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The March 7, 2014 episode with guest Matthew Continetti has been posted.
[Ask The Blog]

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"Band of Brothers" WWII Vet Bill Guarnere Dies at 90 Rest in peace.

Stephen F. Hayes: Obama’s Fantasy-Based Foreign Policy
"For five years, the Obama administration has chosen to see the world as they wish it to be, not as it is. In this fantasy world, the attack in Fort Hood is 'workplace violence.' The Christmas Day bomber is an 'isolated extremist.' The attempted bombing in Times Square is a 'one-off' attack. The attacks in Benghazi are a 'spontaneous' reaction to a YouTube video. Al Qaeda is on the run. Bashar al-Assad is a 'reformer.' The Iranian regime can be sweet-talked out of its nuclear weapons program. And Vladimir Putin is a new, post-Cold War Russian leader." [rdbrewer]


• Micth McConnell, three days ago at CPAC: "If I'm given the opportunity to lead the U.S. Senate next year, I won't let you down."
• Mitch McConnell, yesterday: "I think we are going to crush them everywhere," referring to Tea Party efforts.
• Mitch McConnell, tomorrow: "Aww, I didn't mean that. Y'all are going to help me beat that Democrat in November, right?" [rdbrewer]


Mediaite: Ann Coulter Mocks ‘Obama Magic,’ Slams GOP Cowardice on Immigration at CPAC
Mickey Kaus is there too. Excellent discussion. [rdbrewer]


Pwnage via Twitchy. [rdbrewer]

In 1946, an armed group of WWII veterans took on a corrupt Democrat sheriff and his deputies to retrieve stolen election ballot boxes. The Battle of Athens TN 1946 Some factual background info here. [dri]

Cornell Lab Bird Cam
Live. Just because. [rdbrewer]

Actual Headline: Enormous Smith Cloud Hurtling Towards Milky Way Protected by Inner ‘Force Field’
Via @ComradeArthur. [rdbrewer]


FoxNews: NASA planning to send robotic mission to Europa, Jupiter's watery moon that may harbor life
"Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb said going to Europa would be more exciting than exploring dry Mars: 'There might be fish under the ice.'" Or, as Andy Levy said on RedEye, "space fish." More from Wired. [rdbrewer]

Disney Bets $1 Billion on Technology to Track Theme-Park Visitors.
Could be expanded to museums, zoos, airports, malls, etc.
[JohnE.]

Comments 3-7-14

Condi Rice speaks: “Meet Viktor Yanu­kovych, who is running for the presidency of Ukraine.” Vladimir Putin and I were standing in his office at the presidential dacha in late 2004 when Yanu­kovych suddenly appeared from a back room. Putin wanted me to get the point. He’s my man, Ukraine is ours — and don’t forget it. [NDH]

BREAKING, AFP, Yahoo: Malaysia Airlines 'has lost contact' with plane
Fox said it was a Boeing 777. 239 aboard. More from Dan News. (Dan News?) Added: More from BBC. Update: Malaysian Airlines issued a statement. More from The Daily Mail: "An unconfirmed report on a flight tracking website said the aircraft had plunged 200m and changed course shortly before all contact was lost." [rdbrewer]

MRC: Brokaw on Letterman: Syria Not Obama's 'Finest Moment,' Probably Emboldened Putin
"[W]hen chemical weapons were used in Syria and they were discovered, I didn't think it was President Obama's finest moment. He said there's a red line, then he kept moving that sucker....[Vladimir Putin] might have taken the measure of President Obama and said, 'I may be able to test this guy'....it has that appearance." [rdbrewer]

Reaching My Autistic Son Through Disney Sweet story by Ron Suskind

CNS: ABC, CBS Exclude Scientists Critical of Global Warming for More Than 1,300 Days
"[B]ut both networks included alarmists within the past 160 days -- CBS as recently as 22 days ago." [rdbrewer]


Fantastic picture of gravitational lensing
A distant quasar and a foreground elliptical galaxy. From NASA's Chandra x-ray observatory. Added: More at The Daily Galaxy. [rdbrewer]

Walter Russell Mead: Russia Blows Past Obama’s 'Off Ramp'
"Plan C, which Putin shot down in the last 24 hours, was apparently based on the hope among some policy makers that a confused and misguided President Putin had made a dreadful blunder in Crimea. The plan was to offer the poor, trapped Russians a graceful way out of their predicament that would ultimately restore Ukrainian unity as the country moved West." [rdbrewer]

Juan Williams: Rutgers rage against Rice -- why do liberals have so much hate for black conservatives?
"Rice holds a Ph.D. in political science. She has taught college for decades. She was Provost of Stanford University. She worked her way up from a working-class family in the segregated South to the highest echelon of world power and politics. But according to the Rutgers faculty council, all of that is negated by her service in President George W. Bush’s administration." IMO, they reflexively hate anything conservative, because they're greedy pigs who stand to gain from a bigger state. The bigger the state, the nicer the pay and perks. [rdbrewer]

Charles Krauthammer: The wages of weakness
"Obama says Putin is on the wrong side of history.... This must mean that seeking national power, territory, dominion — the driving impulse of nations since Thucydides — is obsolete. As if a calendar change caused a revolution in human nature...." [rdbrewer]


Sarah Hofmann: COMPARE! Press questions to Issa and Cummings, side-by-side
What can you say? They're unprofessional, sporadically ethical. Also from TheDC: McCain, Flake race for least popular senator prize. [rdbrewer]

NBC: NASA Admits to Selling Discount Fuel to Google Execs
"According to the fuel records, H2-11 purchased jet fuel for prices ranging from $2.37 to $3.20 a gallon. At nearby local airports, the exact same jet fuel goes for between $5 and $8.50 per gallon." At least since 2007. [rdbrewer]

Entertainment Weekly: Just like Dan Quayle, Obama misspells 'potato' and will now suffer years of nasty and comic derision for it
Because he's so dumb! Only dumb guys do that! HA HA HA HA HA! Oh, those Democrats are so dumb. Not like us; we're smart. We're with-it, and they're not with-it. Because we're in the in-group. And they aren't. [rdbrewer]

TheGuardian: South Park, satire and us – by Matt Stone
"Matt Stone and his creative partner Trey Parker have spent years perfecting The Stick of Truth – the video game version of their hit adult cartoon. In an interview, Stone talks about moral choices, comic timing and censorship." Via @zakn. [rdbrewer]


Peggy Noonan: The Ideologue vs. the Children
"What a small and politically vicious man New York's new mayor is. Bill de Blasio doesn't like charter schools." Via @slublog. [rdbrewer]


Garry Kasparov: Cut Off the Russian Oligarchs and They'll Dump Putin
"[I]t is a waste of time to attempt to discern deep strategy in Mr. Putin's actions. There are no complex national interests in a dictator's calculations. There are only personal interests, the interests of those close to him who keep him in power...." [rdbrewer]

Chrysler orders 93 rare, early Vipers to the crusher [dri]

This week's podcast guest on The First Woman President. She's already been elected. Who knew?

Comments 3-6-14

Pretty Funny: "L'hotel de Californie," French Language Parody of Hotel California (Listen To The End)

"Yellow King Theory" Explains All Questions in True Detective with Compelling Video Proof [wheatie] [not sooth]

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Seth MacFarlane Talk 'Cosmos' with GQ
MacFarlane is the producer. The series begins Sunday on Fox and airs Monday on NatGeo. [rdbrewer]

NASA's newest spaceship: Project Morpheus [dri]

Jake Tapper, The Lead: Humbled Perry says back surgery played a role in 2012 campaign struggles [rdbrewer]


Newsarama: IDW to Adapt HARLAN ELLISON's Seminal STAR TREK: TOS Teleplay
"The comic book mini-series Star Trek: The City on the Edge of Forever will kick off in June 2014, and is adapted directly from the original [uncut] teleplay by Ellison...." [rdbrewer]

VDH's Private Papers: Mr. Farrow and the Obama Syndrome
Ronan Farrow explained. "Young, charismatic, good-looking, hip, and glib are all superficial traits that supposedly cerebral liberal elites have a bad habit of believing trump experience, knowledge, humility...." [rdbrewer]

Today is the second anniversary of the death of Milblogger extraordinaire Carroll "Neptunus Lex" LeFon. Oh, how we miss you.