Spencerblog is in the Czech Republic or as we are now calling it, SpencerPrague. Postings will be light and will also depend on whether I can find an adapter for the nutty electrical outlets here.

In the meantime, while I will be off print-wise next week, I will have a column in this Sunday's Times about the Penn Delco School District and its weird treatment of the Aston Valley Baseball League.

Czech it out!

Dr. Jerry Lazaroff, the Media child psychologist acquited of molestation charges, informs me that his license to practice has been reinstated and he will go back to work for the county court system this Monday.

Good for him. And kudos to Judge Joe Cronin and Court Administrator Phil Damiani for helping make it happen.

Killer Ramir Steve gets life.

From our story:

Following the decision, the victim’s family issued a statement that “there is no winner in the outcome of this tragedy, only two families who have lost their son and brother.”



The statement handed out by the victim’s father, John Cunningham, expressed “no ill will toward the Steve family” and stated it will “continue to pray for them as well as Ramir.”

No blood lust. No anger. Just sadness and class. Makes you want to cry.

Ann Bayefsky at Forbes let's Obama have it for his Iran dithering.

Money Q:

This is a man who embodies the opposite of the courage to act. His appalling ignorance of history prompted him to claim at his press conference that "the Iranian people … aren't paying a lot of attention to what's being said … here." On the contrary, from their jail cells in the Gulag, Soviet dissidents took heart from what was being said here--as all dissidents dream that the leader of the free world will be prepared to speak and act in their defense.

Welcome to the "man-cession"

Am I reading this correctly. Are Steny Hoyer and George Miller saying Congress must pay as it goes for what it spends?

Because, if so, what's with Obama and the Democrats quadrupling of the deficit?

Oh, it's George Bush's fault. Nevermind.

South Carolina's Republican governor Mark Sanford disappears for a week and then comes home to admit to an affair with some woman from Argentina.

Mrs. Sanford is not pleased. She didn't appear at his mea culpa press conference. Good for her.

An affair is one thing. Disappearing for a week to break it off is another. He's done

A teacher in Germany has lost a lawsuit trying to down a website that allows students to grade teachers. The head of the teachers' association is unhappy.

From the story:"

It is inexplicable that the BGH values the personal rights of teachers less than an anonymous assessment of teachers by students on the Internet," Association president Josef Kraus said, referring to the federal court.

It is very explicable. It's called free speech and its nice to see it being protected in other parts of the world.

Coalbuster and government employee James Hansen gets arrested at protest.

Is that Cindy Sheehan next to him?

Thornbury Township is helping its residents go "green" by not charging for permits to transition to clean energy.

Township supervisor Jim Raith says like "geothermal and solar, etc."

Ecetera?

Does that mean we can expect seeing more windmills in Glen Mills? Probably not. Another term for "clean energy" is "expensive energy."

But as with many "green" ideas, it's the thought that counts.

Romar, I mean Ramir Steve, convicted in cabbie murder.

Tough case.

Perez Hilton punched in the face.

Go figure.

The good news? He made the Drudge Report again.

Saunders on whistleblower Walpin who was fired by the White House for murky reasons.

Didn't NASA's James "Chicken Little" Hansen manage to keep his job during the horrid Bush Administration? Apparently the Bushies were cowed when he took the Peter Venkman approach to his critics.

"Back off man, I'm a scientist."

UPDATE: See today's Daily Times editorial on Walpin.

Obama is losing the confidence of independent voters, like Spencerblog for instance.

But then we had little confidence he would lead the country in the right direction in the first place.

Interviewed by CBS last Friday about the protests in Iran and Obama finally comes out in support of the Iranian protestors. And CBS drops its scoop... of ice cream.

The U.S.S. Welfare State has hit an iceberg.

Money Q:

Any sober examination of figures like these suggests that the system has promised more than it can realistically deliver. We are borrowing not to finance investment in the future but to pay for today's welfare -- present consumption. Sooner or later, the huge debt will weaken the economy. Nor would paying for all promised benefits with higher taxes be desirable. Big increases in either debt or taxes risk depressing economic growth, making it harder yet to pay promised benefits.

President Obama is not responsible for the growth of the welfare state before his administration. But he is certainly responsible for it now. And he doesn't seem to think its a problem.

Your happy thought for the day: Al Qaeda would be happy to nuke the U.S. if it got its hands on one.

Headline: Al Qaeda says would use Pakistani nuclear weapons
What? Nork Nukes not good enough for ya?

Three apparent B.F. Skinner devotees have e-mailed (one all the way from Norway) to tell me the quote I attributed to the famed psychologist in Friday's column is wrong.

The quote: "The object of life is to gratify yourself without getting arrested."

