Let's Not Kid Ourselves About Marijuana

Here's that Larry Kudlow piece from the other day, "Bad Idea: Widespread Marijuana Legalization."

And now here's Mitchell Rosenthal, at the Wall Street Journal (at Google):

Pot is always good for a giggle, and that makes it hard to take marijuana seriously. The news and entertainment media couldn't resist puns on "Rocky Mountain high" when Colorado started the year with legal sales of marijuana for recreational purposes. TV stations across the country featured chuckling coverage of long lines outside Denver's new state-licensed pot shops.

Legalizing marijuana isn't just amusing. It's increasingly popular with legislators and the public. And why not? No matter how high stoners get, they're nowhere near as scary as out-of-control boozers, right? Stoners don't brawl in bars. They're not into domestic violence.

A Gallup poll last year found 58% of Americans favoring legalization (although other surveys report more slender majorities). Decriminalization of pot possession is widespread: 20 states sanction marijuana use for medical or quasi-medical reasons, and, following Colorado's and Washington's lead, proponents of legalization are targeting Alaska and Oregon for ballot initiatives in the near future, and six other states after that.

Yet marijuana is far from safe, despite the widespread effort to make it seem benign. Pot damages the heart and lungs, increases the incidence of anxiety, depression and schizophrenia, and it can trigger acute psychotic episodes. Many adults appear to be able to use marijuana with relatively little harm, but the same cannot be said of adolescents, who are about twice as likely as adults to become addicted to marijuana. The new Colorado law limits pot sales to people 21 or older, but making marijuana available for recreational use normalizes it in society. The drug will be made more easily available to those under 21, and how long until the age limit is dropped to 18?

Adolescents are vulnerable—and not just to pot. That's how they are programmed. They make rash and risky choices because their brains aren't fully developed. The part of the brain that censors dumb or dangerous behavior is last to come on line (generally not before the mid-20s). Meanwhile, the brain's pleasure-seeking structures are up and running strong by puberty. When you link adolescent pleasure-seeking and risk-taking to marijuana's impairment of perception and judgment, it isn't surprising that a 2004 study of seriously injured drivers in Maryland found half the teens tested positive for pot.

Marijuana impairs learning, judgment and memory—no small matters during the adolescent years—and it can do lasting harm to the brain. Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has found that marijuana can damage cognitive function in adolescents by disrupting the normal development of the white-matter that brain cells need to communicate with each other.

Most disturbing is a discovery about marijuana last month at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Researchers there have found lasting changes in "working memory," brain structures critical to memory and reasoning. A source of ready recall for basic information, like telephone numbers, and solutions to everyday problems, working memory is also a strong predictor of academic achievement.

Dr. Volkow and most other experts are troubled by changing teen attitudes about marijuana. Barely 40% of adolescents now believe regular use is harmful—down from 80% two decades ago. Teen drinking and cigarette smoking have declined, and their abuse of prescription painkillers has fallen off sharply, but teen marijuana use continues to increase. The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future survey last year found that more than 45% of high-school seniors have smoked pot and 6.5% now smoke it daily (a rate that has tripled over the past two decades). At the substance-abuse programs of Phoenix House, and at similar programs across the country, marijuana is the primary drug of abuse for close to 70% of teens in treatment.

No one can say how marijuana legalization will play out. A perception of legal marijuana as safe, combined with sophisticated marketing, may well double or triple pot use. Warning of aggressive promotion, drug-policy expert Mark Kleiman, who studied potential issues of a legal marijuana market for the Seattle City Council, pointed out last year: "The only way to sell a lot of pot is to create a lot of potheads."

Still more at that top link.

Bottom line: A nation of growing stoners isn't funny.

UNC Professor Mary Willingham Receives Death Threats After Bombshell Research on College Athlete Illiteracy

I reported on this earlier, "Universities Admitting Illiterate Athletes."

And now at CNN, "Death threats and denial for woman who showed college athletes struggle to read."

Also at AP, "UNC Professor Receiving Death Threats For Revealing Athletes' Low Reading Levels (VIDEO)":

Willingham, who hasn't returned calls or emails from The Associated Press, has said in interviews that she has received death threats and hate mail. UNC police spokesman Randy Young said investigators have contacted her and "are responding appropriately."

Illiterate thugs --- black thugs especially, but you're not supposed to say that!

BONUS: Brooke Baldwin has a great follow-up with commentary from Ben Ferguson. A nice clip, "Report: College athletes behind in reading."

Ariel Sharon, 1928-2014

The big man has died.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Ariel Sharon, Israel's controversial, iron-willed former leader, dies":

JERUSALEM — Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the iron-willed army general who fought in nearly all of his nation's major wars and spearheaded Jewish settlement of Palestinian territories, then years later presided over Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, died Saturday. He was 85.

The controversial leader, who had been incapacitated since suffering a severe stroke in 2006, was moved in 2010 to his ranch in the Negev desert at the request of his family. In September he underwent abdominal surgery, but his condition worsened this month as his organs deteriorated.

Sharon's death at a hospital near Tel Aviv was announced by his son Gilad.

"That's it. He's gone. He went when he decided to go," his son said.

Sharon, often called "the Bulldozer" for his aggressive style, endured many ups and downs in his lengthy career, but at the end was lauded as one of Israel's greatest leaders.

"[Sharon] was a brave soldier and a daring leader who loved his nation and his nation loved him," Israeli President Shimon Peres said in a statement. "He was one of Israel's great protectors and most important architects, who knew no fear and certainly never feared vision. He knew how to take difficult decisions and implement them."

Yet in the eyes of many Palestinians and even some Israelis, his actions were tantamount to war crimes; he was blamed for the massacres by Israel's Lebanese allies of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in southern Lebanon in 1982 and previous attacks in Jordan.

Sharon devoted decades to the dream of establishing a "greater Israel" by seeking to populate the West Bank and Gaza with tens of thousands of Jews and exhorting them to seize the hills. But in his eighth decade, the old warrior set about dismantling some of the settlements. He withdrew settlers from Gaza and four small West Bank settlements in 2005 and declared his belief that Israel's best chance for lasting security lay in drawing defensible borders and ultimately living side by side with a Palestinian state.

The shift infuriated Sharon's right-wing supporters and led him to abandon the hawkish Likud Party for a newly formed centrist party, Kadima. Just months later, Sharon suffered the stroke, leaving much of his agenda unfulfilled. Analysts still debate whether Sharon was intending to make peace with the Palestinians or unilaterally consolidate Israel's hold on the West Bank.

Most agree that the Gaza withdrawal did not turn out as Sharon had hoped. Weeks after he was stricken, the Islamist group Hamas won Palestinian elections, and it later seized control of the Gaza Strip, breaking with the rival Fatah party.

Two years later, prompted by a resumption of Hamas rocket attacks, Israel launched a 22-day military offensive in Gaza, killing 1,200 Palestinians and drawing an international outcry. The Kadima-led government was replaced by Likud, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in 2009.

Sharon, born Ariel Scheinerman to Russian immigrants on Feb. 27, 1928, lived his life in the bloody crucible of the Israeli-Arab struggle...

Continue reading.

Also at the New York Times, "Ariel Sharon, Fierce Defender of a Strong Israel, Dies at 85" (at Memeorandum).

Reactions at Israel Matzav, Jawa Report, and the Other McCain.

House Democrats Break Ranks With the White House on #ObamaCare Vote

Something tells me that Democrats might be breaking with Debbie Wasserman Schultz on the "running on ObamaCare" thing she's been blabbering about for next November.

At the Hill:

Dozens of House Democrats broke ranks with President Obama on Friday to support legislation that would require people to be notified of security breaches under ObamaCare.

The House passed the Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act, H.R. 3811, in a 291-122 vote. Sixty-seven Democrats voted for the bill, ignoring arguments from party leaders that the bill was a "messaging" vote meant to discourage people from signing up for insurance.

