Rage Against the ‘Breeders'

This is pretty unreal, from Jonathan Last, at Weekly Standard:

Like a puckish uncle determined to cause trouble at Thanksgiving dinner, the Washington Post periodically homes in on the existential conflicts that divide its readership. Earlier this summer, the Post Metro section headlined such a story “With City’s Baby Boom, Parental Guidance Suggested.” The article opened in Capitol Hill’s Lincoln Park, where a sudden outpouring of babies has caused altercations between parents, who bring their children, and childless adults, who bring their dogs, to play in the park.

The Lincoln Park neighborhood is gentrified and expensive—the median price for a rowhouse is in the $900,000s—and the dog owners there are annoyed at having to share space with human dependents. In an attempt to bring peace, a local pet coach who calls herself the Doggy Lama has been holding “dog citizen” workshops to help pet owners learn to deal peaceably with the interlopers. But it’s tough sledding. One dog owner interviewed by the Post said that she wished the kids could be confined to a fenced-in area of the park. “I find people with children to be tyrants,” she explained. “As someone who doesn’t have children, I think children are fine. I don’t think they own everything.”

The Post story detailed similar scuffles in other trendy Washington neighborhoods and generated 479 comments on the paper’s website before commenting was finally shut down. Readers ran about 60-to-40 against parents and children. Some sample entries:

CAC2: keep your nasty little snotty kid away from me, PLEASE!!!! Do not let your stickly offspring rush up to me in Whole Foods and grab my $250 Ralph Lauren silk skirt with it’s grubby, crusty hands. One of the benefits of not having children is not having to wear the Mommy Wardrobe. Do not make those of us who are not forced into wash and wear to pay extra for the dry cleaner to remove child goo. Do not allow your offspring to lean over the seat of a restaurant and try to initiate “conversation” with me when I am enjoying a meal with friends

graylandgal: I won’t make any apologies: I hate kids, especially babies. If parents can’t afford or locate a sitter, then stay home. I am bloody sick of having my feet and Achilles tendon rammed by knobby-tired strollers the size of Smart Cars; I am bitter about extortion for baby showers, christening gift, etc., for droolers who won’t thank me now any more than they will when graduation extortions start; I am nauseated by the stench of dirty diapers changed in public areas because a lazy-ass parent won’t adjourn to a restroom I am tired of “friends” dragging their hyper-active germ-spreaders to my antiques- and breakable-filled home for events clearly meant for grown-ups because, gee, everybody thinks they’re SO cute; and I weary of replying “hi” 467 times to a toddler who hangs over the back of an adjoining restaurant booth because the parents won’t make it sit down and shut up. Bitter? You bet. .  .  . My parents did not inflict me on society until I developed continence, self-ambulation, and social skills.

Knowingly or not, the Post had wandered headlong into a movement that has become increasingly militant in recent years: the childfree.

The term refers to adults—many of them married or cohabiting couples—without children. These people differ from the merely “childless” in that they want the world to know that their situation is not an accident. A spinster or an infertile couple might be childless by bad luck. The childfree are childless by choice.

As you already suspect, the childfree movement has its roots in the 1970s. After Paul Ehrlich’s (now discredited) Population Bomb became a sensation predicting hundreds of millions of deaths as the planet convulsed from overpopulation, clubs such as the National Organization for Non-Parents and No Kidding! sprang up. But what was once a hippy-crank affectation has in recent years become a wide-ranging attack on the societal machinery which supports and encourages baby-making.

More at the link.

Victoria Azarenka

I'm just now hearing about her, c/o Theo Spark:

Illegal Immigration's Impact on Our Public Schools

With Brandi Milloy of PJTV:

Nazi Tea Partiers

Right.

And haven't we heard this song before? Via POWIP:

Why Do Leftists Side With Islam Over Christianity?

The short answer is that both leftists and Islamists hate America and the West. But I'll let Sharon take it from there:

RELATED: At The Liberal Heretic, "“Burn a Quran Day”- Why Americans Need to Take the High Road."