I came across it while reading a Walker Percy novel called "The Thanatos Syndrome." The protagonist in the book, a psychiatrist, so quotes Skinner, incorrectly it turns out.

It turns out the object of some people's lives is to search the Internet for incorrect quotes attributed to B.F. Skinner and correct them.

We stand corrected.

The World's Shortest Slasher Flick. Pretty derivative but the surprise ending is worth it.

Nice Father's Day story by Patti Mengers on Coach Craig.

Protesters in the streets, violence, authoritarianism and our ice-cream eating President: The music video.

Of course, its not really fair but that didn't stop the left from composing similar unflattering ditties about his predecessor.

It's about time Obama spoke out forcefully against the mullah's crack-down and on behalf of Iran's democratic movement.

"Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama!" - Hugo Chavez.

Ed Fuelmer discusses the implications.

“I do think experience matters to some degree. Someone once said that to (then)-state legislator President Obama, and look what he’s done.” -- Congressman Joe Sestak.

Yes. He got elected President of the United States with very little executive experience.

And it's showing.

I am out of town taking a couple days off, but my print column on the accused predator policeman is up.

Ex-state trooper Albert Silveri took the stand yesterday at his trial for solicitating sex with minors.

The case raises real questions about these sort of stings. Questions I will attempt to sort and answer in Friday's column. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's my column from today's paper on the latest with the aquitted Dr. Jerry Lazaroff.

He could be back to working for the Delaware County court system pretty soon and he'll be welcomed back with open arms.

Panetta walks back from claim Cheney wants the U.S. attacked by terrorists.

He said it, but he doesn't believe it.

The country's in the very best of hands.

Cynthia Yockey is one angry lesbian. Her goal is to get David Letterman fired for his crass joke about Sarah Palin's daughter. I doubt she'll succeed but I admire her righteous anger and toughness.

UPDATE: Here's Letterman's apology.

Somehow, I don't think Cindy's gonna buy it.

Cardinal O'Hara Prez Bill McCusker is busted for DUI.

I just talked to him last week about a graduate who got detention for having his name yelled out at commencement. (I even wrote a column about it.)

Rules is rules, he said. They sure are.

I like McCusker. I doubt I will be hearing from his father and I expect he will take his punishment like a man.

Ah, the old "My twin brother did it" defense.

Robert Samuelson on the President's healthplan:

It's hard to know whether President Obama's health care "reform" is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest. Probably all three. The president keeps saying it's imperative to control runaway health spending. He's right. The trouble is that what's being promoted as health care "reform" almost certainly won't suppress spending and, quite probably, will do the opposite.

"Yes, we can" give foreign terrorists Miranda warnings, free lawyers, and the full protection of the U.S. Constitution.

And The One taketh away your job as an Inspector General if you investigate one of his political friends.

A Lansdowne man is taking a 5-year jolt for trying to bribe a witness in a home invasion case.

From the story:

Curtis Branch tried to persuade an Upper Darby man not to testify against three men who had robbed him in May 2008, court documents indicate.



Branch allegedly told the victim he would be paid $5,000 not to show up in court, documents indicate. The victim did testify and five people are now awaiting trial in connection with the robbery and home invasion.

This a lot more civilized than having the guy killed, though apparently less effective.

An 18-year-old is shot and killed in a Chester housing project and a crowd of about 100 turns on police.

It was 1 a.m. Saturday morning when the call came in. A tactical team had to be called in to disperse the crowd.

From the story:

Police believe the shooting is a result of an ongoing dispute between groups from the Crosby Square Apartments and the William Penn Housing Development.

Groups? Sounds like gangs to me.

Barney Frank sees nothing wrong with a congressman using his power to save a GM autoparts provider in his district, especially if the congressman is HIM.

We should all be clear on this: When President Obama says that the new GM will be run by GM and not politicians he is either lying to us or kidding himself. When it can be shown that a powerful congressman can order a government-owned and dependent business to do something, more congressman will try to do so and succeed.

Suddenly, you don't have an independent management team making business decisions based on what is fiscally sound and profitable but based on political influence and power. How good is the federal government at running enterprises at a profit? Not very.

Leon Panetta says he believes Dick Cheney would like to see the U.S. attacked by terrorists just to prove his point..

Nice.

Isn't that like accusing liberals of wanting the Bush Administration to lose the war in Iraq?

No. Because liberals did actually root against our winning the Iraq war. While Cheney helped successfully keep America safe after 9/11 for seven years.

Sounds like the CIA chief is trying to make up with the Democratic left for challenging Nancy Pelosi's claim that the CIA lies to Congress as a matter of routine.

I missed this George Will column on the government takeover of GM. It isn't his first on the subject but it may be his best.

