The Devil made me do it....

Danish 'Youths': Police Made Us Riot

The “youths” who have been rioting in Copenhagen for 9 days have written a letter explaining that they were forced to smash windows and burn cars, by the “brutal, racist, insulting” Danish police: Youths say police harassment triggered unrest in Denmark.

No, life's not fair, is it?

Michael Weiss wonders if Obama gets cut a bit too much slack

Of the many and disturbing pathologies of Richard Nixon, none was greater than his anger at what John F. Kennedy could get away with but he himself could not. If Hillary Clinton does lose the nomination to Barack Obama, we should expect a shattered woman to grit her way through a pro forma party endorsement, all the while obsessing about how the nation’s prolonged honeymoon with Obama ended a few weeks too late to help her.

Call Al Sharpton...

Always apologize, always explain, or, Why Intellectuals like Genocide:

"Benjamin Disraeli is one eminent statesman credited with the advice “Never apologize, never explain.” (Sometimes emended to “Never apologize, never explain, never repeat the mistake.”) Whatever the limitations of the policy, it at least avoids the cloying, hothouse atmosphere of unremitting pseudo-contrition that oozes like a fetid gas into the crowded chambers in which liberals rub up against one another in their little orgies of self-congratulation. (“We are guilty, guilty, guilty, and therefore virtuous.”)"

The press as cowards...

Christopher Hitchens

...the most insidious enemy is the cowardly journalist and editor who doesn't need to be told what to do, because he or she has already internalized the need to please—or at least not to offend—the worst tyranny of all, which is the safety-first version of public opinion.

The Times does it again...

Charlie Foxtrot: The Mason-Confusion Line:

"The bottom line is that the NYT has proven once again that is should do some hiring outside of its echo chamber. Simple research would prove the statement 'Johnson’s great mastery was to get the support of Southern Republicans' to be bunk. Not only were there no Southern Republicans to speak of in those 10 aforementioned states, but the one from Texas joined his 20 Democratic colleagues from those states in opposing the final bill."

TigerHawk:

"The New York Times has imagined 'southern' Republican Senators who never existed, an error so fundamental that one is forced to wonder whether the Times has any actual editors. Or are they merely all under the age of 45 and entirely unschooled in political history?"

Read it...

20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life:

"I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it.” - Jack Handey"

Welcome to Apple....a Mac documentary is coming

Something to look forward to...

Gender Based Taxation (Domestic Policy):

"Gender Based Taxation (GBT) satisfies Ramsey’s optimal criterion by taxing less the more elastic labor supply of (married) women. This holds when different elasticities between men and women are taken as exogenous and primitive. But in this paper we also explore differences in gender elasticities which emerge endogenously in a model in which spouses bargain over the allocation of home duties. GBT changes spouses’ implicit bargaining power and induces a more balanced allocation of house work and working opportunities between males and females. Because of decreasing returns to specialization in home and market work, social welfare improves by taxing conditional on gender. When income sharing within the family is substantial, both spouses may gain from GBT."

Once the "progressives" are elected, you can count on more nonsense like this being shoved down your throat from the "Ministry of Information and Truth", or whatever other collective committees the geniuses decide to put together in order to determine what you future should be.

Where is the outrage?

Byron York asks:

"This is a party that went bonkers over the supposed – never proven or even convincingly alleged – disenfranchisement of a relatively tiny number of voters in Florida in 2000. This is a party in which some imagined conspiracies in Ohio in 2004 in which Karl Rove somehow personally hacked voting machines to assure George W. Bush's victory. And now black votes are ignored in New York, at least initially, and more than two million votes are ignored in Florida and Michigan, and are we hearing outraged accusations of malignant forces at work? If so, it's a pretty quiet outrage."

I am sure that no answer is forthcoming....

Why terrorism works...

Bracing for Revenge:

"Ten days after that, Mr. Mugniyah’s men blew up the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people and wounding more than 220. Two years later, in July of 1994, a suicide bomber struck at the offices of a Jewish community organization in Buenos Aires, killing 85. A joint investigation by Mossad and the Central Intelligence Agency uncovered clear evidence of Mr. Mugniyah’s involvement in all three bombings. The telephone monitors of the United States National Security Agency turned up “not a smoking gun, but a blazing cannon,” in the words of a Mossad official. A senior Hezbollah operative, Talal Hamiyah, was taped rejoicing with Mr. Mugniyah over “our project in Argentina” and mocking Israeli security services for not preventing it.

Ever since, the Israelis have been very cautious about assassinating Hezbollah leaders. Two weeks before Israel withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, military intelligence had Mr. Mugniyah in its sights. Mr. Barak, then prime minister, ruled out a hit, for what he claims were operational reasons, but he surely had the aftermath of the Musawi assassination in mind."

Amazing how this works....

Yesterday, during the Indiana/Michigan St. basketball game, the big topic of discussion was the fate of Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson. The ever obnoxious, loud and annoying Dick Vitale spent the entire game calling for Sampson's dismissal. But, by the time the game was over, and Indiana had put on a wonderful display of basketball (and a huge woopin' on the Spartans), I couldn't help but wonder if Sampson had found the ultimate weapon to avoid the inevitable - winning.