Recovery Summer Bummer

Via Midnight Blue, "Recovery Starts November 2nd."

And I still just love the "Recovery Summer Bummer" rhyme, from Yid With Lid.

Daily Kos Anti-Semitism, And Then Some...

This is timeley, especially since I just reviewed American Taliban.

At Yid With Lid, "Anti-Jewish Hatred From the Folks Who Call the Tea Party Racist."

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs published a report which examines Anti-Semitic cartoon content used in some of the major progressive sites, such as Mondoweiss, The Daily Kos and Indymedia. Some of the content of these blogs pointed out in this report is short of startling. The sites use "political cartoons: to reinforce negative stereotypes against Jews. The cartoons cloak their Antisemitism in a veil "anti-Israelism."

This is not in any way to suggest that all anti-Israel expressions are anti-Semitic, but it is clear that these cartoons have crossed the line. The cartoons show Jews or Israelis as being Nazis trying to paint Jews as the ultimate evil and at the same time diminishing the evil of the Holocaust. Other illustrations try to perpetuate the anti-Semitic canard that Jews control the world, or the blood libel about Jews using Gentile children to satisfy some imagined blood-lust.

This is totally common on the left. I document this stuff all the time.

At the screencaps, the first post has been taken down: "Zionism was and remains a racist ideology." The second I've covered many times, and it remains fully published at Daily Kos, "Eulogy before the Inevitability of Self-Destruction: The Decline and Death of Israel."

See the report as well: "Anti-Semitic Cartoons on Progressive Blogs." And don't forget to add Booman Tribune to the list.

Appeals Court Sides With Bush Obama Administration on Seizure of Terror Suspects

I had to catch myself for a second. Sides with the Obama administration on terrorist rendition?

The ruling is on "extraordinary rendition," of course. The policy for which leftists wanted Bush administration war crimes trials. And now we've got Barack Obama in power continuing the policy. Hey, way to "regain America's moral stature in the world"!

Okay, but according to the New York Times:

A sharply divided federal appeals court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit involving the Central Intelligence Agency’s practice of seizing terrorism suspects and transferring them to other countries for imprisonment and interrogation. The ruling handed a major victory to the Obama administration in its effort to advance a sweeping view of executive secrecy power.

Sweeping view of executive power? How many millions of words were written by leftists attacking proponents of that? Indeed, folks like John Yoo still can't get a break. And there's more:

The decision bolstered an array of ways in which the Obama administration has pressed forward with broad counter-terrorism policies after taking over from the Bush team, a degree of continuity that has departed from the expectations fostered by President Obama’s campaign rhetoric, which was often sharply critical of President Bush’s approach.

Among other policies, the Obama team has also placed a United States citizen on a targeted-killings list without a trial, blocked efforts by detainees in Afghanistan to bring habeas-corpus lawsuits challenging their indefinite imprisonment, and continued the C.I.A. rendition program – though the administration says it now takes greater safeguards to prevent detainees from being mistreated.

Okay, but I thought Obama once said of the Bush administration:

"Our government made decisions based upon fear rather than foresight and all too often trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions," he said.

"In other words, we went off course."

Right.

He means our previous government, of course, even though he's now following the exact same policies. The ACLU is criticizing the wrong government as well, the one before the Obama administration:

Ben Wizner, a senior A.C.L.U. lawyer who argued the case before the appeals court, said the organization was deeply disappointed in the ruling.

“To this date, not a single victim of the Bush administration’s torture program has had his day in court,” Mr. Wizner said. “That makes this a sad day not only for the torture survivors who are seeking justice in this case, but for all Americans who care about the rule of law and our nation’s reputation in the world. If this decision stands, the United States will have closed it courts to torture victims while providing complete immunity to their torturers.”

