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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Unique Pyramids Found In Sudan

The country with the most known pyramids is not Egypt or Mexico, but Sudan, which during the last few years has extended its margin over its competitors.  Between 2009 and 2012, at least 35 pyramids, ranging in width from 30 inches to 22 feet, have been found in the Sudanese site of Sedeinga.  These pyramids were built about 2000 years ago by inhabitants of the kingdom of Kush, and have the same general shape as the Egyptian pyramids, after which they were modeled.  Some of the Sedeinga pyramids include an inner circular cupola structure connected by cross-bracing to its four corners.  Only one pyramid of this design has ever been discovered at any other site.

Read the story at Fox News.

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O Którym Kraju On Mówi?

While speaking in Munich last weekend, Vice President Biden credited "Greece, Ireland, Poland, Spain and Italy" with taking steps to improve their economies.  Only one problem.  Poland hasn't had any recent serious trouble their economy.  Instead, it was Portugal, not Poland, which has had economic problems similar to those of Greece, Italy, Spain and Ireland.  Well, you can't blame him too much, he got the first two letters right, didn't he?  Kind of like mixing up Austria and Australia, for which we can truly blame Bush.  Or maybe like the Maldives and the Malvinas (the Argentinian name for the Falklands).  In any event, I'd say that Joe has come up with a worthy sequel to his boss's "Polish death camps" gaffe.

Read more at the Washington Examiner and the Telegraph.

To finish, I'd better translate the post title.  It's Polish (not Portuguese) for "Which country is he talking about?"

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Super Bowl Endures Lighting Power Failure

In yesterday's Super Bowl, the Baltimore Ravens beat both the San Francisco 49ers and some technical difficulties, as the game was interrupted when many of the lights went out in the New Orleans Superdome.  After a delay of about 35 minutes, the game resumed when sufficient lighting had been restored.  Baltimore ran up a 28-6 pre-outage lead, but San Francisco then mounted a furious comeback, coming up just short as Baltimore held on for a 34-31 victory.  Ravens QB Joe Flacco, with 3 touchdown passes, was named the games Most Valuable Player.  It was the second Super Bowl victory for the Ravens and the third for the city of Baltimore, the (now Indianapolis) Colts having prevailed in one of the earlier Super Bowls around 1970.

A few notes on the game and its power outage:

From the New York Times, the Superdome goes dark.

CBS News asks, "What went wrong?"

From the Chicago Tribune, it wasn't halftime performer Beyonce's fault.

From CNN, the power outage gives jokesters and advertisers some inspiration.

From the Washington Examiner, before the game, the Department of Energy had praised the Superdome for its energy efficiency.  (Read the DOE statement here.)

From Entertainment Weekly, the funniest power outage Tweets.

From Yahoo News, the power failure's cause remains unclear.

Mashable reports 15 possible causes of the outage.

And finally, from CBS Sports, the box score.

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Barry's Got A Gun

Last August, President Obama went skeet-shooting at Camp David, or so we're told.  Recently, the photo below was released, to back up a previous claim that he frequently shoots clay pigeons, and to respond to Representative Marsha Blackburn's (R-TN) challenge to a skeet shoot.  (As Instapundit points out, at least one woman has better shooting form than Barry.)  Along with the pic came a warning not to manipulate it - which didn't get very far.  The American Thinker claims that the photo is a fake in the first place.  I thought that the smoke coming out of the side of the gun's barrel was a bit peculiar, but apparently, some guns have a side exhaust port on the barrel.  Either that, or across the road there was a second shooter hiding in the woody knoll.  Let the conspiracy theories begin!

As indicated by the New York Post and Michelle Malkin's blog, Teh One^TM has inspired quite a bit of mockery with this pic.  From the latter (including a commenter or two thereon), come some of the above links and this whimsical explanation of what he might be shooting at.

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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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Ed Koch 1924-2013

Ed Koch, who served as Mayor of New York City for twelve years, died today of congestive heart failure at the age of 88.  His political career included a stint a city councilman and nine years in congress.  He was known as an "independent liberal", who could work with conservatives.  He crossed party lines on two notable occasions, supporting Rudy Giuliani's mayoral campaign in 1993 and President George W. Bush's re-election in 2004.  Outside of politics, he had also been a television judge, radio talk show host, law partner, newspaper columnist, professor and movie reviewer.

Koch was born in the Bronx in 1924, the son of Louis and Joyce (Silpe) Koch, both Polish Jews who had each immigrated to New York.  His family would move to Newark, NJ and later to Brooklyn.  He spent two years attending City College in Manhattan before being drafted into the Army in 1943.  Because he could speak German, he was assigned to help replace Nazis in government positions with non-Nazi Germans.  He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of Sergeant.  He got his law degree from New York University and spent 20 years practicing law before entering Congress.  During his time as Mayor, from January 1, 1978 to December 31, 1989, he ran unsuccessfully for Governor, losing in the 1982 Democratic primary to Mario Cuomo.  In 1989, he lost the primary for Mayor, to the man who would succeed him, David Dinkins.

Read more at the New York Times, the New York Post, CNN, Fox News, Yahoo News and the Wall Street Journal.

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