Is This the Face of Tolerance in Europe?

I hope not, at Der Spiegel, "EU Survey Shows Widespread Homophobia in Europe."

Of course, "homophobia" is a fictitious term. If it's anything, it's plain hatred straight up.

That's Christopher Bryant below, via Independent UK, "Gay couple beaten in park urge MPs to moderate language on gay marriage."

And back stateside, there's also no such thing as a "hate crime." But the left gets more mileage out of the attacks, like the one last week in New York. See, "Killing in Greenwich Village Looks Like Hate Crime, Police Say." And the Daily Beast works the exploitation angle like a Stradivarius, "New York Shooting Highlights Surge in Hate Crimes." There's no evidence for the "surge," actually. But facts don't matter for progressives (too inconvenient), so they go for emotionalism and lies.

Beat them at the polls. They're progressive losers and idiot social outcasts. Don't freakin' beat them. Sheesh.

'Brass-Knuckled Intimidation' – Megyn Kelly and Michelle Malkin on Obama's Chicago Way

Another great segment:

Wild Night at the Billboard Music Awards

At London's Daily Mail, "Still shedding the pounds! Christina Aguilera wows as she shows off her very slim body in a low-cut black dress at 2013 Billboard Music Awards," and "She's a very cheeky girl! Ke$ha plays coy in a little black dress that exposes her derriere at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards."

Barack Obama's Subversion of Democracy

Here's the banner headline at yesterday morning's PuffHo, "DOJ Calls Fox News Reporter James Rosen 'Co-Conspirator' In Leak Case; Journalists Outraged." And, "The DOJ's Targeting Of Fox News Reporter Risks Criminalizing Journalism."

Hmm, I thought, "Maybe some of the left-wing outfits are starting to take this seriously." Then I scrolled over to the Washington Post's big breaking story on Obama's DOJ targeting and noticed E.J. Dionne's pathetic little piece bemoaning the horrible --- HORRIBLE! --- collapse of democratic government in the West! See, "Political dysfunction spells trouble for democracies."

I was almost laughing, except people like Dionne still garner a lot of attention. So I got a kick out of James Taranto slamming the JournoList-ing idiots bemoaning the alleged "demise" of democratic government, "A Crisis of Authority." To be specific, it's a crisis of left-wing statist authority, which can only be propped up with a deepening circle of lies:

"After a week of scandal obsession during which the nation's capital and the media virtually ignored the problems most voters care about--jobs, incomes, growth, opportunity, education--it's worth asking if there is something especially flawed about our democracy," declares the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne.

He goes through a partisan litany of complaints--"a radicalization of conservative politics, over-the-top mistrust of President Obama on the right, high-tech gerrymandering in the House and a Senate snarled by non-constitutional super-majority requirements"--but makes no mention of the abuses of power by the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department. He does hint at Benghazi, in his concluding paragraph, but only to pooh-pooh it:

Since World War II, bouts of economic growth have allowed democracies to buy their way out of trouble. One can hope this will happen again--and soon. In the meantime, politicians might contemplate their obligations to stewardship of the democratic ideal. They could begin by pondering what an unemployed 28-year-old makes of a ruling elite that expends so much energy feuding over how bureaucrats rewrote a set of talking points.

But if the purpose of that rewriting was, as it appears to have been, to deceive voters and bolster the president's re-election prospects, then it was a subversion of democracy.

RTWT.

Plus, Glenn Greenwald also went to town on this, "Obama DOJ formally accuses journalist in leak case of committing crimes":

Under US law, it is not illegal to publish classified information. That fact, along with the First Amendment's guarantee of press freedoms, is what has prevented the US government from ever prosecuting journalists for reporting on what the US government does in secret. This newfound theory of the Obama DOJ - that a journalist can be guilty of crimes for "soliciting" the disclosure of classified information - is a means for circumventing those safeguards and criminalizing the act of investigative journalism itself. These latest revelations show that this is not just a theory but one put into practice, as the Obama DOJ submitted court documents accusing a journalist of committing crimes by doing this.

More at that link.

There's a lot I disagree with, for example, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are cyber-terrorists, not journalists.  But as always, Greenwald's good for lighting a fire on the hypocritical JournoList circle jerks.

Ray Manzarek: 1939-2013

An obituary, at the Los Angeles Times, "Ray Manzarek dies at 74; keyboardist for the Doors."

'I'd Love to Change the World...'

From Ten Years After.

