Playboy's Alyssa Arce, Miss July 2013, Carves Pumpkin (VIDEO)

Man, maybe she should be starring in a slasher flick.

That's a huge "carving" knife.

Watch, "Happy Halloween From Playboy! Let Miss July 2013 Alyssa Arce teach you a thing or two about how to really carve a pumpkin…with a very large knife. Don’t worry though — Alyssa would never hurt a fly. Or at least so we think."

Black Suspect Arrested in Spate of Arson Fires at Black Churches in St. Louis

Deray was tweeting #WhoIsBurningBlackChurches on October 22nd. He's not tweeting jack about the arsons now.

At Twitchy, "Narrative BUSTED! 35-year-old black male arrested for arson attacks at black churches in the St. Louis area."

Also at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Suspect charged with setting two in the string of seven St. Louis area church fires."

Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Downed Russian Passenger Jet in Egypt (VIDEO)

Well, I warned about conspiracy theories, although I was thinking of the Russian variety, suggesting for example that the U.S. and its "Zionist allies" brought down the plane.

Of course, we could see ISIS conspiracies, except that I don't doubt the Islamic State could bring down a jet liner. If pro-Russian rebels could bring down MH-17, there's no reason to belief ISIS couldn't do the same with Flight 7K9268.

Zero Hedge has the video, "ISIS Releases Video of Alleged Russian Airplane Mid-Air Exposion After It Claims Responsibility For Disaster."

And at the Times of Israel, "Islamic State in Egypt claims it brought down Russian plane; 224 dead: Terror group hails success, although Sinai officials say technical failure led to crash; Russia rejects claim."

A YouTube of the ISIS video is here.

Plus, lots of doubts about the theory, at the Guardian, "Russian plane crash: investigation into cause begins – as it happened."

And at Tornoto's National Post, "Russian Metrojet plane carrying 224 people crashed in Sinai province, Egypt says. There were no survivors."

Air France, Lufthansa Suspend Flights Over Sinai Pending Crash Probe

You think?

At the Times of Israel, "2 European carriers take safety precautions after IS claims responsibility for downing Russian plane with loss of 224 lives."

PREVIOUSLY: "Russian Jet Crashes in Egypt, Killing 224 People (VIDEO)."

High Bridge Arms, San Francisco's Last Remaining Gun Store, Forced to Go Out of Business (VIDEO)

A couple of thoughts.

First, leftists won't complain about a gun store going out of business, regulations or no regulations. Second, paradoxically, the main sponsor, County Supervisor Mark Farrell, is the author of the city's Laura’s Law, which would allow families, health professionals, and law enforcement to seek mandatory mental health treatment, through the courts, for individuals with dangerous psychiatric conditions. I fully support such legislation. So, it's too bad the city's going to demonize law-abiding gun owners, opening them up to harassment by leftist anti-gun nuts.

At Reason, "San Francisco Wanted Info on Gun Owners. This Gun Shop Refused." (VIDEO)

Hat Tip: Instapundit, "THE APPALLING REASON WHY SAN FRANCISCO’S LAST GUN SHOP CLOSED: High Bridge Arms, founded in the mid-1950s by Olympic shooter Bob Chow, shuts down rather than give local police its customer list."

Islamic State Beheading of Four Kurdish Peshmerga Soldiers (VIDEO)

At My Pet Jawa, "ISIS Murders Four Kurdish Soldiers in Revenge Video: 'Its a as gruesome a beheading as I've witnessed'"

And watch, with caution, at the Heavy, "WATCH: ISIS Beheads 4 Peshmerga Fighters."

Stopping the European Migrant Invasion

This is good, "How to Solve the European Migrant Crisis in 5 Steps":

Via Bare Naked Islam, "HUNGARIAN Prime Minister accuses George Soros of stoking the Muslim invasion to weaken Europe."

Russian Jet Crashes in Egypt, Killing 224 People (VIDEO)

Boy, you can bet there's going to be monstrous conspiracy theories.

At WSJ, "Russian Passenger Jet Crashes in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Killing 224 People":

A Russian passenger jet crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board, after losing contact with aviation authorities on Saturday.

Egyptian officials said the Airbus A321 jetliner, which was operated by Russian carrier Kogalymavia, was flying to St. Petersburg from Sharm El Sheikh, a resort town popular with Russian tourists, when it disappeared from radar screens.

