College Football Scraps BCS System, Will Move to Playoffs in 2014

The information's still kinda sketchy.

See Chris DuFresne at the Los Angeles Times, "Bye-bye BCS: College football will have a four-team playoff," and "New college football playoff system won't end debates":

The throw-it-in-the-dumpster party is set for 2014, when the old carton likely gets replaced with a "playoff" involving four teams and Jerry Jones' enormous stadium/ego.

"BCS" follows "Enron" and "USFL" into history's ignominious logo bin and, in remembrance, there should be a moment of silence … OK, that ought to do it.

Bully to those who demonized the BCS all these years for want of something better, something more.

However, don't for a nanosecond let 11 conference commissioners standing for a photo op Wednesday in Chicago fool you into thinking college football has been saved.

You've got another think coming … and it's coming in 2014.

"Anyone who thinks going to a four-team playoff, or a Plus One, is going to end the controversy, they're naive,"Pac-12Commissioner Larry Scott told the Times following Wednesday's meeting. "Unless you go to an eight, or 16-team playoff, and I don't see that happening in the foreseeable future, you're going to have debate."

And check Sports Illustrated, "Playoff approval a historic, joyous, overdue day for college football."

City of Stockton Goes Bankrupt

God, this is brutal.

At LAT, "Stockton to file for bankruptcy, will be largest US city to fail."

And at SFGate, "Cash-strapped Stockton set to vote for bankruptcy."

Neal Cavuto Fox News Feature on 'Breastaurants'

At Media Research Center: "Neil Cavuto 'covers' hot new 'breastaurant' chain Twin Peaks with all its 'scenic' views."

And see the New Jersey Star-Ledger, "Skin is in: 'Breastaurants' thrive in a struggling industry."

Deneen Borelli: 'The Bottom Line is This, President Obama is Going Down'

I guess Cher really went off on the GOP as RAAAAACIST the other day, but I just love Deneen Borelli's Obama take down at the clip:

Colorado Wildfires Still Rage Out of Control

At the Colorado Springs Gazette, "WALDO CANYON FIRE: 'Firestorm of epic proportions'."

And at CNN, "Colorado wildfire of 'epic proportions' displaces 32000; tests firefighters." And the Los Angeles Times, "Parts of Air Force Academy evacuated as Colorado fire rages."

Plus, Michelle Malkin updates on her family's situation: "One Day at at Time."

Obama Clings to a Narrow Lead

At the Wall Street Journal, "New Poll Shows Him Doing Better Than Romney in Swing States; Both Candidates Face Challenges."

President Barack Obama has managed to retain a narrow lead in his race for re-election despite a spate of poor economic news and surging GOP optimism about Mitt Romney's prospects, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll out Tuesday has found.

The president outpolls Romney, his presumed Republican rival, 47 percent to 44 percent, a lead within the survey's margin of error and similar to the advantage he enjoyed a month ago. Obama's lead is wider in swing states, where the campaigns have battled most intensely.

The poll highlights challenges facing both candidates. While Obama retains a durable base of support, his standing among white, working-class voters, which was low to start with, continues to erode. Interest in the campaign is not nearly as intense as it was four years ago among young people and Latinos, who were important to Obama's victory in 2008.

At the same time, more people viewed Romney unfavorably than favorably by a six-point margin, with nearly one quarter of those polled viewing him "very negatively" -- twice the level in December. Romney's business background, which he has made a central element of his candidacy, is a draw for many, the poll found. But it is viewed negatively by even more people.

Overall, the survey presents the presidential race as both tight and stable. "It looks like a dead heat on a merry-go-round," said Peter Hart, the Democratic pollster who conducts the Journal survey with Republican Bill McInturff. "There is the appearance of motion, but the horses' positions haven't changed."

Obama's advantage is more pronounced among poll respondents in 12 battleground states which, taken as a group, favor him 50 percent to 42 percent. His larger lead in those states, which include Nevada, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Virginia, could reflect the impact of ads by his campaign that criticized Romney's record as a businessman and portrayed him as out of touch with the middle class.

"There are two campaigns -- the one being fought out in the press, and one in swing states," said McInturff. "We're seeing some indications that the advertising could be having an impact."

