Tuesday, May 27, 2014
ROBB REPORT: Best Hotel of 2014
The world’s only hotel to occupy a Ludwig Mies van der Rohe–designed building, the new Langham, Chicago (312.923.9988, www.langhamhotels.com), is a worthy tribute to the great Bauhaus architect. Debuted in September in an imposing glass tower along the Chicago River, the hotel abounds with appropriate touches, including Mies-inspired furnishings designed by the luminary’s grandson, Dirk Lohan of the Chicago-based firm Lohan Anderson. The 316-room property—which occupies the first 13 floors of the 52-story tower—breaks with form at times, as in the plush-carpeted guest rooms and suites and the Eastern-inspired Chuan Spa. The David Rockwell–designed Travalle restaurant serves as the hotel’s most authentic interpretation of Bauhaus, with glass walls, clean lines, and minimalist wood-and-metal furnishings. ($295–$6,000)
I'm guessing the suite pictured above is a tad closer to $6,000 a night as opposed to $295.
Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.
California's Strictest-in-the-Nation Gun Control Laws No Match for Its Lax Mental-Commitment Rules
Guns: The Santa Barbara shooter had legally purchased and registered firearms, and passed prior questioning by the police who saw no danger to himself or others. More gun laws won't stop the next such shooter, either.
It is eerie how the mental health of the shooter consistently seems to emerge as a key factor in mass shootings such as the rampage by Elliot Rodger, who killed six and wounded 13 on Friday. The shooter had been in therapy since age 8 and police had been warned by his parents to check him out.Yet few liberals cry for tougher mental health laws compared with demands for tougher gun control. It would surprise these liberals that "right-wing bitter clingers" and even the NRA agree that some people shouldn't have access to guns — people such as Elliot Rodger.
The question is how to realistically and constitutionally do it. Instead of answering that question, we hear cries for "tougher" laws. But tougher than what?
Last December the Los Angeles Times noted in a report that California had the strictest gun control laws in the country and had received an A- grade in a state-by-state analysis by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
HEARTLESS: Socialist-Democrat Bernie Sanders Defends Single-Payer VA Even as Veterans Suffer and Die
TONE DEAF: U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has issued a series of high-profile statements that appear to defend the VA hospital system.
As accusations flood the Department of Veterans Affairs over systemic, severe wrongdoing at VA medical centers across the country, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has made a series of puzzling public statements that appear to defend the government hospital bureaucracy.The string of statements began on May 15, when Sanders appeared on CNN for an interview with Chris Cuomo.
After urging media to remain neutral over claims that 40 U.S. veterans died at the Phoenix VA while waiting to receive care, Sanders said, “The allegation is not that the delay in care caused that, only that that is what is now being investigated.”
“Did the delay in care of these people on the secret waiting list actually cause these deaths? We don’t know,” Sanders said.
Elsewhere, Sanders appeared to gloat over the Veterans Affairs health care system, saying “the VA holds up as good or better than private hospitals. By and large, veterans throughout America believe that they’re getting pretty good health care.”
Larwyn's Linx: The Incompetence of Barack Obama: Outed CIA Covert Officer Edition
Nation
The Incompetence of Barack Obama: Outed CIA covert officer edition: RSViolence, Scapegoating, Misogyny and a Creepy Little Weirdo: R.S. McCain
Critics: White House Blunder Puts Whole CIA Unit in Peril: Todd Beamon
Lord Obama: Victor Davis Hanson
The Left Didn’t Waste Time Politicizing California Rampage: LoneCon
Thousands of Bikers Ride Through DC to Honor the Fallen: ConTrib
Teacher Admits Writing Common Core to End White Privilege: BuzzPo
The 6 Lamest Excuses For Failure From The Obama Administration: RWN
Fourth Mini-Bomb Goes Off a DC Area Theater: GWP
Hey, progressives: What else can you force Americans to do?: BuzzPo
Conclusive Proof Obtained: @SenRandPaul Is Just Another Hack: Belvedere
The Media Protects another Racist Democrat: Eagle Rising
Economy
What the IRS Obamacare ruling means: DTGUnions, employers square off over ObamaCare costs in collective bargaining: Fox
