Lockdown: A Teacher's Thoughts

"I wondered as I sat alone in my car driving home later that day: since gun laws will stop no motivated criminal, why do they really want us defenseless?"

Mary Anne Marcella
"The "gun violence" and Sandy Hook speakers at the Democrat Convention reminded me of a recent event that took place in my own school.  Toward the end of the school year, an announcement came over the loudspeaker that I had never heard: "we are in lockdown.  This is not a drill."  A teacher stuck her head in my classroom.  "Lockdown.' "
. . . 
"At that crucial moment, it occurred to me that the only way for me to have even a chance of protecting myself and my children against an armed intruder was with a gun."
". . .  But if the chance of tragedy is so slim, why even pass these laws?  "Because if it saves just one life, it's worth it."  This doesn't answer the real question: how am I to protect myself and those I am responsible for if left defenseless against a gunman?" . . .

Some DNC Delegates Chant, Turn Their Backs On Medal Of Honor Winner While He Lists Names Of Dead Soldiers

Weasel Zippers  "Every time you think the left hits its low point, you find it can always go lower."
To the left, the military is only a tool for societal tinkering. That our troops would actually kill those who wish to murder us by the hundred thousands is anathema to them.

A Democrat Finally Mentions Defeating ISIS At The Convention, And Is Booed…

. . . On the third night of the Democratic convention, a speaker finally brought up defeating ISIS and other terrorists — only to be met with boos from the crowd.

“ 'These murderers must be stopped,” declared former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon Panetta. Cue the deafening chorus of boos, plus chants of “No more war!” from convention delegates.

"Mind you, Panetta’s speech was offering yet another broadside against Donald Trump’s inexperience. “This is no time to gamble with our future. America faces flash points and threats from around the globe,” the ex-SecDef warned.

“ 'Lies, lies, lies,” the delegates replied." . . .

One begins to wonder if this nation is no longer worthy of the Founders who crafted our Constitution with its Bill of Rights.

Krauthammer: What's the case for Hillary?

Charles Krauthammer

“ 'The best darn change maker” is not a sufficiently inspiring counter to Donald Trump’s anxiety-stirring vision of a way of life in peril."

" ' In either case, Clinton has found no counter. If she has a theme, it's about expanding opportunity, shattering ceilings. But the universe of discriminated-against minorities -- so vast 50 years ago -- is rapidly shrinking. When the burning civil rights issue of the day is bathroom choice for the transgendered, a flummoxed Fishtown understandably asks, "What about us?" Telling coal miners she was going to close their mines and kill their jobs only reinforced white working-class alienation from Clinton.

"As for the chaos abroad, the Democrats are in see-no-evil denial. The first night in Philadelphia, there were 61 speeches. Not one mentioned the Islamic State or even terrorism. Later references were few, far between and highly defensive. After all, what can the Democrats say? Clinton's calling card is experience. Yet as secretary of state she left a trail of policy failures from Libya to Syria, from the Russian reset to the Iraqi withdrawal to the rise of the Islamic State."

U.S. Flags Disappear From Atop Philadelphia City Hall, City Official Says They Were Added To DNC Stage

The Philadelphia City Hall flags before the first night of the DNC

Alex Pfeiffer  "The six flag poles on top of the Philadelphia City Hall are bare Thursday morning. One city official who asked not to be named told The Daily Caller that the U.S flags typically atop the City Hall flagpoles have been moved to the Democratic National Convention stage.

"Lauren Hitt, communications director for the City of Philadelphia, told TheDC that the flags were taken down for “safety reasons.”
My son asked why they didn't just use the flags that Democrats were burning outside the Convention. The Tunnel Dweller

Below: After the first night of the DNC:

Navy to Name Ship After Gay Rights Activist Harvey Milk

USNI News  "The Navy is set to name a ship after the gay rights icon and San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, according to a Congressional notification obtained by USNI News.

"The July 14, 2016 notification, signed by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, indicated he intended to name a planned Military Sealift Command fleet oiler USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206). The ship would be the second of the John Lewis-class oilers being built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego, Calif.

"The Secretary of the Navy’s office is deferring releasing additional information until the naming announcement, a Navy official told USNI News on Thursday.

"Mabus has said the John Lewis-class – named after civil rights activist and congressman Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) – would be named after civil rights leaders.

"Other names in the class include former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren whose court ruled to desegregate U.S. schools, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, women’s right activist Lucy Stone and abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth." . . .

DNC staffers waiting for Wikileaks to drop the other shoe

Hot Air  "The resignation of DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz came shortly after Wikileaks published hacked DNC emails which showed the organization gunning for Bernie Sanders. Today Politico reports staffers are expecting more to come with some senior people having already been asked to prepare resignation statements:

. . . Now, all DNC senior staffers seem to believe they’re on the verge of being fired — and that’s before the next WikiLeaks release, which many fear is coming within days, and which DNC lawyers are bracing for. Several staff members have already been asked to prepare statements about their departures.

