Tomi Lahren on National Anthem Protests in the NFL (VIDEO)

At Fox News.

I think Ms. Tomi's lucky to have landed that gig at Fox. She burned some bridges going on the View. So stupid.

Nina Agdal Will Blow You Away (VIDEO)

One can only hope.

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Garth Kemp's Weekend Weather Forecast

He's a cool guy.

It's been pretty hot in the afternoons, and nippy overnight.

For CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

By the Book with Jennifer Egan

I posted the other day, "Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad."

She has a new book out next week, at Amazon, Manhattan Beach: A Novel.

And at NYT, "Jennifer Egan: By the Book."

Jennifer Egan doesn't read memoirs. "My feeling is always that I’m saving them for later." https://t.co/xCyPgLfkR6

— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) September 28, 2017

Jerry Pournelle Remembered at Instapundit

Mr. Pournelle died September 8th.

The New York Times' obituary is here, "Jerry Pournelle, Science Fiction Novelist and Computer Guide, Dies at 84."

And check Instapundit for all kinds of commemoration.

Here's the link I posed a couple of minutes ago, for Niven and Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye.

Also, The Gripping Hand, and The Legacy of Heorot.

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye

I read this years ago --- decades ago --- when I was about 19.

I'm getting fired up again about science fiction. It's a trip, heh.

At Amazon, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye.

Amanda Holden's Plunging Dress on 'Britain's Got Talent'

She was almost topless up there, so I can understand all the complaints.

At the Telegraph U.K., "Amanda Holden's plunging Britain's Got Talent dress attracts the most Ofcom complaints of the year."

Tori Praver, Jessica White, and Jarah Mariano in Hawaii (VIDEO)

For Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.

Today's Deals New Deals.

Shop, Today's Deals at Amazon.

See, especially, Klipsch 12" 400 Watts Wireless Subwoofer Brushed Black Vinyl (R-12SWi).

Also, Yamaha MusicCast R-N402 Hi-Fi Network Receiver.

Plus, Save on Logitech Accessories.

And, Sony MDR7506 Professional Large Diaphragm Headphone.

More, J.B. Icelandic Artic Trail -40 Below Winter Sock (2 Pairs).

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Here, Camping Cookware Mess Kit Backpacking Gear & Hiking Outdoors Bug Out Bag Cooking Equipment 10 Piece Cookset | Lightweight, Compact, & Durable Pot Pan Bowls - Free Folding Spork, Nylon Bag, & Ebook.

BONUS: Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere.

Spectacular Samantha Hoopes

At Sports Illustrated:

Mondaze with mega babe @SamanthaHoopes... 😍 https://t.co/zPrhYFAU6T pic.twitter.com/dzfaHdAZc8

— SI Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) September 25, 2017

Alejandro Villanueva Apologizes for Standing for National Anthem (VIDEO)

We're in a bad place in America, where you have to apologize for standing up for your country. And it's especially bad that this guy groveled: He served in Afghanistan. Three tours. Three f***ing tours. Mike Tomlin, the entire Steelers organization, and the NFL need to apologize to him.

Folks are saying they're done with the NFL. Lifelong fans as saying they're through. The higher-ups surrounding Roger Goodell need to do some serious damage control. This is getting existential.

And I was angry today talking about this with my wife. I felt pure anger.

#Villanueva Says He Made A Mistake
Standing For The Anthem

Watch The Hostage Video

You Can Return Your Jerseys Nowpic.twitter.com/3IPhBITTUh

— Dr. Marty Fox (@DrMartyFox) September 26, 2017

John M. Del Vecchio, The 13th Valley

At Amazon, John M. Del Vecchio, The 13th Valley: A Novel.

A work that has served as a literary cornerstone for the Vietnam generation, The 13th Valley follows the strange and terrifying Vietnam combat experiences of James Chelini, a telephone-systems installer who finds himself an infantryman in territory controlled by the North Vietnamese Army. Spiraling deeper and deeper into a world of conflict and darkness, this harrowing account of Chelini's plunge and immersion into jungle warfare traces his evolution from a semi-pacifist to an all-out warmonger. The seminal novel on the Vietnam experience, The 13th Valley is a classic that illuminates the war in Southeast Asia like no other book.

The Politicization of Everything

At WSJ:

"This is the kind of rant you’d hear in a lousy sports bar." https://t.co/d4JqjHSCX9

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 25, 2017

No doubt most Americans agree with Mr. Trump that they don’t want their flag disrespected, especially by millionaire athletes. But Mr. Trump never stops at reasonable, and so he called for kneeling players to be fired or suspended, and if the league didn’t comply for fans to “boycott” the NFL.

He also plunged into the debate over head injuries without a speck of knowledge about the latest brain science, claiming that the NFL was “ruining the game” by trying to stop dangerous physical hits. This is the kind of rant you’d hear in a lousy sports bar.

Mr. Trump has managed to unite the players and owners against him, though several owners supported him for President and donated to his inaugural. The owners were almost obliged to defend their sport, even if their complaints that Mr. Trump was “divisive” ignored the divisive acts by Mr. Kaepernick and his media allies that injected politics into football in the first place.

Americans don’t begrudge athletes their free-speech rights—see the popularity of Charles Barkley —but disrespecting the national anthem puts partisanship above a symbol of nationhood that thousands have died for. Players who chose to kneel shouldn’t be surprised that fans around the country booed them on Sunday. This is the patriotic sentiment that they are helping Mr. Trump exploit for what he no doubt thinks is his own political advantage.

American democracy was healthier when politics at the ballpark was limited to fans booing politicians who threw out the first ball—almost as a bipartisan obligation. This showed a healthy skepticism toward the political class. But now the players want to be politicians and use their fame to lecture other Americans, the parsons of the press corps want to make them moral spokesmen, and the President wants to run against the players.

