Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism

Robert Stacy McCain is constantly citing and linking this book, first published in 1979, when I was a senior in high school.

It's still in print, apparently.

I have an old pulp-paperback copy, but get yours at Amazon.

Here, Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations.

Is Lindsay Lohan Muslim?

I don't think she is, but there's lots of speculation.

See, the Telegraph, Robert Spencer, and Robert Stacy McCain:

Has @lindsaylohan converted to Islam? Star’s social media activity sparks speculation about her faithhttps://t.co/jsIwX8NiLq

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 17, 2017

Robert Spencer in The Hill: Lindsay Lohan may have made her worst life choice yet https://t.co/BtZNQU2E67 pic.twitter.com/ME49uMDe7n

— Robert Spencer (@jihadwatchRS) January 18, 2017

Why Lindsay Lohan Is a Muslim Now: Understanding 21st-Century ‘Oikophobia’ https://t.co/k5SE2KvGfq pic.twitter.com/yDRbYiNzFf

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) January 18, 2017

Lindsay Lohan is a drug-addled celebrity dimwit from a broken home who was pushed into show business as a child. Like so many other former child stars produced by the Disney movie/cable-TV fame factory — including Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus — Lohan’s young adulthood seemed to be a constant trainwreck of public shame, played out in tabloid headlines.

Lots of teenagers who aren’t rich, famous and beautiful struggle with similar problems — drugs, alcohol, sexual promiscuity, mental illness — but we never read headlines about those troubled youth unless and until they commit some horrible crime. Ordinary adolescent trauma cases don’t fascinate us the way the Troubled Starlet does, because the celebrity trainwreck is so ostentatiously blessed with everything our popular culture values — youth, wealth, beauty and fame.

Here was Lindsay Lohan, who had captured America’s hearts as a wholesome freckle-faced girl in Disney’s 1998 remake of The Parent Trap and who, at age 18, became one of the most promising young actresses in Hollywood when she starred in the hit comedy Mean Girls. She had everything in the world going for her, it seemed, but by the time she was 21, her career and personal life were in disarray. She broke up with her boyfriend, That ’70s Show star Wilmer Valderrama, her movies flopped, and her substance-abuse problems escalated to the point that directors were no longer willing to work with her. Eventually, as it became obvious that she would probably never work again as an actress, the tabloids lost interest in Lindsay Lohan, and her brief stint in a “reality TV” show on Oprah’s network fizzled out in 2014, inspiring me to comment:

It’s wrong to say that Lindsay Lohan ever had a drug and alcohol problem. No, Lindsay Lohan had a Lindsay Lohan problem.

RTWT.

How Donald Trump Came Up with 'Make America Great Again'

From Karen Tumulty, at WaPo:

Wonderful (aka 'great') read by @ktumulty on how Trump saw his moment coming. HIs first thought: Brand it! https://t.co/OcJIoxsGzH

— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) January 18, 2017

“Make America Great Again.”

The four words that would help propel Donald Trump to the White House were an inspiration born years before, when hardly anyone but Trump himself could imagine him taking the oath of office as the 45th president of the United States.

It happened on Nov. 7, 2012, the day after Mitt Romney lost what had been presumed to be a winnable race against President Obama. Republicans were spiraling into an identity crisis, one that had some wondering whether a GOP president would ever sit in the Oval Office again.

But on the 26th floor of a golden Manhattan tower that bears his name, Trump was coming to the conclusion that his own moment was at hand.

And in typical fashion, the first thing he thought about was how to brand it.

One after another, phrases popped into his head. “We Will Make America Great.” That one did not have the right ring. Then, “Make America Great.” But that sounded like a slight to the country.

And then, it hit him: “Make America Great Again.”

“I said, ‘That is so good.’ I wrote it down,” Trump recalled in an interview. “I went to my lawyers. I have a lot of lawyers in-house. We have many lawyers. I have got guys that handle this stuff. I said, ‘See if you can have this registered and trademarked.’ ”

Five days later, Trump signed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in which he asked for exclusive rights to use “Make America Great Again” for “political action committee services, namely, promoting public awareness of political issues and fundraising in the field of politics.” He enclosed a $325 registration fee.

His was a vision that ran against the conventional wisdom of the time — in fact, it was “much the opposite,” Trump said.

