Memorial Day 2019 – We Remember

We remember, and thank them all.

God bless America.

Can’t Believe Producers Left It In

GREAT quote from Venezuelan refugee on @CBSEveningNews tonight. "Tell Trump, if he knocks down Maduro, WE'LL build the wall and paint it for him."

— tree hugging sister (@treehuggingsis) January 25, 2019

So…Something IS Rotten in

…SWEDEN?

Whoda thunk it? Doop dee doop dee fishy chowder was fur reelz.

Mind you, møøslim apologyst bites Kan be pretti nasti.

Sweden Democrats: Trump was right

Two leading Swedish politicians have a message for President Trump’s critics: He’s right.

Per Jimmie Akesson and Mattias Karlsson, both leaders of the Sweden Democrats, penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday supporting Trump’s characterization of a Muslim immigrant-led crime crisis in Sweden.

“Mr. Trump did not exaggerate Sweden’s current problems,” Akesson and Karlsson wrote. “If anything, he understated them.”

Trump was ridiculed by many after he gave a speech Saturday citing Sweden among a list of European countries affected by the scourge of Islamic terror. Referring to the massive number of Middle Eastern refugees that have poured into the country, Trump said Sweden was “having problems like they never thought possible.” Some Swedish politicians openly derided Trump’s portrayal of the country – but riots in a heavily immigrant suburb of Stockholm on Monday evening put an end to most of the mockery.

This

Ben Stein on the post-election atmosphere: They’ve Gone Insane

I just don’t get it. People are going insane about Donald Trump being president-elect. It’s beyond the wildest anger and fear I saw even about Richard Nixon, my hero. And, as I say, I just cannot see it.

For example, this morning, I got several emails from men who had been my friends since high school. “America is going through its worst days ever,” said one letter. “We’re going to lose everything,” said another.

It gets even worse. A dear old friend — a woman who has been my close friend since the mid 1970s, a woman who never even liked Hillary Clinton much — has simply refused to speak to me since election night. Her daughter, the wife of a wealthy real estate developer, sent me hate mail election night, when she learned I had reluctantly voted for Mr. Trump.

Why are people so upset? What has Mr. Trump done that’s so awful? His choices for the Cabinet fall well within the range of the usual types — Wall Street, campaign helpers, ideological bedfellows. Despite what you may have read online, none of them has made horrible statements. None is a Klansman. None is a Nazi. They have different views from those of the ACLU, but that’s what you get in a free country.

The voters voted in a candidate with certain views. That candidate won fair and square. He gets to choose people he agrees with and who agree with him.

I have a ton of friends on Facebook, etc., and I look at what they are posting and I just shake my head in disbelief. Of course, I don’t respond and really never get involved in political craziness on FB because, well, a) it’s just pathetic how carried away people allow themselves to get when they’re not sitting in the same room with someone who has the temerity to maybe kinda sorta have a different opinion on things, and b) well as a conservative I’m just schtupid and should really just shut up for my own and Society’s Good.

And they STILL wonder why they lost.

Update: Here’s an example. The Left is screaming that “ZOMG Trump supporters boo John Glenn”

Take a listen. There’s definitely some booing when Trump mentions Mercury, but it seems to me Trump doesn’t consider these folks supporters.

We Are So Proud of You, Sgt John

From your first day on Earth, when I looked at your little red face through the hospital glass, to the day we watched you marching with that uniform on and got to meet the incredible woman who would become your wife, with everything (like 2 children) in between and afterwards, you have FOREVER been an integral, much loved part of OUR lives. Your mom Kcruella has been the sister I never had and you? Our second son, Ebola’s little brother, forever cousin, the family ties thicker than blood.

I can’t think of anything to say, my heart is so heavy and sick. Ebola had something perfect to say and so I will leave it to him, with a simple God bless you, baby boy and I pray He holds your family close.

Dear Lord, we love you so much.

I was raised the sole child of two Marines in Southern California; my friends and my family are their friends/coworkers and children from while my parents were stationed there. Three of those children were my brothers, even while we’ve always referred to each other as cousins over the last thirty years. Years of playing hide and seek, riding bikes, of reiterating every line to Predator and/or Aliens as the movies played, laughing and bitching at each other, playing capture the flag, tag, finding injured animals and trying to nurse them to health, and telling bad jokes. We’ve all gone our separate ways over the years: the twins are successful in business, the other two of us entered service. All of us rarely get to see each other, even for special occasions, but it’s always the normal shit talking, smiles, laughter, the hate and situational discontent of youngsters. We all still talk to this day, almost thirty years later.

At 0136Z on the 12th of November, while I slept in the comfort of my home in the Pacific, the Taliban took part of my childhood. They took our brother. They took him from a loving wife, their beautiful children, from his mother and father, from an extended family, of blood and without, who loves him dearly. I’d just shot him a message ten days before, telling him happy birthday. I can’t stop reading our last email chain, filled with our normal bullshitting, split over days due to conflicting schedules and locations.

John: “What do you think you’re doing?”

Me: “I assume making huge mistakes and blaming other people. How’s life cuz?”

John: “Life is good. Probably not as pleasant as Guam, but the ol’ Stan has its perks. You can buy a magic carpet over here but it won’t fly. It will make around $1500 disappear from your wallet. I just got a box from your mom and dad loaded with cookies. How much longer is your tour over there?”

Me: “Probably extending until Oct. Waiting to see if my SERE instructor or HUMINT packages get accepted. If they do, the AF retains me, if not I get out and go back to contracting. How in the fuck do camel rugs run 1500? What a racket. lol”

John: “So you’re staying in Guam until October or are you getting out then? Those rugs are expensive but about 1/4 the cost they are in the states for a handmade Kashmir Persian rug. Smoother and softer than a babys’ ass. They’ve got all kinds of crap out here you can get custom made. I’m thinking about getting a new MOS myself but I’ve got to wait until I get back and find out where the Army is sending me next.”

The last words between John and I are shooting the shit about a fucking rug. To be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way: it was us, as we’ve always been. We’re both family and we know it, it never required quaint expressions or platitudes of familial bullshit. I chuckle thinking about it, things never changed in all those years, even though we’re both vastly different individuals from who we were in our youth. I still remember trying to explain to him as kids that his wearing his LA gear shoes lit up and gave away our position during capture the flag. His talking me into telling a dirty joke, memorizing it the first time through, smiling and running to rat me out to Pop.

I can’t do shit but sit here, hate that I can’t kill every one of these goat fucking shit shamans, and wait for a time where I can do something besides tell our families I love them. When I came into the Air Force, my highest honor, to this day, was escorting my flight commander, Nathan Nylander’s family. The distinct, burning memory I have of that is standing at attention on the flight line as his body was brought off the aircraft, and having his young children begin to cry, not a stones toss from me, as the realization set in that it was really happening. It fucking destroyed me. That pain, though painfully memorable, was momentary. It was the singular hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, until now. I know that is coming for my family and the absolute pain and hatred it inspires in me is indescribable. I want to strike out, to defend something that has already passed defending. There is nothing but the most tenuous vapors the wind to strike at. My hatred accomplishes nothing, which only makes me hate all the more deeply. I am sitting at the squadron right now as I write this, a non-commissioned officer in the strongest military on the planet, thousands of miles from our families, on a beautiful island filled with wonderful people that can’t drive to save their lives… and //I can’t fucking do anything.// Now, I’ve typed a small book and said nothing I wanted to say by it.

I’ll close with what John already knew: I love him like a brother, and I wish all our/my friends had had the opportunity to get to know the fucking badass he grew into. I have no hesitation in saying he grew into a better man than I did and that will live on through his children.

Like We Need Another Governor Goldman Sachs

…since the last one turned out so well

Five years after MF Global’s collapse after big, levered bets on European bonds blew up leaving a $1.6 billion shortfall in customer funds, WSJ reports former New Jersey Gov. and Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine is nearing a deal to pay $5 million to end a U.S. regulator’s lawsuit.

Ending what The Wall Street Journal calls a long and messy chapter in a four-decade career which touched the pinnacles of Wall Street and politics…

Mr. Corzine reached the tentative settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in June, submitting to a ban from trading client money in commodities and others assets regulated by the commission, the people said. A final deal has been on hold as the commission negotiates a resolution to its case against another former executive at MF Global, the people said. The terms may still shift ahead of a final deal, several people said.

And the Dems are all set to select another Goldman alum for our next Gov.

Happy Veterans Day!

THANKS.

Preparations underway for today's Veterans Day ceremonies at WallSouth @pnj pic.twitter.com/oFTFldY9Ri

— tony (@tgibersonpnj) November 11, 2015

Germany Going “Under Water”

Gee, who could have seen this coming

The road to the reception camp in Hesepe has become something of a refugees’ avenue. Small groups of young men wander along the sidewalk. A family from Syria schleps a clutch of shopping bags towards the gate. A Sudanese man snakes along the road on his bicycle. Most people don’t speak a word of German, just a little fragmentary English, but when they see locals, they offer a friendly wave and call out, “Hello!”

The main road “is like a pedestrian shopping zone,” says one resident, “except without the stores.” Red-brick houses with pretty gardens line both sides of the street, and Kathrin and Ralf Meyer are standing outside theirs. “It’s gotten a bit too much for us,” says the 31-year-old mother of three. “Too much noise, too many refugees, too much garbage.”
Now the Meyers are planning to move out in November. They’re sick of seeing asylum-seekers sit on their garden wall or rummage through their garbage cans for anything they can use. Though “you do feel sorry for them,” says Ralf, who’s handed out some clothes that his children have grown out of. “But there are just too many of them here now.”

Hesepe, a village of 2,500 that comprises one district of the small town of Bramsche in the state of Lower Saxony, is now hosting some 4,000 asylum-seekers, making it a symbol of Germany’s refugee crisis.

…But what Germany lacks more than anything is a plan to make Merkel’s two most-pronounced statements on the crisis — “We can do it” and “We cannot close our borders” — fit together.

Read the whole thing, and remember this is not in Gateway Pundit or Infowars but Der Spiegel.

Joaquin On The Wild Side

I am not amused by this fellow’s concerns on soon-to-be

Hurricane Joaquin

The “New” Normal

…is abby-normal, as Mel Brooks would put it.

Only NOWHERE near as funny.

EPA chief says climate change deniers not ‘normal’

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency appeared to hurl barbs at Congress on Tuesday, referring to an unnamed group of climate change “deniers” who aren’t “normal” and who won’t “carry the day” in a democracy.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy made the comments while addressing a climate change summit at the White House Tuesday to frame the effects of global warming on public health.

…”I’ve batted my head against the wall too many times” trying to convince climate change deniers that global warming is occurring, she said. “You can have fun doing that if you want,” but “if the science hasn’t already changed their mind then it never will.”

She said she is convinced that the climate deniers will not win in the campaign to address global warming. “In a normal democracy, it is not them that carries the day,” McCarthy said. “It is normal human beings that haven’t put their stake into politics above science.”

“It’s normal human beings that want us to do the right thing,” she added. “And we will.“

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Would I Lie to You?

Would I lie to you, honey?

Obama Kept Iran’s Short Breakout Time a Secret

The Barack Obama administration has estimated for years that Iran was at most three months away from enriching enough nuclear fuel for an atomic bomb. But the administration only declassified this estimate at the beginning of the month, just in time for the White House to make the case for its Iran deal to Congress and the public.

Speaking to reporters and editors at our Washington bureau on Monday, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz acknowledged that the U.S. has assessed for several years that Iran has been two to three months away from producing enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon. When asked how long the administration has held this assessment, Moniz said: “Oh quite some time.” He added: “They are now, they are right now spinning, I mean enriching with 9,400 centrifuges out of their roughly 19,000. Plus all the . . . . R&D work. If you put that together it’s very, very little time to go forward. That’s the 2-3 months.”

Brian Hale, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, confirmed to me Monday that the two-to-three-month estimate for fissile material was declassified on April 1.

Here is the puzzling thing: When Obama began his second term in 2013, he sang a different tune…

Would I tell you something that wasn’t true…?*

Apologies to Annie Lennox

ths update: Lemme get this straight. So it sounds like we’re NOT slowing them down at ALL, bomb-wise.

To the unwashed and uneducated, THIS SOUNDS like we want to BUT IT FOR THEM.