The losers are the millions of Americans who would rather cheer for their teams on Sunday as a respite from work and the other divisions of American life.

And at Instapundit, "WALL STREET JOURNAL: The Politicization of Everything."

Sarah Sentilles, Draw Your Weapons

At Amazon, Sarah Sentilles, Draw Your Weapons.

A single book might not change the world. But this utterly original meditation on art and war might transform the way you see the world—and that makes all the difference.

“How to live in the face of so much suffering? What difference can one person make in this beautiful, imperfect, and imperiled world?”

Through a dazzling combination of memoir, history, reporting, visual culture, literature, and theology, Sarah Sentilles offers an impassioned defense of life lived by peace and principle. It is a literary collage with an urgent hope at its core: that art might offer tools for remaking the world.

In Draw Your Weapons, Sentilles tells the true stories of Howard, a conscientious objector during World War II, and Miles, a former prison guard at Abu Ghraib, and in the process she challenges conventional thinking about how war is waged, witnessed, and resisted. The pacifist and the soldier both create art in response to war: Howard builds a violin; Miles paints portraits of detainees. With echoes of Susan Sontag and Maggie Nelson, Sentilles investigates images of violence from the era of slavery to the drone age. In doing so, she wrestles with some of our most profound questions: What does it take to inspire compassion? What impact can one person have? How should we respond to violence when it feels like it can’t be stopped?

Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You.

Kelly Gale in Necklace and Bikini Bottoms (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Shop Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

And see especially, GermGuardian AC4825 3-in-1 Air Cleaning System with True HEPA Filter, UV-C Sanitizer, Allergen and Odor Reduction, 22-Inch Air Purifier.

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Here, Hershey's 36ct. Plus 1 Bonus Bar (37 Bars Total).

Plus, Mr. Coffee ECMP1000 Café Barista Premium Espresso/Cappuccino System, Silver.

BONUS: Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition).

General Martin E. Dempsey: Why We Stand for the Flag

At USA Today:

Why we stand for the flag: Gen. Dempsey https://t.co/AA4DEzYRqH via @usatopinion

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) September 25, 2017

In the course of everyday life, there are very few opportunities for the people of the United States to come together, pause and reflect on the hope that is only possible with freedom and democracy. Our national anthem is a statement of respect for this hope, not a declaration that those present agree with everything our nation does or fails to do.

That’s why members of the military and other public servants love sports and why sports love them. As the 18th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I witnessed the public ritual of playing the national anthem at sporting events dozens of times and saw Americans rise above their own self interests and celebrate something that is greater than themselves. More recently, I was in Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics and stood with enormous pride as our flag was raised and the anthem played when outstanding athletes across a variety of sports were moved to tears by the honor of representing their country.

National anthem doesn't belong only to the military: Dan Carney Life presents plenty of opportunities for us to disagree with one another and seemingly fewer opportunities on which we agree. Standing together during the national anthem at sporting events should be one of those times when we agree, when we focus on the things that bind us together, even as we prepare to let our voices be heard in disagreement about which team is the better team...

More.

Katy Tur, Unbelievable

At Amazon, Katy Tur, Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History.

David Conn, The Fall of the House of FIFA

Here's a change of pace for you.

At Amazon, David Conn, The Fall of the House of FIFA: The Multimillion-Dollar Corruption at the Heart of Global Soccer.

Claire Messud, The Emperor's Children

At Amazon, Claire Messud, The Emperor's Children.

Jennifer Delacruz's Warm Sunshine Forecast

Some folks on Twitter have been saying fall's their favorite season of the year, and with this weather, who can blame them?

Here's the lovely Ms. Jennifer, for ABC News 10 San Diego:

Neal Stephenson, Reamde

I'm still working on Cryptonomicon, which is about 900 pages long. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, though, and it's perhaps the best book I've read all summer.

I mention it since I just saw Reamde while out to Barnes and Noble just now. I hadn't seen it before, but it looks like another great book.

At Amazon, Neal Stephenson, Reamde: A Novel.

Gold Box Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals.

Also, Men's USC Trojans 100% Cotton Long Sleeve Hoodie.

More, Wahl Elite Pro High Performance Haircut Kit.

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And, GreenWorks 24252 G-MAX 40V 150 MPH Variable Speed Cordless Blower, (2Ah) Battery and Charger Included.

BONUS: Jesmyn Ward, ed., The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race.

Jennifer Delacruz's Happy Fall Wishes

And she's got a segment last night on Puerto Rico's failing damn. Watch, "Thousands evacuated near failing dam in Puerto Rico."

Happy Fall! I’ll be in the weather center tracking your weekend forecast all night long. Join us live right now on @10News #SanDiegoWX pic.twitter.com/lf4OMdDt4t

— Jennifer Delacruz (@10NewsJen) September 23, 2017

PREVIOUSLY: "Jennifer Delacruz's Warming Weather Forecast."

Jennifer Delacruz's Warming Weather Forecast

It's beautiful fall weather. Really crisp and clear out today in Irvine.

Here's the lovely Ms. Jennifer, for ABC News 10 San Diego:

Theo's Pic Dump

Always nice viewing.

At Theo's, "Pic Dump..."

President Trump's Righteous Outrage at NFL 'Kneelers'

On Twitter:

EIGHT tweets in two days about Trump's feelings about NFL/athletes. pic.twitter.com/l7ETBbiiKJ

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) September 24, 2017

Michelle Malkin Blasts NFL 'Kneelers' (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Judge Jeanine Slams Roger Goodell and Millionaire NFL Players Taking a Knew Against Our Country (VIDEO)."

