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NOW ON YOUTUBE, My InstaVision interview with Mickey Kaus: Obama’s Second-Term Disappointment: Reduced to Mafioso Behavior and Hipster Twitter Ads.
Related: Mickey Kaus on my Mark Levin imitation. Okay, I’m no Mark Levin, but I got a pretty good little mini-rant going.
UCSD CHANCELLOR condemns American Studies Association’s Israel Boycott.
OBAMACARE and the UAW.
PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD — IT WORKS! Controversial Ohio Homeschool Bill Withdrawn After Grassroots Tsunami Opposes.
SPYING: Patriot Act architect says intel boss should face jail time for lying to Congress.
House Republican legislators have asked Attorney General Eric Holder to launch an investigation into James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, who has been accused of lying about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs when asked by a Senate Democrat about the programs during a congressional hearing.
“Congressional oversight depends on truthful testimony — witnesses cannot be allowed to lie to Congress,” several members of the House Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter to Holder. The letter is signed by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who introduced the Patriot Act, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, and Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas.
“Accordingly, we request you investigate Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s ‘erroneous’ statements to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence earlier this year.”
The letter notes that Ronald Reagan’s former National Security Advisor John Poindexter went to jail for lying to Congress.
Yeah, but he was a Republican.
ROGER SIMON: The PC Lynching of Phil Robertson.
Related: Ink From The Leftist Squid. Yeah, it’s all about distracting from the ObamaCare debacle. Plus: “The goal is, therefore, not to highlight an area of disagreement, but to make people who want to avoid aggression step back a bit from those who aren’t so timid.” Punch back twice as hard, but don’t get distracted.
KANSAS BOARD OF REGENTS restricts social media speech by academics. I suppose this is in response to that idiot professor at KU who called for NRA members’ kids to be killed. It’s a dumb rule, that should be overturned. Aside from its dumbness, it’s also void for vagueness.
UPDATE: Yes, it is in response to the death-to-NRA-members’-children tweet.
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SMART DIPLOMACY: Roll Call: Obama Would Veto Iran Sanctions Bill.
TRAIN WRECK UPDATE: The Hill: O-Care ‘fix’ expands access to bare-bones plans. So, to recap: Those plans that Obama said were crap plans you wouldn’t want a dog to have? Now that he can’t hit his numbers without them, they’re just the thing!
On the upside, at this rate he’ll be enacting Rand Paul’s plan by June, and calling it a “modification” of ObamaCare.
THIS TENNESSEE BILL SOUNDS DUMB: The Crime of “Annoy[ing]” Local Governments Through “Offensively Repetitious” Threats of Litigation. “The proposal was apparently prompted by a desire to restrict Establishment Clause challenges — that’s what the rest of the bill is about — but this section would cover all threats of litigation.”
BRIAN DOHERTY: Of Ducks and Gays and Tolerance.
The advantages of classical liberal market cosmopolitanism–the idea that it’s best to set aside peaceful differences of opinion and creed and worries about different races, nationalities, and genders when deciding how we interact with the world–has a great track record of making us all richer and happier.
The idea that that people should be punished with boycott or losing their jobs over having wrong beliefs hobbles the flowering of tolerant classical liberal market cosmopolitanism.
There may have been a good reason why classical tolerance of expression was summed up in the epigram: “I disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it!”
That has a different feel than: “I disagree with what you say, I think you are evil for having said it, I think no one should associate with you and you ought to lose your livelihood, and anyone who doesn’t agree with me about all that is skating on pretty thin ice as well, but hey, I don’t think you should be arrested for it.”
Free speech was fine when it was needed to protect communists. Now it’s not anymore, so it can be abandoned. Gleichschaltung!
PHILIP KLEIN: Obamacare ‘death spiral’ scenario is about the states, stupid. “What’s been largely lost in the ongoing discussion about whether a death spiral can happen is that there isn’t one Obamacare ‘risk pool’ and thus, there isn’t one potential ‘death spiral.’ In reality, there are 51 different risk pools (for each state plus the District of Columbia), which means 51 chances to get things right, as well as 51 possible death spirals. It’s perfectly possible that come March 31 – the current end of the open enrollment period – evidence will show a bit of both. That is, some exchanges may be viable, and some may find themselves in deep trouble. This could not only have implications for the 2014 elections, but it could affect how both parties approach health care policy.”
PEOPLE WOULD RATHER THEIR FAITH BE EXCITING THAN WATERED DOWN: Is charismatic Christianity coming to Europe? Up until now, it didn’t seem likely. But events in the UK perhaps suggest otherwise. “Pentecostalism is probably the fastest growing religious movement in history. From humble American beginnings early in the twentieth century the movement truly exploded after World War II, now numbering at least 600 million adherents worldwide. Pentecostals are a significant presence in the United States, but most of the growth has been in the Global South—in Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia. Originally a movement within Evangelical Protestantism, Pentecostalism has spilled over into virtually all Christian denominations. . . . The phenomenon must be seen in the context of a huge demographic shift: There now are more Christians in the Global South than in the “home territories” of Europe and North America. And most of this ‘New Christendom’ (a term coined by the historian Philip Jenkins) tends toward charismatic forms of the faith.”
GOP STRATEGY ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: Legalize ’em but don’t let ’em vote? Dems would prefer the opposite, of course. . . .
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PROBABLY BECAUSE HE SUPPORTED IT, AND IT SUCKS: AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka getting ‘grief’ from members over Obamacare.
THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN: Jobless claims unexpectedly jump to highest level since March.
I DUNNO, I’M NOT GIVING BACK 3 INCHES BECAUSE OF THIS: Study: Six Feet Is The Ideal Height For Men.
HOW TO BE “TRANSGRESSIVE” IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Book on ‘submissive wives’ becomes hit in Spain: Book that advises new wives “to be submissive” proves surprise success in Spain but angers feminists. Note that it’s bigotry to say who can marry who, but it’s perfectly fine to prescribe how people must live within their marriages.
Plus: “The book currently appears at number 15 on the Amazon bestseller list in Spain but has raised the hackles of modern-minded Senoras who even staged a public demonstration against the tome, where they tore up copies.”
I guess that’s how you have a book-burning when nobody trusts you with matches.
THIS SOUNDS GOOD: Recipe for prime rib with spice rub and roast tomatoes.
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