Thousands Enjoy Last Day at MCAS Miramar Air Show, Despite Morning Rain (VIDEO)

Well, good thing we're getting some rain. I think folks down in San Diego can live with a shortened air show schedule. We need the water!

Watch, at ABC News 10 San Diego, "Thousands enjoy last day of Air Show despite morning rain."

$50 Credit with Qualifying Camera Purchase

Any photographers among my readership?

Get a credit on camera purchases at Amazon, Shop - Get a $50 Credit Toward a Camera or Lens with a Qualifying Accessory Purchase.

Plus, in books, from Michael Wolff, Television Is the New Television: The Unexpected Triumph of Old Media in the Digital Age, and Alan Wolk, Over the Top: How the Internet Is (Slowly but Surely) Changing the Television Industry.

'Saturday Night Live' Premiere Was Basically a Hillary Clinton Campaign Ad

Yes, unexpectedly!

(Click through at the link to a lengthy analysis at the Daily Beast.)

Arizona State Sorority Sisters Mocked for Taking Selfies at Baseball Game (VIDEO)

The MLB video's here, "9/30/15: Fans are having some fun with their smartphones, taking some selfies as the D-backs host the Rockies at Chase Field."

Also, an Inside Edition video, "Sportscasters Mock Sorority Girls Taking Selfies at Baseball Game."

See London's Daily Mail, "'Here's the first bite of my churro; here's the second!' MLB announcers mock sorority sisters taking selfies during Arizona baseball game in scathing rant live on air."

And they were given some free tickets, which they donated to charity. Pretty classy, at Hollywood Reporter, "Sorority 'Selfie' Girls Decline Free Baseball Tickets, Ask to Donate to Domestic Violence Charity," and ABC News 7 San Francisco, "SELFIE-TAKING SORORITY GIRLS USE INTERNET FAME FOR GOOD."

A Call to Arms for 'Conservatarians'

It's Charles C.W. Cooke's new book, The Conservatarian Manifesto: Libertarians, Conservatives, and the Fight for the Right's Future.

Two Israelis Murdered by Palestinian Terrorist in Stabbing Attack in Jerusalem

It's bad enough that Israelis are being murdered, but then the BBC whitewashes it with Orwellian headlines, "Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two."

They've changed the headline now, but see the Times of Israel, "Israel raps BBC for ‘unethical’ terror attack headline."

Plus, "Islamic Jihad threatens return to suicide bombing attacks."

And watch, at Arutz Sheva, "Funeral of Terror Victim in Jerusalem," and "Second Jerusalem Stabbing Victim Laid to Rest."

PREVIOUSLY: From yesterday, "Thousands Attend Funeral for Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin, Who Were Murdered by Arab Terrorists in Front of Four Children (VIDEO)."

Doctors Without Borders Closes Afghan Hospital, Condemns 'U.S. War Crimes' (VIDEO)

Nobel Peace Prize update.

At the Los Angeles Times:

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders closed its hospital in the Afghan province of Kunduz on Sunday, and charged that a suspected U.S. airstrike that killed 22 people there appeared to have been a war crime.

The closure was a blow to the embattled northern province where more than 400 people have been injured in the last week in fighting between Afghan security forces and the Taliban. The group took control of the provincial capital briefly last week.

The Pentagon said there are three investigations into the airstrike, one by the Defense Department, one involving both the United States and Afghanistan, and one by NATO. Pentagon officials have thus far said only that a U.S. airstrike Saturday morning may have caused collateral damage.

Doctors Without Borders said it would be satisfied only with an investigation by an independent, outside authority.

The aid agency called the bombing, which went on for more than an hour, horrifying and said it had informed U.S. and Afghan officials of the hospital's GPS coordinates before the strike occurred.

Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) in French, said Sunday that the death toll had risen to 22 — 12 staff members and 10 patients, three of them children. The toll was an increase of three over the figure announced previously. In addition, dozens of people were injured.

“Under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed, MSF demands that a full and transparent investigation into the event be conducted by an independent international body,” the organization said in a statement on its website. “Relying only on an internal investigation by a party to the conflict would be wholly insufficient.”

Senior Pentagon officials said the three investigations that have been launched are centered on whether the U.S. military knew the hospital was nearby when an AC-130 gunship opened fire and whether the clinic was being used by the Taliban to launch attacks.

Thus far, no U.S. or Afghan personnel have been able to gain access to the hospital because the area remains contested, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Sunday. He called the situation “confused and complicated.”

The investigations “will be, and needs to be, full and transparent," Carter told reporters aboard the Pentagon's E-4B “Doomsday” plane en route to Madrid. “There will be accountability, as always in these incidents, if that is required.”

Still more.

