Thoroughly Depressing Video of a Man Trying to Exercise His Right to Freedom of Speech

That's BFH's headline.

Actually, I get a kick out of these kinds of things. It's happened to me. Leftists cannot tolerate views that deviate from the collectivist party line. Plain and simple. You will literally be attacked for attempting to exercise your rights. I was attacked last summer while attempting to cover the Anaheim police brutality protests sponsored by ANSWER LA.

And watch this guy at the video attempting to express his opinions on the left's holocaust of abortion.

Criminal leftist thugs. At iOWNTHEWORLD Report.

14 STUDENTS ACCUSED IN VENICE HIGH SCHOOL SEXUAL ASSAULTS (VIDEO)

Horrible story.

At ABC-7 News Los Angeles:

#LAPD Update: 10th Venice HS Subject Arrested for Sex Crimes after turning himself in @LAPDPacific @LASchoolPolice http://t.co/YhSRKub8EQ

— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) March 14, 2015

VENICE, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Fourteen students are accused in the sexual assaults of two underage girls at Venice High School.

The investigation began on Tuesday when police were notified by school administrators regarding a possible sexual assault.

Police located two victims, both students at Venice High School under the age of 17. The victims were subjected to a series of sexual assaults both on and off campus.

"They were able to identify 14 subjects that we believe are responsible for these sexual assaults and unlawful sex acts," said LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith during a news conference.

The alleged incidents occurred between December 2013 to March 2015. Smith said some of the sexual acts were forced, and others were consensual with individuals who were too young to give consent.

Eight students were arrested at the school on Friday morning, and one student was arrested off campus. A 10th person surrendered to authorities and was also arrested.

Still more.

The Compulsory Approval Doctrine of the Homosexual Rights Movement

I think I got this discussion going the other night when I tweeted out this piece from USA Today, "Celebs slam Catholic school teacher's frank comments about homosexuals."

Celebs slam Catholic school teacher's frank comments about homosexuals. http://t.co/MWYcvVHSMo @RSMcCain

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 13, 2015

And now see Robert Stacy McCain, "Patricia Jannuzzi Is Right":

“We need healthy families with a mother and a father for the sake of the children and humanity,” wrote Patricia Januzzi, in a Facebook post in which she warned that same-sex marriage is part of an “agenda” that aims toward the “slow extinction” of Western civilization.

Ms. Januzzi is a teacher at Immaculata High School, a private Catholic school in New Jersey. While I am not Catholic, I am sufficiently acquainted with their doctrines on marriage and the family to conclude that Ms. Januzzi said nothing in her rant with which the Pope would disagree. And having spent the past several months researching radical feminism, I can say with absolute certainty that the “agenda” is exactly what Ms. Januzzi says it is. But the 21st-Century Thought Police can’t let the truth be spoken:

SOMERVILLE, N.J. — An anti-gay rant by a religion teacher at a Catholic high school in New Jersey is drawing the ire of alumni across the country, including a former Real Housewives of New Jersey cast member and New-Jersey-raised Susan Sarandon. On her now-deleted Facebook profile earlier this week, the veteran private Catholic school teacher said gays or gay activists “want to reengineer western civ (sic) into a slow extinction” as part of their “agenda.”

“We need healthy families with a mother and a father for the sake of the children and humanity!!!!!” wrote Immaculata High School teacher Patricia Jannuzzi, adding that the argument that gays are protected under the 14th Amendment is “bologna.” . . .

Let me interrupt here to quote more of Ms. Januzzi’s post. She was reacting emotionally to a story (“Crass: Gay Activist Tweets THIS To Ben Carson Following CNN Interview”) that she linked on her Facebook page, and her point was not very clearly made. She said gay activists, after using the “born that way” argument to gain status under the 14th Amendment “equal protection” clause, will then “argue everyone should be able to choose” homosexuality. Anyone familiar with feminist theory knows that radical lesbians have never accepted the “born that way” argument, instead advocating lesbianism as a “challenge to male supremacy and its basic institution of heterosexuality,” to quote Professor Sheila Jeffreys. This feminist perspective was celebrated in a 1973 song by Alix Dobkin, “Every Woman Can Be a Lesbian.”

The radical “choice” view of sexuality advocated by lesbian feminists is seldom heard from gay males, who usually describe their homosexual desires as an uncontrollable urge. However, one finds across the spectrum of the LGBT rainbow a unanimous consensus on what we might call the Compulsory Approval Doctrine:

No one can ever be permitted to express a personal aversion or moral objection to homosexual behavior.

Disapproval is synonymous with “hate,” according to gay activists, and the cultural consequence of the Compulsory Approval Doctrine is to stigmatize heterosexuality as an expression of prejudice. Many gay people have convinced themselves that the “straight” person’s rejection of homosexual behavior is implicit proof of homophobia — an irrational fear — so that all heterosexuals are basically viewed as ignorant bigots afflicted with neurotic sexual repression. And if you dare cite religious injunctions against homosexuality, you thereby prove that you are certainly a hater. Quod erat demonstrandum.

The Compulsory Approval Doctrine of the gay-rights movement is exemplified by the thug mob reaction to Mrs. Januzzi...

RTWT.

Countdown to the End of Obama's Anti-Israel Presidency

Israel hatred continues to grow at the key plank of the Democrat Party.

From Caroline Glick, "Israel’s next 22 months":

The next 22 months until President Barack Obama leaves office promise to be the most challenging period in the history of US-Israel relations.

Now unfettered by electoral concerns, over the past week Obama exposed his ill-intentions toward Israel in two different ways.

First, the Justice Department leaked its intention to indict Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez on corruption charges. Menendez is the ranking Democratic member, and the former chairman, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is also the most outspoken Democratic critic of Obama’s policy of appeasing the Iranian regime.

As former US federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy wrote this week at PJMedia, “It is perfectly reasonable to believe that Menendez may be guilty of corruption offenses and that his political opposition on Iran is factoring into the administration’s decision to charge him. Put it another way, if Menendez were running interference for Obama on the Iran deal, rather than trying to scupper it, I believe he would not be charged.”

The Menendez prosecution tells us that Obama wishes to leave office after having vastly diminished support for Israel among Democrats. And he will not hesitate to use strong-arm tactics against his fellow Democrats to achieve his goal.

We already experienced Obama’s efforts in this sphere in the lead-up to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before the joint houses of Congress on March 3 with his campaign to pressure Democratic lawmakers to boycott Netanyahu’s address.

Now, with his move against Menendez, Obama made clear that support for Israel – even in the form of opposition to the nuclear armament of Iran – will be personally and politically costly for Democrats.

The long-term implications of Obama’s moves to transform US support for Israel into a partisan issue cannot by wished away. It is possible that his successor as the head of the Democratic Party will hold a more sympathetic view of Israel. But it is also possible that the architecture of Democratic fund-raising and grassroots support that Obama has been building for the past six years will survive his presidency and that as a consequence, Democrats will have incentives to oppose Israel.

The reason Obama is so keen to transform Israel into a partisan issue was made clear by the second move he made last week.

Last Thursday, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice announced that the NSC’s Middle East Coordinator Phil Gordon was stepping down and being replaced by serial Israel-basher Robert Malley.

Malley, who served as an NSC junior staffer during the Clinton administration, rose to prominence in late 2000 when, following the failed Camp David peace summit in July 2000 and the outbreak of the Palestinian terror war, Malley co-authored an op-ed in The New York Times blaming Israel and then-prime minister Ehud Barak for the failure of the negotiations.

What was most remarkable at the time about Malley’s positions was that they completely contradicted Bill Clinton’s expressed views. Clinton placed the blame for the failure of the talks squarely on then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s shoulders.

Not only did Arafat reject Barak’s unprecedented offer of Palestinian statehood and sovereignty over all of Gaza, most of Judea and Samaria and parts of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount, he refused to make a counter-offer. And then two months later, he opened the Palestinian terror war.

As Jonathan Tobin explained in Commentary this week, through his writings and public statements, Malley has legitimized Palestinian rejection of Israel’s right to exist. Malley thinks it is perfectly reasonable that the Palestinians refuse to concede their demand for free immigration of millions of foreign Arabs to the Jewish state in the framework of their concocted “right of return,” even though the clear goal of that demand is to destroy Israel. As Tobin noted, Malley believes that Palestinian terrorism against Israel is “understandable if not necessarily commendable.”

During Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, then-senator Obama listed Malley as a member of his foreign policy team. When pro-Israel groups criticized his appointment, Obama fired Malley.

But after his 2012 reelection, no longer fearing the ramifications of embracing an openly anti-Israel adviser, one who had documented contacts with Hamas terrorists and has expressed support for recognizing the terror group, Obama appointed Malley to serve as his senior adviser for Iraq-Iran-Syria and the Gulf states. Still facing the 2014 congressional elections, Obama pledged that Malley would have no involvement in issues related to Israel and the Palestinians. But then last week, he appointed him to direct the NSC’s policy in relation to the entire Middle East, including Israel.

The deeper significance of Malley’s appointment is that it demonstrates that Obama’s goal in his remaining time in office is to realign US Middle East policy away from Israel. With his Middle East policy led by a man who thinks the Palestinian goal of destroying Israel is legitimate, Obama can be expected to expand his practice of placing all the blame for the absence of peace between Israel and the Palestinians solely on Israel’s shoulders.

Malley’s appointment indicates that there is nothing Israel can do to stem the tsunami of American pressure it is about to suffer. Electing a left-wing government to replace Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will make no difference.

Just as Malley was willing to blame Barak – a leader who went to Camp David as the head of a minority coalition, whose positions on territorial withdrawals were rejected by a wide majority of Israelis – for the absence of peace, so we can assume that he, and his boss, will blame Israel for the absence of peace over the next 22 months, regardless of who stands at the head of the next government.

In this vein we can expect the administration to expand the anti-Israel positions it has already taken...

So hateful.

Continue.

Top Democrats Alarmed About Clinton's Readiness for Campaign

Delicious!

At the Washington Post, "Some top Democrats are alarmed about Clinton's readiness for a campaign":

Senior Democrats are increasingly worried that Hillary Rodham Clinton is not ready to run for president, fearing that the clumsy and insular handling of the nine-day fracas over her private e-mails was a warning sign about the campaign expected to launch next month.

Few Democrats believe that the revelations about her un­or­tho­dox e-mail practices as secretary of state are a substantive issue that would damage Clinton with voters, and many said she performed adequately in a Tuesday news conference defending herself.

But in interviews Wednesday with The Washington Post, current and former Democratic officeholders and operatives from across the country raised serious questions about her and her political team’s strength and readiness for a 2016 presidential campaign.

“She’s tried to put the day of reckoning off, but it’s come now, and I don’t think she can stand another couple of weeks of this without her structure in place,” said Jim Hodges, a former governor of South Carolina.

Some Democrats said Clinton’s initial refusal to provide answers in the growing e-mail controversy smacked of arrogance and a worrisome bunker mentality — and that the controversy was a self-inflicted wound.

“Had this story been responded to in two or three days instead of in eight days, it would not be as big,” said Robert Gibbs, a former White House press secretary under President Obama. “They are the ones who put air in this balloon in a way that was not necessary at all. . . . It’s clear they lack an apparatus. She’s a candidate without a campaign.”

A Clinton spokesman did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Last week, supporters in Congress and others were willing to go on cable television to defend Clinton on the e-mails but were puzzled when her aides did not provide talking points or other information that might help them, according to Clinton allies. “A lot of people were flying blind,” said one Democratic ally who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment candidly. Requests for information “were met with dead silence” from Clinton’s team, this person said. “This shows they have a long way to go until their organization is ready for prime time.”

Some of Clinton’s longtime allies in the Senate and House leadership did receive guidance from the Clinton camp, although their aides were frustrated that they had to proactively reach out to Clinton aides to get it...

More.

Andrea Tantaros: Eric Holder is the 'Attorney General for the Criminal, by the Criminal, and of the Criminal...' (VIDEO)

Hat Tip: Memeorandum.

Chrissy Teigen Photo Shoot ln Miami

At Egotastic!, "Chrissy Teigen Candids! Model Caught Topless in Miami Waters."

After Stoking Racial Hatred, Eric Holder Blames 'Damn Punk' for #Ferguson Police Shooting (VIDEO)

Great headline, via Gateway Pundit.

Islamic State Video Shows Israeli Arab Murdered by Child Jihadi

Another child murderer. They sure start them out young over there.

Watch at BNI, "Latest Islamic State (ISIS) video features a child executing an Israeli Arab, accused of spying for Israel."

And at the Wall Street Journal, "Islamic State Video Purports to Show Israeli Arab Slain by Child":

A new Islamic State video purports to show a child executing an Israeli Arab man accused of spying for Israel.

The more than 13-minute video was released on YouTube by the Islamic State’s propaganda arm, Al Furqan Media. It depicts a lengthy confession by a man who identified himself as Mohammed Said Ismail Musallam from Jerusalem, followed by scenes that show a child holding and firing a handgun edited together with others that appear to show the prisoner being shot in the head.

Emmanuel Nachshon, the spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, said his government was investigating the authenticity of the video. Israel’s intelligence agency didn’t comment.

Though Islamic State has long expressed enmity toward Israel, Mr. Musallam’s slaying, if confirmed, would mark the first time the Iraq and Syria-based extremist group has been known to have killed an Israeli citizen.

Last month, Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an interview with a man claiming to be Mr. Musallam’s father, Said Musallam, and he said his son wasn’t a spy. The senior Mr. Musallam, who lives in East Jerusalem, said his son had traveled to Islamic State-held territory last fall and had asked for money beforehand on the pretense that he would be studying at a college near Tel Aviv, according to the article.

“He left that morning and the next day, I tried to call him and the telephone was turned off,” Mr. Musallam’s father was quoted as saying. “I thought that maybe he was busy. After a week we got an email that he wanted to be a martyr and he was giving up everything in his life and his family.”

The newspaper quoted the father saying that he later learned that Mr. Musallam had been jailed for trying to escape to Turkey.

The video adds a new twist to Israeli politics only a week before hotly contested general elections, in which hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has campaigned on a platform of protecting the country from Islamists. Israel has largely stayed out of the conflict. But similar videos from Islamic State have drawn Jordan, Egypt, Britain and the U.S. deeper into the battle.

Tuesday’s video wasn’t the first appearing to show a child killer. Another released by the group in January purported to show a Kazakh child shooting two accused Kazakh spies in the back of the head.

The purported use of a child executioner adds a twist to a propaganda campaign that has repeatedly employed shock tactics to both attract potential recruits and frighten enemies.

Islamic State has released footage showing hostages and accused apostates and traitors shot with handguns and automatic weapons and public crucifixions. Others have been thrown from rooftops, stoned to death, burned alive or decapitated. It is all packaged with Hollywood-quality production values and action-movie flourishes.

The latest video featured a dramatic rendering by the prisoner, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, recounting and acting out his own story in a drawn-out confession. He describes himself as former firefighter in Jerusalem, is shown acting out his Israeli intelligence recruitment, training, deployment and subsequent capture as audio of his confession plays in the background.

More at LAT, "Family of slain Palestinian mourns, denies Islamic State's spy charge."

Deadly Reality: Investigators Worry That Producers' Search for Thrills Could Be Undermining Safety

At LAT, "As deaths rise on reality TV, film sets, many blame need to get 'dramatic footage'":

Unscripted action adventure shows have become a staple of the entertainment industry, and the helicopter collision that claimed 10 lives this week on a set in Argentina underscored the risks in reality television.

Nearly one-third of all fatalities on film and TV shoots over the last five years have involved reality shows, according to a Los Angeles Times review of U.S. government data. There were 20 deaths related to motion picture and television production for the five years that ended in December 2014, double the number of fatalities during the previous five-year period.

The increase occurred as workplace fatalities in the private sector overall declined 4%, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, which compiles injury data from coroner's reports, workers' compensation claims and other sources.

Deaths have occurred on soundstages and location shoots, on big-budget Hollywood blockbusters as well as small independent productions, the records show.

But reality TV shows — especially ones that highlight danger — have added risks, industry safety experts say, because producers need dramatic footage to compete for viewers in an increasingly crowded field.

In this atmosphere, safety can take a back seat to ratings, said Angela Plasschaert, a Los Angeles-based risk management consultant who works with film producers and insurance companies to assess risks and develop safety programs.

"The attitude is, 'Do what you've got to do, but don't get in the way,'" she said of some of her clients.

The cause of Monday's crash in Argentina — the deadliest yet in connection with a reality TV show — is under investigation. It occurred when two helicopters collided in midair during the filming of the series "Dropped" for French TV, in which participants are abandoned in the wilderness and must find their way back to civilization.

Helicopters were also involved in two of the worst U.S. filming accidents in recent decades — a 2013 crash in Acton for a reality TV show that killed three people, and the 1982 "Twilight Zone: The Movie" crash near Santa Clarita that killed actor Vic Morrow and two children.

Safety investigators say Hollywood producers often fail to take proper precautions.

"It's truly remarkable to me that production companies can use ultra-advanced technology to make spectacular films but too often they won't spend the modest resources necessary to make sure their workers are not injured or killed on the job," said David Michaels, assistant secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration...

More.

University of Oklahoma Expels Students for Constitutionally Protected Speech

Yep.

The First Amendment protect your racist views.

At Instapundit, "F.I.R.E.: University of Oklahoma Expels Students for Constitutionally Protected Speech. 'The university’s actions also present serious due process concerns'."

And hey, it's microaggressions all the way on the University of Oklahoma. See LAT, "University of Oklahoma minorities say 'casual racism' permeates their lives":

Every black person on campus knows another black student who left because of that isolation and the casual racism that grows in its place.

"People ask you, 'Can you teach me to twerk?'" Kadira said.

Mirelsie Velazquez, a Latina professor in the university's College of Education, came to Norman in August. She said she's often the only person of color in classes or walking around town.

With the release of the video, Velazquez said she's able to put faces and voices to the feeling she gets as a person of color standing in front of a room of white faces.

"As we stand there teaching, not just at Oklahoma, and then you think about how these students behave in private time, you wonder how do they view me and my community?" Velazquez said.

"It's hard to enter spaces and now be constantly thinking about how you're thought of."

It's hard out there!

Rachel Maddow: Hillary Clinton Email Scandal is Just 'Real Nonsense'

The lying hack d-bag is all put out by the Hillary Clinton email scandal, national security be damned. To say nothing of honesty, integrity and basic human decency.

At American Glob, "Rachel Maddow Not Sure if Media Will Be Able to Treat Hillary Clinton Fairly."

Owners of the Orange County Register Resign

This newspaper's going down. I drive past on the way home every day, and I think about it.

At LAT, "O.C. Register owners quit: Aaron Kushner, Eric Spitz resign executive duties."

Lily Aldridge: Behind the Tanlines

Plus Chrissy Teigen and more:

It's Time for Liam Neeson to Find a New Type of Movie Role

I've been thinking the same thing myself.

From Kyle Smith, at the New York Post, "Why Liam Neeson needs to close up that can of whoop-ass":

Neeson’s work ethic is admirable, if not astonishing — more than 25 major film roles since 2000, and I’m not counting all the drive-bys, like his portrayal of Good Cop/Bad Cop in “The Lego Movie.” But just as his wise old mentor act (Zeus, Aslan, Qui-Gon Jinn) started to become a bore, so too did his shoot-’em-up thrillers.

Neeson's also a Second Amendment hypocrite, which especially bugs me.

The Iranian Regime Remains in Power Through Torture and Murder of Its Domestic Critics

From Douglas Feith, at WSJ, "The Fatal Flaw in Obama’s Dealings With Iran":

The Iranian regime is theocratic and revolutionary. It came to power in 1979 on a wave of extremist religious ideology and remains committed to exporting its revolution. Its leaders despise liberalism and democracy. They particularly hate Western respect for the rights of women and homosexuals. The regime remains in power through torture and murder of its domestic critics. It makes frequent use of public executions—the numbers have increased lately even though President Hasan Rouhani is commonly called a reformer.

Abroad, the Iranian regime acts as a rogue. Its agents and terrorist proxies have committed bombings and other murders in countries including France, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iraq. A U.S. court convicted Iranian agents of plotting in 2011 to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. by bombing a Washington, D.C., restaurant. Iranian officials foment hatred of the U.S. and Israel and call for the annihilation of both.

Iranian leaders have a long record of shameless dishonesty. Their aid to the tyrannical Assad regime has been massive since the Syrian civil war began, but they routinely deny it. And they make a practice of lying to United Nations weapons inspectors. Commenting on how the inspectors have repeatedly been surprised by what Iran hides, Olli Heinonen, former deputy director-general of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, told this newspaper in 2013, “If there is no undeclared installation today . . . it will be the first time in 20 years that Iran doesn’t have one.”

Iran is a bad actor, and history teaches that constraining bad actors through arms control and peace accords is a losing bet. The arms-control approach is to invite bad actors to sign legal agreements. This produces signing ceremonies, where political leaders can act as if there’s nobody here but us peaceable, law-abiding global citizens. The deal makers get to celebrate their accords at least until the bad actors inevitably violate them.

Nazi Germany violated the Versailles Treaty. The Soviet Union violated the Biological Weapons Convention, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, various nuclear-arms treaties and other international agreements. The Palestine Liberation Organization violated the Oslo Accords. North Korea violated the Agreed Framework.

Patterns emerge from this history. When leaders of democratic countries extract promises of good behavior from bad-actor regimes, those democratic leaders reap political rewards. They are hailed as peacemakers. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was cheered when he returned from Munich in 1938 with “peace in our time.” These leaders have a stake in their deals looking good. When those deals are violated, the “peacemakers” often challenge the evidence. If the evidence is clear, they dismiss the violations as unimportant. When the importance is undeniable, they argue that there aren’t any good options for confronting the violators.

In the end, the bad actors often pay little or nothing for their transgressions. And even if the costs are substantial, they are bearable. Just ask Russia’s Vladimir Putin, or Syria’s Bashar Assad or North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

The Obama administration has wedded itself to a cooperative policy toward Iran. The White House rejects the coercive approach as not viable. But if Iran violates its deal with us, won’t our response have to be coercive? President Obama insists that his policy is the only realistic one. In doing so, he is showing either that he is naïve and uninformed about the relevant history or that he no longer considers an Iranian nuclear weapon “unacceptable.”

Working Class Americans Downbeat on Economy, Blame Obama

As I always say, the GOP has a huge opening on the economy.

At IBD, "Working Class Gives Up On Obama, Fears Job Losses":

In what could be a significant opening for the Republican Party, working-class Americans have largely abandoned President Obama and rejected his economic policies as they continue to suffer from the historically weak economic recovery, a new analysis of IBD/TIPP Poll data finds.

By wide margins, this group is more likely than any other income class to say the country is headed in the wrong direction, the economy is getting worse, and they fear losing their jobs.

Just 36% approve of the job that Obama is doing, compared with 43% overall, and vast majorities say his policies haven't helped the middle class.

Over the past two months, IBD has asked people to identify themselves as upper class, upper-middle class, middle class, working class or lower class.

The average income for self-described working class families was just over $50,700 a year, close to the national median household income. Those calling themselves middle class had an average income of $70,800, and the average for upper-middle class was close to $100,000...

More.

The Best Chromebook Money Can Buy

If you like Google Chrome, and you haven't yet tried a Chromebook, you'll perhaps find this of interest.

At TechCrunch, "Meet Google’s New Chromebook Pixel."

