New Year's Sunday Rule 5

Let's get it started for 2015!

To the blogfather of Rule 5, the Other McCain, "Rule 5 Sunday: Bowls, Boobs and Other Entertainments."

Now, at Gator Doug's, "THE DALEYBABE's HOT JANIS TRUE."

A View From the Beach, "Rule 5 Saturday - Alana de la Garza - The Forever Girl."

Over at Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……is a horrible fossil fueled mower causing so much heat that it snows, you might just be a Warmist."

Here's 90 Miles from Tyranny, "Morning Mistress."

At Maggie's Farm, "Saturday morning links."

Also at Knuckledragging, "Your Good Morning Girl," and "Plastic jugs is right…"

Goodstuff's has "Donna Douglas."

And Dana Pico has, "Rule 5 Blogging: Italians."

At the Hostages, "Big Boob Friday."

More at Ode's, "IT'S HETEROSEXUAL PRIDE DAY ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

A Nod To The Gods, "Sunday Random."

Also, at Drunke Stepfather, "MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ IN A WHITE BIKINI OF THE DAY."

At Egotastic!, "Anais Zanotti’s High Flying Boobage and Other Fine Things to Ogle," and "Sextastic Social Media Candids 2014: Emily Ratajkowski, Kate Upton, Selena Gomez and Much More."

The Last Tradition has "Camila Vernaglia."

Political Clown Parade has, "Dallas Cowboys Vs The NFL’s Dirtiest Player."

At Ms. EBL's, "Did someone mention Catwoman?"

At Proof Positive, "...the Obligatory NFL Cheerleaders."

More at Soylent, "Your Morning Coffee Creamer."

Don't miss Average Bubba, "Rule 5 Post: Redhead Edition…"

From Diogenes' Middle Finger, "Happy New Year from DMF."

At THAT MR. G GUY'S BLOG, "Cultural Marxism Goes Viral."

More from Rio Norte Line, "12 Things You Should Know About Contemporary Progressivism."

Finally, Crazy Uncle Bubba has, "Saturday Short Shorts!"

Drop your links in the comments if I've missed your Rule 5.

Until then...

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Randy's Rountable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's Sunday Funnies."

More at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – The End Is Near," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Round Up..."

Cartoon Credit: William Warren. Perfect accompaniment to my previous post, "Obama's the Nation's 'Hack' Golfer-in-Chief."

Obama's the Nation's 'Hack' Golfer-in-Chief

For as often as he plays, President Obama's criticized for not being very good.

Interestingly, the media is usually banned from taking photos of his game, and the White House does not release the president's scores, unlike Bill Clinton, who would tout his high games when he was in office.

All of this, amazingly, at the Obama-enabling New York Times. More and more, they're lowering the bar for the remainder of his term.

See, "Obama Is the Nation’s Private Golfer in Chief."

NYPD Officers Turn Their Backs on Mayor de Blasio at Wenjian Liu Funeral (VIDEO)

Well, cops saluted de Blasio at last night's wake, but not today.

Once again, they gave the Marxist mayor the cold shoulder.

At the New York Post, "Cops again turn their backs on de Blasio at NYPD officer’s funeral."

Also at Gateway Pundit, "BREAKING: POLICE OFFICERS Turn Their Backs on Mayor De Blasio AGAIN – Wenjian Liu Funeral (Video)."

Newt Gingrich Slams Obama's 'Tragic Failure of Leadership' on Race Relations (VIDEO)

Obama and Holder have made race relations worse. QED.

On Face the Nation:

The Economics (and Nostalgia) of Dead Malls

This piece, at the New York Times, reminded me of the Mall of Orange, the mall that we frequented when I was a little kid. (It's now called the Village at Orange and is thriving.)

From the Times:

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Inside the gleaming mall here on the Sunday before Christmas, just one thing was missing: shoppers.

The upbeat music of “Jingle Bell Rock” bounced off the tiles, and the smell of teriyaki chicken drifted from the food court, but only a handful of stores were open at the sprawling enclosed shopping center. A few visitors walked down the long hallways and peered through locked metal gates into vacant spaces once home to retailers like H&M, Wet Seal and Kay Jewelers.

“It’s depressing,” Jill Kalata, 46, said as she tried on a few of the last sneakers for sale at the Athlete’s Foot, scheduled to close in a few weeks. “This place used to be packed. And Christmas, the lines were out the door. Now I’m surprised anything is still open.”

The Owings Mills Mall is poised to join a growing number of what real estate professionals, architects, urban planners and Internet enthusiasts term “dead malls.” Since 2010, more than two dozen enclosed shopping malls have been closed, and an additional 60 are on the brink, according to Green Street Advisors, which tracks the mall industry.

Premature obituaries for the shopping mall have been appearing since the late 1990s, but the reality today is more nuanced, reflecting broader trends remaking the American economy. With income inequality continuing to widen, high-end malls are thriving, even as stolid retail chains like Sears, Kmart and J. C. Penney falter, taking the middle- and working-class malls they anchored with them.

“It is very much a haves and have-nots situation,” said D. J. Busch, a senior analyst at Green Street. Affluent Americans “will keep going to Short Hills Mall in New Jersey or other properties aimed at the top 5 or 10 percent of consumers. But there’s been very little income growth in the belly of the economy.”

At Owings Mills, J. C. Penney and Macy’s are hanging on, but other midtier emporiums like Sears, Lord & Taylor, and the regional department store chain Boscov’s have all come and gone as anchors.

Having opened in 1986 with a renovation in 1998, Owings Mills is young for a dying mall. And while its locale may have contributed to its demise, other forces played a crucial role, too, like changing shopping habits and demographics, experts say.

“I have no doubt some malls will survive, but major segments of our society have gotten sick of them,” said Mark Hinshaw, a Seattle architect, urban planner and author.

One factor many shoppers blame for the decline of malls — online shopping — is having only a small effect, experts say. Less than 10 percent of retail sales take place online, and those sales tend to hit big-box stores harder, rather than the fashion chains and other specialty retailers in enclosed malls.

Instead, the fundamental problem for malls is a glut of stores in many parts of the country, the result of a long boom in building retail space of all kinds.

“We are extremely over-retailed,” said Christopher Zahas, a real estate economist and urban planner in Portland, Ore. “Filling a million square feet is a tall order.”...

Pretty fascinating.

Keep reading.

'I am an American Jew. I love the United States. I love everything it stands for...'

This is an amazing essay, from Miriam Herschlag, at the Times of Israel, "Why I have not (yet?) made aliyah":

America is the beacon of freedom and democracy to all humanity. It is the earth’s great hope. It is no coincidence that America is Israel’s foremost friend and protector. America stands up for righteous and struggling democracies throughout the world. It is the noble guardian of truth and the gallant defender of human rights. It follows that America would see in Israel a kindred spirit, a righteous nation wrestling to be free and protecting the dignity of all.

My attachment to America runs deep. When I sing the Star-spangled banner I focus on the words as if it were a prayer. “Land of the free and the home of the brave.” I love every inch of this great land and have taken my children in an RV to see most of it.

But love of America alone would not explain why I do not live in Israel...

RTWT.

Gas Prices Have a Way to Go to Be Historically Cheap

At the Wall Street Journal, "Why Gas Feels Cheap—and Why It’s Not, Historically Speaking: Recent Price Plunge Looks Good After Years of High Costs, but Fill-Ups Were Less Expensive From 1986-2003."

When my wife and I bought our Honda Odyssey van, in December 2001, gas was $1.19 a gallon. So yeah, prices have a way to go before they're that cheap. But historically speaking, the current low prices are pretty mind-boggling.

Thousands Pay Respects to Fallen NYPD Officer Wenjian Liu (VIDEO)

And police officers saluted Mayor de Blasio, rather than turn their backs to him. I think Commissioner Bratton's moral authority is having an influence on morale.

At CBS News New York:

Victoria's Secret Slow and Sultry

Via Theo Spark, "Victoria’s Secret Swim 2015: Slow. Sultry. Swim."

Needs less Candice and more Lily, but otherwise smokin'.

'Night Changes'

I watched this, "One Direction Performing on New Years Rockin Eve 2015 TIMES SQUARE."

And I liked "Night Changes."