And from the band's Wikipedia entry:

The song was written and sung by Alvin Lee. The song reflects the widespread confusion concerning world events in the time-frame when it was written. With lyrics such as "Tax the rich, feed the poor/ till there are no rich no more," the song derides the standard counter-cultural position on social issues, contending that higher taxes on the rich would only wipe out the upper class, while leaving poverty as much of a problem as ever. The chorus of "I'd love to change the world/ but I don't know what to do/ so I'll leave it up to you," adds an ironic twist to such sentiments, since changing the world is unlikely with a simple rock song. The song features a folk-inspired chord pattern to support the melody.

A studio version is here.

*****

[guitar]
Spoken 'Now, turn on'

Everywhere is freaks and hairys
Dykes and fairies
Tell me where is sanity?

Tax the rich, feed the poor
Till there are no, rich no more

I'd love to change the world
(Dee-dee-dee-dee)
But I don't know what to do
(Dee-eee-dee-dee-dee-dee)
So I'll leave it up to you-ooo-ooo
(Be in my prayer)

Population, keeps on breedin'
Nation bleedin', still more feedin'
Economy

Life is funny, skies are sunny
Bees made honey, who needs money?
Monopoly

I'd love to change the world
But I don't know what to do
(Dee-eee-dee-dee-dee-dee)
So I'll leave it up to you-you-ooo
(We-eee-dee-dee-dee-dee)

Oh, yeah!
[guitar]

Rescuers Search Into Night for Moore Schoolchildren

At the Oklahoman, "Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin confirmed that bodies of children had been found at Plaza Towers Elementary School. She also confirmed that bodies of adults had been found on the school lawn."

And at the New York Times, "Vast Oklahoma Tornado Kills at Least 91."

VIDEO: Melissa Debling and Daisy Watts X-Rated

I think they're exaggerating the "X" rating, although it's a little kinky alright.

PREVIOUSLY: "Melissa Debling and Daisy Watts."

#PrayForOklahoma

From Michelle Malkin:

HOPE. MT @micahjmurray Another beautiful picture of a child rescued from the rubble. #PrayForOklahoma @ap twitter.com/micahjmurray/s…

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 21, 2013

Dozens of children are still unaccounted for, reports Fox News. Please pray.

Taylor Swift 'Haters Gonna Hate' Unicorn Shirt at Billboard Music Awards

At Twitchy, "‘Haters gonna hate:’ Taylor Swift dons unicorn t-shirt at #BBMAs."

Also at London's Daily Mail, "'My relationship with my fans is the longest and best I have ever had!' Taylor Swift refers to her own troubled love life as she picks up one of her EIGHT Billboard Music Awards."

Dozens Killed in Monster Oklahoma Tornado

CBS News is reporting "at least 51 dead," on Twitter.

And at ABC News, "'Horrific' Tornado Tears Through Oklahoma, 51 Dead."

I'll have more..

Why Student Behavior Matters

A great letter at the Los Angeles Times:

Re "Rule on defiant students revised," May 15

The Los Angeles Unified School District's ban on student suspensions for "willful defiance" reminded me of when I was observing class as a requirement for my teaching credential roughly 40 years ago.

The teacher I was observing sent a defiant student out of the room. Not having had a classroom of my own yet, I still believed everything I had been told in my teacher training classes.

After class, I questioned the instructor, noting that the student sent out of the classroom wasn't learning anything. Her reply: "Yes, but the rest of my students are."

My question was off-base. The student was learning that there are consequences.

Doreen Lorand
Downey

It's mind-boggling how much common sense is out there, but the sick progressives push their disgusting "restorative justice" on the schools, and everyone's too damned PC to push back against such leftist abominations.

PREVIOUSLY: "Willful Defiance: LAUSD Caves to Political Correctness on School Discipline Policy."

Glenn Greenwald Goes All Out in Defense of Professor Joseph Massad's Anti-Semitic Screed

I'm a firm believer in free speech, and if it was me I wouldn't have taken down Columbia Professor Joseph Massad's vile essay attacking World War II-era supporters of a Jewish homeland as "Zionist anti-Semites." But I wouldn't be going to bat for such vile people either. Not so for Glenn Greenwald, who's been on a Twitter jihad attacking Al Jazeera for removing Massad's hate-piece.

