The Grotesque Politicization of the Boston Bombing

From Dana Loesch, at Red State:

This isn’t journalism. This is speculation. It’s hackneyed. It’s malicious, unprofessional, and dangerous. The lack of professionalism demonstrated by the above should be enough to shame them forever from the profession, but the profession now thrives on tabloid-level “reporting.”

After a tragedy the normal person responds by falling to their knees in prayer. The compassionate person responds with concern for the affected. The professional reports the facts and differentiates between speculation and confirmation.

It is the desperate and professionally and spiritually anemic who heartlessly view tragedy as a chance to settle some imaginary score. These individuals are baselessly impugning innocent groups and in doing so, inadvertently impugn themselves and their profession.

See all Dana's examples at the link.

Also, at Twitchy, "Detective Chris Matthews speculates on tax day connection to Boston bombing," and "Michael Moore puts two and two together after Boston Marathon bombing."

Progressive ghouls. Same bullshit. Different day.

More on this later...it's going to be a major part of the story, unfortunately...

Terror at the Boston Marathon

Photos, at the Big Picture.

'That much smoke and dust suggests AMFO; Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil, with a 1lb TNT kicker. Crude but effective enough in a packed crowd, especially with the ball bearings...'

From Stormbringer, at Theo Spark's, "THE BOSTON BOMBS."

Bill Iffrig, 78-Year-Old Marathoner, With Piers Morgan on CNN

The shock waves of the blast just knocked Mr. Iffrig to the ground. I'm sure many people, like me, couldn't stop watching that moment during the replays.

PREVIOUSLY: "Deadly Terrorist Attack at Boston Marathon."

Deadly Terrorist Attack at Boston Marathon

I checked Twitter between my morning and afternoon American government classes, at about 12:25pm this afternoon. I've been checking Twitter pretty much all day since then, especially after I got out of my 12:45pm class. There's no underestimating how devastating the bombs were, even though "experts" have dismissed them as "unsophisticated." Tell that to the guy below who lost both of his legs, seen at Mediaiate on video, "Live Video From Boston Explosion Shows Man With Legs Blown Off, Official Talking About Deaths."

You can't trust media reports at this point. Maybe later. The New York Post is over the top, given the level of confirmed reports, "12 dead, nearly 50 injured after 2 explosions rock Boston Marathon, law enforcement sources confirm." That's wrong, I pray.

However, the Boston Globe is outstanding, "Live blog: Explosions in Copley Square." And check the photos, "PHOTOS: TWO EXPLOSIONS AT BOSTON MARATHON FINISH LINE."

Also at the New York Times, "Blasts at Boston Marathon Kill 3 People." (At Memeorandum.)

I'll be updating...

Marxist Melissa-Harris Perry: 'Maybe We Can Make Taxes a Bit More Like Giving to Charity...'

Boy, this lady just endlessly loves her some government!

And this is why people can't stand collectivists like this. Charitable giving is a private good. People decide on their own when and how much they can help others. Patterns of per capita giving separate the U.S. as the most generous Western democracy compared to European countries. But, astonishingly, collectivists like Harris-Perry want people to feel good giving taxes, since such coerced payments to the state will go to redistributing resources in support of the progressive collectivist agenda. I'll give it to this lady, though. She does't hide her Marxist program like so many other radical left-wingers. Morally bankrupt and evil. Yes. But as least she's transparent:

White House Exploits Newtown Mom Francine Wheeler to Push Depraved Gun-Grabbing Legislation

At Twitchy, "President Prop-aganda taps Newtown mom to push ‘gun responsibility reforms’ in weekly address."

And AWD, "FRANCINE WHEELER, I’M SORRY YOUR SON WAS MURDERED AT SANDY HOOK BUT YOU’RE BEING USED!"

And the latest on the left's outrageous gun-grabbing program at the New York Times, "Rifts in Both Parties Complicate Odds for Gun Measure."

Marxist Melissa Harris-Perry Strikes Again!

At Weasel Zippers, "MSNBC Marxist Melissa Harris-Perry: “We Need To Impinge On Individual Freedoms” For “The Common Good”…"

Hateful Anti-Semitic Ghoul Walter James Casper III Tweets Jew-Bashing Attack on Pamela Geller — and Israel!