'The idea of the Palestinian Authority taking Israel to court over war crimes is among the most grotesque and absurd developments imaginable, a moral inversion of staggering dimensions...'

From Peter Wehner, at Commentary, "The PA, the ICC, and a Moral Inversion of Staggering Dimensions":

The fact that this issue is even being considered points to how corrupt many international organizations are. (Why on earth should we have to debate why a malevolent organization doesn’t have the standing to condemn a nation characterized by excellence and extraordinary moral achievements?) In addition, the U.S. should certainly cut funding to the Palestinian Authority, to whom it currently provides more than $400 million in annual aid.

But beyond all that, this latest move by the PA is an example of the persistent unwillingness to address the pathologies that grip Palestinian society. These pathologies are the core reason for the tensions and conflict with Israel–and rather than dealing with them, the leadership of the Palestinians is, if anything, falling even deeper into denial. The more they fail, the more they blame Israel for their failures. This is an assault on reality, a slander of Israel, and a massive disservice to Palestinians. It would be helpful if more nations, starting with the United States, said so.

The Pull of Community at La Conchita

We lived in Santa Barbara in 1995 when La Conchita suffered its first devastating mudslide. Days of torrential rains triggered it. We used to drive by down the 101. It was like a demolition zone. And then 10 years later it happened again, with a terrible loss of life. But people still want to live there, despite the dangers of another slide.

At LAT, "10 years after fatal mudslide, tiny La Conchita accepts the risks":

A child's dollhouse jammed against a chain-link fence marked "No Trespassing" sits in the shadow of a mangled brick home covered in clotted dirt.

Two faded white crosses lie toppled on a mound of soil taller than a man; nearby, upended planters where someone's flowers once grew sprout weeds. A hand-painted sign dangling in the ocean breeze reads, "Do Stuff That Makes Buddha Happy."

The events of Jan. 10, 2005, when 400,000 tons of mud slid down the bluff behind La Conchita, killing seven adults and three children, are frozen in the eerie tableau — a reminder of the hidden dangers lurking beneath the surface. The tragedy came 10 years after the hill collapsed in 1995 when nine homes were lost.

Yet the possibility of the slope crashing again toward the Pacific Ocean has done little to dissuade people from putting down roots in the eclectic Ventura County beach community near the Santa Barbara County line. As the 10-year anniversary of the deadly slide approaches, the 500-foot cliff remains unfortified, and at least four ramshackle houses sit seemingly undisturbed since the last rescue crews left town.

Faded memories, relatively inexpensive real estate and a wide beach not far from the famous Rincon surf point tend to dull the perception of risk. It helps that the ranch at the top of the hill stopped irrigation leaks that residents contended caused the slope to erode.

But the town of 300 residents wedged between the hill and U.S. Highway 101 has another, less tangible draw to survivors and newcomers — community.

"Culturally, it's so similar to Mexico with how important family is," said Kelly Hill, who grew up in La Conchita and moved back last year with her husband and 9-year-old son. "It's like a little fishing village in Mexico. It's the American Mexican fishing village."...

It really is. There used to be a big tropical banana grove on the north side of the town. The place is a trip. So sorry for the tragedy.

Continue reading.

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

A New You in Winter Cleaning

At Amazon, Shop Amazon Home - New Year, New You - Winter Cleaning

'Non-Citizen' Designation for 'DREAMers' Driver's Licenses in Arizona (VIDEO)

Uh oh!

That's racist!

At Fox News, "Incoming Arizona lawmaker to propose 'non-citizen' designation on immigrant licenses":

A newly elected Arizona lawmaker says he's drafting legislation to add a "non-citizen" designation on driver's licenses issued to young immigrants participating in a federal program enabling them to avoid deportation.

Republican Rep.-elect Jay Lawrence said he wants to protect the integrity of the voting system.

Meanwhile, Democratic state Rep. Catherine Miranda says Lawrence's proposal spells trouble for Arizona in the wake of past controversy over a 2010 immigration-enforcement law...

More.

Brazilian Man Survives Knife Attack to Skull, Drives Three Hours (VIDEO)

Man, that's gnarly.

At CNN, "Man stabbed in head, drives three hours."

Twitter to Launch Video Service to Rival YouTube

Actually, I like Twitter the way it is. And same goes for YouTube, which means I don't need a rival.

Oh well.

At TechCrunch, "Details Unveiled for Twitter’s Native Video Player to Rival YouTube."

Claudia Romani Bikini Pics!

Here's something to take your mind off all the leftist hatred, disturbed "social justice" indoctrination, and radical left "Black Lives Matter" hypocrisy.

At Egotastic!, "Claudia Romani Bikini Pictures Take and Make the Cake in Miami."

Bill Eggler, Longtime Legislative Writer for Democrat New York Assembly Speaker, Posts 'Kill a Veteran' on Twitter

I saw someone RT this earlier, and thought, "Whoa, that is freakin' deranged."

Of course, no surprise to find out the dude's a Democrat Party insider in New York.

Via Barack Castro on Twitter. Click though for the blog post exposing this sick f-ker.

The Democrats. Once again, the party of hate.

'Social Justice' Preschoolers March in 'Black Lives Matter' Protest in Oakland

Well, in New York you had the little boy screaming "Fox News Liar, Liar Pants on Fire!"

So the far-left ghouls in Oakland were not to be outdone.

At the San Francisco Chronicle, "Preschool protesters march in Oakland":

Oakland's Radical Brownies. http://t.co/Z08waX2rcS pic.twitter.com/M3qNd6r1sw

— David Colburn (@davidcolburn) January 3, 2015

After storytime, the marchers made their own colorful and glittery star, then sang, “This Little Light of Mine.”

The event was a marked departure from the late-night, anger-fueled protests in Oakland over the past several weeks, where people took to the streets to demonstrate against police brutality against minorities and specifically against the killing of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and in New York City.

The parents who attended the Saturday morning playground event said they wanted to participate in the Black Lives Matter movement with their children, but in an age-appropriate way.

“Many families aren’t ready to explain police violence to their kids and I can understand why, it’s complicated and scary,” said Andrea Ibarra-Tacdol in a statement. “Our families are ready to share stories about differences, to teach our little ones to appreciate the diversity of their friends, and to march with other families who believe that black lives matter.”

Neto Cornejo, 2, participated in the short march through the Lake Merritt farmer’s market seated in his red Radio Flyer push bike. He didn’t specifically chant for peace and justice, but he looked like he was having a good time.

“As a Latino person, as a parent, it’s become very apparent — the connection between the Black Lives Matter campaign and the Latino community,” said Neto’s dad, Dani Cornejo, citing common issues like mass incarceration, discrimination and police violence. “That’s why we’re out here, in solidarity.”

Lupita Martinez, 10, was among the older children at the event. She attended with the social justice scouting troop she helped start a month ago: the Radical Brownies, complete with uniform brown vests and berets.

It’s sort of a “brown beret, Black Panther” thing, said her mom and co-founder Anayvette Martinez. “It’s all rooted in social justice for girls of color.”

It was one of the first official activities of the newly formed and unaffiliated troop.

“I like to learn a lot about what’s happening around me,” Lupita said. “It gives me ideas about how to help.”

That's child abuse, seriously.

Two-year-olds cannot comprehend "social justice" and "mass incarceration." Indeed, it's not a protest involving children at all. It's about whacked out far-left parents strutting their "social justice" bona fides like a bunch of drugged-out peacocks.

I mean really. Leftism is like a disease.

Black Lives Matter? 23-Day-Old Infant Dead After Found Battered in East Harlem Apartment (VIDEO)

I'm sure the leftist "Black Lives Matter" thugs will swoop down to East Harlem to launch protests against the inhumanity.

At NYDN, "Battered infant dies after cops find him unconscious in East Harlem apartment."

At CBS News New York:

Anti-Gun Beta Males

Heh, from Katie Pavlich, lol.

I'm going to start a new club: Women Against Anti-Gun Beta Males #2A

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) January 3, 2015

Obama's Regulatory Siege Holds Back the Economy

Well, in light of my last entry, "Can Robust U.S. Economy Lift Global Markets?"

(Keep in mind, the recent phenomenal U.S. economic performance is in spite of the Obama administration's FUBAR economic policies.)

