A NEW WAVE OF RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION?

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: China Rail Fail: 42% Spending Cut in Bullet Train Meltdown. “The Panda Lobby, the pundits and policy wonks who want the US to imitate China’s state capitalism, has long celebrated what it claims to be China’s far sighted and effective approach to industrial policy. China, the Panda pundits tell us, will own the future because of its courageous subsidies to green technology and high speed rail. The meltdown of the Chinese solar industry has been widely reported; now comes word that the rail program is also in trouble. . . . Those of us who remember the short lived but intense Sushi Lobby, the Americans who thought the US needed to imitate the brilliant success of Japanese state capitalism back in those halcyon days of the 1980s when the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo were estimated to cost more than the entire state of California, will be waiting to hear how the Panda pundits explain the high speed rail meltdown.” Actually, back in the day we called them the Chrysanthemum Club.

ANTI-PAIN ACTIVIST AND DEA GADFLY SIOBHAN REYNOLDS died in a plane crash this weekend. She’s no relation, but I’ve admired her work.

POINTS AND FIGURES: The Continued Assault On For-Profit Education. “After speaking with a person from a for profit college, I found that their thinking was very similar to a start up. They put out a product, and then keep iterating it based on feedback from students and employers. FPC’s are forced to be on the cutting edge of changes in the market because both sides of their supply and demand equation expect it. FPC’s aren’t unionized with legacy teachers unions. They can be run far more efficiently than community colleges.”

Call me cynical, but I think the absence of unions explains the Obama Administration’s hostility — together with the fact that traditional “non-profit” universities, with which for-profit institutions increasingly compete, are a core source of money, messaging, and volunteers for the Democratic Party.

#OCCUPYFAIL: Two Women, One Pregnant, Brawl At Occupy Nashville On Christmas.

According to The Bro Code, a Bro is supposed to immediately notify another Bro if there’s a chickfight. But I think even Barney Stinson would agree that this one deserves a pass.

THE INSTAWIFE HAS A DREAM. But while I like to make her dreams come true, this one is beyond me, I’m afraid.

A SAD ENDING TO A GEORGIA CASE INVOLVING DEATH THREATS TO REPUBLICANS:

A Muslim woman who had been charged with sending fake weapons and a pig’s foot to two New York lawmakers was killed during a struggle with a cop in Georgia on Sunday, authorities said.

Jameela Barnette, 53, of Marietta, was slapped with federal charges last month for sending New York State Sen. Greg Ball (R,C-Patterson) a vial of perfume, a hate-filled letter and a doll of the monkey Curious George wearing two Stars of David.

She had also mailed a pig’s foot to Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.) in response to controversial hearings he held in March on the purported radicalization of American Muslims, Politico has reported.

A spokesman for Cobb County Police said an armed Barnette was shot to death after officers responded to a panic alarm she activated at her apartment at 11 a.m. Christmas Day.

When the cops arrived, Barnette opened the door while wielding a knife and a handgun and assaulted an officer with the blade, the spokesman said.

The unnamed officer shot her, killing Barnette at the scene, police said.

On these facts, it sounds like a case of “suicide by cop.”

UPDATE: Reader Larry Patty writes: “I have to disagree. Based upon her history, I’m inclined to mark it up as ‘Sudden Jihad Syndrome.'”

LOWER EDUCATION UPDATE: “I’m not a teacher no more. Get off my stoop.”

UPDATE: Reader Will Cate writes: “As lurid as this story is, the most disturbing aspect to me is this: a high-school P.E. teacher is pulling $83,600 a year.” Well, at least he’s not teaching grammar.

PRACTICING HAPPINESS: Amy Alkon interviews psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky about her book The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: A Perfect Storm in Undergraduate Education. This piece is from a few months back. but the Chronicle of Higher Education is re-running it and given that the issue has gotten more attention lately it’s worth looking at. Key bit: “What good does it do to increase the number of students in college if the ones who are already there are not learning much? Would it not make more sense to improve the quality of education before we increase the quantity of students?”

Plus: “Increasingly, undergraduates are not prepared adequately in any academic area but often arrive with strong convictions about their abilities. So college professors routinely encounter students who have never written anything more than short answers on exams, who do not read much at all, who lack foundational skills in math and science, yet are completely convinced of their abilities and resist any criticism of their work, to the point of tears and tantrums: ‘But I earned nothing but A’s in high school,’ and ‘Your demands are unreasonable.’ Such a combination makes some students nearly unteachable.”

To some degree, the higher education bubble is a creature of the lower education bubble.

UPDATE: Reader Don Bagwell writes:

Everything has a sports analogy parallel. The University of Michigan football squad’s defense last year was near the very bottom of the rankings. This year it made dramatic improvements under new coaching. Greg Mattison, the new defensive coordinator, is quoted as saying he was astonished at how confident the defensive players were when he first met with them after assuming the job, despite their poor showing last year. Mattison credits this year’s success to a return to remedial coaching — basic fundamentals — and very hard work to break the players of their unwarranted confidence

I maintain young people of today actually yearn to be taught life’s hard lessons, but can’t find teachers to teach them. When one is found (Mattison at Michigan, other “tough love” coaches in football, the U.S. Marine Corp and other branches of the military), those who yearn eagerly flock to the teaching. The extent of lower education’s failure — and liberals’ support of of lower education’s methods — is hard to overestimate.

I remember when Tennessee had a football team. . . .

HIGHER EDUCATION UPDATE: Settlement Reached in Brown U. Lawsuit Over Student Said to Be Falsely Accused of Rape.

UPDATE: Here’s the order in the case dismissing Brown. The accuser’s name — which the Chronicle refused to print even though it’s in public records and even though the charges appear to have been false — is Marcella Dresdale. Other documents are here.