State Department Won’t Rule Out $50 Billion ‘Signing Bonus’ For Iran
Largest cash infusion to terror regime in recent memory, experts say

The State Department on Monday would not rule out giving Iran up to $50 billion as a so-called “signing bonus” for agreeing to a nuclear deal later this year, according to comments made to journalists following reports that the Obama administration had formulated a plan to release tens of billions of frozen Iranian funds.

Experts have said this multi-billion dollar “signing bonus” option, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, could be the largest cash infusion to a terror-backing regime in recent memory.

A cash release of $30 to $50 billion upon reaching a final nuclear agreement would come in addition to the more than $11 billion in unfrozen assets that Iran will already have received under an interim nuclear accord reached in 2013.

Word From Lausanne About Lurch and President Skippy: You Guys Are Da BOMB!

How pathetic ARE you really when the FRENCH are taking public potshots at your ineptitude and frailty?

US WIMP-OUT ON IRAN DEAL?
France claims Kerry team caved to
keep Iranians at the table, get a deal

US reportedly backed down on initial goals in Iran talks

U.S. negotiators reportedly lowered the bar for their own goals during talks over Iran’s nuclear program in response to resistance from the Tehran team. And, on the heels of a framework deal being announced in Switzerland, France’s top diplomat on Friday admitted his country had initially held out for firmer terms.

The emerging reports indicate the U.S. team, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, gradually backed down over the course of the talks as Iran’s delegation dug in. The Wall Street Journal, citing current and former U.S. representatives at the discussions, claimed the White House had initially hoped to persuade Iran to dismantle much of the country’s nuclear infrastructure when talks started in late 2013, only to be told categorically that Iran would not do so.

Is There A Nobel Prize For Emasculating A Nation?

I mean, really, what kind of a wimp needs a AUMF to fight the JV team?

President Obama’s request that Congress authorize military action against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was met with skepticism from both parties on Wednesday, raising questions about Capitol Hill’s ability to pass a war measure.

The divide is largely centered on language prohibiting the use of “enduring offensive ground combat operations” against ISIS.

Democrats say this does too little to limit the White House from committing ground troops to the fight, while Republicans say the restrictions could handcuff the military.

How those views can possibly be reconciled isn’t clear, even with Obama using his bully pulpit to call on Washington to unify against what he said was a “barbaric” terrorist network.

Just pathetic.

See? It Was All Just…Random

Why, just listen as the mostest eloquentest Genius Evuh explains it to us Morons

It is entirely legitimate for, uh, the American people to be deeply concerned when you’ve got a buncha, uh… violent, vicious zealots, uh, who behead people or randomly shoot… uh… a buncha folks, uh, in a, in a deli in Paris. Uh…

The refusal to say what is plainly going on is either a sign of craven cowardice or an endorsement of it.

Well, or just plain obtuse intellectual stupidity.

Update: Via Ace, here are a few more random notes:

-“Help Wanted” ad in France says “If possible, no Jews please”

-“A Month After (random!) Kosher Market Attack, French Jews Plan Exodus”

Randomly, of course.

Updated Update: This is really just too random to pass up

It seems like something one would be hard pressed to disagree with: the word “coexist,” written on a wall using a Muslim crescent as the letter “C,” a Star of David as the letter “X,” and a Christian cross as a “T.”

But in Paris, this particular iteration of the popular inscription—here, created by the street artist Combo, who also pasted a life-size photo of himself next to it—didn’t go down well with everybody. Le Monde reports that four young people asked the artist to remove it last weekend, and beat him up severely when he refused to do so.

Ah those Presbyterian Yutes and their lack of culture!

ROLL OUT THE BARREL!

I feel a polka coming on!

Jesus. RT @DefendWallSt: Massachusetts state police have dragged all the protesters and their barrels to the shoulder pic.twitter.com/3bpvQ8Q1ZC

— Heather (@hboulware) January 15, 2015

ths update: In response to JeffS’s patent disappointment in the comments, here’s video of MORE protesters with different restraint accouterments being removed. 🙂

Presbyterians Denied Peaceful Venting Opportunity To Express Grievances

As always the Evil Oppressors over-react

Massive anti-terrorism operations in NSW and Queensland:

7News reporter Robert Ovadia has received information about an alleged plot to kidnap a random person from the streets of Martin Place in Sydney’s CBD, execute them by beheading …

AFP swooped in pre-dawn raids to disrupt plans to commit a violent attack on Australian soil.

They executed 25 search warrants in Sydney, arresting 15 people, one of which has been charged with serious terror offences.

Click for video. Around 500 officers were involved in the raids:

Hundreds of ASIO and heavily armed police officers swooped in anti-terrorism raids to prevent a mass casualty shooting in Sydney and possible beheadings.

Police backed up by armoured cars arrested dozens of people in a dozen separate pre-dawn operations across NSW and Brisbane.

The combined effort amounted to the largest anti-terrorism operation in Australian history – and senior officers revealed the attack by a suspected terrorist cell was imminent.
Further to come following court appearances later today.

UPDATE:

One of the men arrested in Thursday morning’s anti-terrorism raids in Sydney has appeared in court on a charge of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act …

Prosecutors allege he was part of a plan to commit an act to “shock, horrify and terrify” the community.

UPDATE II:

Mr Abbott was briefed on the police raid on Wednesday night, which included intelligence that public beheadings were planned. “The exhortations, quite direct exhortations, were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country,” he told reporters.

“So this is not just suspicion, this is intent and that’s why the police and security agencies decided to act in the way they have.”

The raids follow investigation of a Lakemba-based company over $9 million in possible Islamic State funding.

Naturally, some folks are upset that they weren’t given advance warning of the raids

UPDATE III. A press release from Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesidiot Uthman Badar:

As late as last week both the Prime Minister and outgoing ASIO boss David Irvine confirmed that there was no intelligence of any plans to carry out attacks in Australia. A few days later and we wake up to heavy-handed raids and talk of a “terrorist network” planning attacks.

The timing of these raids is suspect indeed. With the ‘anti-terror’ laws, which hit a wall in the community, to be tabled to Parliament next week and with ‘military intervention’ imminent in Iraq, these raids are very timely for the Government and its propaganda campaign for the same.

Shockingly, even CNN is covering this.

An Anniversary Post Reprint: Very Early This Morning

…ten years ago today…

…Ivan was busy blowing through major dad’s office.

Read more »

And…

…whoa.

Jim Rockford, RIP

James Garner has died

NEW YORK (AP) — Few actors could register disbelief, exasperation or annoyance with more comic subtlety.

James Garner had a way of widening his eyes while the corner of his mouth sagged ever so slightly. Maybe he would swallow once to further make his point.

This portrait of fleeting disquiet could be understood, and identified with, by every member of the audience. Never mind Garner was tall, brawny and, well, movie-star handsome. The persona he perfected was never less than manly, good with his dukes and charming to the ladies, but his heroics were kept human-scale thanks to his gift for the comic turn. He remained one of the people.

He burst on the scene with this disarming style in the 1950s TV Western “Maverick,” which led to a stellar career in TV and films such as “The Rockford Files” and his Oscar-nominated “Murphy’s Romance.”

The 86-year-old Garner, who was found dead of natural causes at his Los Angeles home on Saturday, was adept at drama and action. But he was best known for his low-key, wisecracking style, especially on his hit TV series, “Maverick” and “The Rockford Files.”

One of the few shows I watched constantly.

The “Lion of Fallujah”

What a story.

What a MAN.

Legendary Marine Maj. Zembiec, the ‘Lion of Fallujah,’ died in the service of the CIA

In the foyer of the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters, there is a marble wall covered in stars. They are carved divots that represent those who have fallen in the service of the CIA. Below them, jutting out from the polished rock, is a black book entombed in a case of glass and steel. The book is a guide to the stars, giving the names of some of those who died and withholding the names of others.

On the pages of the CIA’s Book of Honor are 111 hand-drawn stars organized by the years those officers died. For 2007, there is a single, anonymous star.

It belongs to Marine Maj. Douglas Alexander Zembiec.

Long thought to be an active-duty Marine when he was killed in Baghdad, Zembiec was actually serving with the CIA’s paramilitary arm. While the CIA would not comment on whether Zembiec worked for the agency, former U.S. intelligence officials said in interviews that he died in an alley in Sadr City on May 11, 2007, as a member of the Special Activities Division’s Ground Branch.