Springfield Armory M1A™ SOCOM 16

From Kurt Schlichter, on Twitter, "Picked up my SOCOM 16 today. Store packed with free Americans defying President Fail. @ChrisLoesch @DLoesch."

It looks like this! @rubedawg1061 @ChrisLoesch @DLoesch pic.twitter.com/5A5Q0AnChI

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) October 4, 2015

Demi Lovato Vanity Fair Photo Shoot (VIDEO)

Here, "Demi Lovato’s Spontaneous, Nude, Makeup-Free Photo Shoot."

And watch, "Demi Lovato Explains Her Nude, No-Makeup Photo Shoot."

John Boehner Cries on 'Face the Nation', Wants to Be Remembered as 'a Good Man' (VIDEO)

Poor Boehner.

In the end, he's going to be remembered as a candy-assed compromising crybaby.

With John Dickerson this morning, at Face the Nation:



The full interview is here, "Full interview: John Boehner, September 27."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Roundup."

Still more at Paco Enterprises, "Sunday Funnies."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Horrible."

BONUS: At Knuckledraggin', "You surely didn’t expect him to leave ’em hanging…"

Poll: Majority Doubts More Gun Control Would Stop Criminals and Mentally Ill from Purchasing Firearms

The poll's from September 14, at CNN, a couple of weeks before the Oregon shooting massacre.

We might see a bump in support for more gun control, but any increase will be ephemeral.

See, "CNN/ORC poll: Guns, immigration, abortion increasingly important to voters":

At the same time, many express doubts that expanded gun laws would be able to prevent those with mental health problems from buying guns (44% see that as likely, 56% unlikely), or that such laws would keep guns out of the hands of convicted criminals (42% say that's likely, 58% unlikely). But most also say it wouldn't necessarily make it harder for a law-abiding citizen without mental health problems to buy one, 57% say it's unlikely to do that.

Even among those who say it is now too easy to buy a gun, just small majorities believe that implementing more comprehensive background checks for all gun purchases would be likely to stop gun purchases by the mentally ill (53%) or convicted criminals (55%).

President Barack Obama receives mostly negative reviews for his handling of gun policy, 59% disapprove of his handling of the issue on which he said he's been the "most frustrated and most stymied" during his presidency; just 35% approve of his work. That's worsened since a June poll, and nears his 2014 low of 33% approval on it. That drop off comes particularly among liberals. In the new poll, just 53% of liberals approve of Obama's handling of gun policy, down from 63% in June. Among moderates (44% then, 41% now) and conservatives (23% then, 19% now), the declines have been smaller.

RTWT.

New Jobs Report Shows Weak Employments Gains, Corporate Earnings

Updates from the Obama depression.

At IBD, "Will Chilly Job, Wage Gains Keep the Fed on Ice?":

U.S. private-sector job growth downshifted to the slowest pace in more than three years as the labor force participation rate sank to a 38-year low, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The unexpectedly soft job growth and flat wages in September lowered the odds that the Federal Reserve will begin raising interest rates in December.

Stock indexes opened sharply lower on concerns that global weakness is hurting the U.S. more than was thought, but the prospect of a more patient Fed seemed to raise spirits. The S&P 500 turned a 1.6% drop into a 1.4% gain. The 10-year Treasury yield still settled at 1.99%, the lowest close since April.

The private sector added 118,000 jobs in September after August's downwardly revised 100,000 rise, the worst two months since the spring of 2012. Private hiring averaged 205,000 over the first seven months of the year and 254,000 in 2014.

Government added 24,000 jobs in September, lifting total payrolls by 142,000, well below the 206,000 expected.

The jobless rate held at 5.1%, the lowest since 2008, but only because 350,000 people stopped looking for work, pushing labor force participation to 62.4%, the lowest since October 1977.

IHS Global Insight Chief Economist Nariman Behravesh blamed the tepid job growth on "weakness outside the U.S. hitting exports and volatility in the stock market," which led firms to slow hiring and capital spending. He thinks slower hiring may persist for a few months but sees "slightly better than 50/50 odds" of a December hike, as long as the next couple of job reports aren't quite as bad as Friday's.

Barely more than half of all private industries — 52.9% — added staff, the weakest report since February 2010, noted John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo Securities.

"Job losses in the mining and manufacturing industries reflect the effects of continued weakness in commodity prices and sagging global demand," he wrote...

Still more.

Oregan Shooter Chris Harper-Mercer Purchased Firearms Legally

Yeah, here's another fact that depraved leftists completely ignore.

At PuffHo, "Authorities: Weapons Recovered In Oregon Shooting Purchased Legally."

Dana Loesch Schools Cory Booker on Calls for Gun Control Laws That 'Already Exist'

At Twitchy, "Dana Loesch schools Cory Booker on calls for gun laws that ‘already exist’."

