Libyan Rebels March on Tripoli: Reports of Gaddafi's Son Captured; UPDATE!! Muammar Gaddafi Flees to Algeria!; Breaking: Gaddafi in Hiding!

Allahpundit has a big report, "Breaking: The end of Qaddafi? Update: Qaddafi shot dead? Update: Or not; Update: Qaddafi’s son captured."

And you gotta love this video, with the Libyan news anchorwoman brandishing a gun and pledging to die for the regime:

See also Robert Stacy McCain, "Qaddafi Cornered as Rebels Attack Tripoli."

And the Lede has a live blog, "Latest Updates on the Battle for Tripoli":

5:36 P.M. Rebels Claim They 'Control Most of the Capital'

Waheed Burshan, a spokesman for Libya's National Transitional Council, told Al Jazeera English a few minutes ago that the rebels have indeed captured Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, the son of the Libyan leader, and now "control most of the capital."

Also, at Telegraph UK, "Libya conflict: Final battle for Libya under way as rebels advance on Tripoli."

3:22pm PST: Fox News is reporting that Libya's Muammar Gaddafi has flown to Algeria, and also at Israel Matzav:

Israel Radio has just reported that Muammar Gadhafi has fled and the city of Tripoli has fallen. More to follow.

What happens next remains to be seen.

Britain's Sun newspaper has this, "Gaddafi hides as rebels swarm into Tripoli":

LIBYAN tyrant Colonel Gaddafi was tonight in hiding and clinging to power by his fingertips as rebel forces swarmed into the heart of Tripoli.

The major advance to within half a mile of the capital's iconic Green Square centre had former loyalists predicting the end of Gaddafi's 42-year rule was perhaps just hours away.

Downing Street called on the 'Mad Dog' dictator to step down immediately to avoid further bloodshed amid reports that his sons Seif and Mohammed had been captured by opposition fighters.

Thousands of wildly celebrating civilians lined the streets of Tripoli to welcome the rebel column; there was no resistance from Gaddafi's few remaining forces after a six-month uprising.

Carl Salonen Libelous Workplace Allegations of Child Pornography and Sexual Harassment at Long Beach City College

Below is an e-mail communication sent to my college by libelous hate-blogger Carl Salonen. This is just one of a number of communications that were sent to the offices of Eloy Oakley, President of Long Beach City College, Doug Otto, President of the Long Beach City College Board of Trustees, Dr. Jack Scott, Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, and Kamala Harris, Attorney General of California.

I previewed my thoughts on this the other day. See: "The Claims of Grievance-Bearing Identity Groups Will Always Prevail Over Fairness." As noted, Carl Salonen's entire hate program is predicated on malice and lies. As I will show later, he made allegations not to correct any perceived injustices, but to destroy a political enemy. His attacks went from what most of us online know as "flame wars" to something else entirely: A specific campaign to harm me personally, by slandering my reputation and by possibly bringing about the termination of my employment. And it was all based on lies. As I noted many times, progressives will sink to the lowest depths of utter depravity to silence and destroy those with whom they disagree and those they hate. Law Professor William Jacobson once wrote on the earlier campaigns of harassment against me:

We don’t all just have to get along. But there are certain lines which should not be crossed, and trying to disrupt another blogger’s employment crosses that line. Can we at least agree on that?

Progressive do not agree on that, because they live by the rule of the mob.

Now, first notice the subject line of Carl Salonen's e-mail: "Invasion of Privacy, Slander, Libel, and Who Knows What Else."

None of this is true:

* I have not invaded the privacy of Carl Salonen.

* I have not slandered or libeled Carl Salonen.

* And there is no "who knows what else."

Now, to continue, let's go to specifics.

First, President Oakley does not hold a Ph.D. Thus Carl gives him a backhanded insult by not doing his research before complaining, since President Oakley would no doubt like to have a Ph.D. and there's a norm in the academy that a college president have that kind of distinction. Thus the slight. Idiotic hubris gets Carl Salonen off on the wrong foot.

