ISIS Rises in Syria

It's the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

At Der Spiegel, "Masked Army: Shadowy Jihadist Group Expands Rapidly in Syria":

A murderous Islamist group called ISIS is obstructing Syrian rebels in their battle against President Bashar Assad's regime. The Free Syrian Army seems barely able to put up a fight in the face of their brutal tactics.

The sender was unidentified, but the young engineer knew who the email was from as soon as he opened the attachment. Beneath a picture of the brutally mutilated corpse of Muhannad Halaibna, a civil rights activist known throughout the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, was a single sentence: "Are you sad now about your friend?"

Mere hours later, the engineer and 20 other members of the Syrian opposition -- doctors, city council members and activists -- escaped from Raqqa into Turkey. They weren't fleeing Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, but a new and terrible power that has no face and goes by many names. The official name of this al-Qaida branch, which has broken away from Osama Bin Laden's successors, is the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS). "Daaisch" is the most common abbreviation of the group's name in Syria. "But we call them the Army of Masks," says Basil, the engineer who fled the country, "because their men rarely show their faces. They dress in black, with their faces covered."
In addition to civil rights activist Halaibna, the group's thugs have kidnapped hundreds of others in Raqqa, where Assad's army was driven out back in March. The jihadists seized the chair of the city council, the heads of the civilian opposition, an Italian Jesuit and six European journalists. Anyone who opposes the ISIS fighters, or who is simply considered an unbeliever, disappears.

ISIS maintains four prisons for holding its hostages in this area alone. And Raqqa was only the beginning. In the last four months, the jihadist group, which was still essentially unknown in Syria at the start of this year, has seized control of several cities, as well as strategically important roads, oil fields and granaries.

What is currently taking place in the north and northeast of the country could bring about the worst case scenario: Syria's disintegration. This is not because the Syrian rebels are eager al-Qaida supporters -- as Assad's propaganda has claimed since the spring of 2011 -- but because people are exhausted after three years of destruction and don't have much energy left to oppose the jihadists' rapid expansion.

More at the link.

And see Weasel Zippers, "Syrian Jihadists Post Pictures of Beheaded Alawite Civilians…"

Well, not too many folks are worried about this, but Syria's the new ground zero for global Islamic jihad.

National Lampoon's #ObamaCare Vacation

A humorous editorial at the Wall Street Journal.

It turns out April Todd-Malmlov, the state director of Minnesota's MNsure exchange, resigned under pressure after taking a vacation to the Cayman Islands. And the editors snark, "Is Mr. [John] Podesta or Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius due for a holiday? A flap over an inopportune vacation might be the only thing that would force the White House to hold someone responsible for ObamaCare."

Read it all at that link. The editors slam far-left Podesta as a "hit man."

More here, "Podesta’s Non-Apology Presages More WH Lies."

NYT Poll: Majority of 53 Percent of Uninsured Disapprove of #ObamaCare

That's a bit higher than even those who're insured.

See, "Uninsured Skeptical of Health Care Law in Poll":

WASHINGTON — Americans who lack medical coverage disapprove of President Obama’s health care law at roughly the same rate as the insured, even though most say they struggle to pay for basic care, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Fifty-three percent of the uninsured disapprove of the law, the poll found, compared with 51 percent of those who have health coverage. A third of the uninsured say the law will help them personally, but about the same number think it will hurt them, with cost a leading concern.

The widespread skepticism, even among people who are supposed to benefit from the law, underscores the political challenge facing the Obama administration as it tries to persuade millions of Americans to enroll in coverage through new online marketplaces, a crucial element of making the new law financially viable for insurers.

Continue reading.

Also at Weasel Zippers, "New CBS/NYT Poll Finds Only 15% of Insured Americans Think Obamacare Will Help Them…."

This is the Ad Every Republican Should Run in 2014

Says American Glob.



HAT TIP: Legal Insurrection.

Business Insider's (Childless) Josh Barro Bilks Amazon.com's Mother's Discount Program

The revolting turd's actually boasting about it.

See Truth Revolt, "Obama's Favorite Columnist Invents Fake Child to Get Amazon Mom Discount."

There's video at the link.

Amazon knows some customers will lie, indicating that it relies on an "honor system."

Obviously, Barro --- not to mention his smirkily approving MSNBC co-hosts --- is rather dishonorable.

More from Mary Katharine Ham, at Hot Air, "War on Moms: MSNBC pundits plot to fraudulently claim our Amazon benefits" (via Memeorandum).

Indefinite Hiatus for 'Duck Dynasty's' Phil Robertson After Speaking Truth to Homosexual Depravity

I don't watch the show --- shoot, I don't watch half the shows everybody's always talking about on social media.

But the response to this story has been unusually intense, so here's the obligatory write-up.

The Other McCain queries, "Is Phil Robertson Wrong?"

Of course he's not wrong. At issue is Robertson's interview at GQ, where he rebuked homosexuality as an abomination, at Memeorandum, "What the Duck?"

As usual, the issue for me is the double standard. Twitchy has that, "Selective outrage: GLAAD slams Phil Robertson after letting Alec Baldwin slide," and "A&E suspends Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson; Katie Pavlich, others rip ‘crap’ decision."

Here's the Real #ObamaCare Homosexual Outreach!

You gotta check this out at AoSHQ, "Oh My: Footie Pajama Guy Wasn't the 'Gay Outreach' Effort of Obamacare's Minions. This [is] the Gay Outreach Effort":

It is hard to take the left seriously when it accuses the right in trafficking in easy, insulting stereotypes when it appears they do little but that themselves.

Boy, talk about some easy trafficking.

This advertisement is freakin' homo! See, "Get Enrolled."

And here's the website, "Out 2 Enroll":

What if I’m transgender?

Being transgender is no longer a preexisting condition – and insurance companies cannot refuse to sell you a plan or charge you more based on your gender identity. If you are a transgender person, you have the right to expect that your plan will cover the services you need as long as those services are covered for other people on your plan. These services may include preventive screenings such as mammograms, Pap tests, and prostate exams; hormone therapy; and mental health services. Depending on your plan, these services may also include surgical procedures related to gender transition.

Now that's progress!

UPDATE! Turns out Bob Belvedere's, uh, beaten me to the punch, "Vex Appeal."

India Removes Barricades at U.S. Embassy in Delhi in Retaliation for Diplomatic Row

The BBC reports on the removal of the barricades, which signals state support for attacks on the U.S. mission. I'm sure the symbolism's not lost on the State Department, although history shows the suits at Foggy Bottom don't care much for the lives of diplomats serving overseas.

At the New York Times, "U.S. Moves to Cool India’s Rage Over Arrested Diplomat":

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry called a senior Indian official on Wednesday to express his “regret” over an episode in which law enforcement officials in New York arrested an Indian diplomat last week and strip-searched her.

Mr. Kerry’s call to the official, Shivshankar Menon, India’s national security adviser, was disclosed by the State Department in a statement.

The Indian government has complained bitterly about the treatment of the diplomat, Devyani Khobragade. In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the arrest deplorable, Indian newspaper editorials expressed outrage, and the police removed barriers meant to protect the American Embassy.

Ms. Khobragade, 39, was accused of submitting false documents to obtain a work visa for a housekeeper, and Indian newspapers said she had been subjected to repeated body cavity searches.

The United States Marshals Service, which handled her detention, said that she had been subjected to the standard detention procedures for “arrestees within the general prisoner population.”

She was thrown in a cell with drug addicts and prostitutes.

Better than being abandoned to the terrorists at diplomatic compound, I guess.

Record High 72 Percent of Americans See Big Government as Threat

At Gallup, "Record High in U.S. Say Big Government Greatest Threat."

