by Bill Levinson The following image (full-sized version is below) includes two screen shots from “Sharpe’s Challenge,” in which Richard Sharpe (in disguise as a deserter) receives a gold chain from a Raja named Khande Rao. The context and the body language show clearly that the gesture is that of a superior (the Raja) to a subordinate (Sharpe). The right panel shows Barack Obama accepting a gold chain from the King of Saudi Arabia.

Boy quizzes Obama on school lunch, basketball – Deccan Herald Damon Weaver has a new homeboy — President Barack Obama. The South Florida boy finally landed his coveted interview with Obama, who fielded questions about his basketball skills, education funding, and whether students could have mangoes for lunch … ESPN – ESPN.com The summer evaluation period is the most crucial stretch for college coaches and prospects trying to make an impression. We at Scouts Inc.

Regular readers of this space may recall that I occasionally take issue with Jay Nordlinger, a columnist at National Review who is particularly obnoxious—even for NR—in his condescending smugness, and in his apparent belief that all social democrats are big fans of Fidel Castro. Nordlinger made an observation the other day about multiculturalism that is just too grotesque to ignore. He writes, here : “There is a kind of ‘multiculturalism’ I like, and a kind that is poisonous, possibly fatal.

The value of the Pulitzer Prize for commentary seems to have depreciated over the last decade or so; New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman received it in 2002, around about the time he was assuring the public that the Bush Administration had a fantastic strategy in place for winning the Afghan war (and noting a couple of months later that the Taliban had been totally and eternally defeated). And then there is Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, who shares Friedman’s unfortunate record as a prognosticator while lacking his colleague’s studied benevolence.

By now you’ve probably seen or read a transcript of this excerpt from Obama’s healthcare talk in Portsmouth NH: The AMA has come back with a critique and correction that points out that a surgeon actually gets only between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation rather than the $30,000 to $50,000 stated by our non-detail-oriented President: “This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation.” No surgeon is going to get rich doing that sort of thing.

A poster on FR reports that Joker Obama has made it to the great White North : So there I was, on my way to the grocery store this morning to pick up a nice one and three quarter inch thick T-bone for a BBQ this weekend. The store is on the corner of Bank and Somerset – pretty much the nexus of all things left wing in Ottawa. With construction shutting down car traffic on Bank Street all summer, various stores are offering up promos to help with business.

Looks like the jolly ol’ English are sick of the lies of the right wingers too. Hope our neighbors in the Great White North are sick of this as well. LONDON – Britons reacted with outrage Friday at American criticism of the country’s health care system and defended their cradle-to-grave medical coverage on Twitter, television and in the tabloids. Right-wing attacks on President Barack Obama’s health reform plans have struck a nerve in Britain, where residents broadly take for granted their universal coverage under the state-funded National Health Service — and look askance at the millions of Americans without insurance.

Texas Insider » Obama-Care Rally in Austin Turns to Spontaneous Tea Party at Texas Capitol . 9:57 am CST – August 14, 2009 Posted under On The Record Obama-Care Rally in Austin Turns to Spontaneous Tea Party at Texas Capitol More than 800 Texans converged at the Texas Capitol last weekend to counter a pro-ObamaCare event sponsored by a local chapter of Organizing for America – Barack Obama’s team of community organizers who try to rally grassroots support for the president’s key initiatives. Organizing For America, the “Astroturf” arm of the Obama administration, called for a rally on the capitol steps in Austin Sunday in support of the current healthcare reform bill.

{2009 08 14} Barack Obama … gives the strong impression that his religion is strictly of the photo-op variety, assumed for political purposes, and that he worships not at an altar but at a mirror.John Steele Gordon @ Commentary Posted by Charlie on Friday, August 14, 2009, at 13:03 (@877).Filed under In Passing.Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed.You can post a comment or trackback from your blog.

We’ve got a Got News? feature here at GetReligion that highlights a well-documented story that has somehow been missed the MSM. Maybe it’s time to add a Not News feature. My first candidate: a story from the Los Angeles Times about a gathering of the Self-Realization Fellowship , headlined “ L.A. Convocation honors the world’s great religions .” The story has no conflict and nothing new to report. It is puff journalism at its finest — I’m not sure even Barack Obama got such fluffy treatment in the run-up to the presidential election.