Airline Headline of the Day

From The Telegraph:

Newly-formed Thai airline recruits 'Ladyboys' as air hostesses

Frankly, that's not that much different from my last flight on Southwest.

Bonus Obamacare Quote of the Day

Another gem from Judge Roger Vinson in his ruling voiding Obamacare:

“It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place.”

Tea party, anyone?

Today's Quick Hit Headlines

Some quick hits on today's headlines:

First U.S. map purchased for record price 
But guys still won't pull over to look at it.

11% of All US Homes Are Now Empty...
That's not going to do good things for housing prices.

Scientists Discover: Chimpanzees mourn their dead just like humans!
Not counting the million women who abort their babies every year.

Schumer: 'We have 3 branches of gov't -- A House, a Senate, a President'...
One for each of Schumer's brain cells.

Israel shocked by Obama's 'betrayal' of Mubarak...
Israel's got some experience with Obama betraying things.

Man Accused of Trying to Blow Up Mich. Mosque
He must have thought it was "Bring Your Own Suicide Vest Day".

Clinton Convenes Mass U.S. Ambassadors Meeting
Kind of an odd group to announce her 2012 presidential campaign to, but you have to get an early start on those foreign donations.

Tampa Pirate Invasion Leads to 350 Arrests
I thought they were called the "Buccaneers"

Old Man Winter Prepares To Lash Midwest, Plains
I think "Old Man Winter" is one of Al Gore's nicknames.

World's oldest woman dies at 115 in Texas...
The Vice World's oldest woman was immediately sworn in to take her place.

Obamacare Quote of the Day

From Federal Judge Vinson, in his ruling declaring Obamacare to be void:

"If Congress can penalize a passive individual for failing to engage in commerce, the enumeration of powers in the Constitution would have been in vain."

In other words, we would have a Constitution in name only, not a document that actually has power over the lawmakers and can limit their activities as originally intended.

I hope the Supreme Court sees it the same way.

Oh, and how about this:  The judge uses Obama's own words against him:

In ruling against President Obama‘s health care law, federal Judge Roger Vinson used Mr. Obama‘s own position from the 2008 campaign against him, arguing that there are other ways to tackle health care short of requiring every American to purchase insurance.

“I note that in 2008, then-Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include an individual mandate because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating that ‘if a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house,’” Judge Vinson wrote in a footnote toward the end of the 78-page ruling Monday.

The White House responded with this rather lame statement:

Senior WH official: Fla. ruling on #healthcare "is a plain case of judicial overreaching" & "contradicts decades of Supreme Court precedent"

You mean like when Brown v. Board of Education contradicted decades of Supreme Court precedent that stated that "separate but equal" was constitutional?  I don't think the left was particularly exercised about that overturning of precedent.

What Are You Doing to Celebrate Fred Korematsu Day?

Whose day?  I asked the same the thing when I saw the press release, but I think the program probably tells you more about this day than anything:

BERKELEY, CA (1/30)- January 30th marks the first annual Fred Korematsu Day in California, the first day in U.S. history named after an Asian American. The Fred Korematsu Day bill, signed into California law in September 2010, honors an American civil rights hero from Oakland, CA who bravely resisted the government’s incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.

Several hundred people are expected to attend the first annual Fred Korematsu Day celebration on Sunday at UC Berkeley’s Wheeler auditorium. The program, sponsored by the Korematsu Institute, includes:

- Keynote speaker Reverend Jesse Jackson

- Def Poetry Jam spoken word artist Beau Sia

- Karen Korematsu, daughter of Fred Korematsu

- California Assemblymember Warren Furutani (D – South Los Angeles) co-sponsor of the Fred Korematsu Day bill

- California Assemblymember Marty Block (D – San Diego), co-sponsor of the Fred Korematsu Day bill

- Speeches from students who attend schools named after Fred Korematsu

- A video message from Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to U.S. Congress.

So, the keynote speaker is Jesse Jackson, a guy who's about as Asian as a taco, and a video will be presented from the first Muslim member of Congress. And the whole thing is taking place in Berkeley, so you know this has to be some sort of liberal Woodstock.

So, who was Fred Korematsu?

During World War II, Korematsu was a 23-year-old welder in Oakland, California who defied military orders that ultimately led to the evacuation and incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans. After he was arrested and convicted of defying the military’s incarceration order, he took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1944 upheld his conviction on the ground that the forced removal of Japanese Americans was justified due to “military necessity.” That decision has been widely condemned as one of the darkest chapters in American legal history.

After four decades of having to live with a “disloyalty” conviction on his record that limited him from securing full-time work, Korematsu filed suit to reopen his case on proof that the government, when arguing his case during the war, had suppressed, altered, and destroyed material evidence that contradicted the government’s claim of military necessity.In 1983, the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California granted his petition for a writ of error coram nobis (a notice of error) and overturned his conviction. It was a pivotal moment in civil rights history that helped lead to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, whereby the U.S. Government paid $20,000 to each survivor of the Japanese American incarceration camps.

So, he was the man responsible for the Japanese reparation payments, and that tells me why Jesse Jackson is involved. He has his own sights set on reparation payments.   I guess he's hoping a little of that old Korematsu magic will wear off on him.

Support a Charity - Run a Red Light

Once again a city's leaders don't get it:

The city of Murrieta is considering donating money earned from red light cameras to charity.

The city says the money from tickets has fueled complaints that the cameras were being used to make a quick buck.

The mayor says the city is looking into donating the money to local charities to hopefully convince the public the cameras are for safety, not raising revenue.

But not everyone is convinced. There are plans to collect 4,500 signatures to get a red light camera ban on the ballot.

How about donating to the citizens of Murrieta by dumping the cameras altogether?

Florida Judge Voids Obamacare

This is big news - a Florida judge has ruled Obamacare unconstitutional and has voided the entire law (from The Blaze):

A federal judge in Florida has ruled that the president’s health care overhaul, “Obamacare,” is unconstitutional. The judge based his ruling on the unconstitutionality of the law’s individual mandate. The ruling affects the 26 states who had joined together to file a case against the law, but also has implications for the entire country.

Last month, a federal judge in Virginia also ruled that the individual insurance mandate of the Obamacare was unconstitutional.

The ruling is just one more example of why the law is unpopular, and why it faces in uphill battle before being fully implemented in 2014. Still, despite the ruling in Virginia, the president doubled-down on his support of the bill last week, defiantly brushing aside those who question the overhaul.

According to Judge Vinson:

"Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void"

The lack of severability clause finally comes back to bite the Dems.

UPDATE:  Here's the actual ruling.

Science Project of the Day

A kid in Indiana decided to glue 5,800 mirror fragments to a standard satellite dish and created a death ray capable of focusing the power of 5,000 suns on a small space an inch or two wide.  The results can be found in this video:

Dem Incumbents: Hey, Don't Challenge Us In the Primaries...Pretty Please??

Jim Geraghty discusses a plaintive plea from Democrats hoping for an easy path to renomination (from the Morning Jolt email):

Well, they won't listen, but it's fun to hear House Democrat making this plea anyway: "Liberal groups need to stay out of Democratic primaries if the party is going to retake the House majority, according to a conservative Massachusetts Democrat. Rep. Stephen Lynch was one of several Democrats who faced an aggressive primary challenge from the left in 2010. His challenger Mac D'Alessandro, a former top official with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), received almost $300,000 from labor groups for his campaign. . . . 'I think if we had avoided that, we would have saved, maybe, six or eight more seats,' said Lynch. 'I don't think it would have stopped the overall result, but maybe six or eight seats' could have been held. Clearing primaries for members and discouraging liberal groups from spending against incumbents should be a priority for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he said. 'It would definitely help, I think. You need to talk to those groups.'"

