baldilocks

The Second Revolution

In the wake of what appear to be a stolen election by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (as if all Iranian presidential election outcomes since 1979's revolution aren’t determined in advance by the mullahs), Iran’s people are rising up against their rulers in favor of the opposing candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi.  As with any revolution, it isn’t pretty.  It is, however, breath-taking.

Instead of going on over things about which I have only cursory knowledge (as if that has stopped me before) here are some words you should read and photos you should peruse.

How an authoritarian theocracy puts down dissent (photos and videos).

Totten—Iran’s government is the Foe of the World:

“Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei’s police and the Basij militia are using violence and terror to suppress the Iranian people at home. His terrorist proxies fire missiles at Israel while torturing, maiming, and murdering Palestinians. He sponsored a violent coup d’etat against the elected government in Beirut last year with his Hezbollah militia. He sponsors a terrorist insurgency against the elected government of Iraq, while his fanatical proxies shoot and kill American soldiers. A car bomb cell belonging to the regime’s Lebanese franchise was recently arrested in Azerbaijan, and more cells were rolled up in Egypt. Terrorists sponsored and encouraged by him and his predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini, have murdered civilians from Argentina to Japan.

The regime’s only allies in the world are terrorist armies and Bashar Assad’s Baath Party state in Syria. Assad himself, like Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, is a pariah among the Arabs, Persians, Turks, Kurds, Azeris, and Israelis who make up the region.

 In Tehrangeles, support for the people.

 Obama Administration: No condemnation for Iran's violent government suppression of protest.  I thought that the president’s “We’re all Muslims now” speech had made things all better in the Muslim world! 

The world waits for the Leader of the Land of the Free.

(Thanks to Hot Air)

Landslide

Congratulations to President-elect Obama and to the Democrats.

As it became apparent that Barack Obama was going to be elected president, I called up my step-dad to see what was on his mind. We had a long conversation about the way history seemed to be heading and during the conversation, I looked up at the TV and noticed that the Electoral College Vote count was 287 for Obama. Done deal.

When I mentioned this to Dad, a man who is a Bible-believing Methodist pastor and staunch conservative Republican who voted for John McCain as did I, he said this: "Don't you ever go to bed at night without praying for that man."

I will not. He--and we--will need it.

Pro-Life in Action

In the last few days since the greater American voting public became aware of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s existence, that of her husband Todd and of her five children, a wild rumor has been spread by the Left about the birth of her youngest—that he is actually the offspring of the Palins’ oldest daughter, a seventeen-year-old. Never mind the incredible viciousness of the rumor, the illogic of it stops a thinking individual in his tracks.

Well, as it turns out, the daughter really is pregnant right now.

Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin's five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said.

"We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us," the Palins' statement said.

"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support," the Palins said.

Isn't God hilarious?

One hopes that the Left would just stop right now with the “prying into the vaginas of others” as Ann Althouse so memorably puts it. But you know that they will find some other angle of attack and it will be just as stupid and it will alienate normal Americans even further from their candidate of choice.

Speaking of Obama, anyone know what he has to say about this whole state of affairs? I’ll bet he’s fuming over the fact that Palin’s selection as McCain’s running mate has completely eclipsed his DNC coronation. Come on, kinsman! Step on that tongue again and give us some fodder. Perhaps reiteration of that '"punished" with a baby' concept?

And I thought that the 2004 presidential election was a soap opera.

(Thanks to Hot Air)

UPDATE: Well done, Senator Obama.

Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama Monday afternoon issued a strong statement to "back off" reports of Bristol Palin's pregnancy, telling reporters families — and especially children — are off limits in this presidential campaign.

Mr. Obama, campaigning here, also noted that his own mother was 18 when she gave birth to him.

"People's families are off limits," he said. "People's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. "

"I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories," he added. "That shouldn't be a topic in our politics."

He knows that the continuation of this horror would do nothing but hurt his chances. He's right.

Waiting for the Man

Invesco Stadium, right now.

(Click to enlarge.)

Separated at Birth

It's beginning to feel like it...and that each of us was born in a separated dimension. You know who I'm talking about.

I've been busy as a bee today—in a good way.

However I have to take time to share a few things.

LA Weekly will be featuring a profile of me on Thursday, the 21st. The subject? My mirror life with Obama and the effort to save the Kenyan school named in his honor.

Oh, yeah and the site is up! A lot more basic than I had envisioned but we’ll see what happens as I add features.

And here's the hot newsflash: my mother is white. Well, that’s what Jerome Corsi assumed when he used my father’s four-year old Obama op-ed as reference material for his best-seller The Obama Nation.

[Philip] Ochieng's point in writing this insightful piece was not just to set the record straight on Obama Senior. More important, he sought to describe how Obama Junior, when first visiting the "Home Squared" of his father's native village during his 1992 trip to Africa, was confronted with the perplexing accusation, "You're lost!"

