Daphne Patai, What Price Utopia?

Robert Stacy McCain's always recommending her books.

This one's a collection of her essays, What Price Utopia? Essays on Ideological Policing, Feminism, and Academic Affairs.

And see the review, from Philip Clark, "Daphne Patai’s What Price Utopia?"

Hillary Clinton Makes it a Contest (VIDEO)

I'm not sure if anyone seriously thinks Bernie Sanders can win the Democratic nomination. There's a big difference between mobilizing large protests versus mobilizing a big turnout on election day, and certainly the balance of institutional machinery lies with Clinton.

But we'll see. Well see.

At CNN, via Memeorandum, "Poll: Clinton's lead over Sanders grows."



And ICYMI, "Doesn't An Apology Mean Saying You Were Wrong?"

Toronto's Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (VIDEO)

PEGIDA's first ever protest in Canada, in Toronto:



FLASHBACK: "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West."

Viola Davis' Powerful Speech at 2015 Emmys (VIDEO)

Watch:



And at LAT, "Emmy Awards: Viola Davis makes history winning for lead drama actress, seizes opportunity in her speech."

Ben Carson in CAIR's Crosshairs

From Robert Spencer, at FrontPage Magazine, "Hamas-linked CAIR wants a Muslim President, and wants Carson to drop out for not wanting one."

Also from Daniel Greenfield, "CAIR Muslim Who Wants U.S. Under Islamic Law Condemns Ben Carson."

And the obligatory collectivist outrage thread at Memeorandum, "Carson doubles down on no Muslims in the White House."

Europe's Huddled Masses Yearning to Break Free (VIDEO)

Awful conditions in Europe. Fortunately, summer's winding down and the flow of migrants will ease a bit as the weather turns nasty. That'll give European countries time to figure out what to do. If they're smart they'll deport all of those who're not really facing certain death upon return.

At CBS News:

Check Out Kay Hymowitz, Marriage and Caste in America

Ms. Hymowitz is one of the most penetrating writers on the culture, especially the devastating effects of the destruction of the intact American family.

Here's her book, at Amazon, Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age.

And at City Journal, "Did Mass Incarceration Destroy the Black Family? No, and Here's Why."

She destroys far-left shibboleths like nothing.

The Left's Endless Struggle for 'Equality' and 'Social Progress'

From James Surowiecki, at the New York Review, "Why the Rich Are So Much Richer."

It's a review of the recent work of collectivist economist Joseph Stiglitz.

See his books:

* The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them.

* Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity.

* Creating a Learning Society: A New Approach to Growth, Development, and Social Progress.

Fifteen Percent of Democrats Say Barack Obama is Muslim (VIDEO)

Here's the poll, "Misperceptions persist about Obama's faith, but aren't so widespread."

And check the raw internals here.

Yep, 15 percent of Dems say we've got a Muslim interloper in the White House.

Remember, in a nationally representative sample, that means tens of millions of Democrats don't trust Obama's protestations that he's Christian. Frankly, it's hard to tell. I mean, shoot, little Ahmed's coming to the White House!

And hey, that's not a statistic the leftist media are even mentioning. It's all about those crazy Republicans.

Watch, at CNN, "Trump dodges questions about Obama's citizenship."

The Pentagon's Baltic Battle Plan Against Russia

From Julia Ioffe, at Foreign Policy, "Exclusive: The Pentagon Is Preparing New War Plans For A Baltic Battle Against Russia":

For the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Department of Defense is reviewing and updating its contingency plans for armed conflict with Russia.

The Pentagon generates contingency plans continuously, planning for every possible scenario — anything from armed confrontation with North Korea to zombie attacks. But those plans are also ranked and worked on according to priority and probability. After 1991, military plans to deal with Russian aggression fell off the Pentagon’s radar. They sat on the shelf, gathering dust as Russia became increasingly integrated into the West and came to be seen as a potential partner on a range of issues. Now, according to several current and former officials in the State and Defense departments, the Pentagon is dusting off those plans and re-evaluating them, updating them to reflect a new, post-Crimea-annexation geopolitical reality in which Russia is no longer a potential partner, but a potential threat.

“Given the security environment, given the actions of Russia, it has become apparent that we need to make sure to update the plans that we have in response to any potential aggression against any NATO allies,” says one senior defense official familiar with the updated plans.

“Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine made the U.S. dust off its contingency plans,” says Michèle Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense for policy and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security. “They were pretty out of date.”

Designing a counteroffensive

The new plans, according to the senior defense official, have two tracks. One focuses on what the United States can do as part of NATO if Russia attacks one of NATO’s member states; the other variant considers American action outside the NATO umbrella. Both versions of the updated contingency plans focus on Russian incursions into the Baltics, a scenario seen as the most likely front for new Russian aggression. They are also increasingly focusing not on traditional warfare, but on the hybrid tactics Russia used in Crimea and eastern Ukraine: “little green men,” manufactured protests, and cyberwarfare. “They are trying to figure out in what circumstances [the U.S. Defense Department] would respond to a cyberattack,” says Julie Smith, who until recently served as the vice president’s deputy national security advisor. “There’s a lively debate on that going on right now.”

This is a significant departure from post-Cold War U.S. defense policy.

After the Soviet Union imploded, Russia, its main heir, became increasingly integrated into NATO, which had originally been created to counter the Soviet Union’s ambitions in Europe. In 1994, Moscow signed onto NATO’s Partnership for Peace program. Three years later, in May 1997, Russia and NATO signed a more detailed agreement on mutual cooperation, declaring that they were no longer adversaries. Since then, as NATO absorbed more and more Warsaw Pact countries, it also stepped up its cooperation with Russia: joint military exercises, regular consultations, and even the opening of a NATO transit point in Ulyanovsk, Russia, for materiel heading to the fight in Afghanistan. Even if the Kremlin was increasingly miffed at NATO expansion, from the West things looked fairly rosy.

After Russia’s 2008 war with neighboring Georgia, NATO slightly modified its plans vis-à-vis Russia, according to Smith, but the Pentagon did not. In preparing the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, the Pentagon’s office for force planning — that is, long-term resource allocation based on the United States’ defense priorities — proposed to then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to include a scenario that would counter an aggressive Russia. Gates ruled it out. “Everyone’s judgment at the time was that Russia is pursuing objectives aligned with ours,” says David Ochmanek, who, as deputy assistant secretary of defense for force development, ran that office at the time. “Russia’s future looked to be increasingly integrated with the West.” Smith, who worked on European and NATO policy at the Pentagon at the time, told me, “If you asked the military five years ago, ‘Give us a flavor of what you’re thinking about,’ they would’ve said, ‘Terrorism, terrorism, terrorism — and China.’”

Warming to Moscow

The thinking around Washington was that Mikheil Saakashvili, then Georgia’s president, had provoked the Russians and that Moscow’s response was a one-off. “The sense was that while there were complications and Russia went into Georgia,” Smith says, “I don’t think anyone anticipated that anything like this would happen again.” Says one senior State Department official: “The assumption was that there was no threat in Europe.” Russia was rarely brought up to the secretary of defense, says the senior defense official.

Then came the Obama administration’s reset of relations with Russia, and with it increased cooperation with Moscow on everything from space flights to nuclear disarmament...

Keep reading.

Lily Aldridge's Perfectly Simple Slip Dress

Come to think of it, Lily Aldrige might wanna put on a couple of pounds.

At the New York Times, via Google.

.@LilyAldridge wore @ProtagonistNyc to celebrate @TabithaSimmons_ at #TheApartmentByTheLine last night. #Protagonist pic.twitter.com/YqHRWLwInD

— PR Consulting (@PRConsulting) September 17, 2015

Mark Steyn Explains Presidential Primary Politics

At Fox News:

Tiger Kills Zookeeper in New Zealand

A woman zookeeper.

She had a good run, but then, I suppose one thinks they're soul mates with these animals, and after a while you put your guard down.

At London's Daily Mail, "Pictured: The 43-year-old woman zookeeper who was mauled to death by a tiger at a New Zealand zoo while cleaning the enclosure... who listed 'interacting with animals' as her great love."

And at the Sydney Australian, "Oz the Sumatran tiger kills zookeeper in Hamilton, New Zealand."

Also at the New Zealand Herald, "Hamilton Zoo's tiger won't be put down."

Tens of Thousands Lose Power Across San Diego (VIDEO)

Pretty major.

At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Outages hit countywide; 115K without power":

About 115,000 customers endured a power outage Sunday afternoon after a failed generator put stress on a power grid that was already under heavy demand on a sizzling summer day.

Communities from Mission Valley to San Clemente were left without power when the outages first struck about 1:20 p.m. About an hour later, nearly 44,500 customers, mostly in North County, were still affected. Power was restored by 3 p.m.

The outages knocked out traffic signals, causing traffic jams, and businesses left suddenly without the power were turning customers away.

San Diego Gas & Electric initiated the outages after a generator in the region went off line about 11:50 a.m. causing transmission lines to overload. The California Independent System Operator, the state's main grid operator, had SDG&E drop 150 megawatts of load in order to avoid overloading other lines, said Anne Gonzales, a spokeswoman for the state operator. One megawatt powers approximately 650 homes.

Only SDG&E customers were affected...

Victoria Beckham Slammed for Using Models Who Are Too Skinny — And Too Young

Hmm... I think they have a point, especially about their age.

At the Guardian UK, "Victoria Beckham under fire over ultra skinny models in New York."

#VBSS16 x vb pic.twitter.com/iU0EPoSNt0

— Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) September 14, 2015

#VBSS16 x vb pic.twitter.com/noZeS0jrZF

— Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) September 13, 2015

Obsessed with Varya! x vb #VBSS16 pic.twitter.com/iLtRd8lL8P

— Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) September 13, 2015

#VBSS16 x vb pic.twitter.com/gfecMNBgDU

— Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) September 13, 2015

The VB bag of the season - The Half Moon x vb #VBSS16 pic.twitter.com/gQ8kv5KHf3

— Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) September 13, 2015

Doesn't An Apology Mean Saying You Were Wrong?

This is perfect, from the letters to the editor, at the Wall Street Journal, "I remember when apologizing meant saying, 'What I did was wrong. I am sorry'."

Photos from the #Emmys

Photos and more.

At London's Daily Mail, "John Hamm FINALLY gets his gong, Amy Schumer dedicates hers to her sister and Viola Davis makes history - just some of the reasons why the 67th Emmys was a VERY emotional affair."

And at LAT, "Emmys 2015: Red carpet arrivals."

Plus, "'Game of Thrones,' Viola Davis, 'Veep' and all of the Emmy Awards' big winners," and "Emmy Awards: Complete list of 2015 winners."

Also at Vogue, "All the best #Emmys fashion—straight off the red carpet."

Heidi Klum Big Yellow Dress at the #Emmys

"Big" as in "Big Bird," heh.

At Twitchy, "‘Made out of Minions fur’: Heidi Klum getting trashed over yellow #Emmys dress."

Nonstick Thermo-Spot Heat Indicator Cookware

Shop bestselling items, at Amazon, T-fal C067SC Metallics Nonstick Thermo-Spot Heat Indicator Cookware Set, 12-Piece, Bronze.

Plus, from Michael Wolff, Television Is the New Television: The Unexpected Triumph of Old Media in the Digital Age.

Obama Administration Finger-Pointing, but Few Answers, After Syria Solution Fails

Here's Pamela Geller with the background, "‘The devil made me do it’: Obama’s foreign policy just reached a new low":

It took the NY Times seven years after I wrote my Obama book to tell the truth about Obama. But the NY Times and their fellow thumb-suckers in the media are as much at fault as he is for scrubbing, whitewashing and promoting the deeds of this cretin.

Obama just threw his entire administration (and his party) under the bus for his catastrophic failures in Iraq and Syria.

Once again Obama is refusing to take responsibility for the unfolding, unimaginable disasters suffered at his hand. The devil made him do it? He is the devil...

And here's Peter Baker's report, at the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — By any measure, President Obama’s effort to train a Syrian opposition army to fight the Islamic State on the ground has been an abysmal failure. The military acknowledged this week that just four or five American-trained fighters are actually fighting.

But the White House says it is not to blame. The finger, it says, should be pointed not at Mr. Obama but at those who pressed him to attempt training Syrian rebels in the first place — a group that, in addition to congressional Republicans, happened to include former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

At briefings this week after the disclosure of the paltry results, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, repeatedly noted that Mr. Obama always had been a skeptic of training Syrian rebels. The military was correct in concluding that “this was a more difficult endeavor than we assumed and that we need to make some changes to that program,” Mr. Earnest said. “But I think it’s also time for our critics to ‘fess up in this regard as well. They were wrong.”

He never, ever, takes responsibility for his own administration's massive failures. He is the devil.