KWBaker

Growing up, my dad used to refer to white sneakers as “nurse’s shoes.” Oh, how the times have changed. White sneakers are now the shoe, the singular sneaker that I can honestly say everyman needs. Regardless of your respective style, no wardrobe is complete without a pair of blanked out sneakers. From Italian leather lace-ups, to dirt cheap plimsolls, the sneaker marketplace is inundated with white sneakers of all material, shape, and price. To help you chart your own course through this sea of white, we’ve rounded up our favorite colorless lace-up sneakers. Wear ‘em till they’re no longer white, and then start all over again.

Eytys - The Chunk

Jack Purcell – The Smile

Nike Air Force One – The Flight

Common Projects – The Misnomer

Vans Authentic – The Real Deal

Puma Court Star – The Serve

Superga – The Neapolitan

New Balance 996 - The Grandad

Reebok Ex-O-Fit – The Retirement Home

Tretorn Nylite – The Swede

Erik Schedin – The Modern

Svensson – The Pebbled

Piola - The (slight) Contrast

Kent Wang - The Affordable Alternative

Twins for Peace - The Virtuous

Spring Court – The Rarity

Adidas Stan Smith – The Man

Wings + Horns – The Liner

Acne Studios - The Gloss

Spalwart – The Wrap

 

If you ask Jason McCaffrey, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard is a surfer first and a rock climber second. As Patagonia’s Director of Surf, McCaffrey certainly has his own dog in this fight, but his opinion is not without merit. At seventy-five years old Chouinard is still an avid surfer, and his passion for the sport trickles down to his company where a (now famous) flex-time policy continues to allow for mid-day surf breaks at their Ventura, California headquarters. Surfing has long been serious business for Chouinard and his team, but it’s only recently that surfing has become a serious business for Patagonia as a brand.

Patagonia had dabbled in surf for a while, but their path had been choppy until five or so years ago when they really barreled down and went headlong into the world of waves. McCaffrey traces his brand’s current surf push to a few crucial hires, most notably the legendary Malloy Brothers who jumped ship from Hurley over to Patagonia in 2010. The Malloy Brothers are just three of the marquee names that now make up Patagonia’s respectable roster of Surf Ambassadors that have helped to make Patagonia a force to be reckoned within the surfing industry. Patagonia’s surf story wouldn’t be worth telling if all they had was a great team though, and so in typical Patagonia fashion, they’ve built up a mighty collection of surf gear that could impress even the most seasoned of surf veterans.

To showcase their own array of wetsuits and board-shorts, as well as a hand-picked selection of boards and other hardgoods, Patagonia (who full disclosure, is a Paul + Williams client) has recently begun to open up surf specific retail locations. The first shop was opened in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California back in 2006, but shops in Hawaii, Japan, Spain, and Australia soon followed. Despite these exotic locales, the most intriguing Patagonia Surf shop, at least in my opinion, lies right here in downtown Manhattan. Patagonia’s Bowery location, which opened earlier this year, is just the latest stamp of approval from the industry that New York, much like Patagonia itself, has become a veritable force within the surfing community.

McCaffrey chalks the recent wave (sorry, couldn’t help myself) of interest in surfing here in New York to the rise of the internet, as surfing has now been able to reach a much wider array of people outside of the traditional hotspots such as Hawaii, Spain, California, etc. From fashion magazine spreads, to car commercials, to Instagram, from the top-down the culture of cool that surrounds surfing has seeped into our mediascape, and interest in the sport has never been higher. McCaffrey isn’t so sure this level of interest can sustain itself, but he’s certainly happy to be along for the ride, and if it gets more people interested in Patagonia’s products than keep it coming. The Bowery shop reflects this welcoming attitude, it’s a big, bright open shop that at once demonstrates Patagonia’s very approachable surfing selection, and shows just how large this collection has become. The store is the type of all inclusive, one stop shop that this city’s burgeoning surf community needs – it is inviting enough for first time riders, yet packs enough substance to draw in the vets, which is really indicative of Patagonia Surf’s philosophy as a whole. Now all that’s left to do is figure out how to get from the Bowery to the Rockaways and you’re good to go.

 

Ever since I was a kid, even before I knew that I loved barbecue, I knew about Vandy’s Bar-B-Q.  The famed Atlanta writer Lewis Grizzard perpetually claimed they had the best Brunswick stew in the world, and some of the finest barbecue in the state.  This was before there was an internet for all of us to use and before such claims were a dime a dozen.  This was an era when I remember there being five grand Georgia barbecue joints:

• Fresh Air (near Jackson);
  
• Harold’s Barbecue (Atlanta – closed in the summer of 2012);
  
• Melear’s BBQ (Fayetteville – closed in early 2011);
  
• Sprayberry’s (Newnan) and
• Vandy’s Bar-B-Q.

Two of these are defunct and one of the others opened a location right off 85, which doesn’t do the name justice like the location downtown (we’ve visited both Sprayberry’s, although I’ve, apparently, never blogged about either.) That leaves Vandy’s and Fresh Air, on the list. We tried to stop at Vandy’s on our last trip back from Savannah, but got there around 4:00. They close at 3:00 (when I checked to see if they were open on the day of our drive, I didn’t think to check hours – they are open for breakfast and lunch only).  Today, as we were heading to the coast, I planned on making them my lunch stop.  We rolled into downtown Statesboro around 1:45 and walked into a nearly empty restaurant that likely hasn’t changed in decades (probably since moving to this location in the mid 1940s).