The one-sentence bill says that no later than two business days after any security breach on an ObamaCare site is discovered, "the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall provide notice of such breach to each individual." Republicans said that under current law, the government is not required to notify people if their information is put at risk.

"It may shock some people to learn that there is no legal requirement that the Department of Health and Human Services notify an individual if his or her personal information is breached or improperly accessed through the Affordable Care Act's exchanges," said Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.).

The White House said it opposed the bill, arguing the government already has plans to tell people if their information has been compromised.

But that argument didn't sway a large group House Democrats, many of whom fear the problem-plagued rollout of ObamaCare will cost them at the polls in November.

It's indeed going to cost them. How badly remains to be seen.

Crestfallen Repsac3 Fails Miserably in Gambit to Flip Conservatives Against the Target of His Obsessions

Well, it was an all-too obvious attempt to make wine out of sour grapes, but hey, the drama's quite entertaining.

ICYMI, here's the background from yesterday morning, "Walter James Casper, Hate-Troll and Pathological Liar, Lamely Tries to Score Political Points With Hilarious Make-Believe Abomination."

For some reason depraved stalker Repsac3 thought he'd be able to get Robert Stacy McCain --- and perhaps other conservatives as well --- to denounce me after I suggested the idiot back the f-k off. Oh well, style points for the junior high school drama queen with this headline, "I Defy Anyone to Defend or in any way Justify This Creepy Threat by Donald Kent Douglas."

Um, not sure here, but Ima hazard that this counts as defiance:

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, @repsac3 gotta troll. http://t.co/TGo5mJBB2H via @AmPowerBlog
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 11, 2014

And boy, I think Ima cry after seeing poor old Reppy with the sads:

One can only tell the truth. Whether other people hear it or continue believing (or telling) lies after you do is up to them.
— J. Casper (@repsac3) January 11, 2014

Yes, one can only tell the truth --- a lesson the lying psycho hasn't learned quite yet, obviously. See, "Bwahaha! Robert Stacy McCain Eviscerates Egghead Avatar Hate-Troll Walter James Casper III."

Repsac3 has established literally a miles-deep reservoir of ill will. It's simply astounding how he convinced himself he could flip people against me. And what's even more funny is that I don't really care. Truth floats to the top. And once again, Walter James Casper's hard-left nihilism has him flailing under the waves, gasping for breath. Meanwhile, American Power's moral clarity is bursting bubbles out of the water. Poor Casper. A loser and regressive dolt. Great lulz though, heh.

'But I always thought that I'd see you again...'

Again, out driving the Jeep the other day, some James Taylor came on the 70s satellite channel.

Enjoy "Fire and Rain." It's beautiful music.

Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone
Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to

I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again

Won't you look down on me, Jesus
You've got to help me make a stand
You've just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way

oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again

I’ve been walking my mind to an easy time
My back turned towards the sun
Lord knows the cold wind blows it’ll turn your head around
Well, there’s hours of time on the telephone line
To talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.

oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again, now

Thought I'd see you one more time again
There's just a few things coming my way this time around,
Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you fire and rain, now
Thought i'd see you just one more time again.

Closer Magazine Publishes Photos of French President Francois Hollande Visiting Apartment of Actress Julie Gayet

Hey, a scandal!

At Telegraph UK, "Francois Hollande faces personal and political crisis as claims of affair with actress revealed":

François Hollande considers legal action for invasion of privacy after Closer magazine reveals he spends nights with actress Julie Gayet.

President François Hollande was facing a private and political crisis after a celebrity magazine published photos it says proves he is having a "secret love affair" with a film actress almost 20 years his junior.

Closer magazine released photos it says shows the 59-year old Socialist leader and his new lover, Julie Gayet, 41, entering an apartment block a stone's throw from the Elysée Palace in Paris.

Valérie Trierweiler, the "official" first lady to whom the president is not married, recently took up residence in one of the wings of the palace.

Closer's Friday edition carried a seven-page report on the alleged infidelity, in which a man it insists is the president arrives on a chauffeur-driven scooter to spend nights in the flat.

Miss Gayet arrives separately. The pair are brought croissants by a man identified as his bodyguard the following morning.

"It's a real passion that has ... turned their lives upside down and makes them take insane risks," the magazine wrote.

The report in Closer, which angered many in Britain for publishing topless pictures the Duchess of Cambridge in 2012, sparked a furious rebuke from the president, who, however, failed to deny the liaison.

More here, "Editor of Closer defends publication of French President Francois Hollande affair allegations."

And lots of photos at London's Daily Mail, "Pictured: The sexually charged screen roles and modelling career of French President Francois Hollande's 'mistress'."

I don't see the Closer piece, but check back. This is pretty good. He's got his main squeeze holed up in her own suite at the presidential palace and then checks out for some overnight action with a movie star. Shoot, who said socialists are idiots?!!

Target Stores Announce Wider Consumer Data Breach

At WSJ, "Target Now Says 70 Million People Hit in Data Breach: Neiman Marcus Also Says Its Customer Data Was Hacked":

Target Corp.'s TGT -1.14% holiday data breach was bigger than the company had previously said, penetrating more systems and compromising a new set of personal information affecting up to 70 million people.

The operator of nearly 1,800 U.S. stores said the data included a mix of names, mailing addresses, phone numbers and email addresses—information that is semipublic but which law-enforcement officials said is valued by thieves who could use it to lure victims with fake emails or hack into other accounts.

Target said the information was stored separately from the 40 million credit and debit card accounts that the company had previously said were affected. There was some overlap between the two sets of stolen data, but Target didn't say how extensive it was. The entry point for the attack has been identified and closed, spokeswoman Molly Snyder said.

Late Friday, luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Inc. said it too was the victim of a suspected cyberattack over the holidays in which some of its customers credit-card information may have been stolen.

The U.S. Secret Service, which often handles credit-card fraud, is investigating the matter, a Neiman Marcus spokeswoman said. It is unclear how many customers may have been affected. Krebs on Security, a computer security blog, reported the Neiman Marcus breach earlier.

The back-to-back disclosures by two household names are likely to heighten shoppers' concerns about the security of their personal and financial data.

America Has Already Gone John Galt

From Roger Simon, at PJ Media, "Who Needs Ayn Rand?":

Tell all your “Objectivist” friends and the libertarian gang at Reason magazine to break out the champagne. Americans may have skipped the movie of Atlas Shrugged, nor have many read any of Ayn Rand’s works, but they have taken the author’s advice anyway and gone John Galt, quitting the work force in record numbers. According to Zero Hedge, the latest figures show the labor participation rate at 35 year low.

Realistically, it’s even more than 35 because that figure reflects an employment bump when larger numbers of women joined the work force in the seventies and eighties. (They’re gone now, with or without Gloria Steinem.)

Currently a record 91.8 million Americans are no longer looking for work. That’s almost one and a half times the entire population of France.

Although I admit to libertarian tendencies, I don’t think any of us can celebrate because of this. It’s an economic disaster that should be blowing even Chris Christie off the front pages.

In fact, it’s much worse than that. It’s a human emotional disaster. Freud may have been wrong about a number of things, but he was right about this. Two mainstays that get us through life, other than religion, which Freud didn’t cotton to, are “love and work.” I don’t know about love, but the work part of our lives has been brutally kicked out from under us in the Obama years.

Continue reading.

HAT TIP: Theo Spark.

West Virginia Water Crisis After Massive Chemical Spill Contamination

At West Virginia's Coal Valley News, "Boone County still waiting on water." That's a very lengthy report.

And see the New York Times, "Thousands Without Water After Spill in West Virginia" (via Memeorandum).

Plus, at CNN, "Chemical leak contaminates water source," and "West Virginia Governor: 'It's pretty bad'."

More at the Wall Street Journal, "U.S. Opens Probe of West Virginia Chemical Spill: Public Schools, Businesses Across Several Counties Closed as Residents Told Not to Use Water."

