New Rash of Gun Killings Overnight Friday in #Chicago

This should be the national gun debate we are having, but the left is all about lies and deceit, so the social pathologies of urban, black-on-black crime just don't rate.

Sad.

#Chicago bloodshed continues: 6 hurt, 5 dead in separate gun attacks. @DLoesch http://t.co/dDymjlx57x

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) September 22, 2013

Can 'Blurred Lines' Elevate the Culture?

Well, I don't know if Robin Thicke's song can elevate the culture or not, although no doubt Emily Ratajkowski has caused some elevation, IYKWIMAITYD.

From Megan Fox, at PJ Media, "From Rapey to Righteous: Can Robin Thicke’s Controversial Hit Song ‘Blurred Lines’ Elevate the Culture?"



Read it all at the link.

Megan discusses and links this version of the song, "Robin Thicke – Blurred Lines (Freestyle) Lyrics."

And I'll disagree with Megan here: I don't think the original topless "Blurred Lines" is gross. As Emily Ratajkowski puts it, "I think that the video was tasteful, beautiful, and there’s nothing offensive about it."

New York Times' Tyler Hicks Interview at 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos'

I posted on Tyler Hicks' amazing coverage earlier, "Witness to a Massacre in a Nairobi Mall."

And he's interviewed by Martha Raddatz at "This Week."



More at Atlas Shrugs, "*GRAPHIC* SCENES FROM JIHAD MASSACRE IN KENYA."

'You Can Keep Your Plan' — The Left's #ObamaCare Lies

Following up from yesterday, "Leftists Cheer as Anthem Blue Cross Boots Michelle Malkin From Company's Individual Insurance Market."

I'd be remiss if I didn't update with the clip from Linkmaster Smith, at the Other McCain, "Mrs. Malkin Misapprehends: The Underside of the Bus *IS* Your Healthcare Plan."



Keep in mind this "you can keep your plan" lie is just one lie in an epic campaign of lies designed to socialize and destroy the American healthcare market.

Leftism is predicated on lies. Most everyday citizens have little time or inclination to do the enormous fact-checking required to fully expose the deceits of the left. But it is being done by patriots who saw this coming a mile away. Of course, the leftist cluster-k media keeps the lies going for the Democrat-Socialist usurpers -- the clusterf-k media is key to the entire Big Lie deception underwriting the left's totalitarian project for the fundamental transformation of America.

It's all lies. Anti-Americanism and lies. And that's why no matter how successful are the defunding efforts this week, the long-term project of exposing Democrat lies never ends. Patriots will turn this around. So much of the system is working to screw the average person, and the smokescreens of "fairness" have been spread so far and wide that it takes a Herculean effort to bust through. But it's happening. The health care law is a miserable failure. Only epic Orwellian lies have been keeping it going. But we're approaching the reckoning. And patriots don't give up. We can see the whites of their eyes now.

More from Darleen Click, at Protein Wisdom, "#ObamaCare — designed to fail."

Nairobi Terror Continues in Second Day Standoff

At the BBC, "Kenya standoff: At least 59 dead, Uhuru Kenyatta says."



Also at USA Today, "Blast rocks Kenya mall in second day of standoff."

Sarah Palin: Americans Are Fed Up with #ObamaCare

From Governor Palin, at Big Government, "BOMBS AWAY ON OBAMACARE; CRUZ IS OVER THE TARGET":

Americans who are fed up with Obamacare won a victory yesterday. The House voted to defund Obamacare while still funding the federal government to avoid a “devastating” shutdown. (I shall not digress, but it’s beyond distressing to hear liberals try to convince Americans that any government slowdown is comparable to “terrorism.”)

Now the battle goes to the Senate, and we’ll find out if Harry Reid is so committed to the horrendous “Un-affordable Care Act” that he’ll be the one to shut down the government to fund the unworkable Obamacare.

Let’s be clear. Republicans in Congress aren't advocating a government shutdown. That’s why they voted in the House to fully fund our bureaucracy while defunding Obamacare. The conservatives in Congress are listening to the majority of Americans who do not want Obamacare.

Following the will of the people is apparently a novel idea in D.C. these days. Just ask Senator Ted Cruz and his liberty-loving posse on Capitol Hill who have led the charge to defund Obama’s train wreck.

