Major League Baseball Players Leave Autograph Collectors Scratching Their Heads

I have a 1969 Dodgers autographed baseball in my closet. It's signed by Manager Walt Alston, and pitchers Don Drysdale, Claude Osteen and Don Sutton, and Jim Brewer and Bill Singer; and outfielder Andy Kosco as well --- not to mention some other names I don't recognize. Some of the other signatures are faded or pretty much illegible. A great collector's item, in any case. My dad got it for me. I'll take a couple of pictures of it later.

Meanwhile, here's this at the New York Times, "In an Era of Squiggles, You Can’t Tell the Players Without a Handwriting Analyst":

The walls of the steakhouse at Yankee Stadium are decorated with signatures of past Yankee greats. David Robertson, the team’s young closer, marvels at the fact that he can read the names.

“All the old-time autographs are really neat,” Robertson said. “It’s a lost art.”

Robertson, 28, is the heir to the retired Mariano Rivera, who leaves behind a legacy of brilliance in the bullpen and precision with a pen. Rivera may have spent more time on his signature than any of his peers, meticulously crafting his M’s and R’s and all the lowercase letters that followed.

Few modern players take similar care. In the last generation or so, the classic script of Babe Ruth, Harmon Killebrew and Rivera has largely deteriorated into a mess of squiggles and personal branding.

It is not just baseball, of course. The legible signature, once an indelible mark of personal identity, is increasingly rare in modern life. From President Obama, who sometimes uses an autopen, to patrons at a restaurant, few take the time to carefully sign their names...

Keep reading. Lots of photos of players' signature, mostly illegible. Heh.

Vladimir Putin's New World Order

One heckuva cover story last week at the Economist, "Diplomacy and security after Crimea: The new world order":

“IN PEOPLE’S hearts and minds,” Vladimir Putin told Russia’s parliament this week, “Crimea has always been an inseparable part of Russia.” He annexed the peninsula with dazzling speed and efficiency, backed by a crushing majority in a referendum (see article). He calls it a victory for order and legitimacy and a blow against Western meddling.

The reality is that Mr Putin is a force for instability and strife. The founding act of his new order was to redraw a frontier using arguments that could be deployed to inflame territorial disputes in dozens of places around the world. Even if most Crimeans do want to join Russia, the referendum was a farce. Russia’s recent conduct is often framed narrowly as the start of a new cold war with America. In fact it poses a broader threat to countries everywhere because Mr Putin has driven a tank over the existing world order...

Gawker's Adam Weinstein: Arrest Climate-Change Deniers!

I saw folks engaging this idiot on Twitter yesterday, but I wasn't online very long, and didn't see what the fuss was all about.

Well now I do, at Gawker, "Arrest Climate-Change Deniers."

This isn't satire. The depraved ghoul Weinstein's making a purportedly serious argument, and was rightfully eviscerated for it.

At Twitchy, "Douchetastic! Gawker writer: Climate-denying ‘malcontents’ should be arrested."

Totalitarian thought police ≠ liberal & open-minded RT @Gawker: Arrest climate-change deniers. http://t.co/W1PY2tn7CA pic.twitter.com/bPnSv2voxV

— Corie Whalen (@CorieWhalen) March 28, 2014

Say you arrested all climate change deniers. How do you do you "fix" global warming at that point? Roll back modernity?

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) March 28, 2014

Finished Reading A Soldier of the Great War Yesterday

One of Bird Dog's great pearls of wisdom, long ago (so long, I've no interest in searching for a link), suggested that bloggers need to frequently unplug from the Internet and enjoy the real beauties of life, which are of course offline.

I don't take that advice enough, despite telling myself I should on a daily basis. But yesterday, except for a couple of overnight posts and one mid-day update, I spent the whole day reading, making love to my wife, and enjoying the evening with my youngest son.

I finally finished Mark Helprin's epic novel of World War I, A Soldier of the Great War, which I started last year, in May or June. I read the book on and off again, and of course interspersed reading fiction with all the other stuff I'm normally reading, non-fiction books, and especially political science and policy journals. And that's to say nothing of my daily newspaper reading, especially online, and blogging.