“I felt that jobs were hurting,” he said. “I looked at the many types of illness our country had, and whether it’s at the border, whether it’s security, whether it’s law and order or lack of law and order. Then, of course, you get to trade, and I said to myself, ‘What would be good?’ I was sitting at my desk, where I am right now, and I said, ‘Make America Great Again.’ ”

Democrats slammed it.
To save itself, the Republican establishment was convinced, the GOP would have to sand off its edges, become kinder and more inclusive. “Make America Great Again” was divisive and backward-looking. It made no nod to diversity or civility or progress.

It sounded like a death wish.

But Trump had seen something different in the country, and in the daily lives of its struggling citizens...

Of course. Democrats "slam" everything. They're so hateful.

But keep reading.

Laura Ingraham Reacts to Leftist Tantrums Over Trump's Inauguration, Bradley Manning's Commutation (VIDEO)

From Hannity last night:

Flailing Democrats, Still Stunned, Unprepared for the Trump Era

A good piece, from Michelle Cottle, at the Atlantic:

#Democrats aren't ready for the #Trump Era: https://t.co/H427TQs0nq

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 18, 2017

British Prime Minister Theresa May Sets Hard Course for Brexit (VIDEO)

Hey, looks like an excellent plan.

At London's Daily Mail, the Telegraph U.K., and video from Sky News:

British PM #TheresaMay puts curbing immigration at heart of 12-point plan for leaving #EU. https://t.co/ohGPI4tN7M

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 17, 2017

"Ready as soon as UK is..."

How Europe's leaders reacted to Theresa May's Brexit speech https://t.co/p58WmpAP4R

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 17, 2017

As Theresa May set out her 12-point plan for #Brexit, she vowed to take control of the number of foreigners coming to Europe #MATTcartoons pic.twitter.com/b8GPW7qQzl

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 17, 2017

Wednesday's @Telegraph front page: pic.twitter.com/5VAGOvS6ua

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 17, 2017

Jackie Johnson's Heavy Rain Forecast

It's supposed to rain hard on Thursday, although I hope not too hard: I'm heading out to visit my mom in Yucca Valley for the weekend, to watch all the inaugural events, and so forth.

We'll see how the weather's looking Thursday morning, and I'll figure out what time I can get on the road.

Expect updates.

Here's the lovely Ms. Jackie:

Charles Krauthammer on President Obama's Commutation for Bradley Manning (VIDEO)

A great segment.

Dr. K. just nails it.

From this afternoon, with Martha MacCallum:

Protester Sets Himself on Fire Outside Donald Trump Hotel in Washington D.C.

At ABC 7 News - WJLA Washington, and from local witness Michael Shoag

#BREAKING: Man sets fire outside Trump hotel in D.C. to protest the President-elect https://t.co/YRtDB7VNmX pic.twitter.com/Ft6nTgvgtH

— ABC7News (@ABC7News) January 18, 2017

Self immolation in front of Trump Tower DC. Guy put out fire and walked to police. Crazy is the new normal in DC. pic.twitter.com/32gea1JpJP

— Michael Shoag (@MikeShoag) January 18, 2017

More at Gateway Pundit:

Report: Anti-Trump Protester Tries to Set Himself on Fire at Trump Hotel in DC https://t.co/QiXRmhNIxc

— Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) January 18, 2017

Five Hours to Have the White House Ready for the Incoming President and His Family

The transition team is so meticulous they don't want the current occupant of the White House (Obama) to feel as though he's getting dumped out on the street for the incoming president (Trump).

It's pretty amazing. The best moving company in the world, or something, heh.

At NYT:

While incoming president attends inaugural events, crew of 100 transforms White House for new tenant. @juliehdavis https://t.co/cLoiyfv0Oa

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) January 18, 2017

D.C. Hairstylist Tells Marla Maples to Shove Off

Ms. Maples wanted free hare-care services (for herself and Tiffany, apparently) in exchange for mentions on Ms. Maples's social media feeds, and what not.

The hairstylist works for money and told her to shove it, heh.

At WaPo:

Marla Maples tried to get out of paying a local stylist to do her and Tiffany Trump's inauguration hair https://t.co/57OWrdv1Yu

— Emily Heil (@emilyaheil) January 17, 2017

Holly Sonders

She's nice.

At Egotastic!, "Holly Sonders Golf Hottie of the Year, Again."

And at the Heavy, "Holly Sonders: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know."

