This is #12 of my reading/writing journals, a new, experimental routine of season 2 of the 13 Weeks Radical Reading Reading Regimen. Each morning I will juxtapose excerpts from my book readings with the day’s headlines and then the next day write a reflection. See the first two week’s entries:

Week One
Monday, July 8: “We Ought to Defeat Capitalism With Its Own Weapons, Comrades…“
Tuesday, July 9: Can We Just Fast Forward to 2040? Please?
Thursday, July 11: Researching the American Family’s War to Beat Death…
Week Two
Monday, July 15: Turning On Mankind’s Magical Machines To Battle Mother Earth’s Cruel Monsters
Wednesday, July 17: ‘So, You Know How You Felt on 9/11? Yeah, That’s How We Feel When It Comes To Race.’
Thursday, July 18: ‘… And There We Can Still Maintain Our Mysterious and Dreadful Freedom.’
Friday, July 19: ‘Evil Always Takes Advantage of Ambiguity.’ – G.K. Chesterton
Week Three
Monday, July 22: ‘His Father Urged Him to Study Marxism, But Valentin Preferred Science.’
Tuesday, July 23: ‘Perhaps The Final Secret of the Illuminati Is That You Don’t Know You’re A Member Until It’s Too Late to Get Out.’
Wednesday, July 24: Is Anthony Weiner a ‘Deviant’ or a ‘Normal’ Male?
Thursday, July 25: ‘The Most Ancient Conflict in Western Culture, Between Jew and Egyptian, Continues…’

Thursday Morning News Round Up:

Lead PJM Stories:

Roger L. Simon: The Democratic Party’s War on Women

Where is the true “War on Women” and who’s waging it? Think this one through, my “liberal” friends.

I guess as long as these guys vote for free government condoms, everything’s okay.

Bryan Preston: Rasmussen: Only 33% Rate Obama’s Zimmerman Response as Good or Excellent

J. Christian Adams: Breaking: Holder Tries to Re-grab Texas, Announces Nationwide Attack on Election Integrity

Two important developments this morning. First: Attorney General Eric Holder will announce that the Justice Department will initiate broad nationwide attacks on election integrity measures like Voter ID using the remaining portions of the Voting Rights Act. Last month, the Supreme Court struck down the 1965 triggers that forced 15 states to submit election law changes to Washington D.C. for federal approval.

Second: despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Justice Department announced it will try to recapture Texas under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act by showing the state continues to act with a racially discriminatory intent when passing voting laws.

Some of Holder’s reaction is because dozens of highly paid federal employees are now idled. James Buchanan won the Nobel Prize in economics by explaining Holder’s actions as public choice theory — bureaucrats announce policies to help bureaucrats, even if disguised as an act inspired by a public purpose.

Mike McNally: Britain’s Single-Payer Horror Show: Report Details NHS Body Count

British politicians used to boast that the National Health Service was — and some left-wing holdouts maintain it still is — “the envy of the world.”

These days, beset by scandal after scandal and facing spiraling costs, the NHS would be lucky to attract a covetous glance from an accident-prone Somali, and any U.S. conservative who doubts the urgency of stopping Obamacare before it can be fully implemented would do well to pay attention to the disaster unfolding across the pond.

A report released last week revealed that as many as 13,000 patients may have died unnecessarily in NHS hospitals between 2005 and 2012.

The investigation discovered appalling standards of care, with patients being left without food and water, forced to lie in soiled beds, and left in ambulances because there were no beds available. The report further accused hospital staff of being more focused on meeting government-imposed targets than on patient care.

To make matters worse, standards were allowed to slip so dramatically because the watchdog tasked with monitoring the performance of NHS hospitals — the Care Quality Commission — covered up incidents of its employees failing to spot problems or to investigate complaints; they even used gagging orders to silence potential whistleblowers.

Ministers of the last Labour government, which set up the CQC, have also been accused of ignoring warnings about high death rates and other problems.

Rodrigo Sermeno: Father to Congressional Caucus: ‘We Won’t Let This Verdict Sum Up Who Trayvon Was’

Bridget Johnson: House NSA Vote ‘A Wake-Up Call for the White House,’ Says Senate Dem

J. Christian Adams: President Alinsky Threatens Americans with Rising ‘Social Tensions’

You can take the community organizer out of the South Side, but you can’t take the community organizer out of the community organizer.

Today, America heard threats from the increasingly predictable President Alinsky.

“The position of the middle class will erode further,” Mr. Obama said. “Inequality will continue to increase, money’s power will distort our politics even more. Social tensions will rise, as various groups fight to hold on to what they have, start blaming somebody else for why their position isn’t improving. That’s not the America we know.”