White students fed up with black professor’s racial screeds, lawsuits fly: DC
Scandal Central
If only Obama treated our military vets as well as he does illegals: GodfatherWidow Claims Veterans' Hospital Police Beat Her Husband to Death: Courthouse
Over A Dozen House-Passed VA Reform Bills Sitting on Harry Reid’s Desk: Hideout
Climate & Energy
“Global Warming” Fun Fact of The Day: Planet Has Cooled Since 2005: WZEPA’s next target in fight against climate change: cooking stoves: Times
White House Quietly Releases Regulatory Agenda on Holiday Weekend: LI
Media
VA Fallout: Boston Globe, LA Times Declare Obama Incompetent: Warner Todd HustonKen Blackwell Destroys MSNBC Gun Control Narrative In One Response: TR
QOTD: How fact-resistant liberalism takes its greatest toll on those at the bottom: AEI
A Reparations Plan That Makes Sense: Jim Goad
The Labor Union that Runs the Media: Cliff Kincaid
Colion Noir On Mass Shooters: Real Revo
Newsweek – Orwell’s Newspeak and Thought Criminals in the Mental Hospital Called America: Paul McGuire
A Young College Grad Calls My Show: Dennis Prager
Not Like a Boss: Ace
World
Valerie Plame and Obama’s Double Standard on Outing CIA Personnel: Daniel GreenfieldMurder and Motivation: Mark Steyn
Voting Results From Europe Show Backlash To Muslim Immigration: NoisyRm
Muslim Brotherhood has a ‘significant presence’ in Canada, says study: BCF
Why is Team Obama unable to bring home Marine held in Mexico?: Fox
Ukraine: Rebels claim 35 deaths at Donetsk airport: USA Today
Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)
Report: Google and Nest Want to Offer Home Surveillance: GizmodoGoogle Ignores Memorial Day – Update: 18 Hours Later, Google Decides To Honor Our Troops: WZ
HP to cut up to 16,000 more jobs: CNN
Cornucopia
My Daughter Made A WWII Veteran Cry: BuzzPoMemorial Day, 2014...Some Personal Thoughts: Nuking Politics
Ronald Reagan Honors the Fallen… This is Powerful: ConTrib
Image: Ace o' Spades
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BOOM: Chris McDaniel for Senate
QOTD: "If we were living in normal times, the following scandals and failures — without going into foreign policy — would have ruined a presidency to the point of reducing it to Nixon, Bush, or Truman poll ratings.
Think of the following: the Fast and Furious scandal, the VA mess, the tapping of the communications of the Associated Press reporters, the NSA monitoring, Benghazi in all of its manifestations, the serial lies about Obamacare, the failed stimuli, the chronic zero interest/print money policies, the serial high unemployment, the borrowing of $7 trillion to no stimulatory effect, the spiraling national debt, the customary violations of the Hatch Act by Obama cabinet officials, the alter ego/fake identity of EPA head Lisa Jackson, the sudden departure of Hilda Solis after receiving union freebies, the mendacity of Kathleen Sebelius, the strange atmospherics surrounding the Petraeus resignation, the customary presidential neglect of enforcing the laws from immigration statutes to his own health care rules, the presidential divisiveness (“punish our enemies,” “you didn’t build that,” Trayvon as the son that Obama never had, etc.), and on and on.
So why is there not much public reaction or media investigatory outrage?" --Victor Davis Hanson
Monday, May 26, 2014
OPEN BORDERS: Mexican Drug Cartels Now Using Billboards in Texas to Threaten Police and U.S. Citizens
Two frightening incidents of vandalism in El Paso near the Mexican border in Texas have been interpreted as warnings from drug cartels...
In both instances, a mannequin wearing a suit and tie was tied to a billboard with a noose and messages were scrawled over the placards.
Local station KHOU reports that one of the signs reads 'Plata o Plombo' which translates to 'silver or lead', a threat used commonly against police officers effectively warning that if they do not accept the cartel's bribes then they will be shot.
...This symbol has historically been used by Mexican drug cartels to threaten or intimidate Mexican citizens, business owners and government officials; however, we have never experienced this in El Paso,' local police said in a press release about the vandalism...
...The fear now for many is that the 'warnings' shows that the drug cartels- which have not been identified by name- are willing to bring the violence from Mexican border towns into Texas.
Oh, yeah. I forgot.
They're "doing it for love," right, Jeb Bush?
