Gay Marriage, Child-Rearing, Rights and Government

From the letters to the editor, at the Wall Street Journal:

Regarding Prop 8 and DOMA:

There is nothing in the Constitution requiring any level of government to treat homosexuality on an equal footing with heterosexuality. Also, there is nothing that requires the federal government to recognize any class of marriage supported by the states—just look at polygamy and Utah history, for example.

Prop 8 itself was passed to address a blatant case of judicial activism in which California courts struck down a constitutional law passed by the people of California. The attempt to overturn it is more of the same.

The question is, do we live in a democracy, or do we live in a state where the will of the people can be reversed if a sufficient number of elites decide to do so?

Richard Sol
Los Angeles

If the people of California may not arbitrarily define marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman, then why may they arbitrarily define it as a relationship between two, and only two, people?

If I want to have several marriage partners at the same time, and if I want them all to have equal access to spousal benefits from my employer, how might we fashion a constitutional challenge to California's bigamy law?

Morgan Foster
Indianapolis

PREVIOUSLY: "Leftists Could Push Polygamy After Same-Sex Marriage."

Here's Some Jodie Gasson Rule 5 via Twitter

Camp of the Saints posted some Jodie Gasson Rule 5 last weekend, and here she is on Twitter:

Look at jodiegasson.com/tour over the weekend for updates etc! twitter.com/Jodie_Gasson/s…
— Jodie Holly Gasson (@Jodie_Gasson) March 30, 2013

More on Twitter.

The Horrifying Chart I Recommend You Forward to Every Democrat Voter You Know

At Director Blue:

Obamacare really doesn't even fully kick in until January 1st 2014. Combined with "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" and untold new EPA regulations headed at energy companies, this administration appears bound and determined to crush entrepreneurship in the U.S.

Gird your loins.

Click through for the chart.

'Rainbow Journalism'

From Kevin Banet, at the Western Center for Journalism, "'Rainbow Journalism' Is The New Enemy of Children":

If you’re young, trendy and hip, and are strolling through downtown Minneapolis, you might grasp a copy of City Pages from the newstand. Its stories, appealing graphics, attractive restaurant ads and reviews of the local night club scene would seem to set you up for an upbeat weekend.

But look a little further, and you’ll uncover a fanatically-driven editorial policy that promotes sleeze and liberal causes. For example, “Savage Love” is a weekly sex advice column by the notorious sex activist Dan Savage. His recent advice includes using online resources to find a worker in the sex industry for a reader’s 22-year old mentally-ill brother. Ugh. The column is filled with trashy advice and crude language.

City Pages is part of a chain of 16 “alternative” free weekly papers around the country with a hefty combined circulation of 1.8 million. You wonder, an alternative to what? It’s an alternative to what is wholesome and true; City Pages promotes strip clubs, homosexuality, and condemns any moral message of Christianity. It scorns patriotism as well. One front-page display contained a mock-up photo of the Statue of Liberty with the words, “One nation under tacos.”

More at that top link, and see also, Accuracy in Media, "Gay Propaganda Campaign Takes Offensive Turn."

PREVIOUSLY: "Why Homosexuality Should Nauseate You."

'The Will of Allah' — Man Fatally Shot at Ohio Church After Easter Service

At 19 Action News, Cleveland, Ohio, "Shooter says "This is the will of Allah" after shooting":

ASHTABULA, OH (WOIO) -

Ashtabula Police have identified the suspect and victim from Sunday's church shooting at the Hiawatha Church of God and Christ in Ashtabula.

The incident happened around 1:15 p.m. outside the church.

According to police, Reshad Riddle waited for his father, Richard Riddle to exit the church after services were over Sunday before shooting him in the head.

Richard Riddle's mother witnessed the shooting although most of the congregation was still inside the church.

The church was packed because of the Easter holiday.

The pastor told 19 Action News that after the shooting, Reshad then went into the church and sat down.  An assistant pastor at the church quotes Reshad as saying, "The will of Allah, this is the will of God."

The news station has changed the headline at the piece, obviously worried about a backlash from the likes of  unindicted CAIR.

More at Atlas Shrugs, "#MYJIHAD IN OHIO: MUSLIM SCREAMED "THE WILL OF ALLAH. THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD" DURING CHURCH KILLING ON EASTER SUNDAY."

Freakin' progs.

Muslims and progs --- a genocidal combination.

'Folks, This is Classic, Classic Anti-Semitism' — Hanan Ashrawi's Passover Blood Libel

I saw this story days ago at Israel Matzav:

Folks, this is classic, classic anti-Semitism. Anyone who thinks these people are suddenly going to live in peace with Israelis when this is how they think is simply fooling himself.

The links take us to Elder of Ziyon, "Passover blood libel in Hanan Ashrawi's "Miftah" website."

And Elder of Ziyon has a thread at Memeorandum, "Miftah attacks me, refuses to condemn its blood libel":

Miftah has responded to my exposé of their anti-semitic article last week:

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, MIFTAH strongly denounces the smear campaign being carried out against it and, by association, its founder Dr. Hanan Ashrawi. The obscure pro-Israeli website “The Elder of Ziyon” has wrongly accused MIFTAH and Dr. Ashrawi of promoting Jewish blood libel during Passover through its publication of an Arabic-language article that briefly addressed the subject.

The disclaimer at the opening of the “News and Analysis” section clearly states that, “The views represented in [News and Analysis] are solely those of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of MIFTAH, but rather fulfill its mandate for open dialogue.” For the record, to avoid further misunderstanding, Al Zaru’s article has been taken down from MIFTAH’s website.

MIFTAH has and always will promote the principles of democracy and a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Articles published in its name on both its Arabic and English websites are proof of this philosophy. Neither MIFTAH nor Dr. Ashrawi has ever been associated with anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic campaigns due to their philosophy of promoting accurate and credible information...

Keep reading.

Elder writes:

Fully half of the article talks about the blood libel. It didn't "briefly address the subject," as Miftah's ridiculous attack on me suggests - it was the linchpin of the entire article, asking how President Obama could possibly support Israel and have a Passover Seder at the White House in light of the "fact' that Jews drink Christian blood on Passover. In no way was it only "briefly mentioned." In no possible way was this an oversight

And here's more, "Why can't Hanan Ashrawi's Miftah apologize for publishing antisemitism?":

Any Western newspaper, organization or major website would have not only fallen over themselves to distance themselves from the Jew-hatred exhibited in Miftah, but they would have fired the writer and the editor on the spot.

Why didn't Miftah?

The only possible explanation is that Miftah does not truly consider this article to be offensive. They think that those pesky Jews are making a big deal out of nothing. They believe that Jews are bloodthirsty anyway (at least the Zionist variety) and to Miftah it is not a great leap to say that Jews must have been that way forever. The site has literally hundreds of articles accusing Israeli Jews of "ethnic cleansing" of Arabs, to give only a tiny example of lies that Miftah accepts and promotes as fact. A previous Miftah article states that "there are documented reports from Haiti that organs are being stolen by Israelis without international justice intervening to put an end to such criminal practices against innocent vulnerable people." When the editors of Miftah believe such things already, how much of a stretch is it to believe that Jews ritually murder non-Jews to drink their blood?

Miftah's response was that "its work speaks for itself." I hope every funder of Miftah takes that statement very, very seriously when deciding whether to continue to send money to an organization that is utterly unrepentant about publishing pure hate.

And if Miftah belatedly issues a vague statement condemning antisemitism (probably together with one condemning Israel), we now know that it is only doing it to protect its funding and not because it actually considers antisemitism to be abhorrent.

That train has already left the station.

