THE QUESTION IS, HOW OSTRACIZED WILL THE LIBERAL BE FOR DATING A CONSERVATIVE? The Challenges of Dating While Conservative.
Archive for 2017
March 25, 2017
FISH GETS BICYCLE; NEEDS TRAINING WHEELS: Anne Hathaway Achieves Enlightenment—Sort of.
FOR THE TIMES THEY ARE ACHANGING: Song parody dubbed ‘the anthem of the right’ catches fire thanks, in part, to New Media.
IT AIN’T THE BODY: The surprising male body type women lust after most.
CONSIDERING BOYS ARE FOUR TO FIVE TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM: Why is ‘Sesame Street’s’ New Muppet with Autism a Girl?
PORN MOVIES MOST AFFECTED:Soon, your pizza delivery guy could be a robot.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE OF SELF-DECLARED IDENTITY: The story of Rachel Dolezal gets even more bizarre.
March 24, 2017
MICHAEL WALSH: Paul Ryan Takes The Barzini Meeting. “In a proper parliamentary democracy, of course, Ryan would have already stepped down. The speaker has one primary job, which is to shepherd legislation through the House. And while there’s renewed talk about a revolt against his ‘leadership,’ there’s no one on the horizon as a plausible replacement at the moment. Still, Ryan’s now roadkill, and it’s just a matter of time before even he realizes it.”
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ANDREW MALCOLM: What’s really hidden deep within all this intel squabbling.
Here’s what really matters: During the waning days of the Obama administration U.S. intelligence was indeed monitoring the conversations of foreign persons of interest after the Nov. 8 election and before the Jan. 20 inauguration. That’s normal and actually encouraging given how many key things those agencies have missed in recent years.
In those eaves-droppings they overheard Trump aides being mentioned or talking to agencies’ foreign targets. That’s called “incidental contact” in the intel world. That means they weren’t supposed to be targeting the American, but he or she came up. That’s unavoidable in intelligence-gathering if you’re doing a thorough job.
To avoid “unmasking” those innocent bystanders, transcripts of those overheard conversations refer to the foreign target by name and identify the other person simply as American No. 1 or American No. 2. A very small number of very senior intelligence officials will know the actual identity of the American, people like, oh, then-CIA director John Brennan or Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser.
Remember Trump’s first national security adviser, retired Gen. Michael Flynn? He was picked up talking with the Russian ambassador as part of his transition work. Subsequently, he was fired, not for the conversation but for misrepresenting that conversation to Trump teammates, including Vice President Pence. Trump accurately saw that as fatally corroding the trust he needs in such a close aide.
But here’s the deal: We should never have known it was Flynn.
Yes, as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency Flynn was very unpopular among Obama administration members and indeed was frozen out of contact with the commander-in-chief because he favored a much stronger response to ISIS, among other things. Talk about a president dodging opposing views.
Like Flynn or not, it is illegal — as in against the law — for anyone to reveal the name of an incidentally-overheard American. Someone in a small circle of Obama intelligence officials who knew the identity of that American No. 1 committed a felony by leaking Flynn’s name to media.
Safe to say the leak, like numerous others since Hillary Clinton was not inaugurated as president, was not intended to facilitate the smooth presidential transition that Obama so often publicly promised.
Prosecute the leaker.
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MAYBE GOV. BILL HASLAM NEEDS TO INTERVENE: Tennessee bills teen to replace guardrail that killed her.
The state of Tennessee has billed a dead teen nearly $3,000 to replace the guardrail that killed her in a car crash in November.
Her flabbergasted father said that he not only would not pay but also contends that the model of guardrail that struck his daughter was poorly designed and dangerous.
Around 5:44 a.m. ET Nov. 1, Hannah Eimers, 17, was driving her father’s 2000 Volvo S80 on Interstate 75 northbound near Niota, Tenn., when the car left the road, traveled into the median and hit the end of a guardrail with the driver’s side door, according to a Tennessee Highway Patrol crash report.
Instead of deflecting the car or buckling to absorb the impact, the guardrail end impaled the vehicle, striking the teen in the head and chest and pushing her into the back seat, according to the report. She died instantly.
Four months later, Steven Eimers of Lenoir City received a $2,970 bill from the Tennessee Department of Transportation, dated Feb. 24 and addressed to Hannah for the cost of labor and materials to install 25 feet of guardrail at the scene of the crash.
“I’m shocked, the audacity,” he said. “What bothers me is that they’re playing Russian roulette with people’s lives. They know these devices do not perform at high speeds and in situations like my daughter’s accident, but they leave them in place.”
The guardrail end Hannah hit was a Lindsay X-LITE, a model that the state transportation department had removed from its approved products list just one week earlier.
Sadly, Steve Eimers is a longtime InstaPundit reader. He emails:
I am pushing to get the Lindsay X-Lite off Tennessee roads. Will you please share this story?
But if you do please include this post about Hannah. I am tired of only talking about the way she died! How she lived is far more impressive. Graduated Home School at 15. Self taught ASL, German, and Russian. Self taught piano, guitar, Ukulele, psaltry, and numerous primitive instruments. Wrote six novels, accomplished photographer, and videographer. Worked on the set of Dog Years with Adam Rifkin and Burt Reynolds. Most importantly was how she was an advocate for the orphan. I want this to be what Hannah is known for.
Here’s his Facebook post.
METHAMPHETAMINES AND COAL MINES: Forgive the bitter visual pun, but both sources of revenue contribute to the endless combat in Myanmar (aka Burma).
Drug war in Burma– yes. They’re also fighting over control of coal mines.
It’s an old story but new blood continues to spill:
In Shan state, for example, the army and tribes are fighting over lucrative coal mining operations. In Kachin state the army violence is connected with the illegal gold mining and the tribal fear that the army cannot be trusted to observe the terms of any peace deal. Along the west coast (Arakan and Chin states) it’s about the army effort to control (tax) illegal logging by tribesmen. The tribes have been mistreated by the military for so long it is difficult to generate a lot of trust for a new peace agreement.
THE 21st CENTURY ISN’T WORKING OUT THE WAY I HAD BEEN PROMISED: Transgender ‘Girl’ Saddened and Shocked That Straight Boys Aren’t Interested in Her. “In a lot of ways, I don’t like telling a guy. Once I tell him all respect goes out of the window. Straight guys just can’t get over you having the male parts.”
Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find the other half of that folie à deux eventually.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): If you still have a penis, you’re not a woman. You’re just another man who hasn’t made a commitment.
A DOUBLE WAKE-UP: Are bikini clad baristas the next Hooters waitresses? I like the folks in my local coffee shop, but there aren’t many of them I’d like to see with fewer clothes.
Video here. Because it’s Blog Sweeps Week!
TITANIC-SIZED UNDERSTATEMENT ALERT: The Conservatives Made a Mistake, Andrew Klavan writes.
That Hindenburg in flames photo atop the Drudge Report right now isn’t because Matt really digs Led Zeppelin I.
NORTH KOREA PREPARING FOR NEW NUCLEAR TEST: That’s the way it looks.
Art of the Deal Meets Art of War in North Korea fills in the dangerous historical details (a bump for my latest Observer column).
A “REVENGE BODY?” I’ve never really seen the point of that, but whatever. It’s Blog Sweeps Week!
FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY: Florida retirement home employee accused of filming residents having sex, sharing it online. “Alexis Williams was an employee at Bristol Court Assisted Living Facility in St. Petersburg when she recorded a 81-year-old woman and a 59-year-old man making love last August, according to police.”
PAUL RYAN: “This is a disappointing day for us.”
A CAR THAT CAN do a burnout at 160 mph.