Let's just chalk this up as one more reason why folks miss George W. Bush. Honesty. Integrity. Moral clarity. Yep, those are the things we had in the presidency before this administration. They were the right qualities --- and the right policies --- at the time. The courts think so, even if the neo-communists don't.

This Is Where We Begin to Say No

From Andrew McCarthy, at National Review (via Memeorandum):

For the better part of two decades, Americans have been murdered by Islamists and then lectured that they are to blame for what has befallen them. We have been instructed in the need for special sensitivity to the unceasing demands of Islamic culture and falsely accused of intolerance by the people who wrote the book on intolerance. Americans have sacrificed blood and bottomless treasure for Islamic peoples who despise Americans — and despise us even more as our sacrifices and gestures of self-loathing intensify. Americans have watched as apologists for terrorists and sharia were made the face of an American Muslim community that we were simultaneously assured was the very picture of pro-American moderation.

Americans have had our fill. We are willing to live many lies. This one, though, strikes too close to home, arousing our heretofore dormant sense of decency. Americans have now heard Barack Obama’s shtick enough times to know that when he talks about “our values,” he’s really talking about his values, which most of us don’t share. And after ten years of CAIR’s tired tirades, we’re immune to Feisal Rauf, too.

We look around us and we see our country unrivaled by anything in the history of human tolerance. We see thousands of thriving mosques, permitted to operate freely even though we know for a fact that mosques have been used against us, repeatedly, to urge terrorism, recruit terrorists, raise money for terrorists, store and transfer firearms, and inflame Muslims against America and the West. As Islamists rage against us, we see Islam celebrated in official Washington. As we reach out for the umpty-umpth time, we find Muslim leaders taking what we offer, but always with complaint and never with reciprocation. We’re weary, and we don’t really care if that means that Time magazine, Michael Bloomberg, Katie Couric, Fareed Zakaria, and the rest think we’re bad people — they think we’re bad people, anyway

RTWT.

Also, the typically lame leftist response at Blue Texan's Crib:

Nearly nine years after Wingnut Christmas, it's equal parts scary and satisfying to see conservatives admits what we suspected all along - they're a legion of racist bedwetters for whom there was never a distinction between invading Iraq/Afghanistan and simply killing Muslims - even though Bush said otherwise.

Bedwet this, you freaking creep:

Behead This, Markos

I tweeted Markos Moulitsas yesteday, with the link to my review of his book: "Misunderstanding Markos Moulitsas and American Taliban." He's a netroots bigshot, of course, so he's ignoring me. Fine. I'll tweet him again a little later. He can "behead this," as far as I'm concerned. (The reference is to the Ring of Fire interview Saturday where Moulitsas claims conservatives want to behead opponents.) The Dems-Daily Kos nexus is up for an electoral blowout of world historical importance on November 2nd. We're going to so thoroughly crush Kos and his neo-communist allies that "demoralized" won't begin to explain the scale of evisceration. Game on, asshole. Yeah, politics is dirty business, but somebody's got to do it. So screw you, commie pig.

The Debate Over Religious 'Intolerance'

I've placed "intolerance" in quotation marks. And that's because poll after poll has found that Americans are not intolerant toward Muslims. The Koran burnings are sponsored by the Westboro Baptists, the same folks who protest military funerals. They don't speak for me, and I can't think of any mainstream conservative that aligns with them. What's happening, as always, it the controversial actions of the few become fodder for attacks on the legitimate opposition of the many. This is SOP with the radical left and their allied MFM contingents. It's messed up, but that's the kind of information stream we're dealing with these days. The New York Times is on the case, by the way. See, "Concern Is Voiced Over Religious Intolerance." And as usual, as Tom Maguire points out, the reporters buried the lede:

They did not take a stand on whether to support the proposed mosque and community center near ground zero in Manhattan, saying, “Persons of conscience have taken different positions on the wisdom of the location of this project, even if the legal right to build on the site appears to be unassailable.”

