Monday Links

Some things going on out there:

From the Sporting News, Major League Baseball hands out 50-games suspensions to 12 players, and a much longer one to Alex Rodriguez.

From the Washington Post, a 15 million-year-old whale skull has been found on the banks of the Potomac, near the birthplace of Robert E. Lee.

Speaking of the Washington Post, it will soon be sold to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com.

From Bare Naked Islam, Egypt has banned Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan from entering Gaza.  (via Barracuda Brigade)

From Frontpage Mag, the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir admits their belief that Sharia law is imposed on Christians.

From the Washington Free Beacon, the new Iranian president Hassan Rowhani has appointed a holocaust denier as his country's foreign minister.  This, of course, makes his no worse than Rowhani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  (via Pat Dollard)

From the Daily Caller, a conservative group has given their support to the Justice Safety Valve Act.

The American Thinker presents "The Dependably Unfaithful Colin Powell".

From Fox News, the U.S. military is spending $772 million on aircraft for Afghanistan, for which the Afghan military does not have the capacity "to operate or maintain".

From Reuters, a unit of the Drug Enforcement Agency is funneling information to authorities across the United States to help them start criminal investigations.

From the New York Post, the new owner of the Drake's Cakes brands has announced that Coffee Cakes, Devil Dogs, Ring Dings and Yodels will return next month.

And to finish with some humor, my blogosphere buddy Holger Awakens presents the Dem's poster boy.

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Weiner Gets Pranked

"INTERNS WANTED" says the bogus flyer for the campaign of mayoral candidate and former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY).  In order to qualify, the flyer continues, you must not be a cop, a snitch or a "slutbag", the insult hurled at a former intern after she left.

Read the story at the New York Post.

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Turnabout Is Fair Play

Remember about two weeks ago, when station KTVU mis-identified Asiana Airlines personnel with some obviously fake names, such as "Sum Ting Wong", after an Asiana jet crash-landed?  Well, after the crash-landing of a Southwest Airlines plane at La Guardia Airport in New York, a Korean news outlet has shown us that such humor is a two-way street.  (Both links come from Slothed.)

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Thursday Links

A few stories and things going on:

From the Times Of Israel, an Arab member of the Knesset claims that Secretary of State John Kerry has promised that Israel will release all of its pre-Oslo prisoners so that peace talks resume.

From Natural News, the rover Curiosity is finding evidence that a "catastrophic event" stripped away the Martian atmosphere about 4 billion years ago.

From The College Fix, ten College Republicans were denied entry to President Obama's speech at Missouri Central University, even though they had bought tickets.  (via National Review Online)

From the Tampa Tribune, one of the jurors in the George Zimmerman trial says that he "got away with murder", but that there wasn't enough evidence under Florida law to convict him.

From the New York Post, there's a lake at the North Pole.

From the New York Daily News, former Congressman and current mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has admitted to more online relationships.  This comes via Gateway Pundit, with some video of comedians giving Weiner some well-deserved ribbing.

From Fox News, Mrs. Weiner, a.k.a. Huma Abedin is facing questions about working part-time for the government while also working as a consultant for Teneo.

Also from Fox News, a majority of voters now doubts that immigration reform will ever happen.  This, of course, is good or bad, depending on how you define "immigration reform".

From Russia Today, Great Britain is putting up ads telling illegal immigrants to go home or be arrested.  Now there's a bit of immigration reform I could get behind.

From Creeping Sharia, Crayola(dot)com celebrates Ramadan.

From Business Insider, Halliburton will plead guilty to destroying evidence relating to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

And from The Guardian, the newest heir to the British throne has been named George Alexander Louis.  The announcement of his name was relatively quick compared to other royal babies, such as his father and grandfather after their respective births.  Britain has had six kings ruling under the name George, the most recent being Queen Elizabeth's father.  Louis was the name of Prince Philip's uncle, Lord Mountbatten.

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Prancercise

Prancercise is an exercise system developed by woman in Florida named Joanna Rohrback, who was inspired by movements of horses.  Even so, she's actually against horse-riding.  Because her YouTube video uses some music that sounds like an instrumental version of Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon, some YouTube imitators have used Zevon's original song in their send-ups.  These people call themselves the First Decents, and apparently wish to organize a Prancercise 5K.

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Tuesday Links

Some recent news and opinion:

From ABC News, according to a study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 42% of Americans don't know that Obamacare is the law.

In Townhall, John Hawkins gives us 30 reasons to dislike President Obama.

From Breitbart's Big Government, Tea Party Patriots gets ready to rally against the "Gang of Eight" immigration bill.

From the Washington Free Beacon, extremists with ties to Al Qaeda have been using the Boston area as a base ever since 1993.

From Yahoo News, many in the Muslim world want Sharia as the official law of their lands.

From The Examiner, a study finds that over a quarter million Somalis have died from famine and terrorism.

From The Blaze, the FDA has approved over-the-counter sales the "morning after" pill - to girls as young as 15.

From the Washington Post, some officials say that Obama is "moving toward" sending weapons to Syrian rebels.

The American Thinker asks, is Obama working hard or hardly working?

