Brilliant: Criminal Trying to Escape Runs Through Plate Glass in Australia

The guy's no doubt a progressive.

At Telegraph UK, "Australian bag thief runs through glass door during escape":

CCTV footage shows a bag thief in Perth running through a glass door as he attempts to escape a shopping centre.

No Fooling: Britain's Welfare Cuts Kick-In Today

Not an April Fool's joke.

At the Guardian UK, "The day Britain changes: welfare reforms and coalition cuts take effect."

A new world heaves into view this week with sweeping changes in the fields of welfare, justice, health and tax.

And the British progs are going batsh*t over the changes. Bunch of damned dependency freaks.

See Fraser Nelson, "Why are the left so angry about today’s welfare reform? Because it’s popular – and right." Also, from Ed West, "Opponents of welfare reform might win if they weren't so blinded by political correctness."

Leftists Could Push Polygamy After Same-Sex Marriage

Because once you abandon the one man, one woman standard, there is no bright line saying when to stop redefining marriage.

See William Jacobson, "“Polygamy would have to be permitted”":

Also, “it’s just bad faith to forbid the brother and sister on these putative health grounds”

The words in the title and subtitle were spoken by one of the leading thinkers and advocates in favor of gay marriage, University of Chicago Professor Martha Nussbaum, in a speech she gave at Cornell Law School in 2009 (video and discussion below).

I was reminded of those words after Dr. Benjamin Carson created a stir when, during a television interview...

More at the link.

And see John Nolte, "No Media Outrage After Sotomayor ‘Compares’ Homosexuality to Incest."

PREVIOUSLY: "Progressives Smear Dr. Benjamin Carson on Polygamy Comments Even Though Justice Sotomayor Raised Exact Same Concerns."

PLUS: "Anti-Marriage Extremist Walter James Casper III and the Unitarian Push for Polyamorous Sexual Licentiousness."

Justin Bieber Guitarist Dan Kantner Visits Auschwitz

At the Times of Israel, "'Believe' - Bieber’s guitarist tours Auschwitz."

The video's here.

That would be emotional.

Robert Stacy McCain Reports From South Carolina District 1 #SC01

See: "Bostic Campaign ‘Surging’ Before Runoff?"

Also, "Will Folks: ‘My Sacred Honor Requires Me to Endorse DCCC Fundraising Poster Boy’," and "#SC01 UPDATE: Mark Sanford Cites His Vote for DOMA in Local TV Roundtable."

Check back at McCain's for updates.

British Bikini Babe Kelly Brook: 'Helen Mirren is My Role Model...'

Some evening Rule 5.

First, an interview with the big-breasted hottie, "Helen Mirren is my role model - but not because of her acting: Kelly Brook on why she admires the Oscar-winning Dame in a bikini."

More from Bob Belvedere, "Rule 5: Kelly Brook."  Also, "Rule 5 Saturday: Jodie Gasson."

And then check over at Daley Gator, "Rule 5 Sunday."

More at the Smoking Jacket: "Lyla Ashby."

Still more at Proof Positive, "Lauren Cohan."

Also at Reaganite, "Treat Yer Peepers to 'Miss Uruguay 2012' Camila Vezzoso."

FLASHBACK: "CSPT and Rule 5 Blogging: Helen Mirren."

How to Fight the Left-Wing Hate Machine

From Conn Carroll, at the Washington Examiner:

Judging from the oral arguments in the two gay marriage cases before the Supreme Court this week, it appears the federal Defense of Marriage Act will be ruled unconstitutional on federalism grounds, and that the court will punt on California's same-sex marriage law, effectively allowing every state to define marriage as it wishes.

That is not good enough for the progressive movement. Progressives want marriage to be redefined in every state to include same-sex relationships. And they will not stop there, either. As the court was listening to oral arguments Wednesday, progressive blogger and former Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee member Chris Bowers wrote, "The step after victory in legal LGBT rights will be social ostricization of those who oppose it."

Don't think for a second that Bowers' desire to punish those who disagree with the progressive agenda is an isolated case. The Center for American Progress, or CAP, the nonprofit organization founded by President Clinton's Chief of Staff John Podesta, has also labeled anyone and everyone who opposed redefining marriage as a bigot.
Of course, the progressive stance against bigotry has nothing to do with principles and everything to do with politics. After all, less than a year ago, President Obama opposed redefining marriage. Neither CAP, nor Bowers nor any other major progressive entity was devoting resources to calling Obama a bigot. It was an election year, for Pete's sake.

CAP is not content with name-calling, either. The group has led progressive efforts to ostracize anyone who disagrees with it....

Continue reading.

Carroll cites the recent news of Chick-fil-A providing free food vouchers to homosexuals as a model, although I doubt that's going to be enough to fight the leftist hate, as I inferred with my earlier entry: "If You're Traditional, You'll Be Attacked as 'Bigoted' No Matter What."

