Romney's press secretary tells the American press to show some respect (He said some other things, too)

Romney's press secretary Rick Gorka made news today. Here is the account I found at The Daily Mail. "Mr Gorka's remarks came hours before a major foreign policy speech in the Polish capital in which Romney praised the central European nation for becoming what he said was a model of small government and free enterprise.
The former Massachusetts governor said that 'rather than heeding the false promise of a government-dominated economy, Poland sought to stimulate innovation, attract investment, expand trade and live within its means' after the Communist era.
'The world should pay close attention to the transformation of Poland’s economy,' Romney said.
'A march toward economic liberty and smaller government has meant a march toward higher living standards, a strong military that defends liberty at home and abroad, and an important and growing role on the international stage.'
Mr Gorka's angry words to reporters were made Tuesday morning when Romney visited a monument to Poland's war dead with the Warsaw mayor.
Reporters began shouting questions at the presumptive Republican nominee from behind a rope line because, they said, he has answered only three queries from the traveling press corps.
A CNN reporter shouted: 'Gov Romney are you concerned about some of the mishaps of your trip?'

Gov Romney do you have a statement for the Palestinians?' a New York Times reporter asked

'What about your gaffes?' chimed in a Washington Post writer.'Governor Romney do you feel that your gaffes have overshadowed your foreign trip?' asked the Times journalist.

 Governor Romney just a few questions sir, you haven't taken but three questions on this trip from the press!' the CNN reporter protested.
That's when Mr Gorka stepped in: 'Show some respect,' he told the American journalists.
When a New York Times reporter said he was trying to get answers to his question, Gorka responded harshly.
'Kiss my a**. This is a Holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect,' he said.
Later, he told a Politico reporter to 'shove it.'
About 30 minutes later, the spokesman called reporters and apologized.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2181571/Kiss--Romneys-aide-curses-reporters-Poland-latest-world-tour-gaffe.html#ixzz22G9U3lJ1

Update: After writing this post I went over to The Other McCain to see what Stacy had to say. It is worth a read here:  http://theothermccain.com/2012/07/31/the-gop-school-of-media-relations/

Now it's infant formula

Now Mayor Bloomberg wants NYC hospitals to keep infant formula locked up. Moreover, he doesn't want hospitals to give coupons for infant formula to women who have given birth in NYC hospitals. He favors breast-feeding. What heterosexual man doesn't?  Somehow, though, I think the good mayor would have a hard time being elected to any office here in the west, or in most of the southern states.

Update: Laura Ingraham writes: "Apparently a mother's choice only matters when it comes to ending an infant's life, not fostering it."

Proudly representing America

Want some inspiration? Take a look at the young woman holding the American flag. She is Missy Franklin, 17, who will be a senior in high school in Denver this fall. The first thing she said in an interview after winning the gold medal in the backstroke yesterday was that she is thankful to God for the gifts He has given her. The second thing she said was that she was grateful that her parents could be with her on this occasion.

Mark Kizla, Denver Post columnist, has more here: http://www.denverpost.com/kiszla/ci_21195825/missys-american-grit

He's goin' to Jackson

Over at Camp of the Saints, I found this sweet memory.
http://thecampofthesaints.org/2012/07/15/oh-i-wish-i-was-in-the-land-of-cotton/

Sharia tourism

Jihad Watch notes that just in time for Ramadan an Egyptian tourism agency has made arrangements for those who want a Sharia vacation. My dermatologist would be impressed: no possibility for this woman to get skin cancer on her vacation.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/07/just-in-time-for-ramadan-egypt-introduces-sharia-tourism.html

Has the right abandoned the resistance-to-jihad movement?

Is a blogger's best path to money and traffic to abandon the fight against jihad and Islamist supremacy? That is what Robert Spencer alleges today at his blog Jihad Watch. He mentions Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, Fox News, Drudge, Rush, Kathryn Lopez of National Review, Mark Levin, and Michael Savage. He says the propaganda line is that Islam is a Religion of Peace that has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists."It's ironic that a central part of the Leftist/Islamic supremacist myth about freedom fighters is that there is some lucrative "Islamophobia industry" and that people are in this for money and fame, when actually the path to money and fame today is to dissemble and downplay the reality of jihad and Islamic supremacism, and their root causes within Islam itself."
 http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/07/how-the-right-abandoned-the-resistance-to-jihad.html

Also today Pamela Geller writes at Atlas Shrugs about The Right's Dirty Little Secret.
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2012/07/why-the-right-wing-blogosphere-doesnt-cover-islam.html

A commenter named Arthur at Jihad Watch said this:
"It all has to do with sponsors, investors, money and power. People on the right need sponsors and investors, and businesses are deathly afraid of being ostracized by powerful Muslim groups and individuals.
This is why I think that Mr. Spencer made a giant mistake by seeming to characterize the efforts to oppose Islamic expansion as a Left vs. Right battle. (The explanation is that he initially got a lot more invitations from Rightist media.)
It has nothing to do with Left vs. Right. It has to do with intelligent, courageous, & honest vs. stupid, uninformed, spineless, morally bankrupt, and dishonest."

Connecting

Here is a guy who is using his right brain! I'm feeling more connected to fellow human beings already. How about you?
I found this at the indispensable blog Jaded Haven, which has now gone silent, but I hope not for long: http://jadedhaven.wordpress.com/

A modern Julie Andrews?

from Daphne at Jaded Haven, whom many of us will miss big time: http://jadedhaven.wordpress.com/

How do men break the pattern of clamming up during arguments?

The psychologist who writes The Iron Shrink blog asks why men tend to clam up during conflicts with their spouses. He lists five reasons, and gives detailed explanations of each.

• Men ain't supposed to talk
• We feel we cannot win
• We get angry
• It pains us to argue with you
• History drives us

How do we break the pattern? He has four suggestions:

• Define the problem
• Focus on the pattern, not the person
• Interrupt the pattern as early as possible
• Be patient and willing to practice

Read the whole thing here: http://ironshrink.com/2012/07/five-reasons-men-go-silent-and-what-to-do-about-it-part-two/

Sarah Palin: should she have been the presidential candidate, or vice-presidential candidate?

Dick Cheney says it was a mistake for John McCain to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate. InstaPundit  agrees, kind of. Glenn says she should have been picked at the presidential, not vice presidential candidate! He points out that McCain was in the lead until he rushed to Washington to support the bailout.

Drones changing the way we fight wars

The Denver Post has a story today by New York Times writer Elisabeth Bumiller about drone pilots. Studying terrorist suspects in very close detail brings an intimacy with the intended target never experienced by pilots flying at 20,000 feet or eve by ground troops. Does that make it more difficult to pull the trigger?

According to Bumiller, the Air Force has 1300 drone pilots for missions in Afghanistan, and the CIA has more for missions in Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen and who-knows-where-else?

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_21188376/their-pilots-drones-put-new-twists-familiar-war

"Accepting" random violence of mass murderers

Today's provocative sub-headline in The Denver Post goes all the way across the first page: Post-Columbine mass murders have occurred with alarming - and to some, accepted - frequency. The actual story only mentions one person, a 20-year-old woman from Colorado Springs, who states that violence is accepted as a daily part of life by her peers. The key word here is "accepted." The headline writer implies that some accept violence as a part of every-day life. The article implies that is more commonly "accepted" by young people, because in their lifetimes they have seen media coverage of many random massacres, whereas us older folks rarely heard of such things. However, we had the assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and the attempted assassinations of Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.

Does "accepted" mean condoned? I think the headline implies that.

 Here is the on-line version, with a changed headline: http://www.denverpost.com/theatershooting/ci_21188378

Choosing the right, or the left

Is it an accident that each of us has both a left and right hemisphere brain? No, I don't think so. If, then, it is not an accident, shouldn't we honor how we are created, and learn to use both? But, how? By paying attention to what circuitry is running at any given time. Are you feeling "in the moment," carefree, connected to others, grateful for the miracle of life, then your right brain is probably dominating. If you are incessantly worrying, running negative tapes over and over, or just analyzing, using language and logic, or arguing your point, your left brain is dominating.

