Obama Loves America — Just Not the One We Live In

From Kyle Smith, at the New York Post:

Rudy Giuliani thinks President Obama doesn’t love America. That’s not true. Obama surely loves America, though not the actual existing country. He is head-over-heels gaga for a fictional America, a notional America, an enlightened America, America with an asterisk.

This is a great country, potentially, if it ever grows up and learns a few things.

Whenever Obama praises America, especially in foreign lands, he is careful to append caveats that make it clear America should, as he once said in another context, get off its high horse. He doesn’t apologize, exactly, but he makes it clear that his overall image of America is of a morally shrunken, chastened land whose sins render it unfit to exert much authority in the world.

“There have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive,” Obama said in France.

We need “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” he said in Egypt, suggesting the US had not previously respected Muslims much, adding that “fear and anger” has “led us to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals.”

In Prague, he said America has “a moral responsibility to act” on arms control because only the US had “used a nuclear weapon,” as though winning a war that Japan started was shameful.

Obama’s famous view of American exceptionalism — “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism” — is curiously qualified: When you ask a mom whether she thinks her baby is cute, you expect to hear, “Of course!” not a reflection on the nature of subjectivity.

Sometimes, though, the automatic response, going with your gut, is the correct one: America really is exceptional. The data prove it. We routinely stand as an outlier in surveys of international attitudes, because we have unique features, and those features make us better than other countries. Somebody has to be the best country on Earth. It happens to be us.

Except it didn’t just happen. We are the oldest democracy, and the succeeding ones — our many imitators around the globe — were far more suspicious of freedom, individual rights and tipping too much of the balance of power to the people rather than an elite class.

America: Heck, yeah...

Keep reading.

Sen. Lindsey Graham: Islamic State Would Kill 'Every Christian and Jew and Vegetarian In Their Way...'

At ABC News, "ISIS Would Kill ‘Every Christian and Jew and Vegetarian In Their Way,’ Says Lindsey Graham."

Also at Memeorandum.

Jeff Gordon Races His Last Daytona 500

At the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "Jeff Gordon’s final Daytona 500: ‘You want to win this race’."

And at the Charlotte Observer, "Jeff Gordon's last ride starts from Daytona 500 pole."

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson: Watch Your Back When Visiting Mall of America

You've got to be "particularly careful," you know, with all those non-Muslim violent extremists looking to randomly murder people they can't relate to, or something.

At CNN:



Also, at Atlas Shrugs, "VIDEO: Islamic Group calls for jihad attacks on malls in new video, DHS Secretary says malls in America not safe."

Leftist Racial Bias Against Asian-Americans in College Admissions

At LAT, "For Asian Americans, a changing landscape on college admissions":

In a windowless classroom at an Arcadia tutoring center, parents crammed into child-sized desks and dug through their pockets and purses for pens as Ann Lee launches a PowerPoint presentation.

Her primer on college admissions begins with the basics: application deadlines, the relative virtues of the SAT versus the ACT and how many Advanced Placement tests to take.

Then she eases into a potentially incendiary topic — one that many counselors like her have learned they cannot avoid.

“Let's talk about Asians,” she says.

Lee's next slide shows three columns of numbers from a Princeton University study that tried to measure how race and ethnicity affect admissions by using SAT scores as a benchmark. It uses the term “bonus” to describe how many extra SAT points an applicant's race is worth. She points to the first column.

African Americans received a “bonus” of 230 points, Lee says.

She points to the second column.

“Hispanics received a bonus of 185 points.”

The last column draws gasps.

Asian Americans, Lee says, are penalized by 50 points — in other words, they had to do that much better to win admission.

“Do Asians need higher test scores? Is it harder for Asians to get into college? The answer is yes,” Lee says.

“Zenme keyi,” one mother hisses in Chinese. How can this be possible?

College admission season ignites deep anxieties for Asian American families, who spend more than any other demographic on education. At elite universities across the U.S., Asian Americans form a larger share of the student body than they do of the population as a whole. And increasingly they have turned against affirmative action policies that could alter those ratios, and accuse admissions committees of discriminating against Asian American applicants.

That perspective has pitted them against advocates for diversity: More college berths for Asian American students mean fewer for black and Latino students, who are statistically underrepresented at top universities.

But in the San Gabriel Valley's hyper-competitive ethnic Asian communities, arguments for diversity can sometimes fall on deaf ears. For immigrant parents raised in Asia's all-or-nothing test cultures, a good education is not just a measure of success — it's a matter of survival. They see academic achievement as a moral virtue, and families organize their lives around their child's education, moving to the best school districts and paying for tutoring and tennis lessons. An acceptance letter from a prestigious college is often the only acceptable return on an investment that stretches over decades.

Lee is the co-founder of HS2 Academy, a college prep business that assumes that racial bias is a fact of college admissions and counsels students accordingly. At 10 centers across the state, the academy's counselors teach countermeasures to Asian American applicants. The goal, Lee says, is to help prospective college students avoid coming off like another “cookie-cutter Asian.”

“Everyone is in orchestra and plays piano,” Lee says. “Everyone plays tennis. Everyone wants to be a doctor, and write about immigrating to America. You can't get in with these cliche applications.”

Like a lot of students at Arcadia High School, Yue Liang plans to apply to University of California campuses and major in engineering — or if her mother wins that argument, pre-med. She excels at math, takes multiple AP courses and volunteers, as does nearly everyone she knows.

Being of Asian descent, the junior says, is “a disadvantage.” The problem, she says, is in the numbers.

Asian families flock to the San Gabriel Valley's school districts because they have some of the highest Academic Performance Index scores in the state. But with hundreds of top-performing students at each high school, focusing on a small set of elite institutions, it's easy to get lost in the crowd.

Of the school's 4,000 students, nearly 3,000 are of Asian descent, and like Yue are willing to do whatever it takes to gain entrance to a prestigious university. They will study until they can't remember how to have fun and stuff their schedules with extracurriculars. But there's an important part of their college applications that they can't improve as easily as an SAT score: their ethnicity.

In the San Gabriel Valley, where aspirationally named tutoring centers such as Little Harvard and Ivy League cluster within walking distance of high schools, many of them priced more cheaply than a baby-sitter, it didn't take long for some centers to respond to students' and parents' fears of being edged out of a top school because of some intangible missing quality.

Helping Asian American students, many of whom lead similar lives, requires the embrace of some stereotypes, says Crystal Zell, HS2's assistant director of counseling. They are good at math and bad at writing and aspire to be doctors, engineers or bankers, according to the cliches. She works with her students to identify what's unique about them — and most of the time, that's not their career ambitions or their ethnicity.

“Everyone comes in wanting the same thing,” Zell said. “But that's because they don't know about anything else.”

More.

This is kinda depressing, and doubly so in that the discrimination is so widespread. And remember, this is left-wing collectivist discrimination through radical left-wing affirmative action social engineering. That is, left-wing Democrat Party racism.

Disgusting. Sickening. But completely representative of the American left's monstrous rape of basic decency.

RELATED: At the Wall Street Journal, "Is Admissions Bar Higher for Asians at Elite Schools? School Standards Are Probed Even as Enrollment Increases; A Bias Claim at Princeton":

Princeton, where Asian-Americans constitute about 13% of the student body, faces such a challenge. A spokesman for the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights said it is investigating a complaint filed by Jian Li, now a 17-year-old freshman at Yale University. Despite racking up the maximum 2400 score on the SAT and 2390 -- 10 points below the ceiling -- on SAT2 subject tests in physics, chemistry and calculus, Mr. Li was spurned by three Ivy League universities, Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Office for Civil Rights initially rejected Mr. Li's complaint due to "insufficient" evidence. Mr. Li appealed, citing a white high-school classmate admitted to Princeton despite lower test scores and grades. The office notified him late last month that it would look into the case.

His complaint seeks to suspend federal financial assistance to Princeton until the university "discontinues discrimination against Asian-Americans in all forms by eliminating race preferences, legacy preferences, and athlete preferences." Legacy preference is the edge most elite colleges, including Princeton, give to alumni children. The Office for Civil Rights has the power to terminate such financial aid but usually works with colleges to resolve cases rather than taking enforcement action.

Mr. Li, who emigrated to the U.S. from China as a 4-year-old and graduated from a public high school in Livingston, N.J., said he hopes his action will set a precedent for other Asian-American students. He wants to "send a message to the admissions committee to be more cognizant of possible bias, and that the way they're conducting admissions is not really equitable," he said.

