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What would have happened if the Congresswoman with whom Jared Loughner apparently had been more or less obsessed since 2007 had been a Republican? Would Republicans have blamed the Tucson murders on Democrats’ “eliminationist rhetoric”? They would have had a relatively good case; to take just one of many examples, they could have pointed to Democratic Congressman Paul Kanjorski, who said that the Republican candidate for Governor of Florida should be put against a wall and shot. I am not aware of a single instance where any Republican politician has said anything so inflammatory. But no: frankly, it would not have occurred to conservatives to try to make a connection between Democrats, no matter how disreputable they may be, and the act of a deranged lunatic in Arizona.

How about the Democrats? Would they have responded to the murder of a Republican Congresswoman by calling on Democrats to tone down their rhetoric and get off the radio or television? Just kidding, obviously.

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Those pesky Italian kids. I swear.

Christopher Hitchens is always worth reading.

Now look at the grinning face of Mumtaz Qadri, the man who last week destroyed a great human being. He did not explain. He boasted. As “a slave of the Prophet,” he had the natural right to murder Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, not even for committing “blasphemy” but for criticizing a law that forbade it for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. And this sweeping new extension of the divine right to murder not only was not condemned by the country’s spiritual authorities; it was largely approved by them. No argument, no arraignment, no appeal—permission to kill anybody can merely be assumed by anybody, provided only that they mouth the correct incantations.

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Four men and three boys have been charged with raping a woman at Bendigo in central Victoria.

Mohammad Zaoli, 21, Aru Gar, 19, and Mohammad El Nour and Akoak Manon, both 18 years old, are each facing 17 offences including counts of rape and assault.

Three boys aged from 14 to 17 have been charged with the same offences.

That’s a lot of Mohammeds.

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The recitation of the shahada in front of witnesses is necessary and sufficient to announce conversion to Islam. Once you have declared it, you are a Muslim for life. Under sharia, there is no way to reverse the shahada. Those who attempt to are considered apostates, and must be killed.

Just in case you were wondering.

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We have the technology.

George Will demonstrates what a PhD in Political Science is good for.

A characteristic of many contemporary minds is susceptibility to the superstition that all behavior can be traced to some diagnosable frame of mind that is a product of promptings from the social environment. From which flows a political doctrine: Given clever social engineering, society and people can be perfected. This supposedly is the path to progress. It actually is the crux of progressivism. And it is why there is a reflex to blame conservatives first.

On Sunday, the Times explained Tucson: “It is facile and mistaken to attribute this particular madman’s act directly to Republicans or Tea Party members. But . . .” The “directly” is priceless.

This McCarthyism of the left – devoid of intellectual content, unsupported by data – is a mental tic, not an idea but a tactic for avoiding engagement with ideas. It expresses limitless contempt for the American people, who have reciprocated by reducing liberalism to its current characteristics of electoral weakness and bad sociology.

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I have a question: Why does every do-gooder group on the planet feel entitled to ‘require’ students to do this, that, and the other? Certainly everybody (not just students) ought to be familiar with CPR, but is forcing them to learn it really going to get the job done? Quite frankly, my reaction to being forced to ‘learn’ something is to ignore in during class and forget it as soon as I’m free; and I can’t believe I’m the only person who reacts that way. If anyone is looking for the roots of the totalitarian impulse, here it is red in tooth and claw. The road to Hell may or may not be paved with good intentions, but the road to the Third Reich certainly is.

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College has changed since I went there.

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A lot of that discussion focused on folks going into early retirement or giving up the search for jobs, but there’s another factor, which is the disappearance of teens in the workforce.

If teen Labor Force participation held the level of 41.4% from December 2007, there would be 2.6 million unemployed teens. Teens represent just over 3% of employed persons, a record low (the 1973 peak was 8.7%).

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And you think you’ve got problems.

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What he said….

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An Italian man who was struck in the head by a stray bullet during New Year’s Eve celebrations is recovering after sneezing the projectile out of his nose.

Next time you get the urge to sneeze, let ‘er rip.

Freeberg nails it.

We confuse a sense of true accomplishment with a feeling of self worth, and make the mistake of thinking the little brats can have the latter without going through the trouble of earning the former.

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When John F. Kennedy was assassinated, one of the first thoughts of many was that it was an ultra-right winger who did. Turned out to be a Karl Marx fan.

When Congresswoman Giffords was shot, immediately the media wanted to discuss heated rhetoric and the tea parties. Turned out the shooter is a Karl Marx fan.

Prior to Ronald Reagan’s attempted assassination, many lefties were very vocal that they hoped he’d be assassinated or die because of his age because he’d otherwise start a nuclear war with the Soviets.

When Hinckley attempted to assassinate Reagan, there was no discussion the media about left-wing rhetoric or attempts to blame the left.