Money Q:

"What we are not doing — what I have no interest in doing — is running GM," says the president who, when not firing GM's CEO, purging its board of directors and picking new members, is designing new products (imposing fuel economy requirements that will control size, weight, passenger capacity and safety). The president, overcoming his professed reluctance to run GM, resembles the journalist Don Marquis when, after a month on the wagon, he ordered a double martini and exclaimed: "I've conquered my ***dam willpower."

Read it all.

My Sunday print column is up in which a barfly weighs in on Ed, Arlen, Joe and Yours Truly.

Check this out. And read the post. Good stuff.

A Chicago columnist named Mary Mitchell decided to weigh in on the Letterman-Palin war but did so rather clumsily.

While in New York the Palins, Sarah, her husband Todd and 14-year-old daughter Willow went to a Yankee game.

Letterman's joke: An awkward moment occurred during the 7th inning when Sarah Palin's daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.

In criticizing Letterman for his tasteless joke, Mitchell also thought it important to blast the Palins as well.

She writes:

"Knocked up?" Forget for a moment that the joke was beneath the level of a host who is considered the king of late-night comedy. But "knocked up" is a crass term that reflects a negative attitude about pregnant women.

Is "knocked up" really that offensive a term? After all, a movie by the same name turned out to be pretty popular and well-received, though it did contain a lot of very crass jokes.

And the Palin family seized the opportunity to exploit Letterman's "despicable" joke by claiming the funnyman was talking about Willow.

Well, she WAS the daughter who was at the game. Why wouldn't they assume he was talking her. Why wouldn't anyone?

Letterman, of course, left himself wide open. Because while some people might think Bristol Palin deserves to be the butt of bad jokes, she might just be the most popular teenage mom since Jamie Lee Spears.

Some people being, well Mary Mitchell, I guess.

By dragging Willow into the dust-up, the Palins are again able to divert attention away from the real issues involving their oldest daughter.

Again, it was Letterman who dragged Willow into the dust-up, not the Palins. She was AT THE GAME. Bristol wasn't.

But here is the capper:

Bristol is an 18-year-old unmarried mother who is going through baby-daddy drama. As such, her life mocks the family values conservatives such as her mother preach.

What we have here is Mary Mitchell trying to mock and mischaracterize conservatives and their so-called family values.

One of those values, especially among pro-life conservatives, is that if your teenage daughter gets pregnant, you don't throw her out of the house or rush her to an abortion clinic. What you do is deal with the situation in a loving and life-respecting way. As far as I can tell, that is what the Palins have done.

If liberals want to seize on Bristol's pregancy as evidence that abstinence-only school programs don't work or something like that, I suppose they are free to try. It might even be reasonable for them to do so, if Bristol had no other sort of sex education, which for some reason I doubt. But certainly the other sort of sex education that has been taught in the lower 48 states over the past 30 years, the kind that taught kids about "safe sex," and the specific techniques to engage in it, didn't do much to stop teen pregnancy, as it exploded during the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

But to claim Bristol's pregnancy and her actually having the baby, makes a "mockery" out of her family's values is so lame it could almost be a Letterman joke.

Never heard of Louis CK before but he's funny. And boy is right about the times we live in.

Check out this video. Be patient, it works in fits and starts. But it's worth the wait if you want to see how well a taser works on a a 72-year-old woman.

You can't say she didn't ask for it.

Still, when she said she'd "sign the damn ticket," the cop should have let her.

Instead, well... as James Bond would say, "Shocking!"

My friend Bill Bender (former Daily Times reporter) plays catch-up on the Specter-Sestak story. And does a pretty darn good job.

I especially liked Delco Dem leader Cliff Wilson's analogy to Sestak as baseball player whose popular with the crowd but not so popular with his teammates in the dugout.

He makes Sestak sound like Barry Bonds.

Elsewhere, Specter-supporter Ed Rendell says Sestak is "being a little bit selfish" by challenging his candidate. He means "a lot selfish."

Meanwhile, the GOP congressional committee is going after Sestak with a press release claiming he is siding with Nancy Pelosi and against the Obama administration when it comes the public release of photographs allegedlly depicting prisoner-abuse by American military personnel.

From the release:

Washington- Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) marched with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's extreme beat once again today and voted with the far-left against a critical national security policy supported by President Obama (House
Roll Call 329). The amendment would give the President power to block
Freedom of Information Act releases of detainee photos for reasons of
national security. This amendment, supported by the White House and
passed with broad bi-partisan support in the Senate, was primarily
opposed by the most liberal members of the Democrat Party.

