Rolling Stone Can't Even Apologize Right

No, the magazine has pretty much botched everything about this clusterf-k of a story.

From Megan McArdle, at Bloomberg:

Rolling Stone got taken by a fabulist.

Sunday night, the Columbia Journalism Review released its exhaustive report on what went wrong with the magazine's blockbuster story about an alleged gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity that turned out to be substantially false. And we learned what Rolling Stone plans to do to prevent such mistakes in the future, which is to say basically nothing.

No one is getting fired. Jann Wenner, the magazine's owner, expects that Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the author of the article in question, will continue to write for them. Her apology, also released last night, says in part: "I allowed my concern for Jackie’s well-being, my fear of re-traumatizing her, and my confidence in her credibility to take the place of more questioning and more facts. These are mistakes I will not make again." So everyone is basically saying the same thing: Their compassion for rape victims allowed them to be taken by a liar. Big oops, won't do that again! Nothing to see here, so can we all move along?

It's not that this version is wrong -- I think at this point we can stop dancing around the fact that "Jackie" is a fabulist. The Rolling Stone report adds some detail to this, including the suggestion that the two additional alleged victims of gang rapes at Phi Kappa Psi were also creations of Jackie's imagination. But dealing with fabulists isn't some kind of rare hazard that journalists can't be expected to anticipate. People lie to journalists all the time, for fun and profit. They tell self-serving lies designed to get them out of trouble, or self-aggrandizing lies designed to puff themselves up. They tell lies of kindness to shield others from shame or worse, and lies designed to hurt people they hate. They also tell bizarre lies about things that bring them no benefit at all, for reasons that a psychologist might be able to explain but I cannot. And unfortunately, reporters get taken.

But while it is not wrong, it is also not enough. Usually, when a reporter gets taken, you will hear some combination of the following...

More.

California Considers Establishing State-Level Earned Income Tax Credit

Interesting.

At WSJ, "Working Poor Bank On Tax Break in Costly California":

LOS ANGELES—For 30 years, Modesto Alejandro Vasquez has supported his family of four by working as a janitor in a downtown office building here. In 2014, he made about $30,000.

Earning 25% above the federal poverty level in costly Southern California, Mr. Vasquez looks forward to this time of year, when a tax refund puts extra cash in his pocket. He said he used the money—$6,000 this year—to pay off debts and repair a computer for his daughter.

A large portion of the refund came via the federal Earned Income Tax Credit. The EITC is intended to aid the working poor by reducing the amount of taxes owed, or in many cases, like Mr. Vasquez’s, by providing a refund, based on a taxpayer’s income and number of dependents.

California lawmakers, responding to the state’s nation-leading poverty level, are considering the creation of a state EITC program. Already, half of the states and the District of Columbia offer such refunds and credits. Montana legislators are also considering a state EITC this year, and a several states are evaluating expansions of their state credits. Some of the state credits currently add as much as 50% to the federal benefit.

EITC programs aren’t popular in all quarters. Critics, including many fiscal conservatives, say the federal program is expensive, amounts to a handout to the poor and is subject to errors. They cite a report published last year by the Internal Revenue Service that found 24% of federal EITC payments made in fiscal 2013 were incorrect, including both overpayments and underpayments.

While California has a relatively high minimum wage, with the state’s level set to rise to $10 next year from $9 now, many families struggle. The state is among the five most expensive to live in, according to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. The U.S. Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which takes government-assistance programs into account in calculating poverty rates, places California at the top of the list among the 50 states and D.C., with a poverty rate of 23.4%.

In 2013, an estimated 9.8 million Californians—more than a quarter of the population—qualified for the federal EITC. California residents accounted for $7.3 billion of the more than $66 billion federal EITC claims in 2013.

Eight previous EITC proposals have been unsuccessful in California, but some legislative leaders say the state’s economic recovery and budget surplus could make the program more affordable this time around. “Politically, it seems more viable than it has in the last decade,” said Chris Hoene, executive director of the California Budget Project, a think tank focused on the state’s low- and middle-income residents...

More.

California's Green Drought

We're supposed to get a little rain in the Sierras over the next couple of days. But frankly, California's bigger problem is the Democrat Party and its idiotic "green" collectivist agenda.

At WSJ, "How bad policies are compounding the state’s water shortage":

The liberals who run California have long purported that their green policies are a free (organic) lunch, but the bills are coming due. Lo, Governor Jerry Brown has mandated a 25% statewide reduction in water use. Consider this rationing a surcharge for decades of environmental excess.

Weather is of course the chief source of California’s water woes. This is the fourth year of below-average precipitation, and January and March were the driest in over a century. The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which contains about a third of state water reserves, is 5% of the historical average compared to 25% last year. Reservoirs and aquifers are also low, and some could run dry this year.

While droughts occur intermittently across the globe, other societies have learned better how to cope with water shortages. For instance, Israel (60% desert) has built massive desalination plants powered by cheap natural gas that helped the country weather the driest winter on record in 2014 and a seven-year drought between 2004 and 2010.

***

Then there’s California, which has suffered four droughts in the last five decades with each seemingly more severe in its impact. Yet this is due more to resource misallocation than harsher conditions.

During normal years, the state should replenish reservoirs. However, environmental regulations require that about 4.4 million acre-feet of water—enough to sustain 4.4 million families and irrigate one million acres of farmland—be diverted to ecological purposes. Even in dry years, hundreds of thousands of acre feet of runoff are flushed into San Francisco Bay to protect fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

During the last two winters amid the drought, regulators let more than 2.6 million acre-feet out into the bay. The reason: California lacked storage capacity north of the delta, and environmental rules restrict water pumping to reservoirs south. After heavy rains doused northern California this February, the State Water Resources Control Board dissipated tens of thousands of more acre-feet. Every smelt matters.

Increased surface storage would give regulators more latitude to conserve water during heavy storm-flows and would have allowed the state to stockpile larger reserves during the 15 years that preceded the last drought. Yet no major water infrastructure project has been completed in California since the 1960s.

Money is not the obstacle. Since 2000 voters have approved five bonds authorizing $22 billion in spending for water improvements. Environmental projects have been the biggest winners. In 2008 the legislature established a “Strategic Growth Council” to steer some bond proceeds to affordable housing and “sustainable land use” (e.g., reduced carbon emissions and suburban sprawl).

Meantime, green groups won’t allow new storage regardless—and perhaps because—of the benefits. California’s Department of Water Resources calculates that the proposed Sites Reservoir, which has been in the planning stages since the 1980s, could provide enough additional water during droughts to sustain seven million Californians for a year. Given the regulatory climate, Gov. Brown’s bullet train will probably be built first.

Once beloved by greens, desalination has likewise become unfashionable. After six years of permitting and litigation, the company Poseidon this year will finally complete a $1 billion desalination facility that will augment San Diego County’s water supply by 7%. Most other desalination projects have been abandoned.

One problem is that California electricity rates are among the highest nationwide due to its renewable-energy mandate, and desalination consumes amp-loads of energy. Local and state regulators also impose expensive environmental requirements. Poseidon had to restore 66 acres of wetlands in return for its desalination permit.

The only remaining alternative to stretch scant water supplies is conservation...

More.

And from just over a year ago, "California's Drought Due to Democrat Politics, Not Global Warming."

Also, "California Won't Run Out of Water."

Kate Upton Beach Bunny Easter

She's not over the hill yet, by any means.

At Egotastic!, "Kate Upton Beach Bunny Bikini Compilation for Special Easter Delight."

Novak Djokovic Apologizes to Ball Boy for Scaring the Living Daylights Out of Him

He made a video, "Novak Djokovic Apologizes After Yelling At Ball Boy - Miami Open 2015."

And you can see the moment at Fox Sports, "Ball boy caught in crossfire: Novak Djokovic shamed for epic dummy spit at Miami Open."

UVA's Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity Will Slap Rolling Stone With 'all available legal action...'

Wholly unsurprising, although richly deserved retribution.

At Politico, "UVA fraternity to sue Rolling Stone."

And at LAT, "Columbia details Rolling Stone failure; fraternity vows legal action."

Obama's Legacy and the Verdict of History

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary:

Yesterday’s announcement of a framework for a nuclear deal with Iran is being sold by the administration as a historic foreign-policy triumph for President Obama. Most of his press cheering section seems to agree. The president has told us that he has begun a process that forecloses Iran’s path to a bomb. Just as importantly, he sees it as an achievement which, like his massive federal health-care initiative, will fulfill his boasts about changing the world that were so much a part of his initial campaign for the presidency. Though the Iran framework is filled with so many caveats and loopholes that may allow Iran to easily evade its strictures and will, in any event, grant it impunity to do as it likes in ten or 15 years, this seems a flimsy foundation for a legacy. Yet the president may be right about it being integral to his legacy. The only problem is that what could follow from this turning point may not burnish his reputation as a peacemaker as much as it will solidify his place in history as an appeaser that empowered a violent, hate-driven regime.

Of course that'll be his legacy. There's really no debate. Indeed, Iran is mocking the shit out of the Obama White House. The mullahs have taken Obama for a ride.

Keep reading.

'Mad Men' Recap

I watched it. I'm not some massive "Mad Men" fanatic. It's more like, after watching the show off and on over the last couple of years, I feel like I might as well tune in. I can always binge watch the whole series later.

At LAT, "'The life not lived'":

If Don's powers of seduction are still awe-inspiring to his dopey co-workers, we know there's an undercurrent of desperation to all the womanizing. Make that an "overcurrent." This becomes clear when Don reaches out to Rachel Katz -- nee Menken -- only to learn that she has died. He is ostensibly calling on behalf of Topaz pantyhose, but it's safe to assume that on some level he's also hoping to rekindle their decade-old romance.

For Don, Rachel is the proverbial One Who Got Away, a woman he could have been happy with had circumstances been different -- i.e. had he not married Betty first. I'd venture that most "Mad Men" fans -- the sane ones, anyway -- remember her in a similarly fond fashion. She was a woman smart and self-possessed enough to break up with Don once she sensed the despair and self-loathing that propelled his infidelity. And they shared a great deal in common: Both Rachel and Don lost their mothers in childbirth, and both understand the painful, self-abnegating process of assimilating into the American mainstream. The timing wasn't right before; maybe now was their chance?

Alas, no. Reeling from the news, Don stops by Rachel's shiva. "I guess I just wanted to find out what was happening in her life," Don tells Rachel's sister, though he sounds like he's trying to convince himself as much as anyone. "She lived the life she wanted to live," says Rachel's sister, fully aware of who Don is. "She had everything." Translation: She wasn't pining over you. Whatever Don went there for, he walks away with little other than the knowledge that Rachel died of leukemia. He isn't even able to mourn Rachel, at least not officially as part of the minyan.

Rachel's untimely death is a tough blow for Don, and he reacts in a time-honored way: by having sex with a stranger. In this case, the lucky lady is Di, the John Dos Passos-reading waitress from the diner, whom Roger mockingly refers to as "Mildred Pierce" then placates with an $89 tip on an $11 tab. While we've seen Don revert to this sort of reckless behavior many, many times before, there's something more mysterious to his interaction with Di. Just who -- or what -- does she remind him of?

More.

Kenyan Soldiers Took Seven Hours to Respond to University Massacre That Left Almost 150 Slaughtered

At London's Daily Mail.

Recall that security forces took at least an hour to respond to the Westgate Mall massacre in Nairobi, September 2013.

More at Bare Naked Islam, "KENYA: “Are you a Christian? You’re dead.” Muslim terrorists attack Garissa University, slaughtering Christians, letting Muslim students go."



Religion of peace, don't you know?

Heads Won't Roll in Rolling Stone's UVA Rape Hoax Article Retraction

Robert Stacy McCain had the heads up this morning, "Columbia Review of Rolling Stone’s UVA Rape Hoax Story to Be Released Tonight."

And here's the retraction, at Rolling Stone, "'A Rape on Campus' - What Went Wrong."

More, at the New York Times, "In Report on Rolling Stone, a Case Study in Failed Journalism," and "Rolling Stone Article on Rape at University of Virginia Failed All Basics, Report Says."

Plus, "Statement From Writer of Rolling Stone Rape Article, Sabrina Erdely."



From Ashe Schow as well, "Author of Rolling Stone rape article apologizes", and "16 things we learned from the review of the Rolling Stone gang-rape story."

See also the responses at Memeorandum.

And the most mind-boggling part, at FishbowlNY, "No Firings at Rolling Stone for Botched UVA Rape Story." And Twitchy, "After brutal report on multiple failures at Rolling Stone, absolutely no one gets fired over retracted UVA rape story."

Still more, "You will not freaking believe the one group that Rolling Stone writer Sabrina Erdely DID NOT apologize to."

California Drought: Wealthy Burgs Use Far More Water Per Capita Than Less-Wealthy Communities

The politics of drought is now hitting the once-Golden State, brought to you by the single-party hegemony of the left-coast Democrat Party. The freakin' hypocrites.

At the Los Angeles Times, "California's wealthy lagging in water conservation."

More here, "Brown orders California's first mandatory water restrictions: 'It's a different world'," and "Gov. Brown defends sparing agriculture in water restrictions."

It's a mucked up.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



More at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES." Also at Theo's, "Cartoon Round Up..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Crack Up."

Leftist Intolerance, Round II

Just too much reason, at WSJ, "To stamp out cultural dissent, the left is willing to stomp on religious liberty":

The political delirium over Indiana’s law protecting minority religious beliefs doesn’t seem to be abating, and the irony is that it may be illustrating why such statutes are necessary. Much of the modern political left has abandoned the American tradition of pluralism in favor of an all-or-nothing social model that brooks no dissent.

On Thursday the Indiana legislature passed and Governor Mike Pence signed an amendment to the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act emphasizing that the law is not the license to discriminate that it never was. This concession is unlikely to temper the media portrait of Indianapolis as the new Selma, circa 1965, because this rumpus long ago kicked free of the legal merits or even the basic facts. The political goal behind the uproar is to intimidate or destroy people who think they are still allowed to articulate traditional moral convictions.

***

Take the family-owned pizza parlor in Walkerton, Indiana—population 2,144. A local TV reporter went door-to-door asking restaurants how they would respond if they were asked to cater a gay wedding. The innocents at Memories Pizza, who had never faced the question in daily business, said that they would prefer not to participate in a hypothetical same-sex pizza party ceremony. Cue the national deluge.

They were suddenly converted into the public face of antigay bigotry across cable news and the Internet, and became the target of a social-media mob, as if they somehow screened for sexual orientation at the register. The small business closed amid the torrent, although a crowd-funding counter-reaction supplied tens of thousands of dollars in recompense.

The episode is a discredit to U.S. civil society, which we used to think was strong and friendly enough to tolerate all people of whatever religious or sexual persuasion...

Pfft. Civil society? Intolerant leftists don't care about civil society. They care only about coerced conformity.

Keep reading.

Alix Bryan Scrubs Mention of Employer WTVR CBS 6 Richmond from Twitter Bio

She's definitely hatin' life.

See Ashe Schow, ".@alixbryan changed her Twitter profile. Someone got a TALKIN TO at work."



Yeah, karma's a bitch.

At Twitchy, "Can we get an amen? This tweeter’s response to whiny hack Alix Bryan is ‘the best’."

Also at Instapundit, "JOURNALISM: CBS employee who reported Memories Pizza fund for fraud ‘just in case’ shows how not to apologize."

Robert F. Kennedy, Statement on Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4, 1968

No Democrat would make a speech like this today, attempting to ease the pain of blacks rather than to inflame racial hatred, as the Obama White House and its agents in the leftist media are doing.

And no Democrat would call on the words of faith in Jesus to ease the pain. Leftists hate religion. Any public affectation of religion is a lie promulgated for political consumption and opportunism. The left has driven God from the public realm and is now crucifying those who express faith-based opinions on public affairs.

At American Rhetoric, "Robert F. Kennedy: Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr."

And this was in Indianapolis, Indiana, where leftists today are on a jihad against Christians. My, how regressives fail to heed the lessons of the past.

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization -- black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with -- be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.

But we have to make an effort in the United States. We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times.

My favorite poem, my -- my favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote:

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King -- yeah, it's true -- but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love -- a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.

More.

NYT's Frank Bruni: Christians Must Be Forced to Approve Homosexuality

See Rod Dreher, at the American Conservative, "Christians ‘Must Be Made’ to Bow."

And at Patheos, "Frank Bruni Commands Christians to Cave on Homosexuality":

If you’re a young evangelical who gets the cold sweats when the New York Times disagrees with you, Frank Bruni’s piece should wake you up. It should derail you from any mission to draw the approval of the culture-makers. Here’s the reality: if you hold to biblical sexuality, you have no approval. You have in the eyes of many only condemnation, judgment, a this-worldly sentence of damnation on your head. You don’t deserve the freedom of your convictions. You are a bigot. You must, to use Bruni’s very words, “bow” to the culture. It’s that stark.

If, however, you stay the course (like Chuck Colson and many, many others), and go with God, you must know that you will gain something so much greater than the approval of leading voices. You will honor God himself. You will stand with him on the last day. You will have the opportunity to avoid the hatred and judgmentalism and bullying of Bruni, and you will be freed to love fellow sinners just like him, and preach the gospel to him.

Frank Bruni wants evangelicals to cave. We will not do so. We will not give an inch. We will, however, refute his foolish thinking and bad arguments, laugh at his attempts to intimidate us, and love him. We worship a Savior, after all, who died for preaching his convictions, but who in dying asked even for the forgiveness of those who put him on that cross (Luke 23:34).

We will not cave. Not by a country mile. We will, however, love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and, as we remember this very Easter weekend, rise with Jesus in the age to come.

Hatred drives the agenda of the Democrat-homosexual left.

Hey Leftists, Attacking an Entire State for Homosexual Equality Might Not Be Such a Great Idea

Funny, but leftists are now losing the battle of public opinion on the Indiana religious freedom controversy.

Ann Friedman, at the Washington Post, nails it, "The progressive case against boycotting states like Indiana":

How can outsiders support lasting change? By donating to grass-roots campaigns such as Freedom Indiana and pro-gay-rights candidates for local political office, even when the state is out of the national spotlight. And if we’re going to be outraged now, we should also make a point of cheering for victories, such as the marriage-equality decision last year and several municipal-level human rights ordinances that have been passed throughout Indiana. Otherwise, we don’t come across as well-meaning outsiders who support love and equality. We just look like condescending jerks.

Oops! Thought crimes. Ann Friedman you are now considered an enemy of the state!

Leftist Heads Explode as Donations Top $840,000 for #MemoriesPizza

At Gateway Pundit.



Image Credit: IPayMyJizyaWith.357.

Ted Cruz Runs First Advertisement of 2016 Campaign

At the Washinton Post, "Ted Cruz’s first campaign ad invokes ‘the transformative love of Jesus Christ’."

Gia Genevieve for Playboy March 2015 (VIDEO)

At Playboy, "Gia Genevieve is a pin-up and glamour model from California who appears on the cover of the March 2015 issue..."

And Egotastic!, "Gia Genevieve Sultry Topless Perfection in Playboy."

Carly Fiorina: Tim Cook Opposition to Indiana Religious Freedom Law Totally Hypocritical

Typical leftist hypocrisy.

See Ms. Fiorina's interview at WSJ:

Once a Fortune 50 chief executive herself, Carly Fiorina is disgusted with how CEOs rushed to condemn Indiana’s new religious freedom law. Mrs. Fiorina, who is weighing a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, called the week’s controversy over the Indiana statute the result of corporations bowing to “narrow special interests” rather than broad public anger.

CEOs like Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook, who publicly objected to the Indiana law, have engaged in “a level of hypocrisy here that really is unfortunate,” said Mrs. Fiorina, who was CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005.

“When Tim Cook is upset about all the places that he does business because of the way they treat gays and women, he needs to withdraw from 90% of the markets that he’s in, including China and Saudi Arabia,” she said Thursday afternoon during an interview with Wall Street Journal reporters and editors. “But I don’t hear him being upset about that.”

More.

The Iraq War and Stubborn Myths

Interesting, although of course a true accounting of the rush to war is the last thing the left wants --- for good reason, since the Democrats were the original warmongers pushing regime change in Iraq all along.

From Judith Miller, at WSJ, "Officials didn’t lie, and I wasn’t fed a line, writes Judith Miller":

I took America to war in Iraq. It was all me.

OK, I had some help from a duplicitous vice president, Dick Cheney. Then there was George W. Bush, a gullible president who could barely locate Iraq on a map and who wanted to avenge his father and enrich his friends in the oil business. And don’t forget the neoconservatives in the White House and the Pentagon who fed cherry-picked intelligence about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, to reporters like me.

None of these assertions happens to be true, though all were published and continue to have believers. This is not how wars come about, and it is surely not how the war in Iraq occurred. Nor is it what I did as a reporter for the New York Times. These false narratives deserve, at last, to be retired.

There was no shortage of mistakes about Iraq, and I made my share of them. The newsworthy claims of some of my prewar WMD stories were wrong. But so is the enduring, pernicious accusation that the Bush administration fabricated WMD intelligence to take the country to war. Before the 2003 invasion, President Bush and other senior officials cited the intelligence community’s incorrect conclusions about Saddam’s WMD capabilities and, on occasion, went beyond them. But relying on the mistakes of others and errors of judgment are not the same as lying.

I have never met George W. Bush. I never discussed the war with Dick Cheney until the winter of 2012, years after he had left office and I had left the Times. I wish I could have interviewed senior officials before the war about the role that WMDs played in the decision to invade Iraq. The White House’s passion for secrecy and aversion to the media made that unlikely. Less senior officials were of help as sources, but they didn’t make the decisions.

No senior official spoon-fed me a line about WMD. That would have been so much easier than uncovering classified information that officials can be jailed for disclosing. My sources were the same counterterrorism, arms-control and Middle East analysts on whom I had relied for my stories about Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda’s growing threat to America—a series published eight months before 9/11 for which the Times staff, including me, won a Pulitzer.

In 1996, those same sources helped me to write a book about the dangers of militant Islam long before suicide bombers made the topic fashionable. Their expertise informed articles and another book I co-wrote in 2003 with Times colleagues about the danger of biological terrorism, published right before the deadly anthrax letter attacks.

Another enduring misconception is that intelligence analysts were “pressured” into altering their estimates to suit the policy makers’ push to war. Although a few former officials complained about such pressure, several thorough, bipartisan inquiries found no evidence of it.

The 2005 commission led by former Democratic Sen. Charles Robb and conservative Republican Judge Laurence Silberman called the estimates “dead wrong,” blaming what it called a “major” failure on the intelligence community’s “inability to collect good information…serious errors in analyzing what information it could gather, and a failure to make clear just how much of its analysis was based on assumptions.” A year earlier, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence denounced such failures as the product of “group think,” rooted in a fear of underestimating grave threats to national security in the wake of 9/11.

A two-year study by Charles Duelfer, the former deputy chief of the U.N. inspectors who led America’s hunt for WMD in Iraq, concluded that Saddam Hussein was playing a double game, trying (on the one hand) to get sanctions lifted and inspectors out of Iraq and (on the other) to persuade Iran and other foes that he had retained WMD. Not even the Iraqi dictator himself knew for sure what his stockpiles contained, Mr. Duelfer argued. Often forgotten is Mr. Duelfer’s well-documented warning that Saddam intended to restore his WMD programs once sanctions were lifted...

More.

The Rise of the Memories Pizza Truthers

It's the "megalothymiamanical" Memories Pizza Truthers, in fact.

From Ed Driscoll, at Pajamas:

California Taxpayers to Foot Bill for Convicted Murderer's Sex Change Operation

Regressive leftist Democrat Party values.

From Darleen Click, at Protein Wisdom, "California taxpayers ordered to pay for murderer’s sex change."

Also at Memeorandum.

Appalachian State University: Radical Leftist Dorm Bulletin Board Targets Christian, White 'Privileged' Students

More leftist totalitarianism from the ideology of hate.

At Campus Reform, "App State dorm bulletin board shames 'privileged' students."

And a Christian student at the university, Laurel Littler, was attacked on social media for posting the photo below. See Fox & Friends, "Shaming Students - Dorm Fliers Attack Christians & Males - Trouble With Schools."

Leftist Boycotters Petition at Change.org to Take Down O'Connor's GoFundMe Page — #MemoriesPizza

Leftists prove day in and day out that they're the most despicable people on the planet.

Via Dana Loesch, on Twitter.

Leftists Threaten Man Who Started GoFundMe for the O'Connors

At Twitchy, "These lib threats to man who launched GoFundMe for Memories Pizza will make your blood boil [screenshots]."

Kevin and Crystal O'Connor Interview with Dana Loesch

Well done.

And God bless Dana and all the supporters of the O'Connors.

"'Cause you can never really tell when somebody..."

The Sound L.A. recently launched "Mark in the Morning," which features Mark Thompson, formerly of "The Mark & Brian Show" on KLOS. It's a talk show. He doesn't play a lot of music. So I've been listening to CDs in my van. I've got some that have been sitting in the glove box for at least a decade. I don't use them that much. But I pulled out Bowie's greatest hits album "Best of Bowie," and looking for "Stay" on the B-side I was shocked to recall that it wasn't included. So I listened around for a few versions on YouTube. They're all good (the Dinah Shore show performance is a classic). But this clip below showcasing Earl Slick's phenomenal guitar work is simply spectacular.

I'm off for my long teaching Thursday. Enjoy. I'll be back to blogging tonight.



Also at Gibson's website, "Heroes: A History of David Bowie’s Amazing Guitarists."

Homosexuals Are the New Terrorists

At iOWNTHEWORLD Report, "Gays The New Terrorists."

There's Nothing the Left Won't Denounce as Bigotry

Including requiring algebra classes, says Kevin Williamson, in an awesome essay, at National Review, "In Indiana, in Arkansas, and in the boardroom."

Indiana's Memories Pizza Forced to Close Doors After Vicious Barrage of Leftist Death Threats

At Twitchy, "#MemoriesPizza closes due to threats from Tolerance Brigade; GoFundMe campaign takes off."

And Dana Loesch interviews the restaurant's owner, Crystal O'Connor, "Indiana Pizzeria Faces Backlash After Saying It Won’t Cater Gay Weddings (Go Fund Me)."

Also, "The Co-Owner of #MemoriesPizza, Crystal O'Connor, joined @DLoesch..."

Plus, all the rage at Memeorandum.

The Fascist Left and Same-Sex Marriage

From Ben Shapiro, at Truth Revolt:

Same-sex marriage, it turns out, was never designed to grant legal benefits to same-sex couples. That could have been done under a regime of civil unions. Same-sex marriage was always designed to allow the government to have the power to cram down punishment on anyone who disobeys the government's vision of the public good. One need not be an advocate of discrimination against gays to believe that government does not have the ability to enforce the prevailing social standards of the time in violation of individual rights. There are many situations in which advocates of freedom dislike particular exercises of that freedom but understand that government attacks on individual rights are far more threatening to the public good.

Remember, Shapiro wrote the book on this, Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans.

Lots more at Memeorandum.

7-Year-Old Lakewood Girl Gets New Hand Created by 3D Printer

Watch, at CBS News Los Angeles, "7-Year-Old Receives Robotic, 3D-Printed Hand."

So sweet.

Jewish Students Push Back Against Anti-Semitism (VIDEO)

Watch: "Video: The Jewish Voices on Campus."

Black Students at #USC Self-Segregate Under Guise of 'Cultural Space'

*SMH*

At the Los Angeles Times, "USC's Black House proposal raises questions about racial tensions."

There aren't any "racial tensions." But black leftists survive only by crying "RACISM" all the time.

Turkish Prosecutor Dies During Siege by Leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front

Death, death, death.

It's the leftist way.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Hostage Dies Following Istanbul Courthouse Siege":

Turkish special forces stormed an Istanbul courthouse Tuesday night to free a prosecutor who had been taken hostage hours earlier by armed assailants. Two of the captors were killed, police said; the hostage was badly injured and later died.

The assailants claimed to belong to a branch of the outlawed left-wing group, the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, and had threatened to kill the prosecutor, who was handling a high-profile, politically charged case.

The group, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S., had attacked the U.S. embassy in Ankara two years ago with a suicide bomb, killing a guard.

Local news organizations broadcast dramatic footage of the storming of the courthouse, where the crackle of gunfire could be heard and plumes of smoke seen rising, along with an ambulance leaving the building.

“After patiently negotiating for six hours and keeping all channels open for dialogue, the police conducted the operation after hearing gunshots from inside the room, Istanbul Police Chief Selami Altinok said.

“The two terrorists were captured dead,” and the prosecutor, Mehmet Selim Kiraz, was rushed to a hospital, Mr. Altinok told reporters. Television news footage showed the wounded prosecutor being ferried into a hospital from the ambulance.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu later confirmed the prosecutor had died...

More.

America's Academies for Jihad

From Ayaan Hirsi Ali, at the Wall Street Journal, "A radical imam threatened me with death—and was later hired to preach in U.S. prisons. I was surprised, but I shouldn’t have been":

Less than a year after I moved to the United States in 2006, I was asked to speak at the University of Pittsburgh. Among those who objected to my appearance was a local imam, Fouad El Bayly, of the Johnstown Islamic Center. Mr. Bayly was born in Egypt but has lived in the U.S. since 1976. In his own words, I had “been identified as one who has defamed the faith.” As he explained at the time: “If you come into the faith, you must abide by the laws, and when you decide to defame it deliberately, the sentence is death.”

After a local newspaper reported Mr. Bayly’s comments, he was forced to resign from the Islamic Center. That was the last I would hear of him—or so I thought.

Imagine my surprise when I learned recently that the man who threatened me with death for apostasy is being paid by the U.S. Justice Department to teach Islam in American jails.

According to records on the federal site USASpending.gov and first reported by Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller, the Federal Bureau of Prisons awarded Mr. Bayly a $10,500 contract in February 2014 to provide “religious services, leadership and guidance” to inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Md. Ten months later he received another federal contract, worth $2,400, to provide “Muslim classes for inmates” at the same prison.

This isn’t a story about one problematic imam, or about the misguided administration of a solitary prison. Several U.S. prison chaplains have been exposed in recent years as sympathetic to radical Islam, including Warith Deen Umar, who helped run the New York State Department of Correctional Services’ Islamic prison program for two decades, until 2000, and who praised the 9/11 hijackers in a 2003 interview with this newspaper.

That same year, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism held hearings on radical Islamic clerics in U.S. prisons. Committee members voiced serious concerns over the vetting of Muslim prison chaplains and the extent of radical Islamist influences. Harley Lappin, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the time, said that “inmates are particularly vulnerable to recruitment by terrorists,” and that “we must guard against the spread of terrorism and extremist ideologies.”

Yet it is not clear what measures—if any—were taken in response to those concerns.

Testifying in 2011 before the House Committee on Homeland Security, Michael P. Downing, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Counterterrorism and Special Operations Bureau, said that in 2003 it was estimated that 17%-20% of the U.S. prison population, some 350,000 inmates, were Muslims, and that “80% of the prisoners who convert while in prison, convert to Islam.” He estimated that “35,000 inmates convert to Islam annually.”

Patrick Dunleavy, retired deputy inspector of the Criminal Intelligence Division at the New York State Department of Corrections, said in testimony that prison authorities often rely on groups such as the Islamic Leadership Council or the Islamic Society of North America for advice about Islamic chaplains. Yet those groups can and have referred individuals not suited to positions of influence over prisoners. As Mr. Dunleavy pointedly testified: “There is certainly no vetting of volunteers who provide religious instruction, and who, although not paid, wield considerable influence in the prison Muslim communities.”

The problem isn’t limited to radical clerics infiltrating prisons. Radical inmates proselytize and do their utmost to recruit others to their cause. Once released, they may seek to take their radicalization to the next level...

More.

Stanford Cheating Scandal

The "sharing culture" is the culprit, apparently.

At the San Jose Mercury News, "Stanford University looks into allegations of cheating by students."

And at CBS News San Francisco, "Stanford Students Caught In Cheating Scandal."

California Backlash Against 'Sodomite Suppression' Initiative Petition

I can't imagine this measure could possibly qualify for the ballot. It needs over 300,000 signatures. Never say never, though. California is the weirdest state.

At CBS This Morning:



PREVIOUSLY: "Signature Petition for 'Sodomite Suppression' Seeks 'Bullets to the Head' Measure for California Ballot (VIDEO)."

The Left's Diversity Ideology Destroying Higher Education

Here's Heather Mac Donald, whose major case study is the University of California. The discussion of U.C. San Diego's diversity bureaucracy is particularly astounding.

Via Prager University:

Leftists Tell Arkansas to 'Burn in Hell with Indiana'

Stay classy progs.

At Twitchy, "‘BURN IN HELL WITH INDIANA': Arkansas legislature passes its own religious freedom bill; Walmart urges veto."

Via Michelle Malkin, "Next up: The tolerance mob targets Arkansas..."

Hollywood Mogul Harvey Weinstein Accused of Molesting Italian Model Ambra Battilana

Democrat values.

At London's Daily Mail, "Model who says Harvey Weinstein groped her in his NYC office also accused her wealthy 70-year-old former lover of rape in Italy four years ago."

Boston Marathon Bombing Trial: Grisly Testimony, Photos

At LAT, "Boston prosecutors rest case with focus on bombing's smallest victim":

Martin Richard, 8, was one of three spectators to die from the twin pressure-cooker bombs near the marathon finish line on April 15, 2013. He wanted to be a runner someday, like his father, but instead became the smallest victim of the worst terrorist attack in the U.S. since Sept. 11.

No other sound was heard in the courtroom as Nields and prosecutor Nadine Pellegrini went over the boy’s clothing and discussed his injuries and death.

When a series of autopsy photos was shown, some jurors wiped at tears. Others appeared angry; all looked shaken.

Nields began by describing Martin as 53 inches tall and 69 1/2 pounds.

Peering into a box marked Government’s Exhibit 1592, Nields pulled out Martin’s long-sleeve green T-shirt, bloodied and torn, with a gash on the left side. He took out a gray short-sleeved undershirt with the New England Patriots logo across the chest, also gashed on the left side.

He held up Martin’s black belt. Someone had used it as a tourniquet to try to stop the boy’s bleeding from his nearly severed left arm.

He held up Martin’s black jacket, again with the gash on the left. Finally, with two hands, Nields displayed the boy’s black-and-blue running shoes.

Martin had come to watch the marathon with his family, including his 6-year-old sister, Jane, who lost a leg. His mother, Denise, lost part of her vision. She and his father, Bill, were in the courtroom Monday.

Pellegrini questioned Nields in detail about the boy’s injuries.

There were four abrasions on his face, others behind his left ear and another on his neck. His upper chest and abdomen were nearly torn apart. Pieces of his small intestines were exposed. Two ribs were fractured, his left kidney torn and exposed, and his liver lacerated.


The boy’s spleen and pancreas were cut, and his abdominal aorta was lacerated. “Most of [the aorta] was cut in half,” the doctor told the jury. “But not completely.”

Martin’s right lung was damaged and his lower spine broken and torn. His legs, arms and hands were covered in cuts and bruises. So was his back. His buttocks were severely burned. Small nails, metal pellets and a piece of wood were recovered from his right chest cavity.

Was any part of his body unscathed? Pellegrini asked.

“All of the areas had injuries,” the doctor said.

Nields identified and sometimes opened small evidence envelopes containing shrapnel from the bombs: 6-inch-long nails; three dozen wood, metal and Styrofoam fragments; and a thumb-size gray-white metal shard. Pellegrini handed some of them to the jurors.

How did Martin die? she asked.

“Cause of death was blast injuries to the torso and extremities,” Nields said. “The manner of death was homicide.”

What did that mean? she asked.

He died “essentially from loss of blood,” the doctor said.

Was it painful?

Nields was careful. Obviously the boy died within seconds. “But,” he said, “I would say overall the injuries were painful.”

Defense lawyers, who have conceded that Tsarnaev, 21, left a bomb near the boy’s feet, had no questions for the medical examiner...

Also, "Boston Marathon defense team rests; verdict is likely next week."

'Tolerance isn't the goal. Religious conservatives must atone for their heretical views with acts of contrition...'

From Timothy Carney, at the Washington Examiner, "The Left wages total war; and then plays victim."

Andrew Getty, Heir to J. Paul Getty Fortune, Found Dead in 'Potential Homicide' in Los Angeles

Here's the breathless headline at Forbes, "Andrew Rork Getty Found Dead in Potential Homicide as the Getty Family Tragedy Continues."

I must say, though, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that "foul play" is so far being ruled out. See, "Andrew Getty's death does not appear to involve foul play, authorities say."

Comedy Central Backs Daily Show's Trevor Noah After Questionable Tweets

This dude's a real piece of work.

At LAT.

I doubt Comedy Central's going to be able to stay with this f-ker too much longer. He's definitely racist and radioactive.

And see Jon Gabriel, at Ricochet, "‘Daily Show’ Names New Host, Outrrrage Ensues."

Also at Twitchy, "New ‘Daily Show’ host Trevor Noah deletes tweet responding to controversy surrounding his hiring [screenshot]." Man, the dude must have been up all night hitting that delete key, lol!

Still more at NewsBusters, "New Daily Show Host Joked U.S. Worse Than Apartheid South Africa."

Plus, from the idiots at Salon, "Trevor Noah in our crazy birther age: Right-wing rage at “The Daily Show” is about to get very, very ugly."

Yes, because to be rightfully upset with voluminous misogyny and anti-Semitism is so "right-wing."

Jodie Gasson in Brilliant Yellow

At Egotastic!, "Jodie Gasson Yellow Bikini Striptease."

The New Intolerance

I just don't care to debate these homosexual rights issues so much these days. The left, frankly, is winning. The turning point was the Windsor decision a couple of years ago. The crowning moment will be this June when the high court announces a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. It is what it is.

Unfortunately, with all that comes power to the radical left to discriminate against people of faith. The real hatred and intolerance in America today is found on the extremist secular, Marxist collectivist left. Homosexual rights, especially the homosexual right to same sex marriage, is the nail in the coffin for traditional marriage.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Indiana isn’t targeting gays. Liberals are targeting religion":

In the increasingly bitter battle between religious liberty and the liberal political agenda, religion is losing. Witness the media and political wrath raining down upon Indiana because the state dared to pass an allegedly anti-gay Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The question fair-minded Americans should ask before casting the first stone is who is really being intolerant.

The Indiana law is a version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that passed 97-3 in the Senate and that Bill Clinton signed in 1993. Both the federal and Indiana laws require courts to administer a balancing test when reviewing cases that implicate the free exercise of religion.

To wit: Individuals must show that their religious liberty has been “substantially burdened,” and the government must demonstrate its actions represent the least restrictive means to achieve a “compelling” state interest. Indiana’s law adds a provision that offers a potential religious defense in private disputes, but then four federal appellate circuits have also interpreted the federal statute to apply to private disputes.

The federal RFRA followed the Supreme Court’s Employment Division v. Smith ruling in 1990 that abandoned its 30-year precedent of reviewing religious liberty cases under strict scrutiny. Congress responded with RFRA, which merely reasserted longstanding First Amendment protections.

In 1997 the Supreme Court limited RFRA’s scope to federal actions. So 19 states including such cultural backwaters as Connecticut, Rhode Island and Illinois followed with copy-cat legislation, and Indiana is the 20th. Courts in 11 states have extended equally vigorous protections.

Indiana was an outlier before the new law because neither its laws nor courts unambiguously protected religious liberty. Amish horse-drawn buggies could be required to abide by local traffic regulations. Churches could be prohibited from feeding the homeless under local sanitation codes. The state Attorney General even ruled Indiana Wesleyan University, a Christian college which hires on the basis of religion, ineligible for state workforce training grants.

In February, 16 prominent First Amendment scholars, some of whom support same-sex marriage, backed Indiana’s legislation. “General protection for religious liberty is important precisely because it is impossible to legislate in advance for all the ways in which government might burden the free exercise of religion,” they explained.

That hasn’t stopped the cultural great and good from claiming Indiana added the religious defense in private disputes as a way to target gays. If this is Indiana’s purpose, and there’s no evidence it is, this is unlikely to work.

The claim is that this would empower, say, florists or wedding photographers to refuse to work a gay wedding on religious grounds. But under the RFRA test, such a commercial vendor would still have to prove that his religious convictions were substantially burdened.

And he would also come up against the reality that most courts have found that the government has a compelling interest in enforcing antidiscrimination laws. In all these states for two decades, no court we’re aware of has granted such a religious accommodation to an antidiscrimination law. Restaurants and hotels that refused to host gay marriage parties would have a particularly high burden in overcoming public accommodation laws.

In any event, such disputes are rare to nonexistent, a tribute to the increasing tolerance of American society toward gays, lesbians, the transgendered, you name it.

The paradox is that even as America has become more tolerant of gays, many activists and liberals have become ever-more intolerant of anyone who might hold more traditional cultural or religious views...

Yes, that's the paradox, isn't it?

More.

And see Memeorandum.

Buy Books

Okay, I'm off for my long teaching Tuesday at the college.

Shop around at Amazon for some books. May I suggest Victor Davis Hanson, The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - From Ancient Greece to Iraq.

Plus, Shop Amazon's Easter Shop.

More blogging tonight.

As China Expands Its Navy, the U.S. Grows Wary

This is interesting.

We were just talking about China's naval build-up in my World Politics class yesterday.

At WSJ, "Washington is divided over whether Beijing should be viewed as naval partner or potential adversary":

China’s navy chief, Adm. Wu Shengli, strolled the Harvard University campus in a tweed blazer and slacks during a visit to the U.S. last fall, joking with students and quizzing school officials about enrolling some of his officers.

A few days earlier, he became the first Chinese navy chief to attend a 113-nation naval forum in Rhode Island, where he hailed U.S.-China military ties and discussed working together on global maritime challenges.

Shortly after his U.S. visit, Adm. Wu took another trip—this time to the Spratly Islands, an archipelago in the South China Sea where his country appears to be building a network of artificial island fortresses in contested waters. It was his first known visit to facilities U.S. officials fear could be used to enforce Chinese control of nearly all the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

As Adm. Wu seeks closer exchanges with the U.S. in his quest to build a modern global navy, Washington faces the dilemma of dealing with China as both a partner and a potential adversary challenging U.S. naval dominance in Asia. “I would say that he doesn’t want to build a navy that’s equivalent to the U.S.,” said Adm. Gary Roughead, the retired U.S. Chief of Naval Operations. “He wants to build a navy that surpasses the U.S.”

Adm. Wu, navy chief since 2006, is one of the architects of China’s maritime expansion, sending ships and submarines deep into the Indian and Pacific oceans, launching China’s first aircraft carrier and overseeing operations to assert control of waters claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations.

He also has become China’s point man for cinching closer U.S. military ties, a priority of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Adm. Wu met his counterpart, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, four times over the past two years, forging guidelines on how Chinese and U.S. vessels can safely interact.

Adm. Wu now wants deeper exchanges, including help developing aircraft carrier operations and improving education for his naval officers. He says such exchanges would allow China to better work alongside the U.S. to maintain global security, according to people who have spoken with him.

Adm. Greenert and other senior U.S. Navy officials also advocate closer engagement to encourage China to embrace international norms. Some in the Pentagon and Congress, however, worry Adm. Wu’s real mission is absorbing American know-how to advance territorial gains and boost China’s ability to thwart U.S. intervention.

Adm. Wu has been described by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI, as the “most vocal and successful advocate for a greatly expanded mission” for the Chinese navy since Adm. Liu Huaqing, who first proposed turning China into a sea power in the 1980s.

He is also a so-called princeling, as offspring of senior Communist Party figures are known, and said by defense officials to have strong backing from President Xi—another princeling—who has put sea power at the core of his vision for China. That may explain why Adm. Wu, 69 years old, has kept his post so long. He said during his U.S. visit he expected to retain the job until 2017.

The conflicting views of Adm. Wu mirror a deeper debate over whether China and the U.S. can reconcile their competing strategic interests in Asia and forge a genuinely cooperative military relationship in the 21st Century...

Hmm... I think the U.S. oughta be careful about not giving away the store.

More.

RELATED: At War is Boring, "China’s Third Aircraft Carrier Could Be Nuclear."

Eloi Vasquez, UC Berkeley Soccer Player Killed on I-10, Left USC Frat Party 'Drunk and Confused'

He was hit by a car running across the freeway.

If universities would deal with the underage alcohol crisis (rather than the manufactured rape crisis) we'd be truly on the way to saving an untold number of lives.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Missing UC Berkeley soccer player was struck, killed on 10 Freeway."

And at London's Daily Mail, "UC Berkeley soccer star who went missing after leaving frat party 'drunk and confused' was actually KILLED by a car two days ago."

Today we lost a beloved member of the #CalFamily, Eloi Vasquez. We send thoughts & prayers to his family & friends. pic.twitter.com/Pq0VAEanJU

— Cal Bears (@CalAthletics) March 30, 2015

Oxnard Woman Allegedly Wielding Knife Shot Dead by Police, Leftists Cry Racism!

Check the hashtag "#MeaganHockaday" and you'll find all the usual bullshit about "#BlackLivesMatter."

And notice the supreme irony in the "racism" allegations against the Oxnard Police Department, whose chief is Jeri Williams, a black woman who's been with the force since 2001.

See the video at KEYT-TV Santa Barbara, "Woman Shot and Killed By Oxnard Police Officer."

Hot Gallery of Sexy Busty Girls

Actually, this is more for you to start your week.

At Toasted, "End Your Week With Some Sexy Busty Girls: 38 Images."

Hat Tip: Linkiest.

Stolen Tips, Dine and Dash, Counterfeit Money: O.C. Restaurant Workers Confront Crime on Front Lines

This is mind-boggling.

Sure glad I don't have to deal with it, but then, I'm sad that these folks do.

At the O.C. Register, "Pilfered tips, dine and dash, fake cash: It's tough out on the restaurant front lines":

For workers on the front lines of Orange County’s bustling hospitality industry, things can get downright inhospitable. Even dangerous.

Kerry Soderstrom, a former waitress at a bar in downtown Huntington Beach, recalls the trio – two men and a woman in their 20s – who caught her eye one night. She had a feeling they were getting ready to skip out on their $50 food and booze bill.

Sure enough, when Soderstrom was busy helping another customer, they bolted. She gave chase and confronted them in a darkened parking garage.

“I felt panic and an instant need to catch them to avoid having to be held personally responsible for their bill with the bar,” said Soderstrom, who now works at an investment bank. “At the time I really didn’t consider the danger of actually pursuing them into the parking structure, which looking back now it could have been very dangerous.”

That turned out to be the case a week ago for a 28-year-old waitress at the Mexico Lindo restaurant in Anaheim. When she confronted four people who left without paying, they ran over her legs with their car and fled, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department deputies.

Rowshaid Pellum, 24, of Cerritos, along with Santeea Ralph, 23; Markeisha Williams, 18; and Shyteice Miles, 19, all of Long Beach, have been arrested in connection with the incident.

Also last week, Francisco Cardenas, 26, pleaded guilty to felony assault and misdemeanor petty theft for attacking a 55-year-old retired police officer after trying to grab a tip jar at a Starbucks in Huntington Beach.

Dine-and-dash crime isn’t that common in Orange County, service workers say. But when it happens, police and other officials say, wait staff should avoid heroics and report the theft to police.

“They should never chase after someone else,” said Russ Bendel, president of the Orange County Restaurant Association and owner of the Vine restaurant in San Clemente. “It’s better to bite the bullet.”

The problem, though, is that though it’s illegal for restaurant operators to withhold tips from servers to cover dine-and-dash bills, the practice is still fairly common, said Maria Myotte, a spokeswoman for Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, which represents 13,000 hospitality workers nationwide.

“A lot of servers get negative paychecks,” she said. “The environment is such that it’s their personal responsibility for that money.”

Tip jars have become ubiquitous at checkout counters, making easy targets for thieves looking to grab some quick cash.

In the case of the attempted Starbucks theft on March 7, Scott Fahey was placing money in the tip jar at a walk-up window at Brookhurst and Adams Avenue in Huntington Beach when Cardenas rode up on a bicycle and tried to grab the container.

Fahey, 55, refused to release the jar, which held three $1 bills and change. He said Cardenas punched him and bashed him in the head with a metal sign. Cardenas fled when Fahey reached for his Glock 26 and warned Cardenas he would shoot...

It's bad all over, dang.

Keep reading.

4-Year Old Girl Sneaks Out, Grabs the Bus, for Late-Night Slushie

Unreal.

At MyFox 11 Los Angeles, "4-Year-Old Girl Sneaks Out at 3 A.M. to Get Late-Night Slushie."

Late-night? Actually, it's early morning, but I'll go with it at the headline, lol.

George Stephanopoulos' Gotcha Interview with Indiana Governor Mike Pence

Leftists are gleeful with Stephanopoulos' gotcha questions, but Gov. Pence handles the interview with aplomb.

Watch: "Indiana Gov. Mike Pence Says Religious Freedom Law 'Absolutely Not' a Mistake."

Jamie Foxx Accused of Transphobia After Bruce Jenner Joke at #iHeartRadioMusciAwards

Oops!

You just cannot joke about this stuff. Man, they'll come down on you like a ton of communist bricks!

At San Francisco Chronicle, "Jamie Foxx Joke About Bruce Jenner at #iHeartRadioMusicAwards Draws Ire."

Foxx took "another jab at the former Olympian, saying, 'Look, I'm just busting your balls while I still can'."

Queen Elizabeth to Dissolve Parliament — It's the Twelfth Time She's Done It

Interesting bit of comparative politics. There's very little power in the British monarchy, but the ability to dissolve parliament remains a significant one, much more than a formality.

At Sky News, "Not Just Theatre: Queen to Dissolve Parliament."

Ayaan Hirsi Ali — From Selma to Tunis: When Will We March Against the Segregation of Our Own Time?

From Ms. Hirsi Ali, at Huffington Post:

"Multiculturalism should not mean that we tolerate another culture's intolerance." http://t.co/BCxfNUqdHv via @HuffPostPol

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali (@Ayaan) March 23, 2015

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



And at Paco Enterprises, "Sunday Funnies," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

More at Theo's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Leader of the Tee World."

The Revolutionary Communist Roots of #BlackLivesMatter

Radical leftists are cheering the shooting of the decorated Boston police officer, "Leftists Celebrate on Twitter Over Boston Cop Shooting."

One of the radicals linked there is Lamont Lilly, a member of the revolutionary communist organization Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST). Lilly's tweets advocate anti-capitalist violence, "no justice, no peace." See, for example, "Fuck peace. We want justice," and "Anti-Racist. Anti-Capitalist. Anti-Sexist. Anti-Imperialist. Simply means you're PRO-HUMAN!"

And the FIST publication, Red Flag, advocates the systematic murder of law enforcement officers of the "capitalist police state." See, "How Will We Defeat the Police State."

And here's this from another article there, entitled "What Do Communists Stand For? Smashing the Low Wage Capitalist State":

Socialism Did Not Fail: And no it hasn't been a big failure everywhere its ever been tried. The Soviet Union, the first attempt to build socialism, went from being an impoverished agrarian country, to being an industrial power house. It doubled the life expectancy of the people. It produced more steel and tractors than any other society. It provided electricity, running water, housing, and medical care to everyone within its borders. The Soviet Union defeated the Nazis and Hitler. The Soviet Union was the first country to enter outer space.

The Soviet Union collapsed in the 1980s, when it was privatizing things. It collapsed when it was introducing capitalist market reforms, and moving away from socialism, led by leaders who repudiated the revolutionary ideology of Marxism-Leninism.

It goes on like that, even going so far as to praise Cuba and North Korea as spectacular successes of the communist model. Whatever. Reality is always upside down in the left's collectivist worldview, and that's from the Obama White House down to the #BlackLivesMatter activists killing cops in the streets. I've written about this before, so by now it's abundantly clear what this movement's all about, although the treasonous, leftist MSM refuses to report the truth. See, "List of Demands from 'Black Lives Matter'."

Eric Foner, Columbia University Professor and Communist Apologist, Calls for 'Third Reconstruction'

According to Discover the Networks, "Eric Foner was an anti-American 1960s radical, and as a historian is an apologist for American Communism."

Ain't it the truth.

Well it turns out Professor Foner's got a piece up at the New York Times (where else?) calling for a "Third Reconstruction."

See, "Why Reconstruction Matters."

And at the Nation, "Toward a Third Reconstruction."

