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Posted by Amy Miller on May 11, 2015 46 Comments
Authorities in Lake Mary, Florida have told the press that George Zimmerman was shot during what is believed to be a road rage incident earlier today. He suffered minor injuries to his face.

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Posted by Amy Miller on May 11, 2015 21 Comments
Well, that's embarrassing. What if you threw a summit and no one came? That's Obama's reality this week as four of six Persian Gulf heads of state have declined his invitation to a summit at Camp David later this week. The kings of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have dropped out entirely, as have the heads of state from the United Arab Emirates and Oman. (Kuwait and Qatar haven't dropped out yet, but there's still time.) This is a huge deal, considering the purpose of the summit is (in part) to address Iran's growing influence in the region, and to discuss security guarantees from the Obama administration. Although Saudi and the other absentee nations will be sending deputies, the absence of their figureheads sends a strong message about the state of relations between the Middle East, and Barack Obama. Via Fox News:
"We first learned of the King's possible change of plans from Saudis on Friday night," a senior U.S. administration official told Fox News. "This was confirmed by the Saudis on Saturday. We coordinated closely with our Saudi partners on the alternate arrangement and timing of the announcement and look forward to welcoming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This is not in response to any substantive issue."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 11, 2015 14 Comments
If there is one thing Israel-haters hate more than anything, it's being reminded of how well women are treated in Israel compared to the surrounding Arab countries. So when the Israel Airforce posted a Mother's Day greeting of a female IAF pilot breastfeeding her child, it was major league trolling (h/t Nadav Eyal Twitter): https://www.facebook.com/IsraeliAirForce.EN/photos/a.247957101913936.56748.234494436593536/930385137004459/?type=1 The reaction was precious. Ali Abunimah, who runs The Electronic Intifada tweeted:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 11, 2015 6 Comments
For years we have been documenting how stirring racial tensions on campus is one of the tactics employed by the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The methodology is to tie unrelated movements into the fight against Israel by portraying a common enemy -- in their terminology, "white settler colonialism." Israel and the U.S. are lumped together in that theory, so that whatever goes wrong in the U.S. from a racial standpoint is tied to Israel.   So problems at the Mexican border are used by BDS groups on campus to bring Mexican-American student groups into the BDS fight; police problems in Ferguson or elsewhere are used in movements such as "Ferguson2Palestine" to blame Israel; the BlackLivesMatters movement is brought into the fight against Israel in the same manner. Here are some of our prior posts on the subject: The NY Times focused on these racial tensions in a front-page, below the fold article yesterday, Campus Debates on Israel Drive a Wedge Between Jews and Minorities:

Posted by Amy Miller on May 11, 2015 32 Comments
Behold, Mars: site of future discoveries adventures microaggressions. Yes, really. Happy Sunday, everyone. Every once in a while, the social justice warrior set cracks a window and shines light on what's really bugging them about the world. Racism, ageism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, life-phobia---if they can't find a problem, they'll use one of these handy buzzwords to invent one. Last week, Martin Robbins at The Guardian (presumably) gazed up into the firmament and saw what only a social justice warrior could see when presented with such breathtaking splendor: potential. For discrimination. Martin presents a simple question: How can our future Mars colonies be free of sexism and racism? (Anyone with a brain reading this just did a spit take.) In his essay, he questions the idea that “[w]hen we go into space, we will all magically become nice,” and makes an exquisitely flawed case for why future off-planet settlements will look a less like a Picard-era Enterprise, and more like an Earp-era gambling outpost.

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Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 10, 2015 29 Comments
Thanks to Mark Halperin, we can all rest easy knowing that Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, is in fact, authentically Cuban. In a bizarre interrogation line of questioning on Bloomberg's 'With All Due Respect', host Mark Halperin grilled Sen. Cruz on his Cubaness. Questions began with, "when you filled out your application to Princeton, to Harvard Law school, did you list yourself as an Hispanic?" Then moved to cuisine, "do you have a favorite Cuban food, Cuban dish?" Cruz tried to answer but was interrupted by Halperin demanding to know his favorite Cuban dish. And it didn't stop there. Halperin continued his interrogation until making a final demand -- that Sen. Cruz welcome Sen. Sanders to the presidential race, with the requirement that he do so, "on Espanol," whatever that means.

