Barry and Babs at the Library......

What Kind of Leftist Are You?

Take COSMO’s Latest Hot Quiz to Find Out!

1. You are at a party when someone jokes that Obama “only celebrates one half of black history month.” What do you do?

A. Explode into a seething ball of rage, point your finger in the jokester’s face, and swear profusely.

B. Be too shocked to say anything. Write an anonymous post on Ask Metafilter when you get home.

C. Laugh nervously, and defend yourself against the girl who starts yelling at you.

D. Look at the cute girl across the room to see how they react.

E. Laugh loudly and continue to drink yourself into a stupor.

2. You find out that one of your coworkers doesn’t support gay marriage. What do you do?

A. Tell everyone in the office that your coworker “hates fags,” loudly complain to HR, make up a fake harassment claim, and try to get him fired.

B. Anonymously complain to HR and write a blog post about it. Wonder how someone can still hold such retrograde views in this day and age. “It’s 2013!”

C. Nothing. The guy may believe in something appalling, but he’s a nice enough guy and you’ve never seen him do anything wrong. Maybe you can befriend him and try to change his mind later.

D. Tell the cute girl in the office that you don’t understand how people can still hold such retrograde views in this day and age. “It’s 2013!”

E. Take the guy out for Chick-Fil-A on his day off.

3. A men’s rights group is holding a meeting somewhere in your general vicinity. What’s the proper course of action?

A. This.

B. Change your facebook profile picture and share an article from Feministing. Difference: made.

C. Eh, whatever. Men's Rights Activist  are stupid, but they have a right to free speech.

D. If you’re a woman, show up to the protest in your underwear. If you’re a guy, loudly communicate your displeasure within earshot of the barista.

E. Go to the meeting.

4. Uh-oh! You meant to take the freeway exit for Sunnyvale Lane, but you accidentally took the exit for MLK Boulevard. What do you do now?

A. Are you INSINUATING that there’s SOMETHING WRONG with MLK BOULEVARD? Huh? Are you SAYING that it’s DANGEROUS or something? These people are UNDERPRIVILEGED and SUFFER FROM RACISM EVERY DAY and YOUR PRIVILEGE is showing, BIGOT!!!

B. Are you INSINUATING that there’s SOMETHING WRONG with MLK BOULEVARD? Huh? Are you SAYING that it’s DANGEROUS or something? These people are UNDERPRIVILEGED and SUFFER FROM RACISM EVERY DAY and YOUR PRIVILEGE is showing, BIGOT!!! *locks doors and rolls up windows*

C. Oh crap, this is a dangerous neighborhood. Let me turn around and get back to the freeway. Good thing I have that pepper spray in the glove compartment…

D. Buy drugs.

E. Oh crap, this is a dangerous neighborhood. Let me turn around and get back to the freeway. Good thing I have that pistol under my jacket…

5. What’s your firstborn’s name?

A. “Medical Waste”

B. Aiden

C. Alexander

D. >Implying I want kids

E. Arianna

6. In what kind of society would you be a conservative?

A. …That’s racist!

B. I believe that the revolution is a state of being.

C. You know, that’s an interesting question. I never thought about that…

D. I dunno. What if I wanted to smoke weed and not go to work? What if I wanted to get laid, man? I think if I could do all those things and still be a conservative, I’d be that.

E. A society with something to conserve.

How Did You Answer?

Mostly A's:

You are a true true believer. You don’t just drink the kool-aid, you chug it straight out of the vat. You're probably in college, have a  Tumblr blog, or working for the Cathedral in some capacity,  a journalist or grad student. If reality mugs you, you'll excuse reality for being underprivileged.

Mostly B's :

 You are a true believer. If aliens observed your behavior, they might conclude you were an undercover klansman who really likes recycling. You love to join left-wing progressive causes whose meetings look like a Norwegian Heritage conference crossed with a Seder.

You feel guilty for being white, but only enough to do some theatrical gesture that makes you feel better. You can explicitly condemn and implicitly endorse an idea without ever being aware of the contradiction. A housing project is just not environmentally sound in your neighborhood!

Mostly C's:

You’re a moderate leftist. You don’t like all that crazy stuff that’s so far out there, but you agree with most of the goals of leftism. Equality is good, human rights are good, but free speech is good too.

Maybe there’s a left-wing or centrist cause you support, but it’s probably nothing to do with identity politics or grievance-mongering. Mostly you just go with the flow.

Mostly D's

You’re a rice leftist. You love the weed, porn, easy sex, low standards, and lack of discipline that leftism demands. You drink the kool-aid because that’s what’s served at the party. If most of the hot chicks/alpha males in your area changed their tack, you probably would as well. You’re just one google search away from becoming a really bitter asshole.

Mostly E's

You're a leftist apostate.  If you had tenure or a trust fund, you'd burn the ears of every other leftist on this list. As it is, you’re probably muddling along, making the right gestures, and hoping the Day of the Rope comes during your lifetime.

_____________________________

DAILY MAIL has Tavon White's picture

Tavon likes his money
He makes a lot they say

The World's Most Interesting Newspaper, the Daily Mail, comes through again, posting a picture of Tavon White.

Tavon is the head of the Black Guerilla Family prison gang inside a Baltimore jail, where he fathered five babies by four lady prison guards. Thirteen female corrections officers essentially handed over control of a Baltimore jail to gang leaders. The officers were charged Tuesday in a federal racketeering indictment.

I'm not sure why the Washington Post and other American media  outlets hadn't posted Tavon's picture. Perhaps they were trying to battle racial stereotypes. After all, without pictorial evidence, how could anyone have guessed that Tavon White is black? Or maybe they couldn't find a picture of Tavon at age 12 like they found of Trayvon?

Why Russia Warned the FBI About Tsarnaev

.. and why the FBI didn't investigate aggressively.

The Russian tip to the FBI about Tamerlan Tsarnaev two years before the Boston bombings was a result of his frequent visits to a mosque in Dagestan known for producing extremists . Tsarnaev came to the attention of Russian security forces after becoming a regular at the Salafist mosque during a 2011 visit. I seems here wasn’t enough time in 2011 to come to any conclusions about the extent of his involvement in Islamist extremism.  While sources in Russia say Tsarnaev was never observed making contact with insurgent leaders, he very likely heard sermons that pushed "the idea that America and Israel are the axis of evil. 

 After receiving the tip, the FBI interviewed Tsarnaev and searched its databases before quickly closing the case; Tsarnaev returned to Dagestan for an extended trip the following year—a trip that has become a "key thread" in the bombing investigation. The FBI's 2011 moves are now being heavily scrutinized, but the FBI shouldn't be expected to aggressively pursue every tip from Russia's FSB security service.

The service has been criticized for being used as a tool to attack the Russian regime's political opponents, and there doesn't seem to have been any indication that Tsarnaev posed a threat to the US. "The FSB is mad at a lot of Chechens," says former CIA director Michael Hayden. "Not all of them are terrorists, and even fewer of them are dangerous to the United States."

The wrong verse is winning

By Donald Sensing

"After terror attacks that appear to have an Islamic connection, such as last week’s Boston massacre, we often hear defensive talk about how Islam is a “religion of peace.” To back this up, Muslim commentators like to quote a verse in the Koran (Surah 5, verse 32) that mentions the Talmudic idea that if you kill one human being, it is as if you have killed an entire world. 

The problem, though, is that commentators usually fail to mention the verse that immediately follows, which is anything but peaceful: “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement.”

Verse 32 works for me. Verse 33 turns my stomach.

The way I see it, the future of Islam and its reputation in the world will hinge on which verse will win out—verse 32 or verse 33.

So far, it looks like the wrong verse is winning. Since 9/11, close to 20,000 acts of terrorism have been recorded throughout the  world under the name of Islam, many of those against Muslims themselves."

Sense of Events 

But...But He Said They Would Love Us

The Muslim World Hates the U.S. More Than Ever

Mona Charen  -

If there was one thing the left was certain about in 2008 it was this: George W. Bush had catastrophically undermined America's world reputation with his unprovoked aggression and use of torture. The advent of Obama would reverse the damage. As Andrew Sullivan wrote in 2007, among best assets Obama brought to the "rebranding" of America was "his face." The election of Obama and his friendly approach to the Muslim world would make the United States safer as well as more just.

No one believed this tale more fervently than Obama himself. His first official act was to direct the closing of Guantanamo Bay within one year and the elimination of harsh interrogation techniques. The "message we are sending around the world," he intoned, "is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle ... in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals." In Cairo a few months later, he declared, "a new beginning" of relations between America and the Muslim world.

Obama participated in erecting a Bush straw man — a Bush who disdained and caricatured Muslims in general and committed war crimes in the name of national security. In fact, Bush had gone to great pains, within hours of the 9/11 attacks, to appear with imams and to stress that Islam was a "religion of peace."

Because Iraq had been Bush's war, as Obama saw it, he squandered the hard-won victory by failing to obtain an agreement that would have kept a stabilizing American force on the ground, electing instead to withdraw completely. And because Afghanistan was the war that Bush allegedly neglected, Obama sent 33,000 more troops (fewer than the generals requested) — a surge that, unlike Bush's in Iraq — failed, but not before causing 70 percent of the American deaths in that conflict.

Most of all, the Obama administration fled from the concept of a struggle against Islamic terrorism as if fighting jihadis (the small subset of Muslims who've declared war on us) were equivalent to warring against all Muslims. Orwellian language flowed. The war on terror became "overseas contingency operations." When Major Nidal Hassan gunned down his fellow soldiers shouting "Allahu Akbar!" the president warned against jumping to conclusions (a caution he failed to show himself in the Trayvon Martin and Henry Louis Gates cases). His administration later dubbed Hassan's attack "workplace violence" rather than jihadism or terrorism.

When Faisal Shahzad attempted to explode a car bomb in Times Square, the administration at first declared it to be a lone wolf attack, only later reluctantly conceding that the Pakistani Taliban had been culpable. When the consulate in Benghazi was attacked (undermining the administration narrative that al-Qaida had died with bin Laden), the administration conducted a prolonged disinformation campaign designed to deny the obvious.

Tiptoeing through language after the Boston bombings, the administration at first declined to use the word "terror," perhaps fearing that to use the word would imply a Muslim connection. "You use those words and it means something very specific in people's minds," explained David Axelrod. Besides, he continued, the president suspected "tax day" protesters.

What has this excruciating torture of the language and elaborate "rebranding" achieved? The U.S. is not safer. Terror attacks have been attempted at the same rate as during the Bush years (and have been thwarted slightly less successfully). As for U.S. standing in the Muslim world, the Guardian reports that a 2011 poll found favorability ratings for the U.S. have plummeted. "In most countries they are lower than at the end of the Bush administration, and lower than Iran's favorable ratings." A 2012 Pew poll of six predominantly Muslim nations — Turkey, Lebanon, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan — found U.S. approval ratings below those during the Bush Administration and well under the popularity of China.

It's one thing to create a bogeyman for political purposes. Obama did it to Bush in 2008 (for use against McCain), and he did it to Romney in 2012. It's quite another to believe your own propaganda and make policy in response. Bush was no anti-Muslim bigot. If he erred, it was in believing too credulously in the readiness for western-style democracy in the Arab world.

As for Obama, his doubletalk about the nature of our enemies — jihadis — has achieved neither greater safety for Americans nor improved popularity in the Muslim world. He's 0 for 2.

Weiner Rises: Coming Run for Mayor Anticipated with New Twitter Account

Little Anthony Weiner used to use Twitter under the handle @RepWeiner. We all know how that ended......resigning from Congress after he tweeted a photo of his **** to his 50,000 followers, setting off an avalanche of lies, cover-ups, and general unethical douchebag behavior.

But now Weiner is back with a brand new Twitter account. He's using the handle @AnthonyWeiner, and his account is verified. Weiner is rumored to be considering a run for New York City Mayor. 

We outside NY can only pray he wins - you know there will be comedy gold in them hills, but for those who would have to live through it in the big apple, you have my sympathies.