Archive for 2015
November 12, 2015
MS. MAGAZINE: “While ISIS endorses rape, American college administrations similarly facilitate the rape of women on campuses:”
Huh. I know everybody at Ms. Magazine would qualify as Democratic operatives with bylines, but I believe that in an effort to please both Obama and Hillary, they may be taking his “Jayvee” comparisons just a little too literally.
On the other hand, back a few years ago, when frequent PJM contributor David Solway was exploring “The ‘Unholy Alliance’ Between Islamic Jihad and Utopian Socialism,” and the American Spectator was running pieces on Mohamed Atta, socialist critic of capitalism, some on the left might have found these comparisons a tad extreme, so it’s good to see Ms. Magazine lending bipartisan support to these conservative critiques. As military historian Mackubin Thomas Owens wrote in September of 2002, “9/11 revealed an emerging geopolitical reality: that the world’s most important fault line is not between the rich and the poor, but between those who accept modernity and those who reject it,” which as Ms. Magazine noted last night, sums us both anti-modern ISIS and postmodern academia as well.
So why are monolithically Obama and Hillary-supporting “Progressive” enclaves such as academia such hotbeds of rape, sexism, and racism, anyhow? I’m sure Ms. Magazine will be getting on that topic any moment now.
ASHE SCHOW: What Do People See In Ben Carson?
In sixth grade — you’ll have to excuse me if I’m fuzzy on the details; this happened more than a decade ago – my English teacher gave our class a reading assignment about world-renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Eleven (or maybe 12) year-old me was instantly inspired. I thought about everything Dr. Carson had overcome, how he started so far at the bottom and rose so far to the top. I thought about him often as I grew up, even as my classmates seemed to forget. My family was really in to crime documentaries, which led me to an interest in medical oddities and mysteries (I was a weird kid), and sometimes Dr. Carson would be a featured surgeon. Looking at IMDB, I must have seen him in a couple shows: “Hopkins 24/7” and “Horizon.”
Back then, I wasn’t even interested in politics. I didn’t become politically active or find what side of the aisle I leaned toward until 2008. So imagine my excitement when, in 2013, an inspirational figure from my childhood made headlines in politics — by criticizing President Obama over Obamacare. . . .
I get the outsider appeal, and the fact that Dr. Carson would be able to argue against Obamacare while opposing the Democratic candidate, but I don’t understand supporting a candidate who performs so poorly in front of a microphone. Carson spoke the least on Tuesday, and it’s clear why: He didn’t have anything to add to the conversation. Economic policy is not his strong suit.
Read the whole thing.
CHRIS MATTHEWS NOT SURE IF CRUZ, RUBIO REALLY HISPANIC; THEY’RE ‘CUBAN NATIONALS’ THOUGH.
To paraphrase a one-time frequent MSNBC guest, this is about hating the notion of a Hispanic man in the White House. This is racism straight up. Perhaps the synapses are misfiring in Chris’s limbic brain.
WITH DNC IN MIND, CITY BANS CARRYING URINE, FECES: Reflecting on the double-barreled debacles at Mizzou and Yale, James Lileks writes:
The point of life is to never have an unpleasant emotional response. To anything. Note I didn’t say that the point is to avoid them. That suggests personal responsibility, when the onus ought to be on everyone else: offense of any kind cannot be made. What’s more the definition of offense is the sole possession of the offended. To take offense is to proclaim virtue, to show your highly developed sensibilities, and the point of having these sensibilities is to find a job, or career, or office, or blog, or tumblr, or some other platform where you can ensure that offense is never given. (If one gets a job doing this, it will be by appointment, not election.) The person will pass from the bubble of college to the bubble of social enforcement, keen on perfecting the world. And for the rest of his or her or xer professional life, they’ll be shouting BE QUIET to a calm, rational adult who is too terrified to say “you’re a terrible child who understands nothing. Go to your room.”
These people will produce nothing. They will create no great art, write no symphonies, conjure no novels that speak across the decades, sculpt nothing of beauty. The world outside the bubble is irredeemable. It cannot, of course, be remade all at once, but tomorrow’s a new day. Rome wasn’t wrecked in a day.
But perhaps though, James is wrong about one detail in the above passage (it happens to everyone, eventually, alas) — the great work of art produced by today’s college students already exists. As Stephen L. Miller writes at NRO, the University of Missouri’s “Poop Swastika” is the ultimate “Triumph of Conceptual Art:”
Some may find the image of a Nazi symbol painted in fecal matter to be offensive, but we should examine the message that lies beneath the surface of the image, while striving to release our own biases against art. The startling complexion of a brown swastika against a white background certainly seems to recall the motivations behind a crucifix submerged in urine.
