How to remedy America’s social ills? Exercise the mind’s power to choose, says Ben Carson

The Hill

 

. . . "But there were certain intervening events that were pivotal in helping to change the course of my life.

"The first was that my mother, who could barely read herself, forbid my brother and me from watching television and insisted instead that we read books. Reading opened up whole new worlds for me, and both fertilized my imagination and fueled my aspiration to go beyond the confines of my physical environment. The second major intervening event was my acceptance of the wisdom of God. An incident in which I attempted to stab a classmate out of anger forced me to confront a dysfunctional attitude that, if unchecked, would impede my ability to succeed in school or realize my dream of one day becoming a doctor. I prayed to God to guide me in becoming more tolerant and forbearing." : . . .

 Read the full article

The Black Lives Matter movement is bad for Democrats

 

WaPo  "As the Black Lives Matter movement increases its profile, I am reminded of Occupy Wall Street. The Occupy Movement quickly swelled in size and garnered a lot of attention, then entered an awkward era where it couldn’t really think of what to do next.. . .
The Black Lives Matter movement appears to be louder and more pointed, but is perhaps even more aimless than Occupy. In fact, the Black Lives Matter protesters have contorted their message into a political statement meant to intimidate politicians from even acknowledging that “all lives matter.”  
"Democratic presidential candidate and former Governor Martin O’Malley actually felt he had to issue an apology for saying “all lives matter” when he was confronted by Black Lives Matter protesters at the Netroots Nation Conference earlier this August. Then, at a rally for 
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in Seattle just a few days ago, Black Lives Matter protesters actually took the microphone from Sanders to make demands that weren’t really clear. It was disruption for the sake of disruption." . . .
. . . But the confused and pointless anger of the Black Lives Matter crowd is a turn-off for the swing voters the Democrats will ultimately need in 2016, even though Democratic candidates won’t say so." . . .

Remember this? Hillary Clinton basically calls General Patraeus a liar to his face .

That was then:

And this is now:

Weasel Of The Week!! – 08/13/15; No surprise

Noisy Room   "Yes, once again, It’s time to present this week’s statuette of shame, The Golden Weasel!!

"Every Tuesday, the Council nominates some of the slimiest, most despicable characters in public life for some deed of evil, cowardice or corruption they’ve performed. Then we vote to single out one particular Weasel for special mention, to whom we award the statuette of shame, our special, 100% plastic Golden Weasel. This week’s nominees were all particularly slimy and despicable, but the votes are in and we have our winner… the envelope please…

 Obama’s Soviet-Style EPA!

 

. . . "It appears that someone, believe it or not, used a backhoe to move some debris out of the way rather than removing it more carefully, since it was known there was water in the abandoned gold mine.

"Even worse was that the EPA attempted to cover it up, at first saying it was just a minor spill and then finally admitting it amounted to over 3 million gallons. There have also been no answers about why the EPA took so long to repair the breech.
. . .
"The Weaselness comes from the EPA’s attempt to cover-up what happened and shift the blame to the owner of the long abandoned mine for a catastrophe the EPA caused. Particularly odious was the E.P.A.’s regional director, Shaun McGrath, who led the charge, but he was just a Good German following orders. We all know that had a private company done something like this, the Obama Regime would be calling for their heads."
 Emphases mine with enthusiasm, TD 

 

Via Terry Sater at Conservative Voter Coalition

"Obama Reading Book By Author Crusading For Slavery Reparations…"

The Hill  via  Weasel Zippers

 

"President Obama is spending his Thursday on a Martha’s Vineyard beach, a perfect opportunity to get started on his long summer reading list.

"The president picked six books to read during his 16-day vacation, most notably Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a memoir about being black in America.

"The author, who writes for The Atlantic, has often been critical of Obama’s efforts to address racial inequality.

"During a White House meeting in 2013, Coates reportedly pushed Obama to make race a bigger factor in his signature healthcare law.

 

"After the meeting, Obama pulled Coates aside and told him he had been unfair to him in a piece where Coates criticized the president’s call for African-Americans to take more personal responsibility. 

 

"Obama told Coates “don’t despair,” according to an account published by New York magazine. 

 

"The other five books on Obama’s list are a mix of fiction and non-fiction, according to the White House: All That Is by James Salter, All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri and Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow. 

 

"Obama will have to read quickly to finish his entire list before he returns to Washington on Aug. 23.