From CNS News, a Miami archbishop says that establishing gay marriage would spread "moral relativism" and eventually bring about tyranny.

The American Spectator tells the story of the "Pigs of Pigford".

From USA Today, a D.C. councilman has introduced a resolution calling for the Washington Redskins to change their name to the Redtails.

And from CBS Sports, San Diego cartoonist Steve Breen welcomes soon-to-be-Charger Manti Te'o.

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A Few Stories Before The Weekend

I'll shortly be heading out of town to visit my family over the Easter weekend.  Meanwhile, here are some things in the news:

From the Military Times, a U.N. arms trade treaty gets some opposition - from Iran and North Korea.

From CNN, a former U.S. soldier has been charged with firing an RPG in Syria.

From Prophecy News Watch, there are only 57 churches left in Iraq.

Business Insider reveals what is the most hacked mobile device.

From the Christian Science Monitor, actress Ashley Judd has decided against running for the Senate against Mitch McConnell (R-KY), but the Democrats have found another potential challenger.

From the New York Post, some artifacts belonging to the author William Faulkner will be auctioned off, including an unpublished story.

From Heritage Action, 75 Senators have voted for what might be called the "shop China bill".

From the Associated Press, the American economy grew at a 0.4% annual rate during the last quarter of 2012, up from a previous estimate of 0.1%.  (via Gateway Pundit)

The Washington Times reports that Food Stamp use has increased 70% during the Obama presidency.

From Natural News, that old saying about "an apple a day" is starting to make a lot of sense.

From Fox 8 in Cleveland, I tawt I taw a putty tat.

And from Duh Progressive, some satire aimed at the Mayor of New York.

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Tuesday News & Links

Some items recently in the news:

From ABC News, in California, environmentalists have proposed a bill that would ban lead ammunition.  (via Gateway Pundit)

From the Daily Caller, gay couples in Colorado will soon be able to have civil unions.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Missouri State House has passed a "conscience rights" bill.  (via the Rational Review News Digest)

Also from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a golfer becomes the victim of a very unusual hole-in-one.

From Israel Defense Forces, soldiers with special needs serve in the IDF.

From BBC News, Venezuela will investigate whether their recently-dead president was poisoned.

From MSN News, a "mysterious website" has allegedly hacked and leaked personal information about a variety of well-known people, including the current First Lady.

From Fox News, a New York City cop has been convicted of plotting to kill and eat women.

From Judicial Watch, the president has named the first "African American education czar", and given him the task of reducing "resegregation".  (via Weasel Zippers)

From the Washington Examiner, a picture showing the relative size of the Obamacare law and the regulations being derived it.

From Quartz, a Chinese provincial government is investigating Coca Cola for illegal mapping.

And from Crashdaily, some sequesterial satire.  (What would be the adjective corresponding to the verb or noun "sequester"?  "Sequestrial"?  "Sequesteral"? "Sequestrian"?)

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We're NASA And We Know It

Some geeky musical satire about the Mars Curiosity Rover and its NASA operators back on earth:

This video came out about 6 months ago, but I only ran across it earlier today.  Other than a YouTube channel, I don't anything about its source.

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Sunday News & Links

A few items in the news:

From the Jerusalem Post, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu states in a cabinet meeting that the primary objective of the newly-elected government will be "to stop the weaponization of Iran's nuclear program".

From Newsbusters, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao blasts President Obama's blaming the Republicans for the state of the economy.

From the Guardian, the Internet's creator says that American democracy has been hacked.

From Guns(dot)com, one of the last interviews by former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who was shot and killed yesterday at a gun range in Texas.

From Breitbart's Big Government, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) backs off on his defense of Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), accused of messing around with underage prostitutes in Colombia.

Let's give Harry a two-fer.  From Breitbart's Big Journalism, Senator Reid admits that he has not read Senator Diane Feinstein's (D-CA) proposed gun legislation.

From the New York Post, city council Speaker Christine Quinn (D) has been filling in on some ceremonial appearances for Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R), whom she hopes to succeed.

From Renew America, a list of military exercises in American cities.

From the Charlotte Observer, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Vonta Leach gives back to his home town of Rowland, NC.

And to finish with some hilarity from Duh Progressive, the career of  famous weather-forecasting groundhog Punxsutawney Phil has come to an end.

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Presidential Insects

During 2004, President Bush was apparently attacked by a cicada.

But more recently, all President Obama got was a fly.

(Disclaimer:  I don't know where this photo came from or even if it's authentic.  It would be one thing to be a proverbial "fly on the wall" during an Obama cabinet meeting, but being a fly on the president's forehead would be something else indeed.)

Update:  As it turns out, the picture is real, and appeared in Yahoo News.

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Monday News And Notes

A few news items and a bit of humor:

From the Los Angeles Times, despite some new information on the death of Natalie Wood (1938-1981), the LA County Sheriff's Department says that the evidence is insufficient to show homicide.

From the Daily Mail, the story of a British woman who decided against aborting her severely disabled baby, who sadly lived just 9 hours after being born.  (via Life Site News)

From NBC News Vitals, research that marijuana use lowers IQ is challenged by a new study pointing to other factors.