Princeton spokeswoman Cass Cliatt said the university is aware of the complaint and will provide the Office for Civil Rights with information it has requested. Princeton has said in the past that it considers applicants as individuals and doesn't discriminate against Asian-Americans.

When elite colleges began practicing affirmative action in the late 1960s and 1970s, they gave an admissions boost to Asian-American applicants as well as blacks and Hispanics. As the percentage of Asian-Americans in elite schools quickly overtook their slice of the U.S. population, many colleges stopped giving them preference -- and in some cases may have leaned the other way.

In 1990, a federal investigation concluded that Harvard University admitted Asian-American applicants at a lower rate than white students despite the Asians' slightly stronger test scores and grades. Federal investigators also found that Harvard admissions staff had stereotyped Asian-American candidates as quiet, shy and oriented toward math and science. The government didn't bring charges because it concluded it was Harvard's preferences for athletes and alumni children -- few of whom were Asian -- that accounted for the admissions gap.

The University of California came under similar scrutiny at about the same time...

More.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Says Obama's Extremism Summit a 'Mess'

Yeah, well, Mr. Ambassador, join the club.

At Foreign policy, "Russia's U.N. Ambassador Says Obama's Extremism Summit a 'Mess'":

Despite bitter differences over the fate of Syria and Ukraine, the United States and Russia still agree on one thing: the need to confront violent Islamic extremists from North Africa to the Middle East. But forging a coordinated strategy for combating the scourge has been complicated by the deteriorating state of relations between the Cold War superpowers.

With foreign dignitaries gathered in Washington for President Barack Obama’s conference on extremism, Russia’s U.N. envoy, Vitaly Churkin, denounced what he perceived as the latest American slights against Russia. He accused the United States of failing to seek Moscow and other capitals’ views on the event’s agenda, and said it snubbed Russia’s close allies, including Serbia, which was not invited to the conference.

“The United States believes in its exceptionalism and it has to say at every corner that the United States is going to lead,” Churkin said. “Fine, I’m prepared to listen to those statements if they want to position themselves this way.… What the hell.”

He added: “But they should not proceed from this premise in their relations with Russia and China, really, because they should take advantage of our willingness to cooperate.”

The Russian diplomat also offered a not-so-subtle warning that Russia’s cooperation on matters of vital importance to Washington, like the Iranian nuclear negotiations, should not be taken for granted. “Russia is a very responsible member” of the international community, said Churkin, noting that Moscow had worked very hard to have the Iranian nuclear talks succeed. “It would not take much for Russia to do some mischief in those talks, to make agreement even more difficult.”...



A week ago, Russia championed the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at helping to strangle the ability of the Islamic State and al Qaeda to raise money through the sale of oil, gas, and antiquities and the kidnapping of hostages. Following the vote, Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, voiced strong U.S. support for the resolution in remarks to the council. But she made no mention of Moscow’s contribution, and instead took a swipe at Russia and China for blocking an earlier resolution that would have subjected Syrian leaders to the International Criminal Court.

Churkin accused the United States of pushing the United Nations to the sidelines, saying the international body should be the one that is leading in countering extremism.

America’s insistence on staking out a leadership role in the fight against terrorism would only embolden jihadis to take up the fight, Churkin said. It will “attract the extremists, you know, to fight that American-led coalition,” he said.

He also complained that while the Obama administration claims to be launching a broad international fight against extremists, it “did not consult us” about the substance of the meeting. “Originally, they did not even invite us,” Churkin said.

He lambasted the White House for inviting envoys from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to the counter-extremist event but ignoring Serbia, which currently chairs the group. Meanwhile, he said, Kosovo was asked to participate, even though it is not a member of the U.N.

And though Russia is eager to work with the United States on battling extremism, Churkin had low expectations on what the White House conference would yield. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s going to produce a mess,” he said.

The U.S. mission to the United Nations and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment on Churkin’s remarks.

The United States did invite a delegation from Russia, which was headed by Moscow’s top spy, Alexander Bortnikov, the director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s modern-day KGB.

The three-day meeting began Tuesday with a focus on the domestic threat of extremism in the United States, and shifted on Thursday to the international effort to combat terrorism. Speaking Thursday morning at the State Department before representatives of more than 60 countries, President Obama painted a grim portrait of a world buffeted by terrorism...

Islamic State Claims to Behead 21 Peshmerga Fighters

I don't see the video posted at the usual counter-jihad sites, but certainly ISIS has been accelerating its pace of terror.

At CNN, "ISIS claims to behead 21 Peshmerga soldiers, releases video of them in cages":

Irbil, Iraq (CNN)ISIS appears to be trumping its own brutality once again.

In a new propaganda video, the terror group claims to have beheaded at least 21 captured Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers in Iraq. CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of this video.

The video includes scenes showing Peshmerga prisoners still alive in cages and paraded in the streets of Kirkuk, which ISIS has shown in a previous video earlier this month.

The footage, released Saturday, also purports to show the prisoners once again in cages and interviewed by a man holding a microphone with an ISIS logo on it...

Expect updates.

Could Islamic State Slip Right Into the U.S. Amid Surge of Syrian Refugees?

Watch, "Lisa Daftari on Fox News Justice with Judge Jeanine – Hosted by Katie Pavlich: Could ISIS slip into the U.S.?"

Graeme Wood: Islamic State Seeking the Apocalypse (VIDEO)

Watch, from Jake Tapper's show, "The Atlantic magazine's Graeme Wood joins CNN to discuss his article 'What ISIS really wants and how to stop it'."

And ICYMI, "An Administration Adrift on Denial."

Frances Townsend: Irresponsible for Obama to Leak Military Plans for Mosul Offensive

She's a good lady.



Plus, at NYT, "Battle to Retake Iraqi City Looms as Test of Obama's ISIS Strategy."

Stacey Poole and Joey Fisher Mega-Bouncy Fun

At Zoo Today, "Slow-Motion Bouncing Breasts - Stacey Poole and Joey Fisher."

Intimates Emily Ratajkowski

Via Theo Spark.

The Obama Administration's Accountability-Free Scandal Machine

Tucker Carlson interviews Katie Pavlich:

Rudy Giuliani Causes Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin to Spontaneously Combust

Heh.

It's Ed Driscoll, via Instapundit, "OBAMA IS THE PATRON SAINT OF THE NEW CLASS, SO WHEN YOU ATTACK HIM, YOU’RE ATTACKING THEM."

More here:

IT’S FUN ON TWITTER RIGHT NOW, watching journos who’ve been pushing negative spin on the Rudy Giuliani and Scott Walker stories trying to grasp why they’re being so roundly mocked — including by many right-leaning journos who ordinarily would extend professional courtesy.

Gisele Bundchen for Sandals Stuart Weitzman (Mario Testino)

At Egotastic!, "Gisele Bundchen Braless Leggy Shoe Pimpstress."

Very leggy, heh.

Frank Marshall Davis, 'The Communist' — President Barack Obama's Radical Mentor

If leftists want to have this debate on the veracity of Rudy Giuliani's comments, bring it on.

There's been an enormous about of investigative journalism and historical scholarship on Obama's background since the election of 2008. The cumulative weight of evidence is simply devastating for the White House, the Democrats, and the hardline collectivist-regressive left.

Obviously, control of the presidency in 2017 is at stake, and given partisan trends in the electorate (with working-class white defections from the Democrats at all-times highs), a fresh look at the ideological foundations of American politics this last six years could have monumental ramifications for American politics going forward. Hence, folks can see why leftists and their MSM attack dogs are now frothing at mouth with an unhinged backlash.

A great place to start on Obama's communist upbringing is by Paul Kengor's, The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis - The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mentor.

“I admire Russia for wiping out an economic system which permitted a handful of rich to exploit and beat gold from the millions of plain people. . . . As one who believes in freedom and democracy for all, I honor the Red nation.” —FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS, 1947

In his memoir, Barack Obama omits the full name of his mentor, simply calling him “Frank.” Now, the truth is out: Never has a figure as deeply troubling and controversial as Frank Marshall Davis had such an impact on the development of an American president.

Although other radical influences on Obama, from Jeremiah Wright to Bill Ayers, have been scrutinized, the public knows little about Davis, a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA, cited by the Associated Press as an “important influence” on Obama, one whom he “looked to” not merely for “advice on living” but as a “father” figure.