A young lady told us to have a seat and she would bring a menu, so we did.  A few minutes later, we pored over the menu to make our choice – pork or chicken (or ribs on Tuesday), with two sides.  Jo chose the 1/2 chicken,

with slaw and potato salad (in the local vernacular, the lady calling the order in told the guy behind the counter “chicken with cold sides”).  The slaw was declared “spot on” by the family slaw expert, while the potato salad was okay, but with more mashed potatoes than chunks.  The chicken was very good (which made it much better than the pork, which was merely fine).  They only had one sauce, which was thick and mustardy sweet.  This made it a much better condiment for the chicken, than for the pork, in my opinion.  Each plate was served with three slices of Sunbeam white bread.   (You can see it in all of their signage and there were shelves full of the gooey white stuff). 

I had the chopped pork with chips and Brunswick stew.  The pork was moist and when covered in the sauce, made three pretty good half sandwiches.  The Brunswick stew was thick and meaty (two positives in my book) and had plenty of pork, along with finely diced carrots and lima beans.  The stew was the best thing I had and we agreed, as we walked back to the car, that this was good barbecue, but not necessarily “destination” barbecue.   Definitely stop in if you’re close (the twelve miles north from I-16 would likely qualify as “close” enough, in my opinion).  The other standout from the meal was the sweet tea (about the only time I choose sweet tea is with barbecue or fried chicken).  It was excellent – I got a glass to go which we nursed for the next couple of hours.

For what it’s worth:  There is also a location in the Statesboro mall which is open for supper and on Sundays, if your travel plans don’t coordinate with the hours of the downtown location.

As I said in an earlier update from the weekend, when I was a kid I remember there being five grand Georgia barbecue joints:

• Fresh Air Barbecue (near Jackson);

• Harold’s Barbecue (Atlanta – closed in the summer of 2012);

• Melear’s BBQ (Fayetteville – closed in early 2011);

• Sprayberry’s (Newnan) and

• Vandy’s Bar-B-Q (Stateboro)

We had eaten at the Fresh Air off I-75 in Macon, several years back, but had never been to the original location.  Then, I drove by a little over three years ago, when I was looking for the Blind Pig, but was dead-set on that destination.  As we finished our trip to the Golden Isles, we made the journey off 75, up through Flovilla to the original Fresh Air, open since 1929.  When we pulled up in the parking lot, I was surprised at the size of the place, even moreso once I got inside and realized just how little of the space was dedicated to diners.

We walked in and looked at the menu and were, honestly, shocked at how narrow the menu was:

• chopped pork;
• Brunswick stew;
• cole slaw;
• chips (three kinds, with three different prices); and
• bread (white bread or bun) 

The lady behind the counter pointed to the three pictures on the wall,

and said that the middle picture (the Deluxe) had everything that they served in it.

I chose the Regular,

which looked just like the picture.  The sauce was good, which was a good thing as the pork was fairly dry, but you could soak your sandwich fairly successfully.  The Brunswick stew was thick and meaty, but overall, I was underwhelmed.  I would have hated to make the drive from Atlanta to Jackson, just for this barbecue, as had previously occurred to me.  

I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for a good kitchen novelty, and it was certainly that affliction that initially drew me to the Boska Holland Toastabags, but it turns out they’re both practical and really useful too.

These “toasting bags” are synthetic envelopes that create a near-perfect grilled cheese sandwich using just your regular toaster. You can even add little a ham, or perhaps use a pita with some veggies instead. I was skeptical of these claims, as found on the product’s packaging, but they’re true.

You simply assemble your sandwich as usual, but sans butter, then slip it into a Toastabag. Insert the whole shebang in your toaster and drop the lever. After one medium-darkness cycle, your sandwich will be hot and the bread toasted — complete with little grill marks.

The secret is the envelopes, of course, which are made from some sort of conductive material that amplifies the heat from the toaster’s elements. (Apparently woven fiberglass coasted in PTFE, AKA Teflon.)

The bags work best with a wide-slot toaster, and slim bread, but I’ve managed to stuff even thicker slices in the bag with just a little effort. Be sure to monitor the “grilling” process, at least at first, as it happens a lot faster than you’ll expect. The bag is hot when it emerges; probably too hot for some children.

The manufacturer claims that the bags are free of any mess, and they certainly don’t muck up your toaster, but they do such a good job of melting the cheese that some will ooze out inside. No problem, just let the bag cool and turn it inside-out to clean the non-stick surface.

The video at the product’s website presents a fair and honest depiction of both the process and results. You get a pack of 3 or more bags in a set, each of which are reusable. I have yet to wear out my first one; they are said to be good for at least 50 cycles.

-- Gordon Meyer

Boska Holland Toastabags, Set of 3
$9

Available from Amazon

Filed under: Government/Legal, Mercury, Rolls-Royce

Years ago I was watching one of the endless streams of legal dramas flashing across my television. The story revolved around a man who had been drinking and then got into an accident. He immediately called his lawyer, who asked him if he had a bottle in the trunk, then advised him to immediately start drinking from it. By the time the police arrived on the scene, it would be impossible (or at least difficult) to ascertain whether he was already drunk when he was driving or whether he had, as he was claiming, just taken a drink to calm his nerves after the accident. I don't remember what show it was, but I'd better dollars to donuts Tracy Garon saw the same episode.

59-year-old Garon was driving his '73 Rolls-Royce (a Phantom VI or Silver Shadow from the looks of things) through Pinellas Park, FL (don't pretend that you didn't expect it was Florida...), when he ran a red light, struck a Mercury Grand Marquis and killed its 81-year-old driver. While police were investigating the scene, Garon walked into a nearby convenience store, bought a 24-ounce can of Miller Lite and started drinking. When the officer saw him with the beer, he tried to confiscate it as evidence, but Garon spilled it out instead. The logic, Garon reasoned, was that - like the case in that legal drama - the police wouldn't be able to tell if he was drunk already or if the beer he drank after exiting the car put him over the top.

The police had a different idea, though. They tested his blood alcohol level once every hour, recording 0.25, 0.23 and 0.23 - all about three times the legal limit. If it had been the beer that had put him over the top, his blood alcohol level would have spiked and then returned to normal. The consistency of the readings indicated that he had been drinking heavily over an extended period of time and not, as he claimed, drank a small glass of wine and taken a swig of light beer. The findings were apparently enough for police and prosecutors to continue pressing the case. Garon pled guilty to DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide and was sentenced this past June to 17 years in prison.

In a similar case (represented by the same Clearwater lawyer, no less) another driver in Florida was returning home from a Christmas party in St. Petersburg when she was pulled over near her home, into which she fled and started drinking before the second unit with the breathalyzer kit could arrive. She later emerged from her home in her pajamas, having ingested alcohol inside and refused the breathalyzer. She was arrested and negotiated a plea bargain that reduced her DUI to reckless driving.

Can a DUI be beat by drinking after a crash? originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 07 Sep 2014 19:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most level-headed people realise that on issues like ISIS and Hamas, the mainstream media is perhaps less than forthright and unbiased in its coverage.

For instance, we are supposed to believe that Islamist terrorists are either 'insurgents' or 'militants' or some other watered down phrase – because what a dreadful breach of integrity it would be if the BBC called a spade a spade, right?

The fact that we are even at that point with moral relativism is enough cause for laughter, but instead I wanted to share with you all a fantastic joke I just heard. I'm not a big 'joke' guy – but this one particularly tickled me. 

Share it along, and enjoy: 

A CNN Reporter, BBC Reporter, and an Israeli commando were captured by terrorists in Iraq. The leader of the terrorists told them that he would grant them each one last request before they were beheaded.

The CNN Reporter said, ‘Well, I’m an American, so I’d like one last hamburger with French fries.” The leader nodded to an underling who left and returned with the burger & fries. The reporter ate it and said “Now, I can die.”

The BBC Reporter said, ‘I’m a reporter to the end. I want to take out my tape recorder and describe the scene here and what’s about to happen. Maybe someday someone will hear it and know that I was on the job till the end.” The terror leader directed an aide to hand over the tape recorder and dictated some comments. The reporter then said, ‘Now I can die knowing I stayed true until the end.”

The leader turned and said, “And now, Mr. Israeli tough guy, what is your final wish?”

“Kick me in the ass,” said the soldier.

“What?’ asked the leader, “Will you mock us in your last hour?”

“No, I’m not kidding. I want you to kick me in the ass,” insisted the Israeli. So the leader shoved him into the open and kicked him in the ass.

The soldier went sprawling, but rolled to his knees, pulled a 9 mm pistol from under his flak jacket, and shot the leader dead. In the resulting confusion, he jumped to his knapsack, pulled out his carbine and sprayed the terrorists with gunfire. In a flash, all terrorists were either dead or fleeing for their lives.

As the soldier was untying the reporters, they asked him, “Why didn’t you just shoot them in the beginning? Why did you ask them to kick you in the ass first?”

“What?” replied the Israeli, “and have you report that I was the aggressor?”

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Technology, Videos, Cadillac, GM, Luxury

We all know that self-driving cars are coming. It's not so much a question of If so much as When. And when it comes to General Motors products, we now have something of a date to work with, as Cadillac has announced plans to roll out what it is calling Super Cruise technology in an unnamed new model within the next two years. As you would expect, this new tech can speed the car up, slow it down and keep it in its intended lane, but GM isn't expected to release a fully self-driving car, saying that it will still require "an attentive driver."

We're not quite sure what new model Cadillac will use to launch this new technology, but our best guess would be its upcoming LTS sedan. Other possibilities may include a new crossover - we've heard rumors of CUVS coming from Caddy both above and below the current SRX - or entry-level sedan, but those seem less likely than a high-dollar flagship like the LTS.

The next techy bit of kit currently being shown off by Cadillac engineers includes vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, technology which would seemingly allow cars to travel in close proximity to one another, with less danger of collisions. According to our friends at Engadget, GM is working with the University of Michigan to outfit some 120 miles of roads in and around Detroit, MI, with the requisite sensors to make all this technology possible.