MIFTAH has now issued an apology, blaming the publication of blood libel on "a junior staff member":

Date posted: 01/04/2013

By: MIFTAH

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, MIFTAH would like to apologize for the recent and brief publication on our website of an article penned by Nawaf Al Zaru that discusses Jewish blood libel during Passover.

It has become clear to us after investigating this incident that the article was accidentally and incorrectly published by a junior staff member. The said staffer has been reprimanded and all our staff has been informed as to the disgusting and repulsive phenomena of blood libel or accusation, including its use against Jews. Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, as founder, has nothing to do with the day to day management at MIFTAH and was no way involved in this incident.

We express our sincerest regret for offense caused by the oversight that resulted in said publication. We are whole-heartedly committed to fighting racism, hatemongering, discrimination and persecution of any kind wherever it should exist, and especially in our own society.

More at Washington Free Beacon, "This Blood Libel Brought to You by the West" (at Memeorandum).

Oops! Small Firms Limited to Single Health Plan Under ObamaCare

Yes, because the law was supposed to increase competition and lower premiums, or something.

#DemocratEconomics. #Fail.

At the New York Times, "Choice of Plans Under Health Law Delayed for Small Firms" (at Memeorandum):

WASHINGTON — Unable to meet tight deadlines in the new health care law, the Obama administration is delaying parts of a program intended to provide affordable health insurance to small businesses and their employees — a major selling point for the health care legislation.

The law calls for a new insurance marketplace specifically for small businesses, starting next year. But in most states, employers will not be able to get what Congress intended: the option to provide workers with a choice of health plans. They will instead be limited to a single plan.

This choice option, already available to many big businesses, was supposed to become available to small employers in January. But administration officials said they would delay it to 2015 in the 33 states where the federal government will be running insurance markets known as exchanges. And they will delay the requirement for other states as well.

The promise of affordable health insurance for small businesses was portrayed as a major advantage of the new health care law, mentioned often by White House officials and Democratic leaders in Congress as they fought opponents of the legislation.

Supporters of the health care law said they were disappointed by the turn of events.

The delay will “prolong and exacerbate health care costs that are crippling 29 million small businesses,” said Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana and chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

In the weeks leading up to the passage of the health care legislation in 2010, Ms. Landrieu provided crucial support for the measure, after securing changes to help small businesses.

The administration cited “operational challenges” as a reason for the delay. As a result, it said, most small employers buying insurance through an exchange will offer just a single health plan to their workers next year.

Health insurance availability and cost are huge concerns for small businesses. They have less bargaining power than large companies and generally pay higher prices for insurance, if they can afford it at all.

Right.

"Operational challenges," like that lawsuit heading to the Supreme Court seeking to strike down the mandate tax as unconstitutional under the Origination Clause, Article I, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution? Uh, yeah, that might be a challenge alright.

Thanks progs!

Freakin' Democrat idiots.

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, UC Santa Cruz Hebrew Lecturer, Under Attack for Pointing Out Muslim Student Association's Ties to Hamas and Hezbollah

What's especially interesting about this is Professor Rossman-Benjamin spoke about MSA's terrorist ties at a private, (way) off campus talk at the Temple Ahavath Torah in Massachusetts, in June 2012.

BCF reports, "Prof Under Fire For Pointing Out Terror Links Of Muslim Student Association":

"Benjamin is shown describing students from the Muslim Students Association and Students for Justice in Palestine as often being foreign students arriving at American universities from Muslim countries where they are "fed on a diet of anti-Semitism."

She accuses these student groups of having strong ties to terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood, and adds that they take part in international campaigns to demonize and illegitimize Israel.

"The MSA and SJP students have forcefully promoted their message on campus and in most cases there has been little resistance. As a result of the sheer quantity of MSA and SJP materials, an advanced anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian discourse has really dominated the campus square for over a decade, negatively affecting perceptions of literally hundreds of thousands of California University students," Rossman-Benjamin said."

The video is here.

Well, it's true, of course.

According to JPost:

"The MSA and SJP students have forcefully promoted their message on campus and in most cases there has been little resistance. As a result of the sheer quantity of MSA and SJP materials, an advanced anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian discourse has really dominated the campus square for over a decade, negatively affecting perceptions of literally hundreds of thousands of California University students," Rossman-Benjamin said.

Rossman-Benjamin co-founded the Amcha Initiative, an organization that aims to protect the "safety and well-being of Jewish college and university students" and to fight against anti-Jewish and anti-Israel discourse and behavior in classrooms and university-sponsored events.

An online petition by the Committee for Justice in Palestine at UCSC urges UCSC President Mark Yudof to condemn Rossman-Benjamin's "racist and defamatory claims."

In the petition, the group accuses the UCSC President's office of facilitating and promoting such remarks, saying that in an e-mail sent out to university students, Yudof adopted a "false narrative" presented to him in a letter written by Rossman-Benjamin, where she also makes claims tying the two student groups to Hamas and Hezbollah.

"The University of California and the Office of the President must take a clear stand against hate speech directed at marginalized communities, and distance itself from extremists like Tammi Benjamin and the Amcha Initiative that work to smear and silence student human rights campaigners," the group writes.

Right.

Because truth is "hate speech."

Freakin' terrorists.

The Great Destroyer — Obama Urkel!

At the Looking Spoon, "Obama Did Do This, No One Else Made It Happen."

And see David Limbaugh, "Obama Is 'The Great Destroyer'."

The book is here: The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama's War on the Republic.

Yeah, and Progressives Support Muslims, Who Are Racist, Sexist, Homophobic, Gun-Toting Religious Fanatics...

Because the progs are all about tolerance for the downtrodden, or something.

At Theo Spark:

Obama Shoots 2 for 22 at Easter Basketball Game

And CBS News yanked the video from YouTube? Obama-compliant much?

At iOWNTHEWORLD, "CBS Demands That YouTube Take Down a Video of Obama Looking Like a Jerk on the Basketball Court."

'This Is Islamic Apartheid'

At Atlas Shrugs, "NEW AFDI #ISLAMICAPARTHEID AD: “ON SATURDAY WE KILL THE JEWS, AND ON SUNDAY WE KILL THE CHRISTIANS”.'

Brilliant: Criminal Trying to Escape Runs Through Plate Glass in Australia

The guy's no doubt a progressive.

At Telegraph UK, "Australian bag thief runs through glass door during escape":

CCTV footage shows a bag thief in Perth running through a glass door as he attempts to escape a shopping centre.

No Fooling: Britain's Welfare Cuts Kick-In Today

Not an April Fool's joke.

At the Guardian UK, "The day Britain changes: welfare reforms and coalition cuts take effect."

A new world heaves into view this week with sweeping changes in the fields of welfare, justice, health and tax.

And the British progs are going batsh*t over the changes. Bunch of damned dependency freaks.

See Fraser Nelson, "Why are the left so angry about today’s welfare reform? Because it’s popular – and right." Also, from Ed West, "Opponents of welfare reform might win if they weren't so blinded by political correctness."

Leftists Could Push Polygamy After Same-Sex Marriage

Because once you abandon the one man, one woman standard, there is no bright line saying when to stop redefining marriage.

See William Jacobson, "“Polygamy would have to be permitted”":

Also, “it’s just bad faith to forbid the brother and sister on these putative health grounds”

The words in the title and subtitle were spoken by one of the leading thinkers and advocates in favor of gay marriage, University of Chicago Professor Martha Nussbaum, in a speech she gave at Cornell Law School in 2009 (video and discussion below).

I was reminded of those words after Dr. Benjamin Carson created a stir when, during a television interview...

More at the link.

And see John Nolte, "No Media Outrage After Sotomayor ‘Compares’ Homosexuality to Incest."