I'm sure it's nice, but honestly I don't like the new Chromebook keyboards, which I'm using on the new Acer Chromebook I bought in January. I especially dislike the lack of a CAPSLOCK key, which used to be on my previous Acer Chromebook. Don't know why anyone would remove that. It's surprising how often I click over there to use, only to find that it's gone.

Other than that, I recommend these machines quite enthusiastically.

Shop Amazon: Super Google Chromebook Pixel (4G LTE) Touch Screen 12.85" 2560x1700 3:2 LCD i5-3427U 4GB DDR3 64GB SSD 3.4lbs Ultraportable.

The Road from Westphalia

Jessica Mathews reviews Henry Kissinger, World Order, and Bret Stephens, America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Social Disorder, at the New York Review of Books.

Islamic State: Is It Islamic? And Why It Matters

Robert Spencer spoke last night in the O.C.: "ACT for America (Mission Viejo Chapter): Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch."

He's always good, but this time around it was just him, without the usual additional panelists he's appeared with at previous events.

He signed copies of his latest book, Arab Winter Comes to America: The Truth About the War We're In.

A great book!

Check back for more blogging later.

Suge Knight Surveillance Video from Fatal Compton Hit-and-Run

At LAT, "Surveillance video shows deadly Suge Knight incident in Compton."

Watch, at CNN: "Video of Suge Knight's fatal hit-and-run released."

'There's a war going on between the executive and legislative branches...'

Heh. I guess Dems are all in a lather about the Republicans' warning to Iran.

See Byron York, "A war of Obama's making." (At Memeorandum.)

PREVIOUSLY: "GOP Senators Issue Warning on Iran Nuclear Deal."

Jeb Bush Faces More Resistance

Big surprise here.

At WSJ, "Poll Finds Big 2016 Field Divides GOP: While Democrats Back Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush Faces More Resistance From His Party":

New WSJ/NBC poll finds a big 2016 field divides GOP, Jeb Bush faces resistance http://t.co/xb399vCwju pic.twitter.com/ZTzBRUYj0K
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 9, 2015

The two most recognizable figures in the 2016 presidential race start off in very different positions within their own parties, and with Americans overall feeling more positive toward Hillary Clinton than Jeb Bush .

Those findings in a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll reinforce the view that while the Democrats’ nominating contest now looks like a foregone conclusion, provided Mrs. Clinton enters the race, the Republican contest appears to be wide open, with no clear front-runner.

The survey found that 86% of likely Democratic primary voters say they are open to supporting Mrs. Clinton for the party’s nomination, and 13% said they couldn’t. Those polled view the former secretary of state more favorably than unfavorably, with 44% holding positive views and 36% with negative views of her.

Mr. Bush, an early favorite for the Republican nomination among GOP donors, faces more resistance within his party. Some 49% of people who plan to vote in GOP primaries said they could see themselves supporting Mr. Bush and 42% said they couldn’t, the survey found. Poll participants view him more negatively than positively, with 34% seeing him in an unfavorable light and 23% viewing him favorably.

The Journal/NBC poll of 1,000 adults was conducted March 1 through 5, a period when news reports surfaced disclosing Mrs. Clinton’s exclusive use of a private email account to conduct official business as secretary of state. Critics and some fellow Democrats have said the disclosures raise questions about Mrs. Clinton’s commitment to transparency in public office.

The two Republicans who begin the race on the strongest footing in the poll are Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. More than half of GOP primary voters said they were open to supporting Messrs. Rubio or Walker, compared with 49% who said so of Mr. Bush.

Resistance within the party to Messrs. Rubio and Walker is far lower than for Mr. Bush: Some 26% said they couldn’t see themselves supporting Mr. Rubio, and 17% said so of the Wisconsin governor.

The good news for Mr. Bush is that he has nearly a year to reshape his image before voting begins, and none of his likely rivals shows signs of running away with the race.

In fact, he would begin the 2016 campaign in much the same place that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney began the 2012 race in which he locked up the nomination after a long primary slog. Mr. Romney was viewed positively by 43% of GOP primary voters and negatively by 12% about a year before primary voting began, about the same as Mr. Bush is viewed among GOP primary voters today.

“He still has room to change his image,” Mr. Yang, the Democratic pollster, said of Mr. Bush. He noted that 43% of the public is still on the fence about Mr. Bush or doesn’t know him well enough to form an opinion...

More.

Racist Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity at University of Oklahoma

A pretty swift response by the university all around, especially with shutting down the fraternity.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Oklahoma fraternity's racist chant may cost its black chef his job."

And at Legal Insurrection, "University of Oklahoma severs ties with fraternity after racist video surfaces."

GOP Senators Issue Warning on Iran Nuclear Deal

At WSJ, "GOP Senators Warn Iran’s Leaders on Nuclear Deal":

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Monday sharply criticized an open letter by 47 Senate Republicans warning Iran’s leaders that any agreement between the White House and Tehran on nuclear weapons could be quickly nullified or changed once Mr. Obama leaves office.

The lawmakers were effectively aligning themselves with Iranian hardliners who oppose an international nuclear deal, Mr. Obama said.

The letter, which was signed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and a number of top committee chairmen, came as a major new complication in a debate over international nuclear talks that face a March 31 deadline.

Senators said that, unless approved by Congress, any agreement between world powers and Iran would be seen by GOP lawmakers as an executive agreement between Mr. Obama and Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei and could lapse when a future administration takes over, or undergo modifications by lawmakers.

The senators noted that Mr. Obama will leave office in January 2017, while “most of us will remain in office well beyond then—perhaps decades.

“The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time,” said the letter.

Mr. Obama criticized the Republican outreach.

“I think it’s somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s an unusual coalition.”

Mr. Obama said his focus was on getting to an agreement with Iran that would allow the country to develop a nuclear energy program while ensuring that it could not be weaponized.

“I think what we’re going to focus on right now is actually seeing whether we can get a deal or not,” he said. “Once we do—if we do—we’ll be able to make the case to the American people.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said that world relations are based on international obligations and commitments, “not based on the domestic U.S. laws.”

Any future annulment of U.S. commitments would be “an obvious violation of international laws, particularly if these commitments lie within the framework of a U.N. Security Council resolution and are the result of negotiations and agreement with five other countries which are permanent members of the Security Council,” Mr. Zarif said.

Those signing the letter included Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R., Ariz.), as well as 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas.

Notably absent from the signatories was Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who has been in the middle of discussions with the White House about the direction of negotiations...

More.

Far-Left Randi Weingarten's Charter School Closes After Years of Failure

At WSJ, "A Union Charter Flunks Out":

‘Our schools will show real, quantifiable student achievement and with those results finally dispel the misguided and simplistic notion that the union contract is an impediment to success.” So declared teachers union chief Randi Weingarten in 2005 upon launching the United Federation of Teachers charter school in Brooklyn, New York.

The UFT quietly let slip last week that this showcase K-8 charter school is closing after a legacy of failure. Ms. Weingarten’s experiment in education of the union, by the union and for the union is a case study in the problems with the status quo of union dominance over American public education.

In 2005 the UFT Charter School opened with a $1 million gift from the Broad Foundation and plans to reduce class sizes, increase collaboration among teachers with monthly “townhall meetings” and daily “community gatherings,” and replace principals with less adversarial “school leaders.” Instructional coaches were supposed to support teachers but not evaluate their performance.

All of this implemented the long-time union agenda for school reform and was meant to show that there was no great secret to such New York charter successes as KIPP Academy and Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy. You almost had to admire the union nerve because it showed their leaders believed their own advertising.

The school’s board of trustees consisted of union leaders, school staff and “community representatives” such as Acorn CEO Bertha Lewis. The union provided funds to cover deficits in addition to the Broad Foundation grant, which Ms. Weingarten promised would ensure that union dues wouldn’t pay for operating costs. Notably, the school shared space at no cost with a district public school. Recall that last year New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to ban such co-locations and charge rent to non-union charters that have private donors.

From the start the UFT charter suffered from high staff turnover, operational chaos and budget deficits. Student test scores lagged neighboring district and other charter schools. The school repeatedly failed to meet the performance benchmarks established by its charter authorizer, the State University of New York (SUNY).

In 2013 SUNY reported mixed results at the elementary school and that the middle school met only one of 15 Accountability Plan measures in math and none in English. Student test scores appeared to decline the longer students were enrolled. Half of fifth graders opted not to continue. Declining enrollment in the middle school exacerbated the school’s fiscal duress, which SUNY attributed to poor bookkeeping. The union bailed out the school with interest-free bridge loans.

SUNY also highlighted “chronic shortages of textbooks and unrepaired equipment,” missing standardized test booklets that were not returned to the publisher for scoring, violations of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and “limited instructional coaching.” SUNY reviewers saw students listening to music and chatting with friends. In one geography lesson, “rather than making use of technological resources to present the critical economic and political importance of the Nile, the teacher had students color in blank maps of the river.”

SUNY nonetheless granted the union a two-year conditional renewal with orders to shape up. The school then placed students on a heavy testing regimen—despite the union’s opposition to “high-stakes” testing everywhere else—yet teachers weren’t graded on student performance. The union even rejected President Obama ’s Race to the Top funds because it required that teacher evaluations be linked to student performance.

The school’s results speak for themselves: In 2014, 11% of students were rated proficient in English and 18% in math compared to 28% and 36% in schools with similar demographics, and 59% and 92% at the Harlem Success Academy, which enrolls more kids with disabilities. The union charter performed worse than 96% of its peers on subjective standards like “instructional core” and “systems for improvement” measured from parents, teacher and student surveys. On almost all counts the district middle school next door did better.

Threatened with non-renewal this year, the union decided to close the school...

More.

It's obvious to everyone but the Democrat Party faithful: Leftist regressivism destroys anything and everything it gets its hands on.

Fighter Pilot Passes Floating Snickers Bar

Heh, this is trippy.

Here: "How to Pass Snacks to the Rear Seat of a Fighter Jet."

Via ABC-7 Los Angeles, "VIDEO: How fighter pilots pass snacks to each other."

The 'Islamophobia' Scam Returns

See Robert Spencer, at FrontPage Magazine:

It wasn’t accidental that Hitler’s Reich had an entire Ministry of Propaganda: lying to the public is a major job, as the cleverest of propaganda constructs is always threatened by the simple facts. CAP is trying to compel non-Muslims to disregard what they see every day — Muslims committing violence against non-Muslims and justifying it by referring to Islamic texts — and instead embrace a fictional construct: Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance. This takes a relentless barrage of propaganda, and “Fear, Inc. 2.0” is just the latest in a steady stream from CAP and its allies, which are exponentially wealthier and better-funded than the groups CAP vilifies in this report.

“Fear, Inc. 2.0” is filled with assertions that white is black, and that your lying eyes are deceiving you. We’re told that I myself am “the primary driver in promoting the myth that peaceful Islam is nonexistent and that violent extremism is inherent within traditional Islam.” CAP doesn’t offer any evidence for this being a “myth” – it doesn’t have to, as its Leftist constituency takes that as self-evident.

Read the whole thing.

The new CAP report is here, FWIW.

Leftists are screaming "Islamophobia" today like they've been screaming "McCarthyism" since the 1950s. Of course, Joseph McCarthy was right about Communist infiltration in the U.S. government, despite his regretful turn to demagogy and, ultimately, self-destruction.

The folks at CAP and their regressive fellow travelers are literally working to bring down the United States in the current era. The battle's been raging for decades but with the election of Barack Hussein in 2008 far-left traitors gained a foothold in the White House. 2016 is about taking the country back once and for all.

U.S. and China Show Contrasting Shift in Global Economy

At WSJ, "Signals From U.S., China Show How Much Global Economy Has Shifted Since Crisis":

Developments in just the past week underscored a remarkable turnabout in the global economy since the financial crisis.

Six years ago, the U.S. was in financial panic, Europe was seen largely as an innocent bystander and China as an engine for a return to global growth.

Now the U.S. economy is charging ahead—producing jobs at the fastest pace since the late 1990s—while Chinese authorities are struggling to manage a gathering slowdown and Europe is still getting back on its feet.

Emblematic of the shifts are differing monetary signals: Strong U.S. jobs data Friday increased the likelihood the Federal Reserve will raise short-term interest rates this year, while the People’s Bank of China added to a rate-cutting campaign early this month.

The mismatch in growth outlooks and policy responses portends financial-market aftershocks, including the potential for further gains in the U.S. dollar, which has appreciated 11% against a broad basket of other currencies in the past year and 2% against China’s yuan.

This backdrop also raises a big question: Can the U.S. economy—stronger but still weakened by crisis—power the global economy the way it did in decades past?

Because China accounts for a bigger share of global growth than it did before, its slowdown will surely have bigger global consequences than it might have in the past. But an improving U.S. and stabilizing Europe would help the rest of the world manage to weather China’s problems.

Central to the outlook: the changing patterns of financial stress across the globe.

Fed officials said Thursday that 31 large banks had passed its annual “stress tests” of their financial resilience, meaning they had capital buffers large enough to withstand a return to recession. It was the first time since the Fed launched the tests during the panic of 2009 that all banks had the capital needed to weather the Fed’s test of their financial health.

With U.S. financial institutions on surer footing, credit growth is accelerating. Commercial and industrial loan portfolios among banks in the U.S. were up 12% in mid-February from a year earlier, at the same time as real-estate and consumer loan portfolios are rising and growth of cash holdings slowing.

“It has been a painful path and somewhat disappointing, but we got to this point with a process of fairly gradual but significant adjustments in private sector [debt], a grinding healing in the financial sector and a Federal Reserve which has been consistently trying to offset [drags on growth],” said Bruce Kasman, chief economist at J.P. Morgan .

Chinese authorities, on the other hand, reduced their growth target for 2015. At 7%, the world’s second-largest economy is still expected to expand faster than almost any other in the world, but the momentum has clearly downshifted.

Growth last year was 7.4%, the slowest pace in nearly a quarter-century. The International Monetary Fund has forecast 6.8% growth for 2015.

Moreover, China’s woes are reflected in the fortunes of other emerging economies oriented toward exporting commodities—Russia and Brazil are both in or near recession...

More.

And remember, the growing performance of the U.S. economy is in spite of the Obama administration, which has shackled U.S. growth and wages with its humongous regulatory and tax burden placed on business. We're still struggling to overcome weak wage growth this long after the crash. American workers are bearing the brunt of this disastrous Democrat "social justice" redistributionist regime.

Santa Barbara Fresh Market Closes: Will Shutter All Its Remaining Stores in California

Hmm...

And the state's economy is supposed to be picking up. Must be the disastrous regulatory environment, and in particular California's confiscatory tax regime.

There's a store in Laguna Hills as well. The company wanted to emphasize its growth strategy, and obviuosly the anti-business once-golden state wasn't going to fit with the plan.

At KEYT News Santa Barbara:

High-Ranking Federal Officials' History of Using Personal Email for Government Business

Hmm...

What do we have here?

From Sharyl Attkisson, at the Daily Signal. (Via Instapundit.)

Email Scandal Disqualifies Hillary Clinton for POTUS

At IBD, "Emailgate Disqualifies Hillary Clinton for POTUS":

The former secretary of state's use of a personal account to exclusively conduct government business and to protect her political future in violation of the law ought to disqualify her from the presidency.

'Witch hunts" sometimes find a witch, and those who dismissed the establishment of the House Benghazi Select Committee, chaired by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., as just another witch hunt are eating their words.

The existence of a personal account that Hillary Clinton used to conduct government business as secretary of state was discovered by the committee and reported by the New York Times.

Clinton's use of this personal account explains why investigations of the Benghazi terrorist attack — and her culpability in our diplomatic mission's vulnerability there, the failure to heed warnings and the cover-up afterward — failed to find much email evidence of her direct involvement.

