7-Year-Old Lakewood Girl Gets New Hand Created by 3D Printer

Watch, at CBS News Los Angeles, "7-Year-Old Receives Robotic, 3D-Printed Hand."

So sweet.

Jewish Students Push Back Against Anti-Semitism (VIDEO)

Watch: "Video: The Jewish Voices on Campus."

Black Students at #USC Self-Segregate Under Guise of 'Cultural Space'

*SMH*

At the Los Angeles Times, "USC's Black House proposal raises questions about racial tensions."

There aren't any "racial tensions." But black leftists survive only by crying "RACISM" all the time.

Turkish Prosecutor Dies During Siege by Leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front

Death, death, death.

It's the leftist way.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Hostage Dies Following Istanbul Courthouse Siege":

Turkish special forces stormed an Istanbul courthouse Tuesday night to free a prosecutor who had been taken hostage hours earlier by armed assailants. Two of the captors were killed, police said; the hostage was badly injured and later died.

The assailants claimed to belong to a branch of the outlawed left-wing group, the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, and had threatened to kill the prosecutor, who was handling a high-profile, politically charged case.

The group, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S., had attacked the U.S. embassy in Ankara two years ago with a suicide bomb, killing a guard.

Local news organizations broadcast dramatic footage of the storming of the courthouse, where the crackle of gunfire could be heard and plumes of smoke seen rising, along with an ambulance leaving the building.

“After patiently negotiating for six hours and keeping all channels open for dialogue, the police conducted the operation after hearing gunshots from inside the room, Istanbul Police Chief Selami Altinok said.

“The two terrorists were captured dead,” and the prosecutor, Mehmet Selim Kiraz, was rushed to a hospital, Mr. Altinok told reporters. Television news footage showed the wounded prosecutor being ferried into a hospital from the ambulance.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu later confirmed the prosecutor had died...

More.

America's Academies for Jihad

From Ayaan Hirsi Ali, at the Wall Street Journal, "A radical imam threatened me with death—and was later hired to preach in U.S. prisons. I was surprised, but I shouldn’t have been":

Less than a year after I moved to the United States in 2006, I was asked to speak at the University of Pittsburgh. Among those who objected to my appearance was a local imam, Fouad El Bayly, of the Johnstown Islamic Center. Mr. Bayly was born in Egypt but has lived in the U.S. since 1976. In his own words, I had “been identified as one who has defamed the faith.” As he explained at the time: “If you come into the faith, you must abide by the laws, and when you decide to defame it deliberately, the sentence is death.”

After a local newspaper reported Mr. Bayly’s comments, he was forced to resign from the Islamic Center. That was the last I would hear of him—or so I thought.

Imagine my surprise when I learned recently that the man who threatened me with death for apostasy is being paid by the U.S. Justice Department to teach Islam in American jails.

According to records on the federal site USASpending.gov and first reported by Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller, the Federal Bureau of Prisons awarded Mr. Bayly a $10,500 contract in February 2014 to provide “religious services, leadership and guidance” to inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Md. Ten months later he received another federal contract, worth $2,400, to provide “Muslim classes for inmates” at the same prison.

This isn’t a story about one problematic imam, or about the misguided administration of a solitary prison. Several U.S. prison chaplains have been exposed in recent years as sympathetic to radical Islam, including Warith Deen Umar, who helped run the New York State Department of Correctional Services’ Islamic prison program for two decades, until 2000, and who praised the 9/11 hijackers in a 2003 interview with this newspaper.

That same year, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism held hearings on radical Islamic clerics in U.S. prisons. Committee members voiced serious concerns over the vetting of Muslim prison chaplains and the extent of radical Islamist influences. Harley Lappin, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the time, said that “inmates are particularly vulnerable to recruitment by terrorists,” and that “we must guard against the spread of terrorism and extremist ideologies.”

Yet it is not clear what measures—if any—were taken in response to those concerns.

Testifying in 2011 before the House Committee on Homeland Security, Michael P. Downing, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Counterterrorism and Special Operations Bureau, said that in 2003 it was estimated that 17%-20% of the U.S. prison population, some 350,000 inmates, were Muslims, and that “80% of the prisoners who convert while in prison, convert to Islam.” He estimated that “35,000 inmates convert to Islam annually.”

Patrick Dunleavy, retired deputy inspector of the Criminal Intelligence Division at the New York State Department of Corrections, said in testimony that prison authorities often rely on groups such as the Islamic Leadership Council or the Islamic Society of North America for advice about Islamic chaplains. Yet those groups can and have referred individuals not suited to positions of influence over prisoners. As Mr. Dunleavy pointedly testified: “There is certainly no vetting of volunteers who provide religious instruction, and who, although not paid, wield considerable influence in the prison Muslim communities.”