Based on the reactions to Poop Swastika on both social and traditional media, the artist is unlikely to come forward and will probably remain a figure shrouded in mystery. A curious public awaits to see whether his or her works will appear again, either at another college campus or perhaps, because of the passions the work has aroused, in a New York City gallery.
Is the Poop Swastika real? Apparently so. But even it wasn’t, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from sources as disparate as Tom Wolfe in The Painted Word, the “fake but accurate” New York Times, and the entire oeuvre of Yoko Ono, art need not be real to be great.
I PREDICT THAT THE RESULT WILL BE A MASSIVE WITHDRAWAL OF CAPITAL — HUMAN AND FINANCIAL — FROM THE TRADITIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR: Ashe Schow: “We may be seeing the beginnings of a full-blown campus revolution. Not a revolution based on actual oppression, but a revolution stemming from perceived oppression and a desire to attain victimhood status.”
Related: Heather Wilhelm: College Has Jumped The Shark. “Do I sound rather skeptical of contemporary higher education? That’s probably because I am. In just one week, we’ve witnessed Yale students publicly melting down over an e-mail discussing offensive Halloween costumes—not actual offensive Halloween costumes, but an e-mail discussing offensive Halloween costumes. Amid the current chaos at the University of Missouri, we’ve seen students instructed to call campus police if another person offends them, along with a wild-eyed media professor, Melissa Click, shrieking at students to help her ‘muscle’ an offending photographer out of a campus ‘safe space.'”
OPENLY SEXIST HARRIDAN HAS LONG LIST OF BADTHINKS: 18 Things Claire McCaskill Thinks Men Should “Shut the Hell Up” About.
It’s also sexist for the Roll Call author, to talk about “hyper opinionated” males. [Isn’t it sexist to call McCaskill a “harridan?” — ed. Look at the picture and ask me that again.]
AS SPOTTED BY REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDEAUX: France won’t dine without wine, cancels dinner with Iran over menu dispute.
HILLARY CLINTON WILL COME FOR YOUR VIDEO GAMES:
For those without time, this particular video introduces the “Family Entertainment Protection Act,” which was cosponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman, Tim Johnson, and Evan Bayh (I’m pleased to note that none of these people currently serve in the Senate). Also: video games destroy children’s minds and souls! It’s like lead paint poisoning! …Yes, the comparison was explicitly made; yes, then-Senator Clinton was being serious about that.
Somebody really should write a book that explores Hillary’s myriad nanny-state obsessions and the lengthy history of “Progressivism” that led to them…
YES, VIRGINIA, COLLEGE RACE HOAXES HAPPEN ALL THE TIME. HERE ARE TEN, JUST FOR STARTERS.
TRANSPARENCY: EPA seeks to block chief’s deposition in coal lawsuit.
The Environmental Protection Agency is working to block a deposition for administrator Gina McCarthy as part of a coal industry lawsuit.
In a Tuesday court filing, the EPA asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to block a scheduled deposition in a case brought against the agency by coal giant Murray Energy Corp.
Murray has sued the EPA over its rules agenda, arguing that the agency doesn’t properly consider the job impact of its regulations before issuing them. It has petitioned to have McCarthy deposed in the case, something scheduled for later this month.
The EPA has looked to avoid the deposition, and argued that a lower court has taken too long to rule on its stay request.
Alternative headline: Don’t question me, peasants!
HEATHER MAC DONALD: Missouri, Yale, and America’s Cultural Revolution.
I’M PRETTY SURE 2008 SETTLED THIS QUESTION: Could an atheist win the White House? It’s not as crazy as you might think.
ANALYSIS: TRUE. Charles Koch: We are doling out welfare for the wealthy.
Billionaire Charles Koch said Wednesday that the federal government is widening the gap between America’s rich and poor.
“For most of this nation’s history, our country has been characterized by opportunity, upward mobility and personal freedom,” he wrote in an op-ed for Time.
“But today, America is hurtling headlong in the opposite direction, away from a free society and towards a two-tiered society,” Koch said. “Consequently, our country is increasingly divided between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots.’
“As the gulf between the two gets larger, we are creating a permanent underclass while doling out welfare for the wealthy,” he added.Koch argued that a mix of overregulation and crony capitalism is stifling economic opportunities for everyday Americans.
“In a free and fair society, the role of business is to provide products and services that make people’s lives better,” the energy magnate wrote. “This creates a win-win situation for customers and companies alike, generating what I call ‘good profit.’
“But that’s not how many businesses act today,” he continued. “They aren’t benefiting themselves by benefitting others – they’re benefitting themselves by harming others.
“They believe that securing government handouts is more lucrative than making a product or service that improves people’s lives,” he added.
Koch then charged that the federal government uses its financial and tax laws as a means of rewarding those who serve its interests.
Well, you can hardly disagree with that.