"Once again Joe Sestak has chosen to be a puppet of the most liberal
wing of the Democrat Party instead of voting to protect the lives of
American men and women in uniform," said NRCC Communications Director
Ken Spain. "By voting against blocking the release of these detainee
photographs, Joe Sestak is acting against the wishes of our military
commanders in a shallow effort to ingratiate himself to Speaker Pelosi."

In a declaration to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals General Petraeus
warned that releasing the photos would endanger the lives of US
Servicemen and Servicewomen:

"The release of images depicting U.S. servicemen mistreating detainees
in Iraq and Afghanistan, or that could be construed as depicting
mistreatment, would likely deal a particularly hard blow to USCENTCOM
and U.S. interagency counterinsurgency efforts in these three key
nations, as well as further endanger the lives of U.S. Soldiers,
Marines, Airmen, Sailors, civilians and contractors presently serving
there."

Hard to say if this will help or hurt Joe in a Democratic primary but it would surely help with the some primary voters.

It is doubtful that Joe was trying to ingratiate himself with Speaker Pelosi. But almost certainly with this vote he was trying to ingratiate himself with the hard left of his party.

Brouhaha in Upland. The Chief of Police vs. a local attorney. My print column is up.

Chucky the K is not impressed with the President's criticism of the USA abroad or his understanding of history.

Money Q:

Obama undoubtedly thinks he is demonstrating historical magnanimity with all these moral equivalencies and self-flagellating apologetics. On the contrary. He's showing cheap condescension, an unseemly hunger for applause and a willingness to distort history for political effect.
Distorting history is not truth-telling, but the telling of soft lies. Creating false equivalencies is not moral leadership, but moral abdication. And hovering above it all, above country and history, is a sign not of transcendence but of a disturbing ambivalence toward one's own country.

The WSJ explains Obama's "Paygo" scam for the hoax that it is.

The rise of the Independents.

Money Q:

Independents are nonideological problem-solvers, but they do not have a split-the-difference approach to politics. They are fiscally conservative but socially progressive, with a strong libertarian streak. It's on fiscal issues that independents are putting the Obama administration on notice.

Bailout backlash is reflected in independents' attitude about the expanding social safety net. Just 43% believe that we "should help more needy people, even if it means going deeper into debt" -- down 14 points over two years. Independents' belief that "labor unions are necessary to protect the working person" has declined 23% since 2003. They are closer to the Republican view that government is usually wasteful and inefficient.

The liberal wing of the Democrat party simply can't attact these people.

Obama ran as a moderate but is revealing himself day in and day out to be a big government, big spending statist.

To make a comeback, the GOP has to dig in its heels against crazy government spending. The biggest social issue facing the country is the economy and a Democrat-controlled government taking more control of it. This is the fight Republicans must take on to win the votes of Independents.

So NOW Obama is lecturing Democrats to watch their spending. The biggest herd of horses in the history of the world has left the barn and now it's time to shut the door?

Right.

Obama now claims to want a "pay as you go" government. For every dollar of spending there must be a corresponding $1 spending cut or, hold on to your wallets, a tax hike.

Which is to say, that tax cut 95 percent of us were supposed to get, yeah, well, we can pretty much forget about it.

The Democrats' stimulus isn't stimulating and is being spent on bankrupt car companies, social programs and to bail out states that were wildly irresponsible with their own spending in flush times. Still Obama wants to pretend that he is The One who is being fiscally responsible.

Why not? The suckers have bought what he's been selling so far. But one day soon his own audacity will catch up with him. The Washington press corps won't moon over him forever. And when they quit, and when they start seeing him for the political charlatan that he is, it isn't going to be pretty.

Ridley Parks Susan Byrd has an interesting letter in today's Daily Times concerning the reason Arlen Specter left the Republican party.

She writes:



People who say U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., changed political parties solely from political self-interest are wrong. He changed from Republican to Democrat for the same reasons so many of his constituents did. His critics are aware of these reasons, but they pretend not to understand.



As one of those critics, I think Ms. Byrd is wrong. Arlen didn' change parties for the same reason a few, not many, of his constituents did. They changed parties to vote for Ed Rendell in Democratic primary. I know a Republican who changed parties to vote for Hillary so that Barack Obama wouldn't win the nomination. Arlen changed parties not to vote for a particular candidate that suited his taste. He changed parties to BE THAT CANDIDATE. To hold on to his seat. He said as much himself.

Ms. Byrd continues:

I have admired Arlen Specter for many years. Although I am a Democrat, and he was a Republican, we are alike. We are neither liberals nor conservatives. We are moderates. Moderates are free to vote their conscience. They understand that some problems need a conservative solution while others need a more liberal one. They have not sold their souls to any political ideology.



