THE MEASURE of the man: found wanting.

Sometimes a round of golf is just a round of golf. And sometimes it reveals the ­essence of a man.

President Obama’s decision to hit the links and yuk it up with pals immediately after speaking about the beheading of James Foley was no ordinary mistake. Nor was it a simple gaffe.The decision continues to cause an uproar because, like an X-ray, there is no escaping the image. It shows there is no there there.

With even his media praetorian guard appalled, the golf outing is sparking a wider understanding that Obama is hollow, empty of the routine qualities Americans expect from their president.

Simple decency and respect for Foley’s horrified parents should have been enough to sober him. If that didn’t do it, the realization that the Islamic State had declared war on America in the most gruesome fashion imaginable should have sounded a call of duty in his head.

Instead, Obama continued with his vacation and was photographed looking as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Suddenly, that megawatt smile that often charmed voters wasn’t so charming. It was vacuous.

He looked like an empty-headed frat boy, numb to the world.

Click through the PowerLine link to the original article and read it all.

INSTAPUNDIT: "Widening the gap between the upper-middle classes and beyond, and the hoi polloi, is one of the main functions of environmental and land-use rules."

TEXAS POLICE CHIEF fatally shot during traffic stop. So why isn't there rioting in the streets?

Oh, right.... The shooter was a minority, and the victim was both a white and a police officer.

ROCKETS ARE TRICKY ... SpaceX Reusable Rocket Prototype Explodes Over Texas.

MAUREEN DOWD: It's okay to mock Obama.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The lessons of Sherman and Gaza:

We tend to hate most deeply in war those who despoil us of our romance, especially when they humiliate rather than kill us — and teach us the lesson that the louder and more bellicose often prove the more craven and weak.

And that's a lesson that needs to be taught to America's whiners of the Left. Mock them. Humiliate them.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: "The more people talk about equality, the more they’re involved in a system that promotes special deals for insiders. The more people talk about money in politics, the more they’re involved in crooked insider deals."

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. The majority of executives with big corporations are older; doesn't that constitute age discrimination against younger workers?

And along those same lines: Social Security is limited to those 62 or older. Discriminatory? The Affordable Care Act [aka ObamaCare] requires the 'young & healthy' to pay more for insurance. Discriminatory?

And going a bit further: Isn't abortion discrimination against the younger & healthier?

Answer: It's only discrimination when it goes against the predilection of the Left....

REAL JUSTICE IS BLIND; 'SOCIAL JUSTICE' IS NOT: Eric Holder shows he isn’t interested in real justice.

THE INSIDERS: Is Obama acting like a former president? No. To do that you have to have acted like a President first.

On the bright side, the Washington Post finally let their blinders slip....

BELMONT CLUB: On Obama's 'separable' doctrine:

Can Obama still control all the forces he’s ‘separably’ unleashed? Maybe the reason he stays in the Vineyard is that he’s guessed the answer. It’s his psychological bunker, where he waits, hoping for a last minute reprieve from Steiner. He doesn’t know what comes next anymore and frankly, is afraid to look.

Read it all.

WELL, IF YOU'RE A LIBERAL, THE ANSWER IS YES: Has Man Reached His Intellectual Peak?

We've gone BANANAs. Read it all; you'll get the meaning.

Related: a comment by Dr. Helen Smith.

JONAH GOLDBERG: None Dare Call It Evil? Goldberg does America a great service by identifying two of liberalism's greatest weaknesses: believing that a nuanced examination of all the facts is the same as doing something, and having minds so open their brains fall out.

Read it all.

WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL BOARD to cease using ‘Redskins’. My response:

Now that your Editorial Board has decreed that the Washington Redskins are no longer the Washington Redskins, I have decided that the Washington Post is no longer worthy of my reading.

I have long been unhappy with the Post's political correctness, and this latest is the straw that finally broke the camel's back.

Please cancel my subscription at the end of its current service.

Maybe this'll be the straw that breaks their camel's back.

Related: Ann Althouse has a suggestion for a new name for the Redskins if it comes to that. It would be an insult to the Redskins, though.

JOHN C. GOODMAN: Let’s Privatize Medicare. As someone about to join the ranks of Medicare recipients, I can almost support Ryan on this one. My problem with his proposal is that I'd prefer health insurance, not health control care.

DAN MITCHELL: The Federal Bagpipe Police?!?

Bonus: at the bottom of the post, you can learn how ISIS/ISIL can finally get Obama's attention.

ANOTHER FRIDAY NIGHT DOCUMENT DUMP: Yet another “accommodation” on HHS contraception mandate.

Yes, let's go back to the Supreme Court, shall we?

Added thought: You realize, don't you, that the Obama administration could dump the entire contraception mandate and it would hardly make any difference. This isn't about contraception; it's about control.

ELIZABETH WARREN officially rejects the 'Ready for Warren' 2016 activist group. I can understand; why would she want to be the second Democrat presidential candidate to lose 49 states?

STATE DEPARTMENT rejects ISIL’s claim that it [ISIL] is at war with America.

The arrogance of idiots -- does the State Department really believe that ISIS/ISIL needs permission to declare war on the U.S.?

Well, it is part of the Obama administration....

HO-HUM: Another 2,000 ObamaCare policies cancelled in Colorado.