From the Dallas Morning News, George P. Bush, who intends to run for Texas Land Commissioner, has raised $1.3 million for his campaign in the past two months.  He is the son of Jeb Bush, nephew of George W. Bush and grandson of George H.W. Bush.

From the Examiner, another relative of an American president is running for office.  The president's brother Malik Obama is running for governor in Saiya, Kenya.

From the Daily Caller, Representative Steve Stockman (R-Texas) says that he will go as far as filing articles of Impeachment to prevent President Obama from implementing gun control by executive order.  (What's this, a Republican with a spine?  What's going on here?)

From Creative Minority Report, three Massachusetts men were arrested after throwing punches and smashing furniture - at a baby shower.

From CBS New York, State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-64th District) says that the state legislature will "ban assault weapons".

And from Jimmy Kimmel, Los Angeles overreacts to the recent cold snap.

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White House: Sorry, No Death Star

In response to the petition submitted last month which called for the federal government to build a Death Star, the White House has released a statement denying the request.  According to the Obama administration's science and space adviser Paul Shawcross, building a Death Star would cost about $850 quadrillion, "at a time that the White House is working to reduce the federal budget".  (They want to "reduce" the budget?  Please excuse me for second while I roll my eyes.)  He also indicated that the administration "does not support blowing up planets."

Read the story at SFGate and CBS News.

If our intentions do not include blowing up planets, what would we do with our own Death Star?  We could, perhaps, park it above a city known for being a sanctuary for illegal aliens.  You want aliens?  Here you go:

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15 Reasons To Hate Notre Dame Or Alabama

Outkick the Coverage has published their lists of 15 reasons to hate each of the two schools playing for the BCS football championship, or what is often called the MNC, which stands for "mythical national championship", since in Division I, Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A), the two teams which get to play for it are chosen by a complicated system of polls and computer ratings, and not by any playoff system or tournament.

An excerpt about Alabama:

You've got to start with the Bama Bangs haircut.
How can an entire state adopt the most feminine haircut in the country? Even more of an indictment, how can women sleep with these men? That's even more ridiculous.
Somehow Alabama is to blame for Justin Bieber.

And an excerpt about Notre Dame:

You are the most ridiculously overhyped team in all of sports.
At least teams like the Yankees, and the Celtics, and the Lakers actually win games. The last time you were ranked at the end of the season was 2006.
Since 1995, Notre Dame has won two bowl games.
That's the same number as Vanderbilt.

Click on the first link above and read the entire lists.  For even more fun, read the comments, too.

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Some Things Never Change

On the last day of 2008, Gary Varvel published this cartoon about Hamas and its practice of launching rockets at Israel from Gaza, and Israel's retaliation.  As the saying goes, "same [bleep], different day".

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Links For A Rainy Day

Here in Maryland, Sandy is giving us some wind and rain, along with a case of cabin fever due to lots of things being closed down.  But fortunately, my cyber-connection to the outside world so far remains unscathed, thus allowing me to pass on some stories.

From the New York Post, updates about Hurricane Sandy.

From Fox News, Sandy is expected to bring a "life-threatening" storm surge.

From Yahoo News, here's one part of the federal government that will not shut down today - the Marines guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns.

From Twitchy, Sandy has produced an outbreak of fake photos (possibly including the one in the above story about the Marines, which was taken during an earlier storm).  If you have a picture you'd like to put on Twitter, please make sure it's real.

From the Huffington Post, photos (real, I hope) of the damage from Hurricane Sandy in Atlantic City, NJ.

From the Duffel Blog and the "Did I read that correctly?" department, in response to Hurricane Sandy, the Veteran's Affairs Department will close down their facilities "west of the Mississippi River".

From the Washington Post, the HMS Bounty, which has appeared in two films, has sunk off the coast of North Carolina.

From the Wall Street Journal, President Obama hints at appointing a Secretary of Business if he wins a second term.

From Life Site News, this past Saturday over 200 students from Christendom College in Virginia protested in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic not far from the White House.

From the Miami Herald, the 12-year-old daughter of Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is back home after being hospitalized with a head injury suffered in a golf cart accident.

From Breitart's Big Journalism, the Obama campaign gets testy with reporters.

From the Daily Caller, a congressional report puts the blame for Fast and Furious on several senior Justice Department officials.

From France 24, car bombs strike Damascus, Syria.

To finish up, a bit of hurricane humor from StixBlog.

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Dubya Weighs In

After all the times that Teh One^TM has blamed his predecessor for his troubles, former president Bush the Younger finally has an answer to Barry's accusations.  Dubya's not exactly defending himself, but I think reply is valid nonetheless.

(Found in a TwitPic somewhere on Twitter)

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Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

From rightwing musician and Fox News contributor Steven Crowder, and quickly brought to my attention on Twitter, the Obama Change Song:

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Presidential Quotes

Shamelessly pilfered from a pic posted on Twitter.  A comparison of Obama's most notable recent saying with one each from three of his predecessors.

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That's What It's All About

Up there on the red planet, Curiosity gets ready to do the Hokey Pokey and turn itself around.  Of course, I like to use a different spelling and call it the Hokie Pokie.  From Wired:

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