Another Monday Links Post

It looks like Monday is once again a good day for directing readers to stories recently in the news.  So without further ado, here we go:

From the Daily Mail, India has launched her first aircraft carrier.

From BBC News, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has won the presidential election in Mali.

Also from BBC News, gunmen in Nigeria have killed 44 people in a mosque.

From Fox News, if you're a man who likes to swim, and you live in or plan to visit the coastal areas of Denmark or Sweden, skinny dipping is not a good idea.

From Yahoo TV, racial discrimination claims in the lawsuit against Paula Deen have been dismissed.

From KABC, a rodeo clown has been permanently banned from the Missouri State Fair for wearing an Obama mask.

From Bizpac Review, a kid prays to the president.  Yes, that's right, to him, not for him.

From CNN, a sinkhole swallows part of a resort in Clermont, Florida.

From The Hill, the State Department has criticized Israel for approving the construction of new settlement homes.

From the Washington Post, Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that "low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with no ties to gangs or large-scale drug organizations" will no longer face mandatory minimum sentences.

From Today News, a Dutch prince has died after being in coma which resulted from being buried in an avalanche while skiing.

From NBC News, a federal judge has ruled that the New York City police department's practice of "stop and frisk" is unconstitutional.

From the Daily Caller, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has signed an election reform law that includes a photo ID requirement.

And from the News Observer, on August 15, the Carolina Mudcats will put on Carlos Danger Night.  For that game, anyone with a mustache, either real or fake, will be sold a box seat for just $5.  So if you're in or near Zebulon, North Carolina, get out that mustache and enjoy some Minor League baseball.

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Two Takes On Zimmerman And Martin

The first comes via Young Conservatives.  Bill Whittle tell us the story of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman the mainstream media didn't.  Warning:  The video includes some graphic images.

The other may be found at Liberty Works.  No video, just go over there and read it.

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Zimmerman Acquitted

Late yesterday evening, after I wrongly thought that the jury in the trial of George Zimmerman would adjourn for the day, they completed their deliberations and returned a verdict of "not guilty" of the charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Trayvon Martin.  They had earlier asked for some clarification about the manslaughter charge, causing some speculation that this would become their verdict, but this would not turn out to be the case.

From what facts that I could learn, the verdict is not surprising.  Zimmerman appeared all along to have had a credible case of self-defense.  He had injuries consistent with his story of Martin pummeling his face with his fists and slamming his head into the sidewalk.  Obviously, Zimmerman is the only person alive who knows for sure what happened that day.  Anyone who wants to disagree with the verdict has every right under the 1st Amendment to do so.  But in my opinion, it is very likely that the jury got it right.

Read more at USA Today, Fox News, NBC News, Yahoo News, ABC News and the Washington Post.

My opinion continues below the fold.



No matter what anyone thinks of the trial and the verdict, the death of Trayvon Martin is a tragedy.  His family deserves our sympathy.  The acquittal of George Zimmerman is not a cause for celebration, but for sobriety.  When the news of this killing went national, the president himself talked about a need for "soul-searching" and remarked that if he had a son, "he'd look like Trayvon."  In a sense, the president is right about soul-searching.  I don't know the numbers offhand, but every day in America, teenagers and young men who look like Trayvon Martin or like Barack Obama's hypothetical son are murdered or killed in justifiable self-defense homicides - but not by white racists, lynch mobs, overzealous cops, Hispanics or even "white Hispanics".  In over 90% of these incidents, they are killed by other teenagers or young men who look like Trayvon Martin or Obama's hypothetical son.  Yet, what makes national news are the relative minority of incidents in which the killer is not black.  We also largely ignore the violent crime by blacks against non-blacks, which is far more prevalent that the reverse, although still less frequent than black-on-black crime.  Here, indeed, is some cause for soul-searching, for the reasons we pay attention to the relatively infrequent demographic categories of crime and not those which are more frequent, thus painting a false picture.  Perhaps we could also do some soul-searching about why our very definitions of race are becoming politicized, such as why white liberal politician Elizabeth Warren can call herself "Native American" even though she has no such ancestry, and why a new classification was created so that a Hispanic man of Peruvian descent could be presented as the latest symbol of white racism against blacks.

In one sense, I am happy about this verdict.  A jury, to the extent that I can determine, decided this case on the facts and not race-inspired emotions.  There is still in this country a right to self-defense, without regard to the race and color of the attacker and defender.  And best of all, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Al Sharpton (who still clings to his Tawana Brawley hoax), the New Black Panthers (whom I regard as the KKK in reverse) and others who in various ways made this case into a cause celebré did not get get to influence the outcome.  A neighborhood watch volunteer who tried to protect his neighbors against burglary and had to shoot someone in self-defense, who was wrongly portrayed as a racist, will now hopefully get a chance to get on with his life.  I fear, however, that because of some people I've just mentioned, he might not get that chance.  Like it or not, this story is probably not over yet.

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Riddle Me This #3

According to his girlfriend's testimony, Trayvon Martin referred to George Zimmerman as a "creepy ass cracker".  Why, then, is Zimmerman the one being accused of racism?

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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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"Master Suite" Being Phased Out

When staff reporter Michael Neibauer of the Washington Business Journal surveyed ten major homebuilders in the area of Washington, DC, he found that six of them would no longer refer to a house's largest bedroom as the "master".  These builders will no longer indicate a "master bedroom" or a "master suite", but instead will replace "master" with "owner's", because the former term "has connotation problems, in gender (it skews toward male) and race (the slave master)", as Neibauer puts it.

This begs several questions.  Since slaves were considered to be property, why wouldn't the term "owner" likewise have "connotation problems"?  Will Master's degrees have to be re-titled?  Will sound amplifiers no longer have a "master volume" control?  Will automotive braking systems no longer have a "master cylinder"?  In craft guilds, after spending time as an apprentice and then a journeyman, will a full-fledged craftsman no longer be called a "master"?  Will PBS be willing to change the name of Masterpiece Theater?  And what about that major PGA golf tournament held every spring in Augusta, Georgia?

Read Neibauer's article at the topmost link.

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"ICUHAJI" License Plate Causes A Stir

Iraq war veteran Sean Bujno had the personalized license plate ICUHAJI for four years before the Virginia DMV decided to revoke it, saying that it "could be interpreted as socially, racially or ethnically offensive or disparaging", the letters understood as saying "I see you, Haji."  Last November, a state court disagreed with the DMV, telling them "to either return the license plate to Bujno or find a permissible reason to keep it from him."  The DMV has not returned the plate to Bujno, but instead sent him a letter saying that it "encourages violence or is vulgar."

I'd say that you'd have to read quite a bit into the plate to say that it encourages violence, since there's certainly a leap between seeing a Haji and wishing him harm.  The word "Haji" refers to someone who has made the "hajj", the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, which hardly qualifies as vulgarity.

Read the story at Fox News.

On a personal note, the first "Haji" I ever heard of was a character on the TV cartoon show Jonny Quest.  The young title character had an Indian sidekick named Hadji, who in one episode appeared to have the ability to teleport himself.

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Links For (Fat) Tuesday

Today is Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday"), the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent as observed by the Catholic Church and most of western Christianity.  The Orthodox Churches (Greek, Russian, etc.) use a different calendar, and thus schedule their Easter and Lent differently.  Tonight, President Obama will give his State Of The Union address, which like most SOTUs, I have no intention of watching.  Here are some other things going on:

From the Los Angeles Times, police in San Bernardino County, CA have a gun battle with former officer and murder suspect Christopher Dorner near Big Bear Lake.

From My Fox LA, a timeline and live stream of Dorner's suspected crimes and the resulting manhunt.

From the Inquisitr, the Antarctic ozone hole has shrunk to its lowest size in a decade.

From the Washington Post, the Virginia Senate has passed a bill to allow counties in northern Virginia to pass a 1% income tax without a public vote.

From ABC News, former police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who with her partner stopped the Fort Hoot shooting spree, says the president has broken his promise that "the victims would be well taken care of".

From Fox News, gay rights activists have called for DC comics to fire Orson Scott Card, because he opposes gay marriage.  (via Weasel Zippers)

From the Daily Caller, several Democrats have have invited to the State Of The Union speech some guests who shouldn't even be in the country.

From the NY Post, the hacker group called Anonymous threatens to disrupt online broadcasts of the SOTU speech.

From Yahoo News, diners in Tokyo eat dirt.

And from SFGate, a postcard sent by a 13-year-old boy to his mother in Pauls Valley, OK arrives after 46 years.

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Dr. Ben Carson At The NPB

Dr. Benjamin Carson is the head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a devout Christian, the author of four books including his autobiography Gifted Hands (which has been made into a movie), and the founder of the Carson Scholars Fund.  Here is his speech at this year's National Prayer Breakfast, in which he lambastes political correctness and fiscal irresponsibility, and which has been praised by conservatives and dismissed by liberals.  During the speech, the president, seated near the podium, appears to become somewhat uncomfortable.  (There's more info at the Blaze.)

Over 20 years ago, I had the privilege of attending a speech by Dr. Carson, not far from where I live.  Naturally, I don't remember very much of it, but in what I can recall, he spoke about how during his childhood, his mother Sonya Carson turned off their television and had him and his brother Curtis (who grew up to become an engineer) read books, and then report on them.  Ben and Curt only later realized that with her third grade education, she couldn't even read the books herself.  As a result, the grades the two boys were getting in school improved dramatically, which eventually led them to success in their respective professions.  As the saying goes, behind every great man (or two) is a woman.

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Monday Links

A few stories recently in the news:

From the Daily Caller, members of the Occupy movement protest the president - of Iran.

World Net Daily has found a video of Obama from 1995, in which he talks about "common ground".

From the American Thinker, the Obama campaign has quietly discontinued their sales of the "Obama flag".

From the Washington Times, the Obama administration has released a list of 55 terrorists, er, uh, detainees who have been approved for release from Guantanamo.

From WXYZ Action News, the owners of three stores in Dearborn(istan), Michigan have been arrested for alleged fraud against the Bridge Card Program, which is part of the Food Stamps system.

From ABC News, Polish soldiers in Afghanistan found a newborn baby girl abandoned on the side of a road. Niech żyje Polska!

From Big Government, Mr. Bill implies that if there's a second Obama term, Hillary won't be part of it.

From Big Journalism, one of Hillary's aids, during an interview with a CNN reporter, slips into some foul language.

From the Telegraph (and the PC department), France is not only preparing to legalize gay marriage, but also to eliminate the words "mother" and "father" from official documents.

From The Hill, several prominent Democrats warn Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to stay out of the US presidential election.

From Yid With Lid, several other Democrats, on the other hand, warn "Don't trust Obama on Israel."

From Occupy Corporatism, FEMA has created a civilian group intended to assist the federal government in future disaster preparedness.

And finally, from the Norwalk Reflector, a potential Darwin Award nominee: a stop sign thief runs a stop sign, thus making his last mistake.

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The "Tolerance" Double Standard

I've come to believe that Islam, at least in its most fundamentalist forms, is the monstrosity that the Christian right is accused of being.  The Christian right opposes the attempt by the gay "rights" crowd to refine marriage, and as a result is accused by the left of hate.  Much of the Muslim world, on the other hand, opposes letting gays have the right to stay alive, and the left seems to have little to say about it.  The Christian right, especially the Catholic right, doesn't want to subsidize contraception, but I don't see any of them forcing women to wear hijabs and burqas.

I would point out that the claims in the above pic are not totally accurate.  Where Muslims sentence gays to die, the method of execution isn't always beheading.  Instead, in some places it's hanging, stoning or even burning (a method used centuries ago in Europe).  For unbelievers who are Christian or Jewish, there is a third option, submitting to theocratic Muslim rule as a dhimmi, with far fewer rights than Muslims, and with far more restrictions.  But the general point is correct.  Fundamentalist Muslims, if given the chance, would make the Christian right look like agnostic libertarians.

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Monday Links

A few stories in the news:

From the Washington Free Beacon, Air Force and Coast Guard aircraft will be used in an anti-terror exercise over the Washington, DC area.

