Archive for 2014

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: The Democrats’ Push To Criminalize Dissent. Everything within the party, nothing outside the party, nothing against the party. “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. Dissent is the lowest form of crime. If you are a drone in the hive of the Left, it is possible — easy, in fact — to believe both of those things at the same time.”

PAKISTAN’S DAWN ON THE ROTHERHAM CHILD-RAPE SCANDAL:

After similar scandals in Oxford and Rochdale, as well as the Jimmy Saville case, the Rotherham scandal has stirred up huge controversy in the United Kingdom. Not only had abuse of the worst kind taken place, but the police and the Rotherham Council ignored the victims’ pleas for help, thus victimising them further.

Self-styled community leaders who claim to represent all the Pakistani Muslims living in Rotherham encouraged police and council high-ups to ignore the abuse, in order to preserve the superficial ‘honour’ of the community. The officials went along with this to preserve their jobs. The result: children doubly failed by the system, by their elders and by their authority figures, and left to the mercy of men who drove up in taxis, plied these children, some as young as 11, and mostly white, with drugs, and assaulted them. They threatened to burn them alive if they told anyone what happened to them. . . .

We carry prejudices against white women and their ‘availability’ with us when we immigrate, and they become even more amplified when we feel threatened by the pervading culture of the place we have settled in, and we want to draw in and protect ourselves from change and assimilation. If white women are ‘easy’, then vulnerable white girls, who are in care homes or runaways, are the ‘easiest’ of all.

Read the whole thing.

SULTAN KNISH: The Headchopper Next Door. People who were told all their lives that the West is the source of all evil in the world — and who were credulous enough to believe that — are poor choices to lead the West, particularly now. But that’s what we’ve got.

WHEN I MENTIONED PRESIDENT OBAMA’S DECLARATION OF NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS MONTH A WHILE BACK, A READER COMMENTED: “I need to put together a full on prep kit. I’ve got some essentials, but nothing for a long period. But looking at that Amazon page makes my head spin.”

Well, M.D. Creekmore has advice for easy disaster prep. And, as with exercise, something is better than nothing. If you’re prepared to hold out for two weeks without outside help, you’re in much, much better shape than most. If you’re prepared for a month, then you’re way ahead of the game, and, in fact, able to make it through pretty much anything that’s hit the North American continent since the last time Yellowstone let go.

Plus, was I ahead of the curve or what?

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Now VSU Is in Trouble. “Enrollment at Virginia State University in Petersburg is down by 550 students this year, and the historically black university is facing a $5.3 million shortfall, including a $2.4 million reduction in state support. . . . Norfolk State University, Virginia’s other public, historically black university , is facing difficulties as well, while St. Paul’s College, a private college, closed last year.” The HBCUs, founded when most schools didn’t admit blacks, have been in trouble for a couple of decades. Now, however, they’re also facing a secular decline in higher education as a whole on top of that.

I LOVE THE SPREAD OF THE TERM “SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR” TO DESCRIBE THE NEVER-SATISFIED LEFTY ACTIVISTS WHO TRY TO TAKE OVER EVERYTHING: #GamerGate–the free ride is over. “Remember: You’re always racist, sexist, evil no matter how absurd they have to stretch reality to make it so.”

SO I’VE HAD THE FITBIT for about six weeks now, and I’m going to post a followup review. But anyone out there who has one, please feel free to share your experience in the comments, or via email.

HOT-RODDING A Tesla Model S?

RICK MORAN: Adrian Peterson and the ‘Whooping’ Culture.

Meanwhile, Ann Althouse notes that Peterson is getting piled on in part because people thought Ray Rice got off too light. But punishing one person for the crimes of another is, well, unfair. “I’m not recommending or excusing disciplining children with switches or sticks, just observing that it is an old tradition. As a culture, we have abandoned that tradition, and it’s hard to believe that Peterson hadn’t noticed, but that’s his story. It’s a story that will be harder to sell coming immediately in the aftermath of the Ray Rice incident, and commentators like Gary Meyers are demanding that Peterson’s punishment include punishment for what Ray Rice did. Isn’t it ironic that outrage at the unfair punishment inflicted by Adrian Peterson distorts thinking about how to punish him? Emotional overpunishment — it’s the problem, not the solution.”

Press and social-media hysteria is the problem, not the solution. But our nation is largely run by emotional children these days. Perhaps they should have been spanked when they were younger, instead of being constantly told how special they were.