PREVIOUSLY: "Progressives Smear Dr. Benjamin Carson on Polygamy Comments Even Though Justice Sotomayor Raised Exact Same Concerns."

PLUS: "Anti-Marriage Extremist Walter James Casper III and the Unitarian Push for Polyamorous Sexual Licentiousness."

Justin Bieber Guitarist Dan Kantner Visits Auschwitz

At the Times of Israel, "'Believe' - Bieber’s guitarist tours Auschwitz."

The video's here.

That would be emotional.

Robert Stacy McCain Reports From South Carolina District 1 #SC01

See: "Bostic Campaign ‘Surging’ Before Runoff?"

Also, "Will Folks: ‘My Sacred Honor Requires Me to Endorse DCCC Fundraising Poster Boy’," and "#SC01 UPDATE: Mark Sanford Cites His Vote for DOMA in Local TV Roundtable."

Check back at McCain's for updates.

British Bikini Babe Kelly Brook: 'Helen Mirren is My Role Model...'

Some evening Rule 5.

First, an interview with the big-breasted hottie, "Helen Mirren is my role model - but not because of her acting: Kelly Brook on why she admires the Oscar-winning Dame in a bikini."

More from Bob Belvedere, "Rule 5: Kelly Brook."  Also, "Rule 5 Saturday: Jodie Gasson."

And then check over at Daley Gator, "Rule 5 Sunday."

More at the Smoking Jacket: "Lyla Ashby."

Still more at Proof Positive, "Lauren Cohan."

Also at Reaganite, "Treat Yer Peepers to 'Miss Uruguay 2012' Camila Vezzoso."

FLASHBACK: "CSPT and Rule 5 Blogging: Helen Mirren."

How to Fight the Left-Wing Hate Machine

From Conn Carroll, at the Washington Examiner:

Judging from the oral arguments in the two gay marriage cases before the Supreme Court this week, it appears the federal Defense of Marriage Act will be ruled unconstitutional on federalism grounds, and that the court will punt on California's same-sex marriage law, effectively allowing every state to define marriage as it wishes.

That is not good enough for the progressive movement. Progressives want marriage to be redefined in every state to include same-sex relationships. And they will not stop there, either. As the court was listening to oral arguments Wednesday, progressive blogger and former Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee member Chris Bowers wrote, "The step after victory in legal LGBT rights will be social ostricization of those who oppose it."

Don't think for a second that Bowers' desire to punish those who disagree with the progressive agenda is an isolated case. The Center for American Progress, or CAP, the nonprofit organization founded by President Clinton's Chief of Staff John Podesta, has also labeled anyone and everyone who opposed redefining marriage as a bigot.
Of course, the progressive stance against bigotry has nothing to do with principles and everything to do with politics. After all, less than a year ago, President Obama opposed redefining marriage. Neither CAP, nor Bowers nor any other major progressive entity was devoting resources to calling Obama a bigot. It was an election year, for Pete's sake.

CAP is not content with name-calling, either. The group has led progressive efforts to ostracize anyone who disagrees with it....

Continue reading.

Carroll cites the recent news of Chick-fil-A providing free food vouchers to homosexuals as a model, although I doubt that's going to be enough to fight the leftist hate, as I inferred with my earlier entry: "If You're Traditional, You'll Be Attacked as 'Bigoted' No Matter What."

It remains to be seen what happens. We may be in for a sustained period of reduced political liberty for opponents of SSM. But the tide could turn as public opinion shifted on abortion, so people of decency, integrity and faith ought never waiver from their core principles. Truth will win out in the end.

Alex Rodriguez Contract Hangs Over the Yankees

A big front-page story at today's New York Times, "Hitched to an Aging Star: Anatomy of a Deal, and Doubts":

Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera was convinced that Alex Rodriguez had made a colossal blunder.

Rodriguez, the Yankees’ standout third baseman, had created a public uproar and infuriated team officials by opting out of his contract, the richest in the history of baseball at the time, seemingly to pursue options with other teams.

“I told him he had to take responsibility and make it right,” Rivera said last week at spring training, recalling how he admonished his teammate in the fall of 2007 and urged him to reconcile with the Yankees. “He had to call them.”

Rivera’s stern telephone call set in motion a negotiation that led to a contract that stands as the largest ever in American sports: $275 million over 10 years. It involved the rapper Jay-Z urging his friend Rodriguez to stay in New York, Goldman Sachs executives stepping in as intermediaries to smooth the negotiations and Rodriguez flying to Tampa, Fla., to ask the Steinbrenners for forgiveness, according to interviews with nearly a dozen people with direct knowledge of Rodriguez’s negotiations.

Within two years, he helped to deliver the team’s 27th World Series title.

But now, five years into the contract, that financial commitment hangs ominously over opening day, threatening to impose itself on virtually every decision the Yankees make and severely hampering management’s ability to cope with the shortcomings of an aging roster.

As the Yankees prepare to open the 2013 season Monday — without the injured Rodriguez — the team still owes him $114 million through the end of 2017, when he will be 42.

“At the time, there was an expectation that A-Rod would be breaking all the home run records by the end of the contract, and that is exciting for the fans,” said Andrew Zimbalist, an economist at Smith College and an expert in sports business. “But now it’s eating up an enormous amount of payroll, and it has clearly become an albatross for the Yankees.”

And I'm reminded of this story from the post-season last year, "Benching of Rodriguez Prompts Questions About His Future."

An albatross alright. Bummer for the dude.

Alison Howard: Young People Know That Mom and Dad is 'Best Model for Marriage...'

Whoa!

This young lady's escaped the progressive plantation!

Also at the Catholic News Agency, "Speakers at marriage rally highlight needs of children, families."

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Easter Epistle

From David Oppenheimer, at LAT, "King's Easter epistle on civil disobedience":

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s decision to violate an injunction forbidding him to pray, sing or march in public in Birmingham, Ala. On Good Friday 1963 (which fell on April 12 that year), King led a march from the 16th Street Baptist Church (where four black children would be killed in a bombing five months later), heading toward City Hall. He was almost immediately arrested, charged with violating a court order and taken to the Birmingham jail.

As he sat in jail on Easter Sunday and the days that followed, he wrote his "Letter From Birmingham Jail" to a group of moderate white clergymen who had issued a "call to unity" to civil rights activists, urging them to pursue legal remedies rather than engage in nonviolent protests. Anyone who hasn't read King's response lately (and most of us who have) would benefit from spending a few minutes reading it this Easter weekend.

King had journeyed to Birmingham to help lead an economic boycott of segregated stores, where blacks could shop but not work or eat. As he put it, "I am in Birmingham because injustice is here," and "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

The campaign used marches, lunch counter sit-ins, pray-ins at white churches and picketing to fill the jails with nonviolent protesters. But by Holy Thursday, the campaign was faltering, with too few volunteers available to subject themselves to arrest. When on the eve of a planned Good Friday march a local court granted the city attorney's secret request for an injunction, the consequences of demonstrating soared. Protesters would be subject to long sentences for contempt of court.

On Good Friday morning, King had to decide whether to postpone the demonstration. He was expected to preside over Easter Sunday services in his own church, Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta. His lawyer warned him that if he marched, he would probably still be in jail Sunday. His father and some of his aides urged him to comply with the order and go home. "I don't know where the money [for bail] will come from," he explained to them, "but I have to make a faith act." Andrew Young later described the moment as the "beginning of [King's] true leadership."

Continue reading.

Oppenheimer makes not one mention of homosexual marriage, ostensibly the biggest civil rights issue of the day. Actually, equal opportunity for black Americans still remains America's challenge, particularly in terms of the educational system (where inner city public schools are failing our youth). And Thursday will be the 45 anniversary of Dr. King's assassination. That'd be nice if the depraved homosexuals refrained from exploiting Dr. King's memory. And be sure to read King's "Letter From Birmingham Jail."