Susan B. Anthony List Lobbies GOP on Strong 'Pro-Life Language' in Party's Upcoming 'Contract' Campaign Manifesto

Check out this piece from Erin McPike at RCP, "Some Supporters Fret as GOP Readies Agenda." Here's the key passage:

Just weeks before House Republican leaders are set to announce the contents of a proposed governing agenda if they retake the majority, some GOP politicians and grasstops activists are growing nervous about those plans ....

So far, House Republicans have shown discipline and stayed on message on jobs and the economy; there are 16 mentions of the word, "jobs," in the packet. But there are two problems with the current effort: One is the wing of activists primarily concerned with social issues, and the other is the possible size of the incoming class of GOP freshmen who collectively would be the reason for the party's return to power.

Many high-level conservative activists agree that the most pressing issue of this cycle is the economy, but some are not willing to let up on matters close to them, either.

In an interview, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser warned: "To only lead on one issue at a time is a non-sequitur." She added, "That's not real leadership." Dannenfelser's group advocates on behalf of women in politics who are pro-life, and she hopes to see substantial pro-life language in the House Republicans' agenda but is not entirely optimistic.

The 22-page recess packet of trial balloons does include an explicit ban on all federal funding for abortion. That's one item on Dannenfelser's list, but she has two more: requiring parental notification for abortion-seeking minors, and requiring physicians who perform abortions to notify women who are at least 20 weeks into their pregnancies that fetuses can feel pain in the process.

Said Dannenfelser, "The conservative base of the Republican Party is so strong at this moment, the most divisive thing that could happen would be to leave out the family values third of the issue base." Her group has undertaken its own small media blitz, "Life Speaking Out," to lobby the House GOP on abortion issues and prevent the omission. A release announcing the campaign noted, "Missing from the GOP's original Contract in 1994 was any emphasis on policies protecting the unborn. Pro-life legislation was not made a priority in the following Congress."

The group sent a letter to House Minority Leader John Boehner on September 2nd, arguing that:

The protection of women and their children from the violence of abortion and the protection of taxpayers from funding it must be an integral part of any legislative blueprint released by the leadership of the GOP, and should be included under a specific plank addressing family values.

As readers will recall, I take the big view on pro-life issues. And I expect the GOP to take the concerns of groups like Susan B. Anthony List very seriously.

Dancing

Theo loves this:

This is What America is All About

Giving everyone a chance to succeed? Hey, isn't that RAAAAACIST??!!

Hot ad from Allen West, via Weasel Zippers:

'The Reconquista is Here'

El Marco comments on "Machete":

More than just another movie exemplifying liberalism’s self-loathing and glorification of violence, Machete goes further in advocating the radical justification for leftist war against America. Machete is nothing less than Psycho-political incitement to violent revolution against American society and sovereignty.

Crowd at Glenn Beck Rally Seen From Above

I never did get a chance to post this pic, which is awesome. Who cares the exact number in attendance. Folks came out big time. The left's Media-Industrial-Complex just couldn't handle it. And not only that, this is another chance to throw my good friend Skye some linkage.

In Defense of Links

From Scott Rosenberg:

For 15 years, I’ve been doing most of my writing — aside from my two books — on the Web. When I do switch back to writing an article for print, I find myself feeling stymied. I can’t link!

Links have become an essential part of how I write, and also part of how I read. Given a choice between reading something on paper and reading it online, I much prefer reading online: I can follow up on an article’s links to explore source material, gain a deeper understanding of a complex point, or just look up some term of art with which I’m unfamiliar.

There is, I think, nothing unusual about this today. So I was flummoxed earlier this year when Nicholas Carr started a campaign against the humble link, and found at least partial support from some other estimable writers (among them Laura Miller, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Jason Fry and Ryan Chittum). Carr’s “delinkification” critique is part of a larger argument contained in his book The Shallows. I read the book this summer and plan to write about it more. But for now let’s zero in on Carr’s case against links, on pages 126-129 of his book as well as in his “delinkification” post.