Second, as noted previously, I am not posting pictures or videos of underage women. There's only been one specific claim that I've blogged underage women, which was first posted (and made into an urban legend) at the disgraced academic hate blog Lawyers, Guns and Money. Specifically, with permission, I posted a picture of GSGF's blog buddy Lauren, who at the time of the photo was 21-years-old. See GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD, "Soft Power." I have never posted pictures of "underage women" at this blog. Carl Salonen only makes allegations. He provides no evidence to support them.

Third, Carl Salonen claims that I "make" students go to my blog to view "said images" of allegedly "underage women." This is one more of those false legends that's been spread around at the laughingstock hate blog Lawyers, Guns and Money. The allegation holds that I assign students to read my blog. I've never assigned students my blog (all one has to do is review course syllabi, which are the legal records for college classes). I have used my blog in the classroom, although I no longer do so, primarily because of the attack campaign launched by Lawyers, Guns and Money three or four years ago. Besides, there's a separate question of academic freedom, although I don't raise that issue because I obviously wouldn't advocate many of my blog postings for classroom consumption. At issue really is the propriety of outside complaints in and of themselves. My college at first did not take seriously Carl Salonen's complaints. Indeed, they considered them harassment from a party with no legitimate business with the college. It was after I inquired about a second set of complaints (from Lawyers, Guns and Money) that I was informed of Carl Salonen's slanders. The utter depravity and outrageousness of the allegations forced me to obtain legal counsel. I'm thankful for the help I received, although it's a disgrace that such a step was even necessary, given my rights as a professor and citizen. But recall, "The Claims of Grievance-Bearing Identity Groups Will Always Prevail Over Fairness."

Four, Carl Salonen slurs my name with sleazy insinuations, such as "I'm sure you've heard the name in other contexts that have brought less than praise to LBCC." I have a fine reputation at LBCC. I have fine relations with my colleagues and I've built longstanding mentor relationships with a large number of current and former students. I've even been featured in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, with a photograph, when I gave a talk on campus safety issues following the Virginia Tech shootings. And the college's recent panel on the "Facebook Revolution" in Egypt was extremely well received. Everything's just fine. And of course, there's never been any student legal complaints against me. Carl Salonen's mind is warped and his deeds are evil.

Fifth, Carl claims his "evidence" shows that I wrote blog posts about him while at work. While this seems to be a specific allegation, according to a review of all the blog posts in question (Carl Salonen submitted pdf copies of these) not a single post was written during either my contract teaching hours or while I was physically on campus. I often blog in the mornings from home before I leave for my classes, and Carl Salonen must have assumed that I'm in the office at 8:00am pounding away blog posts when more than likely I'm waiting to take my kid to school while reviewing the news online. Further, my college does not in fact prohibit faculty and staff from using college equipment to publish communications to social networking and communications websites. There are limits, of course, but no outright prohibition. If an issue were ever to be raised over such postings, a complaint would have to come from a student filing a formal claim or grievance. Thus, Carl Salonen falsely assumed that he could threaten my employment by claiming that I attacked him with college resources.

Sixth, and this is a doozy, Carl Salonen writes:

But that's not what concerns me. What concerns me is Dr. Douglas has apparently decided to invade the privacy of an innocent man based on the say-so of an admitted emotionally and mentally deficient woman.

My proof is attached in the various PDFs I have accumulated.

To-wit, he accuses me of being someone that I am not: TinTin, an anonymous blogger at a website called "Sadly, No!" which has on occasion mocked Dr. Douglas for factual error, erroneous conclusions and misinformation.

That's amusing to me, of course. While I am someone who has spent a great deal of time at "Sadly, No!" I am neither on the staff of "Sadly, No!" nor am I in any way shape or form associated with the people who run the site.