Plus, class issues? “Unlike Richard Dresdale, William McCormick III was poor. He was attending Brown on an academic scholarship. While earning straight-As, he was also a star wrestler. He could not have afforded to attend Brown University without substantial financial aid. Didn’t this poor boy get kicked out of college, ultimately, for not belonging to the right social class? If William McCormick’s father had been Richard Dresdale, does anyone doubt that the case would have been handled differently? . . . Isn’t it unfair when the super rich have poor people expelled without due process – and without any good cause at all?” #OccupyBrown!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Mike Krempasky emails: “Not for nothing, if you google her, someone has invested not small dollars to cover the search engines with dozens of prefab SEO properties. Very smart, and a good professional effort in preemptive SEO.” When I googled, the false rape accusation issue was on the first page multiple times.

MORE: A reader emails:

Hi Prof. Reynolds,

I was surprised that you did not write more about the actual person buying influence in the Brown rape case, the father Richard Dresdale.

He is a 1%er. And a huge Democrat. Maybe Brown University is not the only place he believes he can buy influence.

He is:

The Managing Directior of Fenway Partners…a private equity firm.

A huge political donor, especially to Democrats. It looks like over $200K in donations the last few years. There may be other donations that I am not finding.

Maybe the Army of Davids can see if his donations to politicians, like the ones to the university, are panning out.

An Army of Dresdales?

PROGRESS: Shale gas puts some energy independence within reach for U.S.

WHAT’S BETTER: Being hot, or having a college degree?

FASTER, PLEASE: ‘Sunbelievable’ Solar Paint Could Power Home Appliances, Scientists Say. I thought we’d need nanotechnology to get this working.

UH OH: Fisker Karma Batteries Could Have Cooling Problem.

I’VE MENTIONED KNOXVILLE’S Modern Ink Magazine before, but here’s a nice piece on it from Carly Harrington.

SOME SUSPECT CRONYISM: New Jersey Stunned As Sen. Schumer’s Brother-In-Law Nominated Federal Judge. “No one knows why he did it.”

UPDATE: A reader emails:

While such naked nepotism is usually reserved for filling the village dog catcher’s job, that’s not the aspect of this that caught my eye. This is: Sen. Lautenberg is 87 years old and is so pathetically desperate to remain attached to the federal teat that he would do something so obvious as this. I know the Obama economy is pretty ugly, but what’s the matter Frank, afraid you won’t be able to find a job if you get pushed out?

Please leave me anonymous if you mention this, I’m an at-will government employee in an adjacent navy blue state.

The addiction to power — and, even more, to a feeling of importance — is stronger than the addiction to heroin or cocaine. And more destructive, to society if not to the addict. . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: I need a punchline for this post. What do you think is funnier? An 87-year-old is worried about “party elders”?! Or: Left field… isn’t that where Obama goes to get all his judges?

MORE: Reader J.C. Rhoades emails:

Frankly, none of this surprises me in the least, but what caught my eye was the writer’s last line:

“Please leave me anonymous if you mention this, I’m an at-will government employee in an adjacent navy blue state.”

I bristle at this. After 26 years in the military and all the “challenges” that go with that, I watch as my fellow citizens can’t express their opinions without fear of retribution. Unless of course, they’re moonbat-level Lefties. My oath was to defend against “all enemies, foreign and domestic” and after more than a quarter-century of willing to die to do that, the bad-guy penchant for boot-on-the-throat suppression of a right hundreds of thousands of Americans died for is alive and well behind friendly lines.

It’s why I don’t put overtly partisan political stickers on my truck…I don’t want it keyed by some proto-fascist at the mall (Yeah, I’m looking at you Che t-shirt-wearer). In my case, I’m not afraid of the thug; I just don’t want to lose the use of my vehicle while it’s getting repainted, but still…

Of course, if I did catch the little t**d in the act and conducted an on-the-spot, wall-to-wall counseling session, I’d be the bad guy.

Obama’s régime (and I don’t use that word lightly) has done, and is doing, far more damage than anyone can imagine. The fact that his approval rating rivals any GOP challenger makes me weep for my country and wonder if the 26 years was worth it. I hope it was, because this kind of environment is NOT what I fought for.

Punch back twice as hard.

ELECTRONIC DEVICES ON TAKEOFF: The Federal Aviation Administration has its reasons for preventing passengers from reading from their Kindles and iPads during takeoff and landing. But they just don’t add up. Key bit: “The only reason these rules exist from the F.A.A. is because of agency inertia and paranoia.”

HMM: China Insolvency Wave Begins As Nation’s Biggest Provincial Borrowers “Defer” Loan Payments.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Surprise: Obama Still Pocketing Corzine Cash.

IRONY: Russian Meridian satellite crashes into street named after cosmonauts.

DO TELL: Washington Post On Solyndra: Politics infused Obama energy programs. “Meant to create jobs and cut reliance on foreign oil, Obama’s green-technology program was infused with politics at every level, The Washington Post found in an analysis of thousands of memos, company records and internal ­e-mails. Political considerations were raised repeatedly by company investors, Energy Department bureaucrats and White House officials. The records, some previously unreported, show that when warned that financial disaster might lie ahead, the administration remained steadfast in its support for Solyndra.”

All the “stimulus” and “green energy” stuff was never anything but a program to put taxpayer money into the hands of cronies and supporters.

ED DRISCOLL: California, There It Went.

HANDS-ON TOYS: Reader Dave Crawford writes: “The Snap Circuits EC-500 set was a big hit with my 9 year old daughter. She just finished the FM radio project – with Christmas music now coming out of the speaker on the dining room table. Thanks for the recommendation – hopefully through all the machinations of jumping from instapundit to Amazon, you wound up getting the $0.02 or whatever.” Glad to be of service.