Here's Michelle from the show:

Ana de Armas for Vogue Magazine Spain October 2017

She'll star in "Blade Runner 2049."

And at Vogue Spain, via Egotastic!, "Ana De Armas Sexy for Vogue Magazine Spain October 2017."

Ana de Armas – Vogue España October 2017 https://t.co/f9ky7eHa3Z

— Celeb Pictures 📸 (@celebrity_hive) September 20, 2017

Justine Nicolas for Lui Magzine

She's wonderful.

See, "SUBLIME JUSTINE."

Also, "The Liaison Fatale Collection with Model Justine Nicolas."

Alejandra Guilmant for Treats! Magazine

She's amazing.

See, "Mexican Seductress Alejandra Guilmant Topless for Treats! Magazine."

Judge Jeanine Slams Roger Goodell and Millionaire NFL Players Taking a Knew Against Our Country (VIDEO)

This is the big story today.

I'm not watching NFL football. I'll boycott the fuckers. Too many Americans have paid the ultimate price for the right of these idiots to disrespect the flag. It's their right to kneel. And it's my right not to watch.

I'll have more, but tune in for this entire opening statement from Judge Jeanine. Rarely is she more pissed off. I love her. And I love President Trump:

Far-Left David Remnick Slams President Trump for 'Racial Demagoguery' After NFL Comments

Who cares?

Who seriously even cares what idiot left-wing coastal elites like David Remnick have to say. He's the guy who completely lost it on election night last year, "David Remnick: 'An American Tragedy'," and so his screed tonight is just more fodder for leftist haters.

It's a Memeorandum, linking Remnick at the New Yorker, "The Racial Demagoguery of Trump's Assaults on Colin Kaepernick and Steph Curry."

Actually, it's not "racial demagoguery" --- at all. The truth is far-left athletes are out of touch with the people who support them, and the president's giving the rock-ribbed patriotic masses their voice. Stupid media hacks like Remnick and so many other don't speak for the regular folks who want politics out of sports. No, it's no surprise both attendance and ratings are down for NFL games. When the players hate the fans, expect the fans to say FU.

Also at Twitter, "Trump stokes a bilious disdain for every African-American who dares to protest the injustices of this country."

Yeah, it's a culture war, and the radical left brought it on. Suck it up, Remnick, you disgusting pig.

Nelson DeMille, The Cuban Affair

I've been shying away from espionage thrillers. It's not that I don't like them. I just suppose they're guilty pleasures, and perhaps not as intellectually enriching as the literary fiction I've been reading (to say nothing of the classics). That said, I used to read Robert Ludlum back in the 1980s. Yep, The Bourne Identity, The Holcroft Covenant, The Matarese Circle, and just about all the others. I love that stuff, but I got away from the genre.

Well, I was out browsing books in Costa Mesa during the summer, and a woman asked if I'd read Nelson DeMille. I mentioned it the other day, at my earlier entry, Nelson DeMille, By the Rivers of Babylon. I've been collecting his books in paperback. I still need about four or five and the collection will be complete.

But now here comes his latest in hard-copy.

At Amazon, Nelson DeMille, The Cuban Affair: A Novel.

It looks like a page-turner!

Jennifer Delacruz's Weather Forecast for Saturday

From last night, at ABC 10 San Diego, the lovely Ms. Jennifer:

ICYMI: Ken Follett, A Column of Fire

It's out now.

At Amazon, Ken Follett, A Column of Fire.

Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

I think this is the best of all Hemingway books, and I've read most of them.

I read my mom's old hardback copy in 1984. It was so moving, I think it's what convinced me to go back to college. (I'd dropped out for a while. I returned to community college when I was 24. James Jones was also a big influence.)

I haven't seen a copy of this one while out during my used book hunting trips, which is weird. I guess there's not too many old paperback copies in circulation, which seems a shame.

Whatever.

At Amazon, Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls: A Novel.

ICYMI: Lidia Yuknavitch, The Book of Joan

*BUMPED.*

My mom bought me a copy for my birthday.

As always, I've got a couple of other books to wrap up, then I'll start out on this one. I'm looking forward to it. The jacket blurbs are ecstatic.

[I've started it. I'm enjoying it very much, and it's a quick read so far. Definitely worth it for purchase.]

At Amazon, Lidia Yuknavitch, The Book of Joan.

James Jones, The Thin Red Line

A monumental achievement.

He's one of my favorite writers.

At Amazon, James Jones, The Thin Red Line: A Novel.

Democrat Mania for Single Payer

California's leading the push for nationalized, socialized medicine. Bernie Sanders is lending his name to a nationwide effort.

At LAT:

The push for single-payer healthcare just went national. What does that mean for the California effort? https://t.co/IzhfGCLq2X pic.twitter.com/XMduqLGCkW

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) September 22, 2017

Time's Deep Dive Into the Ever-Shrinking Democrat Party

From Matt Vespa, at Town Hall, "Collapse: Time Magazine's Brutal Deep Dive Into the Ever Shrinking and Regional Democratic Party."

I read the Time piece, a lengthy cover story. It's good.

This week's @TIME cover: A divided Democratic party debates its future https://t.co/qNeN9ZfPQw via @Philip_Elliott pic.twitter.com/jJbVIEMHM6

— TIMEPolitics (@TIMEPolitics) September 21, 2017

Demi Rose Jaw-Dropping Bikini Photos

At London's Daily Mail:

Demi Rose Mawby drops jaws while displaying her bombshell curves during sexy Ibiza bikini shoot https://t.co/DxobxGaiOX

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) September 20, 2017

TOPLESS Demi Rose covers her ample bosom with her hands as she poses for photoshoot in Ibiza https://t.co/RVWxbDeGUm

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) September 22, 2017

Portuguese Model Locas Diego

At Editorials Fashion Trends, "LOCAS DIEGO BY JOSE LUIS CUNHA."

