Public Flogging in Sudan

Religion of peace.

It's heartbreaking. Notice at 1:30 seconds. The woman raises her head in pain, and while brief, it's clearly a pleading scream for deliverance from this evil. Via Doug Ross and Right Scoop:

Added: From London's Daily Mail, "Screaming woman publicly flogged by laughing policemen in shocking video from Sudan." And at New York Times, "Flogging Video Sparks Protest in Sudan."

Governor-elect Nikki Haley on Hannity

She hasn't been in the limelight so much. Good to see her. I'm envious for the people of South Carolina, considering California's election of Jerry Brown to a third term. And pay attention at the clip to how Governor-elect Haley speaks to federalism and states' prerogatives on health, taxes, and social policy. A woman of the people. Nice.

Will Liberals Progressives Challenge Obama Amid the Snows of New Hampshire?

I still seriously doubt Obama will face a credible challenge for the 2012 nomination, but I love the analogy to Lyndon Johnson in 1968. From Walter Shapiro, at Politics Daily:

... what today's Democratic restiveness reminds me of is the summer of 1967 when liberal organizer (and later Long Island congressman) Allard Lowenstein tried to find someone – anyone – to challenge Lyndon Johnson for the nomination. Lowenstein and his youthful allies importuned all the leading antiwar senators (Robert Kennedy, George McGovern and Frank Church) before to everyone's amazement the mercurial and elusive Eugene McCarthy volunteered for this quixotic crusade.

The parallels are not exact – history never repeats itself as either farce or tragedy. There is no galvanizing single issue like the Vietnam War. Despite his legislative victories and 1964 landslide, Lyndon Johnson remained an accidental president to many Democrats, the ungainly heir to that which rightly belonged to John Kennedy. Barack Obama, in contrast, electrified Democrats (even many Hillary Clinton supporters) as he romped home with nearly 70 million votes.

But what does feel similar is the combination of growing buyer's remorse among liberals and the fatalistic certainty that Obama will be re-nominated without serious challenge. In their epic political narrative, "American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968," three British journalists (Lewis Chester, Godfrey Hodgson and Bruce Page) write, "There were a few who had realized that the emperor had no clothes . . . Such sentiments, however, swam vainly against the tide of 'expert' opinion."

Barring an economic collapse that makes the September 2008 financial meltdown look like the Good Old Days, Obama cannot be deprived of the nomination. The arithmetic simply does not work for any challenger – including (as unlikely as it seems) Hillary Clinton. The combination of the institutional power of a sitting president, the president's overwhelming support among African-American voters and Democratic memories of the tragic consequences of bitter divisiveness (1968, 1972 and 1980) make a replay of the 50-state struggle of 2008 seem ludicrous. The 2012 Democratic nomination belongs to Barack Obama -- assuming he wants it.

But the same thing was true in 1968: Lyndon Johnson would have been – almost unquestionably – the Democratic nominee had he taken the fight all the way to the Chicago Convention ...

RTWT, at the link.

Gunman Opens Fire on Florida School Board Meeting Before Killing Himself

This is horrible, and especially personal in some sense, as I'm sometimes in nearly identical situations at work (formal meetings, public events, etc.).

See, "Florida Gunman Blames 'Wealthy' in Facebook Message." And, "Video Captures Man Confronting School Board Before Shooting":

With news cameras rolling, a 56-year-old gunman entered a school board meeting in Florida on Tuesday and took several members of the board hostage, then fatally shot himself during a shootout with a security guard.

The episode was captured on video and broadcast on WMBB.com News 13 in Panama City, which ran several clips of the incident, including one in which the gunman fires a shot at a board member.

One extended clip shows the man, identified as Clay A. Duke, calmly walk up to a podium at the front of the room with a pistol after painting a mysterious red encircled “V” on the wall.

RELATED: "Dead Gunman Inspired By V For Vendetta."

Daley Gator's Must Read Blogs

See, "Doug’s list of must read blogs!"