Egypt’s flagship state-run newspaper, Al Ahram, quoted an Egyptian aviation official as saying the plane’s pilot had requested to land at the nearest airport after an unspecified mechanical problem shortly after taking off at 5:50 a.m. local time. The newspaper later cited another Egyptian aviation official as saying the pilot hadn’t made any distress calls or requests to land.

Egypt’s chief prosecutor said the cause of the crash was being investigated. He didn’t say whether terrorism was suspected.

Sinai Province, the Egyptian branch of Islamic State, claimed responsibility for downing the plane, but officials have cast doubt over whether the group has the capabilities to carry out such an attack. Islamic State and its affiliated groups have frequently made exaggerated claims.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to form a state commission to investigate the crash, the Kremlin said Saturday.

The Russian Embassy in Cairo said on its official Twitter account that all those on board were killed.

Mr. Putin “expressed his deepest sympathies to the families of those who died in the crash.”

The wreckage was located south of the city of Al Arish in the sparsely populated, mountainous north Sinai, according to the aviation authority. As many as 50 ambulances were dispatched, it said.

A spokesman for Egypt’s prime minister said 15 bodies had been recovered and sent to a morgue in Cairo, while investigators continued to search the crash site for evidence and victims. One of the black boxes, which record flight data and audio, was located and taken into the custody of the prosecutor general’s office, he said.

According to the spokesman, the passengers comprised 214 Russians and three Ukrainians, of which 138 were women, 62 men and 17 children. The count didn’t include the seven crew members.

According to the Kremlin, Vladimir Puchkov, Russia’s minister of civil defense, emergencies and disaster relief, was ordered to send aircraft to Egypt to aid in the recovery of the wreckage of the aircraft. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said five aircraft were flying to Egypt with first responders and forensic investigators on board. The ministry also set up a hot line to aid families of the victims.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in March warned U.S. airlines to avoid flying over the Sinai Peninsula below 26,000 feet. Airline routes traversing the region “are at risk from potential extremist attacks involving antiaircraft weapons,” the FAA said, including shorter-range, shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles. “Some of these weapons have the capability to target aircraft at high altitudes,” or when approaching or departing airports, the U.S. aviation regulator said, noting that an Egyptian military helicopter flying at lower altitudes had been downed by extremists using a missile...

More.

Also at Russia Today, "Bodies of 224 7K9268 crash victims delivered to Cairo morgue," and "Russian A321 fell 'almost vertically', technical fault behind crash."

Londonistan

I haven't been reading Melanie Phillips' commentaries much lately. She's certainly one of the best conservative commentators on Israel, terrorism, and related items, but she got attacked by leftists, had legal issues, and moderated her views as a result. The whole thing was kinda of sad. I think she even attacked Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, or some such thing. I'd have to Google it. Maybe later.

Still worth a read, whatever the case.

At Amazon, Londonistan.

Kristen Keogh's Got Your Halloween Forecast

From ABC News 10 San Diego:

Halloween Hotness

Following-up from this morning's entry, "Happy Halloween."

Here's spooky Rosie Jones, via Twitter.



More from last year, "ROSIE JONES TOPLESS IN LINGERIE PHOTOSHOOT FOR ZOO OCTOBER 2014."

Men's and Women's UGG Boots

At Amazon, UGG Men's Classic Short Boot, and UGG Australia Women's Classic Short Rustic Weave Sheepskin Boot.

Irvine Girl Gets Thumbs-Up from Katy Perry for 'Katy Perry' Costume (VIDEO)

Totally cool.

My wife watched this video and she's going, "Oh. My. God!"

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Mike Rowe: Slaves Are Not 'Hard Workers'

I have this on the sidebar links, but it's too good not to post to the front page.

Here's the "Dirty Jobs" guy, Mike Rowe, responding to the demented Melissa Harris-Perry and her comments about "hard work".

On Facebook, "'Hello Mr. Rowe! What's your take on MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry being offended by the phrase "hard worker"? How can such a label possibly be offensive to anyone?”":

First of all, slavery is not “hard work;” it’s forced labor. There’s a big difference. Likewise, slaves are not workers; they are by definition, property. They have no freedom, no hope, and no rights. Yes, they work hard, obviously. But there can be no “work ethic” among slaves, because the slave has no choice in the matter.

Workers on the other hand, have free will. They are free to work as hard as they wish. Or not. The choice is theirs. And their decision to work hard, or not, is not a function of compliance or coercion; it’s a reflection of character and ambition.