Those of us who hang in there supporting a major political party with our energy, time, and contributions would like to believe that that party would praise principled conservatives like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee for following through on campaign promises. We’d like to believe that the GOP establishment would applaud the way these bold leaders have rallied the grassroots to their cause. But, no, such praise would require a commensurate level of guts and leadership, and the permanent political class in D.C. is nothing if not gutless and rudderless.

We’re now, once again, subjected to the “anonymous sources” backstabbing game. The Capitol Hill cowards are rushing to anonymously denounce Senator Cruz to any reporter with a pad and pen.

Welcome to our world, Ted. The same people have been denouncing conservatives like me for years (right after they ask for help fundraising for themselves or endorsing the latest candidate they’ve suckered into paying their exorbitant consulting fees). We can compare shiv marks next time we meet, my friend.

Continue reading.

More at Memorandum.

PREVIOUSLY: "'A Vote for Cloture is a Vote for #ObamaCare' — Senator Ted Cruz on Fox News Sunday."

'A Vote for Cloture is a Vote for #ObamaCare' — Senator Ted Cruz on Fox News Sunday

The interview this morning with Chris Wallace, via Becca Lower.

Discussion at PuffHo, "Ted Cruz: Republicans Who Vote To Take Up Bill Defunding Obamacare Are Voting For Obamacare."



Also at Politico, "McCaskill: GOP should stop throwing 'tantrums'" (via Memeorandum).

India's Child Slavery Scourge

At Der Spiegel, "Daughters for Sale: Aid Organizations Confront Child Slavery in India":

Millions of Indian children work as slaves in factories, brothels or in the homes of families. Out of poverty and desperation, parents sell their daughters, and human traffickers wait at train stations for runaways and scour for orphans in monsoon-ravaged villages.

On the day that Durga Mala was rescued, she lay crying on the stone floor, where she was attempting to cool her back. She was 11 years old and her skin was covered with blisters, from her shoulder blades to her buttocks. A few days earlier, her owners had poured hot oil over her because they thought she was working too slowly.

Suddenly Durga heard screams and huddled on the floor. Acting on a tip, police stormed the apartment in the heart of Bangalore. When they broke the door down, Durga crossed her arms in front of her chest and closed her eyes. She was only wearing a pair of panties -- that's all the clothing that her owners had allowed her to have. Durga says: "I was ashamed."

One of the men wrapped the small girl in a sheet and brought her to a hospital. Doctors treated her for a number of days. In addition to her burns, she was malnourished, infected wounds covered her fingers and her lips were scarred. "I dropped a glass once," says Durga, "and the woman got angry and pulled my fingernails out, one by one." Sometimes they poked her in the mouth with a needle. Durga was supposed to work, not speak.

It's estimated that millions of children in India live as modern-day slaves. They work in the fields, in factories, brothels and private households -- often without pay and usually with no realistic chance of escaping. The majority of them are sold or hired out by their own families.

According to an Indian government census from 2001, this country of over 1 billion people has 12.6 million minors between the ages of 5 and 14 who are working. The real number is undoubtedly significantly higher because many children are not officially registered at birth -- and the owners of course do their best to keep the existence of child slaves a secret. Aid organizations estimate that three-quarters of all domestic servants in India are children, and 90 percent of those are girls. Although both child labor and child trafficking are illegal, police rarely intervene -- and the courts seldom convict child traffickers and slaveholders.

Continue reading.

And what to say?

India's a developing country with a huge population. Tremendous poverty obviously forces many parents to think of children as burdens and sources of financial remuneration. Hence, parents selling off children to human traffickers, which is something that people would find horrifying in the United States.

Witness to a Massacre in a Nairobi Mall

Very compelling, at the New York Times:

The New York Times staff photographer Tyler Hicks was nearby when gunmen opened fire at an upscale Nairobi mall, killing at least 39 people in one of the worst terrorist attacks in Kenya’s history. He was able to go inside the mall as the attack unfolded.

Check it out at the link.

Hard Times for the Climate Change Alarmism Industry

Again.

I should say "Hard Times for the Climate Change Alarmism Industry" again, since it seems with each passing year there's another devastating setback for the global warming climate shills.