And a little news to go with that: It turns out that Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds are getting divorced. There's hope in Rule 5 land:

Monday Drive Time

I got in the car in time for Bowie. Yesterday's drive-time at The Sound L.A.:

9:01 - Walk This Way by Aerosmith

9:05 - Bennie And The Jets by Elton John

9:10 - Peace Of Mind by Boston

9:15 - Feeling Stronger Everyday by Chicago

9:20 - Dancing With Myself by Billy Idol

9:30 - Riders On The Storm by Doors

9:37 - Young Americans by David Bowie

9:42 - Wrapped Around Your Finger by Police

9:47 - Lucky Man by Emerson Lake And Palmer

9:52 - Burning Love by Elvis Presley

Metal Mulisha May Sue Murrieta Valley Schools Over Ban on Clothing Line

My youngest has been wearing a Metal Mulisha t-shirt to school, and skateboarding last week. I guess he's a growing little Nazi stormtrooper, or something.

At LAT:

An Irvine-based company is threatening to sue a Riverside County school district over its ban on a clothing line inspired by a local stunt dirt bike team and adorned with logos resembling Nazi insignia.

The Metal Mulisha Riders from Temecula — known for their irreverent attitudes, gravity-defying stunts and tattoos — have many fans among motocross-loving teenagers. But critics say the clothes they wear include Nazi-style helmets and a lightning bolt "S" similar to those worn by Nazi military forces.

Many school districts forbid gang or hate-related paraphernalia and symbols in their dress-code policies. In the Inland Empire, several schools — including the Murrieta Valley Unified School District, which serves Temecula — have barred high school students from wearing clothes branded with the Mulisha logo.

"It's not a district-wide ban," said district spokeswoman Karen Parris. "It was implemented at the high schools four years ago, a joint decision made by our high school principals."

But after receiving letters warning of a possible lawsuit from MM Compound Inc., the licensee of the Metal Mulisha brand, Murrieta school officials are reconsidering the dress-code policy and seeking a compromise, Parris said.

In the letter to Supt. Stan Scheer in September, the company accuses the district of trademark dilution and violating MM Compound's constitutional rights to free speech and expression, in addition to violating students' 1st Amendment and due process rights.

"We are a lifestyle clothing company, that's what Metal Mulisha is," said Bill Gage, vice president of marketing and sales. "I think the brand itself is edgy, rebellious and appeals to a younger demographic."

He said the clothing never had any political, religious or ideological bent. In the letter, Metal Mulisha Riders are described as "devout Christians" who set a "good example for those around them." The intent, the group has said, was never to spread racism or Nazism.

Actually, joking aside, the helmet at the logo is an exact replica of Nazi Germany's Stahlhelm, the generic steel helmet used by German troops during World War II. I noticed this years ago, when my oldest son started wearing boys sportswear. I didn't think too much about it, although Metal Mulisha wasn't my first pick, compared to something like O'Neal or Quicksilver. But again, to suggest that a bunch of extreme sports athletes in SoCal are pushing for a gangland race war is stretching it --- really stretching it. I'm with Metal Mulisha on this one.

Obama Reverses Course on Offshore Drilling

The administration's drilling moratorium is killing job growth. But the mandarins at NYT are down with that: "They Haven’t Learned."

Ah, those were the days, last March:

And from PhysOrg.com, "The recently announced seven-year moratorium on offshore drilling is yet another example of the short-sightedness of the US Department of the Interior, says John W. Kindt, a professor of business and legal policy at Illinois and expert on marine pollution":

The Obama administration's decision to maintain a ban on oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts is a mistake, according to a University of Illinois expert who wrote a six-volume book series on marine pollution.

"It's a ridiculous decision on the part of the Interior Department," said John W. Kindt, a professor of business and legal policy at Illinois. "The previous 180-day moratorium really hurt a lot of businesses. Well, a seven-year ban is going to sting even more."