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With its cone-shaped crenellations and palm wood drainage spouts, the grand facade seems outside time and helps illustrate why this ancient city in eastern Mali is an official World Heritage site.

But the guidelines established by Unesco, the cultural arm of the United Nations, which compiles the heritage list, demand that any reconstruction not substantially alter the original.

“When a town is put on the heritage list, it means nothing should change,” Mr. Maiga said. “But we want development, more space, new appliances — things that are much more modern. We are angry about all that.”

Too bad, guy. The Crust wants to freeze you in plastic. And these are the ‘progressives’; you can imagine what ‘reactionaries’ would do….

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And if you believe that one, they’ll tell you another one.

I heard on the news a minute ago an infobabe say that the President was going to ‘ask all Americans to pause this morning for a moment of silence to honor the victims of the Arizona tragedy.’

That struck me as odd. ‘Honor’ the victims? Remember, certainly. Sympathize with, of course. Pray for, absolutely; and their families, which I doubt that the President will remember to do. But … honor? What did they do that was worthy of honor, other than be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time?

And that, I think, shines a light on the great divide between ‘progressives’ (like the President) and normal people. To the left, being a Victim is ‘honorable’, an accomplishment that deserves praise and recognition. By contrast, most rational people would say that being a victim is an unfortunate circumstance but hardly something to be celebrated. But ‘progressives’ just love victims, because victims are the leverage that ‘progressives’ use (indeed, need) in order to accomplish what they want to accomplish. No victims? No need for ‘progressives’. It’s a basic power equation.

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New York’s a hard town. Let that be a lesson to us all.

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The first and most serious is the sickness living in Loughner’s head.  Evidence in the form of farewell videos, internet postings, and the recollections of people who knew him reveal a profoundly disturbed person who had veered far into a paranoid world.  Loughner’s complaints about government mind control and other rants were not “anti-government” in any political sense, but anti-government or anarchist in the Ted Kazynski-deranged sense.  We do not know Loughner’s motives, but those motives whatever they were were the byproduct of Loughner’s clearly delusional view of the world.

There also was a second sickness on display, and it was the swiftness and the vigor with which the left-wing blogosphere and some more mainstream Democrats immediately sought to blame Sarah Palin and right-wing “vitriol” in general for the shooting.

The usual suspects.

Not a shred of evidence connecting Loughner to Palin, the Tea Parties, or the right wing, yet the left-blogosphere, mainstream media and Democratic politicians have erupted into a frenzy of name-calling directed at Palin and those who oppose Obama’s agenda.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Arnold Kling ponders one of the more odious personality characteristics of ‘progressives’.

With The Attitude, progressives do not take on the actual ideas expressed by conservatives or libertarians. Instead, they sneer and engage in self-congratulation.

Do all progressives display The Attitude? No, but those who do tend to achieve more prominence than those who don’t. As a result, sometimes I fear that progressivism is going to degenerate into nothing but The Attitude. I think that when progressives are on the defensive, they are more likely to fall back on The Attitude. Right now, I think progressives should be thinking about where they stand with respect to large financial institutions, the long-term fiscal outlook, and the political power of public sector unions.

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Boy, I wonder whether that would work…?

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The highest court in Massachusetts ruled against U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo Friday in a pivotal mortgage foreclosure case that could spark more turmoil and uncertainty in a housing market already mired in depression.

The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a lower court judge’s ruling invalidating two mortgage foreclosure sales because the banks, in their capacity as trustees for mortgage securities, did not prove that they actually owned the mortgages at the time of foreclosure.

Last fall, the banking industry’s foreclosure machine came under intense scrutiny with revelations that low-level employees called “robo signers” powered through hundreds of foreclosure affidavits a day without verifying a single sentence. At the time, analysts warned that the banks’ allegedly fraudulent document procedures could imperil their ability to prove that they owned the mortgages. The Massachusetts ruling stokes those concerns.

In a separate statement U.S. Bancorp said the judgment has no financial impact on the company. “The issues addressed by the court revolved around the process of servicing the loan on behalf of the securitization trust, which was performed in this case by the servicer, American Home Mortgage,” the bank, which is based in Minneapolis, said.

It later issued another statement saying that as a trustee of the securitization trust that it has no responsibility for the terms of the underlying mortgage, foreclosure procedure, the conduct of the servicer, the process by which the mortgage is transferred to the trust, or the sufficiency of the mortgage documentation.”

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Just helping the Melting Pot along a little.

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I don’t think this is how Prince Namor got started.

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So assuming the BBC quoted McKeon correctly, immediately upon taking power, the allegedly anti-waste, anti-spending GOP handed the Armed Services Committee over to a congressman whose reaction upon hearing about a round of proposed defense cuts was . . . concern for the well-being of defense contractors.

Not a good sign.

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One topic that we’ve been asked about by several people is the issue of superpowered minors, whether acting as superheroes or supervillains.  There are many examples, such as the Teen Titans, young mutants like Kitty Pryde, and Spider-Man (in his younger days). This post, the first in a series, is about the minors themselves and their criminal liability.  Future posts will cover torts and contracts.  The legal issues involving their parents, guardians (like Bruce Wayne), and school teachers (like Professor X) will also be addressed in future installments.

Freeberg turns over a rock.

It’s an old rule. I think Ann Coulter once observed that if it was possible to take an anti-American position in Scrabble or Parcheesi, liberals would take that position and then scold you with genuine hatred if you notice it & point it out.

The “Joe Six-Pack” voter, the guy whose vote means so much because he doesn’t know a single thing about Washington politics and doesn’t care to learn, has now seen it up close for two or three days solid: The democrat party wants to govern without any restraint. They think the Constitution is an obstacle, and not an authoritative one, just a pain-in-the-ass one. It’s undeniable now.

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In a plutonomy there is no such animal as “the U.S. consumer” or “the UK consumer”, or indeed the “Russian consumer”. There are rich consumers, few in number, but disproportionate in the gigantic slice of income and consumption they take. There are the rest, the “non-rich”, the multitudinous many, but only accounting for surprisingly small bites of the national pie.

Africans call these folks the ‘waBenzi’, and have been dealing with them a long time.

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The New York Times’ “Mapping America” visualization is a good illustration of this strong heritage between cartography and data visualization. It consists of an interactive map of data extracted from the American Community Survey Census, based on samples from 2005 to 2009 and including indicators such as ethnic groups, income, housing, families and education.

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The Leicestershire Trekkie who turned his flat into a replica of the Starship Voyager spent two years battling an alien mould attack, unaware that it was caused by a dope farm in the property below.

The matter was resolved in November, when cops busted the downstairs flat. Alleyne explained: “The police came and knocked on the door of the place below and took away 25 cannabis plants and the equipment. I couldn’t believe there was something like that going on right below me.

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“What the Deepwater Horizon incident has taught us is that releases of methane with similar characteristics will not have the capacity to influence climate,” Kessler said.

The question of what happened to the more than four million barrels of crude oil spilled after the blow out, which also dissipated sooner than expected, remains under debate. Factors including high winds, natural breakdown, evaporation and the clean-up operation have all been suggested.

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There’s a little girl in Las Vegas who was hit by car. She’s 13-years-old and in a medically induced coma.

Allegedly, Takara Davis was jaywalking when she got hit. So a police officer showed up at the hospital and gave the ticket to her mother, Kellie Obong. Why did they hand the ticket to the mother? Because Takara was busy being rushed to the operating room as the doctors tried to stop the bleeding in her head…

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One of the coolest apps we’ve seen at CES 2011 this year has to be Aisle 411, an iPhone app which will help you find out which aisle the grocery item you are looking for is located in. The App is available for the iPhone and will be coming soon to Android and will also be available as a mobile web page.

There’s an app for that.

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Why, yes.

It’s certainly looking that way: the Democrat-run (Democrat-dominated) state legislature has just passed a bill to tax online purchases (via Points and Figures, via Instapundit): the bill is just waiting for Governor Pat Quinn’s (D) signature, which is almost certainly inevitable.  In fact, the state of Illinois is going to raise taxes across the board – because that’s what Democrats do.  Business is good; raise taxes.  Business is bad; raise taxes.  Business is in a surreal zone where it’s actually a peanut butter sandwich; raise taxes on jelly and mandate jelly’s inclusion in all corporate endeavors.

And, just as inevitable as the sunrise, comes the first report that Amazon.com will end their Illinois Amazon Affiliate program in response.  That first link is generally grim reading for Illinois residents: not only does it indicate that the big online retailers are apparently still perfectly willing to drop their affiliate programs in large states, but the smaller online retailers that depend on companies like Overstock and Amazon for their business are well aware that they can do their business in, say, Ohio.  Translation: Illinois Democrats are about to damage their business tax base in the course of (unsuccessfully) trying to raise its business tax revenue.

“Business” as usual, in other words.

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I got your Affordable Housing, right here.

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Back of the bus, kid. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

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We might say that the philosopher and the mother have the same task: to find order in the world, one through reason and the other through beauty. Nor are we allowed to privilege one approach over the other, since both are necessary. But the philosopher has this advantage: since he deals in abstract thought, his errors may lie hidden for centuries; the mother deals in the real world, and her errors become apparent all too quickly. The mistakes of the philosopher get a mild critique; the mistakes of the mother get therapy. The mother may nag because the world nags back at her.

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Four days after President Obama signed into law the Zadroga bill providing no-cost health care to people who were near ground zero on September 11, 2001, or afterward, a law firm is already advertising for clients. The Web site sept11-zadroga-act.com, maintained by the law firm Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, advises visitors: “The assistance of a lawyer is not required, but it is recommended.” I got to the site via a paid Google text ad.

Federal Election Commission records show that a lawyer at the firm, James P. Kreindler, contributed a total of $4,800 in September of 2010 to the campaign of the senator who championed the September 11 health bill, Kirsten Gillibrand. In the same month, Mr. Kreindler gave $2,400 to the campaign of Senator Harry Reid.

This is one of the reasons I don’t practice law. You have to spend too much of your time washing your hands.

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The problem with government planners is that a lot of what they ‘know’ ain’t so.

The flaw is this: Most of the benefits don’t accrue to those who bear the costs. So the creation of a park causes a rise in the value of the land around it? So what? If I don’t own some of that land, all I get out of it, except for an occasional visit to the park if it’s close to me, is a higher tax bill.

This is the same logic behind public schools: Proponents say that public education leads to an informed citizenry and Better Lives for All. Oh, really? I don’t have kids; why am I obliged to pay for educating someone else’s? My parents were taxed to support public education, but, desiring a decent education for their children (which local public schools, even then, did not provide), sent them to parochial schools, thus paying twice for the same thing.

And what ‘general benefit’ accrues from having the half of the population that are below average in intelligence — and remember, by definition half of the population is below average in intelligence — educated beyond basic literacy and numeracy? Anything that a 90-IQ person is going to be able to do won’t require more than an 8th-grade education (although, granted, graduating from 8th grade these days doesn’t even guarantee that). Putting them through high school, much less college, is just pissing away the taxpayers’ money.

As the cited article illustrates, the people who mostly benefit from public schemes are the ‘bootleggers’ (those who benefit directly — like teachers) and ‘Baptists’ (those who get to feel good about themselves — typically ‘progressives’ and other self-righteous do-gooders). A pox on both of them, I say.

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Maybe they know something we don’t.

Hey, if it works….

Power Line fisks the premier Voice of the Crust.

We have “little in common with the framers”? Not even, apparently, a system of government. This is reminiscent of Ezra Klein’s observation that the Constitution is old, so we may as well ignore it. Which means, apparently, that the rule of law is impossible, since no country can adhere for long to a written constitution.

And what is that reference to “ceding sovereignty” supposed to mean? Apparently the Times thinks that if we follow the Constitution, we are “ceding sovereignty” to the Founders, as though they were a foreign invader. Unbelievable.

I’ve never understood what liberals mean when they say the Constitution “evolves.” They clearly don’t mean that it can be changed by amendment. Nor do they seem to be referring to, for example, the application of the First Amendment to the internet, even though the web is not a “press.” When liberals talk about “evolution,” it generally seems to mean making stuff up–but only liberal stuff, of course.

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Although, except in the case of white people, that doesn’t help all that much.

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Turn about is fair play. I’m still waiting for the Russians and Poles to give back East Prussia.

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Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s curious silence about her 2012 plans have Texas Republicans increasingly convinced she’s rethinking her decision to retire and quietly plodding ahead toward a fourth term.

The uncertainty surrounding her future has frustrated a list of ambitious politicians who watched her declare that she would resign her seat to pursue a primary challenge to Gov. Rick Perry. One year later, after suffering a crushing defeat, she reversed course, citing the need to stay and help her colleagues battle the Obama administration’s policies.

After breaking the 12-year term limit she pledged in 1993….

Politicians lie, and career politicians lie automatically.

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The Johannesburg Road Agency is in talks with suppliers to try and stop thieves targeting its shiny new traffic lights for the SIM cards they contain.

The Agency has been forking out thousands of rand on phone calls the thieves subsequently make using the snaffled SIMs.

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A Penn State student charged with biting two FBI agents who arrested him Tuesday, has posted pro-jihad songs and statements online. Emerson Begolly, 21, was carrying a loaded gun with the safety off when agents approached him in connection with an unspecified investigation.

Begolly’s posts included songs in praise of Osama bin Laden and calling for violent attacks. In one song posted to the Shumukh al-Islam jihadi website under his alias Asadullah Alshishani, he salutes Swedish suicide Bomber Taimour Abdaly and calls for murdering Western targets. “I am not afraid to die, Grab my gun and my ammo… I am soldier and we are at war, Grab my gun and my ammo,” Begolly said. “Blow their heads right off their shoulders… Martyrdom is what I wanted best.”

Begosh and Begolly, this jihad stuff really bites.

That’s some fine Religion o’ Peace™ you got there, Mohammed.

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Another sign of the End Times.

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How much withholding does Superman pay? Will Bruce Wayne be means-tested?