While the Left has willingly dismissed Davis (with good reason), here are the indisputable, eye-opening facts: Frank Marshall Davis was a pro-Soviet, pro–Red China communist. His Communist Party USA card number, revealed in FBI files, was CP #47544. He was a prototype of the loyal Soviet patriot, so radical that the FBI placed him on the federal government’s Security Index. In the early 1950s, Davis opposed U.S. attempts to slow Stalin and Mao. He favored Red Army takeovers of Central and Eastern Europe, and communist control in Korea and Vietnam. Dutifully serving the cause, he edited and wrote for communist newspapers in both Chicago and Honolulu, courting contributors who were Soviet agents. In the 1970s, amid this dangerous political theater, Frank Marshall Davis came into Barack Obama’s life.

Aided by access to explosive declassified FBI files, Soviet archives, and Davis’s original newspaper columns, Paul Kengor explores how Obama sought out Davis and how Davis found in Obama an impressionable young man, one susceptible to Davis’s worldview that opposed American policy and traditional values while praising communist regimes. Kengor sees remnants of this worldview in Obama’s early life and even, ultimately, his presidency.

Kengor charts with definitive accuracy the progression of Davis’s communist ideas from Chicago to Hawaii. He explores how certain elements of the Obama administration’s agenda reflect Davis’s columns advocating wealth redistribution, government stimulus for “public works projects,” taxpayer-funding of universal health care, and nationalizing General Motors. Davis’s writings excoriated the “tentacles of big business,” blasted Wall Street and “greedy” millionaires, lambasted GOP tax cuts that “spare the rich,” attacked “excess profits” and oil companies, and perceived the Catholic Church as an obstacle to his vision for the state—all the while echoing Davis’s often repeated mantra for transformational and fundamental “change.”

And yet, The Communist is not unsympathetic to Davis, revealing him as something of a victim, an African- American who suffered devastating racial persecution in the Jim Crow era, steering this justly angered young man on a misguided political track. That Davis supported violent and heartless communist regimes over his own country is impossible to defend. That he was a source of inspiration to President Barack Obama is impossible to ignore.

Is Obama working to fulfill the dreams of Frank Marshall Davis? That question has been impossible to answer, since Davis’s writings and relationship with Obama have either been deliberately obscured or dismissed as irrelevant. With Paul Kengor’s The Communist, Americans can finally weigh the evidence and decide for themselves.

***

There were hundreds of thousands of American communists like Frank who agitated throughout the twentieth century. They chose the wrong side of history, a horrendously bloody side that left a wake of more than 100 million corpses from the streets of the Bolshevik Revolution to the base of the Berlin Wall—double the combined dead of the century’s two world wars. And they never apologized. Quite the contrary, they cursed their accusers for daring to charge (correctly) that they were communists whose ideology threatened the American way and the greater world and all of humanity. They took their denials to the grave, and still today their liberal/progressive dupes continue to conceal their crimes and curse their accusers for them. We need hundreds and thousands of more books on American communists like Frank, so we can finally start to get this history right— and, more so, learn its vital lessons. To fail to do so is a great historical injustice.

We especially need to flesh out these lessons, which are morality tales in the truest sense of the word, when we find the rarest case of a man like “Frank” managing to influence someone as influential as the current president of the United States of America—the leader of the free world and driver of the mightiest political/economic engine in history. Such figures cannot be ignored.

The people who influence our presidents matter.

Rudy Giuliani Claims President Obama Grew Up as a Communist

I'm getting a kick out of this.

We should've been having this heated debate on Obama's communist anti-Americanism (and Islamic ties) back in 2008.

At the New York Daily News, "Rudy Giuliani clarifies Obama comments by claiming the President has been influenced by communism, socialism":

Trying to explain his controversial comments that President Obama doesn’t love America, Rudy Giuliani said Friday that he believes the President has been influenced by communism and socialism.

“Look, this man was brought up basically in a white family, so whatever he learned or didn’t learn, I attribute this more to the influence of communism and socialism” than to his race, Giuliani told the Daily News.

“I don’t (see) this President as being particularly a product of African-American society or something like that. He isn’t,” the former mayor added. “Logically, think about his background. . . The ideas that are troubling me and are leading to this come from communists with whom he associated when he was 9 years old” through family connections.

When Obama was 9, he was living in Indonesia with his mother and his stepfather. Giuliani said he was referencing Obama’s grandfather having introduced him to Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the Communist Party.

The former mayor also brought up Obama’s relationship with “quasi-communist” community organizer Saul Alinsky and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Giuliani, a 2008 presidential hopeful, set off a national firestorm when he told an exclusive gathering of conservatives, pols and media figures on Wednesday night, “I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that this President loves America.

“He doesn’t love you. He doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up: To love this country,” Giuliani said of Obama at the Manhattan dinner, which was arranged for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker...

Keep reading.

Also at the New York Post, via Memeorandum, "Giuliani: Obama influenced by communists since youth."

An Administration Adrift on Denial

From Peggy Noonan, at WSJ, "Why won’t the president think clearly about the nature of the Islamic State?":

Great essays tell big truths. A deeply reported piece in next month’s Atlantic magazine does precisely that, and in a way devastating to the Obama administration’s thinking on ISIS.

“What ISIS Really Wants,” by contributing editor Graeme Wood, is going to change the debate. (It ought to become a book.)

Mr. Wood describes a dynamic, savage and so far successful organization whose members mean business. Their mettle should not be doubted. ISIS controls an area larger than the United Kingdom and intends to restore, and expand, the caliphate. Mr. Wood interviewed Anjem Choudary of the banned London-based Islamist group Al Muhajiroun, who characterized ISIS’ laws of war as policies of mercy, not brutality. “He told me the state has an obligation to terrorize its enemies,” Mr. Wood writes, “because doing so hastens victory and avoids prolonged conflict.”

ISIS has allure: Tens of thousands of foreign Muslims are believed to have joined. The organization is clear in its objectives: “We can gather that their state rejects peace as a matter of principle; that it hungers for genocide; that its religious views make it constitutionally incapable of certain types of change . . . that it considers itself a harbinger of—and headline player in—the imminent end of the world. . . . The Islamic State is committed to purifying the world by killing vast numbers of people.”

The scale of the savagery is difficult to comprehend and not precisely known. Regional social media posts “suggest that individual executions happen more or less continually, and mass executions every few weeks.” Most, not all, of the victims are Muslims.

The West, Mr. Wood argues, has been misled “by a well-intentioned but dishonest campaign to deny the Islamic State’s medieval religious nature. . . . The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers,” drawn largely from the disaffected. “But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.” Its actions reflect “a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bring about the apocalypse.”

Mr. Wood acknowledges that ISIS reflects only one, minority strain within Islam. “Muslims can reject the Islamic State; nearly all do. But pretending it isn’t actually a religious, millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combatted, has already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to counter it.”

Keep reading.

Wood's thesis is simple and devastating: Most of the world's Muslims neither follow nor endorse Islamic State's extreme theology and violence, but the group is nevertheless genuinely Islamic through-and-through. And this fact has the radical left's Islamo-enablers --- from the president on down to his far-left fever swamp minions --- scurrying for arguments or evidence to debunk the Atlantic's cover story. Sadly (for them), it's much too late. The damage has been done and the White House is now taking withering fire for Barack Barry Hussein Soetoro Obama's anti-Americanism.

The 2016 election is already shaping up to be a referendum on American foreign policy, although it might as well be a campaign to put a non-traitor in the White House.

Major League Baseball Adopts New Rules to Speed Up Play

Batters can't step out of the box, among other tweaks to speed things along.

At WSJ, "Baseball Adopts New Rules to Speed Up Play":

Major League Baseball announced new rules Friday aimed at speeding up the plodding pace of its games. Beginning this season, hitters will be required to keep one foot in the batter’s box during at-bats and managers will no longer be required to leave the dugout to challenge calls.

The league will also introduce timers between innings and during pitching changes, requiring pitchers to complete their warm-ups 30 seconds before the end of the break in play. Hitters will be encouraged to step into the box 20 seconds before play is set to resume, coinciding with the time broadcasters return from commercials.

The rules are intended to reduce the lulls between game action, after the average length of nine-inning games reached a record-high 3 hours, 2 minutes in 2014.

