NEWS YOU CAN USE: Viagra As A Diet Pill. “The drug, generically known as sildenafil, helped convert undesirable white fat cells to energy-burning beige fat cells in laboratory mice, researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany report in The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. It was already known that mice fed Viagra became less prone to obesity when fed a high-fat diet. What was not clear was why.”
Archive for 2013
January 30, 2013
THE NEW YORK TIMES’ NEMESIS, SmarterTimes, is back. Here’s why.
GUN CONTROL ON RAHM EMANUEL’S WATCH: Chicago murders top Afghanistan death toll. “The death toll by murder in Chicago over the past decade is greater than the number of American forces who have died in Afghanistan since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom, according to a police analysis. In addition, police reports in Chicago – where President Obama once worked as a community organizer and where his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, now serves as mayor – show most of the city’s massive murder mayhem is black-on-black crime.”
NOW IF HE’D ORGANIZED A TEA PARTY EVENT, THEY’D HAVE BEEN ALL OVER IT: Convicted rapist organizes gun control demonstration at Dayton gun show; Media fails to note his sex offender status.
A SEEMINGLY EVERGREEN HEADLINE: NBC ‘Reviewing’ How Its Editors Created a Lie that the Network Aired.
WILLIAM RATLIFF: Cuba After Fidel.
RANDY BARNETT: Gun Control Fails Rationality Test.
So, when considering the constitutionality of bans on so-called military-style assault weapons, or restrictions on the capacity of magazines, senators should begin by asking whether the weapons being banned are in common use by civilians. When it comes to so-called assault weapons, like the AR-15, or 30-round magazines, the answer is clearly “yes.” Millions of such weapons and magazines are in private hands.
That should settle the matter, but senators can go a step further and ask whether these or other measures are actually rational — to articulate the end they are seeking to accomplish, then assesses whether the means adopted actually match up with the purported end. Would they actually have prevented a mass shooting or ameliorated real crimes?
This heightened “rationality review” could help ensure that the reason being articulated is the real reason for the law.
For example, “assault weapons” are a made-up category of weapons that is based solely on cosmetic features that make them look like the fully automatic weapons used by the military. Banning them leaves other rifles that are functionally identical in their lethality and rate of fire completely legal. Moreover, far more powerful hunting rifles are left untouched by the law, as are shotguns. This is simply irrational and therefore unconstitutional.
The same can be said for New York’s law limiting handguns to seven rounds, while allowing both active and retired police officers to keep their handguns that hold up to 15 rounds. If retired cops need 15 rounds to effectively protect themselves and others, then so do other citizens. Arbitrarily discriminating among Americans in this way is irrational and unconstitutional.
Yes. Likewise the proposals to tax ammunition, which would punish target shooters — who shoot a lot — to a vastly greater degree than criminals, who only shoot when committing a crime.
MAYOR BLOOMBERG’S LEGACY: Massive Spending Increases.
ALLEN WEST: We Need The Next Generation of Guardians.
CREATING JOBS: Help Wanted: Qualified Death Panelists. “Are you a nationally recognized health finance and economics expert willing to work for beans on a political lightning rod of a project? Do you enjoy being the subject of Senate confirmation hearings? If so, apply to be a death panelist today…because it doesn’t look like anyone else is. . . . It isn’t hard to see why nobody is clamoring to take a job that offers low pay and lots of regulations and will make everyone in the country hate you. But it’s been clear from the beginning that this is the kind of thing you get with a massive, centralized health care ‘fix’ like Obamacare: 15 unhappy people in a room making enormously important but impossible to predict decisions affecting a broad and diverse industry (not to mention the lives and health of millions). It’s hard to imagine a centralized approach getting all the nuances of health care right—and we certainly haven’t stumbled onto the miracle cure here.”
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): GDP Actually Shrunk in Fourth Quarter of 2012. Funny, as I recall the news reports it seemed like we were in an Obama-driven economic boom. . . .
CUOMO’S APPROVAL PLUMMETS 15 POINTS AFTER GUN-CONTROL MOVE.
TEST DRIVE: My Day on a Treadmill Desk.
AT AMAZON, Valentine’s Day Gifts Galore!
Also, today only: 45% Off Select Puma Running Shoes.
WHEN AL GORE DREAMS OF ELECTRIC JEEPS: I’ve got a review of Al Gore’s new book in today’s Wall Street Journal. With an oblique Philip K. Dick reference, and an overt Nebraska Guitar Militia reference.
ED DRISCOLL UNPACKS NBC’S Latest Incident of Dishonest Video Editing. “As with George Zimmerman’s 9/11 call last year, somebody at NBC/MSNBC futzed with the timeline of the raw video to produce the result they wanted to see.” This goes way beyond “out of context.” They’re really shameful.
SPENGLER responds to a critic. “The foreign policy establishment told us that the Arab Spring was the dawn of a glorious new era of democracy in that part of the world. The establishment was dead wrong. Now it tells us that Western taxpayers have to bail out Egypt — a $22 billion annual bill, according to Bloomberg News. Reasonable people can argue about whether that is throwing good money after bad, or even worse, feeding the mouth that bites us. But Dr. Cook takes it as an article of faith that state failure in Egypt is unthinkable, and substitutes mendacious ad hominem attacks for argument. He doesn’t do his position any good by smearing analysts who disagree with the establishment view. The shrillness of his screed suggests that he is aware of the weakness of his position.”
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Senate Suddenly Furious With Eric Holder For Allowing Banks To Become “Too Big To Jail.”
WHY REPUBLICANS NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE MEDIA IF THEY WANT TO WIN: Author Of Book On 2012 Election: ‘Without Media Bias, America Would Vote Like Texas Or Kentucky.’
POLL: 52 Percent of Americans Say Sandy Hook Is Being Exploited for Political Gain.
Democrats, who normally count on the youth vote, may be surprised to find that 70 percent of 18-24 year-olds and 58 percent of 25-34 year-olds say “assault weapons should be allowed.” Similarly, Republicans, who usually rely upon the senior vote, will find that 57 percent of 55-64 year-olds and 61 percent of people over the age of 65 say assault weapons should be prohibited.
Gun control is a movement of old white people.
THAT’S A CLOWN AGENCY, BRO: ATF’s Milwaukee sting operation marred by mistakes, failures.
MENENDEZ UPDATE: Report: FBI raids office of Florida doctor linked to Sen. Menendez.
ANOTHER GOVERNOR CRITICIZES THE LIBERAL ARTS. Well, fifty years of damaging your brand will eventually get you some criticism. “The criticism by McCrory and others grows out of media reports of un- and underemployed college graduates (often anecdotal, but also based on some data), as well as a general strain of modern conservative political thought that asks whether states’ public sectors – including public colleges and universities – are inefficient, too large and costly, and are therefore getting in the way of private sector job growth.” No surprise here.