The problem isn’t limited to radical clerics infiltrating prisons. Radical inmates proselytize and do their utmost to recruit others to their cause. Once released, they may seek to take their radicalization to the next level...

More.

Stanford Cheating Scandal

The "sharing culture" is the culprit, apparently.

At the San Jose Mercury News, "Stanford University looks into allegations of cheating by students."

And at CBS News San Francisco, "Stanford Students Caught In Cheating Scandal."

California Backlash Against 'Sodomite Suppression' Initiative Petition

I can't imagine this measure could possibly qualify for the ballot. It needs over 300,000 signatures. Never say never, though. California is the weirdest state.

At CBS This Morning:



PREVIOUSLY: "Signature Petition for 'Sodomite Suppression' Seeks 'Bullets to the Head' Measure for California Ballot (VIDEO)."

The Left's Diversity Ideology Destroying Higher Education

Here's Heather Mac Donald, whose major case study is the University of California. The discussion of U.C. San Diego's diversity bureaucracy is particularly astounding.

Via Prager University:

Leftists Tell Arkansas to 'Burn in Hell with Indiana'

Stay classy progs.

At Twitchy, "‘BURN IN HELL WITH INDIANA': Arkansas legislature passes its own religious freedom bill; Walmart urges veto."

Via Michelle Malkin, "Next up: The tolerance mob targets Arkansas..."

Hollywood Mogul Harvey Weinstein Accused of Molesting Italian Model Ambra Battilana

Democrat values.

At London's Daily Mail, "Model who says Harvey Weinstein groped her in his NYC office also accused her wealthy 70-year-old former lover of rape in Italy four years ago."

Boston Marathon Bombing Trial: Grisly Testimony, Photos

At LAT, "Boston prosecutors rest case with focus on bombing's smallest victim":

Martin Richard, 8, was one of three spectators to die from the twin pressure-cooker bombs near the marathon finish line on April 15, 2013. He wanted to be a runner someday, like his father, but instead became the smallest victim of the worst terrorist attack in the U.S. since Sept. 11.

No other sound was heard in the courtroom as Nields and prosecutor Nadine Pellegrini went over the boy’s clothing and discussed his injuries and death.

When a series of autopsy photos was shown, some jurors wiped at tears. Others appeared angry; all looked shaken.

Nields began by describing Martin as 53 inches tall and 69 1/2 pounds.

Peering into a box marked Government’s Exhibit 1592, Nields pulled out Martin’s long-sleeve green T-shirt, bloodied and torn, with a gash on the left side. He took out a gray short-sleeved undershirt with the New England Patriots logo across the chest, also gashed on the left side.

He held up Martin’s black belt. Someone had used it as a tourniquet to try to stop the boy’s bleeding from his nearly severed left arm.

He held up Martin’s black jacket, again with the gash on the left. Finally, with two hands, Nields displayed the boy’s black-and-blue running shoes.

Martin had come to watch the marathon with his family, including his 6-year-old sister, Jane, who lost a leg. His mother, Denise, lost part of her vision. She and his father, Bill, were in the courtroom Monday.

Pellegrini questioned Nields in detail about the boy’s injuries.

There were four abrasions on his face, others behind his left ear and another on his neck. His upper chest and abdomen were nearly torn apart. Pieces of his small intestines were exposed. Two ribs were fractured, his left kidney torn and exposed, and his liver lacerated.


The boy’s spleen and pancreas were cut, and his abdominal aorta was lacerated. “Most of [the aorta] was cut in half,” the doctor told the jury. “But not completely.”

Martin’s right lung was damaged and his lower spine broken and torn. His legs, arms and hands were covered in cuts and bruises. So was his back. His buttocks were severely burned. Small nails, metal pellets and a piece of wood were recovered from his right chest cavity.

Was any part of his body unscathed? Pellegrini asked.

“All of the areas had injuries,” the doctor said.

Nields identified and sometimes opened small evidence envelopes containing shrapnel from the bombs: 6-inch-long nails; three dozen wood, metal and Styrofoam fragments; and a thumb-size gray-white metal shard. Pellegrini handed some of them to the jurors.

How did Martin die? she asked.

“Cause of death was blast injuries to the torso and extremities,” Nields said. “The manner of death was homicide.”

What did that mean? she asked.

He died “essentially from loss of blood,” the doctor said.

Was it painful?

Nields was careful. Obviously the boy died within seconds. “But,” he said, “I would say overall the injuries were painful.”

Defense lawyers, who have conceded that Tsarnaev, 21, left a bomb near the boy’s feet, had no questions for the medical examiner...

Also, "Boston Marathon defense team rests; verdict is likely next week."

'Tolerance isn't the goal. Religious conservatives must atone for their heretical views with acts of contrition...'

From Timothy Carney, at the Washington Examiner, "The Left wages total war; and then plays victim."

