'The audiences have also been mostly elderly. The theater comes equipped with a defibrillator, and managers used to keep a supply of disposable underwear, in case of accidents...'

What a story, at the Los Angeles Times, "THE FABULOUS PALM SPRINGS FOLLIES NEARS LAST HURRAH IN PRIME FORM":

It was 10 minutes before showtime and Joni Naber was putting the final touches on her costume — a blue explosion of tassels and sequins that wasn't doing a very good job of covering her body.

"Come here and feel this!" she called out, grabbing a reporter's hand and placing it squarely on her midriff.

Her abdominals felt tight and smooth, like a piece of molded plastic.

"It's a corset," the 77-year-old former USO dancer explained with a grin.

In the cramped dressing room of the Plaza Theatre, 10 other showgirls were prepping for a matinee show. "Stop flirting with the reporter," one called out.

Naber is a dancer in the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, the musical revue and local institution that for the last 23 years has featured performers who could all claim AARP membership. The current cast ranges in age from 55 to 84...

The crowds have been streaming back in since the end of the run was announced. Alas, sounds a bit too late.

Did Led Zeppelin Filch the Opening Notes of 'Stairway to Heaven' from Relatively Forgotten California Band?

Posted the song here, "'Stairway to Heaven'."

And here's Business Week, "Stairway to Heaven: The Song Remains Pretty Similar":

Weary from touring, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page retreated in 1970 to a stone cottage in Wales, called Bron-Yr-Aur, with no power or running water. Legend has it King Arthur fought his last battle nearby. Not far off is the mountain Cader Idris where, it’s said, those who spend a night at its summit are fated to die, go mad, or become poets. At Bron-Yr-Aur, by candlelight, Page constructed the bones of what may well be the most popular, and valuable, rock ’n’ roll song of all time, Stairway to Heaven. This included the introductory finger-picked section that launched a million guitar lessons.

Back in England that winter, Page laid out the budding epic for the band at another house, Headley Grange, where the magic continued around a fire fueled on one occasion by a section of stairway banister. As Page plucked, singer Robert Plant seemed to channel another world as he wrote the lyrics. To Page, who has referred to the song as “my baby,” it was Zeppelin’s crowning achievement. “Stairway crystallized the essence of the band,” he told then-teenage rock writer Cameron Crowe in a March 13, 1975, Rolling Stone interview. “It was a milestone for us. Every musician wants to do something of lasting quality, something which will hold up for a long time, and I guess we did it with Stairway.”

For generations of middle-class youth, the song is the 8-minute soundtrack of adolescent romance—or at least the anticipation of it. Stairway is slow dancing, the last song played at high school proms, sweet-16 parties, and summer camp mixers across a broad swath of the late 20th century.

Stairway’s stature—financially, culturally, and musically—is towering. By 2008, when Conde Nast Portfolio magazine published an estimate that included royalties and record sales, the song had earned at least $562 million. It was so profitable in part because Led Zeppelin refused to release the song as a single, forcing fans to shell out for the entire album, which is untitled but known as Led Zeppelin IV. In the U.S., the album has sold more copies (23 million, according to the Recording Industry Association of America) than any save Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits (1971-75). To this day, Warner Music Group cites the song in its annual reports as an example of its publishing portfolio.

For live audiences, Stairway’s power starts with its introductory notes. “Can you think of another song, any song, for which, when its first chord is played, an entire audience of 20,000 rise spontaneously to their feet, not just to cheer or clap hands, but in acknowledgment of an event that is crucial for all of them?” Observer critic Tony Palmer wrote in a 1975 profile. Dave Lewis writes in Led Zeppelin: The Complete Guide to Their Music that “Stairway has a pastoral opening cadence that is classical in feel and which has ensured its immortality.”

But what if those opening notes weren’t actually written by Jimmy Page or any member of Led Zeppelin? What if the foundation of the band’s immortality had been lifted from another song by a relatively forgotten California band?

You’d need to rewrite the history of rock ’n’ roll...