The "Second Reconstruction" was allegedly during the civil rights movement, when the federal government exerted enormous power over the states to protect black rights, from public accommodations to voting --- to protect blacks from the Democrats and the Ku Klux Klan. (Y'all of course know about the first Reconstruction, when Republicans protected blacks from the Democrats and the Ku Klux Klan.) Well, far-left socialist regressives want to take us back to those bleak times again. Racist Democrat Party times. I imagine leftists want to bring back lynching too.



Via Memeorandum.

PHOTO: "The Lynching of Bennie Simmons," at Wikimedia Commons.

Suspect Angelo West Identified in 'Point Blank' Assassination Attempt on Decorated Boston Cop (VIDEO)

At Twitchy, "‘Nearly assassination-style’: Boston police shooting suspect identified as ‘career criminal’ Angelo West, age 41."

The black mofo suspect wasn't about to go back behind bars.

See Kevin Cullen, at the Boston Globe, "Three strikes and he was out on streets again":

Angelo West wasn’t going back to prison.

That’s what this was about. Pure and simple.

When members of the Boston police gang unit stopped the car he was driving on Humboldt Avenue on Friday evening, he knew that the .357 Magnum he was carrying was a ticket back to Cedar Junction in Walpole, and he wasn’t going out like that.

So he came out of the car, without a word, put his gun to the face of John Moynihan, and pulled the trigger. Then he ran off, turning back to fire at Moynihan’s colleagues.

Did he really think he would get away?

Who knows. Luckily, police officers are much better shots than habitual felons like West and he died as he would have had them die.

There was an extraordinary scene as police officers combed the area for spent shell casings and other evidence as Moynihan underwent surgery at Boston Medical Center. Some people got in their faces, calling them pigs, screaming about another black man shot to death by police.

Given the facts in this case, and that, according to Police Commissioner Bill Evans, the entire fatal encounter, showing West put the gun to Moynihan’s face without provocation, is caught on camera, you’d think the people screaming at the cops might have waited, oh, I don’t know, maybe a few hours, before concluding that Angelo West is the next Michael Brown, the next Eric Garner, the next Tamir Rice.

But he isn’t. Angelo West is somebody who routinely armed himself with guns and previously had fired a shot that nearly killed a cop. His death on Humboldt Ave. was more the inevitable conclusion to a violent, lawless life than it is the latest example of police being too quick to fire on young black men...

More.

And here's video of depraved leftists taunting police, "VIDEO - Protesters Caught on Video Taunting Police After Boston Cop Remains in Coma from Shooting."

Behold today's cop-killing left. #BlackLivesMatter only if they're used to kill police.

ANSWER L.A. Protest 'Shuts Down' Marine Recruitment Center That Was Closed on Saturdays

This was last weekend, but I just saw this hilarious tweet from the communist idiot Ryan Endicott:

@AnswerLA shuts down recruitment station to say NO! To #USimperialism $ for #jobs & #education not #occupation pic.twitter.com/QRgEHaHuEx

— Ryan Endicott (@RyanEndicott) March 21, 2015

Only one small problem here. According to CBS News Los Angeles, who checked with local Marine officials, none of the nearby recruiting offices "were open" on Saturday. See, "Dozens of Anti-War Protesters March Through Hollywood."

But hey, it's all about the narrative with the ghoulish far-left communists, heh.

Air Canada Flight 624 Crashes in Halifax

It's almost like I don't wanna fly anymore, all these accidents lately. Sheesh.

At Toronto's National Post, "Air Canada flight 624 crash lands during blizzard in Halifax, sending at least 23 to hospital":

Dominic Stettler, 31, of Wolfville, N.S., said people on board the plane responded with level heads.

“I think we hit a power cable, there was a lot of sparks,” he said. “We hit the ground, we came up and then we slid on the runway for quite a long time. We just kicked the doors out and jumped onto the wing and then ran because we just wanted to get away from the airplane in case of explosions or anything.”

Stettler said people were helping each other after they got off the plane.

“A woman offered me her jacket because I was shivering and pulled me into a tight warm hug and we just sat there for a while. It was kind of special actually,” he said.

Plus, at RT, "Air Canada flight 624 crash lands at Halifax Airport, loses wing, passengers safe," and Ruptly, "We ran because fuel was pouring out of plane - Air Canada passenger."

'Climate change threatens the future of the planet...'

The "twentysomething generation" is the stupidest generation, apparently.

Check LAT's essay from New Yorker John Cubelic, which features the quote at the headline, "I'm twentysomething, I vote, and I won't take seriously any candidate who doubts climate change."

The dude's cocksure of the "consensus" on climate change (not global warming, remember, since environmentalists have to move the goalposts in order to keep the ruse going), and he says that if candidates don't back his statist agenda --- and allegedly those of his generation --- they'll lose his vote in 2016.

The fact is we don't know if "Climate change threatens the future of the planet." And closing off debate on the question to ram home an authoritarian environmental agenda certainly isn't going to make things better. Cubelic spews the classic leftist "shut up denialist" anti-humanist agenda. People are going to die, on genocidal levels, if these ghouls are not stopped. See, ICYMI, "Earth Hour Celebrates Ignorance, Poverty, and Backwardness."

Plus, if you haven't yet, be sure to read Robert Zubrin's awesome book, Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism.

Police Shut Down Zumiez Skateboarding Event at Stonewood Center in Downey

I got a giggle at this story.

Skateboarders weren't teen heartthrobs when I was a kid, heh.

At the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "2,000 flock to Downey mall to see pro skateboarders; event canceled."

And CBS Los Angeles, "Police Called, Mall Shut Down as 2,000 Teens Turn Out for Pro Skateboarders' Appearance."

Shaneka Monique Torres, 'Bacon-Rage' Woman

The woman's looking at seven years behind bars, but it's an injustice.

Obviously, institutional racism can be the only explanation for her shooting up a McDonald's that forgot to put bacon on her bacon cheeseburgers. #BlackLivesMatter and all that.

At London's Daily Mail, "Woman found guilty of shooting up McDonald's after bacon was left off her burger twice in 24 hours and faces at least seven years in prison."

Death of the Lads Mags?

Well, not quite yet, but Britain's radical feminists are definitely on a roll.

At the Independent UK, "Loaded magazine bids farewell":

Campaigns to obscure the covers of lads’ mags in the name of feminism hit the industry hard in the past couple of years, especially when big retailers like the Co-op got on board, but that’s not what killed off Loaded and Nuts. Both represent an ideology which has become markedly unpopular. “Laddishness” is dying out; the whole concept has become desperately uncool. Even mainstream online porn has been shifting to focus on shared pleasure rather than straightforward female objectification.

Don't believe it for a second.

Lads mags have been shutting down for political reasons, after enduring the assault from the left. When you remove magazines from the marketplace, by covering them and placing them out of sight, market share takes a hit. Nuts reported at the time that they had a good run and didn't need the hassle. It's not quite as bad in the U.S., but it's bad. Protect your freedoms assiduously.

More at the Guardian UK, "Loaded magazine to close after 21 years."

PREVIOUSLY: "Radical Feminists Take Down Nuts Magazine, Leading British 'Lads Mag'." (More at the "Lads Mags" search.

And at the Other McCain, "British Left’s War on ‘Page Three Girls’."

Earth Hour Celebrates Ignorance, Poverty, and Backwardness

Most excellent.

From Professor Mark Perry, at AEI:

In 2009, Canadian economist Ross McKitrick was asked by a journalist for his thoughts on the importance of the annual one-hour event in energy self-flagellation and green nitwitery known as Earth Hour, which takes place today, March 28, at 8:30 p.m. Here is his excellent response (my emphasis)...

Keep reading.