Cool music for late night

Apache, by F.A. Hartwell, Phoenix, AZ. 1880 - 1890

                                                           Dude looks a little intense.

The best Amazon review of Hillary's book, "Hard Choices."

"The only "hard choice" I saw Hillary make was to stay married to Prez Bill after he stuck his uncut little cigar into every girl/woman/female in sight throughout his reign. Quite an example our Hillary set for her young daughter and the millions of young women who might look up to her, no? Marry for power and stick with it, no matter how soul-squashing or humiliating the experience is. Even if hubby thinks of women as human ashtrays, Chels, stay married just to leach off a little more of his power. Hard choices indeed.

Anywho, this book is pretty much everything you DON'T want from a memoir: dishonest, condescending, clueless, and - worst of all - dry as dust. And guess what? No matter how many hundreds of "Not Helpful" votes the Clinton Cronies slam this review with, and no matter how many fake five-star reviews they concoct, my one-star rating - and the HUNDREDS of other one-star votes that preceded mine and helped to give HC the two-star average she (and it) deserves - shall remain."

The others aren't bad either.  Well worth a few minutes to peruse.  

A perspective on the Obama administration's record in front of the Supreme Court.

President Obama’s team suffered their twelfth unanimous defeat at the Supreme Court in the legal challenge to the so-called recess appointments made when Congress was not actually in recess.

Ted Cruz commented on this terrible record:

“When President Obama’s own Supreme Court nominees join their colleagues in unanimously rejecting the administration’s call for broader federal power nine times in 18 months, the inescapable conclusion is that the Obama administration’s view of federal power knows virtually no bounds.”

What should it tell us when our president loses so often by such a wide margin?  I thought he fancied himself a constitutional law lecturer in another incarnation.  Looks like that was just another affirmative action promotion, based at least on his poor showing in court.

Netanyahu rips the Presbyterians for their willful political correctness and blindness

Heh

I laughed and laughed

Via American Digest

Classic fun right here.

More good news from the Supreme Court

  "The Supreme Court on Thursday limited the president's power to fill high-level vacancies with temporary appointments, ruling in favor of Senate Republicans in their partisan clash with President Barack Obama.

The high court's first-ever case involving the Constitution's recess appointments clause ended in a unanimous decision holding that Obama's appointments to the National Labor Relations Board in 2012 without Senate confirmation were illegal."

Still, the decision wasn't all good:

  "The outcome was the least significant loss possible for the administration. The justices, by a 5-4 vote, rejected a sweeping lower court ruling against the administration that would have made it virtually impossible for any future president to make recess appointments.

The lower court held that the only recess recognized by the Constitution is the once-a-year break between sessions of Congress. It also said that only vacancies that arise in that recess could be filled. So the high court has left open the possibility that a president, with a compliant Congress, could make recess appointments in the future.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for himself, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, said he would have upheld the lower court's reasoning. He said Thursday's decision means "the abolition of the Constitution's limits on the recess-appointment power."

At least there is some Constitutional brake on the imperial presidency.   Better than nothing, and all the decisions by the NLRB will now be void if taken when Obama's illegal appointees were participating.

And those insulting "free speech zones" the government constantly wants to impose?  No go.

Via Legal Insurrection and Scotus Blog:

The Court makes clear that states can pass laws that specifically ensure access to clinics. It holds that states cannot more broadly prohibit speech on public streets and sidewalks. It also notably rejects the protesters’ broadest arguments that such restrictions require strict constitutional scrutiny and are viewpoint based.

The upshot of today’s ruling is that an abortion clinic buffer zone is presumptively unconstitutional. Instead, a state has to more narrowly target clinic obstructions. For example, the police can tell protesters to move aside to let a woman through to the clinic. But it cannot prohibit protesters from being on the sidewalks in the first instance. If in practice protesters still are obstructing the entrance, then it can consider a broader restriction.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Mark Rienzi, professor of constitutional law at Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law and lead counsel in McCullen v. Coakley, hailed the decision.

“Americans have the freedom to talk to whomever they please on public sidewalks. That includes peaceful pro-lifers like Eleanor McCullen, who just wants to offer information and help to women who would like it. The Supreme Court has affirmed a critical freedom that has been an essential part of American life since the nation’s founding.”

Maybe the BLM will quit trying to herd people like cattle into "free speech corrals" like they did during the Bundy Ranch conflict.

Cabin Porn

Mike Austin sent in his own photo of Refugio Frey, in Argentina.  Thanks Mike!

Big summer fun right here

Another example of a high IQ congresswoman

Given an opportunity to ride in a driverless, automatic car, Eleanor Holmes Norton managed to immediately screw up.   As Ace describes it:

She got in. She observed a big red button on the central panel of the car. The button was plainly marked, in large letters, "Emergency Stop."

So she did what any three year old would do: She punched the button. Like, immediately.

The Emergency Stop button disables the car, an engineer explained to her a second later. Being an Emergency Stop and all.

So the car stopped working -- in fact, she didn't even get to ride in it at all. She immediately rendered it nonworking after sitting in the passenger seat for just a few seconds."

See the stupid here:

Just a little drink

A bit of good news for everyone

The Supreme Court rules that the police can no longer search your cell phone without a warrant.

Line drawn.

  "The chief justice cited court precedent that found a difference between asking someone to turn out his pockets versus “ransacking his house for everything which may incriminate him” — and the court found that a cellphone falls into that second category.

Complicating matters further is the question of where the data is actually stored. The Obama administration and the state of California, both of which sought to justify cell phone searches, acknowledged that remotely stored data couldn’t be searched — but Chief Justice Roberts said with cloud computing, it’s now sometimes impossible to know the difference.

The court did carve out exceptions for “exigencies” that arise, such as major security threats."

Of course, it was the administration and the People's Republic of California that wanted to deny you your right to privacy, and to empower the state to grab yet one more thing of yours, but somehow even the progressive justices sided with the people on this one.

It's a small victory, but a victory none the less.  Savor it while it lasts.

Spearhead of rock crystal, Copper Age, Valencina de la Concepcion, Spain

                   I wonder what lurid stories this stone could tell.  Quite the piece of artistry.