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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Gore Vidal dead at 86




I was not a fan of Gore Vidal (especially his politics).  But RIP.

Update:  Breitbart has this obit

Update II:  Huffington Post has some Vidal quotes:
I seriously doubt Vidal was the first to say "No good deed goes unpunished."  But this quote is interesting:
"There is no such thing as a homosexual or a heterosexual person. There are only homo- or heterosexual acts. Most people are a mixture of impulses if not practices."
– Gore Vidal
Update III:  Bob Belvedere


White House communications director apologizes to Charles Krauthammer over Churchill Gate, but no correction from Little Green Liars...

That Churchill Gate controversy?  Even the White House admits:  Krauthammer was right.

But no correction from Little Green Footballs Liars for this post four days ago:


Chuckles the Little Green (with Envy) Blogging Clown wants to change the topic.

Update:  The Virginian know a lie when he hears it...

The White House ties itself up in knots over lying about Barack Obama sending the Winston Churchill bust back to Great Britain...

Despite the WH lies on this, Barack Obama did send the Churchill bust back
to the British in 2009 when he took office...
The Blogmocracy sums the White House clown act well:
If it were not so pathetic, the amateurism of this White House would actually be funny. Let’s face it – Obama hates Winston Churchill, who although a God awful military strategist, was our firm friend and an anti-Communist. For third world liberationists such as Barack Obama father and son, Churchill was an imperialist and they prefer to admire people such as Mao Zedong.
All of this was prompted by Mitt Romney saying he would look forward to the bust being back.  Hoping to use their press allies to trash Mitt Romney's over seas trip, the White House went on the attack.  The Barack Obama White House has been anti British, but does not like being called on it.   

Happy 100th Birthday Milton Friedman

This clip never gets old.  I love how Milton Friedman skewers Phil Donahue with such civility and logic.  


More thought on Milton Friedman's centennial from:
The Blogmocracy
Instapundit
WSJ

Update:
Legal Insurrection goes with Greed too!  And Professor Jacobson reminds us of the opposite from Obama-Warren-Lakoff.
National Review does an article on Professor Freedom

Kristi Yamaguchi endorses Mitt Romney

Monday, July 30, 2012

Barack Obama's Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is praying for rain...

Now this is stimulating! You should be curious about this...

Curiosity is about to land on Mars!  
h/t to Instapundit for reminding us of what is important!

Still flying...

Olympics Rule 5: Suddenly everyone is a field hockey fan!

Given the success of the first London 2012 Olympic week Rule 5 submissions for today's Rule 5 Monday, the blogosphere cries out for more: 

Fatima Moreira de Melo, field hockey, The Netherlands
The Netherlands' woman field hockey team.  Talk about a deep talent bench!
Who knew field hockey could be this exciting!


Given how we love field hockey:  Let's not forget Argentina!  Dan Collins did not!  
However in a Special Rule 5 report, Bob Belvedere shows why water polo needs much greater attention!  Stacy McCain immediately recognizes the genius of this post.

Blogger Kudos! Ace of Spades and JohnE outdo themselves: A tale of two covers...

Newsweek goes out of its way to show how in the bag they are for Barack Obama.  Ace and Ace contributor John E respond appropriately.

Funky Houses

I love boulders and erratics and I want this house.  

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Drink up, it is good for you! Mayor Bloomberg knows best.

Big Gulp!  

Mayor Bloomberg will make you do the right thing...

Bloomberg knows best!

I need to work on my photo editing skills, but you get the point.  

Chick-fil-A: Now New York City Democratic politicians showing who can be the biggest idiot...

Old Glory still standing at most Apollo lunar landing sites...




Good to know:
An enduring question ever since the manned moon landings of the 1960s has been: Are the flags planted by the astronauts still standing?
Now, lunar scientists say the verdict is in from the latest photos of the moon taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera(LROC): Most do, in fact, still stand.
"From the LROC images it is now certain that the American flags are still standing and casting shadows at all of the sites, except Apollo 11," LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson wrote in a blog post today(July 27). "Astronaut Buzz Aldrin reported that the flag was blown over by the exhaust from the ascent engine during liftoff of Apollo 11, and it looks like he was correct!"
More thoughts on the current condition of the lunar flags.
We need to plant some more of these.  And not just on the moon.  

Five year old feral girl found living with herd of cows in Russia...

Max Liebermann, Girl With Cows
I can relate to this story...