Before any of this newfangled technology can actually make it into a production car you can actually buy, automakers will have to work with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to come up with standards so one make and model of car can talk with others. When and how will all of that take place? We don't know, but we're keen to find out. Feel free to hop on over to Engadget to read more, or scroll down below for a press release along with video we recorded a few years ago showing a demonstration of similar technology from Cadillac.

Continue reading Cadillac to launch Super Cruise semi-autonomous technology in two years [w/video]

Cadillac to launch Super Cruise semi-autonomous technology in two years [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 07 Sep 2014 20:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Offensive players in the NFL are reportedly offering to pay the fines of defenders who hit them high to discourage defenders from hitting them low in order to avoid hefty fines and suspensions that could come after helmet-to-helmet hits. 

As ESPN noted, "with the NFL's aggressive crackdown against hits to the head and neck -- a response to the ongoing concussion crisis -- some players expressed concerns that defensive players would simply start to go low to avoid drawing penalties, fines and suspensions."

Washington's Brandon Meriweather and Ryan Clark "both said offensive players have offered to pay their fines if they hit them high rather than low." When ESPN "asked how often that has happened, Meriweather said: 'All the time. All the time.'" Tennessee's Michael Griffin told ESPN, "I've had a lot of guys say, 'Just hit me high, just knock me out. I don't care, as long as I'd be able to play next week, I'm perfectly fine, but don't go low.'"

After Miami Dolphins tight end Dustin Keller suffered a season-ending knee injury in a preseason game last year after being hit in the knees, Houston Texans safety D.J. Swearinger, who delivered the hit, said after the game, "I'm sorry that this happened, but, you know, with the rules, I had to go low. And that's something that I'm going to start doing now, you know, just to play within the rules." T.J. Ward of Cleveland, who knocked out New England tight end Rob Gronkowski after a low hit, told ESPN that, "when they set the rule, everyone knew what was going to happen."

"It's pretty much inevitable, and they forced our hand with this one," Ward said.

Keller told the outlet, "Absolutely, 100 percent I'd rather be hit high... just like anybody else... you get hit high, say you get a concussion: That's tough to deal with, you may miss a game or two or something like that. But you still get to go home, walk home to your family."

Clark, the Washington defender, said that defenders can also be jeopardized by the new rules against high hits. 

"You're opening yourself up for shoulder injuries and neck injuries because you're trying to hit guys bigger than you running full speed in their midsection, in their hips, in their thighs," Clark told the outlet. "If you're going to protect offensive players in that matter so heavily, so staunchly, there's no way to protect us on the other side of it."

Read more here.

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage was in studio with radio show host Laura Ingraham this week to discuss the rise of UKIP, America's political establishment, Vladimir Putin, and even Piers Morgan.

You can listen to the whole interview, spanning 26 minutes, here.

On the possibility of Jeb Bush running in the 2016 presidential election race, Mr Farage said: "He represents the Establishment. He represents more of the same. He represents the kind of Republican following of Romney... Democrats have an advantage here with the changing population, so for the Republicans to win they need someone who is actually going to inspire people, and I’m not quite sure Jeb Bush ticks that box.”

On Obama, Mr Farage said: “America has lost authority because if you think of all of the horrible things that have been going on over the course of the last month or two, where has Obama been? On the golf course. On the golf course, and he comes back and makes a press conference. But whether people agreed with what American presidents did or did not do, I think America’s standing in the world is really somewhat lower than it was because of your current president."

Discussing the crisis in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin, Mr Farage commented: “The European Union has been sending a message now for over ten years and David Cameron, one of the strongest cheerleaders, saying to the Ukrainians, ‘We want you to join our ever wider union and become part of the European empire.’ And at the same time we’ve had people like Obama this week even more stupidly saying he wants the Ukraine to join NATO; we’ve announced we’re going to do military exercises next year in the Ukraine. Now I don’t dispute that Mr. Putin may be a gangster… but can we use our brains please? Because  if you poke the bear with a stick and you directly threaten the Russian bear by taking your military alliance and your political alliance up to his border rather than leaving the Ukraine as a buffer state, don’t be surprised when he tries to bite back.”

On authentic politicians, the UKIP leader noted: "British politics has been transformed...when I was a boy, our Parliament was full of real people with life experience before going into politics...our leaders in Britain now, virtually all go to the same school, all go to the same Oxford College, all do the same degree, none of them have ever worked... They lack authenticity... I’m deeply flawed...should I hide that? [...] No, there’s no point, and that’s what the rest of them do. The rest of them try and make out they are different human beings than what they are. And I think, that, actually, voters know, voters actually quite like people who have got a few flaws because the voters are flawed themselves too. So this sort of, shiny bright, perfect, image that a politician tries to give, and the picture of him with the wife and the kids, I don’t think people need that.  I think what they want to know is why are you in politics? Are you in politics because you actually want to do something or are you in politics for rank and position?”

He explained one of the reasons for UKIP's successes: "There was a total disenchantment between the so-called the right and the left that have now merged. They're all social democrats. Frankly, you can't put a piece of paper between them on the big policy issues."

