GRIM MILESTONE REACHED: The IRS Scandal, Day 365.
Archive for 2014
May 9, 2014
THIS, FROM A SCOTT WALKER HATER: “If unions want to reclaim their relevance, it would be a good thing to ban use of the word ‘solidarity’ as well as anything that rhymes with ‘hey, ho’ forever more.”
DUMB OR EVIL? YOU DECIDE: Top Dem lawmaker proposes seating just one lawmaker on Benghazi panel.
BLUE STATE UPDATE: Another day, another public corruption trial.
At AMAZON: Save on Umbrellas.
HIGHER EDUCATION BEELZEBUB WATCH: Archdiocese warns of danger of Satanic mass at Harvard.
Related: Heard About Brouhaha at Harvard? Thank the Blogs, writes Elizabeth Scalia at her Anchoress blog.
THE WEALTH TRANSFER TROJAN HORSE: I’m talking about global warming “climate change” (a mighty convenient moniker), of course. The White House’s newly released National Climate Assessment contains the usual Gorean “the sky is falling!” exclamations. But as the Wall Street Journal points out,
[T]he report has the feel of that infomercial footage of the people who can’t crack an egg or perform routine household tasks until they acquire this or that as-seen-on-TV product. The cautious findings of serious empirical climate literature are so obviously exaggerated and colored that the document is best understood as a political tract with a few scientific footnotes.
For instance, the report’s “overview” summary asserts that “extreme weather events with links to climate change have become more frequent and/or intense,” climate change is already “disrupting people’s lives,” and “this evidence tells an unambiguous story.” Good thing we’ve been building that ark in the backyard.
But the fine print that few will ever read acknowledges the real uncertainties of something as complex as the planet’s atmosphere. “There has been no universal trend in the overall extent of drought across the continental U.S. since 1900,” the authors observe. We also learn that “trends in severe storms, including the intensity and frequency of tornadoes, hail, and damaging thunderstorm winds, are uncertain and are being studied intensively.” And so on.
But hey, why are those pesky conservatives so insistent on “facts, facts, facts” all the time (Benghazi, IRS, global warming climate change, etc., etc.)??? Don’t they realize that all that really matters is achieving “justice,” as defined by Democrats, and thus inevitably involves massive taxation or spending (i.e., wealth transfer)? Geez.
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S DESERVING VICTIMS: The campus sexual-assault controversy is of liberal higher ed’s own making, Heather Mac Donald writes.
FLASHBACK: Clinton: “Poverty” Behind Boko Haram, ‘Not Radical Islam.’
As Andrew Cline wrote at the American Spectator in 2010, “The canard that poverty causes terrorism just won’t die. It was one thing when Nation writer David Corn and others connected the two back in 2002. The liberal default position is that poverty causes crime. It was an instant knee-jerk reaction after 9/11. But by now we all ought to know better. Except, the theory is still being peddled despite the lack of evidence to support it.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Growing Campus Anti-Semitism is Ignored By Administrators.
YOUR SCARY-ASS CHART OF THE DAY: Obamacare’s Health Insurance Tax Could Cost Up to 286,000 Jobs.
MOM DOESN’T WANT YOU TO BE THOUGHTFUL ON MOTHER’S DAY: From Virginia Postrel at Bloomberg View:
Testing that conclusion directly in another experiment, Steffel and LeBoeuf found that participants given more time and encouraged to shop “thoughtfully” did worse than those given limited time and told not to “overthink” the decision. “Givers may, paradoxically, get worse gifts the more they try to be especially thoughtful,” they write, “as their focus on giving individuated gifts may make them lose focus on getting the best-liked gifts.” (Another experiment found that givers weren’t going for variety for its own sake and only mixed up the selection when there was a difference in the movies listed by the two cousins.)
This research has the faults of most psychology experiments. It draws broad, if tentative, conclusions from a relatively small sample, only 168 participants, and it’s explicitly limited to the U.S. (The authors note that gift-giving customs could affect results elsewhere.) But it rings true. It’s hard to see the world through other people’s eyes — even when we’re buying them gifts.
Read the whole thing.
BENGHAZI DENIERS CONTINUE TO PANIC: Jim Treacher reads the Daily Beast so you don’t have to, spots columnists sparring on the pending Benghazi hearings.
Related: Meanwhile at MSNBC, Joe Scarborough Interrupts Alex Wagner’s Benghazi Denial: ‘Don’t Insult Our Intelligence.’
NO WORD ON WHETHER THEY’VE FOUND HARRY REID’S ORIGINAL TOMB: Archaeologists unearth 5,600-year-old tomb complete with mummy that PREDATES the First Dynasty of pharaohs. What? Like other people don’t think of him as The Mummy of Progressivism. (Coming soon to a theater near you.It’s a horror movie.)
RIGHT NOW I’D BE HAPPY TO KEEP POLLEN OUT OF MY NOSE: But some of these microscopic images of pollen and flowers are beautiful. The hibiscus stamens look like a sculpture.
THIS MADE ME GIGGLE: Behold, The Silliest Secret Of Egypt’s Pyramids. (I was actually looking for explanations of snails in medieval manuscripts. It’s for a story.)
FEMINIST PORN. “If it’s possible to have sex in a feminist way, it’s possible to record it in a feminist way.” (Link is safe, by the way. It goes to BBC.com.)
“YOU’RE ON A GLUTEN-FREE DIET?”/”I am.”/”What’s gluten?”… silence… cough…
I’VE HEARD OF THIS BEING DONE FOR TEN YEARS: Commuter cited for driving in car-pool lane after trooper spots mustachioed DUMMY in the passenger seat. Arguably the US has been trying to pull this trick with its presidency since 2009. I think the other countries are catching on, though. Maybe if we draw a little mustache on Obama?
HOW LONG BEFORE THEY NEED A BAILOUT: De Blasio Unveils $73.9 Billion Budget, With Focus on Schools and Housing.
ROGER L. SIMON: Will the State Department’s refusal to declare Boko Haram a terrorist organization harm Hillary Clinton?
It certainly isn’t going to help.
ALAS, NO PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES AGAINST FASHION: FiveFingers Maker Will Pay Millions To Suckers Who Bought Its Shoes.
21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: 17% of Us Would Have Sex With a Robot.
To be fair though, today’s robots had better catch up fast, with 2019 just around the corner.