George Zimmerman surprised a Florida court today by taking the stand and apologizing to the parents of Trayvon Martin, who were sitting in the courtroom during Zimmerman’s bond hearing.

“I am sorry for the loss of your son. I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit older than I was,” Zimmerman said addressing Martin’s family directly.

Zimmerman took the stand wearing a dark suit with his hands shackled to a belt around his waist.

His surprising testimony came the same day that ABC News exclusively obtained a photograph showing the bloodied back of Zimmerman’s head, which was apparently taken three minutes after he shot and killed Martin. The photo could give credence to Zimmerman’s claim that Martin had bashed his head against the concrete as Zimmerman fought for his life.

The bond hearing concluded this morning with Judge Kenneth Lester agreeing to allow Zimmerman, who is charged with second degree murder, to post a $150,000 bond to get out of jail. The prosecution had argued that Zimmerman should be denied bail or that it should be set at $1 million.

Read More at ABC News. By Matt Gutman and Seni Tienabeso, ABC News.

For several years now I have been sounding the alarm that if you want to be engaged in the financial markets you need to assume that markets are being managed (rigged) more aggressively than at any moment in any of our lives. The Bernank and others on Wall Street and the District of Criminals understand that the situation is pretty much hopeless. Ever since 2008 they have had one strategy. From a monetary and fiscal standpoint, that strategy has been to pump massive amounts of liquidity into the system while at the same time borrow enormous amounts of money. The thinking was that this would stabilize the situation, create confidence and thus ultimately a dynamic sustainable recovery. They certainly bought a few years with this plan but confidence has not returned, nor has there been any sustainable recovery. What we need to understand at the moment is that The Bernank and all of his fellow Keynesian Central Planning magicians know that they have failed. This is why he is running around on college campuses presenting his sad and intellectually dishonest presentation of propaganda that even a six year old could refute. In fact several people have done just that. Here is one good article on it. Moreover, Jim Grant recently gave an incredible speech at the belly of the beast itself -The New York Federal Reserve –where he completely undresses the Fed right to their face. You must read this one.

So what we need to understand is that we are in one of the most dangerous phases of this crisis at the moment. The priests of fiat are being attacked from all sides. People have awoken to the Fed and how criminal and deceitful this organization is and the existential threat it poses to economic freedom and hence human liberty. The arguments against the Fed are blistering and the only rebuttal the Fed has is to spout the same old nonsense like “we saved the world” or some trite derivative of this fallacy. The only thing they saved are untalented speculators from their bad bets. What the Fed has systematically done is literally transfer all of the bad debts and bets from the banks to the taxpayer. We are living this reality to this day. This fact is becoming increasingly understood throughout society, hence the emergence of the tea party and then last year’s Occupy Wall Street movement. So the thing I want my readers to really internalize is that the Fed and indeed TPTB generally are getting slaughtered in the intellectual arena and they know it. As a result, they feel cornered and will thus act increasingly aggressive to prove they are right and everyone else is wrong.

As I have said many, many times before, The Bernank needs to create more money and he knows it. He is irate beyond belief that his academic theories have not worked. He is furious that he can’t make the housing market come back to life. He is having a temper tantrum that people actually have the nerve to link printing trillions of dollars to the rise in commodity prices. He wants to launch QE3 this quarter but he feels like public opinion is against him (he’s right) and Obama is having his own little panic attack about gasoline prices and the election. So what’s a Central Planner to do? Well, exactly what they have been doing as of late. Lie.

Read More at libertyblitzkrieg.com

In this racially charged case, a man charged with the crime of defending himself is being tried, found guilty, and strung up by the media. Figuratively.

Second degree murder charges were leveled based on the prosecutor claiming that the accused, George Zimmerman was stalking Trayvon Martin. Never mind that the stalking statutes require a pattern of following the victim and this was a one shot deal. Also, how many stalkers call 911 to tell the police that they are stalking somebody?

Putting that aside, a Jeff Black article posted on MSNBC.com typifies why Zimmerman is swinging from a tree in the court of public opinion (emphases throughout are mine):

“Seminole County Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler took herself off George Zimmerman’s second-degree murder case on Wednesday because of a possible conflict of interest.”

The conflict of interest is that she is up for re-election and this is a political ticking time bomb.

“The new judge on the case is Judge Kenneth Lester Jr., a 15-year veteran who has heard death penalty cases, the Orlando Sentinel reported.”

Read More at American Thinker. By Dan Joppich.

Photo Credit: calvinfleming (Creative Commons)

Fidogate has just gone international. Already the Left is defending Obama for eating dog meat on the grounds that his stepfather–who was Indonesian–wanted to share his culture and customs with him. But there’s just one problem with this: it wasn’t his culture or custom.

In fact, in Jakarta, where the Obamas lived with their Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, dog meat is illegal. In the majority Muslim Indonesia, eating dog is forbidden among most ethnic groups in the islands, though a small, black market is said to exist for those looking for it. The only exception are the Batak people, principally of Northern Sumatra who eat it on holidays–but Obama’s stepfather, who was raised in West Java, isn’t a part of that ethnic group. Besides, the Obamas lived hundreds of miles and several islands away.

A diplomatic source close to the Indonesian delegation in the U.S. confirms that while dog is sometimes eaten in Indonesia, it is done so very rarely. “Obama had to go hunting for dog meat,” the source, who didn’t want to be identified, told me.

“I don’t know of anyone who eats it and frankly, I’m a little offended you would ask.”

Breitbart.com scoured Indonesian cook books. Not one mentions ways to prepare dog.

Read More at breitbart.com By Charles C. Johnson