Yeah, well, a little late now, don't you think?

But keep reading, in any case.

Racism at @TheAtlantic: Leftist Hypocrisy in Action

Here's the piece up this morning at the Atlantic: "Antonin Scalia Totally Gets Net Neutrality."

And they illustrate it with a Photoshop of Justice Scalia daydreaming about pizza?

If it had been an article about Sonia Sotomayor Photoshopped with her daydreaming about menudo and tacos it'd be a major racist scandal. Because CONSERVATIVES are racist?!!

It's all about hypocrisy with the left.

Do as I say not as I do.

It's bad. Indeed, it's evil. For when the left can destroy people's lives for the tiniest microaggression but then freely post a blatantly racist Photoshop of a Supreme Court justice, you're heading down the road to tyranny.

.@Instapundit So, @TheAtlantic can get away with an ethnic attack on Scalia? Nice photo there: http://t.co/L9BfNq5KuK pic.twitter.com/EVkWiCwshF

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

Video of Alleged Heisman-Winning Rapist Jameis Winston Stealing Crab Legs

What's the psychology here? It's not like the guy couldn't afford them. Is it entitlement? Black privilege?

Whatever. Wouldn't want to be racist and criticize the guy for stealing or anything. Indeed, he wasn't even charged with a crime.

At Sports Illustrated, "Watch video footage of Florida State QB Jameis Winston shoplifting from Publix," and the Miami Herald, "Video footage shows FSU star Jameis Winston stealing crab legs."



And remember, this is the guy who allegedly got away with rape.

More at USA Today, "As incidents mount for Jameis Winston, so does concern":

Winston's supermarket episode almost immediately became the butt of jokes. An Alabama grocery store advertised "Jameis Winston King Crab Legs" the day after a press conference that included multiple questions about whether the QB also took butter. Stetson fans held up crab legs in its game against FSU on Tuesday. And Taiwanese animators created a video showing Winston using Heisman moves to elude security officers on Segways.

Those close to the quarterback say the citation, for which he has performed 20 hours of community service, is the honest mistake of a college kid adjusting to the intense spotlight. If he wasn't aware of its glare, he should be now, they say.

"We hope so," Antonor Winston tells USA TODAY Sports. "Not only him. I think it should show the university and us, I think we probably kind of dropped the ball on that a little bit."

Florida State declined to make Winston available for an interview about the incident, but after it was reported he released a statement through his attorney, Tim Jansen, in which he accepted responsibility for a "moment of youthful ignorance."

Youthful ignorance? Nah. More like black racist privilege.

My Son's 6th Grade Country Report

My boy picked Denmark. And of course I spent time with him researching the country and helping with the written paragraphs.

I'm impressed. Denmark boasts the world's highest level of income equality, as measured by the Gini coefficient (financed the world's highest tax rates). And Danes have the highest rate of meat consumption per capita in the world. It's basically your Scandinavian dream country. Modern, cultured and environmentally correct. I'm not planning a trip to Europe anytime soon, but after helping with this project, I'm way more inclined to consider a Copenhagen stopover.

My kid's 6th grade class project. #Denmark pic.twitter.com/84ebIAL09r

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) May 17, 2014

In any case, here's the copy on the country's background:

Denmark is located in Scandinavia, in the northernmost part of Europe. The geography of Denmark is mostly flatland. The country's highest point being roughly 173 meter above sea level. There are over 400 islands. Some of its best-known landmarks include the Tivoli Gardens amusement park in Copenhagen and the Little Mermaid Statue, at the Langelinie promenade in Copenhagen. Denmark's natural resources include oil, natural gas, gravel, sand, limestone, chalk, and clay. Denmark is self-sufficient in oil. Denmark has a temperate climate with mild winters and cool summers. The country averages about 28 inches of rainfall per year. Denmark is a predominantly Protestant nation and Easter and Christmas are the country's biggest holidays. Danes celebrate three days of Christmas. Other religious holidays are also important throughout the year. The capital city of Copenhagen, population of over 1 million people, is a popular visitors' attraction. The city is rich in historical sites and palaces, as well as arts and culture, like museums and the opera. The Copenhagen zoo is popular as well. The original Legoland park is located in the city of Billund, to the west in Jutland. Danes are the world's greatest meateaters! Denmark boasts the highest consumption of meat per person in the world. Meat and fish are the main foods. Danes like to eat open sandwiches, called smørrebrød, with lots of toppings, as well as meatballs with all kinds of trimmings. Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Nina Agdal is probably the world's most famous Dane at the moment, although Prince Hamlet, from Shakespeare's play, remains as popular as ever. Because it is cool in Denmark most of the time, Danes wear a lot of layers in the clothing, as well as denim jeans, sweaters and scarves.

