'You’re a pussy. I know and you know it. If you want to delete my comments, just do it. Don’t pretend it’s because you’re adhering to some hard and fast rule out of some sense of online integrity...'

From Jeff Goldstein on Twitter last night:

Brave lefty blogger demands engagement, then deletes /leaves in moderation all products of that engagement. COURAGE! hisvorpal.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/blo…
— proteinwisdom (@proteinwisdom) April 4, 2013

You violated his comment policy, dicentra. Somehow. And your comments have been removed, as have many of mine.

So here’s the exchange we’ve been having, posted here for posterity...

Click that link for idiot's post at "His Vorpal Sword." The dude's a screenwriter for porn films? Well, no wonder he deleted the comments. The dick's getting torn to shreds at Protein Wisdom.

Doug Robert Figueroa, Student Body President at Riverside Community College, Outed as Registered Sex Offender

Saw this last night on Twitter:

Riverside college in shock after student body president revealed to be sex offender: cbsloc.al/10xPFKo
— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) April 4, 2013

There's video at the link, and see the San Bernardino Press Enterprise, "RIVERSIDE: RCC student body president is registered sex offender."

More here: "California Sex Offender Archive Record For: Doug Robert Figueroa." Well, from here on out associated student government campaigns won't be complete without the requisite Google records searches. It's a shame too. This guy looks like a diligent radical left-wing apparatchik. Amazing. And those flyers went out anonymously. Somebody wasn't about to let this criminal get a pass by the campus mobs of political correctness.

Pro-Gun Laws Gain Ground

At the Wall Street Journal, "Since Newtown Massacre, More States Ease Regulations Than Bolster Them":

President Barack Obama made another push Wednesday to build support for gun-control laws in the wake of December's mass school shooting in Connecticut. But since then, states have passed more measures expanding rather than restricting the right to carry firearms.

Arkansas eliminated prohibitions on carrying firearms in churches and on college campuses. South Dakota authorized school boards to arm teachers. Tennessee passed a law allowing workers to bring guns to work and store them in their vehicles, even if their employer objects. Kentucky shortened the process for obtaining licenses to carry a concealed gun.

Those laws, along with the long odds for major federal gun-control legislation, show how the march toward expanded gun rights in recent years has hardly slowed since Mr. Obama pledged to use the "full force" of his office to tighten limits after 20 children and six adult staffers were killed at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

This year, five states have passed seven laws that strengthen gun restrictions, while 10 states have passed 17 laws that weaken them, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which tracks and promotes gun-control laws.

Gun-control advocates have scored some victories. In New York and Colorado, which was the site of a movie-theater shooting last July that left 12 dead, new laws require background checks for all firearm sales and limit the size of ammunition magazines. Connecticut lawmakers Wednesday were debating legislation to expand the state's ban on certain semiautomatic weapons and require background checks for all firearm sales, among other restrictions. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, has said he would sign such a measure.

Kristin Goss, a Duke University professor of public policy who supports gun-control legislation, said these measures are more sweeping than the gun-rights expansions in other states, which she called "technical and incremental."

Still, gun-control bills have faltered in Congress and other states, while pro-gun-rights bills move along elsewhere. On Tuesday, an Indiana House committee passed a bill that would require an armed staffer in every school.

Actually, those gun-control "victories" are already backfiring, at Instapundit, "FOR ANDREW CUOMO, A HASTY LAW IS IN TROUBLE ALREADY," and "HASTE MAKES WASTE — AND ANDREW CUOMO LOOKS STUPID: Cuomo’s 7-Bullet Limit to Be Suspended Indefinitely, Skelos Says."

Also out of Colorado, "Just days after Colorado Governor Hickenlooper signed them into law, new gun control measures are being declared by state sheriffs to be unenforceable due to ambiguities and constitutional concerns. And businesses are fleeing the state, at Denver Business Journal, "HiViz intends to follow Magpul's example, leave Colorado."

Yeah, those are some most excellent victories!

Yay idiot progs! Keep winning those gun control victories!

White Privilege Wristbands

This isn't like George Will. He's more of a high-brow wonky conservative, with ample Burkean sensibilities. He doesn't often deign to debunk the more common fare of the blogosphere, but  it turns out the left's program of totalitarian propaganda is too much even for Washington's establishment conservatives to ignore. See, "Schools Push Curriculum of Propaganda":

The real vocation of some people entrusted with delivering primary and secondary education is to validate this proposition: The three R’s — formerly reading, ’riting and ’rithmetic — now are racism, reproduction and recycling. Especially racism. Consider Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction. It evidently considers “instruction” synonymous with “propaganda,” which in the patois of progressivism is called “consciousness-raising.”

Wisconsin’s DPI, in collaboration with the Orwellian-named federal program VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America; the “volunteers” are paid), urged white students to wear white wristbands “as a reminder about your privilege, and as a personal commitment to explain why you wear the wristband.” A flyer that was on the DPI Web site and distributed at a DPI-VISTA training class urged whites to “put a note on your mirror or computer screen as a reminder to think about privilege,” to “make a daily list of the ways privilege played out” and to conduct an “internal dialogue” asking questions such as “How do I make myself comfortable with privilege?” and “What am I doing today to undo my privilege?”

After criticism erupted, the DPI removed the flyer from its Web site and posted a dishonest statement claiming that the wristbands were a hoax perpetrated by conservatives. But, again, the flyer DPI posted explicitly advocated the wristbands. And Wisconsin’s taxpayer-funded indoctrination continues, funded by more than Wisconsin taxpayers.

In Delavan-Darien High School’s “American Diversity” curriculum, students were urged to verify white privilege by visiting a Wal-Mart toy section and counting the white and black dolls. After objections, the school district is reconsidering this curriculum.

Such distractions from the study of calculus and literature are encouraged by CREATE Wisconsin (the acronym stands for Culturally Responsive Education for All: Training and Enhancement), which is funded with federal tax dollars from IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The disability being rectified here is, presumably, the handicap of insufficient guilt — arising from false consciousness — about white privilege.

There's more at the link.

And being Wisconsin, such indoctrination didn't escape the watchful eye of Ann Althouse, although it took George Will to nudge her toward blogging it: "George Will considers Wisconsin's Department of Public Propaganda."

A quick search turned up this graphic below from 2006, apparently recycled for Wisconsin's Department of Education. So much for originality. The progs don't require much thinking --- they just toe the party line, again, and again, and again! And hey, "Find a person of color who is willing to hold you accountable for addressing privilege." Yes, idiot progressive readers of American Power. I'm holding you racists accountable!

Spending the Night at Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula

My wife had a free night and we're all off this week for the holiday.

The rooms are luxurious:

Our room faces north, overlooking Temecula's south side:

'If you look at all of Amanda Marcotte's positions and writings, isn't it rather obvious she despises men and will always...'

Well, it's been a rough week for the old anti-Catholic hate-blogger Amanda Marcotte. James Taranto has been hammering her relentlessly, and now here comes AoSHQ, "Amanda Marcotte Feels the Need to Weigh In on the High-Schooler-Who-Asked-Kate-Upton-to-Prom Controversy."

Wait, did we just go from a silly video asking Kate Upton to prom to a rape/domsteic-violence-ending-in-murder-scenario?

We sure did. That's Our Amanda (TM)!

Heidi Klum Saved Her Son and Two Nannies From Drowning in Riptide Over the Weekend

At the Los Angeles Times, "Heidi Klum calls heroic ocean rescue 'what any mother would do'."

Also at WWTDD, "Heidi Klum Did Rescue a Nanny from Drowning!"

New Center for American Progress Study on 'Gun Violence' Includes Suicides as Indicator of 'Gun Violence'

Here's the CAP report, "STUDY: States With Loose Gun Laws Have Higher Rates of Gun Violence." (At Memeorandum.)

I don't normally click the crap from CAP, but the headline is precisely the opposite of statistics cited by firearms advocates, that crime is higher in locations with aggressive gun control laws. Or, conversely, "more guns = fewer murders."

But I clicked through anyway, and my first objection is that CAP doesn't define "gun violence." What kind of gun violence are we talking about? Is gun violence being committed by people who bought firearms legally? Or what? The piece doesn't say. But it does spout a bunch of scholarly jargon about "regression," "empirical evidence," and so forth, so it sounds really awesome!

And wouldn't you know it, but the New York Times picked up on the piece as TOTALLY AUTHORITATIVE MAN! See, "Report Links High Rates of Gun Violence to Weak State Regulations."

That endorsement pretty much proves CAP's suckage, although Tom Maguire went through the Times' piece with a fine-toothed comb, "Gun Magic, Or, More Fun With Numbers at the NY Times." Tom notes that "violent" states with the "loosest" gun control laws score high with suicides as a leading indicator, such as Montana. He writes:

It will be interesting to peruse the study when it hits the intertubes. The lead tells us that low control states score high on "numerous" indicators, such as "gun homicides and suicides, firearm deaths of children, and killings of law enforcement officers". Yet I think we will find states like Montana ranking high on just one factor. The suspense mounts!

Should suicides be counted in the overall gun violence statistics? I would boldly say "No", and "Maybe". If the topic is making mental health part of a robust background check system, and denying guns to people judged to be at risk of suicide, then yes, the suicide rate is relevant. And there is evidence that the suicidal impulse can be transitory, so lack of access to something quick and decisive like a gun can have an impact on the suicide rate (1, 2, 3).

But when Obama et al start talking about gun control in terms of assault weapons and limiting magazine capacity, I think it is fair to note that the link between those factors and suicide is not firmly (or even vaguely) established. Are we facing a national crisis of suicides by people who shoot themselves sixteen time and then bleed out? I missed that report.

More at the link.

The depraved gun-grabbing left will stop at nothing to push their un-American gun control agenda. It's truly evil. Seriously. Un-American and evil.

'I've Been to the Mountaintop' — Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Santitation Workers Speech Was 45 Years Ago Today

King spoke on April 3, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. The Wikipedia entry is here. He was assassinated the next day. I showed this clip during my classes on civil rights a couple of weeks ago. One of my students, a conservative who is Vietnamese, told me that watching it almost brought her to tears.

PREVIOUSLY: "Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Easter Epistle."

Hey Idiot Progs, How's It Feel Getting Smoked on Gun Control by a 15-Year-Old Young Lady?

At Independent Review, "MUST SEE: 15-Year Old Girl Smokes Gun Control Arguments."

Topless Jihad Day

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Holy Smokes I Almost Forgot! Today Is Topless Jihad Day! Viva Titslamism! Free Amina!"

Background at Vlad Tepes: "Tunisian muslims want woman severely punished who showed her breasts on Facebook."

ADDED: From Instapundit, "BARE BREASTS AGAINST ISLAMISM: Femen Stage “Topless Jihad.” (NSFW)."

Ben Howe Slams Tea Party Film at Reviled BuzzFeed

I saw this controversy yesterday on Twitter, where Jimmie Bise was refusing to even read Howe's essay at BuzzFeed.

See John Nolte, at Big Hollywood, "RedState's Ben Howe Rips Tea Party Film On Pages of BuzzFeed."

@jimmiebjr you won't read it because it's on BuzzFeed? And you wonder why we're labeled 'closed minded'.@benhowe
— Tracy Lee (@RememberComeNov) April 2, 2013

More from John Nolte, "An Open Offer to Ben Howe's Defenders."

Here's the BuzzFeed essay, "Another Terrible Conservative Movie."