Surprise: Obama Administration to Invoke Federal Supremacy Over Utah's Homosexual Marriage Rulings

From Ed Whelan, at National Review, "AG Holder’s Lawless Action on Marriage in Utah":

Jaded as I am by the lawlessness of the Obama administration, I confess that I didn’t expect this:

Attorney General Eric Holder today declared that the federal government will recognize the supposed marriages of same-sex couples that occurred in Utah before the Supreme Court overturned federal district judge Robert J. Shelby’s wildly irresponsible failure to stay his judgment against Utah’s marriage laws. Holder’s statement mischaracterizes the Supreme Court’s order as an “administrative step.”

Worse, Holder wrongly invokes the Court’s anti-DOMA decision in Windsor v. United States to justify his action. But Windsor requires that the federal government treat as marriages those same-sex relationships that a state recognizes as marriages. It doesn’t call for the federal government to treat as marriages those same-sex relationships that the state in which the marriage supposedly took place does not recognize as marriages.

More at the link. Plus, "Utah AG’s Wildly Incompetent Advice."

This administration's the biggest clown show. Worst job market in history and this is the freakin' top priority. Perverts.

Muslim University Student in Canada Refuses to Do Course Work with Women

Coming to America?

At Atlas Shrugs, "A York University student who refused to work with women for religious reasons has sparked a human rights tug-of-war between a professor and campus administration."

Human rights? Yeah, it's all about "human rights" when Muslim demand gender segregation in public education. Very progressive too, the f-king morons.

Also at Blazing Cat Fur, "Is York University Accommodating Sharia Law?"



Still more at Toronto's National Post, "National Post editorial board: Rights crusaders run amok at York University."

Lawyer for Cop Killer Mumia Abu-Jamal Appointed to Top Post at Holder's Department of Injustice

Unspeakable depravity.

At Director Blue, "DISGUSTING AND DEPRAVED: Obama Appoints Convicted Cop Killer's Advocate to Department of 'Justice'."

Walter James Casper, Hate-Troll and Pathological Liar, Lamely Tries to Score Political Points With Hilarious Make-Believe Abomination

Let me just start by being unequivocally clear: F-k you, Walter James Casper III.

F-k you and the bareback rim station perverts you rode in on. I'm just all torn up about your faux-outrage and political opportunism that, oops, now might be a little over the top and something of which you thought better, you depraved lunatic: "(Edited out... Not something to score points with)..." So, you thought you'd just post this over at the Other McCain's to, what, force conservatives to abandon old Donald?

I defy anyone sane and decent--and that includes some of Donald Douglas' biggest supporters, and especially anyone who has ever been swatted, or who chose to leave their home to protect their family from possible bad behavior by those they blogged about--to say that the post below is not very creepy, or that doxing someone with whom you disagree over the internet is EVER justified.

Oh brother. Talk about a junior high school drama queen. Grow up, Casper, you vile Internet troll and moral reprobate. You posted that to the Other McCain last night, at what, 3:30am eastern time? You think you've been doxed? That would be terrible, you know, to put someone's safety at risk. Just terrible! (Of course, you know first hand about putting people at risk, don't you, you hypocritical creep?)

Honestly, I don't care what my co-bloggers think or do. They're not being stalked by an obsessive-compulsive hate-troll who's allied with and abetted vicious personal attacks on me, my family, and my livelihood.

Dear readers will note that Repsac's exhortations to contact my workplace are still posted, "DEFAMATION - DONALD STYLE" (which included this attack in its original form):

We know these behaviors all too well, and why some of you bother with this pinhead is beyond me. The Coward is not welcome at The Swash Zone; we delete his comments immediately. More disturbing are the comments and e-mails left by his followers: Profane, racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic … worthy of report to the FBI. What to do?

If the Coward or any of his followers harass you online you, contact President [XXXX XXXXXX at (XXX) XXX-XXXX or Executive VP of Academic Affairs [XXXXXX XXXX at (XXX) XXX-XXXX and describe the harassment. For serious online abuse or defamation, there is always this option ([lawsuit] in progress).

This was posted by (O)CT(O)PUS (libel blogger David Hillman of the Swash Zone). And it was completely authorized with the invitation and permission of hate-stalker Walter James Casper III.

And that's just one example of the hatred that racist Repsac has enabled and encouraged and participated in during his more than five years of utterly deranged harassment of American Power. Nothing is beyond the pale for Casper. Seriously. Carl Salonen? Now Casper's best buddy and top commenter at American Nihilist? Boy, not too worried about situational ethics, I guess. Casper's longtime friendship with Salonen is a ringing endorsement of these kinds of attacks: "Carl Salonen Libelous Workplace Allegations of Child Pornography and Sexual Harassment at Long Beach City College." If anyone should be abandoned maybe Salonen's a good place to start, no? Seems to me if someone's outraged at even the idea of doxing they would express equal outrage at actual cases of workplace harassment and intimidation, where the perpetrator even bullied the Attorney General of California's office in an attempt to have me fired. But no. Such despicable Internet bullies are welcomed open arms at the hate-site American Nihilist. Folks can see why I'm all lulz over racist Repsac's pathetic bawling.

In any case, the transparency of Repsac's "accuse the accusers" tactic is pretty hilarious. As Robert Stacy McCain wrote the other day:

Another characteristic of cyberstalkers is their resort to psychological projection: They are not obsessed with you — no! — you are obsessed with them, and don’t you dare accuse them of harassing you — of course not! — you are instead harassing them. This kind of “accuse the accusers” tactic serves two purposes for the troll: First, it is a psychological rationalization by which he justifies his behavior and, second, it serves to obfuscate the situation in the eyes of law enforcement or other authorities.

Something else: The conflict between Casper and Professor Douglas is not about politics, nor is it about Professor Douglas.

That is to say, Casper’s espousal of left-wing political ideas is not the reason for his behavior, but simply a pretext, and if he weren’t harassing Professor Douglas, he’d be harassing some other target, selected more or less at random. There is, of course, a specific history to the conflict between them, but it is ultimately irrelevant. There are plenty of people every bit as left-wing as Casper who are not obsessive stalkers, and there are other conservative bloggers who might just as easily become targets for stalking, if ever they attracted the attention of such a grotesquely deformed personality as Casper.

Walter James Casper III has spent years smearing and harassing Professor Douglas, trying to get him fired from his job. This could (and in fact, often does) happen to any blogger who has a day job.

To get an idea of the pathetic nature of Casper’s obsession, he has devoted an entire blog, called “American Nihilist,” to his anti-Douglas jihad. In the past six months, that stalker site has attracted an average of about 15 visitors a day. By contrast, Professor Douglas’s blog has averaged nearly 2,000 visitors daily...

Still more at the link.

Walter James Casper's a despicable lying half-wit douchebag --- which is to say, he's a regressive leftist. No one cares what happens to him. He deserves whatever malicious fate awaits him. I couldn't care less, although his predicable political opportunism is hilarious, and you gotta give it up for his moral relativism and situational ethics. I mean really, this whole spiel, "OMG, this is infinity times worse than whatever evil things I've done to Donald Douglas in the past and OMG I can't believe any of Donald's conservative friends would ever again have anything to do with him," is just a little too obvious and just a tiny bit desperate.

Get a life, Casper. I suggest you start by closing up shop at your stalking "jihad" blog American Nihilist, which clearly is the source of all your problems. And after that, get some psychological treatment to deal with all of your clearly acute issues of lying, projection and pathetic victimization. Man, that's just sad.

100 Years Later, the Continuing Relevance of World War I

I can't recall reading a better newspaper summary of World War I, at Der Spiegel, "Disaster Centennial: The Disturbing Relevance of World War I":

It has now been 100 years since the outbreak of World War I, but the European catastrophe remains relevant today. As the Continent looks back this year, old wounds could once again be rubbed raw.