A five-year-old child has been found living with cows in the Russian countryside – unable to speak and only capable of communicating through mooing noises.

h/t:  Rio Norte Line

Did Valerie Jarrett almost let Osama bin Laden get away?

Never Forget: Munich 1972

Israel Athlete Delegation, Munich Olympics, 1972
Never Forget


Update:  

Barack Obama on gun control: Too accurate not not share!

A Train Wreck in Maxwell found this...

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Why don't people like Mitt Romney?

Dan Riehl asks:  Why don't people like Mitt Romney?  
Given the status of the economy and the failed policies of Barack Obama, this election should not be close (of course historically Jimmy Carter was beating Ronald Reagan in the polls right up to the end, so we should not be panicking yet).  Yet if the election happened today, Mitt Romney would probably lose.  Right now (while it is close) Romney does not have Ohio, Florida, or Virginia (and without those states it will be close to impossible for him to win).

Mitt Romney is playing things way too safe.  If the strategy is to start his sprint in September and October...okay (I have my doubts about waiting).  Given how unfair the media are with Romney (London comes to mind, but going back to the dog/roof thing too), I understand the caution...but Mitt Romney needs to show some faith and frankly some balls and be the happy warrior taking on Obama and the lame stream media.  We saw a glimpse of it, so we know Romney is capable of it.  We need to see more of taking the offense and less caution.

Update:
As goes Missouri, so goes the nation?  From your post to God's ears!
Stella Baskomb in TOM comments sums up what has to happen:

"Romney's going to have to smear Obama bad and fight a dirty fight if he's going to win Ohio."
In other words, Romney will  have to actually QUOTE Obama and CITE HIS RECORD.
Yes, a despicable tactic fer shur.
Obama:  If the election were today I would win... 

The International Olympic Committee are hypocrites and the games are a sham in pandering to the prejudices and hatreds of certain groups...

Black September Terrorist and Murderer, Munich 1972
If the IOC cannot acknowledge murdering Israeli athletes as being wrong, what really is the point?
And as Instapundit has noted it is not like they are even trying to move forward.  The International Olympic Committee continues to pander to the prejudices and hatreds of others, wishing the Israelis would just go away:
Still today the IOC stubbornly insists on the games’ apolitical nature, despite all evidence to the contrary. This is the reason it has refused to observe a minute of silence for the victims of the 1972 Munich massacre, despite the intense lobbying of President Obama, the German Bundestag, the Canadian national legislature, the Knesset and just about every Jewish congregation in the world. But the IOC doesn’t want to taint the games with the quotidian ugliness of politics. It would spoil the fun—and remind everyone of just how political the games are. (For some reason though it didn’t object to a tattered US flag from the World Trade Center appearing in the opening ceremony at the 2002 Salt Lake City winter games. Could it have anything to do with the nationality of the victims?)
What really is the point of these games if they cannot condemn or even recognize evil anymore?  If the Muslim countries boycotted over a moment of silence, well the IOC response should be "don't let the door hit you on the way out." That would be their decision, not the policy of the IOC.

Update:  Why the IOC won't mention the 1972 Olympics...  A must see film on how poor the response was at Munich.

Vote for your favorite Rule 5 Olympian

Friday, July 27, 2012

Scientist control monkey brains with light?

Instapundit posts this link on controlling monkey brains with light...

I know a place where they do it with lights, sounds and free drinks:

If an Olympic Opening Ceremony happens without North American television or live streaming coverage...

Did it even happen?  Oh wait, we can see it though the magic of on line newspapers!

I did hear it was raining.  Maybe London's Mayor can figure out a way to blame Mitt Romney for that...
Update:  Olympic Opening Ceremony, 1948

Mass murder without guns? Actually even now fire and explosives are the weapons of choice of most mass murderers.

Maria Bartiromo and Barney Frank get in a cat fight on CNBC...

Boston's Democratic Mayor Tom Menino, he hates that Chick-fil-A for its opposition to same sex marriage, but he gave an Islamic group that supports executing homosexuals over $1.8 million in public land to build a mosque...

Maybe Mayor Tom Menino should be supporting a new poultry restaurant in Boston that serves crow!  


I understand why he likes Barack Obama:  You can almost hear him going braaaack, braaaack, braaack!
Being a Democrat is never having to say you are sorry:
Given his stance on Chick-fil-A, would Mayor Tom Menino grant permits to a group that has counted among its leaders a man who has repeatedly called homosexuality a “crime that must be punished” by death?
Actually, he has done that  . . . and more! Menino effectively gave away city land valued at $1.8 million to the organization, and he gave a speech at its ribbon-cutting ceremony.
It’s the Islamic Society of Boston’s mosque, and when it comes to anti-gay sentiment, one of its early supporters makes Chick-fil-A look like the Provincetown Men’s Chorus.

h/t:  Betsy Woodruff at The Corner

Update:
Instapundit is also on the case.  Here too.

Mark Steyn:
Why did the chicken cross the gays?
The tolerance enforcers...

Yet, when it comes to fighting homophobia on Boston’s Freedom Trail, His Honor is highly selective. As the Boston Herald’s Michael Graham pointed out, Menino is happy to hand out municipal licenses to groups whose most prominent figures call for gays to be put to death. The mayor couldn’t have been more accommodating (including giving them $1.8 million of municipal land) of the new mosque of the Islamic Society of Boston, whose IRS returns listed as one of their seven trustees Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Like President Obama, Imam Qaradawi’s position on gays is in a state of “evolution”: He can’t decide whether to burn them or toss ’em off a cliff. “Some say we should throw them from a high place,” he told Al Jazeera. “Some say we should burn them, and so on. There is disagreement. . . . The important thing is to treat this act as a crime.” Unlike the deplorable Mr. Cathy, Imam Qaradawi is admirably open-minded: There are so many ways to kill homosexuals, why restrict yourself to just one? In Mayor Menino’s Boston, if you take the same view of marriage as President Obama did from 2009 to 2012, he’ll run your homophobic ass out of town. But, if you want to toss those godless sodomites off the John Hancock Tower, he’ll officiate at your ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Even Mayor Bloomberg is criticizing Tom Menino.



Mark Steyn has Penn State Climate Change Researcher Michael "The Hockey Stick graph" Mann fired up...

This is the Corner article that has Michael Mann all fired up.  It is not like Mark Steyn thought up the analogy involving Michael Mann molesting climate change data like Jerry Sandusky molested children (both of them were at Penn State).
If an institution is prepared to cover up systemic statutory rape of minors, what won’t it cover up? Whether or not he’s “the Jerry Sandusky of climate change”, he remains the Michael Mann of climate change, in part because his “investigation” by a deeply corrupt administration was a joke.
Now Mann is saying he will sue Steyn.  Really?  For what exactly?  If Mann gets any hotter he might actually cause some global warming!  

Summer Olympics, London 2012 V

Victoria Pendleton, cycling, Great Britain

For Rule 5 and for sport...

Summer Olympics, London 2012 IV

Luciana Aymar, field hockey, Argentina
Rule 5 demands we recognize greatness...

Summer Olympics, London 2012 III

Leryn Franco, javelin throw, Paraguay
I do this for the spirit of sports and for Rule 5.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

RIP Ric Locke

This does suck.   We all knew he was ill, but we were hoping and pulling he would beat the odds.  Unfortunately (if this report is true) he had an aggressive cancer.  Rest in Peace.


Update from Jeff Goldstein:   
Afraid it looks like the news of Ric’s passing is true. It would be great to find and compile his best comments posted here on pw.  He was a very sharp dude, and we have lost a true happy warrior.  My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.
Update:
More from Dan Collins and Zilla.
A statement from Ric's son.  The memorial service will be in Mineral Wells, Texas with a date and time to be announced.
Serr8d reminds us of infinity and beyond...

Summer Olympics, London 2012 II

Alex Morgan, soccer, USA

Rule 5 must be followed.  

Summer Olympics, London 2012 I

Melanie Adams, pole vault, Australia 

I am generally not a big fan of the Olympics, but I felt obliged to post something on it if only for Rule 5.

Conflict of Interest: Attorney General Eric Holder and Jon Corzine!



Jon Corzine
Lost more than a billion dollars
and protected by fellow Democrats

Attorney General Eric Holder
Mexican gun runner, protects Black Panthers
from voter intimidation charges
, and partisan hack
















What do these two kids have in common (other than being Democrats), well Eric Holder's law firm represented Jon Corzine's company  MF Global.

No wonder there has been no real investigation or action on Jon Corzine losing over a billion dollars of investors' money.  Despite the fact Jon Corzine was shown to have directed his employees to transfer money out of client accounts and Corzine lied about it to Congress.

These two are almost like a Separated at Birth.