The key is to be aware of the circuitry that is dominating, and choose which of the marvelous assets you want to utilize in the particular circumstance you find yourself in. If you are choosing to be in an argument with a know-it-all elitist put-down-artist leftist, call on the skills of your left brain! If your boss calls you in to give you your annual evaluation, and your boss does not want to hear your ideas about how his business can better serve its customers, then smile and nod, and call on your right brain to help you keep your job until Obama is voted out of office by left-brain dominated voters in November, and the economy starts to revive, and you can go get a job in a business that cares about its customers!

Manipulating readers by the wording of headlines

I think I should have a regular daily post showing how The Denver Post slants the news toward the liberal viewpoint. One of the main ways they do this is through the way they word their headlines and sub-headlines. I think that is on purpose, because they know that many readers just look at headlines, and do not actually read what is written below the headline.

Here's one from yesterday. Big bold headline: Israel: Ally or threat? The actual story is about how Israel spies on our spies. Why not? What reason do they have to believe that Obama is their friend? Is Israel our ally, or a threat? Why would liberal newspapers like the Post be more threatened by Israel, than they are by countries like Egypt, where Islamists are rising to power, and will issue edicts as to how people can dress, what they can eat, what they can say, and whom they must hate.

Here is the on-line version, with a changed headline:  http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_21180623/us-sees-israel-tight-mideast-ally-spy-threat

"How do you like them apples?"

This morning I visited the brilliant Iowahawk blog, and this is what I found:

"You Didn't Build That

Readings from the Book of Barack
¹ In the beginning Govt created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the economy was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the ATMs, and the Spirit of Govt was hovering over the land.

³ And Govt said, “Let there be spending,” and there was spending. ⁴ Govt saw that the spending was good, and that it separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ Govt called the spending Investments, and this he did in the first day.
⁶ Then Govt said, “Let there be roads and bridges across the waters, and let dams divide the waters from the waters.” ⁷ Thus Govt made the infrastructure and the patronage jobs for eternity under the firmament from the Potomac which was above the firmament; and it was so. ⁸ And Govt called the firmament Washington. This Govt did on the second day.
⁹ Then Govt said, “Let the regulations and the guidlines under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the Bureaus appear”; and it was so. ¹⁰ And Govt called the Bureaus demigovts, and the gathering together of them He called AFSCME. And Govt saw that it was good.
¹¹ Then Govt said, “Let there be police, and firefighters, and teachers according to their kind, for they will create more jobs”; and it was so. ¹² And then Govt bade the void bring forth crime, and arson, and stupidity, that each would yield seed to bring forth more police, and firefighters, and teachers, and jobs. And Govt saw that it was good. ¹³ So the evening and the morning were the third day.
¹⁴ On the fourth day Govt said, “Let Us make the economy in Our image, according to Our likeness; let it have dominion over the cars of the road, over the appliances of the supercenters, and over the pet groomers of the strip malls, over all the clickthroughs of Amazon and over every creepy thing of the Dollar Stores.” ¹⁵ So Govt created the economy in His own image; services and wholesale and retail He created them. ¹⁶ Then Govt blessed them, and Govt said to them, “Be fruitful and use the multiplier effect; fill the land with jobs; thou have dominion over thy realm, within limits, as long and thou remember to get thy permits and tithe thy taxes, for they are good. Hope to see you at the fundraiser.”
¹⁷ And on the fifth day Govt made an official Govt holiday, and headed off for a 3-day golf weekend at Camp David. But first Govt said to the economy, "you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, except the tree of Knowledge. There is a serpent in that thing, and thy health care does not cover it."
¹⁸ So when Govt was on vay-cay the economy set about the garden, plowing its fields and generating revenue for the glory of Govt. They obeyed the regulations and were not ashamed.
¹⁹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the balanced, publicly-funded birds the Lord Govt had made to sing news to the economy. The serpent was on the AM band. He said to the retail sector, “Did Govt really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’? ”
²⁰ "Only yours, serpent," said the retail sector.
²¹ “Don't be a wuss,” the serpent said to the retail sector. ²² “For Govt knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will wise to Govt's scam.”
²³ When she saw that the fruit was pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, and also free to download, she took some and ate it. She emailed a copy to her wholesaler, and he ate it; and then the wholesaler to the manufacturer, and he to the servicer. ²⁴ Then the eyes of all of them were opened, and they realized they were being taxed naked; so they outsourced fig leaves to make coverings for themselves.
²⁵ Then the economy heard the sound of the Lord Govt returning from vay-cay with the demigovts Osha and Tarp and Irs. It was the cool of the day, and they were hiding their profits from the Lord Govt among the trees of the garden. ²⁶ But the Lord Govt called to the manufacturer, “Where are you?”
²⁶ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid, so I sought a tax shelter.”
²⁷ And Govt said, “Who told you that your profits were yours? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? ”
²⁸ The man said, “The retailer made me —she has a thing for serpents.”
²⁹ Then the Lord Govt said to the retailer, “What is this you have done?”
³⁰ And she said to the Lord Govt, “Don't take that tone with me, fat boy. And why should I give you my profits?”
³¹ The Lord Govt was in wrath, and said, “For I am the Lord Govt, creator of Eden! ³² I gave unto you the roads and bridges, and schools and cops, brought unto you of gentle showers of Tarp and Stimulus and rivers of Subsidy, I am the purifier of the waters, cleanser of the air, without which you and your profits would not exist. Thus all that thou have created is created by Us. Thus ye shall render unto Govt what is Govt's, and this is the Word of your Lord.”
³³ At these words, Solydra and Gm and Seiu and all the Cronyans and Laborites dropped to their knees in trembling fear and supplicated themselves before the Lord, presenting Him golden gifts of contributions.
³⁴ Then the retailer said to Govt, “And who created you?”
³⁵ In righteous anger did the Lord Govt again rise up and said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Tri-Delts and the Dekes, I am and have always been! I am the great cosmic turtle on which you and the entire economy rest.”
³⁶ "And on whom do you rest, turtle?" said the retailer in blasheme.
³⁷ "Do not mock me with your knowledge trickery, harlot!" said the Lord Govt. "I am turtles all the way down."
³⁸ So the Lord Govt said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock
    and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
    and you will eat dust 
    all the days of your life.
39 And I will keep you from tenure
    and grants and the airwaves,
    and condemn you to the bowels of internet."

⁴⁰ Then the Lord Govt turned the retailer and the manufacturer and the wholesaler and all the servicers, and said,

“I will make your taxes and regulations very severe;
    with painful labor you will give birth to profit. 
You shall be afflicted with plagues of audits,
    the coming of Osha, and the trials of Irs.
By the sweat of thy brow you will earn thy living
    until you return it to Me.
You will suffer the droughts of subsidy and stimulus,
    and will thirst forever. You're welcome." 

⁴¹ And so the Lord Govt banished the economy from paradise, and bade them go outsource to the Far East of Eden. And as the chastened economy slouched out of of Babylon He said unto them,
⁴⁰ "How do you like them apples?"

 http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2012/07/you-didnt-build-that.html

Federal Judge: Catholic business owners have constitutional rights!

From Newsmax (not from the Denver Post): "A Colorado business owned by a Catholic family does not have to comply with President Barack Obama's new healthcare mandate that private employers provide employees with insurance coverage of birth control, a Colorado federal judge ruled on Friday.

U.S. District Judge John Kane in Denver temporarily blocked the government from the enforcing the contraception requirement against the religious owners of Hercules Industries Inc, a private manufacturer of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment.

The ruling only affects this plaintiff but opens the door for any company to seek relief on religious grounds. Lawyers for the Department of Health and Human Services argued that a temporary exemption for Hercules would interfere with the government's ability to implement the law. But Kane was not persuaded.

"This harm pales in comparison to the possible infringement upon (the Newland family's) constitutional and statutory rights," the judge wrote. He noted that the government had already created numerous exceptions for religious employers, exempting over 190 million health plan participants.

The law posed an imminent harm to the company's owners by forcing them to support contraception, sterilization and abortion in violation of their religious beliefs or face steep fines, Kane said.

Read more on Newsmax.com: Contraceptive Mandate Suffers Court Blow as Catholic Business Wins Crucial Court Case

"We may soon find out what happened to much of Saddam's WMD"

Invincible Armor links to a piece at Investors.com alleging that Iraq transferred its chemical weapons to Syria shortly before the U.S. launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

"As Sada told the New York Sun, two Iraqi Airways Boeings were converted to cargo planes by removing the seats, and special Republican Guard units loaded the planes with chemical weapons materials.

There were 56 flights disguised as a relief effort after a 2002 Syrian dam collapse.
There were also truck convoys into Syria. Sada's comments came more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."

Both Israeli and U.S. intelligence observed large truck convoys leaving Iraq and entering Syria in the weeks and months before Operation Iraqi Freedom, John Shaw, former deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, told a private conference of former weapons inspectors and intelligence experts held in Arlington, Va., in 2006.

According to Shaw, ex-Russian intelligence chief Yevgeni Primakov, a KGB general with long-standing ties to Saddam, went to Iraq in December 2002 and stayed until just before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Anticipating the invasion, his job was to supervise the removal of such weapons and erase as much evidence of Russian involvement as possible.

 We may soon find out what happened to much of Saddam's WMD."
 http://news.investors.com/article/618875/201207191902/syria-chemical-weapons-came-from-iraq-.htm?p=full

Do you fear the drones?

In From the Cold has a piece about drones. "The civilian drone market is about to explode, with scores of companies and organizations, public and private, set to send UAVs aloft, mostly in support of surveillance and security functions."

"As is often the case, technology has leap-frogged ahead of legal and privacy concerns, forcing everyone to play catch-up.  Except in this case, there appears to be relatively little concern about the civil liberties aspect."
Read his whole analysis here:  http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2012/07/fear-drones.html

"Freed from Gitmo, and given the opportunity to kill again"

In From the Cold has a story about a man who was freed from Gitmo, returned to his adopted homeland of Sweden, and set free to kill again, as he is a suspect in the recent killing of Israeli youth on a bus in a Bulgarian resort. http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2012/07/tehran-strikes-back.html

Owning our power

Now for the important part. If you haven't read the previous post immediately below this one, go ahead; I'll wait. Okay, glad you're back. Dr. Taylor goes on to write about our power. Do you believe you have power? You have the power to choose how you respond to stimulation coming in through your sensory system at any time. Emotions? They only stay in your blood stream for 90 seconds, unless you choose to hang on to them longer and let that circuit continue to run. As Taylor writes, "Moment by moment, I make the choice to either hook into my neurocircuitry or move back into the present moment, allowing that moment to melt away as fleeting physiology."

By acknowledging the characters of both her left and right hemispheres, she realizes that she always has alternative ways of responding. If we own our power to make choices consciously, instead of just being on automatic pilot, we take responsibility for what we attract into our lives. She does that by consciously re-aligning herself with the present, and not allowing her left brain "story teller" to dominate.

How about other interactions with other people? She recognizes that she does not need to either victimize herself or "take your actions and mistakes personally. Your stuff is your stuff, and my stuff is my stuff. Feeling deep inner peace and sharing kindness is always a choice for either of us. Forgiving others and forgiving myself is always a choice. Seeing this moment as a perfect moment is always a choice."

Tending the garden of our minds

I often write here about brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor's book My Stroke of Insight. The reason I like it so much is  because of what she says about the need to balance the right and left hemispheres of the brain. She lost the functioning of her left hemisphere, after a stroke. The right hemisphere was all she had, until after eight years she fully regained the functioning of her left hemisphere. However, during that eight year struggle, she came to appreciate the right hemisphere, and she became determined to have a balance between the two hemisphere as she recovered.

Taylor recommends that we learn to tend carefully the garden of our minds. By that she means we need to "carefully manage what goes on inside our brains." In fact she consciously chose not to recover certain functions that had previously been performed by her left brain. "The portion of my left mind that I chose not to recover was the part of my left hemisphere character that had the potential to be mean, worry incessantly, or be verbally abusive to either myself or others."

More from Dr. Taylor: "My right hemisphere is all about right here, right now. It bounces around with unbridled enthusiasm and does not have a care in the world. It smiles a lot and is extremely friendly. In contrast, my left hemisphere is preoccupied with details and runs my life on a tight schedule. It is my more serious side. It clenches my jaw and makes decisions based upon what it learned in the past. It defines boundaries and defines everything as right/wrong or good/bad. My right mind is all about the richness of the present moment. It is filled with gratitude for my life, and everyone and everything in it. It is content, compassionate, nurturing, and eternally optimistic. Many of us make judgments with our left hemisphere, and then are not willing to step to the right (that is, into the consciousness of our right hemisphere) for a file update. My right mind is open to new possibilities and thinks out of the box. It is not limited by the rules and regulations of the left mind that created that box."

But, she goes on to say, "as much as I obviously adore the attitude, openness, and enthusiasm with which my right brain embraces life, my left mind is equally amazing." She then gives a detailed account of the many remarkable functions provided by the left brain.

Killer was being "treated" by psychiatrist

So, today the news is that the killer was seeing a psychiatrist, the medical director of the student health services at the C.U. Medical Center. No information yet available as to the nature or length of the treatment. But, psychiatrists treat people with mental problems, right? And psychiatrists are legally required to notify law enforcement when the psychiatrist perceives that something about the patient may constitute a threat to himself or others.

At the very end of the Denver Post article linked below, the authors introduced information about the psychiatrist that raises questions about the psychiatrist. In 2005 she was "reprimanded" by the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners for prescribing drugs for herself, her husband, and an employee. How did the Board of Medical Examiners find out about that? Who reported her? And it was way back in 1997 that she prescribed the allergy drug Claritin for herself. In 1998 she prescribed the anti-anxiety drug Xanax for herself, provided 4 Xanax pills for an employee in 1999 and provided the sleep aid Ambien for her husband three times (three different prescriptions?); the article does not say in what year she prescribed the drug for her husband. If her last incident of inappropriate prescribing was in 1999, how come it was six years later that her case came before the state Board of Medical Examiners? What was the nature of the referral to the Board of Medical Examiners?

When Holmes left the C.U. program, turning in his student access card "around" June 10, did he continue seeing his psychiatrist, or did she refer him to other doctors for follow up treatment? Did he reveal his plans to her? Did she contact police? I think that psychiatrist will probably be "lawyering up" real soon, and maybe taking a few Xanax pills, too.

Meanwhile, the defense and prosecution are fighting over who gets access to the notebook Holmes sent to his psychiatrist. The prosecution denies the accuracy of  reports from Fox News and NBC. Prosecution denies they have been looking at the contents of the notebook. Do you believe that? The defense wants it.

http://www.denverpost.com/theatershooting/ci_21174600/aurora-theater-shooting-suspect-was-being-treated-by?nstrack=sid:5779133|met:300|cat:0|order:1

Maybe he should not have messed with Catholics!

I found this here: http://www.imao.us/index.php/2012/07/best-use-of-slow-motion-fire-and-dramatic-music-to-make-a-political-point/

You told me you were not available!

Romney zings NBC's Brian Williams!
I found this here: http://weaselzippers.us/2012/07/26/nbcs-brian-williams-to-romney-will-you-pick-an-incredibly-boring-white-guy-for-vp-romney-to-williams-you-told-me-you-were-not-available/
Via IMAO

He loves it

Jon, Sara, and Greg's mom will love this video.
I found this here: http://www.imao.us/index.php/2012/07/video-greatest-parody-of-the-worst-song/#respond

Go ahead and use a plastic bag

George Carlin ridicules the environmental whackos.
I found this here: http://www.peekinthewell.net/blog/the-planet-is-fine/#respond

We have our election-year issue

The blogger at The House of Eratosthenes believes we have our election-year issue: between the "Yes, you built that" people, and the "no, you didn't build that" people: http://www.peekinthewell.net/blog/wrong-in-context/#comments

Satire from Sunny

Sunny, as her 2008 self, interviews her 2012 self. I found it here: http://www.peekinthewell.net/blog/

Sunny makes a sandwich, er, well, she didn't really build it...

Reaping what they have sowed

Pat Buchanan has a new column in which he alleges that the Republican Party has made three historic blunders that may insure its death:

"First, the party, intimidated by name-calling, refused to stop a tidal wave of immigration that brought 40 million people here whose families depend heavily on government. We needed a time-out to assimilate them and see them move out of the tax-consuming sector of the nation.

Republicans acquiesced in the importation of a new electorate that may provide the decisive votes to send the party to the ash heap of history.

Second, Republicans, when enacting tax cuts, repeatedly dropped millions of taxpayers off the rolls, creating a huge class that contributes little to pay for the expanding cornucopia of benefits it receives.

Third, the social revolution of the 1960s captured the culture and converted much of the nation. According to a new Pew poll, the number of Americans who profess a belief in no religion at all has tripled since the 1990s and is now one in five of our countrymen.

If your racial and ethnic voter base is aging, shrinking and dying, your moral code is being rejected, and the tax-consuming class has been allowed to grow to equal or to dwarf the taxpaying class, the Grand Old Party has a problem. But then so, too, does the country."

Read more here: http://www.creators.com/opinion/pat-buchanan.html
Via Rush Limbaugh

I understand points one and two, but I do not see how point three is a blunder of the GOP. Rush Limbaugh says he is going to discuss Buchanan's piece in his radio program today, so maybe I will understand point three better, and how it is the fault of the GOP.

Why The Denver Post needs a competitor

The Denver Post has a large bold headline today: Romney stirs London tiff. Romney honestly answered some questions from a journalist about London's preparations to host the Olympics. The Post article is completely negative and one-sided against Romney.

Update: Piers Morgan says Romney was telling the truth: 

Update 2: Today's bold headline in the Denver Post is After gaffe, on to Israel, referring to Romney going on to Israel.
Rodent reading the paper is from : http://www.theospark.net/2012/07/pic-dump_30.html

Is Ken Salazar the new Eric Holder?

Bridget Johnson wonders if Ken Salazar is the new Eric Holder. Senator Vitter told PJ Media, "“Our nation’s energy policy has turned into a slow-paced bureaucratic mess – largely due to the Department of Interior and Secretary Salazar.” There seems to be a race between Holder and Salazar as to who can create the most damage to our country.
Read the details here:  http://pjmedia.com/blog/is-salazar-the-new-holder/?singlepage=true
Via Instapundit

A progressive mayor

Boston Mayor Tom Menino wants Chick-fil-A not to be able to come into that city, hire employees, and provide food for customers. Why? Because the CEO of Chick-fil-A supports traditional marriage.

However, the same mayor supports all-but-giving city-owned land to a mosque which lists as a spiritual guide a man who is for killing gays and encouraging women to become suicide bombers. Read more here: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view/20220727poultry_excuse_mayor_radical_imam_ok_but_not_chick-fil-a/
Via Instapundit

If these are ranchers' friends, who are ranchers' enemies?

Ranchers in Colorado better think twice if they think they have friends in the U.S. Department of Agriculture or in the U.S. Senate. The USDA newsletter to its employees warns that "The production of meat, especially beef (and dairy as well), has a large environmental impact. According to the U.N., animal agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gases and climate change. It also wastes resources. It takes 7,000 kg of grain to make 1,000 kg of beef. In addition, beef production requires a lot of water, fertilizer, fossil fuels, and pesticides." The newsletter urges employees to consider going meatless on Mondays.

A group of western senators has written a letter of complaint. No senators from Colorado or New Mexico signed the letter. Note that the U.N. is the source of guidance for the USDA. Read the whole thing here: http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/07/26/citing-u-n-veg-arguments-usda-encourages-meatless-mondays-for-employees/
Via Instapundit

Sane and evil, or paranoid schizophrenic?

A commenter at the Have You Had Enough Therapy? blog makes these observations about the Aurora killer and mental health treatment programs: "The mental health system is pretty underfunded and uncoordinated.

No psychiatric hospital wants to keep any one for any length of time and when they do release people they are always "stable" with a GAF of 60. However, treatment after such a hospitalization is spotty and ad hoc.

Even if you are a danger to yourself or others, you only get to stay for 3 to 7 days and are then released.

The entire psychiatric system needs to be rethought and restructured so that people with serious organic disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are better handled over a longer term.

Fortunately for the public, most of the time those with serious organic disorders are only a danger to themselves or their immediate family.

Like one paranoid schizophrenic who decided to swim a mile in the ocean with one of his small children while leaving the other one alone on a beach. Or the guy who decided to dump gasoline around his daughter's house because she wouldn't let him in.

And those two examples are of relatively high functioning people with organic brain disorders.

Until I got into this line of work I had no idea that these disorders really even existed. It's not something that's generally discussed in suburbia.

 My brother-in-law's the psychiatrist.

I'm just the lawyer who has to read the psychiatric records to prove mental impairments in court. The fun part is interviewing the client about suicide attempts and hallucinations.

Never thought I would spend any part of my professional life talking about auditory and visual hallucinations.

I never really believed that mental illness existed until I took this job. The weirdest vibes come from the people who are manic. I'd never seen anything like that before.

This guy just seems like he's been hit with the onset of paranoid schizophrenia.

Columbine was evil (one was clearly a sociopath; the other one was an idiot sidekick). Not too much mental illness there. They wanted to kill people for fun.

This guy looks and acts like someone who actually did what the voices in his head told him to do.

He could be faking it, but the entire series of events seems off. If you wanted to kill as many people as possible for fun, why would you tell the police that your apartment was rigged with explosives after you just got done shooting up a theater?

If you're sane and evil, you would want the bomb to go off, so you would keep your mouth shut so that you would become even more famous/notorious to get a higher "kill count"."

Read more here:  http://stuartschneiderman.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-psychosis-of-james-holmes.html

Getting it wrong, part three

The big story on the Aurora Massacre yesterday was the notebook sent by the killer to a C.U. Medical School psychiatrist. It arrived at C.U. Monday, and prompted the evacuation of the campus for three hours. No one in law enforcement would discuss the contents with The Denver Post, but Fox News, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, NBC, and CNN all reported that law enforcement sources said that the contents included drawings about a massacre. As part of his graduate studies at the Anschutz Medical Center campus, Holmes was enrolled in a course taught by a psychiatrist entitled, "Biological Basis of Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders."

Fox News was the first to report the story, and they got one important detail wrong, according to C.U. authorities.. They said the package arrived on July 12 and sat on a loading dock until Monday.

Update: Why would law enforcement officials talk to national news outlets, but not to the Denver Post? Post columnist Joanne Ostrow points out that one father of an eyewitness to the shootings told a Post reporter that they could not talk to the Post because they had signed an "exclusive contract" with "Entertainment Tonight." Ostrow alleges that "television producers quickly locked up eye witnesses, legal experts, and others."

Update 2:: Or is it because The Denver Post has already lost credibility with law enforcement? Is it checkbook journalism, or sour grapes?

Update 3: Fox News is sticking to its story, that the package had sat in the "mailroom," not a loading dock, since July 12. The defense has filed a motion regarding the contents of the package being protected by Dr./patient relationship; so now the defense is asserting that Holmes was being treated by the psychiatrist to whom he sent the package.

Compelling stories

Go to the The Denver Post online today to read some compelling stories about the massacre in Aurora.

One is about Rebecca Ann Wingo, who was one of the people murdered.

Another is about grenades, gunpowder, and gasoline found in the murderer's apartment.

Another is about difficulties medical responders had.

And another is about a survivor who gave birth to a son yesterday. The father is in a coma in the hospital, after being shot at the theater.

Another victory for Project Veritas!

James O'Keefe has this wonderful satiric video interviewing union bosses for a project in which they dig holes, then fill them back up with the dirt they dug.
I found it here: http://grimbeorn.blogspot.com/2012/07/they-never-learn.html

"A disarmed citizenry is much more vulnerable."

Grim's Hall has a piece analyzing the mass shooting problem. "An armed citizenry can sometimes stop these attacks, whereas a disarmed citizenry is much more vulnerable.

Carrying a gun is kind of a pain, really, and the odds that something like this shooting will come up are small enough that most people may not think it's worth the hassle. However, a former Marine who happened to take his pistol to the movies that night could have stopped the attack earlier. This is in fact the best defense to an attack in progress, since it is an unpredictable factor from the point of view of the killer. He can avoid the police, but he can't be sure about the concealed weapons in the audience.

There's a second reason that is less obvious. The kind of mind that chooses this path is capable of worse. Even Timothy McVeigh, far from the smartest man in the world, could concoct a huge bomb. This fellow appears to have been brilliant: there's no limit to what kind of harm he could have created if he had chosen that route.

This is to say that the easy availability of firearms, and the glamour they are endowed with culturally, acts as a kind of brake on the harm done by mass killers. Firearms are less deadly than bombs, they take longer to do their work, and you have to be right there operating them in person. That exposes you to being stopped mid-act by armed citizens, and potentially even to the police arriving (although that is unlikely, since 'longer than a bomb' is still only 'a few minutes' rather than 'instantly'). You are available to be stopped before the harm is completed. You're easier to catch afterwards. Finally, a single person with a firearm can only kill so many people because of weight limits on how much ammunition he can carry.

For all these reasons, the best response is to encourage the carrying of arms by citizens."
 http://grimbeorn.blogspot.com/2012/07/an-analysis-of-mass-shooting-problem.html

Getting it wrong, Part two

The Denver Post (paper edition) claimed this morning that James Holmes was awarded $171,024 from the National Instittues of Health for his first year of graduate school at The University of Colorado. Of that, $26,000 was alloted for "personal expenses." However, in their on-line edition, it says, "Holmes' studies were funded in part by a grant to the university from the Eunice Kennedy Schriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. That $176,000 grant supports six Ph.D. students for one year. Pre-doctoral students supported by the training grant receive a $21,600 stipend per year in 12 monthly installments to help defray living expenses." Which is it, Denver Post? Can you please get the story right?


The Dean of the Medical School is quoted by the Post as saying,

"You have to understand that the program directors are with these students daily. This is not something where they're saying, 'Oh, maybe I'll see the student in six months,' " he said. "This is a family. It's a team-building environment. They're very much in contact with the students in the program.

"Especially with any student that might have any kind of academic or other difficulty — those are the ones that program leadership would focus their interest on, more than anyone, the students who are in need of help."

Good job, Medical School faculty.

Read more: CU officials defend academic, personal support available to Holmes - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_21140571/cu-officials-defend-academic-personal-support-available-holmes#ixzz21azW3tnS

Update: A big thank you to Glenn Reynolds and welcome to Instapundit readers!

Getting it wrong

Here is another thing ABC got wrong in its reporting on the Aurora massacre. When Holmes' mother told an ABC reporter "Yes, you have the right person," she was referring to herself as being the mother of James Holmes.

ABC's Brian Ross was the one who tied Holmes to the Tea Party, when the actual Tea Party member whose name is James Holmes is a man in his fifties.

Update: Go here to see the Jon Stewart video in which Stewart scathingly indicts ABC and Brian Ross:  http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-tears-apart-abc%E2%80%99s-brian-ross-for-false-tea-party-report-on-aurora-shooter/

Update 2: The blogger at In From the Cold remembers a time when a journalist cared about "getting it right." http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2012/07/when-journalism-was.html

"A bargain struck with God often transforms the petitioner more than the object of any plea"

Remember Zell Miller? Grim's Hall has a piece on him. Miller credits the U.S. Marine Corps and God for straightening out his life. "“I had a conversion. I had a late life conversion. I changed my views on several things. This had to do with my son going blind, and me having to carry him to the doctor with his hand on my shoulder.... I prayed and prayed that they could do something about his sight,” Miller said.

The prayers seemed to work. “He can see pretty good out of one eye right now.” But a bargain struck with God often transforms the petitioner more than the object of any plea. “I changed on a lot of things. Not just abortion, but my whole life in general. I was a pretty rough character in my younger days. I needed to change,” Miller said.

 http://grimbeorn.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-word-with-zell-miller.html

Three who died in Aurora while protecting their girlfriends

Three of the twelve who were murdered by the Aurora gunman were killed as they were protecting their girlfriends. Above are two of those men, with their girlfriends. Go here to read about all three men: Jon Blunk, 26, Alex Teves, 24, and Matt McQuinn, 27:http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/the_victims_boyfriends_saved_their_lAZ3ZF4nbDsTyPkeAAkZsM
Via Grim's Hall

Diagnostic impressions of a killer

Schizophrenic? Evil? All kinds of suppositions are being considered to describe the Aurora killer. The diagnosis I think I liked best came from one of the people who was shot, but survived. "He just looks like a pathetic freak," said McKayla Hicks. "I just want him put away forever."

"Nobody has ever been successful by himself, right?

Innominatus outdoes himself! What an imagination! Read the whole thing here: http://innominatus87.blogspot.com/2012/07/barry-batty-campaign-strategy.html
I think my favorite character was Chris Matthews.

Rubber banding watermelons (in slow motion)

Who says grown men can't act like boys? http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2012/07/23/rubber-bands-destroy-watermelon-in-super-slow-motion-video/
I'd rather eat them.

Wow!

Marth E. McSally is running for Congress in Arizona. Her experience? She is the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, and first to command a fighter squadron in combat in United States history. Watch this video!
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/07/martha-mcsally-wins-support-from-entire-az-gop-congressional-delegation/

Depravity

How much depravity can we take? Three teens in Chicago murdered a disabled man as part of a game called "Knock Out," then posted the video on Facebook.
via http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/07/chicago-thugs-kill-disabled-father-in-knock-out-game-post-video-on-facebook/

Immigration and rape in Denmark

Immigrants from Iraqis, Iranians, Turks and Somalis are dramatically overrepresented in Danish rape verdicts.

More than every other time that judges in 2010 found a felon guilty of rape, the convict was an immigrant or Danish-born to immigrant parents, reveal the official numbers from Statistics Denmark. Specifically, 32 with Danish background, 27 immigrants and 7 children of immigrants were convicted in 2010.
Read more here:  http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/07/danish-girls-must-learn-to-behave.html

Divided loyalties?

Hillary Clinton's very close associate at the State Department is Huma Abedin, who is also the wife of disgraced Congressman Weiner of New York. Abedin's mother is a professor who published a book on the rights and obligations of women in Islam. It endorses the following Islamic shariah justifications:

• Stoning for Adultery when Married; Lashing for Adultery when Unmarried
• No Death Penalty for the Murder of an Apostate
• Freedom of Expression Curtailed to What Benefits Islam
• Women’s Right to Participate in Armed Jihad
• Social Interaction Between the Sexes is Forbidden
• Women Have No Right to Abstain from Sex with their Husbands
• A Woman Should Not Let Anyone Into the House Unless Approved by Her Husband
• Female Genital Mutilation is Allowed
• Man-Made Laws “Enslave Women”

She is also chair of an organization that is currently advocating for the repeal of Egypt’s Mubarak-era prohibitions on female genital mutilation, child marriage, and marital rape, on the grounds that such prohibitions run counter to shariah.

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is one of five members of Congress asking for Inspector General investigations of Muslim Brotherhood influence operations within the U.S. government. Read more here: http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-state-departments-divided-loyalties.html#more

Update: In the comments section of the Gates of Vienna piece is this on Hillary Clinton:  "She is also about to sign the U.S. onto the U.N. small arms treaty which will eventually see the confiscation of firearms belonging to ALL American citizens by their own government."

Update 2: John McCain has attacked Bachmann for her efforts to investigate the Muslim Brotherhood.

A history of the Muslim Brotherhood

The Gates of Vienna blog presents a history of the Muslim Brotherhood, by Prof. Dr. Johannes J.G. Jansen. "Now to believe that Jesus is the son of God is a perfectly respectable belief that has been held by millions of respectable people for the past two millennia. If, however, the Koran were to be the law of the land, there would be a problem for these people, because the Koran explicitly curses and damns these people (9:30), and the Koran even expresses the wish that people who believe that Christ is the son of God shall be killed in battle, qaatalahumullaah. May I remind you: The Brotherhood wants this document, the Koran, to be the law, and this document, the Koran, contains many, many more passages that are similar, or worse, or much worse.

 In practice, though not in theory, Jihad means keeping up the military pressure on the non-Muslim world, in order to expand the domain of Islam by whatever means possible. In happier days, the duty to wage Jihad was carried out exclusively by Muslim states and Muslim governments. This type of Jihad, carried out by states, came to an end on September 11, 1683, when the Turkish siege of Vienna was lifted by the Polish army. Sayyid Qutb refers to this millennium of Muslim military supremacy as ‘the first round’ (al-gawla al-uulaa, Zilaal 3, 1.560, Sura 8). Jihad against the West was, however, resumed on September 11, 2001, with a spectacular but senseless attack on America. However — and this is an important distinction — in this the ‘second round’ Jihad has become a private affair for which no sane government in the world wanted to be held responsible — even if they secretly were.