 

"The president has played three rounds of golf so far and dined with the First Lady, friends and White House advisers. 

 

"Obama is also spending some time on his vacation placing calls to lawmakers to discuss his nuclear deal with Iran, ahead of key votes expected in September."

Obama's Curious Silence Concerning Louis Farrakhan's Seditious Hate Speech!

"America Haters come in all shapes and sizes, but it’s even more concerning when it comes from the very top of American leadership via Obama and Kerry" comicallyincorrect.com

Voice of Lillpop  "While the Obama administration, the Democrat Party, and the mainstream media conspire to effectively eradicate Southern culture and history by deeming the Confederate Flag a continuing symbol of hatred and racism, Nation of Islam lunatic Louis Farrakhan is openly calling for “retaliation” and killings.

"As reported at the reference:

A chilling example of the double standard applied by the Obama Justice Department to hate speech was on display when Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan called on his followers to “rise up” and “kill those who kill us” if the federal government fails to “intercede in our affairs.”
His speech was delivered in Miami before an enthusiastic crowd, many of whom stood up and applauded when he suggested “retaliation” against whites.
This, from his Facebook page:
Retaliation! If the federal government won’t intercede in our affairs, then we MUST rise up and kill those who kill us; stalk them and kill them and let them feel our pain.
Farrakhan is planning another “Million Man March” for October. In connection with that event, he has created a social media campaign with the charming hashtag #JusticeOrElse
The radical Muslim is calling for 10,000 men “among the million” who are willing to die in order to carry out this “retaliation.”

"Meanwhile, from Martha’s Vineyard, the media is occupied with the latest news about Barack Obama’s battles on the golf links, and offers no word from The One about Louis Farrakhan and his seditious hate speech!

"How to explain strange Obama’s silence on such inflammatory, violent language, particularly at a time when the entire nation is, or seems to be, on the cusp of race riots and civil war?

"Why not some soothing reassurances from The One that peace and civility will be maintained and that domestic terrorist threats from the likes of Louis Farrakhan will be dealt with fairly, but decisively, by the federal government?

"What could be holding Obama back? "

"Could The One be reluctant to speak out against a “brother” of the black race . . . "

All lives matter!

Black Lives Matter Members Disrupt Jeb Bush Campaign Event, Crowd Responds With Chants Of “All Lives Matter!” And “White Lives Matter!”…
"In Obama’s America, saying white people deserve to live is racist.
Via TPM:

Black Lives Matter demonstrators interrupted a Jeb Bush event in North Las Vegas on Wednesday, putting an end to the Republican presidential candidate’s town hall.
As Bush wrapped up a question and answer session, about a dozen activists entered the community center, raising their fists and chanting, “black lives matter.”
Some Bush backers responded with chants of “All lives matter!” and “White lives matter!”, according to media reports.

DEMOCRAT Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Praises Black Lives Matter Racists Disrupting Events… 

. . . "The activists have employed the controversial tactic of interrupting stump speeches and other public forums, which has drawn fire from many Democrats as an uncivil and misguided effort that targets allies, rather than opponents, of such reforms.

But a number of black Democrats disagree, arguing that race-based problems have been neglected for too long, even by liberal policymakers, and the activists have tapped into a vein of frustration that justifies their methods." . . .

Armed Black Panthers Chant, “Off The Pigs!” Outside Jail Where #SandraBland Killed Herself 

 The revolution is on! Off the pigs! Time to pick up the gun! Off the pigs! No more pigs in my community! Off the pigs! No more brothers in jail! Off the pigs! No more sisters in jail! Off the pigs! The pigs are gonna get scared! Off the pigs! The pigs are gonna get dead! Off the pigs!

Hillary and her integrity

 

FBI Has Hillary’s Server (All The Data Has Been Wiped!) . . . "For some odd reason the [Washington Post] doesn’t get around to mentioning that all of the data has been removed from the server until their ninth paragraph.
"From the Washington Post:

Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server turned over to FBI

By Tom Hamburger and Karen Tumulty | August 12, 2015
The e-mail server used by Hillary Rodham Clinton when she served as secretary of state was turned over to the FBI late Wednesday afternoon from a private data center in New Jersey, according to an attorney familiar with the transfer. “It was picked up about 4 p.m.,” said Barbara J. Wells, a Denver lawyer who represents Platte River Networks Inc., a small computer services firm that has managed the Clintons’ private e-mail system since. . . " Keep reading.

