Overnight Open Thread (8-10-2014)

Hmm: A Coup Seems To Be Underway in Iraq

Leadership

Quote of the Day

"The fact is, guns do more for female empowerment than modern feminism which prefers government as their protector. But legal ownership gives you real power, equalizing the battle between you and evil. Ask any girl: The confidence from learning to shoot a pistol is far superior to any gender studies course, and a stalker is less likely to stalk if you can ventilate his groin. Which is why a whirring bullet is the ideal rape whistle and the real feminist icon should be Annie Oakley, not Sandra Fluke."

-- Greg Gutfeld

The Democrats were for bombing Iraq, before they were against it, before they were for it

It all depends on which party the president who ordered it belongs to.

"Operation Martha's Vineyard"

Last night, Shannon Bream, filling in for Megyn Kelly, had Ed Henry, retired Lt. Gen Tom McInerney, Charles Krauthammer on to discuss US actions in Iraq.

McInerney said that the fact that the operation doesn't yet have a name, was "very significant."

"I think the White House had better get their hands on this, or people are going to call it Operation Martha's Vineyard. The president doesn't want that," McInerney pointed out. "We in the military operate under different operations - 'Operation Iraqi Freedom', 'Operation Enduring Freedom' - all those types of terms have to do with our campaign and our history." He added, "it shows the significance of the operation when you put a name on it, and unfortunately, he's making it sound like it isn't significant."

Top US Official: US Less Safe than on 9/10/2001

UN Human Rights Council Confused by Why Israel's 'Indiscriminate' Attacks on Gaza Only Seem to Kill Young, Military Age Men

The New York Times Ignores the Facts In Tennessee

This is, in my experience, typical of the Times editorial board. The paper's editorials all too often sound like press releases from MoveOn.org or articles from the Nation. The paper's editorialists simply recycle errors of fact that are fed to them by liberal advocacy groups. That laziness goes a long way toward explaining why so few people care what the New York Times thinks.

And how does the biased sausage get made? Well meet Journolist 2.0 AKA Gamechanger Salon:

A Media Trackers open records request has revealed a secret Google group aimed at helping liberals influence public policy by driving the media narrative.

"Gamechanger Salon" is a (now not-so-) secret Google group with a membership of over 1000 left wing influencers. Media Trackers discovered the group after filing an open records request concerning a professor and activist at the University of Wisconsin. Members include journalists from outlets like the Huffington Post, MSNBC, ThinkProgress, and Media Matters, and activists from groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Change.org, Planned Parenthood, and the AFL-CIO.

...It's not necessarily unethical for opinion journalists (notice my repeated use of the word "opinion") to do this. The existence of Gamechanger Salon does, however, prove a point conservatives have made again and again about left wing bias in the mainstream media: it's real, it's spectacular, and it's an extremely effective way of making sure right wing viewpoints stay out of sight.

If You Can Come Up With $400 in Cash, You're Better Off Than Half of America

If you have $400 to spare, count yourself lucky: Half of Americans would have trouble raising that amount in an emergency, according to a new report that suggests that many U.S. families face surprising financial difficulties.

...Only 48 percent said that they could easily handle an emergency expense of $400 without running a balance on their credit card. Almost a fifth said they simply could not come up with the funds, and a similar share said they would have to take on credit card debt. Others said they would either have to sell something (9 percent), ask a family member or friend for help (12 percent), or turn to a payday lender (4 percent) to come up with the money.

Why the Danes Don't Speak Norwegian

Bill Nye: Lying, Dishonest Science Guy

His experiment showing global warming due to the greenhouse effects of CO2 is so faulty that it's not even wrong.

And if measuring the effect is this tricky even with just a glass of CO2 under controlled conditions, we should be very cautious about trying to apply it to an entire planet with it's own atmosphere. (via Bookworm)

Sad Day For Own Wyatt Earp

He's being forced to close his blog over a photo copyright infringement claim.

12 Policemen and a Sniffer Dog Raid UK Pub in Search for the Holy Grail

Police on a quest to find the Holy Grail raided a rural pub where they believed it was illegally stashed only to find an informant got it mixed up with an old salad bowl from the kitchen.

The team of 12 officers and a sniffer dog shut down the Crown in Lea, Herefordshire, because they believed staff were hiding the priceless Nanteos Cup - stolen from a country house nearby.

The wooden chalice is believed to be the vessel Christ drank from at the Last Supper and later used to collect his blood at crucifixion, giving it special healing powers.

Something I learned from this: UK police have dogs trained to sniff out holy relics.

Top 10 commenters:
1 [717 comments] 'TangoNine (Beckinsale/Johnson 2016)' [100.70 posts/day]
2 [534 comments] 'Flatbush Joe'
3 [489 comments] 'Misanthropic Humanitarian  '
4 [411 comments] 'Anna Puma (+SmuD)'
5 [380 comments] 'AllenG (Dedicated Tenther), Derringer Bandit.'
6 [379 comments] 'Ricardo Kill'
7 [377 comments] 'Mike Hammer, etc., etc.'
8 [362 comments] 'rickb223, District 13'
9 [353 comments] '---'
10 [351 comments] 'D-Lamp'
Honorable Mention:
20 [208 comments] 'ace'

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [93 names] 'logprof' [13.06 unique names/day]
2 [56 names] 'The Political Hat'
3 [54 names] 'Flatbush Joe'
4 [44 names] 'Harrison Bergeron'
5 [42 names] 'Bob's House of Flannel Shirts and Wallet Chains'
6 [37 names] 'Village of the dayum'd'
7 [36 names] 'Doctor Fish'
8 [36 names] 'mindful webworker'
9 [30 names] 'Islamic Rage Boy'
10 [29 names] 'Cicero (@cicero)'

The group. Never heard of it.

Where it's at - the Twitter

Tonight's post brought to you by James Dean and Ronald Reagan:

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to maetenloch at gmail. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

posted by Maetenloch at 10:21 PM

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