Apple Preps iPhones

At the Wall Street Journal, "Apple to Begin iPhone Production This Quarter":

Apple Inc. plans to begin production of a refreshed iPhone similar in size and shape to its current one in the second quarter of the year, according to people familiar with the device's production, teeing up a possible summer launch for the next version of its flagship device.

At the same time, Apple continues to work with its manufacturing partners in Asia on a less expensive iPhone that could be launched as soon as the second half of this year, these people said. The four-inch device likely will use a different casing from the higher-end iPhone. Apple has been working on different color shells for the phone but its plans remain unclear.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that the company was working on a less expensive iPhone that could go on sale as soon as this year. Analysts have said they expect Apple to launch its next iPhone around the summer.

The two devices reflect new pressures on Apple. The Cupertino, Calif., company has long commanded unique premiums for the iPhone, but consumer demand for cheaper products is spiking. A flood of smartphone entrants and the rise of Samsung Electronics Co. have commoditized the market, squeezing margins and dividing profits among an array of devices.

"There isn't really any major differentiator between the players at this phase," said Neil Mawston, an analyst at research firm Strategy Analytics. He said to cope, Apple needs to take a page from Samsung and launch more products faster.

"The panacea is to transform the industry with a revolutionary design," Mr. Mawston said. Until then "you have to do the traditional business school implementations like manage costs and move quicker than rivals."

I'm really impressed with my iPhone. It'll be interesting to see how the product improves.

More at that top link.

This Is Columbia University

From David Horowitz, at National Review:

People who ask how it is possible that a convicted killer — a participant in a failed plot to blow up a social dance attended by 18-year-old draftees and their dates; a murderess who abetted the cold-blooded massacre of three law-enforcement officers, including the first African-American on the Nyack police force; a woman whose actions left nine children fatherless and who has shown no genuine remorse for that — should be hired as an adjunct professor at an elite school like Columbia University haven’t been paying attention to what’s happened to our educational system from kindergarten to the university level, which has long been under the academic thumb of a Left that is comfortable supporting Islamic supremacists and anti-American terrorists both at home and abroad. After all, it was at Columbia that, in the wake of 9/11, Professor Nicholas De Genova told 3,000 Columbia protesters against America’s war on terror that he wished for “a million Mogadishus” and that a peaceful world would have no place for America.

The prestige of Columbia derives from its scientific and professional divisions (Social Work and Education excepted), in which traditional standards drawn from the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution and including two sides to controversial questions are still observed. Over the past several decades, the liberal-arts divisions and the aforementioned professional schools have reverted to their religious origins, except that the doctrines being rammed down students’ throats without the benefit of opposing views are Marxist rather than Christian.

Continue reading.

Thumping: Bill O'Reilly Blows Up at Laura Ingraham

Over the top bluster. That's O'Reilly's schtick. And I think Ingraham's got a good point too. (Via Memeorandum.)

Mick and Mairead Philpott Guilty of Manslaughter in Deaths of Children

Also guilty was friend Paul Mosley. But the Philpotts were despicable welfare dependency cases.

At London's Daily Mail, "Vile product of Welfare UK: Man who bred 17 babies by five women to milk benefits system is guilty of killing six of them."

More:

* "Michael Philpott is a perfect parable for our age, writes A.N. WILSON: His story shows the pervasiveness of evil born out of welfare dependency."

* "Group sex on a snooker table, dogging and a girlfriend who shared his marital home: The sordid sex life of 'manipulative' Mick Philpott and his wife Mairead."

And see Telegraph UK, "Lies behind death fire couple's mask of grief," and "Derby fire: Sex-obsessed Philpott lived tawdry lifestyle."

Shooters Were Dems

Via Twitter:

Shooters were liberals /Dems. Hmm...? #tcot #tgdn twitter.com/JamieLee0817/s…
— Jamie (@JamieLee0817) April 3, 2013

RELATED: At London's Daily Mail, "Revealed: The never-before-seen photo of Newtown killer Adam Lanza and the college records which show he refused to identify his own gender." I don't see anything on Lanza's party registration, but he was not a member of the NRA.