Also, at Elusive, "Locas Diego by Kid Richards: Portuguese Model Captured by Photographer in Lisbon (PHOTOS)."

Sultry Lais Ribeiro Pictorial

At Editorials Fashion Trends, "LAÍS RIBEIRO BY ADAM FRANZINO."

And at Sports Illustrated:

Get intimate with our girl @Lalaribeiro16... 👀 https://t.co/WF7Qr3YuH2 pic.twitter.com/YgqAIu2GwY

— SI Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) September 17, 2017

Emily Ratajkowski's Hottest and Most Revealing Moments (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimwuit:



BONUS: Emily topless here.

Valerie Plame Apologizes for Tweeting Anti-Semitic Article Blaming Jewish Neocons for America's Wars

I'm not linking directly to the vile Unz Review. You can click through at Memeorandum if you want, "America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars."

No one would have seen this except loads of Jew-hating leftists if it weren't for the idiot Valerie Plame tweeting it. She's apologized now, after taking enormous flak.

At the Daily Caller, "Valerie Plame Wants to Warn You About the Jews."

And at Mediaite, "Ex-CIA Officer Valerie Plame Apologizes for Promoting Article Blaming ‘America’s Jews’ for War."

OK folks, look, I messed up. I skimmed this piece, zeroed in on the neocon criticism, and shared it without seeing and considering the rest.

— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

I’m not perfect and make mistakes. This was a doozy. All I can do is admit them, try to be better, and read more thoroughly next time. Ugh.

— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

Apologies all. There is so much there that’s problematic AF and I should have recognized it sooner. Thank you for pushing me to look again.

— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

I missed gross undercurrents to this article & didn’t do my homework on the platform this piece came from. Now that I see it, it’s obvious.

— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

Novelist Alexandra Fuller Accused of Cultural Appropriation

Of course.

I just shake my damn head sometimes.

Here's her book, Quiet Until the Thaw: A Novel.

It's on my wish list, and then now I see this, accusations of "cultural appropriation," at the New York Times (where else?), "Alexandra Fuller’s Novel of Lakota Culture May Stir the Appropriation Debate":

A white writer, born in Britain, raised in colonial Africa and residing for years in Wyoming, writes a novel about the Oglala Lakota of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. In a prefatory note included with advance copies of the book, she cites a three-month visit she made to Pine Ridge in 2011. “For the first time since coming to the United States in the mid-90s, I neither needed to explain myself nor have this world explained to me,” she says. Being on the reservation felt like an “unexpected homecoming, if home is where your soul can settle in recognition.”

The writer is Alexandra Fuller, and from this jolt of recognition she fashioned “Quiet Until the Thaw,” a novel that dives deep into Lakota culture and history. An author of six books of nonfiction who made her name with a searing memoir of her African childhood, Fuller is here a careful inventor: Many of the events she describes, at least one of her central characters and more than a few snippets of dialogue are rooted in fact. The novel is peppered with Lakota words, not all of them easily translatable, and the story she recounts, of a pair of Oglala boys whose lives on the reservation become fatefully entwined, is an impassioned allegory of the long-suffering Lakota people. More subtly, it’s an awed meditation on the lofty conundrums of time and being, and on the ways oppression seeks to blind us to the fundamental interconnectedness of things. Fuller’s novel is like a delicately calibrated tuning fork, resonating at a cosmic pitch.

That she wrests such sweep from a couple of hundred odd pages is itself a bit awe-inspiring. Like Rick Overlooking Horse, one of the two Oglala boys, who speaks only when necessary — by the time he turns 10, “he had uttered, all told, about enough words to fill a pamphlet from the Rezurrection Ministry outfit based out of Dallas, Tex.” — Fuller is terse. She doesn’t narrate so much as poetically distill, into chapters seldom more than a page and a half long, the beauty, violence, poverty, humiliation and resilience that have marked Lakota existence for several hundred years. In one, a young tribal activist travels to Palestine, where she dines on camel with Yasir Arafat and speaks at an event honoring leaders of indigenous groups. “They can rewrite history, and erase our stories. But what my mind hasn’t been allowed to know, my body has always known,” the activist tells her audience. “I am an undeniable, inconvenient body of knowledge. Read me.” She proceeds to stand before the crowd in silence for 15 minutes.

The punch Fuller’s book packs is visceral, but it wears its righteousness with tact, its tone more consolation than jeremiad. At its heart is a bifurcation. Orphaned at birth, Rick Overlooking Horse and another parentless boy, You Choose Watson, are raised in a tar-paper lean-to by Rick Overlooking Horse’s grandmother, Mina, the local midwife. Although not prone to chattiness herself, Mina is disposed, especially when high on Wahupta, to recount to her young charges tribal myths and battle tales, and to instill in them an appreciation for key Lakota precepts regarding the “eternal nature of everything.” “They say you’ve been here from the very start, and you’ll be here to the very end,” she tells her stupefied grandson. “Like that breath you just took. In the beginning, a dinosaur breathed that breath. Then a tree. Then an ant. Then you, now me.”

Mina’s teachings suggest a vision of politics as enlightened forbearance — since what goes around comes around — and Rick Overlooking Horse, assisted by some Wahupta experimentation of his own, comes to embrace this view. He gets sent to Vietnam, where he survives the casual racism of his fellow G.I.s, along with a friendly-fire napalm bomb that solders his dog tag to his chest and vaporizes the rest of his squad. He returns to the reservation resolved “never to lay so much as the tip of a single finger on the diseased currency of the White Man,” and installs himself in a tepee on a patch of empty land.

