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Archive for 2014
September 25, 2014
INSTAVISION: I talk to Joel Kotkin about his new and important book, The New Class Conflict.
BAD REVIEWS FOR the FBI’s “active shooters” report. What’s a “passive shooter?” One who lacks self-confidence and brio?
UPDATE: Here’s more from USA Today. Note this in particular: “More than two-thirds of the incidents analyzed by the FBI happened at businesses or schools. In many cases, they happened so quickly that the shooting was over before police arrived. Of 64 incidents analyzed, 44 were over in five minutes or less. Of those, 23 ended in two minutes or less.”
This is why you need to have armed individuals dispersed throughout the population — the only people in a position to respond quickly enough are the people who are already there.
A REVIEW OF JACK E. LEVIN’S NEW BOOK, Malice Toward None: Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. I notice that nobody’s comparing Obama to Lincoln anymore, though to be fair, it was pretty much always Obama doing the comparisons. . . .
THE ARMY YOU HAVE: Obama Goes To War With Weapons He Scrapped. “The president launches attacks on the Islamic State with two weapons systems that were targeted for elimination by the administration years before their usefulness ended or any replacements were ready. . . . Doing the math, we see that Obama has already consumed in one night of strikes 47% of next year’s planned purchases. The naval inventory will soon be depleted at this rate unless we crank up the arsenal of democracy and stop beating our swords into solar panels.”
WELL, THIS WON’T HELP: Jeanne Shaheen a no-show at ISIS hearing. “U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who holds a coveted seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has skipped out on nearly half of the public hearings held by the committee over the last two years, including one where counterterrorism officials warned of the emerging ISIS danger, documents show.”
LIKE THE SEGREGATIONISTS OF OLD, SHE DOESN’T WANT OUTSIDE CIVIL-RIGHTS INTERFERENCE IN LOCAL TRADITIONS: Norton to Congress: Hands Off D.C.’s New Gun Law.
Emergency legislation legalizing the carry of concealed handguns in the District cleared the D.C. Council unanimously on Tuesday afternoon, setting up a temporary “may-issue” permitting scheme.
Under the legislation, guns are not allowed near Congress. Guns are outlawed within 1,000 feet of any foreign dignitary or high-ranking federal official. They are also banned near the White House in Northwest Washington, in an area bound by Constitution Avenue, H Street and 15th and 17th streets, and on most federal property, including the Capitol grounds. The law puts into place many other requirements and restrictions.
Opponents like Alan Gura, the lawyer who argued against the city’s ban on handguns in Palmer v. District of Columbia, argue the law gives the Metropolitan Police Department too much subjective discretion over who will be able to carry a gun.
“A joke,” is how Gura characterized the bill in a recent telephone interview.
When a local community lets its prejudices override civil rights protected by the Constitution, it’s Congress’s role to step in.
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE (CONT’D): Female Teacher Charged With Having Sex With Three Male Students At School. “Nicole Dufault, 34, of Caldwell, was arrested at her home Wednesday evening. She was charged Thursday with multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. Dufault is accused of having oral sex and intercourse with the students both on school property and in her car on multiple occasions, according to authorities. The victims were 15-year-old boys who were students at Columbia High School, according to authorities.”
MAYBE THIS IS WHY OBAMA’S POLLING BADLY EVEN IN BLUE STATES: William Galston: The Recovery That Left Out Almost Everybody.
More than five years after the official end of the recession, the Public Religion Research Institute finds, only 21% of Americans believe the recession has ended.
Two recent reports help explain the disconnect between the official jobs numbers and the economic experience of most Americans. Every fall, the U.S. Commerce Department issues a detailed analysis of trends in income, poverty and health insurance. Although economists have some technical quibbles with the Commerce data, the broad trends are unmistakable.
This year’s report found that median household income was $51,939 in 2013, 8% lower than in 2007, the last year before the recession. Households in the middle of the income distribution earned about $4,500 less last year than they had six years earlier. No wonder 56% of Americans told the Pew Research Center that their incomes were falling behind the cost of living.
The Federal Reserve’s triennial Survey of Consumer Finances confirms these findings. Between 2010 and 2013, the Fed reports, median family income fell by 5%, even though average family income rose by 4%. This is, note the authors, “consistent with increasing income concentration during this period.” Only families in the top 10%, with annual incomes averaging nearly $400,000, saw gains during these three years.
