Archive for 2014
November 27, 2014
CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE: Pentagon Renaming “Illegal Combatants” as “Unprivileged Belligerents.” No, seriously. The Obama Administration seems determined to live up to every right-wing caricature. Hey, maybe those aren’t caricatures after all, then.
FIRST HUMAN TRIALS IN EBOLA VACCINE look promising.
THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Voter ID Laws Don’t Suppress Minority Voters.
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HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Too much makeup sex led to millionaire’s restraining order.
VITAMIN D UPDATE: Low Vitamin D Tied to Higher Death Risk. “Many observational studies suggest that low vitamin D levels are associated with an increased risk for disease, but it is not clear if low vitamin D is a cause or an effect of poor health. Now a new study, using a technique called Mendelian randomization, provides persuasive evidence that low serum vitamin D itself increases the risk of death.”
WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? Illegal immigrants to be eligible for Social Security, Medicare.
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THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: The ATF’s Fake Retail Stores, Bad Behavior… And Why It Only Came Out Because They Failed To Pay Rent.
WELL, YES: Where UVA Went Wrong: Students Need to See Rape as a Felony, Not Just a Campus Infraction. But treating it as a felony doesn’t create work for campus bureaucrats.
FIRE SALE: Amazon Fire Phone Price Drops Again. It’s not doing well. I’d wait for later versions.
GOPRO DEVELOPING camera-equipped drones.
Well, you can already get these GoPro-compatible drones. But I can see why GoPro wants to get into the act.
HOW PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS saved the Pilgrims.
IN THE MAIL: From Mercedes Lackey, Revolution: The Secret World Chronicle III (The Secret World Chronicles Book 3).
Plus, today only at Amazon: Nikon D7000 16.2-Megapixel Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm Lens, $649.95 (32% off).
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TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 567.
ROBERT TRACINSKI: Dear Media: How Not to Screw Up the Next Ferguson.
I hate to say, “I told you so.” No, really, I hate it. The city of Ferguson, Missouri, is in flames yet again as angry mobs—largely composed of outside agitators—vent their rage against “the system” after a grand jury refused to indict a white police officer for shooting a young black man. All of that destruction could have been prevented if the media knew its own business and didn’t need constant reminders from people like me about how to report on the use of deadly force.
Specifically, I warned them about Zimmerman Amnesia, the dogged failure to learn from the media’s mistakes in reporting previous cases. . . .
The early reports were very clear that Michael Brown was a good, kind-hearted young man bound for college, that the shooting was totally unprovoked, that he was shot multiple times in the back, that he was executed in cold blood. Then the evidence, as it emerged, knocked down each of these claims one by one.
Cases involving the use of force tend to be messy, and getting at the facts is difficult. It requires a lot of sorting of competing claims, cross-examination and confrontation of witnesses, and a thorough review of the physical evidence, which often refutes the eyewitness testimony.
Two things: (1) They don’t want to do the work; and (2) They don’t mind peddling falsehoods so long as those falsehoods inflame the right people.
#FERGUSONSYLLABUS: Teaching Ferguson.
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HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Wisconsin Adopts “Yes Means Yes” Rule.
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Maryland’s Assistant Attorney General For Consumer Protection Falls For Urban Legend.
HMM. WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT BARACK OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY? Elizabeth Drew: The Firing of Chuck Hagel.
While I had come to admire Hagel as a thoughtful man, there’s a question of whether anyone can make the leap from a senator’s office—with an average staff size of 34 people, to the Pentagon, the world’s largest institution, which employs about 26,000 personnel on site, plus about a half million overseas, plus an active military of about 1.5 million men and women. In general, transitions from Capitol Hill to a cabinet office, in either party, haven’t been markedly successful. The Pentagon has been a sinkhole of failures.
So if the transition from Senator to SecDef is too much, how about from Senator to Commander In Chief? The evidence would seem to support Drew’s position there, too . . . .
THE INSTA-WIFE: I Give Thanks for All the Men Cooking for Thanksgiving.