At IBD, "Obama's Regulatory Siege Holds Back the Economy":

When it comes to costly regulations, Barack Obama is without presidential peer. We believe it's a big reason why the economic recovery from the financial crisis has been the worst ever.

According to data toted up by Competitive Enterprise Institute Fellow Wayne Crews, 2014 ended with 78,978 pages in the Federal Register, the government's regulatory bible. That's the fifth-highest ever. An improvement? Hardly.

As Crews notes, of the "six all-time-high Federal Register page counts, five belong to Obama." Counting the number of pages in the Federal Register is key, since it reflects the general level of regulation in the U.S. economy. In Obama's case, it indicates he's the most regulating president ever.

During the five years of his regulatory siege, the annual average of regulatory pages in the Register has increased by 8% over the preceding five years.

We're not picking nits here. Every rule that goes into effect has an economic impact. And many, if not most, have a negative economic impact — that is, costs outweigh benefits. It's an enormous cost to our economy.

Americans like to wonder why so few new businesses and new jobs are being created these days. Regulation is a big reason.

Still more.

Can Robust U.S. Economy Lift Global Markets?

Good news for the U.S. economy. Not so much for the rest of the world.

At LAT, "Overseas problems won't derail growing U.S. economy, analysts say":

NEW YORK — Call it the Great Divide: The new year figures to be one of robust economic growth in the U.S., with slowdowns, stagnation and setbacks everywhere else in the world.

The list of global problems is indeed long and worrisome. Europe and Japan teeter on the edge of recession. Russia careens toward a full-blown economic crisis. China's once-torrid growth is slowing faster than previously forecast. And many emerging economies are getting slammed by plunging oil prices.

All the overseas problems put together, though, are not enough to derail a strong U.S. economy, Wall Street analysts say. The Commerce Department stunned markets Dec. 23 by reporting that the nation's total economic output grew at an annual pace of 5% in the third quarter. The result blew past an already strong estimate of 3.9%.

"Spirits unleashed," was how Mark Zandi of research firm Moody's Analytics Inc. described the U.S. economy even before the final estimate for the third quarter came in.

The good U.S. economic news, forecasters said, will translate into solid but not spectacular returns in the stock market, which has been on a long bull run.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up about 11.4% for 2014, its third straight year of gains since the Great Recession. Most forecasts call for returns to be about half that in 2015 and beyond.

Forecasts can always be wrong, of course, but the new year begins with a set of unusually well-defined themes that, unless something dramatic happens, figure to play an important role in shaping the year's global economic picture. Here are a few of them...

Falling oil prices are a major factor in U.S. economic growth --- to the great consternation of the leftist climate change enviro-freaks.

But keep reading.

Daley Gator's Top 50 Blogs for 2015

The very gracious Doug Hagin includes me near the top of his list of top blogs for the new year.

See, "THE 50 BLOGS YOU MUST FOLLOW IN 2015."

And see Zilla's response as well, "A Spectacular Honor."

Illegal Aliens Begin Getting Driver's Licenses in California

Progress for Mexifornia.

At Town Hall, "Immigrants seek California driver licenses."

And at LAT, "Historic day as immigrants in US illegally begin getting driver's licenses."

Plus, video at CBS News San Francisco, "Undocumented Immigrants In San Jose Begin Seeking Driver’s Licenses Under New AB 60 Law."

Dictator Raul Castro Lays Flowers at Mausoleum of Jose Marti on 56th Anniversary of Cuba's Communist Revolution (VIDEO)

And boy, talk about sending an overwhelming message of impending democratic liberalization, ahem.

Fox News Liar, Liar Pants on Fire!

So the truly demonic "Black Lives Matter" anti-cop vigilantes put a little boy on the street with a sign screaming, "Fox News Liar, Liar Pants on Fire!"

So pathetic. It's almost unreal, but then again, nothing is too low for radical leftists. Nothing is too disgusting or perverse. These ghouls will stop at nothing to destroy the normal order of things --- and in the process they debase a small child's life, to say nothing of all the children they abuse and debase 365 days a year.

See Doug Powers, at Michelle Malkin's, "Protesters in front of Fox News deploy young member of Future Agitators of America."

Wall Street Journal Weekend Interview: Daniel Mael, 'How to Fight the Campus Speech Police...'

This is mind-boggling.

See, "How to Fight the Campus Speech Police: Get a Good Lawyer":

Rolling Stone magazine in November published a 9,000-word account of a horrific gang rape alleged to have occurred in 2012 at a University of Virginia fraternity. The story triggered a national outcry. UVA administrators pre-emptively suspended all fraternal activities on campus, effectively tarring an entire class of students for maintaining a culture of rape and impunity.

Then the original story collapsed. The confusion and anger that followed was a teachable moment about campus frenzies and baseless moral panic. But the episode also threw into high relief another facet of modern higher education: university administrators who, in their eagerness to mollify critics, trample students’ rights and in the process lives and reputations.

Often students from unpopular groups and those who hold unpopular views find themselves alone, facing zealous administrators at closed-door disciplinary hearings. In these places the basic rights of Americans—including the right to counsel, due process, the presumption of innocence and even free speech—don’t apply.

That was the predicament faced by Daniel Mael, a senior majoring in business at Brandeis University near Boston. The 22-year-old native of Newton, Mass., is on the honor roll and has immersed himself in student life, intramural sports and Brandeis’s Orthodox Jewish community. As a student journalist, he has published articles in national outlets.

The problem: Mr. Mael is a pro-Israel man of the right on a campus increasingly hostile to conservatism and the Jewish state. The other problem: The Brandeis administration, as at so many colleges, is more committed to shielding students’ political sensitivities from “harassment” than challenging their minds. Brandeis administrators define harassment so broadly that almost any student could be guilty at any time.

Speaking by phone while on winter vacation in Israel this week, Mr. Mael says: “They try to intimidate students into being silent, in the interest of people’s feelings not being hurt, rather than encourage debate.”...

You gotta RTWT.

Oregon Players Taunt Jameis Winston With 'No Means No!' Chant

From Christine Brennan, at USA Today, "'No means no' chant brought on by Winston":

Oregon coach Mark Helfrich told The Associated Press he plans to discipline the three players who mocked Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston Thursday night at the conclusion of the Ducks' 59-20 Rose Bowl victory, but it should come as no surprise that Winston was the target of the players' "No means no" tomahawk chop chant.

During the post-game celebration, the players' actions were an undeniable reference to the December 2012 allegation of rape against Winston that was all but ignored by authorities for a full year.

While the sight of the three players taunting Winston with FSU's own chant was jarring, it hardly was shocking, considering Winston's considerable resume of trouble. (Linebacker Torrodney Prevot and running back Kani Benoit are identifiable on video; the other player is wearing a T-shirt.)

We're used to seeing college sports fans mock athletes who get into trouble. (Dukies, we're talking about you.)

We're not used to seeing players in uniform representing their school on a national stage mocking opponents, which is likely the reason why the Oregon players will be disciplined.

That said, Winston certainly is an easy target. In addition to the very serious allegation of rape, which was mishandled terribly by the school and the Tallahassee police, he stole soda from a Burger King and crab legs from a Publix. He was handcuffed for possession of a BB gun. And he screamed a vulgarity while standing on a table in the FSU student union.

The Oregon players will be criticized in the national media, and perhaps we'll hear from them in the coming days, but in the meantime, we should be pleased that they actually know the meaning and impact of the "No means no," phrase, and in their own way, shined a light on a famous man accused of rape...

Actually, Winston was supposedly cleared of the rape charges, following a two-year investigation. Who knows what really happened with the rape, although the dude stealing crab legs was caught on camera. The guy's a bleeding idiot.

Jake Tapper interviews Brennan here, "Taunts will follow Jameis Winston in NFL."

And Oregon's players can be seen chanting at PuffHo, "Oregon Players Mock Jameis Winston With 'No Means No!' Chant After Rose Bowl Blowout."

Buckingham Palace Denies Prince Andrew 'Sex Slave' Allegations (VIDEO)

The Other McCain reports, "Ex-Teenage Hooker Says She Was Forced to Have Sex With British Royalty."

And see London's Daily Mail, "Under-age 'sex slave': Duke denies claim in court papers that teen was picked to sleep with him by Robert Maxwell's daughter."