Joachim Gauck, the 11th president of the Federal Republic of Germany, executes his duties in a palace built for the Hohenzollern dynasty. But almost all memories of Prussian glory have been eliminated from Bellevue Palace in Berlin, where there is no pomp and there are no uniforms and few flags. The second door on the left in the entrance hall leads into a parlor where Gauck receives visitors.

In the so-called official room, there are busts of poet Heinrich von Kleist and Social Democrat Friedrich Ebert, the first German president after Kaiser Wilhelm II fled the country into exile, on a shelf behind the desk. There are two paintings on the wall: an Italian landscape by a German painter, and a view of Dresden by Canaletto, the Italian painter. Gauck likes the symbolism. Nations and their people often view both the world and the past from different perspectives. The president says that he doesn't find this disconcerting, because he is aware of the reasons. In 2014, the year of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, the eyes of the world will be focused on Germany's head of state. It will be the biggest historical event to date in the 21st century.

And Gauck represents the losers.

More than 60 million soldiers from five continents participated in that orgy of violence. Almost one in six men died, and millions returned home with injuries or missing body parts -- noses, jaws, arms. Countries like France, Belgium and the United Kingdom are planning international memorial events, wreath-laying ceremonies, concerts and exhibits, as are faraway nations like New Zealand and Australia, which formed their identities during the war.

Poles, citizens of the Baltic countries, Czechs and Slovaks will also commemorate the years between 1914 and 1918, because they emerged as sovereign nations from the murderous conflict between the Entente and the Central Powers.

Unthinkable in Germany

In the coming months, World War I will become a mega issue in the public culture of commemoration. The international book market will present about 150 titles in Germany alone, and twice as many in France -- probably a world record for a historic subject. The story of a generation that has long passed on will be retold. New questions will be asked and new debates will unfold. British Prime Minister David Cameron is even making funds available to enable all children attending Britain's government-run schools to visit the battlefields of the Western Front.

A response of this nature would be unthinkable in pacifist Germany.

But Western Europeans paid a higher death toll in World War I than in any other war in their history, which is why they call it "The Great War" or "La Grande Guerre." Twice as many Britons, three times as many Belgians and four times as many Frenchmen died on the Maas and the Somme than in all of World War II. That's one of the reasons, says Gauck in his office in the Hohenzollern palace, why he could imagine "a German commemoration of World War I as merely a sign of respect for the suffering of those we were fighting at the time."

The "Great War" was not only particularly bloody, but it also ushered in a new era of warfare, involving tanks, aircraft and even chemical weapons. Its outcome would shape the course of history for years to come, even for an entire century in some regions.

In the coming weeks, SPIEGEL will describe the consequences of World War I that continue to affect us today: the emergence of the United States as the world's policeman, France's unique view of Germany, the ethnic hostilities in the Balkans and the arbitrary drawing of borders in the Middle East, consequences that continue to burden and impede the peaceful coexistence of nations to this day.

Several summit meetings are scheduled for the 2014 political calendar, some with and some without Gauck. Queen Elizabeth II will receive the leaders of Commonwealth countries in Glasgow Cathedral. Australia, New Zealand, Poland and Slovenia are also planning meetings of the presidents or prime ministers of all or selected countries involved in World War I.

'A Different Nation Today'

August 3 is at the top of Gauck's list. On that day, he and French President François Hollande will commemorate the war dead at Hartmannswillerkopf, a peak in the Alsace region that was bitterly contested by the Germans and the French in the war. The German president is also among the more than 50 heads of state of all countries involved in World War I who will attend a ceremony at the fortress of Liège hosted by Belgium's King Philippe. Gauck, a former citizen of East Germany, sees himself as "the German who represents a different nation today, and who remembers the various horrors that are associated with the German state."

The 73-year-old president hopes that the series of commemorative events will remind Europeans how far European integration has come since 1945. Gauck notes that the "absolute focus on national interests" à la 1914/1918 did not led to happy times for any of the wartime enemies.

But he knows that the memory of the horrors of a war doesn't just reconcile former enemies but can also tear open wounds that had become scarred over. In this respect, the centenary of World War I comes at an unfavorable time. Many European countries are seeing a surge of nationalist movements and of anti-German sentiment prior to elections to the European Parliament in May 2014.

In a recent poll, 88 percent of Spanish, 82 percent of Italian and 56 percent of French respondents said that Germany has too much influence in the European Union. Some even likened today's Germany to the realm of the blustering Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Last August, a British journalist emerged from a conversation with the press attaché at the German Embassy in London with the impression that Berlin, in the interest of promoting reconciliation, wanted to take part in commemorative ceremony in neighboring countries. This led to an outcry in the British press, which claimed that the Germans were trying to prevent the British from celebrating their victory in World War I ...

It's a fairly long read, but worth your time.

Keep reading.

And previously, "Today's Parallels with World War One's International Politics."

Bwahaha! Robert Stacy McCain Eviscerates Egghead Avatar Hate-Troll Walter James Casper III

I had no idea, but yesterday I slept in as I usually do, and it was probably early afternoon before I even checked my Twitter feed and my SiteMeter. And what do you know? Nothin' but hilarious lulz when I saw Robert Stacy McCain's epic smackdown of the reviled obsessive stalking hate-troll Walter James Casper III, a.k.a Repsac3.

See, "Portrait of a Stalker Troll: @Repsac3, Also Known as Walter James Casper III."

Even better has been the lulz on Twitter:

Has anyone ever seen a troll whose picture so much resembles an egg avatar? http://t.co/HtZYXmpM6q

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 8, 2014

@rsmccain @repsac3 @AmPowerBlog Get a life, 3casper. Even your friends say you're obsessed. The whole world is not wrong and you are right

— The Mad Jewess (@MadJewessWoman) January 8, 2014

.@RSMcCain Repsac's a "victim." He calls you a mindless sycophant for posting on him without any "evidence." The lulz write themselves.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 8, 2014

Now, this might deserve another post, but I'll append it here for now, but once again, with his psychotic ramblings in response to Robert Stacy McCain's glorious beatdown, demented troll Walter James Casper also reminded us that he's a pathological liar. (I should probably create a tag for "Demented Psycho Liars" just for Repsac, but as it turns out you hit the motherload searching the nav-bar for "James Casper Liar." Seriously, every other word that comes out of this guy's mouth's a f-king lie. And I hate liars, which is one of the main reasons I hate communists. They're disgusting liars, and in Repsac's case, a disgusting liar and communist, but that goes without saying. Here's just one for reference, "W. James Casper is a Coward, a Fraud, and a Liar.")

It turns out that the butt-hurt has been so bad that hate-addled Reppy's literally been online 24-7 obsessively attempting to shoot down all the hammering snark that's been ripping him apart all over the web. The thread at Robert Stacy McCain's is so funny you have to stop and hold your side! Repsac's so stupid. Folks have been DMing me with even more lulz slamming the asshole. Zilla was rolling at how Repsac "soiled himself" in the comments at the Other McCain. I'd feel sorry for him if he wasn't such a hate-filled psycho douchebag.

Nowhere are there better lulz than at "Hate-sac's" own dung-hole stalk-blog, American Nihilist. The repulsive and proven liar Carl Salonen, one of Repsac's key blog-stalking allies, wondered how "Speedo" (Robert Stacy McCain) "noticed [Donald's post] you if you hadn't said word boo to him or AssProf in months?" And on cue, hate-troll Casper lies through his sh*t-stained teeth in response, "In all the years that AssProf has been lashing out, this is the first time Speedo has ever deigned to take any obvious notice of Don's lil obsession." I admit even being surprised at how carelessly racist Repsac's willing to spew lies. It's actually breathtaking, especially since Repsac himself is so obsessive-compulsive he's actually recorded the times that Robert Stacy McCain has taken "obvious notice" of Casper's deranged stalking.

Here's the tweet from December 10, 2012:

@AmPowerBlog The troll to whom you refer isn't a very effective user anyway: 10,000+ messages, < 300 followers.