Read more here:  http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-history-and-ideology-of-muslim.html#more

Looting the future

More Foseti selections from the Dark Enlightenment: "Looting the future, through currency debauchment, debt accumulation, growth destruction, and techno-industrial retardation is especially easy to conceal, and thus reliably popular. Democracy is essentially tragic because it provides the populace with a weapon to destroy itself, one that is always eagerly seized, and used. Nobody ever says ‘no’ to free stuff. Scarcely anybody even sees that there is no free stuff. Utter cultural ruination is the necessary conclusion."

Equality?

Foseti selects this piece on equality from the Dark Enlightenment series: "People are not equal, they do not develop equally, their goals and achievements are not equal, and nothing can make them equal." Read more here: http://foseti.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/selections-from-the-dark-enlightenment/

Austerity defined

Foseti understands what "austerity" governments actually are:
"Austerity is when more than half of a country’s working age population has to . . . wait for it . . . seriously, I hope you’re sitting down for this . . . go to work at an actual job every day.*

Bonus definition!:
“Crippling austerity” is a special case of austerity in which those people who actually have to work have to do so for more than 25 years (meaning that someone who starts working at 25 years old may have to work beyond their 50th birthday).

Obviously this is intolerable. I wonder if there’s somewhere I can go to donate money to the people undergoing this terrible hardship.

* This of course excludes six weeks of holiday."
Read more here:  http://foseti.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/defining-austerity/

Today's Court Hearing

Here is the video of today's court hearing for Mr. Orange Hair. The video is being transmitted into a cell phone, so it has interruptions, because the cell phone cannot easily handle this much data. 

Willful Blindness

Andrew McCarthy, author of Willful Blindness, writes today at PJ Media about "the Obama Left, the Republican establishment and their complicit media." Yes, you read that right; he lumps together the Obama left, the Republican establishment and their complicit media under one banner. What is he talking about? He is talking about the way those groups misunderstand the religion of Islamic supremacy, as adhered to by the Muslim Brotherhood. National security conservatives such as McCarthy "take the Muslim Brotherhood at its word that it is seeking to destroy the West and destroy Israel, and that it is doing so based on a divine injunction that is easily traceable to Islamic scripture." Coming in for criticism by McCarthy are Condi Rice and John McCain for their failure to understand Islamic Supremacy.

McCarthy was the lead prosecutor of the "Blind Sheik": "Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and his cohorts in 1995. The overarching charge was that all 12 defendants, plus dozens of unindicted coconspirators, conspired to wage a war of urban terrorism against the United States. Beyond the Trade Center attack, this campaign included a more ambitious plot to bomb New York City landmarks (e.g., Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, UN complex, FBI’s lower Manhattan headquarters, some U.S. military installations, etc.), as well as sundry schemes to kidnap or assassinate current and former government officials, murder the president of Egypt, and the like."

McCarthy actually dares to assert, "if GOP leaders can no longer tell the difference between hostile anti-American operatives and benign political actors, then the Republican Party has become an obstacle to liberty and security, not a vehicle for their preservation. As is the case with crushing government debt and out-of-control government spending, it appears that the GOP is choosing to be part of the problem, rather than the solution, when it comes to the threat of Islamic supremacism. Certainly, that is a choice party leaders are entitled to make. But if it is the one they have made, why should conservatives concerned about liberty and security bother with the Republican Party?

I am indebted to Rush Limbaugh for mentioning this piece on his program today. It may be one of the most important essays anyone has written in quite a while.
Read the whole thing here: http://pjmedia.com/andrewmccarthy/2012/07/23/the-wages-of-willful-blindness-is-it-time-for-defenders-of-liberty-to-abandon-the-gop/?singlepage=true

Enemies lists

This image of Nixon morphing into Obama is from a blog post at Powerline, which examines Obama's enemies lists and his use of the I.R.S. to intimidate donors to Romney. Read the whole thing here: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/07/the-enemies-list-now-and-then.php

A example of how a concealed carry permit enabled a good person to thwart criminals

Have you seen this video? Two armed men try to rob people at an internet restaurant in Florida. A 71-year-old man draws his gun and shoots them as they flee. He has refused to talk with the media. This video was posted on You Tube on July 18.Update: "Instead of seeing it as an example of the need for more gun control, most Americans have interpreted it as a powerful indictment of gun-free zones and an example of the need for further liberalization of carry laws." from a post by Vox Day about the Aurora massacre: http://www.wnd.com/2012/07/the-lone-gunmen/

Should we all be armed?

Instapundit linked to this post about countries who ban guns.

"During the same time period, all other violent crime indices increased in Australia: assault rose 49.2 percent and robbery 6.2 percent.
Sexual assault -- Australia's equivalent term for rape -- increased 29.9 percent.
Overall, Australia's violent crime rate rose 42.2 percent.
At the same time, U.S. violent crime decreased 31.8 percent: rape dropped 19.2 percent; robbery decreased 33.2 percent; aggravated assault dropped 32.2 percent.
Australian women are now raped over three times as often as American women.

So, if the USA follows Australia's lead in banning guns, it should expect a 42 percent increase in violent crime, a higher percentage of murders committed with a gun, and three times more rape. One wonders if Freddy even bothered to look up the relative crime statistics.

The International Crime Victims Survey, conducted by Leiden University in Holland, found that England and Wales ranked second overall in violent crime among industrialized nations. Twenty-six percent of English citizens -- roughly one-quarter of the population -- have been victimized by violent crime. Australia led the list with more than 30 percent of its population victimized. The United States didn't even make the "top 10" list of industrialized nations whose citizens were victimized by crime. http://voxday.blogspot.com/2012/07/mailvox-aussie-logic.html


In fact, I wonder what would happen if all Americans were required to own a gun and take gun training classes when they reach a certain age.

Who invented the internet?

Who invented the internet? Was it Al Gore? Nope. Was it the government, as President Obama recently asserted? Nope. It was Vinton Cerf, Tim Berners-Lee, and a company called Xerox. Instapundit links to this post by Gordon Crovitz in the Wall Street Journal, where you can read the history: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444464304577539063008406518.html
I found the image here: http://grimbeorn.blogspot.com/2012/07/building.html

Update: Here is a much more accurate post on the subject:  http://erratasec.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/who-invented-internet-evolution-or.html

Why Colorado?

The Denver Post featured an article on page one of its Sunday edition by someone named 
William Porter. He was asking, "Why Colorado?" He pointed out that there have been three successful attempts at mass murder or massacres in thirteen years, and at least one other that was not successful.

We in Colorado have incredible natural beauty to look at every day, with abundant sunshine. We don't feel the need to constantly look over our shoulders to see what danger lurks, as we would if we were in places like New York City or Washington D.C.. We are not expecting it. I would be, though, if I were in Chicago or New York.

Porter's article is here: http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_21129878/wake-another-mass-shooting-question-why-colorado

Whom does God look after?

I was having a brief conversation with a colleague at work today. She told me that she knew someone who had bought tickets to the movie premiere where the massacre occurred. He had purchased tickets for himself and his son. His son got sleepy, so they didn't go. My friend said she asked the man, "Doesn't that tell you that God is looking after you?" He answered, "Yes," I asked her, "Does that imply that God did not look after the 71 people who were shot?" Before she could answer, we both had to get back to our jobs of tending to the needs of customers.

Apartment diffused

The killer's booby-trapped apartment has now been entered by Aurora police, with the use of a robot first to diffuse a trip-wire. The robot dropped something resembling a water bottle on the trip-wire, then exited the apartment. A small explosion occurred. The remaining explosive devices were loaded onto a truck loaded with sand, and driven to a field out east on the prairie, where they were detonated. How would you like to be the driver of that truck?

Profiles of the twelve murder victims can be found here: http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_21127706/stories-victims-killed-emerge?nstrack=sid:5513539|met:300|cat:0|order:4

Falling through the cracks of our system for treating the mentally ill

Dr. Helen Smith writes about the Aurora massacre from this standpoint: it is not easy to get help for adults who are mentally ill, and they are not closely monitored: http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/07/21/some-thoughts-on-the-colorado-shooting-massacre/

Politicizing a massacre

Will Brian Ross at ABC News lose his job for trying to tie the Aurora killer to the Tea Party? Here is one blogger who thinks he should: http://www.chicagonow.com/publius-forum/2012/07/brian-ross-of-abc-news-politicizes-colorado-shooting-illicitly-blames-tea-party/

The Aurora Massacre

From reading today's Denver Post, here is some additional information about yesterday's massacre in Aurora, and some of my thoughts and questions.

About the suspect:
"A quiet man" (Aren't they always?)