"Staff members were briefed in a Tuesday afternoon meeting in Washington that their personal data was part of the hack, as were Social Security numbers and other information for donors, according to people who attended. Don’t search WikiLeaks, they were told — malware is embedded throughout the site, and they’re looking for more data.

 "There’s a certain irony at work here. Evidence suggests Russia was behind the hack of the DNC. Many Democrats, including those still at the DNC and people in the Clinton camp, have suggested it is part of an effort by Vladmir Putin to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election. But so far the biggest impact of the hack has been to dislodge the bumbling Wasserman-Schultz from her position at the DNC, paving the way for someone who will likely to do a much better job making the case for the Democratic party."

The irrational aggressiveness of the Axis powers teaches us not to expect our enemies to be reasonable.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON  . . . "Had Germany not declared war on the United States after Pearl Harbor, it is likely that America would have focused on Japan and left Britain alone to fight Germany — just as it had done since 1939. So why did the three Axis powers commit such blunders that would lose them the new global war in less than four years?"
. . .
"We should be careful this anniversary year. War starts when weak but aggressive nations are deluded into believing that they are powerful — and wrongly conclude that the truly strong and rational are somehow weak."
..................................................................................................................

"The U.S. can no longer treat the Islamic State, a resurgent al-Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations as distant enemies."

It’s Time for a Long-Term Strategy to Utterly Crush Islamic Terrorism
. . . "Islamic terrorists’ war on us has returned to American shores, and it will continue here as long as we refuse to exercise the tactics necessary to stamp it out. 
"The Obama administration, despite engaging in a drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan that has helped make those countries safe havens for terrorists, is now quietly returning American troops to those countries." . . . 

"Terrorists do not care about diversity and inclusiveness. They hate the most progressive Democrat as much as they hate the most conservative Republican."

Another night at the DNC

What Republican Speechwriter Did Obama Hire For Last Night’s Address?   "If you managed to stick around for the entire Barack Obama speech last night, you surely caught the naked appeal he made to persuadable Republican voters not happy with Donald Trump as the nominee. The guess is you’re going to hear something fairly similar from Hillary Clinton tonight.

. . . 

"And last night it was Obama’s mission to do two things – first, to sew up as much of that 10 percent of stray Democrat vote, most of which is Hard Left Bernie Sanders support that at the moment is split about halfway between Jill Stein and Gary Johnson (for all the Democrats who crossed over and voted in GOP primaries, very little of it appears headed Trump’s way at this point), and second to position the Democrats square in the conventional middle in American politics." . . .

How many times did Obama refer to himself while praising Hillary at the DNC?  "Skilled Obama watchers know that the real subject of any Obama speech is his own magnificence.  But in case you weren’t clicking a counter held in your hand to note every time the first-person pronoun appeared in a speech by Obama ostensibly about someone else, the good folks at Grabien put together a compilation video."  119 times
Video here

Obama’s Final Revenge: The Accidental Destruction of Hillary Clinton  . . . "A majority of Americans think Trump is running to help America. They think Hillary is running to help Hillary. 
"That’s Hillary’s fault. 
"But more important, it’s Barack Obama’s fault, and the Left’s fault." . . .
. . . "So Hillary is now trotting out the “Mothers of the Movement” — Black Lives Matter activists including the mother of attempted cop-killer Michael Brown — to promulgate myths about police racism."

Giuliani: Uniformed Police Officers Not Allowed on Democratic Convention Floor
. . . “ 'This is the most anti-police, anti-law enforcement convention I’ve ever seen in my whole life. There was not a uniformed police officer allowed on the convention floor. I was told that by four high-ranking police officers, two of whom I’ve known for a very long time. And then I walked the floor for very long time and I couldn’t find a single officer. Go look at your footage.  You find me a uniform. Hillary Clinton didn’t want uniformed police officers on the convention floor.' ” . . .

Israeli/American Flags Burned By Leftists Outside DNC  "Assorted leftists danced while burning Israeli and American flag outside the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday in Philadelphia, PA. At various points, chants of "intifada" were heard in support of the "Palestinian" national movement." . . .

#DNCProtest: The Real Story of Night 3 at the DNC!  . . . "#NeverHillary and #DemExit activists were streaming continuous videos of protests against Hillary Clinton’s rigged nomination through the speeches. I must say, their efforts were far more interesting and informative."

. . . "Listening to these demonstrators, it is clear that they are far more upset about the rigged primary season than they are about Donald Trump. No amount of Obama lecturing is going to change the feeling that Hillary Clinton stole the nomination.

I predict even more robust demonstrations will occur tonight, when Hillary Clinton takes the stage…especially in light of the Wikileaks voicemails that have just been released."

Bill Clinton’s big convention lie  . . . "Tuesday night, in Bill Clinton’s sorcery, we saw the core of amorality that has corrupted both of the Clintons’ public lives for decades.  He actually believes that words have no natural allegiance to the truth.  You can say whatever you need so say, twist or omit facts to your end, and steal from others to mythologize self." 