Politics goes in cycles, they say. But all the recent polling portends a massive electoral earthquake in 2014. Unless the Democrats see some really dramatic improvement in the numbers, they're looking at perhaps the most disastrous midterm repudiation in the postwar era. The Senate in particular will be the venue to watch. Republicans need 6 seats, but Democrats are defending 21.

I can't wait. It's gonna be a bloodbath.

Fabulous Rhian Sugden Photoshoot

Very nice.

From JD Anwar Photography in London.

New PICCIE!!! @Rhianmarie pic.twitter.com/jQLs4LQBq7

— JD Anwar (@JDAnwar) December 16, 2013

Click around at the Twitter profile for additional photos.

And here's the website.

Leftist Character Assassins Now Remorseful Over Destruction of Mitt Romney

The fact is, Mitt Romney was one of the most decent men to ever run for the presidency, and his character assassination by Team Obama and the administration's despicable minions is one of the most vicious, lowdown political smears in the history of presidential politics. And now that it's all over, leftists grudgingly admit, "Gee, Romney was actually a pretty decent guy."

See the ultimate regressive asshole Paul Waldman, at the American Prospect, "New Documentary Threatens to Make You Like Mitt Romney: He was, after all, human":

During the 2012 campaign, I, like every liberal writer whose job it is to comment on politics every day, wrote many unkind things about Mitt Romney. Much of the time I found him more sad than despicable; politicians who nearly reach the pinnacle of their profession while being manifestly awful at politics are a rare and curious breed. Like Al Gore before him, Romney's discomfort with the requirements of campaigning was so close to the surface that he couldn't help but inspire a kind of pity. That isn't to say that I didn't find plenty of his statements and policy positions contemptible, because I certainly did, and said so without hesitation. But in the end, Romney wasn't as easy to hate as some other politicians might be.

So a year after he joined that small, melancholy club of presidential losers, it's time that even those of us who thought it would be a terrible thing if he became president can see Romney as a human being. In January, Netflix will be releasing a behind-the-scenes documentary called "Mitt," and the preview is surprisingly endearing...

In other words, "we f-ked that guy over more ruthlessly than one of R. Kelly underage sexual assault victims."

But continue reading (via Memeorandum).

So far it's just Waldman saying Romney was "human after all," but expect more "nice things" to be said about the former GOP standard-bearer --- as leftists have no more utility in their disgusting attacks on Romney and his family. The Democrat henchmen did their job. Obama won his reelection, and the country is suffering just as Romney himself predicted during the campaign. It's enough to make you hate politics, or something.

Ben Bernanke Struggled to Boost U.S. Economic Growth

Bernanke's stepping down at the end of the month, and the Fed's supposed to ease off its economic stimulus policies, but we'll see. A report at the New York Times, "Fed Scales Back Stimulus Campaign."

And see the Wall Street Journal, "Meltdown Averted, Bernanke Struggled to Stoke Growth: Fed Chairman Fails to Engineer Robust Recovery, Even With Extraordinary Measures" (via Google):

After a financial crisis he didn't see coming, Ben Bernanke steered the U.S. away from a potentially devastating panic. Yet five years later, the recovery he helped engineer with extraordinary policies remains frustratingly weak.

As Mr. Bernanke prepares for his final days as Federal Reserve chairman, that legacy—a mix of failings, boldness, persistence and frustration—is coming into sharper focus, and with it a clearer picture of the power and limitations of modern central banking.

Fed officials meeting in Washington on Wednesday face another consequential decision: a close call on whether to start winding down their $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program.

At the root of the issue is a long-running debate between Mr. Bernanke and other Fed officials about how much more a central bank can or should do to try to spur an economy that hasn't been wholly responsive to its efforts.

It could be the last big Fed decision before Mr. Bernanke ends his chairmanship next month, eight years after taking the helm in what he expected to be a far-more-placid era.

"I will make continuity with the policies and policy strategies of the Greenspan Fed a top priority," Mr. Bernanke said at his first confirmation hearing in November 2005, citing predecessor Alan Greenspan. He talked broadly of the need to ensure financial stability, but made no mention in his statement of the threat from a housing boom that by then had begun showing signs of cracking.

How would you rate Bernanke's performance? How will history remember him? Weigh in here.
Fans of Mr. Bernanke say history will mark him most as the courageous economic steward who, once crisis struck in 2008 and 2009, flooded the financial system with loans and averted another Great Depression.

"This is like saving you from nuclear war," said Ray Dalio, founder of the giant hedge fund Bridgewater Associates.

Mark Gertler, a New York University economics professor and friend of Mr. Bernanke, said that "like Roosevelt, he was the calming influence, the grown-up in the room, during the darkest days of the economic turmoil."

Before then, however, came calculations that haunt the Fed.

Mr. Bernanke's first steps in office were to continue a succession of small interest-rate increases that some economists say were too late, and too timid, to curb a badly swollen housing bubble.

Mr. Bernanke has disputed that analysis, but acknowledged that the Fed failed to adequately supervise banks before the crisis or to see danger to the broader financial system—mistakes that have since led Congress to revamp Washington's approach to financial supervision.

Early on, Mr. Bernanke embraced only reluctantly the interventionist stance that has come to define his stewardship.

In December 2007, for example, he said he was "quite conflicted" about whether to cut interest rates sharply, according to transcripts of Fed's meetings. That turned out the be the month the recession began. At other times, he talked about wanting to avoid bailing out financial markets, institutions or people.

Timothy Geithner, the former Treasury Secretary and New York Fed president, saw the reserved former professor's worldview change in early January 2008 as financial turmoil deepened and started to bite the economy.

"That's when he decided that the risks were so great and he was going to have to be much more aggressive," Mr. Geithner said. "He kept at it."

It is widely accepted that the landmark policies Mr. Bernanke championed during and after the crisis—rock-bottom interest rates, loans to banks and controversial bond buying—averted an economic calamity. Their failure to spur a vigorous recovery, however, has created perhaps the biggest unanswered question about Mr. Bernanke's legacy.

"I wish I was leaving with the unemployment rate at 5% instead of 7%," he said wistfully during a November discussion with high-school teachers.

The Fed has promised to hold short-term interest rates near zero at least until the unemployment rate, currently 7%, falls to 6.5%. And in an effort to drive long-term rates down, the central bank has accumulated more than $3 trillion in Treasury bonds and mortgage securities.

In the process, it has flooded the U.S. banking system with money, funds available for banks to lend. These cheap-credit policies, in theory, should spur job-creating growth.

There's a fabulous graphic here, "Imperfect Tools, Imperfect Economy." Pay attention to the radical growth and scale of quantitative easing after 2009. The Fed flooded the economy with money, deflating the currency while staving off a collapse in growth. Seriously. Just take a look at the scale of the monetary stimulus. That's gotta be unprecedented.

See that New York Times piece at top for more.

MSNBC's Krystal Ball: 'Every Non-Incarcerated Adult Citizen Gets a Monthly Check From the Government...'

She's a blithering idiot, but typical of the deep bench of brain-dead socialists at MSNBC.

At Sweetness and Light, "Krystal Ball: Give Everyone a Minimum Income."

Elie Wiesel Ad in NYT and WSJ: 'Iran Must Not Be Allowed to Remain Nuclear'

At Algemeiner, "Elie Wiesel Says ‘Iran Must Not Be Allowed to Remain Nuclear’ in Full Page Ads in NYT, WSJ."

And at Israel Matzav, "Elie Wiesel's full-page ad in today's New York Times against Iran remaining nuclear."