Moderate Republicans are probably saying "Me too, Tea Party, me too!".

Axlerod Hangs Obamacare Around Romney's Neck

The administration knows that Mitt Romney is the frontrunner for the GOP nomination and they are beginning the process of tearing him down.  Fortunately for Obama, they can use Romney's own policies to do it (from the Daily Caller):

1.) Axelrod thanks Romney for Obamacare -- Poor Mitt Romney: The former Massachusetts governor wants to be president so bad, but he has a glassy-eyed albatross named "Romneycare" hanging from his neck, and dead birds are out this year. In an exit interview with USA Today, Obama advisor David Axelrod made sure the knot on Romney's necklace was good and tight. Axelrod "pointedly praised...Mitt Romney in a way that spotlighted Romney's vulnerability within the GOP for signing a state health care law that parallels the new federal law in some ways," reports USA Today. Romney "did some interesting things there on health care, you know," Axelrod said. "We got some good ideas from him." This is code for: "Do you hate Obama for Obamacare? Then you hate Romney, too, even if you don't know it." The other thing this says is that Axelrod thinks Massachusetts--where "health care spending is projected to nearly double to $123 billion in 2020, increasing 8 percent faster than the state’s gross domestic product (GDP)"--is doing it right.

If there's one thing that will keep Romney from getting the GOP nomination (and I hope there's at least one) it will be Romneycare. The Tea Party voters hate Obamacare, and Romneycare is Obamacare's ugly stepsister. And because Romneycare has been around for a few years it's easy to see the problems that are resulting from the attempt to have government health care.

Apparently the Obama people are afraid of Romney, which explains their decision to go after him.  Personally,  I think they're doing us a favor.

Supreme Court Routinely Smacks Down the Ninth Circuit

They're known as the "Ninth Circus" around here, but the federal appeals court that covers much of the Western U.S. is the most liberal in the land and the Supreme Court is getting a little tired of them:

Sometimes the Supreme Court simply decides cases and sometimes it seems to have something bigger in mind. In the past two weeks, it has been in scold mode, and its target has been the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

In five straight cases, the court has rejected the work of the San Francisco-based court without a single affirmative vote from a justice. The nation's largest court, stretching from Montana to Hawaii, the 9th has jurisdiction over nearly 20 percent of the nation's citizens. Not surprisingly, it routinely supplies the largest portion of the cases the court reviews each term.

As the most liberal circuit in the land, its work quite often is at odds with an increasingly conservative Supreme Court.

But some of the recent reversals have been delivered with a lash that those who closely watch the courts say reflects more than just a disagreement of law.

"They seem to do that every now and then," said University of Pittsburgh law professor Arthur D. Hellman, an authority on the federal circuits with a particular interest in the 9th. He was referring to the "combination of a cluster of decisions and language meant to send a message."

The Ninth Circus routinely makes decisions that can't be supported by the Constitution. One of the top judges on the Ninth District is married to a former local head of the ACLU, and the court's decisions have often looked more like ACLU propaganda than Constitution-based sound legal doctrine.

Thankfully we have a Supreme Court that can overturn them. That's why presidential and senate elections are so important - those are the people responsible for appointing and confirming the judges that make up both the Supreme Court and the district appeals courts. If the Supreme Court ever is allowed to swing hard left again we'll lose an important check on liberal craziness.

Bloomberg Versus the Non-Performing Teachers

Teacher's unions used to have a stranglehold on the state budgets in New York and New Jersey. Gov. Chris Christie spent a year going head-to-head with the teacher's unions (and winning) and now Michael Bloomberg in New York City is trying to trim the dead wood to help his budget:

State lawmakers are secretly eyeing a compromise that would allow Mayor Bloomberg to fire thousands of "nonteaching teachers" without consideration of the "last in, first out" law, The Post has learned.

The plan, being discussed at the highest levels of the Legislature and with aides to Bloomberg, would grant the mayor the right to fire between 2,000 to 4,000 nonclassroom teachers -- including all those who formerly languished in the notorious "rubber room" under disciplinary charges.

The plan would also target members of the "absent teacher reserve pool" -- which includes nonworking but on-the-payroll teachers from schools that have been shut down because of poor performance -- and teachers assigned only to "administrative functions," sources said.


JEREMY GARRETT
WAKE-UP CALL: Nonteaching teachers like these, who used to snooze the day away in so-called "rubber rooms" while under disciplinary probe, might be laid off under a proposal in the Legislature.

Bloomberg warned Friday that the city might be forced to lay off as many as 20,000 teachers because of a combination of a city revenue shortfall and the severe state budget cuts to be unveiled tomorrow by Gov. Cuomo. If the plan becomes reality, about 10 to 20 percent of teachers slated for layoffs simply because they were hired last would be spared.

Bloomberg, conceding that significant teacher cuts are inevitable, has launched an aggressive campaign to overturn the state law that requires the city to fire teachers on the basis of seniority and not competence.

State lawmakers privately say Bloomberg can't win full repeal of the law because of intense union opposition and concerns over the criteria the mayor would use to justify teacher dismissals.

But the dismissal of poorly performing "nonteaching teachers" was described by a top state official as "potentially doable."

I find it amazing that dismissing poorly performing teachers is only "potentially doable". With the exception of some of the most unionized private industry, such as automakers (though they're not as private as they were before the government bailout), this kind of thing would be unheard of. Non-performance would not guarantee you a paid position without actually working the way it does with teacher's unions.

When poorly performing franchises or branch offices are shuttered the employees are laid-off, not guaranteed employment for life even if they're not working. It's insane that cities and states have ever agreed to these kinds of work rules. Until these agreements are abrogated and more reasonable measures implemented municipal governments will never be able to get their fiscal houses in order.

A Black-Out at the Oscars

Hollywood may claim to support diversity, but when they have a chance to cast their ballots in privacy they seem to be a little colorblind:

A fact of this year’s Academy Awards has some in the entertainment and civil rights communities scratching their heads and raising their eyebrows: There are precisely zero African-Americans nominated for the coveted acting, best picture, and director Oscars.

At a time when racial set asides are aggressively enforced at all levels of American society, the obvious question is: Why isn’t liberal Hollywood following its own rules?

It’s a question that has not gone unnoticed by self-appointed diversity cops. Lisa Respers France of CNN.com fretted about the fact that despite the variety of nominees and winners last year, this year the show will be a monochromatic event. “There are no women or people of color among the director nominees, and the acting nominees are all white. Javier Bardem, who is up for best actor for his role in “Biutiful,’ is a Spaniard and therefore European,” she wrote, pointing out that this is a continuation of a historical trend wherein fewer “meaty” roles have been written for African American actors.

This will be the first time in ten years that there will be no African American nominees for these awards.

The only way you get Hollywood upset about diversity is if you don't have enough gay characters included in your movies or awards.  Color doesn't mean anything.

And really, it shouldn't mean anything.  These awards are for "Best Actor", "Best Actress", "Best Picture", "Best Director" etc, and not "Best Actor of Color" or other designations.  They're based on achievement and nothing else, as they should be.  Affirmative Action hasn't been foisted on Hollywood the way it has on other aspects of our lives.

Of course, before someone can get nominated they have to be cast in a role that has Oscar potential, and perhaps that's where the real problem lies in Hollywood.  The people that make those decisions are responsible for for the dearth of nominees.  And given that the business is driven by money and not by social ideals, I don't imagine things will change.

The Marketing of Abortion

How do you ensure more abortions?  Careful marketing:

The pro-life documentary "Blood Money: the Business of Abortion" details how that industry is thriving financially. Carol Everett, the former owner of independent abortion clinics who was interviewed for the film, stated that the primary motivation for those entering that business is a desire to make money, therefore, they skillfully market their product to sell it to women in crisis.

Ms. Everett stated that pro-choice advocates want the breakdown of the family and encourage sexual education, knowing those two situations would increase the likelihood of teenage girls being sexually active. Abortion clinics offer a sense of false security through their distribution of birth control. However, they dispense the cheapest condoms and birth control pills with the lowest dose of hormones knowing that such contraception will have a higher rate of failure. The goal, stated Carol Everett, is "three to five abortions when the girl was between thirteen and eighteen years old."

For a girl with an unplanned pregnancy, Ms. Everett said that the first step for the clinic counselor was to reassure the girl they would be able to take care of her problem and no one need know. Second, they would identify the fear by reminding the girl that her parents will be very upset, the baby's father might abandon her, she'll have to miss school sports, etc. If the girl was hesitant, the counselors were trained to intimidate her by stating that if she doesn't have an abortion her life will be ruined. And because the majority of abortions are performed in clinics, the doctor-patient relationship, which supposedly provides choices for the woman, is a sham as she wouldn't see the doctor until he was performing the operation.

Women were coerced up to 80 percent of the time into terminating their pregnancies, admitted Ms. Everett. If the women were asked why they choose an abortion, the number one reason was "they felt they have no choice." Abortion has never been about choice; it is about despair when a woman feels that she has no freedom and no choices left. But the physical, emotional, and psychological consequences often outlast the nine months for her to carry her baby to term.

Read the whole thing.

Lefty Protesters Arrested in Rancho Mirage

Rage against the billionaires:

Twenty-five protesters were arrested in Rancho Mirage, California today, at a protest in front of the Rancho Las Palmas resort, site of the “Billionaire’s Caucus,” an annual meeting put on by the Koch Brothers and other corporate entities and conservative movement operators.

Riverside Sheriff’s deputy Melissa Nieburger said that the sheriff’s department did have contacts with protest organizers, which included the California Courage Campaign, CREDO, MoveOn.org, 350.org, the California Nurses Association, United Domestic Workers of America and the main sponsor, the good-government group Common Cause, prior to the event, and that they were aware that some protesters would seek to be arrested for trespassing. She would not guarantee that all 25 who were arrested were part of that coordinated operation. The police, who wore riot gear, batons and helmets, did put the arrested into plastic handcuffs. Nieburger described them as “passive restraints.” They were being processed at press time, and Nieburger would not say whether they would be released or would spend the night at the jail in Indio.

Nieburger estimated between 800 and 1,000 activists at the “Uncloak the Kochs” event. Event organizers chartered buses from several locations around Southern California and claimed 1,500 people signed up for those buses, on top of any local activists who attended. It appeared from the ground that well over 1,000 protesters were there.

At least the Koch Brothers know how to pick a nice place. I stayed there in November.

Obamacare is Such a Wonderful Thing That Elites Are Opting Out Right and Left

But the average folks are going to get stuck with this monstrosity:

If you would like to know what the White House really thinks of Obamacare, there’s an easy way. Look past its press releases. Ignore its promises. Forget its talking points. Instead, simply witness for yourself the outrageous way the White House protects its best friends from Obamacare.

Last year, we learned that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had granted 111 waivers to protect a lucky few from the onerous regulations of the new national health care overhaul. That number quickly and quietly climbed to 222, and last week we learned that the number of Obamacare privileged escapes has skyrocketed to 733.

Among the fortunate is a who’s who list of unions, businesses and even several cities and four states (Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee) but none of the friends of Barack feature as prominently as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

How can you get your own free pass from Obamacare? Maybe you can just donate $27 million to President Obama‘s campaign efforts. That’s what Andy Stern did as president of SEIU in 2008. He has been the most frequent guest at Mr. Obama‘s White House.

Why are so many corporations getting exemptions? They can't afford the mandates that come with the program and would actually have to kick workers off the healthcare system if it was imposed on them.

Repeal it now.

Guard Velociraptor

One of the homeowners on Balboa Island has, shall we say, an unusual pet.  Needless to say, it keeps the neighborhood dogs off the lawn.

And a bonus shot of the Balboa Pavilion on a windy, cloudy and cool day. About an hour after this the rain moved in.

Seeing the Future From 1993

Someone commented that AT&T must have had Nostradamus working for them when these 1993 ads were made.  The technology is not that impressive today, but remember in 1993 few if any people had internet access (I didn't get it and email at home until 1995), cellphones were not that common (I think I got my first one for work in 1993), and things like Skype or other communications technologies were well into the future:

U-Drive

The historic U-Drive sign at Balboa Boat Rentals, first installed in 1933.

Posted via HolyCoast.com mobile

Newport Harbor

One ferry waits as ours leaves the landing on Balboa Island.

Posted via HolyCoast.com mobile

Flags

The flags are whipping around on Balboa Island as a storm approaches.

Posted via HolyCoast.com mobile

Political Quote of the Day

If you remember the New York governor's race, there was a colorful Democrat character in the race who became known as Jimmy "Rent is Too Damn High" McMillan.  He's now determined to take on Obama in the presidential race and was recently asked about some of the other potential candidates.  The quote that caught my eye was what he had to say about Sarah Palin (h/t Cubachi):

What do you think of Sarah Palin? Would you consider her for VP?

Love her. Constitution. American citizen. Exercising the right to privacy. Free speech. Haters — those who don’t like Sarah Palin. That’s what they are. Sarah Palin: I love you because America gives you the constitutional right to do whatever you want to do as a woman. And people don’t think you can do because you’re a woman. They try to make a mockery out of you. But you stand up for your rights and stand strong for your rights. And don’t let anyone try to cut you down. Not only are they talking about Sarah Palin. They’re talking about me.

I think he may have stumbled on the reason she appeals to so many people. They relate to her and take the attacks on her personally.

And that's also the reason the left is so obsessed with trying to destroy her.

Health Care Quote of the Day

From Speaker John Boehner, during an interview on Fox News Sunday after he was asked for the thousandth time about his smoking habit:

"Smoking. It's a bad habit but I have it. And it's a legal product. I choose to smoke. Leave me alone."

Exactly.

For some strange reason Chris Wallace decided to spend time in this interview hectoring Boehner about his smoking and his emotional nature, neither which have anything to do with solving the nation's problems. Wallace was not on his game and that has some conservative bloggers fuming. You can read Jim Hoft's reaction here.

I think the call for Wallace's firing is a significant overreaction, but certainly Wallace has done a much better job on other occasions.

Stick to the important stuff, Chris, and leave the fluff for MSNBC.

The Glaciers Are Melting! Or Maybe They're Actually Growing....

Darned global warming:

Researchers have discovered that contrary to popular belief half of the ice flows in the Karakoram range of the mountains are actually growing rather than shrinking.

The discovery adds a new twist to the row over whether global warming is causing the world’s highest mountain range to lose its ice cover.

It further challenges claims made in a 2007 report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the glaciers would be gone by 2035.

Although the head of the panel Dr Rajendra Pachauri later admitted the claim was an error gleaned from unchecked research, he maintained that global warming was melting the glaciers at “a rapid rate”, threatening floods throughout north India.

The new study by scientists at the Universities of California and Potsdam has found that half of the glaciers in the Karakoram range, in the northwestern Himlaya, are in fact advancing and that global warming is not the deciding factor in whether a glacier survives or melts.

The only ice people need to worry about is the ice that will hit much of the country this week as another huge storm affects as many as 100 million people.

Sports Video of the Day

A Canadian decides to streak a tennis court where his friends are playing only to discover the court is surrounded by plexiglass that doesn't give even if you run into it at full speed.  Here's the link.

Some People Face a Dilemma: Good Fast Food or Gay "Rights"

What a stupid dilemma, but the NY Times is doing its part to demonize a very successful fast food chain because that chain has based its corporate values on Christian values:

The Chick-fil-A sandwich — a hand-breaded chicken breast and a couple of pickles squished into a steamy, white buttered bun — is a staple of some Southern diets and a must-have for people who collect regional food experiences the way some people collect baseball cards.

New Yorkers have sprinted through the airport here to grab one between flights. College students returning home stop for one even before they say hello to their parents.

But never on Sunday, when the chain is closed.

Nicknamed “Jesus chicken” by jaded secular fans and embraced by Evangelical Christians, Chick-fil-A is among only a handful of large American companies with conservative religion built into its corporate ethos. But recently its ethos has run smack into the gay rights movement. A Pennsylvania outlet’s sponsorship of a February marriage seminar by one of that state’s most outspoken groups against homosexuality lit up gay blogs around the country. Students at some universities have also begun trying to get the chain removed from campuses.

“If you’re eating Chick-fil-A, you’re eating anti-gay,” one headline read. The issue spread into Christian media circles, too.

The outcry moved the company’s president, Dan T. Cathy, to post a video on the company’s Facebook fan page to “communicate from the heart that we serve and value all people and treat everyone with honor, dignity and respect,” said a company spokesman, Don Perry.

Providing sandwiches and brownies for a local seminar is not an endorsement or a political stance, Mr. Cathy says in the video. But he adds that marriage has long been a focus of the chain, which S. Truett Cathy, his deeply religious father, began in 1967.

The donation has some fans cheering and others forcing themselves to balance their food desires against their personal beliefs.

“Does loving Chick-fil-A make you a bad gay?” said Rachel Anderson of Berkeley, Calif. “Oh, golly, human beings have an amazing capacity to justify a lot of things.” Ms. Anderson has been with her partner for 15 years. They married in California during the brief period when same-sex marriage was legal in 2008. They have 7-year-old twins. A visit to her spouse’s family in North Carolina always includes a trip to the chicken chain.

But as she learns more about the company, Ms. Anderson is wavering about where to eat when they travel to Charlotte in April.

“I’m going to have to sit with this a little bit,” she said.

On the other hand, Rhonda Cline, a dental hygienist in Atlanta and a devout Christian, has only gotten more outspoken in her support. She was one of nearly a thousand people who logged onto the Chick-fil-A Facebook page to comment on the issue.

“I applaud a company that in this climate today will step out on a limb the way the Constitution allows them to,” Ms. Cline said in an interview. “This is the United States, so we should be able to practice our business the way we like.”

What is it about freedom that some people have such a hard time understanding? The people who claim their "rights" must be welcomed with tolerance by others are themselves some of the most intolerant people on the planet.

If you don't like a corporation's ethos, don't buy their food. But the idea that a company should be boycotted or their franchises driven off college campuses because they happen to believe in Biblical values is clearly unAmerican.

Chick-fil-A does a tremendous amount of charity work.  They're a good corporate citizen in the communities they serve.  For those who spend their time obsessed with what's in their pants, perhaps they should eat somewhere else and leave the "Jesus chicken" people alone.

For the record, I don't eat at Chick-fil-A because I don't particularly like their food.  And I have other options if I want to support a chain that promotes Biblical values: I can just go to In-and-Out where they print Bible verses on the bottom of their drink cups.  NY Times and gay activists - start your outrage!

Media Bias Quote of the Day

From MSNBC leftwing nut Chris Matthews, opening his show on the subject of the Egyptian riots (h/t Powerline):

Good evening. I`m Chris Matthews in Washington.

Leading off tonight: Unrest in Egypt. Proving the Iraq war wasn`t needed, these protests in Egypt, as well as in Yemen and Tunisia, are all aimed at dictators supported by the U.S. The demonstrations have not yet turned anti-American, but they could. These are the events the Bush administration hoped to encourage by lying about weapons of mass destruction and invading Iraq.

Geez. Powerline takes Matthews apart in this piece that's well worth reading.

Another Big Storm Could Affect 100 Million People

This is turning out to be quite a winter in many parts of the country, and this week could be a doozy:

A big ice storm has the potential to do far more damage than a snowstorm. Ice clings to stuff...until it gets too heavy and it falls down. Things like power lines, trees, etc. I was in an ice storm in Oklahoma back in 1987 and everything in town was coated with 1"+ of ice. It was beautiful, but incredibly dangerous.

You could hardly walk anywhere, the car broke loose at even the slowest speeds, and I almost wrecked my rental car when it started to slide across a sloped parking lot toward the restaurant where we were going to eat. Just missed hitting the building.

A couple days later we were slowing for a red light when a huge sheet of ice on the roof of the car broke loose and came crashing down onto the hood. I thought I'd been hit by a truck.

This could be a really tough week for millions of Americans.

Who's the "Next Guy" for the GOP in 2012?

The GOP has a nasty habit of choosing "whoever's next" to be their presidential nominee. That's how we ended up with Bob Dole in 1996 and John McCain in 2008. Neither nominee inspired GOP voters - they just had the best ground operation that was able to use the primary rules to their benefit. Right now Mitt Romney is sitting in the "whoever's next" chair, and that's not an inspiring choice for conservatives.

Mark Steyn, talking with Hugh Hewitt, does a little riff on the subject that's worth noting:

Hugh Hewitt: Oh, that brings me, though, to the NBC dictate, that they will run the first Republican debate at the Reagan Library on May 2nd, along with Politico. It will be hosted by Brian Williams. They just told people to show up. And you know, I’ve got to assume that Brian Williams and Chris Matthews talk a little bit. Why in the world would we allow, Mark Steyn, the conservative movement, to allow the MSM to mediate these debates?

Mark Steyn: Oh, come on, Hugh. I mean, I think Brian Williams is the perfect man to moderate the debate, and determine who is going to be this year’s Bob Dole or John McCain. We’re interested, I think in this political season, we need to identify as early as possible the decent, dignified Republican loser who knows how to give a great concession speech. And I think that’s what Brian Williams and NBC are hoping to get a jump on. And now if you’re actually interested in saving this country from sliding into a multi-trillion dollar abyss, then letting Brian Williams dictate your nominating process is a complete waste of time. But I’m not sure the Republican party at heart quite gets that yet.

The GOP doesn't have to do an NBC/Politico-sponsored debate, but you know the frontrunners won't want to make any waves with the mainstream media. It's a mistake.