Flashback to 2011, "Racist Walter James Casper III Doubles-Down on Endorsement of Revolutionary Anti-Semitic Occupy Wall Street":

Racist Repsac3 has a big butthurt post whining about how he's not really a racist anti-Semitic Jew-basher, despite endorsing a movement that was founded on property expropriation, revolution, and anti-Jewish and anti-Israel eliminationism.

Oh, and the anti-Semitic Hatesac denied he hates Israel.

Right.

"Not hating" Israel no doubt explains why the despicable Hatesac's tweeting out this heinous attack on Pamela Geller, which includes an endorsement of the genocidal Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions program:

Why Pamela Geller's Hate Speech Should Be Barred — But BDS Allowed jd.fo/e1hh#.UWrMDaQv… via @jdforward
— J. Casper (@repsac3) April 14, 2013

And by the way, the lies in that Forward piece are so mendacious as to border on criminal insanity. Seriously. You can't take this argument seriously, unless you're a piece of inhuman refuse like Walter James Casper III:

Pamela Geller preaches venomous hatred of Muslims. She is one of the leading voices promoting the idea of “creeping Sharia” in the United States. Claiming that Islam, as a religion, is dedicated to eradicating Jews and eventually turning all others into Muslims by whatever means necessary is the very definition of hate speech. One might oppose BDS, consider it unfairly anti-Israel, or even consider it an unjust and threatening movement. But it is not hate speech, it is a political point of view.

Lies. All of it.

Pamela Geller rejects Islamic jihad not Muslims. Indeed, she's saved Muslims from honor killings. She's the ultimate advocate for the value and protection of human life. And of course, there is no such thing as "hate speech" in the United States. All political speech is protected short of advocacy of imminent violence. If anything, it's the BDS stormtroopers who fit the "hate speech" bill, if there ever was such a thing. The BDS program is truly genocidal, calling for the complete elimination of the Jewish state through the scam of the "right of return" of "Palestinian" refugees. This is Middle East Politics 101. See the Tablet, "NY Times, MSNBC Whitewash BDS":

Omar Barghouti, one of the Brooklyn BDS panelists, is on record saying that an end to occupation and settlement would not end the call for BDS, that he opposes the two-state solution, and that the right of return is the movement’s “foremost demand.” As he put it in 2001, Israel “was Palestine, and there is no reason why it should not be renamed Palestine.”

But RTWT.

None of these facts will matter to the literally demonic Walter James Casper III. Truth is no corrective to moral depravity --- which is why he was banned from this blog ages ago.

Pamela Geller Stands for Freedom at Chabad of Great Neck

My good friend Norman Gersman lives an "outfielder's strong arm throw" from the Chabad of Great Neck. He sent along the picture below. Norm mentioned to Pamela that he'd be forwarding it to me, and she says, "I love the American Power Blog!"

That's cool!

In any case, at Atlas Shrugs, "FORWARD: 'PAMELA GELLER GOT THE LAST LAUGH'." And, "HUNDREDS RALLY FOR FREE SPEECH AND THE OUSTER OF HABEEB AHMED."

Katy Perry and Alessandra Ambrosio at Coachella

Well, that looks like quite a weekend gathering. At London's Daily Mail, "Alessandra Ambrosio channels her inner hippie at Coachella as she lounges poolside in hot pink daisy dukes," and "Victoria's Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio heats up desert music festival in hippie chic style."

Plus, "Katy Perry bares her midriff in whimsical Dali skirt and top at celeb-studded Coachella pool party."

Boy that would've been fun!

BONUS: LAT has more: "Coachella 2013 | April 12-14 & April 19-21."

Syrian Rebel Gets Head Blown Off

Great special effects!

Wait. That's not special effects. It's supposedly a Syria FSA rebel who gets half of his head blown off.

Not for the squeamish: "Warning: This is really grisly."

Skateboarding Photos From the Old Days

I dug out some old photos to show my youngest son.

Here I'm skating at Paul Schmitt's house back in 1985. Schmitt was featured in the Los Angeles Times in 2008: "SKATEBOARD MAKER STILL ROLLING ALONG."

At Paul Schmitt's backyard half-pipe, Costa Mesa, 1985. twitpic.com/cjegss

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) April 14, 2013

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

More at Jill Stanek's, "Stanek Sunday funnies: “Gosnell” edition," and Reaganite's, "Reaganite's Sunday Funnies."

Also at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Hot Shot."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

Chillin' in Santa Monica and Venice Beach

I wasn't expected to be heading up to Santa Monica yesterday.

