The Healthy Media for Youth Act

Tina Korbe reports, at Hot Air, "Government to the rescue: Saving young women from low self body image."

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) have teamed with actress Geena Davis and the Girl Scouts of America to introduce and promote the Healthy Media for Youth Act, a bill to facilitate research on how the media affects women, create a grant program for youth empowerment groups and establish a National Taskforce on Women and Girls in the Media to set standards ”that promote healthy, balanced, and positive images of girls and women.”

The progressive utopia is to make women feel bad about looking good. And that's sick. See Stuart Schneiderman, "Feminists Against Beautiful Women" (via Maggie's Farm):

The feminist assault against femininity and female beauty has been going on for decades now. So much so that I suspect that feminism has caused women to suffer an unhealthy obsession with beauty because it has forbid them to be normally concerned with how they look?

It’s been twenty years since Naomi Wolf’s The Beauty Myth launched a full frontal attack on the fashion and beauty industries. After twenty years of Naomi Wolf and forty years of contemporary feminism, lo and behold, many young woman are obsessed with their looks.

To me it feels more like a backlash against feminist repression and tyranny than anything else.

RTWT for the context. An excellent essay.

RELATED: Caroline May, at Daily Caller, "So much for the obesity epidemic." Also, legislative background from Congressional Research Service (via GovTrack).

Erin Andrews Marie Claire Interview

See: "The Haunting of Erin Andrews":

"Just saw your video. Wow, you are on fire doing your hair naked!"

That's an incoming tweet to Erin Andrews. It hits her iPhone while she's on a trip to Tennessee, preparing to host a country-music benefit for tornado victims. She gets about a dozen such tweets a day — continual reminders of the video that went viral two years ago this summer, when a stalker removed the peephole of her hotel-room door, then stood in the hallway and filmed her for several minutes in the nude ...


*****

How did you cope psychologically with the knowledge that strangers would be seeing you in the nude?

That was the hardest thing. Despite what I do for a living, I am very insecure about my body. I don't have a complex, but for every woman — I don't care who you are — there's a part of your body you have issues with. It was my body, and I didn't have a choice of how many people got to see it. What people don't understand is that while I wasn't physically touched, I was violated.

The day that I got the phone call that this was on the Internet, I didn't want to get undressed. I didn't change my clothes for two or three days. I was so screwed up. I was disgusted with myself; I was disgusted with my body, with being naked, and that everybody saw that it was me. I stopped going to my gym for six or seven months because I was afraid of people seeing me working out. I had this mind-set of, "Oh, my gosh, everybody's seen me naked and they're going to think to themselves, She should be so embarrassed."

The first site to run the video was in Europe. Then a sports blog linked to it — and rumors spread that you might have been behind the whole thing.

Yes, the perception right away was: She's doing this as a sex tape. She's doing this for publicity. News sites claimed they showed the video because it was "news." These news outlets were having so much fun with it. The New York Post put the images from the video up on the front page. The Early Show played clips on their show. Fox News showed stills. It was disgusting. My poor dad was watching this. He had to go on medication, he was so upset watching what was happening to his daughter.

Bill O'Reilly also played snippets, in fact. He defended it as news reporting when called out. Oh boy, those were the days. Cynthia Yockey is still mad, but not really about Erin Andrews (she attacks conservatives for being against gay marriage, which is lame, since you can't really be conservative and be for gay marriage, hint, hint). And Cassandra's no longer blogging, tsk, tsk. That said, I'd do things differently the second time around. Live and learn.

Hat Tip: Smitty @ The Other McCain.

ADDED: Carol at No Sheeples also pulled the plug. Not sure why, but in the end intra-ideological flame wars are often more damaging than attacking the progressive nihilists. Saber Point has more: "'No Sheeples Here' Missed on Independence Day."

Government Shutdown in Minnesota Threatens Beer Sales

Distribution and sales of beer aren't allowed under the state's shutdown, since beer licensing was put on hold before June 30th, for budget reasons. At Wall Street Journal, "Minnesota Shutdown Could Dry Up Beer," and Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "Shutdown forcing MillerCoors to pull beer from shelves." (Via Memeorandum.)

Also at Power Line, "NOW IT’S GETTING SERIOUS!"

If renewing liquor licenses isn’t a core function of government, what is?

Father and Son Recreate Shuttle Launch Photo 30 Years Later

Saw this first at AoSHQ.

And now at WaPo, "Chris Bray and his father watch NASA history, 30 years ago and four days ago."