Remember back when Fox News and the Congressional Black Caucus planned to host a Democrat debate during the last election? Barack Obama said he wouldn't participate (dissing his own people, no less) and the other candidates quickly pulled out as well. If Mitt Romney were to tell NBC 'no thanks' it would have the same effect on the GOP field and would allow them to hold their debates on their terms and not the MSM's.

Having NBC/Politico host the debate means the candidates will get questions on abortion, on creation/evolution, Obama's birth certificate, and other stuff that has nothing to do with their ability to be president but everything to do with trying to embarrass GOP candidates and get sound bites the Democrats can use against the GOP.

We don't need another Bob Dole or John McCain, and we don't need to let the MSM dictate our debate schedule or format.

Public Opinion Numbers in Egypt Are Scary

Why?  Because they point to the likelihood that a political vacuum in Egypt could be filled with an Iran-like radical Islamist government (from Barry Rubin):

The chances for democracy and liberalism are different in every country. Tunisia has a good chance because there is a strong middle class and a weak Islamist movement. But in Egypt look at the numbers in the latest Pew poll.

In Egypt, 30 percent like Hizballah (66 percent don’t). 49 percent are favorable toward Hamas (48 percent are negative); and 20 percent smile (72 percent frown) at al-Qaida. Roughly speaking, one-fifth of Egyptians applaud the most extreme Islamist terrorist group, while around one-third back revolutionary Islamists abroad. This doesn’t tell us what proportion of Egyptians want an Islamist government at home, but it is an indicator.

In Egypt, 82 percent want stoning for those who commit adultery; 77 percent would like to see whippings and hands cut off for robbery; and 84 percent favor the death penalty for any Muslim who changes his religion.

Asked if they supported “modernizers” or “Islamists” only 27 percent said modernizers while 59 percent said Islamists:

Is this meaningless? Last December 20 I wrote that these “horrifying figures in Egypt…one day might be cited to explain an Islamist revolution there….What this analysis also shows is that a future Islamist revolution in Egypt and Jordan is quite possible.

Yikes.

Egyptian Looters Destroy Priceless Antiquities

Last night my wife, who majored in anthropology and has a keen interesting in Egyptian antiquities, was very worried that the rioting might destroy some of the priceless treasures of Egypt's past.  Sadly, her worries were well founded:

Looters broke into the Egyptian Museum during anti-government protests late on Friday and destroyed two Pharaonic mummies, Egypt’s top archaeologist told state television.

The museum in central Cairo, which has the world’s biggest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, is adjacent to the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party that protesters had earlier set ablaze. Flames were seen still pouring out of the party headquarters early on Saturday.

“I felt deeply sorry today when I came this morning to the Egyptian Museum and found that some had tried to raid the museum by force last night,” Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said on Saturday.

“Egyptian citizens tried to prevent them and were joined by the tourism police, but some [looters] managed to enter from above and they destroyed two of the mummies,” he said.

He added looters had also ransacked the ticket office.

The two-storey museum, built in 1902, houses tens of thousands of objects in its galleries and storerooms, including most of the King Tutankhamen collection.

Back in 1979 my wife joined millions of other Americans and saw the King Tut Exhibit that toured the country. She was very impressed, though she did describe the whole thing as a little creepy. It would be a terrible tragedy if those irreplaceable items were to be destroyed.

Here's another story on the problems at the museum.  It looks like saner heads have prevailed and most of the  antiquities have been protected.

Someone made a good point on Twitter:

@MileHighBecky: It's at times like this when I don't feel bad about The British Museum refusing to return artifacts.

Mubarak's Family Making a Run for the Border

Events are changing rapidly in Egypt. This morning they got the first Vice President they've had in 30 years, and the current president's family has beat feet for London:

According to the Al Jazeera news channel, there are reports that the Egyptian President's wife Suzanne Mubarak has left for London. It is unclear who is the source for this report. Al Jazeera reported earlier that Mubarak's two sons, Gamal and Ala, have arrived in London with their families, escaping Egypt as result of the unrest.

Having a hand-picked VP by the guy the people don't like probably isn't going to calm anything down. It may reveal weakness in the current government that the protesters and radicals will want to exploit.

TSA Will No Longer Allow Airports to Opt-Out of TSA Screeners

Apparently the program was becoming too popular and threatened to reduce the number of federal workers:

A program that allows airports to replace government screeners with private screeners is being brought to a standstill, just a month after the Transportation Security Administration said it was "neutral" on the program.

TSA chief John Pistole said Friday he has decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports, saying he does not see any advantage to it.

Though little known, the Screening Partnership Program allowed airports to replace government screeners with private contractors who wear TSA-like uniforms, meet TSA standards and work under TSA oversight. Among the airports that have "opted out" of government screening are San Francisco and Kansas City.

The push to "opt out" gained attention in December amid the fury over the TSA's enhanced pat downs, which some travelers called intrusive.

Rep. John Mica, a Republican from Florida, wrote a letter encouraging airports to privatize their airport screeners, saying they would be more responsive to the public.

At that time, the TSA said it neither endorsed nor opposed private screening.

"If airports chose this route, we are going to work with them to do it," a TSA spokesman said in late December.

But on Friday, the TSA denied an application by Springfield-Branson Airport in Missouri to privatize its checkpoint workforce, and in a statement, Pistole indicated other applications likewise will be denied.

"I examined the contractor screening program and decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports as I do not see any clear or substantial advantage to do so at this time," Pistole said.

With the TSA about to unionize it appears Pistole followed the Obama pro-union line and will no longer allow airports to privatize their screening workforce. I guess they've decided the uproar over the nakie scanners and genital groping has died down enough they can go back to a hardline attitude towards airport and fliers.

After all, we can't have more responsive service or fewer federal workers...

Egyptians Use Old School Technology to Stay in Touch

The Egyptian government shut down the internet and cellphone service, but they weren't able to shut off the communications:

Egyptians armed with low-tech electronic gadgets like dial-up modems, landlines and old-school satellite phones are finding ways to get their message out, despite efforts by the teetering government to block communication.

Those who had been using social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to distribute images and video to the outside world have had to come up more creative ways to communicate after the Egyptian government blocked Internet and cell service, a move that many are calling unprecedented.

I hope that any Republicans who were considering giving Obama an Internet "kill switch" will rethink that vote in light of what's going on in Egypt. Though you'd like to think no president would use that tool except in the event of a national emergency, one president's definition of emergency may be very different than another's.

The Source of Unrest in the Middle East is Not the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict

James Rosen does a good job explaining that headline in this video from Fox News:

Sports Video of the Day

This guy was fully committed to the dunk:

Today's Music Video

In honor of the popular uprising in Egypt, I bring you one of the greatest hits of Egypt's past:

Great Moments in Leadership

Dueling headlines:

BIDEN: Mubarak's no dictator, shouldn't step down...

Egyptian President Mubarak asks Cabinet to resign...

Pwire adds this: Mubarak asks government to resign and pledges new government tomorrow, with him still in charge

Many folks are wondering if Mubarak will still be in Egypt when the sun rises tomorrow. He may be looking for a nice little exile getaway place.  If not, he could find himself crossing the River Styx a little sooner than he may have expected.

And for those who think this might be a great democratic movement, beware the example of Iran in 1979.  Like Egypt today both secular and Islamic forces combined to bring down the government, but the mad mullahs won control in Iran.  It could happen again in Egypt, and having another Islamic nuthouse right on Israel's border cannot be good.

Nazarene Night at Disneyland - 1983

I saw this old photo posted in a Facebook friend's photo album:

That was 28 years ago tonight, and the guy on the right with the guitar is me.  We were singing in Carnation Plaza Gardens at Disneyland for Nazarene Night, an annual private party for the Southern California Nazarene churches.   It was a special evening for me because I had been attending Nazarene Night since I was a kid (and continued to do so for many years after this night), and just eight years earlier I had been an employee of Disneyland.  I used to walk right by this stage twice a day on my way to and from the Janitorial office (it was behind the stage area)

The thing I remember most about this evening was the weather.  A big storm was threatening and the Disney officials told us to expect rain around 8:30.  8:30 was also the starting time for our first of two shows.

At 8:30 we got up and began.  A cold wind was blowing through the stage but no rain...until 8:35, and then the sky opened.  It absolutely poured for the next couple of hours.  The rain was blowing in under the canopy that covered the stage and seating, and our poor piano player, who was off to the left of this picture, was getting soaked.  The keys on the piano were so slick and his hands were so cold he could hardly play.

We did a second show about 10:30 to the hardy crowd that toughed out the rain, and by the time we packed up to leave the storm had finally stopped.  I wouldn't mind playing Disneyland again, but I don't think I'd like to do it with an Arctic front passing overhead.  I had hoped that this performance in 1983 would be the first of many for Nazarene Night, but that was the first and last time.

Unfortunately, Nazarene Night at Disneyland is no more.  From what I've heard the denomination decided to drop it in a protest over Disney's support for gay rights.  Of course, their boycott didn't hurt Disney at all but it did rob a lot of Nazarene families of an opportunity for an inexpensive night of fun at the park.

Disneyland doesn't do private parties like they used to.  I worked there for a couple of weeks after the summer season ended and we had parties coming in almost every weeknight.  The park has changed it's schedule from those days.  Back then the park usually closed at 6pm on off-peak weeknights (and were often closed on Mondays and Tuesdays) and would reopen for private parties in the evening.  They don't do that anymore.

The guy standing to the right of me in the photo is still singing with me today and he has a poster from that night.  It cost $7.  That won't even get you a parking spot today.

UPDATE:  Found some additional photos and stuff:

Spam Text Goes BOOM!

Don't you hate it when you get spam text messages, especially when they cause your bomb belt to explode?

A suicide bomber planning an attack in Moscow on New Year’s Eve was killed in her apartment when her bomb was prematurely detonated by an unexpected text message.

According to Russian security sources, the text message — a remote trigger for a cell phone belt bomb — wished her a happy new year, accidentally setting off the blast. The accident may have saved hundreds of lives, these officials believe, as the woman intended to use the bomb in a suicide attack near Red Square later that night.

The woman is believed to be part of the same group that struck Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on Monday, killing at least 35 people and wounding another 100. Officials haven’t directly said who they believe is behind the terrorist attacks, but anonymous sources have pointed to Islamic North Caucasus rebels, which have been in conflict with the Russian state for over a decade.

Cell phones have become a remote detonator of choice for terrorist groups the world over.

I see a new Homeland Security program coming. The government will start generating spam text messages to every cellphone in the country in the hopes of blowing up potential bombers.

Taco Bell Fights Back

Taco Bell took a big PR hit when they were accused of using a variety of things in their beef taco filling that weren't associated with cows.  Now the sort-of-Mexican food giant is fighting back:

Taco Bell is launching an advertising campaign Friday to fight back against a lawsuit charging its taco filling isn't beef.

The fast-food chain is placing full-page print ads in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times and other papers as well as online ads to "set the record straight". The print ads say, in huge letters, "Thank you for suing us. Here's the truth about our seasoned beef." They go on to outline the meat's ingredients.

The class-action lawsuit was filed late last week in federal court in California. It claimed Taco Bell falsely advertised its products as "beef." The suit alleges that the fast-food chain actually uses a meat mixture in its burritos and tacos that contains binders and extenders and does not meet requirements set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be labeled "beef."

Taco Bell quickly denied the accusation. "The lawsuit is bogus and filled with completely inaccurate facts," Taco Bell President Greg Creed said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The lawsuit, filed by the Alabama law firm Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, doesn't specify what percentage of the mixture is meat. But the firm's attorney Dee Miles said the firm had the product tested and found it contained less than 35 percent beef. The firm would not say who tested the meat or give any other specifics of the analysis.

Taco Bell says its seasoned beef contains 88 percent USDA-inspected beef and the rest is water, spices and a mixture of oats, starch and other ingredients that contribute to the "quality of its product." The company said it uses no extenders.

Still, the company couldn't ignore the case after it made headlines and quickly spread online.

"This is one of those things that could be a humongous threat to their brand, which is why Taco Bell has taken such an aggressive stance on this," said Marc Williams, an attorney at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough with extensive experience in fast-food litigation.

The story sounded a little fishy when it first came out, but I doubt that most people really think too hard about what's in their food when they go to a fast food joint. If it tastes good and fills them, and better yet if it's cheap, it's okay.

Limbaugh Not Solly For Mocking Chicom Leader

And a number of Asian groups have their noodles in a knot:

Rush Limbaugh's imitation of the Chinese language during a recent speech made by Chinese President Hu Jintao has stirred a backlash among Asian-American lawmakers in California and nationally.

California state Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat from San Francisco, is leading a fight in demanding an apology from the radio talk show host for what he and others view as racist and derogatory remarks against the Chinese people.

In recent days, the state lawmaker has rallied civil rights groups in a boycott of companies like Pro Flowers, Sleep Train and Domino's Pizza that advertise on Limbaugh's national talk radio show.

"The comments that he made - the mimicking of the Chinese language - harkens back to when I was a little boy growing up in San Francisco and those were hard days, rather insensitive days," Yee said in an interview Thursday. "You think you've arrived and all of a sudden get shot back to the reality that you're a second-class citizen."

During a Jan. 19 radio program, Limbaugh said there was no translation of the Chinese president's speech during a visit to the White House.

"He was speaking and they weren't translating," Limbaugh said. "They normally translate every couple of words. Hu Jintao was just going ching chong, ching chong cha."

He then launched into a 20-second-long imitation of the Chinese leader's dialect.

The next day, Limbaugh said he "did a remarkable job" of imitating China's president for someone who doesn't know a language spoken by more than 1 billion people.

"Back in the old days, Sid Caesar, for those of you old enough to remember, was called a comic genius for impersonating foreign languages that he couldn't speak," Limbaugh said. "But today the left says that was racism; it was bigotry; it was insulting. And it wasn't. It was a service."

Yee is being such an idiot over this. Every time he comes out with a new proclamation of indignation Rush gets more material for his show. At last count Yee's online petition had about 500 signatures, which means he's got 19,999,500 fewer people on his list than listen to Rush's show every week.  Somehow I doubt that Rush's advertisers will be impressed.

Financial Commission Issues Useless, Partisan Report

This is what happens when you allow partisan hacks to conduct an investigation:

Taxpayers got the short end of the stick on Thursday when Phil Angelides, Democratic chairman of the taxpayer-funded Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, released the panel's final report on the causes of the Great Recession of 2008.

Rather than provide the bipartisan view of the origins of the financial crisis, as mandated by Congress, the panel split along partisan lines because of Angelides' refusal to incorporate the views of Republican members. So, instead of one consensus report, there are three competing assessments (that of the majority, a minority report signed by three Republican members, and an individual dissent by Commissioner Peter Wallison).

