MSNBC's Ed Schultz Goes Off on Deranged Rant Attacking Donald Trump as 'a 12-Year-Old That Just Learned How to Masturbate'

At Weasel Zippers:

The über-classiness never ends.

Listen.

Schultz slurs Trump as a "dirtbag" and a "scumbag." Takes one to know one, I guess:

Late Saturday Rule 5

The lovely lady pictured via Theo Spark:

And let's go straight to the link-around.

Robert Stacy McCain makes the case for the Kate Middleton "upskirt" Google bomb: "Ye Merry Olde Upskirt Traffic":

People may ask why I, as a conservative, should occasionally stoop to such cheap tricks. As I long ago explained, that kind of Google-search traffic is going to go somewhere, and I see no reason why the nihilistic commercial celebrity sites should monopolize the benefit of such prurience.

The folks at POH Diaries argue that upskirt Google bombing is a conservative virtue: "Re: Ye Merry Olde Upskirt Traffic or The Depravity of Human Nature and the Ability to Capitalize On It."

And here's sending some link action to Dan Collins at POWIP. See, "Kate Middleton’s Nipples."

Anyway, check it out: Amusing Bunni's Musings, Astute Bloggers, Bob Belvedere, CSPT, Eye of Polyphemus, Gator Doug, Irish Cicero, Left Coast Rebel, Mind-Numbed Robot, Legal Insurrection, Lonely Conservative, PA Pundits International, PACNW Righty, Pirate's Cove, Proof Positive, Saberpoint, Snooper, WyBlog, The Western Experience, Zilla of the Resistance, and Zion's Trumpet.

RELATED: From Bob Belvedere, "Pippa Middleton Upskirt Photo."

And check Theo's Saturday Bath Totty.

Political news is available at Instapundit, The Lonely Conservative, and So It Goes in Shreveport.

Drop me a comment if you have the time.

BONUS: Maggie's Notebook: "Rule 5 Saturday Night: Ten Beautiful Swim Suits and the Women in Them."

Birthers, Truthers, and Racers

Via The Blog Prof:

And referenced at the clip, Richard Fernandez, at Pajamas Media, "The Birth Certificate."

Missile Strike Kills Gaddafi's Son and Three Grandchildren: NATO Rejects Libya's Call for Cease Fire

Robert Stacy McCain's got some coverage, "BREAKING: Libya Spokesman Says NATO Strike Killed 3 of Qaddafi’s Grandsons UPDATE: Attack Also Reportedly Kills Qaddafi’s Youngest Son, Saif al-Arab, 29."

And at Wall Street Journal, "Gadhafi Survives NATO Missile Strike That Killed Son":

TRIPOLI, Libya – A missile fired by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization struck a house where Col. Moammar Gadhafi was staying Saturday, missing the Libyan leader but killing his youngest son and three young grandchildren, a government spokesman said.

Col. Gadhafi and his wife were in the home of their 29-year-old son, Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, when the missile crashed through the one-story house in a Tripoli residential neighborhood, according to the spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim.

The young Mr. Gadhafi was the seventh son of the Libyan leader.

"The leader himself is in good health; he wasn't harmed," Mr. Ibrahim told a news conference early Sunday. "His wife is also in good health; she wasn't harmed, [but] other people were injured."

"This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country," the spokesman added. "It seems intelligence was leaked. They knew about him being there, or they expected him. But the target was very clear."

Seif al-Arab "was playing and talking with his father and mother and his nieces and nephews and other visitors when he was attacked for no crimes committed," Mr. Ibrahim said.

Three loud explosions had been heard in Tripoli on Saturday evening as jets flew overhead. Volleys of anti-aircraft fire rang out after the first two strikes.

Later, journalists who were taken to the home, inside a walled compound in the city's Gharour neighborhood, found its main one-story structure destroyed and two other buildings heavily damaged. The blast had torn down the main building and left a huge pile of rubble and twisted metal on the ground.

It was unclear how anyone inside could have survived.

More at the link above, and at both New York Times and Los Angeles Times. (Via Memeorandum.)

America's enemies at Firedoglake are not pleased.

Do American Students Study Too Hard?

My students don't. I wish I could get them to study more, a lot more, and to study better and more effectively. But after 11 years I've unfortunately become a bit less optimistic that I can motivate all of my students to outstanding academic achievement. The measurement of success for a great many of my students --- if not the majority --- is simply course completion. What the movie "Race to Nowhere" is looking at, in part, is the culture of achievement among middle class families with college expectations. There are two worlds out there when it comes to "making it" in America through higher education today. But it's completely politically incorrect to discuss, much less address, the debilitating disadvantages that are holding back large numbers of students, especially those from minority and poor backgrounds. Keep all this in mind while reading James Freeman's essay on the this, at Wall Street Journal:

Bergen County, N.J.