More, "'I will not be bullied into silence': Woman who claims Prince Andrew abused her while she was billionaire's 'underage sex slave' says she is being 'unjustly victimised'."

Of course, the Royal Family has issued a "categorical" denial, via Sky News:

British Prime Minister Warns Labour Leader Ed Miliband Would 'Destroy Jobs' and Create 'Economic Chaos'

Well, leftists tend to destroy and defile entire societies.

The British general election campaign's already shaping up to be a hoot.

At Telegraph UK, "David Cameron: Putting Ed Miliband in Number 10 could trigger 'economic chaos'":

Prime Minister warns that a Labour Government would 'destroy jobs and destroy livelihoods' as he fires first shots of 2015 election campaign with poster launch in Halifax.

Ohio State vs. Oregon: College Football Playoff National Championship 2015

My "Roll Tide!" friends lamblock and Robert Stacy McCain are crestfallen, but I think it's going to be a great championship match-up.

At NYT, "Oregon Looks Bold and Exciting; This Time It’s Not the Uniforms," and "Ohio State Upsets Alabama in Sugar Bowl and Advances to National Championship Game."

What would be a traditional Rose Bowl matchup is the national championship matchup. Old school.

— RB (@RBPundit) January 2, 2015

Confessions of a Hooters Waitress

It's hard out there for a Hooters hottie.

At London's Daily Mail, "Confessions of a Hooters waitress: From $100 tips to fending off 'pervy' men and dealing with angry wives - the truth about America's 'working class sorority'."

Return of the 1960s

From Ben Shapiro, at FrontPage Magazine, "A Dark Past Revived Under America's Radical-in-Chief":

The images of rioters burning down Ferguson mirror the images of rioters burning down Detroit in 1967. Never mind that America of 2014 is not the America of 1967 or 1972 — if Obama and his allies have to recreate that chaotic era to forward their own political ends, they will.

We’re watching the foreign policy of the hard-left McGovernites re-establish itself, this time from the Oval Office. The images of Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., railing against the CIA on the floor of the Senate over the CIA’s use of enhanced interrogation techniques mirror the images of Senator Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., railing against the American military in the aftermath of the Winter Soldier hearings of 1971. The images of the Yazidis starving on mountaintops in Iraq mirror the images of Vietnamese rushing onto boats to escape the horrors of the communists in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

We’re watching the divisive domestic politics of the social radicals reassert themselves. The images of failed Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis standing in pink sneakers to list the glories of late-term abortion mirror the images of Gloria Steinem blathering about “reproductive freedom” in 1971. The images of Nancy Pelosi touting freedom from “job lock” thanks to Obamacare mirror the images of President Johnson effectively doing the same thanks to the war on poverty.

President Obama and his ilk quest for a return to hopier, changier times — times like the 1960s. And so they will take us all back to the future. Sadly, our future will then be no more than a reversion to insanity of our past.

Far-Left Suspect Jarrod Shanahan Arrested in Brooklyn Bridge Attack on NYPD (VIDEO)

More from the left's war on law enforcement, at the New York Post, "‘Male Suspect #2’ in Brooklyn Bridge NYPD attack arrested."

The attack can be seen at this local update from CBS News New York:

Taylor Swift Was Freezing Cold While Performing for 'New Year's Rocking Eve'

I wasn't even watching television until 11:00pm, when I turned on the local news.

It's been cold all across the country this last week. No one's been spared the freezing temperatures. And as the local news segued into the delayed broadcast of the Times Square New Year's revelry, I was pretty surprised to see Taylor Swift strip down to nothing more than some "tuxedo" spandex pants and at little bikini-style top. I said to myself, "She must be freezing."

And sure enough, she was.

At London's Daily Mail, "'I'm freezing!' Taylor Swift shivers in tiny vest top as she leads Fergie, Charli XCX and One Direction at Times Square NYE bash."

Click through for photos.

BONUS: "Oh so Glamorous! Fergie looks incredible in FIVE different show-stopping outfits as she hosts Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve."

The Left is All About Revenge

I wrote on this previously, "From Ismaaiyl Brinsley to Barack Obama, Leftist Agenda All About Revenge Against Political Enemies."

Now here comes J.R. Dunn, at American Thinker, "The Left's Base Motive: Vengeance":

American leftism has gotten an awful lot of mileage by monopolizing the moral high ground. It is the sole force in American that favors the poor. The sole enemy of racism. The sole comforter of rape victims. The sole protector of defenseless Muslims. The sole guardian of the environment, and so on ad nauseum.

It all falls apart eventually -- with friends like the left, nobody needs enemies. But often overlooked is that fact that it’s bogus from the start. Any prolonged glance at the left reveals it to be an ideology of power, its major tool violence, its goal revenge.

Leftism has always been about revenge. The works of Marx are filled with fantasies of retribution and judgment. Their tone reeks of resentment and paranoia, with blame cast for even the most trivial. "The bourgeoisie,” Marx once declared in a letter to Engels, “will remember my carbuncles until their dying day.” That’s leftism in a nutshell.

The Paris communards of 1870, the first instance of an actual leftist government-in-being, immediately began shooting bourgeois on taking power, giving full rein to the European hatred for the middle class that is all but incomprehensible to Americans. That practice has been repeated by every hard left government that has ever taken power -- the USSR, communist China, Castroite Cuba, Pol Pot’s Kampuchea, down to minor examples such as Bela Kun’s Hungarian “Regime of Light” (1919), which reintroduced the Roman practice of decimation.

This unvarying tendency toward atrocity suggests that all these regimes had something in common, and it’s not that they all suffered from boils. It’s the lust for vengeance -- revenge for slights and crimes either real or imaginary,  that can be found in every leftist from Nechaev to Bill Ayers. No less than Barack Obama spilled that when, his back apparently against the wall in 2012, he began ranting about “voting for revenge”...

Even more base is the's left's fundamental tenet of ideological hatred. From that springs all else. And if you're outspoken about your views, the left will target you for retaliation. It's all hatred and revenge against those who buck the accepted ideological line.

Keep reading.

Mario Cuomo Dies at 82

Cuomo spoke at Fresno State back in 1992. Definitely an icon of traditional Democratic Party liberalism. No one could articulate the vision of liberal activist government as he could. He was an interesting man.

Here's the outstanding obituary, at the New York Times, "Mario Cuomo, Governor, Governor’s Father and an Eloquent Liberal Beacon, Dies at 82":

In an era when liberal thought was increasingly discredited, Mr. Cuomo, a man of large intellect and often unrestrained personality, celebrated it, challenging Ronald Reagan at the height of his presidency with an expansive and affirmative view of government and a message of compassion, tinged by the Roman Catholicism that was central to Mr. Cuomo’s identity.

A man of contradictions who enjoyed Socratic arguments with himself, Mr. Cuomo seemed to disdain politics even as he embraced it. “What an ugly business this is,” he liked to say. Yet he reveled in it, proving himself an uncommonly skilled politician and sometimes a ruthless one.

He was a tenacious debater and a spellbinding speaker at a time when political oratory seemed to be shrinking to the size of the television set. Delivering the keynote address at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, he eclipsed his party’s nominee, former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, seizing on Reagan’s description of America as “a shining city on a hill” to portray the president as unaware of impoverished Americans. “Mr. President,” he said, “you ought to know that this nation is more a ‘tale of two cities’ than it is just a ‘shining city on a hill.’ ”

The speech was the high-water mark of his national political career, making him in many ways a more admired figure outside his state than in it.

RTWT. (Via Memeorandum.)

Thousands Brave Bitter Cold for 126th Rose Parade

At the Los Angeles Times:

Ronni Edens bobbed her head as a marching band passed. She's been coming to the parade for more than 30 years, and paused as she tried to nail down her favorite part.

While she was brainstorming, she waved at a man on a passing float. "Happy New Year!" he shouted.

She yelled it back.

"That's the best part," Edens said. "The best part is saying 'Happy New Year' to everyone, even though they're strangers. It's the best way to start a year."

Super-Tight Red Dress Saves 21-Year-Old Woman's Life in Car Accident

The dress was so tight it acted like a corset, protecting her vital organs.