This business of conflating hard work with forced labor not only minimizes the importance of a decent work ethic, it diminishes the unspeakable horror of slavery. Unfortunately, people do this all the time. We routinely describe bosses as “slave-drivers,” and paychecks as “slave’s wages.” Melissa though, has come at it from the other side. She’s suggesting that because certain “hard workers” are not as prosperous as other “hard workers,” - like the people on her office wall - we should all be “super-careful” about overly-praising hard work.

I suspect this is because Melissa believes - as do many others - that success today is mostly a function of what she calls, “relative privilege.” This is fancy talk for the simple fact that life is unfair, and some people are born with more advantages than others. It's also a fine way to prepare the unsuspecting viewer for the extraordinary suggestion that slavery is proof-positive that hard work doesn’t pay off.

Priceless Halloween Ads Featuring Disabled Children

At Yahoo, "'Priceless' Target Ad Goes Viral for All the Right Reasons."

Hat Tip: Daily Signal, "Halloween Advertisements Featuring Disabled Children Go Viral."

Once Again, Arthur Brooks, The Conservative Heart

Following-up on my previous entry, "University Intellectuals Are Biased Against Conservative Viewpoints."

And ICMYMI, from July, The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America.

Also from the author, Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism.

University Intellectuals Are Biased Against Conservative Viewpoints

From Arthur Brooks, at the New York Times, "Academia’s Rejection of Diversity":

ONE of the great intellectual and moral epiphanies of our time is the realization that human diversity is a blessing. It has become conventional wisdom that being around those unlike ourselves makes us better people — and more productive to boot.

Scholarly studies have piled up showing that race and gender diversity in the workplace can increase creative thinking and improve performance. Meanwhile, excessive homogeneity can lead to stagnation and poor problem-solving.

Unfortunately, new research also shows that academia has itself stopped short in both the understanding and practice of true diversity — the diversity of ideas — and that the problem is taking a toll on the quality and accuracy of scholarly work. This year, a team of scholars from six universities studying ideological diversity in the behavioral sciences published a paper in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences that details a shocking level of political groupthink in academia. The authors show that for every politically conservative social psychologist in academia there are about 14 liberal social psychologists.

Why the imbalance? The researchers found evidence of discrimination and hostility within academia toward conservative researchers and their viewpoints. In one survey cited, 82 percent of social psychologists admitted they would be less likely to support hiring a conservative colleague than a liberal scholar with equivalent qualifications.

This has consequences well beyond fairness. It damages accuracy and quality. As the authors write, “Increased political diversity would improve social psychological science by reducing the impact of bias mechanisms such as confirmation bias, and by empowering dissenting minorities to improve the quality of the majority’s thinking.”

One of the study’s authors, Philip E. Tetlock of the University of Pennsylvania, put it to me more bluntly. Expecting trustworthy results on politically charged topics from an “ideologically incestuous community,” he explained, is “downright delusional.”

Well, the left is delusional, so there's that.

Hateful and closed-minded too. Good luck on turning things around.

But keep reading.

Happy Halloween

Have a great day!

GOP Candidates Plot to Dethrone RNC as Manager of Presidential Debates

It's a major development, especially if the candidates are able to cut through the RNC middleman and work straight with the networks to air the debates.

At Politico, "Exclusive: GOP campaigns plot revolt against RNC":

Republican presidential campaigns are planning to gather in Washington, D.C., on Sunday evening to plot how to alter their party’s messy debate process — and how to remove power from the hands of the Republican National Committee.

Not invited to the meeting: Anyone from the RNC, which many candidates have openly criticized in the hours since Wednesday’s CNBC debate in Boulder, Colorado — a chaotic, disorganized affair that was widely panned by political observers.

On Thursday, many of the campaigns told POLITICO that the RNC, which has taken a greater role in the 2016 debate process than in previous election cycles, had failed to take their concerns into account. It was time, top aides to at least half a dozen of the candidates agreed, to begin discussing among themselves how the next debates should be structured and not leave it up to the RNC and television networks.

The gathering is being organized by advisers to the campaigns of Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Bobby Jindal and Lindsey Graham, according to multiple sources involved in the planning. Others who are expected to attend, organizers say, are representatives for Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Rick Santorum. The planners are also reaching out to other Republican candidates.

Spokespersons for the RNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment...

Jackie Johnson's Eve of Halloween Weather Forecast

Hey, El Niño can wait.

This weather is fantastic. Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles: