Mickey Mouse Municipality?

Last Tuesday's unrest in Anaheim, which has suffered five fatal officer-involved shootings this year, has attracted the attention of Jennifer Medina at the New York Times:

These shootings have exposed deep fury in a city that is better known as being home to the happiest place on earth. About 1,000 demonstrators showed up at a City Council meeting on Tuesday night, leading to outbreaks of violence and two dozen arrests.

The police were bracing for more protests over the weekend and said they had adopted a zero-tolerance stance against any city code violations, like loitering.

In this largely working-class city of more than 340,000 people, the divisions are as varied as they are deep. While more than half of the city is Latino, only three Latinos have ever been elected to the City Council. But the rift is as much about class as it is about race.

For many activists, the blame lies with the City Council, whose members are primarily from eastern hills on the city’s edge, the wealthiest and least populated part of town. They complain that the Council has focused exclusively on development in the resort area at the expense of the city’s poor neighborhoods.

The photo by the AP's Damian Dovarganes shows the mother of shooting victim Manuel Diaz, Genevieve Huizar, who movingly pleaded for calm this week.

Keep Watch With Those Who Weep This Night

Jacob Stevens, 18, hugs his mother Tammi Stevens after being interviewed by police outside Gateway High School where witness were brought for questioning after a shooting at a movie theater in Denver today. A gunman wearing a gas mask set off an unknown gas and fired into a crowded movie theater at a midnight opening of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises," killing at least 12 people and injuring at least 50 others, authorities said.
AP Photo/Barry Gutierrez

Putting "Gay" In Quotes Is So Gay

Associated Press reporter David Crary, covering today's lamentable anti-gay ruling by the Boy Scouts of America, wrote:

The announcement suggests that hurdles may be high for a couple of members of the national executive board — Ernst & Young CEO James Turley and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson — who have recently indicated they would try to work from within to change the membership policy. Both of their companies have been commended by gay-rights groups for gay-friendly employment policies.

Stephenson is on track to become president of the Scouts' national board in 2014, and will likely face continued pressure from gay-rights groups to try to end the exclusion policy.

OneNewsNow.com, a website operated by the American Family News Network, published Crary's article but with some edits that I imagine Crary wouldn't appreciate and that in any event won't earn AFNN a merit badge in journalistic ethics. For instance:

The announcement suggests that hurdles may be high for a couple of members of the national executive board -- Ernst & Young CEO James Turley and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson -- who have recently indicated they would try to work from within to change the policy. Both of their companies have been commended by "gay"-rights groups for homosexual-friendly employment policies. Stephenson is on track to become president of the Scouts' national board in 2014, and will likely face continued pressure from homosexual-rights groups to try to end the exclusion policy.

Sorry, guys, but you lost the battle on the word gay about 30 years ago. Anyway, your readers know what it means. There's no sense in tying yourself in two half-hitches about it.

Perhaps the editor was anxious that the specter of change is lurking just outside the circle of security cast by the campfire. As Crary reports, an 11-member committee worked secretly for two years on the review of BSA's anti-gay policy. A Scout is brave, but not this time. It reminds me of an expression President Nixon liked to use: They labored and produced a mouse. Still, I'm inclined to agree with a thoughtful Scout whose prediction was deleted from Crary's article censored by the American Family News Network:

Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, an Iowa college student who was raised by lesbian mothers, said Tuesday's announcement didn't change his view that eventually the Scouts would relent under pressure from campaigns such as those that he and his allies have mounted.

“I'm sure they'll keep saying this until the day they decide to change the policy,” said Wahls.

Nixoncare

The AP's Calvin Woodward on the roots of Obama- and Romneycare in Richard Nixon's 1974 health care initiative, torpedoed in Congress by Ted Kennedy:

Nixon's initiative was bold for its time — and even bolder now — because it contained measures that have become anathema to the Republican mainstream, including a requirement that all employers offer coverage to their workers. To his everlasting regret, Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, his party's broker on health care, chose not to seal a deal with Nixon along those lines, reasoning that a Democratic president down the road could achieve a single-payer government system like Canada's.

"You never know how the thing would have played out," said [Stuart] Altman, an architect of Nixon's initiative and author of a new book on the century-long struggle for expanded medical care, "Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care." ''There was no question that the stars were aligned in 1974 for the passage of something important."

Nixon declared, "The time is at hand this year to bring comprehensive, high-quality health care within the reach of every American. I shall propose a sweeping new program that will assure comprehensive health insurance protection to millions of Americans who cannot now obtain it or afford it."

With the Watergate scandal soon to destroy Nixon's presidency, health care was surely a topic he preferred to talk about. It's just not one that Romney or Obama want to talk about now.

Iran: We'll Get Back To You In A Few Months

An AP report says that Israeli officials now agree with the U.S. conclusion that Iran hasn't yet decided whether to build a nuclear weapon. Of course it all may an Iranian ploy to trick the Israelis, who are itching to attack, into standing down and leaving the task to the U.S., which Iran may have concluded is less certain to do so:

Israel officials have said that with Iran moving its installations underground, Israel's level of bunker-busting capability leaves it with a window of no more than several months to act effectively. The United States, with more powerful bombs, would have a much longer period — but leaders [in Israel] are loathe to be entirely dependent on U.S. determination on the issue.

The suspicion in Israel is that the Iranians have held off on a decision [to build a weapon] in order to deny Israel — and other countries — the pretext for an attack, officials said...

300 Children An Hour Dying Of Hunger

Here's an actual presidential issue, gentlemen. This is credited to the AP and Huffington Post:

Nearly half a billion children are at risk of "devastating and irreversible" damage from malnutrition, including stunted growth and undeveloped brains, according to a new report released by Save the Children. This "hidden crisis" kills more than 300 children every hour of every day and affects one in four children worldwide, according to the report.

Chronic childhood malnutrition has been called a "silent killer," as it is often not listed as a cause of death and does not benefit from as much attention as high-profile campaigns targeting malaria or HIV/AIDS.

Soaring food prices have left children particularly vulnerable. According to the Press Association, one-third of parents reported that their children did not have enough to eat, and one-sixth said that their children skipped school in favor of work. Chief executive of Save the Children Justin Forsyth outlined the gravity of the situation:

"Every hour of every day, 300 children die because of malnutrition, often simply because they don't have access to the basic, nutritious foods that we take for granted in rich countries," he said.

Nixon's Secret Plan (aka Linebacker III)

In 1972 Richard Nixon tried to get the NFL to stop blacking out playoff games by promising to block all congressional attempts to end the league's unpopular regular-season blackouts. The AP reports that Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who worried about playoff games being played in half-empty stadiums, rebuffed the fan-in-chief in favor of a congressional plan he liked better.

Nixon told aides he had the interests of the people of the District of Columbia at heart, at least insofar as 1972's first-round Redskins-Packers game was concerned:

In [a] previously unreported taped White House conversation the week before the first 1972 playoff game, Nixon vented to [Attorney General Richard] Kleindienst and White House aide John D. Ehrlichman about the game not being televised locally.

“The folks should be able to see the goddam games on television,” he said. “Playoff games. Playoffs — all playoff games should be available.

“Now, you might say this. You might also point out, and say listen, just so you understand ... the president is not speaking for himself in this instance, because he’s going to be in Florida. And he’s going to be watching the game in Florida — it’s going to be carried there. But he’s speaking for all the people in Washington that didn’t vote for him,” Nixon said to laughter. The president had lost only the District of Columbia and Massachusetts in his landslide 1972 victory over Democrat George McGovern.

“Put it right that way.”

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent, Pal

AP photographer Alexander F. Yuan caught this image on Christmas Eve in Beijing's South Cathedral (formerly known as the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception), one of China's official Roman Catholic parishes. China doesn't permit its Catholic churches to recognize the external authority of the Vatican. At least the little guy at right knows who's boss.

The Exceptionalism Of U.S. Volunteers

U.S. Navy deck crew coordinate with U.S. Naval aviators of the F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter attack aircraft as they prepare to launch off the deck of the USS George Washington, during a joint military exercise off South Korea's West Sea, in South Korea's West Sea on Tuesday. Jets roared off a supercarrier in U.S.-South Korean war games Tuesday, as the U.S. and two crucial Asian allies agreed to talk in Washington about North Korea's attack on a South Korean island and the North's nuclear weapons programs. (Photo and caption: AP/Wally Santana)

Rain's A Pain, But Fewer Houses Will Burn Down

Lightning strikes over Palmdale, California early Tuesday as a low pressure system brings unsettled wet weather to southern California. (Photo and caption by AP/Mike Meadows)

Women's Sufferage

Afghan women voters stand in a line with voter cards in hands to enter a polling station in Kabul to cast their ballots in the country's parliamentary elections today. Men in traditional tunics and women covered in sky-blue burqas trickled into polling centers to vote in Afghanistan's parliamentary election Saturday, as scattered insurgent attacks underscored the difficulty of trying to hold a vote in a country at war. (Photo and caption by AP/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Clash Of Civilizations? What Civilization?

AP:

[Sakineh Mohammadi] Ashtiani was convicted in 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men after the murder of her husband the year before and was sentenced at that time to 99 lashes. Later that year, she was also convicted of adultery and sentenced to be stoned [to death], even though she retracted a confession that she says was made under duress.

"The possibility of stoning still exists, any moment," [her attorney] told The Associated Press. "Her stoning sentence was only delayed; it has not been lifted yet."

The woman received 99 more lashes last week after a British newspaper printed a photo of an unveiled woman and falsely said it was Ashtiani. The newspaper has apologized for its mistake. Iran hasn't yet apologized for practicing medieval savagery on its women.