…Zembiec was also awarded the Bronze Star for valor for rushing into the middle of a machine-gun-raked street to get the attention of an Abrams tank supporting Echo Company. Abrams are equipped with small radios on the rear to allow infantrymen to talk to the tank crew while behind the safety of 60 tons of steel, but for what­ever reason the radio, or “grunt phone,” wasn’t working, so Zembiec scaled the tank while bullets ricocheted off its hull.

After he knocked on one of the hatches repeatedly, the crew of the tank finally opened up. Zembiec then loaded a magazine of illuminated tracer rounds and began shooting from the top of the tank to mark the building from which his Marines were being shot.

The tank swung its turret and without warning fired its massive 120mm gun. The blast threw Zembiec into the air and onto the street below.

It’s a great story, full of GREAT stories.

Oh The Hyperventilating!

For all the screaming that the Hobby Lobby decision is the WORST THING EVER it seems to me that there are a few things to keep in mind.

Firstly, this column from Megan McArdle calmly addresses some of the issues.

Secondly, the decision both reaffirms and yes expands portions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993…a law which was unanimously passed by the House and passed the Senate by a vote of 97-3

YEAs —97
Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Bennett (R-UT) Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM) Bond (R-MO) Boren (D-OK) Boxer (D-CA)
Bradley (D-NJ) Breaux (D-LA) Brown (R-CO) Bryan (D-NV)
Bumpers (D-AR) Burns (R-MT) Campbell (D-CO) Chafee (R-RI)
Coats (R-IN) Cochran (R-MS) Cohen (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND)
Coverdell (R-GA) Craig (R-ID) D’Amato (R-NY) Danforth (R-MO)
Daschle (D-SD) DeConcini (D-AZ) Dodd (D-CT) Dole (R-KS)
Domenici (R-NM) Dorgan (D-ND) Durenberger (R-MN) Exon (D-NE)
Faircloth (R-NC) Feingold (D-WI) Feinstein (D-CA) Ford (D-KY)
Glenn (D-OH) Gorton (R-WA) Graham (D-FL) Gramm (R-TX)
Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Harkin (D-IA) Hatch (R-UT)
Hatfield (R-OR) Heflin (D-AL) Hollings (D-SC) Hutchison (R-TX)
Inouye (D-HI) Jeffords (R-VT) Johnston (D-LA) Kassebaum (R-KS)
Kempthorne (R-ID) Kennedy (D-MA) Kerrey (D-NE) Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT) Lott (R-MS) Lugar (R-IN) Mack (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Metzenbaum (D-OH) Mikulski (D-MD)
Mitchell (D-ME) Moseley-Braun (D-IL) Moynihan (D-NY) Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA) Nickles (R-OK) Nunn (D-GA) Packwood (R-OR)
Pell (D-RI) Pressler (R-SD) Pryor (D-AR) Reid (D-NV)
Riegle (D-MI) Robb (D-VA) Rockefeller (D-WV) Roth (R-DE)
Sarbanes (D-MD) Sasser (D-TN) Shelby (D-AL) Simon (D-IL)
Simpson (R-WY) Smith (R-NH) Specter (R-PA) Stevens (R-AK)
Thurmond (R-SC) Wallop (R-WY) Warner (R-VA) Wellstone (D-MN)
Wofford (D-PA)

NAYs —3
Byrd (D-WV)
Helms (R-NC)
Mathews (D-TN)

Look at the bolded names who were very much in favor of this back then…does Harry Reid now agree with Jesse Helms?

And actually the depressing thing, really, is how many of those 100 names are still sitting there…

And there’s this to keep in mind

Actually, the case doesn’t involve Hobby Lobby’s position on what its employees do. The case hinges on what Hobby Lobby has to provide to its employees as part of regulation from HHS. As Kessler points out, Hobby Lobby covers 16 of the 20 required contraception methods, but objects to four abortifacients. Hobby Lobby has never taken the position that its employees should not use contraception; in fact, as their attorney said shortly after their victory at the Supreme Court, they’d really prefer not to be part of that decision at all.

Oh, and it seems to me worth pointing out that male contraception, i.e. condoms and vasectomies, are not covered at all by Obamacare.

