Let the popular uprising begin: Awesome! Hamas didn’t pay their employees’ salaries for January. Watch Hamas find out that it isn’t the message, it’s the money, that keeps people on their side.

The famous tolerance of UC-Irvine students: Of course UC-Irvine Arab students interrupted Ambassador Michael Oren’s speech. These are the pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist students who interrupt any pro-Israel speaker, including threatening violence when they don’t realize the cameras are on. But it’s not anti-Semitism. It’s anti-Zionism. Don’t forget that.

But Egypt and Israel are at peace! An Egyptian soccer coach said he’d rather die than coach an Israeli player. Awesome peace partners, those Egyptians. Just wonderful people. Ew, Jew Cooties!

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The tea-party movement takes its name from the mob of angry people in Boston who, in 1773, committed a zany criminal stunt as a protest against taxes and the distant, out-of-touch government that imposed them. Two years later, the revolution was under way and—voilà!—democracy was born out of a wild moment of populist insurrection.

Except not, because in 1787 several dozen coolheaded members of the American Establishment had to meet and debate and horse-trade for four months to do the real work of creating an apparatus to make self-government practicable—that is, to write the Constitution. And what those thoughtful, educated, well-off, well-regarded gentlemen did was invent a democracy sufficiently undemocratic to function and endure. They wanted a government run by an American elite like themselves, as James Madison wrote, “whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations.” They wanted to make sure the mass of ordinary citizens, too easily “stimulated by some irregular passion … or misled by the artful misrepresentations” and thus prone to hysteria—like, say, the rabble who’d run amok in Boston Harbor—be kept in check. That’s why they created a Senate and a Supreme Court and didn’t allow voters to elect senators or presidents directly. By the people and for the people, definitely; of the people, not so much.

So much for progressivist thinking, which used to be all for the little guy versus the elite. What about that “speaking truth to power” thing? Apparently, that only works when there is a Republican in power. When a Democrat is in power, it’s all about how the American public is just too stupid and angry to understand what’s good for them.

As for that “rabble who’d run amok in Boston Harbor”—not so much. Even Wikipedia acknowledges it was not an angry mob. Angry mobs don’t stop to disguise themselves as Indians.

While Samuel Adams tried to reassert control of the meeting, people poured out of the Old South Meeting House and headed to Boston Harbor. That evening, a group of 30 to 130 men, some of them thinly disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the three vessels and, over the course of three hours, dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water.[58] The precise location of the Griffin’s Wharf site of the Tea Party has been subject to prolonged uncertainty; a comprehensive study[59] places it near the foot of Hutchinson Street (today’s Pearl Street).

But here’s a better source. It’s an eyewitness account from a Boston newspaper:

Previous to the dissolution, a number of Persons, supposed to be the Aboriginal Natives from their complection, approaching near the door of the assembly, gave the War Whoop, which was answered by a few in the galleries of the house where the assembly was convened; silence was commanded, and prudent and peaceable deportment again enjoined. The Savages repaired to the ships which entertained the pestilential Teas, and had began their ravage previous to the dissolution of the meeting–they apply themselves to the destruction of the commodity in earnest, and in the space of about two hours broke up 342 chests and discharged their contents into the sea.

A watch, as I am informed, was stationed to prevent embezzlement and not a single ounce of Teas was suffered to be purloined by the populace. One or two persons being detected in endeavouring to pocket a small quantity were stripped of their acquisitions and very roughly handled. It is worthy remark that, although a considerable quantity of goods of different kinds were still remaining on board the vessels, no injury was sustained; such attention to private property was observed that a small padlock belonging to the Captain of one of the ships being broke another was procured and sent to

There is also this partial list of the Boston Tea Party “angry mob”. Paul Revere was a member of that “mob.” You may remember him as one of the men who warned of the pending British movement. The phrase “One if by land, two if by sea” is probably how you were taught the story. Funny how the names of the “angry mob” have come down through the centuries to be enshrined in American historical societies, and yet, no one else is calling them an angry mob.

Finally, this statement by Anderson is incomplete:

Two years later, the revolution was under way and—voilà!—democracy was born out of a wild moment of populist insurrection.

Except not, because in 1787 several dozen coolheaded members of the American Establishment had to meet and debate and horse-trade for four months to do the real work of creating an apparatus to make self-government practicable—that is, to write the Constitution.