Easter Sunday Roundup

How about something more lovely?

At Maggie's Farm, "Saturday morning links," and "Dead wood, Blue Model Churches, and celebrating a Living Easter amongst family, good old and new friends, and good food."

And at Director Blue, "Larwyn's Linx: When Men Forsake God, Tyranny Always Follows."

Also at iOWNTHEWORLD, "Happy “Spring Spheres” Hunting!" And EBL, "National Clams on the Half Shell Day."

Plus, from Blazing Cat Fur, "Must Be Easter... The Star Publishes Muslim Brotherhood Rant Against Christians, Conservative Government."

More from WyBlog, "To celebrate Good Friday the Star-Ledger editorializes religion equals bigotry."

Victory Girls, "Happy Easter from the Victory Girls!"

Still more at The Other McCain, "Obama Hasn’t ‘Evolved’ That Far … Yet." And MAinfo, "Homeland Security Demands Blind Obedience From Agents."

At Neo-Neocon, "Celebrate freedom: Passover and beyond."

And Chicks on the Right, "Here's How Google Is Recognizing Easter." And Darleen at Protein, "Compare & contrast."

At Pirate's Cove, "If All You See……is a forest dying and a river drying up because Someone Else drove a fossil fueled vehicle, you might just be a Warmist."

Also at AWD, "WASHINGTON POST: THOSE EVIL WHITE MEN ARE THE REAL PROBLEM!"

And Pat Dollard, "CRY-BABY CAN DISH IT OUT BUT CAN’T TAKE IT: JIM CARREY CONSIDERS SUING ‘BULLIES’ AT ‘FUX NEWS’ FOR ‘VICIOUSLY SLANDERING’ HIM."

More roundups and Rule 5 blogging later. Forward your blog posts and I'll get you linked up!

PHOTO CREDIT: Theo Spark, "Bedtime Totty..." Also, "Sunday Totty..."

If You're Traditional, You'll Be Attacked as 'Bigoted' No Matter What

I long ago stopped trying to be cordial with progressives online. It doesn't matter what you do or say, progressives will always adopt the fall back position that you are a bigot. Let them whine all they want. The fact is it's the left that's the disgustingly bigoted and racist, which is made even worse by the progressive hypocrisy.

Here's an interesting post at the communist Crooked Timber, from idiot John Holbo, "Another Pro Same-Sex Marriage Argument."

Defenders of ‘traditional marriage’ insist 1) that their position is, well … traditional; wisdom of the Judeo-Christian tradition, the history of Western Civilization, etc. etc.; 2) they are not bigots. They are tolerant of homosexuality, and the rights of homosexuals, etc. etc. Maybe they watch the occasional episode of “Will and Grace”, in syndication (even if they didn’t watch it back when it started.) They are careful to distance themselves from those Westboro Baptist Church lunatics, for example.

It’s gotten to the point where one of the main, mainstream arguments against same-sex marriage is that legalizing it would amount to implying that those opposing it are bigots. Since they are not just bigots (see above), anything that would make them seem like bigots must be wrong. Ergo, approving same-sex marriage would be a mistake. Certainly striking down opposition to it as ‘lacking a rational basis’ would be a gross moral insult to non-bigoted opponents of same-same marriage.

Continue reading.

You see, the "new" arguments against homosexual marriage are supposedly not bigoted, according to traditionalists. But since the so-called "new" arguments are really the same as the "old" bigoted arguments against homosexual marriage, traditionalists are still bigots just the same, or something.

The argument's not going over too well in the comments.

Either way. Folks I talk to are tolerant of homosexuality. They just don't like homosexuals re-engineering the entire culture to essentially criminalize traditional values. It's not going to get better if the Court makes a broad ruling on same-sex marriage, but we'll see.

PHOTO CREDIT: From the depraved homosexuals at Think Progress, "Why Marriage Equality Opponents Who ‘Love’ Gays Are Still Bigoted." Because no matter what you do or say, you'll still be attack as a "bigot."

Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan on 'This Week' with George Stephanopoulos

The homosexuals are getting bent out of shape, "Cardinal Dolan: Same-Sex Couples Entitled To ‘Friendship’ But Not ‘Sexual Love’ (Video)," and "NYC Cardinal Timothy Dolan On Marriage In Catholic Church: Gays And Lesbians Are 'Entitled To Friendship': Video."

And at Think Progress, "Cardinal Dolan To Gay Couples: You're Only ‘Entitled To Friendship’" (via Memeorandum).

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Easter Sunday Funnies."

Also at Reaganite, "Reaganite's Sunday Funnies." And Jill Stanek, "Stanek Sunday funnies 3-31-13."

Cartoon Credit: William Warren.

Why Homosexuality Should Nauseate You

From Lisa Grass:

Homosexuality should nauseate you as much as it would nauseate you to see a mother leave her child to die of exposure, or as it would nauseate you to see an elderly woman beaten. If it does not, you should probably be doing a self-assessment. That’s the first step, for many. The next step is to learn pity for those afflicted, even as they claim we nauseate them, and as they claim we have mental illness for believing our Christian Faith, and as they claim we are filled with hatred of people because we hate sin which scourges Jesus on the Cross.

Yeah, it should nauseate you.

Continue reading.

RELATED: "Anti-Marriage Extremist Walter James Casper III and the Unitarian Push for Polyamorous Sexual Licentiousness."

Zhang Hongbing, Communist China Red Guard Soldier During Cultural Revolution, Denounced His Mother to Military Police. She Was Executed

Here's the classic story of leftist (communist) intolerance of dissent, at the Los Angeles Times, "In China, a son haunted by the Cultural Revolution." Zhang's mother, Fang Zhongmou, broke from the party line after her daughter died of meningitis after traveling to party rallies in Beijing:

Having suffered the loss of her daughter and years of violent criticism sessions, Fang Zhongmou finally snapped one evening in 1970.

"Why is Mao creating a cult of personality?" she asked her husband and son. She threatened to tear down portraits of Mao in their house, and she suggested that China should posthumously rehabilitate Liu Shaoqi, a leading politician whom Mao had imprisoned and who died in custody in 1969.

Zhang was horrified, as was his father.

"If you attack our dearest leader Mao Tse-tung, you'll get your dog's head crushed!" Zhang told his mother, according to testimony he filed to the military court investigating his mother, and retrieved from the Beijing National Library in 2009.

When his mother refused to take back her words, the young Zhang denounced her in a note he placed under the door of an army officer who lived nearby. Zhang's father, meanwhile, fetched the military police unit charged with law enforcement in Guzhen during the Cultural Revolution.

In fury, Fang locked herself in a room and set fire to a portrait of Mao. Her husband ordered her out of the room and instructed his son to beat her. Zhang complied, striking her on the back with his fists.

A soldier brought in by Zhang's father then struck her and took her away.

County records show that Zhang's mother was found guilty of "attacking Chairman Mao Tse-tung" and executed on April 11, 1970. Zhang watched her at a mass tribunal in town that day, but did not follow her to the firing squad two hundred yards away. His father had divorced her days before the execution.

Since then, Zhang says, he has suffered from depression and has been tormented by thoughts that he violated the ancient Chinese code of filial piety.

"I abandoned my family, I stomped on them!" Zhang said. "Killing or abusing a parent in the Tang Dynasty was called 'the heinous crime.' You'd be killed!"

Yet as time went on, the remnants of his mother's family slowly reconciled with Zhang and his father.

How many died during the Cultural Revolution? How many died during the Great Leap Forward before it? Tens of millions. But today's progressives don't care. Indeed, Chairman Mao's one of the greatest icons of popular culture and leftist indoctrination. See: "Department of Education website quotes Mao Zedong."