“These changes represent a step forward in our efforts to streamline the pace of play,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement released by the league. “The most fundamental starting point for improving the pace of the average game involves getting into and out of breaks seamlessly. In addition, the batter’s box rule will help speed up a basic action of the game.”

Batters will still be allowed to step out of the box if one of several exceptions occurs, most notably if the batter swings at a pitch. And managers can hold play from the top step of the dugout by signaling to players and the home-plate umpire that he is considering a challenge. But if nothing else, the new rules should reduce the time it takes to go from the end of a commercial break to the resumption of play...

Well, during the long, hot days of summer, I personally enjoy the easy-going pace of the game. Hopefully these reforms don't kill the vibe.

Keep reading.

Eurozone Agrees on Four-Month Extension of Greece Bailout

At WSJ:

BRUSSELS—Greece struck a tenuous agreement for a four-month extension of its bailout Friday, removing immediate concerns over a potential exit from Europe’s currency union but setting the stage for more tense negotiations over the country’s financial future.

The deal, reached after weeks of often harsh exchanges between Athens and other European capitals, forced the left-wing government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to temper many of the anti-austerity pledges that swept it into power last month.

The tough negotiations have frayed relationships between Greece and other governments, and particularly with Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister.

“Now we hope that trust can grow again. There’s a lot of room for growth,” Mr Schäuble said afterward.

Markets rose on Friday as the agreement was reached, with the Stoxx Europe 600 edging up 0.6% to reach its highest level since November 2007. Both Germany’s DAX index and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.4%. The euro was up against the dollar and the yen.

U.S. stocks also rose on the news, as the Dow industrials, the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 small-company index hit record highs.

Greece’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis rejected claims that Friday’s deal constituted a surrender of the government’s anti-austerity promises. “Our pre-electoral program was about four years. This deal is about four months,” he said.

The agreement to extend the bailout that was due to run out Feb. 28 should fend off immediate concerns about Greece’s deteriorating finances and help stem an outflow of deposits from its banks.

However, concerns about Greece’s ability to pay its debts will linger. The deal leaves a series of hurdles that could trigger further bouts of nervousness, with the first to be encountered next week.

Under the agreement, Greece has to present by Monday a list of budget cuts and economic overhauls, which has to pass the scrutiny of the supervisors of the bailout, the so-called troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. On Tuesday, finance ministers will review the proposals.

Only once these measures have been implemented will Athens received the next €7.2 billion slice of a €240 billion ($273 billion) bailout that has kept it afloat for almost five years.

Crucially, the four-month extension only takes Greece to the end of June, upping the pressure to negotiate a follow-up rescue deal in time for almost €7 billion in bond repayments to the ECB in July and August.

The Greek finance minister can take some small victories back to Athens. Greece will likely be allowed to run a smaller primary surplus—a measure of its budget balance that strips out interest payments—than the 3% of gross domestic product mandated by its bailout deal this year.

But the ministers’ statement stressed that this concession had been made only because the economy has performed worse than expected.

“Today we have found partners among those who up until very recently looked at us with suspicion,” said Mr. Varoufakis. “There are some partners who still look at us with suspicion.”

Keep reading.

'Death to America! Death to Israel!' say Houthis in Yemen

And these guys are Shiite Muslims!

Between Islamic State and the Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen, U.S. foreign policy has its hands full.

And I thought Obama was going to heal the rifts with the Muslim world. Yikes!

At LAT:

The worshipers pumped their fists to the rhythm of the chant, the younger ones among them, including children, whipping their arms high above their heads.

“God is great!” came the refrain. “Death to America! Death to Israel! A curse upon the Jews! Victory for Islam!”

The crowd shouted it twice more  in unison, before bowing their foreheads onto the thick carpet of the Bleily Mosque.

The slogan, spray-painted on walls and cinderblock throughout the Yemeni capital, has become the calling card of the Houthis, a Shiite faction that overran the Yemeni capital last year — and in recent weeks consolidated control of the central government. Critics call the move a coup.

The Houthi takeover has brought fears that Yemen — once touted by President Obama as a success of his counter-terrorism policy — could collapse, fall into civil war or disintegrate into warring regions. The country is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered among the most dangerous branches of the global terrorist network.

The Houthis are sworn enemies of Al Qaeda. But they are also implacable foes of Washington and its regional allies, especially neighboring Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. partner that views Yemen as part of its sphere of influence and has a massive embassy here.

Last week, the United States and Saudi Arabia, among other nations, withdrew their diplomatic missions from the Yemeni capital. The U.N. called on the Houthis to relinquish control of the government.

Friday’s sermon at a signature Houthi mosque provided some sense of the mood of defiance that has come to characterize the northern-based provincial power, which has vowed to destroy Al Qaeda and cut down on rampant government corruption. The fiery collective chant followed an equally blistering political broadside from the preacher, Faisal Atef, who lavished scorn upon Yemen’s recent leadership, including U.S.-backed President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, now under house arrest.

“Those leaders do not care about your concerns and pains!” said Atef, his eyes scanning the crowd before him. “All they care about is seven-star service.”

The comments came only a few hours after Jamal Benomar, special United Nations envoy to Yemen, announced a “breakthrough” in U.N.-brokered negotiations while urging all parties to act “in the spirit of agreement.”

The U.N. envoy said the talks were nearing a deal that would help resolve the nation’s dire security and political crisis. He unveiled the creation of a new transitional council to run the country while negotiations on a comprehensive agreement continued.

The U.N. message hinted of reconciliation in Yemen’s fractured and volatile political landscape. The scene at the Houthi mosque didn’t suggest a mood of compromise...

Marie Harf Rule 5

Heh, I hadn't considered the State Department spokeswoman for Rule 5, but she's a surprise entry at the Evil Blogger Lady's, "Marie Harf is a Dangerous Idiot Rule 5."

Progressives' Peculiar Sense of Patriotism

From Jonah Goldberg, via Blazing Cat Fur:

Look, it was like a week ago that we were talking about Obama’s inability to criticize the Islamic State without first going out of his way to flagellate the West and America over the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery, and Jim Crow. Is it really so crazy to think a guy who feels compelled to warn his own countrymen not to get on their “high horse” about child rapists and slavers (who are also beheading and/or immolating and/or burying alive Americans, Christians, Yazidis, and fellow Muslims) might subscribe to an, um, unconventional form of patriotism?

Give a Little Bit

The Goo Goo Dolls, with the Supertramp cover:

Henry Segerstrom Dies at 91

Henry Segerstrom, a Costa Mesa farmer, land developer, and philanthropist from a Swedish immigrant family, has passed away.

He built South Coast Plaza into one of the world's premier luxury shopping centers, and he was the principal benefactor to the development of the Orange Country Performing Arts Center, which built the O.C.'s reputation as a major regional center for the fine arts.

At the Costa Mesa Daily Pilot, "Henry Segerstrom, South Coast Plaza and arts center pioneer, dies at 91."

And at the O.C. Register, "Henry T. Segerstrom, 91, saw bean fields and grew style, creating world-class shopping, arts centers in South Coast," and the L.A. Times, "Henry Segerstrom, O.C. developer and philanthropist, dies at 91."

'Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding...'

It's been woven into Obama's founding as a traitor to America's values, but not so much America's founding.

From Kemberlee Kaye, at Legal Insurrection:

That time Obama invented a new version of early American history.

Also at the Blaze, via Memeorandum, "Historian David Barton Takes Apart Obama's Claim That ‘Islam Has Been Woven Into the Fabric of Our Country Since Its Founding’."

And from Warner Todd Huston, at Right Wing News, "Historian Destroys Obama’s Idiotic Claim That ‘Islam Has Been Woven Into the Fabric of Our Country Since Its Founding’."

Radical Leftists Pulling the Leftist Democrats Further Left -- And Further Away from Middle America

From Selena Zito, at the Pittsburgh Tribune, "Extreme-left Dems pushing Middle America away":

Tim Ryan — a once-strident champion of the Rust Belt city of Youngstown, filled with moderate Catholic Democrats whose issues are still firmly pocketbook-based — penned an op-ed saying he now supports abortion.

The Ohio congressman, who once sat on the board of the Democrats for Life in America advocacy group, made that surprising reversal as he contemplates a run for U.S. Senate.

You see, plenty of Jacksonian Democrats remain in his district — and all across the country, for that matter — but no tolerance for them exists in the Washington-based national Democratic Party.