And you gotta love Denmark's immigration policy, via Der Spiegel, "Putting a Price on Foreigners: Strict Immigration Laws 'Save Denmark Billions'":

Denmark's strict immigration laws have saved the country billions in benefits, a government report has claimed. The Integration Ministry report has now led to calls among right-wing populists to clamp down further on immigrants to increase the savings...

The report has led to jubilation among right-wing politicians: "We now have it in black and white that restrictions (on immigrants) pay off," said DPP finance spokesman Kristian Thulesen Dahl. The DPP will almost certainly exploit the figures in future negotiations over the Danish economy.

But the report has sparked outrage from opposition parties like the centrist Social Liberal Party, which dismissed it as undignified and discriminatory. The party's integration spokeswoman, Marianne Jelved, said: "A certain group of people is being denounced and being blamed for our deficit, being made into whipping boys." She added: "We cannot classify people depending on their value to the economy. That is degrading in a democracy that has a basic value of equality."

Still, the announcement has not come as surprise. The right-wing populist DPP, which has been working with the ruling center-right coalition government of Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen since 2001, has in the past made its aims very clear: a complete halt to immigration into Denmark from non-Western countries. "A Somali who is no good for anything, that is simply not acceptable," said DPP leader Pia Kjærsgaard. Similarly, center-right liberal Prime Minister Rasmussen has also said anyone who would be a burden on Denmark is not welcome in the country.

Right-wing populists have even demanded a ban on satellite dishes so that TV stations like al-Jazeera and Al Arabiya cannot be beamed into Danish living rooms. There have also been suggestions to exempt migrants from the minimum wage -- supposedly to make it easier for foreigners to gain access to the labor market.

The small Scandinavian country already has the strictest immigration and asylum laws in Europe. For example, foreign couples are only allowed to marry if both partners are at least 24 years old. The number of asylum seekers and relatives of immigrants seeking entry into Denmark dropped by more than two-thirds within nine years as a result of the tough laws....

In November, the government agreed to stricter laws and made the entry of immigrants' spouses more difficult. Only those who collect enough "points" may come to Denmark in the future -- with points being determined by factors such as academic qualifications and proof of language proficiency. In addition, the equivalent of €13,000 must be deposited with the state in the form of a bank guarantee to cover any future public assistance. Socially deprived areas with a disproportionately high number of immigrants will be subject in future to a so-called "ghetto strategy" designed to prevent high concentrations of foreigners in public housing areas. Migrants will be assigned housing, and three-year-old children who do not speak Danish well enough will be required to attend state child care.

Some immigrants have already turned their back on Denmark voluntarily. Increasing numbers of Somalis are moving away, especially to the UK, the Jyllands Posten reported on Thursday, because of discrimination.

Hmm, racism as state strategy. And leftists say we're the world's most evil country, lol!

Ringling Brothers Gets $16 Million in 'Vexatious' Animal Rights Blowback

At the Wall Street Journal, "Lawsuit Losers Pay" (via Google):

Animal-rights groups that made phony claims of abused circus elephants continue to pay for their bogus litigation. On Thursday Feld Entertainment, owner of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, announced a legal settlement under which it received $15.75 million from the Humane Society of the United States and other animal-rights groups. This follows a 2012 agreement by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to surrender $9.3 million to the producer of family-friendly entertainment.

The activist groups aren't settling out of a spirit of generosity. They're paying up because Feld exposed their payments to a former circus employee who offered false testimony. And as Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia noted last year, "the plaintiffs were unable to produce any credible evidence that any of them had standing to pursue their claims." He called their lawsuit "frivolous, unreasonable and groundless" and ordered them to pay Feld's attorneys fees. Total settlements of roughly $25 million now cover the costs of a defense that began in 2000 when the activists first lobbed their spurious claims...

Now that is the way to do it --- punch back twice as hard.

Also from Michael Rubin, at Commentary, "Dishonesty Has Cost for Radical Animal Activists":

The U.S. District Court ruled that the Humane Society’s case was “frivolous,” “vexatious,” and “groundless and unreasonable from its inception.” The settlement also covered a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) case that Feld Entertainment had filed after they discovered that the Humane Society and co-complainants had paid a witness and then tried to cover that up.

Dishonesty. The calling card of the radical left.

'The Immigrant'

A movie review, from Betsy Sharkey, at the Los Angeles Times, "Intensely moving 'Immigrant' leaves viewers unsettled":

Though its story is far more about survival than love, there is a sense of seduction in director James Gray's new film, a wolf in sheep's clothing quality. Not unlike Bruno Weiss, the dandy who trolls Ellis Island for pretty girls in bad straits played so well by Phoenix.

Cotillard's Ewa Cybulska is one of those weary and desperate beauties, a world away from her edgy portrayal of Edith Piaf in 2007's "La Vie en Rose," which would win her an Oscar. Ewa and her sister, Belva (Dagmara Dominczyk), are just off the boat, still awaiting clearance to enter the country. It's a compelling opening scene, the endless lines, the empty faces, so many fates hanging in the balance, and opportunists like Bruno moving through the sea of humanity like sharks.

The sepia-saturated scene immediately evokes that vast influx of refugees in the '20s and '30s. The period detail achieved by production designer Happy Massee, costume designer Patricia Norris, and captured so beautifully by cinematographer Darius Khondji is outstanding. Composer Chris Spelman adds a bluesy jazz-age sound that is terrific — weeping when it needs to, carefree when that's called for later...

I love movies like this, the deep periodization especially.

More.

Political Correctness Out of Control

A great O'Reilly talking points memo.

He's got some leftist Buckwheat dude on there who's a freakin' laugh riot.



Yeah, and no doubt No More Mister's got a response to O'Reilly. Because leftist PC intolerance is always justified, or something.

Julie Garcia, University of Arkansas Freshman, Under Arrest for Filing False Sexual Assault Report

At Instapundit, "I like that they published her name and picture."

Send this one to Professor Caroline Heldman.

The Leaked New York Times Innovation Report is One of the Key Documents of This Media Age

Well, I thought it was pretty significant myself when I read about it yesterday at BuzzFeed, "Exclusive: New York Times Internal Report Painted Dire Digital Picture." (Funny, too, how I came across it via BuzzFeed's app on my iPhone.)

So now here's this at Nieman Journalism Lab:

We don’t typically write about intra-newsroom politics at Nieman Lab, leaving that to Manhattan’s very capable cadre of media reporters. But Abramson’s removal and Dean Baquet’s ascent has apparently inspired someone inside the Times to leak one of the most remarkable documents I’ve seen in my years running the Lab, to Myles Tanzer at BuzzFeed. It’s the full report of the newsroom innovation team that was given six full months to ask big questions about the Times’ digital strategy. (A summary version of it was leaked last week, but this is the big kahuna.)

Keep reading.

And read the "innovation report" here.

RELATED: At Instapundit, "MORE UGLINESS AT THE NEW YORK TIMES: Was Sexism Behind Jill Abramson’s Firing?"

And at Althouse:

I feel pushed to talk about pushiness. And I feel irked to accept Jill Abramson as the face of the topic of The Problem of Female Leadership. I don’t particularly like her, and I suspect she did not do a good job for The New York Times, and they had every reason to oust her.

'It's time that American Jews see Israel not as a Hollywood or Hebrew school fantasy but what it was and still is: a real country made of bona fide humans, faults and all, albeit humans caught in inhuman circumstances...'

The quote is from Ambassador Michael Oren, at Foreign Policy, "'A' Jewish State vs. 'The' Jewish State."

Oren debates David Rothkopf, the editor of Foreign Policy, c/o Israel Matzav, "An exchange of emails well worth reading":

Michael Oren and David Rothkopf were college roommates at Columbia around the time that I was there. Although both went into international politics, their lives took very different directions. Oren has just finished a term as Israel's ambassador to the United States. Rothkopf is editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine.

Although he considers himself a Zionist, Rothkopf only visited Israel for the first time in late 2013. This exchange of emails resulted from Oren asking Rothkopf what he thought about his visit. You should definitely read the whole thing...

College 'Hump Day' Event Canceled After Students Protest 'Camel Racism'

Boy, "camel racism."

What's next?

At Campus Reform, "‘Hump Day’ event cancelled after students claim bringing a camel to campus was racist."

And Twitchy, "‘Is this a joke?’ College ‘camel fiasco’ sparks mockery of PC cops, exposes real racists."

trademarking "racist camel whistle."

— T-Mex (@SooperMexican) May 16, 2014

Ban college. This is just fucking ridiculous http://t.co/6xMb0BOvRW

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) May 16, 2014

I"m so fucking sick and tired of worrying whether I'm offending a Muslim. Know what offends me? Hanging gays and stoning women.

— Chris Barnhart (@ChrisBarnhart) May 16, 2014

Wait, campus lefties, you see a a camel, automatically think of an ethnic group, and then you say _other people_ are racist?

— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) May 16, 2014

When is Geico going to apologize for its deeply offensive camel commercial?

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) May 16, 2014

.@ProgsToday Released from #TwitterGulag

The left, morally and intellectually bankrupt, can only use deceit and force to push its agenda.

And @ProgsToday must have really struck a nerve to bring out the fever swamp gulag trolls.

From Gateway Pundit:

THANKS EVERYONE! @ProgsToday is Back Up and Running! We've been released from #TwitterGulag @MichelleMalkin @DLoesch

— Progs Today (@gatewaypundit) May 15, 2014

And follow Progressives Today:

.@arneduncan why are federal tax $$ going to #WhitePrivilege conference? They teach "racism is central to America" pic.twitter.com/ukNAt2HvFm

— Progressives Today (@ProgsToday) May 16, 2014

Narendra Modi Victory Heralds New Era in #India

I saw this at Pamela's earlier, "Astounding Victory for Modi in India Election":

The results are in and they are astounding. Magnificent. Narendra Modi did wildly better than even the best projections. The BJP (Modi’s party) won over 50 percent of the seats ALONE, without even their handful of ideologically aligned allies.

Despite what the cretins in the media and the Islamic apologists in the political arena tell you, there is major change afoot. I have been seeing it here in the States, and we see lights of hope and truth beginning to blaze across the world.

And here's WSJ, "Modi Election Win Heralds New Era: Hindu-Nationalist, Pro-Business BJP Candidate Narendra Modi Marks Sweeping Shift."

It's a big deal. The BJP dislodged the Gandhi, Congress Party machine that's ruled india for 60 years.

More at Telegraph UK, "Narendra Modi wins India election with landslide victory."

And video from Euro News, "Dramatic shift in Indian politics with Modi set to win landslide election victory."

Amanda Marcotte's Reaction to the Über Sexist Hypocrisy at the New York Times

Here's Robert Stacy McCain, "Was She Too … Bossy?"

Robert hasn't seen Murderin' Mandy's response, apparently. But she's weighed in, at TPM, "Why Jill Abramson's Firing Triggers Women's Worst Fears About Sexism."

Notice how she got "triggers" in there at the headline.