From the Los Angeles Times, comedian and actor Phyllis Diller has died at age 95.  The cause of her death has not yet been released.

From BBC News, for the first time in over 20 years, Somalia has a parliament.

From RedState, the International Longshoremen's Association is protesting against the US Marines for hiring a company that employs workers from a different union to transport transport cargo between Jacksonville, FL and Charleston, SC.

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution, a federal appeals court in Atlanta has upheld a Georgia state law allowing policemen to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects.

From Michigan Capitol Confidential, the Detroit water and sewage department does not have or use any horses, but they still employ a horseshoer.

From CBS Philly, scientists have discovered a "miracle molecule" in red wine, which helps to improve mobility in older adults.  The compound, calls resveratrol, is also found in "dark-skinned fruits" such as blueberries.

From Fox News, President Obama is running against an outdated version of Congressman Paul Ryan's Medicare plan.

From Yahoo News, the Bank Of Canada apologies for allegedly racist bank notes.

From Weird Asia News, the world's oldest stash of marijuana has been found in China.

From BND, archaeologists studying the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois have discovered that the inhabitants of that site would drink a highly caffeinated beverage made from a variety of holly found on the gulf coast, hundreds of miles to the south.  Full disclosure:  I visited the Cahokia Mounds in 2000 on a tour arranged by the Archaeological Conservancy, the same organization that put on the tour I went on earlier this year.  The Cahokia Mounds and some that I visited this past May were constructed by people of the Mississippian Culture.

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Chik-Fil-A Kiss-In Largely A Dud

Yesterday was the day for members of the LGBT community to go to Chik-Fil-A restaurants and kiss each other, in response to Wednesday's Chik-Fil-A Appreciation Day, and to protest CEO Dan Cathy's opinion against gay marriage.  So how, then, did it go?

The Blaze has some pictures, some of which might be a bit unpleasant.

The protests were peaceful, except for a Torrance, California restaurant being hit with graphiti.

In New York, one woman, described as a "gay Republican vegetarian", lamented having no one to kiss.

In (obviously conservative) Utah, there were very few displays of affection.

In Orange County, California, it was "little more than a peck on the cheek".

In St. Louis, the anti-Chik-Fil-A protests fizzled.

At Minnesota's three Chik-Fil-A restaurants, only a few kissers showed up.

In West Des Moines, Iowa, there was not much passion.

In Roanoke, Virginia, "dozens" showed up to protest.

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Chik-Fil-A Gets Swamped With Customers

Chik-Fil-A Appreciation Day, held today in response to disparaging comments by the mayors of Boston and Chicago, appears to have been a smashing success, if the photos in this report from Townhall are any indication.  On the other hand, some members of Planned Parenthood became party-poopers.  Meanwhile, cartoonist Scott Stantis gives the mayor of Chicago a well-deserved poke. 

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Links To End The Month

Here are some things going on as July 2012 comes to a close:

From the Los Angeles Times, a body believed to be of a missing FBI agent has been found in Burbank.

From Newsmax, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee's Chik-fil-A support page on Facebook has been visited over 20 million times.

The Weekly Standard points out that what Mitt Romney said about culture impacting economic conditions during his recent visit to Jerusalem wasn't all that different from some things President Obama said during his 2009 speech in Cairo.

From LifeSiteNews, business has boomed for a bakery in Colorado, after it refused to provide a wedding cake for a gay couple.

From the Washington Times, the House Judiciary Committee reports on crimes committed by illegal aliens that the Obama administration won't deport.  (H/T Big Government)

From the Foundry, Republicans in the Senate say no votes on judges until after the election.

From Gateway Pundit, former Olympic organizer Mitt Romney gets the endorsement of former Olympic athletes including Christi Yamaguchi, and also from Lech Wałęsa.

From Smart Girl Politics, thanks to NY mayor Bloomberg, Obama's fictional Julia will learn to breastfeed.

From the Associated Press, the Syrian city of Aleppo has been under siege.

From the Wall Street Journal, a deal has been reached that will allow a female Saudi Arabian to compete in judo while wearing her head scarf.

Speaking of the Olympics, if the United States can't get all of the medals for the hammer throw, here's someone I'd like to see get one.  He used to compete for my alma mater, but now competes for one of my ancestral countries.

From Fox News, a Congressional report blames five ATF agents for "Fast and Furious".

From Yahoo News, Iraq will get some help from Great Britain in destroying the remains of Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons.  You know, the stuff that Saddam didn't really have, but Dubya lied by saying he did.  (Admission by W's former leftwing critics that they were wrong in 4...3...2...oh wait, Hell will freeze over first.)

And finally, in one more from Yahoo News, a couple in New York state will remarry after 48 years of divorce.

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FBI Faulted For Political Correctness

A report on the Fort Hood shooting has faulted the FBI for ignoring evidence against Major Nidal Hasan, who later allegedly killed 13 people and wounded 23 others at Fort Hood in November 2009, because of "political correctness".  Hasan had been in contact with known terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, but was still determined not to be involved in terrorist activities.  Apparently, the FBI was more concerned about being accused of "islamophobia" than about stopping potential islamic terrorists before they take American lives.  For one thing, you'd think that Hasan's "Soldier of Allah" business card might have raised an eyebrow or two.  Since the Obama administration has called Hasan's actions "workplace violence" instead of "terrorism", I'd say that PC is still holding sway.

Read more at Fox News and the Huffington Post.  You know it's a serious matter when those two outlets agree.

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Clarisse Grime, RIP

Do you know about Clarisse Grime?  Chances are, if you live outside of the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, you've never heard of her.  Unlike some other people whose deaths I have recently noted, she was not famous.  But I also believe that if the national media were less biased, Clarisse Grime would be as famous in death as Travon Martin.  However, unlike Martin, she was not murdered or killed in self-defense (depending on your opinion in that case).

Clarisse Grime was killed in a horrible accident.  A driver of an SUV lost control of his vehicle, causing it to hit a fire hydrant and a "no parking" sign, and then to careen down an embankment to where Grime and her boyfriend were sitting.  The location was about 50 feet from the street, near a sign for their high school, but they were still struck by the out-of-control vehicle.  Her boyfriend suffered only minor injuries, but Grime died at the scene.

The driver was someone who had no business getting behind the wheel in the first place.  He has never had a Minnesota driver's license, and is an illegal alien.  This latter fact is probably why I believe most Americans will not have a chance to learn about Clarisse Grime and her tragic death at the age of 16.  The mainstream media is generally reluctant to publish stories about illegal aliens that put them in a bad light, even when it is deserved.  I don't believe that all illegal aliens are an accidental death waiting to happen, but when we tolerate the presence of millions of people in this country who should not be here, whose illegal entry or visa overstay indicates some degree of disrespect for American law, this kind of tragedy will inevitably happen.  "Sanctuary" policies are not compassionate.  People die because of them.

If anyone thinks that I have an anti-immigrant attitude, please allow me to tell you more about Clarisse Grime.  She and her mother, Martha Tamene Woldegiorgis, were originally from Ethiopia.  They immigrated, first to Italy, and then to Minnesota.  Both were in the process of becoming American citizens, which Woldegiorgis still intends to do.  In the death of Clarisse Grime, an illegal alien killed a legal immigrant.  If that is not a reason for distinguishing between people who come here legally from those who come illegally, then I don't know what is.  If anyone thinks that I don't like illegal aliens because a large number of them wear brown skin and speak Spanish, I should mention the name of Grime's boyfriend, who deserves our condolences: Eduardo Vazquez-Torres.

Read more at TwinCities.com.

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The New Definition Of Racism

I remember occasionally hearing or reading the meme that "race is a social contruct".  For the most part, I never thought it made sense, except for how mixed-race people are racially classified, such as by the notorious "one-drop" rule.  There are real and plainly observable physical differences between people who come from different parts of the globe.  This variation is indeed a biological fact.  On the other hand, calling race a "political construct" seems to have made more sense.  For example, look at the way black conservatives are called "Uncle Tom", "Oreo", or other terms that I don't feel like writing.  Misfit Politics goes deeper into this idea, and has figured out the new way in which racism is defined.

Read the entire article.

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