The 'Islamophobia' Scam (VIDEO)

Via Jihad Watch, "Video: Robert Spencer explains the “Islamophobia” scam."

Reince Priebus Calls on GOP to Unite Behind Eventual Nominee

And of course he means Donald Trump.

At NYT, "Reince Priebus Calls on G.O.P. to Back Nominee, Even if It’s You-Know-Who":

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The head of the Republican National Committee implored leaders of his sharply divided party on Friday to rally behind their eventual presidential nominee, suggesting that they ignore Donald J. Trump’s assault on the nominating process.

Reince Priebus, the committee’s chairman, did not mention Mr. Trump by name when addressing the group’s members at the party’s spring meeting here, but he devoted much of his speech to the tensions created by the Republican front-runner.

“Now I know our candidates are going to say some things to attract attention,” Mr. Priebus said, in a barely veiled reference to Mr. Trump’s attacks on what he has called “a rigged” and “corrupt” nominating process.

“That’s part of politics,” Mr. Priebus said. “But we all need to get behind the nominee.”

Mr. Trump is not the nominee yet, but his considerable advantage in delegates and lead in overall votes has prompted some mainstream Republicans to come to terms with the likelihood that he is the favorite, however unthinkable it may once have been, to become their standard-bearer this fall.

Yet the lingering split between those Republicans willing to accept Mr. Trump, however reluctantly, and those ferociously opposed to his nomination was on vivid display at the beachside resort where the party gathered.

While Mr. Priebus was speaking to state chairmen and chairwomen and committee members in a second-floor ballroom, officials from the best-funded anti-Trump group were briefing reporters a floor below about its efforts to deny Mr. Trump delegates in the remaining contests and keep him from clinching a majority before the party’s convention in Cleveland in July.

More to the point, Katie Packer, the chairwoman of the group, Our Principles PAC, rejected Mr. Priebus’s implicit suggestion that Mr. Trump was worthy of carrying the party’s banner...

Keep reading.

Ivanka Trump Shows Off Post-Baby Body Less Than One Month After Giving Birth

She's a great lady.

At London's Daily Mail, "Got it, flaunt it! Ivanka Trump shows off her svelte post-baby body in a figure-hugging white dress less than a month after giving birth to her son Theodore James."

The Dictatorship of Virtue

At Amazon, from Richard Bernstein, Dictatorship of Virtue: How the Battle over Multiculturalism Is Reshaping Our Schools, Our Country, and Our Lives.

Also, from Roger Kimball, Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education.

More, from Kim R. Holmes, The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left.

Michael Walsh, The Devil's Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West.

And Barry Rubin, Silent Revolution: How the Left Rose to Political Power and Cultural Dominance.

BONUS: Peter Collier and David Horowitz, Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the Sixties.

Donald Trump's Campaign Tells Republican Leaders He's Been 'Projecting an image...'

Following-up from previously, "Donald Trump Escalates 'Gender-Neutral' Bathroom Debate."

At AP, "Trump team tells GOP he has been ‘projecting an image’" (via Memeorandum):

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump's chief lieutenants told skeptical Republican leaders Thursday that the GOP front-runner has been "projecting an image" so far in the 2016 primary season and "the part that he's been playing is now evolving" in a way that will improve his standing among general election voters.

The message, delivered behind closed doors in a private briefing, is part of the campaign's intensifying effort to convince party leaders Trump will moderate his tone in the coming months to help deliver big electoral gains this fall, despite his contentious ways.

Even as his team pressed Trump's case, he raised fresh concern among some conservatives by speaking against North Carolina's "bathroom law," which directs transgender people to use the bathroom that matches the sex on their birth certificates. Trump also came out against the federal government's plan to replace President Andrew Jackson with the civil-rights figure Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.

The developments came as the GOP's messy fight for the White House spilled into a seaside resort in south Florida. While candidates in both parties fanned out across the country before important primary contests in the Northeast, Hollywood's Diplomat Resort & Spa was transformed into a palm-treed political battleground.

Trump's newly hired senior aide, Paul Manafort, made the case to Republican National Committee members that Trump has two personalities: one in private and one onstage.