But Helprin's an amazing writer. I indeed took to this book from the opening pages. Occasionally you start a new book and it just doesn't grab you. I've put a few novels back down over the last couple of years because they just didn't do it for me. But I knew I liked A Soldier of the Great War from the opening pages. And then, this last few weeks, when I was down to the last few hundred pages of the book, I just buckled down to finish it. In the old days, when I was an undergraduate especially, I used to read a lot of fiction. I didn't do a whole lot else. I didn't watch as much television. I worked a lot, attended my college classes, went to the gym and hung out with my younger sister (not to mention my mom). Sometimes I would read a novel in just a few days. I can remember reading massive tomes like War and Peace back in the day, and The Fountainhead. With the exception of my schoolwork, there weren't as many distractions as we have today, especially with the Internet and social media. Plus, I have a family nowadays, so that takes a lot of time, lol.

In any case, be sure to read this wonderful novel. Mark Helprin's a conservative who occasionally posts op-eds to the Wall Street Journal (or at least he used to). Here's the book blurb at Amazon:

Alessandro Giuliani, the young son of a prosperous Roman lawyer, enjoys an idyllic life full of privilege: he races horses across the country to the sea, he climbs mountains in the Alps, and, while a student of painting at the ancient university in Bologna, he falls in love. Then the Great War intervenes. Half a century later, in August of 1964, Alessandro, a white-haired professor, tall and proud, meets an illiterate young factory worker on the road. As they walk toward Monte Prato, a village seventy kilometers away, the old man—a soldier and a hero who became a prisoner and then a deserter, wandering in the hell that claimed Europe—tells him how he tragically lost one family and gained another. The boy, envying the richness and drama of Alessandro's experiences, realizes that this magnificent tale is not merely a story: it's a recapitulation of his life, his reckoning with mortality, and above all, a love song for his family.

Ebony Magazine Apologizes to Black Conservative Raffi Williams

You might have seen this depraved blowup over the last couple of days, at Twitchy, "Ebony editor assumes RNC staffer Raffi Williams is a ‘white dude,’ tells him to shut up."

Also, "Ebony Magazine Apologizes to Black Conservative Raffi Williams," and "‘SELLOUTS’! Jamilah Lemieux’s supporters seethe after Ebony apologizes for her ‘lack of judgment’."

And from Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, "RNC chair to Ebony magazine: Apologize; Update: Ebony apologizes," and "Video: Juan Williams, Raffi Williams on diversity of thought":

Daily Caller founder Tucker Carlson hosted an interesting tête-à-tête this morning on Fox between a staunch conservative and a well-known liberal on the lack of tolerance for diversity of thought demonstrated again this week, this time by a senior editor for Ebony Magazine. The two squared off — or actually supported one another as son and father, respectively and respectfully. RNC deputy press secretary Raffi Williams joined his father Juan Williams to blast the pervasive notions that ideology has to be linked to ethnicity, and Juan urged everyone to open their minds to new ideas rather than dismiss people out of hand:

Extreme leftist intolerance, everywhere you go. That's how we live under the Obama regime.

Radical leftists = scum-sucking dirtbag totalitarians.

Lots more at Memeorandum.

Senate Dems Flailing Helplessly to Save Their Majority

What to do?

Blame the Kochs, of course!

At WaPo, "Senate Democrats struggle to define a message that can save their majority":

Democrats are going into the 2014 midterm elections with their control of the Senate greatly imperiled and with the prospect of an Obama presidency completely hobbled in its final two years.

In response, the president and his party are struggling to come up with a broad economic message that can rebut, or at least deflect, the continued GOP assaults on the president and his new health-care law.

Thus far, what they have produced is a smaller, more targeted approach — one that seeks to gin up the enthusiasm that has been lacking in key parts of their base, but that strategy is a gamble since it targets many voters who historically spurn midterm elections.

Senate Democrats’ latest effort in that regard is a 10-point plan for legislation they intend to bring to the floor over the spring and summer.

The issues are familiar ones for Democrats, and poll well among Americans generally.

Yet they are top priorities to narrower slices of the Democrats’ constituency — particularly those who showed up to vote for President Obama in 2012, but who do not have a history or voting in off-year contests.

The first items up for Senate debate will be increasing the minimum wage, from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour, and a bill to assure paycheck equity between male and female workers.

Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said that those are measures that would have their greatest impact on young people, unmarried women, Latinos and African-Americans — all of whom can be difficult to turn out in years when there is no presidential election.