MEMORIAL DAY: Obama Should Apologize For Five Years of Abysmal Treatment of Veterans
This Memorial Day, Barack Obama and members of Congress will honor our veterans by wearing ribbons and laying wreaths, but what they should really do is apologize to the entire nation for treating them like human trash for the past five years. You see, the truth is that this VA scandal is nothing new. The problems at the VA hospitals have been documented over and over again for years. When Barack Obama was a U.S. senator, he served on the Veterans Affairs Committee. So as he entered the White House, he was supposed to be an expert in this area. And back in 2008, he pledged to "make the VA a leader of national health care reform so that veterans get the best care possible". But of course that never happened. And now Obama is claiming that he only learned of the "secret waiting lists" at VA hospitals by "watching television", and his staff says that he is "madder than hell" about it. So now that he has been publicly shamed, will Obama actually do something about it? Because our military veterans deserve far better care than what they have been getting.
Most Americans don't realize this, but members of al-Qaeda detained at Guantanamo Bay actually receive far better medical treatment than our military veterans do. Just consider what former Pentagon spokesperson J.D. Gordon had to say about the matter...
Leftist sportswriter Mike Lupica once again blames untreated mental illness on the Constitution
And what is the reaction of ostensible "sportswriter" Mike Lupica? As you might have expected, it's to lash out at the Constitution's Second Amendment and those who defend it.
Masterminds like Lupica can't be bothered to ruminate on the fact that the psycopath's own parents couldn't keep their kid on his meds nor alert the authorities to their real fears. No, Lupica wants to punish all of society for the actions of a lunatic.
So Lupica goes right to the totalitarian's playbook: get rid of all guns in order to stop psychopaths from killing. Yes, that's right, Mikey, ignore the guy plowing into people with his car, ignore his use of knives to kill, and instead go right for the jugular of the Consitution.
Larwyn's Linx: Grievously Wounded Vet Hammers Inept Commander-in-Chief on Memorial Day
Nation
Grievously Wounded Vet Hammers Inept CINC on Memorial Day : RWNThe phony VA scandal is Bush's Fault, so can't you just let BO play through?: MOTUS
Memorial Day 2014: MOTUS
Ted Cruz's Dad Levels Obama and Holder Using the Bible: WJ
Democrats Privately Calling Obama 'Detached' and 'Incompetent': Daniel Halper
In response to UC Santa Barbara killings, let’s ban everything: Howard Portnoy
Never has worked, never will work: Cold Fury
Eric Holder Tells Graduates to Forget Sterling, Voter ID a Bigger Threat: Publius
Why are all mass-murderers Democrats?: AmPower
Economy
IRS Bars Employers From Dumping Workers into Exchanges: NewsMaxThe Retail Death Rattle Grows Louder: Burning Platform
Figures: Democrat Pays Homeless Workers Below Minimum Wage: BuzzPo
Scandal Central
Bipartisan Lawmakers Call For Criminal Investigation Into VA Scandal: CoveThe VA Scandal: A Shadow over Memorial Day: CFP
White House PR Mistakenly 'Outs' CIA Station Chief In Afghanistan: Instapundit
Climate & Energy
Courts looking less impressed with EPA overreach: InstapunditWe’re Like Super Doomed From An Antarctic Ice Sheet: Cove
5.7 million dollar NSF grant to Columbia University for climate ‘voice mails from the future’: WUWT
Media
6 Shocking Details From Suspected Santa Barbara Shooter’s 141-Page Manifesto: Oliver DarcyThree lies about ‘right-wing lunatic virgin’ Elliot Rodger that liberals wants you to believe: YC
There is Too Much Stupid At the Daily Kos, It’s Difficult To Post: iOTW
George Will: Gov't Can't Run Post Office, Amtrak – Why Should We Think It Can Run Health Care?: Breitbart
Citizen Journalist Visited by Joint Terrorism Task Force for Filming Police Building: StoryLeak
Seriously, MSNBC … exactly who is your audience???: Caleb Howe
Elliot Rodger's Parents Rushed to #IslaVista During Murder Rampage — #UCSB: AmPower
Rampage started at suspect's home before terror spree: CBS
Criminal Justice Reform: A New Domain of the Right?: PJM
World
Hooray! Obama To Warn Of Foreign Policy Overreach In West Point Graduation Campaign Speech: RWNIslam: Some Religions Are More Equal Than Others: NoisyRm
Another Sheriff Buckles To CAIR: Shoebat
Fun Night for the Eurosceptics: UKIP and Front National Storm Brussels; Infighting Begins: Mish
WATCH: Nigel Farage Victory Speech: Order-Order
Still hunting for Brussels Jewish Museum shooter: LI
Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)
Google Rated Top Employer for Pay and Benefits by Glassdoor: WSJThe Dinosaur Hunter: ForPol
Driverless Cars Legally Hit Roads as California Issues Licenses; The Last Mile: Mish
Cornucopia
War vet reunites with K9 partner: 'He was my best friend': KOMODay By Day: The Other: Chris Muir
North Korea's Plan For Rap Music Dominance: Diogenes
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: HUDSON VALLEY HONOR FLIGHT - Help the Heroes
QOTD: "Washington, D.C. rapper Wale publicly bashed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Friday for pressuring the Redskins to change their name, saying the senator is only attempting to “make a bigger name” for himself by exploiting race issues.