This is standard-fare Das Kapital by Karl Marx. Obama doesn’t even attempt to disguise it, leaving out only the original author’s name. Obama merely adds the threat of social tensions.

For that, thank speech co-author Saul Alinsky.

Alinsky saw social tensions as a necessary circumstance to effective community organizing. Without anger, without the have-nots blaming the haves, it is harder to accumulate power. Alinsky considered the creation of social tensions, or the exploitation of them, as essential to move wealth and power from those who have it to those who don’t.

PJ Lifestyle Featured on PJ Home Page Thursday:

Susan L.M. Goldberg: Millennial Girls Are Easy: Sex, Power, & Porn

While goddess feminism demands “what can you do for me?” biblical feminism asks “what can I do for you?” As I recently detailed, biblical feminism is a servant, not a slave, mentality. It is also a perspective devoid of graven images. Authority is not related to sex, but comes from God, who transcends artistic depiction. Instead of focusing on physicality, attention is drawn inward, to the intertwining of heart, soul and strength where the two most important commandments reside. It is a worldview based upon positive relationship-building for the purpose of physical, mental and spiritual growth, as opposed to a physical dominant/submissive relationship to meet the purely physical demands of the cult or state.

Moreover, sex itself is recognized as an act shared between two people, as is the responsibility for the outcome: “The potential power of male-female relationships is like atomic energy. When used in a positive and holy way, there is nothing more powerful and valuable in the world. But when used recklessly, and not in a sacred context, it can be the most destructive force in existence.” There can be no better illustration of this than the fact that critics can approach the most brutal, graphic sex scene on Girls with the comment: “So it’s a little mini-porn-ish, but who cares? We don’t care about that.”

New at PJ Lifestyle Thursday:

Walter Hudson: Will Justice Outlast the Trayvon Martin Hysteria?

I thought of Outlast after considering last week’s remarks by President Obama which he offered in response to the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. Predictably, the president chose to amplify the narrative that the black community was somehow owed a conviction. The threat to liberty posed by our nation’s highest executive suggesting that a criminal case ought to be decided not on the facts, but to satisfy a subjective sense of racial justice, cannot be overstated. However, what specifically reminded me of Outlastwas the president’s call to examine “stand your ground” statutes to determine whether they “may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case rather than diffuse potential altercations.”

You’re going to be taken.

The clear intent of such examination is to eliminate self-defense supports and create a duty to retreat. In states where such a “duty” has been imposed by law, citizens who feel threatened may not take action to defend themselves while they have any opportunity to escape.

Hannah Sternberg: Bad Advice for the Royal Baby

My obvious advice? Don’t try to be the world’s best prince. Don’t try to match anyone’s image of what you should be. Just follow the rules of common decency (common — like us commoners, who often only have common decency to get by on!) and the rest will be okay. The haters will hate, but then again you were never going to change their minds. The press is going to be like a bully to you: dogging your every move, making you doubt every action, constantly challenging your self-worth, making you feel as if there’s no safe place from their judgment. Don’t let a bully tell you who you are. Even a royal prince can learn to be himself.

Becky Graebner: How Sweet 16 Parties Killed the SUV

What happened to the true, rugged SUV of America? The spirit of the utilitarian, hard-working Jeep? It’s been mutated into the automotive hulk that has little to no purpose. The interiors have heated everything, TV screens in the back of each headrest for the kids, and a computer system that could rival that of NASA. Are you really going to load that thing up with 2x4s, a group of construction workers, or a bandsaw? No, probably not. Your SUV isn’t for those things. Essentially, these vehicles are a new breed of SUV– they are luxurious tanks braving “the perils” of wealthy suburbia.

Obviously, if you have the money and the will, you can buy and do what you want — and these luxury SUVs are selling like hotcakes because large swaths of the wealthy like driving large vehicles with mountain-man pedigrees. I find this fact amusing — but also sad.

Chris Queen: Forgotten Walt Disney World: If You Had Wings

Charlie Martin: The Earth From a Great Height

Also Around the Web Thursday:

Via Drudge:

Politico: Poll: Anthony Weiner hurt by scandal, trails

Anthony Weiner’s favorability has plunged by more than 20 points and he has lost the lead in the New York mayor’s race after acknowledging more explicit online relationships took place after his resignation from Congress, a new poll Thursday shows.

Weiner trailed opponent Christine Quinn in the Democratic primary 25 percent to 16 percent in the NBC 4 New York/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll conducted on Wednesday, after the new revelations about Weiner were made public.

In the same poll in June, Weiner had been leading 25 percent to 20 percent.