Andrew Getty, Heir to J. Paul Getty Fortune, Found Dead in 'Potential Homicide' in Los Angeles

Here's the breathless headline at Forbes, "Andrew Rork Getty Found Dead in Potential Homicide as the Getty Family Tragedy Continues."

I must say, though, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that "foul play" is so far being ruled out. See, "Andrew Getty's death does not appear to involve foul play, authorities say."

Comedy Central Backs Daily Show's Trevor Noah After Questionable Tweets

This dude's a real piece of work.

At LAT.

I doubt Comedy Central's going to be able to stay with this f-ker too much longer. He's definitely racist and radioactive.

And see Jon Gabriel, at Ricochet, "‘Daily Show’ Names New Host, Outrrrage Ensues."

Also at Twitchy, "New ‘Daily Show’ host Trevor Noah deletes tweet responding to controversy surrounding his hiring [screenshot]." Man, the dude must have been up all night hitting that delete key, lol!

Still more at NewsBusters, "New Daily Show Host Joked U.S. Worse Than Apartheid South Africa."

Plus, from the idiots at Salon, "Trevor Noah in our crazy birther age: Right-wing rage at “The Daily Show” is about to get very, very ugly."

Yes, because to be rightfully upset with voluminous misogyny and anti-Semitism is so "right-wing."

Jodie Gasson in Brilliant Yellow

At Egotastic!, "Jodie Gasson Yellow Bikini Striptease."

The New Intolerance

I just don't care to debate these homosexual rights issues so much these days. The left, frankly, is winning. The turning point was the Windsor decision a couple of years ago. The crowning moment will be this June when the high court announces a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. It is what it is.

Unfortunately, with all that comes power to the radical left to discriminate against people of faith. The real hatred and intolerance in America today is found on the extremist secular, Marxist collectivist left. Homosexual rights, especially the homosexual right to same sex marriage, is the nail in the coffin for traditional marriage.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Indiana isn’t targeting gays. Liberals are targeting religion":

In the increasingly bitter battle between religious liberty and the liberal political agenda, religion is losing. Witness the media and political wrath raining down upon Indiana because the state dared to pass an allegedly anti-gay Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The question fair-minded Americans should ask before casting the first stone is who is really being intolerant.

The Indiana law is a version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that passed 97-3 in the Senate and that Bill Clinton signed in 1993. Both the federal and Indiana laws require courts to administer a balancing test when reviewing cases that implicate the free exercise of religion.

To wit: Individuals must show that their religious liberty has been “substantially burdened,” and the government must demonstrate its actions represent the least restrictive means to achieve a “compelling” state interest. Indiana’s law adds a provision that offers a potential religious defense in private disputes, but then four federal appellate circuits have also interpreted the federal statute to apply to private disputes.

The federal RFRA followed the Supreme Court’s Employment Division v. Smith ruling in 1990 that abandoned its 30-year precedent of reviewing religious liberty cases under strict scrutiny. Congress responded with RFRA, which merely reasserted longstanding First Amendment protections.

In 1997 the Supreme Court limited RFRA’s scope to federal actions. So 19 states including such cultural backwaters as Connecticut, Rhode Island and Illinois followed with copy-cat legislation, and Indiana is the 20th. Courts in 11 states have extended equally vigorous protections.

Indiana was an outlier before the new law because neither its laws nor courts unambiguously protected religious liberty. Amish horse-drawn buggies could be required to abide by local traffic regulations. Churches could be prohibited from feeding the homeless under local sanitation codes. The state Attorney General even ruled Indiana Wesleyan University, a Christian college which hires on the basis of religion, ineligible for state workforce training grants.

In February, 16 prominent First Amendment scholars, some of whom support same-sex marriage, backed Indiana’s legislation. “General protection for religious liberty is important precisely because it is impossible to legislate in advance for all the ways in which government might burden the free exercise of religion,” they explained.

That hasn’t stopped the cultural great and good from claiming Indiana added the religious defense in private disputes as a way to target gays. If this is Indiana’s purpose, and there’s no evidence it is, this is unlikely to work.

The claim is that this would empower, say, florists or wedding photographers to refuse to work a gay wedding on religious grounds. But under the RFRA test, such a commercial vendor would still have to prove that his religious convictions were substantially burdened.

And he would also come up against the reality that most courts have found that the government has a compelling interest in enforcing antidiscrimination laws. In all these states for two decades, no court we’re aware of has granted such a religious accommodation to an antidiscrimination law. Restaurants and hotels that refused to host gay marriage parties would have a particularly high burden in overcoming public accommodation laws.

In any event, such disputes are rare to nonexistent, a tribute to the increasing tolerance of American society toward gays, lesbians, the transgendered, you name it.