The rapper also reminded his 3.6 million Twitter followers that Reid once told reporters that President Barack Obama was an effective politician because he’s a “light-skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”
“Same dude tht was talkin down on Obama bein a ‘light skinned’ with ‘negro dialect’ all the sudden is a crusader for what’s right in race,” Wale tweeted.
The rapper called Reid “sketchy,” adding that he likely doesn’t know “anything about [the] Washington team and I doubt he cares he just using a sensitive time to garner attention.”" --Jason Howerton
Sunday, May 25, 2014
FLOWCHART: The Scientific Method - Then and Now
Hat tip: @BobEwoldt.
OH, MY: Leading Democrats Now Leaking Reports That They Believe Obama is "Incompetent" and "Detached"
Didn't we tell these nitwits this, oh, six years ago (e.g., "Photos: The Illustrated Results of Obama's "Community Organizing"")?
Daniel Halper relays word from CNN where, apparently, Democrats feel comfortable leaking their 2014 distancing strategies for dissemination.
CNN's John King reports that Democrats are privately calling President Obama "detached," "flat footed," and "incompetent."
"Forget for a moment that Republican outrage," said King on his CNN show this morning. "More and more Democrats in key 2014 races are calling for the president to get a spine, they say, and fire his Veterans Affairs secretary. And what more and more Democrats are saying privately is scathing, calling the president and his team detached, flat footed, even incompetent.
"Maggie Haberman," said King turning to a panelist, "that's what strikes me, what democrats are saying privately in the wakes of the healthcare.gov problems, they see a president who doesn't want to take command, doesn't want to act fast. Raising the competence question. Some Democrats, who believe in government, [are saying] this White House doesn't appear to have its hand on the lever."
Haberman of Politico agreed, cited more examples, and added: "All of this adds up to somebody who just doesn't seem at all involved."
Gee, ya think?
What: did the 175 rounds of golf give it away?
Or the constant fundraising?
Or the detailed focus on NCAA brackets and other sporting events versus, say, chemical weapons in Syria, nukes in Iran, and the annexation of Crimea?
Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News
Larwyn's Linx: Obama Surrenders Border: Some Wonder If It's Time To Form Posses to Fight Drug Cartels?
Nation
Obama Abandons Border: Time To Form Posses?: Bob OwensTo Honor America's Veterans, Obama Heads to Golf Course: TR
Obama blames Founding Fathers for Congressional gridlock: Times
Spoiled Hollywood Leftist Elliot Rodger Mass Murder at UCSB: AmPower
Hollywood Director’s Son Kills Six in Shooting Rampage: R.S. McCain
Obama’s Staggering Record of Failure: Peter Wehner
Obama’s Predictable Response to VA Problems: Rick Jensen
How Hillary's Chinese baggage could see the light of day: Thomas Lifson
Allen West Demands a “Convention of the States” to Stop Obama: ConTrib
Free Ice Cream Cones: Easy Opinions
Oklahoma Lawmakers Overwhelmingly Vote to Repeal Common Core: Breitbart
2012 FBI Homicide Stats Are Out : Fists beat Rifles: iOTW
Economy
Facts Are Stubborn Things--As Thomas Piketty Just Found Out: RicochetNot Missing Out This Time: Thomas Purcell
GOP Looks Forward with New Agenda for Poor and Middle Class: PJM
Ex-Bundesbank Official: Current Economic System "Pure Fiction": Mish
No Inflation Friday: 42.4% Increase In The Price Of Being... Poor?: ZH
Economist Warns Recession is Beyond Control: FreePost
Scandal Central
RESIGN: Kevin D. WilliamsonObama’s HUD Pick Misused Agency Funds for Low-Income Housing as Mayor: JW
LIAR: Failed Oregon Exchange Director Still Paid $15K a Month: WZ
Climate & Energy
Delay EPA power plant rules, senators demand: InstapunditWarming: Chicago beaches open with record low lake temperatures, hypothermia danger: Marathon
Good News: Energy Prices Set To Spike: Pirate's Cove
Media
Is the “conspiracy theory” theory setting the stage for the end of America?: Nox & FriendsThe Darwinian Dead End: Feminists Subtract Themselves From the Future: R.S. McCain
ESPN's Stephen A. Smith Called 'Uncle Tom' for Defending Mark Cuban: TR
MSNBC Seeks to Discredit Benghazi Investigation: Roger Aronoff
Touré clobbered for foul idiocy about white privilege of Holocaust survivors: Twitchy
MSNBC's Harris-Perry Likens NBA to Slavery: Breitbart
Todd Zywicki on "Operation Chokepoint": Instapundit
Ben Carson: VA Mess Predicts Even Worse Outcome for Obamacare: Todd Beamon