…

While 60 percent of Democrats said Weiner’s sexual relationships matter at least somewhat in their vote, only 33 percent said it mattered a great deal and 35 percent said it didn’t matter at all.

At Mediaite:

Josh Feldman: Sharpton And Panel Bash O’Reilly, Right-Wing Radio: They Stoke Racial Fears For The Ratings

Noah Rothman: Hip Hop Icon Questlove Walked Off Gig After Trayvon Verdict: ‘Felt Like’ ‘I Was Watching My Own Trial’

Wagner read a portion of a post that Thompson wrote the day after the verdict was announced. Thompson wrote that “this whole Trayvon case has taught me: you ain’t shit. That’s the lesson I take from this case.”

Thompson observed that America is supposed to be “post-racial,” and added that he served in positions on both of President Barack Obama’s winning presidential campaigns.

…

“I internalized it,” Thompson said. “I felt like I was him, and that I was watching my own trial and this was the America — this is the message that America sent.”

“The emotional impact – to be told ‘your life isn’t worth anything’ – is, I mean, it’s hard to believe that we’re in that place in America,” Wagner said.

At Breitbart.Com:

Ezra Dulis: Accuser: Weiner a Half-Minute Man During Phone Sex

Richie reveals on HuffPostLive that his source expressed disappointment in Weiner’s aural skills, as the would-be mayor would climax in as little as 15 or 30 seconds. Host Marc Lamont Hill reacts, “You’re saying he had premature ejaculation during phone sex?”

“She would never get the opportunity to get off,” Richie states. “At some point, she felt like she was being used… she’s left like, ‘Okay, what about me?'”

Joel B. Pollak: Top 10 Signs Your Scandals Aren’t Phony

Larry O’Connor: Politico’s Simon: Obama’s Trayvon Speech Prevented Riots

At CNN:

Juror: Zimmerman got away with murder

At The Huffington Post:

How You’re Embarrassing Yourself Online Without Even Knowing It

We all too often hear warnings about over-sharing online and think such activity is limited to pictures in which you are doing a keg stand at a party or drowning puppies. You should instead be considering everything from the jokes you make to the political causes you support (after all, anyone can find what politicians you have donated to in the past using online resources). Even posts your own grandmother would like and agree with might paint you in an unflattering light in the eyes of a potential employer or the mainstream media.

10 Really Dumb Things You Do With Credit Cards

3. Charging Anywhere Near Your Credit Limit

There may be certain life crises that require you to charge a large amount, like an emergency car repair. Try to pay down the balance as quickly as possible. Creditors look very closely every month at the percentage of your available credit that you are using. If you use more than 10% for any meaningful period of time, it will hurt your credit score. 30% of your credit score relates to your credit utilization. If your credit score declines, your cost of borrowing will increase and your access to credit will become more limited. (If you’re not sure what your credit utilization ratio is, use Credit.com’s free Credit Report Card for a breakdown.)

Alec Baldwin: The Right Candidate for New York Mayor

It would be one thing if a man had an affair, doing what comes naturally with a partner other than his wife. It’s another thing to text compromising photos of yourself and thus hand someone a loaded gun. However, it is, without doubt, entirely something else, again, to ultimately resign one’s seat in the U.S. Congress, both embarrass and disappoint yourself, your family and your constituents and then repeat that very same behavior right at a time when your poll numbers are about to climb.

Weiner has only one problem that disqualifies him from the race and that is that he is clearly addicted to reckless behavior. That is something New York’s taxpayers do not need right now. Weiner should quit, walk away, let some time wash over his reversals and re-emerge , another day, to attempt some future race for public office. Weiner is smart and tough. Who knows? He may come back and prove himself as a great public servant. But New York does not need a mayor who has an uncontrollable desire to self-destruct the moment he feels he has fooled the voters into giving him their trust.

At the Daily Mail:

Google takes aim at Apple TV with new device that brings YouTube and Netflix to the living room and costs just $33

Family goes bankrupt after blowing their $100,000 savings on Beanie Babies they thought would become valuable

Mr Robinson has now filmed his family as they talk about the years spent collecting the Beanie Babies, in a bid to make enough money to send the three sons to college.

His film, Bankrupt by Beanies, shows how his father’s obsession consumed the family’s activities as they attempted to collect as many as they could.

Surrounded by boxes of the cuddly toys, his father opens the film by telling the camera: ‘This is like admitting to a drug addiction, you know, you want to forget it.’

He goes on to describe how at first his three sons enjoyed collecting the toys, but one by one their interest waned to the point where he only continued to pursue his obsession in the hope it would make a financial return.