“This doesn’t replace a broader economic message. In the long run, we have to do that. But in the short run, this is very helpful,” said Lake, who has warned that the Democrats face a large turnout disadvantage in a year when Republican voters appear to be more motivated.

GOP pollster Neil Newhouse said the Senate Democrats’ targeted strategy echoes that of Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, where he emphasized a number of “niche group” issues such as the Dream Act, mandatory contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act, student loan expansion and support for same-sex marriage.

“This is all about turnout. They’re not doing this to win swing voters,” Newhouse said.”They’ve got to do this. Otherwise, they’re totally doomed.”

Yes, and what better way to gin up turnout than by attacking --- wait for it! --- the diabolical Koch Brothers!! At Fox News, "Facing tough Senate races, Reid, fellow Dems turn their attack on Koch brothers," and National Journal, "Why Democrats Are Going All In on the Koch Brothers."

F-king morons.

VIDEO HAT-TIP: Puff Ho, "Mark Begich Goes After Koch Brothers In First Campaign TV Ad."

Magnitude-5.1 Earthquake Rocks Orange County and Los Angeles

Actually, there was a swarm of quakes last night. Turns out I'm upstairs reading and my wife comes up to tell me there was an earthquake, about 3.6 on the Richter scale, sometime around 8:00pm. I didn't feel it, but I was just saying that there've been a lot of quakes lately, and boom! Another one hits. First we started to laugh at the coincidence but the quake kept shaking our apartment --- a long roller, I called it --- and we stepped beneath the door frames until it passed.

So, that'll be good temblor line over beers during family get-togethers!

At LAT, "5.1 earthquake: More than 100 aftershocks, scattered damage":

That was a rolling quake. Scary enough but at least it didn't pick my place off the ground. That happened with Northridge in 1994.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 29, 2014

Now I am seeing serious tweets wondering if & actually blaming the earthquake in L.A. on fracking. Seriously people! SMH. It's Lex Luthor.
— Film Ladd (@FilmLadd) March 29, 2014

This #earthquake was felt far and wide, including: Claremont, Altadena, Lakewood, Westminster, Torrance... http://t.co/PRnQ4FfTJL
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 29, 2014

5.1-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Los Angeles Area http://t.co/2YLivR8FUu pic.twitter.com/hYm5GP5IIX
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) March 29, 2014

My parents live in Brea, next to La Habra. Earthquake shook stuff off shelves, pics off walls & scared the cats. No real damage. #California
— darleenclick (@darleenclick) March 29, 2014

More than 100 aftershocks have been reported since a magnitude 5.1 earthquake rattled Southern California on Friday night.

Most of the aftershocks have been small, but some were strong enough to be felt in the areas around the epicenter in northwestern Orange County.

Meanwhile, officials surveyed the damage, which for the most part was considered minor.

Fullerton police said early Saturday that as many as 50 people had been displaced by the quake. Several buildings are being investigated for possible structural damage, including some apartment buildings.
Photos: 5.1 quake rattles L.A., Orange County

The quake, centered near La Habra, caused furniture to tumble, pictures to fall off walls and glass to break. Merchandise fell off store shelves, and there were reports of shattered plate glass windows.

Residents across Orange and Los Angeles counties and the Inland Empire reported swinging chandeliers, fireplaces dislodging from walls and lots of rattled nerves.

The shake caused a rock slide in Carbon Canyon, causing a car to overturn, according to the Brea Police Department. Several people suffered minor injuries, officials said. Carbon Canyon Road was closed.

Fullerton reported seven water main breaks, and police received reports of windows shattering, but primarily had residents calling about burglar alarms being set off by the quake.

Third-grade teacher Barbara Castillo and her 7-year-old son had just calmed their nerves after an earlier 3.6 temblor and sat down in their La Habra home when their dogs started barking and the second, larger quake struck, causing cabinet doors to swing open, objects to fall off shelves and lights to flicker.

"It just would not stop, it was like an eternity," said Castillo, an 18-year La Habra resident.

At Disneyland in Anaheim, all rides were halted as a precaution but no damage or injuries were reported -- other than ceiling tiles falling in the police station, Sgt. Daron Wyatt said.

The first of a swarm of earthquakes hit the border of La Habra and Brea shortly after 8 p.m. with the 3.6 temblor. About an hour later, at 9:09 p.m., the 5.1 shock hit, followed by at least two more aftershocks in the magnitude-3 range in the next half hour. At least 20 aftershocks had been recorded by late Friday.

U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones said the 5.1 quake has a 5% chance of being a foreshock of a larger temblor.

More, "5.1 earthquake hit on fault that caused deadly 1987 Whittier quake."

And at Fire Andrea Mitchell, "5.1 earthquake La Habra, California."

Will Brooke, GOP Hopeful in Alabama's 6th Congressional District, Takes Aim at #ObamaCare in New Ad

At iOWNTHEWORLD, "Let’s Kill Obamacare."

And Politico, "Alabama Hill hopeful shoots ACA":

One congressional candidate is literally taking aim at Obamacare in a new ad, shooting at a paper copy of the law with various firearms.

“We’re down here to have a little fun today and talk about two serious subjects: the Second Amendment and see how much damage we can do to this copy of Obamacare,” Will Brooke, a congressional candidate running in the GOP primary for Alabama’s 6th district says in a new video posted Wednesday to YouTube.

Planned Parenthood Presents Nancy Pelosi with Award Named After Eugenicist Margaret Sanger

Ugh.

At Twitchy, "Nancy Pelosi presented with Margaret Sanger Award."

Pelosi receives award honoring a Jew-hating, black hating proponent of wiping both out along with other undesirables. http://t.co/NfepI3YpbF

— David Horowitz (@horowitz39) March 27, 2014

#Pelosi let me introduce U2 Margaret #Sanger - still want her award? http://t.co/Lo8KlE8Xuv http://t.co/AWesPoxCUt pic.twitter.com/1savtJMOUm

— Maafa 21 (@maafa21) March 27, 2014

Seriously, this is an award that no one in their right mind would want to accept. If you haven't yet, do yourself a favor and pick up Rober Zubrin's, Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism. You will literally cringe at the depravity of Margaret Sanger's racist eliminationism, which is situated today smack dab in the middle of the Democrat Party left.

Denmark Urges Citizens to 'Do It' to Boost Country's Population

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Denmark's call to arms..."

French School Teacher, Survivor of Vicious Anti-Semitic Attack by North African Islamists, Breaks Down on Camera While Retelling the Evil

At Algemeiner, "Victim Breaks Down in Footage From Aftermath of Brutal Anti-Semitic Attack in France (PHOTOS/VIDEO)."

Also at Israel, Matzav, "Jews - it's time to leave France. Please come home!"

America's Dereliction of Duty

That sound you're hearing is America's international standing dissipating.

At the Economist, "America and the IMF":

ANYONE who doubts the importance of the International Monetary Fund should look at Ukraine. Every Western nation is talking about helping the Ukrainians resist Vladimir Putin. In terms of immediate cash, America has come up with $1 billion of loan guarantees, while the European Union has found €1.6 billion ($2.2 billion) of budget support. The IMF, meanwhile, is discussing lending Ukraine’s government about $15 billion. It is the only outfit capable of mobilising large sums fast. That is why, for the past 70 years, the fund has been the world’s financial firefighter. And it is why Congress’s refusal to support reforms to strengthen it is shockingly shortsighted.

The reforms in question concern the IMF’s system of “quotas”. Each country’s quota determines how much it pays in, its clout in the organisation and how much it can borrow if it gets into trouble. America’s quota is the biggest, giving it veto power. But today’s system gives excessive heft to small countries in Europe and too little to emerging economies. And, at $370 billion, the total value of the quotas is modest compared with the scale of global capital flows. That is why, during the 2008-09 financial crisis, the fund’s resources were topped up with temporary credit lines from big economies. And it is why, in December 2010, at America’s instigation, the fund’s members agreed to a bolder reform that would double the quotas and raise the emerging economies’ voting power.

More than three years later, Congress has still not endorsed this reform. It failed to do so once again this week, and in a particularly galling manner. The Obama administration tried to attach quota reform to the legislation approving America’s bilateral aid to Ukraine. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate refused to include it. Just as the fund is promising billions for a country that America is desperate to support, Congress has undercut it.

This is a shameful outcome, driven largely by ignorance. The fund’s most vociferous congressional critics, mainly Republicans, misunderstand both the organisation and its reforms. They argue that the quota change would put more taxpayer money at risk and weaken America’s influence within the fund. Both claims are bogus. America will retain its veto power. The larger role for emerging economies comes at the expense of European countries. Nor does a larger quota add to America’s overall exposure, not least because its credit lines to the fund will be commensurately cut.

The real risk to Americans lies in Congress’s failure to support the reforms that its technocrats championed. This has infuriated the fund’s other member countries, making them less inclined to support America’s priorities. Big assistance packages, such as that for Ukraine, could be a casualty of their anger at America’s unwillingness to live up to its promises. And with a smaller quota and greater reliance on credit, the fund’s finances will be less secure that they should be. America’s arsenal of economic diplomacy will be the emptier for it.

Unravelling Bretton Woods, one vote at a time

Depressingly, few politicians in Washington seem to care. The sense of hegemonic responsibility that led America to create organisations like the IMF and World Bank in 1944, and to nurture them in subsequent decades, is eroding fast. Republicans, particularly the isolationist tea-party sort, deserve much of the blame. But so, too, does the White House...

I can't stand isolationism, from whatever the source. And the Bretton Woods institutions are among the most important financial and monetary organizations in world politics. America needs to lead them or the liberal international order will lie vulnerable to erosion and eventual collapse.

U.N. Backtracks on Climate Predictions

Another blow the warming hoax industry.

At Der Spiegel, "U.N. Backtracks: Will Global Warming Really Trigger Mass Extinctions?":

In 2007, the IPCC predicted that rising global temperatures would kill off many species. But in its new report, part of which will be presented next Monday, the UN climate change body backtracks. There is a shortage of evidence, a draft version claims.

The last remaining passenger pigeon, Martha, died a century ago in a Cincinnati zoo. The bird's downfall was having tender, tasty meat so pleasing to the human palate.

Hundreds of species have suffered the same fate in modern times. The last Tasmanian wolf died in an Australian zoo in 1936. Two years later, the final remaining Schomburgk's deer met its end as a pet in a Thai temple. The Chinese river dolphin hasn't been sighted for years either. In total, 77 species of mammal, 130 birds, 22 reptiles and 34 amphibians have vanished from the face of the earth since 1500, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Humans have shrunk the habitats of many life forms, through unsustainable agriculture, fishing or hunting. And it is going to get even worse. Global warming is said to be threatening thousands of animal and plant species with extinction. That, at least, is what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been predicting for years.

But the UN climate body now says it is no longer so certain. The second part of the IPCC's new assessment report is due to be presented next Monday in Yokohama, Japan. On the one hand, a classified draft of the report notes that a further "increased extinction risk for a substantial number of species during and beyond the 21st century" is to be expected. On the other hand, the IPCC admits that there is no evidence climate change has led to even a single species becoming extinct thus far.

'Crocodile Tears'

At most, the draft report says, climate change may have played a role in the disappearance of a few amphibians, fresh water fish and mollusks. Yet even the icons of catastrophic global warming, the polar bears, are doing surprisingly well. Their population has remained stable despite the shrinking of the Arctic ice cap.

Ragnar Kinzelbach, a zoologist at the University of Rostock, says essential data is missing for most other life forms, making it virtually impossible to forecast the potential effects of climate change. Given the myriad other human encroachments in the natural environment, Kinzelbach says, "crocodile tears over an animal kingdom threatened by climate change are less than convincing."

The draft report includes a surprising admission by the IPCC -- that it doubts its own computer simulations for species extinctions. "There is very little confidence that models currently predict extinction risk accurately," the report notes. Very low extinction rates despite considerable climate variability during past hundreds of thousands of years have led to concern that "forecasts for very high extinction rates due entirely to climate change may be overestimated."

In the last assessment report, Climate Change 2007, the IPCC predicted that 20 to 30 percent of all animal and plant species faced a high risk for extinction should average global temperatures rise by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit). The current draft report says that scientific uncertainties have "become more apparent" since 2007.

It notes that key environmental processes and life form characteristics were given scant consideration in the models -- the ability of plants and animals to adapt to new climatic conditions, for example. Consequently, the new assessment report will not include any concrete figures regarding the percentage of species that could become extinct as a result of global warming.

Well, you can't perpetuate a scam like this forever. Sooner or later, common sense --- and decency --- catch up to you and you gotta come clean. Of course, die hard warmists will come up with some new auxiliary hypothesis to keep all the "climate change" scams going. Wouldn't want to lose all that government "science" funding, and all that.