Here it is:

Iran Must Not Be Allowed to Remain Nuclear

If there is one lesson I hope the world has learned from the past it is that regimes rooted in brutality must never be trusted. And the words and actions of the leadership of Iran leave no doubt as to their intentions.

Should the civilized nations of the world trust a regime whose supreme leader said yet again last month that Israel is “doomed to annihilation,” and referred to my fellow Jewish Zionists as “rabid dogs?”

Should we who believe in human rights, trust a regime which in the 21st century stones women and hangs homosexuals?

Should we who believe in freedom trust a regime which murdered its own citizens in the streets of Tehran when the people protested a stolen election in the Green Revolution of Summer, 2009?

Should we who believe in the United States trust a regime whose parliament last month erupted in “Death to America” chants as they commemorated the 34th anniversary of the storming of our Embassy in Tehran?

Should we who believe in life trust a regime whom our own State Department lists as one of the world’s foremost sponsors of terrorism?

America, too, defines itself by its words and actions. America adopted me, as it did so many others, and gave me a home after my people were exterminated in the camps of Europe. And from the time of the founding fathers America has always stood up to tyrants. Our nation is morally compromised when it contemplates allowing a country calling for the destruction of the State of Israel to remain within reach of nuclear weapons.

Sanctions have come at a terrible economic cost for the people of Iran. But, unfortunately, sanctions are what have brought the Iranian regime to the negotiating table.

I appeal to President Obama and Congress to demand, as a condition of continued talks, the total dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and the regime’s public and complete repudiation of all genocidal intent against Israel. And I appeal to the leaders of the United States Senate to go forward with their vote to strengthen sanctions against Iran until these conditions have been met.

I once wrote that history has taught us to trust the threats of our enemies more than the promises of our friends. Our enemies are making serious threats. It is time to take them seriously. It is time for our friends to keep their promises.

Elie Wiesel

Nobel Peace Laureate

This Ad was produced by This World: The Values Network (LOGO)

Executive Director, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

And Sponsored by Michael Steinhardt, Board of Governors, This World: The Values Network; co-founder Birthright Israel

WaPo's Greg Sargent is 'Waiting for Barack'

Big Fur Hat posted this mock-up the other day.



And Memeorandum's got a thread with the idiot's latest ClusterCare ramblings, "The consequences of GOP opposition to Obamacare."

You might notice how, for the idiot shill Sargent, any and all problems with ObamaCare are to be blamed on Republicans. It's disgusting. Lonely Con has more on that, "Will The GOP Fall Into The Democrats’ Obamacare Trap?"

Also at AceofSpadesHQ, "Let's Go Cherry-Picking!"

#ObamaCare 'Disaster' Erodes Faith in Government

Emily Ekins breaks down the finding from the latest Reason-Rupe poll, via Reason, "Obamacare Launch Eroding Faith in Government as Problem Solver: Reason-Rupe Poll December 2013."

And going right to the poll, "Americans Want to Go Back to Previous Health Care System, Disagree With President Obama on Size and Power of Government."

Devastating.

If You Oppose Obama, You're a 'Hater'

See Rush Limbaugh, "If you don't like what's going on in Washington, if your solution is to vote Republican, you're a hater."

More, "Washington Post says you're a 'hater' if you're among 71% who oppose ObamaCare, 12/17/13."

Hat Tip: Robert Stacy McCain, "Haters Gonna Hate, Deniers Gonna Deny."

Ann Coulter Explains Why Santa Claus and Jesus Can't Be Black

She's "insanely jealous of Megyn Kelly."

Caganer Figurine Has Nelson Mandela Taking a Dump

Well, this goes against the grain a bit.

Watch toward the end of the clip. It's Saint Mandela squatting.



Hey, they've got Queen Elizabeth taking a dump as well, so what can you do?

See Telegraph UK, "Barcelona 'pooper' figurines hit shelves."

Organizing for Action Brings the Lulz with 'Grown Man in a Onesie' Talkin' #ObamaCare

At Twitchy, "‘This is getting insane’: OFA’s onesie-clad Obamacare spokesmodel inspires mockery."

How do you plan to spend the cold days of December? http://t.co/Rwf5AYc3bG #GetTalking pic.twitter.com/PBQ397yLf4

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 17, 2013

@baseballcrank LOL! What the hell is that!? I'm still laughing

— Michi I. (@michi83) December 17, 2013

More at Big Government, "OFA VIDEO TEACHES PARENTS HOW TO INJECT OBAMACARE INTO CHRISTMAS DINNER."

Actually, that parents' indoctrination video debuted before Thanksgiving. I guess it's making a comeback for Christmas, because ObamaCare is working so wonderfully, or something.

How the Media Will Report the Apocalypse

Heh.

At BuzzFeed.

Be sure to click through. It's all good.

How The Media Will Report The Apocalypse ⇁ http://t.co/1KbaQqQn9z pic.twitter.com/bFJ1fLormd

— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) December 18, 2013

The Decline of American Propaganda

It's an embarrassing time for Democrats. Ruthlessly embarrassing.

Here's Iowahawk on Twitter.

US government propaganda, 1943 http://t.co/x1lFdK9aUz US government propaganda, 2013 pic.twitter.com/UgEmUBtO1M

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 18, 2013

Via Instapundit.

Mega Millions Jackpot Soars to Estimated $636 Million

I don't go in for it, although my wife does.

Here's the Associated Press:

AP VIDEO: As the Mega Millions jackpot soars to an estimated $636 million, some players share their plans: http://t.co/J0xojJQyQ4
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 18, 2013

But see Michelle Malkin:

Powerball. Megamillions. Whatever the name, it's all the same government-protected, regressive tax-subsidized scam.
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) December 18, 2013

Well, maybe some lucky schlep will win the big one, at the Boston Herald, "Mega Millions jackpot near record payout: Visions of 600M $ugarplums."

Embrace the Suck

Look, I keep signing off with "embrace the suck," so I might as well post the source for this hilarious ode to Democrat incompetence.

It's House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, of all people.

At the New York Post, "Pelosi on budget deal: ‘Embrace the suck’."



And while Pelosi's dissing the budget deal, it's embrace the suck all around for Democrats in 2014. And some of them aren't up for it. See Glenn Reynolds, "YOU DON’T NEED A WEATHERMAN TO SEE WHICH WAY THE WIND BLOWS: Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) resigns rather than face Mia Love again in 2014."

Obama Hijacks NSA Technology Meeting to Fix #ObamaCare

He's such a loser.

At London's Daily Mail, "Obama 'hijacks' tech executive meeting to make 'PR pitch' on Obamacare website fix instead of dealing with NSA surveillance":

"'We didn't really care for a PR pitch' about Obamacare, said one executive."

Yeah, well, embrace the suck brother.

Obama Meets with Tech CEOs as NSA Backlash Builds

At NYT, "As Tech Industry Leaders Meet With Obama, N.S.A. Ruling Looms Large."

Notice at the video how Vice President Biden's sitting next to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. She should be careful: "‘Every HR department’s worst nightmare’: Photo of Joe Biden getting his grope on causes a stir," and "‘Watch his hands, Brooke’! Gropin’ Joe Biden creeps on CNN’s Brooke Baldwin [pic]."



And here's NYT on yesterday's big ruling, "Federal Judge Rules Against N.S.A. Phone Data Program."

But see Orin Kerr, at Volokh, "Preliminary Thoughts on Judge Leon’s Opinion." (Via Memeorandum.)

Leeches in U.K.'s House of Lords

This is interesting. Scandalous even.