So President Goldman Sachs delivered big returns to the fatcats, at the expense of everyone else. Go figure.
MARILINDA GARCIA (R-NH) TAKES ON HER OPPONENT ANN KUSTER IN A TOUGH NEW AD: This Democrat likes spending your taxes, but doesn’t like paying hers.
The Garcia campaign points to a Feb. 4, 2013 article from WMUR 9, a local ABC affiliate, which revealed Kuster had been delinquent on more than $40,000 in personal property taxes for the prior three years, and at the time still owed nearly $11,000 in late property tax bills.
One day after the WMUR report about Kuster’s unpaid taxes, the congresswoman paid all that she owed. Kuster gave no reason for the delinquencies beyond “we got behind.”
Uh huh.
EVEN THE PRESS CAN’T COVER FOR THIS GUY ANYMORE: The Hill: Obama’s approval rating falls in deep-blue states.
Just weeks after President Obama’s approval rating hit record lows in the liberal bastion of California, a new survey shows the president in trouble in another deep blue state: New York.
Only 39 percent of registered New York voters surveyed in a Marist College poll said Obama is doing an “excellent” or “good” job, the lowest level for Obama in the poll since the beginning of his presidency.
That’s down 6 points from July, when 45 percent said they approved of his job performance. Sixty-one percent of survey respondents judged Obama as doing a “fair” or “poor” job in office.
Earlier this month, only 45 percent of California voters said they approved of how Obama was handling his job, according to a Field Poll released by the Sacramento Bee. That was down 5 percent from June.
The president has seen his support erode steadily throughout the summer as he grappled with a series of international crises, including the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Russia’s repeated incursions into Ukraine, and fighting between Israel and Palestine.
The Marist poll could change the calculus for national Democrats, who had hoped Obama could be an asset in New York during the home stretch of the midterm election campaign.
Well, the Hope & Change thing has been a pretty obvious flop.
WAR ON PHOTOGRAPHY: Forest Service says media needs photography permit in wilderness areas, alarming First Amendment advocates.
The U.S. Forest Service has tightened restrictions on media coverage in vast swaths of the country’s wild lands, requiring reporters to pay for a permit and get permission before shooting a photo or video in federally designated wilderness areas.
Under rules being finalized in November, a reporter who met a biologist, wildlife advocate or whistleblower alleging neglect in any of the nation’s 100 million acres of wilderness would first need special approval to shoot photos or videos even on an iPhone.
Permits cost up to $1,500, says Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers, and reporters who don’t get a permit could face fines up to $1,000.
First Amendment advocates say the rules ignore press freedoms and are so vague they’d allow the Forest Service to grant permits only to favored reporters shooting videos for positive stories.
Screw ’em. This is a crock. The officials behind this should be tarred, feathered, and booted from the civil service.
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO LIE ABOUT RAPE:
A man suspected of raping a woman at knife point after hours on the El Molino High School campus was to be released from jail Thursday after prosecutors said they found evidence that may clear him of the assault.
Sheriff’s officials initially said a masked David J. Kocalis, 24, of Guerneville sneaked up behind the woman Aug. 30, held a knife to her and raped her near the Forestville school’s tennis courts.
He was arrested the next day on charges carrying a possible life sentence after the woman identified a prominent tattoo, and the car he was driving was captured on videotape.
But prosecutor Brian Staebell said Thursday investigators have since uncovered evidence that may point to his innocence. A judge allowed Kocalis, who had been held on $1.2 million bail, to be released on his own recognizance.
His lawyer, Evan Zelig, said a review of cellphone records showed Kocalis and the 18-year-old woman knew each other. Earlier in the day, she sent him a text message inviting Kocalis for sex, Zelig said.
Their tryst began inside his borrowed Porsche SUV but moved to a spot near the tennis courts because the car’s alarm kept going off, Zelig said.
After it was over, Kocalis drove the woman home, the lawyer said. She fabricated a story about being raped because she missed her curfew and Kocalis refused to lend her $20, Zelig said.
A possible life sentence because a woman didn’t get $20. Note that she tried to delete her texts. She was happy to let him face life in prison to get out of temporary inconvenience.