Where to begin? Notice the lie, for one thing: If my blogging included allegedly underage girls and allegedly making my students read those postings didn't concern Carl Salonen, he wouldn't have filed a complaint in the first place. He long ago slandered me on Twitter as a "child pornographer" and he obviously wanted to get those allegations spread all the way across California's educational system. That's how vicious smears work. Moreover, I never invaded the privacy of an "innocent" man. Information about Carl Salonen is posted all over the web. He applied for a trademark for an apparel line called "Young & Hung" and the listings are available to anyone on Google. And of course his Facebook and Twitter pages are there for all to see as well (he's taken down his Facebook page, however). I've never contacted Carl Salonen's place of employment. Indeed, I wouldn't even know his employer's contact information had Carl Salonen not filed his malicious complaints against me. In sum, everything I've posted or screencapped was available online for anyone to access. There is no expectation of privacy in those circumstances. Carl Salonen's like a bleating pig, whining about harms that exist only in his hate-filled imagination. And note too the lies about the "say-so of an admitted emotionally and mentally deficient woman." That would be Amy Alkon, who wrote about Carl Salonen here: "The Attack On My Book." Whether Amy Alkon is "emotionally and mentally deficient" is irrelevant. Not only does she show that Carl Salonen did indeed attack her book with fraudulent book reviews intended to deflate sales, and hence harm her personal economic livelhood, Carl Salonen bragged about doing so, and posted the same false book reviews to the comment threads at Sadly No! I still believe that Carl Salonen is more involved with the Sadly No! blog than he is willing to acknowledge. But without evidence, all we can do is highlight that which is documented. What's troubling is not just how dishonest are these allegations and excuses in the complaints at my college, but that Carl Salonen thought that it would be fun to try to destroy a woman who he himself claims is "emotionally and mentally deficient." He would bring harm to someone who he considers physically and psychologically inferior. That puts him right up there with Josef Rudolf Mengele, and the only difference in my opinion is that Carl Salonen hasn't had the chance to kill those whom he has targeted. I have no doubt that he's capable of that scale of evil. He's a sociopath. Given real power I shudder to think of the holocaust of hate he would attempt to bring about.

In any case, read the text below for further review of the allegations. Carl is right that I pulled my entries that claimed he is in fact "Tintin." I have insufficient evidence for those claims, and if Carl Salonen thought that was not enough to pull the posts, he could have filed a lawsuit against me for defamation. But again, that's not what Carl Salonen was out to achieve. I've learned a lot about Carl Salonen over the last few months, and he's not one to back off from a challenge nor is he one let others have the last word. What he can't do is win anything on the merits. He can't have an honest debate because he's fundamentally dishonest.

This post is now quite long although I also promised to debunk the other e-mail complaints that were submitted. And you don't want to miss this. Carl Salonen had the extreme temerity to threaten Long Beach City College President Eloy Oakley. I'll have that later.

*****

-----Original Message-----
From: carlsalonen
To: eoakley
Sent: Mon, May 16, 2011 3:20 pm
Subject: Invasion of Privacy, Slander, Libel, and Who Knows What Else.

Dear Dr. Oakley,

I trust this letter finds you well. I'm fairly sure it will not leave you that way, sadly.

You have on staff an associate professor Donald Douglas. This is his university website: http://webenhanced.lbcc.edu/polscdd/polsc1dkd/

This is his personal blog: http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/

It seems Dr. Douglas has been rather busy lately, posting photographs and videos of possibly underage women in various states of undress (and of course, making his students go to his blog, thus viewing said images).

I'm sure you've heard the name in other contexts that have brought less than praise to LBCC.

You'll note with interest, I'm sure, the time stamps on his posts at his personal blog. Many if not most appear to occur during academic hours.

But that's not what concerns me. What concerns me is Dr. Douglas has apparently decided to invade the privacy of an innocent man based on the say-so of an admitted emotionally and mentally deficient woman.

My proof is attached in the various PDFs I have accumulated.

To-wit, he accuses me of being someone that I am not: TinTin, an anonymous blogger at a website called "Sadly, No!" which has on occasion mocked Dr. Douglas for factual error, erroneous conclusions and misinformation.

That's amusing to me, of course. While I am someone who has spent a great deal of time at "Sadly, No!" I am neither on the staff of "Sadly, No!" nor am I in any way shape or form associated with the people who run the site.

So Dr. Douglas is about to embark (based on his post of today, entitled "Outing TinTin") on a witch hunt. That's the implication I draw from his comments there and in other places.

Indeed, in that post, he makes reference to having temporarily taken down other, noxious posts that involved my identity, including a screencap of my Facebook page, my photograph and other personally identifying information.

Clearly, he has some hestitation now about his actions, but I'm afraid that is not enough. Dr. Douglas has decided to share his information with his compatriots and fellow right-wing bloggers (see the PDF from Stacy McCain's site entitled "Carl Salonen & The Left Wing Trolls...")