Al Jazeera publishes an article by Columbia Professor Joseph Massad, then deletes it when usual suspects complain electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abun…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

If you want to read the Joseph Massad Op-Ed published then deleted by Al Jazeera, it's still herem.aljazeera.com/story/20135127…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

If Al Jazeera is going to delete an Op-Ed it itself published, shouldn't there be some explanation?Did someone err in publishing it?
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

If you only want to publish things that don't upset anyone, please don't go into journalismelectronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abun…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

Jane Mayer: "'Chilling' isn’t quite strong enough, it’s more like freezing the [journalism] process into a standstill.” #ChillingEffect
— Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) May 19, 2013

One thing I refuse to do is explain difference b/w a) objecting to censorship of Argument X & b) defending Argument X electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abun…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

I don't know why, but it always shocks me that so many people can't distinguish between "X shouldn't be censored" & "I agree with X"
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

I emailed Al Jazeera earlier today for some explanation on this - still no answer: they have to provide one electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abun…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

Al Jazeera now deleted the mobile version of the Massad Op-Ed, too- who would do this without explanation?electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abun…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 20, 2013

Dear Al Jazeera: if you think you can delete your Op-Ed, refuse to comment & have everyone move on, you're very wrong electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abun…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 20, 2013

There are a lot of great journalists at Al Jazeera, many of whom are very upset by the deletion of the Massad Op-Ed.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 20, 2013

Here's the problem for Greenwald: Even the most ardent free speech advocate would still recoil from defending Massad --- because people like this are perverting the history of the Holocaust in promotion of a second Holocaust against the Jews. William Jacobson has the story, "Al-Jazeera runs then deletes anti-Semitic screed by Columbia Univ. Prof. Joseph Massad":

Even Mondoweiss, yes Mondoweiss, the harshest of websites when it comes to Israel, had trouble stomaching Massad’s arguments:

Well, with Massad we’ve come a long inverted way. He sees the Jewishness that most Jews celebrate as colonial and – criminal.

Massad stops short – I think – of a Euro-American Jewish Zionist conspiracy to dominate the world.

Understanding Jewishness at war with the world and with Jewishness itself. It’s a tough sell.

Now the Massad article is gone from Al-Jazeera (h/t @GlennGreenwald). Spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories was not too much for Al-Jazeera initially, but perhaps the attention called to the screed was too much. I’d be curious if the article ran in non-English versions of Al-Jazeera and if it has been removed there.

More at the link. And really, if Mondoweiss has second thoughts, then, boy, that's really gotta be some over-the-top screed.

In any case, check Greenwald's timeline for updates.

Obama's White House Counsel Learned of Illegal #IRS Targeting Weeks Ago

Yes, and of course the president was completely out of the loop. Completely!

Hey, I guess there's something to be said for incompetence. "We're not dishonest, just bloody stupid."

At WSJ, "Obama's Counsel Told of IRS Audit Findings Weeks Ago":

The White House's chief lawyer learned weeks ago that an audit of the Internal Revenue Service likely would show that agency employees inappropriately targeted conservative groups, a senior White House official said Sunday.

That disclosure has prompted a debate over whether the president should have been notified at that time.

In the week of April 22, the Office of the White House Counsel and its head, Kathryn Ruemmler, were told by Treasury Department attorneys that an inspector general's report was nearing completion, the White House official said. In that conversation, Ms. Ruemmler learned that "a small number of line IRS employees had improperly scrutinized certain…organizations by using words like 'tea party' and 'patriot,' " the official said.

President Barack Obama said last week he learned about the controversy at the same time as the public, on May 10, when an IRS official revealed it to a conference of lawyers. The president's statement drew criticism, focusing attention on his management style and whether he has kept himself sufficiently informed about the agencies under his authority.

Others, including veterans of previous scandals, said the counsel—whose role is to advise the president on all legal matters concerning his job and the White House—was right to avoid telling Mr. Obama about the audit's early findings. Doing so could have caused a new storm by creating the appearance of meddling in an independent investigation that hadn't yet concluded, former officials said.

The White House, which declined to make Ms. Ruemmler available for comment Sunday, wouldn't say whether she shared the information with anyone else in the senior administration staff.

The new detail doesn't help answer some fundamental questions about the IRS scandal, including how it began and who, if anyone, in the administration was aware of the severity of the inspector general's probe before last November's presidential election.

Instead, it focuses attention on the White House's handling of the matter, which has blown up into the kind of crisis that could persist.

Actually, I suspect Obama was completely updated about that report and chose to lie about it in a cover-up of his administration's tyrannical harassment of political enemies.

Whistle-blowers are going to come forward. It's just a matter of time. And Americans want the truth. It's long past time we hear it.

IMAGE CREDIT: Zook Zangsten.

It Isn’t Watergate, but It Is Nixonian

At WSJ:

WASHINGTON–Veteran journalist Bob Woodward accused Obama administration officials of invoking the worst instincts of former President Richard Nixon in their response to last year’s deadly attack on two U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya.

“This is not Watergate, but there are some people in the administration who have acted as if they want to be Nixonian, and that’s a very big problem,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The longtime Washington Post journalist, whose reporting on the Watergate burglary led to the resignation of Mr. Nixon in 1974, questioned the Obama administration’s editing of talking points requested by congressional leaders days after the Sept. 11, 2012 attack killed four Americans, including Chris Stevens, the American ambassador in Libya.

