On Instapundit:

“Here in Minnesota, we are experiencing a remarkable instance of how discreet liberals can be when it comes to a candidate’s personal life. Mark Dayton is running for Governor of this state, and his history of mental illness and substance abuse is hiding in plain sight–he has freely acknowledged these problems to almost-complete strangers, yet Minnesota’s reporters and editors have carefully avoided confusing the voters with information that might not reflect well on a Democrat. Somehow one senses a pattern here.”

Murdoc continues to believe that, for the most part, it’s not a “pattern” pointing toward some big Liberal conspiracy to bias the news coverage. By and large, I think it’s a product of professionals, particularly those in positions of power, of holding personal biases which cannot help but make it into the decision making about what doesn’t get covered, what does, and how it does.

Murdoc wouldn’t pretend for a moment that he’s some “fair and balanced” unbiased guy who presents things evenly and without personal opinions entering into the decisions about what to write about and how to write it. For instance, if the story on Instapundit was about a Republican politician with a shady background being covered for by the media, it’s far less likely that MO would have noted it. (Though, for the record, Murdoc’s personal bias against the news media means that they’re all in season all year round…)

Publishers, editors, and writers in the news reporting media all hold great sway over the American public. That sway has been reduced lately, but it’s still significant. When such a large percentage of those in those positions all have similar political leanings, the editorial meetings are probably quite often an echo chamber. And with relatively few options for Conservative-leaning types in the industry, a lot of them end up in the same few organizations…which then end up sounding like echo chambers on the other end of the spectrum.

Speaking of Minnesota, Murdoc knows a guy running for state rep for Fridley (District 51B). Stop by Dale Helm’s campaign page and check it out if you live in the area. Though we’ve only recently re-established contact (thanks to the magic of social networking) I knew Dale way back in the day. He’s an Eagle Scout, a National Guard vet, and Murdoc would bet he’d make a great state rep.

UPDATE: Also on the media is this:

“Once upon a time, members of the media could be counted upon to champion free expression even when nobody else would. Where the First Amendment was implicated, newspapers were willing to go to bat for everyone from neo-Nazis to Hustler magazine, and to take on powerful institutions from the Vatican to the Pentagon, often while patting themselves on the back for ’speaking truth to power.’ Yet when it comes to the Islamic question, many in the media will not even stick up for themselves. That is, to say the least, a very ominous development.”

It’s not that Murdoc is an advocate “Draw Mohammed Day” or similar crap, any more than he’s an advocate for “Piss Jesus” artwork, America-hate rhetoric, or the Alien films after the second one. But freedom of expression means freedom. It’s clear that some freedom advocates are really only advocating for some freedom and for some expressions. Namely their own.

Again, this isn’t surprising. Everyone thinks what they think because they think they’re right. The problem is when people in places of influence use their own personal opinion of what’s right to trump the law, common sense, and God-given rights.

Caption writers strike again:

U.S. Army Spc. Tara M. Morrow of Erie, Pa., Corps of Engineers, Alpha Company, 1st Detachment, 128th Brigade Support Battalion, fires a M240B machine gun at a heavy weapons range in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, Oct. 11. Task Force Taskmaster Soldiers understand weapons familiarization and proficiency could make the difference in the fiercest of battles. Photo by Spc. Richard Daniels Jr.

The M240B is above her.

Anyway, girl shooting .50 machine gun. Don’t you love America?

UPDATE: Gah. Just noticed another pic in the series which shows her firing the M240. They call it an M249.

GOP takeover of Congress would mean ‘hand-to-hand combat,’ Obama warns

“Hand-to-hand combat”? Is he forgetting that the GOP is the party of gun owners?

Instapundit:

Clearly, we need federal legislation forcing schools like Harvard to offer R.O.T.C. on pain of being shut down or defunded.

Say what you will about the Shuttle program or the future of NASA, this is a thing of beauty:

STS-133 Rollout
The last flight of Space Shuttle Discovery

From the looks of it, someone’s “saturation” dial goes to 11. Murdoc’s glad it does.

Europe’s antiterror message to US: Sure sucks to be you:

The European Commission has announced that it will negotiate deals to prevent countries like Pakistan from providing travel data to the United States — except when the US already suspects a particular traveler or is otherwise investigating a particular case. In other words, the European Commission wants to bar the kind of wholesale data exchange that’s needed to spot at the border terrorists who have successfully disguised themselves as tourists. And it plans to withhold all European travel reservation data from Pakistan unless the Pakistanis agree to join a data boycott of the United States.

Remarkably, Brussels is pursuing this data boycott despite a solemn promise to the United States that it would not take such action.

Remarkably.

Interestingly, the principles wouldn’t prevent Pakistan from giving the same information to European countries. Quite the contrary. The EU’s new principles for negotiation will require such sharing: “Information about terrorism and serious transnational crime resulting from the analysis of PNR data by third countries should be shared with EUROPOL, EUROJUST and EU Member States.”

So, in the current threat, the European Union’s principles would work this way: European countries would get the data from Pakistan that they need to protect themselves from returning terrorists, and the United States, well, the United States wouldn’t.

Interestingly.

This is all bad enough. The icing on the cake, so to speak, is that it all violates a promise made in 2007 to not do exactly this in response to a previous attempt to pull similar stunts.

I’ll admit if the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA looked more competent they’d also look more trustworthy with personal data. But if Europe was doing this due to privacy concerns blah blah blah, they’d be demanding that such information not be collected at all. They’re demanding no such thing. In fact, they’re demanding that THEY get that information while also demanding that it NOT be shared with the US.

As Europe is geographically much more at risk from Middle Eastern terrorists than North America is, this could easily be seen as an attempt to make the US a bit easier to strike, relatively speaking. Sort of a shift of the threat in another direction.

Murdoc is having trouble not seeing this as a pretty blatant attempt to side with what the US considers “the other side.” In the absence of real data, there is going to be a tendency to think all Europeans spent time in Pakistan with extremist groups, isn’t there? Is that what the EC wants?

The bad guys want exactly that, of course. But does Europe?

Victor Davis Hanson:

Bush was stoic and philosophical at 38% after six years; the aggrieved Obamas will not be after two.

Murdoc had low expectations about the policy and leadership of Obama, but the way that even the appearances seem to be falling apart is surprising.

Via Instapundit.