Roger Simon at PJ Media calls the speech "Sad, Surreal".
. . . "But there was Bill, putting his best face on it, trying to get his wife elected president of the United States by painting this romantic picture of their first encounter, as if it were a Hollywood "cute meet" out of Bringing Up Baby, the couple set to live happily ever after, when we all know their marriage quickly evolved into a kind of cold-blooded business partnership, if it was ever much of a marriage in the first place."'. . . 

"But I wonder. Surely they must know this marriage is a sham, those over thirty anyway. Are Bill's serial and compulsive adulteries just part of his charm? It can't be that I was the only one thinking about this. I bet almost everyone was, trying to make peace with it on some level." . . .

From Debbie Schlussel: What Did You Think of Bill Clinton’s DNCon Speech? Here’s My Take: Willie No Longer Slick

. . . "Say what you will about the formerly Slick and always sleazy Willy. Regardless of being a lowlife, he was always a good speaker and able to charm the pants off of everyone, not just the women. Not last night. There was no charm, no magic, and frankly no structure whatsoever to his speech. I felt like I was listening to the annoying passenger on the plane who keeps talking when everyone wishes the person would just shut the bleep up." . . .

Wikileaks posts hacked DNC voicemails

CNN  Wait! What? Did that actually say CNN? As in Clinton News Network?
Anyway:

"Wikileaks released a series of voicemails Wednesday from the Democratic National Committee hack showing donors plying top-level officials for favors, and one donor expressing outrage that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had won a say in the drafting of the party's platform.

"In one of the 29 voicemails released, a woman who donated $300 to Clinton called the party finance director Andrew Wright and said she was angry the party was acquiescing to Sanders by allowing liberal activist and prominent Sanders surrogate Cornel West to have one of 15 seats on the party's platform-writing panel.
. . .

"But most of the released voicemails amount to innocuous messages from one person trying to reach someone else. " 

This Is What We Know About The Two Normandy Church Attackers

France was warned about terrorist who killed priest in church attack

"Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, 19, butchered Rev. Jacques Hamel, 85, after forcing him to kneel at the altar inside a church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray. They also forced another man to record the execution before stabbing the hostage, who survived."

Buzzfeed  "Abdel Malik Petitjean, 19, and Adel Kermiche, also 19, have been named by French authorities as the attackers."

. . . Abdel Malik Petitjean, 19, was named by a source in the Paris prosecutor’s office as the second attacker, according to the BBC. Adel Kermiche, also 19, was named on Wednesday.

"Father Jacques Hamel, 85, was killed after the two men stormed a church in the Haute-Normandie town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, close to Rouen, on Tuesday morning. Both Petitjean and Kermiche were shot and killed by French security forces as they left the building.

"An ID belonging to Petitjean was found at Kermiche’s flat when it was searched by security services following the attack. However, his body was too disfigured following the confrontation with police to allow immediate identification." . . .

Pope On ISIS Killing French Priest: “World Is At War,” But It’s Not A Religious One…  "Did he hire the speechwriter for John Kerry?"

“ 'The world is at war because it has lost peace,” he said.

“ 'There is a war of interest, there is a war for money, a war for natural resources, a war to dominate people,” he continued.

“ 'Some might think it is war of religion. It is not. All religions want peace. Others want war.' ”

Someone Made A “Terrorism Bingo” For The Olympics And It’s Definitely Something

Buzzfeed

The game, which has gone viral in Brazil, asks people to pick the date they think a terror attack might happen during the Olympics next month.

"This picture of a “Terrorist Attack Bingo” is currently going viral on Brazilian social media. The idea is you’re supposed to guess what day a terrorist attack will happen during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro next month."

"This picture of a “Terrorist Attack Bingo” is currently going viral on Brazilian social media. The idea is you’re supposed to guess what day a terrorist attack will happen during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro next month."

. . . "The original image was actually created by by a blog called Acid Black Nerd and it goes along with an article called “ACIDBLACKNERD Makes Five Predictions About The Olympics In Rio de Janeiro”."

'What if Hillary Clinton Were a Man?'

Allyne Caan

She wouldn't be a presidential nominee, that's for sure.

". . .  But is being nominated because you’re a woman — and, more specifically, because you’re a woman who effectively played the role of devoted wife defending her high-powered husband’s seduction of women — really something to tout?

Let’s be honest. Hillary’s policies haven’t driven her career. Her gender, combined with her last name, have. If you want to track Hillary Clinton’s rise, start with her marriage certificate.

"This makes the irony of Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen’s missive this week even more potent. “What if Hillary Clinton were a man?” he asked. “What if she were a 68-year-old man rather than a 68-year-old woman? Would we think differently of her? Her raised voice would be lower. She would be better at physically commanding the stage. Her indomitability might be seen as manly. If she were taller and bigger, might she have been able to get away with saying nothing about her email server — as Donald Trump has with his tax returns? As they say, I’m just askin'.”

"Well, to answer, if Hillary were a man, she never would have gotten to the Senate, let alone to the presidential nomination. Even the Democrat Party wouldn’t nominate a man as inept and unlikeable as Hillary. " . . .