At Mirror UK, "Lord Hanningfield expenses scandal: 'There are 50 other peers doing it that I could name'," and "Expenses cheat Lord Hanningfield shows that House of Lords must be reformed."

You have to read this dolt justify clocking in and out on the public's dime. At the links. (Via Louise Mensch.)

Millennials to Obama: You Suck, Mofo

At USA Today, "USA TODAY/Pew poll: Obama struggles with Millennials":

WASHINGTON — Millennials have provided invaluable political support to President Obama over the course of his presidency, voting for him by a roughly 2-to-1 margin in his two successful campaigns against Mitt Romney and John McCain.

But as Obama tries to climb out of a 2-month-long malaise that saw his popularity sink with the fumbled rollout of the federal health care exchange, the president appears to have nearly as much work to do with young people as he does with older Americans.

Forty-five percent of 18- to 29-year-old Americans say they approve of the way Obama is handling his job; 46% disapprove of his job performance, according to a year-end USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll. The president's approval rating with young Americans — which stood at 67% just ahead of his second inauguration less than a year ago — now mirrors the general population, according to the poll.

The USA TODAY/Pew sample is of only 229 young Americans -- a subset of 2,001 adults polled from Dec. 3-8 -- and has a margin of error of +/- 8 percentage points.

But the findings mirror other recent polling that suggests Obama has seen his approval rating slide with young Americans....

In the USA TODAY/Pew poll, just 41% approve of his signature health care policy, while 54% disapprove. Overall, 40% of Americans approve and 55% disapprove of his health care policy, according to the poll.

The tough polling numbers with young Americans offer a snapshot of the road ahead for the Obama administration in repairing damage caused by the troubled rollout of Obamacare, which has even worn on some of the president's most ardent supporters.

The administration has dedicated much of the president's time and political capital toward making implementation of Obamacare a success after battling with early problems -- the glitch-riddled online exchange and the outrage that ensued when millions of Americans on the individual insurance market received cancellation notices because their policies didn't meet minimum benefit requirements set by the law.

Key to making the Affordable Care Act a success is enrolling plenty of young, healthy people whose participation will offset some higher risk and older uninsured Americans who are expected to flock to the exchanges.

Kyle Olberding, 23, an Army veteran who now works at a candy shop, said that he admires Obama for ending the war in Iraq and winding down the war in Afghanistan and credits the president for pursuing a diplomatic solution with Iran over its nuclear program.

But Olberding, of Wichita, Kan., said he is unhappy with the president's efforts on the economy, reducing the federal budget deficit and implementing the health care law. Olberding, who said he works full time but doesn't make much money, said he remains uncertain about whether he can afford health insurance and resents being required to purchase it.

"At this current point in my life, I have other things that need to be paid for and the extra cost is just not something I can afford right now," said Olberding, who said he hasn't yet explored the website or looked into the level of subsidy he might qualify for.

So true.

And here's that killer Harvard poll from earlier this month, "Millennial Generation Abandons Obama."

With O getting trashed like this all the time, this next year is going to be fantastic! Embrace the suck, Dems!

George and Johnny Huynh, Up and Out

I love Twitter stories like this, at Twitchy, "Boston Globe reporter shares personal story of hope, the American dream, ‘what’s right’."

Here's a link to the article I wrote: http://t.co/mMwheRtTyi. And here's a link to the video @laurenfrohne made: http://t.co/lc9XQIfvMf

— Billy Baker (@billy_baker) December 16, 2013

New York Cultural Elite 'Victimized' by Obama Health Plan They Supported

Pure schadenfreude.

At IBD, "ObamaCare Betrays New York's Liberal Elite":

Socialized Medicine: Members of New York's cultural elite who voted for President Obama are learning that their health insurance plans are being canceled because of ObamaCare. Forgive us for not puddling up.

The New York Times reports that thousands of Upper West Side writers, musicians, actors, photographers, artists, doctors and lawyers are starting to get the same cancellation letters that middle-class Americans across the country have received.

And like other victims of ObamaCare's unintended consequences, they're discovering they're going to have to pay more to get comparable coverage — if they can find it. Many can't locate their doctors and hospitals on the ObamaCare exchange.

These are the same liberal elite who supported Obama and his takeover of the private health-care sector. During the 2012 presidential race, they derided "cold-hearted" Romney voters critical of Obama's new big-government entitlements. Now they're paying for their own idealism, and they don't like it.

"I couldn't sleep because of it," said Manhattan lawyer Barbara Meinwald of her cancellation notice. Her group plan through the New York City Bar didn't meet the ObamaCare mandates. So now she whines she has to pay $5,000 more for a plan covering fewer doctors.

The biggest idiots --- and leftist a-holes, to the one. Couldn't happen to a more revolting bunch.

Continue reading.

And here's the piece at NYT, "With Affordable Care Act, Canceled Policies for New York Professionals."

Embrace the suck.

American Studies Association Issues Israel Boycott Talking Points

At Legal Insurrection, "ASA issues member talking points to counter university pushback over Israel boycott."

And speaking of the ASA, see Commentary, "Roger Waters’s Anti-Jewish Paranoia":

If you want to get supporters of boycotts against Israel into high dudgeon just try observing, as Larry Summers has, that such boycotts are “anti-Semitic in their effect if not necessarily in their intent.” Summers has called the most recent boycott effort at the American Studies Association “abhorrent” because at the same time that it singles out Israel for condemnation “among all the countries in the world that might be thought to have human rights abuses,” it ignores the “existential threat” Israel faces.

Nowadays, if you make such a charge you are likely to be greeted with the protest that the boycott movement’s “core principles include the opposition to every form of racism, including both state-sponsored racism and anti-Semitism” along with cries that you are trying to distract people from the main issue. Why then, is former Pink Floyd front man Roger Waters a hero of that movement?

*****

I don’t mean the mandatory comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany. While Waters may have shocked some people when he said that the “parallels [between Israel’s treatment of Palestinians] with what went on in the 30’s in Germany are so crushingly obvious,” this kind of vileness is par for the course in pro-boycott circles. I have this statement in mind:

The Jewish lobby is extraordinarily powerful here and particularly in the industry that I work in, the music industry and in rock’n roll as they say. I promise you, naming no names, I’ve spoken to people who are terrified…. They have said to me “aren’t you worried for your life?”

Waters has not been adequately coached. In the BDS movement, you are supposed to refer to your targets as “Zionists” (because it is all right to view people who support Israel’s national project as proto-Nazis) or as “pro-Israel.” With that one “Jewish lobby,” the mask slipped. One does not have to think that Roger Waters dislikes Jews to think that his general way of thinking, along with the way of thinking of many of his comrades in arms, is infected with anti-Semitic mythology. To repeat: Roger Waters thinks that there is a powerful Jewish lobby in the music industry that may just be out to kill him.

More at the link.

These are the most disgusting people on earth. Literally eliminationist.

'Stomach Churning' R. Kelly Sexual Assault Allegations: 'Kelly Likes Them Young...'

An utterly mind-boggling Village Voice interview with music journalist Jim DeRogatis.

Literally unreal. Extremely horrifying.

See, "Read the 'Stomach-Churning' Sexual Assault Accusations Against R. Kelly in Full":

Refresh our memories. How did this start for you?