Is everything we thought we knew about older women and fertility WRONG? A controversial new book claims getting pregnant after 35 is far easier than doctors say

A U.S. study, released in June, appears to back up the argument, suggesting that 80 per cent of 38 and 39-year-olds get pregnant naturally within six months of trying.

Another study released earlier this year, which tracked Danish women having sex during their fertile periods, reported similar figures: 78 per cent of 35 to 40-year-olds got pregnant within a year. It followed 2004 research that suggested of those having sex twice a week, 82 per cent of 35 to 39-year-olds conceived within a year – just 4 per cent fewer than those aged 27 to 34.

Like many single women in her early 30s, Jean Twenge found herself assailed by frequent moments of baby panic. Now, she is 41 and the mother of three.

While researching her book The Impatient Woman’s Guide To Getting Pregnant, the statistics that Twenge saw most often in medical tomes was that only two out of three 35-year-old women would be pregnant after a year of unprotected sex.

But going back to the source of the information, Twenge found – incredibly – that it was all based on research from church birth records in rural France between 1670 and 1830.

Clearly, there are huge differences between women from that time and now, namely hugely improved medical care and better diets.

‘God help New York if he gets to be Mayor’, says mom of Weiner’s sexting girl as it’s revealed ‘he began texting her after she emailed criticizing him for his FIRST sex scandal’

It was also revealed on Wednesday that Leathers had got herself an agent and hopes to make $100,000 by selling her story.

Dishing the dirt: Owner of website thedirty.com, who first revealed the scandal online, said on Wednesday he was ‘duped by Weiner’

A woman, who worked with Leathers at a tanning salon but would not identify herself to CNN, said the 23-year-old was hoping to make thousands of dollars by dishing the dirt on Weiner’s antics.

…

Personally I always thought she was pretty self-centred. On Facebook she always posts stuff complimenting herself all the time – like how pretty she looks in pictures.

He added: ‘I can’t believe she was actually posting some of this stuff. I mean she’s a smart girl, she has always been into politics and the news and stuff.’

Another former friend, who admitted to having a falling-out with Leathers, told the Daily News she dropped out of high school in 11th grade and is now covered in tattoos.

‘Her main goal is to become famous,’ the friend said.

Husband and wife couple who randomly targeted and killed a sex offender admit to having sex registry hit list

Thursday Night Book Reading:

From chapter 10 of Taboo: Sex, Religion, And ‪‎Magick‬ by Christopher S. Hyatt and Lon Milo Duquette, a look at some of the darker myths and folklore around the edges of civilization:

Friday Dawn Book Reading:

From page 181 of Malcom X: A Life of Reinvention, one of the titles on my list of The 15 Best Books for Understanding Barack Obama’s Mysterious Political Theology:

An excerpt from Douglas Rushkoff’s graphic novel Testament depicting the reaction of the old nature gods to the book of Genesis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3jzyKF6M7g

Friday Morning Reflections:

I feel like I have been lied to my entire life about the big questions that matter the most.

Growing up I learned about the story of Moses and the Hebrew slaves escaping from Pharaoh and their Egyptian slave-masters in textbooks and Sunday school like most American kids. And I learned about Greek mythology and its pantheon of colorful gods too. But in elementary and high school all I ever got was the PG-Dreamworks style version of Exodus and the G-Rated Disneyfication of the Greek deities in Hercules.

These popularizations of the ancient world leave out the most important point about why they both had to be destroyed: the polytheistic Egyptians and Greeks engaged in ritualized rape and human sacrifice. For the pre-writing era of human history, sex and violence was the status quo, human life was not sacred, murder was not a crime.

Public worship involved drunken orgies in which the participants sought to emulate the sexual chaos of their deities. One of those fertility gods in Egypt was Heqet, a frog goddess. (She would later reemerge in Greece as Hecate, patron goddess of witches.)

Heqet is the likely idol targeted for annihilation in the plague of Frogs in Exodus 8:3-4:

And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house and into thy bed chamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens and into they kneadingtroughs. And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.

The idea of a woman who rejects family as her primary priority and takes on such male shortcomings as careerism and promiscuity finds its origins far back in our human history. It is a profound falsehood to claim that men like Anthony Weiner who use their charisma to attract broken, unbalanced females to serve in their cult are an aberration.

The Pimp-Prostitute cultural model is nothing new. They call it “the world’s oldest profession” for a reason. Too bad its depictions in popular culture and internet porn are just seductive fantasies.

It’s time we started seeing the world more in the context of where we really emerged. The Bible isn’t G-rated and our political culture is just the new manifestation of cruel pimps seeking new prostitute slaves making war against the families who want to protect the vulnerable — wives, daughters (and sons, as Jerry Sandusky and Michael Jackson remind us…) — from falling into their clutches.