You Choose, meanwhile, channels his rage into violence. He feigns diabetes to escape the draft, and wanders north, dabbling in odd jobs and drug dealing before returning to the reservation and getting himself elected chairman of his increasingly restive tribe. Here, the disparity between the two men comes into sharp relief. Rick Overlooking Horse, acquiring a reputation for spiritual wisdom, is sought out by addicts, wounded veterans and the lovesick, while You Choose becomes a figure of terror. Like Richard (Dick) Wilson, the notorious chairman of the Oglala Lakota from 1972 to 1976, whom he closely resembles, You Choose plunders tribal funds, sidelines opponents and surrounds himself with a private militia, the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs). There are bloody clashes over purity (like Wilson, You Choose is of mixed blood) and over colonization (tribe members whose lifestyles are regarded as too white are referred to as “Colonized Indian Asses,” or C.I.A.). The murder rate surpasses that of New York and Detroit.

The conflict culminates in the novel as it did in life, with the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee, where Rick Overlooking Horse and hundreds of other protesters demand You Choose’s removal as tribal chairman and the resumption of treaty negotiations with the federal government. United States marshals descend, thousands of rounds are fired, and both Rick Overlooking Horse and You Choose end up doing jail time...

Keep reading (FWIW).

Herta Müller, The Hunger Angel

I'm reading all kinds of good stuff, but I still come across the most amazing, fascinating things sometimes.

At Amazon, Herta Müller, The Hunger Angel: A Novel.

It was an icy morning in January 1945 when the patrol came for seventeen-year-old Leo Auberg to deport him to a camp in the Soviet Union. Leo would spend the next five years in a coke processing plant, shoveling coal, lugging bricks, mixing mortar, and battling the relentless calculus of hunger that governed the labor colony: one shovel load of coal is worth one gram of bread.

In The Hunger Angel, Nobel laureate Herta Müller calls upon her unique combination of poetic intensity and dispassionate precision to conjure the distorted world of the labor camp in all its physical and moral absurdity. She has given Leo the language to express the inexpressible, as hunger sharpens his senses into an acuity that is both hallucinatory and profound. In scene after disorienting scene, the most ordinary objects accrue tender poignancy as they acquire new purpose―a gramophone box serves as a suitcase, a handkerchief becomes a talisman, an enormous piece of casing pipe functions as a lovers' trysting place. The heart is reduced to a pump, the breath mechanized to the rhythm of a swinging shovel, and coal, sand, and snow have a will of their own. Hunger becomes an insatiable angel who haunts the camp, but also a bare-knuckled sparring partner, delivering blows that keep Leo feeling the rawest connection to life.

Müller has distilled Leo's struggle into words of breathtaking intensity that take us on a journey far beyond the Gulag and into the depths of one man's soul.

Rams Beat 49ers 41-39, Kindling Excitement in Los Angeles (VIDEO)

Could this be a breakout season for the Rams?

Hey, they're a lot better than last year.

At LAT, "Jared Goff, Todd Gurley lead Rams to a wild 41-39 victory over the 49ers."

Danielle Gersh's Fall Weather Forecast

It's the first day of fall season.

Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle's forecast from last night, for KCAL 9 Los Angeles:

Mexico Earthquake: Scenes of Desolation and Hope (VIDEO)

At LAT, "In Mexico, scenes of desolation and hope as the death toll reaches 274":

Scenes of desolation and rejoicing unspooled Thursday at the sites of buildings crumbled by Mexico’s deadly earthquake, which killed at least 274 people and galvanized heroic efforts to reach those trapped.

But a parallel drama transpired as the government announced that there were no missing children in the ruins of a collapsed school — after the country was transfixed for a night and a day by reports of a 12-year-old girl feebly signaling to rescuers from under the rubble.

Outrage ensued over what many Mexicans believed was a deliberate deception.

On Thursday afternoon, the Mexican navy reported that there was no sign that any child was missing and alive in the rubble of the Enrique Rebsamen school on Mexico City’s south side, where at least 19 children and six adults had died. One more adult might still be trapped in the rubble, navy Undersecretary Angel Enrique Sarmiento said at a news conference.

“All of the children are unfortunately dead,” he said, “or safe at home.”

Mexico’s larger tragedy continued to unfold as rescuers in three states, battling grinding fatigue and mountains of rubble, raced against time, keenly aware of ever-dwindling odds of finding people alive beneath the debris after Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 temblor.

The overall confirmed fatality count was expected to climb as more bodies were recovered. Rescuers at sites across the sprawling metropolis of Mexico City used search dogs and calls to the cellphones of those trapped to try to pinpoint the location of anyone who had survived two nights under the remains of damaged buildings.

The harrowing rescue effort at the Enrique Rebsamen school had become a social media sensation when news outlets began reporting intensively about the search for a trapped girl thought to be named “Frida Sofia.”

By Thursday afternoon, authorities said that at least one boy or girl was believed to be alive in the wrecked building but that they were not sure of the child’s name. Then the navy’s announcement dashed any remaining hopes for small survivors.

The confusing Frida Sofia saga took another strange turn Thursday night, when a grim-faced Sarmiento went on live television and sought to explain earlier statements by the navy about the girl. He ended up confusing matters even further.

Earlier Thursday, Sarmiento had insisted that the navy never had any knowledge of a girl who was supposedly trapped in the rubble.

In his evening news conference, however, Sarmiento contradicted the earlier statement, conceding that the navy had distributed reports of a girl surviving inside the school “based on technical reports and the testimony of civilian rescue workers and of this institution.” He offered no explanation for the conflicting accounts, but apologized.

“I offer an apology to Mexicans for the information given this afternoon in which I said that the navy did not have any details about a supposed minor survivor in this tragedy,” Sarmiento, dressed in military fatigues, told reporters at an outdoor news conference.

