Archive for 2013

TIME: Oprah as Harvard’s Commencement Speaker Is an Endorsement of Phony Science. “Oprah’s passionate advocacy extends, unfortunately, to a hearty embrace of phony science. Critics have taken Oprah to task for years for her energetic shilling on behalf of peddlers of quack medicine. Most notoriously, Oprah’s validation of Jenny McCarthy’s discredited claim that vaccines cause autism has no doubt contributed to much harm through the foolish avoidance of vaccines.”

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: Holder Becomes A Family Liability. “It is a frightening thing to realize that your top law enforcement officer, the Attorney General of the United States, is a little bit of a Fredo. But that’s what we’re faced with as America discovers that Eric Holder either flat-out lied to Congress, or he’s too damn stupid to be the AG.”

AN INTERVIEW WITH the Anchoress.

PATTERICO: A Call to Any Tennessee Readers: Attend the Meeting on How the Feds Might Prosecute Those Who Post “Inflammatory Documents” About Muslims. Alas, I’m travelling that day and can’t go.

UPDATE: More from Byron Tau at Politico.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Eugene Volokh has some observations on this, but warns: “My one reservation is that it’s hard from the newspaper article to tell precisely what U.S. Attorney Killian said; misparaphrases sometimes happen, even more commonly than misquotes. If his claims about the civil rights laws was limited to specific true threats of violence against particular people or particular institutions, such speech may indeed be punishable under the “true threats” exception to the First Amendment. But indeed “inflammatory documents targeted at Muslims” generally are constitutionally protected, so if Mr. Killian indeed used those words or ones that are fairly paraphrased as those words (or suggested that the ‘How to Wink’ posting was actually illegal rather than just wrong), then Floyd Abrams’ criticism is entirely apt.”

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Canadian relief for Moore tornado victims denied at border. “A Canadian shipment of relief goods bound for storm-ravaged Oklahoma has been stopped at the Canada-U.S. border in Windsor, Ont. American officials will not allow the 20,000 kilograms of food, blankets and diapers into the country until every item on board is itemized in alphabetical order and has the country of origin of every product noted.”

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN’T BUY ON AMAZON? Reader Danielle Ivey writes:

Just bought my daughter – the Psychology Grad Student – a copy of the Insta-Wife’s new book for a bit of summer reading!

and then I find this page!
3D Printers & Supplies.

I would definitely promote that page as “gifts for grads”…. if your grad is an engineering major!

Heh.

WHY HIGH-SPEED POLICE CHASES ARE GOING AWAY.

AN INDEPTH LOOK AT the Justice Department’s jiggery-pokery in the Rosen case. We don’t actually think he was a co-conspirator, we just called him one so the judge would give us the warrant! “If they did not believe Rosen was committing a crime, they shouldn’t have been invoking that part of the PPA. Either they were really accusing him of a crime or they weren’t. I mean, you can’t have it both ways. It’s very troubling.”