Here's a report on the latest controversy surrounding the upcoming IPCC climate report, at the Telegraph UK, "Row over IPCC report as nations 'try to hide lack of climate change’":

Scientists working on a landmark UN report on climate change to be published this week are at loggerheads over their explanation for why the earth’s surface temperature has stopped rising as rapidly as they previously predicted.

The behind-the-scenes wrangling is likely to cast a shadow over the publication on Friday of the 2,000-page report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The report is still in a draft version and will be finalised over the next five days with heated discussion centring on how to explain the fact that since 1998 the earth’s temperature has barely risen.

It is claimed some governments have even tried to intervene to remove references to the 15 year climate change 'hiatus’ or 'pause’.

The report - the fifth report by the IPCC and the first in five years - is hugely influential because its conclusions serve as the scientific basis for UN negotiations on curbing emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. A global climate treaty is supposed to be adopted in 2015.

A leaked copy of an earlier draft of the report, seen by The Telegraph, will insist that the likelihood that global warming exists and that its cause is man-made has risen from 90 per cent certainty to 95 per cent certainty.

The study will also make predictions for rises in the earth’s temperature and sea levels to the end of the century.

One scenario suggests an average temperature rise of as little as 1.8 F by 2100 while at the most alarming end of the scale temperatures may rise by as much as 8.6 F, according to the draft version.
In the worst case scenario, the sea level could rise by as much as 3ft by the end of the century, the final report is expected to say.

The report will also touch upon solutions to global warming, including a hugely controversial and expensive proposal to put giant mirrors in space which can deflect the sun’s rays in order to cool the earth down.

The report, co-authored by 257 scientists, will be finalised this week ahead of its publication in Stockholm on Friday.

But scientists are “struggling” to explain the slowdown in global warming since 1998, it is being claimed.

Documents seen by the Associated Press (AP) show attempts at political interference in the final report, and that “several governments that reviewed the draft objected to how the issue was tackled”.
In a leaked draft, dating from June, the IPCC said that the rate of warming between 1998 and 2012 was about half the average rate since 1951.

The draft report blames the slowdown on the “natural variability” in the climate system, as well as cooling effects from volcanic eruptions and a change in solar activity.

The draft says that a reduction in warming for 1998 to 2012 compared to 1951 to 2012 is “due in roughly equal measure” to natural variations in the climate and factors such as “volcanic eruptions and the downward phase of the current solar cycle.”

But the documents, according to AP, show Germany called for the reference to the slowdown to be deleted while the US urged scientists to include as its “leading hypothesis” that the reduction in warming is linked to more heat being transferred to the deep ocean. Both countries’ governments have policies which state their belief in man-made climate change.

Belgium meanwhile objected to using 1998 as a starting year for any statistics because it claimed it was a particularly warm year.

The row will fuel claims by global warming sceptics that the issue has become too political and that governments are now spending vast sums of money on policies to combat a phenomenon that may not exist and may not be man-made. The effect of those policies, claim sceptics, is to increase global poverty because the policies are expensive to implement.

Continue reading.

This is simply another case of "hide the decline," only this time it's "hide the tapering temperatures," since they badly disprove all the sky-is-falling predictions of IPCC hacks.

These climate change hucksters are a freakin' joke. They've got their global warming co-religionists backing them, but that's about it. The science is not settled, as it shouldn't be. And as more and more countervailing evidence comes to light, the climate change industry simply must escalate the lies and intimidation to keep the whole house of cards standing.

More on this from Erika Johnsen, at Hot Air, "UN climate panel: Hmm, how can we selectively edit these inconvenient truths to outwit those anti-science denialists?"

Also from Alan Caruba, at Theo Spark's, "Global Warming: The BIGGEST LIE Exposed." Following the links takes us to a big report from the Heartland Institute, "Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science." The executive summary is here.

And somewhere earlier I clicked on this report from the Wall Street Journal last year, "No Need to Panic About Global Warming: Concerned Scientists Reply on Global Warming." A very concise summary of why the alarmism should be rejected.

Expect updates. It's going to be a rough week for the climate hucksters.

Fabulous Kate Hudson Steps Out at iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas

At London's Daily Mail, "Kate Hudson shows off her sculpted legs in purple playsuit as she supports fiance Matt Bellamy at iHeartRadio music festival":

Having given birth to two children, actress Kate Hudson is one hot mama.