Introducing @Holly_Sonders, one of the Most Beautiful Women in Golf for 2017! Photos: https://t.co/swJdpwxT74 #MBW2K17 pic.twitter.com/1GLQyJmgA8

— GOLF.com (@golf_com) January 11, 2017

Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah al-Ansi, Bodyguard to Osama bin-Laden, Sprung in Obama's Latest Guantánamo Release

I'm shaking my head.

Seriously.

From Thomas Jocelyn, on Twitter:

1. DOD finally named 10 #Guantanamo detainees transferred to Oman.

9/10 previously deemed "high" risk by JTF-GTMO.https://t.co/iEgGkx81ye

— Thomas Joscelyn (@thomasjoscelyn) January 17, 2017

4. *BREAKING* One transferred GTMO detainee was Bin Laden bodyguard, may have been selected to take part in aborted 9/11 hijackings: pic.twitter.com/NDh7awWVLd

— Thomas Joscelyn (@thomasjoscelyn) January 17, 2017

Obama Commutes Sentence of Puerto Rican Terrorist Oscar López Rivera

I had to look this guy up, at Wikipedia:

Oscar López Rivera (born January 6, 1943) is a Puerto Rican nationalist and one of the leaders of the FALN. In 1981, López Rivera was convicted and sentenced to 55 years in federal prison for seditious conspiracy, use of force to commit robbery, interstate transportation of firearms, and conspiracy to transport explosives with intent to destroy government property. In 1988 he was sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison for conspiring to escape from the Leavenworth federal prison. Lopez solicited unincarcerated supporters to obtain weapons, grenades, and C-4 explosives for use in breaking him and fellow inmates – to whom Lopez had boasted about his leadership role in the FALN – out of prison. President Obama commuted Oscar Lopez Rivera's sentence on January 17, 2017. At the time he was the longest-incracerated member of the FALN.

López Rivera was among the 14 convicted FALN members offered conditional clemency by U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1999, but rejected the offer. His sister, Zenaida López, said he refused the offer because on parole, he would be in "prison outside prison. Resident Commissioner, Pedro Pierluisi, has stated that "the primary reason that López Rivera did not accept the clemency offer extended to him in 1999 was because it had not also been extended to fellow FALN prisoner Carlos Torres and Cordero Nananin." According to New York Times writer John Broder, López Rivera "refused to accept the President's offer to commute their sentences. Mr. Clinton demanded as one of the conditions of their release that the jailed Puerto Ricans renounce the use of terrorism to achieve their aim of independence for the Caribbean commonwealth." Torres and Nananin were subsequently released from prison in July 2010...

And further:

At the time of their arrest, López Rivera and the others declared themselves to be combatants in an anti-colonial war against the United States to liberate Puerto Rico from U.S. domination and invoked prisoner of war status. They stated that U.S. courts did not have jurisdiction to treat them as criminals, and petitioned for their cases to be handed over to an international court that would determine their status. The U.S. Government, however, did not recognize their request...

Well, you can see why the dude's getting sprung. Obama loves terrorists, especially left-wing revolutionary terrorists. O probably idolized this guy. López Rivera has never expressed remorse for his "anti-colonial war against the United States." His terrorist group, the FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation) was closely allied the Fidel Castro and the Cuban Communist regime. Indeed, Charles Krauthammer suggested on Fox News just now that the release of López Rivera may have been part of a quid pro quo in the Cuban normalization deal. This is a presidential administration that normalizes terrorism.

Thank God we have less than three days until this hated regime, this reviled Obama regime, is driven from office.

Also at the Guardian U.K., FWIW, "Obama commutes sentence for political prisoner Oscar López Rivera: López Rivera, whose commutation was announced with 208 others, has been incarcerated for 35 years for his role in fighting for Puerto Rico’s independence."

Obama Commutes Bradley Manning's Sentence

Well, supposedly it's "Chelsea Manning," but he's a she now, if you're all into the transgender identity thing (and I'm not).

Perhaps because Bradley came out as as woman and attempted suicide while in prison explains the commutation. O's always an advocate for the "oppressed."

This news is breaking.

I saw it first on Mark Knoller's feed:

Pres Obama commutes sentence of Chelsea Manning, serving 35 years for stealing and disclosing government records. Commuted to May 17, 2017.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) January 17, 2017

And Althouse's shock at the president's decision, as well as all the comments there, "Obama frees Chelsea Manning!"

And at the New York Times, via Memeorandum "Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning's Sentence."

Expect updates.

National Teach-In Movement Called 'Teach, Organize, Resist'

This is literally criminal.