Critics such as Piers Morgan have railed at Farage and UKIP, calling them "xenophobes". Mr Farage had this to say on the matter: "[He] is one of the high priests of the metropolitan media elites who does not understand how people feel, and who deliberately attempts to misrepresent that controlling immigration is a rational, logical, sensible thing to do."

Finally, on the future of politics, Mr Farage said: “The key battle today is about community and identity. Who are we as nations? Who are we as communities? How do we want to live? This stuff is all being threatened directly by excessive immigration and by things like how small businesses are being closed down and our community is changing. The politics of the future is about community and identity.”

Despite the best attempts of the Obama administration to declare ISIS a “regional threat” and label their ideology rootless, the truth has now penetrated the public consciousness: ISIS has global reach, largely because their ideology does as well.

The latest indicator that ISIS just the latest label slapped on the growing phenomenon of radical Islamism comes courtesy of Great Britain, where Palmira Silva, an 82-year-old great-grandmother, was beheaded, allegedly at the hands of a charming character called “Fat Nicholas.” Obese Nick is reportedly a Muslim convert.

This is not the first public beheading in Britain, unfortunately. In May 2013, two young British Muslims, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, ran over British soldier Lee Rigby in a car before Adebolajo attacked him with a machete, attempting to decapitate him. Adebolajo then stuck around to brag to passersby, threatening the rule of Islam. The day before, Adebolajo bought a set of five knives. A copy of the Koran was found on his person.

The dangerous ideology of ISIS – which is also the basic ideology of Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, al Qaeda, and a myriad of other terror groups and terror supporters – is gaining adherents all over the globe: 12,000 foreigners are currently fighting with ISIS, including 500 British citizens and at least 100 American citizens. Why are these Americans joining ISIS? Let ISIS-affiliated former cop and ex-Catholic Don Morgan, 44, explain:

My reason for the support of ISIS is because they’ve proven time and time again to put Islamic law as the priority and the establishment of an Islamic state as the goal… I would not classify myself as a radical, but by Western definition, I would be classified as a radical.

Many Americans are deeply and correctly concerned with the possibility of ISIS fighters crossing America’s borders to commit acts of terror; as we learned last week, ISIS’s plans to cross the southern border to commit terror attacks alerted the U.S. government to the possibility.

But the far more significant threat to America isn’t ISIS fighters coming to America. It’s homegrown ISIS sympathizers going Nidal Hassan, turning their guns on their fellow citizens. All ISIS really needs to do is keep their converts in their home countries and provide them the logistical and moral support to commit acts of terrorism.

Already we have seen the first early signs of ISIS sympathizers in the United States. Thus far, these sympathizers are largely sounding off via social media, tweeting out pictures of ISIS flags near potential terror targets. But the Department of Homeland Security is worried about the possibility of violent action by ISIS fans in the United States. DHS and the FBI have told local law enforcement: “because of the individualized nature of the radicalization process – it is difficult to predict triggers that will contribute to attempting acts of violence.”

That warning came just a few weeks after NBC News White House Correspondent Chris Jansing stated that the White House said, “there is nothing in the intelligence that suggests that ISIS is prepared or even interested in attacking the US homeland.” Within hours of that announcement, the feds arrested an alleged ISIS sympathizer at JFK Airport in New York for weapons trafficking and possession.

The threat of radicalization inside the United States is quite real – and we can only hope that ISIS recruits continue to stream to Syria and Iraq, rather than staying in the United States and attacking the American public. Just this week, we saw an alleged ISIS terrorist killed in Iraq after leaving the United States, where he worked at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Yes, he had security clearance there.

The Obama administration’s response to the threat of ISIS recruiting inside the United States has been to release an anti-ISIS video over the weekend, featuring images of ISIS beheading people, blowing up mosques, and executing Muslims. Which, coincidentally, is exactly the stuff that ISIS uses to recruit its friends, demonstrating once again that the disconnected Obama administration simply does not understand the attraction of the radical group to radical Muslims.

Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the new book, The People vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against The Obama Administration (Threshold Editions, June 10, 2014). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org. Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.

Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," host Chuck Todd followed up Andrea Mitchell hammering President Barack Obama's attempt to avoid having to follow ISIS into Syria by saying the administration is referring to the terrorist organization as ISIL instead of ISIS because they "don't want it to stand for Syria."

ISIL stands for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

The Levant refers top an large region inculding areas of Cyprus,Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine.

Todd said, "Obviously We refer to it, NBC News, as ISIS. The Obama administration, the president says the word ISIL. The last s stands for Syria. The last l they don't want to stand for Syria."

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press," host Chuck Todd took President Barack Obama to task for the optics of going golfing moments after his statement on ISIS beheading journalist James Foley. Obama complained during his vacations he would "love" not to be followed by the press.

“You know, it is always a challenge when you’re supposed to be on vacation, because you’re followed everywhere, part of what I would love is a vacation from the press," Obama said.

The president did take some responsibility saying, “But there’s no doubt that after having talked to the families, where it was hard for me to hold back tears listening to the pain that they were going through, after the statement that I made, I should have anticipated the optics. That’s part of the job.”

Referring to the Foley insensitivity as 'theater" he said, “But part of this job is also the theater. It’s not something that always comes naturally to me. But it matters, and I’m mindful of that.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

IRS 'LOSES' EMAILS FROM 5 MORE EMPLOYEES...


