Klavan video

In case you haven’t seen it:

Video: Santorum family vacation

I can relate:

Video: Rep. Joe Walsh vs. Chris Matthews

Why does anyone go on Hardball?

Matthews is absolutely unbearable.

Girl stuff

I found these ravishing retro-style aprons linked at this fun blog. Aren’t they gorgeous? Here’s one of many:

I could never cook in one — it might get it dirty, and it’s a thousand times nicer than anything I’d have on underneath. Love those pearls.

I’m in love with this octagonal house:

 Photo by Mike DiCicco

Two stories about it, here and here. The print edition of the Post had a large photo but failed to put any good ones online. Dummies. I’m happy with my own house, but this is pretty nice:

Outside, a covered porch encircles the house. “I designed that so my grandchildren could ride their tricycles in the rain,” Cooper said.

And that thing on top just under the cupola, called a “belvedere,” (who knew?) is an atrium that fills the whole house with sunlight. How would my garage sale chairs look in there?

Only $15!

Now, who’d like to see my giant coleus?

I bought it at Lowe’s when it was just a baby. The tag said “Kong” as in Kong, King of Koleus. I’m going to root some cuttings before the first frost.

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Video: Actions Speak Louder Than Words, Mr. President

Michele Bachmann puts on her dancing shoes

I love it —

Hat tips to John Hawkins and Jim Hoft.

I suppose the liberal media will fact-check her style and tell us she’s doing it all wrong. (See Jim Geraghty: Bachmann Clears Throat; Critics Charge Historically Inaccurate Phlegm Displacement)

Cross-posted at P&P.

Blago found guilty on most counts

Bleepin’ Blago’s luck runs out:

This time the verdict was unequivocal, with the jury of 11 women and one man finding Blagojevich guilty on 17 criminal counts he faced, including charges of wire fraud, attempted extortion, bribery and conspiracy. The marquee charge in the case involved an attempt by Blagojevich in late 2008 to cash in on his power to name a replacement in theU.S. Senate for newly elected President Barack Obama.

The jury acquitted Blagojevich on one count and deadlocked on two others.

At the prosecution’s request, the judge imposed a travel restriction on Blagojevich, instructing him to not to leave the northern district of Illinois.

Blagojevich, the fourth former Illinois governor convicted of felonies since 1973, likely faces a significant prison sentence.

And those are just the ones that were tried and convicted.

But Blago, as revealed in the Feds’ audio tapes, had a lot more flare than your typical corrupt Illinois governor:

“Only 13 percent of you all out there think I’m doing a good job. So [expletive] all of you,” the salty-tongued Blagojevich (D), referring to poll numbers, said in a secretly taped conversation played at his federal corruption trial.

By the time Democrat Barack Obama had won the White House in 2008, the two-term governor was deeply in debt and obsessed with finding a new job that paid well. He spent as few as two hours a week in the office, sometimes hiding in the restroom to avoid his budget director.

And Illinois voters elected him to run their state twice. Very bleeping discouraging.

Cross-posted at P&P.

She’s come a long way, baby

Jim Geraghty on the new Sarah Palin film:

Before the screening, Bannon mentioned that I and other political reporters were about to watch the “X-rated version,” as opposed to a “XXX-rated version” that he envisions being released on DVD someday. Within the first four minutes, the reason for that cryptic remark was clear, and the X rating is well deserved: The worst sneers, insults, and furious denunciations from Palin’s enemies are presented in their original language, sans any bleeps. (A version in theaters is likely to bleep out the worst ones.) The F word and the C word make multiple appearances. What’s remarkable is that the acidic comments from comedians such as David Letterman, Joan Rivers, Rosie O’Donnell, and Tracey Morgan aren’t really jokes. There’s no punch line per se; calling Palin “slutty” or a “whore,” or offering some other (usually sexual) insult, apparently is supposed to be the punch line.

Their hatred for Palin is palpable. Again you might ask, as Matt Archbold did recently in another context, where are the feminists? If they had any principles, or courage, they’d be defending her against misogynistic attacks and embracing her as a role model.

 

 

Put a cigarette in her hand and you’d have a ready-made Virginia Slims ad.

(Taken from this post.)

Steyn’s 2012 picks, et cetera

Cross-posted at the WP version of P&P

I had a busy day yesterday and didn’t even notice that Blogger was down and my morning post had vanished. (Re-cap of that: Chinese commies bad, Obama bad, Mark Steyn great, cheating and plagiarism bad, etc. I guess you didn’t miss much.)

A few items as I play catch-up:

Mark Steyn talked with Hugh Hewitt last night, and I’m very pleased to hear that Mark admires Dick Van Dyke and his excellent performances in Bye Bye Birdie and Mary Poppins, two of my all-time favorite movies. How about some Ann-Margret fabulousness:

Wrenching our attention back to politics, Steyn tells Hewitt he’s “happy for us to be the moat with alligators party.” Lauri B. Regan at American Thinker agrees:

Well Mr. President, I am proud to say that I do want alligators in a moat that protects our country. And I hope to God that you have one or more decision-makers in your administration that understand that it will take a lot more than killing Osama bin Laden and occasional drone strikes in Afghanistan to protect the citizens who hired you for that job. For while you traverse the country spiking the football and fundraising for the 2012 election, there are way too many terrorists who want to see each and every U.S. citizen dead and who are not taking time out of their planning stages to play golf; party with hateful, racist rappers; and hobnob with the rich and famous at $35,000 a plate dinners.

Yeah. I hear you.

More Steyn: He assesses the 2012 GOP field with Sean Hannity — video here. Excerpts:

Tim Pawlenty:

I’ve got a soft spot for Tim Pawlenty. I think the last time I saw him was when he and I were on your show together a couple of weeks ago and I think this is a guy who is more likely to wind up with the nomination. He hasn’t got an albatross like Obamacare and he hasn’t got the personal baggage that Newt Gingrich has. He’s got a good record that is flawed. But everybody is flawed. But I think he’s closer to someone who is at ease with himself, is authentic and conservative enough. And, I think someone like Tim Pawlenty could be the last guy standing.

Michele Bachmann:

I do like Michele Bachmann. And I think her instincts are good. Whether you can go from a short congressional career to the presidency, I don’t know. But Michele Bachmann is a terrific campaigner and just adorable to watch in that sense.

The field overall:

I don’t — all I ask is I don’t want a candidate we have to drag across the finishing line. I want one we can get behind and cheer all the way.

No, I’m happy to go with the Pawlenty-Bachmann ticket if it comes to that, Sean.

Adorable! I love it. Read the rest. He has something to say about Gingrich, Trump, Palin, Huckabee, Paul, Daniels, and Romney.

Rush and Trump

Something I don’t understand:

I haven’t been able to figure out why we’re supposed to accept Trump as a conservative just because he says he is. Or why in the world anyone would want to replace one unqualified narcissist for another. Or why Rush Limbaugh keeps giving him airtime. It would be nice to have a capitalist in the Oval Office again, but surely we can do better than a blow-hard who lives for the spotlight.

Does anyone understand why Rush, who rarely has guests on his show, is featuring Trump so prominently? He’s appeared on Rush’s show on two occasions that I know of. (At least Mark Levin is not buying what Trump is selling.)

“Our kids need to live life beside us”

While we’re on the subject of taking responsibility for raising our children (see below), don’t miss Kathryn Jean Lopez’s interview with Dr. Meg Meeker, author of The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers. I posted on it here.

A bit of the interview:

Lopez: Another impossible one seems to be your mandate to live simply. School. Lessons. Homework. Birthday parties. Never mind the unavoidable and routine and mundane errands. Who has time to live simply?

Meeker: Those mothers who have no time to look at how to simplify their lives are in the greatest need of doing so. The best thing that we can give our kids is time with us. They need card games with us more than they do more ballet lessons. Teen boys need to wash their cars with their fathers more than they need another video game or football practice. Our kids need to live life beside us and they are drifting further away because of the glut of electronics in their lives. They need face-to-face time with us, not more texts. They need more touch from us and they need to be in the same room with us as we work out our disagreements so they can learn to solve problems.