"When he's out on the stage, when he's talking about the kinds of things he's talking about on the stump, he's projecting an image that's for that purpose," Manafort said in a private briefing.

"You'll start to see more depth of the person, the real person. You'll see a real different guy," he said.

The Associated Press obtained a recording of the closed-door exchange...

More.

Donald Trump Escalates 'Gender-Neutral' Bathroom Debate

Heh.

He's totally unpredictable. He said he didn't care what restroom Caitlyn Jenner uses at the Trump Tower, which is kind of going against all the conservative angst this last week or so over North Carolina's transgender legislation.

At Politico, "GOP culture war breaks out over transgender bathrooms: Trump escalates debate with his own shrug on an issue that has the GOP in fits":

Donald Trump says Caitlyn Jenner can use whatever bathroom she prefers in Trump Tower https://t.co/fGk0712mzz pic.twitter.com/XA8CdoPfOK

— CNN (@CNN) April 21, 2016

GOP culture war breaks out over transgender bathrooms https://t.co/6OiShWhsZ2 | Getty pic.twitter.com/NT9u1rVosW

— POLITICO (@politico) April 21, 2016

Donald Trump on Thursday freshly exposed the fissures dividing the Republican Party by responding to the transgender bathroom wars with a shrug — setting off a fierce response from Ted Cruz who accused the Republican front-runner of being no better than the “politically correct leftist elites.”

The latest front in the culture wars is now a bathroom stall. The raging debate over whether transgender people should be forced to use bathrooms of their gender at birth is acutely playing out within the GOP, and it’s now become a central topic on the presidential campaign trail.

Social conservatives see Big Business — once a close ally — becoming a pawn of the left, joining forces to convince Republican governors that anti-LGBT bills will kill their economy. Some more moderate Republicans, on the other hand, once again see the party picking divisive fights that will hurt them at the ballot box.

For Trump, the consummate businessman, it’s the chance to highlight the identity crisis of his adopted party.

“I will tell you. North Carolina did something that was very strong. And they’re paying a big price. There’s a lot of problems,” Trump observed on NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday, saying that he agreed with remarks from a commentator he did not name who said North Carolina should leave its laws as they are.

Alluding to businesses that have left the state or canceled plans to expand after North Carolina passed a law in March banning transgender people from using the facilities of their choice, Trump called it reason enough to “leave it the way it is.”

“There have been very few complaints the way it is. People go. They use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate,” Trump said. “There has been so little trouble. And the problem with what happened in North Carolina is the strife and the economic — I mean, the economic punishment that they’re taking.”

Sensing a chance to expose Trump as a phony Republican, Cruz pounced. He talked about Trump’s comment on Glenn Beck’s radio show. He talked about it at his morning rally. And then, for good measure, he issued a statement...

More.

Here's Drunken Stepfather: 'STEPLINKS OF THE DAY'

I'm always a little beat by this time on Thursdays.

I probably haven't had enough sleep for the week (I'm up at 5:15am on T-TH). And I'm done with my four-day stretch of teaching.

So, Here's Drunken Stepfather to get things off the ground for end-of-the-week blogging and into the Full Metal Weekend.

See, "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY: Girls Not Wearing Bras – Showing Off Nipples (And More)."

BONUS: At Egotastic!, "'Game of Thrones' Red Head Hottie Sophie Turner Cleavage," and "Sara Sampaio Amazing Bikini Model."

'Take the Long Way Home'

From Tuesday afternoon's drive-time, at the Sound L.A.

I used to love Supertramp's "Breakfast in America." Actually, the album was a hit when I was getting into punk rock, so I pretty much dissed the record. But then in the summer of '79 I was on vacation at June Lake, and I was hiking around and I didn't have a Walkman or anything, and these construction guys were putting the frame up on a house with a boom box blaring the whole album. I was jonesin' for some tunes that week, because I was on vacation with my buddy's family (and it was a pretty structured situation), and I just sat on the side of the construction site and listened. I'll never forget that. I thought I didn't even like Supertramp, but I did.