More.

HMS Queen Elizabeth

At Telegraph UK, "Onboard the Royal Navy war ship of the future, HMS Queen Elizabeth (Video)."

And at London's Daily Mail, "HMS Queen Elizabeth in all her glory: Astonishing graphic shows the decks of new 65,000-ton Royal Navy warship that will be as long as TWENTY EIGHT London buses and can carry 2,300 crew."

Deaf Woman Joanne Milne Hears for the Very First Time

I love this. So wonderful

At Telegraph UK, "Deaf woman hears for the first time (Video)."

And London's Daily Mail, "Watch: The moving moment a deaf woman is overcome by emotion as she HEARS for the first time after having her cochlear implants switched on."

Add Iowa to the GOP's Senate Pickup List

At Power Line:

The Democrats’ candidate for the Iowa Senate seat being vacated by Tom Harkin is Bruce Braley. Until Tuesday, Braley was the favorite. But then this video surfaced: Braley raising money from a group of big-ticket plaintiffs’ lawyers in Texas. Apparently a Republican sneaked into the gathering with a camera. Two can play that game! Braley assures the Texas lawyers that he is one of them; he has been “fighting tort reform” for thirty years! Whereas, if Republicans gain control of the Senate, Iowa Senator Charles Grassley will be chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Grassley is only “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school.” The horror! Here it is; watch and enjoy. And don’t forget to notice the table with booze on it–a nice touch:

More (via Instapundit).

Democrats Have Screwed Themselves With Increased Reliance on Younger Voters

I touched on this issue yesterday in my post on Republican Party electoral competitiveness.

Democrats simply can't rely on the youth demographic to carry their progressive coalition. For one thing, young people are simply not reliable voters compared to older Americans, who have higher rates of voter turnout relative to any other cohort.

So I thought this piece was interesting, at Sabato's Crystal Ball, "Putting Their Eggs in the Wrong Midterm Basket" (at Memeorandum):

Barring significant changes in group voting habits, many commentators have argued that “The Coalition of the Ascendant” is positioned to give Democrats a notable edge in elections in the near future. There may be some truth to that supposition: The country is clearly getting more diverse, and nonwhite voters tend to vote strongly Democratic.

A key cog in this coalition has been young voters — often called Millennials — who are more diverse than their elders. Exit poll data in 2012 suggest that young people were vital in securing President Barack Obama’s second term in the White House. He garnered 60% of the 18-to-29 vote (after winning 66% of it in 2008), by far the highest percentage Obama won among any age group. Estimating from exit poll data, all else equal, it’s possible that Obama would have narrowly lost the popular vote (and perhaps the Electoral College vote, too) had he won the same percentage among 18-to-29 year olds as he did among 30-to-44 year olds (52%). Continued strong support for Democratic presidential candidates in the future among younger voters could spell trouble for the GOP as generational replacement occurs (yes, that’s a euphemism).

However, one aspect of this trend is anything but rosy for Democrats: Since the first national exit poll was taken for a midterm election in 1978, only once (in that first survey) has the 18-to-29 age group made up a larger portion of a midterm electorate than voters who were 60 or older. And not only have young people almost always been the smallest part of midterm electorates in this period, their participation has usually been much smaller compared to presidential years. With Democrats more reliant on young voters to win elections, drop-off among that group could make it harder for Democrats to find success in midterm cycles...

Keep reading.

The main implication here is that Democrats are likely to suck in midterm election, when there's likely to be a huge drop off of younger voters. Interesting too is that baby boomers, a massive demographic cohort, are living much longer than previous generations, and it's likely their cohort will provide the Republicans with a huge base of votes for decades. Even younger voters today are not guaranteed to remain faithfully Democratic, unlike, say, voters who cut their political teeth during the New Deal-era of Democrat hegemony.

So, while leftists make funny headlines about how the GOP coalition's a bunch of old fogies, the demographic trends are extremely problematic for the regressive boneheads.

More at Memeorandum.

'Wild Night'

From Van Morrison, heard during drive-time the other day at the Sound L.A., although I can't remember just when so I don't have the full playlist. (Sorry, I'll try to do better, lol.)