(Second column, 6th story, link)

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Amanda Blackhorse, the lead plaintiff in the Redskins trademark case, said a Navajo high school and Native Americans can refer to themselves as "Redskins" but Daniel Snyder and the Washington football team can't. 

When ESPN host Bob Ley asked her about the Red Mesa High School Redskins on an Outside The Lines special on the controversy over the Redskins name, Blackhorse, who also compared those who are offended by the name to domestic abuse victims, said there was a difference between the Red Mesa Redskins and the Washington Redskins.

"We can call ourselves whatever we want to call ourselves. You can't, Dan Snyder. You cannot refer to us in that manner," Blackhorse, who belongs to the Navajo Nation, said. "What happens in your games and the type of stereotyping and mocking of our culture does not happen in the games here on the Navajo Nation. We don't refer to ourselves in that way."

She then blasted Snyder for not understanding the concept of "internalized oppression" and accused Snyder of perpetuating it.

"He needs to understand what internalized oppression is and how he is perpetuating that in our community" she said. "He's buying people off who have next to nothing and perpetuating and damaging people in that matter. He's perpetuating internalized oppression of our people."

Blackhorse said Snyder's charitable ventures on reservations were "laughable" and "people can see right through it. Natives and non-natives can see right through it."

"If he has any heart, If he is concerned, he will change the name," she said. "That's all there is to it."

After reminding reporters of his "pretty busy" week during a press conference in Wales, President Obama made a surprise visit to Stonehenge before boarding Air Force One for home.

"How cool is this!" he said according to the press pool, while walking around the monument.

Asked if this was a place he had always wanted to visit, he smiled and told the press that he "knocked it off the bucket list."

"It's spectacular, it's spectacular. It's a special place," he said before leaving the monument.

President Barack Obama's Interior Secretary admitted that changing the Redskins name is not a top priority for Native American leaders even though she said she was personally "surprised" that Dan Snyder has not already changed the name. 

“My personal views are not necessarily reflected in the tribes that I talk to,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in an interview with ABC News that was released on Friday. “It isn’t high on their agenda.”

As The Hill noted, "Jewell, whose department includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs," said, "Personally, I think we would never consider naming a team the ‘Blackskins’ or the ‘Brownskins’ or the ‘Whiteskins.'" 

“So, personally, I find it surprising that in this day and age, the name is not different," she said. 

Numerous polls have found that a majority of Americans and Native Americans do not want a name change, with a recent ESPN poll finding that 71% of Americans do not want a name change. And ESPN conceded this week that the name-change controversy has been played up by the mainstream political and sports press. 

In response to Do Rich Candidates Usually Win?:

Rich candidates always win, if and when they decide to cough up some of that dinero they have made over the years.

It takes a lot of money to win federal races.

But one thing to consider about self-funding candidates is this, most of them have no clue about politics, and rely on handlers and consultants to be their voices on the campaign trail.

More times than not, these consultants make or break campaigns, regardless of whether the candidate has self-funded.

And if there is some sort of snafu that occurs, self-funders can just throw some more money at the problem. This is the way politics work.

But again, money talks and wins elections. 

In a press conference in Wales, President Obama vowed to “degrade and destroy” ISIS, frequently speaking about American and international efforts to “degrade” the capability of terrorists.

See all six ‘degrade’ mentions below:

1. “Secretary Kerry will now travel to the region to continue building the broad-based coalition that will enable us to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.”
2. “[T]here’s great conviction that we have to act as part of the international community to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.”
3. ”Keep in mind, we’ve taken already 100 strikes in Iraq that have had a significant impact on degrading their capabilities.”
4. ”We are going to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL, the same way that we have gone after al Qaeda.”
5. ”[W]e released today the fact that we had killed the leader of al-Shabaab in Somalia, and have consistently worked to degrade their operations.”
6. ”You systematically degrade their capabilities. You narrow their scope of action. You slowly shrink the space, the territory that they may control.”

Court 'backlog' now 400,000 cases -- and growing!


(Third column, 9th story, link)

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Via Breitbart: More than a quarter of California’s immigrants are illegal, according to a new study from the California Immigrant Policy Center. In “Looking Forward: Immigrant Contributions to the Golden State,” researchers at the University of Southern California’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII) noted that more than one quarter (27%) of California residents are immigrants, […]

HT: Meins

This is to whom the Obama regime is consciously, deliberately opening the door… LUBBOCK, Texas — A Tucson, Arizona kidnapping and extortion plot of an American teen on U.S. soil was committed by previously deported illegal aliens from Mexico and a U.S. citizen who was arrested multiple times by Border Patrol agents for alleged alien […]

In filling in for Rush Limbaugh on his Tuesday radio show, conservative commentator Mark Steyn pointed to a contrast in the different approach President Barack Obama went through to free U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from the Taliban versus the two decapitated journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley from ISIS.

“There’s been these stories, actually I think it was broken by an old colleague of mine – Toby Harnden from The Daily Telegraph in London. I think he’s with the Sunday Times now,” Steyn said. “Toby got hold of some Pentagon official who told him that Obama had sat on giving the green light for the attempts to rescue Sotloff and James Foley when they were held in Syria. And by the time he actually got on with it and sent anyone into do it, they had been moved as generally happens when people are taken hostage.”

