PATHETIC POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AT APPLE: App Store Rejects WWII Game Because Japanese Navy Flies Japanese Flags.

RESEARCH: Affirmative Action Not So Helpful? “Several studies presented Friday at the Brookings Institution suggested that eliminating the consideration of race would not have as dramatic an effect on minority students as some believe, and that the beneficiaries of affirmative action may in fact achieve less academic success than they would otherwise.”

JOHN HINDERAKER ON the State Department Meltdown.

ARE DIVORCED FATHERS JUST ATM MACHINES? Yeah, pretty much.

NEW VERB:  TO BE “CHICK-FIL-Aed”:  William McGurn astutely observes that the continuing saga of Chick-Fil-A’s skirmish with gay rights’ forces isn’t a political fight about a controversial topic, but instead part of a larger progressive agenda to silence all opposing views.   There’s one small problem that I see with the attempt to vilify CFA:  their sandwiches–oh, the essence of pickle!– are divine.

TRY TO REMEMBER the kind of September, when life was slow and oh, so mellow.

Let my people go.

SCIENCE MARCHES ON: Chinese sperm donors get a helping hand from machine. Wasn’t there an episode of Big Bang Theory along these lines?

WE’RE HARVESTING CHILI PEPPERS, which means I photograph them, which means I blog the photographs, which means there’s a good chance my dear commenter Chip Ahoy will do something animating:

And if you think that’s cute, you should see how he shows you how to cook at Things Wot I Made Then Ate.

THE 10 PERCENT PRESIDENT:   This is shaping up to be an election of percentages:  99% (Occupy Wall Street); 47% (Mitt Romney), and now, in a brilliant editorial by the WSJ, 10% (Barack Obama).  In an upcoming 60 Minutes interview of the President by Steve Croft, who pointed out that the national debt has soared 60% under Obama’s watch, received this response from Mr. Obama:

 “Well, first of all, Steve, I think it’s important to understand the context here,” Mr. Obama replied. Fair enough, so here’s his context in full, with our own annotation and translation below:

“When I came into office, I inherited the biggest deficit in our history. And over the last four years, the deficit has gone up, but 90% of that is as a consequence of two wars that weren’t paid for, as a consequence of tax cuts that weren’t paid for, a prescription drug plan that was not paid for, and then the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

“Now we took some emergency actions, but that accounts for about 10% of this increase in the deficit, and we have actually seen the federal government grow at a slower pace than at any time since Dwight Eisenhower, in fact, substantially lower than the federal government grew under either Ronald Reagan or George Bush.“

In a series of 7 “footnotes,” the WSJ editors then rip apart Obama’s response line by line.  A classic, must read.

CBS NEWS: For Obama, diplomacy gets back seat to campaign. “Simply put, the White House is prioritizing the president’s reelection effort. . . . despite a worsening civil war in Syria, rising tensions between Israel and Iran, and the recent attack in Libya.” It always does. It always has.

WILL OBAMA FREE THE BLIND SHEIK?  Former AG Michael Mukasey notes that the Obama Administration’s responses to press inquiries– yes, actually press inquiries by the MSM! [insert happy dance here]– are equivocal at best:

The State Department’s spokesperson last week, after the ceremonial “let me be clear,” said that there had been no approach on this topic “recently” from any “senior” official of the Egyptian government—an elucidation laden with ambiguity and certain to send chills up the spine of anyone familiar with Abdel Rahman’s record and President Morsi’s inclinations.

All of this plays out in the context of an Obama administration that hasn’t hesitated to employ executive orders to get around Congress, led by a president who was caught on a “hot mike” assuring Russia’s leaders that if he wins re-election he will have more “flexibility” to accommodate Russian demands that the U.S. curtail missile defense in Europe.

It appears that the only course open now is for Congress to demand an unequivocal statement from the State Department and the White House that the U.S. will not transfer or release Abdel Rahman under any circumstances. Absent such assurance, it may be time for Congress to make clear that such a transfer or release could be considered the kind of gross betrayal of public trust that would justify removal from high office.

And of course the real reason for the murder of the US ambassador to Libya and assaults on US installations worldwide isn’t some lame Muhammed video, but raw anti-Americanism and a concerted effort to free the Sheik.

DON’T GET DISTRACTED BY FACT THAT A STATE DEPT. SPOKESMAN SAID “F*ck Off” and “Have a good life” to that BuzzFeed reporter. Focus on the questions that flummoxed him:

Why didn’t the State Department search the consulate and find AMB Steven’s diary first? What other potential valuable intelligence was left behind that could have been picked up by apparently anyone searching the grounds? Was any classified or top secret material also left? Do you still feel that there was adequate security at the compound, considering it was not only overrun but sensitive personal effects and possibly other intelligence remained out for anyone passing through to pick up? Your statement on CNN sounded pretty defensive–do you think it’s the media’s responsibility to help secure State Department assets overseas after they’ve been attacked?

Those are great questions, and the State Department will not answer them. Without answers, they feel like questions that answer themselves. (And if you want to talk about this, here‘s the conversation at my home base.)

The Right’s Twenty Rules Of Racism.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Get ready for Syrian Kurdistan.

Wasted food, hungry kids, aka the wonders of central planning.

THE TERROR OF EXTRADITION, OR THE EXTRADITION OF TERRORISTS:  The BBC is reporting that the European Court of Human Rights has greenlighted extradition from the UK to the US of wanted terrorists Abu Hamza and Babar Ahmad.  Both had argued that they should not be extradited because the US would torture them.

WOULD YOU CARE IF IT WERE A BOY BEING PADDLED? IF NOT, YOU’RE A SEXIST. 15-Year-Old Texas Girl Spanked By Vice Principal For Cheating.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Sleeping Longer On Weekends Doesn’t Erase Sleep Debt.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: A “Coordinated Campaign” to suppress box office for 2016: Obama’s America? Well, it wouldn’t surprise me, given their record.

AT AMAZON, up to 40% off on Bowflex Home Gyms. But only for a couple of days more.

GOOD NEWS FOR OBAMA: Crowd for speech in Wisconsin “largest yet of Obama’s reelection campaign,” according to AP.

Bad news? It’s a fake, according to Joel Pollack of Big Journalism:

Tom Blumer of NewsBusters caught the AP in the lie, building on an article at Breitbart News that showed that both Politico and the Wall Street Journal had reported turnout for Obama at the Sep. 21 event as 18,000–at an arena that only held 5,000 people.

Though the arena was nearly full–and local media reported that more were outside the arena–there is no evidence whatsoever that the 13,000 people needed to make up the difference actually showed up. No images of that crowd have yet been produced.

“So where did the official-sounding number come from? The Obama campaign, according to Politico,” Pollack adds.

Why it’s as-if the media were simply unpaid stenographers, and self-admitted non-official campaign staffers for the president’s reelection bid or something.

IN TODAY’S USA TODAY COLUMN, I interview Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.