Taliban in Afghanistan are perfect examples. Don't buy this crap about a "stuggling" antiwar movement for a minute. There'll always be some "racist hegemonic imperialist Zionist project" somewhere to mobilize against. There's never a dull moment.

Sixteen Spitfires at Duxford Battle of Britain Airshow

The sound of victory, via Theo Spark:

The Ground Zero Mosque — What Americans Could Learn from Israel

From Daniel Gordis:

In its basic form, the Ground Zero mosque debate boils down to a conflict between two competing values – American freedom of religion versus the sensitivities of the families of the victims of 9/11.

The freedom-of-religion argument suggests that if Jews sought to build a synagogue at Ground Zero (or anywhere else, for that matter), they would be within their rights. That’s the American way. The opposing view suggests that while not every Catholic was guilty in the Holocaust, and not every Muslim perpetrated the crimes of 9/11, sensitivities still matter. Pope John Paul II had the decency to force the Carmelite nuns out of Auschwitz, and Muslim leaders, too, ought to relocate their project.

Similarly, the mutual accusations are parallel: If you are opposed to the mosque, you are an Islamophobic racist. And if you’re in favor of it, you’re simply insensitive to the pain of those who lost loved ones in the attack.

But we Israelis have learned from our experience that matters are more complicated. One need not be racist or Islamophobic to be concerned about the mosque. For life in our region has taught us that the first necessary step to defending yourself is acknowledging that someone else is out to destroy you.

In the suburban, well-educated, politically and Jewishly liberal America in which I grew up, we didn’t use the label “enemy.” “Enemy” was a dirty word, because it implied the immutability of conflict.

Yes, there were people who fought us, but only because we hadn’t yet arrived at a fair resolution of our conflict. We needed to understand them, so we could then resolve the conflicts that divided us.

I still recall being jarred, when we made aliya, by the matter-of-factness with which Israelis use the word “enemy.” But it wasn’t a judgment or an accusation. It was simply a fact: There are people out to destroy our state, who seek to kill us and our children. And as the intifada later amply demonstrated, they did not yearn for our understanding or our friendship. They wanted our demise.

I have had leftists, here at home in the U.S., tell me that they "wanted our demise." And that's to say nothing of their deeds. More at the link, in any case.

'Operation New Dawn'

From Winston, at The Spirit of Man:

President George W. Bush must be smiling today. He must be proud too.

It is the eve of "Operation New Dawn" in Iraq. The day that the Iraqi people will finally become somewhat independent of US combat forces and will fully gain the control of their country. Just like S. Korea, Germany, Italy and Japan where US presence has secured safety and freedom, a US presence in Iraq will also be necessary for some time to come. Though the former US ambassador 'Ryan Crocker' also believes Iraq still needs the America's enduring support and engagement. Of course, the Iranian regime will always be trying to duplicate its Lebanon style plots in Iraq dividing the country. Therefore that's just one solid reason to keep the US military there for now. But the point of this entry today is not about the strategic weight of today's developments. It is just about emotions ....

Here I'd like to thank the former President George W. Bush for his stubborn and courageous stand in Iraq during all those terrible days of carnage and bloodshed. He stood his grounds and insisted on winning it. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for delivering what he'd promised earlier. This victory is his but on top of that, the victory in Iraq belongs to the people of Iraq and in particular to the innocent children of that country. The Iraqi kids can now grow up without fearing a compulsory service in the sadistic Saddam's army. They can pursue their dreams like others thanks to the effort and sacrifices of the American military. Yes, yes the post-war strategy went bad for a while but freedom has never been free. Blame the Iranian Mullahs, Syrians and Saudi terrorists for the bloodshed in Iraq. The Iraqi people, Kurds and Arabs alike can now raise their children in a country where their voices will finally be heard and where they will have a chance at electing their leaders, however imperfect that might be compared to our standards in the west. The future of Iraq is bright. That is for certain.

And let's thank U.S. forces while we're at it.

HAT TIP: GSGF.