It’s a little long but worth the read.

Obama’s March madness

 

“Infected” by Christian values?

At the Corner, Paul Diamond, counsel in the case of UK parents deemed unfit to foster children by virtue of their mainstream Christian beliefs (my post here) provides the rest of the story.

Are Children ‘Infected’ by Judeo-Christian Values?

The state-sponsored Equality and Human Rights Commission intervened and argued that it was the duty of the state to protect vulnerable children from becoming “infected” with Judeo-Christian values of sexual morality.

The rest is history, and in a startling judgment, the High Court held last Monday that the United Kingdom is a secular state and that Christianity as part of the law is “mere rhetoric.” For Americans to note, the United Kingdom is formally a Christian state with the Queen as the head of the Church of England.

The court made a series of statements to the effect that rights of sexual orientation trump religious freedom, that a local authority can require positive attitudes to be demonstrated towards homosexuality, that the Johns’ traditional Christian views could conflict with the “duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of looked after children,” and finally that Article 9 (Europe’s pale reflection of the First Amendment) does not protect beliefs contrary to the interests of the child.

Mr. Diamond discusses the speed with which the UK has reached this point and hopes the US will learn from his country’s experience. Read the whole thing.

PP’s selective self-promotion

K-Lo:

Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the United States.

So when it pulled together a “Truth Tour” to shadow the Susan B. Anthony List’s expose-and-defund tour this week, Planned Parenthood made sure their bus didn’t include that little factoid.

What, no 332,278 abortions in a year?

That would be bad PR. Read the rest.

Video: Best union spokesman yet

Listen and learn, ye ignorant masses:

Well, I’m convinced.

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit

Video: Obama is asked about Planned Parenthood scandal

Jill Stanek:

The 1st bit of news to glean from Obama’s response is he was fully aware of the scandal.

Obama tried to minimize the sex trafficking sting as “manufactured” and only getting attention on the “blogosphere,” both claims of which are patently false. His own Dept. of Justice is now involved, after all, and the videos were repeatedly cited in GOP House testimony last week about an amendment to defund PP – which passed.

But Obama did nothing to reassure PP beyond that. In fact, he only distanced himself from the sex trafficking sanctuary.

Obama 1st noted that any “specific problem… should be addressed.” Slap.

But his most intriguing statement was, “I think that Planned Parenthood in the past has done good work.”

Past tense.

Kathryn Jean Lopez:

Asked about Planned Parenthood and Live Action in a Richmond, Va., news interview, Barack Obama inadvertently makes the case for defunding Planned Parenthood.

BFFs no more?

Krauthammer: An epic moment; Obama is a man of the past

Making GOP cool by ignoring social issues

It seems to me we’ve heard this song before.  Simon: At CPAC, abortion issue is passe

Yes, I’m grumpy this morning.

Maybe this will help:

Politico spins Santorum

Politico‘s Andy Barr tries to stir up some drama on the right, accusing Rick Santorum of attacking Sarah Palin in the interview below. Santorum responded with an unambiguous, and accurate,  “This article is garbage.”  But Barr stands by his distorted reading, hoping, I guess, that no one will actually watch the video:

Cross-posted at P&P.

 

Buffalo beheader convicted in one hour

Via Mark Steyn:

Muzzammil “Mo” Hassan chopped off his wife’s head, and then claimed it was because she’d been spousally abusing him. This was not in Yemen or Waziristan but in Buffalo. Despite the chutzpah (if he’ll forgive the expression) of his defense, yesterday the jury took less than an hour to find him guilty of murder.

The Hassan case was fascinating not just because his entire public identity was a fraud but because the media so enthusiastically promoted that fraud. Two years ago, in Headless Body In Gutless Press, I wrote:

You must click to read the rest.

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Weasel Zippers: Moderate NY Muslim Convicted of Beheading Wife…

Cross-posted.