Sarmiento repeated his earlier assertion that it was possible that someone remained alive in the rubble. But Thursday evening he did not rule out the possibility that it was a child. Mexicans and others following the matter were left perplexed.

“Nonetheless,” Sarmiento added, “the Mexican people should know that as long as the minimum possibility exists that there is someone alive, we will keep on looking with the same determination.”

Both he and a colleague, Maj. Jose Luis Vergara, denied any effort to mislead the public...

More.

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'Crazy on You'

At the Sound L.A., from yesterday morning's drive time.

Heart, "Crazy on You":

Starting with an acoustic guitar intro called "Silver Wheels," the song turns into a fast-paced rock song that was the signature sound of the band in their early years. "Crazy on You" attracted attention both for the relatively unusual combination of an acoustic guitar paired with an electric guitar, and the fact that the acoustic guitarist was a woman – a rarity in rock music during that time. According to co-writer/guitarist Nancy Wilson, who discussed it on an episode of In the Studio with Redbeard that devoted an entire episode to the Dreamboat Annie album, the rapid acoustic rhythm part was inspired by The Moody Blues song "Question."

The song's lyrics tell of a person's desire to forget all the problems of the world during one night of passion. During an interview on Private Sessions, Ann Wilson revealed the song was written in response to the stress caused by the Vietnam War and social unrest in the United States in the early seventies.

Wrapped Around Your Finger
The Police
8:37

Paranoid
Black Sabbath
8:34 AM

Don't Stop
Fleetwood Mac
8:31 AM

Sledgehammer
Peter Gabriel
8:26 AM

Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd
8:21 AM

Somebody to Love
Queen
8:16 AM

Highway to Hell
AC/DC
8:12 AM

Crazy On You
Heart
8:08 AM

Light My Fire
The Doors
8:01 AM

Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Pat Benatar
7:58 AM

Cold As Ice
Foreigner
7:54 AM

The Boys of Summer
Don Henley
7:53 AM

Legs (Edit Version)
ZZ Top
7:36 AM

Rock'n Me
Steve Miller Band
7:33 AM

Black Dog
Led Zeppelin
7:28 AM

Jackie Johnson's Chance of Showers Forecast

Ms. Jackie's filling out with her big baby bump.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Big Shopping Today

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How to Exploit the Left’s National Nervous Breakdown

Here's Ace, via Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Left’s National Nervous Breakdown, and How to Exploit it Ruthlessly."

Atlanta Falcons Cheerleader Jessica Trainham for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (VIDEO)

She's a hot chick.

Deadly Earthquake Strikes Mexico

Kate Linthicum was in Mexico City and she's lucky she wasn't killed in the temblor.

Here she is, et al., at LAT, "At least 248 killed as powerful 7.1 earthquake strikes central Mexico":

The earthquake nearly toppled this building across from me in Mexico City. People fled screaming as buildings crumbled. Scary as hell. pic.twitter.com/PDCFm8vh0B

— Kate Linthicum (@katelinthicum) September 19, 2017

A powerful 7.1 earthquake rocked central Mexico on Tuesday, collapsing homes and bridges across hundreds of miles, killing at least 217 people and sending thousands more fleeing into the streets screaming in a country still reeling from a deadly temblor that struck less than two weeks ago.

Entire apartment blocks swayed violently in the center of Mexico City, including in the historic districts of El Centro and Roma, crumbling balconies and causing huge cracks to appear on building facades.

Panic spread through the city's core; rescue vehicles raced toward damaged buildings, and neighbors took on heroic roles as rescuers.

Firefighters and police officers scrambled to pull survivors from a collapsed elementary and secondary school where children died.

"There are 22 bodies here — two are adults — 30 children are missing and eight other adults missing. And workers are continuing rescue efforts," President Enrique Peña Nieto announced Tuesday night.

At least 86 people were reported killed and 44 buildings severely damaged in the capital alone. Twelve other people died in the surrounding state of Mexico, 71 across the state of Morelos, 43 in Puebla state, four in Guerrero state and one in Oaxaca, according to Mexican officials.

The temblor struck 32 years to the day after another powerful earthquake that killed thousands and devastated large parts of Mexico City — a tragedy that Peña Nieto had commemorated earlier Tuesday.

Around 11 a.m., Julian Dominguez heard alarms sounding in the neighborhood of Iztapalapa, part of a citywide drill to mark the anniversary of the magnitude 8.0 quake. Schools and other buildings evacuated, but he kept working at his computer.

About two hours later, Dominguez, 27, started to feel the building move, and alarms sounded again.

"It started really slowly,” he said, but within seconds it was clear that this was no drill.

Dominguez raced down a flight of stairs. Crowds of people already had gathered outside. Parents were crying, worried for their children still in school.

"It was strange that it fell on the same day … as another earthquake that caused so much damage," Dominguez said.

The federal government declared a state of disaster in Mexico City and dispatched 3,428 troops to affected areas there and in nearby states.

"We are facing a new emergency in Mexico City, in the state of Puebla and Morelos, following the 7.1 magnitude earthquake,” Peña Nieto said, adding that he had asked all hospitals to help care for the injured...

More.

Paintsville, Kentucky: When Government Tried to Fix a Coal Town (VIDEO)

Here's the lovely Kelsey Harkness, at the Daily Signal, "Underreported: What Happened When Government Tried to Fix a Coal Town."

Hailey Baldwin London Fashion Week

At London's Daily Mail, "Hailey Baldwin sizzles in TWO barely-there runway looks at London Fashion Week."

Also, "Hailey Baldwin keeps a low profile at Missguided bash during London Fashion Week."