Young moviegoers have driven "Rio" to the top of the box office, but the film generating buzz among New Jersey parents is "Race to Nowhere." It's a response of sorts to last year's buzzed-about documentary "Waiting for 'Superman,'" which argued that ineffective schools and intransigent teachers unions are what's wrong with American education.

The new film may have arrived just in time for the New Jersey Education Association, the giant state teachers union locked in a continuing battle with Gov. Chris Christie over the cost of teachers' benefit plans. Directed by parent and first-time filmmaker Vicki Abeles, "Race to Nowhere" is marketed through a kind of partnership with local schools. The film suggests that if there are problems in American education, they are largely due to standardized tests, overambitious parents, insufficient funding, and George W. Bush. It also offers possible solutions, which include abandoning testing and grading and giving teachers more autonomy.

Ms. Abeles reports that she has been screening the film nationwide and even in numerous foreign countries. But few places have embraced it as enthusiastically as the Garden State. While in many states there are no showings currently scheduled, according to the film's website, New Jersey has 13 in the next month ...

The movie's recurring theme is that American kids are under intense pressure to succeed, forced to complete up to six hours of homework each night and therefore increasingly driven to mental illness. The movie is promoted with the tagline, "The Dark Side of America's Achievement Culture."

The dark side is illuminated with powerful anecdotes—we learn of one young California girl who, we are told, committed suicide after a disappointing grade in math. But the achievement is tougher to spot. The film reports that as hard as kids compete to win acceptance to name-brand colleges, they come out of high school without knowing much. The University of California at Berkeley, we are told, has to provide remedial education for close to half of incoming freshmen before they can handle a college course load. The film notes that American kids score poorly in international tests. If they work so hard, how do they learn so little?

More at the link.

Teachers love to bash the Bush administration's education agenda, and while conservatives despised the expansion of federal power in education, I've always supported more attention to standards. The problem is tying teacher and school accountability to student performance, because teachers will ultimately get blamed for things over which they have little control --- especially the culture and degree of educational attainment at the family, household level. It's generally not as high among lower income communities and minority households (lots of books on this, discussed here previously), and thus we can see why addressing the cultural roots of academic failure is pure taboo in progressive education circles.

By the way, the movies to watch are "Waiting for Superman" and "The Providence Effect." Folks know what needs to happen. And we know that disadvantaged communities can excel. It makes you think sometimes: What is it exactly that's holding folks back? Maybe it's progressive education shibboleths and the destructive power of teachers unions. Er, well, better not talk about that. I've got to work with these people ...

UPDATE: And the timing couldn't have been better. At Boston Globe, "Discord in Harvard’s education school: Protesters want more focus on social issues."

Glenn Reynolds summarizes:

Protesters demand more emphasis on community organizing and “social justice,” less on practical training. I guess the higher education bubble news hasn’t gotten there yet ...

America Needs Israel Now More Than Ever

From Ambassador Michael Oren, at Foreign Policy, "The Ultimate Ally":

Rather than viewing Israel as a vital American asset, an increasingly vocal group of foreign-policy analysts insists that support for the Jewish state, including more than $3 billion in annual military aid, is a liability. Advocates of this "realist" school claim that the United States derives little strategic benefit from its association with Israel. The alliance, they assert, arises mainly from lobbyists who place Israel's interests before America's, rather than from a clearheaded assessment of national needs. Realists regard the relationship one-dimensionally -- America gives Israel aid and arms -- and view it as the primary source of Muslim anger at the United States. American and Israeli policies toward the peace process, the realists say, are irreconcilable and incompatible with relations between true allies.

By definition, realists seek a foreign policy immune to public sentiment and special interest groups. In this rarefied view, the preferences of the majority of the American people are immaterial or, worse, self-defeating. This would certainly be the case with the U.S.-Israel alliance, which remains outstandingly popular among Americans. Indeed, a Gallup survey this February showed that two out of three Americans sympathize with Israel. Overall, since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and in spite of Israel's responses to the second intifada and rocket attacks from Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008 -- support for Israel in the United States has risen, not declined ...

*****

Israel not only enhances America's defenses -- it also saves American lives. A kibbutz-based company in the Galilee has provided armor for more than 20,000 U.S. military vehicles. "Two days ago, my patrol was ambushed by insurgents using 7.62mm PKM Machineguns," David C. Cox, a platoon sergeant in Iraq, wrote the manufacturers. "None of the rounds penetrated the armor of the vehicle, including one that would have impacted with my head." Marine gunner Joshua Smith, whose Israeli-armored vehicle tripped an IED near Marja, Afghanistan, described how his unit "walked away smiling, laughing, and lived to fight another day." Military medical experts from both countries also meet annually to discuss advances in combat care. One such breakthrough was a coagulating bandage, the brainchild of a Jerusalem start-up company, a million of which have been supplied to U.S. forces (and even applied by a Tucson SWAT team medic to stanch the life-threatening head wound of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords) ...

*****

WHO ARE AMERICA'S ALLIES in the world today? Which countries are both capable and willing to advance American interests? A truly realist assessment would strive to answer these questions and fairly weigh Israel's worth.

In the Middle East, every Arab or non-Arab Muslim country has at times vacillated in its support of the United States or adopted anti-American positions. Some regimes have also placed oil embargoes on Americans and bankrolled their enemies. Although democratic governments may yet emerge in some Middle Eastern states, autocracy, monarchy, and dictatorship remain the region's norm. And even elected representatives can be profoundly hostile to the United States, as in Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza ...

Israel is the only Middle Eastern state never to oppose America on major international issues. Its fundamental interests, like its values, are America's. For the price of annual military aid equaling roughly half the cost of one Zumwalt-class destroyer, the United States helps maintain the military might of one of the few nations actively contributing to America's defense. It reinforces the only country capable of deterring Hamas and Hezbollah and impeding the spread of Iranian hegemony. According to published sources, the Israel Defense Forces is larger than the French and British armies combined. The IDF is superbly trained and, when summoned, capable of mobilizing within hours.

RTWT at the link.

And you will find there a set of responses, especially that of Professor Stephen Walt, "Whiff of Desperation." Walt attacks Israel as a "colonial" power. And as usual, he prefaces his comments with the obligatory "All of the realists I know support Israel's existence ..." It's telling that one has to declare a commitment to Israel's survival before launching into yet another screed attacking Israel's actions and the U.S.-Israeli special relationship. And as I've said many times, I once admired Stephen Walt. But I awoke from professional slumber when he turned academic realism into a veiled ideological program for the destruction of Israel. The most hard-line Jew-bashing organizations and terror-enabling activists have sworn fidelity to the Walt-Mearsheimer agenda. It's pretty telling that a Harvard political scientist has become world renowned not for obscure journal articles in the field, but for an ideological polemic with a radical agenda. More on this later ...

BONUS: In addition to essays from Aluf Benn, Jeffrey Goldberg, Robert Satloff, be sure to read the comments at Ambassador Oren's essay. There's an animalistic hatred there that's specially reserved for Israel and the Jews. Chilling.

{a quiet moment}

{via this is glamorous}

{the making of a princess}

{*}

{grace}

{a lasting impression}

{vera wang via patterson maker via the wedding chicks}

{recent kate}

Angie Harmon!

Took the boys to meet my wife for lunch today, and the pizza parlor had a big screen. Angie's Harmon's "got milk" commercial came on and that reminded me that I'm slacking on my Angie Harmon blogging:

She's the best. Follow Angie on Twitter.

("The View" segment c/o The Other McCain).

Jessica Biel

Jessica Biel Then and Now

Html Art

Html Art

Hot Html Art

Hollywood Star

Hollywood Star Then and Now

Edward Furlong

Michelle Trachtenberg

Anna Paquin

Christina Ricci

Christina Ricci

Elijah Wood

Reese Witherspoon

Scarlett Johansson

Natalie Portman Picture

Picture of Natalie Portman Then and Now

Kristen Stewart Pics

Kristen Stewart Then and Now

Sports Fan

Cool and Amazing Pictures of Sports Fan

Just Hanging Around...

Want a Cracker?

recipe from vegan/vegetarian chef julia simon, pt. 2

all photos by julia simon

seitan mole tamales      *vegan-ification of a chow recipe

for the seitan, you'll need:

2 cups vital wheat gluten

1/4 cup tapioca flour

1/4 cup soy flour

4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp smoked habanero powder

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon brown sugar

wet mix:

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

6-8 dashes or 2 tablespoons smoke flavoring

2 tablespoons molasses

1 cup water mixed with mock beef or mushroom bouillon

to simmer:

4 cups water

2 tablespoons Mock beef or mushroom bouillon concentrate

3 bay leaves

6 cloves garlic, peeled

mix your dry ingredients thoroughly, and make a well in the center. mix your wet ingredients in a measuring cup. Using a fork first, then your hands, slowly pour the wet into the dry, working the dough as you pour. When you've emptied all of the liquid, use both hands to knead the seitan for a few minutes, until it comes together, then roll it into a short, squat cylinder.

in a wide pot, place your seitan (cut it into two pieces if need be) and pour your stock mixture over. bring it all to a boil. cover and simmer 1 hour.

no cheesecloth here, dears! you want a lighter, less dense seitan. also, putting the seitan in while the stock is cold gives it a better "crust" (thanks for the tip, ppk!).

we'll come back to the final seitan prep once we have our mole done, giving the flavors time to blend.

unlike many mole recipes, this one's free from straining - blend the sauce long enough and it'll be plenty smooth.

5-7 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded (how many you use depends on their size - if your pack is mostly small chiles, use more)

4-5 dried ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded (see above)

8 garlic cloves

1/2 onion

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1/4 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

2 cups reserved seitan cooking liquid, to be used as needed

3 super-ripe Roma tomatoes

3 tablespoons vegetable oil or earthbalance

1/3 cup raw pecans, walnuts, or cashews

1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

1 ripe yellow plantain, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil, for frying the plantains

2 tablespoons molasses or maple syrup

1-2 corn tortillas (these act as a thickening agent, use as many as you need)

1.5 ounces bittersweet vegan chocolate

1.5 tablespoons salt, or to taste

2 tablespoons vegetable oil or earthbalance, for frying the finished sauce

in a dry skillet, toast your chiles until they have a bit of char on both sides. set aside.

toast your sesame seeds, tossing, until they're a bit brown. set aside.

in a baking pan, put your tomatoes, onion, and garlic cloves. broil 5 minutes, until they're all got a bit of char. set aside.

in your skillet, heat 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil. sauté your plantains until they soften a bit, two minutes per side. set aside.

toast your thyme and oregano very gently in the same skillet, about 30 seconds. set aside.

put your tomatoes, onion, garlic, seeds and nuts into a blender. puree until smooth, about 2 minutes. with the motor running, add your chiles one at a time. how much stock you add here is up to you - you want to maintain as thick a consistency as possible while keeping the blender running, so add a little bit at a time until your sauce is moving again. add your herbs, the plantain, and the tortilla, and blend until the texture is very smooth, about 5 minutes - there will still be tiny bumps, but they'll be very small.

heat the remaining oil in your skillet and pour in the contents of the blender. sauté until fragrant, about 5 minutes. add your chocolate and stir until it blends in completely. taste for salt and sweet, adding either sugar or salt until you're satisfied.

for the masa:

3 cups masa for tamales

1 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening

3 cups vegetable or mock chicken stock, warmed

2 tsp baking powder

Salt to taste

with a whisk or hand blender, beat the shortening until it's fluffy. you could also use a stand mixer here, if you have one, with the paddle attachments.

using a fork, mix the masa, salt and baking powder. make a well in the center. slowly add your stock while mixing with your fork, continuing to work the batter until it's uniform. it'll be pretty wet, no worries!

while continuing to beat the shortening with your mixer or whisk, add the wet masa by handfuls until you've emptied your bowl. beat on low until everything's well blended. the dough will be a little wet and very spongy. set aside.

one last step for the seitan:

slice your seitan into 1/4 inch wide strips and drain on a paper towel. in a large bowl, toss the seitan with about 1/3 - 1/2 cup flour, evenly coating the strips. the flour coating will give your faux-pork an awesome crust.

heat enough oil in a skillet to cover the bottom of the pan. add your seitan in batches (took me 3) and fry until browned on each side, about 3 minutes. drain, again, on paper towels.

chop your strips roughly, into pieces less than an inch long. mix your chopped seitan with the entire batch of mole in a bowl and set aside.

bring it all together, finally:

you'll need:

30 cornhusks

a steamer, or the set up described here

dexterity and a hungry belly!

tear 3-4 husks into strips to tie your tamales with. you'll need 20-25.

flatten a husk on a cutting board and using your hands, grab 1/2 cup masa. smooth it into a rectangle in the upper-center of the husk. press about 1/4-1/3 cup mole into the center of the masa, and using the sides of the husk, roll the filling into a package. then roll the husk around the package, fold up the bottom and tie it with a strip of husk. here's that pictorial how-to from last time. set upright in your steamer or pot.

repeat until you've made 20-24 small tamales. cover with remaining husks and lid.

this is a 2-3 hour active recipe - but it makes tons of tamales and they're superb. we usually make a big batch, take it off the burner, leave it covered, and show up at a potluck with the 'males still inside, all warm and ready to eat.

serve with soy sour cream or just nosh plain. enjoy!

thank you julia of no face plate for sharing this lovely recipe!

Glenn Reynolds: 'There Are Literally Millions of People Out There Who Have a Lot of Talent'

An interview with Bill Whittle (via Theo Spark):

And for more, visit Instapundit!

U.S. Acts More Cautiously on Syria Violence Than on Libya

You don't say?

At New York Times, "U.S. Announces Sanctions Against Top Syrian Officials":

WASHINGTON — A brutal Arab dictator with a long history of enmity toward the United States turns tanks and troops against his own people, killing hundreds of protesters. His country threatens to split along sectarian lines, with the violence potentially spilling over to its neighbors, some of whom are close allies of Washington.

Libya? Yes, but also Syria.

And yet, with the Syrian government’s bloody crackdown intensifying on Friday, President Obama has not demanded that President Bashar al-Assad resign, and he has not considered military action. Instead, on Friday, the White House took a step that most experts agree will have a modest impact: announcing focused sanctions against three senior officials, including a brother and a cousin of Mr. Assad.

The divergent American responses illustrate the starkly different calculations the United States faces in these countries. For all the parallels to Libya, Mr. Assad is much less isolated internationally than the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. He commands a more capable army, which experts say is unlikely to turn on him, as the military in Egypt did on President Hosni Mubarak. And the ripple effects of Mr. Assad’s ouster would be both wider and more unpredictable than in the case of Colonel Qaddafi.

“Syria is important in a way that Libya is not,” said Steven A. Cook, senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “There is no central U.S. interest engaged in Libya. But a greatly destabilized Syria has implications for Iraq, it has implications for Lebanon, it has implications for Israel.”

These complexities have made Syria a less clear-cut case, even for those who have called for more robust American action against Libya. Senator John McCain, along with Senators Lindsey Graham and Joseph I. Lieberman, urged Mr. Obama earlier this week to demand Mr. Assad’s resignation. But Mr. McCain, an early advocate of a no-fly zone over Libya, said he opposed military action in Syria.

Basically, easy pickings in Libya, with limited liability if things go wrong, and little collateral damage to Israel. Meanwhile, protesters in the streets of Syria can't call on the U.S. for assistance. Who knows, maybe an even more brutal regime could come to power in Damascus --- a stretch, I know, but it's an excuse for dawdling. Either way, continued instability across the region makes the White House look like a grade-school club in confusion. Iran, Egypt, Libya, and Syria? Hmm. Four regimes. Four democratization movements. And this administration's done jack to improve our strategic position in any of these, much less that of Israel's.

Egypt to Normalize Relations with Iran and Hamas

The story's at New York Times, "In Shift, Egypt Warms to Iran and Hamas, Israel’s Foes."

The headline alone was ominous, and reading the piece gives you the chills. Egypt's looking for "flexibility" they say. But the goals of Egyptian foreign policy look to put a vice grip on Israel.

And check Barry Rubin, who warned about this very thing from the get go, "U.S. Government, Media Completely Wrong on Egypt, Now Advise on Peace Process."

Steven Tyler on Cover of People Magazine: 'I'm Lucky to Be Alive'

A change of pace around here, at People, "Steven Tyler: Sober and Grateful":

Steven Tyler doesn't need drugs to get high these days. All he needs is to go to work at American Idol.

"If you think going out in front of high-def cameras and millions of people I'm not high on adrenaline, you're crazy," the rocker-turned-judge tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story.

"I'm stoned when that curtain drops," adds Tyler, 63. "I just don't snort the curtain dropping. I don't snort J. Lo either, though I do breathe her in."

Tyler's nutty, what-will-he-say-next personality has not only catapulted Idol back to must-watch status, it's also turned him into one of this year's most lovable stars.

Spoken like a rock star.

More at the link, and some music for Friday night, he's back:

Donald Trump Says We'll Tax Chinese 'Motherf***kers' at 25 Percent!

Well, now we know he's not conservative!

Progressives have found their motherf***ing guy!

The main story's at KTNV-13 Las Vegas, "Donald Trump delivers several F-bombs during his speech in Las Vegas." Robert Stacy McCain's got the raw viddy, "Obligatory Video: Donald F–ing Trump" (via Memeorandum). And Fox News has a bit below, bleeped out:

Can't be that big a deal. Dictionary.com's got an entry for "motherfucker." So yeah, I can dig it. Now I'm just waiting for dolt-douchebag Thers to get on the motherf***ing Donald Trump bandwagon!

Kim Kardashian Bikini

Kim Kardashian Bikini

Kim Kardashian in Bikini