Justice Is Dead In Amerika: Paul Craig Roberts
World
Sheikh Who OK’d Killing Americans in Iraq Gets White House Reception: Patrick Poole#Who’s My Little Golubushka?: MOTUS
China And Russia Hold "Massive" Joint Naval Drill: This Is What It Looked Like: ZH
Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)
The Net neutrality debate Part I: How we got here: CNetSurveillance technology companies are arms dealers, says researcher: FierceGovernmentIT
These are the customized Lamborghinis of Japan's underworld: Verge
Cornucopia
This Texas Gun Store Is Changing Their Sign Every Week: FreePatriotOne man, two horses, and Old Glory: Rapid City Journal
Remembering Those Who Fought This Memorial Day: ASMBA
Image: School’s Out Forever: Photos from Chicago’s shuttered public schools.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BOOM: Chris McDaniel for Senate
QOTD: "Every time business picks up at a paper-plate factory in Sheboygan, the president attempts to seize credit for the three jobs therein created. If you had attended the 2012 Democratic convention, you’d have thought that Barack Obama personally pulled the trigger on Osama bin Laden and had donned green eyeshades to turn around the financial affairs of General Motors. Strangely, after having bragged about saving GM, the Obama administration wishes to accept no responsibility for the deadly, possibly criminal, and certainly negligent actions of that firm during a period in which the U.S. government was its principal shareholder. Who knows how many people are dead or injured because GM refused to improve faulty switches? Who knows how many veterans are dead because of the VA?
If you want credit for the happy unexpected consequences of every snail hiccup across the fruited plains, then you have to take responsibility for the actions of your government — the things that are, after all, directly your responsibility.
President Obama clings to his sad little throne even more desperately than does General Shinseki. Faced with evidence of the incompetence of his administration, the president pronounced himself outraged, vowed that he would not tolerate it, would not stand for it — he in fact did everything except take responsibility for the actions of his government. The dishonesty and malpractice he vowed never to tolerate were, after all, the actions of his own administration, and the fact that they (may have) happened at some degree of separation from his own sacred person is hardly a defense. We made the head of the VA a cabinet-level position in order that the secretary might report directly to the president. The president, however, must be paying attention. President Obama was not." --Kevin D. Williamson
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Stephen A. Smith Rips the Racialists
I know I'm prejudiced and I know I'm bigoted in a lot of different ways. If I see a black kid in a hoodie on my side of the street, I'll move to the other side of the street. If I see a white guy with a shaved head and tattoos, I'll move back to the other side of the street. None of us have pure thoughts; we all live in glass houses.
After all the faux outrage, ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith backed Cuban up. And he was promptly slammed by the usual batch of racialists.
Smith's response is well worth watching.
"Sometimes it is how you represent yourself!"
Smith describes his personal journey to success and explains it's all about hard work.
"This is the road you gotta climb... everyone can't be Jay-Z!"
I commend Stephen A. Smith. What he speaks is truth. Plain and simple, it's truth.
Hat tip: BadBlue Fame
"Why Our Political System's Screwed, in One Very Basic Chart"
This proves that we're all hypocrites, or unable to control our political destinies, or both.
That chart, along with a bunch of other disturbing data, comes courtesy of the National Journal. Even though voters claim to hate Congress now more than ever, not a single incumbent has lost a primary.
...NJ explains this with the usual "politics is local" wisdom: We hate Congress, but we like our individual congressional representative. Plus, most districts are gerrymandered in partisan ways. And of course, there's always the chance that those incumbents can lose the general election, though they rarely do...
This is why I don't call it a reelection rate; I prefer the term "recidivism rate."
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
THE FREEDOM INDEX: Find Out Where Your Congressional Representative Stacks Up
Read more at The New American.
