Demi Rose Struggles to Contain Assets During Beach Trip

At London's Daily Mail, "Bikini-clad Demi Rose yet again flaunts her famous curves as she struggles to contain heaving assets during fun-filled Cape Verde beach trip."

Jessica Serfaty Out at Seafood Hotspot in Los Angeles

At London's Daily Mail, "She's a Catch! Ed Westwick's girlfriend Jessica Serfaty flashes some serious sideboob as they enjoy date at seafood hotspot in Los Angeles."

Shop Today

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BONUS: Margaret George, Mary, Called Magdalene.

The U.S. Must Celebrate Unity

From VDH, at the Hoover Institution, "Diversity Can Spell Trouble."

Rose Bertram in Curaçao (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated Swimsuit:

Punch a Nazi in Seattle

Hey, it's the in thing.

See some idiot riding public transportation with a swastika armband and mobilize your social media army to track him down and knock him out cold.

I hate Nazis, obviously.

But I hate radical leftist antifa ghouls even more.

At BuzzFeed, of all places, "Anti-Fascists Used Twitter to Find a Neo-Nazi Walking Around Seattle and Beat Him Up." (Via Memeorandum.)

Sofia Vergara in Strapless White Gown at the Emmys

At London's Daily Mail, "VA VA VOOM: Sofia Vergara showcases her curves in a strapless white gown at the Emmy Awards."

Also at Drunken Stepfather, "SOFIA VERGARA AT THE EMMYS OF THE DAY."

Alicia Keys at the Rock'n Rio Music Festival

At London's Daily Mail, "She sure has some front! Bra-free Alicia Keys nearly spills out of her plunging outfit as she takes the stage at the Rock'n Rio music festival."

Suki Waterhouse on the Sidewalk

At Taxi Driver, "Suki Waterhouse Out on the Sidewalk."

Today's Deals

Okay, it's a new week, and I'm teaching.

Blogging will continue as usual, although might be a little lighter than my weekend coverage.

Thanks for your support!

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Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World

So, it's been a very long time, but during my book hunting shopping trips, I decided to go for it: I'm going to get back into sci-fi fantasy fiction. Heh. I read J.R.R. Tolkien when I was 19. It wasn't the big movie thing back then as it is today, and I'm not so interested in going back and re-reading those novels. But I've never read Robert Jordan, and he's apparently among the very best of the genre, so I'm picking up some copies in his "Wheel of Time" series.

Check it out, at Amazon, Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1).

My repertoire now will be historical fiction, literary fiction, science fiction/fantasy, as well as the classics.

More later...

A Jihad Apologist at the Helm of the New York Review of Books

From Bruce Bawer, at Pajamas, "Ian Buruma: A Jihad Apologist at the Helm of the New York Review of Books."

In The Last Intellectuals (1987), Russell Jaboby described the NYRB as a closed shop that kept publishing the same big-name leftists (Noam Chomsky, Susan Sontag, I.F. Stone, Tony Judt) and that ran so many British professors that it was redolent more of “Oxford teas rather than New York delis.” Also, it had no interest in developing younger talent. (I must have sensed that, because when I left grad school and started writing for New York literary journals, I don't think I even tried the NYRB.) In a 2014 article, Jacoby raised a question: although Silvers, then eighty-four, had been “unwilling or unable to groom successors,” eventually “he will have to give up the reins, but when and who will take over?”

The answer came this year. Silvers died, presenting an opportunity to open the NYRB up to non-academic – and even non-leftist! – writers living on the far side of the Hudson. No such luck: it was soon announced that Silvers's job would be filled by Ian Buruma, a Dutch-born Oxford fellow who is sixty-five and has been a NYRB writer since 1987. For me, above all, he's the man who wrote Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance (2006), pretty much the only book about the Islamization of Europe to receive the imprimatur of the New York literary establishment.

Pfft.

I'm not going to be that down on NYR. I subscribed while in grad school and got a lot out of it. Frankly, the journal offers intellectual material and you can take it or leave it. Lately, I've been leaving it, but I'm not going to rag on it. I don't care about Buruma, of course, but I doubt it's going to make much difference who edits the magazine. It's by definition stodgy. Take what you like and forget the rest.

More, in any case.

Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

At Amazon, Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried.

Jennifer Delacruz's Sunday Forecast

Well, it's been mild, partially cloudy, in the O.C. Not too hot, although it doesn't quite feel like fall yet.

In any case, once again I crashed before I had the chance to post the lovely Ms. Jennifer's weather report last night.

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans

I picked up a copy yesterday.

And at Amazon, M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans.

Neighbors Outraged as Man Kills Deer with Bow and Arrow in Monrovia (VIDEO)

It's not like deer are an endangered species or anything, although I can see why neighbors might be a little upset. Why not just leave the little Bambi alone?

Watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Caught on Camera: Hunter Kills Deer with Bow And Arrow to 'Put It Out of Its Misery'."

And at the Pasadena Star-News, "Video: Man shoots deer with arrow in Monrovia neighborhood."

New Deals. Every Day.

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#USC Drops to #6 in AP's Top 25 College Football Poll

Both Penn State and Oklahoma State leapfrogged USC in the rankings. USC was #4 last week. I can see why, but sheesh. The Trojans got heart!

At CBS Sports, "Tomorrow's Top 25 Today: Mississippi State jumps in after upset as LSU falls."

Oklahoma State up 21-0 at Pittsburgh, has outscored its opponents 59-0 in first quarter this season (Watch: https://t.co/vJmgCJY0Og). pic.twitter.com/MVHn3dJ7xR

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 16, 2017

Jeff Sessions Returns Department of Justice to Rule of Law

From Andrew McCarthy, at NRO, "On Criminal Justice, Sessions iss Returning DOJ to the Rule of Law":

A response to Joyce Vance and Carter Stewart

wo former top Obama-appointed prosecutors co-author a diatribe against Trump attorney general Jeff Sessions for returning the Justice Department to purportedly outdated, too “tough on crime” charging practices. Yawn. After eight years of Justice Department stewardship by Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, and after Obama’s record 1,715 commutations that systematically undermined federal sentencing laws, we know the skewed storyline.

