Archive for 2014
August 13, 2014
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: The sad but common irony that lawbreakers such as Lois Lerner are in positions of law enforcement.
IT’S JOHN BANZHAF AGAIN: Professor: ‘Illegals at border have more rights than college students accused of rape.’
SAMANTHA HARRIS: Law Enforcement Must Take the Lead in Campus Sexual Assault Cases.
To ensure that sexual assault is treated like the crime it is, law enforcement must take the lead. Only our criminal justice system can properly protect the accuser and the accused — and punish those found guilty accordingly.
Currently, internal university proceedings are used both to provide Title IX remedies to the alleged victim (such as changes in dorm assignments and class schedules, no-contact orders and so forth) and to adjudicate an accused student’s guilt or innocence.
In these proceedings, accused students are routinely denied the most basic elements of due process, such as the right to see the evidence against them and the right to confront, even indirectly, the accuser. Not only is this terribly unfair to students accused of serious wrongdoing, but it undermines the integrity of the process in a way that harms everyone involved.
Indeed.
ADVICE FROM THE GENDER STUDIES PROFESSORIATE: If Your Boyfriend Likes the First Amendment, Be Careful!! “This could be a huge warning sign. Trolls cite the First Amendment as frequently as college application essays cite ‘The Road Not Taken.’ They think that it gives them the right to verbally harass, stalk, and threaten whomever they want without any consequences. If your man picks the First Amendment, just ask him to explain what it means. If he thinks it means that ‘it’s a free country’ and ‘people can say whatever they want,’ tell him to go back to the playground he learned his politics from and find a new boyfriend.”
They really hate that whole free-country thing.
AN INCOME-INEQUALITY REMEDY THAT WORKS: Texas Looks to Decrease Occupational Licensing. “Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is running for governor of that state, has rolled out a plan that would repeal a number of occupational licensing rules. These standards restrict individuals from engaging in certain commerce without permission from the state (and often include paying extra money, taking tests, and meeting other requirements).”
SPECIAL GUEST EDITORIAL: Obama’s Foreign Policy Failures, By Hillary Rodham Clinton.
WASHINGTON EXAMINER EDITORIAL: Obamacrats are strangling due process rights on campus.
Under the Education Department’s rules, college administrators are being pressured to pursue cases with little evidence of guilt other than an accusation. To make matters worse, the threat of a potential federal investigation of the school increases the pressure for guilty verdicts, unless defendants can marshall overwhelming exculpatory evidence.
In other words, in practice, this amounts to a federally required presumption of guilt in college disciplinary proceedings. To be sure, college campuses are not courts, and the Bill of Rights may not strictly apply to their disciplinary procedures, but the government is still requiring academic officials to do something it cannot do to defendants tried before federal judges.
It’s a disgrace, and should be reversed by federal legislation, and by hordes of expensive, lawyer-enriching lawsuits.
THE HILL: Obama orders more than 100 advisers to Iraq.
They told me if I voted for Mitt Romney we’d . . . Oh, Hell, what difference, at this point, does it make?
DEMOCRAT SEN. TIM KAINE: Obama Needs Congressional Approval For Iraq Air Strikes. I believe that’s still covered by the AUMF, which Obama wanted Congress to repeal, but which, fortunately for him, it never did.
OBAMA FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER IN 2011: All this “Caliphate” talk is a delusion. That was John Brennan, now the embattled head of the CIA.
SO THIS BLOOMBERG PIECE BY MARK MILIAN ON SILICON VALLEY AND DIVERSITY only talks about women, blacks, and hispanics, but completely omits asians. Why? Are asians considered white now? And do H1B visas play a role?
KNOW YOUR PLACE, PEASANT! California Congressman Wants to Ban Civilians from Buying Body Armor. If the State wants to shoot you, who are you to make it difficult? You’re lucky they don’t bill your family for the bullet.
August 12, 2014
I DUNNO, THERE’S A LOT OF COMPETITION FOR THAT ONE: Did White House press secretary Josh Earnest just tell the biggest whopper of the Obama era?
SPYING: Feds to study illegal use of spy gear.
The Federal Communications Commission has established a task force to study reported misuse of surveillance technology that can intercept cellular signals to locate people, monitor their calls and send malicious software to their phones.
The powerful technology — called an IMSI catcher, though also referred to by the trade name “Stingray” — is produced by several major surveillance companies and widely used by police and intelligence services around the world.
The FCC, in response to questions from U.S. Rep. Alan M. Grayson (D-Fla.), plans to study the extent to which criminal gangs and foreign intelligence services are using the devices against Americans. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, in a letter dated this month, said the commission had authority over the surveillance technology and had established a “task force to combat the illicit and unauthorized use of IMSI catchers.”
The task forces’s mission, Wheeler wrote, “is to develop concrete solutions to protect the cellular network systemically from similar unlawful intrusions and interceptions.”
I’d like something that protected me from spying by my government. We used to have something called the Constitution for that.
YEAH, BUT NOBODY CARES BECAUSE THEY’RE DISPOSABLE, NOT HIP: Suicides are surprisingly high among middle-aged men in the US. But remember, these are the guys who are supposed to be living high off the Patriarchy. . . .
FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Job Crisis Persists As Wage Gap Threatens Economy.
Related: Jobs Up Since 2008, But Pay Down.
KNOW YOUR PLACE, PEASANTS! CNN Exclusive: Sen. Mary Landrieu’s campaign flight was charged to taxpayers.
RAZORBLOGGING: So shaving and shavers have been an occasional topic here at InstaPundit for quite a while, and the other day I was at the store and saw a display with the new Gillette Fusion Proglide Power Men’s Razor With “Flexball Handle Technology.” I bought one and gave it a try.
There’s technology all over this thing. Pressing a button in the handle makes it vibrate with surprising intensity, and the “Flexball Handle Technology” means that the head pivots about 30 degrees to the left or right, supposedly ensuring a better and more even shave. Verdict: Good! I felt (and the Insta-Wife agreed) that it left my face extremely smooth. I shaved both with and without the vibration and honestly I couldn’t tell any difference. The “Flexball Handle Technology” actually did seem to make things a bit easier. Is it better than previous Fusion and Fusion Power razors? Possibly, though the difference is probably the blade: I’ve long suspected that they use a better quality of steel in the new variety of blades at first, then gradually cut back as they roll out new models later. (I think Mickey Kaus observed this a while back). Still, not bad at all.
But if you’re going to shave with a razor, my number one recommendation is to keep a styptic pencil around. I almost never cut myself, but when I do, it’s inevitably at an inconvenient time.
TEN TRICKS FOR appearing smart during meetings. Of course, to be smart, avoid meetings as much as possible. . . .
SLEEP HACK: Keep One Foot Outside Your Covers.
SO I GOT A VOICEMAIL FROM STACY MCCAIN SAYING HE WON HIS TRIAL AGAINST (CONVICTED TERRORIST BOMBER) BRETT KIMBERLIN. No surprise there. As I said at the very beginning, nobody with any sense tries to out-crazy Stacy McCain.
I’m sure that Stacy will have a full account on his blog once he’s finished celebrating. Patterico reports that it was a directed verdict.
UPDATE: Game Over! “We did not put on a defense. Judge Johnson ruled that The Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin did not present evidence of the torts he was alleging, and he ruled in our favor as a matter of law after TDPK rested his case.”
From the comments: “Somewhere, Andrew Breitbart is smiling.”
AN AMUSING PRO-FRACKING AD: HELP ME STAY RICH!
WELL, WHAT’S TO TRUST? CNN Poll: Trust In Government At All-Time Low.