In California, the education code prohibits partisan indoctrination in public college instruction. These activities, starting at UCLA, are illegal.

At Campus Reform, "Profs pledge to 'use regular class time' to protest Trump":

“[Use] your classrooms...[to] protest policies of violence...segregation, and isolationism.” https://t.co/eDSwqvnqf2 #Trump

— Campus Reform (@campusreform) January 17, 2017

A national “teach-in” movement is asking professors to set aside class time between Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the presidential inauguration to “protest” oppression and challenge “Trumpism.”

The movement, known as “Teach, Organize, Resist,” is set to kick-off on January 18, strategically “poised between Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the presidential inauguration” as an explicit means of “challenging Trumpism.”

Academics Plan 'Read In' of Michel Foucault to Protest Inauguration of Donald Trump

These people are insane.

But they're leftists, so you knew that.

At the Other McCain, "Academics Protest Trump With Public Reading of French Homosexual’s Book":

Foucault was a gay French philosopher who died of AIDS in 1984. His postmodern (or poststructural) philosophy was typical of the French Left in the decadent political and intellectual aftermath of World War II. The Communist Party was so powerful in France that, when the Kremlin wished to signal a change in the party line in 1945, the chosen messenger was Jacques Duclos, the Stalinist leader of the French Communist Party. It was the infamous “Duclos letter” that spelled the doom of CPUSA Chairman Earl Browder (who had sought to maintain the old Popular Front line) and ushered in the anti-American stance of Cold War Communism. The extraordinary influence of Communism in post-WWII France helps to explain why French intellectuals like Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were so consistently anti-American, a tradition to which Foucault was an heir, and which made him a darling of American academics, whose hatred of America is their intellectual raison d’etre...

Robert Stacy McCain should have a second career as a professor of political philosophy, heh.

Still more.

Syria Spotlights Impotence of the United Nations

This is great.

At Der Spiegel, "War and Peace: Disunity and Impotence at the United Nations":

The mandate of the United Nations is to preserve peace in the world, but when it comes to the Syrian crisis, the global body has failed badly. Will the UN's new secretary-general be able to finally introduce necessary reforms?

The UN was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell.
- Dag Hammarskjöld, UN secretary-general, during a May 1954 speech.

The man who, by simply raising his hand, prevented all efforts to end the war in Syria is sitting in a bunker-like room on 67th Street in Manhattan. Chandeliers are hanging above his head, a pendulum clock is keeping the time behind him and the furniture recalls Soviet-era filmography. "We have had this problem with Syria, of course, and ...… I (have) thought a lot about it," says Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations. An ironic expression on his face, the white-haired diplomat leans back in his leather chair.

Churkin is one of the men charged with saving the world. As absurd as it might sound, that is his job. The 15 members of the UN Security Council, in particular the five permanent members -- China, France, Great Britain, Russia and the United States -- bear "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security," according to Article 24 of the Charter of the United Nations.

It is a heroic task, an idealistic notion that was born out of the ruins of World War II: The peoples of the Earth joining together to protect the only planet we have. Uniting their strength, the world's countries hoped to create a better world, a place where all people can live in dignity. And the prerequisite for doing so is peace.

In 2001, the United Nations and its then-secretary-general, Kofi Annan, received the Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world." It is also thanks to the UN that nuclear war has thus far been prevented, that war criminals from former Yugoslavia were forced to stand trial and that we now have a Paris Climate Agreement, which is aimed at preventing the destruction of the world.

But what has been happening in Syria for the last five years is the opposite of peace: a proxy world war being fought on Syrian territory. It has called everything into question for which the UN stands. The images and the calls for help that innocent men, women and children have been sending out to the world via Facebook and Twitter are unbearable. And yet the world stands by, watching as though it were all merely part of a particularly long horror movie...

More.

Heh: 'Conservative Black Chick' Asks Rep John Lewis 'What Have You Done Since Selma?'

I love it.

At Instapundit, "A SPLINTERING COALITION? ‘Conservative Black Chick’ Asks Rep John Lewis ‘What Have You Done Since Selma?’"

The fact is, Lewis is a minor figure in the civil rights movement. I'm sorry he was beaten, but he's just been one sad cranky, corrupt and angry man, for so many years. I can't even listen him.

Mom and Daughter Terrorized by Turkey (VIDEO)

Don't run.

Those turkeys will chase you down like a mofo, lol.

At CBS News 2 New York: