Sex Scandal Engulfs Liberal Democrats' Nick Clegg

This is pretty big.

At London's Daily Mail, "Sex scandal engulfs Clegg: At least 10 women claim the Lib Dem's Chief Executive molested them - and the leader's office knew about it."

The Deputy Prime Minister has been dragged into the sex scandal surrounding a top Liberal Democrat accused of molesting women.

Amid mounting claims of a cover-up, it emerged Nick Clegg’s private office was made aware of the claims as long as five years ago.

Aides to the Lib Dem leader refused to say how much he knew about the allegations that former party chief Chris Rennard had groped a string of female activists. But last night, evidence was growing that senior party officials ran an organised campaign to silence the women and shut down an internal investigation.

More at Telegraph UK, "Chris Huhne’s lover Carina Trimingham sold tale of Nick Clegg dalliances," and at the Sun, "Nick Clegg caught up in top Lib Dem sex allegations scandal."

Students Who Refuse to Affirm Transgender Classmates Face Punishment

This is bizarre, from Todd Starnes, at FOX News:

Parents across Massachusetts are upset over new rules that would not only allow transgender students to use their restrooms of their choice – but would also punish students who refuse to affirm or support their transgender classmates.

Last week the Massachusetts Department of Education issued directives for handling transgender students – including allowing them to use the bathrooms of their choice or to play on sports teams that correspond to the gender with which they identify.

The 11-page directive also urged schools to eliminate gender-based clothing and gender-based activities – like having boys and girls line up separately to leave the classroom.

Schools will now be required to accept a student’s gender identity on face value.

You will obey --- or else!

Via Protein Wisdom.

Antiwar Left Protests President Obama's Criminal Drone Escalation in Africa

Just kidding.

With the exception of a few far-left civil libertarians, no one's protesting this administration's criminal foreign policy. Or, it would be criminal if it was President Bush expanding U.S. drone missions to West Africa.

On Twitter:

U.S. sends troops to Niger for drone missions latimes.com/news/nationwor… #Obama #WarCriminal!
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 23, 2013

Here's That Video of Ann Coulter Slamming Libertarians as 'Pussies'

This is very entertaining. And I'll tell you, Ann Coulter pretty much nails it on the idiocy of libertine libertarians (on a host of issues, they're interchangeable with radical leftists).

Via Erika Johnson, at Hot Air, and Memeorandum:

BONUS: At Legal Insurrection, "Coulter on Stossel shows foolishness of Fordham’s cancellation."

'59% Think Most School Textbooks Put Political Correctness Ahead of Accuracy...'

Althouse has the report, from Rasmussen, and she writes:

Anybody putting together a schoolbook has to think about inspiring children and building ideals and character. I'm saying that even though I lean strongly in the direction of straightforward, factual information, and I think that it's a serious moral wrong to use compulsory education to indoctrinate children.

Well, my American government textbook is probably politically incorrect from the radical left's perspective. One of the main selling points is its strong emphasis on American exceptionalism and our founding beliefs in individualism, liberty, and self-government. Students are unfamiliar with these things when they get to my classrooms. They have only a passing acquaintance with what it means to be an American. Whether the problem's families or the schools, we have a lot of work to do in transmitting the democratic beliefs of our founding generation.

Dude Recreates '70's Pan-Am 747 in City of Industry Warehouse

You gotta love this story. I still daydream about the old 747s. As a kid, I was fascinated by the idea of a cocktail lounge in the sky. And now it turns out that a Southland man has recreated the Jumbo Jet '70's experience for guests to "fly" back in time.

At the Long Beach Press Telegram, "California man's lifelike model recreates Pan Am 747 in warehouse":

On an unusually warm December night, more than 25 years after her final flight with Pan American World Airways - 11 hours from Frankfurt to Los Angeles - Anna Gunther once again put on her pantyhose and blue uniform with white trim, so she could serve dinner on the upper deck of a Boeing 747.

But this airplane wasn't going anywhere. It was a model, like a child's playhouse, built by a man who had dreamed of re-creating the plane he loved as a boy.

This was a chance for Anthony Toth to unveil, for the first time, what he had created inside a 3,000-square-foot warehouse in the City of Industry. Here was his opportunity to show why he hired a contractor, spent more than $100,000 and used almost every vacation day he ever earned to reconstruct a major chunk of the interior of a Pan Am 747.
Sure, he had shown off airplane models before. He once even had a smaller replica inside the garage of his Redondo Beach condo. But at home there was no upper deck. And what's a 747, even a replica, without a second level?

There was another problem with his garage. Other than running to the kitchen, Toth had no way to prepare meals for his faux travelers. But the warehouse was different, and that's where Gunther came in.

She had never met Toth, a sales executive at United Airlines based in Los Angeles, but, almost on a lark, she agreed to help him. Toth wanted to pretend as if he were flying some of his co-workers and friends to another continent, and he wanted former Pan Am flight attendants to serve drinks and dinner, just as they might have three or four decades ago.

On the big day, Gunther arrived at 3 p.m., wearing high heels, a bowler hat and a uniform (white blouse, blue they walked into his warehouse and past the ticket counter with the bright blue Pan Am logo. They saw a sign indicating Flight 21 to Tokyo would leave soon. Then they walked onto a short jet bridge, through a real aircraft door and turned left into first class.

On board, they took amenity kits tucked in plastic and filled with goodies like slippers and a damp "refresher towel." They picked up a real set of Pan Am headphones, ones they could plug into a jack on their seats to listen to music or watch the movie projected overhead. They grabbed vintage magazines protected by a Pan Am branded sleeve.

They took their plush seats - the cabin has 18 of them arranged in an alternating blue and red pattern - raised their leg rests and reclined. They looked around. Everything was accurate, from the distance between seats to the overhead bins to the aircraft's shell to the galley Gunther and her three colleagues used to ready drinks. Using his iPad and hidden speakers, Toth had even piped in the humming of jet engines.

It was so true to the real thing, it blurred the line between reality and fiction.

It was as if Pan Am was flying again.

Continue reading.

Washington's Ruling Class Orphans Millions of Voters

Angelo Codevilla updates his theory of America's morally bankrupt politics of the ruling class.

At Forbes, "As Country Club Republicans Link Up With The Democratic Ruling Class, Millions Of Voters Are Orphaned":

On January 1, 2013 one third of Republican congressmen, following their leaders, joined with nearly all Democrats to legislate higher taxes and more subsidies for Democratic constituencies. Two thirds voted no, following the people who had elected them. For generations, the Republican Party had presented itself as the political vehicle for Americans whose opposition to ever-bigger government financed by ever-higher taxes makes them a “country class.”  Yet modern Republican leaders, with the exception of the Reagan Administration, have been partners in the expansion of government, indeed in the growth of a government-based “ruling class.” They have relished that role despite their voters. Thus these leaders gradually solidified their choice to no longer represent what had been their constituency, but to openly adopt the identity of junior partners in that ruling class. By repeatedly passing bills that contradict the identity of Republican voters and of the majority of Republican elected representatives, the Republican leadership has made political orphans of millions of Americans. In short, at the outset of 2013 a substantial portion of America finds itself un-represented, while Republican leaders increasingly represent only themselves.

By the law of supply and demand, millions of Americans, (arguably a majority) cannot remain without representation. Increasingly the top people in government, corporations, and the media collude and demand submission as did the royal courts of old. This marks these political orphans as a “country class.” In 1776 America’s country class responded to lack of representation by uniting under the concept: “all men are created equal.” In our time, its disparate sectors’ common sentiment is more like: “who the hell do they think they are?”

The ever-growing U.S. government has an edgy social, ethical, and political character. It is distasteful to a majority of persons who vote Republican and to independent voters, as well as to perhaps one fifth of those who vote Democrat. The Republican leadership’s kinship with the socio-political class that runs modern government is deep. Country class Americans have but to glance at the Media to hear themselves insulted from on high as greedy, racist, violent, ignorant extremists. Yet far has it been from the Republican leadership to defend them. Whenever possible, the Republican Establishment has chosen candidates for office – especially the Presidency – who have ignored, soft-pedaled or given mere lip service to their voters’ identities and concerns.

Thus public opinion polls confirm that some two thirds of Americans feel that government is “them” not “us,” that government has been taking the country in the wrong direction, and that such sentiments largely parallel partisan identification: While a majority of Democrats feel that officials who bear that label represent them well, only about a fourth of Republican voters and an even smaller proportion of independents trust Republican officials to be on their side. Again: While the ruling class is well represented by the Democratic Party, the country class is not represented politically – by the Republican Party or by any other. Well or badly, its demand for representation will be met.

Representation is the distinguishing feature of democratic government. To be represented, to trust that one’s own identity and interests are secure and advocated in high places, is to be part of the polity. In practice, any democratic government’s claim to the obedience of citizens depends on the extent to which voters feel they are party to the polity. No one doubts that the absence, loss, or perversion of that function divides the polity sharply between rulers and ruled.

Continue reading.

And then check Gateway Pundit, "Rush Limbaugh: “For First Time in My Life, I’m Ashamed of My Country” (Video)."

And the introduction at this video is excellent (although you're on your own after that), from Greta Van Susteren, "Manufactured Mess? - Rush Limbaugh Says Sequester Crisis Is Bogus."

Walter Russell Mead on Joseph Stiglitz and Higher Education Reform

I mentioned Joseph Stiglitz's recent NYT commentary at my essay the other day on fatherhood at the Jordan Downs housing project.

Well it turns out Walter Russell Mead has some additional thoughts, "Blues Missing the Mark on Higher Ed Reform":

Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has a wide-ranging piece in the New York Times addressing the problem of income inequality in America, arguing that the U.S. is actually falling behind the rest of the developing world when it comes to social mobility. The piece touches on many issues, but the most interesting parts to us are his comments about how skyrocketing higher-ed costs are depressing upward mobility for the nation’s poor:

Unless current trends in education are reversed, the situation is likely to get even worse. In some cases it seems as if policy has actually been designed to reduce opportunity: government support for many state schools has been steadily gutted over the last few decades—and especially in the last few years. Meanwhile, students are crushed by giant student loan debts that are almost impossible to discharge, even in bankruptcy. This is happening at the same time that a college education is more important than ever for getting a good job.

Young people from families of modest means face a Catch-22: without a college education, they are condemned to a life of poor prospects; with a college education, they may be condemned to a lifetime of living at the brink. And increasingly even a college degree isn’t enough; one needs either a graduate degree or a series of (often unpaid) internships. Those at the top have the connections and social capital to get those opportunities. Those in the middle and bottom don’t. The point is that no one makes it on his or her own. And those at the top get more help from their families than do those lower down on the ladder. Government should help to level the playing field.

As time goes on, we’re seeing a growing consensus of the left, right and center that something is seriously wrong with our higher education system. But while Stiglitz gets the problem right, his solution, that government should be responsible for “leveling the playing field,” leaves much to be desired.

Continue reading.

Recall though that while Mead focuses on other problems at issue besides funding, I'm concerned about improvements in higher education that begin at the level of the family. Our problems are largely cultural. Sure, the state-led bureaucratization of education is enormously wasteful and ineffective, but that doesn't mean that even with moderate reforms it can't be made to lift and improve the lives of more people. Until we work on restoring a culture of learning in society, along with strengthening the centrality of traditional families in the economy, we'll continue to flail away on college success and higher education reform.

BONUS: My good friend Norm has some additional comments on Stiglitz, at the link.

Geert Wilders' Right to Speak

Dutch parliamentary leader Geert Wilders is speaking in Australia this week. Here's the editorial on the controversy, at the Australian, "Geert Wilders's right to speak":

FOR a liberal democracy that thrives on liberty, plurality and vigorous political discourse, the visit by controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders to these shores presents an opportunity to reaffirm these fundamental principles. When Mr Wilders was granted a visa last year, then immigration minister Chris Bowen rightly argued that Australian multiculturalism, our political system and our commitment to freedom of speech were strong enough to survive a visit by the Dutch MP.

Mr Wilders's views on the impact of large-scale Islamic immigration in Europe and the challenge that it presents to established cultures and the obligations of citizenship in Western countries are part of an important debate that Australians should be aware of.

Mr Wilders is the founder and leader of The Netherlands Party for Freedom. His political mission is to halt what he says is the "Islamisation" of his country. He argues that Islamism is a totalitarian political ideology enforced by violence and rigid adherence to it, quite different from the faith of Islam. In his article in The Australian earlier this week, Mr Wilders outlined his views that many will find challenging, but they were respectfully put and hardly deserve the vilification he has received from extremists. Mr Wilders's visit provides Australians with a window into a sociopolitico challenge in the northern hemisphere. How Islam can be absorbed into Western democracies, given the cultural differences between the two, is being debated and discussed in journals such as the centre-left magazine Prospect, where a recent contributor argued: "Islam's accommodation with the liberal-democratic societies of Europe and North America is one of the most urgent questions of our times."

Mr Wilders is welcome here, provided that he abides by the law, as all visitors must. Our laws include prohibiting racial vilification and inciting violence, but there is no suggestion he has come close to violating them. So far, it is his opponents who have displayed the illiberalism they accuse him of. A core duty of citizens in a free society is to welcome debate on contentious subjects. A mature country that is comfortable with its own laws, cultures and traditions would defend the right to express views that some of its citizens may not agree with. Last year, British preacher Taji Mustafa addressed a gathering in Sydney and argued for Islam to be spread throughout Australia, not as a religion but as a system of government. These views are repugnant to most Australians, yet they were allowed to be expressed. Moreover, a group of Muslims marched through the streets of Sydney last year under the black flag of jihad - also the flag of al-Qa'ida - spreading a message of religious hatred. Muslim leaders quickly denounced the vile protests.

While we do not face the same challenges that exist in Europe, flashes of Islamic extremism surface from time to time. The lesson is that our non-discriminatory immigration policy and the continuation of our largely harmonious multi-ethnic society - one of the most diverse in the world - depends on a tolerance for this diversity and a commitment to Australian values. Citizenship is not only about rights; it is also about civic responsibility, whether the citizens are Muslim, Christian or neither. Not everyone will agree with Mr Wilders's views, but we should all defend his right to express them.

More at Tundra Tabloids, "GEERT WILDERS SPEAKS IN AUSTRALIA, PEOPLE LISTEN…"

Also at Bare Naked Islam, "GEERT WILDERS IN AUSTRALIA," and Bill Muehlenberg's, "Why Geert Wilders is Right."

And at PA Pundits International, "Geert Wilders In Australia – If You Need This Much Security For Criticising Islam ..."

PHOTO: "Faith, Freedom, and Memory: Report From Ground Zero, September 11, 2010."

Milton Friedman on C-Span's 'Book Notes' in 1994

I hadn't planned to watch the whole thing --- and this interview's an hour long --- but I got sucked in after just a couple of minutes listening to Dr. Friedman. The other day, when I was renewing my kid's colonial history books at the library, I bought a paperback copy of Friedman's "Free to Choose" for 25 cents at the library's bookstore. I'm just getting into the book, but I've been watching videos online and came across this one. Friedman's lamentations about the creeping socialization of democratic societies --- a trend seemingly inexplicable in 1994, since "everybody agrees that socialism has been a failure" --- are particularly relevant in the age of Obama.

Watch this video in full. If you don't have time, bookmark it for later. It's amazing.

And buy the book, Free to Choose: A Personal Statement.

President Armageddon

A great editorial on the sequester, at WSJ, "The Washington Monument ploy and other Obama gambits":

Americans need to understand that Mr. Obama is threatening that if he doesn't get what he wants, he's ready to inflict maximum pain on everybody else. He won't force government agencies to shave spending on travel and conferences and excessive pay and staffing. He won't demand that agencies cut the lowest priority spending as any half-competent middle manager would.

It's the old ploy to stir public support for all government spending by shutting down vital services first. Voters should scoff at the idea that a $3.6 trillion government can't save one nickel of every dollar that agencies spend. The $85 billion in savings is a mere 2.3% of total spending. The agencies that the White House says can't save 5% received an average increase in their budgets of 17% in the previous five years—not counting their $276 billion stimulus bonus.

Continue reading.

BONUS: Speaker Boehner's op-ed at the paper, "The President Is Raging Against a Budget Crisis He Created" (via Memeorandum).

Bill Schmalfeldt is Disgusting

The Other McCain's continuing coverage of Bill Schmalfeldt, which is really just the residuals of the freedom to blog battles of last year, which generated a lot of attention nationwide at the time of the swattings, is endlessly fascinating. This is so especially since while Schmalfeldt is truly bizarre, he's not that bizarre in the context of the left-wing ideology that is the foundation of his evil. He's really quite representative of the depravity of progressivism.

See, "Dishonest Bill Schmalfeldt Got Banned from Daily Kos for Anal Rape 'Satire'."

Read it all at the link, but worth adding here is the link to Lee Stranahan's post, "Bill Schmalfeldt: Too Disgusting For Daily Kos":

R.S. McCain has been putting the career of Bill Schmalfeldt into proper perspective over at The Other McCain and it felt it was time to highlight another aspect of Schmalfeldt’s work and personality.

Bill Schmalfeldt is disgusting.

That sounds like a petty insult. It’s not. In the case of Mr. Schmalfeldt, it’s true and very specific.  He is intentionally sickeningly repulsive and his writings show a sexual obsession that is profoundly disturbing.

I’m not a prude. I’m not easily offended. This isn’t even a liberal / conservative thing. Bill Schmalfeldt actually managed to offend the readers at the Daily Kos so much that he was essentially run off the website back in May of this year in an article entitled The REAL Conservative Case Against Gay Marriage.

Here’s just one paragraph from that article. Welcome to the mind of Bill Schmalfeldt...

Keep reading both of those posts at the links.

Schmalfeldt's Photoshops are too disgusting to post here, and that's a lot, since I post just about anything.

3 Reasons to Build the Keystone XL Pipeline

From Reason TV:

RELATED: At PuffHo, "Obama Golfed With Oil Men as Climate Protesters Descended on White House."

Funny that.

Majority Says Illegal Immigrants Should Be Deported

Well, I can't see how the administration would get much GOP support, in any case. But we're not in a normal political cycle. Texas Gov. Rick Scott caved on the ObamaCare exchanges today, so who know's who many Republicans will cave on amnesty?

At Reuters, "Majority of U.S. citizens say illegal immigrants should be deported" (via Memeorandum):

(Reuters) - More than half of U.S. citizens believe that most or all of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants should be deported, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday that highlights the difficulties facing lawmakers trying to reform the U.S. immigration system.

The online survey shows resistance to easing immigration laws despite the biggest push for reform in Congress since 2007.

Thirty percent of those polled think that most illegal immigrants, with some exceptions, should be deported, while 23 percent believe all illegal immigrants should be deported.

Only 5 percent believe all illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the United States legally, and 31 percent want most illegal immigrants to stay.

These results are in line with other polls in recent years, suggesting that people's views on immigration have not changed dramatically since the immigration debate reignited in Congress last month, according to Ipsos pollster Julia Clark.

More at the link.

$50 Million in Diamonds Stolen in Brash Heist at Brussels Airport

Someone on Twitter yesterday snarked that this had to be an inside job.