At Telegraph UK, "My £35 little red dress saved my life, says crash victim":

Zoe Turner, 21, says the skin-tight dress she wore to at a Christmas party at Leeds United's ground stopped her bones piercing her organs.

Via Pat Dollard, "Tight Red Dress Saves Hottie’s Life In Car Crash."

New Year's Eve Banner Flying Over Times Square: DE BLASIO - APOLOGIZE TO THE NYPD!!

At Gateway Pundit, "Banner Bashing De Blasio Flies Over Times Square, “De Blasio Apologize to NYPD” (Video)."

NYPD on 'High Alert' as Leftists Plan 'Kill a Pig' Protests on New Year's Eve (VIDEO)

The left is literally waging all-out war on America's law enforcement, and New York City is like ground zero. At the video, Commissioner Bill Bratton says he's not leaving anything to chance.

At Jammie Wearing Fools, "Thanks, de Blasio! NYPD Facing “Kill a Pig Night” to Celebrate New Year":

Needless to say, the “mostly peaceful” protesters are preparing for a big night. Hope nobody interrupts Obama’s latest round of golf to give him the news.

The NYPD is investigating several threats to kill NYPD officers during New Year’s Eve celebrations, DNAinfo New York has learned.

Sources say there are several gang members on social media calling for New Year’s Eve to be “Kill a Pig Night” so that it will become “The New Year’s Eve Massacre 2014.”

The threats primarily come in tweets baring a host of vicious anti-NYPD hash tags including #@deadcopseveryday, #onlydeadcops, #wingsonpigs and #laughatyourdeaths, according to law enforcement sources.

One tweet reads: “Dear Police, Don’t think this cant happen again” accompanied by a photo of armed Blank Panthers from the 1960s and 1970s, sources say.

Police officials say the NYPD is taking all threats seriously, particularly in the wake of the Dec. 20 murder of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. Their assassin, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, took to Instagram that morning announcing he was coming to New York to kill police officers.

Sources say the NYPD has received 63 threats since the shootings and there have been 16 arrests connected to them.

There are presently 23 open investigations into threats against NYPD officers, a source said.

ObamaCare's Annus Horribilis

From Michelle Malkin:

Obamacare's Annus Horribilis - the horrible year in review. Eat it, @DWStweets ==> http://t.co/JAUlYUiZ9M

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) December 31, 2014

There’s no candy coating the truth: ObamaCare has had a very terrible, horrible, crappy, none-too-happy year. What it really means is that the victims of Obamacare — taxpayers, health care consumers, health care providers, employers and employees — have had a hellish, nightmarish 2014.

RTWT.

Let's Have a National Conversation About the American Ghetto

From Michael Grable, at American Thinker, "A National Conversation about the American Ghetto":

The Left has long argued ad populum that disproportionately white police forces and disproportionately black prison populations prove American law enforcement institutionally racist.

That's essentially the perception behind, for example, the Left's long campaign against racial profiling as a police engagement technique.

Media sensationalism this year about two black deaths at the hands of white policemen inflamed the argument, while the president of the United States, the attorney general of the United States, the mayor of New York, and race-hustling entrepreneurs from Al Sharpton on down to any brother in the street with a bullhorn jumped on the black-while-walking bandwagon.

Here, however, is one standup law-enforcement professional, Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr., who begs to disagree.

Sheriff Clarke publicly condemns anti-police populism as the Left's deflection of an urban reality with which he's professionally all too familiar and for which the Left's all too politically responsible. "This deflects," says Sheriff Clarke:

against the real thing that we need to have a conversation about in this country and it's the American ghetto. And that's where most of the policing unfortunately has to be applied. The American ghetto has chronic poverty, high unemployment where people can't find meaningful work, and kids shackled to failing public schools ensuring that they won't reach their God-given potential. This creates a permanent underclass in this country and ensures that this group of people will continue to live life at the bottom. That's the kind of conversation that we need to have, as to how these failed liberal government policies have led to the creation and emergence of the welfare state. And that characterizes the American ghetto. Let's have that conversation and get off this nonsense that it's the policing profession that needs to be transformed. There's nothing wrong with the policing of, or institution of, policing in America.

The very civil rights movement with its war on poverty which was to have rectified American racism has, instead, perversely perpetuated it in the creation of a permanent underclass living life at the bottom of an urban ignorance, criminality, and violence which most requires the very policing against which its political beneficiaries now rail. That's a pretty "fundamental transformation" of at least one aspect of America. And it's a transformation of which no American should ever be anything but ashamed...

Keep reading.

Sad that.

Ignoring the Facts: How to Promote Lynch Mobs

From Thomas Sowell, at RCP, "Are Facts Obsolete?":

Some of us, who are old enough to remember the old television police series "Dragnet," may remember Sgt. Joe Friday saying, "Just the facts, ma'am." But that would be completely out of place today. Facts are becoming obsolete, as recent events have demonstrated.

What matters today is how well you can concoct a story that fits people's preconceptions and arouses their emotions. Politicians like New York mayor Bill de Blasio, professional demagogues like Al Sharpton and innumerable irresponsible people in the media have shown that they have great talent in promoting a lynch mob atmosphere toward the police.

Grand juries that examine hard facts live in a different world from mobs who listen to rhetoric and politicians who cater to the mobs.

During the controversy over the death of Trayvon Martin, for example, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus said that George Zimmerman had tracked Trayvon Martin down and shot him like a dog. The fact is that Zimmerman did not have to track down Trayvon Martin, who was sitting right on top of him, punching him till his face was bloody.

After the death of Michael Brown, members of the Congressional Black Caucus stood up in Congress, with their hands held up, saying "don't shoot." Although there were some who claimed that this is what Michael Brown said and did, there were other witnesses -- all black, by the way -- who said that Brown was charging toward the policeman when he was shot.

What was decisive was not what either set of witnesses said, but what the autopsy revealed, an autopsy involving three sets of forensic experts, including one representing Michael Brown's family. Witnesses can lie but the physical facts don't lie, even if politicians, mobs and the media prefer to take lies seriously.

The death of Eric Garner has likewise spawned stories having little relationship to facts. The story is that Garner died because a chokehold stopped his breathing. But Garner did not die with a policeman choking him.

He died later, in an ambulance where his heart stopped. He had a long medical history of various diseases, as well as a long criminal history. No doubt the stress of his capture did not do him any good, and he might well still be alive if he had not resisted arrest. But that was his choice.

Despite people who say blithely that the police need more "training," there is no "kinder and gentler" way to capture a 350-pound man, who is capable of inflicting grievous harm, and perhaps even death, on any of his would-be captors. The magic word "unarmed" means nothing in practice, however much the word may hype emotions...

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "BuzzFeed Busted for Pushing the 'Myth' of the Left's 'Dead Cops Chant'."

BuzzFeed Busted for Pushing the 'Myth' of the Left's 'Dead Cops Chant'

Walter James Casper pushes this meme all the time at his Twitter feed.

But Hugh Hewitt busted publisher Ben Smith on BuzzFeed's despicable meme that the left's "dead cop chant" is a myth. See, "Making a Little News on New Year’s Eve" (via Memeorandum).

So I taped an interview with Buzzfeed’s editor-in-chief Ben Smith this morning, one that led Ben to delete a front page headline splash for this story, and which triggered a bunch of follow-on stories among media reporters like The Daily Caller’s Al Weaver. Ben’s a good guest and willing to take hard questions, but I wouldn’t have just disappeared the header that we were discussing without a note to the readers. There’s also an interesting discussion of why I think Buzzfeed will “go left” in 2015 whether it wants to or not. Anyway, here’s the audio and transcript...

Yep. Busted. If you go to the BuzzFeed article the headline's been changed.

But check this dude's tweet below, from earlier this morning, as you can see the subheading, "Protesters Against Police Brutality Aren't Advocating for 'Dead Cops'."

Uh, actually they are, and there are lots of examples, not just the video from Al Sharpton's "dead cops" protest in New York.

"Dead Cops" Chant A Myth http://t.co/OUtrDpl19a
— Chad Hill (@JavaChilly) December 31, 2014

Lies. That's all they have. Leftists are nothing but liars. You have to call them out, constantly and repeatedly. It takes time, but when they're busted their lies often do get further exposure on MSM outlets. It takes conservatives exponentially more effort to debunk the lies with the Obama-enabling media, but it can be done.