FLASHBACK: "Mao Tse Dunn: Another Communist at Obama White House."

Generation Mooch

A great piece from Eliza Kern, at paidContent, "Generation Mooch? Why 20-somethings have a hard time paying for content":

I’m 22, and I took typing lessons in fourth grade, had computer classes on how to do Google searches and make Powerpoints in middle school, and joined Facebook when it launched in my early days of high school. Until I left for college, my family’s desktop computer was set to open to the New York Times homepage. (At the time, it was free for everyone.) My peers and I learned how to write research papers in high school by citing sources online and by not copying things from Wikipedia, and most of us read Hamlet with the assistance of Sparknotes.com. We discovered music on YouTube, and a few lucky kids got smartphones in high school, which were ubiquitous by the time we hit college.

My generation has grown up connected to the internet, and we’ve never been at a loss for finding news and information on the web — for free.

She's a good writer. And her experience is true of her generation, for the most part. She reads more widely than most students I teach, but other than that, pretty interesting.

Continue reading.

Research Dates Shroud of Turin to Era of Christ

At NYT, "Turin Shroud Going on TV, With Video From Pope."

And at Telegraph UK, "Mystery solved? Turin Shroud linked to Resurrection of Christ":

The Turin Shroud has baffled scholars through the ages but in his new book, The Sign, Thomas de Wesselow reveals a new theory linking the cloth to the Resurrection.

Also at Guardian UK, "Turin shroud makes rare appearance on TV amid claims that it is not a forgery."

Femen Tunisia Hacked

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Die sluts, prostitutes from Israel!"

More at London's Daily Mail, "'Stone her to death': Tunisian preacher demands protester, 19, is executed for posting topless pictures on Facebook."

Oh Darn: Canada's Experimental Lakes Area to Close

What a terrible blow --- terrible! --- to climate science.

Here's Stephen Bede Scharper whining over at the Toronto Star, "Closure of Experimental Lakes Area part of assault on science."

North Korea Threatens Missile Attacks on United States, South Korea

At the Guardian UK, "North Korea says it is ready to launch strike against US bases," and "North Korea says it is in 'state of war' with South."

And at the New York Times, "In Pyongyang, Bluster, Fakery and Real Risks." (At Memeorandum.)

And see the commentary from Ron Radosh, at PJ Media, "North Korea Rattles Its Sabers: Evidently, a Threat That Must Be Taken Seriously."

Arming Liberal Socialist Indoctrinators

A rare progressive radical who's not hiding his murderous ideology:

To be clear: Schoolteachers are liberal socialist indoctrinators who are also probably feminists who hate America.Let's arm them.

— Joe Faina (@faination) December 18, 2012

James Taranto Takes a Paddle to Amanda Marcotte!

Oh boy, this is delectable!

At Twitchy, "Twitter fight: Amanda Marcotte hits ‘gross weirdo’ James Taranto over women’s marriage prospects."

I saw this breaking out on Twitter earlier, but Marcotte blocked me like a woman years ago, so I caught just RTs.

More at Althouse, "'Mother of Two Princeton Men Scolds College Women For Showing Insufficient Enthusiasm for Marrying Princeton Men'."

Washington Post Injects Race Into the Gun Debate

From the inimitable AoSHQ, "Because It Wasn't Already Contentious Enough ... WaPo Op-Ed Injects Race Into the Gun Debate."

Also at Althouse, "'White men have much to discuss about mass shootings'." (Via Memeorandum.)

Katy Perry Trending?

Who knew? Well, she was the other day, at least.

Good thing I'm following Zoo Today!

Katy Perry is trending. So it's a bloody good time to remind ourselves how brilliant her rack is... twitter.com/ZOO/status/316…
— ZOO Magazine (@ZOO) March 26, 2013

Yes, I'd rather be checking in at Zoo Today on a daily basis, rather than obsessively stalking enemies on the Internet, like a depraved homosexual. See: "Troll Rights Harasser Repsac3 Breaks Through the Disqus Commenting Firewall!"

Damned freak. Sheesh. Get a life you creep loser!

Troll Rights Harasser Repsac3 Breaks Through the Disqus Commenting Firewall!

Bwahaha!

Nailed the asshole --- again! --- on his moral bankruptcy, and the dude can't even respond but to call me a liar!

Bwhahaha!! Face it, Repmaster Asshole, you're an obsessed loser who's beaten, and bad.

And behold readers, notice how our resident troll rights harasser simply can't respond on point:

repsac3
• 5 hours ago − You're a lying obsessed ass, Douglas ... Give it a rest, buddy.

repsac3
• 5 hours ago − And learn how to use disqus better, while you're at it.

Really? Who's obsessed?

Folks have heard that broken record before. Seems to me our resident troll rights asshole once said that he was calling it a day, at a blog post titled, "Donald Kent Douglas Wins The Internet!!":

After a whole lotta reflection, I'm giving up. Throwing in the towel. I'm forfeiting the game, and letting Dr. Douglas take home the trophy, such as it is...

And since then?

Well, obviously the poor progressive asshole just can't let go. Racist Repsac3 has been banned from this blog for years. And I "won the Internet" last January when I reported this criminal to the authorities and switched over to Disqus commenting. Of course, that was just too much for Comrade Racist Repsac the Comunist to take, WHAAAA! Here's his wittle wittle weftist tantrum, bawling like a child about how Mean Old Donny was gonna be banned at the American Nihilist hate-hole. Banned! WHAAAA!!:

In true Donalde Kent Douglas fashion though, he is now and forevermore BANNED!!! from commenting on any/all blogs under my control... No whining, threats or fretting... All future submissions disappeared on sight, without further notice or comment. Persona non grata, gone-a, goodbye...

Hey, no problem dick hole. It's been over a year now and I don't even read your shit hole.

But note dear readers! Racist Repsac3, by contrast, is in my Sitemeter stats on a daily basis, just jonesin' for the teeniest tiniest throwaway mention to give his life meaning. Bwahahaha! And now he's jonesin' on squeezing through some comments at Disqus?

Oh, it hurts!! It hurts. Stop, stop. You can't make this up! You're making me bust a gut, Reppy! Bwahaha!!

Fuck you Walter James Casper III. Everything written about you is true, true, true to infinity! The fact that you can't comment must be infuriating, right? I love it! No one --- not a freakin' soul --- can see your deranged bleatings, and no one cares. Not here. Not at this blog. Just look at you, you freak. I haven't even mentioned you at this blog in two months, and poof! No sooner had a post gone up on you've posted at American Nihilist multiple times and taken to Twitter to share with your awesome less-than-250 followers.

Bwahahaha!!

You're right, though. I should have had your ISP added to the blacklist, a problem that's now been corrected, you stalking ass prick:

Username: repsac3

Email: repsac3blogs@gmail.com

IP Address: 67.85.222.209

In any case, dear readers, here's the post that sent this criminal harasser over the edge: "Horror! Ideological Ghoul James Casper III Tweets Kate Michelman's Defense of Baby-Killer Kermit Gosnell, the 'Jeffrey Dahmer of Abortionists'."

Go snip some post-abortion spines, you ghoul. That's what you're all about. Murder. Death. Four fucking horseman you motherfucking pustule of diabolical refuse.

Get a life loser.

BANNED: "Ban, Block and Report Walter James Casper III in 2013."

Gay Marriage Is the Most Important Issue Evar!

Via Pat Dollard:

'The Place Beyond the Pines'

A movie review from Betsy Sharkey, at the Los Angeles Times, "Review: In 'The Place Beyond the Pines,' society is the bad guy."