God and Gettysburg

From Professor Robert George, at First Things:

The Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and the Constitution of the United States of America—those were the three texts in the blue pamphlet I found on the table in front of me as I took my seat at a conference at Princeton.

On the cover was the logo of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, an influential organization whose boardmembers include former New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse, controversial Obama judicial nominee Goodwin Liu, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, former solicitors general Drew Days and Walter Dellinger, and former attorney general Janet Reno. The new Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan was a speaker at the society’s annual conventions in 2005, 2007, and 2008. And inside the pamphlet was a page saying, “The printing of this copy of the U.S. Constitution and of the nation’s two other founding texts, the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address, was made possible through the generosity of Laurence and Carolyn Tribe.”

How nice, I thought. Here is a convenient, pocket-sized version of our fundamental documents, including Lincoln’s great oration at Gettysburg on republican government. Although some might question the idea that a speech given more than eighty years after the Declaration qualifies as a founding text, its inclusion seemed to me entirely appropriate. By preserving the Union, albeit at a nearly incalculable cost in lives and suffering, Lincoln completed, in a sense, the American founding. Victory at Gettysburg really did ensure that government “by the people” and “for the people”—republican government—would not “perish from the earth.”

I recalled that in sixth grade I was required to memorize the address, and as I held the American Constitution Society’s pamphlet in my hands, I wondered whether I could still recite it from memory. So I began, silently reciting: “Four score and seven years ago . . . ,” until I reached “the world will little note nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.” Then I drew a blank. So I opened the pamphlet and read the final paragraph:

It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Deeply moving—but, I thought, something isn’t right. Did you notice what had been omitted? What’s missing is Lincoln’s description of the United States as a nation under God. What Lincoln actually said at Gettysburg was: “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” The American Constitution Society had omitted Lincoln’s reference to the United States as a nation under God from the address he gave at the dedication of the burial ground at Gettysburg.

At the time, staring at the text, I wondered whether it was an innocent, inadvertent error—a typo, perhaps. It seemed more likely, though, that here is the apex of the secularist ideology that has attained a status not unlike that of religious orthodoxy among liberal legal scholars and political activists. Nothing is sacred, as it were—not even the facts of American history, not even the words spoken by Abraham Lincoln at the most solemn ceremony of our nation’s history.

More at the link.

And more history that we don't get from the purveyors of contemporary culture and values.

'Muslim Black Slavery - Islam Slave History of Black Africa'

This video was censored on YouTube, apparently under pressure from those who can't handle the truth, dontcha know. Via Baldilocks:

'They've Got Decap on Speed-Dial Down There'

Man, I missed this last month, but Dennis Miller really unloads with a politically incorrect power-punch here on The Factor. Via Blazing Cat Fur:

Who Is Behind the Islamic School Being Planned For West Edmonton?

Blazing Cat Fur's been looking into the Muslim Brotherhood's initiative to open an Islamic school in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It turns out that the leadership of Muslim Association of Canada's Edmonton chapter is preparing lawsuits against "a handful of 'people exhibiting Islamophobia'." And there's more at Point de Bascule, "Who Is Behind the Islamic School Being Planned For West Edmonton?":

Many citizens living in the Lessard district of West Edmonton have expressed their concerns regarding the opening of an Islamic school in their community by the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna. Itsmotto is: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our constitution. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope".

Shortly after some citizens expressed concerns in the West End News about the background of the promoters of this K-9 school, CTV and the Edmonton Sun reported that the Edmonton chapter of the MAC threatened the local paper with a civil suit. Instead of trying to defuse the concerns of the citizens by explaining how their goals and objectives were compatible with individual freedom, the MAC's leaders in Edmonton are trying to silence their critics.

Point de Bascule (Tipping Point) has been set up to expose the subtle ways used by Islamists to promote their agenda. The text that follows focuses on identifying the objectives pursued by the Muslim Brotherhood and it provides many links towards various statements made by its leaders in the past. Another text will follow in the coming days that will deal more specifically with the tactic of legal warfare frequently used by the Islamists to prevent any discussion about their agenda.

The concerns expressed by the citizens of Lessard are not only justified, they should be taken into consideration by the authorities. Up to now, the government has been silent on the issue. The citizens have no other choice but to challenge the Islamists willing to abuse the legal system in order to shut down responsible inquiry.

That sounds familiar.

Read all about it here.

Natalie Portman Rule 5

A little late getting to this, but American Perspective put up a tribute to Natalie Portman, so why not? The phenomenal club scene in "Closer" is mindblowing:

New York Times Slams Mosque Opponents in Report on 'Tangible Progress at World Trade Center'

It's obviously something worth cheering enthusiastically. After years of delays and political infighting, dramatic progress is being reached on construction and rebuilding at the site of the World Trade Center. I can only imagine how New Yorkers must feel, but as an American who's paid close attention to the city's post-9/11 developments, it makes me happy to see great strides in restoring the WTC complex — and I'm especially excited that the National September 11 Memorial & Museum is expected to be completed in time for the 10th anniversary of the attacks. I'm less pleased that the New York Times decided to use its major story in today's edition to hammer critics of the proposed Victory Mosque at Ground Zero. Indeed, the Times basically argues that it's time to bury the hallowed terminology of "Ground Zero" altogether. I guess that's just so much Bush-era jingoism in the new age of fealty to Islamist jihad. See, "World Trade Center Complex Is Rising Rapidly" (with bold italics added):

THIS article about the new World Trade Center is already out of date.

The pace of construction is so swift that any status report these days gets overtaken rapidly by the arrival of new beams and columns, rebar and concrete, pipes and conduit ....

Two years ago, it was difficult to imagine how the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site of the trade center and is building most of it, could ever finish the eight-acre memorial in time for the 10th anniversary of the attack, on Sept. 11, 2011. Today, it is difficult to imagine what would stop them (though, given the site’s tortured history, the possibility shouldn’t be completely dismissed).

The great square voids in the plaza marking where the twin towers stood are fully formed and almost entirely clad in charcoal-gray granite. Enormous pumps are standing by to send thousands of gallons of water cascading into the voids, creating what memorial officials say will be the largest human-engineered waterfalls in the United States. A metal fabricator in New Jersey is incising bronze panels with the names of all 2,982 victims of 9/11 and of the trade center bombing in 1993. And last weekend, 16 swamp white oaks began to take root on the plaza. Four hundred more will follow.

But in the public’s mind, it is still “ground zero” — as in, “When are they ever going to build something at ground zero?” Or as in, “ground zero mosque,” the shorthand reference for the Islamic community center planned two blocks to the north. While much of the nation has been debating who should be allowed to build what on that site, a former Burlington Coat Factory store, little attention has been paid to the fact that things really are being built on the spot where something actually happened.

A recent editorial cartoon in The San Diego Union-Tribune depicted the Islamic center as a giant salt shaker on the “wound” of ground zero, drawn as an empty expanse of earth. Apart from the issue of the Islamic center, the cartoon stoked frustration among those working at the site. Just at the moment they have something to show for nine years’ effort — 300,000 square feet of underground space, the shell of New York’s third-largest train station and two skyscrapers on the rise — the image has been resurrected of a barren, silent pit.

There was some truth to that image as recently as 2008. The trade center site was a dust bowl in summer and mud pit in winter. The only visible sign of progress was the silvery 7 World Trade Center tower across Vesey Street ...

No doubt we can all applaud the progress and development at the WTC complex. But knowing how the editors thought it appropriate --- just a couple of days ago --- to dismiss the large majority of New Yorkers who oppose the mosque as intolerant ("playing to people’s worst instincts"), it's no surprise now to see that slams on opponents have made it into the front-matter copy.