Dr. Oakley, it is within your power to prevent at least some of this, and as Dr. Douglas is a faculty member at your university and therefore represents you to the community, I must ask you to step in and put whatever influence you can to stopping this.

It's bad enough he's chosen to invade my privacy and my quietude but you'll note he's decided to also continue in his quest to pursue yet another individual and expose him/her.

As a matter of course, I am forwarding a hard copy of this letter and all attachments to the attorney general for the state of California, Kamala D. Harris, as well as to the Board of Trustees in care of Douglas Otto. Perhaps it will reach him in time for next week's meeting.

Thank you very much for your attention and have a nice day

Signed,

Carl Salonen

Berlin Copes With Car Burning Surge

Via Google, here's the headline at Wall Street Journal, "Berlin Authorities Struggle to Stop Car Burning Surge."

BERLIN — German authorities are scrambling to contain and make sense of a surge in car torchings in the nation's capital that have raised fears that the vandalism spree could escalate into the broader, more dangerous forms of street crime that have recently hit other pockets of Europe.

Setting cars on fire has become a popular form of class protest and petty crime in recent years in Berlin, triggered in part by tensions over fast-rising rents and other forms of gentrification in this relatively poor city compared with other major German cities. But the latest spate—including some 60 cars torched in four nights—marks a sharp surge in the arson attacks. While previous car burnings were largely confined to Berlin's up-and-coming working class neighborhoods, such as Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, the latest spate has rapidly spread to its more affluent western districts.

They also come amid a wave of street violence across other parts of Europe—most notably riots in London and other U.K. cities this month—that so far has largely left Europe's largest economy relatively unscathed. Elsewhere on the Continent, violence has erupted in countries chafing under austerity measures, such as protests marred by police clashes in Spain and Greece and the deadly firebombing of an Athens bank building just over a year ago.

In Berlin, the circumstances behind the rash of car torchings appear largely local, but many residents and crime experts believe growing economic tensions within the city limits play a role. While Germany's national unemployment rate hovers around 7%, in Berlin it remains stuck at 13.5%. Meanwhile rising rents and real-estate prices are displacing more of its poorer residents from its central and increasingly trendy neighborhoods.

And checking back at that Google search, a number of articles have mystified titles, such as "Is 'Tourism Fatigue' Behind Berlin Arson Wave?", at Spiegel, and "Berliners Still Can't Work Out Who's Torching Their Luxury Cars," at Business Insider. But c'mon, there's no mystery. Business Day nails it, "Berlin’s far left vents fury on ‘fat cat’ cars":

ARSONISTS had set fire to 26 cars in Berlin in the past two days, mainly Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs and Audis, police said yesterday, bringing the number torched in the city this year to at least 138.

Far-left extremists were targeting German luxury cars, symbols of the country’s wealth and export prowess, police said.

"The arsonists want to hit what they say are ‘fat cats’," Berlin police spokesman Michael Gassen said. A special unit was investigating the fires as political crimes after the police received letters claiming responsibility that derided globalisation, gentrification and rising rents, he said. No arrests have been made in the most recent string of attacks.

The fires come amid worsening economic data and political discontent in the country. German growth, last year the motor of Europe’s recovery, almost ground to a halt in the second quarter. Gross domestic product, adjusted for seasonal effects, rose 0,1% from the first quarter, the Federal Statistics Office said this week.

Almost two years into the European debt crisis , restiveness over Germany’s contribution to rescues is weighing on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition as voters rebel over providing aid to fellow euro-zone countries.

When Germany in 2009 experienced its worst recession since the Second World War , a record 221 cars were torched.

A key factor in the unrest is that about 40% of youths are either without a high school certificate or a paying job, said Johannes Becker, head of the Centre for Conflict Studies at the University of Marburg. "In Britain … people are predisposed to jumping on the bandwagon . They see that something is up and want to be part of it, to add some fuel to the fire, as it were. With these cars in Berlin, they are in contrast consciously trying to send a message."

