Krauthammer: Today's Civil Rights Challenges are 'Social Issues ... Breakup of the Family and the Terrible Education That Young People in the Ghettos are Subjected to ...'

A great segment from this afternoon's Fox News All Stars:



More at iOWNTHEWORLD, "Krauthammer – The Civil Rights Movement Is Intellectually Bankrupt."

PREVIOUSLY: "President Obama Speech on 50th Anniversary of March on Washington."

President Obama Speech on 50th Anniversary of March on Washington

He's was heavily laying on his hip-hip accent, because, you know, Barack Hussein's all about bein' down with the brothas.

At LAT, "Obama honors King, pushes political agenda on anniversary":

WASHINGTON – President Obama tried to reassemble a “coalition of conscience” to take up his economic agenda for the middle class on Wednesday as he honored Martin Luther King Jr. and the marchers who fought for civil rights 50 years ago.

“In the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it,” Obama said.

The president spoke at a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the 1963 protest that became the most iconic moment of the civil rights movement. Obama, the first African American president, spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial,  where King described his dream of racial equality as many black Americans still struggled to vote.

He noted that “no one can match King’s brilliance” but called on all citizens to keep up the fight for more opportunity. “The arc of moral universe may bend toward justice,” he said quoting King. “But it doesn’t bend on its own.”

Obama has often cited King as an inspiration and a touchstone. The president’s speeches regularly quote King, or crib from his writings. The president has a bust of King and a copy of the program from the original march in the Oval Office. Obama took the oath of office this year using a Bible owned by King. The gestures have cemented a symbolic connection between the two most recognizable black leaders in U.S. history.

But Obama’s relationship with  the civil rights movement and King’s legacy has been complex. Obama, whose mother was white and father Kenyan, has wrestled with this racial identity and his connection to the movement that defined a generation of black political life.

He has identified as part of the Joshua generation, the label given to the children of movement’s founders charged with carrying on the legacy, but he has also criticized the civil rights movement, saying it is fractured.

Obama on Wednesday repeated some of that critique. Over the years, legitimate outrage over discrimination devolved into “excuse-making for criminal behavior,” Obama said. “What had once been a call for equality of opportunity … was too often framed as a mere desire for government support. … As if poverty was an excuse for not raising your child.”

Continue reading.

And see "Obama: ‘Because they kept marching, America changed’."

Also, at NYT, "Where King Stood, Obama Reframes a Dream," and "Guardians of King’s Dream Regroup in Washington."

Hamptons McMansions

Look, excess is great, if you can afford it.

At NYT, "Hamptons McMansions Herald a Return of Excess":

BRIDGEHAMPTON, N.Y. — Porsche ads clog the local radio here, houses are renting at close to the million-dollar range — for the summer — and Uber, an app that lets you order car service, reports that its new Hamptons luxury S.U.V. business is booming, $50 minimum fares and all.

But there is no surer sign that the big-spending ways that characterized the pre-financial crisis era have returned to the Hamptons than the blue “Farrell Building” signs multiplying across the pristine landscape here, along with the multimillion-dollar houses they advertise. It is a process some are calling “Farrellization,” and not necessarily happily.

“We’re as busy as we’ve ever been,” said Joe Farrell, the president of Farrell Building, during a recent interview and tour of his $43 million, 17,000-square-foot home here. The estate, called the Sandcastle, features two bowling lanes, a skate ramp, onyx window frames and, just for fun, an A.T.M. regularly restocked with $20,000 in $10 bills.

To spend a day with Mr. Farrell — a local version of Donald Trump, without the history of debt, the lush hair or the insults — is to see just how fully the Hamptons have rebounded, along with the confidence, and the bonuses, of their wealthier summer visitors.

With a customer base composed largely of Wall Street financiers, Mr. Farrell has more than 20 new homes under construction, or slated for construction, at a time, making him the biggest builder here by far. He has plans for more, many of them speculative homes built before they have buyers...

Must be the life.

Continue reading.

'I am a member of The Macalester Alumni of Moderation (Mac Mods), an informal, e-mail-connected group that seeks to steer Macalester toward more intellectual diversity and balance and away from a leftist mindset and a seeming obsession with victimology...'

Well, maybe these email groups will be spreading past Macalester.

From Robert Spaulding, at the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, "My Alumni Weekend at Macalester."

Destroy the Heteropatriarchy!

I linked R.S. McCain's hilarious entry yesterday, "In Case You Missed It, @MileyCyrus Got Super-Skanky on the VMAs Last Night."

Linked there is "@Andrea_XX":

I have no idea why throwing bodyshaming/slutshaming at Miley is being allowed a free pass. It's the propagation of heteropatriarchal crap.
— andria (@andria_xx) August 26, 2013

And the lady writes at her blog:

I am this close to getting my Masters degree in Gender Studies and I hold a Honors BA in Social Justice and Peace Studies.

Love that "social justice and peace studies" bit, but man, she might revise the part about "hitting her up on Twitter."

Seriously. Robert's got the update, "‘And It Just Blew Up’":

Heteropatriarchal slut-shaming? Hell, I thought I was just making fun of a celebrity, until @Andria_XX enlightened me, and she had no idea what hit her when her Twitter timeline blew up with reactions to her Master’s degree in Gender Studies mini-lecture.

So now it’s “cyberbullying” and “rage tourism” of which I’m accused.

The accusations are at the lady's Storify post, "Rage Tourism at It's Finest."

(I hope someone tweets her the correction, that "it's" is a contraction and "its" a possessive pronoun.)

In any case, she wanted to make sure I saw her handiwork (and no doubt all the others she included at her post as well):

@AmPowerBlog @Pablo_1791 Never let the truth get in the way of a good cyberbullying! ""Rage Tourism At It's Finest"" http://t.co/5jCppyg59u
— andria (@andria_xx) August 27, 2013

All in a day's blogging, I guess.

A fascinating case study in deranged leftism, that's for sure.

Codename 'Apalachee'

Interesting.

This is from New York journalist Laura Poitras, who worked with Glenn Greenwald in breaking the Edward Snowden story. (Also reporting is Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark.)

At Germany's Der Spiegel, "How America Spies on Europe and the U.N.":

President Obama promised that NSA surveillance activities were aimed exclusively at preventing terrorist attacks. But secret documents from the intelligence agency show that the Americans spy on Europe, the UN and other countries.

I'm sure we'd have seen a worldwide earthquake of anti-Americanism had this come to light during the Bush administration. But outside a few wild America-bashers like Greenwald, and the obligatory libertarian warnings of encroaching tyranny, it's just back to business-as-usual these days. Nothing's going to change under this president. The people have to demand change and that means giving the lying scumbag Democrats the boot. (And keep in mind, it's the lies and hypocrisy --- I couldn't give a sh*t about bugging the U.N, just don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining.)

Continue reading.

Rep. Raul Labrador Slams Left's 'Message of Despair' on Race

Watch it, at NewsBusters, "Raul Labrador Schools Meet the Press Panel on King's Dream: Your Message is Despair Not Hope."

VIDEO: General Georges Sada Claiming Iraq Moved WMD to Syria in 2002

Via Israel Matzav, "Video: Saddam's top military adviser says Iraqi WMD's were moved to Syria."



And flashback to the New York Sun in 2006, "Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says."

RELATED: Mahdi Obeidi's largely ignored book from 2002, The Bomb in My Garden: The Secrets of Saddam's Nuclear Mastermind.

Katy Perry Grillz

I skipped the VMAs.

I was watching the Red Sox at Dodgers on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, and at 8:00pm we switched over to "Big Brother" on CBS.

But I saw Twitter lighting up throughout the evening, especially over Miley Cyrus.

R.S. McCain has that, "In Case You Missed It, @MileyCyrus Got Super-Skanky on the VMAs Last Night."

I'm just trippin' on Katy Perry's grillz, at London's Daily Mail, "Pushing the boundaries! Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus play dress-up as they battle to be the most outrageous on the MTV VMAs red carpet."

Tonight's custom #ROAR GRILL courtesy of the FAMED @tvjohnny shout out to @cstonethebreadwinner as well!!! http://t.co/N2eOY8JwVx

— Katy Perry (@katyperry) August 26, 2013

More here, "Has Miley gone too far? Cyrus strips to nude latex bra and hotpants to perform lewd dance with Robin Thicke at MTV VMAs."

And, "Call that demure? Lady Gaga makes half hearted attempt to cover up for MTV VMAs afterparty by putting a skirt on over her shell bikini."

'Moral Obscenity' — Secretary of State John Kerry Slams 'Undeniable' Syria Chemical Weapons Atrocities; U.S. Prepares Options for Military Intervention

There have been numerous allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria over past year, but for some reason or another, the administration is ramping up the bellicose rhetoric in preparation for some kind of armed response. I can't help but think this is insincere (at least on President Obama's part) and that airstrikes and other military actions would serve as a classic "diversionary war" scenario designed to lift the president's horrifically sagging public approval ratings.

Listen to tough-talking John "Ditch-My-War-Medals" Kerry in this State Department press conference below.

And at the Wall Street Journal, "U.S., Citing 'Moral Obscenity' in Syria, Weighs Response: Kerry Calls Attacks 'Undeniable'; U.N. Reaches Attack Site After U.S. Issued Caution Over Mission":

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians is a "moral obscenity," delivering the clearest indication yet that the Obama administration is preparing to attack President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

In a forceful statement delivered in Washington, Mr. Kerry called the attacks "undeniable" and said the administration has developed conclusive evidence that chemical weapons were used last week in the suburbs of Damascus, killing hundreds of civilians. Syria's delays in allowing international monitors to reach alleged attack sites implies its guilt, he said, adding that the U.S. and its allies are "actively consulting" on how to respond.

"Make no mistake: President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapons against the world's most vulnerable people," he said. "Nothing today is more serious, and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny."

Mr. Kerry's remarks represented the administration's opening statement as it contemplates military action, likely to consist of cruise-missile strikes on Syrian targets. A senior defense official said the strikes under consideration would be conducted from ships in the eastern Mediterranean using long-range missiles, without using manned aircraft.

"You do not need basing. You do not need overflight. You don't need to worry about air defenses," the official said. The goal of the strikes, the official said, would be to "deter and degrade" Mr. Assad's capabilities to prevent him from using chemical weapons again.

Mr. Kerry's statement came as United Nations inspectors faced gunfire from unidentified snipers as they set out to investigate reports of the chemical-weapons attack in a Damascus suburb.

The U.N. team turned back, but later in the day made it to Mouadhamiya, where one of the suspected chemical-weapons attacks took place. The team visited two hospitals, interviewed survivors and doctors, and collected samples, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement Monday.

Well, by themselves, I doubt cruise-missile strikes will enough to achieve U.S. objectives, so in one way or another Americans should expect a major escalation of the U.S. military presence in Syria.

More at the link, in any case (via Memeorandum).

Ho Hum: Another Israel-Hating Antiwar Leftist Bashes the Troops

You don't see as many pieces of this genre with Obama in office, but obviously the hard-left cookie-cutter template is still widely available.

From the vile POS Steven Salaita, an Associate Professor of English at Virginia Tech, at the equally-vile Salon.com, "No, thanks: Stop saying “support the troops”."

Folks can read it all at the link.

Professor Salaita is the author of Israel's Dead Soul, no doubt yet another anti-Semitic left-wing screed blasting Israel's right to exist. I've personally never heard of this idiot, but see the nice write-up at the Social Foundations of Education, "Meet Steven Salaita, Jihadist English Professor at Virginia Tech." Also, "Palestinian 'Literature Professor' Salaita Wants Academic Boycott of Israel; More Jihad Activity at Virginia Tech."

And it boggles the mind, but from some reason James Joyner thought a thorough fisking was in order, "Don’t Support the Troops?" Maybe there's some academic utility in it --- at least from James' perspective. But it's leftist ghouls like Salaita that got me blogging in the first place. Indeed, his attack on the troops as agents of "American imperial, torture, and global inequality" reminded me of Berkeley Bush-hater Kenneth Thiesen writing back in 2008, "Commentary: Why I Don’t Support the Troops":

“Support for the troops” has become political cover to support the wars...

But to decide whether U.S. troops deserve support you must analyze what they actually do in countries occupied by the U.S. The wars these troops are engaged in have the goal of maintaining and extending U.S. hegemony throughout the world. They are unjust, illegal, and immoral wars. Can you support the troops in these wars? Why is this any different from a German in World War II saying, “I oppose the wars launched by Hitler, but I support the troops of the German army which are making these wars possible.” When the Marines in Haditha massacred Iraqis, including women and children, would it have been correct to say I supported the Marines who killed those people, but not the massacre? This would be ridiculous, but no more so than supporting the troops engaged in the war that made the Haditha massacre possible in the first place.

The Haditha case was one of the worst leftist stab-in-the-back smears of the entire Iraq war. See Michelle Malkin on that, "Defining atrocity: Marines vs. the Haditha Smear Merchants," and "Al Qaeda and Haditha bombshell: What the MSM didn’t tell you."

But back to this pig Salaita. The guy's schtick is old and tired. And people of decency know that supporting the troops is simply the decent thing to do when Americans are at war fighting an enemy that is determined to exterminate not just the United States, but the Western way of life. Israel, of course, is at the front-line of that struggle, which makes this Salaita ghoul that much more sickening.

These people disgust me, even more now than in 2008 when I first responded to that prick Thiesen, "Supporting the Troops."

Video Purports to Show Execution of Truck Drivers in Syria

Here's our "allies" the al Qaeda rebels purportedly murdering three Syrian truck drivers.

At BCF, "Video Shows Jihadis From Al-Qaeda’s Islamic State In Iraq and Syria Stopping Truck Drivers On Side of Road, Executing Them for Being Alawites…"

PREVIOUSLY: "U.S. Says Syria Used Chemical Weapons."

UPDATE: The YouTube clip at BCF has been taken down for violating terms of content, but My Pet Jawa links to Live Leak. See, "al-Qaeda in Syria Obama's Freedom Fighters Murder Three Truck Drivers."

U.S. Says Syria Used Chemical Weapons

The Wall Street Journal reports, "U.S. Sets Stage for Bigger Syria Role":

The Obama administration hardened its stance against Syria and stepped up plans for possible military action, dismissing as too late the regime's offer to let United Nations officials inspect areas where the U.S. believes Damascus used chemical weapons last week.

The White House and Pentagon signaled the U.S. wasn't backing away from a possible showdown despite apparent efforts by the Syrian government to ease tensions by letting U.N. inspectors visit areas near the capital where hundreds were killed, allegedly by chemical weapons.

If he decides to act militarily, Mr. Obama would prefer to do so with U.N. Security Council backing, but officials said he could decide to work instead with international partners such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or the Arab League.

"We'll consult with the U.N. They're an important avenue. But they're not the only avenue," a senior administration official said.

In recent days, the Pentagon has moved more warships into place in the eastern Mediterranean and U.S. war planners have updated military options that include cruise-missile strikes on regime targets, officials said. The White House held high-level meetings over the weekend, but officials said late Sunday that Mr. Obama had yet to decide how to proceed.

The U.S. had urged the Syrians to let U.N. inspectors visit the areas that were bombarded on Wednesday in suspected chemical attacks that opposition groups said killed more than 1,000 people. But the U.S. concluded that evidence at the scene has since been compromised due to continued Syrian shelling and the likely dissipation of any poison gases.

As always, I wish we'd intervened two years ago. I don't expect any good outcome at this point.

More on that at Israel Matzav, "Too late for Obama to act on Syria."

And see strategist Edward Luttwak, at the New York Times, "In Syria, America Loses if Either Side Wins."

EXTRA: At Reuters, "As Syria war escalates, Americans cool to U.S. intervention: Reuters/Ipsos poll" (at Memeorandum).

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Good Medicine," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

CARTOON CREDIT: A.F. Branco.

National Go Topless Day

Well, one of my co-bloggers at Theo's posted on this, "Today is Go Topless Day 2013!"

However, following the links takes us to actually no women going topless.

We can't have that, so checking Google we find a post close to home, at Yo! Venice, "‘National Go Topless Day’ is Today in Venice Beach!" (And on Facebook here.)

I love Venice.

Skateboarding and topless women?

You can't beat that.

More Go Topless links at Twitter.

Black Thug Jovan Tyrek Rogers Charged with Murder in Killing of 99-Year-Old Fannie Gumbinger of Poughkeepsie, New York

Another "senseless" killing.

At Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Jovan Tyrek Rogers black thug kills 99-year-old Fannie Gumbinger."



More at Mad Jewess Woman, "#WhitePrivilege? Son of Obama Murders 99 Yr Old White Woman In Her Home."

Yeah, those mf's are all "sons of Obama." Damned murderers.

Fisking Idiot Leftist @BrianBeutler

The Other McCain returns to the lies of lying liar Brian Beutler.

See, "The Fisking of @BrianBeutler: Obsessed Obsessive Obsessions and Stuff Like That."

I don't know. Maybe Robert had a few Coronas, or some Twitter trolls got his dander up, because frankly just denouncing Beutler's lies alone gives too much attention to this despicable hack. But either way, behold the beauty of McCain's epic smackdown:

The “stop-and-frisk” thing is strictly an issue in New York, because of an NYPD policy that was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge. It has nothing to do with Oklahoma and even less to do with Sanford, Florida. Why Brian Beutler keeps bringing it up, I don’t know. Has the “stop-and-frisk” issue has been discussed by anyone at Fox News in the context of the Chris Lane murder? If it has, then why doesn’t he quote that discussion? In general, why are there no links or quotes in this column? Why can’t Brian Beutler be bothered to provide actual evidence of the phenomenon he presumes to critique? Why do liberals think it’s acceptable to assert controversial claims that they don’t bother to prove? How many bong-hits does Brian Beutler usually do before writing his columns? Seven. That’s now an established fact — because I just asserted it, see?

That's just one pull-away from Robert's fisking, but I picked up on that one because there's added context to Beutler's mewling about stop and frisk. It turns out that the dude was shot in 2008 by a couple of black thugs in D.C. who tried to rob Beutler of his cellphone. Beutler, an apparent tough guy, refused to give up his phone when confronted by these two black thugs and was promptly capped. Now, the interesting thing about this is that since then Beutler has used his status as a survivor of inner-city black crime as a sort of badge of humanitarian honor, giving him an enlightened perspective on all this that others less well-positioned (fortunate?) do not. You see, there's so much extra credibility in leftist race-baiting circles if, having been shot by a black criminal thug, one still clings to radical progressive views, in triumphant contravention to Irving Kristol's famous formula that a neoconservative is "a liberal who has been mugged by reality."

There's clear evidence of this in the fawning greeting CNN host Eric Deggans gives Beutler at this morning's segment of "Reliable Sources":



Here's the piece that Deggins lovingly cites during the segment, "What I learned from getting shot."

So Beutler was shot. Okay? BFD. All this proves is that sick leftist ideology has blinded this idiot to the real criminal pathologies of contemporary urban America.

And let me tell you: I've also been robbed at gunpoint. In 1991 I was working at the Chevron station at the corner of Ashlan and Blackstone in Fresno when some criminal gang thug stuck a Saturday night special in my left arm pit and said "give me the money." I didn't hesitate or act all tough. I gave the f-ker the money. Had I been shot, the angle of the gun would have sent a bullet into my heart and I would most likely be dead today. I was still a "liberal" back then, but I credit that experience as one brush with reality (of many) that would one day impel my own full abandonment of the sick and decrepit Church of Regressive Socialism.

In any case, folks should head back over to the Other McCain to read it all at the link.

Brian Butler's more recent piece on "the right's black crime obsession" is one of the most puerile pieces of progressive hackery I've ever read. Beutler's simply yapping incoherently in the mode of holier-than-thou leftist claptrap. I said so much to him personally on Twitter and never received a response. That's Beutler's SOP, to ignore conservative criticism that risks snapping that idiot back into the real world. Frankly, that's the only response available when your ideology's essentially a religious faith impervious to reason. Unfortunately, that's a faith-based sickness infecting the broader society. Our task as conservatives is to continue working to inoculate the rest of society that's so far has been spared from the plague.

Leftists Looking to Galvanize New Generation of Cultists

As I've been arguing, civil rights isn't really about civil rights anymore.

But see the New York Times, FWIW, "Following King’s Path, and Trying to Galvanize a New Generation."

WASHINGTON — Half a century after the emotional apex of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, tens of thousands of people retraced his footsteps on Saturday, and his successors in the movement spoke of the still-unmet promise of America, as he did, at the Lincoln Memorial.

The anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington was less a commemoration, speakers proclaimed, than an effort to inject fresh energy into issues of economics and justice that, despite undeniable progress in overcoming racial bias, still leave stubborn gaps between white and black Americans.

The speeches that carried over the Reflecting Pool, which 50 years ago jolted Congress to pass landmark laws, took hard aim at current racial profiling by law enforcement, economic inequality and efforts to restrict voting access.

Addressing generations too young to remember, the Rev. Al Sharpton, an organizer of Saturday’s event, warned young people against the hubris of believing one’s middle class success was achieved alone. “You got there because some unlettered grandmas who never saw the inside of a college campus put their bodies on the line in Alabama and Mississippi and sponsored you up here,” he said.

A lineup of civil rights heroes, current movement leaders, labor leaders and Democratic officials addressed a vast crowd that stretched east from the Lincoln Memorial to the knoll of the Washington Monument — well out of range of loudspeakers. Organizers expected 100,000, fewer than half the number who came in 1963 when efforts to dismantle segregation had seized the national attention, often because of racist violence in the South.

Speakers included Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who on Thursday sued Texas over a strict voter ID law; Representative John Lewis of Georgia, an organizer of the original 1963 march; and Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager who was shot and killed last year.

“I gave blood on the bridge in Selma, Alabama, for the right to vote,” Mr. Lewis said in a deep and sonorous rumble. “I am not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us.”

He and many others called the Voting Rights Act of 1965 a jewel of the civil rights movement that was under attack after the high court struck down the heart of it in June, opening the way for states including Texas and North Carolina to enforce new restrictions on voting access.

Mr. Holder, receiving a roar of welcome from the crowd, said that King’s struggle must continue “until every eligible American has the chance to exercise his or her right to vote unencumbered by discrimination or unneeded procedurals, rules or practices.”

Martin Luther King brought the moral authority of the civil rights movement to overthrow Jim Crow.

Today's regressive left --- and dredging up the March on Washington for the Obama cult is pretty regressive --- has completely squandered what little moral authority still lingers from those days a half century ago.

More here.

IMAGE CREDIT: The Obama Cult, on Twitter.

Serve and Volley is Dead

Yeah, it does seem like a long lost art.

At the Los Angeles Times, "What's happened to serve and volley in tennis?":

NEW YORK — The contrasts used to be one of the most attractive elements of tennis.

Pete Sampras standing at the net, Andre Agassi at the baseline trying to get the ball past his greatest rival.

Chris Evert, dainty but cruelly clever in the backcourt, against Martina Navratilova, who moved forward, fast as a whip, knocking a volley that Evert lunged at or just missed, eliciting a squeak of frustration from Evert.

Or John McEnroe, dancing on his toes, back and forth as Bjorn Borg stood at the back of the court and calculated the correct angle at which to whiz the ball past his rival — only to have McEnroe, with a flick of the wrist, gently drop the ball over the net, just in the spot where Borg couldn't reach it.

Billie Jean King still volunteers to coach players and teach them to serve and volley. She urged Serena and Venus Williams to learn that most difficult part of the game but couldn't persuade either of them.

As the U.S. Open tennis tournament, the final major of the year, begins Monday, it's more likely viewers will see an American man win — a longshot — than see more than a handful of serve-and-volley points.

That part of the game is gone, possibly forever.

"I don't think it's ever coming back, I really don't," said Sampras, who won 14 Grand Slam events, second only to Roger Federer. "It's difficult to learn to do, and it's hard to be successful with it at first, and kids and coaches don't like failure....

More at the link.

The French Question

I guess France is the new sick-man of Europe, after Greece, of course.

At the New York Times, "A Proud Nation Ponders How to Halt Its Slow Decline":

PARIS — For decades, Europeans have agonized over the power and role of Germany — the so-called German question — given its importance to European stability and prosperity.

Today, however, Europe is talking about “the French question”: can the Socialist government of President François Hollande pull France out of its slow decline and prevent it from slipping permanently into Europe’s second tier?

At stake is whether a social democratic system that for decades prided itself on being the model for providing a stable and high standard of living for its citizens can survive the combination of globalization, an aging population and the acute fiscal shocks of recent years.

Those close to Mr. Hollande say that he is largely aware of what must be done to cut government spending and reduce regulations weighing down the economy, and is carefully gauging the political winds. But what appears to be missing is the will; France’s friends, Germany in particular, fear that Mr. Hollande may simply lack the political courage to confront his allies and make the necessary decisions.

Changing any country is difficult. But the challenge in France seems especially hard, in part because of the nation’s amour-propre and self-image as a European leader and global power, and in part because French life is so comfortable for many and the day of reckoning still seems far enough away, especially to the country’s small but powerful unions.

The turning of the business cycle could actually be a further impediment in that sense, because as the European economy slowly mends, the French temptation will be to hope that modest economic growth will again mask, like a tranquilizer, the underlying problems.

The French are justifiably proud of their social model. Health care and pensions are good, many French retire at 60 or younger, five or six weeks of vacation every summer is the norm, and workers with full-time jobs have a 35-hour week and significant protections against layoffs and firings.

But in a more competitive world economy, the question is not whether the French social model is a good one, but whether the French can continue to afford it. Based on current trends, the answer is clearly no, not without significant structural changes — in pensions, in taxes, in social benefits, in work rules and in expectations.

RTWT.

And flashback, "THE EUROPEANIZATION OF AMERICA."

French Socialists Ponder How to Halt Country's Decline http://t.co/oSQIV4KgTn And Obama-Democrats Ponder How to Accelerate Ours. #Democrats

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 25, 2013