Friday links

Excellent site for DIY intelligent women's costumes.

This 1935 Car of the Future Had Huge Spheres Instead of Wheels.

The Strange Real-Life Origins of the Fiendish Werewolf.

We've come a long way... from 2013: Obama Mask for Halloween? That'll get you and your 750 fellow employees sent to re-education camp.

Scientists Are Just Starting to Understand Earth's Eighth Continent, Zealandia.

The Bloodiest Day in American History: 31 Rare and Haunting Photos From the 1862 Battle of Antietam.

ICYMI, Thursday's links are here, and include Napoleon-era travel tips, the anniversary of the day the earth was created (October 26 in 4004 B.C. at 9AM), instructions for dog costumes, 1930s giant frog farms, and a gallery of Art Nouveau architecture. 

From 2013: Obama Mask for Halloween? That'll get you and the other 750 employees sent to re-education camp

Acceptable use of presidential masks in 2017

Remember when making fun of the president was big time doubleplus bad think? The article below is from 2013.

Hillary and Trump masks are probably safe. Obama masks are available, but wear at your own risk.

I've posted the entire article below, because the original is no longer available (I copied it from a cached version):

HOPKINSVILLE, KY.-- 

A picture of a Jennie Stuart Medical Center employee wearing a President Barack Obama mask and a straitjacket was taken Friday at the hospital’s annual costume party.

The man wearing the mask is accompanied by two African-Americans dressed as security guards. The three hospital workers in the photo are identified as David Jones, DeWayne Oliver and Mike Hobson, and the group won third place in Jennie Stuart’s costume contest for their skit titled, “VIP Special Delivery.”

Jeff Taylor is a Hopkinsville resident who has worked with a number of focus groups dealing with race relations over the last 20 years. He said the photo is offensive because of the imagery it invokes. The trio wasn’t simply making fun of the president, explained Taylor, who is black, they were doing it in a racially offensive way.

“I have no problem making fun of a president if you come out in a suit and tie and a mask of a president,” he said. “But the difference is you have an African-American president in bondage. That’s just, to us, it’s iconic of slavery. It’s demeaning and degrading to us, and it’s certainly disrespectful to the president and his family.”

Taylor, who works with TVA on economic development issues in the area, said his wife is an employee at Jennie Stuart and several of her friends at the hospital were also offended by the skit. However, Taylor said they would not file a complaint for fear of retaliation.

Austin Moss, vice president of human resources at Jennie Stuart, issued a statement to the hospital employees after the photo surfaced. In the statement, he said the annual Halloween costume contest is always a highly anticipated event at the hospital, and it has been the hospital’s intention to keep events such as that one light and fun.

“He takes full responsibility for the presentation of the skit and apologizes to anyone who was offended,” Jennie Stuart spokesman Jim Goss said Monday on Moss’ behalf.

Moss continued in the statement by saying that, regardless of who the president is, it is a position that deserves respect and honor, and he will require hospital employees to refrain from political, religious, cultural or otherwise offensive costumes and representations at future employee functions.

Additionally, Goss said the hospital will be requiring diversity training with its annual mandatory education requirement for its employees.

Goss would not say if the hospital took any disciplinary action against the employees who participated in the skit because personnel matters are confidential.

John Banks, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, was enraged when he first saw the photo. He said he could tell immediately from the background that it was taken at the hospital, which to him added another layer of distaste because of the controversy surrounding the Affordable Care Act, the president’s signature health care law.

“I don’t know why they’re making a mockery of him and putting him in that kind of costume as if he was out of his mind in these critical times,” Banks said.

Banks said this depiction of Obama was a mockery unlike any other because no president in history has been dehumanized as much as Obama has. Banks called for a public apology and for the hospital to take action against the employees who participated in the skit.

“There’s a policy that deals with something like this,” he said. “I’m asking that hospital policy apply to that kind of action. It’s a suspension, a warning or removal.”

While the skit featuring Obama in a straitjacket won third place, a costume of a surgeon in full makeup won first, and a group of four employees dressed up as the people from the television show “Duck Dynasty” won second.

Reach Carla Jimenez at 270-887-3262 or cjimenez@kentuckynewera.com.

via Mark Steyn, who says, "Is none of these 750 thought-criminals man enough to tell the Diversity Commissar to take a hike?"

News anchor's rant on Chattanooga terrorism and Obama's half-baked policies

Apparently freedom of expression is controversial. Transcript below - any substantive or grammatical mistakes are mine:

Four United States Marines are now dead. Climate change didn't kill them. Lack of free community college didn't kill them. The income gap? Wage inequality? Nope, not those things, either. Gay marriage? Nope. White racism? Not that either. So what did? 

President Obama if you wanna say it I will - radical Islam. This is not workplace violence, this is not a criminal act with motives unknown, this is terrorism. The suspected shooter Mohammed Abdulaziz, was a devout Muslim. Do I care that he seemed like an all-American young man? Do I care that he was good at mixed martial arts or a smart quiet guy? Do I care that is high school friend wouldn't classify him as overly religious? No, I don't give a flying you know what about any of that. Was he linked to ISIS or al Qaeda or Hamas, or any of the other 15-plus offshoot terrorist groups? Does it matter?