The 34-year old showed off her gorgeously sculpted pins, donning a purple playsuit while supporting her husband at the iHeartRadio music event in Las Vegas on Friday.

Rocking her blonde tresses straight, the married actress made a bold beauty statement, wearing a bright red lipstick.

Definitely hot.

More at the Los Angeles Times, "iHeartRadio 2013: Katy Perry, Elton John roll out the hits."

Video of Heavily Armed Starbucks Customer Thanking Staff Before Policy Change

Via the New York Times:



Following the links takes us "KHOU Houston, "Pastor carries rifle in Hunstville to raise awareness of open carry laws."

The man's group, Open Carry Texas, is here.

RELATED: From Dana Loesch, "Gun Ban Fail: Starbucks Only Frowns Upon Firearms."

Dutch Welfare State Unsustainable, King Willem-Alexander Declares

Amazing.

The Netherlands realizes that the European-style welfare state is totally unsustainable, at the same time that the increasingly-socialist U.S. just keeps digging itself in deeper.

You can't make this stuff up.

Seriously. We're a freakin' nightmare. To say nothing of the world's sickest joke under this administration

Blazing Cat Fur reports, "Dutch King Willem-Alexander declares the end of the welfare state":

King Willem-Alexander delivered a message to the Dutch people from the government in a nationally televised address: the welfare state of the 20th century is gone.

In its place a "participation society" is emerging, in which people must take responsibility for their own future and create their own social and financial safety nets, with less help from the national government.

"The shift to a 'participation society' is especially visible in social security and long-term care," the king said, reading out to lawmakers a speech written for him by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's government.

So, the Dutch are announcing the aspirations toward a "participation society" based on personal responsibility, while the U.S. is consolidating a "dependency society" based on rapidly-expanding welfare-state freeloading and Democrat class-warfare demonization. That's real progress.

Leftists Cheer as Anthem Blue Cross Boots Michelle Malkin From Company's Individual Insurance Market

Here's Michelle on Twitter, "The Anthem letter informs us open enrollment begins Oct. 1. Look what they're advertising: Obamacare exchanges!"

And she writes further, "Obamacare is destroying the private individual market for health insurance. By design, not accident."

Yep. And the leftist ghouls are loving it.

At Twitchy, "Liberals gleefully berate ‘whining losers’ forced to switch health plans."

Things are really coming into focus. Have your liberty destroyed, and your health choices ruined, and leftists couldn't be happier.

Depraved. But you knew that.

IDF Sergeant Tomer Hazan Kidnapped and Murdered in West Bank

He got lured away to his death?

At the Times of Israel, "IDF soldier Tomer Hazan, 20, kidnapped and killed in West Bank":

An IDF soldier was murdered by a Palestinian acquaintance who lured him to a village near Qalqilya in the West Bank, Israeli authorities said Saturday. The soldier was named Saturday night as 20-year-old Bat Yam native Sgt. Tomer Hazan.

Hazan, a sergeant in Israel Air Force, was lured on Friday to the village of Beit Amin, south of Qalqilya, by a 42-year-old Palestinian resident of the village, Nidal Amar. Amar worked illegally at an Israeli restaurant, in Bat Yam, where Hazan also worked part-time.

Amar was arrested and confessed to killing Hazan, the Shin Bet security service said.

According to the Shin Bet, Amar recounted how he picked up Hazan in a taxi on Friday after convincing him to accept a ride. He took the Israeli to an open field, killed him and threw his body in a well, the agency said.

Israeli forces raided Amar’s home early Saturday and interrogated Amar and his brother.

Relatives seen near the house of murdered IDF soldier Tomer Hazan in the coastal city of Bat Yam in central Israel on September 21, 2013 (Photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)

The Shin Bet said Amar confessed to intending to trade Hazan’s body for the release of another brother, a member of the Fatah Tanzim terror group, who has been serving time in an Israeli jail since 2003 for his role in several terror attacks, including planning a suicide bombing by a female bomber that was thwarted.

Amar showed the Israeli forces where Hazan’s body was hidden. The agency did now say how Amar convinced the soldier to join him on the ride Friday.

More at that top link.