And amazingly, it's the front-page story at this morning's Wall Street Journal, "Gunmen Waylay Jet, Swipe Diamond Trove":

BRUSSELS—As 29 passengers sat aboard a Zurich-bound flight here Monday evening waiting for the last bags to be loaded, gunmen wearing police uniforms raced up to the plane and stole more than 120 packages of diamonds worth at least $50 million, and possibly much more.

Some of the eight masked robbers stood in front of the Helvetic Airways jet plane with machine guns, pointing laser sights at the pilots, while others forced ground workers to open the plane's cargo doors, according to Belgian prosecutors and other people familiar with the events.

The thieves snatched the parcels of jewels and sped off in minutes without firing a shot, said Belgian prosecutor Ine Van Wymersch. Many travelers on the plane and inside the terminal didn't know what was happening. "It was well-prepared and very professional," she said.

The theft rattled Antwerp, a world hub for trading in gems and precious metals. Nearly all of those valuables pass through Brussels Airport.

The thieves appeared to have detailed information about both the cargo and operations at the airport, and likely had help from people at the airport, according to an aviation-security specialist knowledgeable about the incident. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, international law-enforcement officials have been concerned about security threats posed by people working inside airports and other sensitive facilities.

he brazen heist is Europe's highest-value airport-tarmac holdup in a decade, aviation-security exports said. Authorities on Tuesday didn't detail exactly what was stolen, so estimates of the value of the goods varied. The declared value of the stolen diamonds, a mix of rough and polished stones, was about $50 million, according to a spokeswoman for the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, a coordinator for local diamond traders. The aviation-security specialist knowledgeable about what happened said the jewels could be worth up to $350 million.

Ms. Van Wymersch, the prosecutor, declined to place a value on the stolen gems.

That is rad.

Front-Page Los Angeles Times Coverage of Orange County's Ali Syed Murders

Just tweeted:

Cover at today's @latimes. twitter.com/AmPowerBlog/st…
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 20, 2013

And at the paper, "O.C. shootings leave four dead, many questions."

Check the search results for more, at the link.

Soledad O'Brien Out at CNN!

Robert Stacy McCain reports, "Ratings-Killer @Soledad_OBrien Fired by Obscure Third-Place Cable News Network."

And oooohhh, Jezebel is so sad, "Oh Crap: Soledad O’Brien Is Rumored to Be Pushed Out at CNN." No, Soledad isn't "whip-smart." She's an unprincipled hack Obama lap-dog journalist who turned CNN's morning programming into a black urban ghetto. Zucker ain't stupid and he certainly ain't politically correct. Now let's just wait for the left's attacks on the network for RAAAAACISM! Or, well, crickets!

PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons.

Murders, Carjackings Leave Four Dead in Orange County

Honestly, there are indeed some people who should not have access to guns.

I was on the road a little after 6:00am yesterday morning, and when I got to the college I saw the news on Twitter.

Sad.

And strange that this kind of thing happens nearby right as you go along your morning business.

A video report at KABC 7 Los Angeles, "Orange County shooting spree: Suspect kills 3, commits suicide; motive sought."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "O.C. shootings: College student attacked randomly, police say," and "O.C. shootings: Ladera Ranch neighbor heard a 'bunch of ruckus'."

More at the O.C. Register, "Slaying shocks, saddens Ladera Ranch community."

China's PLA Unit 61398 Behind Hacking Attacks in U.S.

An extremely fascinating story at yesterday's New York Times, "China's Army Is Seen as Tied to Hacking Against U.S."

It's a detailed report. Read it all at that link.

Why the Hell Should Anyone Vote For the Republican Party?

Yeah, why the hell?

From John Hawkins, at RWN.

John nails this part: Where are the Republicans on law and order?

Law and order? Americans in bad neighborhoods who are suffering terribly because of gangs and drugs are apparently of no interest whatsoever to any Republicans in charge of anything judging by the amount of time they spend discussing this issue — which is close to zero. Additionally, the biggest law and order issue on the table today is illegal immigration, where the Republican Party is working hand and glove with the Democrats to reward 11 million people who are here illegally with amnesty.

Continue reading at the link.