Kindt says giving the oil companies a public spanking through a seven-year ban isn't going to solve our energy problems, and that unreasonably prohibiting offshore drilling will not only exacerbate the region's economic woes, it also will strengthen U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

"Our motto should be 'Drill, Baby, Drill' but 'Safely, Baby, Safely,'" he said. "We have two wars in the Middle East, and while we do need alternate sources of energy, in the interim we still need to safely develop our off-shore resources. That means we need to open up both the East Coast and California for drilling, although California is not going to like that. But we've got to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time."

According to Kindt, the author of "Marine Pollution and the Law of the Sea," a six-volume series that examines protecting the world's oceans while encouraging development of essential resources, the real villain in the new contretemps is not BP (formerly British Petroleum), but the Department of the Interior, with the recently announced seven-year moratorium serving as yet another example of what he says is the department's shortsightedness and incompetence.

"The real issue is the Interior Department, which is the most scandal-ridden agency in American history," he said. "Along with an inability to regulate, the entire department is rife with conflicts of interest, which came to light during the BP fiasco when Interior Secretary (Ken) Salazar was making statements to the effect of, 'We've got our heel on the throat of BP.' Statements like that were just a way to divert attention away from their own inadequacy."

Another reason to get Sarah Palin in there.

See also Intellectual Conservative, "Nice Oil Business You Got There..."

RELATED: At Wizbang, "Nation's poor feeling the sting of Obama's war against fossil fuels."

Gen. James Amos Comes Out Against DADT Repeal

The main story at Fox News, "Marine Corps Chief: 'Distraction' of Gays Serving Openly Could Cost Marines Limbs." (And Memeorandum.)

Gay activists are up in arms.

While Allahpundit suggest that Gen. Amos has "no theory" as to what battlefield distractions are "capable of getting someone killed." But as a top-ranking commander with decades of military experience, I'd suggest there's an implicit theory underlying his opposition to repeal. Perhaps Mackubin Thomas Owens may be of assistance:

Winning the nation's wars is the military's functional imperative. Indeed, it is the only reason for a liberal society to maintain a military organization. War is terror. War is confusion. War is characterized by chance, uncertainty and friction. The military's ethos constitutes an evolutionary response to these factors—an attempt to minimize their impact.

Accordingly, the military stresses such martial virtues as courage, both physical and moral, a sense of honor and duty, discipline, a professional code of conduct, and loyalty. It places a premium on such factors as unit cohesion and morale. The glue of the military ethos is what the Greeks called philia—friendship, comradeship or brotherly love. Philia, the bond among disparate individuals who have nothing in common but facing death and misery together, is the source of the unit cohesion that most research has shown to be critical to battlefield success.

Philia depends on fairness and the absence of favoritism. Favoritism and double standards are deadly to philia and its associated phenomena—cohesion, morale and discipline—are absolutely critical to the success of a military organization.

The presence of open homosexuals in the close confines of ships or military units opens the possibility that eros—which unlike philia is sexual, and therefore individual and exclusive—will be unleashed into the environment. Eros manifests itself as sexual competition, protectiveness and favoritism, all of which undermine the nonsexual bonding essential to unit cohesion, good order, discipline and morale.

As Sen. James Webb (D., Va.), who was awarded the Navy Cross for valor as a Marine officer in Vietnam, wrote in the Weekly Standard in 1997, "There is no greater or more natural bias than that of an individual toward a beloved. And few emotions are more powerful, or more distracting, than those surrounding the pursuit of, competition for, or the breaking off of amorous relationships."

I'd add that while compelling academic research casts doubt on the policy, theories of essential military function and cohesion will continue to influence both the direction and prospects for policy change.

Holbrooke Death Leaves Washington, and Democrats, Scrambling

Fouad Ajami offers some reflections on the late ambassador, "Richard Holbrooke: Kennedy Democrat":

Holbrooke apprenticed, and quarreled, with the giants. He kept the company of such great American statesmen and presidential advisers as Averell Harriman, Clark Clifford and Cyrus Vance. He was introduced to diplomacy when he was an impressionable boy by Dean Rusk, who would serve John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson as secretary of state.

He came into his own amid the stirrings of the New Frontier, when American power sat astride the world. In the preface of his Bosnian chronicles, he would recall that time: "Today, public service has lost much of the aura it had when John F. Kennedy asked what we could do for our country. To hear that phrase before it became a cliché was electrifying, and it led many in my generation to enter public service. For me, it was the Foreign Service which I joined right after graduating from college. Less than a year later I found myself in Saigon."

American patriotism and American liberalism were still tethered together as Holbrooke made his way. There may have been hubris in that outlook. Our country would be bloodied in distant places, it would learn that the world wouldn't always bend to our will. But the lodestar remained that essential belief that American power could be a force for the good in the world beyond our shores.

I guess they don't make 'em like that anymore, Democrats that is.

Also at NYT, "Strong American Voice in Diplomacy and Crisis." And also, "Post-Holbrooke Question: ‘What Now?’"

'My Fellow Citizens, I Utterly Reject That View'

The full video is at The Miller Center for Public Affairs. See also Right Wing News.

I'm reminded of President Reagan after seeing this post at Instapundit. Americans are yearning for something deep again, not just economic growth, jobs and renewed economic prosperity, but something more fundamental: core values and a sense of destiny. We don't have Reagan anymore. But in U.S. politics today, more than anyone else, it is Sarah Palin who embodies that unabashed sense of mission, that clear righteousness in nation. The national attraction to Sarah Palin hearkens back to Reagan, and it is, as Nancy Gibbs notes at Time, a call to restoration: "Back to the Future: Sarah Palin's Restoration":

Too much of that Hopey Changey Thing yields a desire for restoration, to move forward by turning back. What's striking about the current revival is that it's led by our most emphatically modern master of the cross-platform political-celebrity mashup, Sarah Palin, as she calls for "not transformation but restoration with a 'Great Awakening' that we already feel emerging across America."

I like it. And I hope history confims the analogy. I look forward to the chance to hear Sarah Palin deliver a convention address as did Ronald Reagan in 1980:

More than anything else, I want my candidacy to unify our country; to renew the American spirit and sense of purpose. I want to carry our message to every American, regardless of party affiliation, who is a member of this community of shared values.

Never before in our history have Americans been called upon to face three grave threats to our very existence, any one of which could destroy us. We face a disintegrating economy, a weakened defense and an energy policy based on the sharing of scarcity.

The major issue of this campaign is the direct political, personal and moral responsibility of Democratic Party leadership --i n the White House and in Congress -- for this unprecedented calamity which has befallen us. They tell us they have done the most that humanly could be done. They say that the United States has had its day in the sun; that our nation has passed its zenith. They expect you to tell your children that the American people no longer have the will to cope with their problems; that the future will be one of sacrifice and few opportunities.

My fellow citizens, I utterly reject that view. The American people, the most generous on earth, who created the highest standard of living, are not going to accept the notion that we can only make a better world for others by moving backwards ourselves. Those who believe we can have no business leading the nation.

I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose. We have come together here because the American people deserve better from those to whom they entrust our nation's highest offices, and we stand united in our resolve to do something about it.

The full speech at the link.

Protesters Trash Italy After Berlusconi Survives Confidence Vote

Anarcho-asshats everywhere.

See Business Week,"Protests erupt as Italian PM Berlusconi wins vote," and London's Daily Mail, "Riot breaks out on streets of Rome as scandal-hit Silvio Berlusconi survives as Italian premier by just THREE votes." Additional video at NYT, "Video of Unrest on Rome’s Streets After Berlusconi Wins Vote."

Who's Bashing Whom? UCLA's Kent Wong Attacks 'Racist' Opposition to DREAM Act With Racist Attacks on 'Old White Men'

This is perfect.

Which clip will the MFM show? The one on top, where Professor Kent Wong, Director of UCLA's Center for Labor Research and Education, lauds immigrant students for working hard toward their dream of education and opportunity in America, or the one at bottom, where he excoriates the racist "old white men" in the U.S. Senate, to wild cheers from the crowd. And note at the second clip all this talk about "displacing millions of Americans ... in their jobs, seats in college, and elections." That's a classic summary statement on the neo-communist left's reconquista revolutionary agenda:

"We will win the dream act soon -- very soon," he exclaimed. "When that day comes, we will celebrate with millions and millions of people of people across this country who are standing with you tonight. Who stand for justice, who stand for democracy and equal opportunities for all."

"When that day happens, the young people of the DREAM Act movement, will go on to accomplish and do great things with your lives," he said. "You will go on to become lawyers, teachers, doctors and members of the US congress to replace those old white men... You are the hope and future of this country. You are hope and future of your generation."

If Dream Act Amnesty passes, millions of Americans will be DISPLACED and REPLACED in their jobs, seats in college, and elections.

RELATED: At Michelle's, "Operation Buck Up: Stop the DREAM Act illegal alien student bailout."

Added: Michelle's got more, "Video: UCLA open-borders prof/SEIU lawyer urges “DREAM”-ers to replace those “old white guys”."

Good Without God? Atheist Advertisement Raises Controversy in Fort Worth

The story's at NYT, "Atheist Ads on Buses Rattle Fort Worth." (At Memeorandum.)

Obviously people can be "good without God." But without God, there's little restraint on those who have to choose between good and evil. And there's great likelihood that those without God would choose the latter.

But don't take my word for it. Check the comments at Joe.My.God., a blog moniker that's not a little blasphemous, when you think about it.

Progressivism is Cruelty

From John Hawkins, "There’s Nothing Compassionate About Liberalism Progressivism."

Sing it brother:

Rape Charges Against Julian Assange

"Sex by Surprise." Never heard of it until last week, but the issue is roiling the feminist-left. See Naomi Wolf, "J'Accuse: Sweden, Britain, and Interpol Insult Rape Victims Worldwide," and also Jessica Valenti, "What the Assange Case Says About Rape in America."

And with all the Elizabeth Edwards attacks, I missed this other debate: "“You Buy the Ticket, You Take the Ride”: Not the Conservative View of Date Rape." That's Rob at NewsReal, who takes issue with Robert Stacy McCain's essay, "Unintentional Hilarity: Feminists Ask If Julian Assange Committed ‘Rape-Rape’."

Both debates reveal that perhaps "epistemic closure" isn't all it's cracked up to be.

RELATED: "The Unknown Blogger Who Changed WikiLeaks Coverage." It's Aaron Bady, whose full picture is not shown. It's hard out there on the net. (Via Mememorandum.) Plus, "Julian Assange's looking for love? Alleged dating profile unearthed of Wikileaks founder." And if bail is denied: "'Prepare for all-out cyber war': Government sites braced for attack by pro-WikiLeaks 'hacktivists'."

New 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Trailer

LAT's not too thrilled.

But see, "Johnny Depp Back as Capt. Jack Sparrow; New Pirates Trailer!"

And if you see the full hard-copy at the doctor's office or grocery store, it's worth a few minutes of your time. At Vanity Fair, a snippet: "Johnny Depp Talks to Patti Smith About Working with Angelina Jolie, Jack Sparrow, and His Own Musical Aspirations."

YouTube Users to 'Flag' Recruitment Videos Produced by Islamic Extremists

Yeah, that'll work.

At LAT, "YouTube is letting users decide on terrorism-related videos."

And we wouldn't want to infringe on anyone's free speech rights, or at least that's what law professor Jeffrey Rosen says at the piece.

Meanwhile, at Jawa Report, "Un:dhimmi's Google/YouTube Hall of Shame Part 2: Indonesian Beotch Hearts Terrorist Jihad Jane."

YouTube Year in Review 2010

Via Althouse:

Jesus Was a Wine-Guzzling Vagrant and Socialist?

No wonder parents are mad, conservative parents that is. Progressive parents --- and their lefist allies in the school unions --- are the ones cramming this stuff down our throats: