Don't Cross the Progressive Forces of Hatred

Mark Steyn's commentary on the left's assault on Chick-fil-A, "Don't cross the forces of tolerance."

To modify Lord Acton, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but aldermanic power corrupts all der more manically. Proco "Joe" Moreno is Alderman of the First Ward of Chicago, and last week, in a city with an Aurora-size body count every weekend, his priority was to take the municipal tire-iron to the owners of a chain of fast-food restaurants. "Because of this man's ignorance," said Alderman Moreno, "I will now be denying Chick-fil-A's permit to open a restaurant in the First Ward."

"This man's ignorance"? You mean, of the City of Chicago permit process? Zoning regulations? Health and safety ordinances? No, Alderman Moreno means "this man's ignorance" of the approved position on same-sex marriage. "This man" is Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A, and a few days earlier he had remarked that "we are very much supportive of the family – the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives" – which last part suggests he is as antipathetic to no-fault divorce and other heterosexual assaults on matrimony as he is to more recent novelties such as gay marriage. But no matter. Alderman Moreno does not allege that Chick-fil-A discriminates in its hiring practices or in its customer service. Nor does he argue that business owners should not be entitled to hold opinions: The Muppets, for example, have reacted to Mr. Cathy's observations by announcing that they're severing all ties with Chick-fil-A. Did you know that the Muppet Corporation has a position on gay marriage? Well, they do. But Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef would be permitted to open a business in the First Ward of Chicago because their opinion on gay marriage happens to coincide with Alderman Moreno's. It's his ward, you just live in it. When it comes to lunch options, he's the chicken supremo, and don't you forget it.

Continue reading.

Well, they're despicable fascists. More here.

A Homosexual Civil Union Ends in Abduction

This is interesting, at the New York Times, "Which Mother for Isabella? Civil Union Ends in an Abduction and Questions":

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Lisa A. Miller and her daughter, Isabella, started their fugitive lives here in the fall of 2009, disguised in the white scarves and long blue dresses of the Mennonites who spirited them out of the United States and adopting the aliases Sarah and Lydia.

Now 10, Isabella Miller-Jenkins has spent her last three birthdays on the run, “bouncing around the barrios of Nicaragua,” as one federal agent put it, a lively blond girl and her mother trying to blend in and elude the United States marshals who have traveled to the country in pursuit.

She can now chatter in Spanish, but her time in Nicaragua has often been lonely, those who have met her say, long on prayer but isolated. She has been told that she could be wrenched from her mother if they are caught. She has also been told that the other woman she once called “Mama,” Ms. Miller’s former partner from a civil union in Vermont that she has since renounced, cannot go to heaven because she lives in sin with women.

Isabella’s tumultuous life has embodied some of America’s bitterest culture wars — a choice, as Ms. Miller said in a courtroom plea, shortly before their desperate flight, “between two diametrically opposed worldviews on parentage and family.”

Isabella was 7 when she and Ms. Miller jumped into a car in Virginia, leaving behind their belongings and a family of pet hamsters to die without food or water. Supporters drove them to Buffalo, where they took a taxi to Canada and boarded a flight to Mexico and then Central America.

Ms. Miller, 44, is wanted by the F.B.I. and Interpol for international parental kidnapping. In their underground existence in this impoverished tropical country, she and Isabella have been helped by evangelical groups who endorse her decision to flee rather than to expose Isabella to the “homosexual lifestyle” of her other legal mother, Janet Jenkins.

In a tale filled with improbables, an Amish Mennonite sect known for simple living and avoiding politics has been drawn into the high-stakes criminal case: one of its pastors is facing trial in Vermont on Aug. 7 on charges of abetting the kidnapping.

The decade-long drama touches on some of the country’s most contentious social and legal questions, including the extension of civil union and marital rights to same-sex couples and what happens, in the courts and to children, when such unions dissolve.

In this case, the passions of any divorce were multiplied by Ms. Miller’s born-again conversion to conservative Christianity and her denouncing of lesbianism as an addiction. Ms. Miller repeatedly prevented Isabella’s court-ordered visits with Ms. Jenkins until an exasperated Vermont judge said he would transfer custody.

Man, they left the hamsters to die? That's harsh.

And it's more than an "addiction." It's a perversion. It's too bad Ms. Miller got involved in it in the first place. Things aren't likely to come out too well, no matter what happens. It'll be especially bad if the child has to grow up in that homosexual lifestyle after all. A tragedy.

Oh, and the key thing here is that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice, not an innate condition --- something that's going to rile the hate-addled progressives throughout the day.

Continue reading.

Hollywood Reflects on Film Violence in Wake of Colorado Massacre

At the Los Angeles Times, "Hollywood trying to avoid villain role in film violence."

I doubt we'll see much change in the industry. And I doubt consumers want it.

Target Launches $5 Million Campaign for Education

Target put together some excellent clips for this advertisement, which has been running throughout the Olympic Games. The amazing responses to being accepted are genuine and beautiful. They remind me of being accepted to graduate school. It's an amazing thing, a feeling of incredible accomplishment.

The press release is here.

Ryan Lochte Wins Men's 400m Individual Medley

It would have been a lot more interesting without NBC's tape delay --- the all day tape delay, seriously. I'd been reading about Phelps' collapse since morning time. But nothing really illustrates how bad it was than watching the race itself. See: "It's Ryan Lochte's time in 400 IM."

And here's Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "London Olympics: Without burning desire, Michael Phelps flames out":

LONDON — The torch wasn't exactly passed. The torch was fumbled and dropped and floating alongside the thrashing Michael Phelps before Ryan Lochte cradled it in his giant grip and sprinted to the wall.

Lochte became the best swimmer in the United States on Saturday night, but it didn't happen the way it was supposed to happen. He didn't steal the title in a dramatic duel with one of the greatest of Olympians. He casually picked it off the weary flotsam of a shrugging hero who seems less interested and more confused with every lap.

Ryan Lochte shined, but the bigger story was Michael Phelps' sinking.

Keep reading. It's a brutal commentary.

Nancy Pelosi Claims Republicans Exploiting Jews as Excuse for Tax Cuts

Truly bizarre.

At the Weekly Standard, "Pelosi: Republican Jews 'Being Exploited'."

God, that's really terrible, but typical for this brain-dead woman.

RELATED: At iOWNTHEWORLD, "Known racist, anti-Semite, to become a senior adviser to Nancy Pelosi." Well, that makes sense.

Jeff Bezos Pledges $2.5 Million in Support of Same-Sex Marriage

It's not like he doesn't have the money or anything.

At Los Angeles Times, "Jeff Bezos pledges $2.5 million to help same-sex marriage in Washington."

PREVIOUSLY: "Conservatives Block Homosexual Marriage Law in Washington State."

Kristen Stewart Cheating Scandal

This story's been developing all week, with Robert Pattinson moving out of the couple's home, at Telegraph UK: "Robert Pattinson 'leaves Kristen Stewart' after her affair."

And here's this at Radar Online, "Kristen Stewart Cheating Scandal: Rob Pattinson Wants ‘Man To Man’ Talk With Married Director":

Robert Pattinson isn't only heartbroken over his girlfriend Kristen Stewart cheating on him, he's curious about what really happened and RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned he wants to go straight to the source, Rupert Sanders.

Devastated after photos were released late Tuesday night revealing that Kristen, 22, had an affair with the married director, 41, Rob moved out of the Los Feliz home he once shared with Kristen on Thursday.

"Rob wants to have a man to man chat with Rupert to find out exactly what happened between him and Kristen," a source close to the Twilight star exclusively told RadarOnline.com.

It's a pretty sordid deal all around.

See also Daily Mail, "Kristen Stewart 'to write Rupert Sanders' wife Liberty Ross letter of apology' for 'momentary indiscretion' with director husband," and "Not so sweet and innocent: How Kristen Stewart 'took Rupert Sanders's young daughter for ice cream TWO months ago'."

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

Chicago Has Highest Murder Rate of World's 'Global Cities'

At 5 NBC Chicago, "The Deadliest Global City" (via Steve Bartin).

This is why national media hacks don't cite Chicago amid all their cries for gun control, a point that eludes idiot progressive Roy Edroso at the Village Voice.

Bob Costas Keeps Promise, Honors Israeli Athletes With Moment of Silence During Opening Ceremonies

At the Hollywood Reporter, "Bob Costas Fulfills Promise to Call Out IOC Over Refusal to Honor Munich Massacre."

He's a good man.

More at Israel Matzav, "Video: Bob Costas' moment of silence."

USS Somerset is Christened

The Somerset is the third and final Navy ship to honor those fallen on 9/11. It's named after the passengers of Flight 93 who brought the plane down in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, PA.

See the Los Angeles Times, "USS Somerset -- third and final 9/11 tribute ship -- is christened."

Flight 93, which originated in New Jersey, was the only plane that did not reach its intended target; investigators believe the terrorists were aiming for the White House or the U.S. Capitol.

“The men and women of Flight 93 … thought they were going to San Francisco to work, to play, to learn; to live their lives in peace while others guarded them,” Navy Rear Adm. David Lewis told the Associated Press. “Instead they found themselves in a war, on the front lines, in the opening battle. It was a new kind of war, one with new rules, maybe no rules at all. They had no preparation, no training, no guidance.