Update:
Justice Department nepotism...
Eric Holder is Jon Corzine's Get Out of Jail Free Card

Separated at Birth: Boston Mayor Tom Menino and...? Update: Turns out Tom Menino gave public land to certain religious group that wants to execute homosexuals...

Mayor Tom Menino
idiot

a chicken
delicious













Both produce chicken manure.

Update:  It gets better.  Tom Menino gave public land to an Islamic group to build a mosque.  Turns out they are a tad harder on gays than Chick-fil-A, they support executing homosexuals.  Opps!  Did Chicken ("Not so Little Gut") Menino speak out against that?  Nah, being a Democrat is never having to say you are sorry:
Given his stance on Chick-fil-A, would Mayor Tom Menino grant permits to a group that has counted among its leaders a man who has repeatedly called homosexuality a “crime that must be punished” by death?
Actually, he has done that  . . . and more! Menino effectively gave away city land valued at $1.8 million to the organization, and he gave a speech at its ribbon-cutting ceremony.
It’s the Islamic Society of Boston’s mosque, and when it comes to anti-gay sentiment, one of its early supporters makes Chick-fil-A look like the Provincetown Men’s Chorus.
Fortunately there are those on the left who get how stupid Menino is being:
The government blocking a business from opening based on the owner’s political views is a clear threat to everyone’s freedom of speech—being unpopular doesn’t mean you don’t have rights. It’s only by protecting the rights of those whose views we find odious that we can hope to secure them for ourselves.
The Atlantic is also criticizing Menino on this.

Maybe Tom Menino would support a new restaurant in Boston serving crow.  

Separated at Birth: Elizabeth Warren and...? Update with Tribe Warren HQ and other inclusive organizations!

Elizabeth Warren
Make Believe Cherokee

L. Ron Hubbard
Make Believe Blackfoot


















Update Bonus Picture (Elizabeth Warren with her campaign volunteers):
Thank goodness for a couple of black dudes or
I might have gone blind from the glaring whiteness of it all...

Come to think of it, Scientology is pretty white racist too.

So far the best argument about gun control...

Whenever something like the Aurora, Colorado shooting takes place, we have a national debate on gun control.  Of course, when it comes to deranged person set on committing mayhem, gun control will not stop it.  The shootings by Behring Breivik in Norway (which has very strict gun control) show that.  Such people do not care about the law and will work to get around it.  All the chiding by Bill Moyers and other leftist scolds will not change that.  

Selwyn Duke at American Thinker does a great job addressing the issue generally and sums it up with a well known apocryphal saying:  God made some men big and others small, but Samuel Colt made them equal.


And putting it another way:   "An armed society is a polite society."  Robert Heinlein

Superman Man of Steel 2013




Wednesday, July 25, 2012

This controversy over Chick-fil-A is getting weirder and disturbing...

As you can guess, EBL loves this advertising campaign...
I do make spelling mistakes, but I can spell better than these cows
I have never been to a Chick-fil-A.  But any place encouraging people to stop eating beef is okay with me.  But apparently Dan Cathy of Chick-fil-A supports traditional marriage (he is not for same sex marriage).  Okay, you can disagree with that if you wish.  If you do not want to patronize this business as an individual that is your right too.  Well that has prompted the Mayor of Boston and a Chicago Alderman (Democrats of course) to try to use the power of government to block Chick-fil-A.

Those government decisions are insane.  Government officials should not be banning chicken places because they disagree with the political views of that business' management.  Aren't the Mayor of Boston and this Chicago Alderman violating their oath which included upholding the U.S. Constitution (remember that free speech part).  Not so long ago, Barack Obama shared Dan Cathy's views.  This is not just a disagreement over the merits of same sex marriage (and full disclosure I would vote for same sex marriage and support it).  But any politician proposing to block a business on this basis should be (at a minimum) run out of office and probably prosecuted for illegally using the power of their office.  Many people disagree on same sex marriage.  Citizens have a right to disagree on this issue.

Update:
This is how fascism works...
So what are Chicago values?
Nation of Islam can open a restaurant in Chicago, but not Chick-fil-A?
More from Protein Wisdom
The Bonfire of the Chick-fil-A
Oh the hypocrisy:  Obama campaign staffers still eating at Chick-fil-A

Is the Aurora, Colorado shooter James Holmes faking mental illness?


