Dan Calabrese

Chucklehead burglars take selfie with phone they stole . . .

I guess they don't know how cloud drives work, and in fairness, I suppose there are a lot of people who don't. Fresh off the burglary of a Los Angeles County home, in which they netted a sweet phone among who-knows-what-else, these two geniuses just had to take some selfies with the pick of the loot.

Seven ways pot legalization has been a disaster in Colorado

Hat tip on this one to Cully Stimson at the Daily Signal, who dove into a report from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area to get to the truth about the social costs being wrought by this ill-conceived public policy. For those of you still making the rote, brain-dead argument that "the money spent on the War on Drugs hasn't been worth it," is this the result you wanted?

- Thursday, August 21, 2014

How to utterly destroy ISIS, in case Obama would like to try doing that

Not that Barack Obama has ever demonstrated much seriousness when it comes to fighting radical Islam - especially its most monstrous adherents such as the members of ISIS - but if he would like to think in terms obliterating ISIS instead of just holding them in check or preventing them from committing genocide (or should I say, any more of it), Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations has some thoughts on how it could be done.

60 percent of Democrat voters fear bosses will switch them to ObamaCare policies

This is one of the reasons liberalism enjoys its moments of political ascendancy, but never really takes hold as a philosophy the nation accepts on an enduring basis. Simply put: One of the cures for liberalism is when its advocates find they have to live with its consequences.

Mike Ditka: Redskins name controversy just 'all the politically correct idiots in America'

Thought you'd enjoy this. As more of the American sports media buckles under activist pressure to banish the name and logo of the Washington Redskins from the face of the Earth, you have to hope that someone, somewhere, would have the cajones to stand up to them and call them out for what they are.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who tweeted corroboration of Darren Wilson's account suddenly 'on leave'?

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Boy, that case against Rick Perry is pretty weak, says . . . MSNBC?

It has become pretty common in Texas for Austin-based Democrat prosecutors to abuse the justice system as a way of attacking prominent Republican politicians. District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg infamously (and unsuccessfully) tried it against Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Tom DeLay. But you know the tactic is out of hand when even prominent liberal journalists and legal figures are condemning it as bogus and baldly political.

- Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Multiple reports say Kurds have re-taken Mosul Dam from ISIS

U.S. airstrikes seek to re-take crucial Mosul Dam from ISIS

When you first heard that the U.S., the Iraqi government and the Kurds were working together in an attempt to retake the Mosul Dam from ISIS, it might have seemed like a strange priority to inspire such an unlikely alliance. Not even a major city or military installation? A dam?

The entirely political indictment of Rick Perry

You have probably heard by now that Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been indicted on charges that he abused his executive power, since the news media is all too happy to tell you about it. If you've never heard the expression that a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich, it basically means that indictments don't have to be based on much. You get an overzealous prosecutor, or one with an agenda, and you can get an indictment. It doesn't mean you'll ever get a conviction, and in this case they certainly won't.

Kinder, gentler approach fails; Ferguson cops back to tear gas and riot gear

After all the moaning about the "militarization of the police," apparently the Missouri Highway Patrol decided it was time to ditch the SWAT/seige approach and try the kinder, gentler tactic of walking amongst the people - building relationships and seeking to inspire calm. How did that work?

VIDEO: Democrat John Lewis wants Obama to declare martial law in Ferguson

No, it's not any of those places, a fact that would seemingly serve as an unlikely pretext for a declaration of martial law. But Congressman John Lewis of Georgia is arguing here that Obama should declare martial law in Ferguson as a way of protecting the protesters from the police. Digest that one for a second. We've already got looting and general unrest going on, and since the St. Louis County police were apparently incapable of handling the situation, Gov. Jay Nixon has now sent in the Missouri State Highway Patrol to take over the job of keeping the peace.

Bill Bennett: This notion that marijuana isn't that harmful is just plain wrong

I know you don't like it when I go here, because the "conservative movement" seems to have wholly embraced marijuana legalization as part of a larger move in direction of "liberty" as opposed to law and order. I'm pretty sure the very real principles of liberty that animated the Founding Fathers were not about the right to get stoned, but they had their priorities, you have yours.

Boots on the ground: U.S. troops land on mountain where Yazidis are trapped

Once the United States decided to come to the aid of Iraqi Yazidis trapped atop a mountain and under seige by ISIS, it should have become clear that we couldn't just airdrop supplies to them and leave it at that. They're going to die if we don't find a way to get them off of there. And while that's not easy, it can be done, but most likely not without the direct involvement of U.S. ground troops.

Pentagon: Huh, maybe we should get those people off that mountain instead of just dropping supplies to them

But it might not be possible because of Obama's political vow never to send in ground troops.

VIDEO/PHOTOS: Floods turn Detroit area into sixth Great Lake; cops send divers (yes, divers) onto freeways

As a friend of mine said yesterday - in a way that only he can - "I'm sorry that Robin Williams is dead, but my basement's flooded."

Riots over police shooting of black teen aren't dying down on second day

What's happening in Ferguson, Missouri is not good, which is an observation quite apart from the merits of what's brought it on.

Aetna: Actual ObamaCare enrollment turning out way lower than the White House said

Much of the left has been trying its best to push the notion that "ObamaCare is working," largely based on the announced enrollment total of anywhere from 8 million to 10 million that has come out of the White House. Since this was more than the 7 million they originally said they needed to make the system viable, viola . . . success!

And now: The burger-flipping robot

They don't give you attitude. They don't steal from the cash register. They don't show up late, call in sick, fail to show up, show up drunk, text on the job, have sex in the back room or spit in the customers' food.

Coup brewing in Baghdad as U.S. airstrikes slam ISIS

Iraq in chaos.