No money exists for them from elite progressive funders, either.

Ryan's decision opens up the floodgates for campaign cash from national Democrats' purses, now that he shed that old-fashioned tie to his moral compass.

And groups such as Emily's List, Planned Parenthood and NARAL, which are funding spigots for Democrats, can deploy that cash and those all-important volunteers to help Ryan win whatever office he seeks.

It was a spigot that was never opened to him before his departure from the blue-collar ideals he brought to office in 2004.

“It always strikes me as funny that the folks on TV call Republicans ‘extreme,' and pretty much ignore that Democrats have left no room for people like me in my own party,” said Yvonne, a Youngstown native who did not want to give her last name.

To Yvonne, who has lived all of her 30-plus years in that eastern Ohio city, being a Democrat is like listing your religion, the part of town where you grew up, and the school you attended.

“It's a part of my identity,” she said, adding after a pause: “Or was.”

When Ryan made his announcement last week, the national press offered no questions or headline-grabbing adjectives — just praise.
That was an interesting departure from the media reaction when then-candidate Cory Gardner, a Colorado congressman running for U.S. Senate last year, changed from support to non-support of “personhood.”

“Bombshell,” “extremist” and “cheap election-year stunt” were the words in some of the milder headlines.

Gardner moved to the center. Ryan moved to the left wing.

Ryan was praised. Gardner was hammered.

Now think about that for a moment: One politician moved to his party's wing, not its center, and it was as if a tree fell in a forest — with no one listening. Another politician moved to his party's center, and hair collectively caught fire.

Just five years ago, 110 pro-life Democrats were in the House, around a dozen in the U.S. Senate. Today, fewer than five are in the House, and two in the Senate.

Just five years ago, coincidentally, Democrats held majorities in both chambers.

They lost those majorities because they lost touch with their districts.

Yes, gerrymandering played a part. Yet that is far from the whole story, a story no one talks about — or, if they do, they don't address the problem. The fact is, Democrats are losing or excluding evangelicals, blue-collar types, Jacksonians and moderates, not only from feeling welcome in the party but from filling the Democrat bench to run for or to hold local offices.

That is happening not just in Ohio but all across the country...

The Democrats are the party of Anti-America, from the president on down to the local level. Amazing, though, how they're backed through and through by the America-hating "mainstream" media.

Up is down these days. God help us.

Still more.

Islamism and Obama's Dangerous Flight from Reality

From Peter Wehner, at Commentary.

After Terrorist Attacks, Denmark Hesitates to Blame Islam

Says the New York Times, via Blazing Cat Fur.

Wouldn't want to alienate the Ummah, or anything.

Sally Kohn Wants Her Daughter to Be Lesbian

I didn't know Sally Kohn had a daughter. Shoot, I didn't even know she was married. But she is. And it's no big deal.

The thing is, though. If you want your daughter to "turn out" gay, isn't that an admission that homosexuals aren't "born that way," and hence doesn't virtually the entire justification for the expansionist homosexual civil rights movement then collapse? Well yes, of course.

But that's never stopped homosexuals from doing absolutely anything and everything despicable, agitating for their licentious agenda with the most vicious anti-traditionalist discourse imaginable.

See, "I’m gay. And I want my kid to be gay, too."

Remember, it's not just about gay marriage. It's about the fundamental transformation of society. See Sally Kohn's program, "BEYOND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: A NEW STRATEGIC VISION FOR ALL OUR FAMILIES & RELATIONSHIPS."

The Horrible -- HORRIBLE! -- Abuse Online Feminists Endure to the Point of Desperation, Throwing It All Away

Oh brother. It's hard out there for a lesbian feminist social justice warrior.

See far-left radical abortionist Michelle Goldberg, at the Washington Post, "Feminist writers are so besieged by online abuse that some have begun to retire."

Bill O'Reilly Destroys Low-Circulation Guttersnipe Liar David Corn (VIDEO)

I'm glad O'Reilly took on this low-life douchebag David Corn.

Corn's lies went a long way toward getting Barack Barry Hussein Soetoro Obama reelected.

At Fox News, via Memeorandum, "Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points Memo 2/20/15 Airing Tonight at 8PM ET."

Obama Doubles Down on Refusal to Name Islamic Terrorism

O's moral equivalence is killing us.

At LAT, "At summit on extremism, Obama defends his semantic choices regarding Islam":

The ideology fueling the Islamic State appears to be a twisted version of centuries-old interpretations of the prophet Muhammad, he said, bearing little resemblance to contemporary Islam. The Obama administration should spend time understanding and articulating that, Glassman said.

But that is where he sees the administration as coming late to the game. Unlike Bush, Obama and his top officials have appeared uncomfortable setting up the fight against terrorism as a "war of ideas," Glassman said.

"The way President Bush put it was usually in terms of freedom and democracy. We need to stand up for those values, and democracy is for everybody," Glassman said. "I just don't hear that from this administration. I think there is a discomfort with the notion that our ideas are in some ways superior to other people's ideas and a discomfort with the notion of marshaling ideas and sending them into battle."

Amazing that these ideas are even allowed in print at the far-left Los Angeles Times. I mean, shoot, it's like Rudy Giuliani hit the nail on the head, or something.

Chris Hayes' Show to Be Axed as MSNBC Shakeup Rumbles On

The far-left MSNBC is cutting its losses from the failing regressive agenda of the Obama interregnum.

Joy Reid and Ronan Farrow both got canned last night, and Chris Hayes is likely next. Not only that, Rachel Maddow will likely lose her prime-time 9:00pm slot as well.

See Lloyd Grove, at the Daily Beast, "After MSNBC Axes Ronan Farrow and Joy Reid's Shows, Is Chris Hayes Next?"

They suck. It's as simple as that.

ADDED: At the Other McCain, "‘Talent Search’ at MSNBC."

Iggy Azalia Quits Twitter

At LAT, "Iggy Azalea quits social media, 'ugliest reflection of man kind there is'."

And at London's Daily Mail, "I'm still Fancy: Iggy Azalea consoles herself by driving around in her $200,000 Ferrari after quitting social media over Twitter trolls."

Plus, at Radar Online, "Uh oh, Iggy. The Aussie rapper was spotted showing major cellulite in unflattering gym shorts and frumpy slippers."

She looks fine. I don't know what the fuss is all about.

Danica Patrick and Denny Hamlin Heated Exchange Post-Race Budweiser Duel

She's a tough chick.

I watched this last night.

At SB Nation, "What Danica Patrick said to Denny Hamlin after the two wrecked, again."

Hamlin calls her "honey."



And watch the crash: "Denny Hamlin Wrecks Danica Patrick - Budweiser Duel 2 - 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup."

RELATED: "Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins a Budweiser Duel in buildup to Daytona 500."

Islamic State Videos Shock with Extreme Brutality

At NYT, "Brutal ISIS Videos Show Potency of Shock Value":

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The killings have been both deliberately lurid and strangely intimate. Designed for broadcast, they have helped the Islamic State militant group build a brand of violence that shocks with its extreme brutality, yet feels as close to viewers as the family images on their smartphones.

Broadcast specifically to frighten and manipulate, the Islamic State's flamboyant violence consumes the world's attention while more familiar threats, like the Syrian government’s barrel bombs, kill far more people but rarely provoke widespread outrage.

A few human rights advocates and antigovernment activists in Syria are trying to reciprocate, creating shocking if nonviolent images and videos — even herding children in orange jumpsuits into a cage — to call attention to the wider scope of violence. So far, though, their voices have hardly been heard.

The Islamic State's campaign of high-profile killings is not war at a remove, with the mechanized distance of drone strikes or carpet bombing. It is one-on-one slaughter with Hollywood production values, seeking to maximize emotional impact and propaganda value.

Cameras zoom in as captors lay hands on their captives — Western reporters, a Jordanian pilot, Egyptian Christian laborers. In the group’s latest video, black-clad men lead the Egyptians almost gently, one by one, down a sunset-tinged beach, then saw off their heads until the waves turn red.

For many in the Middle East who obsessively share the latest images, the Islamic State’s exhibitionist brutality is the apotheosis of several years of carnage gone viral. The group’s bloody imagery, flooding social media already widely used to chronicle conflict, makes violence seem ubiquitous, even mesmerizing, and spurs a sensory overload that can both provoke feelings and numb them.