Nevermind that "liberals" and "conservatives" in office are free to "vote their consciences" whenever they desire. Arlen hasn't sold his soul to a political ideology. He sold his soul for political viablity and survival. He's done it before, when he changed from Democrat to Republican to run for higher office decades ago. Who knows, he could do it again.

Ms Byrd credits Arlen with leaving the Repubican party because it moved so far "to the right."

If it keeps on turning right at this rate, it will end up more conservative than the Taliban!



Really. Does Ms. Byrd really think the GOP is interested in executing homosexuals and girls who seek an education? Weren't Republicans fairly vocal about and supportive of toppling the Taliban in Afghanistan? Republicans didn't lose in the last election because they were becoming "more like the Taliban." They lost because they drifted away from the principles voters elected them to uphold. They lost because they became as lazy and corrupt as the Democrats they replaced in power. They lost because the economy went south. Not because people feared they were about to impose Shariah law.

Because Specter voted his conscience instead of the Republican Party line, the party retaliated by withdrawing its support.

Wrong again. The "party" didn't withdraw its support, GOP voters did. The party establishment was perfectly willing to support Specter but the rank and file balked. Big difference.

It was clear that his political philosophy was now more Democratic than Republican. He made the correct choice at the correct time.

What political philosophy? Arlen made a gimlet-eyed political calculation. He was wooed by the Democratic establishment to change parties and he did so for his own political survival. If that's a philosophy, racoons have a philosophy too.





Gene Barr from the state Chamber of Business of Industry sends along this note and a copy of a New York Times story from 1999"

"Reading the article in your blog about Barney Frank," Barr wrote, "reminded me about
this article. You may have seen it already."

From the story:

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders...

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits...

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's."

There was no bigger supporter or cheerleader for this program than Rep. Barney Frank. But he acts like it was all the Republicans fault. The man's a hypocrite through and through and irresponsible one at that.

In her interview, Lisa DePaulo seemed more interested in whether Frank was going to marry his young boyfriend than asking any tough questions about his personal and political responsibility for the Fannie Mae debacle. But then GQ ain't exactly a source for political news and analysis.

NASA's James Hansen has claimed the Bush Administration attempted to muzzle him and his views on catastrophic climate change. When, in reality, he may be the least muzzled government employee in history.

NYT's Ross Douthat weighs in (and quite reasonably) on George Tiller's murder.

Money Q:

The argument for unregulated abortion rests on the idea that where there are exceptions, there cannot be a rule. Because rape and incest can lead to pregnancy, because abortion can save women’s lives, because babies can be born into suffering and certain death, there should be no restrictions on abortion whatsoever.

As a matter of moral philosophy, this makes a certain sense. Either a fetus has a claim to life or it doesn’t. The circumstances of its conception and the state of its health shouldn’t enter into the equation.

But the law is a not a philosophy seminar. It’s the place where morality meets custom, and compromise, and common sense. And it can take account of tragic situations without universalizing their lessons.

The L.A. Times spinning unemployment into funemployment gives Iowahawk all the inspiration he needs.

Barney Frank on Arrogance, Outing, Hypocrisy, Arlen Specter, and his much younger, surfer boyfriend. And more.

With the Phillies off, I watched a movie called Waitress the other night On Demand. It was completely charming and Keri Russell was luminous in the lead role. Funny, sweet, tough, tragic and triumphant.

It was one of those little, independently released films that got some notice a couple years back. It has been described as a feminist fairy tale. It is that. But it is also has a very pro-life subtext that is hard to ignore.

I was sad to learn that its writer-director Adrienne Shelly was murdered at the age of 40, soon before the film's release. (She also appears in the film as Russell's goofy fellow waitress, Dawn.) She wrote the script when she was pregnant with her own daughter, Sophie.

That such a sweet, clever and brave voice has been silenced is, indeed, a tragedy.

Obama's Justice Department looks the other way when weapon-wielding Black Panthers intimidate voters in Philadelphia and bans the state of Georgia from checking whether voters are voting legally.

As Obama said "I won" and his administration will enforce "voters rights" any way they want.

The Obamedia fails to question the President's "jobs created or saved" formulation, says Bill McGurn.

"You created a situation where you cannot be wrong," said the Montana Democrat (Max Baucus). "If the economy loses two million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would've lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs. You've given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct."

At least a few outlets are starting to notice.

NYT's Nick Kristol weighs in to the debate about I.Q. and success in the world. He seems to think that it is not that important and cites the work of Dr. Richard Nisbett.

“I think the evidence is very good that there is no genetic contribution to the black-white difference on I.Q.,” he said, adding that there also seems to be no genetic difference in intelligence between whites and Asians."

Kristol cites "education, education and education" as being imperative and
the success stories of three different ethnic groups in America and then comes the clincher.