Violence is the trigger in "The Place Beyond the Pines," Derek Cianfrance's latest love letter to bad breaks. But it's the ripple effect of responsibility, regret, limited resources and guilt that makes "Pines" particularly relevant in a time when so many struggle from paycheck to paycheck.

Starring Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper, Ray Liotta and Dane DeHaan, the movie is intimate in its telling, sweeping in its issues and stumbles only occasionally.

The idiosyncratic Cianfrance tends to gravitate toward the economically challenged who live lives of desperation. It's a cultural slice that seems as forgotten by cinema as by society, those carrying a deep longing for the American dream of home and family, and a deep resentment that it is out of reach...

More at that top link.

I've got some time over the Easter Break to catch a couple of movies. And I'd have a crush on Ryan Gosling if I was a homosexual, so what the heck?

Struggling California Dairies Moving Out of State

I was just thinking about this while driving back from Las Vegas last weekend.

Once you come east of Corona and Norco, out by the Interstate 210, you can still see the remnants of the cattle ranches and dairy farms that decades ago dominated the landscape. Suburbanization has been encroaching for some time, but it's the state's anti-business climate that putting the final nail in the industry.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Dairies in California consider incentives to move out of state":

Other states have long poached California manufacturers and jobs. Now they're coming for the cows.

Seizing on the plight of the state's dairy industry, which is beset by high feed costs and low milk prices, nearly a dozen states are courting Golden State dairy farmers. The pitch: cheaper farm land, lower taxes, fewer environmental regulations and higher prices for their milk.

At the World Ag Expo, a behemoth trade show held in Tulare County last month, nine states had recruitment booths on the ground's Dairy Center.

South Dakota sent its governor, Dennis Daugaard, to make a personal appeal for his state. Ag officials there estimate that a single dairy cow creates $15,000 worth of economic activity annually through feed, vet bills and the like. That translates into jobs and revenue for hard-pressed rural areas.

"We're trying to corral some California cows," Daugaard said recently. "We're looking for dairymen who are looking to move out of California."

The state's $8-billion dairy industry leads the country in milk production. California cows produced 41.5 billion pounds of milk, or about 4.8 billion gallons, in 2011. That's 21% of the nation's milk supply. The next top milk-producing states, Wisconsin and Idaho, produced a combined 39.4 billion pounds of milk in 2011.

Although the migration is not yet a stampede, some California dairy farmers have left for what they see as better opportunities.

Sybrand Vander Dussen, 70, and his son, Mark, sold their 2,000-cow dairy in Corona two years ago. Mark Vander Dussen, 44, moved with his wife, Ranae, four kids and 800 Holstein heifers last year to set up shop in Greeley, Colo., where a $250-million cheese plant is under construction.

"We searched for a place that had better long-term prospects," Mark Vander Dussen said.

His father, a partner in the venture, plans to remain in California but said he's happy to no longer be dairy farming in the state. Sybrand Vander Dussen said when his friends heard that he was selling they said, "You're probably the smartest dairyman in California."

The federal government regulates milk prices in most states to prevent price volatility, but not in California, which has its own milk pricing system, established in 1935.

California dairy operators complain that the state's system is too stingy, and they're pushing officials to bring prices closer in line with the federal pricing system, partly to recover from tough years recently.

Continue reading.

Rule 5 Girls With Guns

Oh boy, talk about driving the gun-grabbing feminists batsh*t crazy, via Pat Dollard:

Also at Guns and Bikinis, "Cuban Model (Claudia Sampedo)."

Dana Pico has more, "Rule 5 Blogging: Are all Finns blonde?"

And at Ninety Miles From Nowhere, "Morning Mistress," and "Lingerie Ladies." Plus, "Hot Pick of the Late Night."

More at Pirate's Cove, "If All You See……is an evil fossil fueled vehicle that no one (else) should own, you might just be a Warmist."

And at Randy's Rountable, "Thursday Nite Tart...Stacey Poole."

At Daley Gator, "DaleyBabe."

Still more at Bob Belvedere's, "Rule 5 News: 30 March 2013 A.D."

Forward your links to me if you don't see yours here. I'll have more Rule 5 this afternoon.

Blue States With High Taxes Are Struggling to Compete for Businesses and Workers

From Arthur Laffer Stephen Moore, "The Red-State Path to Prosperity":

You can tell a lot about prosperity in America by observing the places people are moving to and where they are packing up and moving from. New Census Bureau data on metropolitan areas indicate that the South and the Sunbelt regions continue to grow, while the Northeast and Midwest continue to shrink.

Among the 10 fastest-growing metro areas last year were Raleigh, Austin, Las Vegas, Orlando, Charlotte, Phoenix, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. All of these are in low-tax, business-friendly red states. Blue-state areas such as Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo, Providence and Rochester were among the biggest population losers.

This migration isn't accidental. Workers and business owners are responding to clear economic incentives. Red states in the Southeast and Sunbelt are following the Reagan model by reducing tax rates and easing regulations. They also offer right-to-work laws as an enticement for businesses to come and set up shop. Meanwhile, the blue states of the Northeast, joined by California, Minnesota and Illinois, are implementing the Obama model of raising taxes on businesses and the wealthy to fund government "investments" and union power.

The contrast sets up a wonderful natural laboratory to test rival economic ideas.

Yes. More at the link.

And see the Mercatus Center, "Freedom in the 50 States."

Horror! Ideological Ghoul James Casper III Tweets Kate Michelman's Defense of Baby-Killer Kermit Gosnell, the 'Jeffrey Dahmer of Abortionists'

Pro-life blogger Jill Stanek has shown that accused Philadelphia abortion provider Kermit Gosnell is "the Jeffrey Dahmer of abortionists." This is a man so evil that he slit the throats of newborn babies who survive "botched" abortions. This is the hell house where precious human beings still squirm in horrible pain after their spinal cords have been severed with industrial shears. And Dr. Gosnell reportedly keeps a collection of baby body parts as souvenirs. Sickening.

But none of this matters to the demonstrably evil Walter James Casper III, the longtime "troll rights" harassment stalker of this blog. As the Gosnell trial winds on in the "City of Brotherly Love," "Hatesac" Casper is tweeting out the morally deranged bleatings of abortion-on-demand dregs like former NARAL head Kate Michelman:

The Questions No One Is Asking About the Kermit Gosnell Case huff.to/14ms841 via @huffpostcrime
— J. Casper (@repsac3) March 30, 2013

Any decent, life-loving and -affirming human being would be denouncing the anti-human stain of Hermit "Baby Killer" Gosnell. But not the ghoulish Walter James Casper III, a genuinely evil man, as proven here time after time again, in the constant reporting on his crimes.

Michelle Malkin has the background on Gosnell's horrors, from 2011, "The Philadelphia Horror: How mass murder gets a pass."

And just this week from the wonderful Katie Pavlich, "Update on Abortion Monster Kermit Gosnell":

I wrote a lot about Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell back in 2011 when a Grand Jury issued a report showing the man had killed a woman and snipped the spinal cords of at least seven-full term healthy and viable babies after birth, making millions of dollars over the years. Gosnell worked late night hours in unsanitary conditions and hired staff without medical credentials to administer labor inducing drugs to women. Gosnell's medical license was revoked in 2010 and he was named in at least 46-medical-malpractice suits. Gosnell specifically targeted poor and minority women at his dirty, illegal and unsanitary clinic nicknamed the "house of horrors." As a reminder:

An abortion doctor who catered to minorities, immigrants and poor women was charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a patient and seven babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, made millions of dollars over 30 years, performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could, prosecutors said.

Gosnell "induced labor, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord."

Authorities went to investigate drug-related complaints at the clinic last year and stumbled on what Williams called a "house of horrors."