The poll of 1,000 adults was conducted June 20-24, after a month that seemed to offer much to buoy Romney. His fundraising was strong, the May jobs report was weak, and Obama was widely criticized for saying the private sector was "doing fine." Republican confidence grew after an effort by labor unions and their Democratic allies to recall Wisconsin's Republican governor failed.

The poll also had warning signs for Obama. His approval rating, 47 percent, dipped to its lowest level of the year, while more people disapproved of his economic stewardship -- 53 percent -- than at any time since December. Nearly two thirds said the country was on the wrong track.

Via My Fox Detroit.

The key is those battleground states. It's still early though and I personally think O's toast. But it's the Electoral College that counts, so we'll see.

And see Glenn's roundup on related ObamaCare polling, here.

A Lesson in Home Defense From Robert Stacy McCain

I was busy with quite a few other things yesterday, so I'm catching up with all the activity on the #Freedomtoblog front. I'm not going to try and round everything up at this post, but a good place to start is The Other McCain's, "Professor Glenn ‘Exhibit E’ Reynolds":

In point of fact, a 12-gauge shotgun is highly recommended as a home-defense weapon and, as I told Brian, is simple to operate. You don’t really have to aim it, really. Just point it in the general direction of an intruder and pull the trigger and the godawful roar of the thing will put the fear of God into him, even if he’s not hit.

Of course, if he’s hit, he’s likely to be dead PDQ.

And I specified a pump shotgun for this simple reason: Imagine you were an intruder trying to sneak into a house in the middle of the night and you heard that racking sound of someone chambering a round in a pump shotgun. Wouldn’t you immediately run for your life?

A few years ago, a knife-wielding crackhead broke into my younger brother’s house in Georgia and made the mistake of not running when he heard that sound. The crackhead ruined the carpet when he bled out.

My younger brother is still alive and well.

End of lesson in home defense.

Continue reading at the link. But actually, this part is pretty good too:

Brett Kimberlin is a lying cowardly punk who in 1981 was sentenced to 50 years in prison and who, by all rights, should still be in prison, rather than attempting to intimidate honest citizens.

I said “attempting to intimidate honest citizens,” because I am not intimidated in the least by Kimberlin’s lies and threats, and I will not be silenced. “Truth is great and will prevail,” as Thomas Jefferson said.

RELATED: "Obsessed Progressive Who Shall Not Be Named Is Ideological Kith and Kin to Brett Kimberlin, And I Suspect He'd Like to Put Me Under Just As Fast."

Bret Stephens: Who Lost Egypt?

At the Wall Street Journal (via Google):

Don't console yourself with the belief that the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in the country's first free presidential election is merely symbolic, since the army still has the guns: The examples of revolutionary Iran and present-day Turkey show how easily the conscripts can be bought, the noncoms wooed and the officers purged.

Don't console yourself with the idea that now the Islamists will have to prove themselves capable of governing the country. The Brotherhood is the most successful social organization in the Arab world. Its leaders are politically skillful, economically literate and strategically patient. Its beliefs resonate with poor, rich and middle class alike. And it can always use the army as a scapegoat should the economy fail to improve.

Don't console yourself with the expectation that the Brotherhood will play by the democratic rules that brought it to power. "Democracy is like a streetcar," Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's Islamist prime minister, observed long ago. "When you come to your stop you get off." Any party that rules street and square makes its own "democratic" rules.

Don't console yourself, finally, with hope that Egypt will remain a responsible, status quo player on the international scene. By degrees, Egypt under the Brotherhood will seek to arm Hamas and remilitarize the Sinai. By degrees, it will seek to extract concessions from the U.S. as the price of its good behavior. By degrees, it will make radical alliances in the Middle East and beyond.

Who lost Egypt?

The Egyptians, obviously. This was their moment, opportunity, choice. They chose—albeit by a narrow margin—a party that offers Islamic stultification as the solution to every political and personal problem. By the time they come to regret their choice, they won't be in a position to change it.

But there are other players in this debacle, too.

And see Spengler at PJ Media, "What do you do when the people are the problem?"

Nora Ephron, 1941-2012

Nora Ephron has died.

See the New York Times, "Nora Ephron, Essayist, Screenwriter and Director, Dies at 71" (via Memeorandum).

And I can't help being reminded of this movie, as the Times notes:

Her first screenplay, written with her friend Alice Arlen, was for “Silkwood,” a 1983 film based on the life of Karen Silkwood, who died under suspicious circumstances while investigating abuses at a plutonium plant where she had worked....

Ms. Ephron followed “Silkwood” three years later with a screenplay adaptation of her own novel “Heartburn,” which was also directed by Mr. Nichols. But it was her script for “When Harry Met Sally,” which became a hit Rob Reiner movie in 1989 starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, that established Ms. Ephron’s gift for romantic comedy and for delayed but happy endings that reconcile couples who are clearly meant for each other but don’t know it.

“When Harry Met Sally” is probably best remembered for Ms. Ryan’s table-pounding faked-orgasm scene with Mr. Crystal in Katz’s Delicatessen on the Lower East Side, prompting a middle-aged woman (played by Mr. Reiner’s mother, Estelle Reiner) sitting nearby to remark to her waiter, indelibly, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

The scene wouldn’t have gotten past the Hollywood censors of the past, but in many other respects Ms. Ephron’s films are old-fashioned movies, only in a brand-new guise. Her 1998 hit, “You’ve Got Mail,” for example, which she both wrote (with her sister Delia) and directed, is partly a remake of the old Ernst Lubitsch film ‘The Shop Around the Corner.”

And the scene also reminds me of my good friend Norman Gersman in New York, who took me to Katz's Deli for dinner on September 10, 2010.

See: "Safe Landing in New York!"

BONUS: From Roger Simon, "Nora Ephron Passes."

Jenny McCarthy Playboy 2012 Nude Playmate

This is at People Magazine, so what the heck?

See: "Jenny McCarthy's Sexy-at-39 Playboy Cover: Sneak Peek."

Plus, a Playboy preview at YouTube.

Also at Celebslam, "Jenny McCarthy says her new Playboy shoot is classy."

ADDED: At Egotastic, "Jenny McCarthy bring two Irish jugs out to play."

Tuesday Totties, at Theo Spark's

In case you missed it from yesterday, a great mini-roundup: "Tuesday Totty..."

Muslim Mob Attacks Christians at 2012 Dearborn Arab Festival

This is a long video. I was running in and out checking on my kid while I was trying to watch it yesterday. But it's worth it. For a while it looks like just plastic bottles are being thrown, but as the Christians start to move off, they are pelted with all kinds of debris and human waste, apparently. But throughout the Christians are being verbally abused, and viciously. And check especially around 18:00 minutes when Ruben Israel is being threatened with arrest by the cops. The Deputy Chief Mike Jaafar is especially an asshole. Nothing at the clip indicates that the Christians weren't allowed to protest the event. And again, when you get to Deputy Jaafar, you can see pretty much how it all shakes out. The violent mob isn't the problem. It's the peaceful Christians, respectfully standing their ground, who are subjected to police harassment. It's all so un-American, but again, the left is un-American. They're raping our right to freedom of speech in this country.

In any case, via Pat Dollard, "Doing Allah’s Will: Muslims Stone Christians In Dearborn, Michigan While Local Police Cower In Fear."

The video's a production of The United West. See: "American Muslims Stone Christians." And Joe Newby has an Examiner post: "Christians stoned by American Muslims in Dearborn as police watch."

More Rats Jump Ship: Sen. Claire McCaskill Won't Attend Democrat National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

The symbolism is off the charts here.

If folks recall, Sen. McCaskill was the administration's biggest congressional point person on healthcare reform throughout 2009. So if she's going to skip the president's nomination for a second term --- which should be a crowning achievement for the party --- then you know something's wrong.

See TPM, "Claire McCaskill Will Not Attend Democratic National Convention" (via Instapundit).

At the video, Sen. McCaskill claims there would be no "death panels" in ObamaCare: "It's just not true." Of course, everybody knows that health rationing, especially for older patients, were central to the law's cost savings projections --- and I read the bill myself. Death panels were in there baby. Watch after 3:00 minutes at the clip:

And note something here: I skimmed McCaskill's Senate YouTube page from 2009, when she launched it, and I can't find a single video with her advocating for the law. And I recall seeing her on all the Sunday talk shows at the time --- she was wall to wall talking about that bill! Seriously, this is telling. She's also got a new channel, "ClaireMcCaskill2012's channel." And no sign of ObamaCare talking head videos there either.

Man, it's like she's erasing her political history!

PREVIOUSLY: "The Rats Are Jumping Ship: Democrat Rep. Mike McIntyre Won't Endorse President Obama."

Obsessed Progressive Who Shall Not Be Named Is Ideological Kith and Kin to Brett Kimberlin, And I Suspect He'd Like to Put Me Under Just As Fast

Following the method found at the screencap here, I will hold off mentioning by name the f-king obsessed progressive who has sought to do me grievous harm.

Patterico suggested last night that today is going to be a big day for the left. And here's Patterico's update: "Strong Circumstantial Evidence That Brett Kimberlin Is Astroturfing the Alleged “Threats” Against Him and His Allies." Notice this key quote at the post:

Kimberlin is on record as despising me. He has threatened me with a defamation lawsuit. He has filed a State Bar Complaint against me. He has complained about me to my office. (That’s a matter of public record, so I am giving nothing away.) He has complained about me to the stalking unit of my office, and reported me to Kamala Harris. He has insinuated in court documents that I may be responsible for a plot to murder him, and he has spoken of filing a RICO action against me and others.

That hits amazingly close to home. In fact, here's how close it hits after making some changes with strike-through editing:

Kimberlin An unnamed progressive is on record as despising me. He has threatened me with a defamation lawsuit legal action to get me stop blogging about his past evil deeds. He has filed a State Bar Complaint against me obsessed over my Rule 5 blogging for years. He has complained about me to my office college. (That’s a matter of public record, so I am giving nothing away.) He has complained about me to the stalking unit of my office chairman of my department, and reported me to one of his blog commenters turned me into Kamala Harris. He has insinuated in court documents that I may be responsible for a plot to murder him sexually harassing young women, and he has spoken of filing a RICO action new legal proceedings against me and others if I dare continue to blog about his malicious attacks on my livelihood.

This unnamed blogger has violated his own rules of legal agreement and I plan to stand up against his campaign of progressive lawfare. I have been dealing with the true evil of the progressive left and I don't doubt for a moment that if I continue to blog about this obsessed progressive he would escalate his campaign of intimidation. I am in the process of working with my attorney and will update on that later. Meanwhile, I stand with Aaron Walker, and I share these sentiments:

Whoever did this, if you think this will stop me from speaking the truth about the violent domestic terrorist Brett Kimberlin, you are sadly mistaken. If anything it makes me more determined than ever. This was an act of desperation; this was not the act of people who feel they are winning. Indeed it was the of people too much a bunch of wussies to come at me directly.

Stay tuned...

Larry Brinkin, President of the California Association of Human Relations Organizations (CAHRO), Gay Rights Icon, Arrested on Child Pornography Charges

This is the kind of guy that Walter James Casper III champions and defends. You know, if you call out the gay radical extremists for their inherent criminal perversions, you will be attacked as a bigot who hates "teh gays". F-king progressive assholes. This is 100 percent in sync with what these people are all about.

See the San Francisco Chronicle, "S.F. gay rights advocate arrested over child porn":

San Francisco police have arrested veteran gay rights advocate Larry Brinkin in connection with felony possession of child pornography.

Brinkin, 66, who worked for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission before his retirement in 2010, was taken into custody Friday night. He spent the night in jail before he was released on bail, according to a spokeswoman for the sheriff's department.

The district attorney's office will decide Tuesday whether to file charges. "We're still reviewing the case," district attorney's spokeswoman Stephanie Ong Stillman said Monday.

Police say that Brinkin had pornographic images, some that appear to show children as young as 1 and 2 or 3 years old being sodomized and performing oral sex on adult men, in e-mail attachments linked to his account, according to a search warrant served by San Francisco police.

More at the link.

And have a barf bag ready for this description from SF Weekly, "Larry Brinkin, S.F. Gay Rights Icon, Arrested on Child Porn Charges":

According to the search warrant, SFPD acted after receiving a tip from the Los Angeles Police Department, which obtained from AOL an e-mail exchange between a Los Angeles user and zack3737@aol.com. Police say they linked the AOL address to Brinkin’s IP address; he is owner of the account and paid for AOL service with his credit card.

The warrant claims these e-mails contained images of children as young as perhaps a year old being sodomized by and performing oral sex on adult men. Zack3737@aol.com — whom the police allege is Brinkin — provided graphic commentary on the photos of interracial adult-child sex. Comments included “I loved especially the nigger 2 year old getting nailed. Hope you’ll continue so I can see what the little blond bitch is going to get. White Power! White Supremacy! White Dick Rules!”

The AOL e-mail account was also linked to Yahoo! Groups centering around discussions of child porn, according to the search warrant. Investigators say they additionally found e-mails sent from Brinkin’s now-defunct city e-mail account to zack3737@aol.com.

In classic Walter James Casperian fashion, the LezGetReal blog throws up a smokescreen:

There have been incidents where people have been arrested for possessing child pornography on their computer that turned out to be malware using the computer to launder the images. This can often be difficult for people to prove, however.

Do not be surprised that anit-LGBT organizations will use this arrest against the Community; however, it is important to remember that most pedophiles identify as straight, and there are many straight people who have been arrested, charged, and convicted for possession of child pornography.

Right. Just malware. And of course, the generic "everybody does it" excuse makes this the perfect Casperian defense.

But don't be fooled. While sure there will be heteros who do such evil. The difference is such criminal perversion and depredation is fundamental to the radical left's anything goes revolutionary sexual agenda. Call this shit out for what it is: endemic to radical progressivism.

Hat Tip: Memorandum and PJ Media.

ADDED: More about Brinkin at the CAHRO homepage.

Shut That Jan Brewer Bitch Up! Progressives Launch Vile Attack on Arizona Governor After Supreme Court's SB 1070 Ruling

Just read it all, at Twitchy, "‘Shut that Jan Brewer bitch up’: Left targets Arizona governor with vile slurs after SCOTUS immigration ruling."

Venus Williams Loses in First Round at Wimbledon

I was watching. Seeing Venus leave the stadium I sensed a career-ending loss.

At Telegraph UK, "Wimbledon 2012: Venus Williams suffers worst defeat since 1997 as Elena Vesnina knocks her out in round one":

Even at 2.51pm and against a clear-blue sky, one could discern the sight of Venus setting in the west.

In the corner of south-west London that had yielded five Wimbledon triumphs, Venus Williams bade her farewells in only the third hour of the tournament as she succumbed 6-1, 6-3 to Russia’s Elena Vesnina in the latest chapter of the American’s painful demise.

The pity was that Williams could not muster the same resistance in her match as she did in the extraordinary press conference that ensued. The 32 year-old, who has been diagnosed with the chronic fatigue-inducing condition Sjögren’s syndrome, had been described by one inquisitor as “struggling”. She curled her lip, regarding the observation not as an innocuous observation but as a vicious personal slight.

“Am I struggling?” she shot back. In truth, the question sounded rhetorical, given that she only began the comeback from her debilitating condition in April and had already endured a second-round exit at Roland Garros.

“Am I? I don’t know. Tell me what the struggle is.” The reporter explained, harmlessly enough, that it was to win matches. “You think? Tell me how I should do better,” she replied, before launching an impassioned defence of her accomplishments.

And see Diane Pucin, at the Los Angeles Times, "Venus Williams' Wimbledon loss is telling."

Facebook Changed Your Email Contact Information at Your Profile Page Without You Knowing About It

My facebook URL is www.facebook.com/American.Power.

I don't like Facebook all that much, and I set my privacy settings to what experts recommended was a moderate protection level a couple of years ago. I think I've mentioned it, but most of the stuff I get in my message box is all kinds of spam from people I don't really know. They're just Facebook "friends" who I want to be able to see my blog posts. So now I'm reading these reports on how Facebook created email addresses for its users without notification. See, Whitson Gordon at Lifehacker, "Facebook Changed Everyone's Email to @Facebook.com; Here's How to Fix Yours," and Kash Hill at Forbes, "Facebook's Lame Attempt to Force Its Email Service On You," (via Memeorandum).

I just changed my email back to my americanpowerblog email. It took not even five seconds --- and it was so empowering!

Take that Mark Zuckerberg!

Long Beach City College to Abandon Placement Testing for New Incoming Students

This is part of the college's Promise Pathways initiative. Student success at the college is so dismal the administration is willing to do just about anything to continue moving bodies students through.

The Los Angeles Times reports, "Long Beach City College tries an alternative to placement tests":

Edward Yacuta felt rushed and nervous when he took a test to determine whether he was ready for college-level English classes at Long Beach City College.