See? That wasn't hard. Far left groups are seizing the moment to heighten revolutionary tensions, but since it's not likely any of the European democracies are at risk of their governments being overthrown, the violence ends up being purely anarchist and nihilist. And that's all you're going to get from the progressive, neo-communist left. It's all of a piece. And it's not only murderously destructive, it's morally reprehensible. Freakin' ASFLs.

Weekly Republican Address, 8/20/11: Ohio Governor John Kasich

I really like Gov. Kasich. He's a follow-back guy on Twitter, which I thought was cool. And his presentation here just sounds like so much common sense. It's almost ridiculous how much optimism bursts forth from what he has to say. A can-do spirit is what this country needs amid endless progressive gloom-and doom and recrimination. Here's wishing Ohio luck and hopefully we'll see Kasich on the presidential campaign trail sometime in the future:

'Trannies are pretty much at the bottom of any “courage” measurement system, somewhere below wedding planner and used car salesman'

That's Kathy Shaidle, "Mentally ill castration fetishist has a newspaper column, and I don’t."

"Chromophobes."

I'm surprised RACIST = REPSAC = CASPER didn't invent that one. See, "Hate-Blogger™© W. James Casper and the Pro-Pedophilia Movement."

Is Rick Perry 'Pro-Sharia'?

I put "pro-sharia" in quotation marks since you'd have to be a Muslim extremist to favor sharia law over Western constitutionalism. But there's some big debate on Rick Perry's warm ties with the Aga Khan organization, which apparently funds some kind of Islamic awareness education program in Texas. And earlier I saw this big write-up at Bare Naked Islam, but didn't pay too much attention: "Don’t know if there’s any truth to the rumor that Rick Perry’s daughter is married to the Muslim son of the Aga Khan…but there sure is a lot of information out there about Perry’s Islamo-pandering in Texas as well as his not having a problem with construction of a tower of terror in the form of the Ground Zero Victory Mosque in NYC."

Anyway, I also saw Pamela Geller writing about all of this earlier as well, and now here's this: "PAMELA GELLER IN THE AMERICAN THINKER: SMEARING GELLER ON PERRY."

Lots of information so follow the links.

As I noted last week, Rick Perry's been under the radar and Americans are just now learning about him, which is the purpose of political campaigns. But Islam in America is largely driven by a subtererranean supremacy agenda that you won't learn about in the terror-coddling press. And if Perry turns out to be the GOP field's Grover Norquist, then I'll campaign against him aggressively.

Expect updates.

BWAHAHA!! Paul Campos, Law Professor and Asshat Blogger at Lawyers, Guns and Money, Outed as 'ScamProf'

At left, freakin' asshat Law Professor and LGM blogger Paul Campos, a.k.a ScamProf.

******

See The Tax Prof, "Anonymous Law Prof Behind Law School Scam Blog Outs Himself: Paul Campos."

And here's this, from Brian Lieter, "Update on ScamProf":

ScamProf is the failed academic who has done almost no scholarly work in the last decade, teaches the same courses and seminars year in and year out, and spends his time trying to attract public attention, sometimes under his own name, this time anonymously. These are important facts about ScamProf, since he is indeed scamming his students and his state, and his initial posts were tantamount to a confession that he's not doing his job. His colleagues, in any case, now know who he is, and are quite understandably angry, since the reckless generalizations are naturally read as commentary on them. After we called him out Monday, ScamProf pulled back a bit, and switched gears and stopped projecting his own failures on to all his professional colleagues and started actually writing about the economics of legal education...

OMG, that is harsh! Couldn't have happened to more dickish guy. Shoot, those assholes at Lawyers, Guns and Money are busting the balls off the epic dick-meter scale! Keep it up guys! And stay classy, ROTFLMFAO!!

The Tax Prof has a little roundup, and check the comments at Althouse, "'Anonymous Law Prof Behind Law School Scam Blog Outs Himself: Paul Campos'."

Prospect of Recession No Longer a Fringe View

From Tom Petruno at Los Angeles Times, "After a two-year rebound, recession risks rise":

The U.S. economy has officially been out of recession for two years, but fear of falling back into the abyss has dogged the recovery every step of the way.

Now, the prospect of recession no longer is a fringe view.

"Recession is not inevitable, but I think there's better than a 50-50 chance now," said Bill Gross, the respected investment chief at bond fund giant Pimco in Newport Beach.