September 24, 2014
OF COURSE IT DOES: Obama Anti-Rape Effort Recruits For Left-Wing Org.
TO ANYONE WHO’S READ WORLD WAR Z, THIS WILL BE MORE THAN A LITTLE BIT TROUBLING. Liberia: Dead Ebola Patients Resurrect?
Two Ebola patients, who died of the virus in separate communities in Nimba County have reportedly resurrected in the county. The victims, both females, believed to be in their 60s and 40s respectively, died of the Ebola virus recently in Hope Village Community and the Catholic Community in Ganta, Nimba.
But to the amazement of residents and onlookers on Monday, the deceased reportedly regained life in total disbelief. The NewDawn Nimba County correspondent said the late Dorris Quoi of Hope Village Community and the second victim only identified as Ma Kebeh, said to be in her late 60s, were about to be taken for burial when they resurrected. . . .
News of the resurrection of the two victims has reportedly created panic in residents of Hope Village Community and Ganta at large, with some citizens describing Dorris Quoi as a ghost, who shouldn’t live among them. Since the Ebola outbreak in Nimba County, this is the first incident of dead victims resurrecting.
The question is — will it be the last?
LAURENCE TRIBE: Students Before Teachers: Why progressives should defend ‘Vergara v. California’ ruling.
My support for curtailing teacher tenure and last-in, first-out layoff rules when they put the needs of adults before children is not a departure from my progressive roots. Rather, it is a natural and common-sense outgrowth. . . .
The superior court’s decision in Vergara does not strike down due process rights, collective bargaining rights or tenure for public school educators. It only invalidates burdensome rules that give tenure a bad name, as though job security were the primary goal of the education system.
Well, job security is a primary goal of the education establishment, and maintaining a voter-farm for Democrats is more important to the “progressives” that Tribe describes than educating children is. But nice to see him standing up on this.
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: 7 Reasons Why Dating Multiple Men At Once Made Me Crazy. So crazy, she apparently forgot the difference between “less” and “fewer.” As in: “How is dating less men actually MORE effective, you ask? Let me count the ways.”
Plus, a shocking discovery: “He has feelings, too.” Do tell.
JERRY POURNELLE: Climate, Ebola, Air Strikes. “We are putting boots on the ground in terrible places, and what will they bring home to their families? At least they are not likely to be shot by one of their own officers shouting Allahu Akbar in a workplace incident; on the other hand if they are careless in any way I doubt they will be allowed to come home to recover. But then there will be political pressure to allow them to come home. Of course Ebola will never mutate to be carried by any air or insect borne mechanism, so it can’t possibly be brought back to the United States. Join the Army and see the world. Yes, it’s an all volunteer army, but one suspects those joining did not quite foresee the full extent of what they volunteered for. But it is not usual to send 3,000 soldiers to an epidemic area, while sending none to an area where we have allies under ground attack in a critical area. Perhaps we need to form a special army of volunteers for this sort of service. A foreign legion…”
SHANEEN ALLEN UPDATE: Prosecutor Drops Prison Threat Against Gun Owner Who Mistakenly Thought Her Pennsylvania Carry Permit Was Good in New Jersey.
We still need federal civil rights legislation — I proposed something in this USA Today piece — that will sharply limit penalties for carrying guns when the carrier is legally entitled to own one under federal law. This should be a speeding-ticket offense, no more.
PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Actually, this reads like Limbaugh’s thinking of suing.
IS IT OKAY IF I STILL HOPE THAT EZEKIEL EMANUEL DOES? Should you hope to die at 75? Absolutely not.
JOURNALISM: Politico Staffers Begin Circling Wagons to Ensure Hillary’s Not Vetted.
Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure this response from Glenn Thrush is anti-Mexican bigotry or something.
DEVOLUTION IN ENGLAND: Restore The Heptarchy! “The heptarchy is a collective name for ‘the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of south, east, and central England during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, conventionally identified as seven: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms eventually unified into the Kingdom of England.’ . . . So if we are to have petty kingdoms, let them at least be kingdoms. Men have loved the Kingdom of Mercia. Men have died for the Kingdom of East Anglia – notably at the hands of men of Mercia, but there you go. Men of all the ancient nations of the Saxon have followed the greatest of the Kings of Wessex to glorious victory against the Vikings. Divide and conquer that, Eurocrats!”