Democracy was not born out of the Constitutional Convention alone. It was also born out of the arms, the blood, and the sacrifice of the patriots who fought in the Revolutionay War, most of them—the overwhelming majority, one would have to say—not “coolheaded members of the American Establishment.” But it’s always that way: Wars are not fought by the elite. That’s numerically impossible. They’re fought by the “angry mobs.” Except they’re not so angry, and they’re not mobs.

The Constitution that the Founders created starts with the words “We the People”—not “We the elite.” People like Anderson seem to have a real problem with that.

I don’t.

So I really don’t are that it’s been updated. Except to say that it’s probably just as long and boring, and now it has crappy music and other special effects to make me really hate the game.

First, the world is round. As your imaginary real-estate mogul learns the ups and downs of capitalism, you’ll romp around a ring-shaped board. Hasbro ditched the four-corners look for a pizza-like circle. The stops on this journey are the same, but each location now comes as a radial wedge. Houses and hotels basically match older versions, but the game replaced its pewter character pieces with plastic tokens. Farewell, little doggy, shoe, and top hat.

Yeah, don’t really care.

Patient First is one-stop shopping if you don’t need an exotic prescription.

I am still five-three.

I am still down seven pounds from my highest-ever weight last year (must get back on that diet seriously!).

It is not strep.

All else being equal, I am having breakfast, taking my antibiotics, and going back to bed. Been up since five, when my throat felt like it was made of glass and razor blades. (It’s much better now.)

Funny, nobody seems to care that most of the wire services and many major newspapers use Palestinian stringers in their reporting. (H/T: Backspin.)

The people who are suddenly criticizing Bronner don’t seem to think that his being married to an Israeli caused a conflict of interest. So why the sudden attack on Bronner?

His stories have been criticized and praised on this site (mostly by Soccer Dad), but I have no problem whatsoever with a reporter on the Israel beat having a son in the IDF. Honestly, his critics need to grow the eff up. What, does Bronner suddenly start thinking, “Gee, my kid’s in the IDF, I’d better slant these articles anti-Palestinian now to help him out!”

Ridiculous. But not surprising. Watch for our buddy Stevie Walt to jump on the bandwagon any second now. The execrable Richard Silverstein already weighed in, playing the moral equivalency card:

And none of the NYT reporters Keller names have nearly the level of conflict that Bronner does. None have children serving in the military forces or militias of countries they’re covering. Is Keller seriously arguing that if Shahid had a son serving in the Lebanese army, Hezbollah or an Iraqi militia that the former could cover Lebanon or Iraq for the Times? Is he seriously arguing that if Fathi had a son in the Basij or Revolutionary Guards that she could cover Iran for the Times?

Yes, because the IDF is just like terrorist organizations, the terrorist-entwined Iraqi army, and the thug arm of the Iranian leadership. Sure, members of the IDF have totally been issued warrants by Interpol in relation to terrorist bombings in other countries. Oh. Wait.

Bottom line: For once, I’m on Bronner’s side. And I have to say, I don’t find him all that sympathetic to Israel in the first place.

So Tig ran up to the guest room door and started giving off a brand-new yowl that I never heard before. And then he proceeded to roll on his back and roll back and forth until it dawned on me that he was trying to put his paw underneath the door. Understanding dawned, I opened the door, and there was Gracie. Stuck in the guest room. Oops.

Tig sure loves his Aunty Gracie. (I do, too.) And here they are, together in a rare twofer picture. And to think, Gracie used to walk past my closed office door when Tig was a baby, and hiss at him under the door.

“Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and Obama in the audience. Shyeah.

The sky is falling, Jordanian style: Yet another “If the U.S. doesn’t force Israel to make peace with the Palestinians, the world will end!” story. This time, it’s the unelected King of Jordan who is talking about how U.S. credibility is on the line. Uh, yeah. Which country was it, exactly, where terrorists tried to bomb the Israeli convoy? Oh, that’s right. Jordan. Credibility. This is also the nation where Christians were arrested for proselytizing, the lying liars that destroyed the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem yet chide Israel for digging in the Old City, and the nation where it’s illegal to insult the king. Hey, king: You’re an asshole. There, now I’ll never be able to travel to Jordan.

By the way, this is yet another in a long line of the narrative the Arabs are trying desperately to get the world to adopt: That if peace doesn’t happen soon, it won’t happen at all. This is the “one-state solution” threat that we keep hearing from Mahmoud Abbas. But in order for that to happen, Israel would have to agree to it. Yeah, I don’t see that ever happening.

Via Jammie Wearing Fool, this Audi video is amazing for its inability to grasp the irony of the “Green Police.” Irony truly is dead.