MICKEY KAUS: “I’ve been struggling to unearth what I think is the obnoxious inegalitarian scorn that lies at the end of the devotion to seemingly free and equal open borders (on the part of the Wall Street Journal, the Cato Institute and some on the left like Matt Yglesias). . . . That’s the broader, more insidious implication of open bordersism–it takes the economic forces that are pulling America apart–giving us a Herrnsteinian society stratified top to bottom by (in large part) intellectual abilities–and both embraces and accelerates them. If the American middle class now going to busy itself ‘shaming’ workers at the bottom (who now deserve to earn the wages of Bangladeshis) what’s the upper class going to think of those stuck in the middle class? Do they want to find out?”
Archive for 2013
August 27, 2013
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: School is a prison — and damaging our kids.
THE HILL: Conservative blacks irritated with liberal flavor of march anniversary.
Black conservatives are rankled by the liberal flavor of events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.
They contend the left is appropriating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s memory and willfully understating the degree of progress the United States has made in overcoming the egregious racial injustices that characterized an earlier era.
They also argue Americans aren’t hearing the right message from leaders — mainly Democratic and liberal — who will celebrate the anniversary from the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday.
Mia Love, the Republican mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, is black and was born in Brooklyn, N.Y.
She contends that modern-day civil rights activists, in league with the Democratic Party, de-incentivize personal responsibility and economic independence.
Hard to argue with that. I hope she runs for Congress again. Plus:
Talk show host and self-described “constitutional conservative” David Webb is disdainful of those black civil rights who, in his view, exacerbate racial grievances and capitalize upon them.
“What we’ve seen is people who’ve refused to advance,” he said. “It’s 2013, not the 1960s, but they are still having the 1960s argument. These are the CBC [Congressional Black Caucus], the NAACP, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and all these other civil-rights profiteers.”
Webb added: “Their stock-in trade is … issues that keep them in positions where they need to be, whether it’s for money, power or some combination.”
Hard to argue with that, too. Plus, Herman Cain on Obama: “There were expectations that he would set the proper tone for race relations in this country. He has not done so. The things that he has been outspoken about have simply created more friction.”
Hard to argue with that, as well. And nice to see The Hill covering this, instead of just pretending that conservative blacks don’t exist.
FROM SIPPICAN COTTAGE, thoughts on public education. “The public seems completely uninterested in what happens in public school, or they wouldn’t send their kids there. Anyone really interested in public schools is horrified by what they find out.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Professors Union: It’s Bad Policy To Measure Whether Colleges Help Students. “As someone with an advanced degree in the mathematics of social science, I fully appreciate the difficulty in quantifying post-graduate outcomes. But, Fichtenbaum’s opposition isn’t to any specific metric; it’s to the very idea of evaluation– not educational, not civic, not financial– nothing. He wants a blank check, even as colleges fail to improve student outcomes by their own standards.”
August 26, 2013
TRUTH IS THE FIRST CASUALTY IN THE WAR AGAINST PHOTOGRAPHY:
A police officer who arrested a New York Times freelance photographer last August was indicted on charges he falsified records about the incident, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said Monday.
Officer Michael Ackermann, 30, who works out of the 44th Precinct, wrote in his report that shooter Robert Stolarik obstructed government administration when he repeatedly fired his flash in the officer’s face while he was making an unrelated arrest, according to the DA’s office.
Witnesses told investigators there was no flash attached to Stolarik’s camera, prosecutors said, adding that investigators also analyzed the photos taken during the arrest and determined no flash was used.
Stolarik, who has worked for The Times for more than a decade, was photographing the arrest of a teenage girl at McClellan Street and Sheridan Avenue about 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 4, The Times reported on Aug. 5, 2012.
An officer reportedly ordered Stolarik to stop taking photographs of the arrest. He then identified himself as a Times photographer and continued shooting, according to the story.
A second officer then appeared, grabbed his camera and “slammed” it into his face, The Times reported.
Stolarik was then reportedly dragged to the ground and arrested.
Of course, he’d have the same rights if he were just an ordinary citizen, and not a Times employee.
IF GUN CONTROL WORKED, CHICAGO WOULD LOOK LIKE MAYBERRY. INSTEAD: Hundreds of ‘Safe Passage’ workers guard Chicago streets to ensure students crossing gang boundaries arrive safely to school.
Cracking down on gangs would work. But Chicago politicans are in bed with the gangs.
ADOLPH HITLER, pathetic beta male.
AN UNEXPECTED ANTHEM for Obama’s second term.
AN ARMED SOCIETY IS A POLITE SOCIETY — THOUGH EVOLUTION IN ACTION, IF NOTHING ELSE: Point ’em out, knock ’em out’: Brutal game ends when assault victim fires his concealed handgun. “Last month, more than 400,000 adults could lawfully carry hidden handguns in Michigan. That’s one in 17 men and women 21 or older, more than since records have been kept. An MLive Media Group investigation found that crime numbers continue to drop across Michigan, even as police ranks decline. Some see the seemingly contradictory trends as proof the proliferation of concealed weapons is deterring lawbreakers.”
And if your teenager gets shot while carrying out this kind of assault? He deserved it, and you’re a bad parent for not raising him better. Don’t complain about the gun laws. Hide your face in shame.
PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Conservative Prof. Has Awesome Response to Guy Who Called Him the ‘Biggest Embarrassment to Higher Education in America.’ Well, that’s certainly more extensive than my response to such things, which tends to be rather . . . pithy.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Tutor reveals Ivy-admissions madness of rich penthouse parents.
LISA FRITSCH ON RACISM: Consenting To Violence By Silence.
AT AMAZON, deals and markdowns in the Dockers Store.
Also, markdowns on women’s shoes & boots.
MSNBC: Must-Agree TV. “Conservatives are far less visible on MSNBC than liberals are on Fox News, and the right-leaning guests who do appear are typically critics of the conservative movement.”
MORALLY, TOO, GIVEN SHARPTON AND JACKSON’S INVOLVEMENT: Krauthammer’s Take: Civil Rights Movement is ‘Intellectually Bankrupt.’
JULIETTE OCHIENG: My Nephews.
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Plastic surgeon creates ‘perfect wife’ with ‘Wonder Woman Makeover’ – then asks her to marry him on first date.
WAGES OF ANTI-VACCINE HYSTERIA: Africa and Pakistan Face Polio Outbreaks, in Blow to Global Fight.
The African outbreak began in May with just two cases of polio paralysis: one in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, and another in the huge Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, where thousands of Somalis have fled fighting between Islamic militants, clan militias, government troops and African peacekeepers.
Now there are 121 cases in the region; last year, there were only 223 in the world.
The new Pakistan outbreak is in North Waziristan, near the frontier with Afghanistan. It is in an area where a warlord banned polio vaccinations after it was disclosed that the C.I.A. had staged a hepatitis vaccination campaign in its hunt for Osama bin Laden. The warlord, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, banned all efforts until American drone strikes ended.
Also of the politicization of public health.
Related: Measles Outbreak Traces To Vaccine-Refusing Megachurch.
JOURNALISM: Newspaper columnist goes topless in interview with Kelowna mayor. “A B.C. newspaper columnist and radio host was chatting with the mayor of Kelowna when she did something unexpected. Halfway through her interview, she undid the strap on her dress and bared her chest — then continued the interview.” Note the hypocrisy, though, as the photos are blurred out.