Curiously, ABC News didn't seem to have druthers on describing the location as "Ground Zero" as recently as last June. That's when the NYC Medical Examiner released a report on the remains of 72 human body fragments recovered from recent excavations and the subsequent sifting operations at Fresh Kill Landfills in Staten Island. See, "More 9/11 Human Remains Found At Ground Zero: Search Yields 72 More Fragments; Remains Of About 1,000 World Trade Center Victims Are Stil Unidentified." This reminds me of the left's constant harping about how Cordoba was "blocks" away, i.e., it's "not even at Ground Zero." The logical follow-up was to ask how far away would the mosque have to be for folks to accept it? It's the same thing here: How much time has to pass before we can stop calling it "hallowed ground"? The New York Times has already decided. Unless you've got some "barren, silent pit" you just can't continue to revere the area as a one-time war zone. You just can't consecrate it emotionally as a final resting place for grief.

What's so especially troubling to me is that the Old Gray Lady is supposed to be our "unofficial newspaper of record." The editors clearly have a different historical record in mind than the great majority of Americans holding out for a bit of sensitivity. Thank God we haven't been hit again since September 11, 2001 (and thank the Bush administration as well). I don't know if folks could very well handle the idea that we'd "overreacted to 9/11." I certainly don't think we've been chasing phantoms for 9 years, although I'm troubled by the hollowing out of our national consensus on what constitutes the national security. We've been lucky that folks like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab have failed. But luck only holds out for so long, and it's gonna be a real bitch when America hits a losing streak in the not-so-completed war on terror.

Eliminationist Anti-Semitism, Right Here at Home: Al Quds Rally, DuPont Circle, Washington, D.C., September 3, 2010

Via Bare Naked Islam, "While Netanyahu and Abbas meet in Washington to humor the clueless American foreign policy decider-in-chief ... Muslim radicals and their diehard leftie supporters (i.e., Code Pinko) gather in Washington to call for the elimination of the Jewish State of Israel":

And at the Investigative Project on Terrorism, "Another Islamist Rally for Hate in D.C." Here's this from the YouTube description:

As Palestinian and Israeli leaders meet in peace negotiations just a few miles away, the speakers called for a rejectionist line on Israel.

"The time has come that we must stir up our 'religious leaders' in this country to speak the truth about Israel," said Kaukab Siddiqi. "They must put their hands on the Quran and say that they do not recognize Israel as a legitimate entity. If they cannot do that, they must be branded as kaffirs [infidels]. It's as simple as that. Because the Quran says -- drive them out from where they drove you out."
As was the case at last year's demonstration, speakers spewed hate speech to a crowd dotted with Hizballah flags. Among the speakers was retired ambassador Edward Peck, and Mauri Saalakhan,

Salaakhan peddled copies of his book, The Palestinians' Holocaust, at the 2009 ISNA convention. It's a collection of essays including his claim that Israel was responsible for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and includes a defense of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

And listen carefully to Siddiqi at about 1:20 minutes: "Each one of us is their target and we must stand united to defeat, to destroy, to dismantle Israel if possible by peaceful means." Yeah "peaceful," if possible. Professor Siddiqi is on the faculty at Lincoln University, Baltimore Pike, Pennsylvania. Just the thought of taking a course with this man, and people just like him, makes me sick to my stomach.

Here's the event announcement, "Annual Al-Quds Day Rally for Justice in Palestine and the Oppressed Everywhere." And the roster of speakers:

Medea Benjamin (co-founder of Code Pink and Global Exchange)
Edward Peck (Retired U.S. Diplomat/ survivor from the Gaza flotilla)
Rabbi Yisoroel Dovid Weiss (Neturei Karta International)
Chuck Carlson (founder of We Hold These Truths)
Hajj Mauri Saalakhan (Director of the Peace and Justice Foundation)
Imam Abdul Alim Musa (Masjid al-Islam, DC)
Imam Abolfazl Nahidian (Manassas Mosque, Manassas, VA)
Safiyyah Abdullah (spoken word artist)
Ebrahim Mohseni (spoken word artist)