“And they performed superbly.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

The Left's Orwellian Assault on Chick-fil-A

From Arnold Ahlert, at FrontPage Magazine:

One of the more blatant displays of progressive thuggery is playing itself out in Boston and Chicago. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino threatened to keep fast food franchise Chick-fil-A from opening any restaurants in that city because he doesn’t want any business operating there “that discriminates against a population.” In Chicago, Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno announced that he will pursue the same course in his district for the same reason. “If you are discriminating against a segment of the community, I don’t want you in the 1st Ward,” Moreno told the Chicago Tribune. Such “tolerance” is based on an effort to deliberately mischaracterize as anti-homosexual what Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy said about traditional marriage. That mischaracterization has been aided and abetted by a media more than willing to amplify the distortion.

Continue reading.

Previously entries at the link.

Right-Wing Attack on 'You Didn't Build That' is Racist!

Yeah, well, everything's RAAAAACIST if it involves hammering "The One."

Matt Welch has the epic rebuttal, "Liberal Columnist: Obama's "black dialect" Explains Why "You didn't build that" Outrages People."

Mike Huckabee Slams Left's 'Hate Speech' on Chick-fil-A

Huckabee interviews Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage:

Previous entries are here.

RELATED: At Fox News, "Philadelphia to Consider Resolution Condemning Chick-fil-A." These people are not too smart.

Red Arrows Olympics Ceremony Flyover

This is cool.

At Telegraph UK, "Inside Red Arrows cockpit as it conducts London 2012 Olympics fly-past."

More video, inside the cockpit, here.

Sarah Palin Supports Chick-fil-A — Progressives Respond With Vile Misogynist Attacks: 'C*nt-fil-A'

William Jacboson had this earlier, at Legal Insurrection, "Sarah Palin visits Chick-fil-A, civility and new tone ensue on Twitter."

And here's the update, "Palin stops at Chick-fil-A, left responds with misogyny and sexism."

BONUS: Now we have the leftist mayor of D.C. joining the progressive hate-attacks, "Gray opposes Chick-fil-A expansion; calls it ‘hate chicken’" (via Memeorandum).

And Doug Powers has some progressive backtracking at Michelle's, "Rahm Emanuel’s office: He never said he’d block Chick-fil-A from opening here, just that their values aren’t Chicago’s" (via Memeorandum).

Fascism doesn't fly, it turns out.

Keep a spotlight on progressive hate. It's all they have.

Added: From Marooned in Marin, "Corrupt DC Mayor Attacks Chick-Fil-A As "Hate Chicken," Use 9/11 Anniversary To Promote 'Peace & Tolerance'."

Video of Hezbollah Abduction of Israeli Soldier Ehud 'Udi' Goldwasser

At the Times of Israel, "Here’s the evidence Hezbollah is a terror group, says soldier’s widow of 2006 attack footage."

Karnit Goldwasser, whose husband Ehud was killed along with fellow IDF reservist Eldad Regev by Hezbollah in the attack that sparked the Second Lebanon War in 2006, said Saturday that footage of the attack, released on Friday by Hezbollah, proves that it is a terrorist organization.

Goldwasser was speaking days after the European Union rejected an Israeli request to brand the Lebanese Shiite group a terrorist organization, saying it needed “tangible evidence” to do so. She said that the footage of the attack — which stops at the moment that Hezbollah gunmen, having crossed the border into Israel, converge on the soldiers’ stricken Hummer jeep and prepare to drag them out — constituted precisely such evidence. “If that’s not terror, what is?” she asked.

She noted that since the film is cut before Regev and Goldwasser are seen, it is not clear whether they were alive or dead when captured. “Maybe they captured them alive and killed them.”

Karnit Goldwasser added that Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah “has not seen the light of day” since the attack, and that she hoped his end would be “the same as [Osama] bin-Laden’s and Mughniyeh’s.” Imad Mughniyeh organized the cross-border attack and a series of other major Hezbollah terrorist actions. He was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.

What's interesting is how the Hezbollah forces are outfitted like army regulars, not as rag-tag terrorist irregulars. Hezbollah looks like the troops of a national military organization, which goes to tell you something about the nature of the threat to Israel along Lebanon's southern border. It's Iran's proxy army.

Neuroscience Ph.D. Program Can Be Isolating, Competitive, and Highly Demanding

At the Los Angeles Times, "Colorado suspect's field of study was rarefied and rigorous":

AURORA, Colo. — James Holmes inhabited an academic world so wondrous it could unlock the chemical code to human behavior, so complex that few outside the nation's brilliant cloister of neuroscientists could begin to comprehend it.