And at the New York Times, "Israeli Soldier Is Lured to West Bank and Killed":

The kidnapping of soldiers in Israel, where military service is mandatory for most Jews, is among the most profound fears for Israelis. In late 2011, Israel agreed to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a soldier who had been abducted five years before by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military recently reported a sharp rise in Palestinian plots to kidnap soldiers in hopes of trading them for some of the 4,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. A total of 37 such plans have been thwarted so far this year, more than in all of 2012, according to Colonel Lerner.

Israel released 26 long-serving Palestinian prisoners last month, and is expected to release about 75 more in three phases, as part of the Washington-brokered peace talks that started this summer. Right-wing politicians who oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state seized on the killing to bolster their argument.

“One does not make peace with terrorists who throw soldiers’ bodies into a hole in the ground,” Naftali Bennett, an Israeli minister, said Saturday. “One fights them without mercy.”

Well, yeah.

Also at Ynet, "IDF soldier's murder: Shin Bet's race against time."

HAT TIP: Israel Matzav, "Angry protesters outside restaurant that hired IDF soldier's killer."

Emily Ratajkowski for Fredericks of Hollywood

At Bro Bible, "25 Photos of Emily Ratajkowski Smoldering in Frederick's Lingerie."

Eagle's Flight

Via Althouse, "Fly Like an Eagle."



Also at Geek, "Camera attached to an eagle creates amazing flight video."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Video: Camera accompanies eagle soaring over France." That's France. It's some of the most beautiful footage I've ever seen.

Modesto Junior College Restricts Constitutional Speech on Constitution Day

Greg Lukianoff of FIRE reports, "“I Bet They Wouldn’t Even Let You Pass Out Constitutions on Constitution Day”":

Robert Van Tuinen, a student at Modesto Junior College in California, had a theory. He believed that the policies at his college limiting protests and expression were so restrictive that the college would try to shut him down even if he tried to hand out copies of the United States Constitution on September 17--Constitution Day.

Sadly, he was correct.

Continue reading at the link.

Also embedded there is this clip from FIRE:



More at Tech Dirt, "California College Tells Student He Can't Hand Out Copies Of The Constitution On Constitution Day."

Keystone Inaction Hurts American Families

From Cathy McMorris-Rogers, for the GOP conference:

WASHINGTON – House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) released the following statement today on the 5th anniversary of the first application to begin construction of the Keystone XL pipeline:

"The President's refusal to approve the Keystone XL pipeline is hurting American families. Five years ago today, the first permits were filed to begin construction on the pipeline, and the project remains impeded by the President’s political posturing. And the consequences are significant. To the American people, this means 20,000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs that will not be available. It means $7 billion that won't be invested in the U.S. economy. And it means 830,000 barrels per day of North American oil that won't be transported.

"Our economy is in a state of stagnation – and recent numbers only paint a grimmer picture. The Census Bureau just today announced that the percentage of Americans on food stamps has risen yet again. Just days ago, we passed the bitter milestone of 1,000 days where gas prices have hovered around $3 per gallon.

"The President's policies continue to make life more difficult for hardworking Americans – from gas pumps to grocery stores. Approving the Keystone XL pipeline would create shovel-ready jobs and ease the burden on America's working families. They've waited long enough, and they can no longer afford to pay the price for the President's inaction. It's time for the President to put people before politics."

The Consistently Divisive Rhetoric of President Obama

This is something Victor Davis Hanson has been highlighting for years.

See Jay Cost, at the Weekly Standard, "Uncommonly Partisan":

In the wake of last week’s mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, as first responders were tending the victims, police were searching for more culprits, and the nation’s capital was entering lockdown, President Barack Obama gave a speech. This normally would not be news. After all, the president is a loquacious man, and, moreover, the country now expects the president to be therapist-in-chief whenever some sort of disaster, human or natural, occurs.

But Obama’s speech was different from what one would expect. After a few rote words of condolence to the victims, he went after his political opponents with vehemence, charging them with fiscal recklessness and a disregard for the plight of the middle class, and mocking them for wanting to repeal Obamacare. It was a remarkably tone-deaf presentation considering the events of the day. But it was par for the course for this administration, which is one of the most partisan we have seen in the last 60 years.

Emily Miller made similar points on the day of the speech, focusing especially on the gun control angle.

But seriously, Obama's not only the most partisan president we've had in 60 years, he's the worst president. Indeed, he's the worst ever.

What a disgrace.

More at that top link.