That's cool!

New York Mets Unload Francisco Rodriguez

Althouse gets excited over Milwaukee's acquisition of star closer Francisco Rodriguez: "Unloading a 'crippling financial obligation,' the Mets deal Francisco Rodriguez to the Brewers."

Ann links to the New York Times, and there's some informed opinion in her comments section. But I'll tell you: Mets fans should be pleased. With Rodriquez, who was the Angels' ace closer for years, you'll bite your fingernails and then keep munching down to the knuckles. The dude had so many clutch blown saves I lost my voice screaming at the TV. Plugging in "Rodriguez Blown Saves" on Google pulled this piece up, "The Worst Season of Francisco Rodriguez's Career":

Rodriguez is still very difficult to hit against, due to the tremendous amount of movement on his pitches. However, this year his control problems have been even worse than in the past: only 60% of his pitches have been strikes – the lowest total of his career – and only 54% of his first pitches have been strikes. He has gotten into more 3-0 counts (9% of the time) than any other season in his career, and has gotten into fewer 0-2 counts (19%) than any other season. His overall strikeout rate is down, and yet he has received more called third strikes than usual this year, suggesting even less dominance (as evidenced by the relative lack of swings and misses with two strikes).

I get pissed just reading that!

But see Sports Illustrated on the big picture: "Brewers, Mets both get what they need from K-Rod trade."

Multiple Bombings Rock Mumbai!

There's a live blog at Telegraph UK, "Reports of at least 20 dead, over 100 injured."

And at New York Times, "3 Bomb Blasts Shake Central Mumbai":

MUMBAI, India — Three bomb blasts shook the city of Mumbai at the height of the evening rush hour on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people in what Indian officials called a coordinated terror attack on the country’s economic capital.

The explosions struck central locations in the city, including the crowded Dadar neighborhood; the Zaveri Bazaar, a well-known jewelry market; and near the Opera House, according to India’s Home Ministry, which said 113 people had been injured.

The attack was the first in Mumbai since militants from Pakistan mounted large-scale assaults on hotels, a train station and a Jewish community center in November 2008, killing more than 160 people.

No immediate claim of responsibility for the Wednesday bombings was reported. India’s home minister, P. Chidambaram, said at a news conference in New Delhi that terror investigation teams had been dispatched to the blast sites.

More at the link. Also, at Toronto's Globe and Mail, "Mumbai blasts a 'co-ordinated attack by terrorists': India's home minister."

Leiby Kletzky

He was killed on his "first day of walking home by himself."

See New York Times, "Hasidic Brooklyn Boy's Remains Found; Suspect in Custody":

The search for a missing 8-year-old Brooklyn boy ended early on Wednesday when investigators discovered what they believed to be his dismembered remains in a third-floor attic refrigerator of a Brooklyn man and in a trash bin on a street, the police said. The man, who made incriminating statements, was being questioned and was expected to be charged, the police said.

The grim discovery capped two days of intense searching for the boy, Leiby Kletzky, who had disappeared while on what was supposed to be a short walk between a Borough Park school and a meeting place with his parents on Monday. Police detectives searched around his neighborhood and used helicopters to find the boy, who was part of the Hasidic Jewish community. They recovered video that clearly showed the boy alive.

In the end, the inquiry led to 466 East Second Street, in Kensington, Brooklyn, the home of the suspect, Levi Aron, 35, who was taken into custody at 2:40 a.m., said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

Mr. Kelly said that the boy was lost and apparently was trying to find his way when he encountered Mr. Aron; investigators said that after a conversation, the boy entered Mr. Aron’s vehicle, a 1990 Honda Accord.

More at that link above. And also, "Reaction to the Leiby Kletzky Killing." And at Memeorandum.

Idiot Islamist Keith Ellison Attacks Rep. Michele Bachmann as 'Anti-Women'

I can't believe how bad this sounds, and from a sitting congressman. Fox & Friends' Gretchen Carlson just lays into the dude:

Via Atlas Shrugs, "MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD CONGRESSMAN HAKIM "KEITH ELLISON" MUHAMMAD (D) IN ISLAMIC MISOGYNY ATTACK ON AMERICAN WOMEN, NAMELY MICHELE BACHMANN."

New York Broome County Clerk Resigns Over Same-Sex Marriage Law

She's probably had it up to here with the rim station freaks.