“It’s like action movies,” said Ahmad, 39, an employee of the Damascus Opera House in the Syrian capital, who asked to be identified by only his first name for his safety. Islamic State violence is stylized, as if in a Quentin Tarantino film, he said, in a macabre bid “to win the prestige of horror.”

Yeah, well. Islamic State's winning.

They're winning the propaganda war and they're winning the terror war. We've practically capitulated to Islamic jihad. It's freakin' ridiculous.

Still more.

The Ideological Islamist Threat

At WSJ, "The Radicals Are Waging a War of Ideas the West Refuses to Fight":

President Obama opened this week’s White House Conference on Violent Extremism with a speech about community-based counter-radicalization efforts, and his Administration is being roundly mocked for its refusal to use terms like “Muslim terrorism” or “Islamism.” The mockery is deserved. Foreign policy is not a Harry Potter tale of good versus He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. And war cannot be won against an enemy we refuse to describe except in meaningless generalities.

But there is a deeper problem with the Administration’s semantic dodges. Al Qaeda, Islamic State, Boko Haram and other jihadist groups are waging more than a military conflict. They are also waging an increasingly successful ideological war for the soul of Islam and its 1.6 billion followers.

Their version of jihad is gaining adherents precisely because it is motivated by an idea that challenges the values and beliefs of moderate Islam, the West and modernity. The free and non-fanatic world won’t win this deeper struggle if the Obama Administration refuses even to acknowledge its nature.

The 9/11 Commission Report put this front and center. Its second chapter, “The Foundation of the New Terrorism,” traces what it calls “ Bin Ladin ’s Appeal in the Islamic World.” It discusses the late al Qaeda leader’s faith in “a return to observance of the literal teachings of the Qur’an and the Hadith.” It underscores bin Laden’s reliance on Muslim theologians, from Ibn Taimiyyah in the 14th century to Sayyid Qutb in the 20th. And it explains how bin Laden turned Islam into a licence for murder.

“Qutb argued that humans can choose only between Islam and jahilyya,” referring to a world of licentiousness and unbelief. “No middle ground exists. . . . All Muslims—as he defined them—therefore must take up arms in this fight. Any Muslim who rejects his ideas is just one more nonbeliever worthy of destruction.”

None of this is denied in the Muslim world, which is well aware of the increasingly radical bent of mainstream Islamist theology. Not for nothing did Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi recently visit Cairo’s al-Azhar university, Sunni Islam’s premier center of religious learning, to warn leading clerics of where Islam is heading: “Let me say it again, we need to revolutionize our religion.”

That’s exactly right, but it’s hard to see how such a revolution might take place—much less who might carry it out—if Islam can barely be mentioned in the context of a conference on “violent extremism.” In his speech Wednesday, Mr. Obama acknowledged that “al Qaeda and ISIL do draw selectively from the Islamic texts,” and he called on Muslim leaders to reject grievance narratives against the West.

But the President also insisted that the West must never grant al Qaeda and Islamic State “the religious legitimacy they seek” by suggesting they are Muslim religious leaders rather than mere terrorists. That’s a fine sentiment, but it elides the fact that the two categories aren’t mutually exclusive. The Islamic State may speak for only a minority of Muslims, but it is nothing if not Islamic in its beliefs, methods and aims. Ignoring that reality for the sake of avoiding injured feelings helps nobody, least of all Islamic State’s many Muslim victims or Islam’s would-be reformers.

The useful analogy here is to the Cold War, when the world was also challenged by an ideology that professed its superiority over an allegedly decadent West. The difference then is that Western leaders didn’t shrink from describing the evil of that ideology and defending the superiority of our way of life. The same needs to be done now.

This will have to include more sophisticated arguments to counter radical Islamism. Jihadist ideology has gained millions of adherents because it makes fundamental claims about personal virtue and social justice. Countering that narrative requires something more than making an appeal, as State Department spokesperson Marie Harf did this week, to working on “root causes” such as insufficient schooling and job opportunities in the Arab world. There is little or no correlation between poverty and Islamist extremism, many of whose most notorious figures are wealthy and well-educated.

It will also require far more support for reform-minded Muslims, from granting political asylum to persecuted Muslim intellectuals to funding civil society groups seeking to spread liberal concepts of individual liberty and religious tolerance.

Above all, we need to recognize that the strength of radical Islamists is directly correlated to their battlefield success, and the growing perception that they are the strong horse against moderate Muslim leaders. Communist ideology lost its appeal when it was seen to fail against the prosperity and freedom of the West. Islamic State will lose its allure when it is defeated and humiliated in the arena it cares about most, which is the battlefield. Mr. Obama and other Western leaders must summon the will to win the war on the ground, or they will find themselves in permanent retreat in the war of ideas.

PREVIOUSLY: "President Obama Speaks at the Summit on Countering Violent Extremism."

Islamic State Is Modern Islam

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine, "There Is No Modern Islam":

Like math and the Midwest, ISIS confuses progressives. It’s not hard to confuse a group of people who never figured out that if you borrow 18 trillion dollars, you’re going to have to pay it back. But ISIS is especially confusing to a demographic whose entire ideology is being on the right side of history.

Raised to believe that history inevitably trended toward diversity in catalog models, fusion restaurants and gay marriage, the Arab Spring led them on by promising that the Middle East would be just like Europe and then ISIS tore up their Lonely Planet guidebook to Syria and chopped off their heads.

But ISIS also believes that it’s on the right side of history. Its history is the Koran. The right side of its history is what Iraq and Syria look like today. It’s also how parts of Europe are starting to look.

Progressive politicians and pundits trying to cope with ISIS lapse into a shrill incoherence that has nothing to do with their outrage at its atrocities and a lot to do with their sheer incomprehension. Terms like “apocalyptic nihilism” get thrown around as if heavy metal were beginning to make a comeback.

Those few analysts who admit that the Islamic State might be a just a little Islamic emphasize that it’s a medieval throwback, as if there were some modern version of Islam to compare it to.

Journalists trying to make sense of ISIS demanding Jizya payments and taking slaves ought to remember that these aren’t medieval behaviors in the Middle East. Not unless medieval means the 19th century. And that’s spotting them a whole century. Saudi Arabia only abolished slavery in 1962 under pressure from the United States. Its labor market and that of fellow Petrojihadi kingdoms like Kuwait and Qatar are based on arrangements that look a lot like temporary slavery… for those foreigners who survive.

Non-Muslims paid Jizya to Muslim rulers until very recently. Here is what it looked like in nineteenth century Morocco from the account of James Riley, an American shipwrecked sea captain.

“The Mohammedan scrivener appointed to receive it took it from them, hitting each one a smart blow with his fist on his bare forehead, by way of receipt for his money, at which the Jews said, ‘Thank you, my lord.’”

Those Jews who could not pay were flogged and imprisoned until they converted to Islam. An account from 1894 is similar, except that the blows were delivered to the back of the neck. Only French colonialism finally put a stop to this practice as well as many other brutal Islamic Supremacist laws.

Morocco was one of the Arab countries where Jews were treated reasonably well by the standards of the Muslim world. It’s one of the few Arab countries to still retain a Jewish population. When ISIS demands Jizya from non-Muslims, it’s not reviving some controversial medieval behavior. It’s doing what even “moderate” Muslim countries were doing until European guns and warships made them stop.

If the French hadn’t intervened, the same ugly scene would have gone on playing out in Morocco. If the United States hadn’t intervened, the Saudis would still openly keep slaves.

Islam never became enlightened. It never stopped being ‘medieval’. Whatever enlightenment it received was imposed on it by European colonialism. It’s a second-hand enlightenment that never went under the skin.

ISIS isn’t just seventh century Islam. It’s also much more recent than that. It’s Islam before the French and the English came. It’s what the Muslim world was like before it was forced to have presidents and constitutions, before it was forced to at least pay lip service to the alien notion of equal rights for all.

The media reported the burning of the Jordanian pilot as if it were some horrifying and unprecedented aberration. But Muslim heretics, as well as Jews and Christians accused of blasphemy, were burned alive for their crimes against Islam. Numerous accounts of this remain, not from the seventh century, but from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Those who weren’t burned, might be beheaded.

These were not the practices of some apocalyptic death cult. They were the Islamic law in the “cosmopolitan” parts of North Africa. The only reason they aren’t the law now is that the French left behind some of their own laws.

Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia that were never truly colonized still behead men and women for “witchcraft and sorcery.” Not in the seventh century or even in the nineteenth century. Last year.

The problem isn’t that ISIS is ‘medieval’. The problem is that Islam is...

More.

Democrat Tulsi Gabbard Says Obama is 'Misidentifying' the Enemy

I expect Rep. Gabbard to switch parties if she keeps up this line of criticism much longer. Certainly, Obama's not going to all-of-a-sudden start calling the terrorists by their real, Islamic names.

Oregon's Kate Brown Sworn In as First Bisexual Governor in U.S.

Well, as they say, Obama's the first homosexual president (and thus bisexual, considering Mooch), so I don't think this is as dramatic as it sounds.

At LAT, "Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, first bisexual governor in U.S., stresses ethics."

Analysis of U.S. Policy Toward Islamic State

Last night, at CBS Evening News:

Obama Changed His Party, Not the Country

Well, good thing, about not changing the country that is.

From Josh Kraushaar, at National Journal:

As a presidential candidate, President Obama expressed his desire to "change the trajectory of America" along the lines of Ronald Reagan, rebuking the legacy of Bill Clinton's pragmatic presidency in the process. Now that his own presidency is winding down, Obama is finding that his main legacy is only half-achieved. He has indeed transformed the Democratic party to his liking, but failed to get anyone else to follow suit.

At the same time, there's no doubt he's successfully pushed Democrats to adopt his favored policies with minimal dissent—and that will have lasting consequences for many elections to come. Despite uneven personal relations with his own party in Congress, there have been very few instances when his party's members have split from his governing course, even on issues where the politics would dictate they should.

That's the consequence of being the most polarizing president in history, according to Gallup's latest polling analysis. Obama maintains strong support from his core supporters, even as Republicans have entirely abandoned him and independents have followed suit. Gallup found 79 percent of Democrats still backing him, even with a 42.6 percent average approval rating in his sixth year in office. That unusually large disconnect has emboldened the president to push forward on controversial issues that few other Democrats would touch, thanks to unyielding support from his base.

The recent debate over the Iranian nuclear threat and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's scheduled speech to Congress on this issue is a perfect example of this new Democratic dynamic. The Democratic party has long been strongly supportive of Israel, but thanks to Obama's pursuit of a deal with Iran, relations between this White House and Israel have hit historic lows. Democrats are now presented with an uncomfortable choice: Back Obama and his aggressive diplomatic push with Iran, or support the Israeli prime minister's speech to Congress raising questions about Iran's intentions.

In the past, the invitation of the Israeli prime minister to speak wouldn't have been nearly as controversial—even so close to an election. Obama knows that. And he's using this episode and his leverage as president to get his rank-and-file members to be less instinctively supportive of the Jewish state. It's having some effect: Most African-American Democrats and many progressive members of the party—Obama's base—have said they're not attending. Even several Jewish Democratic members haven't committed to doing so.

This is what Obama's former chief strategist David Axelrod meant when he wrote about the president's desire to have so-called "Bulworth moments" after being reelected in his new book. Translated into political terms, it means pushing his party to be more outspoken on sensitive issues, even when they may not be comfortable doing so. Challenging Israel was one of the president's top second term priorities, according to Axelrod. The worsening relationship between this administration and Israel was as much the president's preconceived plan as the result of a protocol breach...

More.

A Bloody Retreat from Debaltseve as Ukrainian Forces Suddenly Withdraw

At the New York Times:

ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces fought their way out of the embattled town of Debaltseve in the early hours of Wednesday, choosing a risky overnight breakout rather than surrender as they abandoned the town to Russian-backed militants.

President Petro O. Poroshenko said in a televised statement that he had ordered the retreat from Debaltseve, a strategic transportation hub where intense fighting raged in recent days despite a cease-fire agreement signed last week in Minsk, Belarus.

Mr. Poroshenko sought to cast the retreat in a positive light, but the loss of the town was clearly a devastating setback for the army at the hands of the separatists. Still, by avoiding capture, the soldiers who made it out also avoided handing the rebels a powerful bargaining chip.

Separatist leaders have insisted that the cease-fire agreement did not apply to Debaltseve, but no exceptions were mentioned when the deal was announced in Minsk.

Mr. Poroshenko’s decision, and his earlier refusal to hand over the town during the cease-fire talks, cost the Ukrainian army an unknown number of casualties. As the scale of the nighttime fighting around the town comes into focus, those decisions could prove contentious in Ukraine.

In a post on Twitter and in the televised statement from an airfield in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, before leaving to visit the front line, Mr. Poroshenko called the withdrawal “planned and organized” and said Ukrainian troops had accomplished their mission.

As many as 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers were said to be in Debaltseve before the withdrawal. It was unclear on Wednesday how many survived and avoided capture. Mr. Poroshenko said 80 percent of the army’s units had left.

By midday on Wednesday, limping and exhausted soldiers were showing up on the Ukrainian side of the front lines in the conflict, describing a harrowing ordeal that began with a surprise 1 a.m. order to retreat.

“Many trucks left, and only a few arrived,” said one soldier, who offered only his rank (sergeant) and his given name (Volodomyr) as he knelt on the sidewalk smoking. “A third of us made it, at most,” the soldier said.

Others said that a majority, at least, of the soldiers who set off from the town in a column of about 100 trucks had managed to escape the encirclement, many of them straggling out on foot after their vehicles were blown up.

The order to retreat was kept secret until the last minute, and soldiers were told to prepare in 10 minutes and pile into the beds of troop transport trucks, according to Albert Sardaryen, a 22-year-old medic who made the journey...

More.

And at the Washington Post, "Ukraine calls for international peacekeepers."

President Obama Speaks at the Summit on Countering Violent Extremism

Oh boy. It's terrible.

Here, at the White House YouTube page.

And snippets at AP, "Obama: 'We Are Not at War With Islam'."

Obviously, Obama's problem is that Islamic State is not pushing "a twisted interpretation of religion." Indeed, as Graeme Wood writes at the cover story at the latest Atlantic:

The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.

We can agree that there are different interpretations of Islam, but it's simply absurd to argue that Islamic State --- or al-Qaeda itself --- is practicing a "twisted interpretation."

And if you listen long enough at the video, you'll see that Obama eventually gets to the heart of the leftist-collectivist agenda for supposedly "countering violent extremism": purportedly combating the alleged "legitimate grievances" of Islamists with ever-expanding big-government programs. Recall that this initiative is predicated on lies: "The 'Jobs for Jihad Delinquents' Program."


Anyway, FWIW, there's more at the Los Angeles Times, "Obama calls for global effort against spread of extremist ideas."

Here's Obama's Op-Ed at Today's L.A. Times

See, "President Obama: Our fight against violent extremism."

I think the harsh criticism of the administration's political correctness --- especially the president's refusal to mention "Islamic terrorism" --- is having an effect.

That said, it's hard to scrape off the PC blather when it's been piled on so thick. I don't think, for example, that terrorists "betray Islam," as is claimed at the op-ed. But at least the piece mentions that it was Egyptian Christians who were beheaded last weekend.

More at Memeorandum.

And see especially, Katie Pavlich, at Town Hall, "Obama: Extremists Have 'Legitimate Grievances'."

PREVIOUSLY: "The 'Jobs for Jihad Delinquents' Program," and "Ralph Peters: Until Islam Is Held to the Same Standards as Other Religions, Terrorism Wins."

Ralph Peters: Until Islam Is Held to the Same Standards as Other Religions, Terrorism Wins

Click through to watch.

An awesome interview, at Right Wing News.

The 'Jobs for Jihad Delinquents' Program

Michelle Malkin just destroys the left's literally suicidal, terror-enabling political correctness.

Don't miss a word, at the blog.

ISIS and Obama's Summit on Countering Violent Extremism

At the Wall Street Journal, "The Copts and Kurds Know the Threat is More Than 'Violent Extremism'":

The White House hosts its Summit on Countering Violent Extremism this week, and Islamic State seems not to understand it wasn’t invited. The event is supposed to showcase President Obama ’s leadership against a threat he refuses to identify by name, but the entire world has been watching Islamist jihadists advertise the specific threat across a brutal weekend.