Because, you know, “equal rights.”

Obama Probably Expected to Get an Ass Reaming for That Miserable West Point P-Word Pablum

…from the WaPo.

Wait. What?

Edit pages pan Obama speech

The New York Times editorial board, often supportive of the White House, wrote that his “address did not match the hype, was largely uninspiring, lacked strategic sweep and is unlikely to quiet his detractors, on the right or the left.”

…The Wall Street Journal, far more accustomed to criticizing the president on foreign policy, said Obama’s speech was marked less by what he said and more by what he left out —…

…The Washington Post editorial said the president’s “binding of U.S. power places Mr. Obama at odds with every U.S. president since World War II.”
“President Obama has retrenched U.S. global engagement in a way that has shaken the confidence of many U.S. allies and encouraged some adversaries,” the board said, attacking the president for resorting to rhetoric instead of adjusting policy.

We Have Arec Barrwin

…in handcuffs

Three months ago, Alec Baldwin declared in a New York magazine cover story, “I just can’t live in New York anymore.” Maybe he should have pulled up stakes then. The volatile actor, 56, was arrested on Tuesday morning in Manhattan after he was pulled over for riding his bike the wrong way down a one-way street and mouthing off to the arresting officers.

“The officers approached him and told him that he was riding the wrong way on the street [16th Street near Fifth Avenue] and asked him for ID,” an NYPD spokesman tells the New York Daily News. “But he didn’t have any ID on him. He then began to act belligerent to police.”

Climate Change!

The damn-you-bush-it’s-so-warm-we’ll-never-see-snow-again non-Winter continues to take its toll

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard crews kept up their battle Monday to clear pathways for vessels hauling vital raw materials on the ice-clogged Great Lakes, where a shipping logjam forced a weeklong shutdown of the nation’s largest steel factory.

Traffic remained largely at a crawl after a winter that produced some of the heaviest ice on record across the five inland seas, where more than half the surface area remained solid this week. Icebreaking ships slogging across Lake Superior were still encountering ice layers 2 feet to 3 feet thick. In some areas, wind and wave action created walls of ice up to 14 feet high.

…Only three ships were able to haul coal on the lakes in March, their cargos combining for 102,000 tons – down 70 percent from the same month in 2013, he said. Coal trade was 54 percent below the long-term first-quarter average.

…The shipping season officially began two weeks ago with the opening of navigational locks on the St. Marys River connecting Lakes Superior and Huron, a bottleneck for vessels hauling iron ore and coal to manufacturers and electric power plants. But just one convoy of vessels – including two icebreakers and the two ships hauling iron ore – had traversed Superior with loads of freight.

If only they all converted to wind and solar, there would be flowers blooming and birds sweetly singing all the year round.

Marines Re-enact “Pickett’s Charge” at Gettysburg With Eerie Authenticity, According to Veterans at the Scene

(CIVIL War veterans.)

President Warren G. Harding, presiding. Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, commanding.

All after a brisk hike out to the Pennsylvania battlefield…from Quantico, Virginia.

While Smedley Butler would drive to Gettysburg, his men hadn’t yet reached the point of becoming “mechanized infantry.” While some of his men would arrive in Gettysburg in tanks or airplanes, most of them traveled by foot. Here they are marching through Frederick, Maryland, on their way to Gettysburg. The marines arrived in Frederick around noon on June 24, and camped on the fairgrounds there overnight. They even had their band(s) playing as they marched through the town. This view was taken on June 24 or 25, 1922.

Now THAT’S “Old Corps”.

TONS of great pictures and, towards the end, a CLASSIC Marine Corps anecdote, from, of all people… 🙂

…The New York Times continued, “The only criticism that was heard of the exhibition came from F. B. Cope [sic], sergeant of Typographical Engineers with Meade’s headquarters, and now superintendent of the Gettysburg battlefield. When the units representing Armistead’s Kemper’s, Garnett’s, Archer’s, Scales’ and Pettigrew’s brigades reached the stone wall, the height of the charge, and turned slowly back, Mr. Cope, standing on the steps of the observation tower (which Cope designed) on Cemetery Ridge with President Harding, declared the Marines did not retreat fast enough. This may have been criticism, but the Marines accepted it as a compliment.”