Let's follow with expanding ban of sales to those convicted of domestic violence - research shows it REALLY works. https://t.co/dkoWVuIEBZ

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) October 3, 2015

Omg. This is already a law. https://t.co/ZVrMTumC59

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) October 3, 2015

See the whole thing.

Obama Hails Australia's Gun Confiscation in Push to Abolish Second Amendment (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Obama to Exploit Mass Shootings to Push Gun Control for Remainder of Term (VIDEO)."

In his statements on Friday, seen below (toward the end of the clip), Obama hailed "other countries" like "Australia" that "almost eliminated mass shootings." And of course, Australia's the preferred example because in 1996 the government imposed a compulsory gun "buyback" program that confiscated somewhere between 650,000 and 1,000,000 automatic and semiautomatic rifles. The far-left ghouls at Vox have been touting the Australian confiscation regime in their latest gun control push here at home. Unfortunately for them, there's no conclusive evidence that the Australia law reduced the homicide rate. See, "Australia confiscated 650,000 guns. Murders and suicides plummeted":

Pinning down exactly how much the NFA [ National Firearms Agreement ] contributed is harder. One study concluded that buying back 3,500 guns per 100,000 people correlated with up to a 50 percent drop in firearm homicides. But as Dylan Matthews points out, the results were not statistically significant because Australia has a pretty low number of murders already.

However, the paper's findings about suicide were statistically significant — and astounding. Buying back 3,500 guns correlated with a 74 percent drop in firearm suicides. Non-gun suicides didn't increase to make up the decline.

Actually, there's no causal evidence that the Australian murder rate declined due to the 1996 gun confiscation regime. The Vox leftists are lying trough their teeth, and it's not the first time.

See, Mark Antonio Wright , at National Review, "Australia’s 1996 Gun Confiscation Didn’t Work – And it Wouldn’t Work in America."

Also, from Varad Mehta, at the Federalist, "The Australia Gun Control Fallacy":

After any mass shooting someone will invoke the name “Australia” and raise the question, “Can Australia’s gun-control laws be a model for the United States?” This time [after the Charleston massacre] the honor belonged to CNN’s Laura Smith-Spark, who recounts the circumstances that led to Australia’s current gun-control laws and outlines their provisions. The laws were passed after the Port Arthur massacre, a 1996 mass shooting in which one man killed 35 people. Australia outlawed semi-automatic rifles, certain categories of shotgun, and implemented strict licensing and registration requirements. The cornerstone of its new gun-control scheme, however, was a massive gun buyback program. The Australian government purchased 650,000 to one million guns with funds raised via a special tax.

The Australian paradigm became popular in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings in 2012. USA Today, ABC News, Slate, the Washington Post, and the Christian Science Monitor were among the outlets that published articles urging Americans to look closely at the actions their antipodean cousins took after a similar tragedy. Nor are Americans the only ones who think we should heed the Australian example. Numerous Australians have expressed pride in their country’s gun laws by penning columns beseeching Americans to transport America’s gun laws from Down Under.

These articles all point to the reduction in the rate of gun deaths in Australia after the new system was established as its main achievement. But it is the policy that allowed that system to be established which holds the writers’ and consequently the reader’s attention. That policy is the gun buyback program, which removed up to one million weapons from Australians’ hands and homes. This was, depending on the estimate, a fifth to a third of Australia’s gun stock. The statistic does not seem remarkable as a raw number, but it is quite so when expressed as a percentage. No wonder commentators fixate on it. The problem is the way most of them tell that tale: when they describe Australia’s gun buyback program, almost none of them tell the truth about it.

The Australian Law Banned and Confiscated Guns

The crucial fact they omit is that the buyback program was mandatory. Australia’s vaunted gun buyback program was in fact a sweeping program of gun confiscation. Only the articles from USA Today and the Washington Post cited above contain the crucial information that the buyback was compulsory. The article by Smith-Spark, the latest entry in the genre, assuredly does not. It’s the most important detail about the main provision of Australia’s gun laws, and pundits ignore it. That’s like writing an article about how Obamacare works without once mentioning the individual mandate.

Yet when American gun control advocates and politicians praise Australia’s gun laws, that’s just what they’re doing. Charles Cooke of the National Review shredded the rhetorical conceit of bellowing “Australia!” last year after President Obama expressed his admiration for gun control à la Oz:

You simply cannot praise Australia’s gun-laws without praising the country’s mass confiscation program. That is Australia’s law. When the Left says that we should respond to shootings as Australia did, they don’t mean that we should institute background checks on private sales; they mean that they we should ban and confiscate guns. No amount of wooly words can change this. Again, one doesn’t bring up countries that have confiscated firearms as a shining example unless one wishes to push the conversation toward confiscation.

