"Thank you, Sheikh Mansour."

The world's greatest owner in team sports, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayad al Nahyan.

"Manchester City and Yankees to Own M.L.S. Club."- New York Times.

The Blue Moon is rising over the Big Apple. "New York City Football Club" is a reality. The city and the league could not have a better owner than Sheikh Mansour (75%).  And Sheikh Mansour, MCFC, and MLS now have a presence in the greatest city in the world.

"Russia Angry Over 'Stolen' Eurovision Votes."-Reuters

Rooski! I with you in this fraud! (Rooski know stolen votes: Poot-poot (Ahem)). Nobody cheat Rooski! Rooski, swine Azerbeijan, send them meteor. We lend you ours. Or send them gulag! Send all swine Azerbaijan gulag, Rooski. No peace without the justice!

Good night.

"Miguel Nearly Breaks Woman's Neck With His Crotch At Billboard Awards."-starpulse.com

No, I didn't frigging see that! Frigging MISSED IT, okay? I don't even know who the hell frigging Miguel is!!!! Never frigging heard of him!!!

Billboard 2013 Music Awards.

And now for the Billboard 2013 Music Awards. Justin Bieber What? I follow this won best male artist but presenter Miley Cyrus did not concur: 
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=pjjygk-WW9k&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dpjjygk-WW9k

You guys just do not give me enough credit. Miss the BBMA's? Sheet, man it's my favorite night of
the FRIGGING YEAR! Wouldn't miss it for A MILLION FRIGGING DOLLAR BILLS!!!!!!!!! Miss pop music awards? No, man, FRIGGING NO!!!! My frigging eyes were glued to the FRIGGING TV!!!!!!!

"Poll: Ruckus Over Benghazi, IRS Is Driven By Politics."-USA Today.

Sixty percent say the Congressional investigations into Benghazi are more about Republicans trying to score political points.

Oh well.

Wonderful Dagestan!

But Dagestan isn't just about the beaches. Makhachkala, the capital, is also a popular tourist destination. The police are friendly and assist even in cases of routine car trouble.

Images: The second, seventh, and sixteenth Google Images under "Dagestan capital."

Dagestan Occurrences.

The "Republic of Dagestan," home to our friends the Tsarnaevs, was hit with a bomb its own self today. A car bomb killed eight and wounded twenty.

Image: The third Google Image for search keyword "Dagestan beach." Chic.

"Chinese Hackers Resume Attacks on U.S. Targets."-New York Times.

Same Shanghai army unit, 61398.

It's good to have enemies.
That's the last maxim for the day. :) Good night, folks.

When lawyers try a criminal case in America they are very alert to what their opponent says and does  since, overwhelmingly, what your opponent says and does is designed to hurt you. It's very much a zero-sum game.

Russia's thinking re Syria is also zero-sum. The US is Russia's enemy, the US is anti-Assad, therefore it is in Russia's interest to be pro-Assad.

Not everything one lawyer does in a criminal trial hurts the other lawyer's case. You don't have to be very experienced to realize that objecting too much annoys the judge and the jury.

And then there's this. Sometimes one trial lawyer is really good. Good trial lawyers know how to plant credible disinformation in the opponent's mind. In some rare instances a really good trial lawyer knows his opponent so well and has the credibility and the rapport to actually suggest a strategy, appearing to make a slip, but in reality knowing that the other lawyer's zero-sum thinking will cause him to do the opposite. The good lawyer's advice really is in the less-good lawyer's interest to do. But the less-good lawyer thinks in zero-sum terms and so does the opposite. Occasionally, criminal trials turn on such things.

This morning it was Colombia for no apparent reason, right now there's a spike in readership from China, for apparent reason.

China, Russia.

During the Cold War the scales fell slowly from American eyes. "Monolithic communism" was a corpse difficult to keep buried. Nixon, of all people, drove a stake through its heart. The argument for the opening to China was that it was in America's interest to attempt to leverage the wedge that existed between the PRC and the Soviet Union. There is consensus, though not unanimity, that rapprochement with China has been good for America. I am among those who make the consensus non-unanimous but that is done with the perfect vision of hindsight.

We have an opponent in China, which is competent. But she is unsure of herself. This is so new to her that she is still looking for guidance. She does not respect the US, nor does she trust the US. Those three, lack of complete confidence in herself, lack of respect for the US and mistrust, feed each other.