Being a beat reporter, music critic at a Chicago daily, the Sun-Times, R. Kelly was a huge story for me, this guy who rose from not graduating from Kenwood Academy, singing at backyard barbecues and on the El, to suddenly selling millions of records. I interviewed him a number of times. Then TP2.com came out. I'd written a review that said the jarring thing about Kelly is that one moment he wants to be riding you and then next minute he's on his knees, crying and praying to his dead mother in Heaven for forgiveness for his unnamed sins. It's a little weird at times. It's just an observation. The next day at the Sun-Times, we got this anonymous fax -- we didn't know where it came from. It said: R. Kelly's been under investigation for two years by the sex-crimes unit of the Chicago police. And I threw it on the corner of my desk. I thought, "player-hater." Now, from the beginning, there were rumors that Kelly likes them young. And there'd been this Aaliyah thing -- Vibe printed, without much commentary and no reporting, the marriage certificate. Kelly or someone had falsified her age as 18. There was that. So all this is floating in the air. This fax arrives and I think, "Oh, this is somebody playing with this." But there was something that nagged at me as a reporter. There were specific names, specific dates, and those great, long Polish cop names. And you're not going to make that crap up. So I went to the city desk and I asked, "What do we do with this?" They said, Abdon Pallasch is the courts reporter, why don't you two look into it and see if there's anything there? And it turns out there had been lawsuits that had been filed that had never been reported. When you cover the courts in Chicago or any city, you go twice a day and you go through the bin of cases that have been filed and every once in a while Michael Jordan's been sued or someone went bankrupt and it's this sexy story and you pull it out. These suits had been filed at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Ain't no reporter working at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and they flew under the radar. So we had these lawsuits that were explosive and we didn't understand why nobody had reported them.

Explosive in what regard?

They were stomach-churning. The one young woman, who had been 14 or 15 when R. Kelly began a relationship with her, detailed in great length, in her affidavits, a sexual relationship that began at Kenwood Academy: He would go back in the early years of his success and go to Lina McLin's gospel choir class. She's a legend in Chicago, gospel royalty. He would go to her sophomore class and hook up with girls afterward and have sex with them. Sometimes buy them a pair of sneakers. Sometimes just letting them hang out in his presence in the recording studio. She detailed the sexual relationship that she was scarred by. It lasted about one and a half to two years, and then he dumped her and she slit her wrists, tried to kill herself. Other girls were involved. She recruited other girls. He picked up other girls and made them all have sex together. A level of specificity that was pretty disgusting.

Her lawsuit was hundreds of pages long, and Kelly countersued. The countersuit was, like, 10 pages long: "None of this is true!" We began our reporting. We knocked on a lot of doors. The lawsuits, the two that we had found initially, had been settled. Kelly had paid the women and their families money and the settlements were sealed by the court. But of course, the initial lawsuits remain part of the public record....

And there was a young woman who was pressured into an abortion?

That he paid for. There was a young woman that he picked up on the evening of her prom. The relationship lasted a year and a half or two years. Impregnated her, paid for her abortion, had his goons drive her. None of which she wanted. She sued him. The saddest fact I've learned is: Nobody matters less to our society than young black women. Nobody. They have any complaint about the way they are treated: they are "bitches, hos, and gold diggers," plain and simple. Kelly never misbehaved with a single white girl who sued him or that we know of. Mark Anthony Neal, the African-American scholar, makes this point : one white girl in Winnetka and the story would have been different.

No, it was young black girls and all of them settled. They settled because they felt they could get no justice whatsoever. They didn't have a chance.

Keep reading. (Via Memeorandum.)

All the legal filings are at the interview, if you're up for 'em.

And see the great post at BuzzFeed, with lots of Twitter commentary, "R. Kelly’s Alleged Sexual Assaults And Why No One’s Talking About It."

Former U.S. Embassy in Iran Turned Into Anti-American Museum

I watched this when it aired on CBS last week.

Via Atlas Shrugs.

Dana Loesch Destroys Leftist Race Hustler Richard Fowler

At Fire Andrea Mitchell.

That Fowler dude is one disgusting race-baiting twerp.

Democrats Send Oppo Tracker to Dig Dirt on Sen. Kelly Ayotte at Funeral Service in New Hampshire

Stay classy, Dems.

At BuzzFeed, "Democratic Group American Bridge Apologizes After Oppo Tracker Films Memorial Service":

The New Hampshire Republican party announced they would ban American Bridge from all party events after they “crashed” the service.

“It is disgusting that a Democrat-affiliated group like American Bridge would politicize a memorial service and use this non-partisan event to try and score cheap political points,” said NHGOP Chairman Jennifer Horn. “Clearly this classless liberal political organization has crossed the line, and as a result of its outrageous behavior, American Bridge trackers are immediately banned from all New Hampshire Republican State Committee sponsored events. Additionally, we will encourage all candidates, and local Republican committees to remove American Bridge staff from their events.”

Drunk Santas Brawl in New York

At first I thought this was an act or something.

Turns out it was a bunch of bums at a Santa Claus convention. Who knew?

Here's the headline at iOWNTHEWORLD, "It Isn’t Christmas Until Drunk Santas Are Punching it Out on the Street."

And at London's Daily Mail, "Brutal street brawl between six Santas caps off drunken SantaCon debauchery that has New Yorkers wishing St. Nick would stop visiting the Big Apple."

A Complete Fake

Via Theo Spark.

Marriage Equality: Federal Judge Strikes Down Polygamy Ban Based on Gay Rights

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine:

And yes. Turning gay marriage into a thing paves the way for legalizing polygamy. As everyone with a brain predicted. Polygamy, unlike gay marriage, was actually a thing. It has thousands of years of history behind it. So this was bound to happen.

If we’re not going to have any standards for marriage except “People in a relationship of some kind” then there’s no reason not to recognize polygamy. Or any of the crazier stuff coming down the pike. And that was why the left pushed the gay marriage scam to begin with.

Can't say we didn't warn you.

Continue reading.

More at the Other McCain, "‘Emerging Awareness’ Update: Remember the Texas Polygamy Teen Sex Cult?"

Holiday Cheer to Marines All Over the World

Happy Holidays Marines! (Via Theo Spark.)

AP-GFK Poll: 76 Percent Say #ObamaCare Making U.S. Healthcare Worse

I don't see BooMan Tribune posting on this, although the idiot could be taking the day off. (He keeps blabbering about how much everybody's gonna love the ObamaCare clusterf-k once enrollment numbers pick up, blah blah.)

At Associated Press, "AP-GFK POLL: HEALTH LAW SEEN AS ERODING COVERAGE":

An Associated Press-GfK poll finds that health care remains politically charged going into next year's congressional elections. Keeping the refurbished HealthCare.gov website running smoothly is just one of Obama's challenges, maybe not the biggest.

The poll found a striking level of unease about the law among people who have health insurance and aren't looking for any more government help. Those are the 85 percent of Americans who the White House says don't have to be worried about the president's historic push to expand coverage for the uninsured.

In the survey, nearly half of those with job-based or other private coverage say their policies will be changing next year — mostly for the worse. Nearly 4 in 5 (77 percent) blame the changes on the Affordable Care Act, even though the trend toward leaner coverage predates the law's passage.

Sixty-nine percent say their premiums will be going up, while 59 percent say annual deductibles or copayments are increasing.

Only 21 percent of those with private coverage said their plan is expanding to cover more types of medical care, though coverage of preventive care at no charge to the patient has been required by the law for the past couple of years.

Fourteen percent said coverage for spouses is being restricted or eliminated, and 11 percent said their plan is being discontinued.

"Rightly or wrongly, people with private insurance looking at next year are really worried about what is going to happen," said Robert Blendon, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, who tracks public opinion on health care issues. "The website is not the whole story."

It's actually 76 percent who blame ObamaCare at the survey questionnaire, "THE AP-GfK POLL: December, 2013."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Self Stimulation," and Randy's Roundtable, "Picture of the Day."

More at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

Rule 5 Sunday

Some lovely Jessica Davies below.