See New York Daily News, "N.Y. clerk Laura Fortusky resigns in protest of gay marriage; refused to sign same-sex licenses." Also at New Yorker's Family Research Foundation, "Barker Town Clerk Resigns, Rather Than Compromise Convictions."

And Forutsky's resignation letter is at New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, "First Town Clerk Announces Resignation in Light of Gay 'Marriage' Legislation":

“The Bible clearly teaches that God created marriage between male and female as a divine gift that preserves families and cultures. Since I love and follow Him, I cannot put my signature on something that is against God. Deuteronomy 10:12 says, ‘…What does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.’”

“I would be compromising my moral conscience if I participated in the licensing procedure. Therefore, I will be resigning as of July 21. I wanted you to know my position as I understand the marriage law goes into effect on July 24.”

Also at New York Times: "Settled in Albany, Gay Marriage Draws Opposition."

Mitch McConnell Isn't Selling Out Republicans

There was a lot of fire and brimstone on the right in response to McConnel's comments, but check WSJ, "Debt-Limit Harakiri":

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday he's concluded that no deal to raise the debt ceiling in return for serious spending restraint is possible with President Obama, and who can blame him? We've never thought the debt ceiling was the best leverage for a showdown over the entitlement state, and now it looks like Mr. Obama is trying to use it as a way to blame the GOP for the lousy economy.

This may have been the President's strategy all along: Take the debt-limit talks behind closed doors, make major spending cuts seem possible in the early days, but then hammer Republicans publicly as the deadline nears for refusing to raise taxes on business and "the rich."

This would explain the President's newly discovered fondness for press conferences, which he has rarely held but now rolls out before negotiating sessions. It would also explain why Mr. Obama's tax demands have escalated as the August 2 deadline nears. Yesterday he played the Grandma Card, telling CBS that seniors may not get their August retirement checks. Next he'll send home the food inspectors and stop paying the troops.

The reality is that Mr. Obama is trying to present Republicans with a Hobson's choice: Either repudiate their campaign pledge by raising taxes, or take the blame for any economic turmoil and government shutdown as the U.S. nears a debt default. In the former case Mr. Obama takes the tax issue off the table and demoralizes the tea party for 2012, and in the latter he makes Republicans share the blame for 9.2% unemployment.

This is the political context in which to understand Mr. McConnell's proposal yesterday to force Mr. Obama to take ownership of any debt-limit increase. If the President still insists on a tax increase, then Republicans will walk away from the talks.

More at that top link, and see Fred Barnes, "Republicans Introduce Plan, Go On Offensive."

VIDEO: Israel's Female Combat Hummer Operators

From the IDF:

Update on Catherine Becker O.C. Spousal Penis Attack Case

AP has video:

And at Los Angeles Times, "Woman accused of cutting off husband's penis held on $1 million bail."

And NBC LA's report is excruciatingly detailed:

When officers arrived, they found the man tied to a bed and bleeding from the groin area. He told officers the woman had given him a drug in the dinner she had made for him.

Investigators said she tied him to the bed after he fell asleep. When he awoke, the woman grabbed his penis and cut it off with a 10-inch kitchen knife, according to police. She then threw it in the garbage disposal and turned on the disposal, police said.

The 51-year-old man was hospitalized at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange. He was listed in serious condition. Pieces of the penis were taken to the hospital, but it remained unclear whether surgeons were able to reattach it.

PREVIOUSLY: "Garden Grove's Catherine Kieu Becker Accused of Cutting Off Husband's Penis and Putting It Down Garbage Disposal."

Ezra Levant Interviews Pamela Geller

Via Blazing Cat Fur:

National League Wins Baseball's Midsummer Classic

I tuned in a little late but caught Prince Fielder's home run. I didn't think that ball was gone.

At Los Angeles Times, "National League defeats American League, 5-1, in MLB All-Star Game":

How long has it been since the National League won consecutive All-Star games? The Arizona Diamondbacks did not exist the last time it happened.

However, with Prince Fielder launching a long home run on the Diamondbacks' home field and Roy Halladay setting the pitching tone with two perfect innings, the NL posted a 5-1 victory over the American League in Tuesday's All-Star game.

Fielder was selected as most valuable player of the All-Star game, the first Milwaukee Brewers player to win that honor. The victory secured home-field advantage for the NL entry in the World Series.

The Brewers, who acquired reliever Francisco Rodriguez from the New York Mets on Tuesday night, start the second half tied for first place in the NL Central.

"Everything is awesome right now," Fielder said.