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 10, 2015 120 Comments
One of the interesting facets of the charges brought in the Freddie Gray case is that even at the earliest stages it appears that Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby was running an independent investigation in parallel with that of the Baltimore Police Department. Naturally, any investigation has a lead, and so it seems worthwhile to ask who Mosby assigned to that sensitive and responsibility-burdened position for her own investigative team. This is, after all, the man who generated the evidence presumably used by Mosby in bringing her 26 charges--including second-degree depraved-heart murder and manslaughter--against six Baltimore officers associated with the death of street-level drug dealer Freddie Gray. Legal Insurrection, I introduce you to Avon Mackel. Let's roll the video tape from Anderson Cooper on CNN:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 10, 2015 16 Comments
Lindsey Graham is soon to join the GOP primary field that so far (officially) consists of Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and Mike Huckabee.  According to Fox News,
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham plans to announce his presidential campaign on June 1, GOP sources tell Fox News. Graham, a three-term senator from South Carolina, is known as a foreign policy hawk in Congress. Though he is considered a long shot -- and ranks near the bottom in recent polls of declared and potential Republican presidential candidates -- Graham could help drive the debate on national security among a GOP field that includes candidates who sharply question policies ranging from drone strikes to NSA surveillance.
While it's true that Graham's views on national security are more palatable to the conservative base than (say) Rand Paul's, there are areas that may not be reconcilable.  Graham is trying to establish himself not as the squishy "RINO" (Republican in Name Only) but as the "realist" in the field who will work in bipartisan fashion to accomplish his agenda.  It seems reasonable, in that case, to recall some of his bipartisan efforts in recent years: Remember the "Year of Immigration Reform"?  That was 2013, in case you missed it.  The Gang of Eight is often evoked in discussion of Marco Rubio's amnesty flip-flop, but it's worth remembering that Rubio was not the only Republican member.  Lindsey Graham was right there, effectively leading the GOP side:   "We're going to be aggressive in marketing the bill. This is an all hands on deck approach."

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 10, 2015 22 Comments
The newest edition of Afterburner with Bill Whittle is titled I Support Free Speech, But... In the video, Whittle examines the controversy surrounding Pamela Geller and the limits so many of her critics are willing to impose on free speech. Whittle offers numerous examples of provocative free speech from progressives which didn't result in murder attempts and turns the left's arguments against Geller upside-down in the process. Watch the whole thing: Bill Whittle isn't the only person who has noticed the big 'but' some people want to place on free speech.

Posted by David Gerstman on May 10, 2015 3 Comments
Late Friday afternoon Reuters had a huge scoop. Inspectors found traces of prohibited chemical weapons at a previously undeclared site in Syria.
Samples taken by experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition and Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in December and January tested positive for chemical precursors needed to make the toxic agents, the sources told Reuters on the condition of anonymity because the information is confidential. "This is a pretty strong indication they have been lying about what they did with sarin," one diplomatic source said. "They have so far been unable to give a satisfactory explanation about this finding." ... The diplomatic sources said the sarin and VX nerve samples were taken from the Scientific Studies and Research Centre, a government agency where Western intelligence agencies say Syria developed biological and chemical weapons.
After it was established that Syria had used chemical weapons against civilians in a Damascus suburb, President Barack Obama said that he would seek Congressional authorization to use force. But in the end chose the path of diplomacy to deal with Syria's breach of international conventions by using chemical weapons. The deal, agreed to with Russia, a patron of Syria, called for Syria to declare all of its chemical weapons sites, destroy their chemical stores and destroy their means for making them. At the very least, Friday's news means that Syria did not fully comply with its obligations under the deal. At the worst it suggests that despite the hoopla about Syria destroying thousands of tons of chemical agents, Syria has an active chemical weapons program still remaining. (This is in addition to Syria's use of chlorine, which is prohibited for use as a weapon, even if chlorine is not prohibited to possess.) This wouldn't be the first time Syria has been caught cheating. In October of last year Syria admitted to having four chemical weapons facilities that it had not previously declared. Worse than that, The New York Times reported in January that the administration had informed Assad that the United States will train rebels to fight ISIS, not Syria.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 10, 2015 9 Comments
Are you looking for a special place to visit on your summer vacation? You're in luck. ISIS has opened a luxury hotel in Iraq. Heather Saul of the Independent:
Isis opens 262-room luxury hotel in Mosul Isis has purportedly opened its own luxury hotel in Iraq's second city Mosul for members of the extremist group to stay in while visiting. Pictures circulated by Isis-affiliated social media accounts show members tending to a well-maintained garden, polishing floors and cleaning windows, expansive swimming pools and two black Isis flags flying at the front of the multi-storey building. The hotel is believed to be the Ninawa International Hotel, which received a number of positive reviews on TripAdvisor before being overtaken by militants and stripped of its branding. It has 262 rooms, two restaurants, two ballrooms and a gymnasium, among other facilities.
Paul Detrick of Reason TV produced this promotional video for the hotel:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 10, 2015 6 Comments
We previously reported on how Oberlin Radical Feminists Freak Out at Christina Hoff Sommers:
In the Oberlin Review radical feminists responded to Sommers’ upcoming speech with an OpEd, “A Love Letter to Themselves.” In this love letter, they accuse Sommers of being a “rape denialist” and proceeded to list her “offenses” to feminism. The letter concluded:
So let’s engage in some radical, beautiful community care, support and love. Let’s make space for everyone to engage at whichever level they want/need. Let’s come through for each other, both now and in the future. Trauma is an experience that threatens a person’s bodily, spiritual and emotional integrity. The psychological, emotional and somatic impacts extend beyond the experience of trauma. Healing is a process that looks different for each person. Let’s make space to care for all experiences of trauma and to respect those we care for. Let’s focus our energy on taking care of each other and ourselves. Let’s make her talk irrelevant in the face of our love, passion and power.
Hoff Sommers was greeted with "Trigger Warning" signs and of course, the obligatory "Jazz Hands." Some enterprising person has put the controversy to music, including on-screen lyrics as the names of the people signing the Oberlin Review letter passed by in the background: Oberlin College Video Feelz before Reelz Choir Christina Hoff Sommers screenshot keep me from the real world