The paradox is that even as America has become more tolerant of gays, many activists and liberals have become ever-more intolerant of anyone who might hold more traditional cultural or religious views...

Yes, that's the paradox, isn't it?

More.

And see Memeorandum.

Buy Books

Okay, I'm off for my long teaching Tuesday at the college.

Shop around at Amazon for some books. May I suggest Victor Davis Hanson, The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - From Ancient Greece to Iraq.

Plus, Shop Amazon's Easter Shop.

More blogging tonight.

As China Expands Its Navy, the U.S. Grows Wary

This is interesting.

We were just talking about China's naval build-up in my World Politics class yesterday.

At WSJ, "Washington is divided over whether Beijing should be viewed as naval partner or potential adversary":

China’s navy chief, Adm. Wu Shengli, strolled the Harvard University campus in a tweed blazer and slacks during a visit to the U.S. last fall, joking with students and quizzing school officials about enrolling some of his officers.

A few days earlier, he became the first Chinese navy chief to attend a 113-nation naval forum in Rhode Island, where he hailed U.S.-China military ties and discussed working together on global maritime challenges.

Shortly after his U.S. visit, Adm. Wu took another trip—this time to the Spratly Islands, an archipelago in the South China Sea where his country appears to be building a network of artificial island fortresses in contested waters. It was his first known visit to facilities U.S. officials fear could be used to enforce Chinese control of nearly all the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

As Adm. Wu seeks closer exchanges with the U.S. in his quest to build a modern global navy, Washington faces the dilemma of dealing with China as both a partner and a potential adversary challenging U.S. naval dominance in Asia. “I would say that he doesn’t want to build a navy that’s equivalent to the U.S.,” said Adm. Gary Roughead, the retired U.S. Chief of Naval Operations. “He wants to build a navy that surpasses the U.S.”

Adm. Wu, navy chief since 2006, is one of the architects of China’s maritime expansion, sending ships and submarines deep into the Indian and Pacific oceans, launching China’s first aircraft carrier and overseeing operations to assert control of waters claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations.

He also has become China’s point man for cinching closer U.S. military ties, a priority of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Adm. Wu met his counterpart, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, four times over the past two years, forging guidelines on how Chinese and U.S. vessels can safely interact.

Adm. Wu now wants deeper exchanges, including help developing aircraft carrier operations and improving education for his naval officers. He says such exchanges would allow China to better work alongside the U.S. to maintain global security, according to people who have spoken with him.

Adm. Greenert and other senior U.S. Navy officials also advocate closer engagement to encourage China to embrace international norms. Some in the Pentagon and Congress, however, worry Adm. Wu’s real mission is absorbing American know-how to advance territorial gains and boost China’s ability to thwart U.S. intervention.

Adm. Wu has been described by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI, as the “most vocal and successful advocate for a greatly expanded mission” for the Chinese navy since Adm. Liu Huaqing, who first proposed turning China into a sea power in the 1980s.

He is also a so-called princeling, as offspring of senior Communist Party figures are known, and said by defense officials to have strong backing from President Xi—another princeling—who has put sea power at the core of his vision for China. That may explain why Adm. Wu, 69 years old, has kept his post so long. He said during his U.S. visit he expected to retain the job until 2017.

The conflicting views of Adm. Wu mirror a deeper debate over whether China and the U.S. can reconcile their competing strategic interests in Asia and forge a genuinely cooperative military relationship in the 21st Century...

Hmm... I think the U.S. oughta be careful about not giving away the store.

More.

RELATED: At War is Boring, "China’s Third Aircraft Carrier Could Be Nuclear."

Eloi Vasquez, UC Berkeley Soccer Player Killed on I-10, Left USC Frat Party 'Drunk and Confused'

He was hit by a car running across the freeway.

If universities would deal with the underage alcohol crisis (rather than the manufactured rape crisis) we'd be truly on the way to saving an untold number of lives.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Missing UC Berkeley soccer player was struck, killed on 10 Freeway."

And at London's Daily Mail, "UC Berkeley soccer star who went missing after leaving frat party 'drunk and confused' was actually KILLED by a car two days ago."

Today we lost a beloved member of the #CalFamily, Eloi Vasquez. We send thoughts & prayers to his family & friends. pic.twitter.com/Pq0VAEanJU

— Cal Bears (@CalAthletics) March 30, 2015

Oxnard Woman Allegedly Wielding Knife Shot Dead by Police, Leftists Cry Racism!

Check the hashtag "#MeaganHockaday" and you'll find all the usual bullshit about "#BlackLivesMatter."

And notice the supreme irony in the "racism" allegations against the Oxnard Police Department, whose chief is Jeri Williams, a black woman who's been with the force since 2001.

See the video at KEYT-TV Santa Barbara, "Woman Shot and Killed By Oxnard Police Officer."