They're all despicable liars.

Violent Crime in L.A. Rose for First Time in 12 Years, LAPD Says

This year's been victorious for the left's forces of lawlessness and disruption. From soft-on-crime legislation to the anarchy in the streets, and to the radical left's all-out war on law enforcement, it's been a rough year for the bulwarks of decency and order.

The left wouldn't have it any other way.

At the Los Angeles Times, "L.A. violent crime rises for the first time in 12 years, LAPD says":

For more than a decade, the Los Angeles Police Department has pointed to year-end statistics showing big drops in crime as proof the agency was making the city safer.

But as 2014 draws to a close and the numbers show violent crime has climbed for the first time in 12 years, Chief Charlie Beck has struck a decidedly different note.

"One thing we've become trapped in doing is looking at crime year-to-year, month-to-month, day-to-day," Beck told reporters earlier this month. "When you do that you don't get a clear, overall picture."

His comments came after months of questions about the accuracy of the LAPD's crime data, which the department has long used to set crime-fighting strategies and assess the success or failure of various operations.

Through Saturday, LAPD figures showed a decline in property crimes, but more than a 12% jump in violent offenses over the same period last year. All four types of crime that account for the city's violence total had increased: Robberies and homicides were up slightly; rapes climbed 12.4%.

By far, the most dramatic rise was in aggravated assaults — serious attacks that typically involve a weapon or serious injury — which rose 24.2% compared with 2013.

The increase in assaults coincided with a Times investigation this summer that found that the LAPD significantly understated the city's true level of crime when it misclassified nearly 1,200 serious violent crimes as low-level offenses during a recent one-year period. The bulk of those errors were made when police recorded aggravated assaults as minor incidents...

More.

Socialists Hate God, Freedom, and America!

And they also hate cops.

Hate consumes.

@rsmccain @AmPowerBlog Hate, ultimately, consumes itself, and unfortunately, in the end.

— Joseph G. Simpson (@jg_simpson) December 31, 2014

Anais Zanotti: American Power's Woman of the Year for 2014

I almost forgot about AmPow's Woman of the Year!

In fact, I haven't even thought about it. I can't think of a genuine media sensation this year, unlike in 2013, when Emily Ratajkowski reigned supreme. And in 2012, Kate Upton took the top honors.

So, why Anais Zanotti?

In all of this year's babe blogging and Rule 5, Ms. Zanotti has evinced more of the "Ooh Ahh" factor than anyone else. She's fit and flirty, and not overexposed. Just a sweetie. She sky dives too!

I love Miami beach 💖 #selfie pic.twitter.com/bE8Nv2E4oQ

— Anais Zanotti (@anaiszanotti) July 11, 2014

More here, from the archives.

Also at WWTDD, "Anais Zanotti in a Bikini." And, "@PlayboyVzla pictorial this month."

And at Egotastic!, "Anais Zanotti Licks the Cream from the End of Summer’s Cone."

Get Fit New Year's Resolution

Shop for stuff to speed your fitness resolutions, at Amazon.

Evelyn Taft on Year-End's Record-Low Temperatures

The lovely Evelyn Taft, from KCBS Los Angeles, with the chilly weather forecast for CBS This Morning.

Longtime readers my recall Ms. Taft as a political scientist!



PREVIOUSLY: "The Coldest Rose Parade Ever."

Foreign Fighters Flow to Syria

Love this graphic, at the Washington Post.

Where foreign fighters in #Syria come from http://t.co/NTRbZapYHK pic.twitter.com/bKIYb5QUlo #Tunisia #Tunis #UK @duncanrobinson @conradhackett

— MinDoZa (@mindoza33) December 22, 2014

More 'Broken Windows' for Seattle: Police Seethe as Political Officials Rein in Prosecutions for 'Minor' Crimes

Seattle, a leftist utopia.

And the police aren't loving this policy of no prosecutions for so-called "minor" offenses. Once again, criminals get a free pass. It's a nationwide trend, apparently, and it's getting worse amid the left's all-out assault on law enforcement post-Ferguson.

At WSJ, "Seattle Police Chafe Under New Marching Orders: City Reins in Prosecution for Minor Crimes, Sends Some Offenders to Social Services Instead of Criminal Courts":

SEATTLE— Kathleen O’Toole, this city’s new police chief, recently visited some of her department’s stations to deliver an unusual message: It’s OK to arrest people who violently break the law.

Ms. O’Toole, who became head of the 1,350-officer force in June, said police showed admirable but excessive restraint when pelted with stones and bottles at a protest related to the death of Michael Brown, the Ferguson, Mo., black teen shot by a white officer. “If you get agitators who threaten the police or the public, you have to arrest them,” she said.

That a police chief felt the need to issue such instructions is a signal of the turmoil that has beset American law enforcement. After decades of aggressive policing and prosecution practices, combined with tough-on-crime legislation, there is increasing debate over whether those policies need to change. In recent months, that has taken an angry and at times violent turn, including the shooting of Mr. Brown and the execution-style killing of two New York City policemen.

The tactics many believe helped reduce American crime rates and make violent cities more habitable now appear to be at odds with a different set of consequences. Almost 80 million people, or nearly one-third of adult Americans, have an arrest or conviction record, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation data. Among minorities, in particular, there is a mistrust of law enforcement.

These tensions are playing out in Seattle, a fast-growing city of more than 600,000 that is home to corporate giants such as Starbucks Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. The police department is under the scrutiny of a court-appointed monitor, the result of a 2012 Justice Department complaint accusing it of a pattern of using force that denied people’s constitutional rights.

Seattle’s political leadership, including City Attorney Peter Holmes, has moved to rein in police tactics and cut down on prosecutions for minor crimes.

Many police officers have chafed at the restrictions. Earlier this year, one officer cited dozens of people for smoking marijuana in public and wrote some of the tickets to the attention of “Petey Holmes.” Rates of serious crime have started to tick up.

Out of this contentious debate has emerged a possible third way, the joint brainchild of civil-rights activists and law-enforcement officials. The three-year-old program gives beat officers the option of diverting some offenders into social-service programs rather than the criminal courts.

Other locales are trying similar experiments. In Durham County, N.C., prosecutors, defense attorneys, police and judges are working to give youthful first-time offenders an option other than adult court and a criminal record. Authorities in New York, Philadelphia and some other cities have stepped away from making arrests for minor pot possession. Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn has directed officers to limit searches during traffic stops, which in the past produced arrests.

The collateral consequences of an arrest and conviction—which can include difficulty in getting a job, scholarship or loan many years later—are now “definitely on our radar screen,” said Steven Jansen, vice president of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, a group representing thousands of prosecutors. “In the end, we have to ask, ‘Is this fair?’ ”

"Serious crime" is going up, but political officials are getting the "restorative justice" shakedown from leftist "civil rights activists" looking to weaken American law enforcement altogether.

This country is going to hell. Damn.

Continue reading.

Owner of L.A.'s Golden Road Brewing Better Start to 'Share His Profits More Equitably...'

Following-up from the the other day, "Los Angeles' Minimum Wage Hike Risks Driving Businesses to Nearby Cities."

No surprise, but leftist readers of the Times took issue, captured perfectly by this totalitarian letter to the editor, "Will a wage boost lift all boats or push jobs out of L.A.?":

To the editor: Golden Road Brewing head Tony Yanow asks, "Do you want to go somewhere you can make money, or do you want to go somewhere where they are stacking the cards against you?" I, an avid IPA aficionado, would respond that I would rather support a brewer who is willing to share his profits more equitably.

I applaud the entrepreneurial spirit of brewers like Yanow. They deserve their profits. Just how much do they think they need to make before they are willing to acknowledge the efforts of their employees by paying them a living wage?

I will be watching and making my decisions about where I enjoy my IPA. The greedy ones need to know they are not the only IPA experts in town.

Sharon Fane, Burbank

Well, she "applauds" them if they're willing to redistribute their earnings. Otherwise she just considers them "greedy" bastards. Typical anti-business leftist. Damn.

Surprisingly, the Times also published a much more sensible letter carefully laying out the logic of the marketplace, from Andrew Chawke in Sherman Oaks (at the link).

