COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT FOR SPEECH — SPEECH THAT MAY NOT HAVE EVEN TAKEN PLACE: Georgia Tech restricts frat; chapter denies harassing black student.

Georgia Tech has placed restrictions on a fraternity with a history of disciplinary penalties, over what the university says was discriminatory behavior.

In early August, a black student at the university said three members of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity yelled racial slurs at her from windows of the fraternity house. . . .

Under the restrictions, the chapter may continue “recruiting new members, holding meetings to conduct chapter business and service activities,” but may not participate in Greek Week or homecoming, nor host, co-host or participate in social events on campus, with or without alcohol.

Chapter members will be required to complete specified training to get the restrictions lifted.

On Wednesday, the local chapter disputed the university’s findings and requested an independent investigation.

“We remain convinced that the allegation is false, and that no one from our fraternity was involved. There is compelling video and an abundance of other credible evidence that contradicts the claim, which remains unsupported by any corroborating evidence,” Matt Edwards, alumni association president of the Georgia chapter, said in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday.

“We are troubled by a disciplinary and investigative process that we believe was flawed, and we ask that the Institute be open to an impartial and independent review by a respected third party.”

The fraternity says the windows in the house where the black student claimed the racial slurs were made were locked or inaccessible, video surveillance does not show the student in front of the house, and that the dean conducting the investigation predetermined the fraternity’s guilt before the investigation began.

Georgia Tech officials declined to comment beyond the online posting.

Fake “hate crimes” are common, and university officials’ willingness to punish fraternities — disfavored institutions made up of those icky men — based on no more than an accusation is well established. But even if the accusation is true, punishment is unconstitutional. Racist speech is still protected speech, and it doesn’t morph into “discriminatory conduct” just because the university wants to punish it.

I’m also curious — are any other student organizations collectively punished for the random acts of a few members, or is that sort of collective responsibility reserved for fraternities?

A BLOGGER FRIEND IS SELLING HER HOUSE: Kinda sorta near DC.  (Yeah, I know it’s a little far but she commuted from here to DC for years.)  If you’re in the market in that area, it’s kind of a bargain, too. (And it’s gorgeous.)

CAN IT VOTE: System that replaces human intuition with algorithms outperforms human teams.

IS KERRY? MAYBE THAT’S WHY HE IS SO AFRAID OF WARMING: Are You Part Iceman? Famous Ötzi Has 19 Living Relatives.

OY. CAN’T THEY JUST BLAME BUSH AS USUAL: Kerry Says Climate Change Made the Syrian Civil War Worse.

MORE ACCURATELY OF BEING TOLD NOT TO THINK:  “People are sick to the back teeth of being told what to think.”

STUFF YOU CAN USE: Nearly Every USGS Topo Map Ever Made. For Free.

INSOMNIA THEATER (PREMIERE EDITION!): Earlier this week I posted about the upcoming world premiere of Can We Take a Joke?, a FIRE-supported feature documentary about the threats outrage culture poses to comedy and free speech. The film will premiere at DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary film festival, on November 13 at NYC’s IFC Center, with an additional screening on Monday, November 16.

Can We Take a Joke? features interviews with comedians including Gilbert Gottfried, Penn Jillette, Lisa Lampanelli, Adam Carolla, and Heather McDonald, as well as free speech experts and advocates like Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Jonathan Rauch and First Amendment attorneys Bob Corn-Revere and Ron Collins.

I hope you can make it to the premiere—you can purchase tickets on DOC NYC’s website! But in the meantime, if you want to know more, check out this exclusive video outtake from Penn Jillette’s interview for the film:

THE LEFT ALWAYS LURCHES IN THE SAME DIRECTION: The Left in Disarray.

I BELIEVE HIS IS CHERRY (PICKED): Bernie Sanders and the Fixed Pie Fallacy.

SANITY: It’s the Steel: Bill Whittle’s Solution to Gun Control. (Video.)

AH! THE NORMAL RANGE OF JOURNALISTIC BUNGLE: “Truth,” according to the Times (5).

FREE SPEECH FOR SOME: More derailments in the MTA’s war on speech.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE EACH PERSON: The case of Uber vs. San Antonio.

We are at a very interesting historical tipping point. The willingness of states and political agencies to boss people and businesses around and to seize resources for the use of the political class has not abated, but their ability to do so is being challenged. San Antonio is a left-leaning city; its attitude toward business is far from Singaporean. The city authorities would love to be able to dictate terms to Uber — but they can’t. Nationally, we’re starting to figure out that you can’t really regulate marijuana; you can try to, and pretend to, but you can’t really do it. Trying to ban guns in an age when anybody with a 3-D printer can produce a dozen of them in his bedroom is absurd. In twenty years, when anybody with enough money to buy something equivalent in cost to a refrigerator today is going to be able to 3-D print tissue and molecules, the regulatory enterprise is going to be very dicey indeed. It’s not going to be much fun to be the tax man when real financial privacy, enabled by cryptocurrencies and other financial technologies, is available to almost everybody.

IT’S OKAY: I have it on the best authority no one to the right of Stalin is “authentic.” The Democrats’ diversity deficit.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: U.S. Pays $400M for U.N. Agency Calling for Attacks on Israeli Jews.

THE FASHIONABLE RICH FIGHT INEQUALITY: Poor most adversely affected.

CLEANING HOUSE: Amazon Sues 1,114 Individual Reviewers For Hire.

BUREAUCRACY, SAFETY AND INSANITY: or why we can no longer build much of anything. The FBI’s headquarters is falling apart. Why is it so hard for America to build a new one? (Though in this case, perhaps it doesn’t hurt for them to remember they work for us and don’t get lavish palaces.)

I FEEL QUITE CERTAIN THAT THIS IS NOT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE GOSPELS: Why German Protestants Will Stop Converting Muslims.

Barbara Rudolph, head of the Ecumenical Department of the Protestant Church in Germany’s Rheinland region, recalls speaking some time ago with Austrian sociologist Mouhanad Khorchide at an academic seminar. Khorchide, who holds the chair for Islamic Religious Studies at the University of Muenster, was explaining his belief that God loves all people – no matter their religion, or lack thereof – and that God only expects compassion and kindness towards others, not pious dogmas.

Rudolph asked herself why she should wish to convert such a good man. “He would have been well within his rights to view that as a slap in the face,” she recalls.

Christianity isn’t about faculty-lounge etiquette, and those who confuse the two . . . well, frankly, they’re pretty likely to hold important positions in Christian churches these days, actually. But jeez, I’m just the son of an unfrocked (not defrocked, I hasten to add) preacher and I know better than this crap.

FALLEN ANGELS IS JUST A SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL, RIGHT GUYS? RIGHT? GUYS? Shock Claim: World is on brink of 50 year ICE AGE and BRITAIN will bear the brunt.

The usual flow of air over Europe from the Arctic towards Bermuda and the tropical Azores Islands is also likely to be thrown out of kilter.

Another driver will be a dramatic reduction in solar energy output which has been observed over the past few months.

Long-range forecasters say this will add to the mix with the UK at risk of a “fully-blown ice age” before the end of the century.

AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said icy Atlantic waters could affect the weather for years to come. . . .

A recent report warned the amount of light and warmth released by the sun is nosediving to levels “not seen for centuries”.

A so-called ‘Maunder Minimum’ has been responsible for historic winter whiteouts and led to the River Thames freezing 300 years ago.

The Met Office-led study claimed that although the effect will be offset by recent global warming, Britain could see some cooler than average winters in years to come.

Obviously, the solution is to reduce the global warming “offset,” amirite?

VACCINE, PLEASE: What Happens When You Survive Ebola: Memory loss. Irreversible skin and nerve damage. Hair thinning. Arthritis. The lingering effects of Ebola can last a lifetime. To be fair, when you don’t survive Ebola, the effects also last a lifetime.

YES, BUT MOSTLY WITH ROBOTS. NEXT QUESTION. If Aliens Exist, Would They Have Sex?

AT AMAZON, Netgear Arlo Smart Home Security Cameras.

Plus: Deals On Drones. I’m somewhat surprised at myself for not buying one yet. Soon, though.

SHE’S ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY: Jazz Shaw: Hillary’s gun confiscation proposal is going to backfire in a big way. “Before moving on to the latest news on this story, it’s worth noting (particularly for Hillary Clinton’s campaign office) that the immediate results of the Australian gun grab were pretty much the opposite of what was advertised.”

Plus:

As AP already noted, this is a winning strategy for Clinton in the primary because her base has largely been sold on the idea of things like expanded background checks at the federal level and a national gun registry. (!) How they will react to actual gun confiscation from law abiding owners remains to be seen. But when it comes to the general election, Clinton has a serious storm brewing on the horizon. Regarding a ban on all semi-automatic weapons, including handguns, the public has been consistent in their response for decades. As of last year there was 73% opposition to such a ban, and 63% said that a home was safer if there was a gun in the house.

Those numbers don’t shift when there is a mass shooting. They never do in any significant way. So with all that in mind, I think we need to encourage Hillary to pick up this flag and run with it. In fact, I’m going to go on record as supporting Hillary to be the nominee for the Democrats next year. This is just what the Democrats need and I look forward to her explaining her gun confiscation plans to the public when she debates the eventual GOP nominee.

That ship is going to sink so fast it will make the Titanic look like a sure bet to make it to New York.

Seems likely.