Following the links takes us to Cooke's article, at National Review, "Obama Praises Australia’s Gun Confiscation."

The key thing about all of this, for the millionth time, is the staggering secrecy and deceit that accompanies the president's ---- and the left's ---- calls for more and more gun control. The secrecy is required because what their calling for is not only massively unpopular, but unconstitutional as well. And as both the articles by Wright and Mehta point out, if the radical left were fully able to implement mandatory gun confiscation in the U.S., we'd end up with massive violence (and perhaps an untold loss of life) as citizens rose up against efforts by law enforcement to confiscate the firearms of law-abiding citizens. It's simply not going to happen. But that fact will not stop the left from trying, because, seriously, that people might die in such a program is just so much acceptable collateral damage.

Obama to Exploit Mass Shootings to Push Gun Control for Remainder of Term (VIDEO)

That's an excellent clip from CBS News 2 Los Angeles below.

And at WSJ, "Obama to Use Public Campaign Against Gun Violence":

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama vowed to use the bully pulpit for the remainder of his term to draw attention to gun violence following Thursday’s mass shooting on a college campus in Oregon.

Mr. Obama, speaking during a news conference on Friday, appeared resigned to getting no traction on gun-control legislation before he leaves office. Instead, he said his primary strategy going forward would be to mount a public campaign.

“I’m going to talk about this on a regular basis, and I’m going to politicize it,” Mr. Obama said. “Because our inaction is a political decision that we are making.”

Thursday’s shooting took place at Umpqua Community College, outside Roseburg, Ore., which is about 180 miles south of Portland.

Mr. Obama said until the political dynamic on gun safety changes, he won’t make a big dent in the problem.

He dismissed critics’ argument that the issue is mental illness—not guns. The majority of people who have mental illnesses aren’t shooters, he said, and other countries have angry young men but lower homicide rates.

“The only thing we can do is make sure they can’t have an entire arsenal when something snaps,” the president said. “You can’t kill as many people when you don’t have easy access to these kinds of weapons.”

And at Big Government, "Obama Goes Beyond Mere Gun Control, Hints at Confiscation."

Homeland Season 5 — Premieres Tonight (VIDEO)

I love this show.

At Vanity Fair, "Homeland’s Renaissance Continues in Season 5."

MCAS Miramar Air Show (VIDEO)

Folks were having a lot of fun.

At ABC News 10 San Diego, "Thousands enjoy day two of MCAS Miramar Air Show."

From Kumbaya to Chaos: 7 Years of Obama's Appeasement

An editorial, at the New York Post, "How 7 years of Obama brought the world from Kumbaya to chaos" (via Memeorandum):

Just three years ago, President Obama famously ridiculed GOP opponent Mitt Romney’s statement that Russia remained America’s main geopolitical foe by taunting: “The 1980s are calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”

Four years before that, Obama stood at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to declare that once he became president, all people would join him around a global campfire, hold hands and put an end to the world’s evils and miseries.

Well, seven years into Obama’s presidency, the promised worldwide Kumbaya is instead global chaos — caused in large measure by his willful retreat from America’s position of leadership.

Washington’s traditional allies increasingly feel abandoned, its enemies emboldened. The United States isn’t even leading from behind — it’s cowering in weakness.

And no one is taking better advantage of this than Vladimir Putin, now storming headlong into the yawning chasm of American retreat and reasserting Russia’s global influence and power — just as Mitt Romney said.

Putin remains unchallenged in his invasion of Ukraine, leaving him free to intervene — again unchallenged — in the Middle East.
In Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world hasn’t ended the threat of terrorism. On the contrary, it has seen the rise of “JV team” ISIS and new power for the Taliban. Israelis and Palestinians remain as far apart as ever — because only Israel has been targeted to make concessions.

This president accuses his political foes of wanting to wage war as their first option and warns of the limits of unilateral military power.

But in his eagerness to leave office as the president who ended America’s wars, he refuses to consider any use (or even a credible threat) of US force — even when hundreds of thousands are being massacred in Syria, many by the chemical weapons he claimed to eliminate.

His premature abandonment, against all military advice, of Iraq and Afghanistan (where the pullout is still under way) has left both countries worse off. Iraq, in particular, is bleeding far more than it did even in the worst years of “George Bush’s war.”

Equally eager to open America’s arms to longtime adversaries, this president has begun new relationships with Iran (all but giving Tehran a direct path to a nuclear arsenal) and Cuba without any concessions in return — even on such basic issues as human rights...

Keep reading.

It's been chaos for awhile now, actually. I mean, those "red lines" in Syria are to die for, literally.

Keep reading.