Hillary's Secret  "Hillary is turning her home brew email server over to the FBI. They say it contained top secret emails. The documents weren’t encrypted. If the FBI really wanted to know what was on Hillary’s server all they had to do was ask the Chinese."

 

Dems in panic mode as Hillary’s team lawyers up   . . . "Why wipe the hard drive at all? Hillary et al insisted that the e-mail server had no sensitive material on it, and that it was a completely legitimate choice on her part. And yet, after Congress discovered its existence and demanded that Hillary produce the records, she pulled off what she wanted …. and then the hard drive got wiped. That indicates a mens rea for destroying evidence, rather than an indication of having nothing to hide. So much for transparency, eh?

"Instead, Hillary’s team is now lawyering up. Politico reports today that Huma Abedin has a team of lawyers on the case as she comes under scrutiny from both Congress and federal judges probing the evasion of FOIA demands during Hillary’s tenure — and Abedin’s unusual financial arrangements at State: " . . .  Full article

Trump and the Kardashians: should a serious nation care about either?

 For many on the right, their frustration about the inability of Republicans to stop President Obama from implementing his policies has become as great as their anger at the administration.

Can You Criticize Trump Without Insulting His Fans?  . . . "But in employing his trademark bullying tactics as well as by making a vulgar comment about Kelly (that he later disingenuously claimed was innocent), Trump showed us that he is a master manipulator of the media. But the question to be asked about all of this is not so much whether his lead in the polls will last, but whether it’s ever going to be possible to speak or write honestly about Trump without such criticism being interpreted as a defense of the establishment or an unfair attack on voters who are fed up with business as usual in Washington? The answer is that as long as Trump is controlling the conversation, the answer may, unfortunately, be no." . . .Jonathan S. Tobin

TRUMP. PERIOD. That’s Really the Best We Can Do? 
Add "raise awareness" to the list of silly phrases some of us are sick of. TD

"Tampons. That seems to be the prevailing theme of the week on the internet. Women that don’t wear them. A GOP Presidential contender that could probably use one. Seriously, the last few days have taught me two things: the general public doesn’t appreciate a poorly placed menstruation joke and period shaming is actually a thing. " . . .

"Donald Trump denied that his reference to blood coming out of Megyn Kelly during the GOP debate had anything to do with her menstrual cycle but referred to her attitude. President Obama said if you like Donald Trump’s hormonal denial, you can believe Donald Trump’s hormonal denial. Period."  Comedian Argus Hamilton

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura (I) told CBS News that, “If Donald Trump were to ask me to be his running mate, I would give it very serious consideration.”

Roger Ailes to Donald Trump: 'We resolve this now...or go to war' (Brian Stelter/CNNMoney)
 . . . "The candidate is also being kind to Fox; when Trump called into Lou Dobbs' Fox Business show on Wednesday, he said "I love your show and watch it all the time."
"Given the billionaire's popularity, "Ailes had to make peace," said Roger Stone, a Trump senior adviser who recently left the campaign in disputed circumstances.
"But no one knows how long the peace will last." . . .

Don’t kid yourselves: if you support Trump, you are supporting the Democrats, you are supporting liberalism, you are supporting the elite. Deny it as vehemently as you like, make your accusations, mouth your obscenities, make your threats. But face up to the truth.   J.R. Dunn

Haven't We Seen the Trump Saga Before?   . . . "There’s a persistent rumor that Trump cleared this campaign with Bill Clinton in a phone call last April. I don’t know the truth of it any more than anybody else. But I do know this: that Trump is tight with the Clintons (this should be enough in and of itself to sound the alarm), that Big Bill never misses a trick, and the he knows exactly how he won two elections back to back with only 49% of the vote.

"You think it just happened this way, boys and girls?"  Read more

The unfolding tragedy here is that conservatives have the most impressive bench since the 1980s. Look at them: Walker, Jindal, Cruz, just to name the three best. Each of them has in the recent past done more for conservatism -- and this country -- than Trump could manage if he lived until the 30^th century.

People used to say, "A vote for Ross Perot is a vote for Ross Perot!" But it was a vote for Bill Clinton, pure and simple. Nothing more.

 

Israeli Preemptive Action, Western Reaction

 Israel Can’t Count on the West to Protect it. Will Israel do the unthinkable to stop the unimaginable?

 Victor Davis Hanson

Israeli Air Force F-16 fighter

"The Obama administration seems peeved that almost everyone in Israel, left and right, has no use for the present Iranian–American deal to thwart Iran’s efforts to get the bomb.

"Indeed, at times John Kerry has hinted darkly that Israel’s opposition to the pact might incur American wrath should the deal be tabled — even though Kerry knows that the polls show a clear majority of Americans being against the proposed agreement while remaining quite supportive of the Jewish state. President Obama, from time to time, suggests that his agreement is being sabotaged by nefarious lobbying groups, big-time check writers, and neoconservative supporters of the Iraq war — all shorthand, apparently, for pushy Jewish groups.

"Obama and his negotiators seem surprised that Israelis take quite seriously Iranian leaders’ taunts over the past 35 years that they would like to liquidate the Jewish state and everyone in it. The Israelis, for some reason, remember that well before Hitler came to power, he had bragged about the idea of killing Jews en masse in his sloppily composed autobiographical Mein Kampf. Few in Germany or abroad had taken the raving young Hitler too seriously. Even in the late 1930s, when German Jews were being rounded up and haphazardly killed on German streets by state-sanctioned thugs, most observers considered such activities merely periodic excesses or outbursts from non-governmental Black- and Brownshirts.

"The Obama administration, with vast oceans between Tehran and the United States, tsk-tsks over Iranian threats as revolutionary hyperbole served up for domestic consumption." . . .

 Iran, the Munich Comparison, and the Abuse of History
 "The Iran Deal is not Munich, but the same foolishness of Western leaders is close enough to warn us what happens next. And it will not be good. " . . .

‘Lord of the Rings’ Actor Blasts Political Correctness: ‘We Have Lost Our Moral Compass’

Big Hollywood

 

"Lord of the Rings actor John Rhys-Davies decried Islamic terrorism and political correctness in an interview with podcast king Adam Carolla Monday night.

"The actor, who played the dwarf Gimli in the three Rings movies, joined Carolla on the latest episode of his podcast to blast Western politicians for failing to say or do anything to combat the rising tide of Islamic terrorism and the political correctness that enables it.

“ 'There is an extraordinary silence in the West,” Rhys-Davies told Carolla. “Basically, Christianity in the Middle East and in Africa is being wiped out – I mean not just ideologically but physically, and people are being enslaved and killed because they are Christians. And your country and my country (Wales) are doing nothing about it.”

“ 'Why is it so evolved not to judge?” Carolla replied, identifying political correctness as the culprit. “This notion that we’ve evolved into a species that’s incapable of judging other groups and what they are doing, especially when it’s beheading people or setting people on fire or throwing acid in the face of schoolgirls… I like that kind of judging. That’s evolved!”

"Carolla added that the U.S. “crushing Hitler” in World War II was a “good thing” that would not be possible now because Bill Maher would be “screaming” about tolerance." . . .

"Rhys-Davies appeared on Carolla’s podcast to promote the DVD release of his film Return to the Hiding Place, about a group of Dutch youth resistance fighters in World War II.

" Check out the full episode here."

'IMMIGRANT': THE NEW N-WORD

 

Ann Coulter  . . . "Were those guys illegals? Did Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev swim across the Rio Grande to get to Boston? Did Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez hire coyotes to sneak him across the border so he could shoot four Marines and a sailor in Chattanooga?
"No. Our government invited them in.
"Some of our other beloved legal immigrants include:

-- Anwar al-Awlaki, the man whose death in Afghanistan provoked Rand Paul to stage a 13-hour filibuster in opposition to the use of drones against -- I quote -- "American citizens";
-- the Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan;
-- the attempted Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad;
-- all those Somali immigrants living in Minnesota, bloc-voting for Al Franken before flying to Syria to fight with ISIS; -- Sirhan Sirhan; -- the 9/11 hijackers; -- the Pakistani terrorist Daood Sayed Gilani, American anchor baby, responsible for four days of bombings in Mumbai in 2008; -- the New York subway bomb plotter, Najibullah Zazi; -- Pakistani terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, who shot a U.S. Army captain in 2010; --- the "local man" arrested this week for trying to organize an army of ISIS fighters in New York and New Jersey, Nader Saadeh -- anchor baby "American citizen."

 ALL LEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR CHILDREN! Why were any of them in this country? What are we getting out of this? 
. . . 
"Instead of Christie and Paul sparring over government policy on search warrants in a post-9/11 world, could we reconsider the government policy of admitting legal immigrants who need to be spied on?"