The nub of Carr’s argument is that every link in a text imposes “a little cognitive load” that makes reading less efficient. Each link forces us to ask, “Should I click?” As a result, Carr wrote in the “delinkification” post, “People who read hypertext comprehend and learn less, studies show, than those who read the same material in printed form.”

This appearance of the word “hypertext” is a tipoff to one of the big problems with Carr’s argument: it mixes up two quite different visions of linking.

Interesting.

And don't feel bad about clicking away to RTWT.

Feisal Abdul Rauf — 'We Are Proceeding With the Community Center'

Or, "we are proceeding with the conquest mosque."

That's Imam Rauf, at the New York Times (via Memeorandum). And he claims:

I am very sensitive to the feelings of the families of victims of 9/11, as are my fellow leaders of many faiths. We will accordingly seek the support of those families, and the support of our vibrant neighborhood, as we consider the ultimate plans for the community center. Our objective has always been to make this a center for unification and healing.

Actually, not so sensitive, in fact. As the Imam also notes:

Our name, Cordoba, was inspired by the city in Spain where Muslims, Christians and Jews co-existed in the Middle Ages during a period of great cultural enrichment created by Muslims.

Yes, created by Muslims, for the oppression and enslavement of non-Muslims. As Robert Spencer has noted regarding the "Cordoba Caliphate":

The name "Cordoba" has been marketed to gullible Americans as being a place where Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived in harmony and peace, but actually Medieval Muslim Spain enforced the dhimma and systematically oppressed the Jews and Christians, and was the site of a Muslim pogrom against the Jews in the year 1011 -- 1000 years before this mega-mosque is slated to open.

And interestingly, Imam Rauf's essay coincides with El Marco's latest photo-essay, "Islamic Triumphalism: Cruel Lessons From History for New York City - Part I." Pictured below is the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, which was built to consecrate the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 637 CE. According to Wikipedia, "In light of the dual claims of both Judaism and Islam, it is one of the most contested religious sites in the world." Well, looks like things turned out exactly as planned. As El Marco notes at his essay:

Islamic Triumphalism has a very long and brutal history. The Dome of the Rock represents the first stop on Islam’s 1400 year path of conquest. Today the duel paths of terrorism and stealth jihad are making great inroads worldwide. Most New Yorkers and Americans are only just waking up to Islam’s accelerating push to implant Sharia law in western countries as well as large areas of Africa and Asia. The controversy of the mosque at ground zero has alerted Americans to how Islamic totalitarian Sharia law dictates world domination and the fact that radical islam must be opposed by free people.

Exactly. Sharia. This is what Imam Rauf wants for America. And as the Ground Zero Mosque development continues, sharia is the culmination of his vision for "multi-faith" cooperation — it's happening friends, and with the help of the left's Media-Industrial-Complex and netroots terror-appeasers. See Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, "What Shariah Law Is All About."

'My Trip to Al-Qaeda' — HBO Documentary

It's on, in about an hour:

And see Blake Hounshell, "Is al Qaeda Still Relevant?"

RELATED: I read Lawrence Wright's book when it first came out in hardback: The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.

Carly Fiorina Pulls Ahead of Scandal-Plagued Barbara Boxer — Incumbent Democrat Embroiled in Maxine Waters Pay-to Play Endorsement Scam

This would be big news, at RCP, "Fiorina Pulls Ahead of Boxer in California."

But Doug Ross has this as well: "Say It Ain't So, Babs: Barbara "Call me Ma'am" Boxer Ensnared in Maxine Waters' Ethical Roach Motel."

And Ed Morrissey adds this:

Democrats came to power in 2006 in large part by promising to “drain the swamp.” That doesn’t mean that individual members of both parties won’t commit ethics violations, but Boxer’s position as chair of the Senate’s enforcement panel while participating in Waters’ scheme certainly tells a story about the commitment to clean government in the Democratic Party.

RELATED: "Republicans Now Trusted on All Key Political Issues Over Democrats."