Wednesday afternoon round-up and Open Thread

Victorian posy of pansiesI’ve had my Red Alert app for 36 hours. In that time, it’s gone off non-stop. I cannot imagine living under siege that way. It makes my own whines and gripes about life in the suburb (few though they may be) quite petty.

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Back in the 1990s, I read Bill Buford’s Among the Thugs, about the unbelievably violent subculture of British soccer hooliganism. When I read the book, it hadn’t been that long since I’d lived in England myself, and I remember the early years of that thuggery.

Where I lived, when there was a home game, all of the businesses within a three mile radius of the stadium would board up the windows, as one would before a hurricane, in an effort to stave off vandalism. One of my friends went to a game in Wales and said it was an appalling experience, primarily because the hooligans would pee in beer cups, and then throw those cups into the crowd.

My point is that the feminazi canard about the brutality of male football fans in America pales when compared to the reality of real soccer hooliganism around the world. That’s why it didn’t surprise me at all to learn that the six Israelis arrested in connection with the horrific murder of Muhammed Abu-Khudair, aged only 16, weren’t religious radicals or ardent zionists, in the first instance but were, instead, soccer hooligans. There is something about soccer that leeches the moral fiber out of its most ardent fans.

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I don’t know how to summarize David Horowitz’s editorial about Israel’s fight for survival against Gaza, about the world’s bass ackwards response to the fight, or about the way the Palestinians’ very existence is defined (in their own minds) by Israel’s destruction. All I can say is READ IT!

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Joel Pollak thinks that Hamas might have overreached itself by attacking Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. A real-deal attack, as opposed to the border-land attacks that Israel has tolerated for years, forces Israel to respond with all of its might. In addition, surrounding Arab governments, shaken by rebellion within their own borders, are less sympathetic to Hamas than they once were. Indeed, a friend told me that an Israeli diplomat appearing on Fox said that, behind the scenes, these governments are urging Israel to strike hard. I don’t have a link for this, so I can’t vouch for its truth. Israel also knows America is gone (see more below), so it’s ignoring Obama. Read the whole thing. It’s good — and heartening.

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The BBC, of all outlets, has exposed the fact that many of the pictures circulating on the internet that purport to show victims of Israeli aggression are, in fact, pictures from Syria and Iraq. Considering the BBC’s long-standing hatred for Israel, as well as its frequently dishonest reporting to give more weight to its hatred, I’m truly at a loss to explain the BBC’s inexplicable lapse into actual investigative reporting.

I’m quite sure that the BBC isn’t motivated by shame, although it should be. Even as Hamas aims at women and children, Israel, when it retaliates, lessens its chances of effective strikes by forewarning the enemy so that non-combatants can seek shelter.

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You’ve all read about it already — the fact that the Obama administration official scolded Israel for treating Abbas badly, and praised Abbas for his exemplary behavior — even as Hamas’ bombs (joined by Abbas’s bombs) were raining down on his head.  If you haven’t, read it now.

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At the end of the day, it seems that Obama’s utterly incompetent administration (hey! if you’ve lost Andrea Mitchell…) still has a firm grasp on two skills: antisemitism and cognitive dissonance. Oh, and rank stupidity and dishonesty. Let’s not forget those skills. Oh, and of course an incredibly knack for siding, invariably, with the individual, party, or nation that has no morals or decency. Can’t forget that.  (And I remind myself of this, except that we’re not talking about what Romans have done, but about what Obama & Co. haven’t done.)

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Slowly, slowly, even journalists are catching on that there’s a problem. I mentioned Andrea Mitchell, above. In addition, journalists representing major journalist organizations have written a letter to the Obama administration complaining about its bureaucratic opacity.

Of course, whiny letters or not, the media’s going to be in trouble for a long time considering its profound ignorance.

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Victor Davis Hanson says that Obama’s chickens are coming home to roost. We all knew that, but Hanson summarizes it so comprehensively and gracefully.

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Ted McAllister posits that Obama is so bad it’s a good thing. Seeing the havoc he creates, the masses may still have the sense and power to rise up against his vast expansion of executive power. All I can say is from his lips to God’s ears.

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No, Nero didn’t fiddle while Rome burned, but Obama is definitely goofing off while our Southern border collapses, Iraq collapses, our one-time ally Israel is being bombed, the economy continues to swing between torpor and collapse, etc.

The problem isn’t just Obama. It’s Obama and the entire White House both of which seem to be suffering from some bizarre syndrome that sees them incapable of connecting any more to the world outside their elite bubble. Are they in denial? Are they so arrogant by now that they no longer care? Is this their way of trying to “calm” the masses? I don’t know, but there is something terribly, malignantly, very dangerously wrong in the White House.

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Some are saying that the border crisis is Obama’s “Katrina moment,” although I have no doubt that the media’s praetorian guard, even as they’re becoming a little worried, will nevertheless rally to protect him from that charge. Meanwhile, it turns out that the “Katrinia moment” label that the media hung on George Bush’s neck should more rightly have been hung on Mayor Ray Nagin’s neck.

You remember him, don’t you? He was the man who maligned Bush’s response to Katrina. It turns out that Nagin had his own response, which was to try to use the crisis to line his pockets. He’s finally going to jail, where he belongs.  Bush wasn’t the problem, Nagin was.  But Nagin was a black Dem and, for almost a decade, that got him a “get out of jail free” card.

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Glenn Reynolds has an op-ed in USA Today about bureaucratic parasitism. I posted it on the real-me Facebook. No one cared.

I have no idea why the professionals in my circle, none of whom are bureaucrats, and all of whom have periodically complained about being bedeviled by some horrific bureaucratic nightmare, are nevertheless entirely unmoved by the thought that the problem isn’t just the DMV or that clerk in their town’s building department, but is instead the whole notion of an increasingly powerful, entrenched, and unaccountable bureaucratic class. I just don’t get it.

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And while we’re on the topic of people in government with ethical problems, Lois Lerner’s attorney has suddenly announced that, well, yes, maybe, it could be possible that Lerner printed up some emails that are responsive to requests from both Congress and private lawsuits. At this point, we don’t know if the lawyer was lying from the beginning, or if Lerner was lying to her lawyer too. My bet’s on the latter.

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In the six months since Colorado legalized marijuana, says a boastful Chris Miles, two things happened: Crime has fallen and money is rolling in. No one questions the second thing, although it’s probable that the excitement in this area of the economy will level out.

What’s more interesting is the first contention: a drop in crime. As the friend who sent me the link said, you could declare rape legal, and watch a massive drop in crime statistics, but it wouldn’t mean the world is safer for women. Instead, it would just mean you’ve given up fighting against something once thought criminal.

Miles, however, also says violent crimes and property crimes have dropped. If that’s true, it’s great. I do wonder, though, whether fatal DUIs have increased.

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One of the things the Left loves is false analogies and comparisons. Charles C.W. Cooke takes on a poster going around, in which the Left compares a mass murderer to a woman spoofing Obama’s “bitter clingers” statement.

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Once again, Senator Jeff Sessions has an incredibly lucid, pungent, entirely appropriate attack on Obama’s border shenanigans. The last sentence is a keeper (and it addresses that Leftist meme that Republicans are un-Christian for not wanting their borders to collapse): “When did we forget that a nation owes its first allegiance to her own citizens?”

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If you’ve ever wondered what the vast left-wing billionaire and millionaire conspiracy looks like, Power Line has the documents.

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And a few pictures:

Elizabeth-Warren-on-Harley
Caption suggestions for this striking image of Elizabeth Warren looking tough on a parked Harley are welcome

What would you do

Middle Eastern double standard