What’s the policy lesson from these three success stories?

It’s that the most decisive weapons in the war on poverty aren’t transfer payments but education, education, education. For at-risk households, that starts with social workers making visits to encourage such basic practices as talking to children. One study found that a child of professionals (disproportionately white) has heard about 30 million words spoken by age 3; a black child raised on welfare has heard only 10 million words, leaving that child at a disadvantage in school.

Yikes. Just what America's poor need, a new army of social workers. They'll help just by "talking" to them.

The next step is intensive early childhood programs, followed by improved elementary and high schools, and programs to defray college costs.

Haven't we been trying to "improve" our schools for several decades now, by spending billions more money on teachers. And yet, educational achievement and competence is still lousy. Oh well, as long as we "help defray college" costs.

More important than I.Q. says Nisbett, is "drive and perservance." But how does he know the two are very much connected? No doubt there are some lazy intelligent people, but aren't some dumb ones lazy too?

The I.Q. debate has cooled since the appearance of Richard Hernstein and Charles Murray's "The Bell Curve," which didn't shrink from the differences in I.Q. between racial and ethnic groups. The book was met with hysteria from the left because it recognized the inheritability of intelligence. Whether this is genetic or familial and cultural remains something of open question.

But the stubborn fact remains that certain ethnic groups get lower scores I.Q. tests than others. The response to this fact, should be "so what?" Standard deviation should tell "smart" people that there is no knowing how smart or stupid a person without testing them INDIVIDUALLY. That is to say, everyone should be judged on their OWN merits.

The idea that an army of social workers forcing their way into people's homes or spending trillions on urban school districts will equalized group I.Q. differences is, dare I say, idiotic.

Better to take the approach Charles Murray recommends, that even those on the lower end of the I.Q. scale can have "a valued place" in our society. Anyone who has the "drive and perserverance" to show up for work day in and day out deserves our respect. Those who have high I.Q.s and sit on their asses, expecting to be treated like royalty, don't.

The AP notices that big government spending programs are hurting, not helping, the economy.

Money Q:

To understand how this is all connected, you have to think like a bond trader. Inflation is their enemy because it means the purchasing power of the dollars they receive when bonds eventually are paid off will be diminished. The only question is by how much.

Isn't inflation the enemy of every American, especially those on fixed incomes?

Meanwhile, as usual, Robert Samuelson explains it better.

Shelby Steele beats Obama's Sotomayor nomination like a Chinese gong.

Money Q:

The Sotomayor nomination commits the cardinal sin of identity politics: It seeks to elevate people more for the political currency of their gender and ethnicity than for their individual merit. (Here, too, is the ugly faithlessness in minority merit that always underlies such maneuverings.) Mr. Obama is promising one thing and practicing another, using his interracial background to suggest an America delivered from racial corruption even as he practices a crude form of racial patronage. From America's first black president, and a man promising the "new," we get a Supreme Court nomination that is both unoriginal and hackneyed.

Steele's critique would be more powerful if he observed Republicans have fallen into the same practice. G.H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas cynically claiming he was the best the candidate for the job, when it was the color of his skin that elevated him on the list of potentials. At least Thomas never claimed that a wise black man would make better decisions on the bench than a wise white woman. He has proven to be a solid and very competent justice even if Barack Obama refuses to notice.

J.C. Watts notices that overcoming poverty and other barriers means a lot to Democrats for Surpreme Court nominees, if they don't respect life, liberty, the Second Amendment and all that other stuff conservatives appreciate.

Newsweek announces "Victory in Iraq."

Thanks for noticing fellas.

My print column on Weathers Dodge is up.

Given a quarter century ago this weekend, Ronald Reagan's speech on the 40th Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion.

It's worth the read.

A Senate committee is looking into the question of what the Bush-era enhanced interrogation techniques got in the way of intelligence. Good.

Not so good is the Democrats reaction to a few Republicans telling the press that it looks like the EITs worked and prevented terrorist attacks.

The Dems are OUTRAGED, that Republicans would leak "classified" information. Only they didn't. They provided no specifics from the briefings. They merely said that what they were told by the CIA backs up past claims of terror disruption thanks to the EITs.

Either the EITs worked, which would prove the Dems were wrong about their claims that they never did, or they didn't. If they didn't, the Dems would be chomping at the bit to leak their own version of what they are now being told. So its obvious, based on the Dems reaction that the Republicans have the truth on their side. A truth the Dems want to be able to spin at a later date.

Asked by the media whether the substance of the GOP's claims are true, the Dems refused to answer citing the briefings were "classified." Right. So were the "torture memos" until they were unclassified by a Democratic president for political reasons. The stench of Democratic hypocrisy is reaching vomit-inducing levels.