Never acknowledged neighbors in his apartment hallway (all wrapped up in himself; no connection to others)

Died his hair red to look like Batman's archenemy, the Joker, (this detail supplied by New York City Police Chief Ray Kelly, with whom the Aurora Chief Oates previously worked). Oates admitted talking with Kelly, but refused to confirm the report.

Holmes' father flew to Denver Friday afternoon from San Diego. His mother remains in San Diego, where the killer grew up.

After graduating from college with a degree in neuroscience, obtaining "highest honors," the best job Holmes could find was at McDonalds. That, or something similar, seems to be a common experience among today's college graduates.

If he graduated with highest honors, then it should be a no-brainer that he is "competent" to understand court proceedings, shouldn't it? Those proceedings begin Monday.

Where does he get the money to buy the expensive weapons and ammo, pay his rent, buy a Hyundai?

He was a graduate student in neuroscience at the University of Colorado. Those medical school professors did not notice any mental problems? Just like the rest of us, those medical school professors apparently are good at ignoring people with psychiatric problems.

Other significant details:
The theater has a posted "no guns" policy, so not even persons with concealed-carry permits could have guns in the theater. Of course, this prevents the only possibility of stopping the criminal murderer, and it ensures our vulnerability.

Police smashed a window to the apartment and with a camera attached to a long pole, took pictures of the apartment, which revealed wires, trip wires, jars and liter-sized soda bottles filled with liquid and attached to the wires.

Gun control advocates like New York Mayor Bloomberg are jumping on this tragedy. Will the NRA and other advocates of gun ownership back down, like they did after Columbine? If so, they can't be too confident of the righteousness of their position, but the gun control advocates are absolutely sure of the righteousness of their position.

Psychotic episodes

This morning I pondered for a moment to decide whether to listen to a book-on-tape or talk radio as I was getting ready for work. I decided on talk radio, and soon learned about the massacre that occurred in nearby Aurora. I was riveted by the developing story, and drove to work with the radio on. A person claiming to be a "psychotic schizophrenic" called into the program. He said that many of his acquaintances who also have "mental problems" have been having a hard time since the new phase of the moon began. He said he, himself, was having problems, and recently ran out of the pills he takes to control his psychosis. He said he was a veteran of Desert Storm, and gets his meds at the V.A. Hospital in Aurora. He said when he is not on his meds, he wants to hurt himself, not others. Voices that sound like his own, his dead mother's, or his grandmother's tell him to hurt himself. He said he was abused by his father as a child, but did not elaborate. The talk show host urged him to get to the V.A. It was riveting radio.

As for the moon, don't laugh about that. I worked as a valet in front of a hospital emergency room. Whenever there was a full moon, there was always a parade of women coming to the emergency room with labor contractions.

Later that morning I was in Wal-Mart. A young teen girl, 12 or 13-years old, was screaming at the top of her lungs. She was hearing voices, and holding her hands over her ears to try to stop the voices. The words coming out of her mouth were jumbled and unintelligible. There was a kind adult female with her (her mother?) who kept holding her hand, preventing her from running through the store. The adult kept calm and patiently talked to the girl. I thought about what the caller to the talk radio program said about the effect of the new moon. The woman bought the girl a small toy monkey, put it in her hands, and escorted her out of the store. The girl stopped screaming.

Update: Faithful Christian reader of this blog, Trinka, has this to add:  "A friend is in charge of a nursing home with an Alzheimers' unit. She also notices the changes in people's mental state along with the phase of the moon.

I can't tell you how many times, I've seen those signs at the door to an establishment, I think, "the people who would pose are danger are NOT going to obey that sign."

I saw a beautiful testimony by a woman who was in that theater with her two teens": http://aminiatureclaypot.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/so-you-still-think-god-is-a-merciful-god/

Another mass murder in Colorado

An horrendous act of mass murder was committed in Aurora at the premier last night of the new Batman movie by a white guy with no previous criminal charges. What are his thought processes? "I get to do whatever I want to do, and nobody else matters?" No prior models. What happened? Anamoly? Grudge?

Update: Killer is 23. Came into theater with four weapons and threw tear gas, then just started murdering people. Was wearing black, bullet proof vest.

Update 2: The killer's mother lives in San Diego. She is on her way to Colorado, and purportedly told the police, "You've got the right man." James Holmes is in custody. Only prior is a traffic incident. Was wearing a black mask, and black outfit when he kicked in the emergency exit door, threw something like tear gas, and started shooting.

Update 3: Police and F.B.I. say that the entire apartment building where the guy lived is booby-trapped from the inside.

Update 4: My first four paragraphs were written early this morning.I have now gone to work and returned home. Here are some additions and corrections. Radio news says Holmes is not talking, not cooperating with police. Twelve people are dead. 59 more are injured from his gunfire.

Police have not decided what to do about the booby-trapped apartment. Apparently it is the apartment, not the whole building, that is booby-trapped. Five buildings have been evacuated.

Killer is 24. He was wearing armored ballistic protection all over his body and a gas mask. He purchased a ticket, then went out the back exit, went to his car to get the weapons, came back in the back door, and threw tear gas or some kind of gas into the crowded theater after the movie started, and opened fire as people tried to escape the tear gas and shooting.

Holmes graduated with bachelors degree from the U. of  California in Riverside. Graduated with highest honors. Currently a PhD candidate at U. of Colorado Medical School in Neuroscience, but had started the process of dropping out of the program.

What about the victims? Will we learn anything about them? Or is this just about Holmes?

Update 5: Earlier in the night, before the movie premier, loud "techno-music" was playing in the Holmes apartment on the third floor of the apartment building. The person who lived below his apartment called the police. They could not respond, because they were dealing with other calls. If they would have responded, they would have found an apartment that was trip-wired with explosives.

Update 6: Killer's father also cooperating with police.

Law-breaking

The Obama campaign is saying that Romney may have committed a felony by staying on at Bain longer than he had previously claimed. Obama writes about his use of marijuana and cocaine in his earlier years. Any criminal laws broken in those days, do you suppose?

Times have changed

What would Cosmopolitan Magazine's cover have looked like in the 18th century? I found this here: http://fkclinic.blogspot.com/2012/07/way-back-machine.html

The way it works

Via an Instapundit link, here is a post about how the Obama team rewards big donors with government funds: http://freebeacon.com/cronyism-built-that/

Fellow blogger loses home to fire

One of my favorite blogs to visit is The Poor Farm, written by Jeff Borland. Jeff is a truck driver who writes about his experiences and much more. He recently lost his home to fire. He has set up a Pay Pal account for donations. I have donated, and I know one other person who has, too: Glenn Reynolds. Check out Jeff's blog, and donate if you are able. His blog is at http://crazedpw.blogspot.com/

Sexual encounters

Boinky brings to our attention research on high school students. Take a look at table 55! http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6007a1.htm?s_cid=ss6007a1_x#Tab55
Boinky also has some interesting things to say about sexual abuse at Penn State: http://fkclinic.blogspot.com/2012/07/depressing-stories-below-fold.html

Inheritance

I found this at Doug Ross @ Journal

Suicide of western media

Robert Spencer says journalists are committing suicide. Why? By supporting calls for authoritarian restrictions on the freedom of speech. Read more here: http://pjmedia.com/blog/suicide-of-the-western-media/?singlepage=true

Observations of VDH

Victor Davis Hansen writes about the presidential campaign, noting that Romney is doing better than McCain in fundraising, the importance of Romney staying within 1 or 2 points in the polls, the inevitability of racism charges, the wild card of Michelle Obama, and an October surprise. He also writes about how his beloved central valley of California has changed.
http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/beware-the-ides-of-october/?singlepage=true

Results

Please click on the chart on this post to see the difference on civilian employment ratio between the left and the right after a recession. Read the whole thing here: http://www.theloudtalker.com/2012/07/10/economic-opinion/

Rasmussen polling

Here is an interesting daily summary by Rasmussen of the polling on Obama v. McCain. It appears that voters made up their minds for Obama on about the 19th of September. If that carries forward to this year, we've got about two more months.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2008/2008_presidential_election/general_election_match_up_history

"A hero is a sandwich"

No, a hero is this man who saved this little girl's life. Watch this video.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/17/man-catches-girl-falling-from-third-story-window-video/

Who is afraid of the big bad bear?