My Buddy's 1913 American Underslung Traveler Type 56A 7 Passenger Touring

My buddy and colleague Greg Joseph recently won the Charles A. Chayne Trophy at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance 2010. Here's a few pics of his car, an American Underslung Traveler, Type 56A 7 Passenger Touring, 1913. My youngest son and I visited Greg Saturday afternoon. He showed us his car, estimated at about $1.3 million, out in his garage in temporary storage. The American Underslung is here at Wikipedia. And there's a beautiful set of photos of Greg's car at Pebble Beach here. Greg's a Democrat, but he was flattered when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger walked up during the competition to congratulate him on the vehicle:

The Democrats Are ______

Via Theo Spark:

RELATED: At NYT, "Democrats Plan Political Triage to Retain House." (Via Memeorandum.) And at Doug Ross, "Zero Hedge: Pelosi, Obama and Reid have helped erase or destroy... 11.2 million jobs since the recession began."

'Beat It' — CCP Version

I HATE THE MEDIA has the commentary, and yes, this is brilliant:

Andrew Ferguson on Peter Beinart at Commentary

This is entertaining:

Peter Beinart is one of those journalists, common in Washington, who is less interesting for what he says than for who he is, or who he wants to be thought to be. He’s an exemplar, and when, this May, he published an essay in the New York Review of Books announcing that “morally, American Zionism is in a downward spiral,” he deserved the considerable notice that the article brought him. As a piece of reasoned argument, or even as an anguished moral plea, “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment” was a mess: a goulash of overstatement, baseless accusation, statistical sleight-of-hand, strategic omission, and wince-making self-regard. As a piece of attention-getting, however, it was a masterstroke, and it’s on those terms, rather than its own, that the article and Beinart are best understood.

Beinart is well known among Washington journalists as a quick-witted polemicist and a gifted stylist. He’s also regarded as one of the most energetic careerists anyone has ever seen. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Banish careerists from the ranks of Washington journalism and the only people left would be a handful of newsroom librarians and a couple of copy editors from Human Events. What makes Beinart’s campaign of self-promotion conspicuous—week after week, year after year-—is its utter lack of inhibition. There’s a kind of insouciance to it.

More at the link.

The Future of the Internet

At The Economist:

Fifteen years after its first manifestation as a global, unifying network, it has entered its second phase: it appears to be balkanising, torn apart by three separate, but related forces.

First, governments are increasingly reasserting their sovereignty. Recently several countries have demanded that their law-enforcement agencies have access to e-mails sent from BlackBerry smart-phones. This week India, which had threatened to cut off BlackBerry service at the end of August, granted RIM, the device’s maker, an extra two months while authorities consider the firm’s proposal to comply. However, it has also said that it is going after other communication-service providers, notably Google and Skype.

Second, big IT companies are building their own digital territories, where they set the rules and control or limit connections to other parts of the internet. Third, network owners would like to treat different types of traffic differently, in effect creating faster and slower lanes on the internet.

It is still too early to say that the internet has fragmented into “internets”, but there is a danger that it may splinter along geographical and commercial boundaries ... Just as it was not preordained that the internet would become one global network where the same rules applied to everyone, everywhere, it is not certain that it will stay that way, says Kevin Werbach, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

To grasp why the internet might unravel, it is necessary to understand how, in the words of Mr Werbach, “it pulled itself together” in the first place. Even today, this seems like something of a miracle. In the physical world, most networks—railways, airlines, telephone systems—are collections of more or less connected islands. Before the internet and the world wide web came along, this balkanised model was also the norm online. For a long time, for instance, AOL and CompuServe would not even exchange e-mails.

Economists point to “network effects” to explain why the internet managed to supplant these proprietary services. Everybody had strong incentives to join: consumers, companies and, most important, the networks themselves (the internet is in fact a “network of networks”). The more the internet grew, the greater the benefits became. And its founding fathers created the basis for this virtuous circle by making it easy for networks to hook up and for individuals to get wired ...

Lots more at the link.

I don't know, but this "Balkanization" sounds fairly realistic, even if it sounds less democratically accessible.