Last week, the White House released emails that documented a charged debate over what the administration should say publicly about the attack. Officials at the State Department and Central Intelligence Agency raised concerns about releasing details that could undermine the evolving investigation. The State Department’s spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, also objected to providing details that members of Congress could use to “beat up” the administration for not responding to CIA security alerts from Libya.

The final talking points, used by United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice on the Sunday morning talk shows right after the attack, stripped out references to specific militant groups, including al Qaeda affiliates, that were suspected of involvement in the Benghazi attack.

“This is a business where you have to tell the truth–and that did not happen,” Mr. Woodward said.

Well, yeah.

They're a bunch of pathological liars, from Obama on down.

More at that top link.

'The world has become a disgusting place...'

Yes it has.

Via Miss Qadeeri on Twitter:

First Rhode Island and now Minnesota. The world has become a disgusting place. Marriage equality is a joke.
— Madeena. (@Miss_Qadeeri) May 14, 2013

Pallywood's Muhammad al-Dura Wasn't Killed in Second Intifada

At My Pet Jawa, "IDF Investigation Concludes: Pallywood's Muhammad al Dura Was Not Killed," and Jihad Watch, "Second intifada symbol Mohammed al-Dura didn't really die in 2000 shooting."

And from Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary, "Why the al-Dura Blood Libel Still Matters":

There have been many good accounts of this affair, including this piece by Nidra Poller published in COMMENTARY in September 2005. I’ve also written about it on our blog several times, including this piece from last year about the French court case. Yet even before those were published one of the first Western accounts of the al-Dura affair got to the heart of this problem. James Fallows’s June 2003 article in the Atlantic, “Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura?” pointed out not just the fact that there was good reason to doubt the initial version of the story but that the facts wouldn’t change anyone’s mind because of the iconic status of the photo allegedly depicting the boy and his father. Indeed, he seemed to suggest in a deconstructionist spirit that objective truth was itself impossible since both sides sought to create their own facts in order to prove they were right.

RTWT and ollow the links

Melissa Debling and Daisy Watts

At Zoo Today, "Melissa Debling and Daisy Watts present: 69 of the rudest pics you'll see all year!"

Love this pic 💋 twitter.com/daisywatts/sta…

— Daisy Watts(@daisywatts) May 18, 2013

And check out Daisy Watts on Twitter.

BONUS: Some Rule 5 at the Daley Gator, "DaleyGator DaleyBabe Denise Milfort and an overdue Rule 5 Link-a-Round."

And Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……is local and sustainable produce, you might just be a Warmist."

E.W. Jackson Wins Virginia GOP Lieutenant Governor Nomination

This dude is rad!

At Big Government, "E.W. JACKSON WINS GOP NOMINATION FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR IN VIRGINIA."

And flashback to last year, at PJ Media, "Bishop E.W. Jackson: ‘It Is Time For a Mass Exodus from the Democrat Party’":

More at BuzzFeed, "Republican Virginia Lt. Governor Nominee: Obama Sees World “From a Muslim Perspective”" (via Memeorandum).

And at WaPo, "Va. GOP picks conservatives for fall ticket; black minister is lieutenant governor choice," and "Va. GOP settles on Cuccinelli, Obenshain and Jackson for November ballot":

RICHMOND — Virginia Republicans shook up the outlook for the November elections Saturday, choosing Chesapeake minister E.W. Jackson to run for lieutenant governor alongside their gubernatorial pick Ken Cuccinelli II and attorney general nominee Mark D. Obenshain. Jackson became the GOP’s first African American nominee for statewide of

fice since 1988, overcoming six other hopefuls for the No. 2 spot on the ticket after four dramatic ballots lasting nearly 10 hours. He bested several candidates with deep ties to the state party, more money and long records in elected office, appealing to the more than 8,000 delegates in the Richmond Coliseum as a grass-roots crusader for the Constitution and social conservatism.

Before the balloting, the crowd erupted as Jackson vowed to “get the government off our backs, off our property, out of our families, out of our health care and out of our way.”

Jackson never trailed, leading after the first ballot and holding on despite sustained attacks and determined horse-trading by his opponents. He was joined on stage by Cuccinelli and Obenshain after 10 p.m., projecting an image of Republican unity at the conclusion of a fractious convention.

VA politics is where the action is for 2014! This is going to be fabulous!

More at Memeorandum.

Sunday Cartoons

An Obamagate-palooza, at Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

Also at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES," and at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Night Funnies."

More at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Stupid Pet Tricks."

Cartoon Credit: William Warren.