This  series of photos of a cat chasing a bear does not surprise me. I have a cat who I am sure would do the same. Here is the video:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2175103/Video-captures-massive-bears-fright-startled-chased-cat.html

Why are they in prison?

When I saw this chart showing why people are in federal prisons, I was surprised. Drug crimes are by far the most common crime resulting in a federal prison sentence. However, I disagree with those who say drug crimes are victimless crimes. I worked too many years as a child protection caseworker to accept that fallacy.
Read more here: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/07/chart-of-day-federal-drug-prisoners.html
via Coyote Blog

Thanking America

The town of Pilzen, in the Czech Republic continues to celebrate the town’s liberation by the American Third Army under General George Patton on May 6, 1945.Please go to the Conservatives on Fire blog to read about it and see many photos: http://conservativesonfire.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/american-exceptionalism-celebrated-in-pilzen/

Unemployment and "out of work"

Abbot and Costello discuss unemployment and "out of work" at the Feed Your ADHD blog: http://feedyouradhd.blogspot.com/2012/07/bud-abbott-and-lou-costello-on.html

COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America.

ABBOTT: Good subject. Terrible times. It's about 9%.

COSTELLO: That many people are out of work?

ABBOTT: No, that's 16%.

COSTELLO: You just said 9%.

ABBOTT: 9% Unemployed.

COSTELLO: Right 9% out of work.

ABBOTT: No, that's 16%.

COSTELLO: Okay, so it's 16% unemployed.

ABBOTT: No, that's 9%...

COSTELLO: WAIT A MINUTE!! Is it 9% or 16%?

ABBOTT: 9% are unemployed. 16% are out of work.

COSTELLO: If you are out of work you are unemployed.

ABBOTT: No, you can't count the "Out of Work" as the unemployed. You have to look for work to be unemployed.

COSTELLO: But ... they are out of work!

ABBOTT: No, you miss my point.

COSTELLO: What point?

ABBOTT: Someone who doesn't look for work, can't be counted with those who look for work. It wouldn't be fair.

COSTELLO: To who?

ABBOTT: The unemployed.

COSTELLO: But they are ALL out of work.

ABBOTT: No, the unemployed are actively looking for work. Those who are out of
work stopped looking. They gave up. And, if you give up, you are no longer in the ranks of the unemployed.

COSTELLO: So if you're off the unemployment roles, that would count as less unemployment?

ABBOTT: Unemployment would go down. Absolutely!

COSTELLO: The unemployment just goes down because you don't look for work?

ABBOTT: Absolutely it goes down. That's how you get to 9%. Otherwise it would be 16%. You don't want to read about 16% unemployment do ya?

COSTELLO: That would be frightening.

ABBOTT: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Wait, I got a question for you. That means there are two ways to bring down
the unemployment number?

ABBOTT: Two ways is correct.

COSTELLO: Unemployment can go down if someone gets a job?

ABBOTT: Correct.

COSTELLO: And unemployment can also go down if you stop looking for a job?

ABBOTT: Bingo.

COSTELLO: So, there are two ways to bring unemployment down, and the easier of the
two is to just stop looking for work.

ABBOTT: Now you're thinking like an economist.

COSTELLO: I don't even know what I just said!

And now, you know why Obama's unemployment figures are improving.

"Devastating study on the devastating impact" of Obama's proposed tax hikes

The accounting firm Ernst and Young estimates that Obama's proposed tax hikes will cost the nation 710,000 jobs and cause a 200 billion dollar hit to the economy. Read more here:  http://www.coloradopeakpolitics.com/diary/1482/12200-colorado-jobs-lost-new-study-finds-obama-tax-hike-to-kill-employment

Pusillanimous

Michael Walsh, at The Corner, wrote a scathing indictment of Chief Justice John Roberts for his cowardice on the Obamacare decision. Pusillanimous and John Roberts may be forever linked in dictionaries of the future. Who can forget Obama's whining in his State of the Union address, and Sam Alito shaking his head and mouthing the words, "Not true."

Michael Walsh entitled his piece, "Well, it worked, didn't it?" http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/304535/well-it-worked-didnt-it-michael-walsh

Too many barney Fifes, too few Andy Taylors

Mike at Cold Fury notes that "the trouble with America begins with the sad fact that we have way too many Barney Fifes, and way too few Andy Taylors." The link is to an Atlantic article by Hampton Stevens, which is well worth reading.
Read more of the Cold Fury post here: http://coldfury.com/2012/07/05/barney-fife-nation-2/

Have you no decency?

Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds seldom uses language this strong: "Let me be clear: All you people who were playing the have-you-no-decency card under Bush, but who aren’t screaming just as loud now – which is pretty much all of you people who were playing the have-you-no-decency card under Bush – were and are miserable lying hacks." He then links to a New York Daily News columnist who notes that the same people who excoriated Bush's war on terror are letting Obama do as he pleases: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/liberals-ignore-obama-guantanamos-article-1.1106633?localLinksEnabled=false
via Cold Fury

Keep him, or let him go?

By midnight tonight, we will know if the New York Knicks have matched the Houston Rockets offer for the services of guard Jeremy Lin. Here is one sports writer who thinks they should let him go: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/jason-kidd-dwi-hamptons-ny-knicks-letting-jeremy-lin-walk-houston-article-1.1115404

Negative rights versus positive rights

Cogitating Duck wrote a blog post recently about negative rights versus positive rights. "Negative rights–government’s promise to do no ill–and positive rights, government’s guarantee to ensure good outcomes.  The sum of human experience and the duration of America’s Constitutional enterprise both attest to this: that it is practical and necessary for government to extend negative rights, but impractical and immoral to extend positive ones." The writer traces this back to Roosevelt's State of the Union speech in 1941, when FDR promoted Four Freedoms:
1. Freedom of speech and expression
2. Freedom of worship
3. Freedom from want
4. Freedom from fear
Read the whole thing here:  http://cogitatingduck.com/2012/07/15/two-trons-four-freedoms/

Gone: MSNBC.com!

Maybe there is hope for Microsoft after all. They have successfully negotiated a split with NBC. If you click on MSNBC.com, you will now get NBCNEWS.com!

"Microsoft, in particular, had grown frustrated by contract terms requiring it to exclusively feature MSNBC.com content on its own websites. That exasperation was exacerbated by the MSNBC cable channel's strategy to counter Fox News Channel's appeal to conservative viewers by tailoring its programming for an audience with a liberal viewpoint.

The strategy fed a perception that material from MSNBC's website was politically slanted, too."

Read more here:  http://cnsnews.com/news/article/microsoft-nbc-dissolve-msnbccom-joint-venture-0

"You didn't build that! Somebody else made that happen!

Rush Limbaugh today gave his broadcast engineer full authority to play this snippet from Obama's Roanoke speech any time the engineer saw fit during today's broadcast. That is because from the day America elected Obama President, Rush has been at war. Democrats silence Republicans by shaming them with words like racist, trying to get them to be "fair-minded." Rush has not been having any of that, because he knows how the Chicago boys play. Democrats have their war room. Republicans have Rush Limbaugh.tells crowd in swing-state Pennsylvania, "I'm convinced he wants Americans to be ashamed of success

Rush noted that while Obama took another executive act this week to gut welfare reform, by allowing for the work provision to be waived as a condition of getting benefits, The Washington Post and Politico both did hard-hitting investigations that revealed that Obama prefers "Thin Mint" Girl Scout cookies.

Update: John Podhoretz, writing in Commentary points out that there are 25 million Americans who run businesses with ten or less employees. "A man running for national office just said of their own businesses that they “didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” This statement is a colossal opportunity for Mitt Romney and will prove a suppurating wound for the president, who revealed a degree not only of condescension but of contempt for the very people who are going to decide this election.

And if there’s one thing people recognize, it’s when they are being viewed with contempt."

Update 2: Romney tells cheering crowd in swing-state Pennsylvania, "I'm convinced he wants Americans to be ashamed of success!" http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/17/romney-jumps-on-obamas-you-didnt-build-that-comment-video/

Update 3: Doug Ross provides us with a gallery of Obama entrepreneurship here: http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2012/07/you-didnt-build-that-gallery-of-obama.html

Update 4: Doug Ross also links to Neil Boortz, who writes that Obama is a fascist:  http://www.boortz.com/weblogs/nealz-nuze/2012/jul/16/obama-revealed/