Pray For The Peace Of Jerusalem

Secretary of State Clinton watches Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands as she hosts the re-launch of direct negotiations on Thursday at the State Department in Washington. (AP caption and photo/Charles Dharapak)

And Obama Says The Left's Giving Him Trouble

The elbows on the flanks are a lot sharper in the Middle East. Palestinian President Abbas is under such pressure from Hamas that he's saying the peace talks could die aborning if West Bank settlements continue. And way over on the Israeli right, the AP reports:

The spiritual leader of one of the hard-line parties in Netanyahu's coalition caused a stir by saying in his weekly Sabbath sermon that the Palestinians and Abbas should "perish from the world."

Of all people to be using "final solution" language...

Call House. He Might Actually Be Into This.

Via the AP, news from our staunch ally in the Middle East:

A Saudi Arabian judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man’s spinal cord as punishment for his attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him, the brother of the victim said Thursday.

Clash of civilizations? Depends on what you mean by civilization.

The Cluelessness Of The People

AP:

Nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim, up from the 11 percent who said so in March 2009, according to a poll released Thursday. The proportion who correctly say he is a Christian is down to just 34 percent.

AP (Or Yahoo) Editors' Call To Prayer

The Yahoo page carrying an Associated Press story about a clash between Muslim demonstrators and Israeli police on the Temple Mount bears this questionable headline:

Violent clashes erupt at Jerusalem's holiest site

The demonstrators were holed up for a while tonight in the al-Aqsa mosque, which together with the neighboring Dome of the Rock (shown here) comprises only the third holiest site in the world among Muslims. As the site of the Second Temple (specious Temple-denying to the contrary), the Temple Mount is unquestionably the holiest site for Jews. Also in Jerusalem, but not on the Temple Mount, is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, by far the holiest site for Christians. However you slice it, you can't write that headline without seeming to play favorites.

The body of the story calls the Temple Mount Jerusalem's most volatile site, about which there's little doubt. Reporter Matti Friedman attributes today's violence to understandable Muslim frustration at the stalled peace talks and unsubstantiated rumors spread by clerics that Jews were planning to disrupt or damage their holy sites. It's been an especially tense place since former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit in 2000. While many fault him for doing so, he said at the time that Jews should feel free to visit, since their temples had stood on the same territory on and off for roughly 1,600 years. With the Muslim conquest of the holy city in the seventh century, the site became what today's Palestinians might call occupied territory. Although under Israeli political and security control, the Temple Mount is administered by an Islamic council.

As noted, it's becoming fashionable in some circles to assert the Jewish temples never existed, which would seem to make it all the more vital for Jews to put in appearances. It's also important for Christians to go, as I did in pilgrim groups in 2007 and again in July. During this year's trip, we were 20 mild-mannered pilgrims with an Arab Anglican guide and a famous Arab Muslim anthropology professor. After we were settled on an empty patch of grass, a Muslim women brought her children to sit near us (as in almost leaning against my right shoulder) and began to talk loudly to another woman, which effectively drowned out our soft-spoken speaker. We learned later that she felt we were sitting in the wrong place, that we should have listened to the professor's talk at a spot closer to the exit. This occurred after a member of our party had been castigated for her allegedly immodest dress.

Perhaps the woman had a legitimate beef against Jews, Christians, or Episcopalians. Sorry to have offended you, my sister. But it's our spiritual home, too. Someplace beneath our feet, a 12-year-old Jesus had sat at the feet of the priests, and the fully grown Messiah had done some Temple-cleansing. It also seemed odd that Temple Mount authorities still weren't permitting non-Muslims to visit the Al-Aqsa mosque or the Dome of the Rock. Why not, exactly? Because Sharon showed up nine years ago?

As for the stalled talks, the Israelis refused to stop West Bank settlements without confidence-building measures from the Arabs, while Arabs refused to make any such gestures until Israel stopped the settlements. Who is to blame? Not one or the other. That's too easy. Neither, or both.

Hat tip to Mike Cheever

Watch For The Pinstripe Suit Of Many Colors

AP:

African bishops attending a Vatican meeting are speaking about the election of Barack Obama in divine terms—putting them very much at odds with many of their U.S. counterparts.

Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana said Wednesday that there was "a divine plan behind" Obama's election.

"It's like the biblical story repeating itself," he told reporters, citing the Old Testament figure Joseph, who after being sold into slavery in Egypt ends up becoming a top official.

"We believe God has his own plans. God directs history," he said of the U.S. election. "We pray that it (Obama's presidency) brings blessings for Africa and the whole world."

Holiday Road

On the radio today, Hugh Hewitt said it was odd that none of the articles he'd seen about Iran's missile tests and latest threats against Israel -- this AP article is one example -- mentions that it's Yom Kippur, the day Egypt chose 36 years ago for its own surprise attack on Israel.

Who Remembers Hot Pants?

The AP on the Nixon White House's surveillance of Ted and Joan Kennedy.