Dana Loesch Destroys Liberal Leslie Marshall on Hannity's Show

Ms. Marshall basically conceded the whole debate to Dana Loesch. I mean really. The left's got nothing on this. All they can do is pray for another Newtown, as some have been pointing out on Twitter. Think about that. All the left can do is hope that more babies will die, or else they won't get their confiscation program passed.

RELATED: At New York Business Journal, "Connecticut set to pass landmark gun law." And the Washington Post, "Obama planning to visit Connecticut Monday to step up pressure on Congress to pass gun control."

Project Veritas: 'Act Against Arms'

I need more information about this production, especially the line about the Project Veritas activist's daughter being shot and killed at 4 years old. That has to be true or the investigation's in bad faith. You can't lie to people to get them to sign a petition. Otherwise, it's yet another outstanding illustration of how fundamental hypocrisy is to the radical left's ideological program. Hypocrisy and lies. That's all the left has. People just need to see through it.

See: "Hypocrites in Hollywood Want Guns Confiscated, But Won’t Remove Them From Their Own Violent Films."

NIMBY Progressives: 'Green' Marin Rejects Affordable Housing for Immigrant Workers

Because doing good for social justice is a-okay, as long as there's no impact on the lefty do-gooders' bottom line.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Affordable housing is again a red flag in 'green' Marin County":

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — After George Lucas abandoned plans to build a movie studio along a woodsy road in Marin County, he complained about the permitting process in a place so environmentally friendly that hybrid-car ownership is four times the state average.

His next move, some here say, was payback for what Lucas described in a written statement as the "bitterness and anger" expressed by his neighbors.

The creator of "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" is working with a local foundation that hopes to build hundreds of units of affordable housing on a former dairy farm called Grady Ranch, where his studio would have risen.

Now Marin County is squirming at that prospect — and it is not a pretty sight.

The issue of affordable housing in California's wealthiest county has always brought its "green" lifestyle and liberal social leanings into conflict. No Bay Area county has more protected open space — or fewer workers who can afford to live anywhere near their jobs.

At a recent planning commission hearing, where possible sites for subsidized housing were discussed, nearly all the heated testimony had some version of: "I'm all for affordable housing, but …"

Nine days later, protesters wearing "End Apartheid in Marin County" buttons demanded that officials do something to help low-income workers find housing in a place where the median home price is $650,000 and 60% of the workforce lives somewhere else.

The irony is not lost on Thomas Peters, president of the Marin Community Foundation, the philanthropy that is collaborating with the filmmaker to build along Lucas Valley Road. The region's environmentally conscious lifestyle, he said, is built on the long commutes of low-paid workers whose cars choke Highway 101 to the point that "you can literally see the CO2 rising."

"The community, to some degree, has been lulled by success in its 40-year-old determination to really protect the open spaces," Peters said. But "it is not sustainable to hold that kind of misperception that this is all beautiful and everything can stay as it is."

With the Golden Gate Bridge as its front door and Point Reyes National Seashore in the backyard, Marin County is blessed with some of California's most breathtaking vistas. Indeed, 84% of its land is protected as tideland, open space, parkland, agricultural preserves and watershed.

In an effort to address climate change and cut greenhouse gas emissions, the county in 2010 launched California's first so-called community choice energy program. Marin Clean Energy purchases power for its customers from renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydroelectric projects.

But Marin is near the back of the pack in the nine-county Bay Area region when it comes to absorbing predicted population growth — and is the most unwilling, said Ezra Rapport, executive director of the Assn. of Bay Area Governments.

We see story after story of leftist hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy. It's ridiculous. Extremely affluent and cloistered in environmental smugness, these people couldn't care less about immigrant workers or clean air, if ameliorating such would impair their lavish lifestyles.

These people are so pampered you'd think Occupy Wall Street would be having a field day over there. Sheesh. Makes you want to puke.

Continue reading.