Obviously shooting a movie theater full of strangers is depraved and not normal.  But legal insanity means (generally) being unable to tell wrong from right.  The burden is on the accused shooter to do so if he uses insanity as a defense.  As a neurology graduate student, the shooter is familiar with the clinical standards for insanity.  Which raises the question on whether his recent behavior is being done intentionally to help an insanity defense.  His body language seems feigned.
He stayed silent throughout the appearance at Arapahoe County Court and at times appeared as if he was under heavy medication.But a jail employee has claimed that the 12-minute catatonic appearance was an act, not the result of any drugs.'We don’t just hand out meds,' the Arapahoe County Detention Center worker told the New York Daily News. 'It just doesn’t work like that. If he was acting sleepy, he was faking it.
There is also being able to reasonably assist defense counsel.  If the shooter is found mentally unable to do so, the court may delay the trial until he is well enough to assist (and could even force him to treatment and to take medication to gain lucidity).  

Update:  Shooter sent University psychiatrist details of this attack in advance?    Unfortunately it appears it was not opened or delivered (the police just found it).  

RIP Sherman Hemsley

Monday, July 23, 2012

Ichiro Suzuki to the Yankees? I did not see that coming!

Seattle getting two pitchers and paying the Yankees cash?  
Granted Ichiro's skills are declining and he must be sick of being on a loser team that has not been a contender for ten years. But I did not see this coming.  Ichiro is a big draw for Japanese fans (who travel to Seattle just to see him). Given Nintendo's ownership of the Mariners, such a move did not seem likely.

Of course, there is the wisdom of Ichiro:
"Chicks who dig home runs aren't the ones who appeal to me. I think there's sexiness in infield hits because they require technique. I'd rather impress the chicks with my technique than with my brute strength. Then, every now and then, just to show I can do that, too, I might flirt a little by hitting one out." New York Times (August 22, 2009)
"I'm told I either look bigger than I do on television or that I look smaller than I look on television. No one seems to think I look the same size." Tacoma News Tribune (May 23, 2001)
“To tell the truth, I’m not excited to go to Cleveland, but we have to. If I ever saw myself saying I’m excited going to Cleveland, I’d punch myself in the face, because I’m lying.” Stone, Larry. Mariners Notebook. Seattle Times (June 11, 2007)
Maybe the Yankees picked up Ichiro as a Japanese replacement for Yogi Berra.
Say what you will:  262 hits in 2004  Granted this is sort of like Willie Mays playing for the Mets.  But my guess is Ichiro will have a great rest of the year with the Yankees.

Update:

Ichiro says his first day with the Yankees was "a wonderful day to experience."  Which I assume means, "glad I am not with those losers!"

Update:  Such a deal!  For the Yankees.  For the Mariners, more of why they suck (hint:  poor management, just like the U.S. economy and lack luster recovery is due to poor management).  

So how is that Egyptian Arab Spring going? A television guest gets violent when pranked about being on Israeli TV.



Update:  The clip is available here.  

Now that we are into the summer...so how is that Arab Spring going?

Really what is there to add?  The video really speaks for itself.  And I do not dislike the premise of the television show, what I dislike is the outrageous actions of the "guest" who reveals himself.

h/t:  Gateway Pundit and MEMRI TV

Update:  He does look like Little Steven's Brother.  

RIP Sally Ride: First American woman in space passes away at age 61




RIP Ride Sally Ride  It is a guess on my part, but I would guess with her name and age she liked this song.

Update:
More from Legal Insurrection
All American Blogger
Popular Science

ABC News: Misquoted mother of slayer in initial reports...




Given the previous shameful acts of Brian Ross, George Stephanopoulos and ABC News, why am I not surprised....
"This statement is to clarify a statement made by ABC media. I was awakened by a call from a reporter by ABC on July 20 about 5:45 in the morning. I did not know anything about a shooting in Aurora at that time," Holmes said in a statement this afternoon, read to the national press by attorney Lisa Damiani. "He asked if I was Arlene Holmes and if my son was James Holmes who lives in Aurora, Colorado. I answered yes, you have the right person. I was referring to myself."
I do not have any sympathy for the accused, but misquoting his mother is wrong and represents shoddy reporting. Obviously just another hack ABC reporter following the low standard set by Brian Ross and George Stephanopoulos.

Update:  
An observation.  To some of the left who wish they could spark some gun control out of this, Behring Breivik lived in a country (Norway) with strict gun control.  That did not seem to stop him from pulling off his attack.
Even Jon Stewart is mocking you Brian Ross...