We have another opponent in Russia that is incompetent. She is sure of herself, though. She believes herself to be a competent, great power. She relishes the days when she was the great enemy of the United States for the imprimatur of greatness ran wide.

And so China is now more open to Russian influence and Russia is open to any agreement with anyone, but especially with competent, independent China, to frustrate any aim of its great enemy, the United States.

The view here is, on the whole, this is not a wholly bad thing.

"Russia Sends More Advanced Missiles to Aid Assad in Syria."

There are these maxims in English: "Bad money drives good money out" is one. Another is "Water seeks the lowest level."  China is a more capable civilization than Russia. As an American, I think it is good that China and Russia agree more on things. Chinese-Russian geopolitical harmony is in keeping with the trial lawyer's maxim, "Never interrupt your opponent when he is making a fool of himself."

Image: The Russian and Chinese ambassadors to the United Nations congratulating each other on their joint veto of sanctions against Syria in February.

"Russia Sends More Advanced Missiles To Aid Assad in Syria."-New York Times.

There is not "deep depth" to Russian political calculations. They are aiding Assad because the US is not. There is not great competence in Russia, wasn't when it was the Soviet Union. I don't think the US takes Russia very seriously and I think that's about right. 

Let's carpe the diem.

A good, productive day. Fun too. I think I will sleep well tonight.

Eurovision 2013 Song Contest.

And now for the Eurovision 2013 Song Contest results. Denmark, What? I follow this. through Emmelie de Forest Ah yes, Emmelie. won the Eurovision 2013 Song Contest with her performance of  "Only Teardrops" with 281 points! Wow, 281 is a lot of points. An exuberant Poznan for Ms. de Forest and for DENMARK! Here is the youtube link http://www.youtube.com/embed/k59E7T0H-Us?autoplay=1

Ladies and Euros YOUR Eurovision 2013 Song Contest Winner!

A Polish spike right now. Poles-and only Poles- in the last two hours.

After Islam's September 11, 2001 attacks on America the British government lent to President George W. Bush a bust of Winston Churchill, which Bush displayed in the Oval Office. The British offered to extend the loan when Barack Obama became president. Obama had the bust removed from the Oval Office.

"The unity of Islam is remarkable. There is no doubt that Libya, to whom we have paid £5,000,000 a year, like Jordania, to whom we have paid £10,000,000 or more, are whole-heartedly manifesting hostility."
     -August 9, 1956 letter to his wife, Clementine.

Speaking of professional basketball, as we were at 8:48 this morning, exuberant congratulations to Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA player, and the city of Sacramento for the "Kings" will stay put. The mayor, the city, a new investor and the league's commissioner worked against considerable odds to prevent the sale and relocation of the franchise to Seattle. They succeeded.

I am not a slug today. By all rights I should be. I am slug-free and proud.

Sporting News.

The Charlotte "Hornets" are a step closer to resurrection. The 1988 National Basketball Association expansion franchise with the distinctive Alexander Julian uniforms, distinguished nickname and huge following were mismanaged into relocation in 2002. The void in the Carolinas was replaced by another team that has set the standard for ineptitude. Ominously, Michael Jordan will continue to run the franchise but the "Hornets" brand is one step closer to return, replacing the odious "Bobcats." Maybe that will bring the buzz back.

I cannot sleep and the fatigue will come tomorrow when I must be in the office at 10 am and I will not rid myself of it all day. Coming back from a small vacation I felt more alert than I had in awhile. This energy lasted through Wednesday, dropped noticeably on Thursday and Friday I was useless. Fatigue makes cowards of us all and tomorrow will be a fatigued day and I will be a coward. I do not know why this happens. My eyes are sore from the dryness that comes from lack of sleep. I left bed with Carmen for she is asleep and I am tossing and will wake her. Two cowards we do not need, one we may overcome. It is always me. Carmen is the hardest-working human being I have ever met. I will go the guest bedroom now and try to sleep and to get enough of it to not be a slug tomorrow. But that has happened before and I know what to expect. I do not know why this happens to me. My eyes are tired and red but I have not slept so far tonight. I will try now but I expect an unsatisfactory day tomorrow.

Oh well.

Having just been in Canada and having expressed the sentiment, apocryphal, that I would need crack to readjust to life when I got back to the US&A,unfortunate sentiments, unfortunately expressed, totally apocryphal,--but timely--one can imagine the jolt I received today that someone named "Rob Ford," who looks like a blood relative of Rush Limbaugh, was the actual mayor of Toronto-in-Canada, and that there is, allegedly, an actual video of "Rob Ford," actually-allegedly-smoking alleged cocaine of the crack variety. One can imagine that one did not expect the mayor of Toronto-in-Canada to be on any substance more potent than coffee "...regular...percolated." One can imagine that, can't one?

Image: Mayor Ford with some alleged supporters of the Hoodie persuasion, one of them allegedly of the deceased persuasion at the current moment in time.

I assert the legally-recognized affirmative defense of entrapment on that: The government cannot give a law-abiding citizen a picture of an officer conducting roadside tests AND THEN a picture of Drinking Bacchus AND THEN a picture of a guy holding an umbrella over the president's head...Arright fine! Maybe it's not "legally" entrapment but the argument's the same. Reuters is pretty close to being an agent of the gov...Wait, PLUS, it's legal impossibility: there's ground separating the imbibing cherub and the president's head.  Ha-ha-ha. The defense rests you make me sick.

Arright fine! Maybe I did but I MISSED. I couldn't align the two images correctly. The urine stream is almost-but not quite-aligned with the smokey's head and unless I am very much mistaken this is an offense in which the attempt and the completed act do NOT merge. So...there.
                                                                          

I did NOT deliberately position the smokey underneath the urine stream of Drinking Bacchus. Now you're casting aspersions on my asparagus. It was just an unfortunate juxtaposition.

That's Reuters' photo of the day. That's awesome.

"Toronto Mayor Denies Smoking Crack Cocaine."-Reuters.

?
I would also like to deny smoking crack cocaine...God, that is a terrible headline. When did you stop beating your wife?

The National Transportaion Safety Board which is in charge of this issue has recommended that laws be passed to lower the blood alcohol level at which driving is illegal from .08% to .05%. Until thirteen years ago the illegal limit was .10%. Then it was lowered to .08% and now the recommendation of .05%. The National Transportaion Safety Board can kiss...I oppose this.

Smaller story but I'm sure you'll be interested--the State of California has balanced its budget, nay even has a surplus :o, the first time in a decade that that has occurred. A rebounding economy and Governor Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown's successful tax increase are responsible for this good news.

Obama sure seems to have gotten off to a rocky start in his second term, hasn't he?  Jeez. "No drama Obama" was not reelected.

Search Keyword of the Day: fbis-chi-91-215

That's the citation to "Deng Initiates New Policy 'Guiding Principle," a US Department of Defense white paper.

This is The Atlantic quoting from a New York Times article...This is Public Occurrences quoting The Atlantic quoting The New York Times.  WHATEVER! What this is is not good:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday defended the Justice Department's sweeping seizure of telephone records of Associated Press journalists, describing the article by The A.P. that prompted a criminal investigation as among "the top two or three most serious leaks that I've ever seen" in a 35-year career. "It put the American people at risk, and that is not hyperbole," he said in an apparent reference to an article on May 7, 2012, that disclosed the foiling of a terrorist plot by Al Qaeda's branch in Yemen to bomb an airliner. "And trying to determine who was responsible for that, I think, required very aggressive action." 

In a statement in response The A.P.'s president and chief executive, Gary Pruitt, disputed that the publication of the article endangered security. "We held that story until the government assured us that the national security concerns had passed," he said. "Indeed, the White House was preparing to publicly announce that the bomb plot had been foiled." Mr. Pruitt said the article was important in part because it refuted White House claims that there had been no Qaeda plots around the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden."

This is compelling evidence that the Justice Department's subpoena's were motivated by politics, to protect the president from revelations that his approach toward Islam represents a FALSE IDEOLOGY.

JEE-sus Christ.

Search Keyword of the Day: burma sex pussy blogspot

So that's how they got here. Ah, that explains it.

The January 5, 2011 post, "New York City, December 2008," has been read six times today, only 140 times overall. I'm proud of the writing in that post. I like to write and that is about as well as I can do.

Myanmar [Burma] 8
USA 5
Germany 1
Sweden 1
( last two hours)

A friend and I were conversating today about how puzzling it can be to navigate the world wide web and I told him that one of the pleasurable mysteries of having had a blog for so long is imagining how people find such a tiny website as this. I mentioned to him that a few days ago there was a spike in readers from Norway; there was a spike yesterday from Ukraine. Now Myanmar. As I told my friend, China I can understand but Russia now number two? I've written a lot of dumb "Rooski" posts but "serious" posts like on China, maybe a couple on Alexie Navalny and Pussy Riot, that's it. Ukraine, never; and Ukraine is tenth in pageviews. Norway?  Nothing serious (a couple that tickled me anyway) after Obama won the Nobel Peace prize. Myanmar/Burma, puh-lease. 

And with that, I am checking out. I know I can never leave. But I am stabbing this day with steely knives.

Baby.

I have 20/400 vision. Yes, you read that right. However, despite having 20/400 "vision," I could see that Deadhead sticker on the Cadillac. I can also see you.  Yes I, Benjamin X. Harris, can see you, your brown skin shining in the sun. I can also see that you got that hair slicked back and those Ray-Ban Wayfarers on.

Baby.

Funny thing happened today: Out on the road I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. Can you believe it? A Grateful Dead bumpersticker on a Caddy! Couldn't believe my eyes.

"Tax Scandal Fells IRS Chief."-Wall Street Journal.

Steven Miller, acting head, is out, his resignation requested and received by President Obama, over the targeting of Tea Party groups.

Public Occurrences is dedicated today to the band Eagles.

This is from the lead editorial in The New York Times today:

The Obama administration, which has a chilling zeal for investigating leaks and prosecuting leakers, has failed to offer a credible justification for secretly combing through the phone records of reporters and editors at The Associated Press...
...

Both Mr. Holder [Attorney General] and Mr. Cole [Deputy A.G.] declared their commitment — and that of President Obama — to press freedoms. Mr. Cole said the administration does not “take lightly” such secretive trolling through media records.

We are not convinced. [That's an ouch.]
...

The Obama administration has indicted six current and former officials under the Espionage Act, which had previously been used only three times since it was enacted in 1917. [Ooh.] One, a former C.I.A. officer, pleaded guilty under another law for revealing the name of an agent who participated in the torture of a terrorist suspect. Meanwhile, President Obama decided not to investigate, much less prosecute, anyone who actually did the torturing.[Hmm.]
...

The Justice Department is pursuing at least two major press investigations, including one believed to be focused on David Sanger’s reporting in a book and in The Times on an American-Israeli effort to sabotage Iranian nuclear works. These tactics will not scare us off, or The A.P...

"The overall advice that he [defense attorney] gave me is that you have a right to get your stuff. He gave me an example that if you're walking the street and you see your laptop in a car, you can use force to break the window of the car."

                    -O.J. Simpson today, CNN.

Says Benjamin Harris, no more today.

Search Keyword of Day: toru hashimoto asshole.

"To maintain discipline in the military, it must have been necessary at that time. For soldiers who risked their lives in circumstances where bullets are flying around like rain and wind, if you want them to get some rest, a comfort women system was necessary. That's clear to anyone."

                      -Toru Hashimoto, Mayor of Osaka, Japan.

Said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei: "We are appalled and indignant about the Japanese politician's comments boldly challenging humanity and historical justice."

Said Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga: "The stance of the Japanese government on the comfort women issue is well known. They have suffered unspeakably painful experiences."

Says Benjamin Harris: 1. "Comfort women" were forced prostitutes. Forced sex is rape. The comfort women system therefore was systematized rape. 2. Toru Hashimoto therefore is an ignorant asshole. 3. Ditto what Hong Lei said. 4. Yoshihide Suga's statement does not exclude Hashimoto's contention that the comfort women system was "necessary." 5. Suga and the Japanese government therefore are assholes on this issue.

"My Medical Choice," Angelina Jolie, New York Times.

How many physicians would choose to perform a double mastectomy on an identically-situated patient: 37 years old, cancer-free, identical genetic mutation, identical, 87%, chance of developing breast cancer, identical, 50%, chance of contracting ovarian cancer?

It was not Ms. Jolie's choice alone.

Rooski, Shhh. Listen.

ping.
ping.
ping.

We ping the Murmansk, Rooski! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Rooski, we spy on you today, tomorrow, third Tuesday of last week! We spy on you till we get yawn. You no can stop us Rooski by arrest one little pee-pee. We still do. You see, Rooski.  We ping the Mumansk, we pong Kremlin!

[Carl] Bernstein Calls Out W.H. On AP Subpoena.-Politico.

Holder Says AP Probe Handled By Deputy After He Recused Himself.-Fox News.

Is This The End of Eric Holder's Tenure At The Justice Department.-The Atlantic.

"Russia Detains American, Saying He Is CIA Officer."

Rooski! Three can play game. We go tat for teet, we arrest Gromyko! Ha-ha-ha. You like, Rooski? We arrest Gromyko, Ha-ha-ha.

Preventive double mastectomy...Wh...I...Wh...B...

Preventive doub

                          le

                             mast

                                    ectomy.

Alrighty then.

"Russia Detains American, Saying He Is CIA Officer."-New York Times

Rooski, what you doski! So he have extra cash in pocket. He try enroll in Russian police academy! Eh, what a little spy among enemies? Rooski, we send other meteorite after you, this time Moscow!

Boy, Angelina Jolie had a double mastectomy. One of the sexiest, most beautiful women in the world. Poor thing. Cancer is so insidious. My family has had it every which way. Ever heard of tongue cancer? We thought they said lung cancer. My sister-in-law had tongue cancer. When you have treatment and the docs tell you "We got it all" you think, and sometimes the docs slip and say it,  you're "cured." We know there's no cure for cancer but that's how we think; that's how the medical profession makes us think. It's not true. It's insidious. Hate that friggin' disease, or whatever it is. I don't think Bush invented cancer but we should ask Obama. Personally, I think Islam invented,
or at least causes, it. "Islam causes cancer," spread the word.

"Under Sweeping Subpoenas, Justice Department Obtained AP Phone Records in Leak Investigation."-Washington Post.

That may be the record for longest headline. 

This is getting weird:

"In a sweeping and unusual move, the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of journalists working for the Associated Press as part of a year-long investigation into the disclosure of classified information about a failed al-Qaeda plot last year."

...

"The aggressive investigation into the possible disclosure of classified information to the AP is part of a pattern in which the Obama administration has pursued current and former government officials suspected of releasing secret material. Six officials have been prosecuted so far, more than under all previous administrations."

...

"The inquiry is one of two leak investigations ordered last June by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. The second involves a New York Times article about the Stuxnet computer virus, which was developed jointly by the United States and Israel to damage nuclear centrifuges at Iran’s main uranium enrichment plant."

For now I trust the prosecutors.

Manchester City have fired manager Roberto Mancini after three years in charge and two trophies, the FA Cup in 2011 and the English Premier League title a year ago today. City did underachieve this year. The players did not seem to have, to use Mancini's word the same "mind" this year. There was some lack of spirit. City was a Peyton's Place the first two years, with Carlos Tevez refusing to come off the bench and demanding a transfer every other week to Mario Balotelli lighting his bathroom on fire. That is not the spirit you want but somehow Mancini made it work. This year Tevez behaved but didn't produce and Balotelli followed up a great season (on the pitch) with a spectacular performance for Italy in Euro 2012 only to disappear for City. Mancini finally sold him. It was as if loss of any emotional edge, however dysfunctional, meant loss of all edge on the pitch. Whatever it was Roberto Mancini recognized it but could not arrest it. I will always remember Roberto in one way, the way he was on May 15, 2012, when Kun Aguero scored to beat QPR, one of the most dramatic finishes in any sport at any time, ever:

"Obama Scoffs At Libya Outcry..."

I don't know if "scoffs" is the right political strategy. Maybe I just don't liked being "scoffed"...or "scoffed at," whatever the proper usage is. Not that he's scoffing at me, I have no "evidence" that he actually, like, knows who I am.  All I know is he never calls!

Seriously, Obama doesn't (didn't, anyway) seem to me a "scoffer." He has not seemed to me to be an arrogant man Oh, I can hear the guffaws. One who scoffs, who is "dismissive," I would think such a person to be arrogant, like "You little twits, be gone!"  He does not seem to me the you-little-twits-be-gone sort, but I could be wrong. He views the world as a very "complex" place (I've read). Twits don't make the world complex, they make it simple, you don't have to pay attention to them, you can be "dismissive" of them and their twitting viewpoints. So, this is new, to me.

                                                              -OR-

Sometimes, a person "scoffs" as a cover (up) when he really is concerned about something. "You little twits, be gone" because I can't make you go away with the facts! There is a there there: Susan Rice did go on the Sunday talk shows and say Benghazi was not a terrorist attack. And she did blame it on "Innocence of Muslims."  As did the president, and the secretary of state. And the "talking points" were scrubbed of references to Al Qaeda in Libya. And David Petraeus, then head of the CIA was "exasperated" at several points by the administration's insistence that CIA reports not use the term "Islamic terrorists."  Be gone, Islamic terrorists! The Obamas can't make Islamic terrorists go away in fact so they have tried to, and are trying to, make them go away stylistically, in print. T'aint gonna happen.

"Obama Scoffs At Libya Outcry..."-New York Times.

"An exasperated President Obama on Monday called Republican criticism of his handling of the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, 'a sideshow' and said that any accusation of a cover-up by his administration 'defies logic.'...Mr. Obama was dismissive of the continuing controversy...'Suddenly, three days ago, this gets spun up as if there's something new to the story.  There's no there there,' Mr. Obama told reporters..."

"Obama: IRS Targeting of Conservative Groups 'Outrageous.'"-NBC News.

Good for the president. The IRS' actions were Nixonian. I was worried about what this showed about Obama in conjunction with Benghazi.

Benghazi: I never remember a foreign event timed to be more damaging to a president facing re-election. And the administration reacted that way too. They panicked. The initial responses, for ease of reference "The Rice Reaction," were attempts to contain the political fallout: the editing of the talking points, the finger-pointing at "Innocence of Muslims," the arrest of the creator of the film, Secretary Clinton's pathetic, plaintive appeal to followers of Islam, "that great religion." Not just the political threat to the president, to Clinton too. I remember the images of Clinton and Obama when Ambassador Stevens' flag-draped coffin was returned to the U.S., the look on Clinton's face as she and Obama, both dressed in black, holding hands, were walking away. The look on Clinton's face said "I fucked up." The American people did not hold Obama responsible for Benghazi, they reelected him comfortably. How much of that was the administration's success in containing the political damage with their lies? The polls did tighten, if I remember correctly, afterwards and Romney ended up taking a slight lead. My gut sense is that The Rice Reaction helped the president initially by directing the electorate's focus away from the administration entirely. It was, in a sense, like Hillary Clinton's blame of "a vast right-wing conspiracy," for the then rumors of her husband's philandering. That helped Bill Clinton initially. People are inclined to believe their presidents. In both cases however, the truth would soon out. The fact is even when Bill Clinton got caught in his lies, there was no stomach in the American people for impeachment, not for that. And my gut says Obama would have won re-election anyway. The American people really liked, really like, Barack Obama, they did not really like Mitt Romney. As timed for political damage as Benghazi was, the fact is too that election-year foreign policy surprises seldom effect a presidential election.

Foreign policy surprises: But. But,what if the American electorate had believed the truth about Benghazi, that Obama and his administration were, are, ideologues when it comes to Islam and that their ideology was shown by Benghazi and its aftermath to be a FALSE IDEOLOGY. Then it wouldn't have been a foreign policy "surprise." That would have been more damaging. If the American electorate had believed that the Obamas entire approach to Islam was wrong, was, is, in fact, appeasement, then the electorate may have gone for another approach, Romney's approach, whatever that was, any approach other than the Obamas. The 1972 presidential election was waged and fought on foreign policy. The differences between Nixon and McGovern (who I actively supported) were vast. They were entirely different approaches. The American people roundly rejected the foreign policy approach of the Democrat in 1972. Might they have in 2012 if the issue were put to them as a difference in approaches? I voted for Obama in 2012 despite believing that he and his administration were ideologues, despite believing that that ideology was appeasement of Islam. Benghazi never morphed in the public's consciousness as an "exposure" of a "false ideology" and was overtaken by other events in the electorate as a whole, and in my mind. I paid close attention to Romney's VMI speech, dissected it here. I did not see a "there" there. I didn't know what Romney's approach was. If though "foreign policy approach" had been the issue in 2012 as it was in 1972 and even if Romney's approach never came into sharper focus than it did at VMI, I would have voted for Romney. I think. I have to imagine those two "ifs" coming true. If 2012 had been about foreign policy and if Romney never became more specific...Yes, I would have cast a frustrated ballot for Romney (I remember Nixon had a "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War too, and the electorate voted for the secret plan over the unsecret doveish approach.). I would have gone with the devil-I-didn't-know-well-enough.

This post has not gone in the direction I intended at the start. The direction I intended at the start was to hope Obama made a clean, manly break from his squishy appeasement of Islam like he made a clean, manly break from the IRS' Nixonian targeting of the Tea Baggers. I hoped, and I wrote here in the aftermath of Benghazi, that the Obamas would have a Neville Chamberlain moment, that they would realize, as he did, that their appeasement approach was FALSE. T'aint gonna happen. Benghazi has still not morphed in the public's consciousness into an exposure of a false ideology. There are very few people who believe as I do about Islam, fewer still who have any credibility. So there is absolutely no political incentive for the president to express any doubts on appeasing Islam.  Islam qua Islam is just not the issue for debate. Never has been, not even right after 9-11-01. The irony here, the supreme irony, is that this whole approach started with Bush43. When Bush43 said "The issue is not Islam," that was it for the public discourse!  What if 9-11-01 had happened under a Democrat?  What if President Gore had said "The issue is not Islam" in the aftermath of 9-11-01?  I think there would have been public discourse. I think the Republicans would have made Islam the question if not "The Answer." Instead the doveish approach was co-opted by one of their own. (See, it really is all Bush's fault.) The public believes Islam is "just" a religion, a religion, just like, or close-enough-to, the other religions they know, Christianity, Judaism...Mormonism; The public believes that religion is, generally, "good," and we Americans are tolerant of other religions, we don't countenance attacks on religion--or religions. And so, yeah, that is pretty much that. Pisses me off.

Oh well.

Received an email today, the Google Translate version of which is:

Now I the removal of one by "Dan mind", Wang Wei had given Qiwang painted a large stone, letter pen painting, naturally, have a natural charm. Qi Wang are greatly attached to this picture, often sitting alone watching appreciate, like in the mountains, naturally rise of laid-back fun. A few years later, more exciting things. Day squally showers, thunder and lightning, suddenly painting stone flew uprooted, houses are damaged, do not know how. Later saw the scrolls empty, before we know the painting stone flew away.

Thank you. 

"Police Say 19 Victims In New Orleans Mother's Day Shooting Included 2 Children."-Washington Post.

Obama, are you going to blame this on Bush, too?

Happy Mother's Day.

Seen: Inside the Buffalo Intergalactic Spaceport, a sign:

"If you see something, say something."

With photographic accompaniment, a piece of unattended luggage.

And if you don't see something you qualify to become a Boston police officer.

THIS is "The Buffalo-Niagara Frontier."

The "Heart" of Buffalo, New York, USA is within a distance from Toronto, Canada described by the tangent of the urine stream arc made by a normal adult male, thus bestowing upon the Buffalo airport a glamour that only "International" can.

The terminal at Buffalo International Airport is painted in the hard-to-find "white" colour and is of a size that would fit in a standard cargo shipping container. Barely. The walls are refreshingly free of the clutter brought by paintings or pictures; there are no picturesque representations of Buffalo. A simple black-lettered sign above the Buffalo-mover greets misdirected wayfarers,

Welcome, We Are The Buffalo-Niagara Frontier.

It chokes one up, it does, to see that sign and feel the pride of the Buffaloes, however briefly. Choke. Buffalo Intercontinental Airport teems with Buffaloes, tens of them, yearning to breathe free, yearning to breathe air unbefouled by the scent of other Buffaloes, yearning to get the hell out of Buffalo, New York, USA. However briefly.

For "The Frontier" teems with culture also. You have your Buffalo Symphony Orchestra and Oom-pa-pa band; You have your Amanda Knox Museum of Art with its renowned "Paintings by Brothers of Famous Artists Collection," featuring works by Murray Rubens, brother of Peter Paul, Seth Picasso, and Joey Monet. Among others. You have your professional football team, the Buffalo "Bills," named for a successful local child molester, which has distinguished itself on the "gridiron" by being the only team in history to lose five million Super Bowls. And you have your professional ice hockey team owned by corporate art patrons Pepsi-Cola whose "logo" is a bottle cap with the nickname "Bison" imprinted thereon. In chic script.

It is all there on The Frontier and I am privileged to have experienced it All in 40 degree weather in May. However briefly. I am Benjamin X. Harris and THIS is Public Occurrences...No, really it is, THIS is Public Occurrences, This IS Public Occurrences.

The Martyrs of Otranto.

"Pope Francis has given the Catholic church a raft of new saints, including hundreds of 15th-century martyrs who were beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam, as he led his first canonisation ceremony before tens of thousands of people in St Peter's Square."

                     -Associated Press.

Great man, Pope Francis, great man.