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) December 10, 2012

And then on Casper's stalk-blog he psychotically records the moment on the very next day, "IRT: This Twitter post) - Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 6:00 AM - American Power: Epic Loser Walter James Casper III 'Isn't a Very Effective User' of Twitter..."

Clearly not only is Repsac a demented troll and pathological liar, he's not very smart. Why keep an objectively obsessive-compulsive record of every thing that your target's written about you online if you can't even be bright enough to cite those mentions in later iterations when you're trying to destroy your enemy? It's like the old saying goes, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

And if that's not enough, Walter James Casper is one of the key trolls who's responsible for the "troll rights theory" of stalking and harassment, and Robert Stacy McCain links to my report on Casper's stalking here, "Imaginary ‘Rights’ You Don’t Have, You Sad and Disgusting Troll, Bill Schmalfeldt."

Now I admit, these are gobsmackingly "obvious" examples of the numerous times that Robert Stacy McCain has taken notice of the repulsive Casper. Indeed, Robert doesn't like Casper at all it turns out, and has thrown down a warning in the comments:

Tell you what, Casper: You go nurse your hurts in your own dark corner of the Internet and don't give me another excuse to take notice of you. That's gonna be a win-win, see? Because I've got no shortage of weirdos to pay attention to, and you really don't want me on your case.

Now, if he were smart (he's not, of course, but bear with me), Walter James Casper would probably steer clear of Robert Stacy McCain, particularly regarding the comments. Because while I've recommended that hate-troll Casper be banned wherever he shows his horrifically ugly mug, Robert's not one to ban people outright. He likes his stalkers to leave attack trails and comments that end up providing enough rope for them to hang themselves. And with all that Robert's going through these days --- and I'm talking not just about the Kimberlin harassment and lawsuits, but also all the normal hard-left attacks that conservatives deal with from the psycho left on a daily basis --- I'd be the last person to push my luck with him when he lays down a clear warning to back the f-k off.

Years ago, a reader of my blog had resources from one of those background research sources that for a fee will provide personal information on people. The reader sent me a file on Repsac. I think it even included a photo of his home in Mastic, New York, which I gather is on Long Island (or that included a link to a photo online). If I recall it was an older one story home, apparently on a street corner, with a large-trunk tree on the front lawn. The place looked kinda run down. That's the basic description, if memory serves me. Not sure. There was a street address as well. There was other information too, about family members. I already know where Casper went to high school and (surprisingly, because he's so retarded) college. Some of this information is easily found just by a quick search for "Repsac3" on Google. But some is definitely proprietary. Basically, hate-addled Walter James Casper's ripe for a doxing. And not just a quick Internet search doxing. We're talking about a full professional investigation-style doxing. All this is speculation, but hey, stalkers do face consequences sometimes, and if anyone deserves the honors it's the universally reviled Repsac3. Frankly, what pisses people off is not only that Repsac's a despicable troll (truly evil, in fact), but that he maintains a stalking hate-blog along the lines of Breitbart Unmasked.

These are all just ruminations and speculation, but you never can be too careful.

In any case, I'll probably need some additional posting to catalog both the epic lulz and the endless lies. Here I'll just conclude with a couple of the objective truths from the commenters at the Other McCain:

Casper & Schamlfeldt: separated at birth? (And may God have mercy on any womb that birthed them...) -- Texlovera.

Get a life ... Your whole blog is about DOUG [Donald Douglas]. You're just a crazy moonbat. You must be bored out of your damned skull. Have you thought about getting some meds for this psychosis? -- Mad Jewess Woman.

Hell, even some folks I know on medication understand that ignoring is the best policy. Or at the very least understand that being a creepy stalker is not a good thing. Just sayin'. -- La Pucelle.

That's all for now, lol.

Anne Hathaway Nearly Pulled Under by Riptide in Hawaii

Who hasn't been mortally frightened while swimming in the ocean?

The difference for Hathaway is she's a top Hollywood actress and her moment of fear and vulnerability was caught on camera. Sometimes it goes with the territory, but in this case I can see why celebrities revile the paparazzi.

At London's Daily Mail, "Pictured: Moment panicked Anne Hathaway gets caught in riptide and screams for help in choppy Hawaii waters":

Anne Hathaway was seen screaming for help while she was stuck in a rip current in the ocean off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii on Wednesday.

But luckily for her a knight in shining armour, in the form of a nearby surfer, was on hand to help her escape the potentially treacherous waters.

And back on the shore, husband Adam Shulman was there to tend to her wounds with a first aid kit in hand, before proceeding to clean her cut left toe by sucking on it.

And here's TMZ's sensationally gross headline, "Anne Hathaway — Near-Death Encounter ... Gets Mouth-to-Toe Resuscitation."

See what I mean?

Atlas 2.0 — Pamela Geller's New Digs

She's a got a sweet new blog setup, at PamelaGeller.com.

See, "Atlas 2.0 – Welcome to my new digs!"

Congratulations!

Rachel Maddow's Shame: Won't Retract False Attack Linking Koch Brothers to Foundation for Government Accountability

Here's a pretty balanced takedown from Erik Wemple, at WaPo, "MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow hunkers down on Koch Bros. claim."

She's a disgusting dishonest perv. The episode at issue is here, "The Right Presses On for Welfare Drug Tests."

But see the extra effective smackdown at Power Line, "RACHEL MADDOW IS CRAZY, TOO."

Just read it all at the link. Maddow's standing firm on her moral bankruptcy. She's a dishonest loser hack, and a coward, even worse than all the MSNBC reprobates who've already resigned in disgrace.

'Thug Cycle' Toddler Removed From Home

CNN reports, "Swearing toddler in 'thug' video taken into protective custody":

(CNN) -- A Nebraska toddler who repeated a slew of profanities in an online video has been taken into child protective custody, Omaha police said Wednesday.

While authorities found nothing criminal in the video, officials from the Omaha police's Child Victim Unit and the Nebraska Child Protective Services took the infant and three other children into custody on Wednesday, the police department said on its Facebook page.

The joint investigation found safety concerns, the statement said.

CNN learned of development through Twitter.

In the video, the diapered child is bombarded with obscenities and racial slurs by the adults around him.
The African-American toddler knocks down a chair and gives nearly as good as he gets, responding to some of the comments with an upraised middle finger and telling one of the adults at one point, "Shut up, bitch." The adults laugh and prompt him to repeat other crudities.

Just another day on the Internet -- until the police union in Omaha, Nebraska, posted the clip on its website to highlight what it called the "cycle of violence and thuggery" the community faces.

More at the link (via Memeorandum).

And previously, "Omaha Police Officers Post Video of Black 'Thug Cycle' Toddler Flippin' the Finger and Spewing Profanities."

Reuters Gave This Kid a Camera — Now He's Dead

From David Kenner, at Foreign Policy, "The Controversial Death of a Teenage Stringer":

BEIRUT — On Dec. 20, 2013, Molhem Barakat took his last picture of the Syrian war. He had been photographing a battle for control of Aleppo's al-Kindi Hospital when he was killed along with his older brother Mustafa, a fighter in a local rebel brigade.
Barakat's cameras, apparently provided to him by the news agency Reuters, were photographed covered in blood in the aftermath of the attack.

Barakat was just 18 when he died, but his images -- transmitted through the Reuters photo service -- gave people across the globe a glimpse into his world, and his country's war. But while his precocious work appeared everywhere from the New York Times to Foreign Policy, his online presence served as a reminder that he was still a teenager. His last tweet brags about unlocking a new level in a computer racing game; his Facebook account is full of smiling selfies.

"I was there the moment he grabbed the first camera -- I still remember it. It was a Sony HD Handycam, and he was just so good with it," said Adnan Haddad, a Syrian activist currently in Gaziantep, Turkey, who first enlisted Barakat to work in the pro-uprising Aleppo Media Center in the winter of 2012. "He's a big loss. He was a young guy, a smart one, a very fast learner, and losing him like this -- for the sake of making a few hundred dollars -- is not worth it."