Won't Get Fooled Again
The Who
5:10 PM

Young Americans
David Bowie
5:05 PM

I Want You to Want Me (Live)
Cheap Trick
4:53 PM

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Journey
4:48 PM

Miss You
The Rolling Stones
4:43 PM

The Boys of Summer
Don Henley

Take The Long Way Home
Supertramp
4:24 PM

American Girl
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
4:20 PM

Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen
Santana
4:15 PM

Beautiful Day
U2
4:08 PM

Black Water
The Doobie Brothers

Mother's Day Gifts

At Amazon, Shop - Mother's Day Store.

BONUS: From Helen Smith, Men on Strike: Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream - and Why It Matters.

Mexico's Baja California Won't Ban Bullfighting for Now

As soon as I started reading this piece I was reminded that my dad used to take me and my sisters to see the bull fights in Mexico. My younger sister and I used to mimic the Mexicans yelling their Spanish shout outs, Olé!!

At LAT, "Mexican state of Baja California balks, again, at banning bullfighting":

Fifteen minutes into a heated session on whether bullfighting should be banned in Baja California, legislator David Ruvalcaba proposed that the fate of the controversial but financially attractive sport needed further study.

Immediately the boos rang out, and half the crowded walked out.

For the third time this year, the Congress of the Mexican state of Baja California blinked in the face of banning a sport that has deep cultural roots in Mexico but is increasingly viewed as animal cruelty.

On Thursday, 12 legislators voted for the delay, eight opposed it and two abstained. And like that, bullfighting season will indeed begin Sunday in Tijuana.

Though they have repeatedly chosen not to vote on the issue, legislators here bristled at the notion, put forward by the bullfighting lobby, that the state does not have the power to regulate the sport.

“Of course we have the power to regulate the sport,” said legislator Juan Manuel Molina, though he allowed that that power carried the responsibility of exploring the ban further.

“It's a matter of culture and a matter of belief, but it's also a matter of humanity,” Molina said. “The spectacle is cruel.”

But Molina questioned how it was possibly fair to ban bullfighting while allowing other sports that claim Mexican heritage, such as cockfighting and the rodeo.

Animal rights groups have presented signature campaigns, celebrity endorsements and polls that purport to indicate overwhelming opposition to bullfighting as part of a public campaign against the sport, which has its roots in Spain and has been banned in some Latin American countries.

Bullfighting is increasingly unpopular in Mexico, according to the polling firm Parametria. In a 2015 poll, 73% of Mexican citizens supported a nationwide ban.

The Mexican states of Sonora and Coahuila, which border the U.S., have banned bullfighting, as has the southern state of Guerrero. But the sport remains popular in the capital, Mexico City, where the Plaza de Toros Mexico seats 48,000 spectators, the largest bull ring in the world.

On Sunday in Tijuana, the largest city in Baja California, the event will feature a rejoneador, a bullfighter on horseback, for the first bullfight of the season.

Built next to the sea and nearly adjacent to the border wall that separates it from California, the Tijuana bullfight ring is designed to appeal to Americans, even extending special offers to San Diego tourists: For a minimum of $200, guests will be whisked to the grounds of a winery on Saturday for a “Toros and Vino Event” that will feature two hours of private bullfights and a return trip across the border before the main event on Sunday.

If the ban is successful, the nearest bull ring near the Southwest border would be Chihuahua's La Esperanza...

 More.

Fresh Evidence Links Saudi Government to 9/11

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Flight Certificate of Would-Be Bomber Found in Embassy Envelope Buried Underground."

Judith Miller, 'I took America to war in Iraq. It was all me...'

Here's Judy Miller for Prager University, in a really outstanding video:

White Students Fear for Their Lives on Colleges Campuses

This is no joke.

See Jillian Kay Melchior, at Heat Street:

During protests, #Mizzou staffer feared walking on campus. @heatstreet has the exclusive: https://t.co/2oFStT2LBU pic.twitter.com/j57nvZYqWV

— Jillian Melchior (@JillianKayM) April 20, 2016

500 Migrants May Have Died After Boat Sinks in Mediterranean (VIDEO)

That's a horrific toll.

At Time, "500 Feared Dead After Migrant Boat Sinks in Mediterranean."

David Horowitz Replies to Slander

At FrontPage Magazine, "REPLY TO SLANDER":

Being defamed by a UCLA Vice Chancellor for defending the Jews.