According to the Times, Clinton never used her official government email account at all. What's more, she used exclusively one set up on the day of her Senate confirmation as secretary of state. This indicates premeditation in an attempt to deceive the American people by someone determined to fulfill her ambition to be the first woman to sit in the Oval Office.

The Times said that Clinton's aides made no attempt to systematically preserve her emails on government servers as required by the Federal Records Act. Team Hillary is now trying to use the excuse that they thought their government recipients would archive the emails and that was thought to be good enough.

Instead, Clinton's aides carefully culled the emails to find which ones contained no information damaging to her political future, and only these would be turned over to the State Department to be archived.

Jason Baron, a former director of litigation at the National Archives, told the Times that it was "very difficult to conceive of a scenario — short of nuclear winter — where an agency would be justified in allowing its cabinet-level head officer to solely use a private email communications channel for the conduct of government business."

Actually, we can conceive of such a scenario — a presidential wannabe determined not to leave a potentially campaign-ending paper trail.

Though Benghazi occurred after the account was set up, the account fulfilled its predefined purpose and served to hide a paper trail documenting her malfeasance in office and deadly incompetence.

We know from others that warnings of the Benghazi terrorist attack came to her office along with warnings of the Benghazi mission's lack of security as it told of a surrounding sea of terrorist training camps...

Keep reading.

Kate Hudson in Tank Top and Daisy Dukes in Sunny Los Angeles

She's a sweetie.

At London's Daily Mail, "How to lure a guy in 10 seconds! Kate Hudson dons cleavage-baring tank top and Daisy Dukes for sunny LA outing."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



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

More at Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Roundup...", and "What If Obama Were President in 1941?"

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Bomb Threat."

Mark Halperin Destroys Hillary Clinton Over Corrupt Emails and 'Transparency' Hypocrisy

This guy's a prognosticator and he's arguing that the email scandal has blown Hillary's chances for the presidency.

There's a leftist idiot thread at Memeorandum.

What she is doing here in terms of lack of response, lack of a sense of what people think of her and combined with what I thought was an extraordinary weak performance at her Emily's List speech the other day, her husband can get through these things because he's a politician of a lifetime. She cannot. If this is the way she's going to run her operation, if this is the mindset she's going to have, I don't think she's going to be president.

Rep. Trey Gowdy: 'Huge Gaps' in Hillary Clinton Emails Turned Over to House Select Committee on Benghazi

At Politico, "Trey Gowdy sees months-long gaps in Clinton emails."

A great discussion:

Suspect in Boris Nemtsov Death Is Said to Kill Himself

Now this is interesting.

At the New York Times, "Suspect in Russian Politician’s Killing Blows Himself Up, Report Says."

Some First Amendment Freedoms Have Been Lost Since Selma

A phenomenal commentary, from Ronald Krotoszynski Jr., at the Los Angeles Times, "Could a Selma-like protest happen today? Probably not."

Leftist Enviromental Backlash Against Keurig, Maker of Single Serving 'Coffee Pods'

The dude who invented them, John Sylvan, says "he regrets creating the disposable coffee pod system because of the negative environmental effects."

Bleeding idiots, the lot of them.

At Macleans, "Coffee pods: The new eco-villain: The K-Cup backlash has prompted the disposable coffee system’s inventor to change his tune."

And the k-pods are more popular in Canada than the U.S., the freakin' enviro-hypocrites. Sheesh.

Michigan Couple Sentenced to Life in Prison for Raping Baby: 'To a person, this is the worst, one of the worst [child sex cases] they’ve had to work...'

Progressive values.

At the Other McCain, "Life Sentences for Michigan Couple Who Raped 1-Year-Old Girl on Video":

Human life is cheapened [in] a nation that accepts more than 1 million abortions a year as “a woman’s right to choose.”

If it is not wrong to kill an unborn baby, is anything wrong?

Leftist Hatred at Selma: 'MLK Lieutenant' Attacks George W. Bush, Refused to Join Hands on Edmund Pettus Bridge to Commemorate Racial Progress

Hateful, hateful ideologues.

President George W. Bush joined hands with other loving Americans to cross the bridge yesterday. He was not joined by some hateful, hateful Democrat Party ideologues.

At Gateway Pundit, "Bush Derangement Syndrome: Civil Rights Leader Refused to Cross Bridge with ex-President in Selma (VIDEO)."

And here's the clip of the hateful "MLK lieutenant": "TV One NewsOneNow Exclusive! MLK Lieutenant Diane Nash on #Selma50."

Mind-Boggling Gou Miyagi Skateboarding

This dude will blow your mind.

Debate Over Rachel Beyda's Jewish Background

This article was the most viewed last night at the New York Times, "Readers Drawn Into Debate Over U.C.L.A. Student’s Jewish Background."



PREVIOUSLY: "Rachel Beyda Fights Leftist Anti-Semitism at UCLA."

Lure of the Caliphate

An outstanding piece from Malise Ruthven, at the New York Review of Books.

Once again, ISIS is Islamic. Very Islamic.

Uncovered Lily Aldridge

Lovely.

For Sports Illustrated swimsuit:

The Sinking of the Lusitania

One hundred years ago today.

There's a new book out from Erik Larson on the mystery, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania.

And see Hampton Sides, at NYT, "Erik Larson’s ‘Dead Wake,’ About the Lusitania."

Ferguson Report Puts Dishonest Leftist Slogan 'Hands Up' to Reality Test

This whole idiotic business about a "new civil rights" movement has of course been based on a vicious lie.

Michael Brown never had his "hands up." No matter though to the evil forces of the totalitarian left. It's all about the propaganda narrative.

At the New York Times, "Ferguson Report Puts ‘Hands Up’ to Reality Test."

Boston Bombing Trial: Victims Stare Down Tsarnaev in Emotional Court Day

Watch, at ABC News.

And see the letter to the "coward" Tsarnaev from Rebekah Gregory, "‘Dear Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’: A survivor’s letter to accused Boston bomber."

SeaWorld Shutting Down Sea Lion and Otter Show So Trainers Can Help Rescue Effort

At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "SeaWorld pauses sea lion shows."

Also at ABC-10 News San Diego, "SeaWorld Temporarily Shuts Down Popular Show."

19-Year-Old Black Man Shot Dead by Police in Wisconsin

Hmm... A dead black man shot by police and the obligatory "black lives matter" protest --- the kind of protests that never erupt whenever there's black on black killing.

At WaPo, "Police: Black man, 19, dies after shot by officer."

Minister Johnathan Gentry Slams Obama Claim That Ferguson 'Not an Isolated Incident...'

Man, this dude gets fired up, on Cavuto's show:

Bridgit Mendler Talks About Going to the Same College as Her Mom

This is funny.

My son used to watch Ms. Mendler on the Disney Channel's Good Luck Charlie.

She's kind of an airhead, heh.

Watch: "Bridgit Mendler Goes to USC with Her Mom."

Sluggish Productivity Hampers Wage Gains

Remember, the economy still remains a potent issue for Republicans. Despite modest GDP growth in recent years, workers continue to suffer from weak earnings gains. As I always say, with a savvy and articulate Republican nominee, the Democrats will be crushed in 2016.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Tepid Growth Restrains Worker Pay, Despite Added Jobs":

Based on the jobs data alone, the American economy is doing fabulously.

Monthly payroll growth this year, averaging 267,000, already is ahead of last year’s impressive tally, which in turn handily beat the prior year. The unemployment rate, at 5.5%, is now in the range some economists consider “full employment.”

But overall economic growth has been less impressive. That’s because productivity—the amount of goods and services each worker produces—is growing at a tepid rate.

Since the economic expansion began in 2009, annual productivity growth has averaged just 1.3%, if the farm and government sectors are excluded. That is the weakest growth of any expansion since the 1970s. On Thursday, the day before the encouraging February jobs data were released, the Labor Department reported that productivity in last year’s fourth quarter didn’t grow at all from the year-earlier period.

On Friday, several economists lowered their estimates of GDP growth for the first quarter, some to as low at 1.5%, annualized, citing weak trade and car sales and the effects of snowstorms. Even if the weather effect proves temporary, economic growth shows few signs of breaking out of the 2% to 2.5% range where it has been since the expansion began.

Productivity matters because it is the ultimate source of a rising standard of living. The more a worker produces, the more the employer can afford to pay. Over time, real wages—those adjusted for inflation—are determined by productivity.

Hourly wages have grown by an annual average of just 2% since the expansion began. In February, they rose just 0.1% from January, and 2% from a year earlier.

Real wage growth has generally lagged behind productivity growth during the expansion. That has confounded economists and Federal Reserve officials. Most blame slack in the labor market that isn’t captured in the unemployment rate, such as the many people working part time who would like to work full time.

Still, even if real wages do catch up with productivity, the scope for significant gains will be limited if productivity itself doesn’t pick up...

More.

Planet Fitness Boots Gym Member After Complaining About Creepy Trans 'Woman' in Women's Locker

Ben Howe was cracking me up on Twitter with this story.

At MLive, "Planet Fitness cancels woman's membership after her complaints of transgender woman in locker room."

And at Fox 8 Cleveland, "No judging allowed: Planet Fitness drops member after gender identity complaint."

Notice the apology to the transgender community for any prior references to this "woman" as a man. Hey, it's hard out there folks.

Associated Students at UC Irvine Vote to Ban the American flag as 'Hate Speech'

So fucking stupid it's actually hilarious.

At CBS News Los Angeles, "UC Irvine Student Leadership Panel Votes To Remove American Flag from Campus Lobby":

IRVINE (CBSLA.com) — Students at UC Irvine have voted for a more “inclusive space” by banning the American flag on part of the campus.

Under resolution R50-70 passed Thursday, the Associated Students of UCI voted to remove all flags, including Old Glory, from a student government work room on campus, according to the Associated Students website.

A portion of the resolution reads: “(F)lags construct paradigms of conformity and sets homogenized standards for others to obtain which in this country typically are idolized as freedom, equality and democracy.”

Authored by student Matthew Guevara, the resolution goes on to state that since “the American flag has been flown in instances of colonialism and imperialism,” its display “does not express only selective aspects of its symbolism but the entire spectrum of its interpretation.”

After citing freedom of speech as a “valued right that ASUCI supports,” the resolution states that “freedom of speech, in a space that aims to be as inclusive as possible can be interpreted as hate speech.”

Also at Campus Reform, "U. California students remove offensive American flag from 'inclusive' space." (Via Memeorandum.)

ADDED: At the Other McCain, "The United Hates of America."

The Joshua Strange Story

Watch the mind-boggling video from Joshua Strange, who was expelled from Auburn University after false allegations of rape, and his mother Allison: "Rape Hoax."

Hat tip: Instapundit.

And see the FIRE, "‘Wall Street Journal’ Highlights Inadequate Due Process Protections at Auburn University." (You'll want to click the WSJ piece and then Google it to read it in full, since it's behind the paywall.)

Leftism: destroying lives is what it's all about. Destroying lives and raping freedom.

WARNING: DISTURBING PHOTOS — Why Do Meth Users Age Faster? Before and After Photos

This is the best "just say no" PSA you could think of, at ABC-7 Los Angeles, "SCIENTISTS DISCOVER HOW CRYSTAL METH CAUSES CELLS TO AGE RAPIDLY AND DIE."

A couple of the folks look like they're already dead. Man, what a devastating drug.

Weekend Weather with Jackie Johnson

At CBS News Los Angeles.

It's going to be hot tomorrow.

Watch: "Jackie Johnson's Weather Forecast (March 6)."

Ezra Levant and Noam Chomsky Clash on Freedom of Speech

Poor Chomsky.

The dude's got no chance against the epic patriot Ezra Levant.

Via Blazing Cat Fur, "Noam Chomsky vs. Ezra Levant on Free Speech (Part 1)."

America's Terror Recruits

At WSJ, "U.S. Authorities Struggle to Find a Pattern Among Aspiring Islamic State Members":

Federal authorities investigating suspected Islamic State supporters in all 50 states have found no clear pattern to the type of American inspired to try to join the militant group, complicating efforts to thwart terror recruiting.

Some common threads exist, such as the fact that would-be recruits are often in their teens or early 20s and use social media to express support for Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. But overall, the group is broad, covering people who were raised Muslim and those who converted, married and single people, male and female, rich and poor, U.S.-born citizens and recent immigrants.

An estimated 180 Americans have traveled or attempted to travel to the civil war in Syria, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said this week. Not all of those, however, are believed to have joined extremist groups.

“An interesting fact on some of the individuals that we investigate for support to ISIL is the lack of a singular profile,” Michael Steinbach, head of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said at a congressional hearing last week. “We find citizens, legal permanent resident aliens, some folks that are overstaying their visa. There’s actually quite a diversity of those individuals who for one reason or another state an intent to harm the United States.”

The three Brooklyn men arrested last week for allegedly plotting to support Islamic State were just the latest in a recent string of arrests. Federal authorities have prosecuted almost 30 people in Islamic State-related cases in the past 18 months, according to the Justice Department. The criminal complaints span from California to North Carolina, and the FBI said last week that Islamic State investigations have now been opened in all 50 states.

The motivations for joining Islamic State can vary widely, said Matthew Levitt, director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute, a think tank.

“All kinds of different people are being radicalized,” Mr. Levitt said. “Some are loners seeking more of the belonging and adventure. Some have ethnic-identity issues. Some are drawn to the radical ideology.”

One trait that links some of the cases: Defendants are often teenagers trying to hide their travel plans from their parents.

The mother of 19-year-old Akhror Saidakhmetov, one of the Brooklyn defendants, took his passport away because she was afraid he would travel to Syria to wage jihad, according to a criminal complaint unveiled in Brooklyn federal court last week. After Mr. Saidakhmetov called his mother and repeatedly asked for his passport so that he could join Islamic State, she hung up the phone, the complaint said. An attorney for Mr. Saidakhmetov said his client was awaiting an indictment...

More.

'Prom-unism' — Albuquerque High School Seniors Vote for Communism-Themed Prom

And these students were allegedly very "academically focused" as part of the International Baccalaureate program, which has long been attacked as a Marxist-based indoctrination regime.

No doubt some of the instructors in the high school's program had been teaching their classes using cult hagiography as pedagogy.

At Weasel Zippers, "Seniors at Albuquerque High School Vote for Communism-Themed Prom…"



And lo and behold, Gawker's far-left Natasha Vargas-Cooper (remember her?) is all down with it, here, here, here and here. She gets dissed here. And she writes here: I support "socio-political collective movements..."

Yeah, well, "Progressives Are Communists (If You Didn't Know)."

The Leader of the Free World

From Bill Whittle:

What's a Feminist?

A flashback, to November 8, 1975, at the New York Times, "A Feminist? Definition Varies With the Woman."

The piece is at the Times' "wayback machine," which looks like some gimmick to get you to subscribe. No need though, at least for this piece. Just magnify and read it at the link.

And for the real lowdown on feminism, get Robert Stacy McCain's book, Sex Trouble: Essays on Radical Feminism and the War Against Human Nature.

Rachel Beyda Fights Leftist Anti-Semitism at UCLA

Just wow.

At the New York Times, "In U.C.L.A. Debate Over Jewish Student, Echoes on Campus of Old Biases":

LOS ANGELES — It seemed like routine business for the student council at the University of California, Los Angeles: confirming the nomination of Rachel Beyda, a second-year economics major who wants to be a lawyer someday, to the council’s Judicial Board.

Until it came time for questions.

“Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community,” Fabienne Roth, a member of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, began, looking at Ms. Beyda at the other end of the room, “how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?”

For the next 40 minutes, after Ms. Beyda was dispatched from the room, the council tangled in a debate about whether her faith and affiliation with Jewish organizations, including her sorority and Hillel, a popular student group, meant she would be biased in dealing with sensitive governance questions that come before the board, which is the campus equivalent of the Supreme Court.

The discussion, recorded in written minutes and captured on video, seemed to echo the kind of questions, prejudices and tropes — particularly about divided loyalties — that have plagued Jews across the globe for centuries, students and Jewish leaders said.

The council, in a meeting that took place on Feb. 10, voted first to reject Ms. Beyda’s nomination, with four members against her. Then, at the prodding of a faculty adviser there who pointed out that belonging to Jewish organizations was not a conflict of interest, the students revisited the question and unanimously put her on the board.

But in the weeks since, that uncomfortable debate has upended this campus of 29,600 students that has long been central to the identity of Los Angeles. It has set off an anguished discussion of how Jews are treated, particularly in comparison with other groups that are more typically viewed as victims of discrimination, such as African-Americans and gays and lesbians.

The session — a complete recording of which has been removed from YouTube — has served to spotlight what appears to be a surge of hostile sentiment directed against Jews at many campuses in the country, often a byproduct of animosity toward the policies of Israel. This is one of many campuses where the student council passed, on a second try and after fierce debate, a resolution supporting the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions movement aimed at pressuring Israel.

“We don’t like to wave the flag of anti-Semitism, but this is different,” Rabbi Aaron Lerner, the incoming executive director of the Hillel chapter at U.C.L.A., said of the vote against Ms. Beyda. “This is bigotry. This is discriminating against someone because of their identity.”

Reports of anti-Israeli or anti-Jewish sentiment have been on the rise across the country in recent years, especially directed at younger Jews, researchers said. Barry A. Kosmin, a Trinity College researcher and a co-author of a study issued last month that found extensive examples of anti-Semitism directed at college students, said he had not come across anything as striking as what happened at U.C.L.A.

“It’s egregious and startling,” Mr. Kosmin said. “If they had used this with any other group — sexual, racial, any kind of identity group — they would have realized it was illegal.”

Ms. Beyda, 20, who is from Cupertino and is president-elect of the Jewish sorority Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi, said she did not want to comment on her confirmation hearing because of her role on the Judicial Board, whose duties include hearing challenges to the constitutionality of actions of the council.

“As a member of the Judicial Board, I do not feel it is appropriate for me to comment on the actions of U.C.L.A.’s elected student government,” she said by email...

More.

Jimmy Fallon Roasts Democrats Who Boycotted Benjamin Netanyahu (VIDEO)

More evil escapades from the party of hate.

At Israel Matzav, "Jimmy Fallon roasts Dems who boycotted Netanyahu."

L.A. Times: Communist Bernie Sanders Seen as 'Credible Alternative to Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016'

The man's a hardline Marxist-Leninist who throughout his career developed intimate ties with all manner of communists, including agents directly tied to the Moscow-backed Community Party of the U.S.A.

But in today's post-American Obama-Democrat world, the man's considered a credible alternative to Hillary Clinton for the Democrat Party nomination.

At the Los Angeles Times, "A BERNIE SANDERS PRESIDENTIAL BID WOULD TAKE ON THE BILLIONAIRES":

Bernie Sanders has no patience.

No time for small talk, glad-handing, saying how great it is to be back in Iowa. The middle class is circling the drain, oligarchs are taking over the government, and people — wake up, people! — are obsessing about football and baseball and what Kim Kardashian is wearing if, he says, she's wearing anything at all.

He is angry, righteous, waving his arms, hollering and contemplating a run for president, which is why 150 Iowans have turned out on a numbingly cold evening to hear Vermont's independent U.S. senator vent.

Sanders strides from between shelves at the Prairie Lights bookstore, muttering "hello, hello" by way of introduction, then launches into a 45-minute attack, aimed mainly at the billionaire Koch brothers and their conservative allies.

"What they are very clear about … is doing away with every single piece of legislation passed since the 1930s designed to protect the elderly, the children, the sick, the poor, the working families of this country," Sanders thunders. "And they do this under the guise of" — he adds a sarcastic lilt — "freedom."

"It's freedom for me to be able to do anything I want in my factory and put all the crap that I produce in our rivers and our lakes and into the air," he scoffs. "That's freeeedom!"

His jeremiad is delivered below and to the right of a sign reading "Science Fiction and Fantasy," an unfortunate, if fitting, bit of imagery. Sanders is an exceedingly long shot to win the Democratic nomination for president in 2016 — not to mention the White House — should he run.

But he speaks to a distinct strain of Democratic discontent, to liberals who view Hillary Rodham Clinton as too moderate, populists who see her as too wedded to Wall Street, doves who consider her too hawkish and Iowans who fret their state, which kicks off the presidential nominating process, will be ignored by the party's overwhelming front-runner.

Many hoped Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the scourge of the financial industry, would challenge Clinton. But since she won't, some on the left have turned to Sanders, 73, a slouch-shouldered, self-described Democratic socialist who speaks with the vibrancy of an electric current and exhibits all the personal warmth of a snow bank.

He will decide in a few weeks whether to run but won't seek, he insists, to undermine Clinton or split Democrats and elect a Republican president, the way independent Ralph Nader helped put George W. Bush in the White House.

"I will not play the role of spoiler," Sanders says.

Nor would he wage a negative campaign, he says, suggesting he wouldn't even run against Clinton, per se: "I run on the most important issues facing America."

But Sanders has always been blunt, which wouldn't change just because some Democrats would prefer a bloodless coronation.

More than once Sanders has questioned Clinton's commitment to the middle class and those struggling to reach it. "I don't think that is the politics of Sen. Clinton or the Democratic establishment," he told a college newspaper in Vermont. Hearing his words read back, Sanders cracks a rare smile.

"You can quote it," he says....

*****

After a year at Brooklyn College, Sanders attended the University of Chicago, where he was, by his own account, a middling student. He preferred his own course of study, reading Marx and Freud and helping organize sit-ins to protest the segregated campus housing.

More.

Just another nice, sweet socialist who read Marx while in college, right? No, not at all.

Sanders is smart. He's known all along that for his radicalism to be politically viable he's had to candy-coat it with tolerant, nurturing deceptions designed to mask the fundamentally revolutionary aims of his leftist ideological agenda. He's not been quite as careful as President Barack Hussein, however. For example, he's long been proud to proclaim himself as as "democratic socialist," something Hussein would never do despite all the evidence of his Marxist-Leninist connections since childhood. Sanders, in a recent interview at the Nation, however, spills the beans about his ideological agenda as a presidential candidate in 2016. He says we need a "political revolution":

So when I talk about a political revolution, what I am referring to is the need to do more than just win the next election. It’s about creating a situation where we are involving millions of people in the process who are not now involved, and changing the nature of media so they are talking about issues that reflect the needs and the pains that so many of our people are currently feeling.

Essentially, what a political revolution means is that we organize and educate and create grassroots movements, which we certainly do not have right now.

See, it's "more than just win the next election." It's about changing the "political consciousness" of "85 to 90 percent" of the people, who represent the Marxist proletariat and lumpenproletariat sectors of the capitalist exploitation system. It's about overthrowing the obscene free market hegemony in the U.S., and eradicating the power of the "billionaires" who're directing the "extreme right-wing" power blocs in the Marxist superstructure of the criminal American regime.

Check the link to the interview. Sanders knows that "boring from within" takes an extremely long time, and there's no guarantee that radical revolutionary change will be achieved. At least he's much more transparent than the Democrat Party establishment, which has been taken over by the "progressive" (communist) faction in recent years, but is still operating on the basis of ideological subterfuge.

Still, it's an amazing thing for Sanders to be touted so highly as a credible alternative to Clinton for the Democrat nomination. It's a testament to the success of the left in bastardizing far-left revolutionary politics into something with milquetoast respectability.

Eye for an Eye: Man Has Eye Gouged Out in First Known Case of Retribution in Iran

Ceaseless barbarity.

Islamic barbarity, defended by leftist moral relativists.

At the Times of Israel, "Iran blinds acid attacker in ‘eye for an eye’ punishment."