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Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 31, 2015 50 Comments
Though it's seemingly impossible to discuss the tragic tale of Cecil the lion without invoking a comparison war, there is an entire part of this story that those with their hair ablaze forgot to consider -- what do Zimbabwean's think? It appears I'm not the only one pondering the African perspective. While Americans are calling for the extradition of the dentist who killed Cecil the lion and the hashtag #lionlivematter was trending on social media, Zimbabwe had one question -- what lion?

Posted by Amy Miller on July 30, 2015 59 Comments
This week's collective global meltdown over the killing of Cecil the Lion has brought out the worst in both activists and everyday citizens who found themselves upset at Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer over the allegedly illegal hunt. Actress Mia Farrow tweeted Palmer's personal address. Screenshot via Twitchy: farrowtweet Other Twitter uses were quick to report the dox to the platform's support staff, prompting Farrow to delete the tweet. Instead of leaving it at that, she decided to post another tweet, this time including Palmer's business address:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 29, 2015 79 Comments

It's enough to be upset, without drawing comparisons....

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 28, 2015 24 Comments
You know what I always ask myself when considering my stance on any hot-button piece of legislation, particularly matters of national security? Gee, I wonder what Hollywood thinks. Except I don't do that because I have a brain. One that I enjoy using. But there must exist people who demand Hollywood's expertise on matters of national importance or videos like this one wouldn't exist. Utilizing one of the most annoying video formats in existence, various celebrities work together to complete a sentence. Like this one:
"I love playing frisbee with my sons. I love the sound of the waves on the Pacific at sunrise. I love curling up with a good book. I love to see my grandkids smile. But if Congress sabotages the nuclear deal with Iran, we could be denied the very moments that make our lives worth living."
minion-gifs-1

Posted by Michael Stopa on July 26, 2015 30 Comments
Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute, has made a career of painstakingly going into the police departments and town meetings and impacted urban neighborhoods to research the facts on the ground about how police practices actually affect lives. On July 21, 2015, MacDonald appeard on the Harvard Lunch Club Political podcast, hosted by radio talk show host Todd Feinberg and me.  The full 35-minute podcast segment is at the bottom of this post. MacDonald spoke out against the crippling influence that the "Black Lives Matter" movement is having on the quality of life in the very neighborhoods where the protests are taking place:
I think this is an even more extreme example of the way this country deals with race and policing, which is to talk fanatically about police in order not to talk about the far more difficult problem of black crime.
Proactive policing practices have been the target of protests against "police racism." Speaking about this so-called "broken windows" method of policing, where police detain perpetrators for minor, quality of life violations like turnstile jumping or loitering and smoking weed, MacDonald notes:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 26, 2015 4 Comments
Amidst the Confederate battle flag hoopla, the KKK and the New Black Panther Party held dueling protests at South Carolina's capitol. From the chaos, a hero emerged. A hero bearing a sousaphone. Following KKK members to their rally, this might be the best example of real life trolling on the Internet:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on July 25, 2015 8 Comments
The failure of the Occupy movement was epic in its crash-and-burn in the wake of "occupiers" pooping on cop cars, establishing rape safety tents, displaying food privilege, and being infested with rats and disease.  As amusing as the "up and down twinkles" and mindless, robotic repetition of speakers were, the failure of the Occupy movement is worth revisiting in light of its offshoot the #BlackLivesMatter movement. One of the reasons the left was so incensed by the TEA Party, and worried enough to come after us by any means necessary, is that we are a genuine grassroots, populist movement.  While they publicly railed against our successes and worked to ridicule and bully us into submission, they were always working away at trying to duplicate (i.e. manufacture) our efforts.

Occupy is still touted as "populist," an astonishing claim that is easily refuted in that it was a clearly top-down movement funded and organized by the usual suspects.  Likewise, we know that Ferguson was another crisis the left couldn't let go to waste, so the usual suspects hired and bused in race agitators, union members, communists, anarchists, et al.   These are all the same big players in the background, pulling the strings, and they have one goal in mind, a goal that Andrew Breitbart saw for what it was:

https://twitter.com/AndrewBreitbart/status/120953881818701824

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 20, 2015 20 Comments
On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 space capsule landed on the moon. As I related last year:
I was at summer camp in New Hampshire. They brought us into the rec hall where a couple hundred of us stared, bleary-eyed, at a single black and white monitor. They said we would remember this all our lives. And I do. It’s as if it happened yesterday.
Six hours later, on July 21 (UTC/GMT), Neil Armstrong would be the first man to step foot on the moon:

Posted by Amy Miller on July 17, 2015 40 Comments
Last night, a writer at Gawker outed and gay-shamed someone at the behest of an unnamed (for his safety!) source. It was a story steeped in sex, fame, cash, and blackmail, which made it a perfect target for today's salacious clickbait culture. Today, Gawker's managing partners voted 5-1 (with the lone dissenter being the editor who approved the story) to take the story down---but the damage has already been done. Sorry, Nick Denton---you don't get to take this one back. (The link above is a web archive link; if you wish to read their hit job, you can click knowing that you won't be giving Gawker any traffic.) Long story short, Gawker allegedly received a series of text messages and photos showing a planned liaison between Condé Nast CFO David Geithner (his name sounds familiar because he's Tim Geithner's brother) and a gay porn star and escort. Gawker claims that the escort, whose story is told under the pseudonym "Ryan," sent them the photos and text messages after Geithner (who is married to a woman) was unable to meet him as planned during a Chicago business trip. Major money was involved: $2500 plus airfare for "Ryan's" plane ticket from Texas to Chicago. Geithner forwarded a chunk of the cash to "Ryan" in advance, and sent his photo and lodging plans to "Ryan" via text:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 16, 2015 23 Comments
The video below was posted by Ed Driscoll at Instapundit, with the comment:
THIS CHILLING VIDEO MIGHT MAKE YOU KICK YOUR KIDS OUT OF THE HOUSE — TO PLAY OUTSIDE
It's one of the more depressing statements about what has happened to childhood. I don't want to turn this into one of those "When I was a kid, I had to walk 4 hours to school..." type of things. It's just the opposite. It's about the freedom we had. To fall. To bump our heads. To compete. To get physical. "Just be home by dinner" used to be the norm, now it could get a parent arrested or get child services involved. Something very important was lost along the way.