It remains to be seen what happens. We may be in for a sustained period of reduced political liberty for opponents of SSM. But the tide could turn as public opinion shifted on abortion, so people of decency, integrity and faith ought never waiver from their core principles. Truth will win out in the end.

Alex Rodriguez Contract Hangs Over the Yankees

A big front-page story at today's New York Times, "Hitched to an Aging Star: Anatomy of a Deal, and Doubts":

Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera was convinced that Alex Rodriguez had made a colossal blunder.

Rodriguez, the Yankees’ standout third baseman, had created a public uproar and infuriated team officials by opting out of his contract, the richest in the history of baseball at the time, seemingly to pursue options with other teams.

“I told him he had to take responsibility and make it right,” Rivera said last week at spring training, recalling how he admonished his teammate in the fall of 2007 and urged him to reconcile with the Yankees. “He had to call them.”

Rivera’s stern telephone call set in motion a negotiation that led to a contract that stands as the largest ever in American sports: $275 million over 10 years. It involved the rapper Jay-Z urging his friend Rodriguez to stay in New York, Goldman Sachs executives stepping in as intermediaries to smooth the negotiations and Rodriguez flying to Tampa, Fla., to ask the Steinbrenners for forgiveness, according to interviews with nearly a dozen people with direct knowledge of Rodriguez’s negotiations.

Within two years, he helped to deliver the team’s 27th World Series title.

But now, five years into the contract, that financial commitment hangs ominously over opening day, threatening to impose itself on virtually every decision the Yankees make and severely hampering management’s ability to cope with the shortcomings of an aging roster.

As the Yankees prepare to open the 2013 season Monday — without the injured Rodriguez — the team still owes him $114 million through the end of 2017, when he will be 42.

“At the time, there was an expectation that A-Rod would be breaking all the home run records by the end of the contract, and that is exciting for the fans,” said Andrew Zimbalist, an economist at Smith College and an expert in sports business. “But now it’s eating up an enormous amount of payroll, and it has clearly become an albatross for the Yankees.”

And I'm reminded of this story from the post-season last year, "Benching of Rodriguez Prompts Questions About His Future."

An albatross alright. Bummer for the dude.

Alison Howard: Young People Know That Mom and Dad is 'Best Model for Marriage...'

Whoa!

This young lady's escaped the progressive plantation!

Also at the Catholic News Agency, "Speakers at marriage rally highlight needs of children, families."

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Easter Epistle

From David Oppenheimer, at LAT, "King's Easter epistle on civil disobedience":

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s decision to violate an injunction forbidding him to pray, sing or march in public in Birmingham, Ala. On Good Friday 1963 (which fell on April 12 that year), King led a march from the 16th Street Baptist Church (where four black children would be killed in a bombing five months later), heading toward City Hall. He was almost immediately arrested, charged with violating a court order and taken to the Birmingham jail.

As he sat in jail on Easter Sunday and the days that followed, he wrote his "Letter From Birmingham Jail" to a group of moderate white clergymen who had issued a "call to unity" to civil rights activists, urging them to pursue legal remedies rather than engage in nonviolent protests. Anyone who hasn't read King's response lately (and most of us who have) would benefit from spending a few minutes reading it this Easter weekend.

King had journeyed to Birmingham to help lead an economic boycott of segregated stores, where blacks could shop but not work or eat. As he put it, "I am in Birmingham because injustice is here," and "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

The campaign used marches, lunch counter sit-ins, pray-ins at white churches and picketing to fill the jails with nonviolent protesters. But by Holy Thursday, the campaign was faltering, with too few volunteers available to subject themselves to arrest. When on the eve of a planned Good Friday march a local court granted the city attorney's secret request for an injunction, the consequences of demonstrating soared. Protesters would be subject to long sentences for contempt of court.

On Good Friday morning, King had to decide whether to postpone the demonstration. He was expected to preside over Easter Sunday services in his own church, Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta. His lawyer warned him that if he marched, he would probably still be in jail Sunday. His father and some of his aides urged him to comply with the order and go home. "I don't know where the money [for bail] will come from," he explained to them, "but I have to make a faith act." Andrew Young later described the moment as the "beginning of [King's] true leadership."

Continue reading.

Oppenheimer makes not one mention of homosexual marriage, ostensibly the biggest civil rights issue of the day. Actually, equal opportunity for black Americans still remains America's challenge, particularly in terms of the educational system (where inner city public schools are failing our youth). And Thursday will be the 45 anniversary of Dr. King's assassination. That'd be nice if the depraved homosexuals refrained from exploiting Dr. King's memory. And be sure to read King's "Letter From Birmingham Jail."

Easter Sunday Roundup

How about something more lovely?