My oldest son comes into my room a little after Noon and asks, "Dad, will you take me up to Santa Monica so I can hang out with my friends?" I'm like, "Hey, you think that's a little far?" (We live close to an hour's drive South, in Irvine.) So I had my boy check with my wife to see if she thought that wasn't too much, and she was cool, so off we went.

Here's the Third Street Promenade. My boys are at left:

My oldest boy took off to have lunch with his friends (at Hooters, it turns out). So I took my little guy to Johnny Rockets. It was packed. We sat at the lunch counter stools at the back side. That's my son's reflection behind our vanilla shakes:

I love the Apple Store at the Third Street Promenade! It's freakin' huge, like a gymnasium. And you're not bugged by the sales associates every two minutes. Products everywhere:

American Power!

Heading over to Venice  Beach after lunch, greeted by Jim Morrison:

Here's the skatepark:

This dude had some skills:

And this lady skater was freakin' hot. Great style, reminiscent of the surf-skaters of the '70s:

Here's the awesome bookstore and sidewalk cafe. That's where I'd be chillin' most of the time:

After hanging out at the bookstore, as well as the skateboard shop next door, we run into the Sperminator on the way back to the van:

Folks were getting stoned up and down the boardwalk, and a bong shop was located right next to the bookstore. So as we were leaving, my son says, "That guy's sign says 'No meth! No crack! No homo!" You gotta love it. No Deranged Left Wing Bakers either!

Here we are back at the Apple Store waiting for my oldest son to meet up so we can head back to the O.C.

I have some photos from the Tesla showroom at the Promenade as well, and will post some of those later...

The Sperminator

I took the boys up to Santa Monica today and we got back a little while ago. After I dropped off my oldest at the Third Street Promenade, I took my youngest over to Venice Beach to check out the skate park. I'll post more photos tomorrow, but I couldn't stop laughing when my son called me over to this effigy of Arnold Schwarzenegger as "The Sperminator." Gawd, this is hilarious:

More from Santa Monica later. We had a blast. And a nice break from blogging too.

The Los Angeles Times and the #Gosnell Blackout

Following up on my previous entry, "Mainstream Media Reporting on #Gosnell: 'Did You Guess Zero? You Win!'," I decided to search for "Kermit Gosnell" at the Los Angeles Times --- and it's more of the same. Until yesterday you would have found "0 Search Results for 'Kermit Gosnell'." This morning you'll find two results, and one of those is for the photograph on a story that itself is a story on the mainstream media's #Gosnell blackout. Can you say meta-journalism? See, "Dr. Kermit Gosnell abortion case: Why no national media spotlight?" And you gotta love the explanation from the Times' Jon Healey, suggesting that perhaps this wasn't really a national abortion story because #Gosnell's abortions weren't legal. That is, only abortion stories on legal abortion are news worthy, or something?

I read a lot of news on a daily basis, online and in print, and the Gosnell story hadn't crossed my radar screen until Friday. So I agree with the likes of Salon's David Weigel and the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg that this story has received surprisingly little attention -- from the mass media, that is.

Why? Several readers of The Times say it's because the liberal media are trying to protect their abortion rights agenda. I don't like trying to guess what's on the minds of the editors and reporters who decide what to cover; "the media" are still a collection of individuals who compete with one another. Reporters and editors make news judgments for themselves, not for the group. On the other hand, there's a herd mentality among the major outlets, which is why some stories become national causes and grounds for societal soul-searching even though they're not, objectively, all that extraordinary.

So perhaps the main reason the Gosnell allegations didn't get elevated to that level is because none of the big media powers took the plunge. And you have to wonder why. The testimony at the trial seems to have been pretty dramatic too. Conspiracy theorists on the right argue that the liberal media avoid this story because it might prod the public to demand more limits on abortion. But because Gosnell is accused of operating a site for illegal abortions, he could just as easily illustrate what happens when government makes it hard for women (especially low-income ones) to end their pregnancies early and legally. (Read this piece by Carole Joffe, a professor of reproductive health at UC San Francisco, for a good elaboration on that point.)

Right? Let's make it hard for women to "choose" to go to murderers like Kermit #Gosnell.

The Los Angles Times is ghoul-worthy! Chalk one up for being fair and balanced!