Commissioner Douglas Holtz-Eakin told The Examiner that the Republican commissioners would provide edits to drafts of the report, only to have returned new drafts that still didn't reflect their changes, only "to be asked at the last minute to sign off." Vice Chairman Bill Thomas, former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told The Examiner that he was exasperated by such tactics: "I was not aware that the material we thought had been cooperatively agreed to wasn't in [the report] because it didn't pass muster." In fact, Thomas said, Angelides "went through by himself and made changes which were not known until the document was presented to the commission." Holtz-Eakin added that "the fact that we have to guess at what the process [to write the report] was shows you exactly the problem with the commission."

More than 700 interviews were conducted by FCIC staff, most of which had no input from commissioners on the questions to be asked. In fact, the commissioners had no idea many of them were happening at all, having not been invited to sit in on important meetings such as those with executives of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or with Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Larry Summers. The obstructions didn't stop there, either. A commission staff member who requested anonymity told The Examiner that interactions with commissioners were rare. Commissioners, in turn, spoke of the difficulty of not having access to staffers.

Just send all the copies straight to the recycle bin.  And next time, just set the money on fire rather than waste the time with dummies like this.

Challenger

It's hard to believe, but it was 25 years ago today that the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its flight. It was the first time in the 25 year history of the U.S. space program that we'd lost astronauts in flight. Thinking back to that day, it's remarkable how the information technology has changed since then.

I was in my office in Mission Viejo, having just gotten in about 30 minutes earlier, when our Computer Systems guy came running in saying he'd just heard that the shuttle exploded. The sum total of the information media available to me at that moment was a small transistor radio that I kept in my desk for emergencies. We had no TV's in the office, and the internet was still a futuristic dream (at least for the general public). For the next several hours I listened to the news reports on that scratchy little radio. I can still remember hearing the analyst say that because of Challenger's altitude and speed at the time of the break-up, it might take as long as 45 minutes for all the debris to fall.

When I got home, I put a tape in my VCR (fairly new technology at the time- it had a wired remote) and ended up recording about 6 hours of Challenger-related news reports, including the memorial service with President Reagan, which to this day I've never been able to bring myself to watch. It was a very emotional time for America. I still have that tape and recently transferred it to DVD.  I don't know if I'll ever watch it, but it was a very memorable moment in history.

That night President Reagan spoke to the nation:



For those who may be too young to remember Challenger, here's a news report about it from the BBC. It would be 2 1/2 years before a shuttle took off again.

I also found an interesting article called the "7 Myths About the Challenger Shuttle Disaster". The article tackles the following myths:

1. Few people actually saw the Challenger tragedy unfold live on television.
2. The shuttle did not explode in the common definition of that word.
3. The flight, and the astronauts’ lives, did not end at that point, 73 seconds after launch.
4. The design of the booster, while possessing flaws subject to improvement, was neither especially dangerous if operated properly, nor the result of political interference.
5. Replacement of the original asbestos-bearing putty in the booster seals was unrelated to the failure.
6. There were pressures on the flight schedule, but none of any recognizable political origin.
7. Claims that the disaster was the unavoidable price to be paid for pioneering a new frontier were self-serving rationalizations on the part of those responsible for incompetent engineering management — the disaster should have been avoidable.

It's interesting reading.

Of course, anyone old enough to be paying attention on that day will remember President Reagan, speaking from the Oval Office on the night of tragedy, as he ended his tribute to the astronauts with this:

"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God."

The Cop Shooting That Wasn't

Weird story in Los Angeles.  An LAUSD cop claims he was shot by a car burglar which resulted in a lockdown of a number of schools for several hours and a massive police response.  Turns out it was all a hoax:

LAPD Chief Charles Beck on Thursday announced the arrest of Officer Jeffrey Stenroos on one felony count of filing a false police report.

On January 19, the LAPD responded to and launched an extensive investigation after Officer Stenroos reported a burglary suspect attempted to murder him by shooting him in the chest while he was on patrol near El Camino High School in the San Fernando Valley.

The police response was massive. The incident prompted a manhunt that included 350 police and deputies, and the lockdown of nine different schools in the area.

Residents were unable to return to their homes and more than 9,000 LAUSD students were locked in the classrooms for hours without access to food or bathrooms.

After the incident, Stenroos was said to have been saved by his bullet-proof vest. Stenroos reportedly had a large bruise on his left chest that was supposedly caused by an assailant's bullet.

Beck would not comment on the Stenroos' injury.

According to Chief Beck, "the current state of the investigation refutes Stenroos' initial account of the incident and we are now certain that there is no outstanding suspect in this shooting."

Beck added that detectives worked tirelessly to ensure the case was thoroughly investigated and the community was never at risk.

Detectives followed up on more than 350 clues, conducted a number of neighborhood canvasses, made hundreds of community contacts and distributed countless Community Alert Notices in hopes of gathering any valuable leads in the case.

It's still hasn't been made public whether the officer shot himself or whether he caused the injury to his chest some other way.

Students were locked in classes for hours with no food, no access to restrooms (some kids had to relieve themselves in buckets in the classrooms), and parents waited for hours for their kids to be released. It was a real mess in that part of the city.

The officer will be fired...today...if the head of the LAUSD has his way.

Egypt is Falling Apart

Here are the headlines from Drudge:

ElBaradei under house arrest...
Protests intensify as clashes spread across Middle East...
'Angry Friday'...
Egypt warns of 'decisive measures'...
Police round up Muslim Brotherhood leaders...
Internet shut down...
BIDEN: Mubarek's no dictator, shouldn't step down...
PAPER: Events 'moving too fast for Obama administration'...
BBC, AL JAZEERA Reporters Attacked; CNN Cameras Confiscated, Broken...
Jordan's king under pressure...
Dramatic video as thousands clash...
Police members remove suits and join protests...

EGYPT ON THE BRINK

According to an NBC reporter on the scene the protest are taking on a decidedly Islamic tone. In other words, the Islamists are hoping to turn Egypt into the next Iran. That won't be good for anybody.

Obamacare Photo of the Day

From Austin, TX:

Dem Effort to Kill the Filibuster Fails

Good:

A Democratic-led drive to limit the power of the filibuster to stall legislation faded Thursday in favor of more modest reforms, showing that not even an era of unprecedented political obstruction could convince senators to change the way they do business.

The Senate beat back legislation championed by junior Democrats who have grown frustrated with the ability of a single senator to block legislation unless a supermajority of 60 can be mustered, a tactic the Republican minority has used to great success.

The newer members, along with a few veterans, argued that the Senate had succumbed to institutional dysfunction because of the filibuster, which allows senators to thwart the will of the majority — much the way epic filibusters of a previous generation stalled civil rights bills, they said.

Yet it was precisely the Founding Fathers' vision of the Senate as a slower-moving legislative body, one that tempers legislation passed quickly by a simple majority in the House, that helped convince senators to retain the status quo.

Harry Reid didn't want this to pass because he can foresee a day when Democrats will once again be in the minority...like 2013. Neither he nor Mitch McConnell were willing to risk what would happen should this pass.

Internet Headlines of the Day

From the U.S.:

Lieberman: Internet 'kill switch' bill will return

And from Egypt, where rioting has broken out throughout the country:

KILLSWITCH: Internet shut down...

Are we sure we want to give the government the power to shut down the internet?

Fleecing the Flock

These stories pop up every now and then:

A former bookkeeper will be arraigned in Orange County Superior Court on Friday for embezzling money from a Tustin church by writing 154 checks to herself.

