memeorandum: Mr. Obama, Don't Draw That Line (Daniel Byman/New York Times)

11:25 AM ET, May 5, 2013

Top Items:

Obama's Vow on Chemical Weapons Puts Him in Tough Spot — WASHINGTON — Confronted with evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, President Obama now finds himself in a geopolitical box, his credibility at stake with frustratingly few good options.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Twitchy, FP Passport, Via Meadia, Israel Matzav, National Review, Weasel Zippers and TheTower.org

Reuters:

Israel strikes Syria again, rocking Damascus — (Reuters) - Israel carried out its second air strike in days on Syria early on Sunday, a Western intelligence source said, in an attack that shook Damascus with a series of powerful blasts and drove columns of fire into the night sky.

Discussion: The Hill and americanthinker.com

The Commentator:

Assad “to declare war” on Israel following fresh airstrikes — Reports suggest that Syria's embattled dictator, Bashar al-Assad, is shortly set to declare war on Israel after interventions against the regime — Following evidence of chemical warfare and an increasinly reticent US position …

Discussion: Israel Matzav and Hot Air

Associated Press:

Israeli warplanes continue to pound Damascus — Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said.

Discussion: World News and Politico

Daniel Byman / New York Times:

Mr. Obama, Don't Draw That Line — “THE use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable,” President Obama warned Bashar al-Assad's government last December. “If you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable.”

Discussion: JustOneMinute

BBC:
Damascus hit ‘by Israeli strikes’

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

New York Times:
Israel Targeted Iranian Missiles in Syria Attack

Washington Post:
Israel launches second airstrike in Syria, targeting weapons shipment

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Israel Matzav, TheTower.org, LewRockwell.com Blog, Weasel Zippers, Wake up America, Hot Air and National Review

Alexander Abad-Santos / The Atlantic Wire:

China Is Censoring Jokes About Its Propaganda Machine's Penis-Shaped HQ — The People's Daily is the main state-owned newspaper of China's communist party, and everyone was pretty psyched about the paper's new Beijing headquarters. The building is massive, imposing, and, uh, currently shaped like a colossal penis.

Matthew DeLuca / U.S. News:

NRA's LaPierre: ‘We will never surrender our guns’ — NBC's Kasie Hunt reports from Houston, Texas on what's been said at this year's National Rifle Association convention. — In a fiery speech Saturday before cheering supporters, the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre took …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

James Dao / New York Times:
N.R.A. Officials Issue Rallying Cry for Midterm Elections

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Niall Ferguson:

An Unqualified Apology — During a recent question-and-answer session at a conference in California, I made comments about John Maynard Keynes that were as stupid as they were insensitive. — I had been asked to comment on Keynes's famous observation “In the long run we are all dead.”

The Atlantic Wire:

Niall Ferguson's History with John Maynard Keynes' Gayness — Harvard professor and prominent Daily Beast columnist Niall Ferguson is now apologizing for saying economist John Maynard Keynes' theories about surplus and deficit spending were somehow shaped by that fact that he was gay and childless.

Discussion: Via Meadia, Crooked Timber, Business Insider, National Review, The Dish, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Raw Story, American Power and The Reaction

Jonathan Martin / Politico:

Democratic South Carolina chair defends Nikki Haley barb — COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina Democratic Chairman Dick Harpootlian, imploring party activists Friday night to defeat this state's Indian-American governor, predicted next year's Democratic standard-bearer would “send Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from.”

Discussion: Mediaite, BizzyBlog, Althouse, Power Line and BuzzFeed

Eric Berger / SciGuy:

Tornado spike in 2011 attributed to climate change. So what to make of this year's tornado drought? — As informed citizens, we need to be careful about conflating weather, climate change and natural disasters. — Weather (i.e. the extreme cold we're having in Texas this spring) is weather.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and UrbanGrounds

Sarah Elizabeth Richards / Wall Street Journal:

Why I Froze My Eggs (And You Should, Too) — Amid all the talk of ‘leaning in’ and ‘having it all,’ we've ignored the most powerful gender-equalizer. — Between the ages of 36 and 38, I spent nearly $50,000 to freeze 70 eggs in the hope that they would help me have a family in my mid-40s, when my natural fertility is gone.

Discussion: Althouse