Perhaps Healey might just ask his own colleagues why this story wasn't newsworthy at the Los Angeles Times, a newspaper that at one point in its history, during the leadership of Otis Chandler, sought to challenge the dominance of journalism's leading national newspapers, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. I guess these days the L.A. Times just aspires to line up, in malign neglect, behind the rest of the sheepish national press corps. Here's Healey's bio at the Times:

He is a member of the editorial board at the Los Angeles Times, which means he is one of a nameless, faceless group writing screeds that, technically speaking, reflect the views of the publisher (whoever that happens to be at the time)...

Well, as a "member of the editorial board" we can place the blame directly on dolts like Healey for the Times' complete absence of coverage of one of the most important national stories on reproductive rights in decades. Way to carry on the legacy of the great Otis Chandler!

Mainstream Media Reporting on #Gosnell: 'Did You Guess Zero? You Win!'

Mollie Hemingway is doing God's work, at Patheos, "Politico, Atlantic and the Gosnell Blackout":

Earlier I shared what happened when I asked an AP reporter and a Washington Post reporter about their personal Gosnell blackouts. It was so illuminating that I decided to check out a few other media outlets. I headed over to Politico. Since Washington Post reporter Sarah Kliff tried to justify her lack of coverage of the Gosnell trial by calling it a local crime story, I thought I’d add other local stories into my search. Thanks for the idea! So here’s what I found out. Politico‘s search engine pops out 165 results on Trayvon Martin (local crime story in Florida), 94 stories on Komen, 233 on Sandra Fluke and 866 on Todd Akin.

Guess how many stories Politico has published on Gosnell.

Did you guess zero? You win!

I’d love to ask the reporters in question about the shocking disparity but I noticed that the reporters who wrote some of the histrionic Komen coverage aren’t even around any more. Politico is known for its turnover. So I should probably ask editors. Once I figure out who I should talk to (I’m also trying to find Kliff’s editor since she has revealed some problems with her ability to cover this issue) and will let you know how it goes.

Well, WaPo's editors have already admitted their paper's paucity of coverage, but don't hold hold your breath on Politico. Those idiots were BuzzFeed before there was a BuzzFeed.

BONUS: And wouldn't you know, but Scott Lemieux, the most despicable pro-baby-killing ghoul at the ghoulishly despicable far-left hate-site Lawyers, Guns and Money, blames the lack of MSM coverage on --- wait for it! --- RAAAAACISM!!

See: "Who’s Ignoring Gosnell?":

The fact that the exploitation of poor women, predominantly of color, hasn’t been subject to extensive coverage is pretty much the ultimate dog-bites-man story ... The story is now being exploited by opponents of legal abortion, although the idea that the proper response to this is to make safe abortions more stigmatized and inaccessible is a massive non-sequitur.

"Dog-bites-man?" Hmm, seems like I've been hearing a lot about that kind of reporting lately? Oh, yes, the Other McCain had a couple of related bits the other day -- because you can always count on the ghouls at Lawyers, Guns and Money for depravity fodder.

Angels Drop Fifth Straight Game

I'm watching games mostly on the weekends, but I had a chance to switch on last night's game, and the Angels got buried from the get go. I was ruminating last season on the hopeful possibility that the Angels would fire Mike Scioscia, but to no avail. Maybe we'll see a shakeup this year. It's long overdue. This ties the team's worst start in franchise history, a mark that's been held for 52 years.

See, "Angels fall to Astros, 5-0, for fifth straight loss":

Just when it looked as if the Angels couldn't sink any lower, they hit rock bottom with a thud Friday in a 5-0 loss to the Houston Astros.

These are the same Astros who lost 213 games the last two seasons; the same Astros whose $22-million payroll is less than the free-spending Angels pay the right side of their infield.

These are the same Angels who started the season with World Series aspirations, then started Friday's game with five All-Stars in their lineup.

It should have been a rout — and it was, with the Astros scoring three times in the first inning while the Angels failed to get a runner past first base all night.

The loss was the Angels' fifth straight, leaving them winless on their first homestand of the season. At 2-8, they not only have the American League's worst record but they've equaled a 52-year-old mark for the worst start in franchise history.

And if all that wasn't embarrassing enough, the game ended with Josh Hamilton forgetting how many outs there were, allowing himself to be doubled off first base on Mark Trumbo's foulout.

Afterward Angel Manager Mike Scioscia didn’t have to think long to sum up his team’s problems.

"It’s pretty simple. We’re not pitching and we’re getting behind early," Scioscia said. "When you get behind early it really gives the other team a chance to match up, to use their  bullpen. Gives their starter some breathing room."

More at that top link.

Here's the Blood

Via Live Action.