IN THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Mark Tapscott on Brett Kimberlin: How To Kill The First Amendment.
Of course, the more they lash out at bloggers, the more people remind the world of stories like this one.
UPDATE: And this one, from Patterico.
ANOTHER UPDATE: The Tatler: Brett Kimberlin’s Day In The Sun.
Also, the National Bloggers’ Club is organizing donations to help victims.
PROF. JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Four weeks on: No answer from WaPo about empty links to Jessica Lynch stories.
Why is some of the Post’s content about the Iraq War — and Jessica Lynch — freely available online while the more embarrassing material shows up as empty links?
Is this a matter of digital scrubbing, akin to Vogue magazine’s excising of a flattering profile of the wife of the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Asad? The Post last month described the Vogue matter as “an almost-unheard-of step for a mainstream media organization.”
Periodically over the past four weeks, I’ve asked the Post’s ombudsman, Patrick Pexton, about the digitally unavailable versions of the newspaper’s reports about Lynch.
Pexton has promised to look into my questions.
But four weeks on, he has yet to offer a substantive reply.
That’s just embarrassing.
LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: Cleveland-Marshall Law School Cuts Incoming Class by 30%.
WELL, YEAH: Joe The Plumber Calls Biden “Asinine.” “It was insulting … for Joe Biden to sit there and say who can be president and who not, who’s qualified and who isn’t, is just asinine, especially with the track record they left behind them.” What they’ve left behind isn’t just a “track record.”. . .
THE ULTIMATE DARK-HORSE CANDIDATE: James Taranto: Nobody is challenging Obama in the primaries–and doing surprisingly well. “We now have seen Obama held under 60% by a slate of three candidates–antiabortion extremist Randall Terry, federal prison inmate Keith Judd and Tennessee lawyer John Wolfe–not to mention Nobody. . . . And while lefty pols and pundits may take some comfort in attacking these Democratic voters as ‘racist,’ that doesn’t seem a promising way of persuading them to vote for Obama–or to return to the party in future elections.”
HMM: China Muscles Australia Over Defense And Trade.
If there were ever any doubts about China’s aggressive military intentions in the Pacific, its warning to Australia last week to choose itself a U.S. or Chinese “godfather” ought to remove all of them.
In what can only be construed as a direct threat to a top U.S. ally, Song Xiaojun, a “retired” Chinese general, told the Sydney Morning Herald that “Australia has to find a godfather sooner or later.”
“Australia always has to depend on somebody else, whether it is to be the ‘son’ of the U.S. or ‘son’ of China,” Song said, adding that Australia had best choose China because it all “depends on who is more powerful and based on the strategic environment.”
Maybe we should give Australia nukes.
TO GET GROWTH, SHRINK THE GOVERNMENT: The Best Stimulus Is A Smaller State.
WE USED TO CLAIM CREDIT FOR BUILDING THINGS, NOW WE TALK ABOUT RECORDS FOR KNOCKING THEM DOWN: Tallest structure ever demolished: federal nuke officials claim world record. “A 1,527-foot tower, once used for studies associated with nuclear weapons testing, was demolished this week at the Nevada National Security Site (previously known as the Nevada Test Site), establishing a world record, according to info released by the federal government. The National Nuclear Security Administration said the tower — known as the BREN (Bare Reactor Experiment-Nevada) tower — was taller than the Empire State Building. The aged structure (built in 1962) was torn down in a carefully staged event because of safety concerns for workers in the vicinity and risk to aircraft flying in the area.”
AN OPEN LETTER TO GRADUATES: Seven Wrong Ways To Decide Your Life’s Career.
MICHAEL BARONE: Cocooned Liberals Unprepared For Political Debate. “Cocooning has an asymmetrical effect on liberals and conservatives. Even in a cocoon, conservatives cannot avoid liberal mainstream media, liberal Hollywood entertainment and, these days, the liberal Obama administration. They’re made uncomfortably aware of the arguments of those on the other side. Which gives them an advantage in fashioning their own responses.”
MISINFORMATION: Propaganda firm owner admits attacks on journalists. “The co-owner of a major Pentagon propaganda contractor publicly admitted Thursday that he was behind a series of websites used to discredit two USA TODAY journalists who had reported on the contractor.”
IT WAS SMART TO SEND THEM PACKING: Obama’s America: EPA Officials Visit Man For Sending Email. “Keller asked the agents for business cards that they had previously promised him and they were miraculously out of business cards. The two agents, who had driven four hours from Raleigh, North Carolina for this encounter with Mr. Keller, left via the back staircase as quickly as they had appeared without supplying Larry Keller with their contact information.”
THIS DOESN’T BESPEAK CONFIDENCE: Wow!… Obama Campaign Holds Protest Outside Romney Stop in Philly.
IT’S LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF ATLAS SHRUGGED: Half of Detroit’s Streetlights May Go Out as City Shrinks. Key quote: “You have to identify those neighborhoods where you want to concentrate your population.”
Or maybe this: “Brown said, the city will fix broken streetlights in certain places even as it discontinues such services as street and sidewalk repairs in ‘distressed’ areas — those with a high degree of blight and little or no commercial activity.” Forget Ayn Rand, this sounds like the “Abandoned Areas” in Robert Heinlein’s I Will Fear No Evil.
NEWEST CAMPAIGN STRATEGY: Pitching Barack Obama As A Fiscal Conservative.
WELL, THAT’S DISAPPOINTING: Amazon.com gives in to Color of Change drops ALEC.
UPDATE: “A dangerous precedent.” I think the only way to remedy this is to go after lefty groups’ corporate support. Mutual Assured Destruction might bring peace. And if not, well, more lefty groups get corporate support anyway.
ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails:
I used to work for ALEC a few years ago and I represent my organization on one of their task forces and have for the past 5 years. I’m not sure if it’s worth pointing out because it looks like such a big deal when big companies like Amazon, Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Intuit pull their membership… but that’s all it really is. Membership money. They’ll no longer be on the roster of whichever task force they’re member of, if they even pay the few extra bucks for that added benefit.
Each company represents somewhere between $5,000-$10,000. Not a small amount of money, I admit, but its not the financial hit that the left wing is painting it as. The Gate Foundation was a big hit but they’ve already committed their money for 2012.
Either way, you can bet on the fact that those of us working for loyal, free market and individual liberty loving organizations/companies/associations are stepping up our financial backing so they can get through this mess.
Well, good.
A CALL FOR client-centered law schools.
REMEMBER WHEN THEY USED TO SAY THAT WOMEN DIDN’T LIE ABOUT RAPE? “Former high school football standout exonerated in rape case.” “According to court papers, she admitted to him she lied but later refused to tell prosecutors the same thing lest she have to give back the $1.5 million she and her family won in a civil suit against Long Beach schools.”
IN RESPONSE TO MANY READER QUESTIONS: Yes, there will be a Kindle version of my The Higher Education Bubble. There will also be an iBook version. I just tested out the Kindle version today using the Kindle App on my iPad — it looked great, and the included videos played fine. I’ll post a link when it’s on Amazon.
BRYAN PRESTON: Why I Voted For Ted Cruz In The Texas Primary.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Another college in trouble. More here.
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