At Maggie's Farm, "Saturday morning links," and "Dead wood, Blue Model Churches, and celebrating a Living Easter amongst family, good old and new friends, and good food."

And at Director Blue, "Larwyn's Linx: When Men Forsake God, Tyranny Always Follows."

Also at iOWNTHEWORLD, "Happy “Spring Spheres” Hunting!" And EBL, "National Clams on the Half Shell Day."

Plus, from Blazing Cat Fur, "Must Be Easter... The Star Publishes Muslim Brotherhood Rant Against Christians, Conservative Government."

More from WyBlog, "To celebrate Good Friday the Star-Ledger editorializes religion equals bigotry."

Victory Girls, "Happy Easter from the Victory Girls!"

Still more at The Other McCain, "Obama Hasn’t ‘Evolved’ That Far … Yet." And MAinfo, "Homeland Security Demands Blind Obedience From Agents."

At Neo-Neocon, "Celebrate freedom: Passover and beyond."

And Chicks on the Right, "Here's How Google Is Recognizing Easter." And Darleen at Protein, "Compare & contrast."

At Pirate's Cove, "If All You See……is a forest dying and a river drying up because Someone Else drove a fossil fueled vehicle, you might just be a Warmist."

Also at AWD, "WASHINGTON POST: THOSE EVIL WHITE MEN ARE THE REAL PROBLEM!"

And Pat Dollard, "CRY-BABY CAN DISH IT OUT BUT CAN’T TAKE IT: JIM CARREY CONSIDERS SUING ‘BULLIES’ AT ‘FUX NEWS’ FOR ‘VICIOUSLY SLANDERING’ HIM."

More roundups and Rule 5 blogging later. Forward your blog posts and I'll get you linked up!

PHOTO CREDIT: Theo Spark, "Bedtime Totty..." Also, "Sunday Totty..."

If You're Traditional, You'll Be Attacked as 'Bigoted' No Matter What

I long ago stopped trying to be cordial with progressives online. It doesn't matter what you do or say, progressives will always adopt the fall back position that you are a bigot. Let them whine all they want. The fact is it's the left that's the disgustingly bigoted and racist, which is made even worse by the progressive hypocrisy.

Here's an interesting post at the communist Crooked Timber, from idiot John Holbo, "Another Pro Same-Sex Marriage Argument."

Defenders of ‘traditional marriage’ insist 1) that their position is, well … traditional; wisdom of the Judeo-Christian tradition, the history of Western Civilization, etc. etc.; 2) they are not bigots. They are tolerant of homosexuality, and the rights of homosexuals, etc. etc. Maybe they watch the occasional episode of “Will and Grace”, in syndication (even if they didn’t watch it back when it started.) They are careful to distance themselves from those Westboro Baptist Church lunatics, for example.

It’s gotten to the point where one of the main, mainstream arguments against same-sex marriage is that legalizing it would amount to implying that those opposing it are bigots. Since they are not just bigots (see above), anything that would make them seem like bigots must be wrong. Ergo, approving same-sex marriage would be a mistake. Certainly striking down opposition to it as ‘lacking a rational basis’ would be a gross moral insult to non-bigoted opponents of same-same marriage.

Continue reading.

You see, the "new" arguments against homosexual marriage are supposedly not bigoted, according to traditionalists. But since the so-called "new" arguments are really the same as the "old" bigoted arguments against homosexual marriage, traditionalists are still bigots just the same, or something.

The argument's not going over too well in the comments.

Either way. Folks I talk to are tolerant of homosexuality. They just don't like homosexuals re-engineering the entire culture to essentially criminalize traditional values. It's not going to get better if the Court makes a broad ruling on same-sex marriage, but we'll see.

PHOTO CREDIT: From the depraved homosexuals at Think Progress, "Why Marriage Equality Opponents Who ‘Love’ Gays Are Still Bigoted." Because no matter what you do or say, you'll still be attack as a "bigot."

Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan on 'This Week' with George Stephanopoulos

The homosexuals are getting bent out of shape, "Cardinal Dolan: Same-Sex Couples Entitled To ‘Friendship’ But Not ‘Sexual Love’ (Video)," and "NYC Cardinal Timothy Dolan On Marriage In Catholic Church: Gays And Lesbians Are 'Entitled To Friendship': Video."

And at Think Progress, "Cardinal Dolan To Gay Couples: You're Only ‘Entitled To Friendship’" (via Memeorandum).

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Easter Sunday Funnies."

Also at Reaganite, "Reaganite's Sunday Funnies." And Jill Stanek, "Stanek Sunday funnies 3-31-13."

Cartoon Credit: William Warren.