PREVIOUSLY: "Smokin' Sunday #Rule5," and "Jessika Jinx on Sunday."

And at Camp of the Saints, "Rule 5 Saturday: Karla James."

Pirate's Cove's blog is not loading, so I'm linking William Teach on Twitter if you wanna give him a heads up.

More at Knuckledraggin', "Your Good Morning Girl."

Also at Blackmailers Don't Shoot, "Pretty Girls on a Friday, Beach Volleyball Edition."

Subject to Change has "Why Am I Watching CSPAN?"

From Drunken Stepfather, "Steplinks of the Day."

At 90 Miles From Tyranny, "Morning Mistress," and "Girls With Guns."

EBL has "Seahawks at Giants Stadium."

And see Proof Positive, "Best of the Web* Linkaround," and "SF 49er's Vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers."

At the Chive, "I'm still bikini dreaming in December (50 Photos)" (via Linkiest).

And In a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has the "Friday Pinups."

Also at Egotastic!, "Lisa Opie and Anais Zanotti Bikini Catty Hotties on Miami Beach."

See also the Hostages, "Big Boob Friday."

A View from the Beach has, "The Mommy Warriors."

Daley Gator has a "Sunday Linkfest."

And over at Bro Bible, "Get Your Mind Right For Monday With 31 Photos of Hot Girls in Red Lipstick."

Soylent Refuge has "Ah, Breakfast."

Goodstuff's has, "Quality Over Quantity."

And over at Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart: Kelly Scem."

Don't miss Odie's, "Flight Attendants ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

Now at Reaganite Republican, "'Miss Lithuania 2013' is Ruta Elzbieta Mazureviciute."

Still more from Dana Pico, "Rule 5 Blogging: The IDF again."

Finally, go to the Rule 5 blog-father's, the Other McCain, "FMJRA 2.0: Day Late & a Dollar Short."

And drop your links in the comments if I've missed you and I'll get you linked up at the next roundup!

Langston Patterson: L.A.'s Black Santa

This is great.

At LAT, "At South L.A. mall, a Claus with quite an effect":

Langston Patterson is the main attraction at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza at Christmas: a rare black Santa in a sea of white ones.

He looks like a really nice Santa.

Here's your black Santa. And it's no big deal. pic.twitter.com/iFO6f0NBWc

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 14, 2013

And for the controversy, go to Althouse, "Megyn Kelly says lighten up."

#ObamaCare Has Lost the Uninsured

From Peter Suderman, at Reason:

Obamacare has lost the uninsured.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released this week asked uninsured individuals whether or not they thought the law was a good idea. Just 24 percent said they thought it was. In contrast, half the uninsured polled said they thought it was a bad idea. As the Journal points out, that represents an 11 point drop in support for the law amongst the uninsured since September. The same poll also finds that 56 percent of the uninsured believe the law will have a negative effect on the U.S. health care system.

Let that sink in: What that means is that regardless of how bad the old system—the system that for whatever reason left them uninsured—was, a majority of people without health coverage now think that Obamacare makes it worse.

Continue reading.

Denver Post Edits Out Arapahoe Shooter's Socialist Ideology

The shooter's political ideology is a key piece of information, since so much of the debate on guns and gun control points fingers at the evil right-wing NRA militia types.

So, the Denver Post has some "splainin" to do.

At Right Wing News, "Denver Post Omits That Arapahoe High Shooter Was a Socialist," and Gateway Pundit, "Denver Post Edits “Socialist” Out of Description of Arapahoe School Shooter."

Also at AoSQH, "The Tweetable Guide to Media Myths and Left-wing Violence."

Can you explain why you edited "a very opinionated socialist" into "very opinionated"? @denverpost

— SquatchPride69 (@AceofSpadesHQ) December 14, 2013

Do you routinely truncate interviewees' statements like this, or is this a sensitive case? @denverpost

— SquatchPride69 (@AceofSpadesHQ) December 14, 2013

Why did your paper truncate a source's description of the shooter from "a very opinionated socialist" to "very opinionated"? @DPLetters

— SquatchPride69 (@AceofSpadesHQ) December 14, 2013

China's Lunar Landing is No Big Deal

I yawned when I heard about it.

But see Telegraph UK, "Why America lacks lunar ambition":

Barack Obama split the US space community when he abandoned plans for American astronauts to return to the Moon and set new sights for Nasa.

While China celebrated its lunar landing, America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration has no plans to return to the Moon.

Many Americans believed they had won the space race when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in 1969 and Neil Armstrong set the first feet in the lunar surface, famously declaring: “This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Another 11 US astronauts walked on the Moon over the next three years. And nobody has been back since. A year after taking office, President Barack Obama controversially ditched the Constellation human space flight programme pursued by his predecessor George W Bush and with it plans for new lunar landings by 2020.

Instead, he set Nasa’s sights on further-flung targets, most ambitiously to tow an asteroid back to Earth and to launch a manned mission to Mars within the next 20 years. That left US space operations in what is known as near-Earth orbit to the private sector.

“Nasa is not going to the moon with a human as a primary project probably in my lifetime,” Charles Bolden, the agency’s administrator, told a panel this year.

Mr Obama’s decision to axe the Constellation programme and bypass the Moon has split the US space community. Buzz Aldrin, the second man to step on the lunar crust, agrees that returning there is a waste of limited American financial resources.

"Do not put Nasa astronauts on the moon,” he wrote in his book Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration. They have other places to go.”

And in the meantime, Nasa’s Mars Curiosity rover vehicle continues to send back intriguing evidence that the Red Planet may have once supported life.

But other space veterans and experts believe that the US is making a disastrous mistake. Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, another Moon-walker, was scathing critical of the Obama space policy. "It's bad for the country," he said. "This administration really does not believe in American exceptionalism."

I'm with Aldrin on this one, and amazingly, with the president as well.

Arapahoe Shooter Karl Pierson Was 'Very Opinionated' Leftist, a 'Committed Socialist'

The kid obviously had issues. What a waste.

But let's just be clear on who this guy was. He wasn't the stereotypical "right-wing crazy" that the diabolical left always uses to demonize conservatives. In fact it's never a typical right-winger. Usually the gunman's a freakin' nutcase, but in the Arapahoe shooting, the suspect's friends described him as a committed, "very opinionated" leftist.

Weasel Zippers has it, "Colorado School Shooter a “Very Opinionated Socialist”…"

Also at Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Arapahoe High School shooter Karl Halverson Pierson – leftist strongly for gun control."

And at Astute Bloggers, "STATE-RUN MEDIA COVERING UP FOR THEIR FELLOW-TRAVELER, ARAPAHOE SHOOTER KARL PIERSON" (via Memeorandum).

#ObamaCare: One Punt After Another

At Politico:

Why do Republicans even bother trying to delay Obamacare? President Barack Obama’s doing it all by himself.

On Thursday, the Obama administration gave customers permission to pay their premiums as late as Dec. 31 for coverage that starts Jan. 1, and officially gave customers an extra week — until Dec. 23 — to sign up for January coverage.

The move was just the latest in a long list of extensions, delays and punts that have plagued the health care law.

Sure, Obama’s not doing the things Republicans have suggested — push off centerpieces like the individual mandate, or even put the entire law on hold for a year. But piece by piece, the Obama administration keeps giving itself extensions on smaller parts of the law, because there’s always some piece that isn’t quite ready.

It’s an attempt to put out fires — but it’s also a painful admission that, yes, there are fires.

The administration is also extending a critical program — the temporary high-risk pool for people with pre-existing conditions — through the end of January, to make sure none of them suddenly lose their health coverage because they can’t sign up for new Obamacare insurance by Jan. 1.

