A quick programming note: Rush begins his summer vacation today, so I'll be behind the Golden EIB Microphone tomorrow for three hours of Open Line Friday, coast to coast starting at 12 noon Eastern. And I'll be back at America's Number One radio show next Tuesday, too. Click the banner above for station details.
~The gaying of every government agency proceeds apace. Further to the announcement of USDA funding for the Future Farmers of America LGBTQ parade comes exciting news from the National Park Service:
National Park Service Will Start Promoting Historic LGBT Places
I think it would be more cost-effective just to turn Yellowstone and Grand Canyon into preserves of 1970s gay life in all its pristine natural beauty. The downside is that, during the next government shutdown, instead of just preventing veterans from getting anywhere near the war memorials, the National Parkstapo will be preventing twinks from getting too close to the bears.
~In a recent Irish interview, self-conferred Nobel Laureate and Big Climate enforcer Michael E Mann said he refused to appear with "deniers" because he doesn't want to lend them his credibility. I mentioned the other day the rather odd company that he is prepared to keep:
He'll have no truck with #antiscience Judith Curry, Lennart Bengtsson, Mike Hulme, etc, etc, but he's got major-league bromance going with the inventor of the Percentigrade scale of global warming, a conspiracy theorist who thinks al-Qaeda is a western intelligence operation, and a celebrity activist who's happy to take $9 million for an anti-fracking documentary from - what does Mann call it? - "the fossil-fuel industry".
I don't know who schedules Dr Mann's media appearances, but his latest is a somewhat incoherent MSNBC segment with a lady who's made a film about how to get more children from the Undocumented-American community involved in science. On reflection, however, climate science and illegal immigration have a lot in common: Cross Big Mike and his Warmanos, and you'll be living in the shadows.
~I hope to have some news to announce on the Mann vs Steyn front very soon. In the meantime, I'm grateful for your continued support via the Steyn store.
~Some additional details on a couple of stories we've been following: Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman sentenced to death for the crime of marrying a Christian (and an American), gave birth to her newborn daughter in the squalid and disease-ridden Omdurman prison while shackled to a wall. This baby is the child of an American, but was born in captivity and, after her mother's hanging, will never be returned to her father. President Obama remains silent.
~The other case I mentioned in that same SteynPost was that of Farzana Parveen, another pregnant woman, beaten and stoned to death outside the Lahore High Court for the crime of marrying without her family's permission. Her husband - now her widower - complains that the local police simply stood by for 15 minutes as Farzana's father, brothers and cousins used bricks to smash her body almost recognition. The Prime Minister of Pakistan has demanded an explanation from the coppers, but I think most of us know the reason, don't we?
It would be nice if western feminists would occasionally stop navel-gazing and turn their attention to the real "war on women". They might even consider asking Muslim men, in Pakistan, Sudan, Nigeria and beyond, to "check their privilege".
UPDATE: On the subject of Muslim men "checking their privilege", Farzana Parveen's widower provides a plot twist:
'I was in love with Farzana and killed my first wife because of this love,' Mohammed Iqbal, 45, told AFP.
Mr Iqbal said he was spared prison because his son, who reported the murder, later dropped the charges.
He then hung up his phone and has not responded to further calls.
Earlier in the conversation, he said that Farzana's older sister, Rehana, was poisoned by her family after her father had an argument with her parents-in-law.
Farzana's stepson, Muhammad Aurangzeb, supported the claim.
Their father ordered Rehana to leave her husband, The Times reports, but she refused.
So let's see:
Farzana's father and brothers kill her sister Rehana. Nobody goes to jail.
Farzana's husband kill his first wife in order to marry Farzana. The son initially turns in his mum's killer, but then drops charges. So nobody goes to jail.
Farzana then marries the wife-killer husband and is then killed by her sister-killing dad and brothers. Nobody goes to jail.
This Hatfield-&-McCoy stuff is great fun when it's only the women in the firing line, right?
