NewsBusted: 'Scientists have found a chemical they believe travels faster than the speed of light'

Via Theo Spark:

Megyn Kelly Responds to Joseph Biden's Cheap Slam on Debate Booing as 'Reprehensible'

Progressives obviously feel entitled to their own facts, and Megyn Kelly visibly displeased by the vice president's comments:

BEHAR: But what did you – I have to ask you, what did you think of the booing that went on the other day, about the gay soldier. Did you have a visceral response to it?

BIDEN: I did have a visceral response, and I'm not sure it's because my son spent a year in Iraq, and I know my son and all the kids with him. Kids – they're grown men. I don't think they give a damn whether a guy firing a rifle to protect them is gay or straight. I don't think they care about that. And look, this kid risked his life, this kid is there for a year, and I, quite frankly, I thought it was reprehensible.

BEHAR: Right. And no one spoke up. That entire panel, not one person said anything.

Also at NewsBusters, "Joy Behar Baits Biden to Slam GOP Candidates on The View."

The Palestinian Lie

Via Israel Matzav:

RELATED: At FrontPage Magazine, "A Century of Palestinian Rejectionism and Jew Hatred."

Don Henley Plays 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World'?

My wife and I both looked at each other and said, "Tears for Fears?"

That was really cool. I had no clue it was a Henley cover. I'm not seeing a review from the Harrah's gig, but the O.C. Register reports on Henley's concert the previous weekend, from the Greet Theater: "Don Henley tosses surprises into Greek set." And the playlist:

Main set: I Put a Spell on You / Dirty Laundry / Everybody’s Famous / Sunset Grill / Everything Is Different Now / New York Minute / The Last Worthless Evening / One of These Nights / It Don’t Matter to the Sun / The End of the Innocence / Everybody Wants to Rule the World / The Heart of the Matter / Guilty / You Don’t Have to Believe Me / Funky Stuff / I’ve Been Loving You Too Long / The Boys of Summer / All She Wants to Do Is Dance / Life in the Fast Lane

First encore: Hotel California / Desperado

Second encore: I Will Not Go Quietly / The Long Run

Henley opened with "Dirty Laundry" at Rincon, and he did just the first encore. The band was tight and Henley's mellow. The concert was outside at the Sky Theater, and we had good seats. They played "One of These Nights." Lead guitarist Steuart Smith tours with both The Eagles and Don Henley. He's seen here at the clip:

Nudity Group in San Francisco Promotes Radical Gay Public Sex

At New York Times, "Protesters Bare All Over a Proposed San Francisco Law." Apparently folks hang out all day in the buff, at restaurants even. I doubt that'd be so appetizing.

Anyway, Zombie was on hand: "San Francisco’s naked protest and the ethics of public nudity." It turns out the "nude in" was sponsored by Bare Naked in Public. Zombie has a link to the website, which features all kinds of pictures of public homosexual sex acts. Naturally, all the San Francisco progressives are blabbering on about how this is just "free speech." Free public radical gay sex is more like it. I mean c'mon, it's not like decent middle class families are excited about raising their kids in the Castro. It's a gay red light district. These are same types pushing for homosexual marriage in California --- and mounting extremist hate campaigns against their opponents, the folks still standing for some old time values. What a disgrace, sheesh.

The Zombie post is probably NSFW, by the way. And that's say nothing of the rim-station blow jobbers at Bare Naked in Public.

Secure Connections: Minimizing the Dangers of WiFi Hot Spots

This is worth a read, at LAT, "How to minimize the risks of using free public WiFi hot spots." (Via Neptunus Lex.)

Quantifying the Price of Sex

Sex is cheap these days.

See Neo-Neocon, "Getting the milk for free."

I don’t know about you, but I feel sad when I read things like this. And it’s not a women vs. men thing for me; I think both sexes are losing a lot in terms of love, joy, and commitment in these transactions...

Yeah, society's just getting sluttier all around.

That said, I'll admit I wonder sometimes if I shouldn't have been so proper back in the day, remember? I think I was 20. Kathleen was the love of my life. She wanted to jump my bones. I wanted to get married. Only make believe, I guess. That, or go for the cheap sex and forget those dreams. (Although, if I'd have married Kathleen I wouldn't have the wife and kids I do now, so what can you do?)

New York Times Letters to the Editor: After the Palestinian Bid at the U.N.

From today's paper:

To the Editor:

Re “The Palestinians’ Bid” (editorial, Sept. 23):

How many times must we go through the same charade? Israel is labeled the obstacle to peace, and pressure is put on its leaders to offer a settlement to this endless conflict. Israel’s leader of the day (Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert) offers a comprehensive proposal consistent with the parameters broadly accepted by all intermediaries as the fair solution.

The Palestinian leadership, with no constructive reason or counterproposal, walks away from the offer. And then after the briefest of moments, we again find the world sympathizing with the oppressed Palestinians and their “understandable frustration” with Israel’s “refusal” to make the concessions for peace.

When will we learn? The only true obstacle to peace, which has been demonstrated time and again, is the Palestinian unwillingness to reach any resolution that accepts Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish homeland.

LIRON GITIG
White Plains, Sept. 23, 2011

RELATED: At Israel Matzav, "A question that needs an answer."

Pamela Geller on Sean Hannity's: Israel, the U.N. and War Against the Jews

I haven't had time to post, but Pamela's had a lot going on at Atlas Shrugs:

John Hawkins: 'Five Ways to Screw Up Your Life with the Internet'

This is Item #2, from Hawkins' piece at Pajamas Media:

Ever had someone notice that you were posting on your blog during work hours and report you to your boss? I have. It nearly got me fired. Ever known someone who was fired for even having a blog? There is someone talking about that on my Facebook page on the same day I am writing this column.

That actually happens more than you might think. The Internet’s full of small, vindictive, unbalanced, and ugly people who don’t have the slightest qualms about using any and every tactic imaginable to go after people who irritate them. Does that include calling your boss? Yes, indeed. Could it include calling your boss and making up stories about you? That’s happened to multiple people that I know and it’s why I’d recommend that if possible, you should avoid sharing where you work with everyone on the Internet.

Well, in my case it's not so much that I was blogging at work, but that the idiot ASFL progressives couldn't believe a college professor could be conservative, so they looked me up online, found my place of work, and started screaming bloody murder. These include not just the atheists who wigged over Elizabeth Edwards, but the bloggers at American Nihilist and Lawyers, Guns and Money. And of course, "Carl Salonen Libelous Workplace Allegations of Child Pornography and Sexual Harassment at Long Beach City College." Talk about "... small, vindictive, unbalanced, and ugly people who don’t have the slightest qualms about using any and every tactic imaginable to go after people who irritate them." That's just the start of it! Sheesh!

Mark Melvin, Alabama Inmate, Sues Prison Officials Over Right to Read History of Black Convict Leasing in the South

Well, I wouldn't be able to make it without my books.

See NYT, "Alabama Inmate Sues to Read Southern History Book."

The book is Douglas Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. I'm gonna check that out:

The book chronicles the vast and brutal convict leasing system, which became nearly indistinguishable from antebellum slavery as it grew. In this system, people, in almost all cases black, were arrested by local law enforcement, often on the flimsiest of charges, and forced to labor on the cotton farms of wealthy planters or in the coal mines of corporations to pay off their criminal penalties. Though convict leasing occurred across the South, the book focuses on Alabama.

Jeez, it's only a book. No doubt prison officials aren't thrilled by the idea of inmates getting an inside look on things. That said, this Melvin guy doesn't look like the most savory of characters. He was sent down for helping his brother commit two murders.

Women Activists Pepper Sprayed at Occupy Wall Street Protest

Well, this is the big viral video of the day. And I love how it's edited, with stop action effects, to capture the moment the protesters were sprayed:

The New York Times has the story, "Videos Show Police Using Pepper Spray at Protest on the Financial System." And a big write up at Daily Mail, "'Expect us': Anonymous posts name and information about officer accused of pepper-spraying women at Wall Street protest."

And a photo-essay at Davids Camera Craft, "Occupy Wall Street march September 24th 2011." The woman screaming at top looks like a reject from the 1960s. And from the comments at the post, "The girl that got hit directly was shoving stuff in the face of the cops, from her hands and papers to someone's camera at one point." Right. I had a hunch they weren't so innocently "maced," as all the wannabe-sixties-radicals are yapping about at Memorandum. These people are losers, freakin' ASFLs.

Birthday Celebrations

As this post goes live my wife and I are on our way to see Don Henley at Harrah's Rincon. That's us celebrating at my birthday dinner last night, at Cheesecake Factory in Irvine.