As you brush your shoes
Stand before the mirror
And you comb your hair
Grab your coat and hat
And you walk, wet streets
Tryin' to remember
All the wild night breezes
In your mem'ry ever

And ev'rything looks so complete
When you're walkin' out on the street
And the wind catches your feet
Sends you flyin', cryin'

Ooo-woo-wee!
Wild night is calling, alright
Oooo-ooo-wee!
Wild night is calling

And all the girls walk by
Dressed up for each other
And the boys do the boogie-woogie
On the corner of the street

And the people, passin' by
Stare in wild wonder
And the inside juke-box
Roars out just like thunder

And ev'rything looks so complete
When you walk out on the street
And the wind catches your feet
And sends you flyin', cryin'

Woo-woo-wee!
Wild night is calling
Alright

Ooo-ooo-wee!
Wild night is calling, alright

The wild night is calling
The wild night is calling

Come on out and dance
Whoa, come on out and make romance
Yes, indeed

Come on out and dance
Come on out, make romance

(Instrumental & horn solo)

The wild night is calling, alright
The wild night is calling

Come on out an dance
Yeah, come on out 'n make romance

Come on out and dance, alright...

Ukraine's Loss of Crimea Has NATO Examining Its Core Mission

At the Los Angeles Times, "NATO member nations are split over how aggressively to respond to Russia's takeover of the Crimean peninsula":

BRUSSELS — Last fall, nearly 6,000 NATO troops, mostly in Eastern Europe and the Baltics, trained to repel an invasion by a fictional country that bore an uncanny resemblance to Russia.

Five months later that scenario no longer seems so remote.

The reality of tens of thousands of Russian troops assembled along Ukraine's border has forced the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to confront long-deferred issues about its capability — and collective will — to respond to aggressive moves by Moscow.
The recent ouster of Ukraine's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich and Russia's belligerent response has the 65-year-old alliance thinking again about its core mission of common defense at a time when its resources, including those of the U.S., are stretched thin.

That reflection has exposed a deep division among NATO's 28 member nations.

In a visit to Belgium on Wednesday that included a stop at NATO headquarters, President Obama vowed the alliance would "uphold" its commitment to defend its members. In a clear warning to Moscow, he called for stationing more forces in NATO countries "that may feel vulnerable."

Some experts say that if Moscow began to seriously threaten NATO members, the U.S. would need to at least partially rebuild its military presence in Europe, which once included more than 250,000 troops, hundreds of tanks, fighters jets and other equipment for rapid response against the Soviet army. The number of U.S. troops in Europe now stands at about 70,000 and dropping.

For now, that remains a distant possibility. Obama has all but ruled out direct U.S. military involvement in Ukraine, noting that the country is not a NATO member and therefore outside the alliance's collective security umbrella...

More.

And at the New York Times, "Obama Renewing U.S. Commitment to NATO Alliance."

Also, from Stephen Walt (yes, that Stephen Walt, FWIW), "Would You Die for That Country?"

Harsh Life of Missing 8-Year-Old Relisha Rudd Comes Into Focus

An almost unbelievable story of bureaucratic incompetence and incomprehensible evil.

At the Washington Post, "Relisha Rudd’s difficult past comes into focus":

Relisha Rudd’s absences piled up at Daniel A. Payne Elementary School, topping 30 days this year before someone notified the D.C. Child and Family Service Agency on March 13.

But it took an additional six days before the city agency took action. By then, Relisha, 8, had gone missing.

Police believe Kahlil Malik Tatum, 51, a janitor at the homeless shelter at the old D.C. General Hospital, where Relisha lived, killed his wife and now has the girl. They are looking for them up and down the East Coast.

With the search now into its eighth day with no breaks, Relisha’s difficult past is coming into focus. Guardians, social workers and employees at the subsidized shelter had extensive contact with Relisha but missed or ignored repeated opportunities to intervene weeks or even years ago, records show. And her mother, who allowed Relisha to be with Tatum, told school officials her daughter was missing school because she was sick, an explanation that authorities say delayed their ability to respond...

Keep reading this sorry-assed report.

I mean really? Who lets their 8-year-old child spend the days with a janitor at a homeless shelter? This dude Tatum took the child "swimming" and bought her presents. Hey, no hints something's awry there. Nope, not at all. And child protective services? No clue. Can you say city-agency clusterf-k?

This is not good. Not good at all. Ima say a prayer now.