The surprise is to find such an argument in the pages of National Review Online. But there it was on Tuesday: “On Criminal Justice, Sessions Is Returning DOJ to the Failed Policies of the Past,” by Joyce Vance and Carter Stewart, formerly the United States attorneys for, respectively, the Northern District of Alabama and the Southern District of Ohio. Ms. Vance is now lecturing on criminal-justice reform at the University of Alabama School of Law and doing legal commentary at MSNBC. Mr. Stewart has moved on to the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, fresh from what it describes as his “leadership role at DOJ in addressing inequities in the criminal justice system,” focusing on “alternatives to incarceration,” and “reducing racial disparities in the federal system.”

The authors lament that Sessions has reinstituted guidelines requiring prosecutors “to charge the most serious offenses and ask for the lengthiest prison sentences.” This, the authors insist, is a “one-size-fits-all policy” that “doesn’t work.” It marks a return to the supposedly “ineffective and damaging criminal-justice policies that were imposed in 2003,” upsetting the “bipartisan consensus” for “criminal-justice reform” that has supposedly seized “today’s America.”

This is so wrongheaded, it’s tough to decide where to begin.

In reality, what Sessions has done is return the Justice Department to the traditional guidance articulated nearly four decades ago by President Carter’s highly regarded attorney general, Benjamin Civiletti (and memorialized in the U.S. Attorney’s Manual). It instructs prosecutors to charge the most serious, readily provable offense under the circumstances. Doesn’t work? This directive, in effect with little variation until the Obama years, is one of several factors that contributed to historic decreases in crime. When bad guys are prosecuted and incarcerated, they are not preying on our communities. The thrust of the policy Sessions has revived is respect for the Constitution’s bedrock separation-of-powers principle. It requires faithful execution of laws enacted by Congress.

The thrust of the policy Sessions has revived is respect for the Constitution’s bedrock separation-of-powers principle. It requires faithful execution of laws enacted by Congress.

A concrete example makes the point. Congress has prescribed a minimum ten-year sentence for the offense of distributing at least five kilograms of cocaine (see section 841(b)(1)(A)(ii) of the federal narcotics laws). Let’s say a prosecutor is presented with solid evidence that a defendant sold seven kilograms of cocaine. The crime is readily provable. Nevertheless, the prosecutor follows the Obama deviation from traditional Justice Department policy, charging a much less serious offense: a distribution that does not specify an amount of cocaine — as if we were talking about a one-vial street sale. The purpose of this sleight of hand is to evade the controlling statute’s ten-year sentence, inviting the judge to impose little or no jail time.

That is not prosecutorial discretion. It is the prosecutor substituting his own judgment for Congress’s regarding the gravity of the offense. In effect, the prosecutor is decreeing law, not enforcing what is on the books — notwithstanding the wont of prosecutors to admonish that courts must honor Congress’s laws as written. Absent this Justice Department directive that prosecutors must charge the most serious, readily provable offense, the executive branch becomes a law unto itself. Bending congressional statutes to the executive’s policy preferences was the Obama approach to governance, so we should not be surprised that a pair of his appointed prosecutors see it as a model for criminal enforcement, too. But it is not enforcement of the law. It is executive imperialism. It is DACA all over again: “Congress refuses to codify my policy preferences; but I have raw executive power so I shall impose them by will . . . and call it ‘prosecutorial discretion.’” (In truth, it is a distortion of prosecutorial discretion.)

It should not be necessary to point out to accomplished lawyers that, in our system, “bipartisan consensus” is not a comparative handful of Democrats and Republicans clucking their tongues in unison. Yes, between leftist hostility to incarceration and libertarian skepticism about prosecutorial power, there is common ground among some factions of lawmakers when it comes to opposing our allegedly draconian penal code. But these factions are not much of a consensus. The only consensus that matters is one that drums up support sufficient to enact legislation into law. “Criminal-justice reform” is of a piece with “comprehensive immigration reform” and the Obama agenda: If it actually enjoyed broad popularity, resort to executive fiat would be unnecessary — Congress would codify it.

The criminal-justice “reformers” want mandatory-minimum-sentencing provisions eliminated and other sentencing provisions mitigated. Yet, despite the sympathetic airing they get from the “progressive” mainstream media, they are unable to get their “reforms” passed by Congress. How come? Because strong majorities of lawmakers understand themselves to be accountable to commonsense citizens — people who aren’t “evolved” enough to grasp how reducing the number of criminals in prisons will somehow decrease the amount of crime. Most of us benighted types proceed under the quaint assumption that, even in “today’s America,” the streets are safer when the criminals are not on them.

In light of the caterwauling about mandatory-minimum sentencing by people either unfamiliar with or in a state of amnesia about what the federal system was like before it was instituted, it is worth repeating: Such provisions mean that the public, rather than the judge, decides the minimum appropriate term for serious crimes. As a class, judges are elite products of American universities and tend to be more left-leaning than the general public. That is particularly the case with respect to President Obama’s 335 judicial appointees, many of them — like Obama himself, as well as Vance and Stewart — philosophically resistant to incarceration as a response to crime. We can certainly repeal mandatory minimums, but if we do, it will vest those judges with unfettered discretion to mete out punishment...

Sessions is Numero Uno in my book. I was bummed upon hearing the talk of his possible resignation. We really need this guy at the helm over there. He's MAGA.

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