I'm sorry, but radical Islam is becoming the rule not the exception. Yesterday's moderate is today's terrorist. I care that this SOB killed four United States Marines and I care that our Commander-in-Chief is more concerned with Muslim sensitivity then the honor and sacrifice made by these marines.

This is the 21st time our military men and women have been attacked here at home (caution - autoplay). This is not a middle East problem - this is an American problem, and I'm sorry but I can't sit here and let this go not anymore. I come from a family of Marines. My grandpa was a World War Two paratrooper, my uncle a Vietnam Purple Heart recipient, my cousins both Marine Corps officers, and I have some very close Navy SEAL connections as well. In fact someone very close to my heart is deployed to the Middle East right now, but the sad thing is that I was telling him last night that I think you're safer over there then you would be right here in the United States America.

I've had it with this failed strategy, this halfway, half-baked if we'll be friendly to Jihadis mentality pushed by this administration. Be a leader, someone! They, the radical Islamists, have brought the fight right here to the red white and blue and it's about time we bring it to them, full force. Let's show what the United States of America looks like up close and personal. Show them what a B-one bomber looks like flying overhead. Show what they're messing with. Put the fear of God in their desert, because clearly our lack of strategy isn't working.

Feds going door-to-door to seize illegal immigrants’ Obama amnesty approvals

via the Washington Times - excerpts below, but read the whole thing:

Goosed into action by an angry federal judge, federal immigration authorities will go door-to-door demanding illegal immigrants return the three-year amnesty approvals the Obama administration issued to them in defiance of a court order.

Those who don’t return their three-year permits will have them terminated at the end of this month...

The move comes as Homeland Security officials, fed up with slow-walking by illegal immigrants, are finally playing hardball after months of less forceful measures.

They’re scrambling to meet an end-of-month deadline set by Judge Andrew S. Hanen for recapturing thousands of three-year amnesties the department issued even after the court had entered an injunction halting the new amnesty program.

Unless all of the permits are recovered, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson could personally have to appear in court to explain the foul-up.

Cartoon du jour: Priorities

via Liberty Unyielding

Obama reacts to Netanyahu invite: cartoon of the day

via @AnneBayefsky

SNL’s parody: Obama Shoves The Schoolhouse Rock Bill Down The Capitol Steps

The original, from Schoolhouse Rock:



via Sooper Mexican

So, today is Presidential Joke Day - jokes by, not about presidents

The holiday began in 1984, when Ronald Reagan made a joke during a sound check for a radio broadcast. "My fellow Americans,” he said, "I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." (audio only clip at youtube here).

Reagan was not aware, however, that his feed was live. And unfortunately, not everyone got the joke. Soviet officials got word of the broadcast and put the military on high alert.

Once the threat of nuclear war had abated, Americans found the situation hilarious, and decided to memorialize Reagan’s famous quip by instituting National Presidential Joke Day on August 11th. To get you geared up to celebrate this holiday properly, we’re saluting these presidential knee-slappers.

RONALD REAGAN

"I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself."

"I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency -- even if I'm in a Cabinet meeting."

"Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first."

"Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his."

"I hope you're all Republicans." —Speaking to surgeons as he entered the operating room following a 1981 assassination attempt

GEORGE W. BUSH

"These stories about my intellectual capacity really get under my skin. You know, for a while I even thought my staff believed it. There on my schedule first thing every morning it said, 'Intelligence Briefing.'"

''Thank you for your email. This Internet of yours is a wonderful invention.'' —To Al Gore during the 2000 presidential campaign

“We’re studying safe levels for arsenic in drinking water. To base our decision on sound science, the scientists told us we needed to test the water glasses of about 3,000 people. Thank you for participating.” —At the 2001 Radio-Television Correspondents’ Association dinner

''The candidates are an interesting group, with diverse opinions -- for tax cuts and against them, for NAFTA and against NAFTA, for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act, in favor of liberating Iraq and opposed to it. And that's just one senator from Massachusetts.'' —During the 2004 campaign against John Kerry

BARACK OBAMA (This list is from a Mental Floss article in 2012 - presumably there have been additional jokes from Obama since then)

''If I had to name my greatest strength, I guess it would be my humility. Greatest weakness, it's possible that I'm a little too awesome.''

”There are few things in life harder to find and more important to keep than love. Well, love and a birth certificate.”

''Many of you know that I got my name, Barack, from my father. What you may not know is Barack is actually Swahili for 'That One.' And I got my middle name from somebody who obviously didn't think I'd ever run for president.”

OTHERS:

''Did you ever think that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.'' —Lyndon Johnson

“I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy: Dear Jack, Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.” —John F. Kennedy, addressing complaints that his father’s money was buying the primary for him.

''My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. It is very nice now when people wave at me, they use all their fingers.” —Jimmy Carter

"When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'present' or 'not guilty.'" —Teddy Roosevelt

''In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.'' —John Adams

"Being president is like running a cemetery: you've got a lot of people under you and nobody's listening." —Bill Clinton

“If I were two faced, would I be wearing this one?” —Abraham Lincoln

Great movie poster at Mad Magazine - Barack Obama’s Unfortunate New Movie: Trading Private Bergdahl

A blog post at Mad Magazine has this excellent poster:

BOWE AND ARROWS DEPT.

Recently, President Obama exchanged five Taliban leaders for an American POW, Bowe Bergdahl. One prisoner for five is an iffy trade to begin with — but even moreso when it was revealed that Bergdahl had deserted his post. So, Obama got his man, but there was a lot of collateral damage — it kind of reminds us of a movie we once saw…

via Weasel Zippers.

Re My friend's sister who died because of O'Care: her brother has a guest post at Ann Coulter's site

There was a brief flurry of attention paid to Julie's death last week, at least on some conservative sites. This was in the Washington Times: Ann Coulter claims friend’s sister died due to Obamacare. NRO had a post here which contained Ann Coulter's Fox News appearance discussing it. I posted about it here.

One of her other sisters (not the one who spoke with Ann) is a close friend of mine.  Julie's brother, Doug, has a guest post on Ann's site today - I've reposted it below.

Julie's father, by the way, was General Daniel Graham, who was quite well known in military circles as the architect, under President Reagan, of Missile Defense, generally known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI or "Star Wars") and later as the Ballistic Missile Defense Project.  This is the program that Obama scrapped in Europe in order to push the "reset" button with Putin.

From AnnCoulter.com:

GUEST COLUMN: OBAMACARE KILLED MY SISTER

by Doug Graham

This Wednesday, my little sister, Julie, will be buried. She died because she delayed seeking health care for what turned out to be a catastrophic condition after her private health insurance policy was cancelled because of Obamacare. As she waited for a new Obamacare-approved policy to kick in, her condition deteriorated to the point that it was too late.

Julie, her husband, and four children were covered by a medical plan they liked, and had been promised they could keep by President Obama. But like so many others in this country, her family’s private health care policy was cancelled because of the Affordable Care Act. So my sister and her family struggled through the expensive and incompetently designed Obamacare website to find a new policy. Unfortunately, while they waited for their new Obama-approved healthcare plan to finally kick in, my little sister fell ill. She couldn’t keep down solid food. She should have gone to a doctor. But she toughed it out, as many people do, until her new coverage would kick in on February 2. She and her husband didn’t have a lot of money, so she didn’t want to incur what she thought were avoidable medical expenses. 

But she didn’t make it. It turns out that, unbeknownst to her, she wasn’t suffering from an upset stomach or food poisoning, but a badly blocked gall bladder that had become highly infected. Her body went into septic shock just two days before her Obamacare policy would have kicked in. Her kidneys shut down. She went to the emergency room where, after heroic efforts, a marvelous medical team managed to stabilize her condition. I saw Julie that day for several hours. She could not move, or speak, but a tear trickled down her check when she saw the eldest daughter of her four children. After I left, hoping for the best, I learned the next day that her gentle heart stopped beating around 4:00 a.m.

So, while the White House sends out talking points to the talking heads who proclaim Americans will be better off because Obamacare forced them off of inadequate health care plans, my family knows better.

There are plenty of arguments against Obamacare. Sure, it was drafted behind back doors and passed in a crude, and utterly partisan, fashion. Yes, Nancy Pelosi famously said we had to pass it to see what was in it. And the bill was applied in a crony capitalist fashion, with corporate allies of the President receiving waivers. Then we had the series of backtracking and outright falsehoods—like the infamous “you can keep your plan if you like it” claim uttered by President Obama and repeated by his political and media allies. 

Obamacare has also inflicted job losses, higher cost plans, and a shift from full-time to part time employment. Even when factoring in all this the economic damage and the harm it has done to working Americans, the most disturbing aspect of Obamacare is that this real world hardship is inflicted because it treats living breathing people as actuarial statistics in the service of giant insurance pools, rather than as the individuals they are. It is highly ironic that this Administration that talks so much about protecting “choice” in so many areas of American life, yet is harshly shutting down individual choice and initiative in such a personal matter of personal healthcare.

The public debate about Obamacare will continue for a long time. But for my family, the debate ended with the death of my sister. For us, it’s not about “policy,” anymore. It’s about the tragic consequences that can happen when the government decides to cancel the private economic decisions of individuals in favor of a huge policy experiment created in the back rooms of Washington by out-of-touch bureaucrats, statisticians and lobbyists. As far as we are concerned, Obamacare killed my little sister and left a good man a widower, and four children without their mother.

-- Doug Graham, lives in Maryland and works in equipment development for the U.S. Military

Dr. Zero - The Rhetoric of Failure

From the always excellent Dr. Zero at Hot Air's Green Room:

"Obama’s Afghanistan speech last night would have been adequate for a department store manager, informing the staff that extra help would be hired for the big Going Out of Business sale next year. It wasn’t very inspiring as a war speech. Inspiration is very important in warfare. As a modern liberal with an academic background, Obama sees military operations as unpleasant administrative chores, to be resolved rather than won… but Afghanistan is more than a distraction from the fun industry-nationalizing, trillion-dollar aspects of the President’s job, and resolution is never as inspiring as victory."