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 10, 2015 24 Comments
Jeb Bush's super PAC expects to raise $100 million by the end of this month.  According to Politico:
Jeb Bush is putting in motion an ambitious plan to develop a super PAC that would be unprecedented in its size and scope — a blueprint growing in scale and intensity as he nears the formal launch of his presidential campaign. The group, called Right to Rise, is said to be on track for raising an historic $100 million by the end of May, and its budget is expected to dwarf that of Bush’s official campaign many times over. In interviews, more than half a dozen sources familiar with the Right to Rise plans described a juggernaut that was rapidly taking shape — from its likely headquarters in Los Angeles, 2,700 miles from the Miami office where Bush was basing his campaign, to a new fundraising push aimed at expanding its ballooning coffers.
It turns out that his delay in announcing his candidacy is likely tied to campaign finance laws:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 10, 2015 13 Comments
As I was preparing for my Mother's Day vacation getaway, this tweet came across my screen: LI #04b Salon Mother's Day Tweet A worthy question, as I thought progressives would be positively joyful at this point in the "Hope and Change" presidency. However, they seem to be clinging to their bitterness. Following the social media trail, it turns out that in a piece on Salon.com, author Anne Lamott transforms a happy holiday into a scourge:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 09, 2015 27 Comments
David Cameron's Conservative Party surprisingly won an absolute majority in the British parliament. Best of all, George Galloway and his merry band of Jew-baiters and anti-Israel maniacs were voted out. With a Conservative Party majority, welfare and other fiscal reforms should pass. That has the sore election losers unhappy. Needless to say, not all of the tweets and text below are safe for work: Nothing says sore loser like defacing a Women's WWII Monument, Anti-Tory protesters deface war monument on Whitehall:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 09, 2015 25 Comments
In 2011, the DOJ ordered the Dayton Police Department and the Fire Department of New York to lower the required test scores of minorities after too many failed to pass the existing exams, and in 2013, the Marines changed their fitness requirement for women after the majority of female recruits were unable to perform the required three pull-ups. This week we learn that the FDNY is allowing a woman to become a fire fighter despite failing a crucial fitness exam.  According to The New York Post:
The FDNY for the first time in its history will allow someone who failed its crucial physical fitness test to join the Bravest, The Post has learned. Rebecca Wax, 33, is set to graduate Tuesday from the Fire Academy without passing the Functional Skills Training test, a grueling obstacle course of job-related tasks performed in full gear with a limited air supply, an insider has revealed. “They’re going to allow the first person to graduate without passing because this administration has lowered the standard,” said the insider, who is familiar with the training. Upon graduation, Wax would be assigned to a firehouse and tasked with the full duties of a firefighter.
As you might imagine, not everyone is thrilled with this development.  An FDNY member tells The Post, "We’re being asked to go into a fire with someone who isn’t 100 percent qualified.  Our job is a team effort. If there’s a weak link in the chain, either civilians or our members can die.” This is particularly problematic because Wax is the only female firefighter who has failed the fitness exam and still made the cut.  The female firefighters who passed the fitness and other exams are livid; the Post reports:
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