Central American Migrants Allowed to Stay in U.S. Go Missing, Fail to Show Up at Deportation Hearings

Well, here's an "I told you so" follow-up from last summer's blogging on the Central American illegal immigration onslaught, when I predicted that alien migrants wouldn't be sent back home. See, "Few Central American Illegals Will Ever Be Sent Back Home — #BorderInvasion," and "Wave of Unaccompanied Alien Children Swamps the United States — #BorderInvasion."

And now, via Blazing Cat Fur, "U.S. shocker: Illegal Immigrant Families With Deportation Orders Go Missing."

College Football, Awash in Money, More Like Professional Sports Than Higher Education

You don't say?

At NYT, "What Made College Football More Like the Pros? $7.3 Billion, for a Start":

After taking a sociology exam, Cardale Jones, a quarterback at Ohio State, posted a message on Twitter that echoed across college sports: “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.”

Two years after publishing that provocative statement, Jones will be the starting quarterback on Thursday against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, the second semifinal game of college football’s new playoff system — and his words have renewed relevance. Never has the sport been so awash in money, a growth industry on campuses that some observers believe increasingly resembles professional football more than higher education.

In some ways, even the N.F.L., that $10-billion-a-year enterprise, might be struggling to compete. The University of Michigan on Tuesday introduced its new coach, Jim Harbaugh, who left the N.F.L.’s San Francisco 49ers to join the Wolverines. His base salary — $5 million annually for seven years with 10 percent increases after three and five years — will eventually amount to more than what he was earning in the N.F.L.

Harbaugh will have one of the highest base salaries in the country. The highest-paid college football coach at around $7 million this season was Alabama’s Nick Saban, who also chose to leave a head coaching position in the N.F.L., in 2007, for the riches of the college ranks.

“When you hear presidents and athletic directors talk about character and academics and integrity, none of that really matters,” said Mack Brown, a longtime coach at Texas who is now a television analyst. “The truth is, nobody has ever been fired for those things. They get fired for losing.”

Harbaugh, like most college football coaches, will receive bonuses. His incentives come for reaching the Big Ten championship game ($125,000), winning the Big Ten championship ($250,000), reaching a College Football Playoff bowl ($200,000), playing in the four-team national championship playoff ($300,000) and for team academic performance (up to $150,000). Winning a national title would bring him $500,000.

The story of college football’s gold rush can be told through television contracts. Under the championship playoff format that began this season, ESPN is paying $7.3 billion over 12 years to telecast seven games a year — four major bowl games, two semifinal bowl games and the national championship game. (In the first semifinal on Thursday, Oregon will play Florida State in the Rose Bowl; the title game is on Jan. 12.)

Each of the five major conferences — the Southeastern, the Atlantic Coast, the Pacific-12, the Big 12 and the Big Ten — will see its base revenue increase to about $50 million, from about $28 million under last season’s system. The base revenue will nearly triple for the five conferences that make up the next tier of college football.

The playoff is such a profitable showpiece that many believe it will be expanded to eight teams or more. On Tuesday, the top-selling college item on Fana-tics.com was a T-shirt depicting the playoff bracket.

“College football is growing closer and closer to being like the N.F.L.,” Brown said...

More.

Norway Turns Against Statoil

It's the state oil company, which generates about a quarter of national income.

Still, the far-left Norwegian population has turned against the company. You know, it's all about the environment to leftists. Too bad we can't ship all of ours to Scandinavia.

At the New York Times, "Norwegians Turn Ambivalent on Statoil, Their Economic Bedrock":

OSLO — This has not been a particularly good year for Statoil, the huge state-controlled oil company that has had a commanding presence in Norway’s economy and society for more than four decades.

In the spring, Statoil cut 1,000 jobs, or 4 percent of its work force. In September, it postponed a much-criticized project in the Canadian tar sands for at least three years. On Oct. 29, reflecting collapsing oil prices and a steep tumble of its stock, it reported its first quarterly loss since 2001. And in November, it announced disappointing results from the year’s program of drilling for new oil and gas in the Norwegian Arctic.

But it is not just the vicissitudes of oil markets and exploratory wells that are causing difficulties for Statoil. In an era of climate change, the company — and by extension Norway’s entire oil and gas industry, which accounts for nearly a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide — is coming under increasing pressure from within its own borders.

The activism goes beyond conventional environmental concerns to issues of the company’s pervasive presence in Norwegian life.

At the University of Bergen and other schools, for instance, professors and students have protested Statoil’s financing of academic research, worth about $12 million annually. And musicians and artists have campaigned against the company’s widespread sponsorship of cultural events and organizations, which has included cash awards to performers whom Statoil calls “Heroes of Tomorrow.”

“Basically, you’re a billboard for an oil company,” Martin Hagfors, a musician, said in an interview in his studio in Oslo’s lively Gronland district. “And if you have any sense that we need to change direction, you can’t be a billboard for an oil company.”

The tensions are playing out in Parliament, too. In June, majority and opposition parties pressured Statoil to agree to provide electricity to several North Sea oil fields from land, using clean hydroelectricity delivered by cable rather than greenhouse-gas-emitting gas generators offshore.

“There’s a growing concern that Norway is basing its welfare to such a large extent on something that is increasing global warming,” said Rasmus Hansson, who last year became the first member of the Green Party to be elected to Parliament. “It’s a moral issue.”

Statoil, which was concerned about costs and delays, fought back, and a compromise was eventually reached that will cut emissions by up to 23 million tons of carbon dioxide over the lifetime of the fields. The episode was seen as a milestone for Parliament, which normally rubber-stamps most Statoil projects.

“It was a very important thing to do at the time we did it,” said Terje Aasland, a member of Parliament with the Labor Party, the largest opposition party.

“Climate change is coming closer and closer every day,” he added. “I think people are more concerned about the future.”

A bunch of blithering idiots. The climate change consensus has completely collapsed, but these Norwegian socialists are still lapping up the global warming Kool-Aid.

It's not going to be good for the country's long-term prosperity, but leftists never learn.

Toddler Accidentally Shoots Mother Dead in Idaho Walmart

This is just horrible.

At Bearing Arms, "PUT IT IN A &*%$# HOLSTER! Toddler Kills Mother Via Negligent Discharge In Idaho."

Reports indicate she had a concealed carry permit but kept the gun in her purse. The toddler grabbed it and shot the mom accidentally. Just a tragic, tragic accident. The mom wasn't too smart, and that's sad.

Lena Dunham's Alleged 'Republican Rapist' is a Democrat

At Instapundit, "GAWKER: Lena Dunham’s Fictional Republican Rapist Is Actually the Democratic Son of an NPR Host":

Nice detective work here, but I don’t believe anything Dunham writes.

Also at Evil Blogger Lady, "Lena 'Liar' Dunham."

More at Twitchy, "Gawker defends Lena Dunham against right-wing ‘antagonists’ by outing alleged rapist."

The Coldest Rose Parade Ever

It's cold. Overnight temperatures are dropping.

Here's ABC 7 Los Angeles, "SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SNOW: MORE THAN 130 DRIVERS STUCK, 15 FREEWAY, ORTEGA HIGHWAY CLOSED," and "SNOW CONTINUES TO DUST SOCAL MOUNTAINS WHILE TEMPS DROP."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "The coldest Rose Parade ever looms, but flower handlers carry on."

Crime as Politics

From VDH, at Pajamas:

In the last few days, the local Fresno community was outraged — or at least was reportedly to be so — at the vandalism of a local Islamic cultural center.

The police authorities almost immediately, and without waiting for the full evidence to be collected, declared the minor burglary and damage the apparent dividend of illiberal dark forces. The chief of police, without compelling evidence, and without explaining why a secular medical building was also trashed in the spree, rushed to hold a press conference. He declared the broken window and moderate trashing of the center’s interior, not just a “hate crime,” but in fact a “brazen hate crime.”

What next followed was Fresno’s comic version of what now is normal race and gender news. Almost immediately it was learned that there was a video of the suspected perpetrator in mediis rebus. Mr. Asif Mohammad Khan was a Muslim, with a record of mental disturbances, and had attended the center. He claimed that he had vandalized the buildings as part of payback to other center attendees who, he claimed, had bullied him — and reportedly was known to be an admirer of Osama bin Laden. The “brazen” hate crime and the atmosphere of intolerance vanished with the local morning fog. The FBI, of course, is still “investigating” a possible “hate crime.” But they too will quietly go away in short order.