Man, the dolts at Reuters are f-ked up. These are the same idiots who embedded with Iraqi insurgents, and who were subsequently blown away in a U.S. Apache attack --- the one WikiLeaks first attempted to foist off as a war crime (too bad the purported "civilians" had AKs and RPGs).

More at the link.

Polygamy: The Next Frontier After Homosexual Marriage

I can recall people attacking me as "homophobic" and probably racist years ago for suggesting that homosexual marriage would open the doors to polygamy, and then after that God knows what. But now that we've seen a surge in public support for same-sex marriage, it's not so uncouth to talk about other types of marriage arrangements. Indeed, it's apparently pretty cool to consider the possibilities, if this story at the New York Times is a worthy guide.

See, "Polygamy as Lifestyle Choice, and a Reality TV Brand":

LAS VEGAS — Kody Brown, his four wives and 17 children want to be the new face of polygamy, what some consider the next frontier after same-sex marriage.

That is why, the Browns say, they invited TLC television cameras into their homes for their reality show “Sister Wives,” why they have written a best-selling book about their lives, and why they challenged Utah’s polygamy ban in federal court.

Fear of prosecution under that law led them to flee to Nevada. Last month, a federal judge partly overturned the ban, ruling that prohibiting “cohabitation” violates the First Amendment guarantee of free exercise of religion.

In their first interview since the decision in that case, they presented a family whose polygamy is more “Father Knows Best” than fundamentalist patriarchy. It was also clear that going public opened a path toward wealth.

Their four new houses arranged on a Las Vegas cul-de-sac and their television handler are testament to the fact that the Browns, who once fought penury, have turned their cause into a minor industry.

They promote their family arrangement as part of a growing wave of individual lifestyle choices, managing to anger both the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which abandoned polygamy in 1890, and to some extent their own Mormon fundamentalist offshoot, the Apostolic United Brethren.

Eric Hawkins, a spokesman for the mainstream church, said polygamists, “including those in reality television programs,” have “no affiliation whatsoever” with the church, “despite the fact that the term ‘Mormon’ is sometimes misleadingly applied to them.” Of the lawsuit, he said, “The current legal efforts will have no bearing on the doctrines or practices of the church.”

As for the Browns’ own church, it promotes polygamy but does not condone homosexuality, and its leaders have quietly suggested that they are uncomfortable with the way the decision in the Browns’ lawsuit has been held up by some same-sex marriage advocates as supporting the underlying issue of personal privacy.

Having attained a measure of celebrity, the Browns find that people seek out their homes and stop them on the street, expecting hugs. While the familiarity can be unsettling, Robyn, one of the wives, said, it means “they saw us as a family, and that’s huge.” Others, however, sharply criticize them in online forums for exposing their children to the prying cameras of reality television, among other perceived offenses.

They have also been put off by the avid interest in the specifics of their intimate lives and the questions they get. They do not “go weird” in the bedroom, as Meri, another wife, has put it; their sexual relations are separate. “These are wholesome, individual marriages,” Robyn said. “It’s actually pretty boring.”

A recent afternoon with the family here suggested that Mr. Brown is far from the domineering figure of past polygamy horror stories like Warren Jeffs, the leader of another fundamentalist group who is serving a life sentence for child sexual abuse. Mr. Brown comes off more as a beleaguered sitcom father facing the challenges of scheduling family time split 21 ways.

Children wandered among the homes, forming random groupings in a kind of Brownian motion, playing, talking and making a companionable racket. Truely, a girl born in 2010, padded around the living room with a toy cellphone to her ear, arguing earnestly with an imaginary friend on the other end of the line: “You’ve got to understand.”

Robyn, who brought three children from an earlier marriage into the family, was nursing her child Solomon, born in 2011. Sprawled nearby were older children, some now in college...

Continue reading.

My wife watched this show sometime last year. Me, I'm not all that interested. At this point society's becoming extremely unmoored from traditional values and the importance of monogamous heterosexual marriage as the foundation of decent society. (Christianity takes monogamous marriage as foundational to its teachings. And checking around online this Yahoo answers page has a good discussion on the importance of monogamy in Biblical teaching, "When did Marriage in the Bible change from polygamous to monogamous?")

The Common Core Gold Rush is On

From Michelle Malkin, "Common Core and the EduTech abyss":

The Common Core gold rush is on. Apple, Pearson, Google, Microsoft and Amplify are all cashing in on the federal standards/testing/textbook racket. But the EduTech boondoggle is no boon for students. It’s more squandered tax dollars down the public school drain.

Even more worrisome: The stampede is widening a dangerous path toward invasive data mining.

According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, the ed tech sector “is expected to more than double in size to $13.4 billion by 2017.” That explosive growth is fueled by Common Core’s top-down digital learning and testing mandates. So: Cui bono?

In North Carolina, the Guilford County public school district withdrew 15,000 Amplify tablets last fall. Pre-loaded with Common Core apps and part of a federal $30 million Race to the Top grant program, the devices peddled by News Corp. and Wireless Generation were rendered useless because of defective cases, broken screens and malfunctioning power supplies.

Last year, the Los Angeles Unified School District dumped $1 billion of scarce resources into a disastrous iPad program. Educrats paid $678 per glorified Apple e-textbook, pre-loaded with Common Core-branded apps created by Pearson. As I’ve reported previously, Pearson is the multibillion-dollar educational publishing and testing conglomerate at the center of the federally driven, taxpayer-funded “standards” scheme. Pearson’s digital learning products are used by an estimated 25 million-plus people in North America. Common Core has been a convenient new catalyst for getting the next generation of consumers hooked.

Students breached the LAUSD’s iPad firewalls and made a mockery of their hapless adult guardians. Despite hefty investments in training and development, many teachers couldn’t figure out how to sync up the tablets in the classroom. Taxpayers now realize they were sold a grossly inflated bill of goods, but the district wants to buy even more iPads for computerized test-taking. School officials recklessly plan to use school construction debt-financing to pay for the new purchases.

Los Angeles taxpayer Planaria Price summed up swelling outrage perfectly in a letter to the Los Angeles Times this week: “Cash-strapped LAUSD — which in 2012 cut libraries, nurses, thousands of teachers, administrators and support staff … is spending more than $1 billion on one of the nation’s most expensive technology programs. … I would say that ‘something is rotten in the state of Denmark,’ but few would understand because the teaching of Shakespeare has also been cut.”

Literally outrageous, and a little depressing.

But keep reading in any case.

Latest Retirement Announcements Won't Help Democrats Retake House of Representatives

At Roll Call, "House Retirements Offer Democrats Limited Hope":

On the surface, the recent slew of House Republican retirements from competitive districts should boost Democrats’ hopes of winning the majority in 2014.

But a closer look at these newly open seats shows that House Democrats haven’t caught a big break — at least not yet.

Two longtime House Democrats announced retirements on Wednesday, and one of those departures — Rep. Mike McIntyre of North Carolina — will surely hand his seat to the GOP. House Democrats must win a net of 17 seats to take the speaker’s gavel, and retirements so far have only offered the minority limited hope of accomplishing that.

Twelve House members have announced their retirements so far without seeking other office — nine Republicans, and three Democrats. President Barack Obama won only three of those districts in 2012, plus the vacant 13th District in Florida.

Democrats plan to shift their focus to the open-seat races created by moderate Republican retirements in a smattering of districts across the country.

“For us as a party, to be fighting for House seats in places that Barack Obama won or barely lost is always going to be better than fighting for places where Romney won big,” said Democratic consultant Travis Lowe, a former top Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee aide.

But even those districts mark difficult opportunities for Democrats — at least in a midterm cycle. The party’s top pickup opportunities in open seats currently are...