The expression comes from the Luo verb lal, which Ochieng explained means to disappear or be away for a long time without an explanation. "Simply by being born and growing up in America, Barack Junior had never been a Luo: He had lal," Ochieng wrote.

From there, Ochieng argued Obama Senior "had lost his way by marrying a white woman -- Barack Junior's mother." Ochieng confessed that he shared this plight. For decades he was estranged from his daughter, who was born of a white woman who left him while Ochieng was in the United States studying.

My mom’s response: “Well, that certainly isn’t the first time someone has described me in that manner.” (I could hear her smirking over the phone.) Well heck, me neither. However, my father does mention my name in the op-ed and a quick bit of Google work would have revealed that I was probably not half white. It's an...interesting...assumption. But what can one expect from someone who uses Andy Martin as a source?

The part about my parents’ separating also leaves the impression that my father was in the US studying while my mother was in another country. Wrong. They separated—later divorced--while both lived in the US in the same abode.

Out there somewhere is a list of things which are allegedly wrong about Corsi’s book. I don’t know what any of the items on the list are but if it's an accurate list, then this item should be on it.

Seemingly unrelated: my step-father and I were agreeing the other day that there are no coincidences. You'll see what I'm talking about on Thursday.

UPDATE (January 31, 2009): After seeing the misconception about my family on the web several times in the last six months I finally got to contact Mr. Corsi about the mix up. He was very nice about it.

Waiting (UPDATED)

Like most others who care, I'm waiting to see what the exact rude thing is that Jesse Jackson has said about Barack Obama and felt the need to apologized for--things said while the former was in FNC studios and thought that his microphone was turned off.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized Wednesday for saying Obama is “talking down to black people” during what he thought was a private conversation with a FOX News reporter Sunday.

Jackson also made an off-hand comment about cutting off a part of Obama’s anatomy.

Yikes. Bill O'Reilly will break the exact wording of the alleged offense in a few minutes.

Of course, this is silly. It will be fun, however, to have yet another glimpse of how the MSM's designated "black leader" thinks and what his real attitude is toward his would-be usurper. This thing is giving me a Saul-David vibe.

And least, such a triviality is more interesting that the Hot News Flash that professional athletes are, for the most part, alley cats and have frightening taste.

UPDATE: It turns out that Jackson's wording is pretty much as stated above, with Jackson saying to an FNC reporter Reed Tuckson from the UnitedHealth Group that he'd like to "cut [Obama's] nuts off." Leaving aside the question of whether O. has any nuts to sever, at first O'Reilly and his guests seemed to characterize the dust-up as a difference of opinion regarding faith-based programs, but the topic of envy did come to the fore. Additionally, O'Reilly was incredulous at the contention that Obama was talking down to blacks and at how Jackson's vitriolic words--some of which were, apparently, too nasty to air--seemed disproportionate to the disagreement.

One thing I noticed: Jackson's words did not match his demeanor. Looking for the video.

UPDATE: For those who haven't seen it:

I wonder what else Jesse said.

Why the Russians Are PO'd (Re-edited)

Short of an all-out MAD ignition scenario, a missile shield protecting Eastern Europe would render a Russian attack on the Europe Union totally ineffective. Richard Fernandez explains how and why, reminding us that a government-culture which is still capable of disposing of an Alexander Litvinenko in such a hair-raising manner, remains capable of anything--especially when it deems that its back is to the wall.

Russia is mad because its government has this fantasy in which the West would attack it and it would retaliate, be victorious and regain its former glory. I know, I know. Why would the West want to attack Russia? That question doesn't matter. What matters it that it is convenient for the Russian government to believe that we would want to. This belief provides a premise for the conclusion that Putin's Medvedev's Russia should revert to the old Cold ways when Russia was strong. And a missile shield makes that fantasy less likely to become reality.

Richard also discusses the effect a proposed missile shield could have on Iran's nuclear dreams--basically laying out the rationale for a Russia-Iran alliance.

Nervous?

(Thanks to Instapundit)

[Re-edited for clarity; thanks to Tully]

How They Spent Their Fourth of July

...and the 21st century's 'Greatest Generation' follows suit: 1,215 troops re-enlist in Baghdad.

“You and your comrades here have been described as America’s new greatest generation, and, in my view, you have more than earned that description,” [MNF-I commander General David] Petraeus said. “It is the greatest of honors to soldier here with you.”

What else need be said?

(Thanks to Hot Air)

Jungle Boogie

Yes, I'm still up.

Lions and buffaloes and crocs tangle. And the winner is...well you'll just have to watch.

(Thanks to Ace)

Black Man Preaching

If there absolutely, positively must be a black POTUS right now, why couldn't it be this guy running, aside from the fact that he's probably not thirty-five yet? (slight language alert)

Black & White on the Grey Matters 2 (War)

If he were a little older, I might be in love.

(Thanks to One Cosmos)

UPDATE: I saw gray hair so maybe he's older that first thought. But I'm taken.

UPDATE: Watch the guy's whole library. Again, be mindful of the language.