“It’s fascinating though – at the same time he’s sort of dawdling on all this, the effort he was going to to get Bowe Bergdahl out of the hands of the Taliban and their affiliates in Afghanistan – fascinating difference in the approach to these things,” he added.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

In his USA Today column, Jonah Goldberg exposes a national disgrace I was completely unaware of, one that is almost too heartbreaking to comprehend: the United State military sometimes reclassifies combat dogs a "equipment" and abandons them to languish in shelters overseas in war zones.

Other than the fact that combat dogs save an average of 150 American lives during their service, these living creatures form strong emotional attachments to the men assigned to them. But when their time is up -- when they become too old, combat fatigued or shall-shocked to be useful in combat -- rather than transport them home for adoption, they are sometimes heartlessly abandoned.

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Goldberg writes that…

It is one thing to ask these warriors to say goodbye to their dog when it is still on active duty and is assigned a new handler, which often happens. It is quite another to ask them to leave these dogs behind when the dogs are effectively abandoned overseas, left to languish in shelters — or worse. That's why handlers are sometimes forced to make incredible sacrifices to get their four-legged comrades home on their own.

Those "incredible sacrifices" made by the dog's handlers (also known as combat veterans), can mean an out-of-pocket cost of thousands of dollars.

Goldberg points out that there are a number of charities devoted to reuniting these dogs and their handlers but many animals still fall through the cracks; abandoned in a strange land after being cruelly separated from the one person they love and the only life they know. North Carolina Congressman Walter Jones is pushing legislation that would require retired military dogs be brought home for adoption, but it's gone nowhere for over two years.

CNN points out that thanks to a 2000 law signed by President Clinton, things are better for combat dogs than they were. Still, this is happening, even with "half-empty cargo planes transversing the globe daily," as Debbie Kandoll founder of Military Working Dog Adoptions told CNN.

"It would be more than feasible to place a retired military working dog on the transport plane back to the continental United States," she added. "Uncle Sam got them over there, and it's a point of honor for Uncle Sam to get his soldiers, whether they are four-legged or two-legged, back to the U.S."

No one, including Goldberg, is comparing the life of an animal to a human being. That's not the point. That's a different debate. The point is that this is wrong, morally wrong in every sense of the word. We are talking about a life. Not a human life, but the life of an innocent animal capable of selflessness, courage, loyalty, friendship and love. And an animal capable of such things is of course capable of feeling abandonment, heartache, and loss.

If you (in this case, meaning the military and our country) assume the responsibility for the life of a dog in order to benefit from all the rewards that come with such a thing, you have a moral obligation to see that duty through to the end. 

 

Follow  John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC              

Main Street, Eureka, Utah

Jericho Road, Utah

For seven years, British photographer Tim Richmond has documented the American West for his series Last Best Hiding Place. The title, he learned, is Montanan slang for living under the radar. An exploration of place, but also the people who belong there, Richmond captures an enigmatic vision of the mythical West.

A longstanding fascination with the West, inspired by 70s western films, sparked his curiosity to explore the American frontier at the age of 17. Later on in life, Richmond was commissioned to shoot a feature on the rodeo in Wyoming. While shooting, he noticed the myth of the rodeo masked the everyday reality of life. He decided to document a personal journey of small town and rural life of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota and Utah.

Primarily using film and a large format camera, Richmond would first familiarize himself with the area, scouting subject matter that was intriguing to him. A combination of landscape, interior and people come together to create his melancholic, contemporary vision of the West.

On finally finishing the series, he explains: “I was on my way home when I photographed a drifter, Jonnie, in Miles City, who told me that he had lost 20 years of his recent memory, no recall whatsoever, other than he had been living in Missoula he discovered later. I knew then that this would be the last image taken for the Last Best Hiding Place book.”

Rancher, Buena Vista, Colorado

Oglala, Sioux Reservation, South Dakota

112 Lewis Street, Livingston, Montana

Bar, Sheridan Avenue, Cody, Wyoming

Church Street, Eureka, Utah

North Main Street, Sheridan, Wyoming

Route 6, Utah

Laundromat, Casper, Wyoming

Roundup, Highway 28, Wyoming

Rodeo, Cody, Wyoming

Broadway Street, Sheridan, Wyoming

Main Street, Shoshoni, Wyoming

All images © Tim Richmond

The post ‘Last Best Hiding Place’: Photos of the Mythical American West appeared first on Feature Shoot.

Most Keynesian economists do not want to admit that we are in another depression. They find the word painful.

They find it painful because it contradicts the idea that Keynesian economic ideas have ended depressions forever. It also contradicts the idea that the massive and continuing Keynesian stimulus applied by world governments since 2008 has worked. For this and other reasons, euphemisms such as the Great Recession have been embraced not only by Keynesian economists but by their allies in government and in the mainstream press.

I argued that we were in a depression in a January article and again in April. Now Brad DeLong, one of the most prestigious Keynesians, a professor at Berkeley and former deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury under Clinton, says that he agrees. It really is a depression.

DeLong doesn’t blame Keynesianism; that would be too much to expect. But he does call the thing by its right name, which is a major departure from the usual Keynesian style.