Continue reading. Petruno tries heroically to look at both sides of the story. But unless we get some substantial GDP growth in the third and fourth quarters, and the unemployment rate declines, there's simply no way to put lipstick on this pig.

More Julia Lescova!

She's on Twitter!

And click on that photoshoot here.

PREVIOUSLY: "PHOTOS: Julia Lescova Guess Lingerie."

Muammar Gaddafi On Verge of Defeat

Well, I hope this is accurate. Let's finish up with this regime change business in Libya and move on. The silver lining for the Democrats is that Obama will be able to claim some kind of victory, which will help leftist talking points, since I can't think of a least well-conceived U.S. military intervention.

Anyway, at Miami Herald, "Heavy fighting surrounds Gadhafi stronghold of Tripoli." And at Telegraph UK, "Libya: Gaddafi faces final battle as fighting erupts in Tripoli." Also, at New York Times, "Heavy Fighting Reported in Tripoli; Rebels Encircle City."

Government-Funded Wealth in Washington D.C.'s Suburbs

This is pretty fascinating, especially given the national angst about taxing and spending. At WaPo, "Government dollars fuel wealth: D.C. enclaves reap rewards of contracting boom":

Millions of dollars worth of federal contracts transformed Anita Talwar from a government accounting clerk into a wealthy woman — one who can afford a $2.8 million home in the Washington suburbs with its own elevator, wine cellar and Swarovski crystal chandeliers.

Talwar, a 59-year-old immigrant from India, had no idea that she and her husband would amass a small fortune when she launched a company providing tech support to the federal government in 1987. But she shrewdly took advantage of programs for minority-owned small businesses and rode a boom in federal contracting.

By the time Talwar sold Advanced Management Technology in 2004, it had grown from a one-woman shop to a company with more than 350 employees and $100 million in annual revenue — all of it from government contracts.

Talwar’s success — and that of hundreds of other contractors like her — is a key factor driving the explosion of the region’s wealth over the last two decades. It also has exacerbated the gap between high- and low-wage workers, which is wider in the D.C. area than almost anywhere else in the United States.

Washingtonians now enjoy the highest median household income of any metropolitan area in the country, and five of the top 10 jurisdictions in America — Loudoun, Howard and Fairfax counties, and Falls Church and Fairfax City — are here, census data shows.

The signs of that wealth are on display all over, from the string of luxury boutiques such as Gucci and Tory Burch opening at Tysons Galleria to the $15 cocktails served over artisanal ice at the W Hotel in the District to the ever-larger houses rising off River Road in Potomac.

This isn't something to be proud of. The Washington Leviathan is the capitol's biggest driver of wealth, either through government contracting, or through government employment. It's a situation Mark Steyn discusses in America Alone. We've given up freedom to an ever increasing bureaucratic establishment that's the arbiter of material success. And it's self-fulfilling. If you want more people to be successful expand the size and scope of government. Somehow I think James Madison wouldn't have been pleased.

BONUS: See if you can make heads or tails of these two letters to the editor, which are critical of the posts coverage of the government-funded suburban luxury. (There's a reverse kind of outrage, not at the luxury itself, but to the possibility that such media coverage might create a backlash to government largesse.)

'Smile'

Avril Lavigne is punky:

You know that I'm a crazy bitch
[voice] I do what I want when I feel like it
All I wanna do is lose control
But you don't really give a shit
[voice] you don't let it go let it go with it
cause you're fucking crazy rock'n'roll ...

Obama Down to 35 Percent Approval in Pennsylvania

The report's at The Morning Call, "Dismal poll numbers for Obama in PA." And also from Ed Morrissey, "Obama approval rating in PA plummets to … 35%." (Via Memeorandum.) And that's a real nice analysis. Pennsylvania's a "deep-blue state" apparently, with Democrats holding a 50.9/36.9 registration advantage over Republicans late last year. This can't be good news. But then again, once this administration achieved the Obama downgrade, I said that's all she wrote. I don't think Obama will be reelected.

PHOTOS: Julia Lescova Guess Lingerie

At Fox News, "EXCLUSIVE: Julia Lescova Is New Face of GUESS Lingerie."