The 18-year-old did poorly on the exam, even though he was getting good grades in an Advanced Placement English class at Long Beach's Robert A. Millikan High School.

Most community colleges would assign students like Yacuta to a remedial class, but he will avoid that fate at Long Beach. The two-year school is trying out a new system this fall that will place students who graduated from the city's high schools in courses based on their grades rather than their scores on the standardized placement tests.

Long Beach is in the forefront of a movement in community colleges nationwide to reassess the use of placement tests for incoming students.

The issue is especially acute in California, where about 85% of students entering a two-year college are assigned to remedial English classes and 73% to remedial math, mostly based on placement tests. Only about one-third of those students go on to earn an associate degree or transfer to a four-year college, according to California's community college system.

Remedial classes — sometimes referred to as developmental or basic education — typically don't offer credit that counts toward graduation. Many students must take multiple levels of remedial courses to catch up. And some research indicates that remedial courses don't adequately prepare students for more advanced courses.

Nationwide, students and states spent about $3 billion on remedial education last year, according to a report by Complete College America, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C.

More:

The Long Beach program, called Promise Pathways, could provide a model. The college, which has a long collaboration with the Long Beach Unified School District, will use high school transcripts and senior English and math grades to determine the appropriate college classes, which students must take in their first semester.

The new approach came after the college found that 60% of students it placed in remedial English classes had earned an A or B in their high school English course. Meanwhile, 35% of students placed in college-level English had received a C or D in high school. And a small number of students who failed English in high school wound up being placed in the college-level class based on the placement test.

Typically, about 170 of the 1,400 incoming freshman coming from Long Beach Unified would be placed in college-level English this fall and about 130 in college-level math.

Under the new system, the college estimates that 800 students will be placed directly in college-level English and 450 in college-level math. Students in the program will also have to enroll in a college success course to help them with time management, note-taking and other study skills.

Officials estimate that the average student will save a semester and a half of remedial coursework. The system is expected to especially benefit black and Latino students, who are disproportionately assigned to remedial classes, said Long Beach City College President Eloy Oakley.

"We're confident in the data we've looked at and confident that students will be placed into the appropriate class," Oakley said.

Yacuta, the Millikan graduate, said he wants to major in business administration and eventually transfer to Cal State Long Beach. He's hoping that going directly into a college-level class will save time and money.

"Being accepted into the program is a real convenience for me because it's going to help me to get out sooner," he said.

FLASHBACK: From the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "Cost of ignorance -- Ill-prepared students a burden for colleges."

Supreme Court Bars Mandatory Life Terms for Juveniles

At the Christian Science Monitor.

In a major decision issued Monday, the US Supreme Court struck down mandatory sentencing schemes requiring juvenile defendants to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Voting 5 to 4, the high court declared that automatically sentencing someone so young to a lifetime behind bars – with no future prospect than to die in prison – is cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.

“The Eighth Amendment forbids a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the majority decision. “A judge or jury must have the opportunity to consider mitigating circumstances before imposing the harshest possible penalty for juveniles,” she said.

While I'm not bothered by this, the ruling's definitely of a piece with the "evolving standards of decency" doctrine that's leading, I think, toward the abolition of capital punishment in the U.S., which I oppose. The article continues:

Kagan said juvenile offenders should not be punished as harshly as adults, because they are generally less culpable than adults for their crimes, and enjoy a higher capacity to change. Studies have shown that judgment and character are not fully formed until an individual reaches his or her 20s.

The high court used that same rationale concerning the development of the brain and emotional maturity to justify two other landmark rulings – declaring the death penalty for juvenile offenders unconstitutional in 2005 and deciding in 2010 that sentencing a juvenile to life without parole for a non-homicide crime violated the Eighth Amendment.

The deciding fifth vote in all three cases was cast by the same justice, Anthony Kennedy.

In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said the Monday decision is not a logical extension of the court’s earlier holdings in 2005 and 2010.

“Those cases undoubtedly stand for the proposition that teenagers are less mature, less responsible, and less fixed in their ways than adults – not that a Supreme Court case was needed to establish that,” he said.

“What they do not stand for, and do not even suggest, is that legislators – who also know that teenagers are different from adults – may not require life without parole for juveniles who commit the worst types of murder,” he said.

And check Lyle Denniston at SCOTUS Blog, "Opinion recap: Narrow ruling on young murderers’ sentences."