But just a few days earlier, there was another Fresno crime captured on video, both violent and in theory fueled by racial animus, or at least more deserving of a FBI second look at such a possible catalyst. At a local municipal bus stop an elderly man with a walker bravely protested that a large youth was bullying a smaller teen. The video captures the thug in response yelling at the defender, then striking the man to the pavement. The latter hit his head on his walker and momentarily lost consciousness.

The attacker was a large, rather young African-American; the victim a 62-year-old white man. What followed was no police hectoring. No lectures about the safety of the city’s bus stops. No police chief warnings about interracial tensions. No brazen hate crime sermons about the hale and young attacking the elderly or disabled. Indeed the police initially did not even consider the attack a crime, but rather a “fall.” Only a chance bystander’s video of the incident led to a reinvestigation and the suspected perpetrator’s arrest.

Unlike the city’s failed effort to turn the Islamic center vandalism into a teachable moment, this really was a teachable moment, perhaps in two unfortunate regards. One, heroism is rendered foolish. So far no one in the city has stepped forward to congratulate a disabled senior’s heroic (and apparently successful) efforts to divert the bullying of teenager onto his own person. His only reward was to have been knocked out by the attacker, and the crime initially not considered a crime, but his injuries due supposedly to his own clumsiness.  Second, the disabled victim is lucky he was not armed. Had he pulled out a legal, concealed weapon when the bully approached him to attack, and fired in self-defense, we would have another Trayvon Martin hate crime, and charges that a climate of racial intolerance had led to the death of another unarmed African-American. In comparison to all that, a head injury is apparently preferable.

In some cynical fashion I sympathize with local officials and the police. To rush to judgment on the pseudo-“brazen” hate crime at the Islamic center is to win laurels and careerist points; to deplore the truly brazen beating of a solitary old white guy trying to protect the weaker from a much larger African-American thug who fled the scene is to court social ostracism and career implosion. Note well that there is no downside for the police chief in feebly retracting his shoot-from-the-hip damnation of supposedly local hatred that fueled the vandalism. He just shrugged, made inoperative his prior false news release, and went on.

I don’t doubt that there are occasional hate crimes against various ethnic and religious groups. After all, the United States is still a great experiment that seeks to unite the world’s tribes into a coherent whole. And never has that gambit been more problematic in the age of hyphenation and the salad bowl in lieu of the melting pot.

But right now, discussion of crime is too often constructed as an ideological tool to serve larger political agendas...

More.

Progressives and Disorder

At the Wall Street Journal, "The next two years may be the most dangerous since the Cold War ended":

As the calendar turns toward the final two years of the Obama Presidency, this is a moment to consider the world it has produced. There is no formal Obama Doctrine that serves as the 44th President’s blueprint for America’s engagement with the world. But it is fair to say that Barack Obama brought into office a set of ideas associated with the progressive, or left-leaning, wing of the Democratic foreign-policy establishment.

“Leading from behind” was the phrase coined in 2011 by an Obama foreign-policy adviser to describe the President’s approach to the insurrection in Libya against Moammar Gaddafi. That phrase may have since entered the lexicon of derision, but it was intended as a succinct description of the progressive approach to U.S. foreign policy.

***
The Democratic left believes that for decades the U.S. national-security presence in the world—simply, the American military—has been too large. Instead, when trouble emerges in the world, the U.S. should act only after it has engaged its enemies in attempts at detente, and only if it first wins the support and participation of allies and global institutions, such as NATO, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and so on.

In an interview this week with National Public Radio, Mr. Obama offered an apt description of the progressive foreign-policy vision. “When it comes to ISIL, us devoting another trillion dollars after having been involved in big occupations of countries that didn’t turn out all that well” is something he is hesitant to do.

Instead, he said, “We need to spend a trillion dollars rebuilding our schools, our roads, our basic science and research here in the United States; that is going to be a recipe for our long-term security and success.”

That $1 trillion figure is one of the President’s famous straw-man arguments. But what is the recipe if an ISIL or other global rogue doesn’t get his memo?

ISIL, or Islamic State, rose to dominate much of Iraq after its armed forces captured the northern city of Mosul in June, followed by a sweep toward Baghdad. With it came the videotaped beheadings of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aide worker Peter Kassig.

Islamic State’s rise was made possible not merely because the U.S. wound down its military presence in Iraq but because Mr. Obama chose to eliminate that presence. Under intense pressure from the Pentagon and our regional allies, the White House later in the year committed useful if limited air support to the Iraqi army battling Islamic State. Without question the U.S. was behind the curve, and with dire consequences.

Islamic State’s success has emboldened or triggered other jihadist movements, despite Mr. Obama’s assurance that the war on terror was fading.

Radical Islamists are grabbing territory from U.S. allies in Yemen. They have overrun Libya’s capital and threaten its oil fields. Boko Haram in Nigeria, the kidnappers of some 275 schoolgirls in April, adopted the ISIL terror model. U.S. allies in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan, are struggling to cope with the violence spreading out of Syria and Iraq. Mr. Obama can only hope that the Afghan Taliban do not move now to retake Kandahar after he announced this week with premature bravado “the end of the combat mission.”

The crucial flaw in the Democratic left’s model of global governance is that it has little or no answer to containing or deterring the serious threats that emerge in any region of the world when the U.S. retreats from leadership...

A chilling editorial.

The left's "model" is making each and every American less safe. Keep reading. The next two years will be the most dangerous for America since the end of the Cold War.

Hundreds of African 'Migrants' Storm Spanish Enclave at Melilla (VIDEO)

It's not the first time. The enclave's considered a "backdoor to Europe."

At NYT, "200 Migrants Storm Spanish North African Enclave Fence."

Thousands of African migrants living illegally in Morocco try to enter the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta each year, hoping to reach Europe for a better life.

The ministry says 2,000 migrants have made it across in roughly 65 storming attempts this year.

#EzellFord Anti-Cop Protesters Harass, Threaten to Torch KTLA News Crew in Los Angeles (VIDEO)

As if we didn't know already: These are bad people. Very bad. And totally representative of the left's anti-police movement and cop-killing vigilantism.

At Gateway Pundit, "SHOCK VIDEO>>> Protesters Threaten to TORCH REPORTER for Covering Ezell Ford Vigil."

Front Line Warning on Peleliu October 1944

I'm watching "The Pacific."

The Battle of Peleliu was the costliest, perhaps most dreaded engagement of the entire Pacific war.

New York Arrests Plummet Following Execution of Cops

This is exactly what the anti-cop protests are all about --- hindering police effectiveness (which allows crime to flourish) and seeing more police officers killed.

At the New York Post:

Arrests for minor offenses have plummeted following the execution of two cops http://t.co/H0CiKNd3y5
— New York Post (@nypost) December 30, 2014

Stay Hydrated in the New Year

At Amazon, Shop Amazon Home & Kitchen - New Year, New You - Stay Hydrated

Free Beacon's 'Man of the Year' — The Israeli Defense Forces

Well done.

2014 WFB Man of the Year: The Israeli Defense Forces http://t.co/UjBat5GFNM pic.twitter.com/zaJnV3cy8h

— Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) December 30, 2014

Karla de los Angeles Gored Twice in Mexico City Bullfight

I don't know. Maybe this isn't the best sport for women?

At London's Daily Mail, "Heels over head: Female bullfighter gored TWICE by the same animal while going for the kill."

'Transgender' Teenager Leaves Suicide Note Blaming Christian Parents Before Walking in Front of Tractor Trailer on Highway

More proof that "transgenderism" is a freakin' disease.

And note to Daily Mail: He's not a "her."

At iOWNTHEWORLD Report, "Kid Scars Tractor Trailer Driver for Life by Selfishly Walking in Front of It to Kill Himself."

Alessandra Ambrosio Flaunts Her Bikini Body on Beach in Brazil

It's summer down that way.

At London's Daily Mail, "'Sunday Funday!': Alessandra Ambrosio shows off her teeny leopard bikini while sipping from a coconut with a pal in Brazil."