Mandy's got skills, heh.

Day Three of Southern California Wildfires

I've been thinking about the drought conditions the past couple of days, and now the national media's picking up the meme. At USA Today, "Drought creates tinderbox for wildfires in southwest USA."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Huge increase in California wildfires linked to drought, hot weather."

Also, a dramatic report from this CBS This Morning:



More, "Southern California wildfires rage on; some evacuations lifted."

And at the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Prospect of arson stokes fear, suspicion in San Diego."

Mimi Walters for Congress

I like Mimi Walters. She's a down home fiscal conservative, and pretty much a regular lady in this era of freak-show leftist regressivism.

The Orange County Register had a piece on her and the open seat for O.C. 45th congressional district, "Open O.C. House seat draws diverse field, but how competitive?"

The leftist Orange Juice Blog hates her, attacking Walters as as "Stepford carpetbagger":

"I will be casting my ballot for Republican Mimi Walters."- Congressman John Campbell #CA45 #TeamWalters pic.twitter.com/3nZ4gX6gOC

— Mimi Walters (@MimiWaltersCA) May 15, 2014

In 2012 Mrs. Walters, as Greg reported in great detail, created a “sham residence” in the state senate district she wanted to represent, renting out a small cheap Irvine apartment while continuing to actually reside in her and HER wealthy husband’s Laguna Niguel mansion with their four children.  Her brilliant Democratic opponent Steve Young dramatized/proved this state of affairs memorably by placing “welcome to the neighborhood” flowers on her doorstep and coming back every day for weeks to photograph them in their sad wilted state of growing decay.

And, being a lawyer, he accompanied this edifying bit of theater with a lawsuit, to remove her from the ballot.  But a Sacramento superior court judge ruled against Steve, and the state Senate itself, which also could have removed her, opted to stay collegial and self-protective,  and nothing happened. (For who knows how many other Senators of both parties may be guilty of the same?)  So now, having served two years of her Senate term, she throws in her hat for an open Congressional seat, driving out the much worthier John Moorlach with her overwhelming fundraising, endorsements, and false, malicious attacks.

Lesson?  Nothing happens.  The law on residency means nothing, and the law on lying under penalty of perjury about your residency also means nothing...

Okay, so let the voters sort it out. In the case of Walters, she's definitely a resident of the 45th congressional district, so good luck with the carpetbagger attack. She's going to Congress.

Obama Administration Threatened Nigeria with Sanctions in 2013 for Fighting #BokoHaram

At Pamela's:

This is too monstrous for words. Here is yet more evidence of what I contended years ago: that Obama had switched sides in the war on terror — even before Benghazi. And the heads exploded on the left (here).

And I was right.

“Obama Administration Threatened Nigeria with Sanctions in 2013 for Fighting Boko Haram,” by Fred Dardick, Canada Free Press, May 14, 2014...

Keep reading.

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Revealed: Hillary Clinton's State Department refused to classify Boko Haram as a 'terror group' even after it threatened to 'murder the U.S. ambassador' to Nigeria."

Flying Lion Catches Fleeing Antelope

Via BroBible:

Donald Sterling and Oklahoma City Prove Too Much for Clippers

The Clippers are out of the NBA West Finals, and not without controversy, "Clippers can't shoulder the weight, falling in Game 6 to Thunder."

Here's Bill Plaschke's column on Doc Rivers' Game 5 meltdown, "Clippers' Doc Rivers goes from voice of reason to loud distraction." (Added: "Doc Rivers calls out officials after Clippers' agonizing Game 5 loss.")

And here the series-deciding (in Rivers' interpretation) final minute of Game 5, where the Clippers blew a 7-point lead with 49 seconds to play. Unreal:



More from Plaschke, "Clippers are gone from the postseason, but it all won't be forgotten."

And on the liberal racism front, "Donald Sterling is refusing to pay $2.5-million fine, reports say." And at Sports Illustrated, "Sources: Donald Sterling refuses NBA sanctions, threatens to sue."