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi is far from off the hook for her claim that the CIA habitually lies to Congress. Republicans are demanding a public investigation and/or hearings on the Speaker's assertions.

The Dems are claiming the Republicans are "playing politics" with national security, which is a hoot, given that Dems have made playing politics with national security an art form for the last seven years.

Obama has managed to push this story off the the front pages, with overseas speeches and the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, but it will come back to haunt him and the leadership of his party. In their efforts to destroy the Bush presidency they had to resort to rank hypocrisy and mendaciousness. The chickens are coming home to roost.

Victor Davis Hanson learned an important lesson about how the world works (and people too) as a younger man: Show weakness and your adversaries will take full advantage.

So far, the Obama foreign policy is one of apologies and groveling. Hanson believes Obama will learn his lesson. I have my doubts.

Forte pleads guilty but before sentencing it would be nice to get some sort of accounting of where all the money went.

Former fetus George Jonas cleverly weighs in on the murder of late-term abortionist George Tiller.

Money Q:

Some put the question in terms of a woman's right to control her own body. That would be valid enough in the realm of smoking, diet, liposuction or sex -- but abortion? Abortion means controlling someone else's body. Incidentally, I realize that as a man I have no authority to speak on the matter, but I'm not speaking as a man. I wouldn't dare. I'm speaking strictly as an ex-fetus.

And in my capacity as an ex-fetus, I say controlling someone else's body is where abortionists and their assassins meet. Please note that I say "meet." I don't say justify. Nothing justifies the assassin. Does anything justify the abortionist? Gee, Mom, I don't know. You tell me.

My print column on the assassination of abortionist George Tiller is up.

May he rest in peace, even though many of his 60,000 victims rest in pieces.

Who to believe? The New York Times and the Pulitizer committee or Col. Ken Allard.

You decide.

The Non-Governmental Panel on Climate Change takes on some of the conclusions of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change.

Wait, don't these guys know the debate is supposed to be over and it's time to make wrenching changes in the way we live our lives?

Woman loses Cap'n Crunchberries lawsuit. She thought the crunchberries were real berries, turns out they're not.

What's the world coming to?

Hopefully, Sotomajor will be asked about the precedent this sets for Grape Nuts, Fruitloops and Count Chocula. Did you know there are no real vampires in Count Chocula?

Stuart Taylor offers conservatives advice on how to frame the Sotomayor nomination.

One university keeps to its principles, the other sells out. Which do you think is which?

A rape suspect nearly beaten to death by an angry mob.

From the story

A neighbor who said he witnessed the assault outside a corner grocery store said the community had to take action. Louis Valentine, 47, said he had helped hand out pictures of Carrasquillo in the day before the crowd spotted him on the street Tuesday.

“I’m proud of the community for the first time,” said Valentine, who moved to the neighborhood from New York two years ago. “You don’t do that to a little angel.”

Yeah. Well, this is nothing short of vigilantism. If a bunch of Philly cops did this, they'd be villified and brought up on charges. The "neighbors" who participated in this street beating should be identified and prosecuted.

Hopefully, they got the right guy, the scumbag who raped a local 11-year-old girl. And if they did, he deserved every kick, every bat to the head, he got. But it isn't a mob's place to dispense justice in this country, no matter what the crime.

Excellent piece in today's paper by Alex Rose about Joe Sestak's quest for a U.S. Senate seat.

A couple of highlights:

His desire to run despite the fact that the entire Democratic establishment is against his running:

“It comes from the military, a meritocracy and any idea of kings or king makers is anathema to that culture,” said Sestak. “I have the greatest respect for President Obama, and the entire Washington political establishment — in fact, I’m running fully in support of President Obama’s agenda.”

Sestak brings up his military background just about every time he's asked a question about anything.

Q: "Congressman, what do you think of the Phillies chances this year?

A: "The team reminds me of when I wore our nation's cloth, commanding a battle group during the war in Afghanistan. Baseball is a meritocracy. Just like the military in which I served. The lead-off hitter, Johnny Rollings, isn't annoited by king makers. He wins the job on the field of battle. That's how the Democratic primary should be."

“I love my current job and it is where I thought I would be just a few months ago, (but) I believe that many people feel like I do, that we want a say in who our nominee will be,” said Sestak.


Translation: "That nominee should be ME!"

“Everybody ought to run if he or she wants to run,” Specter told “Fox News Sunday” when asked about Sestak’s likely candidacy. “And I’m ready to take on all comers.”


Translation: "Please, Please, Please stay out of this race, Joe. Pretty please with a cherry on top. Otherwise, I WILL CRUSH YOU."

