Here's Jackie Johnson's Sunny and Warm Weekend Forecast

Very nice weather.

I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Anchor Baby Sophie Cruz Plea to Pope Wasn't Spontaneous (VIDEO)

In other words, it was a lie.

At IBD, "Pope's Cherubic Child Moment Nothing But a Staged Production."

And at AP, "Immigration group planned girl's pope encounter for a year."

Giants Pitcher Madison Bumgarner and Home-Plate Umpire Joe West Exchange Death Stares (VIDEO)

Bumgarner had a bummer of a night, getting pulled after seven innings, only to have reliever Sergio Romo blow a 4-3 lead in the eighth. The Giants beat the Padres 5-4 after a walk-off single by Alexi Amarista.

Giants fans on Twitter last night were merciless.

See the San Francisco Chronicle, "Giants’ bullpen collapses again in loss to Padres":

SAN DIEGO — For the reigning champs, it’s no longer about calculating magic numbers and critiquing games behind. It’s about shutting down wounded players and dreading elimination day.

The season is closing fast on the Giants, who lost to the Padres 5-4 Thursday night in a game Madison Bumgarner — amid stare-downs with umpire Joe West — was denied his 19th win by a worn-down bullpen.

Bumgarner gave up three runs on three hits in seven innings and exited with a 4-3 lead, only to watch Hunter Strickland and Sergio Romo permit the tying run in the eighth and Mike Broadway and Josh Osich yield the winning run in the ninth, Alexi Amarista’s single giving the Padres a walk-off win for the second straight night.

Wednesday, Jake Peavy’s six scoreless innings were wasted as manager Bruce Bochy set a franchise record by using 10 pitchers in a nine-inning game.

“It’s a crazy game we play,” Bumgarner said. “We’ve been through a lot this year. A lot of injuries, a lot of adversity. I feel real good about the group of guys we have here. The way we played this year, right now it’s not what we would have wanted and worked for. At the same time, you’ve got to realize how hard this game is.”

Bumgarner’s confrontations with West were clear to see, especially when West pulled off his mask and either barked at or glared at Bumgarner, who wasn’t thrilled with the strike zone when he was both hitting and pitching.

“Joe was behind the plate?” asked Bumgarner, showing his serious look. “I don’t pay attention to the umpires. I didn’t even realize he was back there.”

More.

Well, that baby boy born at Petco Park last night's going to have some whopper tales to tell when he gets older. Hopefully family members for mom and dad saved the local sports page, heh.

Woman Gives Birth at Petco Park

No that's an entrance into the world.

Watch ABC News 10 San Diego, "A first for Petco: woman gives birth at the ballpark."

'Influential conservatives who operate right-leaning news outlets or sit behind microphones for a living would be wise to tread carefully...'

From Noah Rothman, "No True Conservative":

“I think conservatives have no clue how bad the Boehner resignation is for them,” wrote Real Clear Politics analyst Sean Trende. The factionalism that has come to characterize the leaderless Republican Party today will manifest itself in that fight. “[W]however loses really might pick up their toys and go home,” Trende speculated. As an outgrowth of the bitter squabbles that have typified the primary race, this seems a reasonably likely if worst-case scenario.

I gather Rothman's headline is a riff on the logical fallacy, "No true Scotsman..."

'Our Civil Servants and Representatives Should Be Servant Leaders, Not Lying Manipulators or Dictators...'

A great comment, from the thread at the Wall Street Journal, blogged here, "Speaker John Boehner to Resign":

The departure of Speaker Boehner will do little to diminish the stench emanating from the dismal swamp called Washington, DC. It will do little to stanch the exacerbation of class hatred, racial strife, lying, corruption, cronyism, and political elitism that we have lived with for six years.

I wonder if Speaker Boehner had hoped that the Pope would endow the nation and our government with the grace that would restore civility, reverence for the Constitution, respect for our fellow citizens, and honesty. I wonder if he had hoped that Francis would provide a reminder that our civil servants and representatives should be servant leaders, not lying manipulators or dictators.

We shall see.

RELATED: At iOTW Report, "Paul Ryan’s Idiotic Statement on Boehner Resignation."

VIDEO: Hero Knocks Out Bully Who Attacked Blind Student at Huntington Beach High School

At KTLA, via Memeorandum, "Huntington Beach High Student Arrested for Allegedly Beating Visually Impaired Teen; Video of Incident Goes Viral."

And watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Caught on Video: Huntington Beach High Student Comes to Defense of Blind Friend and Knocks Out Bully."

This should be the regular thing, the heroism. But what if it was Muslim bully attacking a blind student. Oh boy, CAIR would be screaming "Islamophobia' from the rooftops.

Czar Nicholas II and Alexandria Exhumed (VIDEO)

CNN's got video, "Russian Czar's remains exhumed."

And the story, at Blazing Cat Fur, "The Bodies of Nicholas II and Alexandra Are Exhumed."

Also at Telegraph UK, "Russia exhumes remains of last emperor Nicholas II and empress Alexandra."

Bitcoin Blackmail Email Ashley Madison Chain-Letter

Heh, I'm not having an affair, and if these idiots spammer want to send a screencap of my Facebook page to my wife, they can go right ahead.

I got two of these bitcoin blackmail emails in my spam folder this morning, and they're actually kinda funny.

At Gizmodo, "Extortionists Are After the Ashley Madison Users and They Want Bitcoin":

This is an unnerving but not unpredictable turn of events. The data that the Ashley Madison hackers released early this week included millions of real email addresses, along with real home addresses, sexual proclivities and other very private information. Security blogger Brian Krebs talked to security firms who have evidence of extortion schemes linked to Ashley Madison data. Turns out spam filters are catching a number of emails being sent to victims from people who say they’ll make the information public unless they get paid!

Here’s one caught by an email provider in Milwaukee:

Hello,

Unfortunately, your data was leaked in the recent hacking of Ashley Madison and I now have your information.

If you would like to prevent me from finding and sharing this information with your significant other send exactly 1.0000001 Bitcoins (approx. value $225 USD) to the following address:

1B8eH7HR87vbVbMzX4gk9nYyus3KnXs4Ez

Sending the wrong amount means I won’t know it’s you who paid.

You have 7 days from receipt of this email to send the BTC [bitcoins]. If you need help locating a place to purchase BTC, you can start here….

The above email was forwarded to Brian Krebs who points out that no bitcoins have been added that wallet yet. (Looks like the Milwaukee-based victim did not pay up.)

One security expert explained to Krebs that this type of extortion could be dangerous. “There is going to be a dramatic crime wave of these types of virtual shakedowns, and they’ll evolve into spear-phishing campaigns that leverage crypto malware,” said Tom Kellerman of Trend Micro...

Lolz. I'm not on Ashley Madison, but any extortionist can get my email off my Blogger profile. In fact, my spammers altered the chain email like this:

I have all of your information about your affair, including the pics. I have your Facebook page as well, using this I can now message all of your friends and family members.

If you would like to prevent me from sharing this dirt info with all of your friends and family members (and perhaps even your employers too?) then you need to send 1 bitcoin to the following BTC address...

Right.

Fucking losers.

Angels Overcome Struggles to Stay in Hunt for October (VIDEO)

A couple of weekends ago, when Huston Street blew a save, with the Astros scoring 5 runs in the top of 9th inning, I'd pretty much given up on the Angels. I didn't even turn on the television a couple of nights when Anaheim was at Seattle.

So imagine my pleasant surprise at the heart these guys had during this week's series against the Astros, and before that, the Twins. The team is 1 1/2 games behind Houston in the wildcard race, and 4 games behind the Rangers for the lead in the American League West. The last home stand, the first week of October, is against Texas, so it should be exiting all the way down to the wire.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Angels overcome distractions, slumps and struggles to stay in playoff hunt":

The Angels haven't exactly thrived in this season of tumult, which began with Josh Hamilton's substance-abuse relapse, banishment and trade to Texas, included General Manager Jerry Dipoto's abrupt resignation July 1 and a brutal August in which they went 10-19 and averaged fewer than three runs a game.

They are 78-74, the mediocre record a reflection of the struggles of several pitchers and players they were counting on and injuries to pitcher C.J. Wilson, third baseman David Freese, second baseman Johnny Giavotella and first baseman Albert Pujols.

But they've survived, and with 10 games left they are 1 1/2 games behind Houston for the second American League wild-card spot entering Friday night's game against Seattle in Anaheim.

"These guys have filtered out every distraction and just came in and played ball," Manager Mike Scioscia said. "We're definitely proud of that. There's a lot of veteran leadership in there, and the coaching staff has been incredible in keeping these guys where they need to be."

That the Angels are still alive is a testament to their resolve, the talents of high-end performers such as Mike Trout, Kole Calhoun, Erick Aybar, Garrett Richards, Andrew Heaney and Huston Street and the maturation of rookies Carlos Perez and Trevor Gott.

And it helps that the other wild-card challengers — Houston, Minnesota, Baltimore and Cleveland — are every bit as flawed as the Angels, with holes in their lineups, rotations and bullpens that make them susceptible to uneven play.

But as the Kansas City Royals proved again last October, it doesn't matter how you get to the postseason.

"Anything can happen then," Freese said. "You look back on the season and wish you did this or that early on; it's just human nature to do that. But when you're in a position to get in, that's all you can ask for."

The Angels are 13-8 in September and coming off two pressure-packed, one-run wins in Houston that imbued them with the confidence and mettle to win playoff-like games. They're heating up at the right time.

Keep reading.

The Ayatollah's Genocidal Threat to Israel

From Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, at FrontPage Magazine, "The Supreme Leader puts an expiration date on the Jewish State."

Evelyn Taft's Friday Forecast

She's so sweet, heh.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles.

Christianity's Dangerous Idea

I love this book, from Alister McGrath, Christianity's Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution — A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First.

I reread chapter 5 last night, "England: The Emergence of Anglican Protestantism." I was talking about King Henry VIII in my classes yesterday, and I wanted to review this history for next week as well. It's fascinating.

Beautiful Kayla Collins (VIDEO)

Watch, at Playboy, "Kayla Collins in Motion is a Beautiful Thing."

She's on Twitter as well:

Happy Friday 😘 pic.twitter.com/0kIB4pKcPD

— Kayla Collins (@KaylaCollins) September 18, 2015

Plus, at London's Daily Mail, "Kayla Collins Poses in Saucy Lingerie Photoshoot."

The Clock, the Pope, and Totalitarian Apologists

From Erick Erickson, at Town Hall:

In Irving, Texas, a few days after the anniversary of September 11, a 14-year-old boy named Ahmed Mohamed took a clock to school that he had assembled inside a pencil case. He claimed he wanted to show it to his science teacher.

Afterward, the clock started beeping in another class, and Ahmed got in trouble. We know he was arrested for disrupting school. We know he was not very cooperative. But beyond that, we do not know much more than the public relations spin his family and the Council on American Islamic Relations have put out.

We do not know anything else because Ahmed's family has refused to allow the police in Irving or the local school district to release their side of the story. We know that Ahmed has been photographed with CAIR representatives. We know his father is an Islamic activist. We know his sister once got in trouble for disrupting school. As reported by The Daily Beast, Ahmed's sister, Eyman, said she "got suspended from school for three days from this same stupid district, from this girl saying I wanted to blow up the school, something I had nothing to do with."

On HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he called Ahmed to talk to him. Curiously, he could [hear] Ahmed's sister giving Ahmed answers. President Obama tweeted that he stood with Ahmed. The mayor of Irving noted in an interview that Obama was tweeting support for Ahmed before a lot of the facts were even known.

The left championed Ahmed as a victim of Islamophobia a few days after September 11. Never mind that multiple people have convincingly shown that they could identically make Ahmed's clock by taking apart a 1986 Micronta digital alarm clock and reassembling it in a Vaultz locking pencil box purchased on Amazon. The media and Obama have ignored so many facts and have ignored that the family is refusing to allow the school and police to tell their side of the story -- something they can do because Ahmed is a juvenile.

When it is easy for the left, they will take the moral high ground. Another example of this came from Washington last week. Obama greeted Pope Francis at the White House. The president invited transgender, gay and abortion activists to greet the pope. This put the pontiff in a difficult political situation to which the Vatican objected.

Among those who were invited to greet the pope was Gene Robinson, the gay Episcopal bishop whose consecration as an openly gay bishop in a relationship helped escalate the breakup of the American Episcopal Church. Robinson, after helping break up the Episcopal Church, got divorced. Likewise, Obama saw no problem inviting pro-abortion and pro-gay Catholic activists to greet the pope. These people are in active, celebratory rebellion against the Catholic Church and its pope, who maintains his strong belief in the sanctity of traditional marriage and life...

Kind of depressing, when you think about it, especially that we've still got 14 more months of this administration.

RTWT.

Lily Aldridge in Victoria's Secret So Obsessed Push-Up TV Commercial

She's really spectacular, but then, probably a little on the skinny side.

Watch:

Speaker John Boehner to Resign

Well, I guess this proves there's no crying in congressional leadership.

Watch, at CNN, "John Boehner to resign as House Speaker."

And at the Wall Street Journal, "House Speaker John Boehner to Resign":

WASHINGTON—House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), long under fire from conservatives within his own party, will resign Oct. 30, according to GOP lawmakers and aides.

Mr. Boehner announced his plans to step down as speaker and resign from Congress at the end of next month at a closed-door meeting of House Republicans Friday morning. The announcement came one day after the 65-year-old welcomed Pope Francis for the first papal visit to Capitol Hill, fulfilling a decadeslong ambition for the speaker...

Keep reading.

Also, at Hot Air and Memeorandum.

And at Also, at Althouse, "IN THE COMMENTS: David Begley said":

From altar boy and Jesuit college to meeting the Jesuit Pope in the House. Crying allowed.

Yes, that was my first thought: The Pope made that happen.

AND: There I was yesterday mocking the so-called "breaking news" of the Pope's meeting with John Boehner as "the height of banality."

The United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development

Imagine.

At the Guardian UK, "Your comprehensive guide to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals summit," and "Sustainable development quiz: what do you know about the global goals?"

And at CFR, "Sustainable Development Goals."

Also, a U.N.-associated website, "Global Goals," and video, "'We The People' for The Global Goals":

A new plan for people and planet has just launched - the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Tell everyone! Go here to add your very own intro to this star-studded video and share it with the world: http://wethepeople.globalgoals.org.

You could be introducing a cast that include: Aamir Khan, Ai WeiWei, A R Rahman, Ashton Kutcher, Bill and Melinda Gates, UNHCR supporter Cate Blanchett, UN Messenger of Peace Charlize Theron, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chris Martin, Colin Firth, Daniel Craig, Djimon Hounsou, G.E.M., Gilberto Gil, Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Lopez, John Legend, Kate Winslet, Kid President, UN Messenger of Peace Lang Lang, UNDP Champion Michelle Yeoh, Malala Yousafzai, Matt Damon, Meryl Streep, Natalia Vodianova, One Direction, Pink, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Richard Branson, Robert Pattinson, Robert Redford, WFP Global Ambassador Against Hunger Sami Yusuf, Stephen Hawking, UN Messenger of Peace Stevie Wonder, Tanya Burr, and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador for China Zhou Xun - and many more.

Piper Cherokee Aircraft Lands on Red Hill Avenue in Irvine (VIDEO)

This would have to be the trippiest thing you ever saw.

Watch, at the O.C. Register, "Video: Small plane seen touching down on Irvine street."

And at LAT, "Video captures plane speeding down Irvine street":

A week ago, a small plane landed on an Irvine street.

Now, video has emerged showing the Piper Cherokee aircraft quickly gliding down Red Hill Avenue, looking much like a normal car.

The plane was approaching John Wayne Airport when its engine failed. No one was hurt, and the plane eventually came to a stop.

A flight school owns the plane. Here is the video...

Hajj Stampede Kills at Least 717 at Mecca, Saudi Arabia (VIDEO)

Well, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca's doing more to cull the ranks of potential jihadists than anything the Obama administration's done to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State threat.

Too bad it's only once a year.

At the New York Times, "Hajj Stampede Near Mecca Leaves Over 700 Dead" (via Memeorandum).



And at Althouse, "'There is no accountability... It’s shocking that almost every year there is some kind of death toll...'" (At Memeorandum.)