The graduate neuroscience program at the University of Colorado-Denver's Anschutz Medical Campus ranks among the top third of graduate programs in neuroscience — the study of the brain, its 100 billion nerve cells, and the connections among those cells that control thought and action.

"If I go to a bar and somebody asks me what I do, all I say is research," said David Cantu, who got his doctorate from the program. "If I'd tell people I was specializing in mitochondrial reactive oxygen species and how it pertains to cell deaths … people's eyes would start to glaze over."

It's the same program that Holmes, suspected of killing 12 patrons and injuring 58 at a movie theater last week, recently dropped after his first year.

Interviews with top directors of the university's graduate program, and others outside the school, provide a glimpse into the lives of those who choose such a rigorous course of study. The Colorado program has been largely shuttered to public view since Holmes' arrest July 20, a month after he announced plans to abandon his graduate studies there.

The interviews on that campus were conducted on the basis that Holmes not be discussed, but what emerges is a vivid portrait of the intense world in which the 24-year-old student lived over the last year.

In this rarefied and often high-pressure environment, students who are already near the best of their game are asked to exponentially expand their capabilities, frequently under stiff competition, and often in isolation.

Continue reading.

Holmes couldn't take the pressure, for a variety of reasons, and his academic problems seem to be the main cause of his psychological meltdown --- and the massacre.

PREVIOUSLY:

* "Suspect James Holmes Was Seeing Psychiatrist at University Before Massacre."

* "Suspect James Holmes No Easy Fit for Mass Murderer Profile."

* "Suspect James Holmes' Rapid Descent."

* "James Holmes' Academic Frustration and Social Isolation."

RELATED: The suspect's father Robert Holmes is a lead scientist at FICO with degrees from Berkeley and UCLA. He may have put a lot of pressure on James, who was adopted. See: "James Holmes Snapped After Failing Key University Exam. Couldn’t Live Up to His Brilliant Father." And "Did Colorado maniac snap after failing to meet expectations of brilliant academic father? Killer bought guns after failing key university exam."

BONUS: At WPTV News 5 (West Palm Beach), "James Holmes, theater shooting suspect: Psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Fenton had treated him in the past."

Munich and the Politics of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)

Ilya Somin has commentary, at Volokh (via Instapundit).

And see Benjamin Weinthal, at National Review, "Why Did the IOC Refuse to Honor the Munich Victims?"

PREVIOUSLY: At the Times of London, "No Munich tribute as Olympics open with dazzling ceremony."

EXTRA: At USA Today, "London Olympics pauses to honor dead Brits, not Israelis":

In the worst decision of the Opening Ceremony, the International Olympic Committee allowed one moment of silence to be held - just not the one that it should have permitted for the past 40 years.

After saying there would be no moment of silence to honor the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches who were killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the IOC permitted a video tribute to the 52 people who were killed in the suicide bombings in the London transit system the day after the city won the Games in 2005.

That was kind, and fitting, but it only served to highlight the extraordinarily bad judgment the IOC has shown in the matter of the Israelis, who were killed simply because they were Olympians living in the Olympic village...

No doubt. NBC didn't even play the terrorism tribute on U.S. television, perhaps attempting to avoid the controversy. See: "Here's the Opening Ceremony Tribute to Terrorism Victims NBC Doesn't Want You to See." (Via Memeorandum.)

London's Daily Mail is World's Most Visited Website

As regular readers know, I usually post from London's Daily Mail a couple of times a day. It's an awesome newspaper, boasting an ample pool of right-leaning articles and a ready supply of scantily-clad hotties. What more could you ask for?

Indeed, for the longest time I've been meaning to post Ed Driscoll's piece from a few months back, "Gray Lady Down: Has the London Daily Mail Overtaken the NY Times?"

Well, as the Guardian reports this morning, there's no need for that question mark. See, "Mail Online's 69% revenue growth suggests paywalls not the answer":

Been bored today? Chances are you logged into Mail Online. Seven clicks later, you remembered who you were. Mail Online is the biggest newspaper website in the world. Comscore says 6.5m unique browsers turn up daily, and as the parent company's trading statement showed today the money is beginning to roll in.

Read it all the link. But the key comparison there is to the Times of London, and now just clicking over to it we find that it's behind the paywall, which is too bad.

The Times' paywall model is probably maxed out, with little additional revenue growth expected. While at the Daily Mail growth has taken off with no limits in sight.

As for back stateside, both the New York Time and Los Angeles Times are using paywalls. I subscribe to LAT as the local paper, or I wouldn't be able to read it online otherwise. And the New York Times is prioritizing Google views, so if you cut and paste articles into your browser you can bypass the paywall, which at 10 views per month happens right away in my case.

Anyway, that's enough for now. Time to get back over to some of the hotties at Daily Mail!