Continue reading.

Democrats won't retake the House. The real action's over on the Senate side, and as I always say, it's gonna be a bloodbath.

Clare Richards for Zoo Magazine

The clip's just been posted, which perhaps explains why I don't see any Clare Richards tweets at the Zoo feed.

I'll check back over there, so until then...

Why a 14-Year-Old Girl Decided to Sail Around the World Alone

From Sam Price-Waldman, at the Atlantic (via Instapundit):

The Atlantic: Why do you think [Laura] Dekker’s voyage has been such a polarizing subject? After she finished sailing, and with Maidentrip on the festival circuit, has the conversation changed?

Jillian Schlesinger: I think anytime a young person is doing something so far outside the realm of what is considered normal and conventionally accepted, it ruffles a lot of feathers. Some people applaud and stand up for it, others call it insane and irresponsible. Everyone brings their own experiences and values to considering it, however I noticed the more I read the more it seemed Laura's own voice was missing from the conversation about her voyage. Consequently, many opinions may have been formed without examining Laura's unique circumstances and worldview. The film allows people into an extraordinarily remote and unique world. It's hard to imagine being more at home and secure at sea than on land, but that is Laura's reality. I think having Laura's voice and perspective represented in the broader conversation about her story, free from the hyper-sensationalized media filter, has changed the conversation in many ways, especially challenging a lot of misguided, gender-biased language used to talk about her story early on. And now that the trip is in the past and she succeeded, that certainly changes things dramatically.

Continue reading.

The trailer's here: "Maidentrip (2014) Official Trailer - Laura Dekker - Dir. Jillian Schlesinger."

Colorado Principal Says She Was Fired Over School Hand-Stamp Policy

Clearly the woman was acting out of kindness for the kids. And she was fired, wtf?

At London's Daily Mail, "School principal claims she was fired for protecting poor children by opposing 'humiliating' practice of giving students with no lunch money a stamp on their hand."

And local reports at the Daily Camera, "Noelle Roni, ex-Peak to Peak principal, says she was fired over hand-stamping flap." And, "Peak to Peak defends firing of principal, urges parents to vote in recall election."

Notice how the schools has rescinded the student hand-stamp policy, but they stand by their decision to fire the teacher, Ms. Roni.

The schools are really f-ked up. And this was a charter school, which are supposed to be innovative and flexible, blah blah.

And thus, "Peak to Peak parents say principal's ouster shakes their faith in the school."

Sarah Palin Set to Address TV Critics Ahead of New Outdoors Show

From Kevin Scholla, at Breitbart Sports:

Sarah Palin's new television program doesn't air until April, but the former Alaska governor is introducing the program personally on Friday in Pasedena, California. Palin is hosting a power breakfast sponsored by Sportsman Channel at the 2014 Television Critics Association Winter Tour.

The weekly program that Palin will host will be called “Amazing America with Sarah Palin." It will run on Sportsman Channel and focus on the outdoors in America. Fishing, shooting, and other pastimes will be featured. Choosing Palin to showcase stories concerning rods, reels, and guns could very well be TV gold.

Sportsman Channel is even using language that sounds like Palin. The network touts the show as Palin taking the viewing audience into “Red, Wild and Blue America."

Sportsman Channel has actually been around since 2003 and is unique in that it exclusively serves outdoor enthusiasts. The partnership with Palin, however, gives the channel a real shot to not only strengthen its fan base of hunters and fishermen but to reel in a huge chunk of viewers that would otherwise not watch outdoor programming. Palin has that power.

House Republicans Preparing Plan for Immigration Overhaul

I had to read that headline twice, at the New York Times.

And here's the House GOP's press conference yesterday: "1/8/14 Republican Leadership Press Conference." They're not talking about immigration reform. Jobs and ObamaCare --- the "Obama economy" --- is the focus. I'm not sure what Republicans hope to gain by agreeing to immigration reform, especially amnesty, since nothing's gonna pass without some kind of legalization.

From the article:

Rebecca Tallent, a longtime immigration adviser to Senator John McCain of Arizona whom Mr. Boehner recently hired, has been spearheading the effort out of the speaker’s office, working with other key Republican lawmakers: Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader; Representative Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, who has been pushing for a broad immigration overhaul; Representative Bob W. Goodlatte of Virginia, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; and Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, his party’s 2012 vice-presidential nominee and chairman of the House Budget Committee.

The goal of the principles is to gauge the Republican conference’s willingness to tackle immigration this year, as well as to receive feedback from lawmakers before embarking on a legislative strategy.

Well, there's your clue. Rebecca Tallent? And she was "a longtime immigration adviser" to John "Complete the Dang Fence" McCain? Michelle Malkin has the flashback, "Johnny-come-lately McCain: The sickly smell of desperation."

Yeah, maybe Speaker Boehner's got some desperation going on as well. And rumor has it he may be retiring, so perhaps he wants some kinda legacy besides the mainstream media's "obstructionist" laurels.

New York Times Redesign

Despite its far-left advocacy and orientation, I read the New York Times everyday, because, well, it's the New York Times.

One thing I've mentioned before is despite the newspaper's online paywall, you can still read articles past your limit of 10 per month if you land on the homepage through search engines, social media, or what have you. I don't think the Times even tries very hard to prevent readers from navigating around the subscription requirements. They want people to find their articles and then be able to read them.

So, I noticed today that articles at the newspaper had that digital super high-tech kinda publishing elements to them, like the really high quality articles you see at Politico's new magazine, which is very well done.

In any case, here's the announcement, "To Our Readers":

The New York Times is introducing a new design for NYTimes.com, its first since April 2006. The images are larger, the layout and typography are cleaner and the site navigation is better. More enhancements will follow....

A more immersive reading experience? We’re glad you asked. We’ve streamlined our article pages and created a more responsive interface with faster load times. So navigating between stories is easier and finding more content that appeals to you is just a click, swipe or tap away.

And here's the YouTube preview, "Check Out the New NYTimes.com Redesign."

Also, see Margaret Sullivan's update on the changes, "Times Designers Are Monitoring Reaction to the Redesign, With Adjustments Possible."

And from Brian Stelter, formerly of the Times but now at CNN, "New York Times redesign points to future of online publishing":

The last time The New York Times embarked on a wholesale redesign of its Web site, in 2006, the iPhone wasn't on the market. Tablets like the iPad were still years away.

So the new design that The Times is unveiling Wednesday is generating much interest within the journalism industry, both for what it says about The Times and about the future of online publishing.

For visitors to NYTimes.com, it will be obvious "that we've redesigned our article pages and restyled our homepage and section fronts to provide a cleaner, more engaging user experience," said Denise Warren, the executive vice president of the digital products and services group at The Times.

What won't be obvious is this: behind the curtain, there is a whole new publishing and technology system. "This allows us to continually iterate on the site and take advantage of new technology trends as they happen, so instead of seeing major redesigns in the future, users will see more incremental changes over time," Warren said.

While the refreshed home page and article pages retain some of the feel of the print newspaper, the redesign highlights the fact that, as the well-respected news media analyst Ken Doctor put it, "digital publishing is getting to be the main publishing system of the Times, with print becoming a niche, if still a very big one."

Redesigns of Web sites as massive as NYTimes.com are fraught with complexity, not to mention the possibility that readers will be turned off by the changes. The Times, the flagship brand of The New York Times Company (NYT), has been testing the new design internally for some time and adjusting it along the way.

A disclosure is important here: I was a media reporter at The Times for six years. While there, I occasionally engaged in a time-honored reporter ritual -- complaining -- in this case about the limitations of The Times' online publishing tools. But I also gained respect for the people in charge of those tools. I departed The Times in November 2013, and for this story, I refrained from speaking with any former colleagues about the redesign outside of formal interviews.

Many outside The Times see it as a Cadillac of print and online publishing — so it's not surprising that the redesign has already generated press attention. Fast Company magazine said this week that the newspaper has "eight years of catching up to do."

