VIDEO: Kate Upton at MLB Celebrity Softball Game 2011

More loveliness, and a little more upbeat after all the Leiby Kletzky blogging:

VIDEO: Leiby Kletzky Funeral

Via New York Daily News:

Also at NYDN: "Butcher of Brooklyn Levi Aron admits how he killed 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky in chilling confession."

PREVIOUSLY:

* "Reassessment After Leiby Kletzky Murder."

* "Levi Aron Charged in Kletzky Murder Case."

* "Leiby Kletzky."

Reassessment After Leiby Kletzky Murder

I'm upset by the murder of Leiby Kletzky.

We've had an empty nest all week. Our boys have been visiting relatives in Fresno. They'll be back today, but we've missed them. Sure, the downtime from the kids has been nice. The house is clean as a whistle. We had an open house on Sunday. My wife and I detailed everything. Here's the kitchen yesterday afternoon. A few items on the counter, but there's no usual mess from a full day of family cooking and hanging out, with clothes and toys strewn all about:

My wife hadn't heard of Leiby's death. I mentioned it to her when we went out last night to Yogurt Land. She reminded me of the report over the 4th of July weekend of the 6-year-old boy who was allegedly raped after his mother let him use the restroom alone at Rio Hondo Park in Pico Rivera. It looks like a nice park. No doubt the mom felt safe. In Brooklyn, families have to be asking questions, so many questions. As the New York Times reported earlier:

Suddenly, an Orthodox Jewish community that had blanketed streets and subway stations with missing-child posters, that had promised a six-figure reward, had to face the devastating reality: Leiby was dead, and the suspect was also Jewish, living not far away. His death also forced parents, not just in Borough Park but across the city, to wonder, to speculate, to second-guess themselves: Was it one of those headline-grabbing tragedies that could have been avoided? When is a child ready to go it alone, anyway?

My wife and I agree that our youngest son, who's almost 10, is nowhere near ready to "go it alone," so to speak. And my wife worries about our high-schooler, who walks by himself to and from school. We live in the Irvine Unified School District, and it's safe here. But no need to get a false sense of security. No one can predict when a crime might take place, and when one does people ask, "How could this have happened"? Well, yeah. How? But it's too late by then. The Wall Street Journal had something on this yesterday, "After Leiby Kletzky Murder, Urging Parents to Keep Calm." It's an interview with Hara Estroff Marano of Psychology Today. I can't imagine how this is reassuring:

The Wall Street Journal: Most parents’ first reaction to a story like this is to reassess–and in many cases, ratchet back–the independence they give their kids. What should be guiding their thinking right now?

Hara Estroff Marano: The very fact that this is such a rare event should get some consideration in their mind. One reason people are talking about it is because it’s so strikingly unusual. It’s within a particular community… this is a very insolated incident. I don’t know there are really lessons for outsiders here at all, because we don’t yet know all the details. So any reassessment should focus on the rarity of the event. This is just not something that’s likely to happen very often.

The first reaction is ‘oh my god I can’t let my kid walk down the street.’ No, look at the situation. Instead of saying ‘no you can’t cross the street,’ you say, ‘here, I’ll watch you cross the street’ and watch them a few times, then let them do it alone.

Keep reading.

It's sounds so logical and reasonable. Whereas fears and love aren't. I think parents need to go with their instincts, especially if they've got young kids. A couple more years of hovering ain't gonna harm a child. Frankly, in this day and age, I think families let kids off the leash a bit too early anyway.

Amazon to Battle Apple iPad With Tablet

At Wall Street Journal:

Amazon.com Inc. has battled Apple Inc. over digital books, digital music and mobile applications. Now the two companies are taking their clash to another front: the tablet market.

Amazon plans to release a tablet computer by October, people familiar with the matter said, intensifying its rivalry with Apple's iPad

While Amazon has long offered digital content on its website, it has lacked much of the hardware to go with it. Now the Seattle company hopes customers will use its tablet to buy and rent that content, said people familiar with its thinking.
An Amazon spokesman didn't respond to requests for comment.