"There were bags and bottles holding aborted fetuses scattered throughout the building," Williams said. "There were jars, lining shelves, with severed feet that he kept for no medical purpose."

Right.

But for diabolical ideological ghouls such as Walter James Casper III, it's all the fault of conservatives who've made it "more and more burdensome for women to get safe abortions." Oh sure. "Safe" abortions. Like those Planned Parenthood abortions where the babies not actually aborted --- those surviving human beings thrown on a medical cart --- are denied medical help because it'd be too difficult "logistically" to rush that child to the hospital?

Uh huh. That's what this is all about: giving a pass to murder.

Stay classy, Casper.

FRC's Tony Perkins on the Andrea Tantaros Show

Via PJTV:

VIDEO: Ahmed, the Eight-Year-Old Boy on the Front Line of Syria's Civil War

At Telegraph UK:

It is one of the most shocking images from the Syrian war. An eight-year-old boy draws deeply on a cigarette, the small fingers of his other hand clutching a an AK-47 rifle that balances awkwardly against his chest.

Firefighter Survives Being 'Thrown Through' Air by Icy Car Crash

Seems to me he was violating common sense safety rules. He even jumped back over the curb once before a second car crash into that pile up. He survived. He's lucky to be alive:

Touré vs. Ben Carson

The no comparison comparison, from Iowahawk, at Breitbart, "Tale of the Tape: Touré vs. Ben Carson."

IMAGE: "NBC NEWS ON DR. BEN CARSON: 'BLINDED BY THE WHITE'."

PREVIOUSLY: "Progressives Smear Dr. Benjamin Carson on Polygamy Comments Even Though Justice Sotomayor Raised Exact Same Concerns."

Manly Night at the Playboy Mansion

At Esquire, "Gentlemen, Gentlemen, Be of Good Cheer, for They Are Out There, and We Are in Here: The Perfect Life of Hugh Hefner":

For as long as anyone can remember, Monday night has been Manly Night at the Playboy Mansion. A little after five o'clock, nine or ten of Hugh Hefner's best friends — invited guests, holders of inner-circle memberships that will be good until death — start pulling up outside the front gate. They talk into what looks like a big round rock, and a disembodied voice questions and admits them, sometimes sounding surprised about it—"Oh, hey, you can come up" — and the gate swings open, revealing a hedge-lined driveway and two yellow warning signs: BRAKE FOR ANIMALS and PLAYMATES AT PLAY. The Mansion soon looms at the top of a rise, a Gothic pile with leaded glass windows that overlook immaculate grounds tended by men in green work shirts, each with the familiar white rabbit stitched on the chest. The guests ease up next to a marble fountain topped by a cherub molesting a dolphin, and then they head through the Mansion's thick wood front door and into the appropriately named Great Hall, where there are several large portraits of their host watched over by a full-sized statue of Frankenstein.

Ray Anthony, the ninety-one-year-old trumpeter and bandleader, is usually the first of the men to show up, with either a hat or a toupee on his head. Fred Dryer, the former football player and actor, also arrives, still looking capable of feats of strength, his hands the size of dinner plates. Johnny Crawford, the former child star (The Rifleman) and teen idol ("Cindy's Birthday"), wanders in, as does eighty-four-year-old Keith Hefner, the younger brother and only sibling of the more famous of the Hefner boys. More ordinary men join the gathering as well — a retired kindergarten teacher named Mark Cantor, a movie-memorabilia expert named Ron Borst, a producer named Kevin Burns. The youngest and newest member, Jeremy Arnold, is a film historian and writer. He's been admitted to Manly Night for only a year or so, after spending ten years in the less-exclusive Movie Nights' farm club — Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays — and he still walks around with a bemused smile, as though he's not quite sure how he ended up here or doesn't believe he has. All these men somehow drifted into Hefner's orbit, and for whatever reason he decided to snare them, the way a planet collects satellites. Now they will never escape his gravity. They will never try.

The center of this particular universe is, for the moment, invisible to the naked eye. He's probably upstairs in his bedroom, where the chances are very high that he's eating a bowl of Lipton chicken-noodle soup, which he eats nearly every day. He rarely eats with the other members of the group, who move to the dining room — a large wood table, a dozen ornate blue chairs, a life-sized cardboard cutout of a smiling Hefner in black silk pajamas, a permanent stand-in — and take their regular seats. There are menus at each place — Hosted byHugh M. Hefner — but the Mansion is a bit like a cruise ship: The industrial kitchen and its venerable staff (William the executive chef, Brenda the pastry chef, Alan the butler, and maybe six or eight invisible others) will prepare just about any American meal a man could want. Plates of fried chicken soon come out of the shining kitchen, big salads, slabs of rib eye. Cocktails are poured and the men knock on one another and catch up on the week's events and raise a toast they say together: "Gentlemen, gentlemen, be of good cheer, for they are out there, and we are in here."

Continue reading.

How #GayMarriage Symbol Went Viral on Facebook

At the Verge, "Facebook maps out support for gay marriage as profile photo campaign takes off." And WSJ, "Facebook: Big Impact From Gay-Marriage Campaign."

And Gabby Hoffman's got the moral competitor, "I support traditional marriage..."

I support traditional marriage. #sorrynotsorry. RT if you do too! #values #tcot twitter.com/Gabby_Hoffman/…
— Gabriella Hoffman (@Gabby_Hoffman) March 27, 2013

The Louise Mensch School of Rock

At Independent UK, "Music students dazzled by the Louise and Peter Mensch show at the Albert Hall":

“Why are you still bothering?,” Louise Mensch asks her husband, Peter, the New York  rock band manager who guides the careers of Metallica and Jimmy Page. “You made a lot of money a long time ago and it’s your 60th birthday today?”

It’s a question which might normally be posed within the family home. But today the former Conservative MP is quizzing her husband on a stage at the Royal Albert Hall in front of 50 spellbound  students.

The audience are young musicians, chosen to attend a masterclass in music management as part of the London venue’s new education programme.

Whilst Mr Mensch reveals how he made AC/DC international megastars and saved Madonna’s career, the session also provided a revealing insight into the relationship which prompted his wife’s surprise resignation from Parliament last August to move to New York with her husband.

“I don’t have to introduce Louise, you know her,” Mr Mensch told the students as the former politician, who agreed to be “chairman” for the session, sat alongside her husband.

Unused to a supporting role, and betraying a slight East Coast twang, Louise soon began to impose herself on proceedings.

“I want to get through you guys’ questions,” she told the audience. “But first I have some questions of my own. Let’s talk about Metallica. You stole them from their manager didn’t you? ” “Louise knows my career better than I do,” Peter admitted.

Later an exasperated Peter complained “You keep cutting me off” when Louise tried to move the conversation on. “I’ve got so many questions,” she told him.

“It’s my show and I can do what I want” insisted Peter, who was “shushed” by his wife when he threatened to divulge an indiscreet story about Samantha Cameron.

Louise first met Peter when she invited him to speak at the Oxford Union in 1990.

Years before they became an item, Mr Mensch helped Louise gain work experience in the music business. “I spent all of one Summer interning at MTV Headbangers Ball and record companies,” she told the students. “I worked for nothing.” Now she is helping him choose his next starlet....

Continue reading.

RELATED: At Telegraph UK, "Louise Mensch feared she would be trounced by Labour, her husband says":

Louise Mensch quit her job as a Conservative MP partly out of fear she would be “killed” at the next election, her husband has said...

Pilgrims Reenact Passion of Christ in Jerusalem on Good Friday

Via Telegraph UK:

Here's That Megyn Kelly Segment on the Left's Bogus Smear of Dr. Benjamin Carson

Here's my earlier entry, "Progressives Smear Dr. Benjamin Carson on Polygamy Comments Even Though Justice Sotomayor Raised Exact Same Concerns."