O.C. Teenager Pleads Guilty in Facebook Feud That Escalated to Violence

Online debates can get pretty nasty. And around here people have crossed the line. I'm still getting threats on RACIST = REPSAC = CASPER'S blog.

That kind of craziness never turns out well. At O.C. Register, "Teen pleads guilty in Facebook stabbing."

SANTA ANA – A teenage boy from Laguna Beach has been sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to stabbing a former classmate in a feud authorities say started on Facebook.

Michael Jason Wilson, 17, avoided a possible 15-year sentence if his case had gone to trial and he was convicted of felony aggravated assault against the victim and two of his friends.

Wilson pleaded guilty Monday to felony assault with a deadly weapon with a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily harm.

As part of the plea agreement, two other felony counts of assault with the same sentencing enhancements were dismissed, according to court records.

*****

According to authorities, Wilson and a former high-school classmate had an ongoing rivalry through Facebook. The dispute included text messages and e-mails, though authorities did not disclose the nature of the argument.

Wilson agreed to meet his rival, identified only as 17-year-old Julian C., at his home. Julian C. brought along three friends who waited in a nearby car.

Wilson stabbed Julian C. in the stomach with a 12-inch knife and also slashed the hands and arms of two of Julian C.'s friends when they intervened and were able to take the knife away from Wilson, according to authorities. The third friend of Julian C. was not injured.

Crazy people.

NewsBusted: 'Casey Anthony found not guilty of murder'

Via Theo Spark:

Evelyn Taft, Political Scientist

I'm watching KCAL 9 while the CA-36 results come in, and things don't look like they're turning out too well for Craig Huey (here and here).

We'll, see. And even if Huey's cooked the night's not a total loss. I'm catching up on the local weather with KCAL's Evelyn Taft, and she's a political scientist:

A Bay Area native, Evelyn Taft first lived in Los Angeles while attending the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California. While getting her Broadcast Journalism and Political Science degrees at USC, Evelyn forecasted the weather for Annenberg’s live newscast.

Janice Hahn Alleges GOP 'Voter Suppression Activities' in 36th Congressional Runoff — UPDATED!

At Los Angeles Times, "Vote-suppression complaints filed in testy congressional election."

The California Secretary of State's special election page is here (via Dave Weigel).

Polls close at 8:00pm. Updates throughout the night.

7:00pm PST: AoSHQ links. Thanks!

8:15 pm PST: Polls have closed. Should be getting some data shortly. Meanwhile, at Politico, "CA-36: Hahn, Huey fling mud up until the end."

8:32pm PST: Robert Stacy McCain has a huge election-night roundup: "CA-36: Special Election Night HQ."

8:48 pm PST: Some results coming in with 2.7 percent of the precinct vote counted: Hahn 54.2% and Huey 45.8%.

8:52pm PST: Just saw this at Zombie's, "Janice Hahn’s last-minute sleazeball maneuvers":

And now a Memeorandum thread.

11:30pm PST: At Reuters, "Democrat takes lead in California congressional race":

A Democratic Los Angeles city councilwoman took an early lead on Tuesday in a special election to fill the liberal-leaning California congressional seat vacated by Jane Harman.

Veteran City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, whose brother James once served as Los Angeles mayor, finished first in the May 17 open primary and was favored to win the runoff race in the state's heavily Democratic 36th congressional district.

A Republican businessman with Tea Party backing had looked for an upset victory over Hahn in the district, which runs along the southern Los Angeles County coast from San Pedro to Venice. But he was falling short in early results.

Hahn had 55.1 percent of the vote to 44.9 percent for Craig Huey, with 54 of 261 precincts reporting, according to figures released by the Los Angeles County Department of Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

And check the County Recorder's numbers. Huey's done.

Spain's San Fermin Festival Goes Topless

At Astute Bloggers: "NSFW PHOTOS: THE RUNNING OF THE BOOBS, ER UM I MEAN BULLS."

And a streaker gets gored after running with the bulls:

PREVIOUSLY: "Running of the Bulls."

Casey Anthony to Go Into Disguise

At the clip is Bill O'Reilly's compelling exchange with Nancy Grace from last night:

Also at RCP: "Nancy Grace: 'Somewhere Out There, The Devil Is Dancing Tonight'."

And from London's Daily Mail, "'She doesn't get how much people hate her': Casey Anthony considering disguises and a fake name after release." And at Fox News, "Casey Anthony Reportedly Plans to Use False Name, Disguises Upon Release From Jail."