JOHN HINDERAKER: The Battle For Ballot Integrity In Pennsylvania.
Archive for 2012
July 25, 2012
I HAVE TO AGREE: What Is A Vacated Win?
I don’t understand why the NCAA did not cancel the Penn State football program for the foreseeable future (i.e. give it the “death penalty”), perhaps for several decades. That seems like a logical way to move forward after the heinous and disgusting events. Penn State football games should be out of the public eye for a long time.
Instead, the punishment is spiteful, confusing, and Orwellian. Fines, lost scholarships — fine. Forcing the school to vacate wins? What exactly does that entail? The AP ran a Q&A on this issue that does not clarify much. If the school cannot claim the wins in the record books, what about Larry Johnson’s rushing yards or LaVar Arrington’s tackles? Did they still happen?
It is creepy, Orwellian and — I strongly suspect — a means of not punishing the individuals most deserving of punishment. But then, it’s the NCAA.
UPDATE: Reader David Mosier writes:
Q: What Is A Vacated Win?
A: The only way to keep Joe Paterno from being the winningest football coach in NCAA history. That’s why they did it. No other way to deprive him of the title.
I don’t think this really changes things. But reader John Bragg agrees:
It’s a way to poke the eyes of Joe Paterno’s cultists, an act of sacrilege. The statue comes down, the Great Man’s achievement is erased from the record books, all that is sacred to the Church of JoePa is profaned.
The courts will punish those directly worthy of punishment. The NCAA is concerned with those who made it possible for the guilty parties to operate unchecked–those who made the football team bigger than the university.
Paterno did the profaning. And he did it knowingly. But I’m not sure rewriting history is the answer.
DIANNE FEINSTEIN: How I was Cory Booker’d into submission.
JOURNALISTIC NARRATIVES EXPLAINED: Good for women = Good. Good for men = bad.
OBAMA: Going For A Renewal Of The Assault Weapons Ban? “And with those comments, AK-47s will be backordered until the election.”
UPDATE: Reader Robert Tipton sees an upside: “Can’t we just pretend to be Mexican gangsters and get one?”
UPDATE: Reader David Jenista writes: “So Obama DOES support manufacturing . . . ” Heh.
NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: NANOYOU video introduces nanotechnology to students and others.
YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT: Putting Obama Into Context.
AGING: 500 Mutations Per Blood Stem Cell By Age 50. “You collect about 10 mutations per blood stem cell per year. The accumulation of these mutations leads to a rising incidence of blood cancers (leukemias) as we age. We need youthful replacement stem cells that have very few harmful mutations.” Faster, please. Plus, all these mutations and no superpowers? I feel gypped.
AT AMAZON, Top Deals In Electronics.
DISASTER PREPARATION: Reliance on imports leaves U.S. vulnerable to disasters, report says.
An increasing reliance on imports, combined with the fraying of the nation’s power grid, highways and rail lines, leaves the United States more vulnerable to the damage of natural disasters and terrorist attacks, according to a report to be released Wednesday by former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge.
The report, which Ridge shared with homeland security officials Tuesday morning, warns that the offshoring of U.S. factories means that rebounding from a catastrophe will be more difficult because so many critical supplies would have to come from overseas.
If only we’d used that stimulus money for infrastructure-hardening instead of frittering it away on green payoffs to Obama supporters. But that would have produced too many jobs for burly men, and we can’t have that. All this stuff I’m reading about the grid has got me a lot more interested in owning a generator, though.
REPEALING THE HOLLYWOOD TAX CUTS AND TAKING A LEAF FROM THE CHARLES SCHUMER PLAYBOOK: Reader Jeffrey Dapkins writes: “The other intelligent way to call for the repeal of the Hollywood tax cut is to say that we need that money to pay for police officers at each theater, so that the events of last Friday aren’t repeated. Democrats couldn’t be against having more police funding and more officers on the streets, right?”
If it saves just one life, it’s worth it.
JOHN GALT WAS UNAVAILABLE FOR COMMENT: Doc Says Physicians Have Reached “A Tipping Point.”
BEST BAR JOKE EVER? Well, it’s not bad.
FOIA RESULTS: Partners in Crime: Media Matters and DOJ.
ANOTHER HASHTAG FAIL: #ThingsMittRomneyHasNeverDone ends up exposing President Obama’s failures. I like “Launched a political career in the home of an admitted terrorist.” Although “Visited all 57 states” is cute. And, of course, “attended more than 100 fundraisers while not meeting even once with his jobs council.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Profiling The Online Student. “The average student pursuing a postsecondary credential completely online is a white, 33-year-old woman with a full-time job and a household income around $65,000 per year, according to a new survey sponsored by two companies involved in online consulting.”
COHABITING WOMEN HAVING MORE BABIES. “The proportion of unintended births declined among married white women, but those accounted for a smaller proportion of births. Meanwhile, births to single or cohabiting women rose.” Plus, “unintended” pregnancies as the result of ambivalence about having a child.
AT AMAZON, bestsellers in laptop computers.
SQUIRRELS DISRUPT Olympic Beach Volleyball.
TAXPAYER-FUNDED ELECTIONEERING: DOJ Voter ID Letter Generates Cash for DCCC.
SMALL BUSINESSES PUSH BACK AGAINST OBAMA. “In a few unscripted minutes, Obama, by saying what he really thinks, dealt his own campaign a severe blow. Today groups of small business owners in 24 cities rallied against Obama.”