That’s after it postponed the employer coverage requirements for a year, delayed the online enrollment for the federal health insurance exchanges for small businesses, and told health insurers they can extend people’s coverage for an extra year — a last-minute attempt to un-cancel millions of canceled policies. It also delayed the Spanish-language website, even though Hispanics are a large proportion of the uninsured population. It even postponed next year’s enrollment period, pushing it conveniently past the November elections.

“This is the least shocking thing since the sun came up in the east. This is what they do,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum. “They’ve essentially established that there’s going to be a rolling start to this thing.”

Continue reading.

And don't miss this devastating editorial at the Wall Street Journal, "Backdating ObamaCare":

The White House says that ObamaCare is all fixed, but its conduct suggests otherwise. As it has realized that the government-created chaos is exposing patients to nasty and even deadly surprises, the government is now forcing the insurance industry to cover everyone retroactively and also to waive the contractual terms of that coverage—or else.

Late Thursday, the Health and Human Services Department suddenly released a new regulation that explains "there have been unforeseen barriers to enrollment on the exchanges." The passive voice is necessary because the barriers are all the result of politically driven delays, the botched website and the exchanges that transmit false information about enrollment to insurers.

So with a mere 11 business days to go before coverage is supposed to start on New Year's Day, HHS is trying to pre-empt patient uproar by unilaterally ordering plans to backdate all exchange applications. People can sign up for a plan on the exchange as late as Dec. 23. If an application winds up in some technology void, or it is passed to the insurer inaccurately or too late to process, that coverage nonetheless begins on Jan. 1.

Continue reading.

Google Hegemony

At the New York Times, "Google's Road Map to Global Domination":

Fifty-five miles and three days down the Colorado River from the put-in at Lee’s Ferry, near the Utah-Arizona border, the two rafts in our little flotilla suddenly encountered a storm. It sneaked up from behind, preceded by only a cool breeze. With the canyon walls squeezing the sky to a ribbon of blue, we didn’t see the thunderhead until it was nearly on top of us.

I was seated in the front of the lead raft. Pole position meant taking a dunk through the rapids, but it also put me next to Luc Vincent, the expedition’s leader. Vincent is the man responsible for all the imagery in Google’s online maps. He’s in charge of everything from choosing satellite pictures to deploying Google’s planes around the world to sending its camera-equipped cars down every road to even this, a float through the Grand Canyon. The raft trip was a mapping expedition that was also serving as a celebration: Google Maps had just introduced a major redesign, and the outing was a way of rewarding some of the team’s members.

Vincent wore a black T-shirt with the eagle-globe-and-anchor insignia of the United States Marine Corps on his chest and the slogan “Pain is weakness leaving the body” across his back. Though short in stature, he has the upper-body strength of an avid rock climber. He chose to get his Ph.D. in computer vision, he told me, because the lab happened to be close to Fontainebleau — the famous climbing spot in France. While completing his postdoc at the Harvard Robotics Lab, he led a successful expedition up Denali, the highest peak in North America.

A Frenchman who has lived half his 49 years in the United States, Vincent was never in the Marines. But he is a leader in a new great game: the Internet land grab, which can be reduced to three key battles over three key conceptual territories. What came first, conquered by Google’s superior search algorithms. Who was next, and Facebook was the victor. But where, arguably the biggest prize of all, has yet to be completely won.

Where-type questions — the kind that result in a little map popping up on the search-results page — account for some 20 percent of all Google queries done from the desktop. But ultimately more important by far is location-awareness, the sort of geographical information that our phones and other mobile devices already require in order to function. In the future, such location-awareness will be built into more than just phones. All of our stuff will know where it is — and that awareness will imbue the real world with some of the power of the virtual. Your house keys will tell you that they’re still on your desk at work. Your tools will remind you that they were lent to a friend. And your car will be able to drive itself on an errand to retrieve both your keys and your tools.

While no one can say exactly how we will get from the current moment to that Jetsonian future, one thing for sure can be said about location-awareness: maps are required. Tomorrow’s map, integrally connected to everything that moves (the keys, the tools, the car), will be so fundamental to their operation that the map will, in effect, be their operating system. A map is to location-awareness as Windows is to a P.C. And as the history of Microsoft makes clear, a company that controls the operating system controls just about everything. So the competition to make the best maps, the thinking goes, is more than a struggle over who dominates the trillion-dollar smartphone market; it’s a contest over the future itself.

Fascinating.

RTWT, at the link.

And ICYMI, the interview with Google's Sebastien Thrun, "'I think anybody who believes that we are in a period of decline or stagnation probably hasn’t been paying attention...'"

The #ObamaCare Panic Button

From Yuval Levin, at National Review, "Pressing the Panic Button?":

As usual, it’s hard to tell just what’s going on inside the administration regarding Obamacare, but I don’t think we can really take the steps announced by HHS yesterday as anything but a bright, red, flashing warning light about the internal expectations regarding January.

Some of what they announced is frankly bizarre and slightly crazy. Beside extending the high-risk pool program (which isn’t nuts, just a strong indication that they’re not ready for January at this very late stage), they are asking insurers to pay claims for consumers who haven’t paid their premiums, to treat out-of-network doctors and hospitals as though they were in-network, and to pay for prescription drugs not actually covered by the plans they offer.

The administration is trying to present this as a set of perfectly ordinary kind of transition measures that insurers normally make available to new customers, and some of the more reliable members of their amen chorus on Obamacare have echoed that. But that’s not what this looks like to me, and a few conversations today suggest it’s not what it looks like to the insurers...

Continue reading.

Black Critics Laud '12 Years a Slave' as Best Film of 2013

I'm heading out to go see this movie in a few minutes.

I'll report back on my experience later. Meanwhile, at the Los Angeles Times, "African American film critics name '12 Years a Slave' best film."



Also, "SAG Award nominations: '12 Years a Slave,' 'Butler' lead the way."

Some #Rule5 Kelly Brook to Mix it Up

Lovely.

And ICYMI, "Kelly Brook 2014 Calendar (PHOTOS)."

Hilarious Miley Cyrus Twerking Santa at Saberpoint

A classic Photoshop, "CHRISTMAS SING ALONG: 'I Saw Miley Twerking Santa Claus -- Underneath the Mistletoe Last Night'."

Baboon Seen Cruising Streets of Bryanston, Johannesburg — Not to Be Confused with Sign Interpreter at Mandela Memorial Service

The Memeorandum thread actually takes us to the story of Thamsanqa Jantjie, the bogus South African sign language interpreter at the Mandela funeral service, although here's the hilarious summary aggregated at the entry: "A baboon has been spotted on the streets of Bryanston in Johannesburg, appearing hungry and confident... watch the eyewitness video." 



Now here's the intended story at the thread, "EXCLUSIVE: Mandela deaf interpreter accused of murder": "Thamsanqa Jantjie, who is being treated for schizophrenia, has also faced rape (1994), theft (1995), house-breaking (1997), malicious damage to property (1998), murder, attempted murder and kidnapping (2003) charges."

A baboon and a criminal schizoid sign-language interpreter? I'm sure it's just an odd coincidence. And that's all I have to say about that, because RAAAAACISM!!

More at Memeorandum.

ADDED: From Robert Stacy McCain, "Schizophrenic Criminal Faker Making Meaningless Gestures? Hmmm …"

African Cape Buffalo Sends Stalking Lion Flying Through the Air

This is something else.

At London's Daily Mail, "Buffalo soldiers! Bull is saved by its friends while being EATEN by lions... which are sent flying through the air."

Rumsfeld's War and Its Consequences

And its consequences now!