The big 50:

My mom asked yesterday if I felt different, and while I said, "No, a day older than 49 years and 365 days, I guess," the truth is I do feel past the halfway mark. And I mean that in a good way. Five years ago, when I had my 45th year physical, my doctor said, "Well, you're halfway through your life." I thought that was good, since he must have expected me to live to 90. I've always expected to live to 100 (or thereabouts, with luck), based on the longevity of family members on both my mom's and dad's side. So, I guess if 100 is still the benchmark, I'm now finally on the downhill slope of my life. It's mellower and wiser, and probably happier as well. Sitting at the table last night with my family, I looked across at my two beautiful sons and said, "This is my birthday present." All I really truly wanted in life was to be married and have a family. I guess a lot of boys aren't acculturated to that as a life goal nowadays. But sitting last night out for dinner, it occurred to me that all the birthday presents on the world wouldn't make me happier than just sitting there with the people most important to me.

Anyway, my friend Pat Austin's having a birthday weekend as well, so head over there to wish her well: "Birthday Weekend, Estate Sales, and Old Houses."

I'll be back tomorrow with a report on the concert.

Thanks everybody!

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Rises Out of Arafat's Shadow?

Actually, from what I caught, Abbas' U.N. speech was indistinguishable from anything the PLO's pushed for decades. Worse, in fact, as he spoke of an "apartheid" regime, and that's a meme that's been developing only over the last few years, with the global communist left's BDS campaign. But check Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "With UN bid, Abbas rises out of Arafat's shadow":

RAMALLAH, West Bank — President Mahmoud Abbas received a hero's welcome Sunday from thousands of cheering, flag-waving Palestinians, having made a bid for United Nations recognition that appears destined to fail but has allowed him to finally step out of the shadow of his iconic predecessor Yasser Arafat.

The crowd, many of them holding posters of Abbas, repeatedly chanted his name as he spoke. Abbas was uncharacteristically animated, shaking his hands, waving to the audience and charming the crowd with references to "my brothers and sisters."

Abbas call Friday for the U.N. to recognize Palestinian independence has transformed him in the eyes of many Palestinians from gray bureaucrat to champion of their rights. Though Israel and the United States oppose the move and consider it a step back for long-stalled peace talks, it could help Abbas overcome internal struggles and gain the support he will need to get a deal through one day.

In a brief address outside his headquarters in Ramallah, Abbas told the crowd that a "Palestinian Spring" had been born, similar to the mass demonstrations sweeping the region in what has become known as the Arab Spring.

RELATED: At Legal Insurrection, "The Palestinians mean exactly what they say..."

Farewell to DVDs?

Well, I wasn't that big of a collector anyway.

At LAT, "Hollywood downloads a post-DVD future."

Across Hollywood, a quiet revolution is brewing that's about to transform living rooms around the world.

After desperate attempts to prop up the industry's once-thriving DVD business, studio executives now believe the only hope of turning around a 40% decline in home entertainment revenue lies in rapidly accelerating the delivery of movies over the Internet.

In the next few years, the growing number of consumers with Internet-connected televisions, tablets and smartphones will face a dizzying array of options designed to make digital movie consumption a lot more convenient and to entice users to spend more money.

With films that can be accessed on any digital device, downloaded as iPhone apps or shared on Facebook as easily as a photo, it may be the biggest shift in Hollywood's business model since the explosion of the DVD in the late 1990s.

"The days of baby steps on the Internet are over," said David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures' home entertainment unit. "It's now critical that we experiment as much as possible and determine how to build a vibrant market for collecting digital movies."

More at the link.

The Times previewed the Sunday paper yesterday, and I mentioned the end of the DVD to my oldest son. He's been watching movies and TV shows online for years. But when I asked him about it he said, "Oh, that's lame. DVDs are cool." I agree. They're fun to have around, as a physical object. That said, I can't seem to find any of my old 8-track tapes anywhere. So what can you do?

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces.

Also Theo Spark.

BONUS: At Proof Positive, "Friday Night Babe: Annabella Sciorra!"

The Revolution Does Not Appear to Be Brewing

This is an interesting report, at New York Times, "Gunning for Wall Street, With Faulty Aim." Talking about the dwindling number of anti-capitalist (or anti-anything) activists:

The group’s lack of cohesion and its apparent wish to pantomime progressivism rather than practice it knowledgably is unsettling in the face of the challenges so many of its generation face — finding work, repaying student loans, figuring out ways to finish college when money has run out. But what were the chances that its members were going to receive the attention they so richly deserve carrying signs like “Even if the World Were to End Tomorrow I’d Still Plant a Tree Today”?

RTWT.