November 11, 2015
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MITT ROMNEY, AMERICA WOULD RETURN TO SEGREGATION. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Mizzou Demonstrators Segregate White Allies to Form ‘Black Only Healing Space.’
WHY, THAT’S MORE THAN MOST PHILOSOPHERS MAKE: “A panhandler outside Grand Central Terminal says he rakes in up to $200 an hour from kind-hearted New Yorkers.”
GOOD: 19 Harvard Law Professors Pen Letter Denouncing The Hunting Ground.
“We believe that Brandon Winston was subjected to a long, harmful ordeal for no good reason. Justice has been served in the end, but at enormous costs to this young man,” the professors wrote. “We denounce this film as prolonging his ordeal with its unfair and misleading portrayal of the facts of his case. Mr. Winston was finally vindicated by the Law School and by the judicial proceedings, and allowed to continue his career at the Law School and beyond. Propaganda should not be allowed to erase this just outcome.”
The 19 professors include feminist icon Nancy Gertner; outspoken critics of campus rape hysteria Elizabeth Bartholet, Janet Halley and Jeannie Suk; as well as President Obama’s former mentor Charles Ogletree.
They are to be commended for standing up this way, especially in today’s nasty climate of academic repression.
RACHEL LU: What Marco Rubio Actually Got Wrong About Philosophy:
Not everyone needs to read the Greek philosophers, but some people should. Greek philosophy helps us understand what it means to be human. It sheds light on who we are as a society, and on how we got this way. These are absolutely critical texts for anyone who would understand the human condition more fully. Bashing the Greeks isn’t quite as bad as dismissing the Bible, but it’s moving into that territory. Historically, most people who loved the one have also valued the other.
By contrast, the modern university is filled with small-minded tinkerers who waste countless taxpayer dollars running studies on useless or obvious things. It is filled with “grievance study” departments, in which whole groups of people devote years to revisionist history and whining about “privilege.” It is filled with overpaid administrators who draw six-figure salaries so they can spend their days trying to game the U.S. News and World Report rankings.
Against all of this, you’re going to reserve your contempt for the intellectual pillars of Western Civilization? Come on, Rubio. That just makes you look like a young Keanu Reeves, which is not what the Republican Party needs.
By all means, let’s rail against the wasteful impracticalities of higher ed! It’s got plenty of pork to spare. In the process, however, let’s not make ourselves look like illiterate rubes who care for nothing but widget-making. Philosophy has value, and so do welders. A healthy society must find ways to value both.
My guess is that his handlers didn’t want him to diss Gender Studies because of fears that it might alienate women. Nobody cares if you alienate philosophers. . . .
HE MAY HAVE A POINT — LOOK AT THE AGE OF MOST OF THESE UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS: Elie Mystal: We Should Cap The Voting Age At 60 To Stop Old People From Ruining Everything. I don’t think this summary of my argument is quite fair, though: “These kids today at Yale and Missouri, listening to Mick Jagger music and bad-mouthin’ their country, aren’t ready for the responsibility of voting. They should get off my lawn.”
If they listened to Jagger, they might learn something about life. Too triggering, I’m sure.
But is Mystal’s piece really a stealth anti-Hillary screed? “I’d much rather be governed by ‘spoiled children’ than confused old people who want all the benefits but can’t even apply for them unless sonny shows them how to ‘fax’ a .pdf on their ‘computerized telephone.'” I mean, he just summarized a bunch of the released Hillary emails . . .
HERE IS THE POLICE REPORT FROM THE MIZZOU POOP SWASTIKA INCIDENT: At the Daily Caller, Chuck Ross writes:
Many questions remain about a swastika scrawled in feces in a bathroom at a residence hall on the University of Missouri last month. But a police report obtained by The Daily Caller on Wednesday does show that a university police officer did observe the scrawling.
The so-called poop swastika has been the subject of intense speculation in recent days. University police and other school officials and staffers have declined to provide any information on who observed the scrawling, whether police saw it and whether it was photographed.
In case you’re curious, there’s a police report illustrated at the above link, but it does not contain a photo of the actual symbol of fecal fascism. But as Ross adds, “Given the poop swastika’s significance to the campus protests, many began to wonder this week about who scrawled it, or whether it was ever scrawled at all. The Federalist’s Sean Davis laid out in great detail how nobody at the school had even claimed they saw the symbol and that no photographs existed of it.”
So why did Mizzou officials stonewall Davis so vociferously when he asked for details? (Really trying not to make “blocked up,” “constipated” and “straight poop” jokes here — honest.)
RULES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: What drought? California celebs’ lawns, green as ever.
MY USA TODAY COLUMN: After Yale, Mizzou, raise the voting age — to 25.
THE AMEN BREAK finally generates some money for its author.
Some background here.