"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
The world’s youngest grandmother is only 23 years old:
Rifca Stanescu was 12 when she had her first child Maria.
She urged the girl not to follow her example – but Maria gave birth to son Ion while only 11.
Because Rifca was herself born to a 17-year-old, that means Rifca’s mother is now a great-grandmother at the ripe old age 40.
And, to the everlasting relief of Don Surber, the Stanescu family is from Romania, so they can’t be a punchline for your next hillbilly joke.
So I was watching Fox News last night and Sean Hannity had an “expert” on the show, a psychiatrist who tentatively suggested the possibility that Charlie Sheen might be exhibiting symptoms of bipolar disorder.
Really?
No, I mean, REALLY? Because I would call the state medical board and demand they revoke the license of any psychiatrist who doubts that Charlie Sheen is bipolar.
The only other possibility is that Charlie’s trying to win an Emmy for “Best Dramatic Performance as a Dude With Raging Bipolar Disorder.”
For reasons unkown, there was no “Sheen’s Korner” Tuesday night, but his Monday rant was a blast of weapons-grade lunatic gibberish:
“Now, everyone’s 20 years behind my book, catching up, saying, ‘My gosh, where was all this brilliance?'”
“And I’m saying it was right there. You had the poetry in your magic fingertips the entire time, to flip my perfect pages and read my perfect words, but you didn’t go there because you judged me, you condemned me, you discarded me. Well, not anymore. Winning! . . .
“People need to hear my gold as it rolls out, not as it’s like disappearing, like so many frickin’, you know, magicians’ rabbits. . . .
“Apocalypse… me… the jaws of life.”
And more:
“I don’t give a f**k, I don’t give a f**k. This phone doesn’t even have a speaker because it was built by trolls. Keep that in mind, phones are built by trolls. . . .
“If you own the home that you own the trash can, you should never have to empty it ever again . . .
“We are in the middle of a movement here, an odyssey of epic, epic proportions. . . .
“Any time I roll anything out, my plan is the best one in the room and people are starting to realize that. . . .
“Their plan is s**t and my plan is gold. Walk into my plan and you’re going to win, win, win. . . .
“It’s a Sheen dog and it’s soul is inhabited by the soul of Betty and now it will murder people and eat trolls with it’s razor fangs and drop their spleens off with their children at tiny houses. I’m foiled by phones and trolls!”
There are schizophrenics in straitjackets locked up in padded rooms who don’t spew word-salad nonsense half as crazy as that.
Let me address myself to the California law-enforcement community: Does the phrase “a danger to himself and others” mean anything to you guys? How about the phrase “involuntary commitment”?
Within the next 48 to 72 hours, either somebody’s going to put Charlie in the hospital, or else we’re likely to be writing his obituary.
TOP NEWS
Libyan Rebels’ Call For No-fly Zone Grows Sharper
Rebel council rejects offer of Qadhafi resignation; regime denies offer was made
Loyalists Attack Rebels, Civilians From The Air As NATO Ponders No-Fly Zone
Public Standoff, Private Discussions
Possible compromise to resolve Wisconsin budget impasse?
Hispanics Increasingly Identify As White
Analysis of Census data shows Hispanics regard identity as ethnic, not racial
POLITICS
O’KEEFE STRIKES AGAIN: NPR STING HITS HARD
Guerrilla conservative catches NPR exec on camera slamming Americans as “uneducated”, Tea Party as “seriously racist”; GOP drive to defund NPR/PBS strengthened?
NPR In Damage Control Mode
In Defense Of Peter King’s Muslim Hearings
Democrats Raise Stakes On Budget
Senate Backs Patent Reform To Cut Backlog
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Stock Futures Turn Mixed As Libya Crisis Continues
Politics Of Oil: Will High Gasoline Prices Spur Lawmakers To Act?
Bank Of America Moves Almost Half Its Mortgages Into “Bad Bank”
Icahn To His Hedge Fund Investors: Cash Out Now
Oil Falls For A Second Day In New York As OPEC Discusses Emergency Meeting
Facebook To Pose New Threat To Netflix? Social Network Gets Into Streaming Movie Rentals
Difficult Decisions Ahead On Mars
Google Provides Grant To Put Mandela Archives Online
SPORTS
NFL Players Reject Owners’ Offer Of Profitability Data
Players holding out for complete financial statements
Tiki Barber To End Retirement, Play In 2011?
Aldridge, Blazers’ Bench Roll Heat, 105-96
Texans’ Kareem Jackson Attends Dominican Cockfights, Posts Pix
Canadiens Beat Bruins, Extend Win Streak To Five
Wild Surge Past Slumping Avs 5-2
Brewers Pitcher Greinke Out 2-4 Weeks With Rib Injury
Phil Jackson Has Message For the Heat: There’s No Crying In The NBA
FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Charlie Sheen’s Latest Video: Dead Man Ranting
Are his fifteen minutes up yet?
Alice In Chains Original Bassist Mike Starr Dead, 44
Lohan To Sue Jewelry Store Over Sale Of Surveillance Tape
“Real Housewives Of New York” To Return April 7
Lily Allen Opens Up About Tragic Baby Loss In New Documentary
Maksim Chmerkovskiy Impressed By Dancing Partner Kirstie Alley
“Tomb Raider” Reboot In Works Without Angelina Jolie?
Lady Gaga Threatens Breast Milk Ice Cream Makers With Lawsuit
FOREIGNERS
Richter 7.2 Earthquake Rocks Northern Japan
Former Iranian President Rafsanjani Loses Top Clerical Post
Ivorian Marches On International Womens’ Day End In Blood
Car Bomb Kills 24 At Pakistan Fuel Station Near ISI Office
Serbia, Kosovo To Meet In Brussels For First Direct Talks
Search For Stockholm Bomber’s Accomplices Leads To Scotland
Coptic Christians, Muslims Clash In Cairo, One Dead
BLOGS & STUFF
The Lonely Conservative: Liberal Chickens Coming Home To Roost
Don Surber: Manchin Dumps On The Won
Mark Steyn: Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboy Poets
Atlas Shrugs: Congressman King Getting Death Threats, Security Ramped Up
Jihad Watch: King Is Right, Say NYPD, FBI; We Don’t Get Much Cooperation From The Muslim Community…Much Like The Mafia, MS-13, And The Drug Cartels
NRO: Lugar Opposed To House Spending Cuts…No, Wait, He Isn’t!
Weasel Zippers: NPR, PBS Breaking Law By Lobbying For More Federal Money?
Peter Suderman: Wouldn’t It Be Terrible If Sightly Fewer Individuals Signed Up For Middle-Class Obamacare Subsidies?
Neo-neocon: Ohio Matters, And Other News
Jawa Report: Brian DePalma’s “Redacted” Being Used As Anti-American Propaganda on YouTube By Islamists To “Prove” American Troops Rape Muslim Women
— compiled by Wombat-socho
In-freaking-credible!
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Barrett Brown is either, as Michael Isikoff reports, “an underground commander in a new kind of warfare” — a member of a criminal conspiracy who should be under arrest — or else he’s one of the most successful hoaxers in recent memory. What astonishes me is to realize that just two days ago I was exchanging e-mails with Brown after he threatened me via Twitter over a post I wrote Feb. 14:
Is the FBI Watching Barrett Brown? (And
If They’re Not Already, Shouldn’t They?)
Everything I know about Brown leads me to believe that his claim to be a leader of “Anonymous” is self-aggrandizing nonsense. But here’s the problem: Absent complete access to his computer records, how would you go about verifying or falsifying that claim?
Consider what bush-league crap Brown was up to less than three months ago: In late December, he was posting videos of himself arguing with his girlfriend’s roommate. Before that, he was getting himself banned from blogs. Before that, he had his lawyer threatening me for making jokes at his expense.
So here we have a guy who seems to have spent December trying to get himself noticed by somebody — anybody — and now in March he’s interviewed by Michael Isikoff on NBC Nightly News?
An ability to detect the aroma of bovine excrement is essential to a newsman’s trade and it is my considered judgment that NBC News has been bamboozled, hoodwinked and scammed by Barrett Brown.
There’s an old saying in this business: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” And unless the Justice Department announces that Barrett Brown is the focus of a federal investigation, I’m calling bullshit.
UPDATE: Let me explain further why I’m so dubious of Brown’s claim. Stars and Stripes reports:
The Financial Times reports this week that U.S. law enforcement agencies are investigating plans by members of a hacking collective known as Anonymous to disrupt [Marine Corps Base] Quantico’s operations in protest over the alleged rough treatment of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, a suspect in the Wikileaks data dump that has sent countries around the world into a tizzy with the disclosure of state secrets big and small.
OK, so “Anonymous” is threatening the U.S. Marine Corps, and meanwhile Barrett Brown — who has been publicly claiming since mid-February to be involved with “Anonymous” — is strolling down the street doing an interview with NBC News? Doesn’t basic common sense tell you that there’s something wrong with that picture?
UPDATE II: Linked by Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs — thanks!.
There can no longer be any question about it:
The Obama administration threatened to veto two measures being pushed by U.S. House Republicans that would eliminate programs aimed at helping people who are struggling to pay their mortgages, the administration said.
The House of Representatives is set to vote this week to kill an effort to lower mortgage payments for so-called underwater borrowers as well as an emergency fund for homeowners who have lost their incomes.
A statement from the White House Office of Management and Budget said the administration “strongly opposes” legislation that would cut the Federal Housing Administration Short Refi Option program and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Emergency Homeowners Loan Program. President Barack Obama’s advisers would recommend that he veto the bills if they reach his desk. . .
Forty-four loans have been modified under the program since it began in September, according to the FHA. Because no borrowers have defaulted, the program has cost nothing so far, according to the FHA. The administration statement called it “vital to the nation’s sustained economic recovery.”
Holy freaking crap. How can a program that has affected only 44 loans in six months — less than eight per month — even merit the description “relevant,” much less “vital”?
As has been amply demonstrated, the administration’s mortgage “assistance” programs have had very little impact on the housing problem (see Megan McArdle here and here, just for starters). Even if these programs were based on sound economic policy, which they aren’t, they would face two basic hurdles to effectiveness:
So what the administration is doing, really, is running Potemkin village programs merely for the political benefit of being able to claim they’re “helping.” And here is Obama threatening to veto any spending bill that doesn’t fund these useless programs, implausibly claiming they’re “vital” to recovery!
If it was not blindingly obvious before, surely now it is beyond dispute that Harvard Law School is the worst possible preparation for the presidency, especially in a time of economic crisis.
What America desperately needs now is a president who knows something about basic economics. But where can we find such a man?
Responding to my earlier post about Echidne of the Snakes, That Mr. G Guy writes:
“I’ve been a single man and a married man and I feel . . . that I’m much better off and happier as a married man.”
Wow — talk about not getting it!
Mr. G obviously doesn’t realize that his argument will do nothing to persuade a feminist like Echidne of the Snakes. Feminists don’t give a damn about men’s happiness. In fact, because feminists view happiness as a zero-sum game — where more happiness for men must obviously result in less happiness for women — Mr. G’s example would only strengthen their opinion that marriage is a very bad thing.
Feminism: A political ideology based on a belief that no honest man should ever have a reason to smile.
UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! And speaking of “the more regrettable aspects of the contemporary cultural debate,” I was having a spirited argument on Twitter with my friend Dan Collins as to which of us had been more prophetic in blogging the Charlie Sheen meltdown. Dan clearly was ahead of me in blogging about Sheen’s demented rant Feb. 24 on the Alex Jones radio show, which was the definitive signal that Charlie had parted ways with reality.
So I’ll have to redouble my efforts to own this meme. And how many blog posts has Harvard Boy done about the Sheen insanity saga, huh? #winning
Michelle Malkin updates readers on the missing-person case involving her 18-year-old cousin, University of Washington student Marizela “Mei” Perez, who hasn’t been seen since Saturday:
The Seattle PD says it has probable visual identification of Marizela boarding the Othello train near her home in the Rainier Beach area and commuting into the University District during the noon hour on Saturday. . . . There’s evidence that she was last seen Saturday afternoon at the Safeway in the city’s University District on 4732 Brooklyn Ave NE between 1-2pm. At some point during that time, purchases were made on her debit card.
The police say they “have no reason to suspect foul play” at this point.
That is good news: If there were evidence of a kidnapping or some other crime, the police would have said as much. However, Mei’s family has reason to be extremely concerned, as a Seattle Times story makes clear:
Perez’s father, Edgar Perez, from New Jersey, said he was flying to Seattle on Monday to help in the search. . . .
Perez said his daughter has been living with her aunt and uncle.
Edgar Perez said he called his daughter about 4 p.m. Saturday, but got no answer. Normally, he said, she calls back within five minutes, but he didn’t hear back from her.
“If she’s going to be late she always calls us,” he said. He said he contacted Perez’s boyfriend, and he hadn’t seen Marizela either.
Lauro Mendoza said he last saw her at noon Saturday and expected her back at dinnertime.
“She always comes home on time,” her uncle said.
The fact that she hasn’t called her family or friends, as she usually does, obviously raises very serious worries. There are a lot of people remembering the Perez family in their prayers.
PREVIOUSLY:
The headline expresses a neutral, objective fact. Of course, that’s not the headline on the MSM stories about Monday night’s 2012 presidential candidate forum sponsored by the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition. But who do you believe, the lying liberal media or your own two eyes?
Brian at Freedom’s Lighthouse says, “Herman Cain is going to shine in the debates that are coming. He is easily one of the most powerful and eloquent speakers in America today.” And did you notice that Cain’s remarks drew repeated applause from the audience? That kind of spontaneous reaction is why, despite their bias, even the liberal media can’t entirely ignore Cain’s powerful momentum:
Most Americans haven’t heard of Herman Cain, the former head of a chain of pizza restaurants who is considering seeking the Republican presidential nomination.
But in Iowa, home to the nation’s first presidential caucuses, Cain has caught the attention of conservative activists influenced by the tea party movement who aren’t bothered by candidates who have succeeded in business but have never held a public office.
“He’s creating quite a buzz,” said former Iowa Republican Party Chairman Richard Schwarm. “He is someone Iowa caucus-goers are going to take very seriously.”
Isn’t it time you joined the online grassroots army at Citizens for Cain?
UPDATE: Linked by Cubachi — thanks!
UPDATE II: That Mr. G Guy and If You Seek Peace also acknowledge the neutral, objective fact of Cain’s victory.