Posted by Amy Miller on July 14, 2015 24 Comments
Yesterday, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced that he is taking steps to reverse a longstanding ban on open military service by transgender people. Carter said that he has asked a panel of senior Pentagon officials to study the affect transgender service members will have on military procedure, as well as what it will take to adapt current procedures to accommodate the new policy. More via CNN:
Carter made the announcement in a memo outlining a pair of directives to both study the effect of transgender service men and women over the next sixth months, as well as adding the new protocol that any personnel diagnosed with gender dysphoria or who identify as transgender will have their paperwork for dismissal from the military reviewed at the highest personnel levels in DOD. "At a time when our troops have learned from experience that the most important qualification for service members should be whether they're able and willing to do their job, our officers and enlisted personnel are faced with certain rules that tell them the opposite," Carter wrote in his statement. "Moreover, we have transgender soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines - real, patriotic Americans - who I know are being hurt by an outdated, confusing, inconsistent approach that's contrary to our value of service and individual merit."
Get prepared for a blitz, because the mainstream media is excited:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 12, 2015 3 Comments
Comedy Central's Key & Peele began Season 5 by having a little fun with the Obama Administration. Key and Peele describe their show as:
Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are the stars of Key & Peele, a show that examines life in a distinctively provocative and irreverent way. Whether it's anger-translating the president, spoofing Nazis or ordering up some soul food, Key & Peele showcases the guys' camaraderie and unique point of view, born from their experiences growing up biracial in a not-quite-post-racial world.
In a fictitious meeting between President Obama and Mrs. Clinton, each brings an Anger Translator. Their function? To translate the diplomatic b.s. into what they're really saying. President Obama's Anger Translator is Luther and Mrs. Clinton's is Savannah: The profanity-laced (but bleeped out) meeting began nice enough:
Obama: “It’s always good to see you.” Luther (Translation): “I pretended to like you for seven years!” Clinton: “Good to see you too, Mr. President.” Savannah (Translation): “My hatred for you is a pure force of nature that is going to move me onward to my destiny.”

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on July 12, 2015 31 Comments
With transgender issues in the spotlight following the recent revelation by Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner, it's unsurprising to learn that a state like Oregon would support state-subsidized sex change operations. What is surprising to many, including to Oregon voters who did not get a chance to vote on this measure, is that these subsidized sex change operations are now available to 15-year-olds . . . without parental knowledge or consent. From Fox News:
The list of things 15-year-olds are not legally allowed to do in Oregon is long: Drive, smoke, donate blood, get a tattoo -- even go to a tanning bed. But, under a first-in-the-nation policy quietly enacted in January that many parents are only now finding out about, 15-year-olds are now allowed to get a sex-change operation. Many residents are stunned to learn they can do it without parental notification -- and the state will even pay for it through its Medicaid program, the Oregon Health Plan.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 11, 2015 2 Comments
The rapid expansion of "social justice" is completely out of control. Imagine for a moment what life might be like if we were subjected to every whim of the social justice mob. Enter College Humor, who has done that for us:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 10, 2015 51 Comments
Long overdue, the Confederate battle flag no longer flies over South Carolina's capitol grounds thanks to the state's Republican leadership. While undeniably part of America's historical record, the stars and bars has no place on government buildings. Not content to celebrate this victory with the rest of rational America, the politically correct mob pushed the issue of the battle flag into ridiculous territory. But now that social justice warriors have eradicated racism from the free-market Jesus paradise South by exiling the confederate battle flag from public consciousness, they must have another object with which to be outraged. Progressives in Louisiana may have found the next historical atrocity to expunge from the record, the fleur de lis.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 07, 2015 6 Comments
During my family’s visit of Berlin, Germany yesterday, an American president was prominently featured as part of the tour we took. Our guide spoke glowingly of a speech that he heard, and one which still resonates with him to this day. As we passed the Bradenburg Gate, he quoted Ronald Reagan's 1987 speech by saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Our guide lived 3 blocks away from the infamous Berlin Wall, the remnants of which are covered in art and graffiti or which are boxed up as souvenirs of a seemingly distant era. While the entire speech is iconic, reviewing Reagan's words again, I was struck by this passage:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 04, 2015 5 Comments
From all of us at Legal Insurrection, we want to wish you and your loved ones a very Happy Independence Day. To celebrate, I've compiled some of THE most American things on the internet.

This weenie dog trying to save people from a roman candle

Captain America punching Hitler

captain america hitler

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 02, 2015 41 Comments
Why, Mr. Sulu? WHY? George Takei of Star Trek fame made a wild accusation in an interview with Phoenix-based Fox affiliate. The televised portion of the interview went as you'd expect: long-time gay rights advocate is thrilled with advances in gay rights. "We're overjoyed, we're proud, and we feel fully American," said Takei. George discussed having to stay in the closet so he could have a career in Hollywood and the disappointment he felt when Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed California's gay marriage legislation. "We're doing this for the straight couples of today because they're going to having the gay babies of tomorrow and they won't have to have those discussions." The televised interview:
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