J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: Border Tsunami: Has GOP Forgotten How to Play Offense? “The first step to leading is understanding what you are up against. This border crisis isn’t incompetence. It isn’t bungling. It is a calculated effort to crash the immigration system and fundamentally transform the nation. It is an effort to accelerate demographic trends and forever alter the nation’s culture.”
Archive for 2014
July 15, 2014
ROGER KIMBALL: The “obvious and commonsense conclusion” about the IRS scandal. “On the whole, we have to draw the obvious and commonsense conclusion that documents destroyed or hidden probably were embarrassing or incriminating, and that the effort to blot out or falsify the record was undertaken in order to deny responsibility for the IRS’s criminal activity in persecuting opponents of the Obama administration.”
HIS TRACK RECORD IS LOOKING PRETTY GOOD: Washington Post: It’s official: Americans say Mitt Romney was pretty much right about Russia. But he was mocked by the press and the Democrats’ tame pundits at the time.
PHIL HAMBURGER IS GUESTBLOGGING AT THE VOLOKH CONSPIRACY, regarding his new book, Is Administrative Law Unlawful?
THE HILL: House GOP group to recommend changes to immigration law. “Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), the working group’s leader, will argue that child immigrants from Central America should be subject to the same rules as those from Mexico. A source close to Granger said the group will also advise that National Guard troops be sent to the border, a longstanding demand from Republicans.”
USA TODAY goes viral. “Initiatives like these are part of a big digital push that has helped USA Today raise its average monthly mobile readership to 25.5 million, an increase of about 48 percent in the last year, according to the data company comScore. (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, which both have paywalls, have fewer mobile readers. USA Today is free.)”
July 14, 2014
FALSE CHARGES: Conor Oberst’s Name Cleared; Rape Accuser Admits She Lied. “The statements I made and repeated online and elsewhere over the past six months accusing Conor Oberst of raping me are 100% false. I made up those lies about him to get attention while I was going through a difficult period in my life and trying to cope with my son’s illness. I publicly retract my statements about Conor Oberst, and sincerely apologize to him, his family, and his fans for writing such awful things about him. I realize that my actions were wrong and could undermine the claims of actual sexual assault victims and for that I also apologize. I’m truly sorry for all the pain that I caused.”
Will there be criminal charges?
NEWS FROM THE TOWN THAT GAVE US MIKE NIFONG: Durham cops lied about 911 calls.
Did you say there was a 911 hang-up? she asked.
Yes, he said.
But there was not a 911 hang-up?
No.
So you entered the house based on a lie?
Yes.
And this is your policy for domestic violence warrants?
Yes.
If they have contempt for the law, why shouldn’t we? And why shouldn’t we have contempt for them?
THE MORE I SEE, THE MORE I THINK JEFF BEZOS WAS RIGHT TO HANG ON TO HIS MONEY: Vox.com refuses to correct Max Fisher’s error re Hebron.
HOLLYWOOD FOR UGLY PEOPLE: Washington’s secret to staying relevant: a little Botox here, a tuck there.
I’M GUESSING MARK RIPPETOE WON’T BE WEIGHING IN ON THIS ONE: Vaginal Weight Lifting.
NOAH ROTHMAN: Eric Holder, America’s chief law enforcement official, tries to spark racial hatred.
Never forget that Bull Connor was a member of the Democratic National Committee.
NEW DRUGS to treat jet lag.
FASTER, PLEASE: The End Is Nigh For the Guinea Worm.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Self-Assembly Shows Promise for Extending Moore’s Law.
AT AMAZON, New Markdowns on Men’s Shoes.
Also, new releases on CD and Vinyl.
And you can pre-order the new Tom Petty album, Hypnotic Eye.
MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Five Questions With Zephyr Teachout. I’ve heard some social-media chatter about New York gun owners backing her in the primary just to get revenge on Andrew Cuomo for the SAFE Act.
CALL FOR DUE PROCESS AND PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE, get on feminist shit-list. But good to see someone standing up to the PC Nazis.
THE HAMAS GUYS ARE SUCH LOSERS, they’re even outgunned when it comes to humor.
THOUGHTS ON LONGEVITY OVER TIME.
WHAT THE FRAMERS OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT HAD TO SAY ABOUT HATS. Which explains the Ninth Amendment.
By the way, I highly recommend Dan Farber’s excellent short essay, Terminator 2 1/2: The Constitution in an Alternate World. He explores what might have happened had the Bill Of Rights never been adopted, and this article falls into that category of alternate-history stories that suggest a tendency for the timestream to “heal” after changes, returning to something similar to what originally happened. Thus, in the absence of a Bill of Rights, other provisions, like the ban on Bills of Attainder, wind up doing the work.
ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: The TSA’s Instagram Feed Is Terrifying and Totally Awesome. Most of this stuff isn’t particularly scary, really. And the TSA has still never caught a terrorist.