The depraved progressives are busted. Megyn Kelly clearly gets it, and this idiot Dan Gerstein claims it's "apples and oranges" and "legal vs. ethical." What an asshole.

And listen to conservative Ben Ferguson just hammering the left for the hypocrisy. This issue really shows how f-ked up public debate is in America. When the radical left redefines all moral standards truth is the first casualty. It's bad all around, tragic.

Cost of Environmental Damage in China

At NYT, "Cost of Environmental Damage in China Growing Rapidly Amid Industrialization":

BEIJING — The cost of environmental degradation in China was about $230 billion in 2010, or 3.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product — three times that in 2004, in local currency terms, an official Chinese news report said this week.

The statistic came from a study by the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, which is part of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The figure of $230 billion, or 1.54 trillion renminbi, is based on costs arising from pollution and damage to the ecosystem, the price that China is paying for its rapid industrialization.

“This cuts to the heart of China’s economic challenge: how to transform from the explosive growth of the past 30 years to the sustainable growth of the next 30 years,” said Alistair Thornton, a China economist at the research firm IHS Global Insight. “Digging a hole and filling it back in again gives you G.D.P. growth. It doesn’t give you economic value. A lot of the activity in China over the last few years has been digging holes to fill them back in again — anything from bailing out failing solar companies to ignoring the ‘externalities’ of economic growth.”

And the costs could be even higher than the ministry’s estimate, he said. The $230 billion figure is incomplete because the researchers did not have a full set of data. Making such calculations is “notoriously difficult,” Mr. Thornton said.

'Sweet Nothing'

I like this one, Calvin Harris with Florence Welch.

Well, I like the song at least. The clip's a little violent, even for me.

You took my heart and you held it in your mouth
And with a word all my love came rushing out
And every whisper, it's the worst,
Emptied out by a single word
There is a hollow in me now

So I put my faith in something unknown
I'm living on such sweet nothing
But I'm tired of hope with nothing to hold
I'm living on such sweet nothing

And it's hard to learn
And it's hard to love
When you're giving me such sweet nothing
Sweet nothing, sweet nothing
You're giving me such sweet nothing

[Beat break]

It isn't easy for me to let it go
Cause I've swallowed every single word
And every whisper, every sigh
Eats away this heart of mine
And there is a hollow in me now

So I put my faith in something unknown
I'm living on such sweet nothing
But I'm tired of hope with nothing to hold
I'm living on such sweet nothing

And it's hard to learn
And it's hard to love
When you're giving me such sweet nothing
Sweet nothing, sweet nothing
You're giving me such sweet nothing

[Beat break]

And it's not enough to tell me that you care
When we both know the words are empty air
You give me nothing

Uoooh
Uoooh
Uoooh
Nothing

[Beat break]

Uoooh
Uoooh
Uoooh

Sweet nothing

Uoooh
Uoooh
Uoooh
Sweet nothing...

Bikini Baristas

Reason's Nanny of the Month:

Background at PuffHo, "Grab-N-Go Bikini Baristas Accused of Performing Strip Shows," and at Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Bikini baristas arrested after two-month cop investigation."

Gillette's Fusion ProGlide Styler With Kate Upton

She working the advertising dollars while the getting's hot.

At Business Insider, "Gillette Has Paid Kate Upton to Persuade Men to Shave ... Everywhere."

Progressives Smear Dr. Benjamin Carson on Polygamy Comments Even Though Justice Sotomayor Raised Exact Same Concerns

This truly evil development just proves how threatening Dr. Ben Carson is to the radical left's morally bankrupt program of statist dependency.

It turns out that progressives are demanding that Dr. Carson withdraw from a scheduled commencement speech at John Hopkins University, the same university where Dr. Carson works as director of pediatric neurosurgery. He's even offered to withdraw on his own, as a goodwill gesture to tamp down the controversy. It's too bad, too. Dr. Carson needs to understand that this is just the beginning of a campaign to utterly destroy him just as any other conservative black man who's dared escape the progressive Democrat plantation. The Lonely Conservative reports, "The Left Manufactures the Dr. Ben Carson Coke Can Pubic Hair Moment."

I called out David Weigel for this faux controversy on Twitter yesterday:

@ampowerblog No, Sotomayor wasn't saying she agreed with the point.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) March 28, 2013

Here's the article I reference at the tweet, "'Be They Gays, Be They NAMBLA, Be They People Who Believe in Bestiality ...'." I sent Weigel two other tweets, but got no response:

@daveweigel POLYGAMY VS. SAME-SEX MARRIAGE:  Justice Sotomayor asked an interesting question during the Supreme… pjmedia.com/instapundit/16…
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 29, 2013

.@daveweigel You're stretching it, I think. That @instapundit link confirms my point.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 29, 2013

Weigel defends his smear on Dr. Carson with the weaselly dodge, "Sotomayor wasn't saying she agreed with the point."

Wrong. It's clear that Justice Sotomayor was making the exact same point as Dr. Carson. Indeed, here are verbatim comments from the oral arguments, directed at Theodore Olson:

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: Mr. Olson, the bottom line that you're being asked -- and -- and it is one that I'm interested in the answer: If you say that marriage is a fundamental right, what State restrictions could ever exist? Meaning, what State restrictions with respect to the number of people, with respect to -- that could get married -- the incest laws, the mother and child, assuming that they are the age -- I can -- I can accept that the State has probably an overbearing interest on -- on protecting a child until they're of age to marry, but what's left?

She is clearly not disagreeing with polygamy in the sense that Weigel claims. She's throwing that out there in the exact same way the Dr. Carson does, to the effect that polygamy, etc., is something that's logically implicated by allowing same-sex marriage, so where does the state's interest in prohibiting this behavior begin or end? Indeed, here's the Salt Lake Tribune's report on the controversy, "Justice brings up polygamy in Prop 8 gay marriage case." The report notes that Olson responded to Sotomayor as faced with a legitimate concern. And as Elizabeth Price Foley noted at Instapundit, "Ted Olson’s answer was not entirely satisfactory, suggesting that a ban on polygamy or incest would be a ban on “conduct,” not one based on “status”." No, it wasn't satisfactory because he's dodging the question and avoiding the problem.

Now, in an update, Weigel has changed his tune a bit, conceding that Sotoymayor raised the exact same issue as Dr. Carson, but claiming that she and Olson were "reasoning this out," or whatever. See: "Ben Carson vs. Sonia Sotomayor, Round Zero."

Fact: Both Dr. Carson and Justice Sotomayor raised the exact same worries over legalizing homosexual marriage. But the left's response --- and that of dishonest David Weigel --- has been to smear Dr. Carson but give Justice Sotomayor a pass. This is the kind of morally reprehensible politics that's always played by progressives, and unfortunately, Dr. Carson is getting hammered.

And here's more of the left's lies from the Soros-backed Obama shills at Media Matters, "Fox's Kelly Attempts to Link Justice Sotomayor and Ben Carson's Anti-Gay Comments." The writer, Lara Swartz, posts at least 1,000 words to desperately claim that "Seen in the context of a nearly two-hour oral argument with a long trial record and dozens of amicus briefs, it is unreasonable to suggest that Justice Sotomayor's question demonstrates that she agrees with Carson." Nope. No go. She raised the exact same concern regardless of the background, the context of the oral arguments, or record of the amicus briefs. Justice Sotomayor made the exact same point. The progressives are lying about what went down. Weigel backtracked from his initial dodge in his later blog posts, but the left has got its meme and they're hammering it home Alinsky style. It may be too late for the commencement speech, but Dr. Carson needs to punch back twice as hard, and now.