From Mark Danner, at the New York Review, "More than a dozen years later we still live in the world that George W. Bush’s “war on terror” made":

A bare two weeks after the attacks of September 11, at the end of a long and emotional day at the White House, a sixty-nine-year-old politician and businessman—a midwesterner, born of modest means but grown wealthy and prominent and powerful—returned to his enormous suite of offices on the seventh floor of the flood-lit and wounded Pentagon and, as was his habit, scrawled out a memorandum on his calendar:

Interesting day—
NSC mtg. with President—
As [it] ended he asked to see me alone…
After the meeting ended I went to Oval Office—He was alone
He was at his desk—
He talked about the meet
Then he said I want you to develop a plan to invade Ir[aq]. Do it outside the normal channels. Do it creatively so we don’t have to take so much cover [?]

Then he said Dick [Cheney] told me about your son—I broke down and cried. I couldn’t speak—
said I love him so much
He said I can’t imagine the burden you are carrying for the country and your son—
He said much more.
Stood and hugged me
An amazing day—
He is a fine human being—
I am so grateful he is President.
I am proud to be working for him.
It is a touching and fateful scene, this trading of confidences between the recovering alcoholic president and the defense secretary whose son is struggling with drug addiction, and shows the intimacy that can be forged amid danger and turmoil and stress. Trust brings trust, confidence builds on confidence: the young inexperienced president, days before American bombs begin falling on Afghanistan, wants a “creative” plan to invade Iraq, developed “outside the normal channels”; the old veteran defense secretary, in a rare moment of weakness, craves human comfort and understanding.

Continue reading.

Megyn Kelly Shines on Fox

I missed the first week or two of Megyn Kelly's prime-time debut on Fox (I was watching the World Series), but I rarely miss it now. She's fantastic ---- and she's in my wheelhouse with her politics.

At the Washington Post, "Megyn Kelly, Fox News’s brightest star":

NEW YORK — The anchor who might beat Bill O’Reilly gets her eyelash extensions applied one at a time, with tweezers and dabs of glue, about 90 minutes before showtime, right after a motorized gun sprays foundation over her face, neck, shoulders, collarbone and sternum, wiping out a galaxy of light freckles that spreads across her —

Let me stop you right there.

Would you write this way about a man?

About O’Reilly himself?

At least that’s what Megyn Kelly might ask at this point. Kelly, 43, is the host of “The Kelly File,” a live TV program that airs weeknights at 9 p.m. on the Fox News Channel, where she interrupts and challenges guests whenever they resort to talking points or petty distractions. It debuted just over two months ago, and so far its ratings among 25-to-54-year-olds have exceeded those of “The O’Reilly Factor” six times. In November, her first full month in prime time after years in daytime, Kelly was second only to O’Reilly in the overall ratings, which means she’s the No. 2 person on cable news’s No. 1 channel.

“It’s like working on a supermodel every day — a brilliant supermodel,” says makeup artist Maureen Walsh, as she air-brushes Kelly’s skin from milky white to Technicolor...

Continue reading.

Well, Michael Savage made the crude remark sometime back that watching Megyn Kelly's show was like watching porn.

Wedding Party: More Than One Dozen Killed in U.S. Drone Strike in Yemen

I'll tell you, with this administration, it's hard to keep backing the war on terror!

At Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Obama kills 15 on way to wedding in Yemen with drone strike."

Also at Reuters, "Air strike kills 15 civilians in Yemen by mistake: officials."

And London's Daily Mail, "BREAKING NEWS: U.S. drone strike hits wedding party killing 15 people, Yemeni officials say."

Kim Jong Un Uncle Executed in North Korea

You have to think about this for awhile.

This is hardcore leftist ideology in action.

At the Los Angeles Times, "North Korea reportedly executes No. 2 official."

And at the Washington Post, "In North Korea, Kim Jong Un rises and advisers are shoved aside":

SEOUL — When Kim Jong Un became leader of North Korea two years ago, he was surrounded by advisers two, and in some cases, nearly three times his age. Most had decades of experience in the Workers’ Party or military. Two were members of Kim’s own family.

But rather than lean on that support team, Kim has instead sought to dismantle it, using a series of demotions and purges to grab power almost solely for himself. Friday North Korea announced the execution of the most prominent of Kim’s advisers, Jang Song Thaek, accusing him of opposing Kim’s rise and plotting an overthrow.Continue reading.

Mexican Leftists Irate Over Senate Vote on Opening Oil Industry to Foreign Investors

Anything that pisses off leftists is alright by me.

At LAT, "Mexican Senate OKs bill to open oil industry to foreign investors":

On Wednesday, members of the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, and other leftists closed off the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, in Mexico City, chaining doors and blocking entrances with chairs in an effort to prevent lawmakers from considering the bill.

"They are selling the entire subsoil of the country to interests that are against Mexico," former PRD presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas said in a TV interview. Leftist leaders hope they can stop the legislation by calling a national plebiscite, though it is unclear whether they will be able to pursue that avenue legally.

The poor dears!

Can Kay Hagan Survive?

At Politico, "North Carolina's choice":

LENOIR, N.C. — It would be tough to find another state where the political terrain has shifted as dramatically as it has here — from kindling hopes of a Democratic revival in the South just a few years ago, to becoming a conservative hotbed that banned gay marriage, tightened restrictions on abortion clinics and enacted a sweeping voter ID law.

In 2014, voters will have a chance to decide which of those two governing visions they prefer — Barack Obama’s Washington or one-party GOP rule in Raleigh ­ — in one of the most competitive, consequential Senate races in the country.

It will be a choice between Kay Hagan, a rookie Democratic senator who voted for Obamacare and says, however haltingly, that she would do so again, and a conservative challenger — perhaps the figure who shepherded that wish list through the Legislature, Thom Tillis, or other rivals like Mark Harris or Greg Brannon who would go even further.

The race underscores the larger challenges facing both parties nationally as they head into the midterms. Democrats are struggling to survive in conservative states as they try to combat Obama’s growing unpopularity and antipathy to the health care law they helped enact. But Republicans are at risk of overreaching with a sharply conservative agenda at a time when their elected leaders are shifting further to the right and independent voters are angry at both parties.

Hagan, who triumphed against longtime Republican Elizabeth Dole to win the seat in 2008, is clearly banking on the hope that voters will punish her opponents for the actions of the GOP-led Legislature and their own hard-right views, whether it’s Tillis’s unapologetic agenda, Harris’s views that being gay is a lifestyle choice or Brannon’s calls to repeal everything from the minimum wage to virtually every gun law.

“This race is not about the president,” Hagan said in an interview, twice refusing to say whether she approves of Obama’s job performance.

But Tillis, a 53-year-old former IBM executive who has the strong backing of the GOP establishment but is by no means the prohibitive front-runner, is betting that Southern Democrats who once thrived here are dying breeds because of the liberal policies coming out of Washington. He is defiant about North Carolina’s hard-right turn, calling it a “reform agenda unlike any other state in the United States.”

“I think for the most part, what I see from the folks who are opposing our agenda is whining coming from losers,” he said in an interview in his Raleigh office. “They lost, they don’t like it, and they are going to try to do everything they can to, I think, cast doubt on things that I think are wise and that the average citizen when they know what we’re doing, I think, like it.”

RTWT.

To Block or Not to Block, That is the Question

To block Twitter trolls, that is the question.

See, "Reverting the changes to block functionality."

More at Ars Technica, "Twitter immediately reverses course on changes to “block” behavior."

And at Tech Crunch, "Twitter Reverts Changes To Blocking Functionality After Strong Negative User Feedback."