Amazon's looming entry into the tablet market, which Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has hinted at in his appearances this year, is the latest example of how technology companies, once focused on a particular segment of the industry, are increasingly jostling one another on multiple fronts.

Amazon's sure becoming a major player all around. RTWT.

Stratfor's Reva Bhalla on Yesterday's Mumbai Bombings

Reva Bhalla is interviewed at the Dylan Ratigan show. She's Director of Analysis at Stratfor. It's good:

RELATED: At Los Angeles Times, "Relief and worry after slaying of Hamid Karzai's half brother."

Ann Coulter: ' McConnell Schools Obama on Debt'

Well, here's another prominent conservative backing the Senate Minority Leader ... Ann Couter at Human Events:

Democrats don't want to cut any government spending programs, not now, not ever. The country is on a high-speed bullet train to bankruptcy (the only kind of bullets liberals approve of), and the Democrats' motto is: Spend! Spend! Spend!

Democrats are at an advantage in the "should the U.S. go bankrupt or not?" debate because, based on their economic policies so far, they obviously favor bankruptcy.

This allows them to sit back and demand that Republicans propose all the spending cuts and then turn around and scream that Republicans have declared war on the poor and disadvantaged.

It's a nice trick, especially considering Republicans control only the House.

Meanwhile, the Democrats control all other branches of our government: the Senate, the White House, and The New York Times op/ed page. What's their plan?

Their plan is to keep spending, while blaming tax breaks for corporate jets for the entire $14.3 trillion deficit. The Democrats will never suggest any cuts to a budget that has put the country another $4 trillion in debt only since Obama became president.

She's funny. More here.

Amazon Wants Voter Referendum to Decide Online Sales Tax

At Los Angeles Times, "Amazon aims to have voters decide on sales-tax law."

I hate government by ballot box, although this one's a referendum rather than initiative, so what the heck? Besides, I miss running Amazon at the blog, and Governor Brown's a blithering idiot.

Midweek Rule 5

Image via Theo Spark, "Wednesday Wenches..."

And on the same wavelength, Randy's Roundtable, "Midweek Rule 5 Break - Katie Green."

And check out Eye of Polyphemus, and just keep scrolling. Also, Bob Belvedere, "Rule 5 Saturday: Denise Van Outen."

More, at American Perspective, Maggie's Notebook and Zilla of the Resistance.

Don't miss: Astute Bloggers, Blazing Cat Fur, Bob Belvedere, CSPT, Dan Collins, Doug Ross, Gator Doug, Irish Cicero, Left Coast Rebel, Mind-Numbed Robot, Legal Insurrection, Lonely Conservative, PA Pundits International, PACNW Righty, Pirate's Cove, Proof Positive, Saberpoint, Snooper, WyBlog, The Western Experience, and Zion's Trumpet.

And my friends Marathon Pundit and Marooned in Marin.

Drop your links in the comments!

Women in Israel's Military

From the IDF, a follow-up from yesterday:

Postal Workers Union Won't Take Down 'Misleading' Ad

At Daily Caller, "Issa calls on Postal Workers Union to stop running ‘misleading ad’ about USPS financial situation," and Fox News, "Postal Union Refuses to Pull Ad After Issa Calls Funding Claim 'Misleading'":

USPS is sometimes thought of as a "government corporation," but it's more accurately a gargantuan bureaucratic organization that can't go out of business. See CNS, "U.S. Postal Service Lost Record $8.5 Billion in 2010."

RELATED: "Rural America feels the sting of post office closings." And "Small Spokane County town fighting for post office‎," and "Aldermen opposed to losing downtown post office."

Obama Bails on Debt Talks

Well, the news you've all been waiting for!

At Los Angeles Times, "Obama ends tense debt talks with a warning":

Reporting from Washington— President Obama abruptly left debt negotiations with congressional leaders Wednesday at the White House when a top Republican said there was no longer time to engage in the large-scale deficit reduction discussions the White House is now seeking as part of a vote to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

The flare-up came at the end of the nearly two-hour session during which House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told the president that Congress should instead consider a series of debt ceiling votes based on spending cuts that already have been identified. Talks could then continue to identify additional cuts for subsequent votes, he said.