Today a letter attacking me was sent to all members of the UCLA community – that would be nearly 50,000 people I think – by Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Jerry Kang. The Vice Chancellor’s letter attacked me as a “provocateur” who last year “put up hostile posters accusing two student organizations — the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) — of being murderers and terrorists.” This is a lie.

Actually it is two lies. First, the posters posted last year targeted only Students for Justice in Palestine – not the Muslim Students Association. Kang obviously included MSA so that he could condemn me for employing what he called a “tactic of guilt by association, of using blacklists, of ethnic slander, and sensationalized images engineered to trigger racially-tinged fear.” (Calling people you don’t agree with racist seems to be a favored gutter tactic of activists on campuses like UCLA these days.)

Second the posters did not accuse SJP of being an organization of murderers and terrorists, as the Vice Chancellor claims. They accused SJP of being “Jew-haters” because they support the murderers and terrorists of Hamas, which they do. That is why the only words on the posters were “Students for Justice in Palestine” and “#Jew Haters.” In a public statement I also called on UCLA to remove the campus privileges and university funding of SJP because they are a hate group and their activities routinely violate UCLA’s “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance,” which Vice Chancellor Kang professes to champion.

Kang then accused me of compounding these sins by conducting a new poster campaign – launched yesterday - called “Stop the Jew Hatred on Campus.” The new posters listed the names of UCLA student and faculty activists who support SJP and BDS – the Hamas-inspired boycott movement, designed to strangle the Jewish state. Kang’s letter calls the posters “a focused, personalized intimidation that threatens specific members of our Bruin community.” There is no intimidation on the posters, just a list of names of activists who support SJP and BDS. Nonetheless, Kang went on to elaborate “if your name is plastered around campus, casting you as a murderer or terrorist, how could you stay focused on anything like learning, teaching, or research?” But the posters don’t cast those listed on them as murderers and terrorists, just activists from Students for Justice in Palestine who supported the BDS boycott campaign. BDS has been denounced by figures as liberal as Alan Dershowitz and Larry Summers as anti-Semitic. Kang sent a personal letter of support to all those named as activists in behalf of these anti-Semitic campaigns. He then went on to lecture everybody about diversity, tolerance and inclusion.

This disgraceful performance by a top university official demands a retraction and apology from the University of California and some serious reflection by Vice Chancellor Kang about the hateful content of his letter and the focused, personalized intimidation directed at myself and all those involved in putting up posters he happens to disagree with.

More.

Angry Protests Over Los Angeles Unified School District's Transgender Restroom Policy (VIDEO)

At KABC News 7 Los Angeles, "STUDENTS, PROTESTERS FIGHT OUTSIDE LA SCHOOL WITH GENDER-NEUTRAL BATHROOM."

Federal Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Transgender Student in Virginia Restroom Case

Like I've said, it's a transgender tipping point.

See Darleen Click, at Protein Wisdom, "Federal Court rules that biological sex is a myth":

Black is white; up is down; and ….

“You are a slow learner, Winston,” said O’Brien gently.

“How can I help it?” he blubbered. “How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.”

“Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.” (“1984” Orwell)

Jackie Johnson's Cooler but Pleasant Forecast

It's not too bad at all this week.

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Katherine Heigle Wears Tight Black Shiny Pants with Stiletto Heels and Tailored Black Jacket Over Lacy Top in New York

She went on the Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM yesterday in New York.

She had some regrets.

At London's Daily Mail, "'I needed therapy': Katherine Heigl was left 'embarrassed' and shaken after infamous Emmy drama that soured her Grey's Anatomy career."

Former Red Sox Ace Curt Schilling Fired by ESPN for Transgender Comments on Facebook

Boy, talk about the transgender tipping point.

Moonbattery nails it, "Curt Schilling Commits More Thought Crime on Social Media."

The homosexual fascists were out for blood, at Outsports ("Outsports"?), via Memeorandum, "This is ESPN's Curt Schilling's disgusting view of transgender people."

More at NYT, via Memeorandum, "ESPN Fires Curt Schilling Over an Offensive Social Media Post."