'Off the Liberal Plantation'

Congressman Allen West is a great guy:

And at USA Today, "Waters bites back at West for 'plantation' comments."

Liberals Progressives Aren't Funny, They're a Riot!

Actually, Ann Coulter's a riot!

Liberals Progressives love mobs because rioting and anarchy is their path to power.

Making sound proposals based on facts and logic is not their metier. Issuing impossible promises to the easily fooled is their specialty. For more on this, see "The 2012 Democratic Platform."

The entire Democratic Party is currently promising to "save" Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in their present form. According to Obama's own Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, in less than 10 years, spending on those three entitlement programs, plus servicing the national debt, will consume 92 cents of every dollar in the federal budget.

The Democrats are openly lying to voters. It is a mathematical impossibility for these programs to continue without major reform now, or complete bankruptcy later -- and not very much later.

But Democrats' real achievement has been in destroying the family, and thereby creating an endless supply of potential rioters.

Progressives Desperate to Discredit Texas Economic Success

At WSJ, "The Texas Jobs Panic: Liberals Progressives Try to Discredit the Lone Star State's Economic Success":

Rick Perry is not the subtlest politician, but he looks like Pericles next to the liberals falling over themselves to discredit job creation in Texas. We'd have thought any new jobs would be a blessing when 25 million Americans are looking for full-time work, but apparently new jobs aren't valuable jobs if they're created in a state that rejects Obamanomics.

Read it all at the link.

I touched on some of these themes earlier. See: "Rick Perry Touts Downhome Résumé."

The Two Minus One Pregnancy

I saw this at New York Times last week.

For all its successes, reproductive medicine has produced a paradox: in creating life where none seemed possible, doctors often generate more fetuses than they intend. In the mid-1980s, they devised an escape hatch to deal with these megapregnancies, terminating all but two or three fetuses to lower the risks to women and the babies they took home. But what began as an intervention for extreme medical circumstances has quietly become an option for women carrying twins. With that, pregnancy reduction shifted from a medical decision to an ethical dilemma. As science allows us to intervene more than ever at the beginning and the end of life, it outruns our ability to reach a new moral equilibrium. We still have to work out just how far we’re willing to go to construct the lives we want.

Jenny’s decision to reduce twins to a single fetus was never really in doubt. The idea of managing two infants at this point in her life terrified her. She and her husband already had grade-school-age children, and she took pride in being a good mother. She felt that twins would soak up everything she had to give, leaving nothing for her older children. Even the twins would be robbed, because, at best, she could give each one only half of her attention and, she feared, only half of her love. Jenny desperately wanted another child, but not at the risk of becoming a second-rate parent. “This is bad, but it’s not anywhere as bad as neglecting your child or not giving everything you can to the children you have,” she told me, referring to the reduction. She and her husband worked out this moral calculation on their own, and they intend to never tell anyone about it. Jenny is certain that no one, not even her closest friends, would understand, and she doesn’t want to be the object of their curiosity or feel the sting of their judgment.

This secrecy is common among women undergoing reduction to a singleton. Doctors who perform the procedure, aware of the stigma, tell patients to be cautious about revealing their decision. (All but one of the patients I spoke with insisted on anonymity.) Some patients are so afraid of being treated with disdain that they withhold this information from the obstetrician who will deliver their child.

Of course they can't tell anyone. What they've done is an abomination. There's more at that link above, but I'm reminded of the story by David French, at National Review, "‘Selective Reduction’ and Self-Indulgence."

Hate-Blogger™© W. James Casper and the Pro-Pedophilia Movement

W. James Casper = RACIST = REPSAC3 is all about live and let live and if it feels good do it. When conservatives express traditional moral values he attacks them as bigots. Like the endless progressive claims of "racism," W. James "Barebacker" Casper screams "BIGOTRY!!" like a headless horseman charging along full-steam until the word is denuded of all meaning. It's just an epithet for attacking folks because they find, say, male-on-male anal intercourse deviant and they don't believe that marriage can be defined outside of its essential meaning as biological union of man and woman for the lifelong purpose of love and regeneration of family. Same-sex partners cannot do that. And society is being forced to change the normative and legally accepted practice of marriage and turn it into something that it's not. And as we've seen in recent posts, today's truly extremist hatred and demonology is the exclusive domain of the progressive left. And W. James Casper is right up there as among the worst of the worst radical hate-bloggers in the world. No facts can get inside that warped mind. No outrage is evil enough to make W. James Casper speak up and cry, "Enough!'' Hate envelops all sense and meaning and moral right. Decency has been obliterated. Frankly, the dude's insane, so obsessed with this blog that it's consumed him. He's been warned of his perversion, and he's even admitted he can't stay away. It's a clinical derangement, no doubt. A sick stalker and hate-blogger, God help him. And while that's just sad, even worse is how badly he's being used by the netroots progressive fever swamp goons, who'd put a bullet in his head faster than sharing their last crust of bread. That's what communists do. They've driven God from their realm. Death and excoriation of the good is all that's left for them. It's pathetic.

In any case, considering that no social perversion is out of bounds for W. James Casper's sick socialist rim-station ideology, I'm putting money on it that he's down with the APA's push to legalize pedophilia. All American Blogger has a big write-up, "The Shadow Sexual Revolution – The Push To Legalize Pedophilia."

The current movement to legalize and normalize pedophilia may seem unrealistic to some. I have yet to have someone agree with me when I claim that it will be legal in the next 25-30 years. But there are many, as I have detailed here, who see pedophiles as an oppressed minority. They see the road to freedom as being the same road homosexuals marched down. The first step would be the removal of pedophilia as a mental illness, a move the APA has already considered. Then, using the research of Kinsey and others mentioned above, the move would be made to abolish the age of consent. With the seeming support of science, this could be possible and it would effectively legalize pedophilia. With the legal burden lifted, the effort would then shift to normalization and acceptance. This is done by pedophiles casting themselves as a minority, a victim of a culture that rejects them. March after march makes the sight of a fifty year old man giving a six year old boy a deep tongue kiss nothing more than a sign of America’s tolerance, regardless of who gets hurt.

There are some things we should not tolerate. The legalization and normalization of pedophilia is one of those things.

W. James Casper repeatedly claims that we shouldn't object to consenting homosexual couples engaging in any sex acts they see fit. Well, 5'll get you 10 that W. James Casper will offer the same kind of weaselly moral-free logic on the legalization of pedophilia debate. Hey, gay men knitting? Fine and dandy! Rim-station partying between CONSENTING adult homosexual extremists? No problemo!! Man-boy CONSENTING relations? Well, for Hate-Blogger™© W. James Casper, the more the merrier, right??!! Whoo hoo!! Nihilists of the world unite for some rough man-boy action!!

Think Again: War

From Joshua Goldstein, at Foreign Policy. It's a lively discussion. I like this part:

"A More Democratic World Will Be a More Peaceful One."

Not necessarily. The well-worn observation that real democracies almost never fight each other is historically correct, but it's also true that democracies have always been perfectly willing to fight non-democracies. In fact, democracy can heighten conflict by amplifying ethnic and nationalist forces, pushing leaders to appease belligerent sentiment in order to stay in power. Thomas Paine and Immanuel Kant both believed that selfish autocrats caused wars, whereas the common people, who bear the costs, would be loath to fight. But try telling that to the leaders of authoritarian China, who are struggling to hold in check, not inflame, a popular undercurrent of nationalism against Japanese and American historical enemies. Public opinion in tentatively democratic Egypt is far more hostile toward Israel than the authoritarian government of Hosni Mubarak ever was (though being hostile and actually going to war are quite different things).

Why then do democracies limit their wars to non-democracies rather than fight each other? Nobody really knows. As the University of Chicago's Charles Lipson once quipped about the notion of a democratic peace, "We know it works in practice. Now we have to see if it works in theory!" The best explanation is that of political scientists Bruce Russett and John Oneal, who argue that three elements -- democracy, economic interdependence (especially trade), and the growth of international organizations -- are mutually supportive of each other and of peace within the community of democratic countries. Democratic leaders, then, see themselves as having less to lose in going to war with autocracies.

What caught my attention is that I assign Bruce Russett and John O'Neal, "International Systems: Vicious Circles and Virtuous Circles," for my first week's readings for World Politics. It's in Russell Bova, ed., Readings on How the World Works:Current Issues in International Relations.