Republicans have refused Democrats' call for taxes on the wealthy. The president responded by ending the meeting, sources said.

"I suggested we were so far apart I didn't see in the time before us how we get to where he wants us to be," Cantor told reporters after the meeting.

Obama warned Cantor not to set such an ultimatum, and according to congressional and administration aides repeated his vow to veto legislation that would extend the debt ceiling only for a short period.

"The president told me, 'Eric, don't call my bluff. I'm going to take this to the American people,' " Cantor said.

Aides described it as the tensest meeting yet in the months of discussions, with the president at one point accusing both sides of posturing.

More at the link above. And at National Review, "Obama ‘Abruptly’ Walks Out of Debt Talks."

BONUS: Also at Politico, "No yelling at Obama today." And the segment's a little after 20 minutes:

Mila Kunis a Conservative Hottie!

Argues David Swindle, at Pajamas Media, "Mila Kunis on Casual Sex: ‘It’s like communism — good in theory, in execution it fails’."

PREVIOUSLY: "Mila Kunis GQ Photoshoot August 2011."

Levi Aron Charged in Kletzky Murder Case

At Wall Street Journal, "Missing Brooklyn Boy Found Dead: 8-Year-Old Was Victim of 'Totally Random' Abduction":

A frantic two-day search for a missing 8-year-old Brooklyn boy ended Wednesday with the grim discovery of his dismembered body, the victim of what authorities called a "totally random" abduction by a stranger.

The hunt for Leiby Kletzky, who disappeared Monday after he left his day camp in Borough Park to meet his family, led detectives to the cluttered attic apartment of Levi Aron just after 2 a.m. Wednesday.

Asked where the boy was, Mr. Aron nodded in the direction of the kitchen, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

They encountered a macabre scene: stained towels stuffed in a black garbage bag, blood smears on the refrigerator handle and three large carving knives and a cutting board inside. Inside the freezer, detectives found the boy's feet in a plastic bag, a law-enforcement official said.

Mr. Kelly said the 35-year-old Mr. Aron, who has no criminal record other than a summons for a minor infraction, "made statements implicating himself in the death of Leiby Kletzky."

Mr. Aron was charged with murder Wednesday evening. A lawyer for Mr. Aron couldn't be reached for comment.

I'm still shocked at how unbelievably sad this story is. As it notes further down at the report:

On Wednesday, neighbors gathered in front of the Kletzkys' red-brick apartment building. Many had helped search for the missing boy.

"I don't think the Kletzkys had an enemy in this world," said Shmuel Eckstein, a friend of the family. He said the boy's father made a living driving a passenger van. In the summer, he would drive back and forth to the Catskills.

"Leiby was an angel," he said.

I'll say. And Leiby's parents will never forgive themselves. And they'll wake up every day longing to hold their little boy. It makes you want to cry.

Also at New York Times, "Arrest Made in Brooklyn Killing of Leiby Kletsky," and "Thousands Mourn Boy Killed in Brooklyn."

'Don't Let Me Down'

I've been blasting The Beatles whenever I get in the van.

And I'm learning a lot too. Here's a bit on "the rooftop concert," at Telegraph UK.

Gordon Brown Rips Into Rupert Murdoch

At Telegraph UK, "Phone hacking: Gordon Brown gets his revenge on News International."

On the day that Mr Murdoch had to abandon his bid for full control of BSkyB, Mr Brown set out to compound the agonies of the media magnate and end his influence in public life forever.

Speaking for more than half an hour to a packed Commons, Mr Brown’s condemnation of the media verged on the apoplectic, displaying a passion and anger he rarely exposed while in office ...

The sense of righteous fury Mr Brown projected, and his denunciation of New International’s sins, made clear where on the moral and spiritual scale he located himself and his newly-declared enemies.

But see Business Insider, "CNBC's Simon Hobbs: Gordon Brown is a Hypocrite and Has No One But Himself to Blame For Murdoch Hackings."

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."