Confirming that and more, Bill Rhoden in today's NY Times becomes a Sampson apologist:

Let me make the case for Sampson to remain at Indiana. One more chance. He has clearly blundered — maybe twice. Once at the University of Oklahoma and now, according to an N.C.A.A. report, at Indiana, which hired him in 2006. In pursuit of players, Sampson cannot seem to keep his fingers off speed dial.

I guess that we shouldn't be all that surprised to see this. Winning makes up for a lot of faults, especially in collegiate athletics. But Rhoden's complete lack of transparency here is so glaring as to make me want to throw-up. Just a couple of days ago, he called for the immediate lynching (yes, I'll use the word here, it's perfect) of Roger Clemens even though there is a lack of corroborating evidence.

But Sampson is Native-American, and Rhoden is black, so maybe the rules are different, even though Sampson has clearly been caught with his hand in the till for the second time after being warned by his superiors before he even took the Indiana job! Again, blatant journalistic dishonesty at the Times rears its ugly head; or is Rhoden just part of the cult of winning? Either way, I'm not impressed.....Hoops, anyone?

Don't worry, there is no threat....

Reuters - Iran MPs want action over Dutch, Danish cartoons

"'We, representatives of the honorable Iranian nation, condemn this devil measure. We ask the president ... to seriously review Iran's political and trade ties with these countries,' the lawmakers said in the letter.

In the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, a leader of a militants' umbrella group called on Muslim faithful to attack Danish embassies and diplomats.

'Blow up the Danish embassies and kill the ambassadors,' Abu Abir, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), said at an open-air news conference in a Gaza square, where PRC members burnt a Danish flag.

'We urge (Islamist fighters) to track down those who printed the cartoons, those who drew them and those who published them and slaughter them immediately,' he said."

Could be huge....

Google Unveils the Apparent iPhone Rival

These Android Mobile Phones from Google, which are expected to go on sale later this year, has an operating system supported by an alliance of more than 30 mobile phone operators, handset makers, software firms and component manufacturers. It is slated to use Google as its web browser home page, Google Mail as its email application, and Google Maps for navigation.

Yeah, I couldn't help but smile a bit...

Keystone Kops in Damascus:

"Yet there is something deeply satisfying about the assassination of Islamofascist terror master Imad Mughniyeh before the stroke of midnight the other day in the central command post of Islamofascist movements inside Damascus, Syria."

You don’t need to defend yourself when you’re here, because we’ll protect you

JAY TEA HAS THOUGHTS ON GUN-FREE ZONES;

Nearly all of the mass shootings of late have been in "gun-free zones." And the ones that weren't -- at the New Life Church in Colorado and the Appalachian School of Law in Virginia -- were stopped by private citizens (and members of the community being attacked) with their own weapons.

Now for my second thought. If these places aren't going to get rid of their "gun-free zone" status, despite the overwhelming circumstantial evidence that they simply get more people killed, then how can they improve their security where it actually make the people inside safer?

I have a few ideas. And for the sake of simplicity, I'm going to apply them to a college.

Meanwhile, Nathan Moore is offering to represent anyone who wants to challenge Tennessee's rules against carry on campus.

UPDATE: "Lawyer up, kids!"

Image is everything...

"Yes, Nagasiva Yronwode is a man for our times. He just doesn't know it yet."

Don't get too excited...

UN Springs Into Action, Notices Palestinian Terrorism

Nearly a flying pig moment this morning, as a United Nations “humanitarian” functionary condemns Palestinian rocket attacks.

But the flying pig stays in the hangar, because at the end of it he just parrots more “peace process” fantasy-think.

Tedious or Tiresome?

The arrival of "EcoMoms."

Follow-up from Laura McKenna at PJM:

This article should come with two warning labels. One should explain that reporters from New York Times will discover trends based on the habits of two of their friends. The other warning label is that any article that includes the word "mom" or even better yet "suburban mom" will be dripping with sarcasm and eye rolling. They have written that mommy bloggers are narcissistic, that moms push around huge strollers that threaten to steamroll the single hipsters, that moms let their spoiled spawn invade their neighborhood bars and restaurants.

No kidding....

Megan McArdle:

"What most of us are really in favor of is higher taxes on other people. If we wanted higher taxes on ourselves, we'd give the money to charity."

Same ol', same ol'....

Captain's Quarters:

"But it's the notion that only Barack Obama can save our souls that is the most offensive part of the speech, by far. Government doesn't exist to save souls; it exists to ensure domestic tranquility and provide for the common defense. If I feel my soul needs saving, the very last place I'd look (in the US) for a savior would be Washington DC or Capitol Hill. I'll trust God and Jesus Christ with my soul, and I'm not going to mistake Barack Obama for either one."

Once again, we have the "politics as religion" notion invading the left and the Dems. Those who scream the loudest about the separation of church and state, and about how the Republicans are religious loons, seem to be the ones who have created a purely religious context for their political "crusade". It's why I do not trust them....

Michelle Malkin responds:

When Republicans talk about broken souls in the context of civil society, the nutroots start screaming about the obliteration of the church-state line.

When the Obama campaign uses the same rhetoric to get him elected to the White House, everyone swoons.