Elyse Marie Kennedy, 37, of Santa Ana has been charged with 154 felony counts of forgery with sentencing enhancements and allegations for aggravated white-collar crime. Theoretically, Kennedy could get probation, prosecutors say, but she faces a sentence of anywhere from 16 months to 107 years in state prison if convicted.

Prosecutors accuse Kennedy of stealing more than $129,000 from the accounts of St. Paul's Episcopal Church when she was the bookkeeper between 2007 and 2009. She wrote checks to herself from the church's bank accounts without the knowledge or consent of church authorities, prosecutors say. [...]

Kennedy has been in custody since Dec. 27 in connection with the current case and a probation violation stemming from a 2005 grand theft conviction in Orange County, said Deputy District Attorney Sean O'Brien of the District Attorney's white-collar crime team, who is prosecuting the case.

Having spent some years in the church insurance business I can tell you there are lots of things that could have prevented this. For one thing, there should be two signers required on any church check over a certain amount of money, the lower the limit the better. That makes large withdrawals a lot harder to get away with.

Secondly, having an annual outside audit is always a good idea. Keeps everybody honest.

Thirdly, proper pre-employment screening would have caught the prior felony conviction and kept her out of the job.

Finally, churches are required to have some sort of board of trustees who are ultimately responsible for the financial wellbeing of the church. What were they doing all this time?

Churches tend to be very trusting, and that opens the door to the dishonest person. It also tends to make them pay too much for their insurance, and that's why I wrote this when I left the business to keep them from making dumb mistakes.

The Left On Parade

Want some entertaining reading?  Go to lefty blog Think Progress and read the report about California Sen. Leland Yee and the threats he's received after calling for an advertiser boycott of the Rush Limbaugh Show.  You may remember a recent post in which Yee got his noodles in a knot over an impersonation Rush did of Chinese Premier Hu.  Yee's online petition has a whole 500 signatures so far.  Let's see, that's only 19,999,500 fewer people than listen to Rush's show in an average week.  I'm sure the advertisers will quake in fear.

The article is silly enough, but if you really want to understand how the far lefties think start reading the comments.  As usual, they run out of ideas in about 10 seconds and immediately take to name calling and character attacks.  They're also not big on free speech, as you'll be able to quickly tell.

Rahm "Selected" Mayor by Illinois Supreme Court

Remember when the left went apoplectic over the Supreme Court ruling that threw out the illegal Florida recounts and effectively gave George Bush the win in 2000?  The cry was "Bush was selected, not elected!"

Well, using that logic, today the Illinois Supreme Court selected Rahm Emanuel as the new Mayor of Chicago:

Rahm Emanuel can run for mayor, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled.

In a 7 to 0 decision, the court Thursday said an appellate court erred in taking Emanuel off the ballot earlier in the week.

The decision means Emanuel holds onto his position as the first name on the ballot in the Feb. 22 election. Emanuel has been leading in both the polls and fund-raising in the race that includes candidates Carol Moseley Braun, Gery Chico and Miguel del Valle. Patricia Van Pelt Watkins and William “Dock” Walls are also on the ballot.

ExJon on Twitter adds this:

Not to jump to conclusions, but I'm beginning to think Chicago's political machine has dubious ethics.

Um...yeah.

Today's Chris Christie Lesson in Government

The Gov takes on ridiculous state contracts and pubic sector unions:

To Boldly Gay Where No One Has Gayed Before

Science fiction news you can use:

Terra Nova executive producer Brannon Braga says he regrets that despite having produced more than a dozen feature films and 726 episodes in the Star Trek franchise an openly gay character was never once featured.

I'm not so sure about some of those Klingons. A you just know some of the Tribbles preferred the home team, if you know what I mean.

The Welfare/Entitlement State is a Dying Relic

Victor Davis Hanson has a column which takes on the old guard as they noisily pass into history:

American reality has been turned upside down in just 20 years.

Americans no longer count on their news to be filtered and shaped by the Associated Press or the New York Times. Nor do millions have it read to them in the evening by CBS, ABC or NBC anchorpersons -- not with the Internet, cable news and talk radio. Matt Drudge's website, "The Drudge Report," reaches far more Americans than does CBS anchor star Katie Couric.

The old notion that America's most successful citizens are turned out by prestigious four-year universities -- the more private and Ivy League, the better -- overseen by disinterested professors is also nearing an end. Private for-profit trade schools and online colleges are certifying millions in particular skills.

Meanwhile, the high jobless rate among recent college graduates, who are burdened by thousands of dollars in student loans, is starting to resemble the Freddie Mac- and Fannie Mae-spawned financial bubble of 2008, in which millions of indebted and unemployed borrowers could not pay back exorbitant federally insured home loans. The notion that parents are going to keep borrowing $200,000 to certify their children with high-prestige BA degrees that don't necessarily lead to good jobs seems about as wise as buying a sprawling house that one can't afford. James Cameron, Bill Gates, Sean Hannity, Tom Hanks, Steve Jobs, Rush Limbaugh, Tiger Woods and Mark Zuckerberg all made a good living without earning BAs.

A therapeutic college curricula and hyphenated "studies" courses have not made graduates better-read or more skilled in math and science. For many employers, the rigor of the new BA is scarcely equivalent to that of the old high school diploma. The global warming/climate change/climate chaos "crisis" has reminded Americans that careerist university Ph.Ds can be just as likely to fudge evidence and distort research as political lobbyists. The old blanket respect for academia and academics is eroding.

And he's just getting started. Read the whole thing.

Music Video of the Day

How do you get more people to use the stairs?  Make them musical:

Congressional Hearings Should Be About Hearing Testimony and Not Hearing Congressmen Blather

Rep. Darrell Issa is changing the way his committee holds hearings, and it's not making talkative Democrats, who love hearing the sound of their own voices, happy (from the Daily Caller):

Issa cuts the crap, offends grandstanders -- "Rep. Darrell Issa’s first Oversight Committee hearing on bailouts and the foreclosure crisis started with a bout over procedure," reports ABC. "At the start of the hearing, chairman Rep. Darrell Issa announced the committee members would waive their opening statements and instead would have seven days to place them into the record." Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who wants to make olives illegal, and Rep. Elijah Cummings immediately got their panties in a twist. “I’ve been in the Congress for 14 years, and I’ve never - it’s just unprecedented that the ranking member not be permitted to give an opening statement,” Kucinich said from atop a pile of phone books. But Issa made clear that the most important part of a testimonial hearing is the testimonies. "I recognize that tradition is we hold the members, the witnesses here for sometimes an hour through opening statements," Issa said. "That is a tradition that I intend to break.”

Kucinich doesn't get to pontificate! That's gotta just about kill him.

Go have a sandwich, Dennis, but watch out for the dastardly olive pits.

1996 & 2001

This 27th day of January was pretty important to The Crimson River Quartet in 1996 and 2001. On this morning in 1996 I woke up in a hotel in Arcadia, CA, having spent much of the previous evening setting up the stage, cameras and lighting at Pasadena First Nazarene Church for the filming of our first live concert video.  We filmed the show the evening of January 27th:

And in 2001 we again filmed a live concert video on January 27th, this time at Lake Hills Church in Laguna Hills, CA:

I guess the next time January 27th falls on a Saturday we'll have to do another video. You can see the videos from those two nights here (and see how young I looked 15 years ago), and pick up copies of the CDs, songs or background tracks at our Digital Store.