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1.) Prez Obama doesn’t get dog eating pass because he was a child — The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals seem to think President Obama gets a puppy eating pass because he was a child at the time he consumed man’s best friend, TheDC’s Alex Pappas reports:
“Animal rights group PETA says President Barack Obama should get a pass for his history of eating dog meat because he was a child at the time — but the adults who fed it to him shouldn’t.” ‘A child has an excuse, but grownups all should know by now the disgusting condition of slaughterhouses and fear and suffering that animals endure on factory farms and try a vegetarian diet that’s good for them, animals, and the environment,’ Nicole Dao, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, told The Daily Caller.”
Whoa, wait a minute. Sure, President Obama was a child when he ate dog. But he wasn’t a child when he wrote his memoir in which he discusses eating dog without any evident moral revulsion against it. In fact, he writes of it nostalgically, as if it was a cultural experience he was proud to relate. And President Obama was even less of a child when he read the audio version of his memoir in which there isn’t any hint that he has a problem with eating dog. If you think eating dog is morally wrong, then President Obama is not on your side and he doesn’t get a pass because he was a child when he ate Fido. That’s not to say you should think it is morally wrong, though you should find it at least gastronomically disgusting.
2.) A very important candidate … in his own mind — Newt Gingrich’s prospects for the GOP nomination are nonexistent, but he still has a secret service detail that is costing taxpayers lots of money, TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein (ME!) and Alex Pappas report:
“A source with knowledge of the inner workings of the Gingrich campaign told The Daily Caller that Gingrich recently had three people on his personal security detail, though sometimes there are ‘many more.’ ‘Others on the campaign told me that some of the Secret Service members were even saying it was a waste of time and that he shouldn’t have it,’ the source told TheDC. ‘Staff members thought it was ridiculous too and just another example of Newt’s arrogance and self-importance.’ In 2008, Arizona Sen. John McCain didn’t request Secret Service protection until late April, months after the point he was considered the presumptive GOP nominee.”
Unfortunately, even Newt’s security detail couldn’t protect him from being attacked by penguins. This is not a joke. Newt was, in fact, bitten by a penguin at a zoo in St. Louis last week. The failure of the Secret Service in preventing the attack will likely haunt the agency for years.
3.) Media Malpractice — Bill Kristol has a problem with the LA Times, TheDC’s Jeff Poor reports:
“According to Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, the Los Angeles Times’ Wednesday decision to run a series of photographs of U.S. troops posing with dead Afghan suicide bombers, after being asked by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta not to run them, was ‘irresponsible’ and ‘pure voyeurism.’ … ‘It was reported at the time. In any case, the leadership of that battalion and brigade is not the current leadership. So, the exposure does nothing. It’s not a contemporaneous matter where hey, something bad is happening there and they’re trying to expose it. It’s pure voyeurism by the media.”
Here here.
4.) Labash on fly fishing — If you learned one thing from Matt Labash’s advice column for TheDC — and if you’re like most people, you’ve learned far more than one thing, perhaps even three things — it is that Matt loves fly fishing. In his latest advice column, Labash discusses Tucker’s fly fishing idiosyncrasies:
“ Tucker’s most sincere aspiration is to successfully fish ‘dog hair flies,’ taken from his springer spaniel, Meg, who dives for and catches brook trout and pickerel in Maine. Meg’s fur is therefore believed by Tucker to have magical fish-attractant properties. But Tucker is a builder of things. Creating something from nothing brings him pleasure in and of itself. He has a woodshop in his house, and if/when the bottom falls out of the journalism industry, he is well-suited to become a carpenter, just like Jesus before him. Whereas I like to chop wood, to burn wood, and even to pop wood, as my lady friends will attest. But I couldn’t make so much as a paper weight from wood if my children’s lives depended on it. Building things isn’t for everyone, and fly tying isn’t either.”
5.) Poll of the Day: Republicans like Condi as VP –CNN/ORC poll asks who Republicans and Republican-leaners would like to see as the GOP vice-presidential nominee: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice 26%, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum 21%, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie 14%, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio 14%, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan 8%, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal 5%, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell 1%.
6.) Tweet of Yesterday — daveweigel: Note to young people on Twitter: Dick Clark was the captain of the Titanic, a ship designed by Paul McCartney.