These are, after all, the people who call the government creating money out of thin air “quantitative easing,” “bond buying,” and the like, all of which are parroted by the press. When Keynes did this, he was often being impish, as when he called newly-created money “green cheese,” echoing the old nursery nonsense that “the moon is made of green cheese.” His acolytes have adopted the style of dissimulation—but without the slightest trace of a sense of humor.

Although we are in a depression, it is not a depression for everyone, as is by now well known. Even so, the full hit on the middle class and the poor relative to the affluent is not adequately understood. Consider these figures from Larry Lindsey, who served Bush 43 as chief economist at the beginning of the first term, only to be booted from the White House for too much truth telling:

U.S. Household Net Worth 2007- 2013

Top 1% Up 1.9%
Next 9 % Up 3.4%
Next 15% Down 0.5%
Next 25% Down 16.7%
Bottom 50% Down 44.2%

None of the economic statistics we get from the government are reliable. Inflation is understated. Economic growth is overstated. Unemployment is understated. But this chart of net worth is about as reliable as we can expect to get.

It tells the story of a middle class in the process of being destroyed and of poor people who will never be able to get into it. It is also noteworthy that the nine percent below the top one percent have done best of all. Although a great many government employee households are in the top one percent, a larger number are in the next nine percent.

Click here to read the rest of the article at AgainstCronyCapitalism.org.

Hunter Lewis is co-founder of AgainstCronyCapitalism.org, co-founder and former CEO of Cambridge Associates, a global investment firm, and author of two recent books, Free Prices Now!, about the Federal Reserve, and Crony Capitalism in America 2008-12.

China faces an existential threat to their export-based economy due to high energy costs, and Russia faces an existential threat to their energy-based economy due to crippling Western financial sanctions. By agreeing to jointly build the “Power of Siberia” as the world’s largest energy pipeline, Russia and China are reviving their economic and military relationship that imploded with the fall of the Soviet Union.     

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli ceremonially signed a freshly-welded pipe in a ceremonial Russian tradition to launch construction of Gazprom’s “Power of Siberia” across eastern Russia. “The new gas branch will significantly strengthen the economic cooperation with countries in the Asia-Pacific region and, above all, our key partner China,” Putin said at the city of Yakutsk—the capital of Russia's Republic of Yakutia on September 1st.

China will fund the estimated $70 billion to build a pipeline network across Russia that will extend 2,448 miles, about the same distance as New York to Los Angeles. This investment will allow Russia to build the world's biggest energy network and also finance five new major energy sites and build four more gas processing plants in Siberia to deliver 141 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to China over a 30-year period. 

Despite being one of the world’s largest crude oil producers at 10.1 million barrels per day (mbpd), Russia is only the second-largest oil exporter at 4.7 mbpd. The reason the nation of only 145 million people consumes 5.4 mbpd of oil and over half of Russia’s huge natural gas production is that the government provides a 70% subsidy for domestic consumption. The subsidies explain why Russia must have outside financing to maintain its current production levels and why Russia is limited in its ability to expand. 

The Obama Administration and the European Union are jointly applying economic sanctions to starve Russia of the $59 billion in annual investment capital the nation needs to keep its oil and natural gas revenues high enough to fund over 50% of the federal budget of Russia. Europe provided most of Russia’s hard currency in 2013 by purchasing 5.7 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of Russian natural gas. The West’s goal is to force Putin’s government to inflict economic pain on its citizens by cutting subsidies.   

At the same time, America’s oil and gas boom that has driven domestic natural gas prices down to $4 per thousand cubic feet (mcf). This has given the United States a huge comparative advantage in the cost of manufacturing over China, whose natural gas cost is over $12 mcf. China consumed about 6 tcf of natural gas last year and expects to consume 14.8 tcf per year by 2020. 

Putin emphasized that the new pipeline will be a major threat to European energy security. “Once we create a gas pipeline network here in the Far East and Siberia, we will be able to connect European pipeline system to the East. And this, in terms of export opportunities and expanding Russia’s ‘gasification,’ is very beneficial. Depending on the situation in world markets, we can more effectively implement gas flows—either more to the West or to the East.” 

Putin offered China the right to become a shareholder in the Vankor oil and gas fields in the Krasnoyarsk region in Eastern Siberia by entering into a strategic relationship with Rosneft, Russia's largest oil company, which owns the field. The area is estimated to hold reserves of 600 million tons of oil and 3.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The field opened in 2009 and last year produced only 24 million tons of oil.

Russia's state-run Gazprom signed the 30-year gas deal in May that will sell $400 billion of natural gas to China’s CNPC at a discounted price of $9 per thousand cubic feet.

China will launch the construction of its portion of the Power of Siberia pipeline in early 2015, according to Vice Premier Gaoli. Starting in 2019, the pipeline will begin pumping gas from Siberia to China’s populous northeast region and Russia’s desolate Far East.  

To emphasize the depth of Russia and China’s new economic and military relationship, Putin said, “We generally take a very careful approach to the approval of our foreign partners, but of course, for our Chinese friends there are no restrictions.” For more information of how Russia’s intends to counter U.S. economic sanctions, read my previous article Russians Can Defeat Obama’s Sanctions Thru Sacrifice.