In Iraq Islamic State paraded in cages through the city of Kirkuk 17 captured Kurdish fighters whom it presumably plans to burn alive as it recently did a caged Jordanian fighter pilot. Kirkuk is on the crossroads of Kurdish and Sunni Iraq, and ISIS didn’t hold any of the crucial oil hub when Mr. Obama unveiled his anti-ISIS strategy in September. The Kurds are on the front lines against Islamic State, but the Obama Administration has been wary of sending them significant arms lest it offend the government in Baghdad that can’t or won’t protect the Kurds.

Meanwhile, the rising Libyan branch of Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians. The Copts were kidnapped in Libya and killed as “A Message Signed With Blood To the Nation Of the Cross,” according to the video caption.

“Oh people, recently you have seen us on the hills of Al-Sham and Dabiq’s plain, chopping off the heads that have been carrying the cross for a long time, and today, we are on the south of Rome, on the land of Islam, Libya, sending another message,” declared a masked ISIS member.

These videos are intended to show a religious movement that is on the march, the vanguard of history. This helps win converts and intimidate Muslims who might otherwise resist. The longer Islamic State appears to be advancing despite Mr. Obama’s promise to “degrade and destroy” it, the wider its appeal becomes.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi responded to the murder of the Copts with bombing raids against ISIS bases in Libya, and he urged the U.S. coalition to expand its operations to North Africa. Like the Kurds and King Abdullah in Jordan, Egypt knows the real threat and understands the need to step up the fight against Islamic State...

Marie Harf Breaks the Internet

Here's the obligatory State Department spokeswoman of the day post.

At Right Wing News, "[VIDEO] “We CANNOT win this war by killing them” – State Dept. Spox on ISIS."

And at Twitchy, "Did Marie Harf just say jobs will defeat ISIS? [Hint: Yes … and let the mocking begin!]." (Via Memeorandum.)

Also, "‘What are you talking about?’ Marie Harf goes on the defensive — and off the rails."

Daniel Flynn, Why the Left Hates America

Shop for books!

Here's Daniel Flynn's, Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness.

Plus, Shop Amazon Fashion - Men's Watches.

Portraits of Conflict in Ukraine

At the Boston Globe's Big Picture blog.

Sea Lion Hitches Ride on Family's Kayak at Stearns Wharf, Santa Barbara

What a great story, from KEYT Santa Barabara:

Danes Expect More Attacks as Islamic Cells Escalate Jihad

Maybe if they keep wishing harder the jihad threat will go away.

At the Washington Post, "Danes wary of more attacks as gangs turn to extremism":

COPENHAGEN — With baseball caps pulled low over their eyes and scarves wrapped tightly around their mouths, the young men huddled at sundown to pay tribute to a killer.

Dozens had come to the scene where their “brother” was shot dead by police after he sprayed gunfire outside a cafe and a synagogue. Now they would give him a proper — and defiantly public — send-off: quiet prayers, followed by repeated chants of “Allahu Akbar” and the raised-index-finger salute of the Islamic State.

“May Allah show you grace,” read the handwritten sign they taped to the bullet-scarred apartment building where 22-year-old Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein fell. “Rest in peace, Captain.”

Hours later, an estimated 30,000 Danes held torches to the freezing Baltic wind in their own Monday evening commemoration — this one for Hussein’s victims. Swaying to the rhythm of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” they vowed not to bend to the impulse that drove the gunman to take two lives over the weekend in the country’s first fatal terrorist attack in three decades.

“When violence and hatred hits Denmark, the answer is community and democracy,” Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt told the solemn crowd.

But the earlier, far smaller gathering offered ominous hints of just how long and difficult this country’s struggle with violent extremism may prove to be.

Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard told the BBC that the weekend’s attacks were believed to be the work of a “lone wolf,” a troubled young man who had already had multiple run-ins with the law and who had not acted in concert with a broader terrorist cell.

But authorities said Hussein was part of a network — a criminal gang called the Brothas that has traditionally traded in drugs and theft but whose members have lately been lured by radical Islam.

Like Hussein, many are the sons of Middle Eastern immigrants who have struggled to find a place in Denmark. These young men turn to the bonds of gang life and religion to forge their identities.

“The Brothas is dominated by young men without an education who feel they are not accepted in society,” said Aydin Soei, author of “Angry Young Men,” a book about gangs and inner-city life in Copenhagen. “They are not good Muslims and they know it. But Islam is part of their identity. They have a group identity of everyone being against them and being underdogs. In that identity, Islam means something.”

Welcome to Copenhagestan.

More.

Obama White House Refuses to Identify Egyptian Beheading Victims as Christian

Is there a moral fiber left in this government? Indeed, in this country?

It's going to take more than a few conservatives on the right to get something to register here. The terrorists announced that they would take "Rome." Their ultimate target is the "Christian nation" of America.

Here's the statement, "Statement by the Press Secretary on the Murder of Egyptian Citizens" (at Memeorandum).



And at Atlas Shrugs, "White House Refuses to Call 21 BEHEADING Victims Christians while Egypt launches airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Libya for savage beheading of Christians killed for their faith."

Teenager Kills Himself While Playing Russian Roulette in Torrance

At ABC 7 Los Angeles, "Teen Shoots Self in Head While Playing Russian Roulette in Torrance."

And at KTLA 5 Los Angeles, "Teen Dies While Playing Russian Roulette in Torrance Sheriff’s Department."

"Can someone explain to me how Verónica Bayetti Flores's agenda of promoting homosexuality among minority youth is about 'ending white supremacy' by beginning a 'revolution' against 'the colonial project'?..."

Yeah, please?

At the Other McCain, "‘Queer Youth of Color’."

Fabulous February Weather in Southern California

It's been just spectacular this Valentine's weekend.

Check this report from down south, at ABC News 10 San Diego:



And for the L.A./O.C. area, check ABC 7 Los Angeles.

Anti-Semitic Graffiti Sprayed on Dozens of Wisconsin Homes (VIDEO)

Well, it's Madison, one of the most leftist "progressive" cities in the country.

Thus no surprise that leftist storm-troopers are laying the foundations for a progressive Kristallnacht.

At Truth Revolt, "Dozens of Wisconsin Homes Vandalized with Anti-Semitic Graffiti":

"F*** Jews," swastikas among "troubling" messages painted on 30 homes.

More at Gateway Pundit, "Thirty Madison, Wisconsin Homes Spray-painted with Anti-Semitic Slurs."

Un-Retouched Cindy Crawford Photo Sparks Body-Image Controversy

She looks fine.

My goodness the woman's almost 50 and still smokin' the runways like pro.

Video at ABC News, "The photo from a 2013 Marie Claire Mexico cover went viral after British journalist Charlene White shared it on Twitter."

And at D-Listed, "A SANS Photoshopped Picture pf Cindy Crawford Leaked onto the Internet."

Walking Paris as a Jew

From Paula Stern, at A Soldier's Mother, "Why Jews Don't Belong in France."



Also, "Are You Alone?":

As I rode the train to work this morning, I saw the first mention of an attack in front of a synagogue in Copenhagen...first report said two policemen were shot (arm and leg) and one civilian was injured. Then, it was clarified that he was shot in the head; then updated again to say that he had died. Soon it was announced that he was the guard outside a synagogue where inside Jewish families were celebrating the coming of age of a young man.

That child now man will forever live with the fact that the guard who stood before his family and friends, sacrificed all for...for...and that's where I get stuck.

Certainly, Dan Uzan is a hero today, as all our security guards here in Israel are. In the simplest terms, he sacrificed his life to save the lives of many others, including many children. Jews, like him. Unsuspecting that today a simple event would be turned into tragedy.

I don't want to take anything away from his sacrifice and yet, like the Jews who died in France, it is so wrong. Wrong place, wrong time, but most of all, in the wrong country...defending what should not need to be defended. There are lines you draw and lines you don't. If the human body cannot live on Mars, you don't go there - at least not to live. We all need home and so we defend it but if someone offers you something beyond home for which the price is too high, you don't buy it, you don't go there.

What is in Copenhagen? Paris? London? Madison, Wisconsin?

If they are desecrating graves with swastikas, beating Jews, taking hostages and murdering people...in places that are not our own and cannot be defended...it is time to leave. I know it sounds so simple...but...did you ever consider the fact that it really might be?...

PREVIOUSLY: "France Rushes to Reassure French Jews After Cemetery Desecrated."

ADDED: At Israel Matzav, "A Jew walking in the street of Paris, 2015."