Why Homosexuality Should Nauseate You

From Lisa Grass:

Homosexuality should nauseate you as much as it would nauseate you to see a mother leave her child to die of exposure, or as it would nauseate you to see an elderly woman beaten. If it does not, you should probably be doing a self-assessment. That’s the first step, for many. The next step is to learn pity for those afflicted, even as they claim we nauseate them, and as they claim we have mental illness for believing our Christian Faith, and as they claim we are filled with hatred of people because we hate sin which scourges Jesus on the Cross.

Yeah, it should nauseate you.

Continue reading.

RELATED: "Anti-Marriage Extremist Walter James Casper III and the Unitarian Push for Polyamorous Sexual Licentiousness."

Zhang Hongbing, Communist China Red Guard Soldier During Cultural Revolution, Denounced His Mother to Military Police. She Was Executed

Here's the classic story of leftist (communist) intolerance of dissent, at the Los Angeles Times, "In China, a son haunted by the Cultural Revolution." Zhang's mother, Fang Zhongmou, broke from the party line after her daughter died of meningitis after traveling to party rallies in Beijing:

Having suffered the loss of her daughter and years of violent criticism sessions, Fang Zhongmou finally snapped one evening in 1970.

"Why is Mao creating a cult of personality?" she asked her husband and son. She threatened to tear down portraits of Mao in their house, and she suggested that China should posthumously rehabilitate Liu Shaoqi, a leading politician whom Mao had imprisoned and who died in custody in 1969.

Zhang was horrified, as was his father.

"If you attack our dearest leader Mao Tse-tung, you'll get your dog's head crushed!" Zhang told his mother, according to testimony he filed to the military court investigating his mother, and retrieved from the Beijing National Library in 2009.

When his mother refused to take back her words, the young Zhang denounced her in a note he placed under the door of an army officer who lived nearby. Zhang's father, meanwhile, fetched the military police unit charged with law enforcement in Guzhen during the Cultural Revolution.

In fury, Fang locked herself in a room and set fire to a portrait of Mao. Her husband ordered her out of the room and instructed his son to beat her. Zhang complied, striking her on the back with his fists.

A soldier brought in by Zhang's father then struck her and took her away.

County records show that Zhang's mother was found guilty of "attacking Chairman Mao Tse-tung" and executed on April 11, 1970. Zhang watched her at a mass tribunal in town that day, but did not follow her to the firing squad two hundred yards away. His father had divorced her days before the execution.

Since then, Zhang says, he has suffered from depression and has been tormented by thoughts that he violated the ancient Chinese code of filial piety.

"I abandoned my family, I stomped on them!" Zhang said. "Killing or abusing a parent in the Tang Dynasty was called 'the heinous crime.' You'd be killed!"

Yet as time went on, the remnants of his mother's family slowly reconciled with Zhang and his father.

How many died during the Cultural Revolution? How many died during the Great Leap Forward before it? Tens of millions. But today's progressives don't care. Indeed, Chairman Mao's one of the greatest icons of popular culture and leftist indoctrination. See: "Department of Education website quotes Mao Zedong."

FLASHBACK: "Mao Tse Dunn: Another Communist at Obama White House."

Generation Mooch

A great piece from Eliza Kern, at paidContent, "Generation Mooch? Why 20-somethings have a hard time paying for content":

I’m 22, and I took typing lessons in fourth grade, had computer classes on how to do Google searches and make Powerpoints in middle school, and joined Facebook when it launched in my early days of high school. Until I left for college, my family’s desktop computer was set to open to the New York Times homepage. (At the time, it was free for everyone.) My peers and I learned how to write research papers in high school by citing sources online and by not copying things from Wikipedia, and most of us read Hamlet with the assistance of Sparknotes.com. We discovered music on YouTube, and a few lucky kids got smartphones in high school, which were ubiquitous by the time we hit college.

My generation has grown up connected to the internet, and we’ve never been at a loss for finding news and information on the web — for free.

She's a good writer. And her experience is true of her generation, for the most part. She reads more widely than most students I teach, but other than that, pretty interesting.

Continue reading.

Research Dates Shroud of Turin to Era of Christ

At NYT, "Turin Shroud Going on TV, With Video From Pope."

And at Telegraph UK, "Mystery solved? Turin Shroud linked to Resurrection of Christ":

The Turin Shroud has baffled scholars through the ages but in his new book, The Sign, Thomas de Wesselow reveals a new theory linking the cloth to the Resurrection.

Also at Guardian UK, "Turin shroud makes rare appearance on TV amid claims that it is not a forgery."

Femen Tunisia Hacked

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Die sluts, prostitutes from Israel!"

More at London's Daily Mail, "'Stone her to death': Tunisian preacher demands protester, 19, is executed for posting topless pictures on Facebook."

Oh Darn: Canada's Experimental Lakes Area to Close

What a terrible blow --- terrible! --- to climate science.

Here's Stephen Bede Scharper whining over at the Toronto Star, "Closure of Experimental Lakes Area part of assault on science."