The new site is designed with mobile readership in mind, now that roughly a third of its traffic comes from users on smart phones and tablets. "It was important that we created a responsive layout that enhances the presentation of our content on larger desktops down to tablets," Warren said.

Doctor said that "the flip side is that two-thirds of all the traffic still comes from desktops and laptops. So while the mobile news revolution is hugely important, the Web still brings most of the digital readers and most of the digital advertising."

The new system also allows for new kinds of advertising, which is critical for The Times because digital advertising revenues have been trending downward. In the third quarter of last year, the revenues were down 3.4% versus the same quarter the prior year.

Most notably, the redesign introduces fast-growing "native advertising" to NYTimes.com. The Times is calling these ads Paid Posts. They resemble articles written by reporters — thus they are "native" — but they are actually written by sponsors. Dell is the first purchaser of Paid Posts, and on Wednesday, there were several such posts on the Web site...

Native advertising's a scam, but continue reading (via Mediagazer).

I don't know if I'm hitting the reader limits yet, although you get three articles per day on the iPhone app, and that's not changed.

I know a lot of folks hate the New York Times --- and I've ranted about its leftist bias too many times to count --- but it's still an 800 pound gorilla out there, so you go to blog war with the MSM outlets that you have.

Omaha Police Officers Post Video of Black 'Thug Cycle' Toddler Flippin' the Finger and Spewing Profanities

That's some black thug culture, yo! They start early wit dem youngins.

It's a clip posted by the police officers' union, "Heartbreaking Video Shows “The Thug Cycle” Continuing":

Folks….soak this in.

You are literally watching “the cycle” of violence continue right in front of your eyes.

A powerful cycle that must be broken if we ever hope to get a handle on violence in Omaha.

A powerful cycle that the police alone cannot stop.

And see the Facebook page as well, "Omaha Police Officers Association." Hundreds of comments there.

Brooke Baldwin reported yesterday:



And attacks of "RAAAAACISM" weren't long in coming. See the Omaha World Herald, "Video: Adults exchange profanities with diaper-clad boy":

Willie Hamilton, executive director of Black Men United in Omaha, said that although he doesn't condone behavior portrayed in the video, it is inappropriate for the police union to single out this child to draw sweeping conclusions about the cycle of violence.

Many people have called him to say that the video further damages the relationship between Omaha police and the black community, Hamilton said.

“The police actually have a website that is perpetuating mistrust and anger, and I think that is what it is meant to do,” Hamilton said. “I thought posting the video was crossing the line. To use that incident to say that our kids are going to grow up and be thugs is far-reaching and insensitive. We are talking about a child that hasn't even gone to school yet.”

Actually, the cops might actually be saving that kid before it's too late.

More at BPR, "Toddler ‘thug’ video brings storm of controversy."

Here's That Creepy New Old Spice 'Mom Song 60' Advertisement

At WSJ, "Old Spice Ad With Creepy Moms Goes Viral."



Also at Hot Air, "Poll: Did Old Spice cross the line in Mom’s Song ad?"

Democrat Unemployment Bill Advances in Senate

Because unemployment benefits expand the economy, doh!

At LAT, "Jobless benefits bill takes small step in an uphill climb":

WASHINGTON — Legislation to resume long-term unemployment benefits for 1.3 million jobless Americans cleared a key hurdle Tuesday in the Senate, though final passage in the chamber, and ultimately the House, remains difficult.

The 60-37 vote, among the first since lawmakers returned Monday, came as six Republicans joined Democrats to advance a bill extending benefits by 90 days.

In a White House appearance shortly after the vote, President Obama criticized Republicans who contend that unemployment benefits sap workers' motivation to look for new jobs.

"The long-term unemployed are not lazy," he said. "I can't name a time when I met an American who would rather have an unemployment check than the pride of having a job."

Republicans quickly fired back, charging that Obama's economic policies — and particularly the passage of his healthcare overhaul law — are to blame for continued economic woes. And they prepared to offer their own conservative policy prescriptions.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, is expected to propose a "major restructuring" of federal anti-poverty programs in a speech Wednesday, the 50th anniversary of President Johnson's dramatic 1964 call to launch a war on poverty.

The Democratic-controlled Senate was not initially expected to get enough votes Tuesday to advance the unemployment bill and avoid a Republican filibuster. Most Republican senators, who are trying to keep the 2014 election campaign focused on the problems with Obamacare, oppose providing more unemployment insurance unless the $6-billion cost of another three months of aid is offset by budget cuts elsewhere.

But six Republicans, all moderates or from states with high unemployment rates, decided to join Democrats in voting to open debate on the bill rather than be blamed for obstructing it.

Among them was Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.), who said he would ultimately oppose the bill if his party was not allowed a chance to amend it. Along with offsetting the costs, he wants changes to "differentiate between those who are legitimately looking for work and can't find it and those who have turned this into a lifetime welfare system."

Politico has more on the GOP crossover votes, "In surprise move, unemployment benefits advance":

Democrats were able to secure six Republican votes to advance the three-month extension of unemployment benefits, nabbing just the 60 votes that are necessary to move ahead. But now they must work with centrist Republicans to strike a bipartisan accord that would offset the legislation’s $6.5 billion cost, a tall task in a Senate still brimming with partisan divisions.

But it’s not at all clear that the Republicans who sided with Democrats to break the filibuster will vote for final passage. Two of them said Tuesday they would most likely oppose it without the offsets they are seeking.

CARTOON CREDIT: Theo Spark.

Jessica Simpson Shows Off Post-Baby Figure in Super Tight Dress on GMA

Good for her.

At London's Daily Mail, "'I want to be the best role model': Jessica Simpson says she's 'so proud' of her weight loss while showing the results in tight dress."

More, "Be-hive yourself! Jessica Simpson creates a buzz after arriving at airport in bumblebee jacket."

Video: "Jessica Simpson Interview GMA Talks on Post-Baby Weightloss, Career."

Leftists Perform for Dictators

Just tweeted.

Sting too. That's disappointing, at Daily Mail, "Sting plays concert for daughter of 'boil your enemies' dictator."

Leftists perform for dictators. Beyonce, Kanye West, Mariah Carey and Sting. http://t.co/nMlKLOPeT1 #Depraved #Progressives

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 8, 2014

Wolf Blitzer Interviews Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich

Okay, I promised I'd come back with this clip. It's interesting:



ADDED: The full interview:

Obligatory Entry on Chris Christie Bridge Scandal

Look, I put on CNN around noon, since as previously noted I can't stand Shepard Smith. I normally turn it back over to Fox at 3:00pm, when the awesome Special Report with Bret Baier comes on. So it's been non-stop Chris Christie news for almost 3 hours now, especially on Jake Tapper's and now with Wolf Blitzer. Blitzer just had a pretty compelling interview with Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, who was the alleged target of retribution by Christie's office. Ima post that clip when it's uploaded to CNN's YouTube page.

Meanwhile, at the Bergen Record, "Fort Lee mayor: GWB emails reveal the 'venomous side of politics'."

Also, I had the Lonely Con at the sidebar, but it's time to move her over to the front-page, "Emails Show Top Christie Aides Had Bridge Lanes Closed to Punish Ft. Lee Mayor."

And at the New York Times, "Top Christie Staff Sought to Disrupt Traffic as Revenge." (More at Memeorandum.)

Added from Twitter:

True lesson of media feeding frenzy on Christie is #GOP candidates think they can be buddies with press. Nope, press views GOP as dinner.
— Dan Gainor (@dangainor) January 8, 2014

.@MelissaTweets @jimgeraghty Just like his pal Obama, Christie is shocked -- SHOCKED -- to learn something scandalous happened on his watch.
— Josh Painter (I-TX) (@Josh_Painter) January 8, 2014

More for Dan Riehl, "Chris Christie’s In Bigger Trouble Than You May Think."