The interesting comparison is to Madison, Wisconsin, earlier this year, where according to the article 100 thousand demonstrators converged at the peak of the protests. They had a specific agenda. The left was energized by losing power and benefits. In turn, the full range of progressive and revolutionary contingents turned out as if this were the start of a national social revolt. In New York, mostly idealistic and stupid leftists converged to make fools out of themselves. The U.S. is not Britain, and thank goodness. Even with national unemployment at 9.2 percent and double digits on some states, we're not having anywhere near the anarchist hooliganism we saw in London. It's not that some progressives don't want it, as we see periodically in the Bay Area. We're just not that far gone as a culture for one thing, with less of popular acceptance for the public dole. And hopefully less acceptance of the latchkey kids swarming the streets like feral animals. Mostly, there's a bankruptcy of militant ideology. Progressives talk the great game, they seek to destroy others with diverging opinions, especially in the (Marxist) academy, but when it's time to put talk into practice, they're AWOL. Bunch of ASFLs.

Frustrated Teacher Walks Off the Job in Los Angeles: Metaphor for Obama's Bankrupt Education Policy

I'm not expert enough to comment comprehensively on the administration's education policy. Mostly, the White House has been completely hostile to educational initiatives, like charters and vouchers, that would weaken the stranglehold of unions over the public education bureaucracy. And I am not one who is hostile to public education. What I can't stand is that when schools are failing the solutions are always more of the same, and never real innovations that put power in the hands of those who can get results. I think of charters like Providence St. Mel and I'm ashamed that this president has done nothing in almost three years to help alleviate the crisis of inner city education in America. Just to talk about it --- to use his own experience as a community organizer, someone with (purportedly) real ties to the urban grassroots --- would have been something. Instead, we've had failed (spending) stimulus initiatives and the bankrupt and morally decrepit nationalized healthcare law that has issued waivers like they were Tootsie Rolls on Halloween. I guess I'm hopelessly naive, but I hoped that President Obama --- with his majestic, mountain top-style oratory --- would have been able to bring considerable moral authority to the crisis of discipline and under-achievement in the big city schools. Perhaps we might not be having stories like this, "At Manual Arts High, a caring teacher is at the end of his rope":

Art teacher Jeremy Davidson skipped the annual back-to-school-night at Manual Arts High this week.

He'd walked off the job the day before — after 10 years at the mid-city campus — done in by a group of unruly ninth-graders who'd hijacked his sixth-period drawing class.

While Davidson was "trying to give a lesson on shading," the troublemakers were "whacking each other with rulers, throwing paper across the room, getting up and walking around."

They blocked the door when he tried to close it, talked over him when he tried to teach.

The first time it happened this semester, he summoned security "four times during the period and help never came."

Day after frustrating day, he said, the scenario replayed. And when he sought support, administrators met his request with a checklist: Have you contacted their parents? Have you encouraged the students? Have you treated them with respect?

Davidson bristled at the implication. "Seven students needed to be removed, so I could teach the other 45. … And I'm expected to spend a week providing all this documentation, while these kids spend 50 minutes each day destroying the class for everyone else."

So two weeks after the school year began Sept. 7 — after a string of sleepless nights — Davidson called his principal from class midmorning and said: "It would be best if you got me covered so I can pack my things and go."

Davidson shared his story with me a few hours after he left campus. Two days earlier, he had emailed The Times, complaining about "the awful conditions" at Manual Arts.

"The overcrowded, dirty classrooms, and lack of support from administrators, is demoralizing and crushing the teachers — and not fair to students," he wrote.

Still, I had to wonder, what kind of teacher abandons those students when the semester has barely begun? A teacher at the end of his rope, Davidson told me; one who has had his fill of broken promises and dashed hopes.

"You keep raising your expectations, but nothing changes," he said. "After all these years, I look around and see that things are just getting worse."

Dashed hopes. Things getting worse. Sounds like the Obama administration's record on education and social policy. (And don't even get me going about the economy and urban unemployment.) The 2012 election can't come soon enough. Perhaps we can still turn things around for the generations of students whom this administration has cast off and abandoned.

Commemorating September 11 on a Left Coast Liberal Campus

From former Long Beach City College student, and current UCLA senior, Barbara Efraim, at Human Events. An excellent piece.

Roman Catholic Womenpriests

An interesting piece, "What I am is what I am — Womenpriests and The Age."

As thinkers from John Locke to Margaret Mead and today’s many “social constructionists” like to say, people are simply whatever they are conditioned to be. Bishop Fresen believes the church’s construct of gender being determinative as to ordination violates the deeper meaning of Scripture.

The Roman Catholic Church takes the opposite view, believing it is not possible for women to be priests because Christ himself chose no women to serve among the Apostles. It lacks the authority to contravene Christ’s example. Its precise position is that articulated by John Paul II in 1992: “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women.”