COMPARING THE AMERICA OF APOLLO XIII WITH THE AMERICA OF TODAY.
Archive for 2015
June 17, 2015
June 16, 2015
ROSS PEROT WAS AN EGOTISTICAL BLOWHARD, TOO, BUT HE HANDED THE ELECTION TO BILL CLINTON: We Take Donald Trump Lightly At Our Peril.
OH, GOODY: Ebola Could Be Back.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, my thoughts on a Jeb Bush candidacy.
A QUALITY HEADLINE FROM ED DRISCOLL: Moonbat Tat Spat Falls Flat.
The Left’s cycle of victimhood appears to be in freefall and accelerating towards the abyss rapidly these days, doesn’t it? Let’s review: The Rolling Stone campus rape case that wasn’t. Oppressed Mattress Girl who doubles down by releasing a sex tape. Rachel Dolezal reliving James Whitmore’s Black Like Me B-movie.
Finally, it’s come to this: Far Left Socialist Justice Warrior at Jezebel demands a neck tattoo for one of her first tats and throws a fit screaming — but of course! — sexism and oppression when the tattoo artist very sensibly refuses.
But of course. Plus: “Other than possibly invitations to Lawrence Welk revival concerts, I doubt there are many things a tattooist will say no to. When he comes across as the calm, reasoned grownup in your story, it just might be time reevaluate your worldview.”
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ELIANA JOHNSON: Does It Matter That Hillary Clinton Can’t Give A Decent Speech?
PARENTING: The Fortysomething Parents Aren’t All Right.
I had some related thoughts here.
FIRE IS SUPPORTING a University of Kansas student expelled for tweets under Title IX.
WAIT, FEDERAL MANAGERS FIRED, JUST BECAUSE OF A COLOSSAL FAILURE? Oversight chair wants officials fired over hack. “Chaffetz believed that his panel’s Tuesday morning hearing should serve as the nail in the coffin for OPM Director Katherine Archuleta and OPM Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour, who both testified. . . . Lawmakers were repeatedly frustrated during the hearing at both officials refusal to answer basic questions about the breach, such as who is affected and how many people had their data exposed. The OPM leaders cited the confidentiality of the ongoing investigation. During the hearing, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) kicked off the calls for administration resignations over the event, but did not specify who should lose their job.”
Well, since this affects federal employees, not just ordinary citizens, I suppose accountability isn’t completely out of the question.
CHANGE: Why the consensus against Lochner v. New York is beginning to fray.
There’s excessive modesty here. The real reason is David Bernstein’s Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights against Progressive Reform.
Here’s my review of the book.
STEPHEN GREEN: 4 Stages of Play All Parents of Boys Will Understand.
MARK THIESSEN: Obama wants to reengineer your neighborhood.
This is what you get when you put a community organizer in the White House — he tries to reorganize your community from Washington.
Apparently, President Obama thinks your neighborhood may not be inclusive enough, so he has instructed his Department of Housing and Urban Development to issue a new rule called Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, which is designed to force communities to diversify.
According to the Obama administration, in too many neighborhoods “housing choices continue to be constrained through housing discrimination, the operation of housing markets, [and] investment choices by holders of capital.” (Yes, that is a quote from an actual HUD document, not a bad undergraduate thesis on Karl Marx.)
Under Obama’s proposed rule, the federal government will collect massive amounts of data on the racial, ethnic and socioeconomic makeup of thousands of local communities, looking for signs of “disparities by race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, or disability in access to community assets.” Then the government will target communities with results it doesn’t like and use billions of dollars in federal grant money to bribe or blackmail them into changing their zoning and housing policies.
I’ve written before about the progressive, “utopian” plan to redistribute housing. It’s all very communistic. But hey, in fairness, Obama told warned us that he wanted to “fundamentally transform[] the United States of America.”
ISLAMIC TERROR IN AMERICA: Third Man Arrested in Garland “Draw Muhammad” Shooting: Authorities. “An indictment filed in federal court in Phoenix last week says that 43-year-old Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem hosted the gunmen in his home beginning in January and provided the guns they used in the May 3 shooting in Garland, Texas. The indictment also says others were involved, but no other arrests or indictments have been made.”
BJORN LOMBORG: What Pope Francis Should Really Do To Help The Poor.
A cruel truth is that almost every significant challenge on Earth hits the poor more than the wealthy: hunger, a lack of clean drinking water, malaria, indoor air pollution. The question then is how we make the most difference for the most vulnerable.
A reasonable starting point is to listen to the world’s citizens. A United Nations survey of 7.5 million people found that many other issues are deemed more urgent. The top priorities were education, health, jobs, corruption and nutrition. Of 16 problems, the climate was rated the lowest priority.
One reason may be that today’s climate policies themselves have a cost, which predominantly hits the poor.
Cuts in electricity consumption require price hikes that hurt the worst-off and elderly. Relying on expensive green energy sources like wind and solar power makes electricity pricier and less available for those who desperately need it.
The biggest problem with today’s climate change policies is that they will cost a fortune for very little good.
But the opportunities for ruling-class graft are tremendous.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Eating chocolate gets another thumbs-up for heart attack, stroke prevention. “Those in the highest chocolate-consuming group not only had lower rates of heart attack and stroke, but they also had, on average, lower body-mass indexes, lower systolic blood pressure and inflammation, and lower rates of diabetes. They also tended to exercise more.”
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Gravity-defying 3D printer to print bridge over water in Amsterdam. “A 3D-printing company based in Amsterdam has developed a revolutionary, multi-axis robotic 3D printer that can “draw” structures in the air — and it’s planning to build a bridge over a canal in the heart of the city. . . . This is the technique that will be used to print the bridge out of steel. Small increments of molten metal are welded to the existing structure, creating lines of steel. By printing multiple lines, the printer will be able to create a strong, complex structure that spans the canal — printing its own supports along the way so that it can operate autonomously.”
THIS ACTUALLY ISN’T BAD: The 15 Things You Shouldn’t Miss in Knoxville, Tennessee. My list would be a little different, but this is solid. And Jackson Avenue isn’t really up-and-coming — I had a girlfriend who lived there in the Jackson Pads in 1989, when Ella Guru’s was in full flower.
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SEAN HACKBARTH: We Need A Magna Carta For The Regulatory State.
MEDJACKING: Hackers Invade Hospital Networks Through Insecure Medical Equipment. You know, it’s not 1998. There’s really no excuse for this anymore.
PAIRED WITH A BIKINI AT A TEXAS POOL PARTY, THEY MIGHT BE OKAY. BUT OTHERWISE, YEAH, PRETTY MUCH. The worst f*cking shoes on the planet: Cowboy sandal boots.
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MITT ROMNEY, SCIENCE JOURNALS WOULD BE CENSORED BY PRUDISH ZEALOTS. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Northwestern Risks Academic Freedom (Again) by Censoring Bioethics Journal with ‘Bad Girls’ Theme.