“Politically Uncorrected” column authors Dr. G. Terry Madonna, professor of public affairs at Franklin & Marshall College, and Dr. Michael Young, managing partner of Michael Young Strategic Research, agreed with Rendell’s assessment.



According to the pair’s most recent column, Sestak might end up “less the prospective giant killer and more the kamikaze mission recruit.”

Joe is no recruit. He is a volunteer. Actually, he is worse. He's flying without orders from the high command. Ed Rendell has been sent out to shoot him down.

“He’d get killed,” said Rendell. “Joe should run for Congress again, establish some seniority. … His time will come, but it’s not this year.”


Translation: "His time will come, when WE say it will come."

George Will on ABC's The Goode Family and the cult of Green Guilt.

Money Q:

Gerald and Helen Goode, their children and dog Che (when supervised, he is a vegan; when unsupervised, squirrels disappear) live in a college town, where T-shirts and other media instruct ("Meat is murder"), admonish ("Don't kill wood") and exhort ("Support our troops ... and their opponents"). The college, where Gerald works, gives students tenure. And when Gerald says his department needs money to raise the percentage of minority employees, his boss cheerily replies, "Or we could just fire three white guys. Everybody wins!" Helen shops at the One Earth store, where community shaming enforces social responsibility: "Attention One Earth shoppers, the driver of the SUV is in aisle four. He's wearing the baseball cap."

Don't know if it will get ratings, but sounds kind of funny... and true.

Hey Progressives, you wanna have a national conversation about race? The Sotomayor nomination will give you the chance. Jonah Goldberg has more.

Toy gun scare causes lockdown at Princeton U.

Does it look like a real gun to you?

Bill O'Reilly responds to those who blame him for Dr. Tillers' murder.

Andrew Klavan on The Night of the Living Government.

My print column on the Marple Newtown Bible case is up.

It's not fashionable to talk about de-regulation, but when it comes to automakers and CAFE standards, that's what needed. Holman Jenkins explains

Will Obama Motors do it. Of course not. Too many of his constituencies would pitch a fit.

Money Q:

Unfortunately, Mr. Obama, that freethinker, took to the CAFE fraud like a bat to a belfry. He signaled his arrival on the presidential stage by sternly demanding higher mileage standards early in his campaign. The "change" candidate who might have broken with a generation of political cant about CAFE instead appropriated the fraud for his own careerist purposes.

Late-term abortionist George Tiller was murdered by the anti-abortion zealot. Pro-choice groups and progressives are blaming the entire pro-life movement for the crime, despite the fact that just about every pro-group in the country explicitly takes a moral stand against such acts of violence.

The murder appears to be the act of a deranged man acting alone. So the efforts of pro-choicers to paint their pro-life foes as morally responsible for Tiller's death has the odor of political exploitation.

Tiller made his living "giving a choice" to women who want to end their pregnancies after 21 weeks, usually because of tests that showed fetal abnormalities. But Dr. Tiller was well-known to have provided late-term abortions to women for just about any reason they gave for wanting to end their pregnancy.

He ran one of the few remaining late-term abortion clinics in the U.S. and was probably the most famous and infamous abortionist in the world.

His murder has already put pro-life groups on the defensive with the media and pro-choicers. But Bill "No Spin" O'Reilly isn't backing down from his coverage of Tiller's history.

More later.

“No one is going to be more concerned about future deficits than we are,” (Treasury Sec. Tim) Geithner told reporters on the way to two days of meetings that start today in China’s capital.

Which is to say, "We're not concerned about the deficit yet, especially the one we just quadrupled."

St. Augustine said "Oh Lord, give me chastity, but do not give it yet."

The average American household is now on the hook for $668,000.

We're screwed.

When Arlen Specter says "Everybody ought to run" for the Democratic nomination for Senate. He probably means "everybody" but Joe Sestak.

After all, what's he supposed to say: "Hey, this isn't fair. When I switched parties, Ed Rendell told me he'd have any Democrat who ran against me, killed. What's this Joe Sestak doing still breathing?"

Decades ago, when he was a Democrat, he gave a fellow politician a piece of advice about dealing with the TV media when it asks a question.

"Forget the question," the Former Philly DA advised. "You got 30 seconds, say whatever YOU want."

40 years and four terms in the Senate later, he's still taking his own advice.

"What's good for GM is good for the country." - GM Chairman Charlie Wilson in 1952.

Does that include bankruptcy?

The media's infatuation with Obama is bad for America. So says Robert Samuelson.

It won't last.

As with every president, the media will turn. Obama uses the media like an easy girlfriend, for his own purposes. Eventually, we nattering nabobs will catch on and if we don't dump the guy, at least we'll start seeing his faults and pointing them out to our girlfriends.

The only question is how long will it take.